american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 published by american center of science and education, usa 47 the sponges in the learning process hassan salih r department of physical education and sports sciences, faculty of education , pakistan ibtihal riyad esaa department of physical education and sports sciences faculty of education , pakistan mohammed jasim moneam department of physical education and sports sciences faculty of education , pakistan abstract the study included a number of axes that concentrated on using the sponges in the learning process as supportive means towards learning this particular skill which is considered rather difficult. a certain type of sponges where used to learn each stage of this skill. these types were different in shape and size, considering the height and potential of the individual sample, in order to help the learners master this skill in the best way possible. the learning group was given a 4-weeks course to learn the front-hand somersault using these supportive techniques, two credits a week. after 4 weeks, the results of each group were collected and compared (the original and the experimental group). the statistical results showed that the experimental surpassed the original one. keywords: sponge pieces, kinematics variables, performance learning. introduction the general concept of sports has become a science as well as an art that has its distinctive rules from other sciences, since it depends on physics, chemistry, and medicine. the biomechanics sums up these sciences in order to present the athlete with the best performance(1). the educational tools and their importance have become an important part of the educational process, and it is apparent in the increasing number of coaches who use them all around the globe. using the educational tools have proved to improve the learning process and make it more appealing(2). they are everything the teacher uses during the learning process in order to deliver the information to the students (3).using the educational tools during the educational process helps to grow and improve the kinetic perception of the student, and it helps reaching the maximum possible use of the educational process. the educational tools are everything that helps transporting knowledge, information, and the different and various skills, and elevates the skill-acquisition through the different senses. it ultimately enhances the motional skill learning speed as well as the kinetic and tactic performances (2) . they are also known as a group of tools and machines used by the coach or teacher in order to enhance the educational and learning processes in order to better manifest the information to the student whether in or out of the classroom. it also helps the students realize the meaning and essence of the topic, as well as mastering it in a shorter time and lesser effort (4). learning using the sponges helps the learners master the front-hand somersault in an easy and fast was saving more time and effort in the process the practical part field research procedures the researchers used the experimental method using two parallel groups (original and experimental) in order to meet the study requirements (5). the researchers chose a sample from the study community, which is a methodological term used to refer to the individuals that have the research results (6). the sample was chosen from the 3rd year students of the department of physical education of my university, 25 students. the research sample is a partial group of the study community that are selected according to a certain criteria(7). 20 students were chosen from that community, the group was sub-divided into two smaller groups of 10 each randomly as well, making the sample ratio 80% from the community. experiments and measurements 1the bridge test (8). www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 48 2front-scale test (9). 3forward-rolling, stopping, fast modification test (10). 4hip-angle measurement. 5measuring the distance between the hand and foot (front-hand somersault). 6gravity centre elevation while mid-air (front-hand somersault). recording procedures two cameras to record the kinematics variables. the recording area was 4.80m. a camera was put on the student’s right, 3.3m far and 1.1m height, so that it can vertically record the motion scope in order to make use of determining the variables (hip angle, high centerofgravity, and the distance between the hand and foot). the second camera was put on the student’s left, 3m far and 1.16m height so that it can vertically record the motion scope of the student including the beginning and ending motion points of the whole movement including the variables of (hip angle, high centerofgravity, and the distance between the hand and foot). pre-tests and measurements pre-tests and measurements were made in 21st of december, 2016, which included the technical performance of the (front-hand somersault), and the studied variables. credentials 8 credits were applied to both of the groups, two credits per week. the students were trained the stages of the skill using the sponges in each stage, geometrically. however, the original group was trained using the conventional means and the same number of credits. first: rectangular sponge piece the researchers prepared a rectangular-shaped sponge with the following dimensions: 1m length, 55cm width, 60cm height. the sponge flexibility was of average pressure, and a 5cm-height sponge was added, of the same length and width, but of higher pressure, the regular pressure sponges in order to preserve the safety of the students and absorb the falling pressure while performing the skill. the student, using these pieces of sponges, apply the flying phase and then standing on her hands, and this is the first phase or stage of the skill, then pushing the ground with the hands and performing the second phase of flying. second: two triangular, different shaped sponges after giving the learners several attempts to do the skill on the rectangular sponge. after that, the students shift to learn on two triangular, differently shaped sponges. the first sponge is 1m, 1.4m , 1.7m, and of 80cm height. however, the second piece: 75cm , 1.1m , 1.4 , and of 70cm height. the students apply the second phase using these two pieces then landing. an inclination of the body at the head of the triangle sponge so that it can help pushing the student upwards so that she can get up again and return to original posture. the reason why the two sponges are different in shape is that it may fit the students’ different shapes and sizes and the gravity center of the individual samples. a carpet was added around the sponges to increase the safety level while applying the skills. the dimensions of the carpet were: 2m , 2m , 5m. figure 1 – geometric sponges third: performing the regular front-hand somersault skill after training the students to perform the skill in the previous stages, the student is now ready to perform the skill in the regular way, and making the needed corrections in order to get the best possible results. posty tests www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 49 the posty measurements and tests were performed in 29th of january, 2017, including all the variables related to the preliminary tests. statistical methods the spss program was used. the results after processing the preliminary and posty tests and statistically processing them, and in order to evaluate the technical performance of the front-hand somersault according to certain kinetic variables, the data was analyzed using the statistical program spss. the results indicated that there are many abstract differences between the preliminary and the posty tests of the study variables favoring the experimental group. table (1):displaying the average, standard deviation, t value, and the statistical results of the study variables. statistical results sig t value original grp experimental grp measurement units the variables morale 0.002 4.47 0.72 6 0.707 8 degree balance morale 0.020 2.88 0.44 2.60 0.54 3.60 degree coordination morale 0.011 3.26 4.92 71.40 7.56 58.20 cm flexibility morale 0.017 3.02 6.98 155.40 5 167 degree hip angle morale 0.000 7.14 0.03 1.33 0.04 1.17 meter hand-foot distance morale 0.012 3.25 0.17 1.20 0.63 1.30 meter high centerof gravity while mid-air morale 0.016 3.02 0.83 5.20 0.83 6.80 degree performance. discussion: table (1) shows that the difference between the two groups are abstract favoring the experimental group. the abstract value (sig) is less than the morale degree (0.05). the reason why there is such a difference is that the rectangular sponges helped the students measure the proper distance between the hand and the foot in the first flying phase and shifting the body weight towards the hands, creating a push force from the legs towards the hands which provides the student with the needed force for the circulation(11). however, the remaining phases of the skill (the second flying phase and the landing) on the triangular sponges that helped adjusting the hip angle as well as determining the height of the body weight center during while mid-air, and improving the push by one or two legs, as well as the arms. this is not a central pushing force that results in flying along circulation(12). the student applied the phases using the sponges in order to learn the needed corrections while performing the skill to adjust the hip angle, the elevation of body weight center while mid-air, and by repeating the attempt several times in order to memorize the skill and sync all the moving parts (13), and reaching the best possible performance. applying the different phases of this skills on the sponges provided the students with a better chance to perform the skills easily and according to all the required angles, keeping all the body parts in sync in order to perform the whole skill with less mistakes (14) that can be avoided and work on correcting them. this process had given a feed-back and saved the coach time and effort in the learning process and in order to avoid injuries in the hips and back. hence, after performing these applications using the sponges, the applications helped the learners reach the best possible performance for the experimental group and distinguished them from the original one. conclusions using a geometric shaped sponges on the motion and kinematics variables to perform the front-hand somersault skill. using the kinetic analysis helps determining the points of weakness and those of strength in the students. improving the motional characteristics have positively reflected on improving the skill learning process for the students. recommendations emphasizing the importance of the hip angle and the distance between the rising leg and the hands, as well as the elevation of the body weight center for they have a great positive effect on improving the performance of the front-hand somersault skill. using the motional analysis to follow up the improvement in the kinetic variables and working on determining the points of strength and those of weakness. it is also possible to use the studied methods with other samples in order to improve the learning process of the front-hand somersault skill. references 1yusuf lazimkammash, salihbasheer abu khait: education and learning fundamentals and its application in football, 1st edition, amman, zahran press, 2011, page 87. 2nahidaabidzaid al-dulaimi: motional learning fundamentals, 1st edition, amman, al-manhajiyah press, 2016, page 178. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 50 3lamyaahussain al-deewan, hussainfarhan al-sheikh ali, physical education fundamentals, 1st edition, lebanon,al-basaer press, 2016, page 67. 4heyder abdul ridhaalkhafaji, applied guide in the educational and psychological research, 1st edition, bagdad, al-kalimeh al-taiba, 2014, page 93. 5amersaeed al-khekani, aymen hani al-juboori: al-murshid in writing researches and studies, najaf, al-dar al-baidaa press, 2016, page 165. 6moahhmedobaidatetal, the scientific research methodology: stages and applications, 2nd edition, amman, wael press, 1999, page 84. 7abdul munaemsulaiman: aljumbaz modern encyclopedia, 1st edition, amman, al-fikr press, 1995, page 556. 8saebatiyah ahmed, abul salam abdul razzaq: educational and scientific fundamentals of gymnastics, baghdad, baghdad university press, 1979, page 17. 9ali sulaiman abdul turfi: applied experiments in physical education, nibras press, 2013, page 187. 10mohammed ibrahim shahata: skills and motion analysis biomechanics of gymnastics, al-iskandaria university, al-maarif institution, 2014, page 104. 11ayda ali hussainetal, technical and mechanical basics of gymnastics, 1st edition, amman, arabic community library, 2013, page 32. 12aqeelyahyi, mohammed khudhurasmeral-hayani: motional education, 1stedition,najaf, dar albaidaa, 2015, page 33. 13nahidaabidzaid al-dulaimi: motional learning fundamentals, 1st edition, najaf, al-dar al-baidaa press, 2008, page 47. copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 published by american center of science and education, usa 1 optimality analysis of vowel harmony in àíka ibikunle abiodun samuel assistant lecturer department of linguistics and languages aaua, nigeria adekunle ajasin university, akungba (aaua) ondo state nigeria email address: abiodun.ibikunle@aaua.edu.ng phone numbers:+2348130585989/+2348053853645 received: november 9, 2018 accepted: november 13, 2018 online published: november 26, 2018 abstract this paper gives an optimality theory (henceforth ot) account of advanced tongue root (atr) vowel harmony in àíka 1 , an edoid 2 language that consists of four speech forms spoken in akoko-edo area in nigeria. the atr harmony manifests within as well as across morpheme boundaries. the atr harmony across morphemes affects the subject pronouns, prefixes as well as demonstrative pronouns because they are underspecified for atr value while object pronouns are underlyingly specified. it is further noted that atr has a morphological effect on the items it affects as it triggers phonological allomorphy in them. in addition to right-to-left spreading analysis in the literature (abiodun 1999, ibikunle 2014, and 2016), this research further reveals that there are pieces of evidence for left-toright spreading of harmonic value. more importantly, this analysis shows that ot is viable and problem-solving efficient compared with the non-linear or traditional generative account on vowel harmony system of the language. keywords: vowel harmony, atr, optimality theory, àíka, pronouns. 1. introduction àíka is an edoid language spoken in four different villages namely: ‘ìígáú’ spoken in àúga, ìísheù spoken in íshè, ìkààn spoken in kákùmo ̩̀ and ‘ìyínno ̩̀ ’ spoken in ayánrán. ìkààn and ìyínno ̩̀ are spoken in akoko-edo area in edo state while ìígáú and ìísheù are spoken in ondo state all in nigeria. the motivation for this research paper is to show that àíka does not only operate a leftward but also a rightward movement in its atr spreading technique. this is evident when someone considers the atr harmony relationship between the plural demonstrative pronouns ‘these/those’ and the vowels of the preceding nominal item in the language. the vowel harmony of the language therefore supports the claim that atr harmony is one of the features licensed to have a bidirectional spreading. this rightward spreading of the atr harmony in question will pose difficulties for autosegmental theory to analyze as shown in section 4.3. this being the case, the ot which is viable to account for the rightward spreading is employed in the analysis. 2. review of relevant literatures at the undergraduate, masters as well as ph.d. levels, there have been some few works on phonology of the language. the two known ph.d. works on the language: abiò̩ dun (1999) and salffner (2009) are carried out using a non-linear (autosegmental) approach where both of them did not focus on the vowel harmony system of the 1 this language is also known as ùkààn/ìkààn in the literature. (see arohunmolase et al 2006, abiodun 1999, salffner 2009 among others) 2 arohunmolase et al (2006) classify the language under benue congo family alongside akpes, edoid, defoid among others while elugbe 2001 classifies it as the oldest branch of edoid, more closely related to akpes than to other edoid languages. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 2 language. abiodun’s work was on the comparative phonology and morphology of the language while salffner’s work was purely on tone in the phonology, lexicon and grammar of the language. for the vowel harmony in àíka, abiodun (1999:87) says that ‘vowels within a phonological word agree with respect to the feature [atr]…’ the language data he examined consist of subject pronouns, singular and plural prefixes and concord prefixes. abiodun states that: ‘…subject pronouns, particularly singular forms, show allomorphic variation in all the dialects of ukaan. the variation is normally determined by the [atr] feature of the vowels in harmonic roots’. this is the case of leftward spreading of atr while this paper reveals evidence of rightward spreading. according to salffner (2009:55), the vowels of the language are distinguished by height and fronting as well as contrastive atr value, length and nasality…the only gaps so far are /e͂:, ʊ͂:/. this research does not show any evidence of long vowels in the language; i considered those she transcribed as long vowels to be two similar but discreet vowels with discreet tones that occupy two different syllable peaks in sequence. ibikunle (2014 and 2016) proposes a right-to-left analysis for the harmony system in the language. this research sees beyond this as the harmonic relationship between a noun and the plural demonstrative pronouns ‘these/those’ reveals a left-to-right spreading of atr value. this later discovery supports the claim that atr harmony is bidirectional in its spreading techniques. 3. the atr harmony process many researchers have expressed their views on vowel harmony as a phonological process in human languages. kenstowicz (1994: 347) captures the view of such researchers thus: "vowel harmony is a phonological state in which the vowels in a given domain share or harmonize for a particular feature…typically all of the vowels of the language participate in the harmonic constraint. in addition, the harmony applies in an essentially unbounded fashion, affecting all the relevant vowels within the domain. virtually any of the common features used to distinguish among vowels have been discovered to seat a harmonic system, including vowel height, backness, rounding, nasality and pharyngeal opening or [atr]. simply put, vowel harmony makes the vowels in a specific domain to sound alike. it is a kind of assimilation which requires that vowels in a certain domain should share some phonetic features such as vowel height, backness, rounding, nasality and pharyngeal opening or [atr]. research shows that, vowel harmony is a common phonological phenomenon in many languages in africa while atr is a common course. the tongue root is the principal actor in atr harmony. the root of the tongue may project forward to expand the pharyngeal cavity (agoyi 2008) 3.1 vowel inventory of àíka the vowel inventory for aika includes contrast for three heights (high, mid, and low), two horizontal positions (front and back), and advanced-retracted. advancement is the feature central to aika vowel harmony, and the table below is organized to convey that. table 1 [-atr] front central back [+atr] front central back high ɪ ʊ high i u mid low ɛ a ɔ mid low e o all of these 9 vowels are contrastive and they all have nasal counterparts. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 3 3.2 vowel under specification under specification is good to use when some features of the surface segment is always determined by another segment. if it depends on something else, it has no identity of its own. in this case, it is assumed that the vowels of the subject pronouns, prefixes as well as demonstrative pronouns are underspecified for atr in the language. their atr value is determined by the roots in their environment. an underspecified segment is writing with a technical symbol called an archiphoneme. this is demonstrated in section 4. 4. the data the data in the next two subsections show vowel harmony within as well as across morpheme boundaries 4.1 lexical vowel harmony the assumption here is that the last vowel in a nominal root is specified for atr value but it only spread on the underspecified preceding vowels, affixes, subject pronouns or demonstrative pronouns around it. [atr] harmony within morphemes can be shown thus: ìyínno ̩́ 1. set a [+atr] set b [–atr] /èhú/ =[èhú] ‘rat’ /ènɔ / =[ɛ nɔ ] ‘meat’ /ìhwe/ =[ìhwé] ‘seed’ /àtɔ / =[àtɔ ] ‘lie’ /òjĩ/ =[òji ] ‘child’ /àʃʊ/ =[àʃʊ] ‘cloth’ /ùwé/ =[ùwè] ‘leg’ /ùfɪ / =[ʊ fɪ ] ‘thing’ /òjù/ =[òjù] ‘wind’ /òʃɛ / =[ɔ ʃε ] ‘mat’ the data above reveal a harmony agreement between all the vowels in the lexical root as shown on the right. i assume that the second vowel predicts or determines the atr value of the first (i.e. v2 is the trigger) that is why the first vowels are represented with archiphonemes at the left to show that they are underspecified. this assumption is based on two reasons: first, the language operates no suffixes but prefixes whose harmonic value is determined by the value of the root vowel. the second reason being that majority of the spreading techniques of the vowel harmony in the language are leftward with only one instance of rightward spreading. 4.2 harmony across boundaries atr harmony affects the subject pronouns and the following lexical item such as verbs. this kind of harmony does not exist between the object pronouns and the preceding lexical item. this is to say that the directionality of the spreading is leftward (right-to-left) rather than rightward (left-to-right) in this regard. the data in 2a below illustrate how the subject pronouns are realized in sentences. ìígáú 2. a [-atr] [+atr] [ʤɛ jáfí ɔ hɔ ] ‘i licked up the soap’ [ʤe rúàg ùmó] ‘i poured the water’ i lick soap i pour water [hɛ jɔ wɪ lɛ bɔ] ‘you called us’ [hè ʃéʤì ìh w é] ‘you stole the money’ you call us you steal money [ɔ ɲàgɛ awu] ‘he tore the cloth’ [ò víè oʤòʤ] ‘he descended from a rock’ he tear cloth he descend rock [ɛ jɔr séni] ‘it flew away’ [è kũ lɛ bɔ] ‘it tied us’ it fly far it tie us this being the case, the atr harmony has a morphological effect on the subject pronouns as they now have allomorphic variations. the subject pronouns are underspecified in the language as shown below: www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 4 ikaan ìyínnó̩ iigau ìsheu gloss 2.b.(i) /ʤè/ /ʤò/ /ʤè/ /ʤò/ [ʤè/ʤɛ ] [ʤò/ʤɔ ] [ʤè/ʤɛ ] [ʤò/ʤɔ ] i (ii) /hè/ /hò/ /hè/ /hò/ [ hè/hɛ ] [hò/hɔ ] [hè/hɛ ] [hò/hɔ ] you (iii) /ò/ /ò/ /ò/ /ò/ [ò/ɔ ] [ò/ɔ ] [ò/ɔ ] [ò/ɔ ] he (iv) /è/ /è/ /è/ /è/ [è/ɛ ] [è/ɛ ] [è/ɛ ] [è/ɛ ] it 4.3 the plural demonstrative pronouns the data for these pronouns indicate an area where the language could spread its harmony in a rightward (left to right) direction. the data in 3a and b below indicate how the plural demonstrative pronouns are realized in noun phrases. ìsheu 3.a [+atr] [-atr] [èri re] ‘those elephants’ [àʃɛ ra] ‘those eggs’ [èhwí re] ‘those corpses’ [àgʊ ra] ‘those thorns’ iigau 3.b [+atr] [-atr] [eso rè] ‘those seeds’ [àkàʤɪ rà] ‘those villages’ [èhú rè] ‘those days’ [àhʊ rà] ‘those arms’ the variants of the demonstrative pronouns is shown in 3c below ìsheu iigau 3.c /re/ /re/ [re/ra] [re/ra] ‘these/those’ non-linear/autosegmental theory would fail in accounting for the final derivation of the plural demonstrative pronouns given in ‘3’ above. this is because, in autosegmental analysis of this kinds of data, the spreading of [atr] on the archiphoneme [re] from the preceding syllable will rather generate *[rɛ] which is ill-formed in the language. the reason for this is simple. the archiphoneme [re] could either be realized as [re] or [rɛ] after the spreading of an atr value in autosegmental analysis as in: 3.d [re] /re/ *[rɛ] www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 5 the rule(s) that will further account for the derivation of [ra] from [rɛ] is not clear in autosegmental analysis for the fact that the high vowels among others are not transparent in the language. this difficulty is unarguably resolved with the use of constraints in ot. we will explain how ot resolves this problem in section 6 using five constraints that includes the markedness constraint *[mid,-atr] which states that “a mid vowel must not be produced with retracted tongue root”. 5. optimality theory: an overview it had been observed, since the early days of generative phonology, that many phonological rules were born out of the desire by language to maintain some phonological constraints in a language. optimality theory is the current standard phonological model. ot was formally proposed in the early 1990s with the work of alan prince, john mccarthy, and paul smolensky. in ot, all languages share the same set of aspirations. this set is finite and universal, but includes contradictions. it is the constraints and the ways they conflict that shapes language outputs. they form the basis of sound patterns. there are two major classes of constraints that pull the output in opposite ways: faithfulness constraints and markedness constraints. faithfulness constraints make some comparison between the output and the input. for a faithfulness constraint to be satisfied, the output will have to resemble the input in some meaningful way. markedness constraints demand that an output be easy to pronounce. marked sounds and combinations of sounds are the less common ones and the harder ones to pronounce. for a markedness constraint to be satisfied, the output will need to have some property that makes it easy on the speaker. faithfulness constraints are good for listeners. the more direct information they have about the input, the less work they have to do to form an interpretation of the sentence. markedness constraints are good for speakers. the easier the phonetic sounds of the output are to say, the less work a speaker’s mouth and other articulators will have to do. in this way ot captures an intuitive fact about the social and communicative nature of language: phonology is a compromise between the priorities of the speaker and the listener. each language resolves this universal conflict between markedness and faithfulness in a structured way. an infinite number of possible outputs, or candidates, will be graded on the constraints usually on a pass-fail basis. since it is impossible to satisfy all the constraints, every language has its list of priorities. the candidate that performs the best wins and is the optimal output, hence the name optimality theory. even a winning candidate will have problems. however, the phonology of a language must dictate which of these problems it can ignore and which will be deal breakers. in practice, only the most conservative/compelling candidates and the constraints relevant for the problem at hand will be shown on an optimality tableau. in tableau 1, two imaginary outputs are evaluated on the imaginary constraint x. an asterisk marks each time a and b violate x. (in this case, a violates x zero times and b violates x one time) tableau 1: two outputs a and b evaluated by constraint x /input/ constraint x a. [output a] b. [output b] * in tableau 2, the same imaginary outputs are evaluated on another imaginary constraint y. an asterisk marks each time a and b violate y. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 6 /input/ constraint x constraint y ☞ a. [output a] * b. [output b] *! /input/ constraint y constraint x a. [output a] * ! ☞ b. [output b] * tableau 2: two outputs a and b evaluated by constraint y /input/ constraint y a. [output a] * b. [output b] in the next tableau 3, both constraints are laid side by side. if x is more important than y (if x outranks y, abbreviated x ≫ y) then candidate a will beat b. a language like this will pronounce the input as output a. this fact is indicated by a hand that points to the winning output. when candidates lose, their downfall is marked with an exclamation point. tableaux 3:. how ot chooses the best output if x ≫ y another language might have the reverse set of priorities. with the reverse ranking, y is more highly prioritized than x and it outranks x (y ≫ x). a speaker of a language like this would rather pronounce the input as output b, as shown in tableau 4: tableau 4: how ot chooses the best output if y ≫ x 5.1 relevant constraints for the vowel harmony analysis the relevant constraints for this analysis are selected from the literature. they are presented below: ident-io (atr) corresponding vowels in the input and output have identical specifications for atr. (mccarthy 1997, ballard 2010) specify all segments must be fully specified for features (ballard 2010) root-agree[atr] all the vowels in a root must share the same atr value (williams 2009) align[atr]-l/r align the left or right edge of the [atr] element with the left or right edge of the prosodic word (oyebade 2008, agoyi 2008, williams 2009) *[mid,-atr] a mid vowel must not be produced with retracted tongue root (akinlabi 2009, gambarage & pulleyblank 2014) www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 7 in order to define the grammar of the language, the constraints above are ranked as follows: specify>>root-agree[atr]>>[atr]-l/r>>*[mid,-atr]>> ident-io(atr). 6. analysis of vowel harmony in àíka using ot tableau tableau 5:. how ot chooses the best candidate in lexical vowel harmony /èhú/ specify root-agree[atr [atr]-l *[mid,-atr] ident-io(atr) a. ɛhu *! * * ** b.ehʊ *! * * * c. ehʊ *! * ** d. ɛhʊ *! ** e. ehu *!* * ** ☞f. ehu ** the optimal candidate or the correct output is [ehu] ‘rat’ in ìyínno ̩̀ tableau 6: how ot chooses the best candidate in leftward spreading of atr /e kũ lɛbɔ/ specify root-agree[atr [atr]-l *[mid,-atr] ident-io(atr) a. e kũ lebɔ *! * ** b. ɛ kũ lebo *! * *** ☞c.e kũ lɛbɔ ** * d. e kũ lɛbɔ *! * ** the optimal candidate is [e kũ lɛbɔ] ‘it tied us’ in ìígáú tableau 7: how ot chooses the best candidate in rightward spreading of atr /aʃɛ re/ specify root-agree[atr [atr]-r *[mid,-atr] ident-io(atr) a. aʃe ra *! * *** ☞b. aʃɛ ra * ** c. aʃɛ re *! * ** d. aʃɛ re *!* * * e. aʃe re *! *** f. aʃɛ rɛ **! ** g. aʃe rɛ *! * * *** h. aʃɔ rɛ **! *** the optimal candidate is [aʃɛ ra] ‘these/those eggs’ in ísheu www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 8 the derivation of this output poses a threat to auto segmental theory of phonology while it is easily resolved in ot with relevant constraints. 7. conclusion this research shows that àíka operates atr harmony within as well as across morpheme boundaries. it further reveals that there is a piece of evidence for left-to-right spreading of harmonic value in addition to right-to-left spreading analysis in the literature on the language. five relevant constraints are used where one of them is faithfulness while the remaining four are markedness constraints. more importantly, the paper shows that ot is viable and problem-solving efficient compared with the non-linear or traditional generative account on vowel harmony system of the language. references abiodun, m. (1999). “a comparative phonology and morphology of ùkààn dialects of old akoko division”. ph.d. thesis, university of ilorin nigeria. agoyi, (2008). “the phonology of vowel harmony in àbèsàbèsì”. ph.d thesis, akungba: aaua. akinlabi, a. (2009). neutral vowels in lokaa harmony. canadian journal of linguistics: 197-228. ballard, l. (2010). “akan vowel harmony in optimality theory”. m.a. thesis. florida: university of florida. elugbe, b. (2001). “the classification of akpes and àíka” (unpublished). gambarage, j and d. pulleyblank (2014). vowel harmony in nata and ikoma. uc berkeley. ibikunle, a. (2014). "an autosegmental phonology of ìyínno ̩̀ dialect of àíka". m.a. thesis. ibadan: university of ibadan. ibikunle a. (2016). the role of ‘no crossing’ in the vowel harmony system of ìyínno ̩́ . journal of linguistics association of nigeria (jolan) nigeria19 (1) mccarthy, j and a. prince (1993). generalized alignment: technical report no.3 of the rutgers center for cognitive science, new jersey mccarthy, j (1997). process-specific constraints in optimality theory. amherst: umass. oyebade, f. (2008). a course in phonology. ijebu-ode: sebiotimo publications. prince, a and smolensky, p (1993). optimality theory: constraint interaction in generative grammar. ms., rutgers university, new brunswick and university of colorado, boulder. salffner, s. (2009). tone in the phonology, lexicon and grammar of ìkààn. phd dissertation.london: university of london. sasa, t. (2009). ‘treatment of vowel harmony in optimality theory’. ph.d dissertation. iowa university of iowa. williams, a. (2009). an optimality theory analysis of vowel harmony in ndura.gial: occasional papers in applied linguistic copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 published by american center of science and education, usa 39 the effects of globalization on english language: a study on the students of business and english department of the millennium university, bangladesh mizanur rahman jewel ex.lecturer department of english the millennium university, bangladesh e-mail:mizanurjuwel7@gmail.com md. mahmudul haque ex.lecturer department of english, the millennium university, bangladesh e-mail: mahmud.shuvo@yahoo.com abstract now a day’s globalization has become a familiar issue in terms of every area related to human civilization and particularly in the english language. english is the soul media of communication in the modern world and globalization has brought new dimensions in that field. the present study is an attempt to reflect on the contribution f globalization for spreading english language everywhere. during this research one questionnaire has been developed to collect relevant information on the issue. the paper includes analysis on the various contributing factors of globalization. keywords: globalization, english language, communicative competence, global market, elt introduction globalization is, without doubt, one of the major defining characteristics of modern society. it constitutes both a threat and a challenge, depending on the point of view and the predisposition of the observer. this paper looks at the effects of globalization in the area of english language concentrating on the teaching of english to the speakers of other languages. it reviews the present situation of english language with respect to globalization, drawing parallels among other issues, english as an international language (eil), the question of ownership of such a language, the status of the native speaker as opposed to that of the non-native speaker of english, as well as some methodological considerations regarding the need for the raising of our learners’ intercultural awareness as a means of safeguarding against the more dangerous effects of english as a ‘global’ language. the paper begins with a concept of the globalization phenomenon with respect to its origins and its mailto:mahmud.shuvo@yahoo.com www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 40 implementation in the wider scientific and non-scientific communities. we then move on to considering language-oriented concerns that verge on that phenomenon and concentrate on the way the english language is conceived in this regard, as well as its role in foreign language pedagogy as awhile. where necessary, there is analysis of the authors’ on the student’s linguistic, cultural and teaching environment in bangladesh, and the possible impact of the english language on the bangladeshi culture specifically on the students of the millennium university in bangladesh. objectives of the study: the followings are the underlined objectives of the study.  to find out the effect of globalization in bangladesh.  to analyze the perception of the students on english language of the millennium university.  the shortcomings of english language learning and teaching among the students of the millennium university.  to trace how and what extent globalization affects english language.  to provide recommendation to solve the existing problem literature review there is a lack of literature documenting the effects of globalization on the english language. although there are numerous articles discussing globalization, there are very few that depict what is actually happening. the last few decades have seen a growth in the role of the english language around the world as the lingua franca for economic, scientific, and political exchange. the term lingua franca means ‘any language used for communication between groups who have no other language in common’ (matthews, 2000:209). according to crystal (1997), 85% of the world's international organizations use english as their official language in transnational communication. about 85% of the world’s important film productions and markets use english as well, and 90% of the published academic articles in several academic fields, such as linguistics, are written in english. in many cases, the increased growth in the use of the english language can be attributed to educational, economic, or cultural globalization. giddens (2000) defined globalization as a separation of space and time, emphasizing that with instantaneous communications, knowledge, and culture could be shared around the world simultaneously. globalization has been viewed primarily as an economic phenomenon, involving the increasing interaction, or integration of national economic systems through the growth in international trade, investment, and capital flow. however, the definition has expended to include also cross-border social, cultural, political, and technological exchanges between nations and in particular, between people. globalization has been defined by giddens (1990:64) as ‘the intensification of worldwide social relations which www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 41 link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa’. it is perceived in different ways, some tracing it back to the 15th century when europeans began to map and colonize the world; others believe it began in the latter part of the 20th century. some see it as an extension of an american imperialism while others reject the idea that globalization is a question of western dominance over ‘the rest’ (block, 2004). as heller (2001) notes with reference to bilingualism in canada, “[current] transformations in ideology and practice . . . reveal a shift from an ideology of authentic nationhood to an ideology of commoditization . . . [which] involves contradictions between language as a mark of authenticity and belonging or identity, and language as an acquirable technical skill and marketable commodity”. he points out that “these contradictions have direct consequences for language teaching and learning, insofar as they affect what counts as competence, who gets to define what counts as competence, and what is considered the best way to acquire it” (p. 47). although increasing focus on the issuers that surround the essentially native speaker goals that are reflected in many textbooks and proficiency tests (see, for example, cook, 1999, 2002; firth & wagner, 1997), the changing nature of english and the emergence of what are now often referred to as ‘englishes’, helps to explain the problems faced on a day today basis by those involved in english language education in taiwan, it does not currently make a major contribution to solving them. taiwan has in the past had a very close relationship with the usa, a relationship that was fundamental to its economic progress. that relationship has had a major impact on its education system and on its conceptualization of the goals of english teaching and learning. although taiwan’s relationship with the usa has changed, it should not be assumed that the overall conceptualization of english and of the goals of english teaching and learning have necessarily changed in any fundamental way. many countries throughout the world are beginning to see english as a basic educational requirement for all rather than simply as a desirable accomplishment for some (maurais & morris, 2003). several authors were successful in redirecting globalization towards an educational angle(beveridge (1996), coulby (2005), gacel-avila (2005), hall (2001), korsgaard (1997),madhukar (2003), robertson (2006), and zambeta (1998)). beveridge wrote that the impacts of globalization on education were a change in purpose from social to competing in a global economy and from community to market values; and that education became a trade commodity and was subject to goods and services trade agreements such as the general agreement on tariffs and trade (gatt) and the north america free trade agreement (nafta). beveridge also reported on educations role in globalization and the sustainability crisis. he argued that educators needed to adopt green curriculum and operations to counteract the ecological damage caused to the earth by industrialization and consumerism. beveridge also reported the need to incorporate critical and transformative education (including feminist, liberation, environmental and global education), ecological sustainability, human needs, community www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 42 the ng and equity into instruction. result and analysis respondents: to collect the data we have conducted a survey during the study period july to september 2012. a questionnaire has been developed for the students to conduct the survey. we have only focused the students of english and business department of the millennium university. the questionnaire was delivered to the students and they were required t fill up and return it within three working days. total 100 students participated in the survey. most of the questions were set up on the basis of yes/no answering method and only one question was narrative. 100% 97% 3% q.1 do you have any idea about globalization? 0% no yes figure: 1 do you have any idea about globalization? in the above fig.1 shows that 97 % that means 97 out of 100 respondents mentioned that they have an idea about globalization. on the other hand 3 % that means 3 out of 100 respondents mentioned that they have no idea about globalization. figure: 2 does it bring any interest among yourselves about the language? in the above fig.2 shows that 98% of respondents mentioned that globalization brought interest among them and 2% of them mentioned globalization brought no interest. respondent yes 98 no 2 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 p e rc e n ta ge does it bring any interest among yourselves about the language? www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 43 q.4 competencies in english language are inevitable for the global market.do you agree? no yes 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% figure:-3 english language is necessary for the promotion of various goods .do you agree with this idea? in the above fig.3 indicates that case 99% of respondents agreed that english language is necessary for the promotion of various goods whether 1% of them gave negative opinion. figure: 4 competencies in english language are inevitable for the global market .do you agree? in the above fig.4 shows that competencies in english language are very much needed for surviving in the present global market. during our study we have found out that 80% of total respondents argued positively for the necessity of english language whereas 20% responded negatively. 3.qenglish language is necessary for the promotion of various goods . do you agree with this idea? 1% yes no 99% www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 44 120% 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% q.6 what is your medium of instruction in your university? figure: 5 do you think that globalization has any effect a english language? in the above fig.5 shows that in these days globalization has effected largely on english language so 94% of respondents thought that it is right and 2% of them thought wrong. yes, 97% no, 3% figure: 6 what is your medium of instruction in your university? in the above fig.6 implies that as english language is the international language and its only the medium for international communication 97% of respondents wanted english for medium of instruction and 3% didn’t. figure: 7 which language do you prefer for classroom activities? in the above fig.7 indicates that classroom activities are important part of education and teachers often fail to interact with the students. 55% of respondents preferred english and 45% of them preferred bangla as 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% no, 45% yes, 55% q.7 which language do you prefer for classroom activities? yes no 94% q.5 do you think that globalization has any effect on english language? 