Perception of Teachers of English Towards Use of Role Play Teaching Technique on Student’s Performance in Communicative Skills among Secondary School Students in Bungoma North Sub County, Kenya

Abstract

Teaching Communicative Skills aims at improving students’ communication so that they can express themselves in different situations and develop appropriately in speaking, listening, reading and writing. However, the problem is that students in secondary schools under perform in these skills. The purpose of this study was to examine the perception of teachers of English towards use of role play teaching technique on students’ performance in communicative skills among secondary schools. This study applied the Vygotsky’s Social Cultural Interaction Theory which emphasizes importance of social instruction in cognitive learning. The descriptive survey design was used where quantitative and qualitative data was collected from Bungoma North Sub-County. Respondents were selected using purposive sampling, stratified random sampling and simple random sampling techniques where 30% of teachers of English and 30% of Form Three students were sampled. Questionnaires, interview schedule and test items were used to collect data. The reliability and validity of the research instruments was done through piloting the instruments in selected secondary schools in Bungoma North Sub-County. The data collected from the respondents was analyzed using descriptive statistics and transcription and presented in form of charts, tables and discussion. With regard to the importance of role play teaching technique and students’ performance in communicative skills, this study found out that use of role play helped learners improve in performance by mastering content, sharpening interpersonal skills, improving grammatical construction and active participation in lessons. This study on, perception of teachers of English on use of role play teaching technique and students’ performance established that role play is an involving teaching technique and teachers of English avoided using the technique. This study recommends use role play because it helps learners improve, teachers should perceive of role play as better alternative technique for teaching communicative skills, the school administration and The Ministry of Education should help teachers of English overcome challenges and use role play teaching technique effectively in teaching communicative skills. This study will enable The Teachers’ Training Institutions train teachers of English on effective use of role play teaching technique, inform The Ministry of Education to prioritize role play as key teaching technique while drawing curriculum and syllabi for teaching English language