Objectives

The objectives of this paper are to:

1. assess the ability of undergraduate students’ use of prepositions as ESL learners;

2. determine the likely sources of the challenges, if there are any; and

3. suggest remedies to the challenges. 

 

Research questions

1. What is the ability of undergraduate students in the use of English prepositions as Second Language learners?

2. What are the likely challenges, and the sources of such, faced by undergraduate students in the use of English prepositions as Second Language learners?

3. Are there remedies for the challenges?

The instrument used for data generation was an English language test containing fifty questions on preposition use. The instruction required that the students fill in the gap in the sentences supplied with the appropriate preposition. The test was administered, and students’ level of performance was subjected to analysis.

One hundred and ninety-eight test scripts were retrieved and marked. Find below a table showing the performance level in the ranges of five (5) (Table 1).

 

 

Only eighty-seven (87) students scored between 25 and 50 which is 50% and above, with thirty-four other students scoring between  20  and  24  which  is  just  the pass mark amounting to 40 – 49%. Seventy-seven students (38.8%) scored less than 40%. The implication of this is that only 43.7% of the students had an average mastery of preposition use, 17.1% just a bit comfortable in its use while 38.7% was outright failure!

This poor performance could be attributable to L1 interference but the intrinsic confusion posed by the nature of English Preposition itself cannot be ruled out. Three of such examples will suffice for space constraint, as explained in the following sections.

 

Polysemous nature of English Prepositions

Prepositions have been one of the most difficult areas of acquisition for learners of English largely due to their polysemous nature as indicated by their uses in describing interaction with objects in physical as well as abstract space (Wijana, 2014). Here is a demonstration of the use of preposition ‘on’ in the study.

The preposition ‘on’ is the answer in the sentences in Table 2. Many students, however, missed this, substituting ‘on’ with other prepositions with seemingly similar or likely meaning.

 

 

‘on’ and ‘for’

22 We will be taking you on a ride to all the states of the nation

Only 91 (45.9%) students filled in ‘on’ as the correct preposition for 22. Most of the others filled in ‘for’ taking a cue from a normal sentence like ‘We will go for a ride in your car’ resulting in an erroneous sentence as in 23,

23 We will be taking you for a ride to all the states of the nation (incorrect)

 

Substitution with L1 Preposition System

The second language learner is prone to transfer elements of his language into the target language. This is no exception even with learning English prepositions. An example in support of this claim is found in the subjects’ performance in relation to the following sentence

24 My mother was standing at the top of the stairs

Only forty-three (21.7%) of the respondents chose ‘at’ as opposed  to   one   hundred  and  eighteen  (59.9%)  who chose ‘on’. This is attributable to the transfer of the L1system which does not indicate article ‘the’ which, in the English language, is a pointer to an exact point of location thereby requiring the use of ‘at’ as against   

25 My mother was standing on top of the stairs

A consideration of the translation of the above sentences in Yoruba language (the predominant language in the study area) will make this clearer as L1 interference   has resulted into incorrect use of preposition.

26 (i) My    mother    was    standing    on    top   of    the    stairs

           ↓           ↓          ↓            ↓           ↓         ↓     ↓      ↓          ↓

      (ii) mi         iya       ?       n   duro     ni       ori   ?     ?     ategun^*

          Iya mi duro ni ori  ategun

 

27 (i)My mother  was  standing   at   the     top      of   the   stairs

          ↓           ↓       ↓          ↓          ↓     ↓      ↓             ↓       ↓       ↓

    (ii)mi        iya    ?      n   duro       ni     ?   tente ori   ?     ?     ategun

        Iya  mi duro ni tente ori ategun

 

In the data, both ‘on’ and ‘at’ are rendered as ni. While the preposition ‘at’ takes care of the exact location point in the English sentence, the L1 system here requires the introduction of a descriptive word (adjective) tente to indicate the exact location or position on the stairs. Both 26 (i)  and  27  (i)  can  be  rendered  the same way in the Yoruba language without any far reaching effect on meaning. In other words, the 59.9% of the respondents who chose on instead of at have been influenced by L1 interference.

It is worthy of note that the Yoruba preposition ni seems to be very ‘versatile’ as revealed in the translations of the English prepositions in the sentences below:

28  He lives on the street next to ours (indicating place)

O n gbe ni adugbo ti o wa ni egbe tiwa

29  He lives at No.2 Mosafejo Street (indicating location)           

     O n gbe ni ojule keji adugbo Mosafejo

30   I will leave at 2pm (indicating time)

      Mo ma a kuro ni agogo meji

31 He lives in London (indicating place)

     O n gbe ni ilu oyinbo

32 He was behind the door (indicating location)

     O wa ni eyin ilekun

The implication of this is that, the Yoruba-English bilingual has a limited range of prepositions in his mother-tongue, and this could affect his perception and learning of English prepositions.

This study has established that Nigerian learners of the English language, just like learners from some other climes have problems with the use of English Prepositions due to the intrinsic difficult nature of the part of speech, lack of semantic equivalence between the first and target languages, transfer of prior or mother tongue knowledge, and lack of good teaching approach and materials.

Seeking a way out of the dilemma encountered by the second language learner’s usage of English prepositions, another dimension to teaching English prepositions through a comparative and contrastive study of the prepositional systems of the languages involved has been suggested. This will help the language teacher identify common features which the learner must harness and build upon, as opposed to areas of contrast which require greater focus. Learners must also be encouraged to look up prepositions and their uses in the dictionary, read a lot in English especially literature, and learn useful phrases off by heart.

The performance of the respondents, who are studying English as a course in the university, clearly supports earlier researches that the English preposition is a great force to be contended with in an ESL situation. However, as burdensome as it may seem, it must be learnt, as lack of good performance in English may be attributed to the misuse of prepositions. Learners of English must master the intricacies in the use of prepositions through practice, reading wide, taking note of its uses, and keeping a good dictionary close by for a quick check. This is made easy by the availability of e-learning modules and facilities with the online dictionaries and thesaurus on the mobile phones in  learners’  pockets.  Some  teaching  strategies such as Collocation Approach, Proto-type Approach, and Cognitive Approach have been developed to help the learner out of this dilemma. Though these new methods are not bereft of shortcomings, it would be interesting to use pictures to define and teach the various concepts in prepositions.

Apart from a deliberate and focused teaching of the preposition and its associated characteristics in usage and meaning, a comparative analysis of the prepositions of the languages with which English has contact may assuage the learner’s trouble.

* Note the nullity (?) of the article ‘the’ and the preposition ‘of’ in the sentences

The authors have not declared any conflict of interests.