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TEACHING ENGLISH RELATIVE CLAUSES TO

SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNERS OF ENGLISH

By

Afolabi, Amidu. A

Federal College of Education (Special)

Oyo, Oyo State.

Nigeria

And

Olateju, Moji. A (Ph.D)

Department of English.

Obafemi Awolowo University

Ile-Ife, Osun State

Nigeria.

e-mail molateju2002@yahoo.com

Mr Afolabi Amidu A. is a Lecturer at the Federal College of Education

(Special) Oyo, Oyo State Nigeria.

Dr. Olateju Moji A. is a Lecturer in the Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo

University, Ile-Ife. Her research interests are in Discourse Analysis, Pragmatics and

Applied Linguistics. She has published a book entitled Discourse Analysis: Analysing

Discourse in the ESL Classroom and co-edited two books titled Readings in

Language and Literature and Perspectives on Language and Literature. She has also

published articles on Discourse Analysis in Systemic Functional Linguistics Forum,

Ife Studies in English Language and on-line journals.

e-mail molateju2002@yahoo.com

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TEACHING ENGLISH RELATIVE CLAUSES TO

SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNERS OF ENGLISH

ABSTRACT

This study examined the adequacy or appropriateness and mastery of different types

of relative clauses in the written English of 180 final year students from six selected

Colleges of Education in the South Western part of Nigeria The study revealed that

the students were deficient in their use of relative clauses.

In the light of the findings, the eclectic approach to the teaching of relative clauses

and the introduction of students to the relationship of the units on the rank scale (from

the morpheme to the sentence) was proposed and suggestions were made for

improvement on the teaching and acquisition of knowledge of English relative

clauses by learners and users of English as a second language.

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TEACHING ENGLISH RELATIVE CLAUSES TO SECOND

LANGUAGE LEARNERS OF ENGLISH

Introduction

Language is a patterned activity, which exhibits some regularity. The recognition of the

various types of patterning, word connections and usages occur at various levels of

syntax, morphology, lexis etc. Muir (1972:02) notes that despite the linear presentation of

language as a patterned activity, it is important to be familiar with the linguistic grammar

in order to interpret the linguistic expression correctly. This linguistic expression

according to Muir is not just the additive value of words but the complex patterning

formed by the operation of the units within each other.

Muir (1972:08) also notes that both syntax and morphology extend over the whole

rankscale. The syntax for example of the nominal group is that, it operates at the clause

and sentence structures whereas the morphology of the nominal group is that it has

elements of structure (mhq) modifier, head and qualifier at the word level. To Muir,

usually, units at the rank scale are not discussed in isolation, discussion always involves

units next above and unit next below.

Working at the clause level in the written English of students in some tertiary institutions

in Nigeria therefore reveals a lot about the students’ interpretation of linguistic

expressions and usage on the rank scale in general.

Teaching and learning of English in Nigeria

Many attempts have been made through research to arrest or solve the problems

confronting the teaching and learning of English in Nigeria. Scholars like (Tomori 1963),

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(Afolayan 1968), (Adetugbo 1969), (Bamgbose 1971), (Oluikpe 1974), (Aboderin 1980),

(Fabusuyi 1986), (Adejare 1995), (Mohammed 1995), (Chigeonu 2000) Omigbule 2003)

and (Taiwo 2003) have shown serious concern over the problems confronting the

effective teaching and learning of English language in Nigeria and suggestions for further

improvement have been made. The contributions of these various scholars have been

noted with special interest.

It has been observed that many Nigerian students are faced with difficulties in learning

the grammar and morphology of English and in particular the relative clauses, which are

structurally and functionally important when they occur in a sentence.

Grammar is an indispensable aspect of English because any deficiency in it will certainly

affect one’s competence and performance. It is not surprising, therefore, that linguists are

preoccupied with it. Regardless of this pre-occupation, it seems that relative clauses have

been neglected in English as a second language situation in Nigeria. However, the beauty

of any writing or speech lies in one’s ability to vary one’s sentences by not sticking to a

particular type, especially the simple ones.

When a writer engages himself/herself in the use of complex sentences, he or she

cannot do away with relative clauses either wittingly or unwittingly. It does not seem

that this important area of the English language has received the necessary attention it

needs in the teaching and learning of English in Nigeria. (Aremo 1997:83-110) among

other things, worked on the various types of relative clauses in English including their

functions and illustrative examples. Learners of English as a second language should

therefore be encouraged to master the various types and functions of relative clauses for

effective communication.

