A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE ATTITUDES OF STUDENTS TOWARDS TEACHING OF ENGLISH POEMS THROUGH TRADITIONAL METHOD AND INTERACTIVE COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES AND ITS EFFECTIVENESS AT HIGHER SECONDARY LEVEL IN KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA, PAKISTAN

Abstract

Topic: A Comparative Study of the Attitudes of Students towards Teaching of English Poems through Traditional Method and Interactive Communication Strategies and its Effectiveness at Higher Secondary Level in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Pages: 167 Researcher: Allah Noor Khan Marwat Supervisor: Dr. Muhammad Shah University: Gomal University Dera Ismail Khan Year: 2013 Degree: Ph.D (Education) The problem under study was to investigate “A Comparative Study of the Attitudes of Students towards Teaching of English Poems through Traditional Method and Interactive Communication Strategies and its Effectiveness at Higher Secondary Level in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.” The main objective of the study was to find out the better teaching method for teaching poems at Higher Secondary level. The study compared the effects of two given methods on the ability of the students to appreciate the theme, music and imagery of the poem. The study worked to find out the attitude of students of both the groups towards their respective teaching methods and finding also the proportionate amount of time given to the students of each group. In this experimental study, Government Boys Higher Secondary School No.4 Dera Ismail Khan Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was selected as a sample through purposive sampling. Selection of sections was randomly done using the new draw method technique. Similarly one group was randomly selected as the experimental and the other as x control. Each group was consisted of thirty students. The same teacher taught to experimental as well as control group. The researcher motivated directed and guided him to use traditional method for teaching English to control group and adopt interactive strategies for experimental group. The relevant pre-test was administered and the students of both groups were equivalent at the time of starting the experiment. The instruments consisted of two achievement tests (pre-test and post-test) in the subject of English 11th class and 10 poems which are included in the textbook of English Course Book of Intermediate Class of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Duration of teaching was about forty days with the period of 40 minutes and both the groups were instructed essentially the same thing except for the method of instruction. The teacher of experimental group started English poem with the help of interactive communication strategies whereas the control group was started English poems with the help of traditional method. After the study, post-test was taken to the students of both the groups. The data was collected and analyzed by the application of software, SPSS version17 and presented in the form of mean scores. The mean scores of experimental and control group were compared and t-test was employed. The significant value was seen at .05 levels as the criterion for the rejection of null hypothesis. By applying two attitude scales to both groups, majority of the students who had been taught through interactive strategies showed more positive attitude towards their respective teaching strategies. Most of the students of traditional method were not satisfied with the teacher dominated class. The proportionate amount of time was calculated by finding the percentage of time taken by the teacher, teacher plus students and students. The findings of the study are that the students of the interactive communication strategies learnt comparatively better than the students who had been taught through xi traditional method. The students of the experimental group also showed positive attitude towards the group activities as compared to the attitude of the students of the control group. Time given to the students was directly proportional to their academic achievement and the improvement of different aspects of poems was also directly proportional to the time consumed by the students. The study recommends that the concept of interactive communication strategies may be implemented at the higher secondary schools for teaching English poems in order to understand its theme, imageries and its musical effects. The policy makers and curriculum planners may encourage these collaborative activities for effective teaching and in pre-service, orientation courses of the teachers. The Government may provide training to English teachers so that they might be able to use the essential elements of interactive strategies i.e. positive interdependence, equal participation, interpersonal, peer learning and small group skills.