CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
Human beings have the gift of language
which distinguishes them from the rest of the animal world. They are said
to be homo sapiens by reason of language. Man alone has
the power to articulate speech and it is largely by virtue of this power that
human beings can reason. It is difficult to think of what the world of
man would look like without language. Of course, one would find it
difficult to imagine the implications of such a situation, since the very
thought itself would be in language.
Language
has been variously defined. According to Safra (2002) language consists
of vocal sounds to which meanings have been assigned by cultural conventions
and which is often supplemented by various gestures. Language is the
medium man uses to shape and express his thought. Language consists of a
number of verbal and non-verbal presentations of ideas, concepts and these are
represented through symbols and signs in the written form, by means of which
our thoughts are logically and intelligibly proved to be truth. Language
gives human existence its central meaning and focus. According to Palmer
(2005), Otagburuagu and Okorji (2003), man is unlike other animals because he
is homo loquens – man the speaking animal.
From the definitions of language, one could infer that there are
certain features peculiar to human language. For instance, the use of
vocal symbols (speech sounds), use of gestures; nods, smiles, and of course,
verbalization. Animals and birds can vocalize but not verbalize.
Other lower animals can communicate but not with a meaningful language like
human beings. A bird like parrot can repeat or imitate human sounds but
cannot say the meanings. This is why, in considering further the features
of human language, Otagburuagu and Okorji (2003) assert that all languages are
dynamic, productive and communicably dependable through speech and exist in
human nature as part of culture. Human language is used for specific
purposes such as medium of expression of feelings, medium of creativity,
evaluation, indoctrination, social interaction, articulation and classification
of thought. All these boil down to the general purpose of language, which
is a means of communication. By implication, language is the unique property of
human beings and all the developments of man, be it intellectual, ethical,
political, social or economic revolve entirely on the instrumentality of
language. It stimulates all forms of mobility among human beings.
This informs the fact that Nigeria, an English speaking country,
as a result of colonization by the British apart from her Anglophone
inclination, maintains a bilateral relationship with the neighboring
French-speaking countries around her in areas of economic, political, and
socio-cultural dealings. Countries like Cameroon, Chad Republic, Benin
Republic, Togo, Niger and a host of others are in constant touch with Nigeria
under the aegis of the Economic Community of West African States since its
inception in May, 1975. French and English languages are the two major
languages used for communication during deliberations in the meeting sessions
of the union. This informs the necessity of the language for every Nigerian.
The turn of events in the development of French in Nigeria has
culminated in the New French/English bilingual policy of French as a second
language. The policy of French becoming a second official language
confers on it a status similar to that of English in Nigeria. French,
therefore, becomes a core subject at the senior primary and junior parts of the
9-year Basic Education.
The new language policy is consequent upon government’s
awareness and appreciation of the role of the French language as a unifying
force in the inter-regional scene among African states, viz.: “For the smooth
interaction with her neighbors, it is desirable for every Nigerian to speak
French. Accordingly, French shall be the second official language in
Nigeria and it shall be compulsory in schools” (FRN, 1998, 2004). Again
government has realized that operating a monolingual policy of English as the
only official language on the international scene in this millennium and
probably beyond may be detrimental to her democratic and developmental process
(Opara, 2000).
With this
change in status, French is no longer studied as an optional language in the
school but as a second language and compulsory subject. According to th
National Policy on Education,
It has therefore become part of the educational process
of the average Nigerian child. As such, it becomes part of the means for
realizing the educational objectives of helping the child to acquire permanent
literacy, self reliance and other life-long learning skills through the
inculcation of appropriate learning-to-learn, self awareness, citizenship and
life skills (FRN,2004)
To prove its commitment to this policy, the Federal Government
has already adopted the three-phased implementation schedule recommended by the
Ministerial Task Force for the implementation of the policy from 1998 to
2008. The policy has conferred on the French language a privileged
position of a core subject vis-à-vis its former position of an elective course
on the school curriculum. A closer look at the implementation period,
suggests a serious and committed effort on the part of the Federal Government
for its implementation. One would believe that logistics put in place at
the first phase under implementation is not yet completed (Okwudili,
2006). It is rather the case that the first phase has already become a
myth, as nothing seems to be happening in that regard. According to Ugwu
(2008) the French language policy has gradually been going underground due to
some obvious problems which range from human capital to material
resources. As a matter of fact, most of the teachers who are to implement
the policy are not yet aware of the policy, or the proposed phases of the
implementation procedure. Logistics and resources for proper
implementation are not yet adequately in place.