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The specific objectives of the study are:

(a) To account for the types and functions of relative clauses in the written English

of final year students of the Department of English in six selected Colleges of

Education from south western Nigeria;

(b) To make suggestions, in the light of the findings, for improvement on the teaching

of relative clauses to second language teachers and learners of English..

The Data

The students used for this study were limited to the final year students in six selected

colleges of education in south western Nigeria because they can be presumed to have had

considerable exposure to the English language in and outside the classroom, and to have

attained an appreciable level of competence in the use of relative clauses. Therefore, they

are expected to be able to communicate effectively with the language both in speech and

in writing.

Listed below are the six selected colleges of education.

(i) Osun State College of Education, Ilesa

(ii) College of Education, Ikere – Ekiti

(iii) Lagos State College of Primary Education, Noforija-Epe.

(iv) Federal College of Education, Osiele – Abeokuta

(v) Federal College of Education (Special), Oyo.

(vi) Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo.

Three of the colleges are federal owned colleges while three are state owned.

Each student was instructed to write an essay or a letter in an hour’s test on one of the

topics below.

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(i) Your brother is contemplating marrying a beautiful young girl whose character you

find objectionable. Write a letter to him advising him against the proposal, stating your

reasons for objecting to the marriage.

(ii) There have been frequent inter-communal clashes in your area. Write an address to

be presented at a reconciliation meeting of the warring parties suggesting ways of

guarding against future occurrences.

To make the data as representative of these colleges as possible, fifty students sat for the

test in each of the schools giving a total of 300 out of which 180 were randomly selected.

The following steps were taken in analyzing the data:

(a) The colleges were labelled A and B i.e. A represents the State Colleges involved

in the study while B stands for the Federal Government Colleges.

(b) Each script was analyzed for occurrences of the various types of relative clauses

and the types of errors committed by each subject.

(c) The relative frequency percentage (RFP) of each error type across the colleges

and of all the errors in each college was calculated using the formulae:

Total No of each error committed

Each error type across = across the colleges 100

the selected colleges Total no of all errors committed 1

across all the colleges

Total No of errors committed in

All errors in each = each college 100

college Total no of errors committed 1

across all the colleges

It needs to be stated that out of 180 scripts selected for analysis, 108 scripts did not

contain any relative clause. By implication, it means that 108 students did not use

relative clauses. This is known as covert errors, which are technically referred to as

x

x

7

avoidance phenomena. The remaining 72 scripts were analyzed, and out of them 24

students used relative clauses correctly while the remaining 48 students used theirs

wrongly.

Types of Relative Clause Errors

The different types of relative clause errors recognized for analysis in this study are as in

(Aremo 1997:83-102)

Error Type A: Omission of relative pronoun e.g.

(i) …. Ayo came to me was my teacher’s brother (‘who’ is omitted)

(ii) …… His sister he lived with for several years sent him out

unceremoniously.( ‘whom’ is omitted)

Out of 48 students that used relative clauses in their scripts, 21 (43.75%) of them made

the mistake. This implies that this area needs more attention because it is their weakest

point among the error types of relative clauses.

Error Type B: Wrong choice of the relative pronoun e.g.

Here the students used the relative pronouns but they were wrongly used e.g.

(i) …… the cutlasses whose their leaders bought….(.instead of ‘which’)

(ii) …… young children which were involved in the communal

clash….(instead of ‘who’)

9 (18.75%) of the students had the above error type in their scripts. This error was found

in the scripts of the students involved in each of the colleges used for the study.

Error Type C: Redundancy of object pronouns in relative clauses e.g. them and it

(i) … the toddlers distributed the cutlasses which they hid them in the

bush….

(ii) …. They set the palace, which they had renovated it two years ago

ablaze…

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Only 1(02.08%) subject had this error out of the total number of 48 subjects that used

relative clauses wrongly in their scripts. This is insignificant.

Error Type F: Wrong use of ‘that’ – as personal antecedent in a relative clause e.g.

The women that name you forwarded to the police…

Many students had this error type. Specifically, 17 (35.42%) had this error in their scripts

out of 48 subjects that had relative clause errors in their scripts. Consequently, attention

must be focused on this type of error in order to rectify the students’ inadequacy in it.

Below is the relative frequency distribution of the error types in the selected colleges of

education.

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The Relative Frequency Percentage (RFP) Showing Each/All The Error Types

Committed Across / Each of the Selected Colleges.

