Use of Texts in Teaching English Language: The Case of Selected Form Four Classes in Some Secondary Schools in Cameroon
*1Emilienne N. Ilongo, 2Innocent M. Fasse, and 3Kizitus N. Mpoche
*1University of Douala Email: emilienne.namondo@ubuea.cm
Abstract
This study describes the kinds of texts teachers use in teaching English Language in Form Four; enquires when teachers use texts in teaching English; examines how teachers use texts in teaching Form Four; evaluates the impact of the use of texts on students’ performance and finds out what Form Four students think about the use of texts in teaching them English Language. To attain these objectives, the study uses observation, test and questionnaire. Two Form Four classes selected from two secondary schools in Buea, South West Region of Cameroon are used for the study. The theories used in this work are Content Analysis of Berelson (1952), Communicative Competence theory of Hymes (1960s), Needs Analysis theory as prescribed by Hutchinson and Walters (1987), Communicative Language Teaching theory by Richards (2006) and the Competency-Based Language Teaching theory as proposed by Richards and Rodgers (2001) and Docking (1994). Results reveal that the texts mostly used by teachers in teaching are the ones found in the course book. These are either articles or stories written by different authors and on various subject matters. It is also discovered that teachers use texts in class mostly during reading comprehension lessons and that they customarily pre-teach vocabulary, give students time to read the texts in class silently, and then read aloud while the teachers do correction of wrongly pronounced words. At the end of the reading exercise, students answer questions about the texts. This work also discloses that texts have a significant impact in students’ performance as 68.82% of students performed better after they were taught using texts as against their previous performance of 19.26%. Finally, it is realised that students have a positive mind-set towards using texts in teaching certain language elements.
Keywords
Texts, English language, teaching, learning, performance
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