COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF MEASUREMENT ERRORS AND PRAGMATIC ERRORS ON ESSAY WRITING SKILLS AMONG JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ IN KOGI STATE, NIGERIA

The study investigated comparative analysis of measurement errors and pragmatic errors on essay writing skills among  sunior Secondary School Students’ in Kogi State, Nigeria. Two research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. Population comprises of all 8,351 students offering English Language from 17 public junior secondary school in Kogi State, Nigeria and 384 students offering English Language were used as sample size. Observation Protocol English Language Essay Writing Skills Questionnaire/Checklist   (OPELEWTQC)’’was used as an instrument, it was validated and pilot tested which yielded the of 0.74 validity index and of 0.75 reliability index. Mean and standard deviation was used to answer research questions while t-test of independent samples was used for testing the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significant. Findings of this study reveal a significant difference in the impact of measurement errors and pragmatic errors on essay writing skills among junior secondary school students in Kogi State. It was established that pragmatic errors exert a more substantial influence on the students' essay writing skills compared to measurement errors. This highlights the critical role of pragmatic competence in improving students' overall writing performance and effective communication in essays.  The study recommends incorporating pragmatic skill development into junior secondary school English language curricula, such as real-life language use activities and context-based writing exercises, as well as establishing teacher training programs to identify and correct pragmatic faults in students' writing.