IMPACT OF LANGUAGE LABORATORY ON EFFECTIVE TEACHING OF ORAL ENGLISH IN JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN MANGU LOCAL GOVERNMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Cover Page – – – – – – – – i
Declaration Page – – – – – – – – ii
Approval Page – – – – – – – – iii
Dedication Page – – – – – – – – iv
Acknowledgements – – – – – – – – v
Abstract – – – – – – – – – vi
Table of Contents – – – – – – – – viii

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
11 Background of the Study – – – – – – 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem – – – – – – 6
1.3 Purpose of the Study – – – – – – – 6
1.4 Research Questions – – – – – – – 7
1.5 Research Hypothesis – – – – – – – 7
1.6 Significance of the Study – – – – – – 8
1.7 Scope of the Study – – – – – – – 9
1.8 operational Definition of Terms – – – – – 9

CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Concepts of Language Laboratory – – – – – 10
2.2. The Roles of the Language Laboratory – – – – 12
2.3 The English Teacher and the Language Laboratory – – – 17
2.4. Acoustic Phonetics and Language Laboratory – – – 17
2.5 Auditory Phonetics and the Language Laboratory – – – 18
2.6 The Role of Teachers in the Language Laboratory – – – 19
2.7. Classifications of the Language Laboratory – – – – 20
2.8. The Effects of the Language Laboratory on the Pronunciation of Students’ of
English – – – – – – – – 24
2.8.1 The Student in the Laboratory – – – – – 28
2.9. Summary of Literature Review – – – – – 27

CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.0 Introduction – – – – – – – – 29
3.1 Research Design – – – – – – – 29
3.2 Area of Study – – – – – – – – 30
3.3 Population – – – – – – – – 30
3.4 Sample and Sampling Techniques – – – – – 30
3.5 Instrument for Data Collection – – – – – 31
3.6 Description of the instrument – – – – – – 31
3.7 Validity of the Instrument – – – – – – 32
3.8 Method of data Collection – – – – – – 32
3.9 Method of Data Analysis – – – – – – 32

CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
4.1 Mode of Presentation – – – – – – – 34

CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS – – – – – – 40
5.2 Conclusion – – – – – – – – 41
5.3 Recommendations – – – – – – – 42
5.4 Suggestion for Further Study – – – – – – 43
References – – – – – – – – – 44
Appendix – – – – – – – – – 47

Abstract
This research investigated the effects of language laboratory in the effective teaching and learning of oral English in Junior Secondary Schools in Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State. the experimental research design was adopted. The population of the study consisted of Junior secondary schools in Mangu. The sample of the study consisted of 80 students from two selected schools. The instrument for data collection was the test while the instrument for data analysis was the mean score and t-test for testing hypothesis. The following were major findings of the research indicated that students taught oral English with the use of language laboratory rank higher in effectiveness with the mean score of 14.64 while students taught using the conventional method had a mean score of 10.04 The t-test table shows a value of the calculated t value to be 12.94 and critical t-value of 1.980. Testing at alpha level of 0.05, the critical t-value is greater than the alpha value and lesser than the t cal value of 12.95.>1.980. Thus, null hypothesis which states that there is no significant difference in the mean performance of student taught oral English using language laboratory and those taught without language laboratory is rejected. Consequently there is a significant difference between students taught oral English with the use of language laboratory to that of those taught in the classroom only. The study concluded that language laboratory enhances performance of students in oral English. In line with the findings, the following were recommended among others: government should as a matter of urgency direct her attention towards the provision of language laboratories in both primary and secondary schools, the community should encourage their words by organizing summer lessons.