With the above impediments to the implementation of French
language policy in Nigeria, the teaching of French language in secondary
schools endeavors to ensure that the individual Nigerian child acquires the
basic four language skills. According to the West African Examination
Council (WAEC) (Regulations and Syllabus, 2011), the teaching and learning of
French in secondary schools in Nigeria is intended to meet the general needs of
students of French including those who may wish to pursue vocational or other
studies. The aim is to develop the four language skills namely:
listening, speaking, reading and writing as well as encourage critical
thinking.
The focus of this study is the reading skill. According to
Simon (2008), reading is the meaningful interpretation of verbal symbols, a
complex process that involves the physical, mental, and emotional abilities and
conditions of the reader, his cultural background and the kind of materials to
be read. It is a process of retrieving and comprehending some form of stored
information or ideas in written form. Aliyu (2009) equally observes that it is
a domain of language proficiency that encompasses how a reader processes,
interprets and evaluates written language, In other words, reading is a
cognitive process of understanding a written linguistic message, symbols, and
texts with understanding and fluency. Reading like listening, speaking, and
writing is a facet of of communication. Reading and writing build on wealth of
oral language that children begin developing long before they enter school.
Oral and written languages share common features: the same vocabulary, the same
grammar and syntax, and similar purposes. However to read, students must be
able to recognize in print the language that they use orally.
The attainment of the aims and objectives of national language
policy in French has become a mirage as the performances of the students in
Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations have been on a decline.
According to the Chief Examiners’ Reports, WAEC (2009 and 2010), the
performance of the students in French language was rated below 30
percent. The reason is attributed to the poor reading skills on the part
of the students. The report also shows that candidates from Francophone
countries performed well unlike those from the Anglophone. The disparity
between the performance of the students and the objectives of the study of French
language as the second official language prompts the researcher to investigate
the reading difficulties encountered by secondary school students of French
language in Nsukka Education Zone of Enugu State.
Analyzing students’ area of difficulty when identified is a
subsection of this work. The electronic dictionary defines analysis as
“examination and determination”. It involves the separation of entity into
parts for close examination. Analysis of French reading passages will therefore
examine the phonological, phonemic, syntaxes and of course lexical aspects of
difficulties in reading French language. Historically scientific knowledge
develops through cycles of analysis and synthesis. According to Ritchy (2011:11)
“…every synthesis is built upon the results of preceding analysis and every
analysis requires a subsequent synthesis in other to verify the correct
results…” Analysis as a basic scientific method however implies nothing about a
problem having to be quantifiable. Non quantifiable problems rely on judgmental
processes and internal consistency rather than causality. At cognitive level,
judgments must often be used and worked with- more or less directly. Many if
not all the variables involved here are non quantifiable. The researcher
however intends to synthesize the sets of these non quantifiable conditions
into well designed relationship and configurations to help arrive at solutions.
The areas to be analyzed include morphology, phonology, lexis and syntax in
French language reading.
Reading difficulty refers to the challenges encountered by
learners in reading French language. These challenges may be in the form of
phonological and phonemic awareness, word decoding and phonics, fluency,
vocabulary and comprehension. Phonological and phonemic awareness refer to the
specific ability to focus on and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in
spoken language. Phonemes combine to form syllables and words. For example, the
word “ voix” has two syllables and two phonemes; /v/ /wa/. There are 37
phonemes in the French language represented by letter combinations such as /œ/,
as in the words fleur, soeur, etc and /wa/, as in the words moi, voila etc.
Acquiring phonemic awareness is important because it is the foundation for
spelling and word recognition skills. Phonemic awareness is one of the best
predictors of how well children will learn to read. As Pesses (2002)
observed, reading and learning are complementary to each other. Both
skills mar or improve the academic success of a child in the school as he/she
reads to learn and vice-versa. Students at the risk of reading difficulty often
have lower levels of phonological and phonemic awareness than do their
classmates.
Phonological awareness assessment involves the examination of
students’ awareness of the phonological structure, and their ability to
articulate syllables in the process of reading. It looks at how initial sounds,
medial sounds, final sounds are manipulated in the reading process. How
blending phonemes, segmentation of speech stream affect reading. As a result of
the nature of French language, other aspects of phonological awareness will be
called into play in this study. They include the use of liaison, and the
manipulation of nasal sounds known as “nasalization” in French language.
