Problems of Word Order in the English Noun Phrase among Secondary School Students in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

The English noun phrase is exceedingly complex. The Head-word can be modified by a number of other grammatical elements such as determiners, intensifiers, adjectives, etc. These modifiers of the head-word are properly ordered and rule-governed. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to examine word order in the English noun phrase and show how this can pose a problem to the second language learner in the Nigeria situation. The study adopted the case study research design. The data for the study were collected through the test administered to two thousand final year students randomly selected from twenty government owned secondary schools in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. The theoretical framework employed was Rod Ellis procedural analysis of errors. The findings of this study reveal that learners experience some difficulties in the placement of modifiers in the English noun phrase. The study recommends that teachers should emphasize the established order of modifiers especially the pre-modifiers in the English noun phrase and where possible, use language games to teach the students to overcome the problem. The study concluded by noting that if serious attention is given to the order of pre-modifiers in the noun phrase, the problems students have in ordering words in the English noun phrase would be greatly reduced.