THE EFFECT OF THE CONFERENCING METHOD ON THE WRITING PERFORMANCE OF YEAR ONE STUDENTS OF AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSlTY, ZARIA

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Date
1992-09
Authors
OKOYE-IKONTA, NONYE R.
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Abstract
The English language remains the language of education in Nigerian universities, but educators at this level have consistently complained that the language proficiency level of their students is grossly inadequate for the demands of university education. They have stated that majority of these students cannot communicate effectively in English. The inadequacy of the students in English has been identified through their writing activities which showed that the skills they need in order to improve their proficiency level in English must be formally taught. This study, therefore, set out to teach some skills of writing to year one undergraduates of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, using a current method (conferencing) that involved face-to-face interaction, revision and re-writing of several drafts of an essay. This was in an attempt to measure the effect of the method on their writing activity. The conference method of teacher-student interaction was expanded to include group and peer interaction sessions. Apart from the students' questionnaire and audio-recording of the conference sessions, the study employed pre-test-post-test experimental-control group design on the essay tests, for data collection. The findings showed that the experimental group performed significantly better than the control group at the end of the study. All the students generally improved in their writing performance; and all the students had positive attitude towards being conferenced on their writing. The major contributions of this study include the use of the conference method (face-to-face discussion) to sensitize the students to the various writing problems they have which were then solved in subsequent drafts. The expanded methodology of the conference method to include the group and the peer type would be invaluable in large classes that characterize Nigerian institutions. It is, therefore, recommended that the conference method be adopted as an added dimension for teaching writing so that students themselves would tackle many of the writing problems in their initial writing drafts before the final drafts get to the teacher. This would help to instil the revision culture in the students and go a long way in reducing the teacher's work load.
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A Research Thesis Submitted to the Postgraduate School, Ahmadu Bello University, in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Teaching of English as a Second Language (TESL) DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION FACULTY OF EDUCATION AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY ZARIA
Keywords
EFFECTS,, CONFERENCING METHOD, WRITING PERFORMANCE, YEAR ONE STUDENTS,, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSlTY,, ZARIA.
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