The Syntactico–Semantic Proficiency of Written English Language for Undergraduate Students in Tanzania

Abstract

This paper solely investigated the status of the syntactico-semantic proficiency of written English language for the undergraduate students in Tanzania, with a particular focus on students doing linguistics. The data from which I drew the inferences were obtained from two (2) different public universities: the University of Dodoma and Mkwawa University College of Education (the Constituent College of the University of Dar es Salaam). The University of Dodoma was purposively selected because of being the institution where the researcher was working; thus, some research costs such as transport and accommodation could be cut down since the research was individually funded. Likewise, Mkwawa University College of Education was purposively selected because of the researcher’s certainty of getting a reliable Assistant Researcher (AR) who helped in collecting data from the target respondents, who were fortunately his students. The AR volunteered to assist me carrying out the task; hence, I incurred only the mailing fees of the questionnaires, thereby cutting down a part of the research costs.

All respondents in the study areas were randomly selected.  An equal number of respondents was taken from each study area, i.e. 30 respondents from the University of Dodoma and 30 respondents from Mkwawa University College of Education. Hence, the sample size was constituted by 60 respondents.Data were gathered using syntactico-semantic questionnaires and were manually analyzed using tables. The study findings indicated that the students' syntactico-semantic proficiency of English language was relatively poor. The respondents demonstrated poor usage of tenses and punctuation marks, and most of the passages they wrote had poor grammar. This is a clear manifestation of an unimaginable deterioration of English language in Tanzania. It was finally suggested that the syntactico-semantic proficiency of written English in Tanzania could be elevated by preparing and effecting two different curricula at the secondary school level. Forms One to Four should follow a purely communicative curriculum, and Forms Five and Six should follow a structuro-communicative curriculum in which we shall have an intensive teaching of grammar, intensive and extensive reading and writing of essays, articles for the school magazine and simple story books. During assessment, whether internal or external, two modes of assessment should be done: written and oral modes.

Keywords: Syntactico-semantic proficiency, tenses, punctuation, concordial agreement, language of instruction.