From Words to Skills: Exploring Teachers’ Awareness of Utilization of Wordle in Tertiary Institutions

Cite this article as: Nwachukwu, W. N., Chiadikobi, C. M., Egesimba, M. C., & Akabuike, I. G. (2026). From words to skills: Exploring teachers’ awareness of utilization of Wordle in tertiary institutions. Sokoto Journal of Linguistics and Communication Studies (SOJOLICS), 2(1), 59-70. https://doi.org/10.36349/sojolics.2026.v02i01.006

By

Winifred NgoziNwachukwu¹

wnwachukwu@yahoo.com,

and

Chinwe Mary-Rose Chiadikobi²

chinwem4eva@gmail.com,

Martha ChituruEgesimba³

marthae4xst@gmail.com)

(Veritas University Abuja)

And

Ifeoma Grace Akabuike⁴

igakabuike@coou.edu.ng

^{1, 2, 3, & 4}School of General Studies,

Department of Humanties,

Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, Owerri

Abstract:

The study will investigate teachers’ perception in the utilization of Wordle among teachers in some tertiary institutions in Owerri Municipal particularly in enhancing students’ communication skills. Wordle is a unique teaching tool that can be used to engage students, foster vocabulary development, and stimulate critical thinking. Despite this tool’s potentials, little is known about how often teachers use it. The study assessed teachers’ familiarity with Wordle, explored the integration of the tool into teaching practices, and evaluated the perceived impact on students’ communication skills. The descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The population consist two thousand, four hundred language teachers in Owerri Municipal. The Random Sampling Strategy was adopted in choosing the 200 teachers. The instrument used for the collection of data was a four-point Likert scale rating questionnaire alongside recorded conversations from some teachers. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (Mean, Standard Deviation and Simple Percentages), represented on tables and graph in SPSS Package. The study showed the relevance of teachers’ awareness of Wordle in enhancing communication skills in Nigerian tertiary institutions. It suggested a need for targeted capacity-building programmes to equip lecturers with digital pedagogical skills necessary for effective integration of tools like Wordle. Curriculum planners and institutional administrators may also consider incorporating digital visualization tools into communication-related courses and providing supportive policies and infrastructure to encourage technology-enhanced learning.

Keywords: Wordle, Awareness, Utilization, Communication Skills

1.0 Introduction

Importance of visual literacy

Figure 1. Fedpoly Nekede Students’Wordle production from an English Compostion Wrtiting

The “pictorial turn” at the beginning of the century brought about by technological changes hasled to new literacies in which Gilbert (2007) views schools as producers and not consumers of knowledge. Visual literacy provides learners with interesting classroom activities that are challenging, stimulating and engaging. Exploiting visual literacy has the potential to trigger any number of enlightened responses and interpretations from the teachers and students. Over the last twenty years, there has been a tremendous shift in the way users integrate technology into their personal lives. These changes have taken time to filter down into the educational sector. In fact, it is now difficult to disagree with Pegrum’s (2009) view ‘that technology and education have a tightly intertwined future’. The new idea was termed “innovation” which is a deviation from the traditional practices. This intertwined future is currently where we are as digital knowledge has become an indispensable part of our educational system.

The importance of good communication skills cannot be undermined by any society that means to develop well. With this, developing good communication skills becomes inevitable in both teaching and learning. This calls for teachers to be abreast with technological advancement if the students are to meet the 21^st digital skills. The importance of the English Language is very paramount in all spheres of life in Nigeria. It is a unifying tool for national integration. In education, the English language is the medium of instruction with the effectiveness of the educational programme in the country depending to a large extent on whether or not effective communication has taken place between the teacher and the learner. Observably, students have not been performing well in both oral and written communications. This in turn affects them in the world of work. Macpherson (2011) attributed some of these scenarios to the teacher and the methodology being part of the contributory factors to the dwindling students’ communicative abilities. Knowledge of words continues to be one of the best predictors of reading achievement. Sadly, vocabulary appears to be diminishing among today’s students (Manzo, Manzo& Thomas 2006).

Figure 2 WordleSource: Kingston College

Wordle is an application that generates word clouds from the text provided. Words that appear frequently in the source text will appear large and prominent in the word cloud; words that are used rarely will appear smaller. Once a word cloud is generated, it can be customized with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. Because Wordle emphasizes the most frequently repeated words in a given text, it essentially captures the main ideas in a visual form. Through juxtaposing images and text, picture books have the unique power to facilitate critical reading and critical literacy skills.

