ABSTRACT
The study investigated the effect of manual games on the achievement of Junior Secondary School students in English grammar in Igbo-Eze North Local Government area of Enugu State. Five research questions and five null hypotheses guided the study. Related literatures were reviewed for the study. The study adopted non-equivalent control group quasi experimental design using a population of 2, 107 junior secondary school students in the local government area. A sample of 210 JSS 2 students comprising 127 female students and 83 male students. English grammar achievement test adapted from junior WAEC examination past questions was used to collect relevant data for the study. The instrument was face validated by three experts, one in Science Education and two from Arts Education all in University of Nigeria. Content validation of the instrument was ensured through the use of test blue print. A reliability index on 0.65 was obtained using Kuder-Richardson’s formulae 20. Data collected were analysed using mean, standard deviation and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while ANCOVA was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study showed that; the use of manual games instructional technique has significantly proved very effective in improving the achievement of students in English grammar than the conventional discussion technique. Also, gender influence on the achievement of students in English grammar was found not to be significant. On the other hand, there was a significant differential achievement of students with high and low ability levels in favour of the high ability level students. Both gender and ability level students were found not to interact significantly with instructional technique to affect the achievement of students in English grammar. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that School authority should enforce the use of manual games by the teachers in the teaching of English language since its efficacy has been proven.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Language is man’s priceless procession which is a mark of his personal and group identity. It is equally man’s major vehicle for self expression. Anagbogu, Mbah and Eme (2001, p.1) posit that “language is a means which human beings have devised for communicating ideas, feelings, emotions, desires, etc through complex vocal or written symbols”. Language according to Kirkpatrick (1983) is a mode of expression or any manner of expressing thought or feeling intelligibly. It is an important means of communication. As the chief tool for human thinking and for transforming experiences into ideas, most learning takes place through the use of one language or the other.
Language is seen as a tool for communication. Grice (2012) sees language as a system of communication which enables human beings to cooperate. This social aspect of the language is fundamental to the cooperate existence of human beings in a given society. This definition stresses the social functions of language and the fact that humans use it to express themselves and to manipulate objects in their environment. The uniqueness of human language is therefore attributed to human capacity to produce an infinite set of utterances from a finite set of elements and because the symbols and grammatical rules of any particular language are largely arbitrary, so that the system can only be acquired through social interaction (Searle, 2012).
The word, ‘language’ can also be used to describe the set of rules that make combination possible, or the set of utterances that can use practical forms of those rules. Agbedo (2010) posits that language can also be defined in social perspectives. Therefore language here is seen as a system of communication that enables humans to cooperate in different fields of human endeavour. He also stated that in human communication i.e language, the ties between meaningful element and their meanings are arbitrary and a matter of convention. This definition stresses the social function of language and the fact that humans use it to express themselves in their various environments.
In a nutshell, human society can hardly survive without language. This is almost certain as human beings are always interacting with one another and language is the principal tool for this interaction. It enables people to form and maintain relationships through the sharing of thoughts, feelings, intentions, ideas and needs. In Nigeria, this great importance of language is clearly pronounced. The nation has a myriad of indigenous languages which have been used over the ages for the satisfaction of basic human needs of communication. However, none of these indigenous languages is spoken by an overwhelming majority of the people for it to perform a bonding common service to the multi-lingual, multi-ethnic groups in Nigeria (Egbe, 2009). Although these languages are still very much in use, the appearance of the English language in the Nigerian linguistic landscape through trade and colonization has had a far-reaching effect. The existence of enormous linguistic diversity in the Nigerian society before colonization made it possible for English to be naturally put in place as a lingua franca for the purpose of maintaining effective interaction across the diverse linguistic groups. It is at present the official language of education, commerce and politics in the country.
In the Nigerian educational system, this dominance of the English language is glaring. It is a core subject that is offered at the primary and secondary schools (FRN, 2004). It is also a compulsory subject at the higher institutions of learning. Besides, it is stipulated to be progressively used as a medium of instruction from primary four in primary schools. Hence, it is pathway to the learning of other subjects at every level of education in Nigeria. In addition, one must have a credit pass in it before one can gain admission in any tertiary institution no matter the course of the person’s choice. Thus, the English language in Nigeria is not only the criterion for assessing certificates, but also a benchmark for measuring the quality and depth of learning. Buttressing this, Baldeh (1990, p.7), claims that “educational failure is primarily a linguistic failure in the English language”.
