The Influence of Students’ Emotions on the Acquisition of English-SpeakingSkills Among Secondary School Students in Homa Bay County, Kenya

Abstract

Language learning is a part of the psychological process because it is based on learner’s individual difference. Speaking skills allow individuals to speak comfortably to each other. It provides us with the ability to express information verbally. However, many students do not feel confidently enough to develop their speaking skills. This paper, therefore, evaluates the influence of students’ emotions on acquisition of English speaking skills among secondary school students in Homa Bay County, Kenya. The study was anchored on socio-cultural and behaviourist theories and adopted a concurrent triangulation research design. The study employed descriptive research design and underpinned on pragmatist research paradigm. The target population was 29141 secondary school students as well as principals and teachers. A sample size of 365 respondents was selected using Yamane’s sample size determination formula through multi stage sampling design and 9 principals and 27 teachers were purposively chosen. The data was collected using structured questionnaire. Collected data was analysed using descriptive statistics such as tables, frequencies and percentage were used while inferential statistics were obtained using Person correlation coefficient. The results indicated that students with high emotional understanding showed better speaking skills; 75.45%. This showed that emotions of students had weak positive significant correlation with learning of speaking skills (r =.71, p < 0.01) and acquisition of speaking skills (r = .30, p > 0.01). Further, there was a positive relationship between learning and acquisition of specking skills (r = .56, p > 0.01). Emotions are very important in teaching and learning process. The study recommends that the close relationship between speaking abilities and emotions yields a wealth of information that could influence and change educational practices across the board, from curricula to policies.