Teaching of English grammar using oral literature in Kenya secondary schools

Abstract

Achieng Adongo, Abuya Akello, and Kelvin Muthengi

The mastery of grammar forms a basis for achieving proficiency in the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Teachers of English language should therefore, aim at ensuring learners acquire adequate competence in grammar. In order to realize this, it is important to teach language in context. Thus, the use of oral literature in the teaching of grammar in secondary schools would provide the learners with a genuine learning context and a focus to communicate. Therefore, the present study sought to establish the use of oral literature in the teaching of English grammar in secondary schools in Bondo District. The objectives of the study were to: find out teachers’ conceptualization of using oral literature in the teaching of English grammar and establish teachers’ use of oral literature in the teaching of grammar. The study was based on the descriptive survey design. The sample consisted of all the 28 secondary schools in the district and 44 English language teachers. Data were collected by use of questionnaires, observation schedule and document analysis schedule. The study established that even though teachers appreciate the benefits of contextualized grammar teaching, majority do not exploit oral literature genres in the teaching of English grammar because they do not know how to integrate the genres in classroom teaching. The study recommends that all genres should be carefully selected and used in the teaching of grammar and that English grammar should not be taught in isolation with emphasis on rules as this would promote linguistic competence as opposed to communicative competence.