Analysis of Phonological Errors Made By Grade 4 Learners with Communication Difficulties: A Case of Kieni East Subcounty, Nyeri County

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dc.contributor.authorWaruru, Joyce Wamuyu
dc.date.accessioned2025-02-03T13:05:18Z
dc.date.available2025-02-03T13:05:18Z
dc.date.issued2024-10
dc.descriptionA Research Project Submitted to the School of Law, Arts and Social Sciences in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Master of Arts (English and Linguistics) of Kenyatta University, October 2024. Supervisor Eunice Nyamasyo
dc.description.abstractInclusive education in Kenyan primary schools allows students with special needs to learn alongside their peers without special needs in mainstream classrooms. Some of the learners with special needs have communication difficulties that hinder the acquisition of basic literacy skills. This study focused on the linguistic errors made by Grade 4 learners with communication difficulties in public primary schools in Kieni East sub-county, Nyeri County. The study was guided by the following objectives: to describe the phonological errors made by Grade 4 learners with communication difficulties; to establish the frequency of phonological errors made by learners with communication difficulties; and to discuss the communicative strategies used by teachers of English to teach Grade 4 learners with communication difficulties in Kieni East Sub-County. The study employed a descriptive research design. An interview schedule collected data on phonological errors while a questionnaire was used to collect data on teachers’ professional preparedness and the strategies they use to teach learners with communication difficulties. The respondents were thirty 9-12 year-olds with different forms of disability in the use and/or production of language. The research data of spoken language was drawn from 30 audio recordings of English lessons lasting 35 minutes. Pit Corder’s (1967) Error Analysis framework as well as the Natural Phonology Theory by Stampe (1969) were adopted in the analysis of the recorded data. A total of 62 phonological errors were identified and categorized into 6 sub-classes. Based on the first objective, the findings of this study indicate that Grade 4 learners with communication difficulties make phonological errors which are broadly categorized as expressive and receptive. The phonological errors are distributed across sub-categories such as substitution, addition, consonant cluster reduction, phonological distortion, deletion and syllable reduplication. Secondly, the study found that the phonological errors are made due to challenges related to brain injury, autism and stuttering, oral motor disorder, inadequate exposure to speech sounds, mental retardation, apraxia and dyslexia among others. Thirdly, many teachers do not have the requisite professional training to teach learners with communication difficulties. Therefore, they employ various communicative strategies such as gestures, real objects, recorded readings, paired reading and songs among others to accommodate learners with communication difficulties. Moreover, Error Analysis and Natural Phonology Theory are complementary and effective frameworks for identifying, categorizing and analyzing phonological errors. The findings of this study will be of assistance to teachers, language therapists and researchers operating within the framework of Error Analysis and Natural Phonology Theory. The study will also be of assistance to researchers in the field of communication difficulties, clinical linguistics, psycholinguistics and special needs education.
dc.identifier.urihttps://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/29505
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherKenyatta University
dc.titleAnalysis of Phonological Errors Made By Grade 4 Learners with Communication Difficulties: A Case of Kieni East Subcounty, Nyeri County
dc.typeThesis
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A Research Project Submitted to the School of Law, Arts and Social Sciences in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Master of Arts (English and Linguistics) of Kenyatta University, October 2024. Supervisor Eunice Nyamasyo
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