THE USE OF ORAL LANGUAGE APPROACHES IN DEVELOPING WRITING SKILLS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE AMONG KALENJIN SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN RIFT VALLEY – KENYA

Abstract

n English Language, there is a strong correlation between oral language skills and achievement in the written language among learners in schools. However, one of the most important ways of learning oral English is adequate vocabulary so that a learner can use a wide range of vocabulary in writing. This study sought to investigate the use of oral language approaches in developing writing skills in English in Kenyan Secondary Schools in Kenya. A descriptive survey research design was used. The schools under investigation were a sample size of 28 (30%) was selected from 64 secondary schools categorized as district and provincial, girls school boys’ schools. Stratified random sampling was used to get the schools from the categories and simple random sampling to get respondents from each school into the samples. Questionnaires were used to solicit information from teachers, observations and tape recording was used to record linguistics data exactly as it occurred while he learning in classroom took place. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used during data analysis with the help of percentages, frequently tables and pie chart. Analysis was done using statistical package for social sciences SPSS. The findings of the study revealed that problems found in schools were associated with student’s attitudes, teachers’ methodology of teaching, unavailability of instructional materials and inability of learners to express themselves orally thus hindering development of competence in writing.