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This study was carried out to examine the factors constraining writing skills in senior secondary school students. The study was set to ascertain the school based factors affecting students writing skills in senior secondary schools, ascertain the teacher based factors affecting students writing skills in senior secondary schools, and ascertain the students based factors affecting their writing skills in senior secondary schools. The survey design was adopted and the simple random sampling techniques were employed in this study. The population size comprise of students of selected secondary schools in Osisioma local government area of Abia State. In determining the sample size, the researcher conveniently selected 200 respondents and 150 were validated. Self-constructed and validated questionnaire was used for data collection. The collected and validated questionnaires were analyzed using frequency tables, and mean scores.While the hypotheses were tested using T-test statistical tool. The result of the findings reveals that the school based factors affecting students writing skills in senior secondary schools includes: recruitment of qualified teachers, over population, unavailability of relevant teaching/learning materials, and the number of periods or the time allotted to teach writing affects the teaching of writing skills. Furthermore, the result of the findings reveals that the teacher based factors affecting students writing skills in senior secondary schools includes: Lack of classroom management skill, Poor relationship with the students, Lack of pedagogical knowledge, Inability to adopt instructional method suitable for learning, and Lack of adequate commitment to the job. Therefore, it is recommended that by understanding both the students’ and teachers’ challenges in learning and teaching writing skills, the teachers could choose the best possible approach to teach writing skills by giving feedback and guidance. Besides, the school management should take necessary actions on the challenges faced by the teachers in order to facilitate the teachers to have effective teaching process. Finally, teachers may stress the importance of learning writing skills to the students in order to motivate them to learn writing skills. To mention but a few.
Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
Writing is one of the productive language skills that might be a complex problem for all teachers and students, since there are several aspects that should be gained. According to Heaton (2005), the writing skill is a complex skill and sometimes difficult to be learned, the learners should require not only mastery grammar but also sharing the information and writing elements. In addition, Richard and Renandya (2010) explain that “writing is the most difficult skill for learners to master”. The difficulty is not only in generating and organizing ideas, but also in translation the ideas into readable text. In short, writing seems hard to be implemented because of some considerations.
Referring to the writing curriculum and syllabus of English Education Department, it is clearly stated that writing is one of language skill that should be possessed by the students after finishing the lesson. It describes that the course gives learning experience in writing paragraph and essay of good and correct English using various types of writing or genre and of the role of genre study in writing. For more clarification, the syllabus described that students have to be able to write paragraph and essay writing in various sentence forms such as classification, analysis, definition, process analysis, composition and contrast, exemplification, and combination of them in particular topics.
Having a good writing skill is not easily attained. There are two aspects that should be applied, they are coherent and cohesion. Firstly coherent is about the sequence of ideas compiled to organize paragraph and essay so that the readers do not miss the idea and they easily understand the ideas. Furthermore, topics given must be well developed. To start developing the topic students should generate topic sentence. Then, students decide the supporting ideas and supporting details. As the final work, students decide the conclusion. Thus, reader can identify the purpose, and message implied in a good organization. Cohesion aspect relates to the grammatical pattern of the sentences. This refers to writer’s orientation to arrange sentences, phrase, punctuation, and even word choice. One should realize that writing needs a long process.
There is a common agreement that writing is the most complex and difficult skill for it requires a lot of training. Like all learning problems, difficulties in producing a good piece of writing can be devastating to the learners’ education, self-esteem, self-confidence, and motivation to write. Many researchers (Harmer 2007, & Richards & Renandya, 2003) agreed that writing is the most complex and difficult skill. This difficulty lays not only in generating and organizing ideas, but also in translating these ideas into readable text. Hence this research will determine the factors constraining the writing skills of secondary school students especially among senior secondary school students.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Writing skills are crucial for successful learning in higher education work (Kellogg & Raulerson, 2007; Prior, 2012), and the society (Prior, 2012). In this era of globalization, the ability to write in English is essential for students. Accordingly, equipping students with English writing skills is necessary in this competitive era.
Despite the significance of writing in secondary education for skilful communication, academic performance, and student achievement, including success, students in Nigerian secondary schools have problems writing effectively in English. Although, majority the students speak fluently, they face difficulties in writing. In a study that was carried out to explore students’ quality of writing in English, it was found that the standards of students’ writing fell far below the standards (Tale, 2006). Similarly, Choeda et al. (2020) found in their study that students have poor writing skill. They make numerous grammatical errors and are unable to express and convey their messages. As a whole, the students’ writing standards are poor, and they do not align with the standard required. Therefore, this study seek to investigate the factors constraining the writing skills of secondary school students.
1.3 Objective of the Study
The main objective of this study is focused on an investigation of the factors constraining writing skills in senior secondary school students.
Other specific objectives includes;
Ascertain the school based factors affecting students writing skills in senior secondary schools.
Ascertain the teacher based factors affecting students writing skills in senior secondary schools.
Ascertain the students based factors affecting their writing skills in senior secondary schools.
1.4 Research Questions
The study will be guided by the following questions;
What are the school based factors affecting students writing skills in senior secondary schools?
What are the teacher based factors affecting students writing skills in senior secondary schools?
