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EFFECTS OF BRAINSTORMING STRATEGY ON SENIOR STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE IN NARRATIVE WRITING IN SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN PANKSHIN LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• Background to the Study

The role of English Language in Nigeria is prominent. It could be rightly described as the pivot on which the international and integrational lives of the people of Nigeria revolve. Unlike the indigenous languages, English Language does not engender any ethnic hostility; rather, it ensures peaceful co-existence in Nigeria’s diversity (Farinde, 2002; Olayemi, 2007; Akinbode, 2006). From the foregoing, English Language has since assumed an uncompromising position in Nigeria’s administration and government as the official language. To further stress the importance, the National Policy on Education (NPE) (2013) stated that English should be as a school subject for the first three years of primary education and as the language of instruction from the fourth year in primary school. Also, according to the policy, every child should be made to study English and any two Nigerian languages other than those being spoken in the environment of the junior and secondary schools. In order to achieve these objectives, instructional practices in the Senior Secondary English Language classroom focus on fundamental areas, such as writing.

Writing is foundational to success in academics, in the work place and in the global economy. In an increasingly demanding world of literacy, the importance of ensuring students’ proficiency in writing can never be overemphasized. The ability to write well, hitherto a luxury is now a dire necessity (Gallagher, 2006). Writing is vital to students’ developing literacy skills. In light of this, teaching learners to write well should be top priority of a worthwhile education system. Gallagher observed that a school that teaches its children the curriculum without concurrently teaching them how to write well is a school that has failed.

To Abbas (2021) writing skill is the fourth and last of all the language skills. It is generally termed as the most difficult and complicated skills to master. The first two skills tend to come naturally especially in L1 situation. It is an expressive skill. It is a viable medium of communication to readers, whatever the writer wants to convey. The same author further defines writing as an assemblage of sentences in such a way as to produce a meaningful account of an object or an event. Unlike speaking which is learned informally, naturally and unconsciously from the beginning, writing requires conscious and formal effort to learn.

However, students’ writing over the years has taken a downward trend which has continuously reflected in their performance both in internal and external examinations. Eyengho and Fawole (2013) reported a consistent decline in the way students write as exemplified in the various errors they commit in their written work or essays. The authors stated that candidates’ expressions are generally poor and their range of vocabulary is limited. Therefore, students’ poor writing skill has been identified as a major factor in students’ poor performance in English Language examinations. Babalola and Akande (2002) pointed to the fact that students’ writing (especially those who are second learners of English Language (L2) e.g. Nigerian students) should be properly corrected. It is a general consensus among language experts that making/committing errors is a necessary and natural process in language learning (Eyengho & Fawole, 2013). Apart from this, other studies point to the fact that the teachers’ pedagogical strategies are often in contrast with the learners’ expectation (Peacock, 2001 and Hawkey, 2006). This is where the language teacher is an important variable in ensuring that the strategy he/she adopts enhances students’ writing skill (Scheen,2007).

According to Khalaf (2011), brainstorming is a group activity in which group members think about one problem and try to come up with creative solutions by negotiating different ideas by the leader of the group. Smith (2000) defines brainstorming as “a process in which two or more heads spin out creativity with more zap than any one mind” (p. 3). Brainstorming can be done individually or in groups. Osborn (1953) claims that group brainstorming is more beneficial than individual brainstorming. However, Zarei & Feizollahi/Concept mapping and brainstorming affecting writing anxiety … there is also research evidence suggesting that individual brainstorming may be more effective than group brainstorming (Putman & Paulus, 2009). In addition, Camacho and Paulus (1995) believe that many individuals become socially stressed out and cannot utter their ideas in a group and, therefore, must brainstorm their ideas alone.

Brainstorming is a process in which a person or groups of people try to diminish the amount of barriers ahead of idea generation. As Richards (2019) mentioned that brainstorming can be done through different ways including Electronic Brainstorming (EB), Heuristic Brainstorming, Interactive Group Brainstorming (IGB), and Nominal Group Brainstorming (NGB). Brainstorming is based on two assumptions. The first one requires the practitioner to defer the judgment about ideas so that the participants feel free to propose their ideas. The second principle is about the ideas occurring in a natural way and being related to the topic.