Liaison or linking, strongly affects the flow of utterances. It serves as a
linguistic chain that connects words. Critics often refer to the use of liaison
in French as being chaotic because of the many exceptions in which liaison must
not occur.
Similarly, the fluency of the reader is another essential
variable that needs consideration in reading process. Language educators may
not all agree on a specific definition of fluency. This informs why Mbanefo
(2009) opines that the word is polysemic, in the sense that it may not mean the
same thing to two different language specialists. According to her, the “ideal
option” broad-based definition for the second language teaching and learning is
“smooth, rapid, effortless, accurate use of language” Mbanefo (2009:54).This
option involves fluency and accuracy; accuracy in correct pronunciation, in
perfect choice of vocabulary, accuracy in command of grammar etc. Comprehension
of a passage is enhanced when there is fluent reading. A fluent reader is bound
to be well articulate in attaching meaning to what is read. According to Jones
(2006), fluent readers are able to focus on meaning because decoding is
automatic and effortless for them. In consonance with this, Mbanefo concludes
that “Fluency is smooth-flowing connected speech with appropriate timing and
distribution of prosodic infrastructure like pause, tempo, pacing and
intonation…, without flaws like; imperfect reading rate, imperfect command of
sound in pronunciation and above all, reading flowing without hesitation”.
(Mbanefo, 2009:54)
It is pertinent to note that a major criterion in the evaluation
of fluency is the absence of hesitation. Hesitation here implies the act of
slowing down a process as a result of uncertainty, worry or nervousness. Other
assessment components of fluency include: prosody, accuracy, and rate. The
exact role of expressing and phrasing – or prosody – in fluency and
comprehension has not yet been determined, but it certainly is an element that
signifies whether or not a student is truly a fluent reader. To measure the
quality of a student’s prosody some educators rely on the four-level scale
first developed for the 1992 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)
in reading (Daane, Campell, Grigg, Goodman,and Orange 2005).This scale focuses
on the level of skill a student demonstrates in phrasing and expression while
reading aloud. After listening to an individual student read aloud, the
educator rates the student’s reading according to the level that best describes
the student’s overall performance.
Although most researchers consider prosody important, Hasbrouck
posits that “…the subjectivity of judging students’ prosody makes it a
difficult component of fluency to study…”. (www.readingrockets.org.>Home)
Many researchers have focused on the more easily quantifiable components of
fluency (rate and accuracy). To measure students’ oral reading speed and
accuracy, researchers have developed a simple and very brief procedure that
uses regular classroom texts to determine the number of words that students can
read correctly in one minute. To obtain a Words-Correct Per-Minute (WCPM)
scores, students are assessed individually as they read aloud for one minute
from an unpracticed passage of text. It is the intention of the researcher to
adapt the above procedure in the assessment of fluency in this study.
Furthermore, analyzing students’ error is another factor to be
considered in this study. Error analysis according to Afangideh (2004) is the
study of inter-language in order to better understand the process of L2
acquisition. Inter-language errors are errors made as a result of intrusion of
features of one language into another in the speech of bilinguals. A learner’s
error give evidence of system of language he has learned at a particular point
in the course and points to the difficult areas as well. This is why Tran-Thi
Chan(1974:27) says “The frequency of error is proportional to the degree of
learning difficulties”. This implies that the learning difficulties encountered
by the learner determine the extent of the errors he/she commits. The
proponents of error analysis like Dulay, Burt andKrashen (2002) indicate that
studying learners’ errors have some major advantages. It provides data from
which inferences about the nature of the language learning processes can be
made. Also it indicates to the teacher and the curriculum developers which part
of the target language students have most difficulty producing correctly and
which error types detract most from learners ability to communicate
effectively. It also examines errors from all possible sources and not just
those that result from negative transfer from learners L1. The study
will adapt Error Analysis (EA) which is applied to every aspect of language:
phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexis. It will help to find out how
phonological, morphological and structural patterns of students’ previous
knowledge in the language are misconstrued and how they affect their reading
skills.