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
English language has remained the language of government, law, administration, politics, mass media, commerce and all sort of social engagement for people from different language groups in Nigeria, (Adeoya, 2012). It is the language of Education and a medium of instruction for all subjects. An applicable degree of competence is expected from the learners of English. In various sectors in Nigeria, English language has proven to be a more efficient medium than any of the native languages. According to Aremu (2012), English language is a medium of communication, like every other language of the world. He adds that English language is the native language of some parts of the western world like the great Britain (United kingdom), some part of the America (U.S.A) etc. He further describes English language as one of the most spoken languages of the world. Today, English is the lingua franca of Nigeria (official language) as Nigeria was colonized by the British people. Also Abdullahi (2012) opines that it is the language introduced to some countries of the world by their colonizers. He adds that, the English language is a universal language though not adopted by the entire nations of the world but more than 97% use it as means of communication. However, Salihu (2012) is also of the opinion that English language serves a general means of communication in some areas, mostly where it is generally accepted as their lingua franca. Aliyu (2010), also observes that English language is said to be the language which originates from British as their native language and it is recognized by the Americans with the exception of south Americans.
Additionally, for the process of education to function effectively, the school curriculum is taken into consideration. Therefore, curriculum is the term used to indicate a group of subjects or shield of study arranged in a particular sequence. According to Puckett (2009) Curriculum is the selection, organization and Accord administration of a body of subject matter designed to lead the students on the same definite life objective.
In spite of the fact that so many aspects of man’s knowledge compete today for inclusion as subjects in the school curriculum, at least one modern language continues to maintain the right to a place in the secondary school curriculum. Al{ those who believe that the study of a modern language other than one’s own has an important part to play in the development of the adolescent, a part which perhaps today is even more essential than in the past, are content that this should be so. It has been observed that in theory and practice whenever circumstances allow the advantages inherent in such a study are beneficial to children in secondary schools. Language according to Webster’s Encyclopedia Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language: Is the system of use common to people who are of the same community or nation, from the same geographical area or the same cultural tradition. Language is human speech either spoken or written. Whenever there is a human society, there is language. Most forms of human activity depend on the co-operation of two or more persons. A common language enables human beings to work together in an infinite variety or ways.
Lieberman (2004) argues that human language is biologically based as in other primates, and that both humans and animals have innate neural mechanisms which are matched to their respective sound producing mechanisms. Yet most linguists will readily agree that only humans have language proper and that the possession of language put humans at considerable advantage compared with other species. According to Anibueze, (2007), English Language is a lingua franca. As lingua franca, it is the Language for unification. It is highly established so that the people of varied languages will have purposes to relate together mutually and work in union. A Hausa man may comfortably stay and effectively speak with a Yoruba man or an Igbo man, and vice versa. It is, therefore worthwhile acquiring mastery of this very important language for whoever does not, has deprived him of access to the world’s brightest ideas and modern technologies.
In Nigeria today, English remains the language of pedagogy; students can hardly make commendable progress in their studies without adequate mastery of English through which most of the course in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions are taught and examined. This calls for a system that would be both rudimentary and functional in its approach. Umaru (2005) opines that, for a student learns a new language; very often he does not know how to express what he wants to say. Since the student uses a foreign language as a medium of communication, he has to start from the scratch to learn the rudiments of the language. It is natural then that this is the function where the various problems arising from the teaching and learning of the Language meet the need to do so properly. Language teaching, according to Oluikpe (2005) is that the basic criteria for assessing students’ proficiency in writing and speaking as generally controlled by the basic grammatical categories such as punctuation, tense, number, gender etc. Language teaching in Nigeria has a lot of deficiencies. A situation where a teacher of the language has no mastery of its grammatical categories, as we see today, does not mean well for the system. Also writing on these problems facing Language teaching, according Regner (2001) ascertained that “many good teachers are adaptive rather than rigid in their approach to teaching children and only loosely base on their instruction on a given method.
According to Ozohili (2007) language literally means the “tongue” a human organ used in speaking. Traditionally, language is defined as a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by which thoughts are communicated from one being to another. According to Robert (2016:23) the language laboratory is “The center of Language teaching and the teacher helps its operational activities by providing suitable materials and learning situations”. We are living in modern world. Language laboratory has the capacity to transmit g complete lesson of prose or poetry. At present, language laboratory has increased its impact on Educational field. It is a two-way teaching learning process which minimizes pupil’s mistakes. It also strengthens the learning of English among students so the investigator is interested to find out the effectiveness of using Language Laboratory in English among students.
According to Bamisaye (2006), English Language is the language used in education sector. It is introduced as a subject in first year of the primary school up to secondary school and including the university level; it is a medium of instruction. Therefore it is necessary that student should understand it because of the greater importance attached to it. Most students dread it because there are mass failures in the subject, reason being the inadequacy of competent teachers to handle the subject and also there are inadequacy or absence of Language Laboratories in most of the Secondary Schools.
Hindu (2012), defines Language Laboratory as a room in a school, college, training institute, university or academy that contains special equipment to help students learn foreign languages by listening to tapes or CDs, watching videos, recording themselves, etc. The Language Laboratory is an audio or audio-visual installation used as an aid in modern language teaching. It was also called Speech and Writing Laboratory. All the four language learning skills (Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing) are given importance and learners are provided with ample Opportunities to practice by listening to the audio programmer and watching the video clips. In other words, a Language Laboratory is a room consisting of instructional technology tools source unit that can disseminate audio, audio-visual, and/or written materials to any number of students at individual seats or cartels, with a wide variety of potential feedback mechanisms to the student, teacher, of other students. Modern language laboratory is really one of the newest media that is making a lot of impacts in our educational system, The language laboratory is an audio or audio-visual installation used as an aid in laboratory each student is able to replay one track of a tape and at the same time record his response on another track. He is then able to rewind the tape to listen to both the master track and the recording to his own response comparing the two recordings.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The problem of this study is to find out if the language laboratory has a role on effective teaching and learning of oral English in junior secondary schools. The most serious problem confronting learners of a second language is that the language is not widely used in their immediate environment. In most cases, teachers who teach second languages are themselves not native speakers. So they neither speak the language fluently nor intelligibly. But they are not to be blamed because of the interference of the mother tongue. The researcher, therefore, deemed it necessary to find out the role of language laboratory in the teaching and learning of oral English.
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The main purpose of this study is to examine the use of language laboratory on the effective teaching and learning of oral English in Junior Secondary Schools in Jos North local government Area of plateau state.
Other specific purposes include:
1. To determine the performance of students taught oral English with the use of language laboratory.
2. To determine the performance of students who were taught oral English without the use of language laboratory.
3. To determine the differences in the performance of students who were taught with language laboratory and those taught without it.
1.4 Research Questions
The following were the over-arching research questions to guide the study:
1. What is the performance of students taught oral English with the use of language laboratory?
2. What is the performance of students taught oral English without the use of language laboratory?
3. What is the mean difference in the performance of students taught with and without language laboratory?
1.5 Research Hypothesis
The researcher developed only one null research hypothesis. Thus, Ha: There is no significant relationship between language laboratory and students academic performance in Oral English

