EVALUATING LANGUAGE USE AMONG SCIENCE LABORATORY TECHNOLOGY AND PHARMACEUTICAL STUDENTS AT FEDERAL POLYTECHNIC MUBI

Abstract

This paper assesses the language use of science and laboratory technology and pharmaceutical students of federal polytechnic, mubi Adamawa State. The theoretical framework underpinning the research is error analysis (EA), a theory of second language acquisition (SLA) which is concerned with the identification, description, and explanation of language learner’s error in either the spoken or written form. 4 randomly selected ND II students from each of the two departments during the 2021/2022 academic session wrote SIWES report on their industrial training (IT) programme. The technical reports were marked for error identification. The identified error were marked as thus: Verb, Spelling, wrongs words, Nouns, Punctuation/Capitalization, Pronouns, articles, abbreviation/Coinages and prepositions. Descriptive/Statistics involving of measure of central tendency (percentage and means scores) were use to analyze the data collected. Based on Ellis and Barkhurzen’s (2005) surface structure taxonomy of error categorization, most of the errors can be categorized into those of omission, addition, misformation, and misordering. Following form the underlying assumption of (EA) as it relates to error in second language learning, the identified error can be said to have been the result of overgeneralization of rules, interference from the mother tongue, extra lingual factors such as textbooks and inadequate learning. Its recommended that giving an enabling environment, functional teaching of English should be encouraged to improve the communicative competence of the learners