An Analysis of The Effect of Communicative La...

An Analysis of The Effect of Communicative Language Teaching on Communicative Performance of Secondary School Students in Lagos State, Nigeria

Author Name : Yede, Francis S.

ABSTRACT

This research applies the principles of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) to examine teachers’ efforts and assess students’ communicative performance and academic achievement at the Senior Secondary School level. Students and teachers of English as Second Language (ESL) from six secondary schools within the Badagry Local Educational District of Lagos State, Nigeria, were randomly selected and sampled. The sampled population was split into control and experimental groups for ease of comparative linguistic ability and communicative performance. Remedial treatment was given to the experimental group and later, a proficiency test was given to both the experimental and the control groups to measure the ability to carry out specific communicative tasks in ESL. The observation checklist and the diagnostic test (pretest) were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics of mean, standard deviation, and t-test. Data analysis revealed that the traditional method being utilized in teaching the English language in L2 situations cannot promote adequate communicative competence expected of the learners of ESL at the secondary school level. The linguistic performances of the control group students in the post-tests were low and, this calls for the adoption of a functional language teaching model to promote adequate communicative skills in the learners. The performance of the experimental group revealed that CLT promotes free language use and interpersonal communication skills in ESL and thereby enhances communicative competence in the learners. Teachers of ESL need to be equipped with the skills of CLT to achieve the goals of linguistic competence through functional teaching and learning of the English Language in Nigerian Schools.

Key Words: Communicative Performance, Academic Achievement, Control Group, Experimental Group, Remedial Treatment