Looking at the pride of place which the English language occupies in the Nigerian educational, political, economic and social settings, and the fact that it is taught more regularly than other subjects in the primary and secondary schools, it could be expected that students should display a high degree of proficiency in it at the interest and external examinations. Unfortunately, this is not the case. In spite of the vital importance of the language in the country, students’ performance in it has been very discouraging. According to Uwadiae (2008) over 80 percent of the candidates who registered for the May/June 2008 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) did not score credit in the English language. The November 2009 National Examination results were also poor. Ogunsola, Akinjide, Nwangu and Taiye (2010), reported that only 1.80 percent of the 234,682 of the candidates who sat for the examination got credits in English. In 2011, WAEC results indicate that 40.11% of the candidates registered for WAEC had credit pass while 74.01% failed (WAEC Chief Examiners Report, 2011) while NECO released a result showing about 45.05% passed while 54.05% failed (NECO Chief Examiner’s Report 2011).
In 2013, WAEC results released show that only 24.5% of the candidates passed at credit level and 75.5% failed (WAEC, Chief Examiners Report, 2013) while NECO recorded only 10% pass at credit level whereas 90% failed (NECO Chief Examiner’s Report 2013). WAEC also recorded that 27% of the candidates passed at credit level and 73% failed (WAEC, Chief Examiners Report, 2014).
In Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area of Enugu State, the instance of the poor performance of students in English language is clear. Recent research findings are clearly show glaring evidence. According to Ezema (2010), students in the area can hardly write or speak a correct sentence. In line with this, Ugwu (2011) maintains that overwhelming majority of the students in the area exhibit an embarrassingly poor command of the English language. Ugwu attributes this poor performance to a number of factors such as shortage of qualified teachers, inadequate teaching materials, poor school environment, unseriousness on the part of the students, lack of motivation and finally teaching techniques. The mass failure in the English language is attributable to poor grounding in the four major language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. The acquisition of these skills and attainment of proficiency in them requires, to a reasonable extent, the mastery of the grammar of the language.
The grammar of a language can be referred to as a set of rules guiding the usage of the language. However, grammarians are not unanimous on what grammar is or what it should be or how it should be taught (Otagburuagu, Obah, Onuigbo and Okorji, 2007). In an attempt to reconcile such differences, grammarians have made efforts to inquire into the nature of grammar itself by emphasizing the essential ingredients instead of quarrelling over what should be the most acceptable definition. In this perspective, grammar is seen as a body of knowledge dealing with sentence formation, a set of rules showing how sentences are formed and a usage informed by proper choice of words (Otagburuagu et al, 2007). From the foregoing, it is clear that grammar is the central part of any language. Therefore, if any language is worth learning, the learning of its grammar is an indispensable aspect of it.
In acquiring one’s mother-tongue, one needs not to bother about the grammatical conventions of the language because a first language speaker or learner has his/her grammar internalized in him/her. On the other hand, the second language learner, as is the case with the Nigerian learners of English, is not so endowed. A second language learner has to attain a considerable proficiency in the grammar of such language before he/she can claim some mastery of it (Oji, 1994). Hence, the Nigerian learners of the English language have to learn its grammar. Proper usages of the language belong to the grammar because such usage draws its code from grammatical rules. In Nigeria, grammar is divided into topics and sub-topics while teaching it at junior and senior secondary school level. According to (NERDC, 2006, 2007) grammar is broken down into topics and sub-topics in Nigeria education system, in the junior and senior secondary education curricula at the secondary school level. The topics and sub-topics include those on nominal groups (nouns, pronouns, noun phrases, and nominalization), verbal groups (tense, aspect, sequence of tenses, phrasal verbs), nominal group plus verbal group (subject verb agreement, transitive and intransitive verbs), adverbial/adjectival group (adverbs and adjectives), adverbial phrases, adverbial and adjectival phrases and clauses. Irrespective of the topic to be taught, tenses run through all the structures. Therefore, tense will be the focus of the researcher in this study.