 

Tafazoli (2013) discussed how Wordle can be used in teaching different aspects of the English language curriculum. He stated that it can be used to activate prior knowledge about the topic while providing clear view to learners about what they were going to read. In other words, it could be used in brainstorming before learners listen to or read the passage or text. Viégas, Wattenberg & Feinberg (2009) confirmed that educators use Wordle to communicate ideas or concepts; as an entry point into discussion. Others use it to teach spelling by creating Wordle of new vocabulary, and then quizzing students on various aspects of the displays.

 

Research has shown the falling standard of education in the tertiary institutions especially, in students’ communication skills. This poor performance has been attributed in some quarters to poor teaching methods. The study sought teachers’ level of awareness in the use of Wordle, an innovative digital tool in teaching communication skills in tertiary institutions in Imo State. This study fills a gap in literature as an extensive work has not been carried out on the use of Wordle in the Nigerian educational setting.

Considering the importance of Wordle as a technological tool for teaching the English language, the researchers sought to ascertain the teachers’ level of awareness in its use in teaching communication skills.

 

2.0 Literature Review

Miley and Read (2011) in a qualitative study, “Using Word Cloud to Develop Proactive Learners” examined students’ responses to a technique for summarizing electronically available information based on word frequency. Sixty-nine students who worked in focus groups of twelve were used to obtain the feedback responses. The groups were recorded verbatim and later transcribed. Feedback indicated that students adapted their use of word clouds in ways consistent with their learning style preferences. Kolb’s learning styles inventory was used. Students’ response also indicated that word clouds have potential in the workplace. The findings of the study were relevant as it could be seen that Wordle could serve as an instructional tool that could assist students in learning through construction and self-discovery.

 

Afurobi, Izuagba, ObiefunaandIfegbo (2015) in the study, “Effects of the Use of Lecture Method and Wordle on the Performance of Students Taught Curriculum Studies 1:EDU222”. They sought to determine the effects of the use of Wordle and lecture method on students’ performance. The findings of the study revealed a significant difference in the mean scores of the students and a significant difference was noted between male and female students taught using Wordle. The study affirmed the need to build the capacity of teachers on the use of Wordle as a tool for teaching the English language.

 

Baralt, Pennestri and Selvandin, (2011) in “Using Wordle to Teach Foreign Language Writing” examined how Wordle, was used in an action research project to facilitate the teaching of foreign language (FL) writing within a dual coding theoretical framework. Because Wordle was used for visualizing the study hypothesized that the use of Wordlecould have a positive effect on students’ writing. The paper concluded that instructors could incorporate Wordleinto their FL classrooms to facilitate the teaching of L2 writing, as well as use them as tools to promote vocabulary development and communicative tasks.

 

Pendergast (2010) used “tag clouds” to perform an analysis of the most commonly used terms from documents published by the American Association for Family and Consumer Sciences (AAFCS), creating what she referred to as a “folksonomy”. She showed that the clouds revealed a visual hierarchy of text, and concluded by suggesting that tag clouds be included on Websites next to the published documents. Pendergast argued that doing so would appeal to multiple generations, including the “millennials,” who, according to her, were multiliterate and tend to prefer visual over textual information.

 

McNaught and Lam (2010) investigated word cloud in a special visualization of text in which the more frequently used words were effectively highlighted by occupying more prominence in the representation. They used Wordle to produce word-cloud analyses of the spoken and written responses of informants in two research projects. The product demonstrated a fast and visually rich way to enable researchers to have some basic understanding of the data at hand. They, however, viewed Wordle as an adjunct tool and did not recommend that it be used as a stand-alone research tool.

 

2.0 Theoretical Framework

The study was anchored onVygotsky (1978) Constructivist Theory and Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) Multimodal Literacy theory. The Constructivists believe that learners build their own knowledge through self -development and active participation in the learning process. They also rely on the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) where learners were guided by the teacher to connect new information to the prior knowledge with the visual cloud serving the purpose of a scaffold for students who struggle with long texts. In turn the Multimodal literacy theory provided avenue for the learners to use the different modes provided by Wordle which made abstract texts come alive on the screen. Wordle provided more fun for the learners and helped to develop the creativity in them.

 

2.1 Objectives

The main objective of this study was to investigateteachers’ level of awareness in utilizing Wordlein teaching communication skills in tertiary institutions in Owerri Municipal.

