STATUS OF ORAL ENGLISH INSTRUCTION IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN NSUKKA EDUCATION ZONE OF ENUGU STATE

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the study was to investigate the status of oral English instruction in secondary schools in Nsukka Education Zone. It was conducted in Nsukka Education Zone in Enugu State. The population of the study was all the senior secondary school English language teachers in the Education zone. There was no sampling as all the English language teaches (300) consisting of 200 and 100 from rural and urban schools were used in the study. The oral English teaching status (OETSI) was the instrument fro data collection. The instrument was a 4-point likert type scale whose value ranged from 4 to 1 point for strongly agree and strongly disagree options respectively. Both the validation and reliability of the instrument were done and reliability coefficient of 0.68 was established. After administering and obtaining data from the respondents, mean, standard deviation and t-test were used in analysis of data. Some of the major findings were that the use of game activities, poems and songs, pronunciation exercises, taped cassettes are employed by oral English teachers; that oral English is mostly taught when WAEC/NECO examinations were at hand; and that mother tongue interference and lack of oral English teaching materials was a problem encountered by teachers in oral English instruction. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that a unified in-service training for oral English teachers in secondary schools in area of methods for oral English instruction be provided for serving teachers and that teacher education institutions should intensity training for students-teachers in oral English instruction.