English grammar is classified into papers 1 and 2 of the English language examination in senior school certificate examination. Paper one is on essay/letter writing, comprehension and summary. In letter/essay writing grammar is tested under mechanical accuracy, in comprehension and summary, the grammatical aspect will be checked before awarding full mark. If there is grammatical error, no matter the level of the idea of the writer, half a mark will be deducted from each answer. Paper 2, is the objective test. This area is used to test the students’ knowledge of lexis and structure. It is not surprising therefore that the language and its grammar form part of the core curriculum of all the teaching, learning and examining bodies in Nigeria. So, it can be deduced that students’ mass failure in the English language examinations may be as a result of improper grounding in the grammar of the language. WAEC Chief Examiners’ Report (2012) expressed concern about the poor construction of English language of the candidates; incorrect use of tenses, faulty grammar and wrong spelling.
The problem of the students’ poor performance has been expressed clearly in a document released by the international final awards and examiners appointment committee of WAEC held in Accra in September, 2012, entitled “WAEC unhappy with students’ performance in English”. Hence, poor teaching method has been identified as a major factor contributing to the poor performance of candidates in external examinations, the recommendations by the WAEC Chief Examiners’ supported by the International Awards and Examiners Appointed Committee (2012) is that teachers should adopt better methods and strategies of teaching the language more effectively.
One of the major reasons given by researchers (Ezema, 2010 and Ugwu, 2011) for the abysmal poor performance of students in English grammar includes faulty teaching techniques. According to these researchers, none of the well-known and popular techniques for teaching grammar has shown any sign of being able to fix the monumental problems that students have in English grammar in Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area. The techniques in question include pattern practice, substitution drills, completion exercise, chaining and transformation. Without doubt, each of these techniques has its own shortcomings. The pattern practice and the substitution drills, for example, are necessary whenever a new pattern is taught but they cannot address the grammatical structures in their complexities. The completion exercises, on the other hand, are only for learners who have mastered the structures and can be given room to try their hands; while chaining and transformations require elaborate flexibility and specialized knowledge on the part of the teacher. The point however remains that all the efforts of the teachers to use these techniques effectively in teaching English language seem to have failed because there is no improvement in the students’ performance in English language grammar.
The technique that is predominantly in use by most teachers of English grammar is discussion technique which is conventional. Discussion technique of teaching refers to a diverse body of teaching techniques, which emphasize participation, dialogue, and two-way communication. It is a process where both parities send a message which must not only be properly encoded but also decoded. In this technique of teaching, one expresses one’s ideas clearly, to listen to and to hear, to interact, to be a leader and or a member of a group to know cultural differences and to be ready for self evaluation (Wells, 2009). According to Roby (2008), discussion technique is an instructional mode which gives students the opportunity to express their views or opinions orally on certain issues. It involves sharing of ideas and experiences, solving problems and promoting tolerance with understanding. Here, one person speaks at a time while the others listen. Discussions may be among the members of a small group, or whole class and can be teacher led or student-led. Tharp and Gallimore (2008) posit that other terms for discussion used for pedagogical purposes are instructional conversations while Newmann (2009) names it substantive conversations.
Discussions that can be used in the classroom are of different forms. Okchhari (2005) identifies two major types of discussion which are formal and informal. Informal discussion includes debates, panels, symposia etc and they are governed by pre-determined set of rules. Formal discussion on the other way round, may involve whole group or small groups of people divided with the intention of discussing themes. These types of discussions are not governed by pre-determined set of rules. The formal discussion technique will be used in this study as the instructional technique for the control group. Discussion in the classroom involves a free verbal interchange of ideas for all the students. The teacher is the leader who guides the discussion here. The teacher will ask questions and decide on who will respond. Wells (2009) maintains that small group discussion is better than whole class discussion. This helps more students to give their own views through open participation. Here, students will be divided into small groups of five, six, or even ten and the teacher gives the questions or tasks to discuss and report back. Each group should have a group leader who will control the discussion process and report what has been discussed back. The guideline to a good discussion is that it should be well planned and the teacher incharge should understand the topic, content and the objectives of the lesson that will be discussed. The teacher’s way of giving instruction should be clear and must be discussed in an environment that is conducive for the students.
