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