6% www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 45 q.8. do you feel comfortable using english language for your higher studies? yes 11% no 89% their classroom activities. figure: 8 do you feel comfortable using english language for your higher studies? in the above fig.8 shows that although english language is essential for higher studies, 89% of the respondents felt uncomfortable with english and 11% of them answered positively. figure: 9 do you have any relevant courses for the development of your communicative skill in english in your university? in the above fig.9 indicates that because of the importance of english our educational system includes different courses in the syllabus and respondents of almost 97% gave the proof that they have relevant courses. narrative question: 10 mentioned your suggestion for the effective uses of english language based on global demand recommendation: through the study and the analysis of the result and the opinion of the students it has been recommended that  to cope with the current global market, english curriculum should be designed with the contemporary global demand. q.9 do you have any relevant courses for the development of your communicative skill in english in your university? no 3% yes 97% www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 46  student’s fluency in english language should be emphasized.  both the written and spoken capacity of english language of the students should be done.  presentation skill should be improved.  idea of globalization should be clear among the students.  seminar, symposium, lecture, workshop, conference should be introduced in the university level on globalization and english language.  on the theme of globalization different english dramas may be staged, exhibition on globalization, english movies, and competition on promoting the language globally are student’s next preference. limitations of the study the study was conducted mainly in one private university namely the millennium university based in dhaka city. and the opinion was taken mainly from the students of english and business studies department. the main source of data was the opinion given by the students and some points on the literature review part was taken from internet and from various websites. conclusion this paper has looked into the job of english dialect versus the marvel of globalization. diverse types of elt have been exhibited and it has been battled that there is a looming requirement for educating and socially sharpening efl students as for both the social status of english as a universal dialect and also their very own job as communicators in the worldwide english-talking town. it is in this way fundamental, in esol classrooms, that specific consideration is attracted not exclusively to rehearsing interactional correspondence, however to advancing intercultural informative ability. furthermore, it has been inferred, all through this paper, a standout amongst the most essential jobs of the esol expert in this globalization age is that of the social good example. references 1. http://hlju.academia.edu/danbencanaan/papers/107390/the_impact_of_globali zation_and_the_internet_on_english_language_teaching_and_learning 2. http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/dec_2007_ry&zo.php 3. http://dtpr.lib.athabascau.ca/action/download.php?filename=mais/michellescottpr oject.pdf http://hlju.academia.edu/danbencanaan/papers/107390/the_impact_of_globali http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/dec_2007_ry%26zo.php american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 published by american center of science and education, usa 39 investigating the factors causing poor english language learning at zahir shahi and temoor shahi high schools ahmad anwari kandahar university kandahar, afghanistan e-mail: ahmad.anwari1398@gmail.com abstract the purpose of this study is to identify the factors causing poor english language learning at high schools manly; zahir shahi and temoor shahi high schools. furthermore, the quantitative approach applied in this study and the data have collected by questionnaire, which had 11 items and made from the literature review and the data is analyzed with spss (version 21) and clarified the mean and standard deviation. based on the findings of this research, the main causes have been included namely; first, the lack of skillful teachers of english language at schools. secondly, the lack of standard textbooks. thirdly, lack of effective strategies for teaching this language. keywords: poor english langage learning, zahir shahi and temoor shahi high schools 1. introduction nowadays english is the international communication language around the world, it is the language of media, internet and the language of science, activities, computer, technology, diplomacy, and tourism, so learning english language is important for socialization entertainment and jobs. many countries use english as a second or native language. according to sneddon (2003) as a global language, it is obvious that english plays an important role in international interaction. international interactions include the economic relationship among countries, international business relationship, global trading, and others (hege, 1993).english is not only used as an official language in many nations but also hasinfluences on many different cultures in a large number of countries; it is the central language of communication in the worldwide (susanna, 2007). it is clearly bruised when a lot of people in a country speak english as the first language such as in the united states of america, canada, britain, australia, new zealand, south africa and others (braine, 2005) the expansion of the english language has rapidly increased the needs to gain better communication english throughout the world because the attitude to use english is very much needed for further studies, journeys in other countries as well as for social and professional global contacts of different kinds (hashemi, 2011) in afghanistan especially at kandahar province, many students have been learning english since 2003, and now it has become more popular and included in the educational curriculum. students study english language from fourth class until 12th class 4 or 3 times a week, while they graduate from school they are not able to speak, in english language, and while the students want to enter university first they want to go to the english language center for the preparation of the university subjects and have contended that, although students spend nine years studying english in schools, most of them graduate with a low level of english competence (rajab, 2013). some of the students who go to school, their speaking of english is very weak than other subjects, in every midyear exams, they become fail in english subject. and some of the other students who go to university, their english skills are so poor and they would face many challenges at university. according to sahibzada, saeedi, and hussaini, (2018) explored that 44% of students, when they enter the university of kandahar, they have many challenges in their speaking skills. in regardless of all the researches that have taken place according to this field of study, in all over the world and one research have conducted at kandahar university according to poor four skills (sahibzada, saeedi & hussaini, 2018). still, the need is required to conduct research in kandahar city high schools, because other researches have been conducted in other countries with a different system of education and with esl/efl learners of other countries with different cultures. 2. significance of the study this research will help the teachers, who teach english in high schools of kandahar city. so the teachers will change their plans accordingly, as well they will use different approaches and methods for teaching this language. although the student will change their ways of learning english. they will try different ways, and as well the government will bring changes in this english course curriculum, all over the country, not just in kandahar city. and this research will also help the ministry of education that they will bring changes in the educational context. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 40 3. purpose statement the purpose of this research is to identify the major causes of poor english language learning at kandahar city`s two high schools.  to be more specific, the objective of this study is:  to figure out the major causes that caused students to be poor in their english language learning. similarly, the research question is  what are the factors that caused students to become poor in their english language learning? 4. literature review in this part of the study, the authors illustrated the finding and result of other scholars accordingly to the issue. furthermore, a study that conducted at kandahar university by sahibzada, saeedi and hossaini (2018) they have conducted a study about the causes of literature students’ poor english skills, in the result of their study they have figured out the causes that limit efl learners’ poor english skills: lack of professional teachers in school and non-standard textbooks of school these two have been identified as major factors that cause efl learners to become poor in four skill. with the regard to the study of souriyavongsa, rany, abidin & mei (2013) at university of laos, with the problem of english language weaknesses, and claimed in his study that the major factors, which causes students to be weak in their english language are numbered as follow: first, the majority of students stated that the english teachers are not well-trained. secondly, students lack english foundation background. third, students lack confidence to use english because they are afraid of mistakes and shy feeling. fourth, the curriculum is inappropriate for helping students to improve their english proficiency. a study that has conducted by alderman (2004) and investigated problem an exploration of the causes that caused efl learners weak in their english language learning; the researcher have explored the difficulties of efl students, especially adults, to learn english as a foreign language appropriately, based on the findings of the study, the researcher states to the students’ poor performance of language learning are affected by a lack of effort and lack of effective learning strategies. the causes of weak english learning have been widely investigated by lei (2011) the result of the research have figured out the factors that caused efl learners weak in english language is: the lack of motivation for which, in general, motivation is recognized as one of the most significant factors affecting students’ performance of second language and foreign language. a study has been conducted at the university of glasgow by (tanveer, 2007), on the investigation of the factors that cause language anxiety for esl/efl learners in learning speaking skills and the influence it casts on communication in the target language found difficulties of language learning, differences in learners’ and target language cultures, the difference in social status of the speakers are the factors that affect the students’ weakness of language learning. according to hashemi (2011) has conducted on language stress and anxiety among the english language learners at iran and identified that students' weakness in english is due to the differences of social contexts and cultural environments. surveys such as that conducted by normazidah, koo, & hazita (2012) presented the factors that impact the efl learners to have poor performance in english language learning as follows: english is regarded as a difficult subject to learn. learners depend on english teachers as authorities. there is a lack of support to use english in the home environment and the community. learners have insufficient or lacking exposure to the language as there is a limited opportunity to use english outside the classrooms. lack of motivation for learning or the negative attitude towards the target language (strevens, 1980).a study that has been conducted at china by chang (2010), indicated the reasons cause students’ weakness for english language learning derived from learners’ laziness, lack of efficiency of the school, and insufficient of parents’ promotion are the major factors of weak english learning. qahtani (2018) has conducted a study on the same issue and examined the problem in learning english as a second language in shaqra university. part of this problem is attributed to the poor background of the students, part to the lack of labs and other appliances and part to the absence of skilled instructors. al-johani (2009) stated that, during english classes, teachers spend most of the time illustrating and explaining the items of the new lesson verbally or writing on the board, while students are passive listeners and their responsibility is to record what has been taught and copy from the board. furthermore, al rabai (2014) further added that teachers’ dominance of english classes caused students to be receptors, memorizers, and reproducers, which apparently encouraged them to participate ineffectively in the learning process. therefore, this teachercentered approach has led to students’ lack of opportunity to interact and participate in a class or even to do a minimum of english practice. 5. method 5.1 research site the most two popular high schools in kandahar city namely; zaher shahi and temoor shahi high schools. 5.2 research approach in this study, descriptive quantitative survey has applied to collect the data. descriptive quantitative approach www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 41 examines the phenomenon by collecting the data numerically. moreover, “survey research designs are procedures in quantitative research in which investigators administer a survey to a sample or to the entire population of people to describe the attitudes, opinions, behaviors, or characteristics of the population” (creswell, 2012). 5.3 sampling method stratified sampling method, 60 students from zaher shahi and 40 from temoor shahi high schools, the number of samples will be from twelfth classes. in a stratified sampling method, the researcher divides the population on some specific characteristics, then use simple random sampling (creswell, 2012, p, 144). the sample size was 100 male students of these two high schools. 5.4 research design and instrument questionnaires have improved to collect the data from these two high schools, the design was a quantitative approach. the questionnaire has completed through the items of literature review and self-experiences of researchers and comprised of two parts; first, demographic information and the answer for the research question. 5.5 validity and reliability of the questionnaire before the dividing of the instrument (questionnaire) among students, for the establishment of the questionnaire’s validity, the researcher consulted with supervisor and instructor lecturer for creative feedback and comments. the lecturer advised for the structure, statements and likert scales of the questionnaire. after entering the data to spss, the consistency of the questionnaire items was 0.72 cronbach’s alpha. it seems that the questionnaire was reliable. 6. data analysis procedure in order to answer the research question, data were performed in spss (version, 19) in which researchers calculated means and the standard deviation to determine the causes of poor english language learning. 6.1 findings the following table 1 shows the demographic information of participant in the categories of gender, age, native language, and school names. table 1: demographic information characteristics no of participations percentage gender male 100 100% age of participants 15-20 92 92% 21-25 18 8% 26-30 0 0% upper30 0 0% native language pashto 92 92% dari 6 6% other 2 2% school of participants zahir shahi high school 60 60% temoor shahi high school 40 40% the question “what are the factors that caused students to become poor in their english language learning?” was employed as the research tool in this study has attempted to identify the possible factors that find during students’ poor english language learning. table 2 below presents the factors that cause students weak in english language learning. however, these cases cannot be generalized to all students, but it does represent a majority of the learners. table 2: the causes of poor english language learning in high schools. statements mean std. deviation lack of proficient teachers affected our english language learning 4.41* 0.93 lack of standard textbooks of school 4.23** 1.11 lack of effective learning strategies 4.12*** 1.22 lack of self-confidence for learning the english language 3.96 1.37 lack of motivation for learning or the negative attitude towards the target language 3.66 1.40 lack of interests with the english language 3.63 1.40 students have a limitation of vocabulary 3.60 1.32 materials are not always available for learning english 3.40 1.49 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 42 there is a lack of support to use english in the home environment and the community 3.35 1.32 i learn depends on the english teachers as authorities 3.30 1.50 english is regarded as a difficult subject to learn. 3.73 1.21 likert scales: 1=strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3=undecided, 4=agree and 5=strongly agree note: *=highest, **= second highest, ***= third highest the result of the above table 2 shows the causes of weak english learning on efl learners at high schools, which highest cause is lack of proficient teachers affected our english language learning, it means that teachers of english language are not well-trained and proficient (m=4.41, sd=0.93). furthermore, the second highest cause is lack of standard textbooks of school, means that the books which made from the side of the ministry of education are not suitable for learning them as a foreign language (m=4.23, sd=1.11). moreover, the third cause is lack of effective learning strategies, means that principles of schools wouldn’t plane different strategies for the learning process (m=4.12, sd=1.22). the factors with low mean are as follow; there is a lack of support to use english in the home environment and the community (m= 3.35, sd=1.32), i learn depends on the english teachers as authorities (m=3.30, sd=1.50) and english is regarded as a difficult subject to learn (m=3.73, sd=1.21). 6.2 discussion the finding of the research question emerged the major factors of poor english language learning and described as follow; the lack of proficient teachers of schools adversely affected the learning of english language, it means the directorship of education at afghanistan don’t care about the employment of teachers and the teachers are not well trained. likewise, the finding is in line with the findings of souriyavongsa, rany, abidin & mei (2013) and sahibzada, saeedi, and hossaini (2018). furthermore, the second major cause of weak english learning is the lack of standard textbooks for english learning, it means that curriculum of high schools aren’t standard and the students couldn’t learning english as well as possible. similarly, the finding is in line with the finding sahibzada, saeedi, and hossaini (2018). moreover, the third major cause of english language learning is the lack of effective learning strategies, it means that the teachers and principals of the schools wouldn’t plane different strategies for learning. the finding is in line with the finding of alderman (2004). 7. conclusion the present study was designed to determine the factors causing poor english language learning at zahir shahi and temoor shahi high schools. the study had shown that there were three highest factors that caused low english learning at two central high schools in kandahar city. the most obvious finding to emerge from this study that students have responded was the lack of proficient teachers in english subject in their schools. the second highest cause that students stated was the lack of standard english books of the curriculum in their schools. and the third highest factor or cause that students declared was the lack of effective learning strategies or approaches. the study had also found that there are three lowest factors that caused poor english learning at two central high schools of kandahar. the first lowest factor was the lack of support to use english in the home environment and outside in the community. the second main lowest finding was that students felt that their english learning depends on their english teachers` authorities. and the third important lowest finding was students’ concerns that they have responded which was english is a difficult subject to learn. recommendations the following solutions could be addressed by this study in order to solve the problems of learners in learning english language:  the government should prepare the preparatory courses for the students to train them in scientific subjects to get good results in final exams of high schools.  parents have the responsibility to support students economically and spiritually.  qualified teachers should be hired for every subject at schools by the government.  further study may be conducted to explore the causes of low english learning of students in high schools. 8. limitations looking to the facts and reality, almost every study has its own limitations, which may cause the research to become slow down, so during the conducting of this research the researcher faced the following limitations.  deficiency of the knowledge, during writing the review of the related literature the researchers could not find enough researches, which were conducted in this geographical location, it made us compel to refer online data for the completion of our related literature review comparing to our research site.  unawareness of the advanced technology for the data analysis process. references alderman, m. k. (2013). motivation for achievement: possibilities for teaching and learning. routledge. al-johani, h. m. (2009). finding a way forward the impact of teachers strategies, beliefs and knowledge on teaching english as a foreign language in saudi arabia (unpublished doctoral dissertation). www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 43 university of strathclyde, glasgow, scotland, uk. alrabai, f. (2014). a model of foreign language anxiety in the saudi efl context. english language teaching, 7(7), 82-101. braine, g. (2005). teaching english to the world: history, curriculum, and practice. taylor & francis. chang, y.-p. (2010). a study of efl college students’ self-handicapping and english performance. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 2(2), 2006-2010. creswell, j. w., (2012). planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research. sage publication. hege, h. c,. (1993). volume rendering-mathematicals models and algorithmic aspects. hashemi, m. (2011). language stress and anxiety among the english language learners. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 30(0), 1811 lei, z. (2012). investigation into motivation types and influences on motivation: the case of chinese nonenglish majors. english language teaching, 5(3), 100-122. normazidah, c. m., koo, y. l., &hazita, a. (2012). exploring english language learning and teaching in malaysia. gema online™ journal of language studies, 12(1), 35-55. qahtani, h. (2018). exploring students’ weaknesses in english language at shaqra university (hurimlaa campus), saudi arabia. people: international journal of social sciences, 3(3), 1299-1319 rajab, h. (2013). developing speaking and writing skills of l1 arabic efl learners through teaching of ipa phonetic codes. theory and practice in language studies, 3(4), 653-659. sahibzada, j. saeedi, k, h. &hussaini, m, a. (2018). the causes of english language and literature students’ poor english skills at kandahar university, kandahar university.international journal for innovative research in multidisciplinary field, 4, 177-185 sneddon, j. n. (2003). the indonesian language, its history and role in modern society. sydney: nsw press. souriyavongsa, t., rany, s., abidin, m. j. z., & mei, l. l. (2013). factors causes students low english language learning: a case study in the national university of laos. international journal of english language education, 1(1), 179-192. souriyavongsa, t., rany, s., abidin, m. j. z., & mei, l. l. (2013). factors causes students low english language learning: a case study in the national university of laos. international journal of english language education, 1(1), 179-192. susanna, a. (2007). the weak language learner: a study of ways of taking weak language learners into consideration in class. sweden: vaxjouniversity,school of humanities english, gix115. tanveer, m. (2007). investigation of the factors that cause language anxiety for esl/efl learners in learning speaking skills and the influence it casts on communication in the target language. master of education in english language teaching pathway, university of glasgow. appendix one questionnaire dear participants, the purpose of this research is to identify the major causes of poor english language learning at kandahar city high schools. the questionnaire is designed to obtain data under the title of investigating the factors causing poor english language learning at zahirshahi and temoorshahi high schools. all the given information is for the research purpose. we will be grateful for your volunteer participation. researchers’ names: ahmad “anwari”, azizullah “hassand” and mohammad sabir “sadiqi” part one:personal information school: zahershahi temoorshahi sex: male  female  native language: pashto  dari  others: _______ age: 7-14  15 – 20  21 – 30  upper 30  part two:please read the statement carefully and “tick mark” one option from each statement in box below. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 44 no statement strongly disagree disagree undecide d agree strongly agree 1 english is regarded as a difficult subject to learn. 2 i learn depends on the english teachers as authorities 3 there is a lack of support to use english in the home environment and the community 4 materials are not always availablefor learning english 5 students have a limitation of vocabulary 6 lack of self-confidence for learning english language 7 lack of motivation for learning or the negative attitude towards the target language 8 lack of proficient teachers affected our english language learning. 9 lack of standard textbooks of school 10 lack of interests with the english language 11 lack of effective learning strategies appendix two پوښتنپاڼه د ظاهر شاهي او تیمور شاهي عالي لېسو د هغه عواملو څیړل چی د شاګردانو د انګرېزيژبې په زدکړې کي د ضعیفتیا سبب د څیړني عنوان: ګرځیدلي دي. ګرانه برخه اخستونکې: ددې څیړني هدف دادئ، چیهغه عوامل او علل په نخښه کړي چی د کندهار ښار په دوو مرکزي عالي لېسو کي دانګلیسي ژبه د د ضعیفتیا سبب ګرځیدلې دي؛ نو همدا پوښتنپاڼه په دې موخه جوړه سوې ده، چید يادي ستونزي په اړه معلومات راټول، تحلیل او تجزيه زدکړي سي. ستاسي راکړل سوي معلومات به زموږ سره د دې څیړني د هدف په السته راوړلو کي مرسته وکړي؛ ستاسي د رضاکارانه برخي اخستني مننه کوو. څخه د زړه له کومي : احمد انوري، عزيزهللا هڅاند او صابر احمد صديقي.د څیړنکو نومان شخصي معلوماتاوله برخه: تیمور شاهي د مکتب نوم: ظاهر شاهي ښځینه نارينه جنسیت: نور.................. دري پښتو مورنۍ ژبه: لوړ ۳۰تر ۲۱-۳۰ ۱۵-۲۰ ۷-۱۴ عمر: (انتخابه درکړل سوي دئ؛ تاسي خپل نظر په صحیح عالمه په 5الندي جملې په غورسره ولولئ! د هري جملې له پاره پنځه )دوهمه برخه: الندي جدول کي په نخښه کړئ. بیانیې شمېره کامالً ناموافق یم موافق یم تصمیم نلرم ناموافق یم کامالً موافق یم لپاره ډير ستونزمن مضمون دېانګريزي د زدکړي ۱ ۲ ذانو تر واک الندي زدکړه زه په غیر مستقل ډول د استا کوم. ۳ د انګريزی ژي د استعمال نشتوال په صنف، چاپیريال او کور کې. د انګلیسی ژبي د لوست و موادو کمښت ۴ د انګريزې ژبې د لغاتونو د ذخیري محدوديت. ۵ پر ځان د باور نشتوالی د انګريزي ژبې په زدکړه کې ۶ ۷ د تشويق نشتوالې او منفی برخورد د انګلیسی ژبې په مقابل کې د باتجربه استاذانو نشتوالې ۸ د مکتب کتابونه پر معیار نه برابر والې ۹ د انګريزي ژبې و زدکړي ته د عالقې نشتوالې ۱۰ زدکړيزي ستراتیژيانې د موثريت نشتوالېد ۱۱ www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 45 appendix three copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995 published by american center of science and education, usa 39 impact of e-learning in education sector: challenges and prospects of collaboration in remote learning md rezuan chowdhury ib pyp educator abdul kadir molla international school, dhaka, bangladesh e-mail: rez.akmis2020@gmail.com syeda aliza salik ib pyp educator abdul kadir molla international school, dhaka, bangladesh e-mail: syedaaliza.salik@gmail.com jannatul ferdous ib pyp educator abdul kadir molla international school, dhaka, bangladesh e-mail: jannatkenny@gmail.com abstract the education sector has been through a lot of changes over time. specially the last few months have caused a lot of reshaping in the education sector of bangladesh because of the sudden flare-up of covid 19. the highly inoculable characteristics of this deadly pandemic have caused educational institutions throughout the world to follow a work-from-home policy and espouse elearning. exploring more about e-learning has become a new norm nowadays. this paper aims to analyze the impact of e-learning in the education sector and the role of collaboration in enriching e-learning. this study analyzes the challenges and prospects of collaboration in remote learning. empirical data was gathered from teachers and collaborators from different educational institutions throughout the world. data is collected from a web survey by using a structured questionnaire. based on the findings the researchers have suggested some recommendations for better collaboration to make e-learning more interactive, successful, and embellished. the study outcome would add value to the current teaching practices and enable teachers and collaborators to make collaboration more effective. keywords: e-learning, management, collaboration, enhance. introduction with the course of time the education sector has witnessed a lot of change like many other sectors. the sudden outbreak of covid-19 2020 has triggered the most significant change in the history of education. this pandemic has caused closure in the educational institutions. unesco believes that over one and a half billion school and college learners are now stuck at home, mailto:rez.akmis2020@gmail.com www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 40 representing roughly 90% of the world‟s student population at one point in march 2020 according to times of india. in this situation educational institutions are choosing the virtual platforms to continue their academic activities. many of the virtual learning platforms are being available to the learners and contributing in the whole learning process. in the changed scenario el learning has become the new norm. this paper aims to look at the history of e learning, present the current scenario of e learning in different countries of the world and discuss the importance of collaboration in e learning. research objectives the major objectives of this study are as follows:  to identify and discuss the importance of collaboration in e-learning during this pandemic period.  to study the challenges and prospects of collaboration  to recommend some solutions for better collaboration in remote learning. research methodology this paper is based on primary and secondary data. primary data is obtained through teachers, management, students and parents from different educational institutions. the source of secondary data includes journals, articles, blogs, newspapers and different publications from websites. a quantitative method is used in this study which includes conducting surveys and collecting information through various it tools such as padlet and mindminister. literature review collaboration collaboration is one of the most vital factors in teaching and learning. it is the key to make the learning more interactive for the learners. according to wikipedia “collaboration is the process of two or more people, entities or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal”. merriam-webster dictionary defines collaboration as “to work jointly with others or together especially in an intellectual endeavor”. creating a collaborative atmosphere may lead to an increase in the learner's beneficial impact. with the strike of deadly covid-19 pandemic, like the other important sectors, the education sector also underwent a significant change and collaboration in and outside the institutions also adopted a virtual outlook. with the educational institutions being closed as a means of maintaining social distance learning shifted in the virtual classrooms from the brick and mortar classes and collaboration began to take place through the electronic devices. most institutions now conduct their regular meetings, preparing the next courses of action virtually and the word collaboration itself has been replaced with e collaboration. in these changed circumstances to have a look at the current e collaboration practices we have conducted a survey where 68 participants from 14 countries including teachers, students, coordinators, principal, head of schools have shared their thoughts and described the current e collaboration scenario in their institutions. according to „on collaboration‟ book “social media and technologies have put connectivity on steroids and made collaboration more essential to business than ever. but without the right leadership, collaboration can go astray. employees who try to collaborate on everything may wind up jammed in endless meetings, struggling to reach agreement. a growing number of organizations – including ibm, citibank, and nasa are reaping the rewards of collaborative communities in the form of higher margins on knowledge intensive work‟. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 41 e-collaboration according to igi global dictionary e-collaboration is defined as “collaboration, which is conducted without face-to-face interaction among individuals or members of virtual teams engaged in common task using information and communication technologies.” the participants of the survey have defined e collaboration as “e-collaboration denotes connecting students from all strata of life specially from the rural and remote area, through the internet”, “working with others via zoom, using google documents, etc.”, “e-collaboration is basically a virtual meeting between two or more parties in the academic arena; it could be either with academic colleagues or with students when they meet virtually and work toward agreed goals”. examples of e-collaboration and current e-collaboration scenario across the world schools, colleges and universities throughout the world now are continuing their academic activities online. conducting classes, regular meetings, preparing planners and resources are being performed virtually which is enabling people collaborating from different corners of the world without travelling. one of the important examples of e collaboration is the commencement of a global ib classroom by lahore grammar school where they invite educators from around the world to conduct sessions and share their ideas with the learners of different grades. during the pandemic period educators from germany, india and bangladesh have joined the global ib classroom and collaborated successfully by conducting virtual sessions as guest speakers. virtual art competition may be taken as another example of collaboration where participants have the opportunity to share and present their work. this type of collaboration is one of the dominant factors in enriching the learners' knowledge. recently in bangladesh, dabur bangladesh in collaboration with the daily star, one of the leading newspapers of bangladesh organized a virtual art competition for kids where children from 25 schools aged between 4 to 13 participated. this was an excellent initiative taken by dabur bangladesh and the daily star to promote collaboration and engage children in creative activities and utilize the “stay at home” time of the pandemic period. the world bank is also collaborating with the education ministries of dozens of countries to provide technological support to ensure remote learning opportunities for students. they are working in afghanistan, argentina, austria, bangladesh, bhutan, bolivia, bulgaria, cambodia, chile, china, fiji. india, france etc. they are offering their support in utilizing the educational technologies. association of ib world schools (aibws) is an indispensable part of collaborating among the ib world schools throughout the world. aibws are groups established by international baccalaureate practitioners aiming to support the ib schools. aibws conduct their regular meetings, organizes professional development and shares best practices among the members. aibws have recognized association of ib schools in africa, europe, middle east, america and asia pacific. these associations work on atl skills, students‟ work, assessment, behavioral issues and wellbeing of the students. all the schools under the associations get the opportunity to exchange their views and collaborate with each other towards one common goal which is the wellbeing of the learner. another example of e collaboration is ib matters which is an online podcast focusing on all four programs of ib curriculumpyp, myp, cp and dp. these podcasts are for the teachers, learners and anyone interested in ib curriculum. ib matters discusses various issues related to ib curriculum and provides guidelines for ib learners, teachers and parents. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 42 4 generations 4 education is an independent international educational organization established by ali ezzeddine, academic advisor, sek international school, qatar. the mission of this organization is to ensure sustainable growth of schools by offering educational consultancy services to all types of schools in arabic, english and french. 4 generations 4 education is arranging free webinars, training sessions for teachers, students and parents who are following ib curriculum. virtual round table dialogues are also serving the purpose of e collaboration during the pandemic period. this is a tool where learners across the world can meet and share their ideas virtually. recently grade 2 learners of abdul kadir molla international school, bangladesh arranged a round table dialogue where learners from japan, thailand and india joined. they were exchanging their ideas about the language, culture, tradition of their own countries. they also discussed the safety measures they are following in their own countries to combat the pandemic. this type of arrangement contributes a lot in collaborating among the learners from different countries. e-collaboration in bangladesh the education ministry of bangladesh is collaborating with schools, colleges, and universities and giving necessary guidelines to the institutions to continue the academic activities during the pandemic time. to keep the learning ongoing for the kids social media is also contributing a lot. a facebook page is formed for the teachers named english medium school association bangladesh (emsab). this group is inviting teachers from different schools of bangladesh where teachers are sharing and interchanging their ideas and opinions on various issues in live telecasts. this group is contributing a lot in e collaboration in the pandemic time. there are other institutions contributing in the education sector during the pandemic period. uk bangladesh education trust (ukbet) is organizing webinars and training sessions for teachers. these training sessions are enabling the teachers to make the virtual classes more engaging, interactive for the learners with the use of various online tools and strategies. online collaboration tools as the teaching and learning process shifted into a complete virtual process in 2020 due to covid-19, some online collaboration tools started to be used more for smooth, smart and fast communication between teams and educational institutions. some of these are google docs this user friendly tool allows several participants to work on the same document at the same time. participants can edit, write comments, take notes and collaborate at the same time. it does not require any pre-installation. google slides google slides include advanced presentation tools with great collaboration features and support presentations created in other suites such as power point or open office. the objective is to enable users to share and collaborate on presentations in real time. padlet a free online bulletin board allows entrepreneurs, teachers, students to collaborate, reflect and share links safely. it has a user friendly digital wall which lets the users post their contents. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 43 it is easy to use, links can be attached and can take photos. wakelet wakelet is another free interactive collaboration tool being used widely nowadays. users can upload videos, images, articles and collaborate at the same time. involving learners and parents in the collaboration to make the virtual lessons more interactive, learners and parents also contribute a lot to the entire collaboration process. parents are being invited as guest speakers and learners are taking their interviews. reporting to the parents through the teacher parents meeting, student led conference are some examples where parents are being informed about the child‟s academic progress and contributing to the collaboration process. to have a close look at the e collaboration scenario throughout the world, we have conducted a survey where 68 participants from 14 countries including bangladesh, pakistan, india, ksa, lebanon, iraq, vietnam, sudan, sultanate of oman, uk, usa, south africa, canada and uae have participated. the participants were sent a set of questionnaires where they shared their ideas, challenges and the different mediums they use for e collaboration during the pandemic time. the questionnaires were as follows:  how would you define e-collaboration?  how often do you collaborate virtually with your team / grade / department?  have you ever collaborated with other institutions?  how do your learners / students collaborate with other grades / departments / institutions?  how do you record the evidence of the virtual collaboration?  what platform do you use for e collaboration?  what are the challenges you face while e collaboration?  as a leader what do you think are the success criteria of an effective collaboration?  what is the percentage of your participants? figure 1. number of participants from different countries www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 44 figure 1 shows the number of participants from different countries from around the world. there are 68 participants from 14 countries including the uk, usa, uae, canada, ksa, iraq, india, bangladesh, pakistan, lebanon, vietnam, oman, sudan and south africa. figure 2. collaboration with other institutions figure 2 shows the scenario of various institutions collaborating among themselves. 24 institutions said that they collaborate with the other institutions whereas 22 institutions are not in collaboration with others. figure 3. the various online platforms used by different institutions for e collaboration from figure 3 we see the different online platforms used by various institutions for e collaboration. 28% of the institutions use zoom, 9% use google meet, 4% use microsoft team www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 45 and the percentage of using schoology, messenger, facebook live and google drive is 1% each. figure 4. collaboration of the leaders between different institutions figure 4 describes the scenario of collaboration of the leaders of various institutions. 20 leaders from different institutions participated in the survey and 19 of them are used to collaborating with other institutions and 1 leader is with no answer. figure 5. the different mediums/ ways used by leaders for e collaboration figure 5 gives a picture of how the leaders of different institutions collaborate with people in and outside their institutions. they are collaborating through phone calls, messenger groups, google docs, google slides, google meet, microsoft team and various social media apps. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 46 to collect information about collaboration we have interviewed teachers and leaders from different institutions. one of the interviewees was mr. ali ezzeddine who is the founder of 4 generations 4 education and the other interviewee was mr. chad hyatt and he is an ib practitioner and workshop leader. the interview questions and response is given below: (mr. ali ezzeddine): q.1: what is the objective of 4 generation 4 education? ans: 4 generations 4 education was established 5 years ago in 2015. the objective is to provide quality professional development to teachers across the globe. the professional development sessions are offered in english, french and arabic. q.2: how do you provide support to the educators? ans: we try to provide support by offering professional development sessions for educators. the professional development sessions are offered in english, arabic and french. we try to provide support at a personal level by replying to their mail. then by meeting with schools on the basis of their needs. we work on improving teaching and learning in english. we offer training sessions, observe classes and give feedback. q.3: how many countries have you collaborated so far? ans: more than 15 countries including usa, uae, qatar, malaysia and so on. q.4: what are the challenges you face while collaborating? ans: some challenges are shortage of time, daily follow up, understanding the approach of the participants etc. q.5: what are the major factors we should keep in mind while collaborating with other countries? ans: while collaborating with other countries, understanding their culture is a major factor we should keep in mind. the interview questions and response is given below: (mr. chad hyatt): q. 1: how do you collaborate in your organization? ans: we collaborate within the team in two ways. we follow synchronous and asynchronous ways of meeting. q.2: how your institution collaborates with other educational institutions? ans: we use a common platform “hoosier” which is an association of ib world schools to meet or collaborate with the other institutions where all the ib schools of our locality share their best practices. q.3: how do you record your meeting minutes? www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 47 ans: we use google doc to record the meeting minutes. q.4: do you have any specific schedule for meeting with your other faculties? ans: we have formal and informal schedules of meeting with the grade level teachers and specialized teachers. the challenges of e-collaboration lack of ict literacy one of the hardest challenges of e collaboration is the lack of ict literacy of teachers, learners and parents. in many underdeveloped and developing countries still there are no arrangements for ict training for teachers. same is the case for the learners and parents as well. specially the learners and parents from the rural areas do not have the technical knowhow of operating it devices and using various apps. unavailability of internet facilities another challenge in having successful e collaboration is the unavailability of adequate internet access. rural and remote areas of countries such as bangladesh, india and pakistan etc are not having a good internet connection. the bd bureau of statistics multiple cluster survey 2019 shows that only 37.6 percent of households in the country have access to the internet. it also shows that only 5.6 percent of households have a computer. difference in time zone difference in the time zones is another issue that makes e collaboration challenging sometimes. collaborating with the learners, speakers or guest speakers of different time zones requires a special adjustment in time. the meeting time needs to be agreed according to the convenience of everyone. recently abdul kadir molla international school in narsingdi, bangladesh arranged a round table dialogue between the learners of different schools from different countries where learners inquired about the culture, tradition, language of each other's countries. many schools were interested to participate in this event but because of the difference in the time zone 7 schools from india, thailand and japan could participate. ensuring participation of every member and making it interactive participation of all the members is one of the challenging factors in e collaboration. people living in different corners of the world with different types of internet access sometimes make it difficult for the participants to join the meetings. making e-collaboration interactive with various tools and strategies another challenging task. e-collaboration in early years programmes in early years programme e-collaboration becomes a little bit difficult for the kids. it is challenging for the early years kids to join the meetings, sharing their ideas and participating in the events virtually whereas these tasks are comparatively easier to the primary years kids. inviting guest speakers from other countries and participating in guest speaker sessions, asking questions and answering can be a little challenging for the early years kids but easier for the primary learners. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 48 inadequate information about e collaboration blogs, journals, and websites enough information about e collaboration is not available in the websites and blogs. there are not enough articles as well. finding information about e collaboration becomes difficult sometimes. unwillingness of public institutions to collaborate with others in the context of bangladesh, there is a little effort in public schools, colleges and universities to collaborate with other institutions. this unwillingness makes e collaboration difficult in public institutions. difference in curriculum the curriculum followed by different schools is also a factor in e collaboration. in bangladesh, the national curriculum does not emphasize any theme based education system which could lead the learners to explore different concepts such as tradition, language, culture, history and geography whereas ib curriculum enables the learners to collect information on the focused theme through collaboration. for example, if a learner is inquiring about the transport theme, the learner will inquire in a broad scale such as the transportation system in bangladesh and other countries, they will collect information about the most common transports in other countries through guest speaker session or finding information about transport of other countries from the learners of other schools through round table dialogues. this is how the theme based learning provides comparatively more opportunities for collaboration which is limited in national curriculum. recommendations for effective e-collaboration  to make e collaboration effective both government and non-government organizations (ngo) should come up with some projects of providing ict training for teachers and students as ict literacy is the most crucial factor in virtual learning. the ict ministry can arrange workshops for leaders of different institutions. there should be some steps regarding ensuring good internet facilities.  e collaborators should use different interactive strategies by using various it tools to make the meetings successful.  specialists should come up with some interactive child friendly strategies for early years learners. renowned faces should be invited as the guest speakers as little children take a bit longer to interact with new people.  research and development sector should come up with educational institutions based blogs, journals describing the picture of e collaboration in different institutions. researchers should be appointed by the ict ministry to research on e collaboration so that there is enough information about it on the internet.  revising the curriculum might provide learners opportunities for collaboration with other learners across the world. emphasizing on the theme based learning will lead the learners towards effective collaboration by inquiring about the focused theme based information from the learners from different countries of the world. limitations there are some limitations of this study. one of the limitations is the unavailability of data on the internet. there are not enough articles, journals or publications on collaboration. another www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 49 limitation is the inability to move or travel due to the pandemic. it was not possible for us to visit the educational institutions and collect data. conclusion collaboration is an indispensable part of teaching and learning. as the entire education system has been shifted virtually because of the deadly pandemic, collaboration is also supposed to take place virtually. despite the challenges e collaboration is taking place throughout the world. the challenges can be overcome and e collaboration can be made more effective and interactive by adopting appropriate tools and strategies for the learners and participants. references berry, s. l. (n.d.). effective e-learning through collaboration. retrieved from http://ete567su07.pbworks.com boyatzis, d. g. (2013). on collaboration. hrb's 10 must reads. churchill, w. (december 21, 2019). the history of e learning. retrieved from https://estudent.org/history-of-e-learning cooke, g. (august 20, 2020). 10 awesome elearning examples. retrieved from https://www.elucidat.com darnell, a. m. (2017). how collaborative teaching benefits teachers, students, and programs. kansas state university, usa. retrieved from https://newprairiepress.org ezzeddine, a. (november 10, 2015). 4 generations 4 education. https://haatchinteractive.com. india, t. t. (may 14, 2020). how covid-19 could permanently change the education sector and global learning habits. retrieved from https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com. industry, e.-l. g. (2020). talent lms ebooks & guides. retrieved from https://www.talentlms.com. kashyap, v. (2020). list of online collaboration tools & software for business. retrieved from https://www.proofhub.com. librari. (august 11, 2020). successful collaboration with remote learning. retrieved from https://www.viewsonic.com nation, u. (august 2020). education during covid-19 and beyond. retrieved from https://www.un.org soykan, o. b. (2 september 2020). covid-19 pandemic and online learning: the challenges and the opportunities. retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 50 team, t. w. (march 2020 to june 2020). how countries are using edtech to support remote learning during the covid-19 pandemic. retrieved from https://www.worldbank.org the advantages of collaborative in educational. (26 september 2017). https://classroom.synonym.com uddin, m. (june 13, 2020). effects of the pandemic on the education sector in bangladesh. retrieved from https://www.thefinancialexpress.com.bd copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). american international journal of education and linguistics research; vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995 published by american center of science and education, usa 34 effectiveness of process oriented guided inquiry teaching strategy on students’ performance in chemistry in secondary schools in ondo state, nigeria adesoji olubunmi omoniyi phd department of science education adekunle ajasin university akugba akoko, ondo state, school in ondo state, nigeria nigeria. email: lasojibunmi@gmail.com tessy ese torru university of port harcourt, nigeria abstract the study examined qualitative aspect of “o” level west african secondary school certificate practical chemistry syllabus and identified reaction of metals with water as one of the concepts that chemistry teachers avoid to teach due to either unavailability of chemical regents or lack of teachers’ competence to handle the topic. the study therefore examined the effectiveness of process oriented guided inquiry leaving (pogil) strategy on students’ performance in chemistry in secondary schools in ondo state, nigeria. a pretest, posttest control group design was adopted with pogil being the treatment and lecture method as the control group. a total of 60 senior secondary school chemistry students (sss 3) were randomly selected from akoko south west local government area of ondo state nigeria to constitute the study sample. two intact classes comprising 33 students for pogil group and 27 students for the lecture method group were taught separately in their respective schools. a 1 item instrument tagged practical chemistry achievement test (caat) with reliability co-efficient of r=0.78, p<0.05 was used to collect data. the results showed that pogil was more effective ( =12.63) than lecture method ( =10.84), t=2.97, p<0.05. the study concluded that pogil strategy is an effective method of teaching practical chemistry concepts in general and the qualitative aspect of practical chemistry in particular. keywords: effectiveness, process oriented guided inquiry, students’ performance, qualitative. 1. introduction it has been founded that a discovery-based team environment energizes students and provides instructors with instant and constant feedback about what their students understand or misunderstand. this emphasizes that learning is not a solitary task of memorizing information, but an interactive process of refining one’s understanding and developing one’s skills. also, there is increased expectation that science education should encompass practices that embody the ways of doing science and the epistemic practices of the scientific enterprise (brewer et al, 2011). to this end, there have been various research-based instructional practices that have been widely adopted to improve science process skills (process oriented guided inquiry learning (pogil), with roots in chemistry but now widely used across range of disciplines as a pedagogy that provides opportunities for students to develop and improve specific process skills during science content learning (moog et al, 2014) pogil as noted by douglas & chiu (2012), was originally developed for curriculum in chemistry but presently has had a wider scope in other fields such as biology and engineering. pogil as a pedagogy, provides an appropriate avenue by using a learning cycle based on three phases of inquiry: exploration of a model, invention and application. this provides opportunities for students to engage in process skills that go above and beyond content and emphasizes the process of integrating knowledge. moog et al specifically describes seven process skills that can be developed in a pogil learning environment when using a well-designed pogil activity: communication, team working, management, information processing, critical thinking, problem solving, and assessment (specifically self-assessment). that is, pogil materials are designed to develop transferable skills in the content to be learned, with one or two process skill targets in a well-designed www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 35 pogil activities. to realize these, students in a pogil classroom take up individual roles with their small group communities. pogil therefore provides an environment in which students encounter scientific practices and processes as normal part of their classroom activities. it appears that many students avoid questions that involved qualitative analysis aspect of the west african school certificate practical examination, and where such questions were attempted, candidates performed poorly as reflected in table i table i: trends of performance in biology, chemistry and physics in the west african senior school certificate examination may/june 2011-2016 year biology chemistry physics total entry credit passed (a1-c6) % pass total entry credit passed (a1-c6) % pass total entry credit passed (a1-c6) % pass 2011 1,505,199 74,432 38.50 565,692 280,280 49.54 563,161 360,096 63.94 2012 1,646,150 587,044 35.66 627,302 270,570 43.13 624,658 429,415 68.74 2013 1,648,363 852,717 51.73 639,296 462,517 72.34 637,023 297,988 46.77 2014 1,365,384 766,971 56.17 636,296 397,649 62.49 635,729 386,270 60.76 2015 1,390,234 989,246 57.42 680,357 412,323 60.60 684,124 410,543 60.01 2016 1,200,367 740,345 61.68 706,873 408,122 57.74 705,125 415,655 58.95 source: west african examination council, nigeria. from the table above, it can be seen in chemistry that students performed up to the expected standard only in 2013 with 72.034% followed by yearly decline in the students’ performance in the subsequent years. the question one would ask is to what extent would the conventional method of teaching commonly used in nigeria schools help students in solving problems involving qualitative analysis? qualitative analysis is an aspect of chemistry which deals with reactions of metals and non-metals with water, identification of cations and anions in simple salts or in a mixture of two or more salts and so on. these identified concepts involve pure practical work in which pocil as a classroom and laboratory technique seek to simultaneously teach content and process skills such as the ability to think analytically and work effectively as part of a collaborative team. pogil classroom consist of students working in small groups on specifically designed guided inquiry materials. these materials supply students with information followed by leading questions designed to guide them toward formulation of their own valid conclusions-essentially a recapitulation of the scientific method. the instructor serves as facilitator, observing and periodically addressing individual needs. pogil is based on research that;  teaching by telling does not work for most students  students who are part of an interactive community, are more likely to be successful and  knowledge is personal; students enjoy themselves more and develop greater ownership over the material when they are given opportunity to construct their own understanding. it has been founded that a discoverybased team environment energises students and provides instructors with instant and constant feedback about what their students understand and misunderstand. pogil emphasizes that learning in not a solitary task or memorization of information, but an interactive process of refining understanding and developing one’s skills. 2. theoretical framework the theoretical framework for this study is constructivist in nature which is guided by the notion that learning is believed to occur through students’ actively constructing / generating their own meanings from different experiences www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 36 to which they are exposed (bodmer,1986). also, pogil is theoretically based on the conception of cognitive theorists. jean piaget (1973) is considered to be the originator of the constructivist approach to education. the constructivist approach states that in order for learning to occur, a student must construct his or her own knowledge by incorporating new knowledge into existing knowledge. it is the role of the educator to provide an educational environment in which a student can construct meaning of new material learned by making meaningful connection to prior knowledge. 3. the concept of pogil pogil is a classroom and classroom technique that seeks to simultaneously teach content and key process skills such as the ability to think analytically and work effectively as part of a collaborative team. pogil is a student-centered instructional strategy. in a pogil classroom or laboratory, students work in small groups on specially designed activities that follow a learning cycle paradigm. there are three key characteristics of the material used in a pogil learning environment  they are designed for use with self-managed teams that employ the instructor as a facilitator of learning rather than as a resource of information  they use discipline/content to facilitate the development of important process skills including higherlevel thinking and the ability to learn and apply knowledge in new contexts.  the goal of the pogil approach is not only to develop content mastery through student construction of their own understanding, but also to enhance re-learning skills such as information processing, oral and written communication, critical thinking, problem solving and metacognition and assessment. the key components of pogil-is active engagement of all students through group leaving. the students work in small groups (of three or four) on a specifically designed activity, with the instructor serving as a facilitator who listens to the discussion and intervenes only when necessary. 4. statement of the problem current chemistry pedagogy is not producing a desirable results (omoniyi, 2016). how can chemistry instruction be improved so that students can learn chemistry and produce desirable results in waesce. inquiry science lessons have been proposed as a best practices for teaching science (nadelson,2009). inquiry lessons require that students think and behave like scientists to generate and develop ideas based on the evidence and data they generate. in a guided inquiry lesson, students work in small cooperative learning groups using print materials that ask questions designed to guide students to “develop their own understanding of the concept” (combine process skills, 2009). guided inquiry offers a new way for teachers to assist students as they develop. poor performance of students in chemistry as reported by waec chief examiners report (2016) stated that the performance of students in qualitative analysis was poor because of the following reasons:  failure to adhere to instruction  poor understanding of the questions  poor practical exposure and giving theoretical answer to practical questions  inappropriate use of terminology especially in qualitative analysis  inability to record observation and inference correctly, and  wrong fixing of ions in view of these, sciences teachers need to seek suitable ways of reducing the failure rate in chemistry by using innovative teaching strategies, hence, pogil is a learning activity that can improve students’ academic performance in practical chemistry if effectively used. to guide the study, two hypotheses were formulated namely;  there is no significant difference in the pretest scores of students on the selected chemistry conceptreaction of metals with water  there is no significant difference in the academic performance of students exposed to pogil and lecture method after treatment. 5. method the study adopted a pretest, posttest group design. the population for the study consisted of students offering chemistry in senior secondary ii in the 18 secondary schools in akure south local government area of ondo state out of which two schools were randomly selected. two intact science classes were selected from the two schools. a total of 60 senior secondary school ii chemistry students participated in the study. the period of administration was five weeks. the concept chosen is reaction of metals with water which is taught under qualitative aspect of the practical chemistry in the senior secondary school practical chemistry curriculum. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 37 6. instrument and administration one instrument tagged chemistry practical achievement test (cpat) was used to collect data for the study. cpat was used as pretest and post test to determine the effect of the treatment on students’ performance. this consisted 15 item short structured questions to find out students competence and skills in handling reagents, observation and writing inferential reports on the laboratory experiments carried out by the students. the questions were given to university and secondary school chemistry teachers for vetting. this was to ensure content validity and suitability. 7. instructional package to pogil step i: students are divided into small groups of four students on a specially designed activity, with the instructor serving as a facilitator who listens to the discussion and intervenes only when necessary step ii: students are asked to identify some metals – such as sodium (na), iron ii & iron iii (fe iii), magnesium (mg), potassium (k) step iii: students are asked to add water (h20) to these identified metals and observed the reaction step iv: students are to write their observations and the equations for the reactions that took place e.g (i) na(2)  2h20 2na0h  h2 (ii) mg(s)  h20 mgo(s)  h2(g) (iii) 2ks  2 h20 2koh  h2(g) step v: teachers collects the practical notes and mark 8. data collection and analysis at the pre-treatment stage, during the first week of the study, pre-test was administered to the participating students in each school. this was followed by assigning the schools into groups. experimental group iwas the pogil group, they are given apparatus and reagents on reaction of metals with water, while the teacher serves as facilitator. the second group is the lecture method group where the students watch the teacher as she explained the concept to the students while students are passive listeners. the two groups were taught separately by the researcher for a period of three weeks after which the post-test was administered. at the post-treatment stage which was the last week of the experiment, cpat was administered to both the experimental and control group as post-test. data collected were analysed using the mean, standard deviation and ttest. 9. results tables 1 and 2 present the results table i: difference between the pre-treatment scores of experimental and control groups group n x sd df t p pogil 33 10.64 2.24 58 0.766 0.447 lm 27 10.26 1.35 table ii: difference between the post-treatment scores of experimental and control groups group n x sd df t p pogil 33 12.63 2.32 58 2.966 0.04 lm 27 10.84 2.26 from table i, the t-value of 0.766 was not significant at 0.05 level. this showed that there was no significant difference between the mean scores of students exposed to pogil (x 10.64) and lecture method (x10.26) before treatment. also, table 2 shows that the mean score for the students in the pogil group (x12.63) was higher than that of the lecture method (x10.84). when the mean scores were subjected to t-test, it yielded a value of 2.966 which was significant at 0.05 level. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 38 10. discussion the results show that pogil strategy was an effective method in teaching some chemistry concepts in the qualitative aspect of practical chemistry in the senior secondary school (sss) chemistry curriculum. specifically, pogil is effective in the teaching of the topicreaction of metals with water which is an important aspect in the sss chemistry curriculum. this was evident in the result of the post -test in pogil (x12.63) and lecture method (x10.84). the low mean scores of both the experimental and control groups before treatment indicated that students had little knowledge about the concept before treatment. the reason for the better performance of students in pogil group could be due to students’ involvement in the use of real objects/laboratory reagents and which increased their performance on questions requiring higher order thinking such as application and analysis. 11. conclusion the use of pogil strategy had an overall positive effect on students’ performance and the classroom environment. students mean scores improved as a result of higher – order thinking such as application and analysis that were involved in pogil class. also, students’ critical thinking improved with the use of pogil strategy. pogil is both a philosophy and a strategy for teaching and learning. it is a philosophy because it encompasses specific ideas about the nature of the learning process and the expected outcomes. it is a strategy because it provides a student-centered methodology and structure that are consistent with the way people learn and achieve these outcomes. the goal of pogil is to help students simultaneously master discipline content and develop essential learning skills. pogil is built on a research base, sharing the key premise that most students learn best when they are actively engaged in analyzing data, models or examples and when they are discussion ideas; when they are working together in self-managed teams to understand concepts and solve problems, when they are reflecting on what they have learned and thinking about how to improve performance, and then they are interacting with an instructor who serves as a guide or facilitator of learning rather than as a source of information. pogil materials guide students through an exploration to construct and facilitate the development of higher-level thinking skills and the ability to learn and apply knowledge in new contexts. 12. recommendation  science teachers in general, and chemistry teachers in particular should be encouraged to use pogil method of construction in laboratory activities so as to make them resourceful instrumentations where laboratory materials are inadequate or unavailable.  government should provide well-equipped science laboratory for both teachers and students to make pogil strategy resourceful.  science teachers should be updated and exposed to innovative teaching strategy through seminars, workshops and in service training programme. references brewer c. a., smith d. (2011).vision and change in undergraduate biology education. a call to action aaas:2011 douglas, e. p & chiu, c. c. (2012). “process oriented guided inquiry learning in engineering”. elsevier, procedia-social and behavioural science 56, 253-257. jean piaget (1973). cognitive development. the journal of the jean piaget society. www.piaget.org./journal/index.html moog, r. (2014). process oriented guided inquiry learning. in mcdaniel m., fray r.f, fitzpatricks m& roadiger h. l. (eds). integrating cognitive science with innovative teaching in stem discipline. st. louis : washington university in st. louis libraries (ereader version). http//dxz.doc.org./k7png3hc pp 147-166 nadelson (2009). educational professional’s knowledge and acceptance of evolution. sage journal omoniyi a. o.(2016). effectiveness of problem solving approach on gender related differences in teaching secondary school chemistry students mathematical concepts of chemistry in ondo state, nigeria. european journal of education 2(10), 53-60. copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995 published by american center of science and education, usa 31 can tailoring skills be delivered through elearning platform; perspective of the threelearning domains (cognitive, affective and psychomotor domain) shahjada syed irfanul hoque managing trustee darul irfan research institute (diri), bangladesh nayeb sajjadah nasheen gausia ahmadia manzil, maizbhandar darbar sharif fatickchhari, chattogram, bangladesh e-mail: tasauf.darulirfan@gmail.com ali azgar chowdhury lecturer department of philosophy, gacchbaria govt. college chandanaish, chattogram, bangladesh associate member of diri e-mail: tasauf.darulirfan@gmail.com md. rabiul hossen lecturer department of english nanupur laila kabir university college, bangladesh associate member darul irfan research institute (diri), bangladesh e-mail: tasauf.darulirfan@gmail.com dina arjumand student department of “urban & regional planning” chittagong university of engineering & technology associate member darul irfan research institute (diri), bangladesh e-mail: tasauf.darulirfan@gmail.com abstract e-learning is a process of learning where we use the electronic-based platform through the internet. nowadays, e-learning has become very essential for academia and vocational skills training through the use of the internet. during the ongoing lockdown, the ministry of education of bangladesh is conducting online classes through various e-learning platforms. education activities have been completed through e-learning but technical education is lagging in bangladesh in the new-norm situation. with this backdrop, the study has developed a model for teaching tailoring curriculum to train the tailors' course to participants in selected areas of bangladesh. the approach of this research is classroom action research in e-platform involving teachers to examine common issues. teachers have followed the three learning domains (cognitive, affective & psychomotor domains) to make the students skilled in tailoring via eplatform. the study will show how the new teaching method was applied using e-platform and the impact of the proposed teaching method in the gradual improvement of the psychomotor skill in the tailoring of the students. this study implies the nsd program of the ministry of education. it is expected that the study will help to improve psychomotor skills by a proposed teaching system using an e-platform in the new-norm situation. keywords: e-learning, lockdown, nsd program, online class, tailoring skill. introduction e-learning is a new method of learning for the students of bangladesh. during the covid-19 outbreak, when physical distancing is recommended, e-learning is welcome. e-learning has become a widely accepted concept mostly in the developed countries. distance e-learners are mailto:tasauf.darulirfan@gmail.com mailto:tasauf.darulirfan@gmail.com mailto:tasauf.darulirfan@gmail.com www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 32 expected to participate in an e-learning environment and interact with the content, colleagues, and facilitators through distance education technologies (aboderin & laleye, 2019). being a developing country with limited access to the current advanced technologies, bangladeshi is not an exception. as of 1 june 2020, globally, 1.2 billion learners (68% of the world's total enrolled learners) were affected due to the education institute closure in 144 countries, according to unesco data. since 17 march all the educational institutes in the country have remained closed to prevent the spread of covid-19 among the student. in this situation, e-learning has gained priority in the education sector. the learning activities refer to using electronic technologies for learning and teaching. vocational skill is a crying need for educating people to bring them a profession which is needed in all areas of life. though tailoring is a psychomotor skill, it needs proper knowledge and also motivation to be a professional tailor. that's why teachers have developed a new teaching method that combines 3 domains of learning e.g. cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains using e-platform. problem statement a large number of students are availing the benefits of e-learning and it is expected to be an effective and efficient mode of the teaching e-learning process in days to come. while starting the corona pandemic bangladesh government has conducted an on-line class in different sections. in this situation, gausal azam maizbhandari technical institution (gamti) of fatickchari upazilla of chattogram district has been conducting online classes since april 2020. the teachers have prepared a new teaching method for tailoring via e-platform. objectives of the study the objectives of the study are given below:  to build up a new model for teaching and learning tailoring skills using e-platform in the new-norm situation.  to ensure the different methods and tools for applying the three domains of teaching and learning.  to find out students' psychomotor skill performance in tailoring according to psychomotor domain theory. an introduction to the method teachers have made a new model for teaching tailoring skills using an e-platform. teachers applied the proposed teaching systems which include cognitive, affective, and psychomotor learning system action by three learning domains. at first, teachers have started their class with an affective learning system to them motivated and willing to tailoring skills. then they have given the basic knowledge of tailoring following cognitive learning and lastly applied psychomotor domain. while applying the psychomotor domain, teachers have assessed students' psychomotor skills to evaluate the performance in tailoring assessments of psychomotor skills. research questions  how can a new teaching method be build-up for tailoring skills in the new-norm situation?  how can the proposed method of tailoring skill learning be applied?  how the performance of the students in psychomotor skills can be assessed via eplatform?  what is the outcome after applying the proposed teaching and learning method?  is it possible to deliver the tailoring skill through via an e-platform? literature review e-learning: e-learning can be defined to be the use of electronic devices and technology for learning new information and skills (moubayed et al., 2018).creation, dissemination, managing data, and strong information are some of the activities performed in the academic institution through different information and communication tools called e-learning (muhammad et al., 2016). learning domains: benjamin bloom had developed a taxonomy of educational objectives. it consists of three domains namely cognitive, affective and psychomotor. the cognitive domain is related to the thinking process. the affective domain is connected with feelings and attitudes and the psychomotor domain includes motor skills. the selected teaching strategies must enhance knowledge (cognitive), skills (psychomotor), and attitudes (affective) (ahmad et al., 2018). learning is not a solitary task of memorizing information, but an interactive process of refining one’s understanding and developing one’s skills (omoniyi & torru, 2019). www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 33 tailoring skill learning cognitive learning: cognitive domain deals with how a student acquires processes and utilizes the knowledge that focuses on intellectual skills and is familiar to educators (kasilingam & chinnavan, 2014). bloom's taxonomy (knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation) is frequently used to describe the increasing complexity of cognitive skills as students move forward from a beginner to a more advanced level in their knowledge (kasilingam & chinnavan, 2014). affective learning: affective learning relates to values, attitudes, and behaviors and involves the learner emotionally (renner, 2008). affective it can ensure a gradual growth in feelings or emotional areas (attitude) which helps the students to be confident and active to perform the psychomotor skill. the affective learning domain includes 5 steps receiving (willing to listen), responding (willing to listen), valuing (willing to be involved) organizing (willing to be advocate) characterization (willing to change one’s behavior, lifestyle, or way of life) (kasilingam & chinnavan, 2014). psychomotor learning: practical teaching requires paying attention to the application of all teaching strategies in the psychomotor domain (ahmad et al., 2018). without applying the psychomotor domain psychomotor dave (1970) develops a psychomotor theory that represents 5 degrees of competence while performing a psychomotor skill. the 5 stages of this theory are imitation, manipulation, precision, articulation, and naturalization. method & materials participants: the total population is 30 who were the participants of the paper. all the students are regular students of "gausul azam maizbhandari technical institute”. table 1. participants according to their gender and age the overall framework of the study: a proposed teaching method for e-platform was applied to the participants including three domains of learning for tailoring skill learning. teachers have chosen the zoom cloud platform for a collaborative teaching and learning system. after applying the new teaching method in the online platform, the psychomotor skill assessment of the participants was performed according to “dave psychomotor theory”. for assessment of participants’ performance, teachers have followed 5 points likert scale from very good to very bad. figure 1. proposed teaching framework for tailoring skill learning affective domain: though tailoring is a psychomotor skill but to make the students properly skilled with awareness, belief, willingness, motivation, the affective domain is effective. for instance, when a student believes in his/her ability or capability to successfully perform a task, he or she may be successful in the task (olusegun et al., 2020). motivation is a fundamental element in students' learning to achieve success point (nijat, 2019).so teachers have decided to make the students aware of, motivated so that they can be skilled in tailoring to build a good profession in tailoring. gender age in year total participants 16-18 19-21 22-24 25-27 28-30 31-33 f (%) female 1 1 3 5 0 1 11 100 male 0 2 1 3 5 8 19 0 total 1 3 4 8 5 9 30 100 % cognitive learning (bloom’s revised taxonomy,2001) psychomotor learning(dave,197 0) affective learning (bloom &krathwohl,1973) assessment of students’ performance of psychomotor skill (dave,1970) www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 34 table 2. proposed teaching method for affective learning using e-platform cognitive domain: tailoring skill is not only psychomotor-based learning but also knowledgebased learning. the students should have basic knowledge about tailoring, sewing machine parts, different types of equations for the specific types of dress, different dress design, etc. table 3. proposed teaching method for cognitive learning using e-platform psychomotor domain: after gaining proper knowledge about tailoring, teachers have followed the psychomotor domain to make the students skilled in tailoring. teachers have followed dave's psychomotor theory because they wanted to make the students skilled gradually. while domain teaching method tools and platforms receiving teachers tried to motivate and make the students aware of learning tailoring skills. slide sharing in zoom platform responding teachers discussed with the students about their opinion, willingness about tailoring learning and made them co-operative in the class. question-answer segment& group discussion valuing teachers made the students understand why they are learning tailoring skills. slide share in zoom platform. teachers asked to share their preferences, choice, and valuation about tailoring skill learning. question-answer segment students were asked to make a justification about the learning. short presentation. organizing teachers and students made a discussion by sharing their new ideas by modifying the existing theme of tailoring or designing dress patterns. group-discussion & question-answer. characterization the teacher asked the students to describe how the tailoring skill can be a profession or can change the way of life. group-discussion & question-answer. domain teaching method tools and platforms remembering teachers asked the students to remind them what they had learned in the previous class and gave a short overview about what they learned. collaborative discussion & slide sharing. understanding teachers gave a presentation showing different types of functions & equations of dress patterns for sewing. power-point slide sharing in zoom platform. teachers made the students familiar with the parts of the sewing machine. 3-d drawing & 3-d animated video by screen sharing in zoom platform. teachers showed different patterns of sewing, different types of stitches, thread, etc. power-point slide sharing & providing e-books in google classroom applying teachers showed the application of the different equations, patterns in different dress patterns. power-point slide sharing & tutorial video. teachers taught the way to choose the right thread, stitch, etc. for specific dress patterns. analyzing the teachers analyzed the tailoring knowledge and made comparative analysis in a different type of fashion sense and dress design. power-point slide sharing & tutorial video. evaluating the teacher asked students to make a judgment about what they learned from the class. collaborative discussion between teachers & students. creating teachers asked the students to give a presentation & viva. micro-soft power-point slide sharing. teachers asked the students to conduct quizzes. “google-form submission” in google class-room www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 35 performing the psychomotor skill, teachers also applied affective learning system to keep the students motivated and active. table 4. proposed teaching method for psychomotor learning using e-platform results after applying the proposed teaching method for tailoring, teachers wanted to evaluate the performance in tailoring as a psychomotor skill. the proposed teaching method was followed from the first week to last week and the result is the mean value of the total weeks of the course. because the learning domain is repeated each week as it takes a week to complete a dressmaking. their performance was monitored in the live class using a webcam in the zoom cloud platform. assessment of psychomotor skill: for the assessment of participants’ performance,5points likert scale as very good to very bad was used according to their performance. domain teaching & learning method tools and platforms imitation teachers performed tailoring skills like cutting cloths or sewing and the students tried to do by imitating their teachers. using webcam in zoom platform teachers advised them to practice at home. providing tutorial video in “google classroom” manipulation the next day, students tried to do the skills by themselves. the teacher guided to perform the skill. using webcam in zoom platform students were asked to perform cutting clothes by taking measurements using equations or sewing cloths part by part by following the direction of teachers. teachers gave pieces of advice to practice at home by themselves with the help of tutorial videos made by teachers. providing tutorial video or recorded class in “google classroom” precision after practicing for 2 days, teachers asked them to make the machine ready, cut cloths or sew it without giving any direction. at this level, they got precision level by practicing a lot at their home before. using webcam in zoom platform teachers gave home-task so that the students can practice themselves at home uploading assignment in google classroom articulation the next day, students were asked to perform sewing from first to last which means they have to integrate all the skills. they had to make the machine ready, take the body measurement, cut the cloths, and then sewing the cloths and make the dress ready to wear. using webcam in zoom platform teachers gave pieces of advice to practice at home by themselves with the help of tutorial videos made by teachers. providing tutorial video in “google classroom” naturalization after practicing for 2 days, students perform the same skill naturally without thinking more. using webcam in zoom platform teachers also ask them to solve similar types of problems like sewing a similar type of dress. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 36 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 imitation precision rate of improvement by stage 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% imitation manipulation precision articulation naturalization percentage of performance in psychomotor skill very good good moderate bad very bad figure 1. percentage of performance in perspective of “dave psychomotor theory” from figure 1, it can be found that in imitation level only 16% students’ performance very good and 10% students’ performance was good. a large number of students’ performance was bad at the initial level. but the students were able to improve their performance gradually. it shows that in the final stage of the psychomotor domain, which is called naturalization, the percentage of good performance had increased. around 56.67 % of students performed very well, 16.67 % performed good, only 10% were very bad and 3.4 % were very bad at their performance. in each level, the percentage of good performance has increased in comparison to the previous phase of the psychomotor domain. rate of improvement of psychomotor skill: the rate of improvement of the psychomotor skill has been found from imitation level to naturalization level. so, a graph a has been drawn according to the percentage of the students at a very good and good level based on their performance. this graph will show how the level of performance develops with each level of competence of dave's theory. figure 2. improvement of performance by phases of dave theory the figure 2 shows that the percentage of students at a good level has increased in each step of the dave theory. at the imitation level, the percentage of good performance was lowest where at the naturalization level, the percentage of good performance is highest. that means, we can say the level of performance in tailoring has been improved according to the stages of dave's theory. the cognitive domain is needed for having proper knowledge before starting tailoring skill and the affective domain is applied from first to last week to make the students motivated, interested, and active in the class always. discussion the proposed teaching method was fruitfully applied and has a good outcome in the students' performance in tailoring skills. it is expected that the new teaching method will be beneficial for learning vocation skills via e-platform. e-platform is a good opportunity to ensure www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 37 “collaborative and face-to-face” teaching and learning systems for the students and the teachers. in this new-norm situation, as the e-platform is the best way for teaching and learning, the proposed method can be applied. some limitations found while applying the action. as the study is e-platform based, the network is a big issue for the rural areas of bangladesh as a developing country. few students have a lacking of ict efficacy. some students are discouraged by their families as parents are not aware of vocational learning. they have failed to improve their skills. some following measures will be taken to overcome the barriers faced by the students so that tailoring can be delivered through e-learning in the future perfectly for all of the students. there is the need to assist students to go through their academic, psychosocial and financial life with less stress so that they can perform greatly and not become drop-out in life (ojewola, 2020). the measures are:  the students who have lack ict efficacy will be trained so that they can continue with the tailoring class via e-platform.  those who have financial problems buying devices or sewing machines will be provided a soft loan so that they can remove the barriers to continue with the learning process.  the parents who are discouraging their children will be inspired by showing the possibility of learning via this system.  finally, a concern can be created for the government to ensure sufficient network facilities in rural areas. at last, we can say the customized skill like tailoring can be delivered through e-platform in the perspective of the proposed teaching method. by using psychomotor domain theory, a vocational skill can be perfectly assessed. according to the study, we can decide to continue the tailoring skill learning program of the institution in the online platform which is a crying need in this new normal situation. references aboderin, o. s., & laleye, a. .(2019). the relationship between online interaction and academic performance of distance e-learners in a nigerian university. american international journal of education and linguistics research, 2(1), 25–33. https://doi.org/10.46545/aijelr.v2i1.72 ahmad, a., kamin, y., & md nasir, a. n. (2018). applying psychomotor domain for competency-based teaching in vocational education. journal of physics: conference series, 1049(1). https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1049/1/012049 hoffmann, m. h. w. (2008). using bloom’s taxonomy of learning to make engineering courses comparable. 19th eaeeie (european association for education in electrical and information engineering) annual conference formal proceedings, june 2008, 205–209. https://doi.org/10.1109/eaeeie.2008.4610187 kasilingam, g., & chinnavan, e. (2014). assessment of learning domains to improve student's learning in higher education. journal of young pharmacists,6(4), 27–33. https://doi.org/10.5530/jyp.2014.1.5 moubayed, a., injadat, m., nassif, a. b., lutfiyya, h., & shami, a. (2018). e-learning: challenges and research opportunities using machine learning data analytics. ieee access, 6, 39117–39138. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2018.2851790 muhammad, a., feham, m., ahmad, f., n, q., & shah, a. (2016). a study to investigate state of ethical development in e-learning. international journal of advanced computer science and applications, 7(4), 284–290. https://doi.org/10.14569/ijacsa.2016.070436 nijat, n., atifnigar, h., chandran, k., tamil selvan, s. l., & subramonie, v. (2019). psychological factors that affect english speaking performance among malaysian primary school pupils. american international journal of education and linguistics research, 2(2), 55-68. https://doi.org/10.46545/aijelr.v2i2.117 ojewola, o. f. (2020). stress factors and sustainable development among undergraduates of adekunle ajasin university, akungba-akoko, ondo state, nigeria. american international journal of education and linguistics research, 3(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.46545/aijelr.v3i1.132 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 38 olusegun, a. a., adepeju, o. b., & matthew, b. t. (2020). influence of self-efficacy on academic competence of secondary school students in osun state. american international journal of education and linguistics research, 3(1), 38–44. https://doi.org/10.46545/aijelr.v3i1.150 omoniyi, a. o., & torru, t. e. (2019). effectiveness of process oriented guided inquiry teaching strategy on students’ performance in chemistry in secondary schools in ondo state, nigeria. american international journal of education and linguistics research, 2(1), 34–38. https://doi.org/10.46545/aijelr.v2i1.73 renner, j. (2008). sustainability in higher education: directions for change. in edu-com 2008 international conference (vol. 5). copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995 published by american center of science and education, usa 1 effects of story reading on improving efl students’ reading comprehension and critical thinking javed sahibzada senior teaching assistant dean of education faculty, head of conflict resolution and head of international committees in nuristan higher education institute nuristan / afghanistan former lecturer at english language and literature department and head of research center, education faculty, kandahar university, kandahar, afghanistan e-mail: sahibzada.javed@gmail.com yar mohammad bahrami ahmadzai associate professor english language and literature department, kabul university, kabul, afghanistan e-mail: yarm.bahrami@gmail.com atiqullah sahibzada junior teaching assistant lecturer and head english language and literature department, kandahar university, afghanistan e-mail: sahibzada.javed@gmail.com azad khan niaz junior teaching assistant lecturer english language and literature department, kabul university, kabul, afghanistan e-mail: azadkhan.niaz@gmail.com susan hussein laftah assistance lecturer department of english language and literature department dhi qar education directorate thi-qar, iraq e-mail: samesoul.jan@gmail.com abstract the purpose of this study is to find out the effects of story reading on improving reading comprehension and critical thinking of efl students at kandahar university. the design of the study was quasi-experimental with reading comprehension and critical thinking pre and post-tests. total 27 afghan efl students were selected based on their performance on placement test. the participants’ experimental groups listened to their teacher reading a story aloud. in order to find the improvement and different between these variables is significant the paired sample t-test was administrated and the result indicates that there is significant improvement in post-tests in areas of mailto:sahibzada.javed@gmail.com mailto:yarm.bahrami@gmail.com mailto:sahibzada.javed@gmail.com mailto:azadkhan.niaz@gmail.com mailto:samesoul.jan@gmail.com www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 2 reading comprehension and critical thinking in story reading. however, there is more improvement in critical thinking aspect through story reading. keywords: critical thinking, efl reading comprehension, story reading. introduction in real life we were used to listen to other people talking to us or reading for us. stories have always been attractive and interesting tools for getting our attention. as children, we ought to listen to our parents while telling the stories such as fables, parables or fairy tales to motivate us for the positive doing and stop us from negative deeds. these stories have played key role in the personality development and their impact cannot be simply ignored. the constructive form of parents’ criticism in the form of these stories, have always brought the aptitude and attitudinal change into our childhood lives. the moralistic and entertaining impact into our adulthood cannot be simply ignored. attempting to take advantage of the undeniable fun and enjoyment in stories, teachers try to include stories in different classroom activities. al-mansour and al-shorman (2011) have found that listening to stories, read aloud helped the students developed sound listening habits and at the same time paved the way to promote comprehension through consistent exposure to the interesting and meaningful content of the stories. he found that reading story aloud has positive impact on language skills. definition of terms story reading: the oral presentation of a story by an individual to a person or group from the text of a picture book is story reading. in this case the pictures printed on the pages of the book are made visible to the students at least periodically during the story reading, movements, sound effects, or the use of props may sometimes accompany with reading (gallets, 2005). critical thinking is defined as the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action (saadati, tarmizi & bayat, 2010). reading comprehension: meaning does not arrive because we have highlighted text or used sticky note or answered the comprehension worksheet. meaning arrives because we are purposefully engaged in thinking while we read (tovani, 2000). statement of problem most of efl students to whom english is foreign language have difficulty in reading. they have problem in reading comprehension the way they draw meaning from the printed and non-printed sources. according to sahibzada, ahmadzai, niaz and laftah (2020), efl students in afghan context have problems in reading comprehension. they have also state that there of students have reading rate below then 150 words for minutes though reading rate with 250 wpm is considered to be speaking rate for a native speaker. as reading associated with writing and vocabulary building and they have insufficient vocabulary to write and speak fluently. although they are taking reading courses during their four years of careers. but when it comes to practical use to apply reading skills they still have limited skills of thinking critically. sahibzada, saeedi and hussaini (2018) found out 83% of the teachers are not happy about their students’ language skills improvement. they have found that students had problems in language skills while entering efl classes and after they have been taught for years, they still had problem in their www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 3 four language skills. however, they have more problems in their reading and listening comparing to speaking and writing. the problem in reading comprehension has not been seen in afghan context only, but it can also be found around the world regarding learners’ reading difficulty and reading comprehension obstacles. according to haycock and huang (2001) half of all white seventeen year olds students, and about less than one-quarter of latin seventeen years and less than one-fifth of african-american seventeen years old students can read at the level assessed by national assessment of educational progress. there is need for implementing effective strategies that create interest of students with reading. those which have been drop out or have been limited to an early age of learning according to some efl teachers. story reading and storytelling for efl teachers or reading aloud are only habits confined to the early stages, but they are in fact vital tools used to improve literacy and improve language skills. fredricks (2012) has found that the efl students have lack of motivation for literary studies and literature courses. because they are not exposed to story reading. the findings of this research suggest that though students are willing to read stories but the curriculum doesn’t have room for it. it includes courses of introduction to literature but not practical use of literature and it consequently lead students being demotivated in reading comprehension and having negative perception toward reading and literature courses. they take them as difficult courses they have in their ba level. the study further founds that efl learners are interested in reading comprehension skills to be developed with the use of short-stories in the classroom. since they have experienced and are enjoying various linguistic, personal and emotional benefits from short-stories. it also significantly contributed in their learning and mastering of english as a foreign language. objectives of the study this study had aim to investigate the effectiveness of story reading on improving reading comprehension and critical thinking on adult efl learners. however, if there is difference existed in the effect of story reading on reading comprehension and critical thinking such difference is significant or insignificant was another main objective of this research. research question ▪ what is the effect of story reading on reading comprehension of efl students? ▪ what is the effect of story reading on improving critical thinking of efl students? ▪ is there any significant difference in story reading in regards of improving critical thinking and reading comprehension among efl students? importance of the study as the reading is done for comprehension and improving critical thinking skills, but they are developed through stories and exposing to story reading. there is need to investigate effects of story reading on adult efl learners wither it improve their critical thinking and reading comprehension or not. for they are key to success in any major and they are especially vital for language learners. it is teachers’ responsibility to use interesting methods and techniques for the students for actively engaging and enabling them to achieve program outcomes. that has been set out by respected faculty of their departments. among other role that teachers are playing, they have the role of materials providers. they would not be successful teachers by using the same method in every context or every course. literature, in the form of short-stories, makes learning english an enjoyable and attractive process for efl learners. since stories helps to www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 4 arouse students’ interest toward target culture and language. incorporating short-stories in efl classrooms also open the passage to the efl learners’ involvement with rich, authentic uses of the foreign language collie and slater 1987 (as cited in a l-dersi, 2013).one of the main responsibilities of a facilitator is to create a stress-free environment where students are enthusiastic for active engagement in the learning process and internalize it through constructivism. teachers should adopt the new teaching methodologies and adopt the new findings around the world which change the lives of students. as the teacher is responsible to illuminate the darkness in every household and make learners capable of doing their best. using traditional methods and concepts cannot grantee the accomplishment of desired outcomes or to walk in clear defined world of achievements. hence either we will extinct from the world by implementation of traditional methodologies or we will be remained unskilled labor force for the developed countries. in order to improve the quality of higher education, it is necessary to change classic methodology of teaching in the classroom into modern teaching approaches. currently it has a vital place in efl classes and used as an excellent innovative tool for providing teachers and learners with resources for language learning. around the world, people choose storytelling and story reading as their major and it’s used as an importance component of curriculum design. it also plays a major role in field of education. although it is famous around the world, but unlike the general awareness on the importance of reading books, the importance of story reading is not almost emphasized in afghan culture. yet, the stories make a great contribution to teaching techniques. stories have been used as an effective tool for developing competence in language learning both in acquiring native language and learning foreign languages. the reason adults read to children for the hope that reading exciting stories to children might help them in turning children in getting excited in learning in order to read books for themselves. however, storybook reading has been proved to be effective for the children in many ways (gallets, 2005).the study will provide teachers with effective teaching methods based on students’ needs, interests, levels and desires. it is positive effects will pave a way to the curriculum designers and instructors to include it into the curriculum and specially the language instructors for enhancing the language ability. the current study will pave the way for adding using it as an important tool of learning for improvement of critical thinking and reading compression which are not only helpful for reading but also for all language skills. literature review the story reading as an important tool for the development of students’ language ability is widely accepted in the field of education and much of the study has been conducted in the effects of it on children and adult learning. the researchers have attempted in section of literature review to summarize the conducted studies on the effect of story reading on learning of students in various geographical locations, scholars’ different view regarding story reading and researches that investigate the effects of story reading on learning and literacy development. impacts of story reading morrow, o’connorand smith (1990) have investigated the effects of a storybook reading program as means for literacy development with at-risk students. their study has found that the experimental group where story reading was presented performed better than the control in both free and probed recall comprehension. their findings also indicated that comprehension of www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 5 narrative and sense of story structure are enhanced when children are actively involved in story reading processes. they have suggested that reading stories are an act of construction, and children must be actively involved in the process. they further suggested that story reading strategies that actively involved children in story retelling should consist and teachers should attempt to include readings of favorite stories, and book experiences should be shared. furthermore, researchers have suggested the impacts of story reading in various areas of efl. stories are highly motivating and can help develop positive attitudes towards the foreign language and language learning. they can create a desire to continue learning, raise the imagination, link fantasy and the imagination with the child‘s real world (ellis & brewster, 2014). p1). in addition to that, ceylan (2016) have studied impact of using short stories in reading skills class and find out that studying short stories extends students’ perspectives and provide the new experiences which they never have them previously. he further suggests that they provide them with a better understanding for different behavior. they also develop empathy and better understanding of the people in different situations and behaviors. in addition to that, khalili and rezvani (2015) have investigated the effects of reading online and paper-based (conventional) short stories on reading comprehension of intermediate iranian efl learners. their results indicated that online reading technique can have a significantly positive effect on efl learners’ reading comprehension scores. their study further found that students in the online group performed significantly better than those in the printbased group. also karabacak and erdem (2015) conducted an experimental research on the effects of activities which have been adapted from english story books on english course. they have found success of students in english courses in reading comprehension. they have further suggested that story books and activities contribute to the foreign language education by increasing foreign language success of the students. in addition to that, saka’s 2014 (as citied in ceylan, 2016) reading stories is effective method in teaching efl classes which consequently improve reading skills he further asserted that reading short story increased their wish to read more and appreciation for literature. rivera (2016) has found story reading the tools to enhance reading comprehension. she suggests that english learning and category of storytelling and story reading help most of the students to write their own productions. sanaeifar (2018) investigated the effect of word exposure frequency through story reading and storytelling on learning collocations. he has found that the word exposure frequency through story reading and storytelling have statistically significant effect on collocation learning and also the story reading group performed better than the story telling group in learning collocations. thus the story reading has been studied and tested its various effects and much of the studies are conducted on children. the literature above is generally summarized the comparative study done on story reading, its effects on students learning and developing aptitude. there was need for study on the effects of reading on adult intermediate efl learners mainly for investigating critical thinking and comprehension effects. methodology participants: a total number of 27 intermediate junior afghan efl undergraduate students from the english departments of languages and literature faculty and education faculty of kandahar university have taken part in this study. they shared the same first language pashtu and dari and were selected through performance in placement test. among them, only two were female. the 10 of them were dari language speaker and 17 were pashtu speaker. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 6 research design and materials: the study was a quasi-experimental research with one experimental group. a placement test for selecting samples from the population was an objective test contains 23 questions measuring reading comprehension and critical thinking aspects was developed from reading book by mikulecky & jeffries (2003).the second instrument was used for pre and post-tests to test reading comprehension and critical thinking skills. it had two parts and contained 38 multiple choice questions, 19 for critical thinking and 20 for reading comprehension. the first part aim to test critical thinking skills through 19 multiple choice questions among which 9were by watson (1980) for making inference from the given text and 10 were for critical thinking to select best ending taken from free practice critical thinking test (n.d). the second part was to test reading comprehension skills which contained passages followed with comprehensions multiple choice questions taken from test prep review (2019). the reliability of instruments was tested before use through test-retest method of reliability and scores result showed stability over time used. the part of validity was checked for content and construct validity of all questions required for testing critical thinking and reading comprehension dimensions. besides these instruments, a story collection, a world of fiction by marcus (2005) was used to present stories in group of storytelling and story reading procedures: in the first phase of the study, the volunteer junior students of both english departments including pre-service, in-service and night-shift took part in a placement test inside university campus. then the qualified subjects who got higher marks have been shifted to experimental group that contains 30students. they took the post-testin stress free environment and attend 10 week sessions of treatment in which they were listened to stories read and had accessed to the stories in printed form. for the ethical dimension and to reduce possible confounding variables that may affect the study outcome, participants were assured about their identity to be kept confidential. to avoid possible anxiety, the participants were given the choice of withdrawing their participation at any time and during ten-week session some of the students withdraw their participations and some did not attend post-tests and 27 remained took parts in post-test. after ten-week treatment 90 minutes for week they answered the questions of the posttest in equal time provided. data analyzing procedure: both pre and post test score were administrated in microsoft excel, spss 24 version and graph pad prism. the result was analyzed for showing percentage, mean and standard deviation. paired sample t-test was used to show the significant improvement and differences and the result for all of them presented through tables and graphs. findings as mentioned before, the experiential study was conducted to find out the effects of story reading on improving critical thinking and reading comprehension. the findings presented based on each research questions and for the question “what is the effect of story reading on reading comprehension and critical thinking of efl students?” the data was collected in order to find the effect of story reading on improving critical thinking and reading comprehension. table 1. story reading pre-and post-result number name f/name critical thinking reading comprehension pre post pre post test www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 7 test test test 1 hamidullah m. azam 25 35 21 37 2 mubariz ali ahmad 35 50 32 42 3 ajab noor shah zada gul 55 55 21 11 4 m.ehson m.zahir 55 65 16 32 5 qudratullah m.nazeer 45 50 37 42 6 javed ahmad jalaludin 25 50 11 21 7 m. muqeem dust mohammad 30 30 5 21 8 m. hashim m.qasim 30 35 16 37 9 zubir ahmad wazir ahmad 40 55 11 32 10 naweed m.rasoo 30 45 32 47 11 fazludin hesamudin 20 50 16 21 12 safeullah abdullah 25 45 32 32 13 qudratullah niamatullah 30 45 21 32 14 abdul kabir abdul satar 30 50 26 42 15 ahmad zia asmatullah 20 35 32 37 16 abdul wali abdul baqi 45 45 26 11 17 habibullah fazul mohammad 10 35 21 37 18 m.arif noor ahmad 50 55 11 37 19 nazir ahmad said ahmad 25 35 16 21 20 m. dawood mir dil 30 40 16 21 21 m.osmaan abdul ahad 45 55 16 58 22 habibrahmnan abdul rahman 30 50 16 26 23 naqeebullah obidullah 50 55 5 16 24 ahmad abdul ahad 55 60 11 21 25 jamil ahmad toor yali 40 55 16 68 26 hedatullah khuday dost 25 30 26 37 27 abdul wajid abdul ahad 35 35 21.1 16 result in table 1 above shows the participants of story reading, their pre and post test results of reading comprehension and critical thinking. it should be worth to mentioned that the section of their identity have been intentionally hidden for ethical consideration that have been promised before data collection and experiment. the group of story reading contains 27 students who attended 10 weeks’ course designed to find out wither story reading have help them in improving critical thinking and reading comprehension. the pre and post test result indicate that majority the participants’ in story reading test scores have increased in critical thinking and reading comprehension but only few students’ marks have either decreased or did not improve. for instance, student 3 who got 21% marks in comprehension post-testbut his post-test decrease into11% also in section of critical thinking he got 55% marks in pre-test and remains unimproved in post-test. although student 7 in reading comprehension score has increased from 5% marks into 21%marks yet his critical thinking scores 30% in pre-test has remain the same in post-test. also students 12 pre-test in reading comprehension section got 32% marks and his post-test seem no changes although his critical thinking section improved from 25% into45%. beside that student 16 who got 45% marks in critical thinking but nothing has changed in posttest. however, his score in comprehension pre-test decreased into 11% from 26%.in addition to www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 8 that student 27 who got 35% marks in pre-test of critical thinking section has remained 35% and his post-test in reading comprehension decreased into 16% from 21% in pre-test. figure 1. comparative result for pre and post test of critical thinking aspect figure 1 above indicates the pre and post test result of critical thinking section. red color represents pre-test and the yellow color represents post-test. post-test result shows there is improvement in student’s marks. however, the improvement is varied from students to students that can be inferred some students’ critical thinking skills improved much while there are also some students whose’ marks are little improved. among 27 students in story reading course only four students’ pre and post-test marks remain the same. figure 2. reading comprehension pre and post test result of story www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 9 figure 2 indicates pre and post test result of reading comprehension section. the result indicates that majority of the students scored higher in post-test than they had in pretest. among 27 students in story reading course, three students’ pre-test scores are less than the post-test only; one student’s post-testand post test result remains the same and the rest of students’ post-test scores are higher in the post-test. figure 3. means score of pre and post test of reading comprehension and critical thinking figure 3 above represents the mean score of pre and post test result. students mean scores in pre-test of critical thinking section is 33 mean score and it increased into 46 mean score in post-test. however, in reading comprehension section their pre-test means scores is 19 mean score which is increased into 32 mean score in post-test. the result indicates there is more improvement in students’ marks in critical thinking section than reading comprehension section through story reading. figure 4. the compression of post test result for reading comprehension and critical thinking www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 10 figure 4. above indicates post test result compression of critical thinking and reading comprehension. red line shows reading comprehension post test result and yellow indicates post test result of critical thinking. students’ get higher marks in post-test in critical thinking section than reading comprehension through story reading. figure 5. mean compression of post test of reading comprehension and critical thinking through story reading figure 5 above shows mean compression of post-test of reading comprehension and critical thinking in story reading group. pink color shows post test result of critical thinking in which students in story reading course scored with mean of 46 mean score purple color shows post test result of reading comprehension in which students scored with mean of 32 mean score which is lower than mean score of critical thinking section. table 2. mean and standard deviation of story reading for pre and post-test result of critical thinking and reading comprehension critical thinking pretest critical thinking post test comprehensi on pretest comprehension posttest n valid 27 27 27 27 missing 0 0 0 0 mean 35.7407 46.1111 19.5037 31.5815 std. deviation 12.45791 9.64099 8.48811 13.68301 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 11 table 2 above indicates mean and standard deviation of story reading course pre and post result of critical thinking and reading comprehension. m represent the mean score while sd shows standard deviation. result indicates students in story reading course in pre-test of critical section got the mean score 35.7with sd of 12.5and they got in their post-test m score 46.1 however, their pre-test in reading comprehension section m score 19.5 with sd 8.5 and the posttest increased into m 31.7 with sd 13.7. means and s.d s. r . c . t . p rt s. r . c .t . p o t s.r . r com p rt s.r .r . c om p o t 0 20 40 60 pre and post test s co re figure 6. mean and standard deviation of preand post-test result of story reading course for its critical thinking and reading comprehension section figure 6 above represents the mean and standard deviation of preand post-test result of story reading course for its critical thinking and reading comprehension section. the abbreviation s.r stands for story reading, c. t for critical thinking, prt for pre-test pot for post test, rcom and r.com stand for reading comprehension. the color green on the lift indicates mean and standard deviation of pre-test result of critical thinking section in story reading course while green in the right represent post-test result of result of reading comprehension. on the other hand, light gray color on lift represent m and sd of pre-test result of reading comprehension section in story reading course while dark gray color on the right represent m and sd of reading comprehension post-test result. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 12 table 3. paired t-test of reading comprehension mean comparison of pre and post test result paired samples statistics mean n std. deviation std. error mean pair 1 reading comprehension pretest 19.504 27 8.488 1.633 reading comprehension post-test 31.581 27 13.683 2.633 paired samples correlations n correlation sig. pair 1 reading comprehension posttest & reading comprehension posttest 27 .292 .139 table 3 above indicates paired t-test of mean comparison of story reading course for reading comprehension. students in pre-test got the mean score 19.5 and they got in post-test 31.6 and the mean difference between pre and post-test is 12.0 with significant value of.000, so the h0 null is accepted there is significance improvement in reading comprehension in story reading course. table 4. paired t-test of critical thinking mean comparison of pre and post test result paired samples statistics mean n std. deviation std. error mean paired samples test paired differences t df sig. (2tailed) mean std. devi ation std. error mean 95% confidence interval of the difference lower upper pair 1 reading comprehens ion posttest– reading comprehens ion post-test -12.078 13.8 33 2.662 17.550 -6.605 -4.537 26 .000 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 13 pair 1 critical thinking pre-test 35.741 27 12.458 2.397 critical thinking post test 46.1 27 9.6 1.85541 paired samples correlations n correlation sig. pair 1 critical thinking pre-test & critical thinking post test 27 .689 .000 table 4 above indicates paired t-test of critical thinking mean comparison of pre and post-test result in story reading course. result indicates student in post-testof critical in story reading group got the mean score 35.8 which have been increased into 46.1 mean score in posttest. the different between pre and post-test improvement is -10.4 and the significant value is .000 thus there is significant improvement between pre and post in critical thinking aspect in story reading course. table 5. paired t-test mean compression of post-tests of critical thinking and reading comprehension paired samples statistics mean n std. deviation std. error mean pair 1 critical thinking post-test 46.11 11 27 9.64099 1.85541 reading comprehension post-test 31.58 15 27 13.68301 2.63330 paired samples statistics mean n std. deviation std. error mean pair 1 critical thinking storytelling posttest 40.37 04 27 18.39345 3.53982 reading comprehension storytelling posttest 33.52 44 27 13.85573 2.66654 paired samples correlations n correlation sig. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 14 table 5 above indicates paired t-test mean compression of post-tests of critical thinking and reading comprehension in story reading group. student in story reading course got 46.1 mean score in critical thinking post-test while they got 31.6 mean score in reading comprehension post-test. there is 14.5 mean difference between these two and the p-value indicate .000 significant difference in post-tests in term of reading comprehension and critical thinking in story reading course. discussion result of the current study shows that there is improvement in reading comprehension and critical thinking of the students in story reading group. however, the result indicates in posttestof story reading course in the area of critical thinking students’ marks improved from 36 mean score into 46 mean score. on the other hand, there is improvement in reading comprehension section in story reading group from mean score 20 into 32. this study is also aligned with rivera (2016) who found out that story reading as the tools to enhance reading comprehension. though there is improvement in the areas of critical thinking and reading comprehension, there is over all mean improvement of 13 from post-testin critical thinking section story reading group. on the other hand, students in reading comprehension of story reading group have improved 12.7. result of descriptive means shows improvement is higher in critical thinking aspect through story reading then reading comprehension through story reading. thus the result further needed to be tested through paired sample-test for mean comparison in order to find out the existed difference and improvement is significant or not. it was find out there is p value 000 which shows significant improvements in reading comprehension pre and post test result through story reading and critical thinking respectively. paired samples t-test was used to find out within the group difference in term of reading comprehension and critical thinking post-test comparison and the result indicated that pair 1 critical thinking post-test & reading comprehension post-test 27 .108 .592 paired samples test paired differences t df sig. (2-tailed) mean std. devi ation std. error mea n 95% confidence interval of the difference lower upper pair 1 critical thinking post-test & reading comprehe nsion post-test 14.52 963 15.86 529 3.05 328 8.2535 3 20.80 573 4.7 59 26 .000 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 15 there was p value .000 indicated significant difference between critical thinking and reading comprehension through story reading. conclusion story reading is the important tools for literacy development and its impacts on language development should not be simply ignored. story reading empowers comprehension and critical thinking skills which are highly required and efl students should master. the elements of stories (inferences, suspense, exploring themes, genera, symbols thinking and literary terms) lead learners to think for the meaning and comprehension. thus, thinking for these elements increase critical thinking. it’s through critical thinking one can improve language and presentation skills. thinking clearly and systematically can advance the way we express our ideas. it helps us in learning how to scrutinize the rational structure of texts and through critical thinking one can develop his/her comprehension aptitudes. a critical thinker has the self-awareness of logic to recognize the difference between rational views and careful expression. yet, an emotional response is on personal bias. emotion is the enemy of reason. by understanding own point of view, one can also think about the perspective of others and come to a conclusion based on reality not emotional feelings. the findings of this study show that there is significant improvement in areas of critical thinking and reading comprehension through story reading. however, the students’ achievements vary in terms of critical thinking and reading comprehension in story reading. that is, improvement is higher in critical thinking aspect in the story reading group which is 13% improvement in mean score from pre to post. story reading should be considered as tools for literacy development in efl classes which are plying significant role in language skills development in various areas. as its impacts in reading comprehension and critical thinking has been investigated in this study their impacts on vocabulary building, listening comprehension, writing improvement and other areas has been documented in the literature review of the study. references al-dersi, z. e. m. 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(2010). assessing critical thinking of postgraduate students. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 8, 543-548. sahibzada, j., saeedi, k.h., & hussaini, m. a. (2018) the causes of english language and literature students’ poor english skills at kandahar university. international journal for innovative research in multidisciplinary field, 4(10), 1-14. sahibzada, j., ahmadzai, y. m. b., niaz, a., & laftah, s. h. (2020). effects of storytelling on improving efl students’ critical thinking and reading comprehension. american international journal of social science research, 5(1), 33-47. https://www.testprepreview.com/modules/reading1.htm www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 17 sanaeifar, s. h. (2018). the effect of word exposure frequency through story reading and story listening on learning collocations. language education studies, 4(4), 1-8. tovani, c. (2000). i read it, but i don't get it: comprehension strategies for adolescent readers. portland: stenhouse publishers. watson, g. (1980). watson-glaser critical thinking appraisal. san antonio, tx: psychological corporation. retrieved october 10, 2018, from https://www.assessmentday.co.uk/free/watsonglaser/freetest1/inferences/index.php?extratime=999999999999999999999 copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://www.assessmentday.co.uk/free/watson-glaser/freetest1/inferences/index.php?extratime=999999999999999999999 https://www.assessmentday.co.uk/free/watson-glaser/freetest1/inferences/index.php?extratime=999999999999999999999 american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995 published by american center of science and education, usa 22 scale validation: school based management inventory first edition (sbmi-1) olaseni vivian morenike assistant lecturer department of educational management adekunle ajasin university akungba akoko, ondo state, nigeria e-mail: olomosayev@gmail.com tel: +2348068513127 abstract school based management inventories first edition (sbmi-1) was self-developed in 2014 to be a measure of the extent of involvement of stake holders in the educational administrations. the inventories examined factors such as power decentralization (for instance, decision that concerns the school administration do involves the community), provision of facilities (for instance., community assistance in the provision of basic facilities such as classroom buildings, renovations, among others.), monitoring and evaluation of the teaching, learning activities of the school system, recruitment and retrenchment (for instance., on account of necessity, how community recruit new staff to the school as ad hoc staff), and financial obligation in form of periodic expenses and income analysis by the community committee, efficient and effective practice of school based management in determining students’ academic performance in secondary schools. the measure also helps in monitoring school progress and effectiveness. keywords: school-based management, school effectiveness, school administration, students’ academic performance. 