TWO ACTIVITY-BASED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES AND LEARNING OUTCOMES IN SUMMARY WRITING AMONG PRE-SERVICE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES IN OYO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Summary Writing (SW) is an important study skill for all learners of the English Language. Yet, some Pre-service English Language Teachers with Learning Disabilities (PELTLD) in Colleges of Education (CoEs) in Oyo State exhibit deficiency in SW due to learning disabilities in language-related subjects. Previous studies largely focused on student and teacher factors influencing PELTLD learning outcomes in SW with little emphasis on the use of activity-based instructional strategies such as Generating Interactions between Schemata and Text and cubing. This study was, therefore, conducted to determine the effect of GIST and Cubing Instructional Strategies (CIS) on learning outcomes in SW among PELTLD in Oyo state, Nigeria. The study also examined the moderating effect of text type as well as gender on learning outcome in SW among the participants.

Schema and Social Learning theories provided the framework, while the pretest-posttest control group quasi-experimental design with a 3×2×2 factorial matrix was adopted. The multi-stage procedure was employed to select three public CoEs (one federal – Federal College of Education (Special), Oyo and two state owned – Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, Oyo and College of Education, Lanlate). The second year pre-service English language teachers in the department of English language were screened for learning disabilities using Slosson Intelligence and Delta Screener Tests in the three CoEs. Ninety pre-service teachers exhibited learning disabilities after the screening. The CoEs were randomly assigned to GIST strategy (30), CIS (30) and control (30) groups. The instruments used were Summary Writing (r=0.71), Slosson Intelligence (r=0.76), Delta Screener (r=0.84) tests, Attitude to Summary Writing Scale (r=0.89), and instructional guides. The treatment lasted 10 weeks. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Analysis of covariance and Bonferroni post-hoc test at 0.05 level of significance.

Participants’ age was 18.00 ±2.01years and the females were 65.0%. There was a significant main effect of treatment on ACSW (F (2; 87) = 50.82, partial ŋ2 = 0.57) and ATSW (F (2, 87) =3.11, partial ŋ2 = 0.08). The participants in GIST (x ̅=20.10) had the highest mean score in ACSW, followed by cubing (x ̅=15.49) and control (x ̅=13.88) groups. However, participants in cubing (x ̅=73.34) had the highest mean score for ATSW, followed by GIST (x ̅=71.14) and control (x ̅=68.65) groups. There was a significant interaction effect of treatment and TT on ACSW (F (2; 87) =11.32, partial ŋ2 = 0.23) in favour of participants in the GIST group and narrative texts. However, interaction effect of treatment and TT on ATSW was not significant. There was no significant main effect of gender on ACSW and ATSW. The two-way interaction effect of gender and TT was not significant on ACSW and ATSW. There was no significant three-way interaction effect of treatment, TT and gender on ACSW and ATSW.

Generating interactions between schemata and text, and cubing instructional strategies enhanced academic achievement in and attitude towards summary writing. These strategies should be adopted by lecturers of colleges of education for improved achievement in and attitude towards summary writing of pre-service English language teachers with learning disabilities.