Specifically, the study sought to:

Examine teachers’ level of awareness in using Wordle to teach communication skills in tertiary institutions in Owerri Municipal.

Investigate to what extent teachers use Wordleto teach communication skills.

Determine the extent to which the disciplineshad an impact on the level of awareness of the teachers in usingWordlein teaching communication skills

 

2.2 Research Question:

The following questions guided the study.

To what extent are the teachers aware of the use of Wordlein teaching communication skills in tertiary institutions in OwerriMunicipal.

To what extent do the teachers utilizeWordle in the classrooms?

To what extent do the disciplines influence the level of awareness of the teachers in usingWordle to teach communication skills

 

3.0 Materials and Methods

The study assessed teachers’ familiarity with Wordle, a word generating app, explored the integration of the tool into their teaching practices, and evaluated the perceived impact on students’ communication skills and how the various disciplines impacted on the teachers’ level of awareness. Survey research design was adopted and three research questions were postulated from the main objective to guide the study. The population consist two thousand, four hundred communication skills teachers in Owerri Municipal. Random Sampling Strategy was adopted in choosing the 200 teachers. The instrument used for collection of data was a four-point Likert scale rating questionnaire of Highly Aware (HA), Aware (A), Lowly Aware (LA) and Not Aware (NA) alongside interviews with someof the teachers. In analyzing the data, 3.50 to 4.0 were regarded as “Highly Aware”, 2.50 to 3.49 as “Aware”, 1.50 to 2.49 as “Lowly Aware” and 0.50 to 1.49 as “Not Aware”. The data were analyzed using the Descriptive Statistics (Mean, Standard Deviation and Simple Percentages), represented on tables in SPSS Package.

 

3.1 Presentation and Data Analysis

Table 1. Respondents by Gender

Distribution of Respondents by Gender	Frequency	% Frequency
Females	122	61
Males	78	39
Total	200	100

Table 1 shows the distribution of respondents according to gender. 61% of the teachers were shown to be females while 39% were males. This reveals a female dominance in teaching communication skills in the tertiary institutions in Imo State Municipal Council.

 

Table 2: Distribution of Respondents according to their years of Experience

Distribution of Respondents by years of Experience	Frequency	% Frequency
1-10 years	50	25
11-20 years	102	51
21-30 years	36	18
31-40 years	10	5
41-50 years	2	1
Total	200	100

Table 2 indicates the distribution of respondents according to their years of experiences. Those with 11-20 years have the highest percentage of 51% followed by the respondents with 1-10years. The respondents with 21-30 years ranked third followed by those with 31-40 years. Respondents with above 41 years teaching experiences bore the last rank. This is an indication that theyounger persons currently dominate the profession.

Table 3: Distribution of respondents according to their highest professional qualifications.

Respondents by highest qualification	Frequency	% Frequency
Phd	121	60.5
Masters degree	58	29
Bachelor’s degree	21	10.5
Total	200	100

A 60.5% recording of Ph. D holders is an indication of highly literate respondents. This is closely followed by 29% Masters’ degree holders and 10.5% of Bachelor’s degree holders.

Table 4: Distribution of the respondents according to fields of expertise.

Discipline	Frequency	% Frequency
Mass Communication	54	27
English Language	102	51
Linguistics	44	22

Table 4shows the distribution of the respondents according their various disciplines. Teachers from the English Language Department ranked highest with 51% closely followed by teachers from the Mass Communication Department with 27% and lastly those in the Linguistics Department with 22%. 

Table 5: English Language Teachers’Level of Awareness in using Wordle to teach communication skills

SN	Questionnaire Items	N	Mini	Max	Mean	Remarks
1	Awareness of the 21st century digital teaching tools	200	2	4	3.54	Accepted
2	Awareness of their uses in the classrooms	200	1	4	2.57	Accepted
3	Digital tools can help students to learn a language	200	2	4	3.36	Accepted
4	Awareness of learner- centered instructional practices	200	1	4	2.34	Rejected
5	Awareness of the communicative modes?	200	1	4	3.54	Accepted
6	As an introductory activity	200	1	4	2.03	Rejected
7	As part of group work	200	1	4	2.16	Rejected
8	As an individual exercise	200	1	4	2.87	Accepted
9	As a reinforcement activity	200	1	4	2.11	Rejected
10	Wordle can be used to teach synonyms and antonyms	200	1	4	2.33	Rejected
11	Wordle can enhance Collocation in vocabulary	200	1	4	2.25	Rejected
12	Wordle can be used to teach spelling	200	1	4	2.13	Rejected
13	Wordle can be used for Problem-solving	200	1	4	2.21	Accepted
14	Wordle can be used for Critical thinking	200	1	4	2.29	Rejected
15	Wordle can enhance composition writing	200	1	4	2.40	Rejected
	Mean of Means				2.58	Accepted