1. introduction school based management (sbm) is the decentralization of educational decision-making authority from the government to the principals, teachers, students, parents and communities in order to ensure a more effective school administration and a better accountability of staffs. ibukun (2013) defined school based management as a model of school administration that shifts the management of schools from a central base to specific school settings and neighborhood for the purpose of efficiency and effectiveness. according to alimi (2012), school based management can as well be taking side with community based school management (cbsm). cbsm is an organizational approach that expands the local community responsibility and authority for the improvement of school performance. in this act, alimi explains that, the ministry of education, (moe), teaching service commission (tescom), and principals roles change from directive and control orientated to a role that involves creating an empowering environment where principals and teachers can easily try out new approaches and ideal. it is also referred to as school based governance, school selfmanagement or school site management. it fosters demand and ensures that schools provide the social and economic benefits that best reflect the priorities and values of those local communities (lewis, 2006; leithwood and menzies, 1998). sbm allows schools to be the inventory is a self-report which takes approximately 15 to 20 minutes to administer. it assesses a person's perception of his or her own involvement into the schools administration as well as key others. the test may be administered by a by an educational managers, researchers, educationist. all parts of the test can be administered manually, oral administration is necessary to persons with reading disability or visual impairment. the test taker is required to check from various options provided, range from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree” in response to questions that ask the person how he/she usually feel is in practice. the purpose of this study was then to evaluate the following:  the internal consistency of the test instrument.  the discriminant validity of the test against scale.  the convergent validity of the inventory with. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 23 2. method fifty (50) participants were used for the study. the participants were gotten from five secondary schools in ado ekiti. their ages ranged between 24 and 51 years with mean age of 34.30 and sd age of 4.072. thirty-two (32) of the participants were female with 64% of the total population; the remaining eighteen (18) of the participants were male with 36% of the total population. 3. procedure the sbmi-1 was administered to the participants at different cadre across various departments at the selected secondary schools in ado ekiti. convenient sampling procedure was used for sample selection. purpose of the study and how to respond to the items of the questionnaire was explained to participants. completed questionnaire were collected back immediately. 4. statistical analysis two statistics were used for the analysis which were correlation statistics (pearson product moment correlation) and cronbach’s alpha reliability (for test of internal consistency). 5. result sbmi-1 table 1 showing the case processing summary n % cases valid 50 100.0 excludeda 0 .0 total 50 100.0 table 1: the case processing summary above signifies that 50 questionnaires, equivalent of 50 participants were analysed to obtain the reliability value and no mortality rate was recorded. table 2 showing reliability statistics cronbach's alpha cronbach's alpha based on standardized items n of items .946 .928 20 table 2 above showed a very high reliability coefficient thus indicating a strong internal consistency. (α = .946; sd (α) = .928) table 3 showing the item statistics mean std. deviation n sbm1 3.76 1.836 50 sbm2 3.76 1.836 50 sbm3 3.34 1.975 50 sbm4 3.20 1.979 50 sbm5 3.20 1.979 50 sbm6 3.22 1.972 50 sbm7 3.26 1.988 50 sbm8 3.24 1.965 50 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 24 sbm9 3.42 1.819 50 sbm10 3.36 1.804 50 sbm11 3.52 1.821 50 sbm12 3.20 1.784 50 sbm13 3.38 1.794 50 sbm14 2.70 1.403 50 sbm15 4.54 1.014 50 sbm16 3.82 1.240 50 sbm17 4.58 .928 50 sbm18 4.42 1.126 50 sbm19 4.64 .921 50 sbm20 4.28 1.161 50 table 3 showing each item means and standard deviation across sampled participants. table 4 showing the significant of item-total statistics scale mean if item deleted scale variance if item deleted corrected item-total correlation squared multiple correlation cronbach's alpha if item deleted sbm1 69.08 479.422 .762 . .941 sbm2 69.08 479.422 .762 . .941 sbm3 69.50 465.316 .878 . .939 sbm4 69.64 460.725 .934 . .938 sbm5 69.64 460.725 .934 . .938 sbm6 69.62 461.261 .931 . .938 sbm7 69.58 462.453 .908 . .938 sbm8 69.60 466.571 .867 . .939 sbm9 69.42 469.391 .905 . .939 sbm10 69.48 473.928 .851 . .940 sbm11 69.32 472.344 .864 . .939 sbm12 69.64 477.133 .817 . .940 sbm13 69.46 468.458 .931 . .938 sbm14 70.14 505.633 .577 . .944 sbm15 68.30 539.643 .071 . .949 sbm16 69.02 573.408 -.521 . .957 sbm17 68.26 530.074 .306 . .947 sbm18 68.42 533.269 .182 . .949 sbm19 68.20 531.551 .274 . .947 sbm20 68.56 536.864 .108 . .949 table 4 reveals that none of the items is the questionnaire is significantly weak, each one of the item contributes immensely to the reliability of the inventory. table 5 showing the scale statistics mean variance std. deviation n of items 72.84 544.015 23.324 20 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 25 table 5 reveals that the norm value to categorise sbm into effective practice and ineffective practice is 74.84, indicating that, schools found less than 74.84 practice ineffective sbm, while schools with equal or greater value to 74.84 practice effective sbm. table 2 summary table of pearson correlation of sbmi-1 and sas showing divergent correlation smbi-1 = school based management inventories sas = self assertive scale table 2 showed a negative and no relationship between school based management and self assertive scale (r = .348, p > .05), thus their concurrent validity was low, invariable showing acceptable divergent validity. table 3 summary table of pearson correlation of sbmi-1 and piq showing convergent correlation sbmi-1 = school based management inventories piq = parent involvement questionnaires table 3 showed a strong positive relationship between sbmi 1 and piq (r = .840, p < .01), thus showing an acceptable convergent validity. 6. discussion the aim of the present pilot study was to examine the reliability and validity of the self-developed scale; school based management inventories in the nigeria cultural context. the study showed a strong internal consistency of the sbmi – 1. the study also showed a discriminant validity of the sbmi – 1 which was established by a negative relationship between the inventory and the self assertive scale. this was as expected outcome because participants’ response to self-assertive should not be the same measure as school-based management. furthermore, the study showed a convergent validity of the smbi -1 which was established by a positive correlation with the parent involvement questionnaire. the positive relationship indicates that since both measure are measure of similar construct, similar response to the items of the questionnaires are expected which was the case in the study as indicated by the results presented above. correlations sbmi sas sbmi pearson correlation 1 -.348 sig. (2-tailed) .000 n 50 50 sas pearson correlation -.348 1 sig. (2-tailed) .000 n 50 50 correlations sbmi piq sbmi pearson correlation 1 .840** sig. (2-tailed) .000 n 50 50 piq pearson correlation .840** 1 sig. (2-tailed) .000 n 50 50 **. correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 26 finally, smbi -1 was found to be a valid and reliable scale for use in nigeria cultural context. it is therefore recommended that future researchers should put in effort to further establish the reliability of the scale in terms of internal consistency and test-retest of the inventory. conclusion finally, smbi -1 was found to be a valid and reliable scale for use in nigeria cultural context. it is therefore recommended that future researchers should put in effort to further establish the reliability of the scale in terms of internal consistency and test-retest of the inventory. references alimi, o.s. (2012), community based school management: a seminar paper on effective management of secondary schools in ondo state. ikare amure printing press. ayeni,a.j. and ibukun, w.o. 2013. a conceptual model for school based management operation and quality assurance in nigerian secondary schools. retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/jel.v2n2p36. leithwood, k. & menzies t. (1998). forms and effects of school based management: a review. educational policy, 12 (3), 325-347. lewis, b. (2006). home influence on school learning: direct and indirect effect of parental involvement on high school grades. journal of educational research, 80(5), 330-336. olaseni, v. and ibukun, w. 2016. school based management and effectiveness of secondary schools in ondo state, nigeria. m.ed dissertation. adekunle ajasin university. ibukun.w.o. (2013). the role of school based management committees in the administration of secondary schools in nigeria. a journal of global education services, 2(1). sun, h. 2007. contextual factors and effective school improvement, school effectiveness and school improvement, 18(1): 93-122. appendix school based management and effectiveness scale instruction: choose one of the following options in the items below strongly agree sa agree a disagree d strongly disagree sd sn items sd 1 d 2 a 3 sa 4 1 parents participate actively in the administrative decision-making of this school. 2 the community assists in the provision of basic learning facilities such as class rooms, laboratory equippment, library materials, renovations, chalk, e.t.c. 3 selected members of the community do monitor the teaching and learning activities of the school system. 4 teachers have the capacity and willingness to serve in decision making process of the school administration 5 representatives of the parent body often come around to assess the state or use of facilities in the school. 6 parents show high interest in school academic activities 7 representatives of the parent body most times monitor on-going project in the school. 8 the school administration involves the community in decision making 9 on several occasions selected members of the community comes around to assess the state or use of facilities made available to the school 10 the community assists in recruiting ad hoc staff for the school http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/jel.v2n2p36 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 27 11 parents are mostly involved in the provision of necessary facilities in the school 12 the community is jointly involved in the discipline of staff 13 the community is jointly involved in students’ discipline 14 students’ representatives make quality inputs in decision-making in the school. 17 periodic income and expenditure analysis is done for appraisal of the pta and community committee. 18 i see the community committee and parents as watchdog to financial dealings in this institution. 19 parents’ committee do not concern itself with periodic expenses and income of the school. 20 the community committee often made funds available for the school development. 21* the community is less concern with the need to recruit ad hoc teacher(s) even in the time of urgent need. 22 teachers are not involved in the school decision process. 23 i strongly believe authority and power is decentralized as far as this school is concern 24 there is periodic feedback from the school management to the community’s committee members 25* apart from pta nothing brings external body with the administrative functioning of the school 26* the community pays no or little attention to the activities of the school 27* i believe authority and power is centralized as far as this school is concern 28 parents and community’s committee persuade the government to provide some needed materials/facilities for the community school utilization. 29* students’ opinion do not matter in decision-making in the school. 30* parents do not show interest in school academic activities sas instruction: below are some statements that are meant to describe how you are. please use the following likert to indicate how much each statement has described you. 1 very much like me 4 slightly unlike me 2 rather like me 5 rather unlike me 3 slightly like me 6 very much unlike me s/n 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 most people seems to be more aggressive and assertive than i am 2 i have hesitated to make or accept dates because of shyness 3 when the food served at a restaurant is not done to satisfaction. i complain about it to the waiter or waitress 4 i am careful to avoid hurting other people’s feelings, even when i feel i have been satisfied 5 if a salesman has gone to considerable trouble to show me merchandise that is not quite suitable, i have a difficult time saying “no” 6 when i am asked to do something, i insist upon knowing why www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 28 7 there are times when i look for a good vigorous argument 8 i strive to get ahead as well as most people in my position 9 to be honest, people often take advantage of me 10 i enjoy starting conversation with new acquaintances and strangers 11 i often don’t know what to say to attractive persons of the opposite sex 12 i will hesitate to make phone calls to business establishments and institutions 13 i would rather apply for a job or for admission to college by writing letters than by going through with personal in terview 14 i find it embarrassing to return merchandise 15 if a close and respected relative was annoying me, i would smother my feelings rather than express my annoyance. 16 i have avoided asking questions for fear of sounding stupid 17 during an argument i am sometimes afraid that i will get so upset that i will shake over 18 if a friend and respected lecturer makes a statement that i think is incorrect, i will have the audience hear my point of view as well 19 i avoid arguing over prices with clerks and salespersons 20 when i have done something important or worthwhile, i manage to let others know about it 21 i am open and frank about my feelings 22 if someone has been spreading false and bad stories about me, i see him or her as soon as possible and “have a talk” about it 23 i often have a hard time saying “no” 24 i tend to bottle up my emotions rather than make a scene 25 i complain about poor service in a restaurant and elsewhere 26 when i am giving a compliment, i sometimes just don’t know what to say 27 if a couple near me at a theatre or at a lecture were conversing rather loudly, i would ask them to be quiet or to take their conversation elsewhere 28 anyone attempting to push ahead of me in a line is in for a good battle 29 i am quick to express an opinion 30 there are times when i just can’t say anything copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995 published by american center of science and education, usa 51 enrollment readiness among the parents of madrasah going children with e-learning facilities in maizbhandar ahmadiyya emdadia madrasah, chattogram, bangladesh mejbaul alam bhuiyan lecturer department of management nanupur laila kabir university college, bangladesh associate member darul irfan research institute (diri), bangladesh e-mail: tasauf.darulirfan@gmail.com shahjada syed irfanul hoque managing trustee darul irfan research institute (diri), bangladesh nayeb sajjadah nasheen gausia ahmadia manzil, maizbhandar darbar sharif, fatikchhari, chattogram, bangladesh e-mail: tasauf.darulirfan@gmail.com arif kaisar mizan student institute of education & research (ier) university of chittagong, bangladesh associate member darul irfan research institute (diri), bangladesh e-mail: tasauf.darulirfan@gmail.com abstract during the covid-19 pandemic, madrasahs of rural areas in bangladesh are unable to conduct regular curricular activities in person. despite government encouragement very few institutions have introduced online classes; madrasahs of rural areas have faced challenges to introduce online classes due to the lack of technological facilities and their uses. however, if the parents are not ready to accept ict to use in educational purpose, they will not be interested in enrolling their children in those madrasahs which have encouraged online education. this study aims to measure the factors behind the enrollment readiness among the parents of madrasah going children to maizbhandar ahmadiyya emdadia madrasah in chattogram district of bangladesh. in line with the quantitative approach, researchers developed an closeended questionnaire based on four variables of the technology acceptance model (tam), namely, perceived usefulness (pu), perceived ease-of-use (peou), intention to use (iu) and usage behavior (uv). therefore, the findings of this research will show how enrollment in www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 52 rural areas can be increased to facilitate ict-enriched classrooms. in addition, the findings will lead the researchers and policy makers to investigate the technological acceptance of the teachers and students of rural madrasahs for the advancement of the madrasah education system. keywords: e-learning, technology acceptance model, enrollment readiness, madrasah education system, covid-19 pandemic introduction educational establishments in most countries around the world are closed to prevent the spread of the corona pandemic. an estimated 850 million children and young people representing almost half of the student population in 102 countries globally have been affected (unesco, 2020). the govt. of the people's republic of bangladesh has conjointly declared the closure of all sorts of academic establishments from 17th march 2020 and that remains in effect (october 2020). as a result, the traditional learning method of madrasah (religious school) students like different students is being discontinuous. meanwhile, the govt. of bangladesh is conducting an internet based mostly programme known as “amar ghore amar madrasah (religious school in my house)” for madrasah students with the assistance of access to information (a2i) through national television. at identical time, the govt. is encouraging all academic establishments to start out online categories in their own method. problem statement the present development-oriented government has created a separate department of madrasah education (dme) to modernize madrasah education with due importance. under which a project is being implemented to set up multimedia classrooms in 653 madrasahs of the country for imparting better education (a2i, 2017). according to gebisa (2019) there is a vast distinction in technology and infrastructure facility between a developed country and developing one. so, these infrastructures are absolutely inadequate to deal with the current corona situation. in this situation, “maizbhandar ahmadiyya emdadia madrasah” of fatikchhari upazila of chattogram district has been conducting online education activities since april 2020, keeping the conventional instructional activities of the madrasah students high and preventing them from dropping out. however, because the instructional activities are conducted in a very remote space of chattogram, some unforeseen complications are being long-faced. the low financial gain of parents is one amongst them. in this regards, unesco reports (2020) have argued that this may be quite challenging for parents with low socio-economic status (ses) (amanor-mfoafo & dowuona, 2020). household income expenditure survey says that 8.4 million students’ families live below the poverty level (emon et al., 2020). about 67 percent of the people in bangladesh have access to the internet and about 92 percent of them use mobile data (btrc, 2020). but according to sohail (2020) “internet connectivity remains infrequent in many parts of bangladesh during certain parts of the day.” the price of the internet and the minimum needed gadgets for collaborating in online classes is additionally one the far side reach of most of the students in bangladesh (azad, 2016). in addition, unconsciousness and neutrality within the use of technology, lack of content knowledge and pedagogy among parents, lack of training and support etc, these online based educational activities are gaining momentum. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 53 research objectives on the above circumstances, the present study aims  to identify the usefulness of technology-based education system in remote areas;  to find out the availability of technology-based education system in remote areas;  to study the interest of parents in the use of technology;  to explore the activism of parents in the use of technology in the madrasah education system;  to analyse the readiness of parents in a technology-based education system. research questions the study questions are as follows:  how useful is this technology based education system in remote areas?  how can the technology based education system be made available in remote areas?  how interested are the parents in using technology in the madrasah education system?  how active are the parents in using technology in the madrasah education system?  what is the readiness of parents in implementing this technology based education system? an introduction to the method it is to be noted that a survey was conducted on 20th september 2020 in the above mentioned madrasah (religious school) through quantitative methodology. researchers developed an close-ended questionnaire based on four variables of the technology acceptance model (tam), namely, perceived usefulness (pu), perceived ease-of-use (peou), intention to use (iu), usage behavior (ub), and enrollment readiness (du). wherever 32 parents of the students finding out in several categories of this madrasah participated and expressed their views on what quantity they are aware, interested, active etc. towards this technology based education system. contribution to the literature during now of corona pandemic, online education initiatives taken by public and personal enterprises have led to a positive and groundbreaking amendment within the field of education. since, students reside in internment at this time; in addition, many of them are less aware of the use of technology in education. therefore, the role of parents is important to make the students interested and active in this method. but so far, the question is how ready the parents are to adopt this method. therefore, during this study, an attempt has been created to point out what proportion the parents of the students in the remote areas, particularly those finding out in madrasahs, are prepared and inquisitive about taking on these technology-based academic activities. makes an attempt have conjointly been created to present future researchers and policy manufactures a transparent plan of what different steps will be taken to more accelerate the effectiveness of this approach. overall structure of the paper the paper is arranged in the following manner: in the next chapter, we first look at the literature review, which discusses the theoretical structure and research framework of the study. in the next step, we present our methodological approach to answer the questions. the results of the study have been formatted through relevant discussions by analysing through www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 54 tables and graphs in the result section. in the final section, summaries and limitations of the study are identified as well as recommendations for future researchers are presented. literature review coronavirus pandemic (covid-19) the first case of coronavirus disease (covid-19) was identified in late december 2019; following a rapid escalation in early 2020, it was declared a public health emergency of international concern at the end of january, and a pandemic on 11 march, by the who (pain & devereux, 2020). then a global pandemic unfolds in various ways in numerous countries. in bangladesh, the primary 3 identified cases of covid-19 were reported on 8 march 2020. on 22 march, a 10-day termination effective from the 26th of the month was declared; after the government asked the military to enforce social distancing strictly, with groups of troopers deployed across the country, an effort the streets empty within the capital dhaka and most edge retailers closed. records on covid-19 in bangladesh as of the 19th of october 2020 indicated the following: number of positive cases: 390,206; recovered cases: 305,599; deaths: 5,681, hotline: 21.8 million (who, 2020). thus, the number of infections is increasing every day, and new cases are being recorded. in this situation, everyone is uncertain about when the educational institutions will be re-opened. madrasah education system “in bangladesh, madrasah education is one of the running education systems, which operates all over the country, recognised by the government, and accepted by the public” (al-hasani, 2019). according to report of bei (2011) “from primary to post-graduate levels, there are about 37,000 madrasahs in the country with a total of 3,340,800 students and 230,732 teachers.” two systems of madrasah education are currently running in bangladesh. one is government control aliyah madrasah and another one is qawmi (private body control) madrasah (al-hasani, 2019). the madrasah education system in bangladesh has been undergoing various changes since the 1980s (karim, 2018). and the last education policy 2010, the bangladeshi government has decided to modernize the madrasah education to match the students with the standard of general school students (al-hasani, 2019). as a result, madrasah is providing modern education parallel with religious education (bano, 2011). madrasah graduates both from state or private, have similar freedom to work taking all things together areas of government as per their particular fields (karim, 2018). e-learning with the rapid advancement of globalization, ict has become highly complementary in information dissemination and national integration (chinwendu, 2018). therefore, ict has become an integral part of every aspect of human life. “e-learning is an educational method that aims to provide educational or training programs for students or trainees at any time and at any place using information and communication technology (ict). through e-learning, learners can access resources and information from anywhere and at any time.” (al-araibi et al., 2018). parents’ readiness according to the social cognitive theory bandura (1991b) ifeoma et al. (2019) suggests, “students’ behaviors could be positively impacted through the formidable code of conducts, creating a friendly learning environment.” the role of parents is paramount in creating such a www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 55 friendly learning environment in technology based education. according to garbe et al. (2020), since most parents are not accustomed to these new and unfamiliar rules of online education for their children, they often have to struggle to understand them. therefore, parental readiness is very important in the successful implementation of online education. to make the study more effective, the authors analysed enrollment readiness in light of the following levels: learner readiness, cultural readiness, technical readiness, and environmental readiness (ministry of energy, water and communications & open university, 2004). technology acceptance model in 1989, fred davis proposed the technology acceptance model (tam). this model has been used the most in the last few decades among the models used to determine the technology acceptance of the users. so according to adetayo et al. (2020), “tam was adjudged to be simple, easy to use and more powerful in modeling the determinants of user acceptance of information technology.” tam introduces two significant factors: the first factor is perceived usefulness (pu) and another factor is perceived ease of use (peou) (davis, 1989). “the author defined pu as the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would enhance his or her job performance. more so, peou was defined as the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would be free from effort” (nkpurukwe et al., 2020). note that on the basis of this model, the authors have established a conceptual framework by introducing the following two more factors: intention to use (iu), usage behavior (uv). research framework in order to answer the research questions, the research framework, as illustrated in figure 1 independent variable (iv) dependent variable (dv) figure 1. research framework methodology participants on september 20, 2020, a parents’ meeting was organised at “maizbhandar ahmadiyya emdadia madrasah” in fatikchhari upazila of chattogram district, where 25 female guardians and 7 male guardians were present. table 1 seeks to clarify the age of the parents and when they started using the internet. perceived usefulness (pu) intention to use (iu) enrollment readiness (er) perceived ease-ofuse (peou) usage behavior (ub) www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 56 table 1. the age of the participants’ and the duration of their internet use gender of the participants started using internet total 0-6 month s 1-2 years 3-4 years 5-6 years 7-10 years 11-15 years female age in year 16-20 0 0 1 0 1 21-25 1 0 0 0 1 26-30 0 4 1 1 6 31-35 1 1 0 2 4 36-40 1 0 2 0 3 41-45 1 3 0 0 4 46-50 2 2 1 0 5 51-55 1 0 0 0 1 total 7 10 5 3 25 male age in year 21-25 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 41-45 0 0 0 1 0 1 2 46-50 1 0 0 1 0 0 2 51-55 0 1 1 0 0 0 2 total 1 1 1 2 1 1 7 data collection in the reality of covid-19 pandemic, the meeting asked how acceptable and effective the technology is as an alternative to traditional education activities. researchers developed the primary eight questions based on four variables of technology acceptance model (tam). the next four questions are introduced according to the enrollment readiness. data analysis the collected data have been analysed by statistical package for the social science (spss version 25.0), where twelve questionnaires have been analysed. in particular, descriptive statistics, crosstabs analysis and correlations have been used in this analysis. procedure in this case, researchers have used quantitative research design, since “quantitative research establishes statistically significant conclusions about a population by studying a representative sample of the population (creswell john w., 2003). experimental research is one of the few types of quantitative research design. according to campbell & stanley (1963), experimental research tests the accuracy of a theory by determining if the independent variable(s) (controlled by the researcher) causes an effect on the dependent variable (the variable being measured for change). therefore, at the beginning of this process we have considered four variables of technology acceptance model (tam) as independent variables. then, during this period of covid-19 pandemic, enrollment readiness among the parents has been covered by the dependent variable. finally, to find out how these independent variables have affected the dependent variable, researchers have developed a close-ended questionnaire. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 57 results parents’ opinions have been analysed according to the 5-point likert scale. a b c d e strongly disagree (percentage) disagree(p ercentage) neither agree nor disagree (percentage) agree (percentage) strongly agree (percentage) table 2. feelings of parents based on independent variables variables feelings of the participants percentage perceived usefulness this technique has increased the child’s reading skills. 90.85 the method is extremely dynamic. 84.85 perceived easeof-use it seems also easier than conventional learning activities. 90.85 this method has created the child’s learning process easier. 81.7 intention to use it increases an interest to the lesson. 90.9 it increases attention to the lesson. 81.75 usage behavior children are continually active during this teaching. 67.45 children’s participation has led a modification in their reading habits. 86.9 the first two queries asked parents how useful this technology-based education system appears to them. it is clear from table 2 that about 90.85 percent of parents said that this technique has increased their children’s reading skills. at the same time, about 84.85 percent of them suppose that the method is extremely dynamic. the next two questions are regarding the ease-of-use of this education system. from table 2, we find that to 90.85 percent of parents, it seems also easier than conventional learning activities. additionally, about 81.7 percent of parents admit that this method has created the children’s learning process easier. then the next two queries were to understand the intention to use this method. in the light of table 2, we are able to say that approximately 90.9 percent and 81.75 percent of parents reported an increase in interest and attention to the lesson as a result of this approach, severally. next, the researchers asked the parents what their children’s behavior was towards this methodology. about 67.45 percent of parents are of the opinion that their children are continually active during this teaching. again, about 86.9 percent of parents feel that their children’s participation in this method has led a modification in their reading habits, that we have got taken the opportunity for instance well within the table above. table 3. feelings of parents based on dependent variable enrollment readiness feelings of the participants (percentage) learner readiness 90.85 cultural readiness 85.70 technical readiness 69.70 environmental readiness 88.85 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 58 from table 3, we found that about 90.85 percent of parents agreed that children can learn more in less time during this education system. in addition, this technique is evident and graspable to about 85.70 percent of parents and about 69.70 percent of parents provide their kids with the mandatory devices to assist them participate during this activity. additionally, about 88.85 percent of parents feel that their children’s participation in this method has led a positive attitude towards the internet. table 4. correlations among variables correlations perceive usefulnes s perceived ease-of-use intentio n to use usage behavio r enrollmen t readiness perceived usefulness pearson correlation 1 .389 * .582 ** .384 * .258 sig.(2tailed) .028 .000 .030 .154 n 32 32 32 32 32 perceived ease-ofuse pearson correlation .389 * 1 .210 .243 .302 sig.(2tailed) .028 .248 .180 .094 n 32 32 32 32 32 intention to use pearson correlation .582 ** .210 1 .600 ** .451 ** sig.(2tailed) .000 .248 .000 .010 n 32 32 32 32 32 usage behavior pearson correlation .384 * .243 .600 ** 1 .552 ** sig.(2tailed) .030 .180 .000 .001 n 32 32 32 32 32 enrollmen t readiness pearson correlation .258 .302 .451 ** .552 ** 1 sig.(2tailed) .154 .094 .010 .001 n 32 32 32 32 32 *. correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). **. correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). here the authors have tried to determine the relationship between enrollment readiness and the above four independent variables. the relationship was analysed using pearson product-moment correlation coefficient. from the above table it is clear that there www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 59 is a moderately positive relationship of independent variables with enrollment readiness and it is statistically significant. discussions overall, in this reality of covid-19 pandemic, the nature of madrasah education system in bangladesh has been analysed in this study. it is clear from the above study that there is no substitute for the readiness of all parents to make this technology based education system effective. therefore, the study was conducted with the help of parents of madrasah students in a remote area of chattogram district in bangladesh. it is a matter of great pleasure that the positivity and satisfaction of the parents in this regard is well reflected in the study. however, the authors have deeply realised that it is possible to bring more fulfillments to the initiative by adopting some more action plans. farhana et al. (2020) suggested that it is difficult to conceive a vigorous pedagogy without any plain activities. therefore, it takes time to make parents more aware and active in implementing this sophisticated learning method. in addition, if the government of the people's republic of bangladesh is committed to keeping the price of online education materials such as smart phones, computers, laptops, etc. within the reach of the people, there is no doubt that these educational activities will be further accelerated. similarly, if uninterrupted, dynamic and affordable internet service can be ensured in the whole of bangladesh including remote areas, this method can be expected to be more effective and efficient. some limitations were observed as the study was conducted in a short period of time and in a short range. first, the study presents data on the only one madrasah in a remote area of bangladesh. that is, the sample size of the study was limited. therefore, in the future, if research activities are conducted for a longer period of time and on a wider scale, more subtle and rich ideas can be found in this regard. subsequently, there was a disproportionate disparity in the numerical approach between the female and male parents participating in the study. in addition, some parents lack the necessary online learning materials which bring some incompleteness in the analysis of the views of all parents. therefore, for higher research in this area, it is necessary to ensure equal participation of men and women and ensure the necessary devices for all. above all, in the socio-economic context of bangladesh, we are facing various problems in conducting these technology based education activities. yet, in the light of this study, it is easily conceivable that we will soon see a hundred percent successful implementation of this method, by solving all the problems, leaving all the narrowness behind. references a2i. 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(2020). remote learning in time of covid-19 ... and beyond. dhakatribune. http://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2020/04/10/remote-learning-in-the-time-ofcovid-19-and-beyond unesco. (2020). half of world’s student population not attending school: unesco launches global coalition to accelerate deployment of remote learning solutions. https://en.unesco.org/news/half-worlds-student-population-not-attending-school-unescolaunches-global-coalition-accelerate who, b. (2020). world health organization, bangladesh, covid-19, 19 october 2020, morvidity and morality, weekly update (mmwu) (issue october). https://www.who.int/bangladesh/emergencies/coronavirus-disease-(covid-19)-update/ www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 62 appendices appendix a: survey questionnaire here the authors have considered four factors of technology acceptance model (tam) namely perceived usefulness (pu), perceived ease-of-use (peou), intention to use (iu), usage behavior (uv) as independent variables and have developed two questionnaires for each variables. in addition, they have generated four questionnaires for enrollment readiness as dependent variable. variables questionnaires feelings of the participants’ a b c d e perceived usefulness (iv) as a result of participating in online learning activities, my child's reading skills have improved. as a result of participating in online learning activities, my child's learning process will be much faster. perceived ease-ofuse (iv) teaching and learning in online learning activities is easier than traditional learning activities. participating in online learning activities has made my child's learning process much easier. intention to use (iv) participating in online learning activities has increased my child's interest in lessons. my child pays full attention to the lessons during the online learning activities. usage behavior (iv) my child enjoys participating in online learning activities and is always active. my child's curriculum has changed for the better since participating in online learning activities. enrollment readiness (dv) as a result of participating in online learning activities, my child is able to learn more in less time. the concept of online learning activities has become clear and understandable to me. giving the child the necessary devices to participate in online learning activities, i am always interested. participating in online learning activities has created a positive perception of my child towards the internet. copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 published by american center of science and education, usa 24 perception of parents towards matriculation schools in sivakasi v. karthihai selvi phd assistant professor in commerce , ayya nadar janaki ammal college, sivakasi, tamil nadu, india received: november 17, 2018 accepted: november 28, 2018 online published: december 8, 2018 abstract according to the changes in parents attitude towards the school are following different types of syllabuses, namely, state board, cbse, matriculation and delhi board. they are also following various types of teaching techniques using overhead projector, group discussion charts, models etc., they are more popularly used teaching aids in institution following, matriculation and cbse syllabus. this helps the students to shine in their subjects. the teaching methods and curriculum are getting more attention in private schools. the parents are preferring matriculation and cbse syllabi which have more subjects and more practical with computer knowledge. the objectives of the present study is to know the perception of parents towards matriculation schools. it is found that there is no significant association between socio economic profile of the respondents and their level of perception towards matriculation schools. keywords: institution, syllabus, human capital. 1.introduction education has to be oriented towards the development of the intellectual physical and spiritual qualities of the child by experience faculty member who are fully conversant with the modern teaching methodology. school is one of the most important institution which teach reading, writing and other basic skills needed in everyday life. schools increase people knowledge of the world, train for a job or career and help them to adjust the rapid changes that take in the modern life. in school, people learn their responsibilities as citizen and importance of values such as truth and justice. school also help people learn to enjoy the acts and to develop other interest that makes leisure times rewarding. people throughout the world attend school, but the quality of school varies widely among the countries, the industrialized nations such as, australia, canada, japan, united states and most european nations have well developed education system. most of their schools have skilled teachers, modern equipments and a variety of educational materials. most young people in these countries complete elementary school and secondary school may also continue on to college. other nations especially the developing nations of africa and asia cannot yet afford complete education systems. some areas of these countries do not even have schools. in other areas, the schools lack skilled teachers and equipment. most of the children do not complete elementary school and few people enter college. 2.statement of the problem according to the changes in parents attitude towards the school are following different types of syllabuses, namely, state board, cbse, matriculation and delhi board. they are also following various types of teaching techniques using overhead projector, group discussion charts, models etc., they are more popularly used teaching aids in institution following, matriculation and cbse syllabus. this helps the students to shine in their subjects. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 25 the teaching methods and curriculum are getting more attention in private schools. the parents are preferring matriculation and cbse syllabi which have more subjects and more practical with computer knowledge. parents are also welcoming such type of teaching methods and curriculum for the purpose of their children’s future life. in this connection, parents’ view about the syllabus followed in matriculation schools is getting more attention in general. the present study will disclose the facts about the parents attitude towards matriculation schools and syllabus in sivakasi. 3.scope of the study this study aims at having a clear insight about the parents’ view towards matriculation school. the study tries to find out what the parent knows and view about matriculation school syllabus and other syllabus. this study also attempts to understand the factors which influence the parents to admit their children in matriculation schools. 