Citation: Abubakar, J. A., Enighe, J. M. and Patrick, J. M. (2025). “Effects of Direct Method of Teaching on Remedial Students’ Achievement in English Syllables Identification in Gombe State, Nigeria.” in ĆŠunÉ—aye Journal of Hausa Studies, Vol. 03, No. 02, Pp. 92 – 97. www.doi.org/10.36349/djhs.2025.v03i02.011.
EFFECTS OF DIRECT
METHOD OF TEACHING ON REMEDIAL STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN ENGLISH SYLLABLES
IDENTIFICATION IN GOMBE STATE, NIGERIA
Jamila Usman
Abubakar
Department of Arts
and Social Science Education, Gombe State University, Nigeria
and
Jeno-Mary Enighe
English Unit,
Department of Arts Education, University of Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria
and
Judith M. Patrick
English Unit,
Department of Arts Education, University of Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria
Abstract:
This study examined the Effects
of Direct Method of Teaching on Remedial Students’ Achievement in English
syllables identification in Gombe State, Nigeria. The study focused to find out
the effect of using direct method in teaching “supra-segmental” features of
English language specifically syllables, among remedial students. Quasi
experimental research design was used for the study. The population of the
study includes remedial students of Gombe State universities. Samples of the
study were drawn from two universities. Simple random sampling was used as
technique to select samples for the study. Test-retest was used for data
collection. The result of the study indicates suitability of direct method in
teaching “supra segmental” features of English language. The following
recommendations are made by the researcher for further studies: Further
research should consider the effect of direct method of teaching on other
aspects of English language learning, such as pronunciation of words, stress
placement in words and sentences and production of intonation in speech
Keywords: remedial
students, supra-segmental, syllables
Introduction
Language teaching
is a process of imparting knowledge of language to learners in a conventional
school setting which can be physical or virtual. Language teaching was
developed over centuries through the fields of various scholars traditions,
providing the framework for the main task of linguistic, which was basically to
study and understand the general principles on which all languages are built to
improve teaching practices. English is the official language of instruction
from primary four up to university as prescribed in section four, sub-section
19, items e and f of the 6th edition of National Policy on Education, Federal
Republic of Nigeria (FRN) (2014). The National Policy on Education states that
English language shall be taught as a subject and it shall progressively be
used as a medium of instruction and the language of immediate environment for
primary one to primary three.
Teaching and
learning of English pronunciation is an integral part of the English language
curriculum in schools and colleges, though problematic for most of the students
due to mother tongue influence and sound issues. English language pronunciation
is as important as teaching and learning vocabulary and grammar or even more
important than vocabulary and grammar. it is the building bricks for speech,
reading and writing basis. No matter how good a person’s command of vocabulary
and grammar may be, the person will not be able to speak English well if he/she
has a problem with pronunciation. Pronunciation problems can affect the
listener’s understanding of what is said by the speaker and the message
intended to be conveyed by the speaker, although, non-native speakers may not
achieve a native-like pronunciation due to mother tongue and environmental
factors. English language words must be produced clearly to avoid confusing one
word to another. Likewise, the intonation should be as appropriate as possible.
Oral English
involves two aspects; segmental and supra-segmental features of English
language. The segmental aspect of oral English language includes the study of
the discrete sounds that are found in English. English has 49 sounds, which
includes consonant sounds and vowel sounds. The sounds are divided into: 24
consonants and 25 vowels. The 24 consonants are divided into voiced consonants
and voiceless consonants. Whereas, the vowel sounds are divided into 12
monophthongs, 8 diphthongs and 5 triphthongs. Monophthongs are the individual
vowel sounds that are produced with free flow of air from the lungs. They are
referred to as monophthongs because it contains one sound for example /a/, /e/,
/i/. The diphthongs are vowel sounds that one quality of a sound gliding into
another quality of a sound to produce a single sound, for example /ei/ in the
word ‘paid’, /ai/ in the word ‘guide’, /eÓ™/
in the word ‘fare’. While the triphthongs are vowel sounds that have three
combinations of sounds, one gliding into the other and it is considered as a
single sound. Example of triphthongs: /eiÓ™/
as in ‘air’, /aiÓ™/
in the word ‘liar’ (Usman, 2017).