The main point of the discussion is to teach and encourage students’ constructive thinking, to express and support ideas logically and to interact with group members. As good as the discussion technique may appear, it has its own problems. Here, the teachers usually judge the success of their discussions by the extent to which students speak. Some students feel unable to say what they mean and are afraid of being wrong if they contribute. Others are intimidated by dominant participants and so do not speak. In discovering the students’ discomfort, many teachers feel that the discussion method simply does not work in classroom setting (Gall and Gall, 2006). Another problem is that classes tend to get a bit noisy and disorganized when the discussion is introduced as a result of loss of control.
In the light of the above state of affairs, one should seek for solution by trying other innovative techniques, techniques that will be both activity oriented and child-centered to see whether they could arouse the interest of students. Courthard (2005) suggests, among others, simulation exercises where students engaged in role-play. He further posits that the students should be engaged in problem-solving exercises like games which allow them to do all the talking while the teacher merely corrects them where necessary. The use of games may be a useful technique for teaching the English grammar since games are activity centered.
A game is a form of play or sports, especially a competitive one, played according to rules and decided by skill. Game is a complete episode or period of play typically ending in a definite result. Schell (2008, p. 37) maintains that “a game is a problem solving activity, approached with a playful attitude”. Avedone (2009) defines game as structured play usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. The key components of games are goals, rules, challenges and interactions. Games are characterized into two, manual games and electronic games. Manual games are the type of games usually played with concrete objects such as boards, papers, cards and any other useful existing object in the environment. Electronic games on the other way round are the games that involve human interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. All games whether manual or electronic, according to Prenksy (2001) are characterized by rules, goals and objectives, outcomes and feedback, conflict, competition, challenge/opposition, interaction, and representation of story; an interactive playing environment and the struggle of the players against some kind of opposition.
In language learning, games may be highly motivating since they are amusing and at the same time challenging. They may employ meaningful and useful language in real contexts, and encourage and increase co-operation. Among all teaching strategies, games appear to be very motivating and interesting in terms of usage since every one was involved in one type of game or the other. Teaching games is often associated with simulations probably because both of them involve role playing and they create problem solving situations. Game as a teaching strategy is child centered. It helps the teacher to gain students’ attention while learning. Games also develop students’ capacity to observe and remember details. The interactive nature of teaching games may provide opportunity for learners to be motivated and challenged.
Games may be good ways of practising language, for they provide a mode of what learners will use the language for in real life in the future. Language games are useful for keeping children over words and phrases they have learned and for teaching sentence construction (Fuller, 2009). Children play games easily with or without the assistance of an instructor. The effectiveness of games in language learning has been supported by research findings as they have been found to have advantage and effectiveness in learning vocabulary in the English language and Igbo grammar as shown by Huyen and Nga (2003) and Umo (2004) respectively. By analogy, they may equally be very effective in the teaching and learning of English grammar.
This study focuses on manual games. In this study, manual games known as ‘go fishing’ was used to test students’ performance in English grammar -tenses. This game entails forms of contest in which the class is split into small groups or pairs and each group tries to beat the other in the production of sound grammatical structures of the target language presented to them. This game named ‘go fishing’, is a game on identification and replacement of tenses which may aim at developing the students’ talent in the proper identification of tenses, (simple present and simple past-tenses, present continuous and past continuous tense). To play the ‘go fishing game’, the class was divided into four groups of ten students each. Language items are carefully selected and presented to the learners to produce in form of contest under the guidance of the teacher. The teacher will place four baskets/boxes that contain word cards written the same words or group of words before the four groups contesting. The wrong grammatical structure of different sentence types was given by writing them on the clipboards. The teacher will hang the four clipboards on the wall/chalkboard, one for each group, and place the boxes for each of them. The students will be asked to go and fish the correct present and past continuous tenses to replace the wrong ones. Also, different sentences were given on the four clipboards, omitting the correct tenses which the students will fish out from the boxes/baskets and place in the gap as well. The correct fishing and replacement of those words attract one point while the incorrect fishing and replacement of those words attract no point. At the end of the games, the teacher announces the group or team that won. The other groups who lose should also be appreciated and appropriate explanation given on the area of weakness for correction. The games continue to provide construction of particular grammatical structures in an enjoyable contest. Games may give shy students opportunities to express their opinions and feelings. They may also lower anxiety, thus making the acquisition of input more lively. They are highly motivating and entertaining and can as well give students a relaxed atmosphere. It may also enable learner to acquire new experiences within the target language which are not always possible during typical lessons.