4.objectives of the study the main objectives of the present study are  to know the perception of parents towards matriculation schools.  to give suggestions based on the findings of the study. 5.hypothesis of the study in order to achieve the objectives of the study, the researcher has found the following hypothesis.  there is no significant association between socio-economic profile of the parents and their perception towards matriculation schools. 6.review of literature previous researches were analysed by the researcher. the literature review was mainly focusing on the perception of the parents towards the matriculation schools in sivakasi. sujit bordhan (2014) in his research paper titled “parental attitude towards schooling of their children” studied about the attitude of parents towards schooling and education of their children and compared the parents belonging to tribal and non-tribal communities with regard to their attitude. he found that in spite of the government’s endeavours in providing free education to all, the attitude of the respondent was not found to be highly favourable. he also found that there was no significant difference between tribal and non-tribal parents attitude towards schooling. he concluded that there is a need to provide special care and opportunities to the traditional disadvantaged population in a democratic society such as ours, which stresses egalitarianism, social justice and economic development for all sections of the society. faisal alsauidi (2016) in his research work “reasons influencing selection decision making of parental choice of school.” studied about the factor highly regarded as influencing. he found the reasons for selection of private or public school in the kingdom of saudi arabia (ksa). he identified a factor highly regarded as influencing parental decision making as academic factor – divide into three identified elements – class size, quality of instructions and student/teacher relationship. class size, quality of instructions and student/teacher relationships, identified as the main elements that influenced their selection decision making. noor alyani yaacob, mariana mohamed osman and syahriah bachok (2015) in their research work “an assessment of factors influencing parents’ decision making when choosing a private school for the children: a case study of selangor, malaysia: for sustainable human capital” studied about the research emphasized in www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 26 analyzing the parents motivation in deciding on private school. this paper aims at investigating the factors influencing the parents when selecting a private school as the educational institution for their children. the research analyzed what motivated the parents to make the decision in terms of exploring the strengths and weaknesses of these private schools over public schools. it was found that the parents make the decision based on their income level, social background, followed by the distance and location of the private school when selecting to enrol their children in private schools. these eight factors namely income level; social status/background; distance; location; teachers quality; schools’ academic performances; school environments/facilities and private schools’ syllabus may contribute to enhance the private education level in malaysia. chamundeswari, sridevi, archana kumari (2014) in their research work of self-concept, studied about the habit and academic achievement of students. they studied the relationship between self-concept, study habit and academic achievement of students. it is found that there is a significant difference in the self-concept among the students in different categories of schools following different system of education, namely, state, matriculation and central board schools. the facilities in the matriculation schools and the nature of the syllabus also contribute a lot towards the better self-concept of the students. one of the factors contributing to achievement among pupils of comparable endowments is the variation of the pupil’s ability to organize their work and to study efficiently. an important area of guidance therefore is specific training is how to study, how to learn and how to work efficiently. appadurai, and saraladevi, (2015) in their research work “teaching aptitude and teacher attitude on teacher efficacy” found that knowledge and attitudes are underlying factors that shape a teacher action. to uphold teaching skills, there is a need for continuous updating of knowledge and development of competence. cooperation with others within and outside the higher education is one way to demonstrate through the aptitude. aptitude describes skills of a person and has the ability to learn in the future. specific capacity distinct from the general intellectual ability which helps an individual to acquire the required degree of proficiency or achievement in a specific field. without aptitude we could not transform attitude into successful action and having the right attitude is a form of aptitude, because in order to be successful a person must develop the skill of maintaining mental focus. teacher attitude toward inclusion is affected by personal and general sense of teaching efficacy. schools should offer and allow for additional training/ professional development to the teaching staff so that they are better prepared to teach and service the needs of students with disabilities in an inclusive classroom setting. the ultimate goal is effective learning for all students, including those with disabilities. chamundeswari, (2013) in her research work titled “job satisfaction and performance of school teachers” insisted the need to investigate the job satisfaction and performance of teacher in different categories of schools following different systems of education. it is for the school authorities’ policy makers and society at large to ensure factors contributing to job satisfaction of teachers to the maximum possible extent and thereby enhancing their teaching performance to its optimum. in the present study, investigating the job satisfaction and performance of teacher in different categories of schools following different systems of education namely, the state, matriculation and central board schools, it is seen that there is a significant difference in job satisfaction and performance of teachers. in central board schools, the infrastructure facilities, pay scale, working hours, recognition for the teacher work load, class size, number of classes handled per day, attitude of students, awareness and mentality of the parents socio-economic status of the parents, are all significantly better and favourable for the teachers working there, and thus the teachers in central board schools are significantly better in their job satisfaction and as a result their performance is also significantly better when compared to the teachers in state and matriculation boards. norbahiah misran, and norhana arsad (2012) in their research work titled, “influencing factors for matriculation students in selecting university” identified that the matriculation students show some dominant factors such as suitability, interest and career opportunities were significantly influence them to choose a university and the field of study. based on the findings, faculty would be develop strategies to improve the students selection rate in choosing engineering program for the purpose of getting better quality of students. this study is to measure and understand the perceptions and interests of matriculation students to continue their studies at territory level. as a www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 27 result, important information such as their level of knowledge about ukm and their interests in the engineering program in ukm is obtained. this finding is useful to plan the strategy of dissemination information to the community especially to the matriculation students. further research is to be conducted to look into the longitudinal study on the factors in students’ decision to observe the trend of decision making over maturity. yifat ben-david kolikant, (2009) in the research work of the students, perceptions of school and the usability of digital technology in schools. discussed that today’s students were born into a world of digital technology. the surveys were filled out by three different classes that do not use computers in school one in a high school that advocates beyondinformation activities and two in information focused public (i.e., state) schools-a high school and a middle school. these attitudes were found to be negatively correlated with the legitimacy ascribed to the form of learning used in school. specifically, the two public school classes used digital technology in the belief that they know better than their teacher how to pursue a school informationfocused agenda, whereas the third class legitimized the form of learning used in school. the results of this study, especially the belief among a significant number of publicschool students that they know more about the educational potential of the internet than their teachers, should alert the system. however, more work is required to explore students’ attitudes towards school learning. additionally, further work is needed to shed light on teachers’ attitude towards students’ use of the internet at home and its impact on students’ beliefs and schooling practices. e.v.rathaiah. (2011) had emphasized on formal education, extent of its spread among the tribal communities and the nature of structural constraints in a part of adilabad district of andhra pradesh. the author presents the living conditions of various tribes and the rate of low literacy rate among them. he critically examines different types of constraints in providing education to the people in which he discussed the influences of structural variables in to external constraints includes ecology i.e., geographical, exposure to modernity and socioeconomic status of the family, type of occupation level of income etc, and internal constraints which included the teachers, content of education medium of instructions, administration and supervision and attitude towards education. sarkes.a.k. (2010) conducted a study to find the correlation of children attitudes to that of their parents, the main objectives of the study was to examine the relationship between children’s attitude towards their parents and variables like children perception of parental love, their birth order, gender and some aspects of personality. some of the important findings were that attitudes scores were normally distributed, boys and girls with favourable and unfavourable attitude did not differ with respect to their personality and the third born children attitude towards their parents differed significantly. 7.methodology the data collection is purely based on primary and secondary sources. primary data the primary data were collected through interview schedules from the respondents. the interview schedule has been designed to gather the data keeping in view of the objectives. secondary data data have been gathered from books and journals which are available in the library of our college and from the interne www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 28 pre –test before going to collection of data, the researcher find the selected samples of respondents for pre-testing the interview schedule. it helps for arranging the question in the order of logical and convenient answering. the interview schedule includes the questions of objective types, open-ended, multi choice and ranking question. sampling design convenience sampling was adopted by the researcher for collecting data from the respondents. statistical tools for analysis of data, the appropriate statistical tools have been employed. they are  percentage analysis  chi-square test period of the study the study was carried out from december2017 to february2018. 8.profile of the respondents the socioeconomic profile of the respondents is displayed in the following table. table 1 socio economic profile of respondents profile particulars no.of respondents percentage gender male 19 23.80 female 61 76.20 age below 30 years 33 41.20 31-40 years 39 48.80 41-50 years 8 10.00 educational qualification sslc 30 37.50 higher secondary 27 33.80 ug 12 15.00 pg 8 10.00 professional 3 3.80 occupation business 10 12.50 private job 18 22.50 government job 9 11.20 profession 1 1.20 housewife 42 52.50 monthly income below rs.5000 51 63.80 rs. 500010000 15 18.80 rs. 100012 2.50 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 29 15000 above rs.15000 12 15.00 number of members in the family less than 4 10 12.50 4-6 69 86.20 7-9 1 1.20 number of children in the family 1 child 8 10.00 2 children 65 81.20 3 children 7 8.80 source: primary data 9.perception of parents towards matriculation schools the researcher has analyzed the perception of parents level in matriculation schools. the gathered details are presented in table 2. table 2 perception of parents towards matriculation schools s.no particulars very good good average poor very poor total 1 about teaching 28 (35.00) 47 (58.80) 5 (6.20) 80 (100.00) 2 quality of syllabus contents 23 (28.80) 44 (55.00) 12 (15.00) 1 (1.20) 80 (100.00) 3 burden of fees 1 (1.20) 8 (10.00) 54 (67.50) 13 (16.20) 4 (5.00) 80 (100.00) 4 adequacy of extracurricular activities 20 (25.00) 45 (56.20) 15 (18.80) 80 (100.00) 5 about communication skill of students 19 (23.80) 40 (50.00) 20 (25.00) 1 (1.20) 80 (100.00) 6 infrastructure facility present in school 24 (30.00) 47 (58.80) 7 (8.80) 1 (1.20) 1 (1.20) 80 (100.00) 7 sports training level/ importance of sports 15 (18.80) 43 (53.80) 19 (23.80) 3 (3.80) 80 (100.00) 8 adequate transport facility 27 (33.80) 29 (36.20) 21 (26.20) 1 (1.20) 2 (2.50) 80 (100.00) source: primary data from the table 2, it is found that out of the 80 respondent, majority of respondents have (58.80) per cent of the respondents said that teaching was good, (55.00) per cent of the respondents said that matriculation syllabus content was good, (67.50) per cent of the respondents felt that school fees was average, (56.20) per cent of the respondents felt that extracurricular activities good, (50.00) per cent of the respondents said that communication skill was good, (58.80) per cent of the respondents said that infrastructure facility was good, (53.80) per cent of the respondents felt that sports training was good, and the remaining (36.20) per cent of the respondents felt that transport facility were good. 10.identification of level of perception towards matriculation schools the researcher has tried to find out the association between socio economic variables of the respondents and their level of perception towards matriculation schools. the level of perception is measured by using likerts five point scaling technique. the following variables were taken for analysis  about teaching www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 30  quality of syllabus contents  burden of fees  adequacy of extracurricular activities  about communication skill of students  infrastructure facility present in school  sports training level / importance of sports  adequate transport facility the respondents were asked to give their level of perception towards the matriculation schools to the above said variables. the scores were assigned to the five point scale.  very good -5 points  good4 points  average3 points  poor 2 points  very poor 1point the scores were added and total scores for individual responses were arrived. then mean and sd for the total score was calculated the level of perception was divided into three groups namely. high, medium and low based on mean and sd. the mean and sd for the total scores were 31 and 3 respectively. the level of perception is divided accordingly ( + sd) = 34> high ( sd) =28< low ( + sd) + ( sd) 28 to 34: medium socio-economic factor variables and level of perception by using chi-square test in order to test the relationship between socioeconomic factor variables, namely, gender, age, educational qualification, occupation, monthly income, family members, number of children and number of children studying in matriculation school and level of perception. the hypothesis that there is no significant relationship between the socioeconomic factor and level of perception. the chisquare test has been applied by using spss. chisquare test chi-squared test is one of the simplest and mostly widely used non-parametric tests i statistical work. the x 2 symbol is greek letter chi. the x 2 was first used by karl pearson in the year 1900. the quantity x 2 describes the magnitude of the describes the magnitude of the discrepancy between theory and observation. the test statistics of x 2 has been computed as follows chi-square value www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 31 row total x column total e = -------------------------------------------- grand total o =observed frequency e = expected frequency df = degree of frequency df=(r-1) (c-1) r = row c= column 11.association between socioeconomic factor of the respondents and level of perception towards matriculation schools hypothesis “there is no significant association between socioeconomic factors of the respondents and their level of perception” to test the above hypothesis, pearson’s chisquare test is applied and the result is presented in the following table 3. table 3 gender of the respondents and their level of perception s. no gender level of perception total high medium low 1 male 4 (5.00) 12 (9.70) 3 (4.30) 19 (19.00) 2 female 17 (16.00) 29 (31.30) 15 (13.70) 61 (61.00 total 21 (21.00) 41 (41.00) 18 (18.00) 80 (80.00) source: primary data the result of chi-square test is presented in the following table. table 4 chi-square tests value df asymp. sig. (2-sided) pearson chi-square 1.445 2 .486 likelihood ratio 1.466 2 .480 linear-by-linear association .012 1 .914 n of valid cases 80 a. 2 cells (33.3%) have expected count less than 5. b. the minimum expected count is 4.28. from table 4, it is found that the pvalue (0.486) is more than 0.05. hence null hypothesis is accepted. so it is concluded that there is no significant association between gender of the respondents and their level of perceptions. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 32 table 5 association between age of the respondents and their level of perception towards matriculation schools s. no age level of perception total high medium low 1 below 30 years 7 (8.70) 17 (16.90) 9 (7.40) 33 (33.00) 2 31-40 years 11 (10.20) 19 (20.00) 9 (8.80) 39 (39.00) 3 41-50 years 3 (2.10) 5 (4.10) 0 (1.80) 8 (8.00) total 21 (21.00) 41 (41.00) 18 (18.00) 80 (80.00) source: primary data the result of chi-square test is presented in the following table. table 6 chi-square tests value df asymp.sig.(2sided) pearson chi-square 3.148 4 .533 likelihood ratio 4.890 4 .299 linear-by-linear association 2.158 1 .142 n of valid cases 80 a. 3 cells (33.3%) have expected count less than 5. b. the minimum expected count is 1.80. table 6 revealed that the pvalue (0.533) is more than 0.05. hence null hypothesis is accepted. so it is concluded that there is no significant association between age of the respondents and their more level of perceptions. table 7 association between educational qualifications of and their level of perception s. no education level of perception total high medium low 1 sslc 5 (7.90) 20 (15.40) 5 (6.80) 30 (30.00) 2 higher secondary 9 (7.10) 11 (13.80) 7 (6.10) 27 (27.00) www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 33 3 ug 4 (3.20) 5 (6.20) 3 (2.70) 12 (12.00) 4 pg 2 (2.10) 3 (4.10) 3 (1.80) 8 (8.00) 5 professional 1 (0.80) 2 (1.50) 0 (0.70) 3 (3.00) total 21 (21.00) 41 (41.00) 18 (18.00) 80 (80.00) source: primary data the result of chi-square test is presented in the following table. table 8 chi-square tests value df asymp.sig.(2-sided) pearson chi square 6.582 8 .582 likelihood ratio 7.210 8 .514 linear-by-linear association 0.061 1 .805 n of valid cases 80 a. 8 cells (53.3%) have expected count less than 5. b. the minimum expected count is 0.68. from table 8 it is found that the pvalue (0.582) is more than 0.05. hence null hypothesis is accepted. so it is concluded that there is no significant association between educational qualifications of the respondents and their more level of perceptions. table 9 association between occupation of the respondent and level of perception s. no occupati on level of perception total high mediu m low 1 business 3 (2.60) 5 (5.10) 2 (2.20) 10 (10.00) 2 private job 4 (4.70) 10 (9.20) 4 (4.00) 18 (18.00) 3 governm ent job 3 (2.40) 4 (4.60) 2 (2.00) 9 (9.00) www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 34 4 professio n 1 (0.30) 0 (0.50) 0 (0.20) 1 (1.00) 5 house wife 10 (11.00) 22 (21.50) 10 (9.40) 42 (42.00) total 21 (21.00) 41 (41.00) 18 (18.00) 80 (80.00) source: primary data the result of chi-square test is presented in the following table. table 10 chi-square tests value df asymp.sig.(2sided) pearson chi-square 3.462 8 .902 likelihood ratio 3.324 8 .912 linear-by-linear association 0.078 1 .780 n of valid cases 80 a. 10 cells (66.7%) have expected count less than 5. b. the minimum expected count is 0.23. from table 10 it is found that the pvalue (0.902) is more than 0.05. hence null hypothesis is accepted. so it is concluded that there is no significant association between occupation of the respondents and their level of perception towards matriculation schools. table 11 association between monthly income of the respondents and level of perception s. no income level of perception total high mediu m low 1 below rs.5000 14 (13.40) 26 (26.10) 11 (11.50 ) 51 (51.00) 2 rs.500010000 4 (3.90) 6 (7.7) 5 (3.40) 15 (15.00) 3 rs.1000115000 0 (0.50) 1 (1.00) 1 (0.40) 2 (2.00) 4 above rs. 15000 3 (3.20) 8 (6.20) 1 (2.70) 12 (12.00) www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 35 total 21 (21.00) 41 (41.00) 18 (18.00 ) 80 (80.00) source: primary data the result of chi-square test is presented in the following table. table 12 chi-square tests value df asymp.sig.(2-sided) pearson chi-square 4.034 6 .672 likelihood ratio 4.607 6 .595 linear-by-linear association 0.019 1 .890 n of valid cases 80 a. 7 cells (58.3%) have expected count less than 5. b. the minimum expected count is 0.45. table 12 revealed that the pvalue (0.672) is more than 0.05. hence null hypothesis is accepted. so it is concluded that there is no significant association between monthly income of the respondents and their level of perceptions towards matriculation schools. table 13 association between family members of the respondents and level of perception s. no members level of perception total high mediu m low 1 less than 4 3 (2.60) 4 (5.10) 3 (2.20) 10 (10.00) 2 4-6 18 (18.10) 36 (35.40) 15 (15.50) 69 (69.00) 3 7-9 0 (0.30) 1 (0.50) 0 (0.20) 1 (1.00) total 21 (21.00) 41 (41.00) 18 (18.00) 80 (80.00) source: primary data www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 36 the result of chi-square test is presented in the following table. table 14 chi-square tests value df asymp.sig.(2-sided) pearson chi-square 1.532 4 .821 likelihood ratio 1.912 4 .752 linear-bylinear association 0.023 1 .879 n of valid cases 80 a. 5 cells (55.6%) have expected count less than 5. b. the minimum expected count is 0.23. table 14 it is found that the pvalue (0.821) is more than 0.05. hence null hypothesis is accepted. so it is concluded that there is no significant association between family members of the respondents and their level of perceptions. table 15 association between number of children of the respondents and level of perception s.n o childr en level of perception total high medium low 1 1 child 3 (2.10) 3 (4.10) 2 (1.80) 8 (8.00) 2 2 childre n 17 (17.10) 32 (33.30) 16 (14.60) 65 (65.00) 3 3 childre n 1 (1.80) 6 (3.60) 0 (1.60) 7 (7.00) total 21 (21.00) 41 (41.00) 18 (18.00) 80 (80.00) source: primary data the result of chi-square test is presented in the following table. table 16 chi-square tests value df asymp.sig.(2sided) pearson chi-square 4.463 4 .347 likelihood ratio 5.820 4 .213 linear-by-linear association 0.000 1 .989 n of valid cases 80 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 37 a. 6 cells (66.7%) have expected count less than 5. b. the minimum expected count is 1.58. table 16 revealed that the pvalue (0.347) is more than 0.05. hence null hypothesis is accepted. so it is concluded that there is no significant association between number of children of the respondents and their more level of perceptions. 12.suggestions on the basis of his findings, the researcher offers the following suggestions.  the matriculation syllabus is good and the best choice that the management should recommend to the education board to improve the syllabus to some extended.  night study can be removed from the school then only the children feel relaxed and they can have full concentration in the studies.  the teachers should consider the children point of view and they should reduce the home work.  the language subjects should be improved.  proper training will improve the performance of the children in the sports activities.  the effective method of teaching will helpful to the students to source high mark in their studies. 13.conclusion this study shows that matriculation school is mostly preferred by the parents among the various alternative of state board and cbse. they are also highly satisfied with their child performance and also they are thinking that it is helpful for their child higher studies. references appadurai.r, saraladevi.k (2015), “teaching aptitude and teacher attitude on teacher efficacy” international journal of innovative research in science, vol.no. 4, issue no. 10, pp 10252-10261. chamundeswari.s, sridevi.v, archana kumarai (2014), “selfconcept, study habit and academic achievement of students” international journal of humanities social sciences and education, vol.no.1, issue no.10, pp 47-55. chamundeswari.s (2013), “job satisfaction and performance of school teachers” international journal of academy research in business and sciences, vol. no. 3, pp 420-428. faisal alsauidi (2016), “reasons influencing selection decision making of parental choice of school” journal of research in education and science, vol.no.2, issue no.1, pp 201-211. norbahiah misran and norhana arsad (2012), “influecing factors for matriculation students in selecting university and program of study” procedia – social and behavioural sciences, pp 567-574 noor alyani yaacob, mariana mohamed osman, syahriah bachok (2015), “an assessment of factors influencing parents’ decision making when choosing a private school for their children: a case study of selangor, malaysia: for sustainable human capital” procedia environmental sciences, vol.no.28, pp 406417. rathaiah.e.v. (2011), “technophobia of higher secondary school teachers” international journal of teacher educational research, vol.no.1, issue no.3, pp 22-28. sujit bordhan (2014), “parental attitude towards schooling of their children” journal of all india association for educational research, vol.no. 26, pp 1-13. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 38 sarkes.a.k. (2010) “occupational stress and coping strategies of matriculation school teachers working” international journal of applied research, vol. no.4, issue no.8, pp 87-92. yifat ben-david kolikant, (2009), “digital students in a book – oriented school: students’ perceptions of school and the usability of digital technology in schools” educational technology and society, vol.no.12, issue. no. 2, pp 131-143. copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). american international journal of education and linguistics research; vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995 published by american center of science and education, usa 13 conversational implicature and politeness strategies in bío ̣́dúnkáyo ̣́dé newspapers’ review in south western nigeria agunbiade favour olamide adekunle ajasin university akungba-akoko, nigeria e-mail:olamide.agunbiade@aaua.edu.ng abstract wardhaugh (1986) opines that when we speak, choices must of necessity be made of what we want to say, how we want to say it, the choice of words, sounds, (styles and other variables available within the speech community) that best unite (connect) what we say with how it is said. based on the foregoing, the focus of this study is to identify and analyze the politeness strategies employed in the talk exchanges presented in bíọ́dún and káyọ̀dé newspapers’ review through critical evaluation. in addition, the study seeks to investigate what is implicated by an expression, other than what a speaker actually said by saying what he said. brown and levinson's politeness theory and grice’s cooperative principle with its maxims are adopted for analysis purpose. this study intends to show that yorùbá culture places premium on social behaviour displayed and to reveal some of the culturally inherent linguistic and non-linguistic tools in the native speakers’intuition as well as and repertoire of the people which they employ to meet the face want of interlocutors in communication situations. keywords: politeness, face, interlocutors, implicature, speech acts, ftas. 1. introduction bíọ́dún-kàyọ̀dé, as popularly called and known amongst the south western people of nigeria is a daily yorùbá newspaper review aired on selected radio stations. on the programme, both local and international news are captured and presented in form of talk exchanges between the duo reviewersbíọ́dún and káyọ̀dé. traditionally, politeness is considered a vital part of the yorùbá people’s culture and a great deal in the people’s daily linguistic and paralinguistic interaction, especially, if social distinction exists between participants. the concept of politeness is universal though it operates and manifests variously in diverse cultures and beliefs of people across the world (ajayi and balogun, 2004:77). this research will examine the talk exchanges of bíọ́dún and káyọ̀dé as presented in their newspapers’ review to determine whether politeness, as found in yorùbá talk exchanges exhibits universal feature reported in some scholars’ works or it deviates from what has been on ground on the topic of politeness. this will be done by identifying, and analyzing politeness strategies and its various concepts (as discussed by brown and levinson, 1978) employed in bíọ́dún-káyọ̀dé newspapers’ review. similarly, this study seeks to find out what is implicated by speaker’s utterance(s) other than what is said in the duo’s newspapers’ review. 2. literature review language is usually employed to reflect the belief, perception and views of people about certain ideas in the society. the social use of languages is guided by social order among which is politeness in yorùbá culture (ajayi et al., 2014:78). a society’s language is said to form aspects of its culture. scholarly definitions and views abound of what culture is. in his opinion, adetugbo 1967 says that culture comprises of verbal and non-verbal aspects. according to him, the verbal aspect of culture is concerned with the cultural rules that guide the organization of the social use of a language or lack of it. ọdẹ́bùnmi seems to share this view when he says that: politeness is sometimes relative to people and culture. in the context of nigeria cultures, the hausa and the yorùbá operate at two extremes in terms of politeness. whereas hausas are rather blunt in their description of persons and phenomena… the yorùba are reserved. a yorùbá person is essentially euphemistic in his/her language usage when it comes to issues that border on the psych-social and emotional aspects of co-participants (ọdẹ bùnmi, 2003:71). www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 14 similarly, miriam, (2006:84) opines that the meaning we give to conversation exchanges as hearers, depend on where we grow up and the norms of politeness acquired in the meantime. certain responses to talk exchanges which may be considered rude and impolite in some cultures and languages may be polite, normal and culturally acceptable by the standard of other language or culture based on mutual knowledge between the speaker and the hearer.though the concept of politeness has been observed to be a universal one despite the fact that its operations and manifestations differ from culture to culture and in relation to people’s beliefs across the globe (brown et al., 1978:56-57; ajayi et al., 2014:77). in his study, ikotun 2004 identifies verbal devices that are employed by yorùbá people to indicate politeness to one another. based on his findings, factors that influence politeness in address forms of the people include custom, marriage, market strategy, seniority, faith, age, neat physical appearance and courtesy. one noticeable observation made about the examples cited under ikotun’s use of politeness markers based on the factors he identified is the reoccurrence of similar address forms under numerous varying factors except a few. 3. research methodology/method of data collection this research is qualitative in nature. it is based on the talk exchanges that take place in the newspapers’ review of bíọ́dún and káyọ̀dé in south western region of nigeria. the review is carried out throughout the five working days in a week in the people’s indigenous language (yorùbá). this research topic is chosen in particular because it makes use of the people’s indigenous language, and because it is assumed to reflect the beliefs of the people in terms of what is permissible in their linguistic exchanges. for the purpose of this study, we collected data directly from the newspapers' review of the duo reviewers within a period spanning over two weeks with the aid of mobile devices, namely, a handset and a transistor radio. in addition, a scheduled telephone interview is conducted with the reviewers as a way of interrogating and ascertaining the idea behind their style of newspapers’ review. 4. theoretical frameworks talk exchanges is an interactional linguistic activity that involves at least, two participants in a conversation, hence, the need for mutual understanding and cooperation between them. therefore, brown et al. (1978) politeness theory and grice’s cooperative principle with its maxims and sub-maxims have been adopted as theoretical frameworks for this study. brown et al. formulated politeness theory based on the notion of ‘face’ developed by goffman, (1967) and other concepts presented in their work. brown & levinson propose two assumptions which form the properties of interlocutors that all competent adult members of a society have (and know each other to have) (i) ‘face’, which is the public self-image that every member wants to claim for himself. (ii) ‘certain rational capacities,in particular consistent modes of reasoning from ends to the means that will achieve those ends’. face has two related aspects, namely, ‘negative face and ‘positive face’. according to brown et al. (1978), “face is something that is emotionally invested, and that can be lost, maintained, or enhanced, and must be constantly attended to in interaction”. there is need for participants in an interaction to cooperate in maintaining or saving each others face, such cooperation, however, is based on mutual vulnerability of face. in other words, normally, the face of every participant in an interaction depends on the face of other (everyone else’s) being maintained. the propounders of politeness theory presents and treats ‘face as wants’, which every member of a society is aware that every other member desires. since the face of everyone is susceptible to being threatened by certain speech acts in interactions, it is therefore in the interest of everyone involved in talk exchanges, to maintain each others’ face by employing speech acts that assures the other participants that his/her acclaimed public self-image is recognized, or, politeness strategies that limit threat to the participants faces. negative face: this refers to the want of every ‘competent adult member’ that his actions be unimpeded by others. negative face derivative is negative politeness of non-imposition, it usually shows up as formal politeness which the notion of politeness readily brings to mind. positive face: this is the want of every member that his wants be desirable to at least some others e.g. that the speaker (s) shows in some ways that he identifies with the hearer (h) in matters that are of interest to him. the derivative of positive politeness is less obvious, but consists of the most important aspect of an individual’s personality expected of other interactants that his wants or desire be ratified, understood, and approved (brown et al., 1978:62). in the course of interaction, face threatening acts do occur which result in a loss of face (damage our positive face). this is the essence of the use of facework strategies from which politeness strategies are derived to redress and restore our (threatened) face (redmond, 2015). on the need for cooperation by interactants in linguistic exchanges, h.p.grice, (1975) in his work ‘conversational logic’ suggests that conversation is based on a shared principle of cooperaton (cp) which is expected to be operational whenever people interact. conversational logic provides us with logical basis for making inferences from utterances literally expressed in a sentence (gergely, nd.). the formation of grice’s framework is an effort to www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 15 make clear the ‘intuitive difference’ that exists between what is said literally in a sentence and what is entirely implied, suggested, or hinted with an utterance containing the same number of words. to distinguish between the two above ( what is said and what is implicated), grice employs the coinage implicate and implicature; he refers to the linguistic content of utterance made as ‘what is said’, while he calls the totality of what is said in a sentence and what is implicated in an utterance of the same sentence ‘the total signification of an utterance (grice 1975, 1989b:41). implicature extends to cover many ways in which literally unexpressed information can be conveyed. gergely conveys the relationship between ‘what is said’ and ‘what is implicated by what is said’in the schema below: total signification of an utterance what is said implicature conventional nonconventional conversational nonconversational generalized peculiarized according to grice, conversational implicature is initiated by “certain general features of discourse” rather than by conventional meaning of a specific word (which helps to determine what is implicated along side what is said) (grice, 1989a:26). the features are as follow: i. linguistic exchanges are governed by the cooperative principle (henceforth, cp), the content which is fully detailed in the four maxims of conversation and their submaxims; ii. when one of the participants of the exchanges seems not to follow the coopreative principle, his or her partner(s) will nevertheless assume that, contrary to appearance, the principle is observed at some deeper level. thus, the cooperation principle simply states that: “make your converstional contribution what is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.” this principle is with the following maxims and sub-maxims of conversation: maxim of quantity: (1) “make your contribution as informative as required.” (2) “don’t make your contribution more informative than is requires.” maxim of quality: be truthful (1) “don’t say what you believe to be false.” (2) “don’t say what you lack adequate evidence for.” maxim of relation: “be relevant.” maxim of manner: “be perspicuos.” (1) “avoid obscurity of expression.” (2) “avoid ambiguity.” (3) “be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity).” (4) “be orderly.” grice’s notion of conversational implicature can be stated as follows: “a participant pins a linguistic exchange, by literally making an assertion with the propositional context x, conversationally implicates the proposition y if and only if: (a) p is presummed to be observing the maxims (b) the supposition y is required to maintan (a) (c) p thinks that his partner will realize (b).” (gergely, p.2) in one of grice’s examples of interaction, inference made by speaker b from the request of speaker a reveals that certain interpretation can only be derived by means of conversational implicature. in order words, the inferred meaning will be situated within the context of the immediate discourse or interaction being held at that instant. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 16 see the example below: a: is that scotch over there? b: help yourself. literally speaking, the example above obviously reveals that a has just asked for information “on the nature of the liquor (scotch) which b interprets as a request for a drink”. since nothing in the literal meaning of a’s utterance could possibly make b to respond to a’s request the way he did, it follows then that b’s interpretation was inferred by means of conversational implicature made possible by the context of their interaction. furthermore, grice claims that any implied meaning stands a risk of being (mis)understood by the hearer as against what the speaker intended to communicate. the implicature of an utterance may be misread thereby leading to incorrect inference on the part of the hearer. consider the hypothetical example of an exchange between a pregnant woman with health challenge and a concerned neighbor: neighbour: i think you should see your doctor more frequently for prenatal care considering your edd and your health condition. pregnant woman:i am a hebrew woman. the concerned neighbour of this woman needs to have some background knowledge about who “hebrew women” are and the basis for the response of the addressee. in order for the speaker not to misunderstand the meaning of the hearer’s response and to implicate appropriately, he must be a christian that conversant with the story of hebrew women, or must have been told how hebrew women in the land of goshen (a territory occupied by the hebrew in egypt) in the biblical narrative used to be very strong such that they were delivered of their babies before the arrival of egyptians’ midwives without any medical aids (exodus 1:16-19). in actual sense, what is responsible for hearer(s) making inference of an exchange is non-observance of maxims. a speaker’s failure to observe cp maxim may prompt a competent hearer to draw one of many possible conclusion that: the speaker is “opting out” from the operation of the maxim, deliberately and secretly violating maxim for some personal selfish purpose, committing maxim infringement usually because of incompetence or flouting a maxim based on certain premises postulated by grice that serve as basis for non-observance of maxims. more often than not, it is an established fact that people fail to observe the cp maxims either deliberately or accidentally. either ways, the consequential effect of non-observance of maxim can result in flouting, violating, infringing, opting-out, or suspending (grice, 1975). in this research, we shall subject talk exchanges of the newspapers’ reviewers to gice’s framework to investigate their observance of cp, and also find out, if their utterances fail to follow the cooperative principle and its maxims through the various means stated by grice that the maxims could be violated in linguistic exchanges. flouting of maxim: flouting of maxim occurs when a speaker “blatantly fails to observe a maxim, not with any intention of deceiving or misleading, but simply because the speaker wishes to prompt the hearer to look for a meaning which is different from or in addition to the expressed meaning” (thomas 1995:65). mey (1993) lend credence to thomas’ claim by providing succinct but inclusive definition of flouting as a case of exchange when we can make a blatant show of breaking one of the maxims…in order to lead the addressee to look for covert, implied meaning”. in order words, the speaker is indirectly provoking a huge in the hearer to look for a hidden meaning which he did not state. violation of maxim: violation is defined in term of being deliberately secretive with information that could help in meaning-making, with a mind to misguide the hearer. when a speaker violates a maxim, he is said to ‘be liable to mislead’ (grice 1975:49). violating a maxim is quite contradictory to flouting a maxim. the former discourages or prevents hearer from delving into discovering of covert meaning or implicatures, instead, it encourages their taking information at face value. like flouting, all the maxims can be violated. overall, non-observance of maxim(s) form the basis for making deductions in conversation which grice referred to as implicatures. 