The English school subject is divided into
four parts: lexis and structures (grammar), comprehension, summary, composition
writing, and oral English. Oral English is the phonetic and phonological aspect
which involves segmental and supra-segmental features of English language. The
phonetic aspect of oral English is the aspect that deals with the concrete
part, such as the articulatory organs of producing speech while phonological
aspect has to do with the abstract aspects of spoken/oral English language specifically.
Oral English is divided into segmental and supra segmental features. The
segmental features are aspects that deals with the sound symbols (vowels and
consonants) of English Language, whereas, supra-segmental features of English
language deals with syllables, stress, intonation, rhyme among others.
There is a need to
give priority to the oral aspect of English because there is close relationship
between language competence and academic achievement Musa (2017). English
language is the primary source of communication through which the students
share ideas and thoughts, without which the students’ academic endeavor may be
handicapped. The remedy to the deficiency of the remedial students cannot be
achieved without English Language pronunciation competence because it is a
language of academia. Moreover, it is the top language of internet and with
English one can study all over the world. In consideration to the four language
skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), listening and speaking are
the skills involved in oral aspect of English (Niyozova, 2020).
Oral English
proficiency in non-native environment have continued to face challenges because
of lack of professionals in some aspects of language teaching, lack of
concentration on appropriate pedagogy to be used for peculiar aspect and
others. The researcher, being a tutor in the School of Basic and Remedial
Studies (SBRS) Gombe State University, observed the previous reports of the
SBRS students’ result in oral English, which indicated that most of the SBRS
students failed (not all aspects but the oral English aspect among others).
Spoken aspect of English is inevitable in academics. Therefore, the students’
failure in oral English can contribute to their failure in SSCE and JAMB
examination.
Aim and
Objectives of the Study
The aim of the
research is to find out the effects of direct method of teaching on Remedial
students’ achievement in oral English among SBRS students of Gombe State,
Nigeria. The specific objective of the study is to:
1. find out the pre-test and post-test achievement mean scores of
remedial students in identifying English syllables in the experimental and
control groups.
Research
Questions
The following
research questions are expected to guide the researcher to carry out the study.
1. What are the pre-test and post-test achievement mean scores of
remedial students in identifying English syllables between the experimental and
control groups?
Hypotheses
The following null
hypothesis is formulated and will be tested at the 0.05 level of significance.
1. There is no
significant difference in the pre-test and post-test achievement mean scores of
remedial students in identifying English syllables in the experimental and
control groups.
Literature
Review
The overview of
the state of teaching and learning in Nigerian secondary schools generally is
bisected with myriads of problems which includes poor funding as in, inadequate
infrastructures, classrooms, teaching aids with limited technology integration
(projectors, computers, and laboratories), low quality teachers, outdated
curriculum, poor learning environment and delay in paying teacher’s salaries.
In the field of second language teaching (SLT), what is most important is what
do I teach first and what method to employ in the teaching process. If at all
the second language learner needs to enhance his/her pronunciation, extra
efforts must be given to supra-segmental features of English language first,
because, the learners’ tune and stress placement in speech must be moderated
for a clear and better communication. It is stated by (Usman, 2017) that stress
and intonation must be used properly by the speaker of English if at all the
speech is to be communicated well by the users of English.
In as much, each
epoch or teacher prefers starting some topics to others, practice has shown
that each topic has its appropriate position to be taught, and the question of
which is better first before which is determined by the context of teaching.
Hence, the topics are more complementary to each other than different. The task
is on the teachers to observe and put in a chronological order of what to teach
first before another for effective understanding of an aspect to teach/learn.
Teachers are to manage students’ resources for development and understanding of
social skills for participation in personal, professional and public life.
Teachers and students shape curriculum and are shaped by the curriculum.
Knowledge about language is the essential resource for learning to mean across
the curriculum; language is the primary source for teaching (Peter & Ilona,
2020).
Oral English is an
integral part of the English language syllabus in Nigeria’s secondary schools.
