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Conclusion

Chapter VII

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CHAPTER VII

CONCLUSION

7.1. General

English language has attained an international acceptance due to globalization.

Most of the learners need to write and speak English fluently and accurately in general

and academic domain. Modern civilization requires the individual to be literate if he or

she is talented on all the levels of participation in society. Illiteracy in English represents

such a severe limitation on the individual that one might find it hard to survive in today‟s

world. In the present day context English language learning is essential for a successful

career. In the effective use of English, it is important to master the four language skills,

namely, listening, speaking, reading and writing (LSRW). Of all the four language skills

in English, writing is a complex process and an important medium of communication for

everyone. One of the complexities in writing is proper use of preposition. It enables the

users of English to express their ideas accurately. The correct use of preposition makes

the students speak, write, read and understand the language effectively. Sometimes, they

face many problems in using correct prepositions due to lack of understanding the

context and a poor acquisition of prepositional rules. Lack of practice is another cause

which makes their writing colorless, boring and ineffective. Many students are proficient

in English grammar but they fail miserably in using prepositions either in speaking or in

writing at higher levels. These difficulties not only affect learners‟ academic success, but

also hinder their professional progress which has a negative impact on their personality

and overall growth.


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This chapter begins with an overview of the study. It offers some practical and

useful suggestions to the learners how to improve their proficiency in using prepositions

while writing. It also recommends certain changes to be brought out in teaching

prepositions. The findings of the study are discussed in detail and possibilities for further

research in this area are also indicated.

7.2. Findings

The present study titled, “A Linguistic Analysis on the Use of English Prepositions

among the College Students of Coimbatore” was carried out among the students of Arts and

Science (Autonomous) Colleges in Coimbatore. The need for such a research arise as the

undergraduate students even after twelve years of exposure to the rules of English grammar

through reading books, listening to lectures in the classroom they frequently misuse

prepositions while writing. Sometimes they omit prepositions where they were necessary and

added where they are not needed. Prepositions are necessary that the second language learners

should learn the correct use of prepositions and develop their written communication.

The results in connection with the problems of the study have been shown clearly

in every chapter (Prepositions of Place, Movement and Time, Abstract Relations of

Prepositions, Combination of Prepositions, Overlapping between Prepositions and Other

Parts of Speech and Optional use of Certain Prepositions). The study revealed the role of

socio-economic background on the performance of the respondents while using

prepositions. It also tends to give remedies for the problems encountered by the

undergraduate students in using prepositions and recommends suggestions for further

study. The findings of the present study highlight the problems encountered by the

respondents while using prepositions in writing are summarized as follows:


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7.2.1. Prepositions of Place, Movement and Time

Based on the objectives and discussion of the data presented, the following conclusion

can be derived. The respondents‟ prepositional knowledge is very limited in the use of

prepositions of place, movement and time in English. The experiment identified some of

respondents‟ selecting wrong functional and lexical categories which lead to syntactical and

semantical errors in L2. The respondents‟ lack of understanding the context and ignorance of

the rules also cause some fundamental errors. The findings of this chapter corroborates with

Gabriella F.Moro‟s (1981) findings of preposition, where he says that the students committed

errors with the locatives on and in. Based on the results, it is suggested that the teacher should

pay more attention in teaching prepositions of place, movement and time in the classroom.

It will be good if teachers apply heuristic teaching methods while teaching prepositions.

7.2.2. Abstract Relations of Prepositions

This chapter brings out in the use of abstract relations of prepositions by the

respondents. The findings of this chapter show that the respondents have used incorrect

preposition due to confusion in selecting the correct preposition and lack of practice in

their writing. Teachers need to give proper guidance to learners to understand the basic

meaning of prepositions and train the learners to apply the right strategies to become

better language users. The teachers should go for participatory language teaching to

eliminate such errors then and there in the classroom situation.

7.2.3. Combinations of Preposition

While testing the combinations of preposition it was observed that the incorrect

selection of preposition after the lexical items, led to wrong meaning. The respondents


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used some prepositions after nouns, verbs and adjectives triggered by the influence of

their L1 and L2. While learning these fixed combinations, students need more attention

to overcome the problems. The findings of this chapter are in line with the findings of

Lakkis & Malak (2000) who claimed that the subjects rely on their first language to judge

the appropriate usage of prepositions. In addition, it is suggested that the students need to

be continuously exposed to correct prepositional usage which will result in a better use of

the structure of prepositional verbs. The result also supports the findings of Kao (2002)

who relied on context, when they use prepositional verbs and other combinations of

prepositions. The teachers should make an attempt to find out the context where the

students tend to code mix the use syntactic rule of the other language. Unlearning of such

errors caused by L1 influence could me minimized only when the teacher gives special

exercise guiding them to differentiate the rules governing L1 and L2. Teachers should

guide learners when they commit errors in the classroom. It will be helpful to reduce

their difficulties of using these combinations in writing.

