EFFECT OF GUIDED STRATEGY ON UPPER BASIC SCHOOL(UBS) STUDENTS’ WRITTEN ENGLISH IN ILORIN, NIGERIA

Abstract

ABSTRACT

 The purpose of this study is to find out whether guided strategy is better than the conventional strategy in teaching writing skills in upper basic schools in Ilorin, Nigeria. this is in a bid to improve the writing performance of the students. A quasi-experimental design involving pretest and posttest group was designed with two groups of one experimental (guided strategy) and the other control (conventional strategy). The main objectives are to find out which group performed better out of the two and to also examine gender influence. The methodology involved a researcher designed instructional package on guided strategy and National Examination Council standardized test which were used as treatment and test instrument respectively for data collection. The post-test scores were subjected to Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) to test the two hypotheses generated for the study. The findings revealed that students taught using guided strategy wrote differently and better than their counterparts taught using the conventional strategy. Also, there was significant difference in the written English of male and female students taught using guided strategy. It was concluded that guided strategy is very effective in the teaching of writing skill especially in the upper basic schools. The implication of this is that teachers should gradually shift away from the conventional strategy and move to guided strategy with more concentration on the male students. Recommendation was made that teachers of English language should use guided strategy as it will promote creativity and build students’ confidence in writing especially in English as a second language class.

Keywords: Guided strategy, writing skills, essay writing, UBS, English as a Second Language