Usage And Metalinguistic Knowledge Of Subordinate Clauses

The present study explores usage and metalinguistic knowledge of subordinate clauses among the National University of Lesotho (NUL) students. The research subjects were NUL English Language and Linguistics students. They were requested to write an essay on a given topic. Secondly, they were requested to answer a test on subordinate clauses. The findings of the present study reveal that NUL students have a reasonably high level of syntactic maturity in their writing as shown by how they used subordinate clauses. The data also demonstrate that there is no difference between second and third year students as far as the use of subordinate clauses is concerned. The study concludes that one year difference between the two years of study is not a great difference academically, which is why there is no difference in syntactic development in NUL students’ writing as measured through the use of subordinate clauses. The study thus shows that there is a limited level of metalinguistic knowledge in NUL students about the use of subordinate clauses. The study further demonstrates that there is no positive correlation between syntactic maturity and L2 metalinguistic knowledge.