It is problematic for most of the students due to the relationship between the
orthography and speech. As it is stated that, research in the L2 acquisition of
phonology and orthographic input has shown that learners’ phonological
development can be affected as a result of L2 orthographic input (Musa, 2017).
Phonological consideration in teaching oral English is very necessary without
which, correct pronunciation would not be possibly acquired. Musa further
explored that thus is because English language spelling system is irregular and
complex. The variety in words and spelling of English language is based on the
fact that English comes from five languages grouped into two: the Germanic
languages (German, Dutch, and Scandinavian) and Romance languages (French and
Latin). The complexity of grapheme-phonemes correspondence of English results
in a double challenge to the learners of phonology shows that English spelling-sounds
correspondence can be systematic but not transparent always because the written
forms do not always show their pronunciation in spelling of words directly.
Therefore, it is not surprising that that L2 of English experience difficulties
with the non-transparent English spelling couple with the orthographic and
phonological constrains.
Direct method of
teaching English language is a method that appeared to be a radical change from
grammar-translation method. Direct method is the method that comply to use of
the target language to be learnt only. The method does not accommodate use of another
language in the process of teaching and learning. It does not allow the use of
a bridge language. It is only by the use of the target language as a means of
instruction and communication in the language classroom. Direct method avoids
use of the first language and of translation as a technique.
Researchers have
done various studies that are related to the current study. such as; an
overview of teaching and learning English in Nigeria, concept of oral English,
sounds of English language, supra-segmental features of English (syllables,
stress and intonation), methods of language teaching, the direct method of
teaching, problems encountered by teachers and students of oral English in
Nigeria, assessment of oral English, review of empirical studies and summary of
literature review. The attestation of the researchers explored different
methods of teaching, looking into strength and weaknesses of methods,
highlights of the emergence of the methods, study on general principles of
language teaching, comparison of methods in teaching oral aspects of English,
and in teaching the sounds of English among others. None of the literature
reviewed focused on Effects of Direct Method of Teaching Universities Remedial
Students of Gombe State, Nigeria.
Method and
Procedure
This article
presents the method and procedure used for the study under the following
subheadings: research design, population and sample, sampling technique,
instrument for data collection, validity and reliability of the instrument,
procedure for data collection and method of data analysis.
This study adopted
quasi experimental research design, specifically, the non-equivalent pre-test
post-test control group design. The choice of the design is because
randomization of subjects to groups may not be allowed by the school
authorities as this can disrupt their school classroom arrangement. Hence,
intact classes were used as experimental and control groups. The
quasi-experimental research design procedure establishes a cause effect between
an independent variable and variation in a dependent variable, for which no
full control over allocation of subjects to the various groups. The following
is an illustration of the research design. The design is illustrated thus,
Figure 1: Illustration of the Non-Equivalent Pre-test
Post-test Control Group Design
O1 represents pre-test for the experimental
group
O2 represents posttest for the experimental
group
O3 represents pre-test for the control group
O4 represents posttest for the control group
Dotted line represents non-randomization of
subjects to groups.
Pre-test was
administered to both experimental (O1) and control (O3) groups. After the
pre-test, experimental group received treatment (×) while the control group did
not receive any treatment (-). Afterward, both groups were administered the
post-test (O2 and O4). The treatment was based on teaching syllable, stress and
intonation in oral English with the use of direct method of teaching and
hearing ability tests. Comparison manipulation was used to control sources of
internal validity. pre-test and post-test scores of the students in the control
and experimental groups were compared.
Population and
Sample
The population of
the study comprised remedial students of two intact classes from two
universities (Gombe State University and Federal University Kashere), 2024/2025
academic session with 474 number of students, including Arts students, Science
students and social science students. 78 students in group 1 were in Arts class
of remedial GSU, while 89 were from Arts class of remedial FUK. 70 students
from science class of GSU while 72 students from FUK remedial science class.
