Enhancing Teaching And Learning Of Oral Comprehension Skills In Secondary Schools: Experience From Lesson Study In Dodoma

ABSTRACT

The study was aimed at designing, developing and applying a learner-centered (LC) material to enhance the teaching and learning of oral comprehension skills to lower secondary school students. The study addressed the following objectives: (1) To design an activity-based pedagogical approach (learner centred) material for developing oral comprehension and listening skills among learners at O-level secondary schools, (2) To pilot the designed material and examine its applicability in the real classroom settings, (3) To try out the designed material in the Experimental school, (4) To carry out a formative evaluation of the learning process on the new designed lessons and materials after being tried out in the classroom, (5) To evaluate students‟ listening comprehension performance before and after the application of the designed lessons and material, (6) To appraise students‟ and teacher‟s perceptions on the effectiveness of the proposed learning process rooted in the designed lessons and materials. Documentary reviews, questionnaires, interviews, classroom observations and preand post-tests were used to collect data. Two classes from two different schools were involved, one as a control and another as experimental class. Findings of the field testing of the material revealed that the approach has helped teachers in classroom management and increased their PCK. Students were active, motivated, could perform many activities suggested, and increased their oral comprehension skills. There was statistical significance in the increase in performance in listening comprehension skills in the experimental classes as the outcome of the approach and material applied. The study recommends that English teachers should adapt LCA and stress on the use of authentic materials in the teaching of listening comprehension. In addition, more studies are encouraged to be done in primary schools to build competence on the same aspect. vii TABLE