EFFECTS OF AUDIO AIDS ON THE LEARNING OF LISTENING COMPREHENSION BY SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Cover Page      –           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           i

Declaration Page-       –           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           ii

Approval Page-           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           iii

Dedication Page-         –           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           iv

Acknowledgements    –           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           v

Abstract           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           vi

Table of Contents       –           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           vii

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• Background of the Study –           –           –           –           –           –           1
• Statement of the Problem – –           –           –           –           –           5
• Purpose of the Study – –           –           –           –           –           –           6
• Research Questions – –           –           –           –           –           6
• Hypotheses – –           –           –           –           –           –           –           7
• Significance of the Study – –           –           –           –           –           7
• Scope of the Study – –           –           –           –           –           –           8
• Operational Definition of Terms – –           –           –           –           8

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.0 Introduction          –           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           10

2.1 Conceptual Framework of Listening Skill           –           –           –           –           10

2.1.1 Nature of listening as a skill in Language Study          –           –           –           16

2.1.2 Why Listening   –           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           17

2.1.3 Obstacles to listening comprehension   –           –           –           –           –           18

2.1.4 Listening skills to be taught       –           –           –           –           –           –           18

2.1.5 Sources of listening skills experience – –           –           –           –           –           19

2.2 Listening comprehension –           –           –           –           –           –           –           19

2.2.1 Potential problems in learning to listen to English Language –             –           20

2.3 Teaching Listening Skills –           –           –           –           –           –           –           22

2.4 Using Audio in Teaching and Learning    –           –           –           –           –           25

2.4.1 Some Examples of Using Audio in Education  –           –           –           –           26

2.4.2 Factors to Consider in Selection of Instructional Media (Audio CD) –            26

2.4.3 Impact of Audio in Learning     –           –           –           –           –           –           28

2.4 Summary of Literature Review    –           –           –           –           –           –           29

CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.0 Introduction          –           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           31

3.1 Research Design   –           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           31

3.2 Area of Study       –           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           32

3.3 Population and Sample of the Study        –           –           –           –           –           32

3.4 Sampling Technique         –           –           –           –           –           –           –           32

3.5 Instrument for Data Collection     –           –           –           –           –           –           34

3.6 Description of Instrument             –           –           –           –           –           –           34

3.7 Validity of Instrument      –           –           –           –           –           –           –           34

3.8 Method of Data Collection           –           –           –           –           –           –           35

3.9 Method of Data Analysis              –           –           –           –           –           –           35

CHAPTER FOUR

PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA

4.1 Mode of Presentation        –           –           –           –           –           –           –           37

4.2 Testing of Hypothesis       –           –           –           –           –           –           –           40

4.3 Discussion of Findings     –           –           –           –           –           –           –           41

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDTION

5.1 Summary of Findings       –           –           –           –           –           –           –           43

5.2 Conclusion            –           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           44

5.3 Recommendations            –           –           –           –           –           –           –           45

5.5 Suggestions for Further Studies               –           –           –           –           –           46

References      –           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           47

Appendixes     –           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           49

Abstract

This project was carried out in order to investigate into effect of audio aids in the learning of listening comprehension skills by Senior Secondary School students in Pankshin Local Government Area of Plateau State. The experimental design was used. In the study, selected students were grouped into experimental and control groups. The experimental group was taught listening comprehension skills using audio aid and the controlled group was taught without audio aid. At the end, the same test was administered in both groups to see whether or not using audio aids had any effect on the teaching and learning of listening comprehension. The area of study for this research work is Pankshin. Out of the 63 schools in Pankshin Local Government Area, two secondary schools were selected and they were Government Model Secondary school Pankshin and Community Secondary School Bwarak. The population of this study consists of all the SS 2 students in the two selected secondary schools. The sample of the study consisted of 100 students (50 from each school).The method of sampling applied in this work was the random sampling technique. The instrument used in collecting data for this study was test. The method of data analysis was the mean score and t-test for testing hypothesis. The findings indicated that students who were taught with audio aids performed better than those who were taught through the traditional method with a total mean of 14.92 for the experimental group while the control group got a mean score of 10.32. Students in the urban performed better than students in the sub-urban area with the mean scores of 14.92 for the urban and 14.36 for the sub-urban students. The hypothesis indicated that there is significance difference between the academic performances of students who received instructions on listening skills through pre-recorded audio material in urban and suburban area. The study established the facts that the students learned listening comprehension skills faster and better when used audio aids in teaching than when it is not used. As such audio aids lessened major weakness of verbalism on the part of the teacher, it provides interesting approach to new topic and give initial correct impressions for the students.  The study recommended the following among others that curriculum planners should encourage the use of audio aids material by incorporating them in the English curriculum at all levels of education, Government at Federal and State level should provide way for efficient funding for libraries and audio resources in schools, teachers should improvise and utilize audio materials when necessary.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• Background of the Study

In language learning, there are four skills which should be mastered for effective acquisition of the target language; these are listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. Listening and speaking form the oracy skill which is for expression of ideas, opinions, or feeling to the other by using words or sounds in its proper articulation in order to inform, to persuade and to entertain. Oracy skill can be learned through teaching and learning process. Reading is the process of constructing meaning from the written text. Listening is equally part of the transaction of communication process, hence both are receptive skills. The receiver’s response has a direct impact on the meaning related to the conversation in a social context.