E R R O R T Y P E S

A B C D E F

S/N

COLLEGE

Om

issi

on o

f re

lati

ve

pro

noun

Wro

ng c

hoic

e of

the

rela

tive

Red

undan

cy of

the

obje

ct p

ronoun i

n t

he

rela

tive

clau

se

Red

undan

t su

bje

ct

pro

noun a

fter

who

Wro

ng u

se o

f re

lati

ve

afte

r pre

posi

tions

Wro

ng u

se o

f ‘t

hat

’ as

per

sonal

ante

ced

ent

TOTAL

%

1.

T Y P E A - STATE

Osun State College of

Education, Ilesa

5

2

1

0

0

6

14

29.17

2. College of Education,

Ikere-Ekiti.

5

2

0

0

0

4

11

22.92

3. LACOPED, Epe 4 2 0 0 0 2 8 16.67

4. TYPE B – FEDERAL

F.C.E. Abeokuta

3

1

0

0

0

3

7

14.58

5. F.C.E. (SP), Oyo. 2 2 0 0 0 1 5 10.41

6. Adeyemi College of

Education, Ondo.

2

0

0

0

0

1

3

06.25

TOTAL 21 09 01 00 00 17 48 100%

PERCENTAGE 43.75 18.75 2.08 00 00 35.42 100

From the table above, it is obvious that the students in College 1 had the highest number

of errors with 29.17%. They made the errors in four (4) out of six (6) error types

involved in this study. The table above indicates that the students involved in College 1

had the greatest problem as regards the correct use of relative clauses but more

specifically with ‘that – relative clause’ that is, error types F and A –omission of relative

pronouns.

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Eleven (11) students, representing 22.92% out of the 48 students that had errors in their

scripts, came from College 2. College 3 had eight (8) students among the forty-eight (48)

that committed the error types. This represents 16.67%.

However, out of the six error types identified, none of the students had errors in types C,

D and E while their serious problem was in connection with omission of relative pronoun

(type A) and wrong use of ‘that’ as personal antecedent (type F) as well as wrong choice

of the relative (type B) as shown in the table.

College 4 students’ error percentage was 14.58%. The percentage was made up of 7

students out of 48 involved. They had errors in types A, B and F. Of all the error types,

the most problematic to the students involved in this college was type A. None of the

students had errors in types C, D and E.

With respect to College 5, only five (5) students with 10.41% had errors in their scripts.

They had errors in omission of relative pronoun (type A) and wrong choice of the relative

(type B) and wrong use of ‘that’ as personal antecedent (type F). The students did not

have any error in types C,D and E.

College 6 was the best of all the selected institutions used in this study because it had the

least errors. In other words, the students selected performed better than all other colleges.

Only 06.25% had errors in their scripts. Thus, only three (3) students used relative

clauses wrongly. Two (2) students had errors in type A, while the remaining one was in

type F. No student had any error in the remaining four types, namely: B, C, D, and E.

Based on the foregoing, it is clear that the colleges under type B – federal owned fared

better than those under type A – state owned because the former had the least number of

students that did not use relative clauses correctly while the latter had the greater number

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of students that committed errors in their scripts. The reasons for this disparity might be

due to the fact that federally owned colleges are better equipped than the state owned

ones. Also, the population explosion of students in state colleges coupled with incessant

strikes as a result of poor staff welfare, admission of students without adequate entry

requirements into Pre-NCE programme might not give room for effective teaching and

learning, classroom management and discipline as we have in federal colleges.

The Concept of Relative Clauses

Scholarly works that provide linguistic insights into relative clause types as presented in

this study include those by (Boadi, Grieve and Nwankwo 1968), (Christophersen and

Sandved 1980), (Quirk and Greenbaum 1973), and (Aremo 1997) respectively.

A relative clause appears as a subordinate clause, and it is always a rankshifted clause or

embedded clause. It also acts as a post-modifier because it post-modifies a noun, which

immediately precedes it. The noun qualified is called the ‘antecedent’ while the pronoun

that introduces a relative clause is called the ‘subordinator’ or the ‘relative’. (Aremo

1997:87) contends that a relative ‘relates’ or ‘connects’ the post-modifying clause to the

preceding part of the noun phrase. And, because it usually begins with the relative, this

kind of clausal post-modifier in the noun phrase is commonly referred to as a relative

clause.

The relative does not only relate its clause to the antecedent, it also functions as a

substitute within its clause for some items, usually a noun or noun phrase, in the source

sentence for the clause. Examples are:

(i) A boy sang a song yesterday

(ii) The boy was his son.