In examining the potency of the games technique on achievement in English grammar, it is also pertinent to look at the effect of gender as well as the interaction on the achievement of students taught English grammar using games. Gender is seen by Offorma (2004) as a learned, socially constructed conditions ascribed to individuals on the basis of being born either male or female. It is enforced through cultural practices. Hence, the type of training and exposure given to male and female children in a given society depends on the people’s understanding and belief. Gender, therefore, is a very important variable because a person’s orientation and outlook play a crucial role in performance. However, there are conflicting reports on whether gender has a significant influence in language performance (Offorma, 2004).
The researcher also looked at the effect of ability level on the achievement of the students taught English grammar using games. Ability level can be defined as some one’s level of skill at doing something. According to Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, ability level is the state of being able to do something. Similarly, ability level has been shown to have a significant effect on achievement in some studies, but not in others. For example Uzoegwu (2004) revealed that ability level had no significant effect on the achievement of students in essay writing when the cooperative learning method was in use while Eze and Onuigbo (2008) reported that the high ability visually impaired students achieved significantly higher in the comprehension tests than their low ability counterparts. Based on the fact that students are assigned to classes on the basis of their academic ability in some schools, and the possibility that the ability level of the students may go a long way in the reception of any technique, the present researcher intends to investigate the effect of games technique on male and female students’ achievement as well as their influence on high ability and low ability students in English grammar. This is aimed at contributing to research in the direction of whether gender and ability level are related to competence in that aspect of the language.
At this juncture, having seen the dismal performance of students in English grammar, the ineffectiveness of the popular technique for teaching it, the efficiency of the technique of games in teaching and learning generally and the possibility that the same game technique can be tried in seeking for solution to the chronic mass failure in the English language, it is needful, therefore, to test the effect of games technique on junior secondary school students’ achievement in English grammar.
Statement of the Problem
English grammar is an important aspect of the English language. However, the teaching and learning of English grammar has been faced with problems. One of such problems is teacher’s use of inappropriate method in teaching English grammar in secondary schools. The problems may be as a result of the continuous use of discussion technique which is more of teacher centered. The steady decline in the performance of secondary school students in English language examinations has been of much concern to the educationists in the country. Many scholars have stressed that the candidates’ poor knowledge of rules of grammar especially inability to use the grammar of English language correctly hinders correct English language.
Games being a problem-solving activity, approached with a playful attitude, may be a better technique in teaching and learning English grammar. However, the importance of games instruction in other subjects has been proved. The use of games which seems to be an important component for increasing students’ motivation in learning a language and given students multiple exposure in acquisition of language has not been giving attention especially in teaching and learning of English grammar. Therefore, the foregoing underscores the need for finding a way of improving students’ performance in grammar in other to achieve the set objectives by the examining body (WAEC) and also to satisfy other varied uses of grammar. The problem of this study, therefore, is to determine the effect of manual games on the achievement of junior secondary school students’ in English grammar in Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area of Enugu State.
Purpose of the Study
The general purpose of this study was to find out the effect of manual games technique on junior secondary school students’ achievement in English grammar in Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area of Enugu State. Specifically, the study intended to determine:
- the mean achievement scores of students taught English grammar with manual games and those taught with the conventional discussion technique.
- the influence of gender on the achievement of students taught English grammar.
- the influence of ability level on the achievement of students taught English grammar
- the interaction effect of technique and gender on students’ mean achievement scores in English grammar.
- the interaction effect of technique and ability level on students’ mean achievement scores in English grammar.
Significance of the Study
This study has both theoretical and practical significance. Theoretically, this study was used to explore the reliability of the tenets of the cognitivist, constructivist, as well as the behaviourist theory of psychology which advocates child-centered education. According to the behaviourists, intellectual development is the result of interaction of hereditary and environmental factors. Education is not something which the teacher does, but a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being (NAMTA, 2010). It is not acquired by listening to words, but in virtue of experiences in which the child acts on his environment. This theory believes that for learning to occur, learners must have some drive that motivates her for action. This theory lays emphasis on an environment that is conducive for teaching and learning.
