ABSTRACT
Oral English is an important aspect of the English Language. However, the achievement of students in Oral English, especially in public examinations, has been low. This is occasioned, partly by the use of traditional language teaching methods. The result is that many students are unable to acquire the skills needed to perform well in Oral English. This is the result of ineffective teaching of Oral English at the secondary school level. The ineffective teaching and learning of Oral English, resulting in students’ poor achievement necessitated the need for a more effective technique of teaching Oral English. This study was, therefore, undertaken to find out the effects of game techniques on junior secondary school students’ achievement in Oral English. Four research questions and seven null-hypotheses guided the study. The research questions and hypotheses were on the influence of gender, location and school ownership. The quasi-experimental pre-test post-test, non-equivalent group research design was adopted for the study. A total of 304 JSS III students in Idah Education Zone of Kogi State were drawn from eight schools using the multi-stage sampling procedure. Four of the schools were public, two located in urban area while two are in the rural area. The other four schools are private schools with two in the urban area and two in the rural area. In each of the eight sampled schools, one intact class was randomly sampled through balloting and used for the study. The study looked at the production, identification and discrimination of vowel and consonant sounds. A-60 item Oral English achievement tests (OEAT), adopted from Onuigbo (2001), which was both face and content validated, by three experts from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka was used for data collection. Reliability of the instrument was ensured through trial testing using the Kudar-Richardson’s formula 20 (K – R 20). An internal consistency estimate of 0.86 was obtained. This was considered high enough and therefore usable. Pre-test and post-test were administered on both the experimental and control groups. The research questions were analyzed using mean and standard deviation while the hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The findings of the study were that game techniques is an effective strategy for teaching Oral English in junior secondary schools. Female students had higher gain score than their male counterparts. In the same vein, students attending schools in the rural area achieved better than their counterparts attending schools in the urban area while the private school students had higher gain score than their counterparts in the public schools. The interaction effect of method was consistent across gender, location and ownership. Based on these findings, some educational implications were given and recommendations made. The major recommendation was that the English studies curriculum should be re-modeled to include the use of game techniques. This will expose students maximally to learn Oral English through the technique. This will not only enable students to achieve high grades in examination, but would also equip them with the competence and values needed beyond the formal school system.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the study
Learning is a never ending process, beginning from the moment of birth, through the entire life span. It takes place at home, in school and even at places of work. Learning requires understanding as to how knowledge acquired can be applied. Armstrong (2010) defined learning as a process of acquiring new or modifying existing knowledge, behaviour, skills, values or preferences and may involve synthesizing different types of information. It is a change in human disposition or capability that persists over a period of time and is not simply ascribed to processes of growth. Learning may occur as part of education, personal development, schooling, or training. It may be goal oriented and may be aided by motivation. It is a process by which a learner acquires and retains attitudes, knowledge, understanding, skills and capabilities that cannot be attributed to inherited behaviour patterns. It involves processing different types of information. It takes place every day in every situation and circumstance. However, formal learning takes place mostly in schools where instructional strategies are devised to assist understanding. The tool that facilitates this learning is language.
Language, according to Richard (2010), is the human vocal ‘noise’ or arbitrary graphic representation of the ‘noise’ in writing used systematically and conventionally by a speech community for purposes of communication. It is the principal means used by human beings to communicate. Ogala (2008) describes language as the power line on which every other human activity hinges. By it, humans are able to impart information, express feelings and emotions, influence the activities of others and comfort themselves with varying degrees of friendliness or hostility towards others. It is the basis of man’s interaction in the society. According to Gomwalk (2007), language is not just significant but absolutely crucial in the ultimate success of all education processes. It is everything in education. Without it, everything is nothing in education.
Language is primarily spoken and it is man’s tool for exchange of ideas, feelings, information and thought. As the chief tool for human thinking and for transforming experiences into ideas, all learning takes place through the use of one language or the other. In Nigeria, a nation with multi-ethnic groups and about 400 indigenous languages, the English Language has remained the official language and the medium of instruction in schools (Igbokwe, 2006). The implantation, acceptance and role of English Language in the body polity of Nigeria started with its adoption as the channel of instruction in 1882 (Baldeh, 1990). Its role in the national life of the average Nigerians is inestimable.
In order to participate effectively in the social, political and economic aspects of the nation, one must attain some level of efficiency in the language. For a Nigerian to follow intelligently what is going on in the nation, he has to read newspaper and make use of both the radio and television. If one is deficient in the English Language, one is seriously handicapped in making use of these agents of information dissemination since the majority of the newspapers and news magazines in the country are published in English. Similarly, most radio and television news, announcements, reports, features etc. are in English. The unifying position of the language in the country is, therefore, very obvious. So encompassing is the role of English Language in Nigeria that Ezema (2002) described the language as the most important of the entire heritage left behind by the British colonial administration.