What are the students based factors affecting their writing skills in senior secondary schools?
1.5 Research Hypothesis
Ho: There is no significant difference on the factors affecting the writing skills of male and female secondary school students in Nigeria.
Ha: There is a significant difference on the factors affecting the writing skills of male and female secondary school students in Nigeria.
1.6 Significance of the Study
The hope is that this study will yield data that will be useful for proper planning and for a framework of action into the improvement of writing skills of students. The findings, conclusions and recommendations will hopefully benefit teachers, students, syllabus designers, education policy makers, academics and opinion leaders to base their decisions and actions on concrete knowledge of issues supported by research other than subjective judgments. The researcher also hopes that the study will form the basis for further research into writing skills and academic performance.
1.7 Scope of the Study
The scope of this study borders on the factors constraining writing skills in senior secondary school students. Geographically, this study will be conducted in some selected secondary schools in Osisioma local government area of Abia State.
1.8 Limitation of the Study
The researchers encountered slight constraints while carrying out the study. The significant constraint was the scanty literature on the subject owing that electoral violence discourse is vast thus the researcher incurred more financial expenses and much time was required in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature, or information and in the process of data collection, which is why the researcher resorted to a limited choice of sample size covering only residents of Lagos State. Thus findings of this study cannot be used for generalization for other states within Nigeria. Additionally, the researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work will impede maximum devotion to the research. Howbeit, despite the constraint encountered during the research, all factors were downplayed in other to give the best and make the research successful.
1.9 Definition of Terms
Writing:
This is creating graphic symbols or using images by arranging terms and words to form phrases according to certain conventions or to communicate thoughts and ideas in a readable form.
Skills:
Is the ability to do something expertly and well.
Writing Skills:
These are simply manifestations of writing proficiency characterized by grammatical accuracy, essay planning and structuring, paragraphing sentence structuring and transition, writing coherence and consistency among other capabilities of writing in English language.
1.10 Organization of the Studies
The study is categorized into five chapters. The first chapter presents the background of the study, statement of the problem, objective of the study, research questions and hypothesis, the significance of the study, scope/limitations of the study, and definition of terms. The chapter two covers the review of literature with emphasis on conceptual framework, theoretical framework, and empirical review. Likewise, the chapter three which is the research methodology, specifically covers the research design, population of the study, sample size determination, sample size, and selection technique and procedure, research instrument and administration, method of data collection, method of data analysis, validity and reliability of the study, and ethical consideration. The second to last chapter being the chapter four presents the data presentation and analysis, while the last chapter(chapter five) contains the summary, conclusion and recommendation.
Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations:
5.1 Introduction
This chapter summarizes the findings on the factors constraining writing skills in senior secondary school students using some selected secondary schools in Osisioma local government area of Abia State as a case study. The chapter consists of summary of the study, conclusions, and recommendations.
5.2 Summary of the Study
In this study, our focus was to examine the factors constraining writing skills in senior secondary school students using some selected secondary schools in Osisioma local government area of Abia State as a case study. The study was specifically set to ascertain the school based factors affecting students writing skills in senior secondary schools, ascertain the teacher based factors affecting students writing skills in senior secondary schools, and ascertain the students based factors affecting their writing skills in senior secondary schools.
The study adopted the survey research design and randomly enrolled participants in the study. A total of 150 responses were validated from the enrolled participants, where all respondent are students of selected secondary schools in Osisioma local government area of Abia State.
5.3 Conclusions
Based on the findings of this study, the researcher made the following conclusion.
The school based factors affecting students writing skills in senior secondary schools includes: recruitment of qualified teachers, over population, unavailability of relevant teaching/learning materials, and the number of periods or the time allotted to teach writing affects the teaching of writing skills
The teacher based factors affecting students writing skills in senior secondary schools includes: Lack of classroom management skill, Poor relationship with the students, Lack of pedagogical knowledge, Inability to adopt instructional method suitable for learning, and Lack of adequate commitment to the job
The students based factors affecting their writing skills in senior secondary schools includes: Truancy, Lack of interest in learning the subject, Lack of parental support, Poor study habit, and Peer influence.
5.4 Recommendations
Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations are proffered.
By understanding both the students’ and teachers’ challenges in learning and teaching writing skills, the teachers could choose the best possible approach to teach writing skills by giving feedback and guidance. Besides, the school management should take necessary actions on the challenges faced by the teachers in order to facilitate the teachers to have effective teaching process. Finally, teachers may stress the importance of learning writing skills to the students in order to motivate them to learn writing skills.
Teachers and parents, must work collaboratively to enhance the writing skills of the students. The Ministry of Education could provide teachers with frequent workshops and professional development opportunities to upscale their knowledge and boost their competence in writing.
Heavy workloads and non-academic activities have been shown to hinder students’ writing. It is recommended that schools and teachers provide students with enough writing time. If this factor is considered, it may help students develop a love for writing by investing their time and enthusiasm in it. Heavy workloads and non-academic activities have been shown to hinder students’ writing. It is recommended that schools and teachers provide students with enough writing time. If this factor is considered, it may help students develop a love for writing by investing their time and enthusiasm in it.
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