Another possible area of reading difficulty among the students
may be in the comprehension skill which stems from the inability of the
students to decode the encoded information. Comprehension is an aspect of
reading skill which emphasizes the internalization of words to convey proper
meanings of words as used in texts. To comprehend simply put means to
understand. This implies that comprehension occurs in a situation whereby the
student recognizes and understands words, at a sight. Armed with the first
sight recognition and internalization of word, the student begins to enjoy
reading. The excitement in reading is due to the relative ease through which
the new words are recognized with the meanings attached to them. It is however
pertinent to note that using phonics is only one of several important
approaches to identifying words. The term word identification and decoding are
broader than phonics. Hence, other clues include grammar and syntax of a
sentence, meaning (semantic) clues, word parts (prefixes, suffixes, base words
and familiarity with similar words (analogy)
(www.eduplace.com/../phonicsO.html)
The multilingual nature of Nigeria is however an imposing
problem for effective French reading. “Nigeria is made up of more than
250 ethnic groups with different political, socio-cultural, religious and
economic backgrounds and languages” (Awa, 2006:10). With the lack of
linguistic relationship between French and the various languages of the country,
it becomes difficult for the learners to imbibe the reading skills in French
language. For instance, it is not easy for neither the Hausa nor the Igbo
or the Yoruba language speakers to find a correlation between French language
and these other languages. Any attempt most of the time will lead to erroneous
transfer problems. In some cases, there are many pronunciation styles as
there are students among other problems.
Apart from the above problems, the inability of the teachers to
teach reading skills in the school comes to play. According to Ojo in
Omachonu (2008), students fail to read efficiently because teachers have not
mapped out sufficient time to teach reading skills. Keeping students interested
and motivated is sometimes a challenge. Some students who can read would rather
do other things instead. Other students struggle with reading and so don’t
enjoy it.
Furthermore, gender and student’s location have been pointed out
as veritable variables that influence the reading skills of the child. According
to Uzoegwu (1995), gender refers to the varied socially and culturally
constructed roles, qualities, behaviours and so on that are ascribed to women
and men in different societies. This implies that the roles and
expectations of the male and female are defined by societies and
cultures. She also noted that gender comes into play in the explanations
of who has the competence in reading or who possesses reading skills. She
asserts that personal orientation and thinking influence achievement level of
an individual. Kilosmeir (2006) opines that in terms of the performance
of boys and girls in reading task, the females have a general tendency to read
very slowly than the boys. Offorma (2009) states that girls have more
flair for language than boys they therefore, perform better than their male
counterparts in reading. However, Offorma asserts that there are
conflicting reports on the influence of gender on language performance.
The location of a school is another important variable that
needs to be studied. It is very pertinent in the determination of the
reading proficiency of a child in the school. Secondary schools in Nigeria are
located in both urban and rural areas. There are a lot of controversies
in determining the influence or otherwise of location in predicting the reading
proficiency of a child. The school has the sole responsibility to develop
the intellectual potentialities of the child in the presence of some physical
infrastructures, equipments or facilities, without which learning will be
hampered. The students will perform well in reading in the presence of
qualified teachers, learning facilities and other items that promote learning
in the school. It has been observed that some students process French
language with difficulty. According to Johnson (2008) these difficulties
are more pronounced in their reading skills which comprise fluency, decoding,
comprehension, and retention of discourse and text. It is therefore
worrisome that students can communicate orally in French, but find it difficult
to read and process simple texts. Okeke (2005) sees this as militating against
the realization of the National Policy on French Language Education in Nigeria.
In corroboration with the above, the WAEC Chief Examiner’s
Report on French language (2010:11) states that “candidates’ performance was
not encouraging. Most of the candidates are weak in the use of the French
verbs, which remains the core of all sentence formation”. French language verbs
are often prone to inflections – grammatical variations which give rise to
different syntactic and lexical functions. When these occur as a result of
conjugation of verbs, change of modes or tenses, students may find themselves
in a fix, in an attempt to get the real meaning of verbs while reading. It is
however even implied that students with poor reading skills will automatically
perform poorly in other subjects (Harris, 2005).
It
is therefore imperative that students will be taught reading skills as a
stepping stone to enhance their performance in school. It is against this
background that the researcher embarked on this study to identify and analyze
the reading difficulties in French language reading skills among senior
secondary school students in Nsukka Education Zone of Enugu State with a view
to proffer enduring solutions to the problem of reading in French language.
Statement of the Problem
Over the years, the preliminary stage of French teaching which
involves oral expression, in other words, listening and speaking attracts the
students more, while reading and writing constitute problem areas for them. The
relationship between reading and language development is taken for granted by
many French language teachers in the schools. There is usually little or no
provision for reading exercises. It is just assumed that once language is
taught, students should have the ability to read. This must have informed the
reason why French language has not found a solid base in Nigeria, in spite of
its being declared as the Nation’s second official language by the late Head of
state General Sani Abacha in 1987.
