Les Contraintes Syntaxiques D’emploi De La Preposition « En » En Français Langue Etrangere : Le Cas Des Etudiants De University Of Ghana, Legon

Abstract

The work analyses the difficulties students in the Department of French, University of Ghana, Legon, face with the syntactic use of the preposition “EN”. Our analysis was done through the examination of the various uses of the preposition “EN” in sentences. The basic point of embarking on this study is that most of the students of French in the Universities in Ghana are not able to use appropriately or correctly the preposition “EN”. This opinion led us to identify and study the difficulties facing the students of French at the University of Ghana, Legon. It was first found out that inadequate knowledge of the nature and functions as well as the multiple meanings of the morpheme “EN” pose tremendous difficulties to students. Also, it was detected that the methods and techniques used by teachers of French in teaching the use of prepositions coupled with the linguistic influence of the mother tongue and the English Language contribute to their difficulties. Analysis of data collected through questionnaires and test items on the performance eventually confirmed that most of the students were not able to use the preposition “EN” appropriately. They were also unable to differentiate between “EN” as a preposition and “EN” as a pronoun. The analysis revealed that the inability of students to use correctly this preposition was due to their weak exposure to the multiplicity of the nature and functions of the morpheme “EN” in the French language. The results have shown further that the difficulties of learners in the syntactic use of “EN” stem partly from the ineffective teaching methods used by teachers of French. The analysis finally exposes the lack of in-depth knowledge of the various uses of preposition “EN” by a number of teachers teaching, especially, at the basic level. The study therefore highlighted pedagogical implications and suggested ways which can be of help to both learners and teachers of French in their teaching and learning of the preposition “EN”.