English Language is a core subject in all the levels of Nigerian educational system. It is a subject which candidates must pass if their overall success in the Senior School Certificate Examination (S.S.C.E) is to have any value. According to Akabogu (2004:134), “A candidate who passes the other subjects but fails English Language is as good as failing the entire examination.” Akabogu avers that a pass in English is an essential requirement for admission into higher institutions of learning irrespective of the course of study, stressing that for some of the courses, an ordinary pass is not even sufficient; candidate must pass at credit level. This is why Shittu (2008) opines that English Language enjoys a lot of prestige over and above other Nigerian languages. The language has thus become the nation’s second language, crucial for success in the educational process and in other areas of national life. This has necessitated the nation’s huge investment in its teaching and learning.
The teaching and learning of the English Language involve four skills. These are listening, speaking, reading and writing. While listening and reading are referred to as the receptive skills, speaking and writing are called the productive skills. According to Otagburuagu, Obah, Onuigbo and Okorji (2007), of the four skills, listening and speaking receive less attention in many Nigerian schools. Otagburuagu et al, however, observe that there is a gradual change of attitude. According to these experts, the spoken form is now attracting much attention as other skills. Speech is the primary manifestation of language and writing is both secondary to and dependent on it.
The speaking skill is second in order of language skills. Speech is the oral activity in which people express themselves freely through words or statements. To speak means to utter words or to express oneself orally (Offorma, 2009). It entails using a language in talking. Without adequate knowledge of speaking skills, learners will have difficulties in pronunciation and intonation. Adequate acquisition of speech skills leads to fluency in speaking and reading. Offorma (2009) states that language involves habit, one must be given the opportunity to practise.
Effective speaking depends largely on paying accurate attention to segmental and supra-segmental features of speech sounds. The art of communicating one’s thought and feeling through speaking is therefore, considered important since man’s interpersonal relations and activities on the planet are executed mostly through the speaking act (Mgbodile, 1999). Linguists and language experts now place emphasis on the development of the oral or speaking skill following the realization that speech is primary and indispensable in human affairs. Every normal human being needs to communicate with his fellow human beings through speaking and anybody that is incapable of this is regarded as having a natural speech defect. One can hardly think of any human activity that does not involve or call for the use of oral forms of expression. Following this realization, modern theories of language teaching adopt procedural strategies that attach emphasis on speech. Spoken language has, therefore, acquired a special status in education.
Oral English, also called spoken English, has become a special concern in our education system possibly in realization that effective communication provides for proper mastery of the written form. If the lofty ideas must be realized, there is every need to correct the students’ speech habits at the early stages of their English Language learning. Although the learners will encounter interference problems as a result of structural difference between the phonological system of the target language and that of the mother tongue, effective learning can always be achieved through improved teaching of the vowels and consonants of the English Language.
In the teaching of Spoken English, MacCarthy (2008) defines articulation as the combination and coordination of movements by the relevant part of the vocal apparatus for the production of a given linguistic sound which could be either vowel or consonant. Vowel sound is a sound produced by an articulation having little or no constriction of the mouth passage; at least not enough to produce audible friction (MacCarthy, 2008). There are two broad categories of vowel – pure vowels, also called monothongs, and the diphthongs. The pure vowels are twelve in number while the diphthongs are eight.
Consonant, on the other hand, is a sound produced by an articulation involving some degree of constriction of the mouth passage (MacCarthy, 2008). The constriction includes constriction which is sufficient to produce audible friction at the point of narrowing; and it also includes complete blocking of the passage. There are twenty-four consonants in English. It should be noted that audible friction, which is not present in the production of vowel sounds is possible in the production of consonant sounds. One other peculiarity is the existence of voicelessness in some consonants whereas all vowels are voiced. Adequate knowledge of the position of the tongue, degree of openness of the lips and the position of the lips in the pronunciation of vowels is a prerequisite to the teaching of the vowels. Similarly, in the teaching of the consonants, the teacher must understand the manner of articulation, place of articulation and the state of the glottis in order to teach consonants effectively. The importance of Oral English in Nigeria’s educational system, therefore, cannot be over emphasized as it is an important aspect of the English Language in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination. However, Oral English is not given adequate attention in the classroom. Tomayo (2009: ii) observes that, “Over the years, the oral aspect of English Language has been treated with levity as most students and even some teachers find it difficult or abstract, stressing that in many schools Oral English is usually introduced lately and that even after introduction its learning lacks the use of different techniques; secondary school students are rarely exposed to short dialogues, conversations, narratives etc. which will help them to practise and internalize what they have been taught”. To worsen the situation, Oral English is now tested through pen and paper examination. This is not good enough as pen and paper examination alone may not test all the skills needed for oral proficiency. Even in the pen and paper examinations, candidates seem to have difficulties in answering questions on sound systems. This may have been the reason for the poor performance of students in Oral English.