The absence of progress was equally observed by the Centre
for French Teaching and Documentation (CFTD) Enugu. The data collated in the
years 2006, 2007 and 2008 by the Center indicate that there is a drastic
decline in students’ enrolment in Senior Secondary School Certificate
Examination (SSSCE) in French Language. For example, in the years mentioned the
percentage number of students who registered for the SSSCE were 0.12%, 0.11%,
0.22% respectively. On the other hand, 15.2%,14.9% and 17.9% registered for
Junior Secondary School Certificate Examinations the same years. It is
therefore evident that there is a decline in the strength of students who read
French at the SSSCE level. Could the source of this decline be traceable to
reading difficulties? In the same vein, at the end of Junior Secondary School,
children are expected to read French language texts confidently. A
greater number of students in Senior Secondary Schools find it very difficult
to meet up with the challenges posed by new texts and the concepts
therein. The classroom teachers are also complaining of the inability of
the students to read simple passages in French.
These problems can be solved only if an investigation is
carried out to find out why students read poorly. It is a consensus among
scholars that when a problem is identified it is half solved. Therefore,
the problem of the study posed as a question is: What is the reading difficulty
experienced in French language by Senior Secondary School students in Nsukka
Education Zone of Enugu State?
Purpose of Study
The main purpose of this study was to identify and analyze the
reading difficulties in French language among Senior Secondary School students
in Nsukka Education Zone of Enugu State. Specifically, the study –
·
Identified the pronunciation errors committed by senior
secondary school students in reading.
·
Analyzed the fluency in the students reading of French language.
·
Identified the lexical errors in the students’ reading of French
language.
·
Compared the errors committed by urban and rural secondary
school students in reading French.
·
Found out the type of error committed by male and female
secondary school students in reading French.
Significance of the Study
The beneficiaries of this study are the French language
teachers, the learners, authors of French language textbooks and the curriculum
planners. The significance of this study derives from the theoretical and
practical basis of the Gestalt Cognitive theory of learning with its insight on
problem solving. Theoretically, the study is tied to cognitive theory which
presupposes that the learner should act intelligently to find solutions to
problems he may encounter in the process of learning. Language learning
provides occasion for thinking, understanding and insightful problem solving
behavior.
Another pedagogical justification for this study is that a good
understanding of the nature of French language reading difficulties is
necessary before systematic means of eradicating them could be found. We need
the knowledge of students’ problem areas in reading if we are to make any
well-founded proposals for the development and improvement of materials and
techniques of language teaching.
Furthermore, the study is expected to direct the teachers’
attention to the areas of the difficulties so that they might devote special
care and emphasis on their teaching to overcoming or even avoiding of the
predicted difficulties. They are expected to be more concerned with these
difficulties than with the simple identification of them. They should
necessarily rely on the intuitive analysis of students’ knowledge and
difficulties to show them where the main learning problems lie and also to
guide their informal in-course remedial work. This most often takes the form of
re-teaching that bit of language which was proved to be a problem.
The authors of various textbooks in French language will benefit
immensely from this study. This is because the authors will be able to
take cognizance of the reading difficulties encountered by the students while
writing textbooks in French language. This will help to improve the
comprehension level of the students; hence their reading can be improved on.
The curriculum planners will also benefit from the study.
The information from the reading difficulties of students will enable the
curriculum planners to build in measures of improving the reading proficiency
of the students through the planning of the learning methods and syllabuses.
Scope of Study
The study was delimited to identifying and analyzing
difficulties in reading in French language among the Senior Secondary School
students in relation to pronunciation, lexis, syntax, and fluency. It also
explored the impact of such variables as gender and location of schools on the
reading skills of Senior Secondary School Students in Nsukka Education Zone of
Enugu State.
Research Questions
The following research
questions guided the study:
(1) What are the pronunciation errors committed by senior
secondary school students in reading French language?
(2) What are the syntactic errors committed by senior secondary
school students in reading French language?
(3) What are the lexical errors in students’ reading in French
language?
(4) What are the impediments to students’ fluency in reading
French
language?
Hypotheses
The following two null hypotheses guided the study at p< 0.05
level of significance :
Ho1: There will be no significant
difference in the responses of senior secondary school students in
pronunciation based on location.
Ho2: There will be no statistically
significant difference between the mean score of male and female senior
secondary school students in reading French language.