ABSTRACT
This study investigated the effect of dictation technique on the achievement on students in English listening comprehension in Abakaliki Education Zone of Ebonyi State, Nigeria. Five research questions and five null – hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study design was quasi – experimental. The sample for the study consisted 182 JSS2 students from two co – education schools in Abakaliki Education Zone. The experimental group comprised 100 male and female students from schools in rural and urban areas. The control group comprised 82 male and female students from schools located in rural and urban areas. A multi – stage random sampling technique was used. First to draw the two co – educational schools and two intact classes from each of the schools, and to assign schools to experimental and control groups. Both the experimental group and control group were given the same English listening passage but the difference is that while those in the experimental group were taught English listening comprehension with dictation technique, those in the control group were taught English listening comprehension using the lecture method. The instrument used for data collection was English Achievement Test (EAT) which was marked over fifty. The EAT was validated by three experts. The instrument was trial tested on twenty students from Afikpo Education Zone, Ebonyi State. The data obtained from the trial tests were used to calculate the reliability of the instrument using Kuder – Richardson’s formula. It yielded an index of 0.74. Mean was used to answer the research questions while ANCOVA was used to test the hypotheses as P < 0.05. From the results the experimental group had significant higher achievement score in English listening comprehension than their counterparts who are in the control group. Also, gender had a significant effect on the achievement of students in English listening comprehension but school location did not. In addition, interaction effect between treatment and gender was not significant as well as the treatment and school location was not significant. Based on the findings, it was recommended that English language teachers should adopt dictation technique in teaching English listening comprehension. Different tasks which can aid extensive English listening comprehension activities should be employed from primary schools to junior secondary school being the foundational classes. The curriculum planners should also include the use of dictation technique in the next review of curriculum.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
In recent time, English has been rated as the world most popular language which is characterized by active communication especially the indigenous owners of the language (Abolade, 2004). English is the most popular language which is widely used in international commerce, industry, communication and a source of scientific and technological advancement. English language has played a major role in Nigeria. English language was voluntarily adopted for official and inter-ethnic communication in the country (Akabogu, 2002). English language since then has come to serve various vital functions in the life of the nation. Of all these functions however, its role as the language of education is paramount since education gives life and essence to all other sphere of human endeavour (Obanya, 2002). This function is given greater vigour as a result of the position given to it by the National Policy on Education (2004) which makes English language mandatory in secondary and tertiary education in Nigeria. It is also the language of evaluation in schools as it is used for assessing students after primary school for the First School Leaving Certificate; Junior Secondary School Certificates Examinations and Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations (SSCE), Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and other Professional Examinations.
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English language is a school subject and like every other school subject requires formal instruction. Instruction in English language involves instruction on the four basic language skills; listening, speaking, reading and writing. This is because acquiring a new language necessarily involves developing these four modalities in varying degrees and combinations. (Tankersly, 2003). Tankersly also explains that these four skills include associated skills, such as knowledge of vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation, syntax, meaning and usage.
As a result of the importance of English language in Nigeria, the Federal Government (FRN: 2004: 16) in its National Policy on Education states.
The medium of instruction in the primary school shall be the language of the immediate environment for the first three years. During this period, English shall be taught as a subject. From the fourth year, English shall progressively be used as a medium of instruction
The desire of the Federal Government of Nigeria, according to this statement, is to enable students attain some level of proficiency in English to enable them to fully participate in the educational, social, economic, and political aspects of the Nigerian society. Given the importance of English language as a subject, common sense demands that students should perform well in it but instead, the performance has been a downward trend. It is expected that after learning the English language for so many years; students would have reached a certain level of proficiency but it is not so. Marjah (2008), reports that the performance of students in written, reading and spoken English is not encouraging. Consequently, the Chief Examiners Report (WAEC, 2013) reiterated that English language paper was generally within the experience of the candidates, and that the paper compared favourably with those set in previous years. However, according to the report, the candidates’ performance was generally disappointing especially in the areas of expression and mechanical accuracy. In the comprehension section which is relevant to this work, the Chief Examiners reported that the candidates copied out chunks from the passages, indicating their lack of understanding, failure to identify main ideas in a given passage, inadequate skill in making adequate inference as well as limited knowledge of vocabulary. In the area which required the candidates to replace words, they failed to put their options back into the context of the passage to see if the options chosen fitted well. Thus, they lost a lot of marks. For these reasons, proper attention should be given to the teaching and learning of listening comprehension in the English Language.
Listening is a basic and important skill in learning a language. For acquisition of a language, listening plays a pivotal role. Listening is a complex process used to make sense out of what is heard. It involves focusing one’s attention on a particular sound stimulus and trying to understand what is being said (Mayers and Mayers, 2000). Listening also involves the process of selecting, attending to, understanding, remembering and responding to sounds and messages (Morky, 2000). Offorma (2004), defines listening as an active skill of paying attention and understanding which involves the aural process of coding information heard in the long term memory after processing it in the sensory memory and the short term memory. It is an active skill that requires the learners’ attention.
Listening appears to be one of the easiest ways to learn, yet, it is one of the difficult skills to acquire. Listening is a complex, active process of hearing, comprehension and interpretations in which the interlocutors match what they hear with what they already know (Goh, 2000). Rost (2002: 18), defines listening in its broadest sense as “a process of receiving what the speaker actually says (receptive orientation); constructing and representing meaning (constructive orientation); negotiating meaning with the speaker and responding (collaborative orientation); and creating meaning through involvement, imagination and empathy (transformative orientation)”. In classroom teaching and learning, listening is important to get information, obtain direction from the teacher and take down notes while the lesson is going on. Ifionu and Ohuche (2000) summarized the importance of listening by stating that one listens for the main ideas, to make predictions, for signal words or informal key words, to recognize digressions and for chronological order. Listening involves the ability to comprehend what is heard. Comprehension is an ability to understand the meaning of something. Long (2012) points out that comprehension plays an important role in the process of second language acquisition, in storage and retrieval of linguistic input, and the development of learner’s second language. Active listening involves comprehension. Listening comprehension is a complex process, crucial in the development of second language competence. It is the ability to understand what is spoken and to derive meaning out of it. O’Malley, Chamot and Kupper (2008), view listening comprehension as an active process in which individuals focus on selected aspects of aural input, construct meaning from passages, and relate what they hear to existing knowledge.
