Lexical Errors in the English of Technical College Students in Osun State of Nigeria

Abstract

This paper investigated the lexical errors in the English of some Technical College students in Osun State. The subjects who participated in this study were 225 final year Technical College students drawn, on equal basis in terms of number, from three Technical Colleges in the state. A 20-item fill-in Multiple Choice test and an essay writing exercise were administered on them. The study found out that Technical College students did not have a high competence in the use of words related to their different areas of specialization as they normally made mistakes resulting from overgeneralization of rules, wrong analogy and wrong spelling. The study suggested that English teachers in Nigerian Technical Colleges should always tailor their teaching of English to reflect the lexical needs of their students.