7.2.4. Overlapping Between Prepositions and other Parts of Speech

The respondents‟ performance in the proper use of prepositions and other parts of

speech was tested in this chapter. The students were not aware of the parts of speech

clearly while the researcher asked them to identify the word classes in the given

sentences. They were unable to select the correct lexical category. They committed

errors due to lack of knowledge in identifying parts of speech and poor acquisition of

grammar while learning English. To overcome the problems of overlapping between

prepositions and other parts of speech the teacher should train the students to understand

the word class clearly and improve their teaching of grammar in the second language


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teaching situation. The text book writers should take this into account to give more drill

and exercises in the textbook related to identification of parts of speech from first

standard to twelfth standard depending on the complexity of the word class identification.

In addition, the knowledge and the use of content words as preposition is limited among

the entire population taken for the study. Hence it is recommended that the students are

exposed to this aspect and more practice given in this area.

7.2.5. Optional use of Certain Prepositions

In the optional use of certain prepositions the respondents‟ faced serious

difficulties in using proper prepositions according to the context. The findings show that

the respondents have wrongly added and omitted prepositions while writing paragraph,

translation and identify correct/incorrect use of preposition. From the analysis, it has been

found that the misuse of prepositions by the undergraduate students was due to their L1

and L2 interference. Since the first language (L1) is totally different in linguistic

performance, they totally relied on their mother tongue to perform the English language

requirements. The respondents did not know the exceptions in the use of preposition in a

sentence due to lack of awareness. The findings go in accordance with the findings of

El-Hibir (1976), Salam Habash (1982), Hanna Jansson (2006) Beena Sudhakaran (2008),

Temime Asma (2009), who claimed that second language learners added and omitted

English prepositions due to first language interference.

Special task may be given in the form of games by the teachers to make the

students shed the inappropriate use of preposition influenced by L1. However, the

problem can be overcome if the teacher makes some activities when teaching

prepositions. Considering these issues it is imperative on the part of English Language


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Teaching to practice and pedagogical strategies to overcome the impediments in the

process of learning and practicing English prepositions. Here it is recommended that the

teachers use only L2 while teaching L2. Explanation may be convincingly given to the

students while they tend to commit error by the influence of L1 then and there.

7.2.6. Overall Purview of the Students’ Performance

The experiment clearly shows that most of the respondents were not proficient in

simple prepositions. It is found that 52% of the respondents showed poor performance in

the proper use of simple prepositions due to lack of understanding the usages and word

for word translation influenced by L1. In addition, the percentages of the respondents

giving incorrect lexical categories of preposition were 59%. The failure was due to

ignorance of lexical rules. Moreover, the lack of distinction among the prepositions were

„above‟, „over‟, „under‟, „below‟, „across‟, „behind‟, „beside‟, „by‟, etc. About 55% of

the respondents have committed syntactic errors which are due to the complexity of rules

and illogical selection of prepositions according to the context. Of all the respondents

54% of the population committed errors due to their mother tongue interference (L1).

Text book writers and syllabus planners should break the complexity of rules into simple

exercise at syntactic and semantic level. Mother tongue influence (L1) could be

mitigated by direct supervision and personal guidance in the classroom.

The teacher needs to establish a conducive environment for learning to take place,

besides building the learner‟s confidence and positive self image through Participatory

Language Teaching (PLT). Students‟ errors must be considered in a good perspective for

further learning and not block or slow down it.


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The study correlated the performance of the students with the socio-economic

status such as gender, residential area, income, medium of instruction and parents‟

education. Respondents belonging to all categories and backgrounds committed errors in

the second language due to inadequate practice and lack of ability in using prepositions.

Region specific language teaching strategies should be followed according to the

specific need of the area (rural/urban) by the teachers. Teachers should be given training

to adopt their teaching methods and strategies according to the requirements or demands.

When comparing the overall socio-economic factors influencing the students‟

performance in this study, the performance of female respondents was found to be better

than the male respondents in using prepositions of place, movement and time.

The female respondents have taken more effort to improve their language skills in L2

situation and also had more positive attitudes towards the target language. The male

respondents reported using translation strategies while the female respondents, showed a

comprehensive language learning approach in the application of English preposition.

Respondents from graduate families performed better than the non-graduate families.

They were aware of the importance of English in this society. They motivated their

children to get better jobs and also encouraged their achievements in English. It can also

be assumed that urban students were motivated to learn English more than the rural

students, because they were aware of the relevance of English language that could bring

or elevate their social status according to the findings of chapter II.

