No candidate in his or her right frame of mind will deem it to fail English language because, every candidate knows the considerable effect of the paper on their result. Even with much prayer which has been the order of the day, many students perform woefully in the paper. This piece is aimed at revealing reasons why Candidates Fail English Language WAEC 2017 as made public by the WAEC. The content is 3-fold….
Candidate’s Weakness
The weaknesses observed include:
- poor understanding of the questions answered
- poor expression as a result of lack of appropriate vocabulary to convey ideas, faulty analogy and concord, wrong use of tenses, poor use of conjunctions, prepositions and articles
- poor use of punctuation marks
- spelling errors
- mindless lifting of portions of the passage as answers
- poor paragraphing resulting in illogical and unbalanced presentation of ideas especially in essay writing and letter writing
- inability to construct simple and meaningful sentences
- poor knowledge of the basic rules of grammar and the rudiments of summary writing
- writing essays below the required number of words
- inability to differentiate the main points from illustrations and examples especially in the summary passage.
Suggested Remedies
Candidates should:
- read extensively to broaden their horizon and linguistic repertoire;
- take time to identify the actual demand of questions before attempting them;
- read through their work to correct grammatical and spelling errors before submitting;
- practise WAEC past question papers for better performance;
- prepare adequately for the examination;
- converse frequently in simple correct English Language.
Teachers should:
- cover all aspects of English Language while teaching;
- concentrate on teaching the basic rules and principles of grammar;
- encourage students to write essays frequently, mark and grade them accordingly;
- attend seminars and workshops that would keep them abreast of modern practices in the language regularly;
- attend coordinating sessions during the marking of English Language.
Schools should ensure that:
- employ competent and qualified teachers to teach this subject;
- equip their library with relevant books and materials that will aid students academically;
- encourage teachers to attend seminars and workshops regularly.
Candidate’s Strengths
Many candidates:
- demonstrated adherence to rubrics;
- showed remarkable improvement in their knowledge of the formal features of essay writing;
- showed improvement in answering comprehension questions;
- were able to identify the figure of speech used in question 6(f);
- were able to state the grammatical name and its function of the expression used in Question 6(g);
- showed improvement in their vocabulary as they were able to give correct alternatives to the lexical items given in Question 6(h).
Conclusion
Candidates will continue to perform poorly in English Language if they do not prepare adequately. Candidates need to equip themselves with the rudiments of every aspect of the language as well as the basic technicalities of English Language. The best way to achieve excellence is through constant studying and practicing of the rules of English language.
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