An Inquiry on the Lexical Competence of Grade 8 Learners: Limitations and Ambiguities in Focus

This phenomenological study involves an inquiry and deeper understanding of the lived experience on how lexical limitations affect the learning of the grade 8 learners in English as a second language in general.  The goal of this study is to understand the significance of learning vocabularydg in the acquisition of second langudddage. This study is seen through the lens of Segler (2001) in his study on Second Language Acquisition, he considers vocabulary as an essential element in the acquisition of a second language; as a result, lexical items have to be learned with precision in order to understand and be understood in the target language. There were (10) students who participated in the In-depth Interview (IDI) and another 6 participants for Focus Group Discussion (FGD) to extract credible information. With the participant’s experiences, five (5) major themes emerged: unfamiliarity of words, lack of focus, consider English as a difficult subject, dependency, strategies. They also cited their coping mechanisms: resourcefulness, read, discipline. Upon further analysis, I found out that, majority of the learners do not excel well in any vocabulary assessments in general. Given this low level of lexical knowledge among students, it is no wonder that they grapple and struggle in coping with their academic and core subjects in school and face perennial problems with learning and using the English language.