The neglect of speaking skills in the classroom instruction on English language does not exclude listening, these two skills form the basis for communication competence.  Communication is seen as the exchange of thought-tokens, in other words, the student has to learn not only the forms of the foreign language, the sound segments, the word forms, and the sentence structures but also to interact with context of words to act the possible meaning. Some teachers consider listening as the easiest skill to be taught. Most students think it is difficult. This contradiction points to the fact that there are some aspects of teaching listening that need to be explored. Students’ burden in listening comprehension activities does arise from difficulties in decoding the signals. In normal experience in mother tongue, language grows in context, whereas for foreign language, context must be created, because the more knowledge about the situation the more readily the language used (Mohseny & Raeisi, 2009).

In the modern world, it is accepted that listening is one of the most important skills in second language learning and acquisition. When listening to oral speech in a second language, many language students face listening difficulties such as trying to construct meaning from what is said by the speaker. It may also connotes decoding what is said. Second language learners have significant problems in listening comprehension because in classroom instruction, attention is paid more on structure, reading and vocabulary building than listening. According to Renukadevi (2014)  listening is not an important part of many course books or syllabus, most teachers do not attach importance to listening while preparing their lesson plan.  A great number of teachers believe that listening will develop naturally in the second language learner within the language learning process and learners will learn it unconsciously. Actually, there are a number of listening barriers such as, delivery, audience and environment. These barriers make listening one of the most challenging skills of language for students to develop and yet it is the foundation and the most important skill in learning a target language without it developing the other language skills will be ineffective. Developing the ability to listen well affords students the opportunity to become more independent learners. Listening accurately, is likely to help to refine the understanding of the learners’ grammar improves their comprehension in reading and develop their vocabulary skills. For this reason, there is need for teaching and drilling listening strategies to improve students listening comprehension.

Listening is to hearing while looking is to seeing. Both listening and looking require a zoom, whether auditory or visual, which enables a person to take in relevant information while turning out irrelevant information. Listening is too often regarded in language teaching as simply the passive state of a child that enables the teacher to instruct and be obeyed. This narrow perspective of listening presents the child as a passive receiver of information and fails to acknowledge listening as active and requires both attention span and interaction. Listening is the ability to identify, understand what others say and grasp meaning from it (Bozorgian, 2012).

According to Joseph (2015),  listening is one of the fundamental language skills.  It is a medium through which children and adults gain knowledge – information, understanding the world and human affairs, ideas, sense of values, and appreciation. Listening to and understanding speech involves a number of basic processes, which depends largely on linguistic competence, previous knowledge not necessarily of a purely linguistic nature, and psychological variables that affect the mobilization of language in the particular task or situation. The listener must have a continuous set to listen, to understand, and hear the utterance in order to process and remember the information transmitted. Linguistic competence enables the learner presumably, to recognize the formatives of the heard utterance, that is, to dissect out the wave form of the morphemes, words, and other meaning-bearing elements of the utterance.

Long before man developed a system of writing to communicate ideas; man depended upon listening and speaking to communicate ideas. If communication is the goal of teaching in any language, the place of listening and speaking cannot be over emphasized. Apart from the fact that listening is the first language skill, it also provides the foundation for all aspects of knowledge of language and cognitive development. Attentive listening plays a lifelong role in the listener for process of communication (Al-Alwan, Asassfeh, and Al-Shboul, 2013).

According to Howatt & Dakin (2004), listening which is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying, involves understanding speakers accents or pronunciation, grammars and vocabulary, for better comprehension of meaning. It involves more than simply hearing. Listening is an active process that constitutes the construction, retention and reaction of meaning that is assigned to information.

Highlighting the centrality of listening to effective communication, Norton (1998) noted that a writer cannot communicate effectively without effective listening ability, no matter how intelligent and artistic the writer is.

In English language, the two primary skills of language (listening and speaking) must be well taught at all levels of education. This is why it is not out of place to emphasize the importance of English as the language of education, mass media, law, commerce, as well as diplomatic relations (Lochland, 2013).

