Homographs Comprehension Challenge among Semantics Learners

Abstract

Teaching experience has shown that most undergraduates cannot identify English homographs and them with other semantic relations. It was thus found interesting to explore factors leading to such students’ partial understanding of English homographs. The study used group discussion, documentary review and questionnaires to collect data. The data analysis was guided by the Theory of meaning stipulating that articulation may realize several meanings from a lexeme. The article found that the number of vowels, phonetic coding ability, and perplexing and mentorship sources were the factors that triggered incomplete knowledge of undergraduate English learners of English homographs. The study recommends that students be involved in critical and evaluative reading to avoid confusion of English homographic from non-homographic lexemes. Meanwhile, instructors should instruct English Homographs using factual materials and the right knowledge. Instructors need to emphasize English Homographic meanings and their functions in the real context. This would facilitate a clear understanding of Homographs.