JAMB SYLLABUS FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Don't tell me you are not writing English Language in JAMB because I am very sure English is a constant in JAMB. With your knowledge of Mathematics you should know what a constant means. If you are writings this year's UTME, you should read the following topics in order to pass your English.

Check the syllabus after the cut.

1. Comprehension/Summary

Usually you have three passages (where one is cloze) and either of these passages could be any of the  following types of essay:

• Narrative
• Descriptive
• Expository
• Argumentative/persuasive.

These passages reflect various disciplines and are about 250 words long and questions on each of these passages are to test the following:

• Candidates' comprehension of each of the passages.
• Candidates' comprehension of words, phrases, clauses, sentences, figures of speech and idioms as used in the passages. 
• Coherence and logical reasoning (deductions, inferences, etc).
• Synthesis of ideas from the passages. Synthesis of ideas simply means the art of combining distinct or separate pieces of information to form a complete whole.

Candidates should be able to do the following under synthesis of ideas:

• identify main/topic sentences in passages.
• determine implied meaning.
• identify the grammatical names and functions of words, phrases, clauses and figurative/idiomatic expressions.
• deduce or infer the writer’s intentions including mood, attitude and opinion to the subject matter.

Recommended Literature Texts:

1. Direct Entry Candidates should read The Last Days at Forcados High School by A. H. Mohammed as questions will also be drawn from it.

2. UTME candidates should read In Dependence by Sarah Ladipo Manyika as questions will be drawn from it.

2. Lexis and Structure.

These are what candidates' should look at under this:

• Synonyms.
• Antonyms.
• Homonyms.
• Clause and Sentence Patterns.
• Word classes and their functions.
• Punctuation and spelling.
• Mood, tense, aspect, number, agreement/concord, degree of adjectives (positive, comparative and superlative forms) and question tags.
• Ordinary usage, figurative usage and idiomatic usage phrases and clauses. It is important to note that the idiomatic expressions are those that are expressed in standard British English, hence are formal.

Therefore, candidates should be able to:

• Identify words and expressions in their ordinary,
• figurative and idiomatic contexts.
• Determine similar and opposite meaning of words.
• Differentiate between correct and incorrect
• punctuation and spelling.
• Identify various grammatical patterns in use and interpret information conveyed in sentences.

3. Oral English.

This entails the following:

• Vowels (monophthongs and diphthongs)
• Consonants (including consonant clusters)
• Rhymes (including homophones)
• Word stress (monosyllabic, bisyllabic and polysyllabic)
• Intonation (emphatic stress)

Therefore candidates should be able to:

• Differentiate between the types of vowels.
• Differentiate between consonant types.
• Produce or pronounce words correctly.

EXAMINATION STRUCTURE AND MARKING SCHEME.

i. Section A: Comprehension/Summary

• 2 comprehension passages – 10 questions, 3 marks each = 30 marks.
• 1 cloze passage (in this passage, candidates are expected to provide words that are omitted in the passage)– 10 questions, 2 marks each = 20 marks.
• 1 reading text – 15 questions, 1 mark each = 15 marks.

Total Marks: 65 marks.

ii. Section B: Lexis  and Structure.

• Sentence interpretation – 10 questions, 2 marks each = 20 marks.
• Antonyms – 10 questions, 2 marks each = 20 marks.
• Synonyms – 10 questions, 1 mark each = 10 marks.
• Sentence completion – 20 questions, 1 mark each = 20 marks.

Total Marks = 70 marks.

iii. Section C: Oral English.

• 15 questions, 1 mark each = 15 marks.

Total Marks: 15 marks

Total Number of Questions = 100.

Grand Total of Marks = 150 ( 65 + 70 + 15 = 150).
Study to show thyself approved! Goodluck!