Grammatical Assessment of New English ‘Native’ Speaker in Ghana and Nigeria

Abstract

New English 'Native' Speakers (NENS) are a growing group of English speakers who acquired English as their first and only language. Some researchers' opinions partly inform the study that English speakers should be classified based on competence, not geographical location, race, or nationality. While it could be easily assumed that these speakers will perform excellently in the use of English, English language teachers, educational policymakers, and researchers are very concerned about these speakers' competency, especially in the area of English grammar. Hence, this research, therefore, examined and compared the competence levels in tense between Nigerian and Ghanaian New English ‘Native’ Speakers (NENS) in selected private secondary schools.  

The study adopted a simple survey method to assess 400 secondary school students' grammatical competence from selected private schools in Ghana and Nigeria (ten schools in each country) through the instruments of a 34-item objective Standard English General Test (SEGT), with each item designed to measure different aspects of English tense usage, and a validated researcher-designed questionnaire for demographic data collection. Stratified and purposive sampling techniques were employed to select the 400 samples for the study. Data gathered from the instruments were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively using the SPSS tool. 

The overall compared results revealed a mean score of 60.42% for Ghanaian students' use of tense, while their Nigerian counterparts had a mean score of 67.88%. This implies that Nigerian students performed better in the overall results. However, performance is still at the average level. In other words, the New English Native Speakers from the two countries are average speakers of the English language. These speakers are expected to be competent since they use only English as a communication medium, but the reverse is the case. The data presented in the study clearly illustrates the extent of the issue, with most participants performing below the expected standard.

This research has contributed to the existing efforts to develop and build English grammar to promote proficiency in English language learners, especially among the English New 'Native' speakers. The research reveals emerging English 'native' speakers are still refining their competence in tense usage.