In chapter III, an attempt was made to correlate the different socio-economic

factors of the respondents‟ background with their achievement in using preposition.

It was found that students from low income and middle income group of non-graduate


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parents in rural area faced problems in the proper use of prepositions than the other

counterparts. Chapter IV shows, the performance of the respondents from LIG

background faced difficulties in the use of combinations of preposition and the students

from MIG and HIG background were slightly better when compared to LIG counterparts.

Chapter V brings out, the overall results of the respondents from LIG and MIG.

It showed the problems encountered by them in identifying the correct lexical category

and the students from good economical and educated background were better in the use it.

Moreover, the overall performance of urban respondents is better than the rural

respondents.

In chapter VI, the respondents of graduate parents, performed well when

compared to the respondents of non-graduate parents. Further, the overall performance of

respondents from the urban background was better than the rural respondents. In addition,

the performance of respondents from English medium schools was better than the Tamil

medium schools. These students generally pursue their studies in Government schools in

which the medium of instruction is Tamil which is their mother tongue. They have learnt

basic grammar at school level for passing examination, but not facing any real life

situations. Application oriented advanced grammar is not taught in schools. Moreover,

adequate practice is not given to students to learn a language. The medium of instruction,

parent‟s education and residential area influence their performance in the proper use of

prepositions.


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7.3. Remedies

Based on the findings the following remedies are suggested and these remedies

would reduce the problems encountered by the learners. It is also hoped that the

following suggestions will help the learners to use prepositions properly.

1) Teachers are advised to indicate that the multimedia presentation can improve

student‟s prepositional performance; and it provides immediate feedback to the

learner on his/her progress.

2) Teachers should take responsibility for improving learners‟ grammatical

knowledge and also suggest implementing various methods and techniques when

teaching grammar in the classroom.

3) Teachers should pay more attention about the use of preposition and provide them

sufficient explanation to the students about preposition in the classroom teaching.

They should also identify the prepositional errors while writing or speaking,

discuss with them on the cause and suggest remedial measures.

4) Conducting games and activities through teaching of prepositions is more

effective than the traditional method of teaching. This method helps learners to

participate actively in the teaching-learning process. It also motivates the learners

to involve in the activity and thereby augment language learning and growth.

5) More drill and practice exercises are needed for effective learning and minimizing the

preposition errors and it reinforces knowledge, ability to write and speak in English.

6) In the classroom the teachers should make the students identify and use the

content and function words in the text. Sufficient exercises in identification of


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word class will help the students to have a complete understanding of preposition.

In addition, the teacher must handle this problematic area properly to predict

errors through diagnostic test and develop their teaching methods, techniques and

drills accordingly.

7) Creative play way methods enable teachers to successfully convey the meaning

and use of prepositions in a way that ensures memory retention for learners.

8) Teachers should consider students‟ anxiety when making a decision on the degree

of explicitness. They can build students‟ confidence and self-esteem in their

second language ability through encouragement and positive reinforcement.

9) Teachers need to emphasize on how the prepositions are used in English and in

their mother tongue. It is important to make the students aware of the differences

in the structure of these languages. Teachers should also highlight certain rules in

English and that are not to be used when they translate from their mother tongue.

10) Teachers should put into practice the Total Physical Response (TPR) method of

teaching prepositions right from first standard of the students. It helps to build

around the coordination of speech and action through physical (motor) activity.

11) Students from intermediate level onwards can be encouraged and trained to use

text books and dictionaries effectively.

12) Teachers should motivate students for learner-centric environment, as more and

more students will participate in the classroom activities. This ensures students to

learn more and participate more.


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13) Teachers should give integrated exercises and cloze text passages to practice daily

to improve the students‟ performance.

14) Textbook writers and syllabus designers are advised to give plenty of

explanations and plan enough exercises in the use of English prepositions in

grammar taking examples from the living text.

7.4. Suggestion for Further Research

Future scholars who are interested in this field may select one or more of the

following objectives for their research:

i) Action research could be administered by the future researchers to give a clearer

perception measuring the prepositional development that can assist the students to

self-discover errors and improve their writing.

ii) The study could be extended to cover other professional students like

Engineering, Medical and Para-medical etc. The attempts of this study could be

repeated in other districts of Tamil Nadu to see the performance of learners in

preposition in various geographical conditions.

iii) A study could be restricted by future researchers to investigate the other relations

of prepositions like, spatial, temporal, combinations of preposition, etc.

iv) The undertaken study may also be applied to identify the preposition errors of

postgraduate students writing from affiliated colleges and universities.


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