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.