The boy A BOY sang a song yesterday was his son.

The boy WHO sang a song yesterday was his son.

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This implies that the relative/subordinator ‘who’ is substituted in the relative

clause for the noun phrase a boy in the source sentence.

(iii) A girl bought a car last week

(iv) The girl was a banker.

The girl A GIRL bought a car last week was a banker.

The girl WHO bought a car last week was a banker.

In the examples (iii and iv) above, the two sentences have been collapsed to become one

sentence, and subordinator ‘who’ has been used to replace the noun phrase ‘a girl’ in the

source sentence.

Relative clauses, sometimes called or referred to as adjective / adjectival clauses,

are usually introduced by one of these relatives / subordinators that, which, whom, who,

whose, what (relative pronouns) or when, where (adverbs) and sometimes why. For

instance:

(i) I ate the food which she cooked

(ii) The boy who came here this morning is my cousin.

(iii) The girls whose names were called on Thursday had fled.

(iv) This is the building where I was born.

(v) John, who travelled abroad, gave me a book

(vi) He is the man that I admire.

(vii) The man whom she wrote to has arrived.

(viii) That is the reason why he danced.

The above underlined expressions are all relative clauses, while the preceding nouns

or noun phrases are the antecedents. However, there are considerable restrictions on the

use of adverbial (adjunct) forms, that is- when, where and so on. Many speakers believe

that where any of those relatives is used, there should be no antecedent. And using them

with their antecedents will result in tautology. Examples, (iv) and (viii) above should be

‘This is where I was born’ and ‘That is why he danced’. This implies that the inclusion

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of ‘building’ and ‘the reason’ in the former examples have made the statements to be

tautologous. Therefore, they are redundant words.

Teaching Relative Clauses

Some of the methods that have been used in the teaching of relative clauses include-

grammar-translation, direct, audio-lingual and cognitive code-learning. The specific

objectives will determine the choice of a method(s) to use. There is no method that has

merits without demerits. Therefore, in teaching relative clauses, one should be flexible

and eclectic in approach.

(Williams 1990:6) has this to say about eclectism:

The point about eclectism is that it is flexible.

Methods of teaching are sensitive to variables

within the teaching situation, including the teacher himself.

(Boadi, Grieve and Nwankwo 1968: 211-213) assert that it is common in books teaching

the composition skills or in books of exercises in structure or grammar to approach the

teaching of relative clauses by means of the synthesis of two or more sentences, thus:

The man was asking for you. The man has gone.

The man who was asking for you has gone.

The man has gone. I saw the man.

The man I saw has gone.

They contend that while it can be proved that the first pairs of sentences are the sources

of the greater sentences, in terms of initial class teaching, it is rather an artificial way of

dealing with the problem. It is more satisfactory initially to deal with nominal groups

including relatives as integrated wholes. They point out that it is not difficult, for

example, to devise situations in which you could employ a series of nominal groups such

as:

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That boy there …..

That boy in the corner …..

That boy sitting in the corner …..

That boy who is sitting in the corner …..

Here, all four post-head modifiers have identical function, and if the situation is

appropriate, may have identical reference as well.

Students who have become accustomed to the idea that these clauses are simply noun-

modifiers are less likely to be misled by the presence of the ‘finite verb’ into thinking that

they have written a complete sentence when in fact all they have written is one

group/phrase, which might perhaps form the subject.

(Boadi et al 1968:211-213) further identified another area of confusion, which must be

cleared in order to make the teaching of relative clauses meaningful and understandable.

The said common confusion is exemplified by:

*The book which you are looking for it is not here.

Ideally, it as used in the above expression is redundant and unnecessary. Here, there is a

clear failure to appreciate that ‘which’ is in fact the direct object in the relative clause.

Quite possibly such an error as observed by (Boadi et al. 1968) might well be induced by

the typical exercise:

The book is not here

You are looking for it

They therefore declare that students are taught to use which as a relative (whereas,

incidentally, that, would probably be more common). When this error persists, there

could perhaps be a case for teaching how to join two sentences by means of explicit

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transformational rules, but in this case the two relevant nominal groups must be identical,

as in:

The book is not here.

You are looking for the book.

A much-simplified transformational rule would then state:

1. The two sentences in full, as above.

2. Taking the second sentence let X stand for any structure before the relevant

nominal group.

