THE MISUSE OF ENGLISH AUXILIARY VERBS BY NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: A CASE STUDY OF BAUCHI STATE UNIVERSITY, GADAU

Abstract

The study is set to investigate the possible causes of the misuse or inappropriate use of English auxiliary verbs by Bauchi State University Students as a case study. The theoretical framework of the study is based on the theory of interlanguage. A total number of two hundred 200 students randomly selected were used for the study. An objective test and questionnaire were use in
collecting data from the respondents. Four research questions were formulated to guide the study. Sample percentages were use in analyzing and interpreting the date collected. From the study, we found out that a number of factors accounted for the misuse or inappropriate use of auxiliary verbs by the subjects. These include; lack of knowledge about the rules of usage, faulty teaching, inadequate exposure to the grammar of the target language, poor learning strategy, complexity of the target language among others.