The Use of Oral Language Approaches in Developing Writing Skills in English Language Among Kalenjin Secondary School Students in Rift Valley – Kenya

In 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, unavailabity of instructional materials and inability of learners to express themselves orally thus hindering development of competence in writing

Factors Influencing the Efficacy of Free Primary Education Policy in Relation to the Enrolment of Children with Special Needs Education in West Pokot County, Kenya

The introduction of Free Primary Education (FPE) policy in 2003 was aimed at enhancing the enrolment of all school going- age children in Kenya indiscriminately. However, significant concerns have been raised by scholars and the public over the low enrolment of children with Special Needs Education (SNE). The main objective of this study was to determine the efficacy of FPE policy on enrolment of special needs children in education in West Pokot County, Kenya. Descriptive survey research design was used. The target population was 696 respondents drawn from the 65 primary schools, SNE teachers of West Pokot County. Purposively sampling was used due to relatively low enrolment of children with special education needs. Simple random sampling was used to obtain the respondents as follows: 362 pupils with SNE and 123 SNE teachers. Each sub-county formed an important cluster from where the respondents were drawn from. The researcher collected data from pupils with special needs education and special education teachers. Focused Group Discussions (FGD), Document Analysis schedule and interview schedules were also used during the study. Content validity was done through the contributions of experts in the Department of Educational Planning and Management of Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology. Pilot study was carried out to establish the reliability of the instruments. Test –retest method was employed to obtain the reliability of the instruments at 0.05 level of confidence. The findings yielded both qualitative and quantitative data and presented in frequency tables and line graphs. The findings revealed that factors affecting the efficacy of free primary education range from; sociocultural, economic, environmental, school based, individual and policy and system factors. The study thus recommends that the government commits more resources to FPE financing policy and employ strategic and individualized mechanisms such as early identification, screening, tracking and monitoring of pupils from homesteads to homestead to ensure enrolment enhanced nationally. Keywords: Efficacy, Free Primary Education Policy, Enrolmen

Influence of Resources used in Teaching English Speech Functional Writing Skills Among Secondary School Learners in West Pokot County

Functional writing is a pragmatic use of language for social and personal expression. It recorded the lowest mean score in the Kenya certificate of secondary education (K.C.S.E) examination for period 2011 to 2019 as revealed by KNEC examination reports with a mean grade below C+. The purpose of the study was to establish Influence of Resources used in teaching English Speech Functional Writing Skills among Secondary School Learners in West Pokot County. The objective of the study was to: establish the Influence of Resources used in teaching English Functional Writing among secondary school learners. The study used descriptive survey and correlation study designs. The study population consisted of 2580 Form 4 students and 34 teachers of English subject from 34 schools. The study used saturated sampling technique to select 31 teachers while Krejcie and Morgan table was used to determine sample size of 334 students who were then randomly sampled. Data collection was done through questionnaire and learners’ achievement test. Pilot study comprised of 3 teachers of English and 250 students from 3 secondary schools to establish the reliability of instruments through test – retest reliability method. Supervisors from the Department of Educational Communication Technology, and Curriculum Studies of Maseno University ascertained content validity of instruments. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze quantitative data.  Findings revealed that the average student performance in speech writing was below average 46 (sd: 21.7). The median student mark was 50 (ranging 25-60). The study concluded that teachers vary their preference in terms of resources use. The study recommended that teachers use appropriate resources to meet need of the learners’ functional writing skills. Keywords: Resources,Teaching, Functional  Writing DOI: 10.7176/JEP/13-27-05 Publication date:September 30th 202