Problems and attitudes towards English relative clauses: A study of postgraduate Nigerian students of English

Abstract

The paper examined the problems and attitudes of postgraduate Nigerian students of English towards relative clauses. The motivation for the study stems from the frequent errors committed by some Nigerian learners of English in the use of relative pronouns in forming relative clauses and especially in the formation of complex relative clauses, that is, relative pronouns preceded by prepositions (P  + RP). Postgraduate students across five universities in Nigeria were used as subjects. The choice of this group is because they are expected at this stage to demonstrate an appreciable level of competence in English grammar having studied English at undergraduate level. One hundred subjects were purposively selected; twenty from each university. The data for analysis was collected using sentence combination task (SCT). The data collected was analysed using the simple percentage statistical method. The data analysed reveal that the subjects have difficulty with relative clauses. They encounter challenges ranging from wrong choice of relative pronouns and wrong ordering/positioning of relative pronouns to inability to form good relative clauses especially complex relative clauses using P + PR. The study also discovers that the subjects adopt the avoidance strategy attitude towards relative clauses.