Use-of-English (JAMB)

ENGLISH LANGUAGE

GENERAL OBJECTIVES

The aim of the 2019 JAMB Use of English Syllabus for Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), is to prepare the candidates for the Board’s examination. It is designed to test their achievement of the course objectives, which are to:

1. demonstrate sufficient knowledge of the concepts of the diversity interdependence and unity of life;
2. account for continuity of life through reorganization, inheritance and evolution;
3. apply biological principles and concepts to everyday life, especially to matters affecting living things, individual, society, the environment, community health and the economy.

A. Comprehension/Summary

Topics:

(a) description
(b) narration
(c) exposition
(d) argumentation/persuasion
(i) Each of the three passages to be set (one will be a cloze test) should reflect various disciplines and be about 200 words long.
(ii) Questions on the passages will test the following:
(a) Comprehension of the whole or part of each passage.
(b) Comprehension of words, phrases, clauses, sentences, figures of speech and idioms as used in the passages.
(c) Coherence and logical reasoning (deductions, inferences, etc).
(d) Novels to be Read:
(i.) UTME Candidates: “In Dependence” by Sarah Ladipo Manyika
(ii.) DE Candidates: The Last Days at Forcados High School, A. H. Mohammed.
(e) Synthesis of ideas from the passages.

NOTE:
By synthesis of ideas is meant the art of combining distinct or separate pieces of information to form a complete whole.

B. Lexis and Structure

Topics:

(a) synonyms
(b) antonyms
(c) homonyms
(d) clause and sentence patterns
(e) word classes and their functions
(f) mood, tense, aspect, number, agreement/concord, degree (positive, comparative and superlative) and question tags
(g) punctuation and spelling
(h) ordinary usage, figurative usage and idiomatic usage are to be tested.

NOTE:
Idioms to be tested shall be those that are formal and expressed in standard British English.

C. Oral Forms

Topics:

(a) Vowels (monophthongs and diphthongs
(b) Consonants (including clusters)
(c) Rhymes (including homophones)
(d) Word stress (monosyllabic and polysyllabic)
(e) Intonation (words emphatic stress)
NOTE:
Emphatic stress involves the placement of normal stress on words in an utterance for the purpose of emphasis.

Wishing you SPEED and ACCURACY!