Communication Strategies and Attitude: Interactive Concepts in Adult Literacy Teaching

Abstract

This paper examined two important concepts: communication or instructional strategies and attitude of adult learners in a successful adult literacy teaching/learning situation. A 3x2x2 quasi-experimental, pre-test, post-test control group design was employed. The subjects for the study were three hundred and four (304) intermediate class adult learners purposively selected from sixteen (16) adult literacy centres in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. Three hypotheses were generated and tested at 0.05 Alpha level. The instruments used for the study were (a) A recorded cassette containing teachings on the selected concepts. (b) Learners' Achievement Test (LAT) in civic literacy education (c) Learners' Attitude towards Civic Literacy Education Questionnaire (LATCLEQ). The study for this paper lasted ten (10) weeks. The data obtained were analysed using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA), Multiple Classification Analysis (MCA) and Scheffe post-hoc test. The results show that: there was significant main effect of treatment on learners' achievement in civic literacy education (F(2,303) = 19.92; p 0.05) as well as learners' attitude towards civic literacy education (F(1,303) = 2.138; p>0.05). The findings also reveal that there was a significant main effect of learners' socio-economic status on achievement in civic literacy education (F(1,303)=5.225; p 0.05). Based on these findings, it was recommended that effective, participatory and interesting communication strategies like drama and audio-instruction should be used in adult literacy teaching/learning situation to facilitate or enhance positive attitude towards achieving effective learning which is the goal of literacy programme.