Audio material has been found to be of great educational benefit in the second language classroom instruction. It improves the speech by helping students to listen to the records of their voice and makes them much more critical of their speech. There is nothing like hearing how one sounds to others to realize the possibility of improvement in articulation, diction, enthusiasm and organization of matter. Through the use of audio cassettes or CDS in literature or English instruction, students can use their own learning styles as a catalyst for indepth study of master works (Kochar, 1995).

Instructional media are very useful in teaching and learning situations. They help students to make abstract concepts concrete and stimulate interest among them. They contribute to the understanding of words and leads to vocabulary development. They also afford the teachers, opportunity of talking less in the class when teaching the subject English language (Abiola, 2009).

Instructional media can be grouped as software and hardware. Softwares are the learning materials that carry information or instructional content for example, pre-recorded materials like audio CD, and cassette video while hardwares are equipment or devices which are used for presenting these materials. They include- radio, television, DVD and computers (Abimbade, 1999).

In the light of the above, this project sets out to investigate the effect of audio aids in the learning of listening comprehension by secondary school students in Pankshin Local Government Area of Plateau State with a view of remedying the problem and filling in the gap, in terms of helping to improve research.

• Statement of the Problem

Listening plays an important role in the learner’s daily communication and educational process. In spite of its importance, listening has long been the neglected skill in second language acquisition. It is not just a basic skill in language learning, but as well in reading because the learner has to listen to what he reads for better comprehension.

For a while now, the poor academic performance of students in English language in both external and internal examinations has remained a source of concern to all educational stakeholders. This massive failure witnessed every year could be attributed to poor comprehension of students in listening. Therefore, in the words of Afolaya (2010),  for an individual to approach a question effectively, there has to be understanding or comprehension.

This study therefore sought to investigate the effectiveness of the use of audio aids on the learning comprehension by secondary school students in Pankshin Local Government Area with a view of improving listening comprehension among students within the study area. It also sought to improve the teachers’ skills in handling the audio aids in teaching listening skill.

• Purpose of the Study

The main purpose of this study is to investigate into effect of audio aids in the learning of listening comprehension skills in secondary schools.

Other objectives of the study are:

1. To determine the mean difference in the performance of students who were taught with audio aids and those who were not in urban and suburban areas.
2. To determine the mean difference in the performance of students who were taught with audio aids in urban and suburban area.
   • Research Questions

In order for the researcher to have a guide, the following research questions have been postulated which will be answered by the end of the study:

1. What is the difference in the mean score of students who were exposed to audio aids and those who were not in urban and suburban areas?
2. What is the difference in the mean score of students who were exposed to audio aids in urban and suburban areas?
   • Hypotheses

The following hypotheses have been generated from the research questions.

H₀: There is no significant difference between the academic performances of students who received listening training skill through pre-recorded audio material and those who did not in urban and suburban areas.

H₀: There is no significant difference between the academic performances of students who received listening training skill through pre-recorded audio material in urban and suburban areas.

• Significance of the Study

The importance of this study cannot be underemphasized especially when taking into consideration the important roles the English language play in our day to day activities. The study shall be of benefit to the following education stakeholders: students, parents, teachers, curriculum planners and government.

The students, through this study will understand that listening is not the same as hearing. This will motivate them to listen actively and effectively in the class. As this sharpens their academic performance not only in English language learning but in all other subjects offered in the school, their communicative competence in and outside the classroom will be enhanced hence listening is key to effective communication.

Parents will understand the importance of listening skill and its positive effect on the academic performance of their children. They will employ every avenue to encourage their children to listen attentively especially during the radio and television news casting, as this will help them to acquire the best model of the language.

Contemporary researchers will find this study necessary as it serves as a resource material to them.

The teachers too will benefit from the study as they become aware of the importance of the listening skill to second language acquisition. They will lay more emphasis on it while teaching. In the light of this, they will see audio aids as a handy tool in the teaching and learning of listening skills.

The government and school administrators through this study will provide adequate instructional media for language learning activity.

• Scope of the Study

The study is limited to effect of audio aids on the learning of listening comprehension by senior secondary school students. The research covers some selected secondary schools in Pankshin Local Government Area of Plateau State. However, despite the fact that the research is restricted to the selected Local government area, its findings will be generic – it can be generalized to other parts of the country as well.

• Operational Definition of Terms

Listening Comprehension: Listening comprehension encompasses the multiple processes involved in understanding and making sense of spoken language. These include recognizing speech sounds, understanding the meaning of individual words, and/or understanding the syntax of sentences in which they are presented.

Audio Aids: These aids depend on single sense that is hearing. An attentive and discipline listener is the key goal of success through this form of communication.