INFLECTIONAL MORPHEMES AS A BANE TO GRAMMATICAL ACCURACY IN LEARNING FRENCH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE
Keywords:
Challenges of second language learning, French grammar, Grammatical properties, Inflectional Morphemes, Structure of words.Abstract
This study examines the problem posed by inflectional morphemes to grammatical accuracy in
learning French as a second language. French, a morphologically rich language, presents
significant difficulties for learners accustomed to less inflected languages.
Inflectional
morphemes are linguistic elements that are added to words to change their grammatical
properties, such as number, gender, tense, or person. In French, inflectional morphemes play a
significant role in shaping the grammar of the language. This study explores the specific
inflectional morphemes that pose the greatest problems, focusing on verb conjugations, gender
and number agreement in nouns and adjectives, and the complexities of pronoun usage. The data
for this study are drawn from the written essays of 40 first year students between the sessions
2017 to 2023 at Akwa Ibom State University. It is observed that students generally lose a lot of
marks because of poor grammar, particularly inflectional markings. This essay studies inflections
in French, specifies their different forms, their modes of operation and states that an inflection
may seem insignificant in appearance but very significant in marking grammatical sentences.
The findings reveal that inflectional morphemes significantly challenge second language learners
in various verb tenses and moods in written French. This is particularly evident among beginners
and intermediate learners, who often defaulted to the infinitive form. The study concludes by
recommending much attention be given to the teaching of inflections which consist of tense,
agreement, modal and aspect, including explicit grammar instruction.
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