While 85 students were in social science of GSU remedial class, 80 were from
FUK. In which GSU stands as school A and FUK as school B. the information above
was obtained from the various institutions concerned. Table 8 is showing the
population of SBRS students of GSU and SBRS students of FUK:
The sample of the
study comprised 150 students from two intact classes of arts and sciences from
remedial students of the two universities (GSU and FUK), with 78 students in
group 1 (Arts, GSU) and 72 students in group 2 (sciences, FUK) which gave the
total of 150 samples. The Arts class was the experimental group while the
science class stands as the control group. Table 9 is showing sample of the
students by group.
Simple random
sampling technique is a type of probability sampling in which the researcher
randomly selects a sub-set of participants from population. Each member of the
population has an equal chance of being selected. Simple random sampling
technique was used to select the intact classes that were used for the study by
writing the names of the groups (1,2 and 3) on a piece of paper, put in a
basket and shake, then pick one group out of the three groups from each
university. One out of the picked groups were used as the control group while
the other was the experimental group. Therefore, experimental group stand as
group A, while control group stand as group B respectively.
Oral English
Achievement Test (OEAT) is the instrument used for data collection in this
study. The items were drawn from the book Language Testing: A Practical Guide
to Language Teaching. The instrument for data collection were developed to suit
the desired test items. Multiple choice was used for the Pre-test and post-test
as method for data collection.
To ensure the
content validity of the instrument, the researcher subjected the OEAT items to
scrutiny by two experts from English Education Unit of Arts Education and one
from Research, Measurement and Evaluation Unit, Department of Educational
Foundation, Faculty of Education, University of Jos. The experts checked this
instrument to ascertain the comprehensiveness in terms of content coverage,
clarity in terms of language correctness. This was done to make sure that the
test measures the achievement of the students in the aspect intended to be
measured. The comments and suggestions of the experts were used to improve the
final draft of the instrument.
Reliability.
To establish
consistency of the OEAT items, test-retest method of reliability was used.
Reliability is a consistency, expressed as a correlation coefficient. The
test-retest method of reliability is the method which ensures the stability of
an instrument by administering the same test twice to the students chosen for
the study. The scores from the administering of the two tests were correlated
using Pearson’s product moment correlation and reliability coefficient of .832
was obtained, which is reliable.
Findings and
Discussion
From the result,
the experimental group has a post-test achievement mean score of 64.06 and
standard deviation of 9.15 higher than the pre-test mean score of 29.68 and
standard deviation of 4.73 with a mean gain of 34.38, indicating that there was
improvement in the achievement of students after treatment. For the control
group the mean score was 21.11 and a standard deviation of 6.94 at the pretest.
The findings revealed that remedial students in the experimental group had a
higher achievement mean score (68.51) after treatment using direct method of
teaching as against those in the control group with an achievement mean score
of (34.51) with a mean gain difference of 20.11 and a post-test mean difference
of 34. This shows that direct method of teaching does improve students’
achievement in producing stress in oral English. From the result, the
experimental group has a post-test achievement mean score of 73.56 and standard
deviation of 9.35 higher than the pre-test mean score of 37.17 and standard
deviation of 3.63 with a mean gain of 36.39, indicating that there was
improvement in the achievement of students in intonation production after
treatment. The result for research question four is outstanding.
It is hoped that the findings of the study will be of benefit to the following stakeholders: the remedial students, the School of Basic and Remedial Studies, teachers of Oral English, curriculum designers, researchers, library users, internet users and education at large.
Finally, the
researcher recommended the following:
• Methods of teaching should be tested before use.
• Each aspect of a study should be treated differently based on the
appropriate and tested method for effective teaching and learning.
• Oral English and all aspects of oral English should be taught
first when teaching a language because it is the base and a starting point to
learn a language.
References
Musa, I. R. (2017). Production
and perception of L2 English orthographic and phonological representation by L1
Tera/Hausa speakers: An experimental study. Unpublished, Gombe, Nigeria,
Niyozova, A.I (2020). The
importance of English language. International Journal on Orange Technology
(IJOT), 2 (1), 22-24.
Peter, M., & Ilona, W.
(2020). The Routledge handbook of language education curriculum design. New
York, Routledge.
Usman, J. A, (2017). A comparison of direct and indirect method of teaching the sounds of English among Nyimatli secondary school students of Gombe state. A dissertation in the department of Arts Education, Faculty of Education, University of Jos
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