ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to find out the effect of communicative method on students’ achievement and interest in Igbo letter writing. The influence of gender and school location on the effectiveness of method was also explored. Six research questions and ten hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. A quasi-experimental research design was employed. The type was non-equivalent control group design. Population of the study consisted of SS II students in all the secondary schools within Nsukka Education Zone of Enugu State. The population of SS II students in Nsukka Education Zone in the 2006/2007 academic session was approximately nineteen thousand, five hundred and three (19,503) according to the Planning, Research and Statistics (PRS) Unit of Post-Primary Schools Management Board, Nsukka Zonal Office. The sample size comprised of 174 SS II students. Using stratified random sampling technique, two schools were selected from urban and rural areas respectively. In each selected school, one arm of SS II was randomly selected and assigned to treatment condition. While one urban school was assigned to experimental group, the other one was assigned to control group. The same was done for the rural schools. The experimental group was taught with communicative teaching method while the control group was taught with the conventional lecture method. Treatment lasted for four weeks. Two instruments used for data collection were face validated; and their reliability index are 0.6 and 0.8 respectively. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to analyse the data collected from this study. Major findings of the study are: (1) Communicative teaching method had significant effect on students’ achievement in Igbo letter writing; (2) Gender had no significant effect on achievement and interest of students in letter writing in Igbo language; (3) School location had a significant effect on students’ achievement in Igbo letter writing. The influence on the interest of the students was not significant; (4) Interaction effect of teaching method and gender on both achievement and interest of students in letter writing in Igbo language was not significant; (5) Interaction effect of teaching method and school location on both achievement and interest of students in letter writing in Igbo language was not significant. Suggestions for further studies based on the findings of the study include the replication of this study in other branches of Igbo language learning such as reading (Agụmagụ) and grammar (ụtọ asụsụ). It was recommended among other things that since this method is relatively new in the teaching of Igbo language, secondary school Igbo teachers should be made familiar with the method through workshops and seminars organized by the Government and other agencies like the Society for the Promotion of Igbo Language and Culture (SPILC).
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
The phenomenon of language is natural to man. Language is one of the factors that distinguishes human race from the lower animals (Azikiwe, 1998). It is man’s most basic tool without which it will be difficult for man to live and interact together. Language is also a means of social control, an instrument which enables us to communicate our thoughts. This implies that language is a means of conveying meaning which has become accepted and systematized through a long period of use.
Kodilinye (1972) noted that language is a master key to the treasure house of a people’s cultural heritage, and where it is not fully developed and cultivated, it reacts on the people and retards their achievement and the expression of their individuality. In recognition of the role of language in expressing the people’s culture, the International Institute of African Languages and Culture (1930) at Rome stated that every child must learn to love and respect his culture. One way of doing this is through the use of language.
People can best show their identity and individuality by the use of language. A person cannot understand another person’s thought until it is expressed in a language. Okonkwo (1972) believes that no language can be more appropriate for self-expression than the natural language which is the mother-tongue of a people. This is the language that comes almost spontaneously and imperceptibly and grows out of the natural environment of the speaker. According to Adiele in Nwadike (2002:6), “a race whose language cannot be used for literary and serious purposes has no real identity, the race is decadent.” He went further to say that the most conclusive conquest of a people is the conquest through language. Nwadike (2002) equally says that the most essential asset of a people is their own language – their mother tongue. According to him, no people under normal circumstances would want their mother tongue to die, for it is after all the language that makes them an ethnic entity or nation. Without a language of its own, a nation becomes merged and lost in the foreign group whose language it is forced to speak. With its own language, a nation identifies itself and ensures its perpetuation. It is those languages, which are taught widely in schools as written languages that will survive and develop.
In view of the above fact, the Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN) in the National Policy on Education (FRN, 2004:6) states clearly that –
In addition to appreciating the importance of language in the educational process and as a means of preserving the people’s culture, the government considers it to be in the interest of national unity that each child should be encouraged to learn one of the three major indigenous languages other than his own mother tongue.
Government in the same policy considers the three major indigenous languages to be Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. Through this way, Igbo language emerged as an academic discipline, and a core subject at the Senior Secondary Education level, which students must pass before graduation. Still appreciating the use of mother tongue in educating the child, the National Policy on Education (FRN, 2004:7) on nursery education states that – “the medium of instruction should be principally the mother tongue or the language of the immediate community.” This in our own case is the Igbo language.
Though recognized in schools, the use of English language as a second language in the country, and the language of interaction among the different ethnic groups in the society makes people to look down on the study of indigenous languages like Igbo. The consequence of this is that many Nigerians equate formal education with the knowledge of English language. Naturally, this led to the poor attitude exhibited by students towards Igbo language study. Furthermore, the non-inclusion of Igbo language as a pre-requisite for entrance into institutions of higher learning in Nigeria also contributed to the less interest shown by students towards the study of the subject. Also, playing a major role in this regard is the false sense of value. Since Igbo language is the mother tongue, many students think that they have known it all, and that it is an easy subject and so, they show little or no interest in its study.