Let Y stand for any structure after the relevant nominal group.

In the case of:

You are looking for the book.

X is You are looking for.

Y is nothing.

3. The sentence is then represented by

X nominal group + Y

You are looking for + the book

4. Apply the rule, which is

who

X + Nom. Gr. + Y Nom. Gr. + which + X + Y

that

You are looking for the book the book that you are looking for.

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i.e. the application of the rule results in the sentence being turned into a

nominal group: The book that you are looking for.

5. Use this group to replace The book in the original sentence:

The book that you

The book is not here are looking for is not here.

It is important to note the following:

(a) the relative is automatically placed in first position;

(b) the intrusive Direct Object is automatically eliminated;

(c) this rule will apply equally to all nominal groups, whether Subject or Object, or

following prepositions.

(d) analogous rules will produce clauses beginning with when, where, why etc (e.g.

The reason why he did it was not clear etc.)

The present researcher agrees with the proposition of (Boadi et al. 1968) that the teaching

of relative clauses in English should go along with the teaching of noun phrases or

nominal groups and where resources are available, it is usually better to start from the

morpheme on the rank scale as this will enable students to develop adequate linguistic

expressions from the start. It is also important that relative clauses be taught together

with complex noun phrases since any relative clause will have a

noun/pronoun/pronominal as its antecedent whether at the subject position or

complement position of a sentence. Any attempt to teach relative clauses in isolation will

lead to the enhancement of the linguistic competence of the students at the detriment of

their communicative competence. However, Boadi et al did not take other types of

relative clauses into account in their work.

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In teaching relative clauses to the students, the teacher needs to be eclectic in his

approach because many methods have to be combined in the teaching in order to make

his lesson fully explanatory and comprehensible. The teaching of this topic should

include the use of instructional materials needed and prepared for its easy delivery. The

teaching of relative clauses should start from simple to complex. For instance:

In these sentences the words italicised modify the head-word of a noun-group:

The boy was quiet.

The small boy was quiet.

The small boy in the next house was quiet.

They insist that apart from words modifying the head-word of a noun-group, clauses can

also modify it too. Thus, we have:

The boy who sits next to me was quiet

That is the lady who gave me this hat

A question based on the above examples is “which words do these clauses modify?

Below are exercises that can help students make about ten sentences from a substitution

table.

Exercise 1

Make ten sentences:

The Principal

The Chairman

The police

The watchman

congratulated

addressed

arrested

stopped

the boy

the students

the thief

the driver

who had won the scholarship

who had done so well

who broke into the office

who caused the accident

In addition, (Grieve et al 1990 211-213) cited the structure of sentences containing

relative clauses thus:

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The boy was ill + THE BOY lives next to me.

The boy WHO lives next to me was ill.

That is the lady + THE LADY gave me this hat.

That is the lady WHO gave me this hat.

The subject of one sentence is the same as a noun-group in the other sentence. The

subordinate clauses in these sentences are called relative clauses. The word who is called

a relative pronoun.

Below is another example of an exercise where students could be asked to make ten

sentences by completing the sentences with relative clauses.

Exercise 2:

Make ten sentences by completing these sentences with a relative clause:

They gave a reward

George wrote a letter

Mallam Musa read a story

Ada didn’t leave any food

The government awarded scholarships

to

for

the boy

the students

the guest

his friend

who…

Below are some guidelines to follow in order to choose the appropriate relatives.

For instance:

The relative pronoun who is only used when the clause modifies a noun that refers

to a person e.g.

There was once a man who kept national secrets.

In other cases the relative pronoun, which is used:

I saw the prize, which was given to Bola.

This is a situation, which affects everybody

But the relative pronoun that may be used in either case, and is probably more frequent in

English than either who or which

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There was once a man that kept national secrets.

I saw the prize that was given to Bola.

There are however relative clauses without relative pronouns as in the following:

The man dismissed from service is back home.

Also, it is not in every situation that the relative pronoun who is used to modify a person.

For example, the non-personal relative pronoun ‘which’ is used for ‘baby’ whenever it

occurs e.g.

That is the baby which was born last week.

Whereas despite the fact that personal pronoun ‘she’ is used for a ship, which is not a

person, it takes non-personal relative which as in:

She is the ship which I purchased.

