ASSESSING THE INFLUENCE OF TEACHING AND LEARNING STRATEGIES ON LEARNERS’ PERFORMANCE IN ENGLISH COMPOSITION IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN ELDORET WEST SUB COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

Composition writing skills avail to the learner a means by which the exposition of ideas and responses to given tasks that can be tackled within the communicative nature of a language. However, despite the significant role played by composition writing, studies have pointed out those pupils in primary school lack basic skills of writing. Previous studies in Kenya allege that teaching of composition is faced with a number of challenges. Thus, the purpose of this study was to assess the influence of teaching and learning strategies on learners performance in English composition in Eldoret West Sub County, Kenya. Eldoret West was chosen because of the continuous low achievement of English in the national exams. This study was guided by the following specific objectives; to establish influence of teaching and learning strategies on learners’ performance in English Composition, assess influence of learners’ reading habits on their performance in English Composition and investigate influence of learners’ expressive language on their performance in English Composition in primary schools, Eldoret West Sub County. This study was based on Acculturation Theory which explains how utilization of a dialect in a social setting impacts piece of writing. Additionally it demonstrates that learners will be effective in creative composition writing if there are right social and mental components. Descriptive survey research design was used in this study. The target population comprised a total of 8395 standard 7 pupils, 326 teachers of English and 153 head teachers. Simple random sampling and stratified techniques were used to select 316 pupils were selected for the study. Moreover, two teachers of English and one head teacher from the sampled 21 schools were purposively selected. A total of 42 teachers and 21 head teachers were sampled for the study. A Total of 379 participants were selected. The data collection instruments used included; structured questionnaires, interview guide and document analysis. The researcher used descriptive statistics; proportions, percentages and means to establish the relationships among variables. The study further used Pearson product moment correlation to determine the relationship between teaching and learning strategies and performance in English composition. Interview guide data was analyzed qualitatively under thematic areas defined by the objectives. There was a strong positive significant correlation between teaching and learning strategies and performance in composition writing (r=0.611, p=0.000, α≤ .01), reading habits and composition performance had a negative correlation and it was not significant (r = -0.098, p = 0.089, α≥.01) expressive language and the performance in Composition writing had a positive and significant correlation (r= 0.535, p-value=0.000, α ≤ .01). However, there is no significant correlation (r= -0.141 and p-value=0.459, α=0.01) between reading habits and performance in composition writing. As a result, it is important for teachers to allow learners to learn English Composition in groups. Teachers should guide the learners to select reading materials geared towards improvement of writing skills. Most importantly, learners need to have more writing practice, discussions and receive feedback from the teachers on areas to be improved. The use of English in communication also makes it easier for learners to express themselves in written English. Besides, it is important for teachers to always use English to communicate with learners, and in addition, parents should encourage learners to speak in English. The study findings are of great importance to the learners, teachers and school management. The findings give important insights on how the different strategies can be used to improve performance in English.