ABSTRACT

This study focused on the Effect of Total Physical Response Method on Student’s Achievement in English Vocabulary in Junior Secondary Schools in Akoko South Education Zone of Ondo State. Three research questions were posed and three null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study engaged quasi-experimental research design, otherwise known as pretest – posttest non-equivalent control group design involving two intact classes from each of the randomly selected schools. Purposive random sampling was used to select two schools for the study. The two intact classes randomly selected were assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental group comprised 83 male and female students from schools located in rural and urban areas. The control group comprised 77 male and female students from rural and urban areas. The experimental group was taught English vocabulary using Total Physical Response method while the control group was taught English Vocabulary using Grammar-Translation method. The instrument which was validated by experts’ and used for data collection was English Vocabulary Achievement Test (EVAT). Four different lesson plans for the two groups with the same instructional objectives and questions but different teaching strategies were developed. EVAT was administered to 20 students before the treatment for the purpose of estimating the reliability of the instrument. The internal consistency of the instrument was determined using Kuder-Richardson’s formula (K – 20) and it yielded a reliability index of 0.75.

Data collected were calculated using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions while the Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The major findings of the study were: Total Physical Response method had a significant effect on students’ achievement in English vocabulary. Student taught English vocabulary with TPR method achieved significantly higher than their counterparts taught with grammar translation method. School location had a significant effect on students’ achievement in English vocabulary. Also, gender had significant effect on students’ achievement in English vocabulary. Based on these findings, it was concluded that the study provided empirical evidence of the efficiency of TPR method in enhancing students’ achievement in English Language Vocabulary. It was recommended that the serving teachers should be encouraged to adopt this method as alternative to conventional method of teaching English language vocabulary. Also, students should be encouraged to engage in extensive vocabulary activities with the aid of total physical response method.  

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

            Communication, from time immemorial, has been a major means of passing information to people in every human community. It is a means of exchanging ideas and disseminating information to the appropriate quarter and area. According to Fawehinmi (2007:224) “communication is the “process” by which thoughts, views, opinions are transferred from one end to the other”. Communication is seen as a process because it changes human beings and tailors their behaviour towards expected outcomes. It is an important instrument that can be used to change human orientation. Nevertheless, it is observed that the use of language cannot be separated from communication and communication itself cannot be absolutely possible without the inclusion of language (Jimoh, 2007).

         Language is an integral part of communication. Language as a means of communication plays many important roles among human beings in their day-to-day interactions and communications. According to Onyekwere, Chibueze, Roscolette, Matins & Quinette (2012, p. 3), “language is human specific in that it is a human activity. It is exclusive to human beings. Although animals communicate, such communication is not through speech or language”. Language is specific to human beings because it is used to carry out series of functions among human beings and can only be learned by human beings. There are some theories that underline how language can be acquired or learned. These theories were developed to account for language acquisition and learning. Some of them include behaviourist- “say it after me”, mentalist- “it is all in your mind”, connectionist- “it is associative”, interactionist- “linguistic environment interacting with innate capacity”, among others.

            Consequently, after the acquisition or learning, humans use language voluntarily to convey information, to influence others, to keep records, to document some ideas, to express themselves and to interact for phatic communication. Basically, language affects human endeavours and manifests itself in every facet of human life and activity (Fawehinmi, 2007). It is in light of this statement that various language policies have been made in Nigeria with regards to medium of instructions in our various institutions of learning. The language policy on education (2004) stated in Ibemesi (2012, p. 444), states that; 

… the languages  are grouped under official, Nigerian and foreign languages. Under official languages, English, designated (L₄) stands alone, while L₁ to L­₃ designated, Nigerian languages are classified as: Mother Tongue (L₁), language of the immediate community (L_2­) and major Nigerian languages as (L₃) respectively. French and Arabic are classified as foreign languages and designated both as (L₅).

The implication of this policy is that it makes mother tongue or language of the immediate community (if any) compulsory in the lower primary school, while English is compulsory from the senior primary school to secondary school.  

            English as one of the international languages of the world is indispensable because of its global status. According to Yang (2005), English language is not only a system of communication but the pre-eminent language of science, technology and medicine and it has become the Lingua Franca in the 21st century. Its trend of communication revolves global recognition. People all over the world, today, are learning it either as a second language or foreign language to enhance their potential for international communication. According to Denham and Lobeck (2010, p.420), “Today, fewer than one-fifth of native English Speakers live in the British Isles”. This means that many native speakers of English are not from British Isles.

            In Nigeria today, English is adopted as national and official language at the expense of the so-called major languages: Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba because of multilingual nature of this country. Consequently, there are objectives that underline the learning of English language in Nigeria as stated in Enaibe and Imonivwerha (2007): to produce Nigerian students whose spoken and written English is intelligible locally, nationally and internationally; to enable students to talk and write on prepared or impromptu topics with professional competence; to make students speak at normal speed with good pronunciation, stress, rhythm and intonation and to ensure high level of English skills with special emphasis on spoken forms. Based on these objectives, therefore, it is important that students achieve a high level of proficiency and intelligibility for them to be enlisted into the elite circle because English is a language of the elite.

For students to be proficient and intelligible, vocabulary language is needed (Scarborough, 2001). Vocabulary constitutes the knowledge of meanings of words possessed by individual learners. It is the body of words known to individuals. Yenny (2007, p.10) states; “vocabulary is a stock of words in a language, written or spoken, with meaning considered as cultural meaning used by group or individual community”. With this statement, the number of vocabulary (words) in the linguistic repertoire of every learner determines his competence and performance. Learners’ achievement on every aspect of English as in essay writing, comprehension, summary, lexis and structure is premised on the number of vocabulary they possess. It is believed that the more vocabulary students learn; the more ideas they should have, so that they can communicate their ideas more effectively. This view is supported by Edge (1993, p.27), “knowing a lot of words in a foreign language is very important. The more words we know, the better our chance of understanding or making ourselves understood”.

            Most often, speaking and writing in the target language is a complex-task. Internalizing chunks of vocabulary necessary for communication may be time-consuming and demanding.  Teaching English vocabulary in the junior secondary school should be encompassing and different from adults’ learning method. The teacher should make use of flash cards, vocabulary drills, language games, reading comprehension exercises, oral exercises and repetition to help the students develop the four language skills in the target language. The teacher must play important roles by motivating the students’ learning interest. According to Harmer (2001, p.38) “young learners especially those up to the ages of nine to twelve learn differently from older learners, adolescents and adults. They easily get bored, loosing interest after ten minutes or so”. This view is also stressed by Diego (2010), in his study on learning vocabulary through total physical response who observes that vocabulary learning is one of the most complex but important area when teaching English. It is the area of language learning needed to be taught on regular basis. The areas such as common prefixes and suffixes, plurals, parts of speech, word recognition, root of words and homonyms should be given adequate attention by the teacher to realize the aims of vocabulary teaching and learning. 

            Thus, the aim of teaching English vocabulary at the junior secondary school level is to motivate, prepare and make students have self confidence in listening, speaking, reading and writing as well as learning English in the senior secondary school and higher institutions. To make them also, understand simple idiomatic expressions while communicating with native and non-native speakers of English.