Inconsistent Grammatical Rules and Ambivalent Rule Application as Causes of Errors in Learning ESL

Abstract

English language has been and is still the official language of communication in Nigeria. It is the language of instruction in schools from the elementary to university level. However, many learners of the language find it difficult to either perform well in the language in written or in verbal communication and many reasons have been attributed to this. These among others include the first language inference, lack of motivation by both the parents and government towards education generally, enough qualified teachers to teach the language as well as lack of seriousness on the part of the students. These obvious reasons have been the areas of concentration anytime an attempt is made to find out why students perform poorly in English language. No attempt has been made to look at the nature of English language itself with the view to identifying the inconsistencies in the rules of its grammar. These inconsistent grammatical rules play a major role in impeding the better performance of students of English as a second language. It is therefore the aim of this paper to take a critical look at the English verbal and nominal systems with the view to pinpointing the areas where rules are inconsistent and so measures towards minimizing the impact of the problem highlighted.