Table 5 above shows the English Language teachers’ level of awareness in using Wordle to teach communication skills. A mean response of 3.54, 3.36, 3.54 respectively indicates high awareness of the 21^st Century digital skills, its use in teaching and the various communication modes in language skills. The teachers showed relative awareness in the use of Wordle in the classroom through a mean rating of 2.57. Furthermore, in respect of its usage in the classroom, a mean rating ranging from 2-13 – 2.40 showed a low level of awareness and were rejected. Form the above data. The English Language teachers have good knowledge of the 21^st century digital skills but are not aware of the use of the Wordle and its importance in the classroom. 

Table 6: Mass communication Teachers’Level of Awareness in using Wordle to teach communication skills

SN	Questionnaire Items	N	Mini.	Max	Mean	Remarks
1	Awareness of the 21st century digitalteaching tools	200	2	4	3.52	Accepted
2	Awareness of their uses in the classrooms	200	1	4	3.11	Accepted
3	Digital tools can help students to learn a language	200	1	4	3.0	Accepted
4	Awareness of learner- centered instructional practices	200	1	4	2.16	Rejected
5	Awareness of the communicative modes?	200	2	4	3.71	Accepted
6	Use of Wordle as an introductory activity	200	1	4	1.05	Rejected
7	Use of Wordle as part of group work	200	1	4	2.19	Rejected
8	Use of Wordle as an individual exercise	200	1	4	1.33	Rejected
9	Use of Wordle as a reinforcement activity	200	1	4	1.88	Rejected
10	Wordle can be used to teach synonyms and antonyms	200	1	4	2.33	Rejected
11	Wordle can enhance Collocation in vocabulary	200	1	4	1.25	Rejected
12	Wordle can be used to teach spelling	200	1	4	2.11	Rejected
13	Wordle can be used for Problem-solving	200	1	4	2.13	rejected
14	Wordle can be used for Critical thinking	200	1	4	2.01	rejected
15	Wordle can enhance composition writing	200	1	4	1.31	Rejected
	Mean of Means				2.21	Rejected

Table 6 reflects the mean responses of the Mass Communication teachers to the survey. Like the English Language teachers, they showed high awareness in the 21^st Century digital skills and their uses in the classrooms and the various communication modes with a mean rating of 3.52 and 3.11 and 3.71respectively. However, their responses to the use of Wordle in the classroom showed varied low mean responses to the items specified. The teachers showed low level of awareness to its uses in the classroom with responses ranging from 1.05 to 2.33 on the items mentioned. For an instance, they were marginally aware that Wordle can be used to teach composition writing, vocabulary collocation and for individual exercises. The mean of Means rating of 2.21 for the Mass Communication was rejected.

Table 7: Linguistics Teachers’Level of Awareness in using Wordle to teach communication skills

SN	Questionnaire Items	N	Mini	Max	Mean	Remarks
1	Awareness of the 21st century digital teaching tools	200	2	4	3.55	Accepted
2	Awareness of their uses in the classrooms	200	1	4	2.57	Accepted
3	Digital tools can help students to learn a language	200	2	4	3.36	Accepted
4	Awareness of learner- centered instructional practices	200	1	4	2.94	Accepted
5	Awareness of the communicative modes?	200	1	4	3.53	Accepted
6	As an introductory activity	200	1	4	2.02	Rejected
7	As part of group work	200	1	4	1.97	Rejected
8	As an individual exercise	200	3	4	1.64	Rejected
9	As a reinforcement activity	200	1	4	1.62	Rejected
10	Wordle can be used to teach synonyms and antonyms	200	1	4	2.33	Rejected
11	Wordle can enhance Collocation in vocabulary	200	1	4	2.25	Rejected
12	Wordle can be used to teach spelling	200	1	4	2.13	Rejected
13	Wordle can be used for Problem-solving	200	1	4	2.14	Rejected
14	Wordle can be used for Critical thinking	200	1	4	2.10	Rejected
15	Wordle can enhance composition writing	200	1	4	2.31	Rejected
	Mean of Means				2.43	Rejected

Similarly, table 7 reveals the mean responses of the Linguistics teachers to the level of awareness in the use of Wordle and its impact on teaching communication skills. There is a higher-level awareness in the use of digital tools and the modes of communication skills with mean ratings of 3.55, 3.36 and 3.53 respectively. Again, coming to the use of Wordle, the respondents exhibited very low level of its use in communicative practices. A mean rating ranging from 1.62 for reinforcement exercise, 1.64 for individual exercise, 1.97 for group work show gross inadequate knowledge of the use of Wordle. The mean of means rating of 2.43 was rejected.