Several researchers have investigated Brainstorming. According to Scane, Guy and Wenstrom (2011), brainstorming activities encourage students who usually dislike writing by creating a stress-free atmosphere. Thus, in an L2 environment where students usually make efforts to accomplish their writing tasks, a non-threatening atmosphere may help them develop their writing skills. Good writers are the ones who may think well; therefore, one way to express thought is to write (Harmer, 2019). It seems useful to prepare situations where students reflect on the subject before they begin composing. The brainstorming strategy can help students use their previous knowledge in their writing activity and to recognize the skills and information they possess and what they need to know (Rao, 2007). Moreover, teaching students different brainstorming techniques in class is reasonable because it might assist them to cultivate their writing and create ideas that are necessary in second language acquisition (Harmer, 2001). Although the ideas created in this stage may or may not be directly related to the topic, brainstorming is a valuable technique in developing students’ ideas before they actually start their writing task (Harmer, 2001). One of the most important features of brainstorming is that it does not need any preparation and it can be used at any level of education and under any circumstance (Buzan, 2016).

Brainstorming is a useful technique in writing performance to develop a topic with an open mind without judging our ideas. It means that students can free to come up with their ideas and can help students to explore their ideas in writing. Brainstorming process could be done before we start to write paragraph. This technique is very useful to help students in their writing performance process. So, it should be used in learning and teaching process especially in writing subject. Brainstorming strategy is expected to help the students to decrease or even eliminate some errors that appear in their writing. The brainstorming strategy in the writing process is expected to give students a sketch of what they want to write. The present study is therefore geared towards determining the effects of indirect brainstorming on senior students’ performance in narrative essay writing in selected secondary schools in Pakshin Local Government Area of Plateau State.

• Statement of the Problem

Over the years, there is a growing concern over the rate of failure of students’ writing in internal and external examinations. This rate of failure has been blamed on the teachers, students and other education stakeholders. However, less attention has been paid to the teaching strategy. Most of these students induct rules about writing which affect them.

Teachers in the secondary schools are stocked with the traditional method of teaching which is mostly teacher-centered. This is because most of them feel that exposing students to learner-centered methods such as brainstorming, is time-consuming – hence, students tend to perform poorly in their academics.

It is in the light of the above that this study seeks to examining the effects of brainstorming strategy on senior students’ performance in narrative writing in selected secondary schools in Pankshin Local Government Area.

• Purpose of the Study

The main purpose of this study is to determine the effects of brainstorming strategy on senior students’ performance in narrative writing in selected secondary schools in Pankshin Local Government Area. Other specific objectives of the study are:

1. ascertain the effects of brainstorming strategy on students’ construction of sentences in narrative writing.
2. find out the effects of brainstorming strategy on students’ paragraph development in narrative writing.
3. discover the effects of brainstorming strategy on use of punctuation marks in narrative writing.
   • Research Questions

The following research questions guided the study:

1. What are the effects of brainstorming strategy on students’ construction of sentences in narrative writing?
2. What are the effects of brainstorming strategy on students’ paragraph development in narrative writing?

• What are the effects of brainstorming strategy on use of punctuation marks in narrative writing?
  • Research Hypothesis

H₀: There is a significant difference in the performance of students who were exposed to brainstorming strategy and those who were not exposed to it in narrative essay writing in senior secondary schools.

• Significance of the Study

The findings of this study will be of benefit to students, teachers, curriculum planners/developers, Ministry of Education and future researchers.

Students will also benefit from the findings of this study as the use of brainstorming strategy in the teaching of writing will boost their achievement and help to increase their retention of how a standard piece of writing should be written. The findings will also help them to develop more interest in writing, acquire and develop scientific skills which will help them in their career choice particularly those careers geared towards being secretaries, journalists, etc.

The findings of this study will be of benefit to teachers of English as they will help teachers in choosing appropriate teaching writing technique capable of releasing students’ tension toward the subject. They will motivate teachers to develop interest in utilizing brainstorming strategy in teaching writing and selecting suitable teaching methods that will be a possible means towards reducing failure in English language.

The findings of this study will also benefit curriculum planners in curriculum planning, as using brainstorming strategy will be encouraged in the teaching of writing.

The study when completed, will serve as a reference material to future researchers who will want to carry out a research under the same topic.

The Federal Ministry of Education can also benefit by using the findings of this study to engage teachers and administrators in training programmes that can model this teaching writing technique.

• Scope and Delimitation of the Study

The researcher is aware of other writing challenges, existing methods and other problems in writing as a skill, however, the present study covers effects of brainstorming strategy on senior students’ performance in narrative writing. It is restricted to selected secondary schools in Pankshin Local Government Area of Plateau State. However, despite the fact that the study is restricted to the selected Local Government Area, its findings will be generic or it can be generalized to other parts of the state and country at large.