STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING LISTENING COMPREHENSION AMONG JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN NSUKKA EDUCATION ZONE

ABSTRACT

This study was designed to identify the strategies that can be used to improve listening comprehension among junior secondary school students in Nsukka Education Zone. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. To carry out the study, a review of literature was done in order to determine the extent of work already done and to know the area to focus attention on. Three research questions and two hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The hypotheses were tested at alpha level of 0.05 level of significance. A sample of 108 English language teachers was drawn from 35 public schools in Nsukka Education Zone. Three (3) sets of carefully structured fifty seven (57) item questionnaires were developed by the researcher and validated by research experts in Education. These sets of questionnaires were used in collecting relevant data from the respondents. Mean score and standard deviation were used to collate and analyze the data. At the end of the study, it was found out that most of the identified strategies and skills enhance listening comprehension in students. The hypothesis that there is no significant difference in the mean ratings of male and female English language teachers in the strategies they use for improving listening comprehension in students was accepted. The study also shows that there is no significant difference in the mean ratings of N.C.E. and Degree English language teachers in the teaching strategies they use for improving listening comprehension in students. It was also found out that listening skill is the most neglected of all the language skills. It is not even well taught in schools. The researcher therefore recommends that teachers should be trained on this language skill so that they can help the students. The curriculum planners, the government and the students should play their parts effectively so as to enhance listening comprehension among students.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

          Language is one of the most powerful endowments of man by the creator and listening is embedded in language and enhances it. Based on this fact, it seems necessary to begin by looking at the concept of language according to some writers.

Ezeude (2007:202) sees language as,“…a fathomless and intangible asset for effective communication to humanity right from the time of creation.” As a matter of fact, without language, the existence of man on this earth would have been so boring and uninteresting. Naldman in Azikiwe (1998) is of the opinion that language is a system of articulated sounds organized by human thoughts and used by a group of humans for the purposes of communication. Similarly, for Richards and Rodgers (1995), “Language is a vehicle for communicating meanings and messages.” Hornby (2000) sees language as, “…human and non- instinctive method of communicating ideas, feelings and desires by means of a system of sounds and symbols”. According to Corder (1975) :

We do not teach language for its own sweet sake… we teach language so that our pupils can communicate and be communicated with, so that they may convey meanings and understand meaning, so that they may enter into satisfactory mutual relations with native speakers or writers of the language.

Mgbodile (1999) states that, “Language development proceeds more or less in four sequential stages, namely: listening, speaking, reading and writing.” Each of these stages is necessary for the total language development of the learner. This study focuses on one of the four major skills in language development, which is listening.

For students to improve in their listening skill, there must be certain strategies to be adopted.

Kirkpatrick (1982:521) defines strategy as, “…the art of guiding, forming or carrying out a plan.” Hornby  A. S; Cowie, A. P; Gimson, A, C. (2000) defines strategy as, “…skills in managing any affair.” With reference to this topic, these definitions all point to the skills, actions, plans and approaches for improving listening comprehension in our students.

Listening has a vital role to play in language learning and acquisition. It is the first and very important stage in language development. When a child is born into a language environment, he or she is incapable of speaking any other language. Being incapable at this stage to communicate linguistically, the child engages in a very active listening to sounds he or she hears around. It is in the process of this active listening that the structure of his language – phonology and grammar form a pattern in his language acquisition device. The child begins to understand that sounds are related to words, and consequently, they become meaningful to him. As the active listening stage is consolidated and the sounds and expressions of the language make cumulative impact on the child, he or she begins to try out his mental memory of language system in actual speech. He now begins to show greater zeal to join his speech community.

It should be noted that the problem of listening comprehension does not end at pre-primary school level but also extends through primary to secondary school level, especially in the junior classes where it is even worse. This is because the learner has acquired basic knowledge of his mother tongue and combining both languages now becomes very difficult. In view of this problem, Orias (1986:6) advises  that,  “It is useful for him to be explicitly taught the phoneme inventory of the language and to be guided on how to produce each sound.”

Listening has long been the neglected skill in second language (L2) teaching, learning and assessment. Nunan (`1998) states that, “Second language listening comprehension is a complex process and crucial in the development of second language (L2) competence; yet, the importance of listening in language learning has only been recognized relatively recently.” According to the writers, “Since the role of listening comprehension in language learning was overlooked, it merited little research and pedagogical attention in the past.” According to Otagburuagu, Obah, Onuigbo and Okorji (2007:1), “Although listening is an important skill used and needed at every moment of daily living by all and sundry, it is the most neglected in the teaching of language arts, especially in Nigeria.” Azikiwe (1998:110) states that, “Some people feel that since all teaching and learning situations involve a great deal of listening, the skills are being taught simultaneously with other language skills.” This assumption is wrong and shows how listening is taken for granted. It is important to note that in the classroom situation, most of the time, listening occurs while the teacher or others speak. Listening is therefore compulsory for learning and so help should be given to students for efficient listening, since the purpose of listening in class is to acquire and retain information for future use. Neville (1985) found that, “Good listeners made good readers, while poor listeners are most often poor readers too.” Some other research results have proved this statement right. For example Garrod (1986) and Cole and Jakimik (1980). Nooteboom (1983) also has suggested that, “Speech production is affected by speech perception; the hearer has become an important factor in communication discourse.” This illustrates the need to integrate pronunciation with communicative activities; to give the students situations to develop their pronunciation by listening and speaking. De Boer, kaufers and Miller (1951) cited in Azikiwe (1998) lament that, “Thousands of studies have been conducted in the other three components of communication while that on how listening can be improved is still extra-ordinarily scarce.” As a result of this neglect by teachers, students, researchers, school administrators and curriculum planners, students performance has been adversely affected not only in English language as a subject but also in other subjects because all other subjects are taught using the English language which is the official language. This has been attributed to lack of comprehension of spoken utterance. A close examination of senior secondary school certificate examination (SSCE) November /December 2002, 2005 and 2007 chief examiners’ report on English Language reveals that, “Generally the performances of the candidates were not impressive.”

According to the chief examiners, represented by Ndow, O. A. (2002- 2005) and Djangmah (2007), “The main weakness of the candidates has to do with insufficient exposure to the language skills, especially the listening and speaking skills.” They went further to advise  teachers at the secondary school level to always try and expose the candidates to speech and vocabulary development in order to remedy these problems.

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