In Piaget’s cognitive theory of language development, the theory believed that for a child to know and construct knowledge of the world the child must act on objects and it is this action which provides knowledge of these objects. In the process of the games, students acquire their own learning abilities. In the process of games, students acquire the facts and knowledge; develop the right type of value and attitude trough competition, cooperation and joint decision-making with other members of the class and learning takes place in an informal and friendly atmosphere. Equally, wholeness of learning as emphasized by cognitive learning, theory would be attained.
Also, the constructivism learning theory of Vygotsky (1962) maintains that the learner should play a central role in mediating and controlling learning. According to this theory, activities, opportunities, tools and environments are provided to encourage meta cognition self-analysis-regulation, reflection and awareness. This has a close relationship with games in teaching which is students centered. The result of this study may therefore be helpful in believing and disbelieving the tenets of the constructivist theory.
The result of this study will be of practical significant to a lot of people. The findings of this study will help the students, teachers, parents’, school authorities’ curriculum designers, policy-makers and textbook authors to proffer useful and practical solutions to the problem of poor and ineffective methods of teaching English language in the secondary schools. The findings of this study will be of practical significance to the students as they will likely facilitate their better performance in grammar. It is hoped that through the use of manual games in teaching English grammar, students may gain meaningful learning on their own; and that they may not only develop problem solving skills but will also acquire confidence in their own learning abilities. Through the use of games, students may acquire the facts and knowledge; develop the right type of value and attitude through competition, cooperation and joint decision-making with other members of the class and learning takes place in an informal and friendly atmosphere in favour of the reluctant speakers who shy away from speaking out.
The findings of this study will be of significance to the teachers who are curriculum implementers. Use of games techniques may enhance the teacher’s achievement of the objectives of the lesson within the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains very easily. Meanwhile, games are among the teaching techniques that have been known to be useful in the achieving the objectives of teaching at all levels. As the students develop ability to work on their own through games, the teacher will observe, guide and analyze the outcome of the learning process. Therefore, by counselling and correcting the students, the work of the teacher has been reduced. The teacher will also discover the weakness of the learners for immediate correction and their strengths to enhance their intellectual ability. The findings of this study will also help the curriculum planners to restructure the English grammar curriculum so that it will be learned towards problem solving activities which will be less time consuming.
Finally, it is hoped that this study will help in the improvement of English language methodology in schools. It will also provide information on the advantages of the use of games technique to textbook writers. The study so far will provide information on the basis of decision-making about the types of games and exercise to be included in English grammar textbooks for students and teachers.
Scope of the Study
This study was delimited to junior secondary school (JSS 2) students in Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area of Enugu State. The content was on English grammar- tenses in particular. Tense was used to express present and past actions using simple present tense, present continuous tense, simple past tense and past continuous tense.
The study equally examined the effect of games technique on the variables of gender as well as the ability level of the students. The study necessarily focused on the area of gender and ability levels. This was because these topics were included in the scheme of work for junior secondary school classes
Research Questions
The following research questions guided the study.
- What are the mean achievement scores of students taught English grammar with manual games and those taught with the conventional discussion technique?
- What are the mean achievement scores of male and female students in English grammar?
- What are the mean achievements scores of high and low ability level students in English grammar?
- What is the interaction effect of technique and gender on students’ mean achievement scores in English grammar?
- What is the interaction effect of technique and ability level on students’ mean achievement scores in English grammar?
Hypotheses
The following null hypotheses are formulated to guide the study. Each was tested at 0.05 level of the significance.
H01: There is no significant difference in the mean achievement scores of students in English grammar.
H02: There is no significant difference in the mean achievement scores of male and female students in English grammar.
H03: There is no significant difference in the mean achievement scores of high and low ability level students in English grammar.
H04: There is no significant interaction effect of instructional technique and gender on students’ mean achievement scores in English grammar.
H05: There is no significant interaction effect of instructional technique and ability level on students’ mean achievement scores in English grammar.
