DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS AFFECTING COMMON ERRORS IN TENSE IN ENGLISH AMONG NINTH STANDARD STUDENTS

ABSTRACT

This descriptive study aims to find out the differential effect of gender, residential locale and medium of instruction on the errors made by the ninth grader students in the usage of English tenses. Three null hypotheses were tested by collecting data from a random sample of 291 ninth grade students from schools in Coimbatore district. The English Tense Error Analysis Test was administered to find out the common errors committed by the students in using the language. Independent sample t-test revealed significant differential effect of gender, residential locale and medium of instruction on common errors in English tense usage of ninth grade students. Boys compared to girls, rural students compared to urban students and Tamil medium students compared to English medium students make significantly high mistakes in English tense.