5. the structure of bío ̣́dún-káyo ̣́dé’s newspapers review the newspapers’ review of bíó ̣́dún-káyò ̣́dé is distinct in its style of presentation. this is as a result of its systematic structures. the sequential ordering of the core linguistic elements of their programme is consistent every day. the www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 17 duo, usually start off their review with jokes directed at each other as a way of introducing each day’s programme and to draw the attention of their audience. this is followed by rendition of individual’s pedigree. a dedicated interval is earmarked for sponsors’ advertisements. this is usually followed by turn-taking exchanges that normally start with the presenters calling out to each other in this manner: “káyò ̣́dé, bío ̣́́dun, and vice versa. this is where the review programme derives its title and popularity in south west nigeria. going into the main review, the presenters do not just roll out news from newspapers, instead, they play around such news by speaking in riddles and proverbs to create suspense in order to lure their hearers to stay glued to their radios till the end of the news. often than not, the reviewers utterances are directed at themselves as the referents of a particular news being presented, they only mention the name of the actual referent towards the end of such news to avoid violation of broadcasting regulations and possibility of allegation of doctoring news by national broadcasting commission (nbc), coupled with the need to give their audience direction. the closing trend of bíó ̣́dún-káyò ̣́dé newspapers review has been known to follow the same pattern consistently. they usually end the review session by eulogizing themselves making reference to their family background, town and appellations and then move on to close their presentation with song thus: translation bío ̣́dún: ǹ jé ̣́ títí d’ò ̣́la, chief commander bíó ̣́dún ìlò ̣́rí until tomorrow, i am chief lèmi ńjé ̣́ o, aládé alé ̣́lẹ l’orúko tí wó ̣́n fi ń commander bíó ̣́dún ìlò ̣́ri popularly gbé mi lárugẹ. amúùlúdùn fún gbogbo ìjero known as aládé alé ̣́lẹ , a renowned àti gbogbo àgbáyé káàfàtà. entertainer for ìjerò land and the entire world káyo ̣́dé: orúkọ tèmi kò tí ì yí padà, g5 yín rèé o, my name remain unchanged, i am general evangelist s ̣̣́́ì wà ń bè ̣́ o your g5; your general evangelist is ẹn,olúkáyò ̣́dé ni mo ń jé ̣́, akínmóyèdè is still very much available. i am fálẹgàn lorúkọ bàbá tó bí mi ló ̣́mọ, olúkáyò ̣́dé, my father is akínmóyèdè ajísanwó kéhú, káúsú gbogbo oníròyìn, fálẹgàn, one who studies quran daily, falilat, sheik amúludù gbogbo ìlú ìjerò chief amongst broadcasters, a àti gbogbo àgbálá-ayé, kìnìún ádínì renowned entertainer for ìjerò land tí kì í ṣẹégbẹ kìnìún ẹlé ̣́yàme ̣́̀yà kan. and the entire world, a powerful lion kìnìún ì bá à káwo mé ̣́sàn án jáde, that differs from all others. it does kìnìún tèmi ni yóò fa gbogbo ìho not matter if any lion grown nine ò ̣́hun yọ…. (joke) horns; it is my lion that will pluck them all (jovially). bío ̣́dún: (singing) bó bá dìwòyí ò ̣́la, (káyò ̣́dé echoes) ò ̣́la gangan, (both) kó tó dìwòyí ò ̣́la ganranranran, ìyanu á ṣẹle ̣́̀. the song means, by this time tomorrow, there shall be miracle. (the presenters anticipate a brand new day to carry out their daily business of newspapers’ review). often times, the reviewers present news about very serious matters such as robbery, kidnapping, suicide and assassination cracking jokes. at such instance, maxim of quality is flouted /violated because the situation being reported does not call for joke. however, the reviewers, despite their joke expect their hearers to be able to make logical deductions from the content of the jokes. it is pertinent however to state at this juncture that joke is a conscious and deliberate strategy employed by the reviewers to lessen tension, put hearers in relaxed mood and to sustain their interests through the news. 6. data presentation and analysis excerpt 1 translation: bío ̣́dún: káyò ̣́dé: káyò ̣́dé, bío ̣́dún: ìyàlé ̣́nu ló jé ̣́ fún mi pé ìgbá tí mo sọ pé it is surprising that the governor did àwọn kan fé ̣́ wá ṣekú pa mí, not call me since i said some people o jé ̣́ mò ̣́ pé gómìnà wa kò tilè ̣́ pè mí made an attempt to assasinate me. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 18 káyo ̣́dé: gómìnà ò pè ó ̣́? the governor did not call you? bío ̣́dún: kò pè mí, kó má ti è ̣́ sọ pé òun á wá ṣe àbè ̣́wò he did not call me not to talk of paying me a visit. káyo ̣́dé: ìgbà tí èmi àti gómìnà sò ̣́rò ̣́, wo ̣́n ní ibo lo wà? when i and the governor talked, he mo ní àláfíà ni o wà pé màmá rẹ ṣe ̣́ṣe ̣́ bímọ. asked after you, i told him your òhun ni kò jé ̣́ kí wo ̣́n yọjú. mother has just been delivered of a baby, that is the reason why you did not see him. in the above data, four different politeness strategies are employed, two of which are positive-politeness strategies and the other two are negative-politeness strategies. they are joke, pluralization of pronoun, deference and avoidance as analyzed below. 6.1 joke strategy there is hardly a language, and by extension, culture, in the entire universe that does not have the way it expresses jokes. this is usually done to bring people into a relaxed state, ease tension, or as a deliberate attempt to make people laugh. likewise, joke can be used to communicate a potentially inciting message, depending on how much the speaker knows how to use language. brown et al. (1987:124) describes “jokes as a basic positive-politeness technique for making hearer (h) to be ‘at ease’. they are also of the opinion that one can take advantage of joke as politeness strategy to “redefine the size” (intensity) of fta. the above data vividly indicates direct fta; a friend of the governor (the s and h’s names withheld) has just accused him of not bothering to visit or at least call him having heard of the failed attempt that some people made on his life. the utterance (locution) of the first participant (bíó ̣́dún) is a face threatning speech act that infringes on the right of the governor (though in yorùbá society, such accusations are traceable in talk exchanges that involve very intimate friends) as to whether he wishes to visit or call the victim of the failed assasination. the utterance of the second interlocutor was purely a joke “ìgbà tí èmi àti gómìnà so ̣̀ro ̣̀, wo ̣́n ní ibo lo wà? mo ní àláfíà ni o wà pé màmá rẹ ṣèṣè bímọ, òhun ni kò je ̣̀ kí wo ̣̀n yọjú ‘when i and the governor talked, he asked after you, i told him your mother has just been delivered of a baby, that is the reason why you did not see him’. káyò ̣́dé employs this strategy as a redressive measure to soften the intensity of the fta and to save the face (personality and self esteem) of the governor. 6.2avoidance of name strategy avoidance of name calling of the interlocutors (s and h) as well as the affiliation of the h to his office (governor) is a deliberate attempt on the part of the newspapers reviewers to protect the face want of the hearer ‘that his actions be unimpeded by others’. the intensity of the direct effect of the fta would have been higher; it probably would have generated heat in the society and among the fans of the governor and his friends. in some cases, towards the end of a particular news presentation, the presenters will jokingly mention the referent’s name by teasing each other that “ i am not the one that said x, it is z. and often times times, they refer their audience to the newspaper that reports the news being reviewed for the full story. 6.3use of honourific pronoun(s) strategy as observed by brown & levinson, the phenomenon of pluralizing pronouns to differentiate social status seems to be widespread in unrelated languages and cultures around the globe. in such languages, greetings and politeness are almost inseparable. in french, as shown by (àjàyí et al., 2014:83), politeness permeates greetings depending on the status of people interacting. it is out of acceptable norm of the language for a student to greet his teacher saying “bonjour monsieur, comment allez vous? which is translated as “good morning sir, how are you? instead of saying “bonjour ca va? which means “good morning, how are you?”. their study shows how languages that do not belong to the same ancestral family nor situated within the same continent manifest common cultural features in the way they express politeness in their greetings (pp. 83-84). in the third example cited by àjàyí et al., (2014), because there is no cordialiness between the first speaker (who incidentally is the wife to the friend of the second speaker) and the second, the interlocutors resorted to the use of honourific pronoun “vous’ to save each other’s faces; though between the second speaker and his friend (the husband of the first speaker), they us “tu”. the use of ìwọ/è ̣́yin 2nd per sgl and pl pronouns in yorùbá correspond to “tu/vous” distinction in french where singular ‘you’ tu (t) exists and a plural ‘you’ vous (v) also exist. just like the case of tu and vuos in french as reported by wardhaugh, (1986: 260-261), ‘è ̣́yin’, the 2nd pers pl pronoun form is often employed in yorùbá to indicate power relationship, status, age, to mention a few. individuals with a higher status gives ‘ìwọ’ and receives ‘è ̣́yin’. such usage is found between parents to children, masters to servants, teachers to students, superior to surbodinates, older sibblings to their younger ones, people in position of authority (i.e. political office holders) to their subjects. unlike the situation where the use of tu (t) relaced the mutual vous of politeness, because solidarity is considered highly significant than politenes in personal relationship in yorùba society, the use of symmentrical v www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 19 subsist because politeness is a part and parcel of the people’s culture except in certain industries for example, in banking industry where people see themselves as colleagues consequently, they address one another by their last surname) name; this of course is a foreign cultureto yorùbá society. in the data we are examining, the newspapers reviewers use wo ̣̀n ‘they’ to refer to “the governor” who is a singular entity. instances of similar usage abound in yorùbá culture where plural pronouns are used to indicate class and social differences (i.e. age, power, education, religious, financial and political status) between the speaker and the hearer. for example, ‘you’ as in ‘e ̣́̀yin’ and ‘ẹ’ in: ṣé ẹ (sgl prn.) ti jẹun? ‘have you eaten?̀ ta ló mú ìwé mi? è ̣́yin? ‘who took my book? you? when expressions such as the ones cited above are used to refer to a single person, it is employed to indicates deference. brown and levinson’s theory (1978:198-199) propose possible motivations for this phenomenon as a politeness strategy, the one that relates with the use of pronoun pluralization as it affects the linguistic items used in this context is that, such phenomenon “conveys the desire of the speaker to render h that tribute (of occupying a higher status) while fulfilling the practical needs of the clarity and on-record (direct) talk. 6.4 deference strategy deference is usually employed as negative-politeness strategy. according to brown et al., deference has two realizations; in one, the speaker delibereately ‘humbles’ and ‘abases’ himself, and in the other, the speaker pays h a kind of positive face, such that satifies h’s wants (desire) to be treated as ‘superior’(even though s would not have done so in sincerity but in order to let h know that he recognizes and acknowledges the status that h claims for himself). in the two realizations, the fact that h is of higher social status than s is vividly expressed by employing the honorific pronoun ‘wo ̣́n to refer to the governor as a single person. deference of this sort accoding to brown & levinson serves to ‘difuse potential face threatning act by indicating that the addressee’s rights to relative immunity from imposition are recognizedand moreover that s is certainly not in a position to coerce h’s compliance in any way” . brown et al., (1978:178) excerpt 2 translation: bío ̣́dún: ṣé o rí àwọn ọlo ̣́́pàá tí a ní yìí, have you observed our policemen? iṣé ni wó ̣́n ń ṣe they are really up to their tasks, káyo ̣́dé: kí a má a gbórí ìyìn fún wọn; we should salute them, há à! iṣé ni wo ̣́́n ń ṣe they are indeed working. káyo ̣́dé: o rí ọwó ̣́ mi? can you see my hand? o rí bí mo ṣe ṣe òṣùbà? you see how i fold my fists? bío ̣́dún: mo rí i! mo rí i!! i can see it! i can see it!! 6.5 exaggeration, prosodic and kinesic hedge the politeness strategies used in the talk exchanges are “exaggeration”and “prosodic and kinesic hedge (brown etal., 1978:104, 172). the exaggeration strategy states that s exaggerate (interest, approval, sympathy with h). the politeness of this sort is usually achieved through exaggeration of different prosodic features like intonation, stress, pitch and so on; modifier intensity inclusive in english. the repetition of “iṣé ni wo ̣́n ń ṣe” in line 2 and 4 of excerpt two serve as emphasis which exaggerates how much the policemen are working. similarly, the presence of exclamatory remarks in the last line of the conversation serves the purpose of intensifying the degree of the policemen industriousness. the second strategy, kinesic, which comprises of non-verbal communication such as gestures or other body movement is also used to indicate “tentativeness or emphasis”. the kinesics employed may show the speaker’s attitude or disposition towards what he is discussing. this, of course cannot be shown in writing. brown et al. assert that prosodies and kinesics “serve as the most salient clue to the presence of an fta across culture”. generally speaking,the police force has been labelled a black goat among security agencies in nigeria. the politeness strategies used by bíó ̣́dún and káyò ̣́dé here indicate that they (s) identify with and approve the efforts of the police. in yorùbá culture, the folded fists (òṣùbà) is a sign or gesture extended to an individual to praise, appease or pacify him. the person being appeased or pacified in such a communicative event reaches out his hands to touch the folded fists as an indication that he has accepted the plea of the pacifier. this strategy serves as a redress to possible face threatning acts (ftas), and it is used in yorùbá culture as politeness indicator. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 20 excerpt 3 translation: bío ̣́dún: àwọn tó jí kábíèsí gbé ní ìpínlè ̣́ oǹdó, the kidnappers who kidnapped wó ̣́n ti dín owó tí wó ̣́n fé ̣́ gbà láti mílíónì mé ̣́è ̣́dógún a king in ondo state have sí mílíónù mé ̣́ta náírà. reduced their ransom demand from n15m to n3m káyo ̣́dé: ó ṣì ń rìn wó ̣́n bò ̣́. they are just starting, kò sé ̣́ni tó má a kó ̣́ wọn nígbà tí wó ̣́n óò tì í jáde. no one will advise them before they push him (the king ) out of their hide out. according to brown & levinson, one can invite conversational implication only when certain maxims are not observed. it is expected of interlocutors to have the capacity to make sense of the talk exchange they engage in even when there are ‘missing elements’ in such a conversation. the missing elements are what is implicated. the implicatures are said to be made possible by shared cooperation between speaker (s) and hearer (h). it is important to bear in mind that before additional meaning(s) can be implicated from a talk exchange or inference made, there must have been conversation must of necessity violates or flouts a maxim to serve as logical basis for inference. on this ground, the data above will be subjected to cooperative peinciple (cp) maxims to see if it violates any in order to draw inferences, of what the likely implicatures might be. primarily, the intended message that the above talk exchanges seeks to pass to the public is that “the kidnappers of a particular king from ondo state have reduced the random demand place on him in order to get him freed”. we will now examine the talk exchanges in the light of each of the maxims. excerpt 4 translation bío ̣́dún: káyò ̣́dé, ẹ è ̣́ tiè ̣́ bá àwọn ọmọ orílè ̣́-èdè káyò ̣́dé, you did not bother to nàìjíríà sò ̣́rò ̣́ lórí bílíó ̣́nù mè ̣́tàlà náírà tí address nigerians on the issue ẹ sọ wípé ẹ rí gbà gan an. of thirteen billion naira you said ẹ jé ̣́ ká mọ ẹni gan tó lowó náà. you recovered. ẹ je ̣́́ ká mò ̣́! ẹ sọ fún wa. let us know who owns the money. let us know! please tell us. káyo ̣́dé: ṣé owó un? you mean that money? bío ̣́dún: un un, yes, káyo ̣́dé: kàn jé ̣́ kí wọn mò ̣́; just let them be aware; bío ̣́dún: kàn jé ̣́ a mó̀ ̣́ ó ̣́. let them know him. káyo ̣́dé: ṣè bí o ń sọ fún mi té ̣́le ̣́̀ pé ìwọ lo ní. but you told me previously that the money belong to you. bío ̣́dún: èmi kó ̣́! èmi kè ̣́? not me! not at all. níbo ni mo ti fé r’ówó tó tó un? where will i get such huge amount? káyo ̣́dé: inú mi ti ń dùn pé tí wó ̣́n bá ti gbé e fún ọ, i was excited already that whenever wí pé bí ò ti è ̣́ jé ̣́ fifty-fifty, you recover the money, if we cannot ó lè jé ̣́ seventy-thirty employ fifty-fifty sharing formula we can make it seventy-thirty bío ̣́dún: seventy-seventy ni ì! no, you should have make it seventy-seventy káyo ̣́dé: rárá no. bío ̣́dún: olè burúkú! thief www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 21 in the data above, the two politeness strategies used are honourific pronouns and joke. see pp.9-11 for analysis on the strategies. excerpt 5 bío ̣́dún: káyò ̣́dé! láíláí, àfi tí kì í bá ṣe bàbá káyò ̣́dé! never, except i am not a mi ló bí mi, mi ò lè tọrọ àforíjì ló ̣́wó ̣́ bona fide son of my father, i cannot sàràkí, láyé àbádà! ask for saraki’s forgiveness. never! káyo ̣́dé: ah! kí ló pa ìwọ àti sàràkí pò ̣́ o? what business do you have with sàràkí? bío ̣́dún: nǹkan tó pa wá pò ̣́ pò ̣́ o a lot. káyo ̣́dé: ẹ́̀ n, mo ń gbó ̣́… yes, i am listening… bío ̣́dún: kí èmi ó wá lọ má a tọrọ àforíjì ló ̣́wó ̣́ rè ̣́? that i should ask for his forgiveness? káyo ̣́dé: o ò lè tọrọ àforíjì ló ̣́wó ̣́ rè ̣́? you mean you cannot ask for his forgiveness? bío ̣́dún: láyé mi kó! è ̣́én! kí ló ń jé ̣́ bé ̣́è ̣́? not in my life! what? káyo ̣́dé: ó dáa, n óò tè ̣́lé ọ lọ tó bá jé è ̣́rù ló ń bà ó ̣́; it’s alright, if you are scared i will a n ń tè ̣́lé ọ lọ… accompany you to his place bío ̣́dún: katapílà ò ní foríbalè ̣́ fún mó ̣́tò. a caterpillar will never bow to a car. káyo ̣́dé: ìyẹn katapílà tó ń ṣiṣe ̣́́. that if the caterpillar is functioning in the data above, apart from the rhetorics employed by the presenters i.e. rhetorical questions and personification in line 4, 7, & 12, joke is the main politeness strategy used. this is done mainly to bring redress to the already threatened face of the addressee (sàràkí), owing to the way the speaker lashed at him; even to the extent of swearing on his paternal origin. the expressions ...ó dá a, n óò te ̣́lé ọ lọ, …ìyẹn katapílà tó ń ṣiṣe ̣́ are both jokes, aimed at calming the nerves of their radio audience who must have become agitated by the speaker’s tone and choice of words. subjecting the talk exchanges to grice’s cooperative principle which states that participants in a conversation need obey a general rule which is expected to apply any time a conversation happen; such that the participants make their “conversational contribution such as is required”. in order words, they are expected to stick to the rule(s) that govern such interaction by focusing on the direction of the conversation and not saying more or less that is required. however, in this instance, even if we decide to jettison all other parts of data 5, the statement “katapílà ò ní foríbale ̣̀ fún mo ̣̀tò” is a very strong statement if we go by the shared knowledge presumed to be possessed by interlocutors in such context as this among south western nigerians. the expression alone can prompt listeners to begin to probe into the incident that warranted issuing of such strong statement by the speaker. we know that in all sense, a caterpillar is way bigger than a car (sàràkí). for a speaker to speak in the manner we see above against senator sàràkí who known to be a ‘big shark’ as far as nigeria polity is concerned, there must have been a serious rancor between them. similarly, we can infer, based on the utterance of the speaker that he is a bigger shark than sàràki though anonymous. these implicatures are made due to the flouting of the maxim of quantity by the speaker’s expression as shown above which is implicature encumbered (see pp. 5 & 7). excerpt 6 káyo ̣́dé: bíó ̣́dún! ó ga ò! ọkùnrin kan mà ni ò, bíó ̣́dún, can you imagine, a man sold ó ta ọmọ ọdún mé ̣́fà ní ẹgbè ̣́rún ló ̣́nà igba a six year old boy for two hundred náírà! thousand naira! bío ̣́dún: áàh! two hundred naira? what? two hundred naira? www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 22 káyo ̣́dé: two hundred thousand…. two hundred thousand … bío ̣́dún … ló ta ọmọ ọdún mé ̣́fà, odidi ènìyàn! …he sold a six year old, a complete human! káyo ̣́dé: ó lù ú ń gbàǹjo. he sold him cheap. bío ̣́dún: ọló ̣́run mà kó è ̣́dá yọ kè ̣́è ̣́. may god deliver us. káyo ̣́dé: àmín o. amen. in data 6 above, the utterance “ó lù ú ń gbàǹjo” made in line 7 has a literal meaning of putting up a product or goods for sale at its minimum expense or at give-away price in south western nigeria. this statement flouts the maxim of quality because in reality, one can only sell a good or product in that manner; probably because of its value depreciation or for reason of catering for emergency financial obligation. on one hand, in the sense, human being is not a good that can be put up for sale in that manner. the worst that could happen is for a parent to give out his or her child for domestic aid in order for the child or family to earn a living. in some cases too in nigeria, young mothers, who sometimes feel they cannot take care of their new born babies give them up for adoption illegally in some make-shift maternity homes. consequently, this information can be assumed to be superfluous in its context of usage despite the price the child was sold as the presenters claimed. on the other hand, these statements, káyo ̣́dé: ó lù ú ń gbàǹjo. he sold him cheap. bío ̣́dún: ọló ̣́run mà kó è ̣́dá yọ kè ̣́è ̣́. may god deliver us. as uttered by the presenters are capable of generating implicatures in listeners as to what the ‘situation’ of the man that sold his child is. (1) could he be suffering from psychosis? (2) may be he is in a mess that requires financial settlement which he could not meet up with; (3) may be he could not fend for the child and he needed someone to assist with his or her upkeep. the probability of circumstances which could have led to that ‘act’ is endless just as the statements imply. excerpt 7 káyo ̣́dé: áàh! ó màṣe ò! (exclaimed) it is a pity! bío ̣́dún: kí ló tún ṣẹlè báyìí? what happened again? káyo ̣́dé: ọmọkùnrin kan lèyí tí wó ̣́n yìnbọn fún a guy with his council secretary pè ̣́lú akò ̣́wé ìbílè ̣́ ní akwa-ibom from akwa-ibom was shot bío ̣́dún: èn e ̣́́n òòò? is that so? káyo ̣́dé: òun náà ti ṣe bé ̣́è ̣́ je ̣́ aláìsí lánàá he too died yesterday bío ̣́dún: eè! eè! eè! ó pàpà kú? (exclaimed!) so he died eventually? káyo ̣́dé: ó jé ̣́ aláìsí. he died. 6.6 in-group identity marker strategy the language use ‘je ̣̀ aláìsí’ meaning ‘died’ in yorùbá language is often and preferably used among the people of south western nigeria to announce the demise of a member of the society, known or unknown in order to claim common ground with the bereaved. the reviewers made the choice of the phrase deliberately to serve as redress to the face of the public (their audience), the deceased local government, and their immediate families. in yorùbá land, www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 23 the word ‘kú’ ‘die’ from ‘ikú’ ‘death’, is not usually employed on the occasion of people’s death. first, because the people see their selves as siblings; therefore, what happens to one affects all. second it is more soothing to talk about passing away of people among the yorùbá without making reference to the word death. rather, they use ‘je ̣́ aláìsí ‘dead’. this is done to identify with the bereaved and at the same time condole with them. the analysis of data 7 in line with cp reveals flouting of maxim of quality. the word náà ‘too’ and pàpà ‘eventually’ as uttered by the presenters in lines 6 and 7 serve as cue to some incident prior the death of the ‘guy’ who was in the same vehicle with the local government secretary when they were shot. the two words above have indirectly provided audience with information that the local government secretary died earlier, may be before he was rushed to the hospital due to the gun shot injury he sustained, and later, the guy ‘too’ died that same day (yesterday). this implicature is made possible because of the flouting of the maxim of quality by the presenters prompted by the words náà ‘too’ and pàpà ‘eventually’. 7.data analysis in the light of grice’s maxims 7.1 maxim of quantity looking at the conversations above, there would not have been any violation of maxim of quantity if the conversation had ended with the information supplied by the first participant. kayode’s contribution (his response) has given out more information to get h thinking such that could trigger the following questions: (1) why did the kidnappers reduce the ransom demand? (2) what is the status of the king among yorùbá kings? (3) what is the king’s financial status (power)? (4) does the king have any health challenge? based on the questions triggered by the overstatement of ó ṣi ń rìn wo ̣̀n bọ̀ , ‘they are just starting’, the talk exchanges has flouted the second maxim of quatity which says “ don’t make your contribution more informative than is required”. 7.2 maxim of quality the above linguistic expression does not violate the maxim of quality because it is true that the kidnappers reduced the ransom placed on the king due to the fact that he has not been able to meet up. also, because the kidnappers made contact with the king’s relation to let them know that they can get their person released on the payment of lesser amount than earlier demanded. if such contact was not made, it would not have come to the public notice that the ransom had been reduced. with this, adequate evidence is established. 7.3 maxim of relevance this maxim stipulates that participants in talk exchanges should make their contributions ‘relevant’. brown et al., (1978:214-217) highlight four ways by which the maxim of relation can be flouted; they include (i) by giving hint, (ii) by giving associated clue, and (iii) through presupposition. according to brown & levinson, it is possible for an utterance to be ‘almost’ completely relevant in context, and still flouts the relevance maxim at the level of its presuppositions. the subordinate clause ‘ó ṣì ń rìn wo ̣̀n bọ̀ ’ in the context of usage here presupposes that it is a usual practice for the kidnappers to reduce ransom demands if no member of the family of their victim indicates interest to pay the ransom demanded. 7.4 maxim of manner like in the instance of maxim of quantity, the contribution of the second participant in the talk exchanges examples given in the excerpt above flouts the maxim of manner. the expression ‘ó ṣì ń rìn wo ̣̀n bọ̀ ’ is euphemistic, consequently, it is vague. therefore, it flouted the first sub-maxim of manner which states “ avoid obscurity of expression.” the vagueness of the italicized expression can trigger the following implicatures: (5) it could be that the kidnappers are tired of keeping the king in their custody (6) it could mean that the kidnappers are broke (out of cash). based on the flouting of the maxims discussed above, the following can be implicated: (7) the kidnapers are unemployed individuals in search of daily bread and so they will not hesitate to reduce the ransom to any amount as long as they can get anything (8) that the kidnappers are amateurs (9) that the kidnapped king is one without class (low status) among the kings of the yorùbáland, and that the king as well as his relatives is financially poor. however, despite the flouting of maxim of manner observed above by the italicized expression, the same is relevant for maxim of ‘relevance’. the continual reduction in the ransom placed on the kidnapped king corresponds to the relevance of the statement ‘o ṣi ń rìn wo ̣̀n bọ̀ ’ considering the inability of the relations of the kidnapped king to raise or make available the ransom demanded inspite its reductions. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 24 8. findings and conclusion generally speaking, evidence from several studies reveal that politeness, verbal or non-verbal has been observed to be a universal phenomenon that lubricates social relationships though with minor cultural differences in its manifestations. it minimizes social frictions or totally eliminates it, depending on expertise of interlocutors in maneuvering their ways around language use and the observance of social norms that guide interpersonal relationships and social interactions. in conclusion, whatever politeness strategies one employs in social interactions, whether positive or negative plays out a crucial role in mitigating possible fta. it also resolves conflicts that may arise in the course of communication events, thereby promoting a hitch free interpersonal relationship among members of community irrespective of their social status. similarly, it is essential for members of a speech community to understand the social stratification of their society, and the inference that may be drawn from language used in different communication contexts in order to guide against passing wrong or unintended message in the course of interaction. references adetugbo, a. (1967). the yoruba language in western nigeria: its major dialect area ann arbor: umi (doctoral dissertation, columbia university; 284 pp). ajayi, t. & balogun, k.o. (2014). politeness in the yoruba and french language. international journal of language studies. baber, t. & warren, a chapter 2: research on face in communication studies . brown, p. & levinson, b.c. (1978). politeness: some universals in language usage. cambridge university press. gergely, b. (nd). the operationality of grice’s tests for implicature (online source) goffman, e (1967). on face-work: an analysis of ritual elements in social interaction. (pp. 306-320). grice, h.p. (1975). “logic and conversation”. in cole, p. and j.l. morgan, eds. speech acts.new york: academic press, 41-58. grice, h.p. (1989a). logic and conversation. in studies in the way of words (pp. 22-40) cambridge, ma: harvard university press. grice, h.p. (1989b). further notes on logic and conversation. in studies in the way of words (pp. 41-57). cambridge, ma: harvard university press. holy bible, king james version. ikotun, r.o. (2009). politeness forms in yoruba current usage. ado journal of french and related disciplines, ado-ekiti. vol. 1, no.1 pp. 26-41. mariam, m. (2006). introducing sociolinguistics (2nd edition). london & new york: routledge, taylor and francis group. mark, v.r. (2015). face and politeness theories. iowa state university digital repository. mey, j.l. (1993). pragmatic an introduction. second edition. oxford blackwell publishing. odebunmi, a. (2003). pragmatic features of english usage in hospital interactions amongst medical practitioners and patients in south-western nigeria. phd thesis. department of english. oau, ile-ife. xvii-310. redmond, m.v. (2015). face and politeness theory. iowa state university digital repository.the holy bible, new king james version thomas, j. (1995).what is pragmatics? “meaning in interaction: an introduction to pragmatics”. wagner, l.c. (1975). politeness, face and apologies. morgan (eds.) syntax and semantics 3: speech acts (41-58). new york. wagner, l.c. positiveand negativepoliteness strategies: apologizing in the speech community of cuernavaca, mexico. university of louisville. wardhaugh, r. (1989). an introduction to sociolinguistics. fifth edition. blackwell publishing. online sources www.springer.com www.academia.edu copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995 published by american center of science and education, usa 35 framework for codification of informal and non-formal knowledge and skills in the formal education system in nigeria dr. francis o. olaniyi department of adult education, faculty of education, adekunle ajasin university akungba-akoko, nigeria e-mail: francisolaniyi@yahoo.com prof. hassan moshood ayinde department of adult education faculty of education adekunle ajasin university akungba-akoko, nigeria e-mail: ayindeayindeayinde@hotmail.com abstract formal education is provided for a segment (children and adolescents) of the society. while workers in the formal sector enjoy professional and continuing education; those in the informal and non-formal sectors of the economy do not have any opportunity of taking part in any form of adult education. many artisans, professionals and artists display dexterity in their various callings. this act of display may sometimes refer to as tacit knowledge, that is, knowledge that may be difficult to codify except through training of adult learners. if this group of people is not catered for in terms of adult learning, it may be difficult for them to make contributions to economic growth in the society. therefore, the study entitled “framework for codification of informal and non-formal knowledge and skills in the formal education system in nigeria” is embarked upon. the purpose of the study is to identify and discuss framework for codification of knowledge and skills in the informal and non-formal sector; and to establish the probable benefit that may be derived from codification of knowledge and skills of informal and non-formal learners. the study was carried out using qualitative and quantitative approaches. some artisans, professionals and artists were interviewed, using focus group discussion. respondents were enthusiastic on codification of their knowledge and skills and award of appropriate certificates. some of the framework identified in the study include: organising literacy competence to complement the tacit knowledge of the recipients; sensitisation of members of the public by the nncae; and collaborative efforts between nuc and departments of adult education in universities. keywords: formal education, non-formal, informal, codification, knowledge and skills 1. introduction the key to 21st century is adult and non-formal education. hamburg declaration on adult learning (1997) states that:it is both a consequence of active citizenship and a condition for full participation in society. it is a powerful concept for fostering ecologically sustainable development, for promoting democracy, justice, gender equity, and scientific, social and economic development, and for building a world in which violent conflict is replaced by dialogue and a culture of peace based on justice. adult learning can shape identity and give meaning to life. learning throughout life implies a rethinking of content to reflect such factors as age, gender equality, disability, language, culture and economic disparities. formal education is provided for a segment (children and adolescents) of the society. while workers in the formal sector enjoy professional and continuing education, those in the informal sector of the economy do not have any opportunity for any form of adult education. it is on record that many artisans, professionals and artists display dexterity in their various callings. this act of display may sometimes refer to as tacit knowledge, that is, knowledge that may be difficult to codify except through training of adult learners. if this group of people is not catered for in terms of adult learning, it may be difficult for them to make contributions to economic growth in the society. mailto:francisolaniyi@yahoo.com mailto:ayindeayindeayinde@hotmail.com www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 36 perhaps, that is why hamburg declaration earlier quoted views adult learning throughout life as a way of bridging the disparity between the formal and informal learning in order to capture everybody in the society. according to werquin (2010), the labour market, whether formal or informal is a place for the production of non-formal and informal learning situation. the learning situation occurring in these sectors are not codified or recognised either by employers of labour or government organisations. presently, the federal ministry of labour and productivity provides opportunities for certain artisans such as mechanics, plumbers and carpenters and so on, to obtain trade test certificates in their various professional groupings. this is not enough because not all of them are captured in this codification exercise. the codification of knowledge and skills being advocated for in this paper may not necessarily meant for the purpose of gainful employment in the formal sector but to enhance the performance of recipients and uplift their self esteem in the society. therefore, the paper entitled “framework for codification of informal and non-formal knowledge and skills in the formal education system in nigeria” is embarked upon for the purpose of advocating for codification of people not captured in the formal sector. towards this end, the objectives of this paper include:  to identify and discuss framework for codification of knowledge and skills in the informal and non-formal sector.  to interact with members of the public with a view to seeking their opinion on codification of knowledge and skills of informal and non-formal learners.  to assess the perception of members of the public on the probable benefit that may accrue to codification of knowledge and skills of informal and non-formal learners. arising from these objectives, the following research questions are generated.  what form of framework can be used for codifying knowledge and skills in the informal and non-formal sector?  how would member of the public feel concerning the codification of knowledge and skills of non-formal and informal learners?  what benefit can be derived from codification of knowledge and skill of informal and non-formal learners? 2. literature review 2.1 mechanics’ institutes: precursor for recognition and codification of workers’ skills in britain the origin of mechanics’ institute is attributed to dr. george birkbeck, who in 1799 gave a series of free lectures for the working men of glasgow (www.pmi.net.au/home/mihistory; and home.vicnet.net.au/-mivic/history-ofmechanic-instutite.html) by mechanic, this is referred to as artisan, tradesman or workingman. the lectures were provided free of charge to workers, and this made it popular because formal education was provided to the wealthy and clergymen in the society at that time. as time goes on, the lectures led to facilities dedicated to workers’ education (a branch of adult education) provided at edinburgh school of arts (1821) and the london mechanics’ institute (1823). in no distant time, the mechanics’ institutes were established throughout britain and its colonies including canada, new zealand, america and australia. mechanics’ institute gave skilled working men education for life and work, providing lectures, classes, libraries and even museums (abbott, 1861). the ideals preached by the founders include self-improvement, self-discipline, class cooperation and cultural egalitarianism. mechanics’ institute of victoria inc (2016) reports that mechanics’ institute served as centre of adult education and hub for social and cultural activities. stephens (1964) opines that the attendees of mechanics’ institute became elevated in the society and more respected as valuable artisans and influential citizens in the community. one can observe that, as far back as 18th century, workers and artisan were regarded as valuable people whose skill and knowledge must be developed and recognised for the advancement of the society. while elitist education was provided for clergy men and highly placed people in the society, mechanics’ institute focused on the development of workers and artisan who constituted larger percentage of the people in the society. the effort of mechanics’ institute serves as harbinger of recognition and codification of knowledge and skills of workers as being advocated in this paper. http://www.pmi.net.au/home/mihistory http://home.vicnet.net.au/-mivic/history-of-mechanic-instutite.html http://home.vicnet.net.au/-mivic/history-of-mechanic-instutite.html www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 37 2.2 concepts of codification of knowledge the concept of codification according to dictionary refers to arrangement of things, especially laws, rules or principles into an organised system or code. the offline thesaurus dictionary looks at codification from different perspectives. it considers it to be a categorisation, law of government, classification, arrangement, organisation, managing course of action and hypothesis. also, it is seen as belief, book of laws such as codified law, law book, legal code, statue law, written law. the www.dctionary.com sees codification as the act, process or result of arranging in a systematic form or code. codification is also conceived as the act, process, or result of stating the rules and principles applicable in a given legal order to one or more broad areas of life in this form of a code; and the reducing of unwritten customs or case law to statutory form. codification of knowledge and skills as used in this paper refers to the recognition given to knowledge and skills of people who possess such through non-formal and informal means with the purpose of issuing appropriate certificate (certificate or diploma or degree) to validate such knowledge and skills. it also means setting principles, procedures and guidelines in form of framework which guide the process of validating knowledge and skills of artisans by institutions of higher learning, especially the university. this kind of codification may be for employment and self-employment purposes. eraut (2000:113) refers to codified knowledge as a public knowledge or propositional knowledge that is subject to control by editors, peer review and debate; and given status by incorporation into educational programmes, examination and courses. 2.3 formal education system formal education system in any part of the world takes place in a structured environment, with rigid curriculum, structured learning processes; and rules and regulations are laid down for students, teachers and other workers to follow. the period of study in the formal system of education is chronologically graded running from primary school through the university and including general academic studies and other specialised programmes. eraut (2004) observes that it is the work of students that is structured and not the learning. according to the scholar, element of informal learning has been observed in or near formal education settings. sedita (2003) says that formal learning is a way of transferring explicit knowledge. the author notes that formal education is: learning provided by an education or training institution, structured (in terms of learning objectives, learning time or learning support) and leading to certification. formal learning is intentional from the learner’s perspective. 2.4 informal learning informal learning is one of the areas focussed in adult education. it is a kind of learning that is flexible in nature because it can take place anywhere, anytime and can be received by any age group without compulsion. eraut (2004) opines that it is a form of education that recognises social significance of learning from other people and as a complimentary partner to learning from experience. besides, sedita (2003) views informal learning as a way for transferring tacit knowledge. similarly, sedita (2003:15) observes that informal learning is: learning resulting from daily life activities related to work, family or leisure. it is not structured (in terms of learning objectives, learning time or learning support) and typically does not lead to certification. informal learning may be intentional but in most cases it is non-intentional (or “incidental”/ random). besides, mairesse (2006) opines that learning happens nearly all the time in daily life (at home, on the street, in cafes etc.) but it is not a planned activity. 2.5 non-formal learning non-formal learning ordinarily may be assumed to be the opposite of formal learning; that is learning that is flexible, non-rigid, non-graded and taking place in a non-structured environment. however, the work of eraut (2000) made us to realise that non-formal learning needs critical explanation before it can be well understood. according to eraut, one may be tempted to look at non-formal and informal learning to mean the same thing. nonetheless, informal learning is treated as a residual category to describe any kind of learning which does not take place within, or follow from, a formally organised learning programme or event. the adult educators believe that human learning occurs not only in formal education, but also in other settings. then, one should note that the term informal learning may be associated with other things such as dress, discourse, behaviour and other social situations. consequently, eraut (2000) conceives non-formal learning as propositional knowledge. in other words, non-formal learning incorporates implicit learning that gives rise to tacit knowledge, as well as relative learning which is nearspontaneous and unplanned, and deliberative learning for which time is set aside. however, sedita (2003:15) opines that non-formal learning is not provided by educational institutions alone. the scholar writes: http://www.dctionary.com/ www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 38 learning that is not provided by an education or training institution and typically does not lead to certification. it is, however, structured (in terms of learning objectives). non-formal learning is intentional from the learner’s perspective. dehnbostel (2006) conceives non-formal education as: like formal learning, is organised and planned but it takes place outside the public education system and is not recognised; and usually takes place in the work and living environment and not the institutions of the public education system, contrary to formal learning. non-formal education, as far as we are concerned, in this part of the world is seen as a mode or means of acquiring knowledge and skills. it is planned, organised and can take place in formal education setting. the same certificates are issued to those who use formal and non-formal modes of learning. all these certificates are recognised through the mechanisms put in place by the government. however, it should be noted that if such non-formal learning is organised by bodies not recognised by the government, certificate issued from such places will not be recognised in the society. this is why this study is very important in order to address this kind of anomaly. eraut (2000:126) presents skill acquisition designed by dreyfus and dreyfus (1986). this is presented in table 1. table1. summary of dreyfus model of skill acquisition level types features 1 novice i. rigid adherence to taught rules or plans. ii. little situational perception. iii. no discretionary judgement. 