 

4.0 Discussions of Findings

The study investigated the level of awareness of teachers in tertiary institutions inOwerri Municipal zone in using Wordle to teach communication skills. Studies have shown that digitally based knowledge was the way to go in the 21^st Century.Ohler (2009), opined that “Being able to read and write multiple forms of media and integrate them meaningfully is the new hallmark of literacy” (p. 9). Teachers in Imo State have to explore all the avenues available in digital literacy if theywere to move into 21^st century teaching and learning styles. To this effect, teachers cannot afford to continue teaching with the traditional method which can affect their output in the present dispensation. While the teachers showed high level of awareness of digital communications tools, most of them were unaware of the existence of Wordle. This aligns with Brucel’s (1997) observation that only few teachers have keyed into the potentials of the new technologies. It further agreed with Okueso (2016) who attributed the poor performances of students to the inability of the teachers to diversify their teaching methods. Theresponse to the Question on the awareness of 21 Century digital tools in teaching, the teachers from the English Language, Mass Communication and Linguistics Departments exhibited high level of awareness through mean ratings of 3.54, 3.52 and 3.55 respectively. They equally showed high level of awareness in using digital tools in the classrooms. However, the use of Wordle in the classroom received very low level of awareness. This is against the idea that there is a positive relationship between the use of Wordle in the classroom and critical thinking as it was found to be stimulating, engaging and fun making. This aligns with (Nwachukwu, Igbokwe, Ibe and Ikpe (2023) and Igbokwe, Nwachukwu and Nwosu (2023), who found that using multimedia-based input such as Wordle in class could facilitate learners’ ability to make meaningful connections among written, oral, and visual information and that students learn more when they construct ideas themselves. This further confirmedMamor and Mangope (2012), that the use of constructivism can lead to an increase in knowledge which Wordle does. From the findings, it was obvious that the teachers were lagging behind in the use of Wordle in the classroom. The study by Afurobi, Izuagba, Obiefuna and Ifegbo (2015), revealed that the students taught with Wordle performed better that those taught traditionally.

 

The response to the question on the impact of the disciplines on the level of awareness revealed that the teachers from the department of English Language showed a higher level of awareness in the use of Wordle. Some of the younger teachers interviewed showed their eagerness to experiment with new tools as accounting for their discovery of the app. They therefore showed great enthusiasm in utilizing Wordleand affirmed its positive impact in the classrooms. However, some of them confessed of not being aware of the existence of such a tool. Some others complained that some of the hitches encountered emanated from lack of internet facilities, the class size and incessant outage of power supply in addition to lack of equipment.

 

5.0 Conclusion

The world has gone digital, and a plethora of online resources have been developed to encourage creativity and critical thinking in pupils as well as encourage teachers to have a lively classroom and make studying enjoyable. The study investigated teachers’ level of awareness in usingWordle to teach communication skills in tertiary institutions. The findings revealed only a few of the English Language teachers incorporated its use in their classroom setting. The teachers need to adopt new teaching methodologies and incorporate more creative approaches in order to eliminate students’poor performances in communication skills. Additionally, it has been demonstrated that visuals aid greatly in retention aside the fun provided. It also encourages collaboration which is greatly needed in today’s society. This implies that when Wordle is used to teach communication skills, students’ written and oral communications would both significantly improve. This could ultimately end the widespread failure of the English language. It is therefore left for the teachers to embrace this importantlearning tool alongside other learning activities in their classrooms.

Recommendations

(i) Teachers to participate in workshops to enhance communications skills.

(ii) They should explore the features of Wordle and its application to the classroom.

(iii)  Collaborate with colleagues from other disciplines to share best practices.

(iv) The schools should provide facilities to enhance the practical usage of Wordle.

(v) Curriculum planners should integrate Wordle in the curriculum.

(vi) Incorporation of digital tools in teacher training programs.

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