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seek to determine the moderating effects of class size on students‟ achievement in English Grammar and Composition when reactive focus-on-form strategy is used.
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giving feedback on students‟ essays promptly and appropriately. It is in an attempt to fill these gaps in literature that the study determined the effect of Direct and Indirect Explicit grammar instructional strategies on students achievement in English grammar and composition and the moderator effect of class size and gender.
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CHAPTER THREE METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research Design
This study adopted the pretest- posttest, control group, quasi-experimental design. It determined the effect of Direct and Indirect Explicit grammar instructional strategies, on students‟ achievement in English grammar and composition.
Schematically, the design is represented thus:
01 X1 02 --- E1
03 X2 04 -- E2
05 X 06 --- Control
01, 03, 05, represent the pre-test for both experimental and control group respectively, 02, 04, 06 represent the post-test for the experimental and control groups respectively.
X1 represents the treatment for Experimental Group E1-Direct Explicit instructional strategy
X2 represents the treatment for Experimental Group E2- Indirect Explicit instructional strategy
X represents the treatment for Control Group C – Modified Conventional strategy A 3 X 3 X 2 factorial matrix was adopted with instructional strategy as treatment at three levels; class size at three levels (large, medium and small)and gender at two levels (male and female), The factorial matrix of the study, is represented in table 3.1.
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Table 3.1: Schematic Representation of the Matrix
Treatment/strategies Gender Class size
Large Medium Small Direct Explicit instructional
strategy E1
Male Female Indirect Explicit instructional
strategy E2
Male Female Modified Conventional strategy Male
Female 3.2 Variables of the Study
(1) Independent Variable: This is instructional strategy manipulated at three levels namely,
i. Direct Explicit grammar instructional strategy ii. Indirect Explicit grammar instructional strategy iii. Modified Conventional strategy
(2) Moderator Variables: There are two moderating variables in the study.
i. Class size (Large, Medium and Small) ii. Gender of students (male and female)
(3) Dependent Variables: These are students‟ learning outcomes i. Achievement in English Grammar
ii. Achievement in English Composition 3.3 Selection of participants.
A total of 274 Senior Secondary Two (SS II) students participated in the study.
The subjects were drawn from nine intact classes. Purposive sampling technique was used to select nine secondary schools in Ibadan North, Ibadan North East and Ibadan North West local government areas of Oyo State. The selection of schools was based on the following criteria:
- The schools that are co-educational because gender is a critical variable in the study.
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- Schools that have English language teachers with at least three years teaching experience.
- Schools with evidence that SSII students of the schools had not been exposed to the grammatical concepts to be taught in the study. The choice of SSII students was made because they had been exposed to the introductory aspects of grammar of English in junior secondary school and SS1 English language which act, as pre-requisite for the study of the chosen concepts. The students were likely to be more receptive to the teaching strategy as they were not under the pressure of preparing for external examination. The teaching of the concepts was also appropriate to the scheme of work at this stage of their spiral curriculum.
- Schools that demonstrate willingness to participate in the study 3.4 Research Instruments
Six instruments constructed by the researcher were used in this study to collect data.
i. English Grammar Achievement Test (EGAT) ii. English Composition Test (ECT)
iii Teachers‟ Instructional Guide on Direct Explicit Grammar Instructional Strategy (TIGDES)
iv Teachers‟ Instructional Guide on Indirect Explicit Grammar Instructional Strategy (TIGIES)
v. Teachers Instructional Guide on Modified Conventional Strategy (TIGMCS) vi. Evaluation sheet for Assessing Teachers‟ Performance on the use of the
Strategies (ESAT)
3.4.1 English Grammar Achievement Test (EGAT)
The instrument is made up of two sections, namely sections A and B. Section A consists of the personal data of the subjects, including their gender, name of school and class. Section B comprises 20 multiple test items on English Grammar. Students were required to pick the option in line with their views on each item. All questions were in objective form with alternatives A to D. Students were to pick the correct answer out of the alternatives provided in each item. The table of specification for the development of the test is in Table 3. The table is in accordance with Bloom et al (1961) in which the six levels of Bloom taxonomy were covered. This is done in this
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research to show the thinking skills that the research is based upon, and it was used as pretest and posttest in this study.
Table 3.2 Table of Specification of EGAT Cognitive level
content
Knowledge 15%
Compr ehensi on 20
Applicati on 15%
Analysi s 10%
Synthesis 15%
Evaluation 10
Total 100%
Direct and indirect speech
2 (1,2) 1 (3,) (3)
15%
Question tags 2 (4,5) 2 (6,7) (4)
20%
Tenses 1 (8) 2 (9,10) (3)
15%
Voice (active and passive voice)
2 (11,12) 2 (13,14)
(4) 20%
Mood (types of mood)
2 (15,16) 1 (17) (3)
15%
Sentence combining devices
2 (18,19) 1(20) (3)
15%
Total 10 2 3 2 2 1 20
(100)
% Source: Bloom et al (1961)
Validity of EGAT
This instrument was subjected to face and content validity by giving copies to experts in educational evaluation and language education with bias in English language education. These experts were asked to determine its suitability in terms of clarity, breadth and language. Only the 20 items that were found suitable were used.
Reliability of EGAT
The test was administered on sampled 50 SSII students in a school outside the ones to be used for the study using KR-20 and the reliability coefficient determined was 0.81.
3.4.2 English Composition Test (ECT)
The English Composition Test is made up of English written composition where students‟ usage of English grammar was tested. The instrument was used as both the pretest and posttest. The test measured students‟ usage of English grammar items taught in essay writing.
Validity of ECT
The face validity of ECT was determined by giving the items to four language educators with bias in English language to determine their suitability in terms of
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language of presentation, clarity of ideas and class level, length and relevance or applicability to the study.
Reliability of ECT
The test was administered on sampled 50 SSII students in a school outside the ones to be used for the experiment. Inter-rater reliability was determined using Scott pie yielding a value of 0.84
3.4.3 Teachers’ Instructional Guide on Direct Explicit Grammar Instruction Strategy. (TIGDES)
Step 1: Define/ Explain the Grammatical Concept