(Cook 1991:27) suggests what he calls accessibility hierarchy for the teaching of relative

clauses. He cites an example of relative clauses thus: ‘The man who came to tea was

Jim’. He says that sentences of this type are usually seen as the combination of a main

clause- ‘The man… was Jim’ with a relative clause ‘… who came to tea…’ It was

discovered that there were interesting similarities in how languages combine main and

relative clauses together depending on the role that the noun phrase plays in the relative

clause that was used as a link to the main clause. He says the above concept is called the

accessibility hierarchy, since some phrases could be “accessed” for making relative

clauses more readily than others.

Cook identified six types of relative clauses that make up the accessibility hierarchy as:

Type 1: ‘The man who left was John’ (subject-linked clauses

Type 2: ‘The car that he crashed was John’s’ (object-linked clauses).

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Type 3: ‘The person that he gave the cheque was Tom’ (indirect object-linked – often

referring to the person who receives something

Type 4: ‘The person to whom he gave the cheque was John’ (oblique-case clauses

Type 5: ‘The man whose book I borrowed was furious’ (possessive linked clauses). .

Type 6: ‘The man than whom I am taller is John’ (object of comparison-linked clauses).

Cook says that this is not just a list of six types of relative clauses; it is arranged in a

particular order – hence the name accessibility hierarchy.

The obvious conclusion is that teaching should follow the order of the accessibility

hierarchy

Cook however recommends that in certain circumstances, ‘extrapolation’ from one

structure to another may be employed since straightforward logical teaching sequence,

essentially from easy to difficult, may be less effective than the reverse order. Giving the

students an example of the most difficult form is sometimes useful.

As beautiful as Cook’s accessibility hierarchy is, the major deficiency in it is that it fails

to account for all types of relative clauses that exist in English. He concentrates on wh –

relatives (even at the exclusion of which and why) No doubt, it will narrow or limit rather

than broaden the knowledge of the students as far as relative clauses are concerned. This

will affect the students’ linguistic and communicative competences. His contribution has

been of tremendous linguistic and pedagogical insights into the mastery of relative

clauses in English even though we object to the idea of teaching from complex to simple.

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Conclusion

In conclusion, this study has revealed that students’ knowledge of the mastery of English

relative clauses was grossly deficient and inadequate. From the 180 students sampled for

the study, 108 students avoided using relative clauses in their essay test. Only 24 students

used relative clauses correctly in their scripts while 48 students did not use the relative

clauses in their written essay test correctly.

The students’ knowledge of the relative clauses was largely concentrated on those that

begin with any of these relatives or subordinators ‘who’, ‘whose’, ‘which’ and that.

For the teaching of relative clauses to be effective, the eclectic method of teaching should

be preferred which will enable students to be exposed to all the various types, uses and

appropriate choice of relative clauses. The students need to be exposed to the linguistic

expressions at the various levels on the rank scale especially as Muir (1972:15) notes that

for methodological consistency and convenience, it will be intuitively convenient in

morphological considerations to also consider the “word” because linguists are always

concerned with these units on the rank scale.

Recommendations

(i) The teaching of relative clauses should be thoroughly taught and introduced to

students early in their English course. The introduction has to be gradual and

should start with units on the rank scale- from the morpheme to the sentence.

(ii) Relative clauses should be taught alongside noun phrases, noun clauses and

sentences rather than teaching them in isolation in order to enhance their

comprehension.

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(iii) Eclectism (flexibility) is hereby recommended for the teaching of English relative

clauses in order to accommodate variables within the teaching situation as well as

the teacher himself.

(iv) The government should, as a matter of priority, make instructional aids available in

schools so as to facilitate learning, and teachers should improvise teaching aids

where and when necessary.

(v) Students’ admission into tertiary institutions should be considered along with the

availability of personnel, materials and infrastructure.

(vi) Finally, writers of textbooks for ESL learners of English need to reflect in their

books an up-to-date knowledge of relative clauses in English. This is very

essential especially in Nigeria where English teachers depend a lot on English

textbooks.

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Programme”. An unpublished Ph.D Thesis, Florida State University. .1980.

Adejare, O. “Communicative Competence in English as a Second Language” in New

Englishes: A West African Perspective (ed.) Bamgbose, A, Banjo, A, Thomas,

A. Ibadan Mosuro 1995. 155.

Adetugbo, A “Oral English in the Primary School, JNESA 3(1) 1969. 59 – 64.

Afolayan, A. The Linguistic Problems of Yoruba Learners and Users of English,

unpublished Ph.D Thesis, University of London. 1968.

------------ “Problems, Principles and Prospects of English Studies in an African

University”. An Inaugural Lecture. 1979

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