Reasons why Candidates fail English Language WAEC 2014

English language is a fulcrum to every student’s success and its omission from the result lamed the result, it is therefore sacrosanct to expose reasons why candidates fail English Language WAEC 2014 as unveiled by the Council (WAEC). The article is tripartite, it has weaknesses, suggested remedies and candidates’ strength.

Candidates’ Weakness

Student underperformed in the following aspects which have been cautioned in the previous years.

The weaknesses observed include:

1. insufficient material to develop chosen essay topic;
2. wrong use of tenses and number;
3. lack of familiarity with the written word;
4. inability to re-state in the candidate’s own words, ideas contained in a passage;
5. poor knowledge of the parts of speech;
6. ignorance of common literary terms;
7. poor knowledge of functions of clauses;
8. mindless lifting of portions of the set passages as answers;
9. use of text message abbreviations “dat” for “that”, “c” for “see”, etc.

Suggested Remedies

In order to slash the ratio of failure to success in English Language, the following recommendations were put forward by the council which are still very applicable every year.

Candidates should:

1. learn the basic grammatical structures of the English Language;
2. inculcate the habit of reading widely with a view to improving their vocabulary;
3. converse regularly in simple, correct English;
4. practise essay writing regularly;
5. understand the demands of questions before answering them.

Schools should ensure that:

1. only qualified teachers teach this subject;
2. class sizes are not unwieldy;
3. in addition to giving their students assignments frequently, teachers also mark such assignments in order to help students identify and correct their mistakes;
4. teachers are exposed to workshops and seminars that would keep them abreast of global best practices in the teaching of the English Language.

Candidates’ Strength

Many candidates were able to identify the figure of speech used in question 6(h). Also, handled the formal features of the essay aspect well.

Conclusion

The only way candidates can get round the weaknesses highlighted every year is by having a good grasp of the rudiments of the English Language. They should also endeavour to develop their points adequately.

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