Correlation Between the Usages and the Uses of English Articles in Select Contexts

Abstract

Barring a few exceptions, English language teaching in India has been synonymous with teaching of grammar and English literature. As a result, the language taught here is more of written kind than spoken. The grammatical rules are more characteristics of written English, hence over-emphasized. The net result is that this approach tends to teach the usages rather than the uses of English required in real lifetime situations. Hence the need for this study entitled ‘A STUDY OF CORRELATION BETWEEN THE USAGES AND THE USES OF ENGLISH ARTICLES IN SELECT CONTEXTS.’ 509 tertiary students pursuing their post-graduation in M.A English Literature at government aided-institutions and private institutions situated in and around the educational district of Coimbatore constituted the sample for the present study. The independent variables included their gender and medium of education at school. The sample thus selected were diagnosed for their capacity for the recognition and the production of articles in select forty contexts and their omissions by means of a researcher-constructed questionnaire. Results obtained were analyzed with‘t’ tests, One – Way ANOVA, Correlation tests and Association tests. Results: The major finding of the study is that ‘Gender’ has a major affiliation in that the competence of the women respondents in recognizing the usages of the select articles in terms of grammatical rules and producing them is strikingly higher than that of their counterparts. Mother Tongue of the respondents has a very significant association with the recognition and the production of the articles selected for this study. In conclusion, the study establishes the correlation between the knowledge of the rules of grammar as usages and their application as uses in real life time situations.