Effect of Communicative Language Teaching Approach on SS 2 Science Students’ use of English Passives in Katsina-Ala Lga of Benue State, Nigeria

Abstract

This article reports a study that sought to determine if the communicative language teaching approach was more effective than traditional grammar translation in enabling SS II science students to make use of the passive voice to report science experiments. 150 SS II science students consisting of 62 male and 88 female students in two schools in Katsina-Ala, Benue State, Nigeria participated in the experiment which lasted for six weeks. Two intact classes with a similar English proficiency levels were used and one each group received a total of twelve lessons each lasting for forty minutes. Two research questions were asked and hypotheses tested at P< .05 level of significance to confirm the answers. Data were collected through an Achievement Test on English Passives (ATEP) designed by the researcher and analyzed using descriptive statistics, ANCOVA and paired-sample t-test. The findings indicated statistically significant difference between the experimental and control groups with the experimental group showing better performance in all the two variables namely (a) sentence transformation from the active to the passive voice, and (b) use of passives to report science experiments. Based on the findings it was concluded that students learn the passive voice better through the communicative approach than with traditional grammar translation. The researcher therefore, recommended that communicative language teaching should be adopted in secondary schools since it was found to enhance the learning of the English passives.