Solving Problems Of Vocabulary Development Among Students In Junior Secondary School
Abstract
The main focus of the study was on solving problems of vocabulary development among JSS3 students in Oruk Anam Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. The sampled population consisted of some selected students in Oruk Anam Local Government Area. A simple random sampling was adopted to select the size of 150 students. Questionnaire was used in order to get information from the respondents. Three research questions were formulated to guide the study. A simple percentage test measure was used in analyzing the data. From the result of the research findings, it was discovered that students on their own part do not like the subject English language while some teachers as a result of inexperience do not go to classes with instructional materials to aid the lesson. Some recommendations were made based on the findings.These included among others: that school libraries should be stocked with current text books on the various subjects to improve student’s attention and encourage their reading interest.
CHAPTER ONE
1.1 Background to the Study
The vocabulary development is a process by which people acquire words. A person’s vocabulary is the set of words within a language that are familiar to the person. Vocabulary usually develops with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquisition of knowledge. Acquiring adequate vocabulary is one of the challenges in learning a second language.
The ability to acquire more vocabulary places the student on advantage as far as the use of English is concerned. How effective or otherwise a student comprehends what he or she is taught depends to a large extent on the level and amount of vocabulary he knows and understands during the teaching process. However, inspite of the importance of English in our society today there has been a decline in terms of quality of English use among our students. This is said to be occasioned by lack of vocabulary development on the language by them. It is this situation, therefore, that has necessitated this work which is aimed at finding solution to the problems of vocabulary development among student in Oruk Anam Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.
Solving Problems Of Vocabulary Development Among Students In Junior Secondary School
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Possessing an appreciable stock of vocabulary is a critical component in acquiring reading comprehension skills. Adequate stock of vocabulary ensures that students will develop metacognitive skills which will assist in comprehending advanced texts. Without a good stock of it, no student or user of English can make use of English language effectively. For sometimes now, the performance of students in English language has been very low due to lack of vocabulary development. Therefore, the concern of this study is to investigate how vocabulary development problem could besolved.
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The main purpose of this study is to solve the problem of vocabulary development. Specifically, the study will attempt to find out the following:
- The influence of vocabulary development on the performance of students in English language
- Whether there is any significant relationship between students’ lack of vocabulary development and their academic environment.
- The extent to which junior secondary school students learning English language be influenced by the used of appropriate method in teaching vocabulary development.
1.4 Research Questions
In order to achieve the objectives of this study, the following research questions were formulated to guide the investigations:
- What are the methods of solving the problems of vocabulary development?
- What is the difference in the performance of junior secondary school students in English language when appropriate methods of vocabulary development are used?
- Do student has any interests in vocabulary development in junior secondary school?
1.5 Significance of the Study
Like most research works, this study, will be of help to the students in particular and teachers of English language. Problems discovered will be addressed, through various recommendations to be made and this will help to make the students adopt appropriate ways of developing vocabulary for effective communication.
1.6 Limitation of the Study
This research project is limited to solving problems of vocabulary development among students in junior secondary schools in Oruk Anam Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. The major limitations were inadequate finance, insufficient research information on the topic of the research, time, and distance during the period of writing.
However, if tested with large populations, similar results will be obtained, hence validity will be maintained.
1.7 Delimitation of the Study
Since all the secondary schools in the state could not be covered, the study will only considered some selected secondary schools in Oruk Anam Local Government Area. This means that the findings made, cannot be generalized beyond this area.
1.8 Definition of Terms
Solving: According to Oxford Advanced learner’s Dictionary, solving means finding a way of dealing with a problem or difficult situation.
Problems: According to Oxford Advanced Dictionary, this means a thing that is difficult to deal with or to understand.
Vocabulary: Vocabulary is commonly defined as “all the words known and used by a particular person”.
According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, Development is the gradual growth of something so that it becomes more advanced, stronger etc.