THE IMPACT OF LANGUAGE LABORATORY FOR EFFECTIVE LEARNING AND TEACHING OF ORAL ENGLISH

1.1 Introduction

Oral language is the system through which we use spoken words to express knowledge, ideas, and feelings. Developing ELs’ oral language means developing the skills and knowledge that go into listening and speaking-all of which have a strong relationship to reading comprehension and to writing. Oral language is made up of at least five key components (Moats 2010): phonological skills, pragmatics, syntax, morphological skills, and vocabulary (also referred to as semantics). All of these components of oral language are necessary to communicate and learn through conversation and spoken interaction, but there are important distinctions among them that have implications for literacy instruction (Heinemann, 2021).

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

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1.2 Background of Study

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.

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. The major reason for these deficiencies is our English teachers who not only lack the technical know-how but are also non-professionals. 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.

English is one of the major languages out of about 5000 estimated language spoken in the World. About 200 years ago, English was simply the language of less than 15 million peoples. Today, however, English is used by more than 300 million people and second only to Chinese as regards the number of people using a particular language. English is one of the most influential and fast growing languages spoken across the globe. 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 for 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 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 (2000) 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 a complete lesson of prose or poetry. At present language laboratory has been increased and 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 from it because there are mass failures in the subject, reason been there are no competent teachers to handle the subject and also there are inadequate or no Language Laboratories in most of the Secondary Schools.

Hindu (2006), define 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 carrels, with a wide variety of potential feedback mechanisms to the student, teacher, or other students.

Modern language laboratory is really one of the newest media that is making a lot of impact 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.

Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Impact of Language Laboratory for Effective Teaching and Learning of Oral English in Junior Secondary Schools.

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1.3 Statement of Problems

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.

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to examine the Impact of Language Laboratory for Effective Teaching and Learning of Oral English in Junior Secondary Schools. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To find out if there are language laboratories available for effective teaching and learning of oral English in junior secondary schools
2. To find out whether there is adequate motive for the use of language laboratory for both teachers and students during oral English class.
3. To find out the benefits of the language laboratories on the effective teaching and learning of oral English in junior secondary schools.
4. To find out the extent to which teachers’ incompetency has influence the proper use of language laboratory.

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1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• Are there enough language laboratories for the effective teaching and learning of oral English in junior secondary schools in Enugu North district?
• Are there adequate motives for the effective use of language laboratory for both teachers and students during oral English class?
• Does the interference of the mother tongue necessitate the use of the language laboratory?
• What method do teachers use in the teaching of oral English?
• To what extent does teachers’ incompetency influence the proper use of language laboratory?

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1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0: There are not enough language laboratories for the effective teaching and learning of oral English in junior secondary schools in Enugu North district
• H1: There are enough language laboratories for the effective teaching and learning of oral English in junior secondary schools in Enugu North district

Hypothesis Two

• H0: There are no adequate motives for the effective use of language laboratory for both teachers and students during oral English class
• H1: There are adequate motives for the effective use of language laboratory for both teachers and students during oral English class

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1.7 Significance of Study

Findings from this study will provide invaluable information to the government, the Nigeria Educational Research centre, the curriculum planners, because through this research awareness will be created for the installation of language laboratories.

The research is expected to enable teachers of the English language to identify problems and becomes aware of the factors that hamper the teaching of English and how to deal with them. Students will also be aware of their major “road blocks” to speaking and be able to find means of overcoming them.

Finally, findings from this study will be to all those involved in the teaching of English language in Enugu North and country at large.

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1.8 Scope of the Study

This study is limited to investigating the impact of language laboratory on effective teaching and learning of English language is some selected schools in Enugu North district.

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1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
3. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
4. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

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1.10 Definition of Terms

Intonation: is the variation of spoken pitch that is not used to distinguish words; instead it is used for a range of functions such as indicating the attitudes and emotions of the speakers signaling the difference between statements and questions.

Stress: in linguistics, and particularly phonology, stress or accent is relative emphasis or prominence given to a certain syllable in a word, or to a certain word in a phrase or sentence.

Linguistic: is the study of language and the way language work. Linguistic is the scientific study of language, and involves an analysis of language meaning, and language in context, its structure, including the study of grammar, syntax, and phonetics.

Written Language: is a representation of a spoken or gestural language by means of a writing system. Written language is an invention that must be taught to children, who will pick up spoken language.

Spoken Language: is sometimes used to mean only vocal languages, especially by linguist, making all three terms synonyms by excluding sign languages. A spoken language is the words that are spoken, or theory, pronunciation the way a word or language is customarily spoken or conversation.

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1.11 Organization of the Study

Chapter one of the study, provides background of the study, stating the problem of the study and the research questions and hypotheses to be tested in the study. It also highlights the significance of the study and scope of the study.

Chapter two reviews related literature on the Impact of Language Laboratory for Effective Teaching and Learning of Oral English in Junior Secondary Schools in Enugu North district.

Chapter three discussed the research methods to be used in designing the study which will include research design, population, sample size and sampling technique, data collection and data analysis methods.

Chapter four presents the data gathered in frequency and percentage tables. The data will also be analyzed and research hypotheses will be tested with chi-square statistical test.

Chapter five summarizes the outcome of the study, draw conclusions based on the findings of the study and make necessary recommendations.