1.6 Significance of the Study
The ability of one to speak and pronounce words correctly depends on one’s ability to understand the different patterns of the language skills. In the light of this, the study shall be beneficial to all educational stakeholders which include teachers, students, government and curriculum planners.
The students as center of the search will benefit from this research as there commendations made from this research will go a long way in aiding the teaching and learning of oral English using language laboratory.
The teachers as implementers of the curriculum will benefit from the study because they will come to know the importance of using language laboratory in the teaching and learning of oral English. Therefore, they will make effective use of it where one is available.
To the curriculum planners, they will structure learning experiences to include the use of language laboratory, as this will enhance the proper teaching and learning of oral English.
As the wing that controls the purse strings, the government will see the grave need to provide or install language laboratories in all public secondary schools to enhance the teaching and learning of oral English.

1.7 Scope of the Study
This study is limited to investigating the role of language laboratory op affecti”® teaching and learning of ora] English in some selected junior secondary school? in Mangu Local Government Area, Plateau state.
1.8 operational Definition of Terms
The key terms of this research are defined within the context of their usage as follows: laboratory: Is a room or building equip for scientific experiment, research or teaching or manufacture of drugs or chemicals.
Oral English: Is a spoken language produced by sound as opposed to a written language.
Language: the method of human communication, either spoken, or written, consisting of the use of words in a structured an conventional way.
Teaching: The process of impacting new skills, ideas, norms, values in to a learner through formal or informal means. Effective: This entails the successful in producing a desired or intended result.
English: The language originally of England, now spoken in many countries and use as a language of international communication throughout the world.