Letter writing is an integral part of essay writing in any Igbo language study and this has been shown to be the greatest problem area for students in examinations. The West African Examination Council (WAEC) Chief Examiners’ Report of 1997 reads that
… candidates’ performance did not reflect the good standard of the questions. They performed far below expectation. It was evident that most of the schools either did not have qualified Igbo language teachers or had teachers who were not prepared to teach. Lack of seriousness on the part of the candidates also contributed to their poor performance, … lack of attention to proper use of diacritic marks robbed the candidates of vital marks. It was also observed that many candidates did not know the difference between what they speak, and what they were expected to write. In other words, these groups of candidates wrote in their different dialects whereas they were expected to write in the standard Igbo…, this affected the essay questions more… (p. 26)
The Chief Examiners’ Report of 2005 further corroborated that of 1997 that students’ performance in Igbo language is generally poor. The report indicates that
Candidates’ performance did not reflect the good nature of the questions; some of them were not well prepared for the examination…, their weaknesses showed in very poor handwriting resulting in illegibility; writing on irrelevant aspects of questions with regard to letter writing; writing less than the required length of essay, and use of dialects in writing (pp. 24-25).
From the WAEC reports cited, the students’ major weaknesses could be pointed out as: inability to express themselves very well in the standard Igbo, poor knowledge of grammatical rules, inability to put diacritic marks where necessary, inability to understand questions, use of dialects in writing by many of them, and lack of seriousness on their part. These shortcomings pose a great problem to the study of Igbo language in general, and letter writing in particular.
In order to find solutions to some of the problems confronting language education, Wilkins (1983) stated the need to evaluate methods according to their success in providing real competence in language. Competence in Igbo language implies ability to speak and write the standard Igbo freely without ambiguity and devoid of dialectal interference. Standard Igbo according to Emenanjo (1988) is the Igbo that is generally accepted and understood by all Igbo speaking people irrespective of dialectal differences. It is a collection of different Igbo dialects hence no persons, or groups can lay claim to it as the original speakers of the language. That is the language that is being learned and taught in schools. Standard Igbo is the language students are expected to use in writing their examinations, especially their essays and letters. However, evidence from the WAEC reports already cited reveals that many students have no mastery of standard Igbo, and this contributes to students’ poor achievement in Igbo language.
The mastery of any language implies correct usage at the grammatical, phonological and semantic levels. Letter writing is an important aspect of Igbo language study, which exposes students to these aspects of language skills namely – grammatical, phonological and semantic rules as applicable to the language. In support of this fact as it were, Ogbalu (1972:6) stated that “letter writing is very important for testing a student’s command of the language; students should be able to write letters with ease and the usual rules for letter writing should be observed.” Some of these rules include:
- Ide adresị (writing of address)
- Itinye akara ntụpọ n’ebe okwesiri (correct use of diacritic marks)
- Ide adresi abụọ maka leta anamachọihe (writing of two addresses for formal letters)
- Idezi isiokwu mbunuuche (choosing correct titles for formal letters)
- Ihazi edemleta n’ụdị mmalite, obi/etiti na mmechi (organizing the work in the form of introduction, body of the letter and closing)
- Idezi ihe na nkeji na nkeji (organizing your points in paragraphs)
- Iji ezigbo Igbo izugbe were dee leta (using standard Igbo to write your letter)
Since essay writing generally exposes students to the grammatical, phonological and semantic rules of a language since letter writing is very important for testing a student’s command of the language, it naturally follows that these aspects of Igbo language study should be taught well in schools by the teachers if students are to improve their achievement and interest in the subject. This is very necessary because it has been posited that the lack of interest shown by students towards the study of Igbo language is not inherent in the subject itself (Umo, 2000) but could be traced to among other factors, teachers’ use of inappropriate methods and materials in teaching. Poor teaching method has been cited earlier as one of the problems confronting effective teaching and learning of Igbo language in schools since its introduction as a school subject. The method that is dominantly used by most Igbo language teachers in teaching virtually all aspects of Igbo language study is the lecture or conventional method. This method is teacher-centred, and that makes students passive listeners in the class. The conventional method is subject-matter oriented and uninspiring to students. Its emphasis is on cognitive performance especially as it affects memorization and simple recall of facts which students are not interested in. The conventional method deprives the students virtually of all responsibilities for using their own mental abilities to compare and decide what is important to learn. It overlooks the individual differences of the learners, and denies them adequate and prompt attention of the teacher. WAEC Annual Report (2005) also attributes students’ poor achievement and interest in Igbo language to poor teaching method, which invariably leads to poor performance in examinations.