2 advanced beginner i. guidelines for action based on attributes or aspects (aspects are global characteristics of situations recognisable only after some prior experiences) ii. situational perception still limited. iii. all attributes and aspects are treated separately and given equal importance. 3 competent i. coping with large crowd. ii. now sees actions at least partially in terms of longer term goals. iii. conscious deliberate planning. iv. standardised and routinized procedures. 4 proficient i. see situations holistically rather than in terms of aspects. ii. see what is most important in a situation. iii. perceives deviations from the normal pattern. iv. decision making less laboured. v. uses maxims of guidance, whose meaning varies according to the situation. 5 expert i. no longer relies on rules, guidelines or maxims. ii. intuitive grasp of situation based on deep tacit understanding. iii. analytic approach used only in novel situations, when problems occur or when justifying conclusions. iv. vision of what is possible. source: eraut, m. (2000). non-formal learning and tacit knowledge in professional work, british journal of educational psychology, 70, 113-136 www.old.mofet.macam.ac.il..mechkar.pdf. accessed 28th july, 2016. 2.6 framework for codification of knowledge and skills many artisans, professionals and artists in the non-formal sector of the economy display dexterity in their various callings. unfortunately, what people who patronise formal education system enjoy in terms of validation of and acquisition of certificates related to their knowledge and skills is not enjoyed by those who possess informal and non-formal knowledge and skills. cedefop (2000) opines that validating non-formal and informal learning is increasingly seen as a way of improving lifelong and life wide learning of people. validating knowledge and skills, according to cedefop (2000) involves validation processes orientation, assessment and external audit. furthermore, hamburg declaration (1997) notes: http://www.old.mofet.macam.ac.il..mechkar.pdf/ www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 39 there are now older people in the world in relation to the total population than ever before, and the proportion is still rising. these older adults have much to contribute to the development of society. therefore, it is important that they have the opportunity to learn on equal terms and in appropriate ways. their skills and abilities should be recognised, valued and made use of. in addition, mazza (n.d) underscores the need for learning experiences to be valued in order to improve human condition. this can be done through the award of certificate and validation of competencies and skills, irrespective of the time or place where they were acquired. (mairesse, 2006). similarly, martens (2006) describes validation as a means of accessing informally and non-formally acquired learning outcomes and competencies. furthermore, eur-lex (2012), cameron and harrison (2012) and steenekamp and singh (2012) stress the need for recognition of non-formal and informal learning in the society. recently, european commission (2016) opines that validation of non-formal and informal learning is a way of recognising the full range of an individual’s knowledge, skills and competencies, regardless if acquired within or outside the formal education system. if validated (identified, documented, assessed and or certified), these learning experiences can be made more visible and usable for further studies or work. figure 1: process of codification/validation of knowledge and skills of learners/artisans. source: the authors figure 1. emphasises the need for the assessment of previous skills possessed by the learners before undertaking any programme in the university setting. assessment of skills may involve various stakeholders. this is to ensure where new skill acquisition would begin as presented in table 1. all the other steps presented are stated in figure 1. 3. methodology the study adopted exploratory approach. according to davies (2006) exploratory research is primarily concerned with discovery and generating or building theory. exploratory research often relies on secondary research such as review of available literature and /or data, or qualitative approaches such as information discussion, in-depth interview, focus groups, projective methods, case studies or pilot studies. accordingly, some artisans and other assessment of present knowledge. taking part in a programme of study (12 weeks) validation of knowledge or skills so far acquired. participation by stakeholders university expert from outside professional organisations relevant to the area of specialisation of the learners government agencies. issuance of diploma or certificate or degree opportunities for employment/ further study. government organisations private establishments further studies in appropriate institutions. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 40 professional groups were interviewed in order to obtain their views on codification of knowledge and skills. their views are presented under the analysis of result. 4. analysis of results. answers to the research questions generated under introduction are presented in this section. these three research questions are subdivided into nine. this is contained in appendix 1. research question 1: what form of framework can be used for codifying knowledge and skills in the informal and non-formal sector? in answering this question, some artisans and professionals were interviewed interviewee no. 1 name: mr. ogunode ademola a.k.a machine original town: akungba akoko, ondo state. type of vocation: motor mechanic academic qualification: ssce, 1983. he says as follows: i will be extremely happy to have the opportunity to participate in any course of study, say 12 weeks in order to obtain certificate from any institution so that my knowledge of mechanic will be upgraded. whatever certificate given, i will take it with joy, laminate and hang it in my workshop. obtaining the certificate from the university will enable member of the public to recognise it. if i don’t use it for looking for job, society will respect me. after obtaining the certificate from the university, i will advise the government to back it up with loan that will be repaid back to them in not less than two years. the money obtained through the loan will be used to equip my workshop so that i will be able employ others. interviewee no. 2 name: mr. osho odunayo town: akungba akoko, ondo state. type of vocation: vulcaniser academic qualification: primary six certificate our interaction with him is recorded as follows: i am leaving in akungba where there is a university. so participating in any university programme will be easier for me. for those of us who are having primary six certificates, spending six months in the programme to upgrade our skill will not be too much. the certificate obtained will be useful in seeking job in government establishments. if i am working on my own, the certificate will make me proud of my job. i want the university to let the public know that our knowledge and skills have been recognised. by this, they will not look down on us. interviewee no.3 name: mrs segun bose town: akungba akoko, ondo state. type of vocation: hairdresser academic qualification: ssce she says: i am ready to participate in any course of study in higher institution of learning. whatever certificate i obtain will be useful for me and i will be proud of it. it will be good if knowledge and skills i have in hairdressing profession is recognised and codified and certificate or diploma is issued. in fact, to recognise our profession with the award of certificate from university, i will be very happy. i will advise the government to let the members of the public know that my profession is recognised and codified. interviewee no. 4 name: mr. kareem waidi (a.k.a e ra eran, e bu obe.) town: akungba akoko, ondo state. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 41 type of vocation: meat seller (butcher) academic qualification: ssce the interviewee reveals as follows: i will like to participate in any programme that will increase my knowledge in my profession. i will accept the certificate with great appreciation. if it requires payment to the institution for me to participate in the programme, i will pay it. i will prefer taking part in the course to upgrade my knowledge and obtain certificate. this will enable cow butchers to be respected in the society. i will advise the government to let the public understand that not everybody must go to the university and spend many years before they are recognised in the society. interviewee no. 5 name: mr. omolayo type of vocation: motor electrical rewire town: akungba akoko, ondo state. academic qualification: ssce, 1983; and grade iii trade test. his responses are as follows: i will be very happy if i have the opportunity of participating in any programme either in the university or polytechnic. at the end, i will be happy to obtain diploma or certificate. this certificate will be an added advantage to my grade iii trade test which i obtained from the federal ministry of labour. it is highly recommended to recognise our profession by giving us certificate or diploma so that members of the public will attach importance to our profession. after participating in such programme, i want government to give us loan to establish our businesses. this is because we are too old to look for government job. discussion a number of things can be observed from responses of the respondents. for instance, they were interested in taking part in any training programme which may last for some weeks. the respondents were ready to pay fees in order to participate in the programme. this is to show the importance attached to such educational ventures. the respondents want members of the public to be involved by letting them know that institutions are in place where knowledge and skills of non-formal and informal learners are recognised (unesco 1997). in other words, involvement and sensitisation of members of the public may be part of the framework for codification of knowledge and skills of informal and non-formal learners. research question 2: how would member of the public feel concerning the codification of knowledge and skills of non-formal and informal learners? in order to answer this question, the researchers had interactions with the members of the public. interviewee no. 1 name: mr. ibrahim oyewumi town: osogbo, osun state. type of vocation: trader academic qualification: ssce he says as follows: i don’t have any certificate to show that i am a trader. if i am asked to come to a university where i will spend some months, even if it is three or six months, i will appreciate the institution. we will be able to see many things and project into the future concerning our trade. people wouldn’t say we traders don’t know anything. interviewee no. 2 name: mr. ahmed yinus town: osogbo, osun state. type of vocation: panel beating. academic qualifications: ssce, nce (in view) and grades i and ii trade test. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 42 he reveals as follows: i will be very happy to participate in any programme organised by any university. whatever certificates obtained will enable me to get more jobs from government establishments. interviewee no. 3 name: mr ahmada rufai abdul-kareem town: osogbo, osun state. type of vocation: arabic teacher and driver. academic qualification: primary six and drivers’ license. his narrations are as follows: i will be very happy to participate in any programme organised by the university so that people will not look down on arabic teachers as illiterates. members of the public will respect arabic teachers whenever they preach in the public. also, members of the public will be enthusiastic to bring their children and wards to any centres established by such people discussion one observes that members of the public interacted with were enthusiastic and looking forward to a time when an institution would organise training programme. this arrangement would enable them to be conscientised as regards their rights and duties in the society. one also notices that they are likely to have self-fulfilment, increased selfesteem and ability to perform well in the society in any vocation. research question 3: what benefits can be derived from codification of knowledge and skill of informal and nonformal learners? in answering this question, some artisans and professionals were interviewed interviewee no. 1 name: mr. ibrahim oyewumi town: osogbo, osun state. type of vocation: trader academic qualification: ssce he says as follows: i am a trader. trading needs knowledge of certain skills. there is difference between buying, selling and marketing and acting as manufacturers’ representative. if one doesn’t have trading skill, one may be running trade at loss. therefore, obtaining relevant qualification from university will help traders greatly. traders would have the opportunity of learning about marketing strategy that will enable one to excel than others. if codification exercise is done, it will enable participant to pay certain tax to the government through their trading. by this, they will be making contribution to the economic growth of the society. interviewee no. 2 name: mr. ahmed yinus town: osogbo, osun state. type of vocation: panel beating. academic qualifications: ssce, nce (in view) and grades i and ii trade test. he reveals as follows: organising training programme for non-formal and formal learners will motivate other artisans and professionals to participate because of the dignity they would receive at the end of the programme. it will afford the participants the opportunity of self-employment, without looking for government job. also, they will be able to work in government www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 43 establishments. government should establish vocational centres for all categories of artisans in their locality. this would enable them to contribute their quota to the progress and economy of the society, like it is done in overseas. interviewee no. 3 name: mr ahmada rufai abdul-kareem town: osogbo, osun state. type of vocation: arabic teacher and driver. academic qualification: primary six and drivers’ license. his narrations are as follows: there is dearth of arabic and islamic teachers in our schools. this will provide opportunity for people to be employed as arabic teachers in primary and junior secondary schools. the arabic teachers are not happy with nonprovision of teachers of arabic and islamic studies in our schools. in addition, people will accord respect to such people and members of the public will know that his knowledge and skill has been recognised through the award of certificate. those whose knowledge has been codified by the university should be receiving something inform of motivation (cash or kind) on some occasions. interviewee no. 4 name: mr jamiu bamidele town: osogbo, osun state. type of vocation: bricklaying academic qualification: ssce. his opinion is revealed as follows: everybody wants progress. but when there is no means, one will become incapacitated. providing the opportunity to attend a university for any programme would provide freedom and emancipation from suppression and cheating. the award of certificate to the participant could be based on the evaluation of skills already possessed before coming for the programme. in other words, the result of evaluation of skill may lead to the award of certificate or diploma or degree as the case may be. anyone who participates in such programme will have confidence to relate with government workers in order to get employment or obtain contract. society’s recognition will be accorded to anyone who possesses such qualification. discussion the respondents were of the view that codification of skills of non-formal and informal learners will help the society in the area of payment of taxes and by increasing the number of people who have knowledge and skill and who are ready to contribute to the growth of the society. the respondents are also advocating the establishment of vocational centres which would take care of various artisans in various localities. this is likely to promote entrepreneurship and going a long way in solving unemployment plaguing the society. 5. recommendation based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations are made.  the departments of adult education in our universities should explore the means of organising training programme for informal and non-formal learners with a view to codifying and recognising their skills which would attract award of relevant certificates. this will go a long way in increasing the number of literates, entrepreneurs and solving unemployment problem. it will also improve revenue generation in universities.  there is the need for collaborative effort among national universities commission (nuc), departments of adult education in our universities, federal ministry of education and national educational research and development council of nigeria to work together with a view to evolving framework for evaluation and codification of skills of non-formal and informal learners in nigeria.  it is high time that vocational centres are established in all the localities in order to provide avenue where artisans would work after graduation from such codification programme. this would help to solve unemployment problem and improve the livelihood of people in the society.  any codification exercise must carry along members of the public by sensitising them on the need for and the benefit that can be derived from codification exercise. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 44  it is true that members of the public who will be participating in codification exercise in the universities would make financial contribution, there is still the need to make adequate budget on the part of government and participating universities. 6. conclusion thus far, the respondents were enthusiastic on codification of their knowledge and skills and award of appropriate certificates. some of the framework identified in the study include: organising literacy competence to the participant; sensitisation of members of the public; collaborative effort among stakeholders in education industry; and establishment of vocational centres for informal and non-formal learners after graduation. this will go a long way in solving unemployment problem in the country and improve internally generated revenue of universities in nigeria. references abbott, a. 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vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995 published by american center of science and education, usa 25 the relationship between online interaction and academic performance of distance e-learners in a nigerian university olukayode solomon aboderin ph.d science education department faculty of education adekunle ajasin university akungba-akoko,ondo state, nigeria email: abodkayaaua@gmail.com a.m laleye ph.d science education department faculty of education adekunle ajasin university akungba-akoko,ondo state, nigeria abstract distance e-learners are expected to participate in an e-learning environment and interact with the content, colleagues and facilitators through distance education technologies. learning environment goes a long way to determine student’s academic performance. hence, this study tends to find out relationship between online interaction and distance e-learners. the purpose of the study was to analyze the correlation that exists between learner-contentinteraction (lci), learner-learner-interaction (lli) and learner-instructor-interaction (lii) and academic performance of distance e-learners in a nigerian university. two research questions were designed to guide the study. a descriptive design of survey type was adopted for the study and a questionnaire was used to collect the quantitative data. the study was conducted in four selected study centres of national open university of nigeria (noun) and a total of 1,025 participants completed the survey-based questionnaire. the researchers used spearman’s correlation to determine if correlation exists on each type of interaction. the findings of this study revealed that learner-learner-interaction was the only factor that was significant(r = .066, p-value = .034), with very small weak correlation out of the three types of interactions discussed in this study. findings also revealed that all the three types of interactions were significant (lci, r= .121** p=0.009; lii, r=.108*, p=0.018; lli, r = .105*, p = 0.023) for female distance e-learners but none was significant for male distance e-learners.based on the findings of the research, recommendations have been made which will assist nigerian university policy makers and course developers with a view to improving the academic performance of distance e-learners. keywords: analysis, academic performance, influence, and distance e-learners. 1. introduction the modern world is experiencing changes in different parts of life, and the most recent decade of the twentieth century and the start of the twenty-first century have seen gigantic advances, particularly in the field of ict, changes that keep growing at a rapid pace. the field of education is a standout among the most conspicuous zones influenced by this innovation, which has resulted in the development of different types of learning, for example, distance learning. onasanya, ayelaagbe and laleye (2015) noted that the 21st century which has been regarded as century of knowledge has better prospects for adult education to move forward with globalization trends. the development of any nation depends on the quality of adults that nation has, therefore they should be exposed to the various innovations of this century. they further remarked that it is the adults who will transform the nation, not the children, therefore adult education should be a pacesetter to other professions in developmental drive of any nation. there should be radical incorporation of mobile phones (e-learning) into adult education programmes to enable the nation achieve the education for all goals. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 26 with the development of technology, distance and online education provides a wide range of interactive learning opportunities (donnelly, 2010). interaction is defined from various perspectives, within different contexts, based on the participants involved and the level of their engagement (bernard, abrami, borokhovski, wade, tamim, surkes, & bethel 2009). according to allan (2008), e-learning is an interactive learning that allows the learner to interact with the content, with colleagues and the instructor, whether synchronously, through such tools as chat rooms, shared whiteboards and video conferencing or asynchronously, through e-mail and group news. thread discussions and discussion forums also provide interactivity. this is the main feature of e-learning which can be defined as electronic interaction between the learner and instructor, learner and learner and learner and content. the purpose of this paper was to find out the influence of these types interaction on academic performance of distance e-learners in nigeria. interaction has been observed to be a basic component for the general achievement and adequacy of distance education and e-learning (sher, 2009). shih, martínez-molina and muñoz (2008) conducted an in-depth study on the role played by facilitators in e-learning and concluded that instructors can improve effectiveness of e-learning by providing constructive and prompt feedback to the students. numerous researchers have considered interaction as the most vital part of any learning environment (woo & reeves, 2007), and essential in interactions in both traditional (tirri & kuusisto, 2013) and distance and online educational settings (woo & reeves 2007 & bernard et al. 2009). arbaugh and benbunan-fich (2007) viewed interaction as the key part of distance and web learning. is interaction a major determinant of academic performance of distance e-learners in a nigerian setting? this is the interest of this paper. nesliha and mustapha (2016) remarked that teachers and students of the modern age encountered a new challenge of meeting up with the 21st century demands. this challenge can be overcome by creating student-centered learning environments. distance learning environments are quite much more student-centered learning environments entailing students’ self-propelled actions to acquire knowledge. nesliha and mustapha (2016) noted that it is a big challenge for graduates of conventional mode of education to become accustomed with distance learning programs heavily based on learner to content, learner to instructor, or learner to learner interaction. under conventional methods of learning and before the incorporation of ict into teaching and learning, many studies have reported that interaction between students and teachers has influenced their academic performance. the present study therefore examined the influence of interaction between student and instructor, student and content, student and student on academic performance of distance e-learners. garrison and anderson (2003) mentioned that that all types of learning happen as interactions between instructors, learners and content. they recommended six sorts of interaction, of which the three most imperative are learnerinstructor, learner-learner, and learner-content. these three vital types of interaction in e-learning are considered in this paper. 2. review of literature 2.1 learner-content interact ion the learners’ interaction with the content, through website links, e-libraries and laboratories, and the influence on their academic performance was one focus of the present study. in turkey, nesliha and mustapha (2016) found that learner-content interaction has positive effect on achievement and the success of distance education. according to them, this was determined by the structure and the quantity and quality of interaction between instructor and learner. in the usa, ramos and yudko (2008) applied a stepwise multiple regression analysis to explore whether the count of page hits, discussion posts and/or discussion reads (as proxies of student-content and student-student/instructor interactions) could predict learning outcomes. analysing trace data collected by lmss from two online courses, ramos and yudko (2008) revealed that the count of page hits (the frequency in which each student viewed the content pages at the class site) as the only and dependable indicator of academic success. this finding has resulted in the conclusion that student-content interaction was crucial in predicting learning outcomes. the final regression model in the above study showed that the best predictors of students’ final grades were the count of forum postings, the count of messages sent and the count of assessments completed. agudo-peregrina et al. (2014), in their study done in spain, suggested a framework for the investigation of the impacts of the interaction types measured through the use of trace data on academic performance in both online and mixed learning courses. in the usa, alstete and beutell (2004) found that the strongest predictor of student performance in online classes was discussion board usage. this finding was supported by the way that the quantity of student sessions emphatically and essentially identified with general course performance. the literature above showed that these studies were conducted in developed countries, mainly the usa, where ict is more mainstream, which enable the students to have access to ict facilities in order to participate in online discussion and engage with course contents online. will similar results surface in a developing country like nigeria, where technology development and ict use is relatively new? it is on www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 27 this ground that the present study attempts to determine if learner-content-interaction affect academic performance of distance e-learners. the results of the finding revealed what the outcome was in a nigerian setting. 2.2 learner-learner interactions interactive environments replaced direct human interaction. the relevance of this to the academic achievement of learners was one concern of this study. in london, it was discovered imperative that ict utilisation in education gives proper consideration regarding each available form of interactivity (garrison & anderson, 2003). tirri and kuusisto (2013) noted in their study done in finland that learning happens when a student interacts with different students or with a situation, paying little respect to a subject area, instructional design or the innovation in place as a part of the learning process. gutierrez et al. (2007) reported in their study conducted at the university of the philippines-diliman that the learners' interaction with their companions gives more noticeable benefits to the achievement of learning outcomes. it is interesting to note that these studies were conducted in both developed and developing countries with different cultural backgrounds, but with similar findings. the reason could be that in an online discussion forum, students were privileged to exchange knowledge and ideas with their peers, instructors, faculty members and engage with the learning environment. is this applicable to distance e-learners that interact on i-learning or internet learning discussion forums where they interact with their colleagues, course content and facilitator? this study suggested answers to this question and made a finding. the above literature clearly showed that these studies were conducted outside the nigerian context but the present study was keen to determine if learner-learner interaction is a key factor in academic performance, as postulated in research question. the results of the finding revealed what the outcome was in a nigerian setting. 2.3 learner-instructor interact ion in finland, hargreaves et al. (2010) recommended that viable interactive teaching, which is recognised by consistent mutual interaction between the teacher and the learner, involves the exchange of thoughts and not conventional methods of dictation, response and feedback which results from a teacher’s questions. muijs and reynolds (2010) in their study conducted in australia distinguished interactive learning in terms of the nature and efficacy of the interaction between the teacher and the students. they recommended that interaction empowers the instructor to affirm that the learner comprehends the content that has been taught. it helps the students to practise and master target skills and obviously highlights the way they think. it additionally helps the instructor to offer focused learning support. many studies conducted at the state university of new york, the university of central florida and the university of nebraska (diedrich, 2010; nugent, 2009; knoell, 2012) revealed that students-teacher interactions are significant to students’ academic performance. agudo-peregrina et al. (2014) found that academic performance mostly depended on student-instructor and student-student interactions in internet learning settings at universidad politechnica de madrid in spain. miyazoe and anderson (2010) in their study conducted at the universities of tokyo and taipei found that the learner-instructor interaction was the most effective in distance learning situation. all the studies reviewed above were conducted mostly in advanced countries and they all reported that studentteacher interaction influenced academic performance in either traditional or distance education. the reason may be that the mode of teaching in advanced countries encourages teacher and students’ interaction and probably discourages a teacher-dominated approach, which in turn reflects in their academic performance. it is pertinent therefore to determine if learner-instructor-interaction affect academic performance of distance e-learners in nigeria as a developing country. the results of the finding revealed what the outcome was in the nigerian setting. marks, sibley & arbaugh (2005) investigated the significance of student-student, student-instructor and studentcontent interaction types as predictors of perceived learning and satisfaction with an online course at the university of wisconsin. they included perceived advantages of online courses, students’ personal characteristics and experience with online learning environments as variables in the structural equation modelling analysis. their findings revealed that student-instructor interactions were the strongest predictors of perceived learning. interactions among students were also positively associated with perceived learning, but the strength of the association was much lower than in the case of student-instructor interactions. only certain student-content interactions (i.e., individual and group projects) were significantly associated with perceived learning and students' satisfaction (marks et al., 2005). marks et al.’s study was carried on outside nigeria and with on-campus students but the present study was carried out in nigeria to investigate the influence of student-student, student-instructor and student-content interaction on academic performance of distance e-learners. the present study is also in invariance with mark et al.’s study because interaction as predictors of academic performance is the interest of study. 2.4 gender and e-learning gender has been viewed as a determinant of academic achievement in the distance learning environment. the relationship between gender and the academic achievement of students has been discussed for a considerable length of time (eitle, 2005). nur-mustafa (2014) remarked that in recent years studies on gender have revealed an aspect of life which gains huge benefits from the utilization of technology. many researchers such as (funmilayo, 2013; www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 28 gargallo-castel, becta, 2008) remarked that gender differences have been recorded in terms of classroom interaction, teaching practice, skills acquisition, information literacy behavior, professional development and reading habits in the extensive educational domain. odufuwa (2012) found that female usage of computers in nigeria to be between one-third and one-quarter that of their male counterparts. mahmood(2009) reported that males to be more likely to use computer technologies than their female counterpart. wong & horvat, oreski and markic (2011) reported no differences in male and female usage of ict. nesliha and mustapha (2016) who found that there was no statistically significant difference between the interaction and academic performance of male and female students and the reason may be due to the background of the students. coldwell, craig, paterson and mustard (2008) and kunhi mohamed (2012) reported female students were more actively engaged in online discussions and outperformed than their male counterparts in online courses. fink (2007) found males to be more actively engaged in online discussions by comparison to females. chinyamurindi, & shava (2015) reported a female dominance in hardware, software, mobile and internet usage, and e-learning usage for educational purposes while (ikolo and okiy, 2012) reported a male dominance in their study. the present study therefore examined the influence of online interaction on academic performance of male and female distance e-learners. these studies done in usa, spain and turkey (lim & morris, 2009; martínez‐caro, 2011; tello, 2007; yukselturk & bulut, 2007) indicated that gender has no significant effect on students’ online learning performance. this may suggest that the success of students depend on their ability to adjust faster and comfortably in an online learning environment. interestingly, these studies were done in those countries that had online learning systems in place for a long period and where students are believed to be comfortable with an online learning environment. however, the current study was done in nigeria where online learning was introduced recently. 3. purpose of the study the purpose of this research was to determine the influence of online interaction on academic performance of distance e-learners in a nigerian university. more specifically, the researcher wanted to find out if variable like learner-content-interaction, learner-learner-interaction and learner-instructor-interaction influence academic performance of distance e-learners. 4. research questions the following research question were asked with the view to achieving the overall aim of the study:  what correlations exist between learner-content-interaction, learner-learner-interaction and learner-learnerinteraction and academic performance of distance e-learners?  is there any correlation between learner-content-interaction, learner-learner-interaction and learner-learnerinteraction and academic performance of distance e-learners when splitting the data by gender? 5. research methodology this study adopted a descriptive design of survey type and a questionnaire was used to collect the quantitative data. the south-west geopolitical zone of nigeria was the focus of this study. the population was the total number of distance learners in different faculties and different years of studies in all the study centres in noun in the geopolitical zone. this geopolitical zone is made up of six states – lagos, ekiti, oyo, osun, ondo and ogun, with 13 different study centres. the study was conducted in the four selected study centres of the university and a total of 1,025 participants completed the survey-based questionnaire. in total, the researcher retrieved 1050 from the four study centres out of 1400 distributed. there were 25 questionnaires that were considered to be spoilt because they were partially completed, illegible, or contradicted entries. at the end of the exercise, the researcher used data from 1025 questionnaires for data analysis. this study applied convenience sampling for the quantitative aspect because it was an easy way to contact participants and collect information within a short period of time. the questionnaire for this study was adapted from aboderin (2011), algahtani (2011), martha (2009) and owino (2013) in order to meet the needs of this research. experts in educational technology and computer education concurred that the items in the questionnaire were appropriate to measure the intended variable and therefore concluded that it had validity. the reliability was determined by computing the cronbach’s alpha coefficient for each construct’s items in the instrument and it was found to be 0.95 for the whole scale which indicated that the questionnaire tool was highly reliable. the retrieved questionnaire were analysed using spearman’s correlation coefficient. 6 . research findings research question one: what correlations exist between learner-content-interaction, learner-learner-interaction and learner-learner-interaction and academic performance of distance e-learners? www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 29 table 1: spearman’s correlation coefficient on interactive learning acadperf lci lii lli spearman's rho acadperf correlation coefficient 1.000 .050 .017 .066* sig. (2-tailed) . .110 .581 .034 n 1025 1025 1025 1025 lci correlation coefficient .050 1.000 .452** .412** sig. (2-tailed) .110 . .000 .000 n 1025 1025 1025 1025 lii correlation coefficient .017 .452** 1.000 .554** sig. (2-tailed) .581 .000 . .000 n 1025 1025 1025 1025 lli correlation coefficient .066* .412** .554** 1.000 sig. (2-tailed) .034 .000 .000 . n 1025 1025 1025 1025 *. correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). **. correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). for learner-content interaction (lci), table 1 illustrates that the spearman’s rho correlation coefficient r = .050 computed for learner-content interaction and academic performance (acadperf) was positive with significance or p-value = .110 which is greater than alpha = 0.01 or alpha = 0.05. this implies that no correlation exists between lci and academic performance. for learner-instructor interaction (lii), table 1 illustrated that the spearman’s rho correlation coefficient r =.017 computed for learner-instructor-interaction and academic performance was positive with significance or pvalue = .581 which is greater than alpha = 0.01 but less than alpha = 0.05. this implies that no correlation exists between lii and academic performance. for learner-learner interaction (lli), table 1 illustrates that the spearman’s rho correlation coefficient r = .066 computed for learner-learner interaction and academic performance (acadperf) was positive with significance or p-value = .034 which is greater than alpha = 0.01 but less than alpha = 0.05, this implies that a positive correlation exists between lli and academic performance although the strength of the correlation was weak. research question two: is there any correlation exists between learner-content-interaction, learner-learnerinteraction and learner-learner-interaction and academic performance of distance e-learners based on gender? table 2: spearman’s correlation coefficient on e-interactive learning by splitting based on gender gender acadperf lci lii lli spearman's rho female acadp erf correlation coefficient 1.000 .121** .108* .105* sig. (2-tailed) . .009 .018 .023 n 474 474 474 474 lci correlation coefficient .121** 1.000 .484** .401** sig. (2-tailed) .009 . .000 .000 n 474 474 474 474 lii correlation coefficient .108* .484** 1.000 .569** sig. (2-tailed) .018 .000 . .000 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 30 for learner-content interaction (lci), table 2 revealed that a positive correlation does exist between lci and academic performance of female distance e-learners although the strength of the correlation was weak. but no significant correlation exists between lci and academic performance of male distance e-learners. for learner-instructorinteraction (lii), table2 further revealed that a positive correlation does exist between lii and academic performance of female distance e-learners, although the strength of the correlation was weak. but no significant correlation exists between lii and academic performance of male distance e-learners. for learner-learner interaction (lli), table 2 further revealed that a positive correlation does exists between lli and academic performance of female distance e-learners although the strength of the correlation was weak. but no significant correlation exists between learner-learner interaction and academic performance of male distance elearners. 7. discussion previous studies (nesliha & mustapha, 2016; ramos & yudko, 2008) revealed that lci plays a significant role in academic performance of distance or online students. however, this study showed there was no statistically significant correlation between lci and academic performance of distance e-learners as shown in table 1. this may be because the interaction between distance e-learners and their course contents online do not play a significant role in academic performance of distance e-learners. this may also be because the amount of interaction that learners have with the content does not reflect in their academic performance. this result of the current study is in disagreement with bernard, abrami, borokhovski, wade, tamim, surkes and bethel, (2009) who reported that learner-content interaction has a greater influence on learning outcomes in asynchronous settings. many studies (diedrich, 2010; nugent, 2009; knoell, 2012) revealed that student-teacher interactions are significant to students’ academic performance. however, the result of this study showed that no statistically significant correlation exists between learner-instructor interaction and academic performance of distance e-learners as shown in table 1. this may be because lii is not efficient enough to bring about effective learning that the learners need. this study is not in line with agudo-peregrina et al. (2014) who recommended that academic performance mostly depended on student-instructor and student-student interactions in internet learning settings. this study is also in contrast to miyazoe and anderson (2010) who revealed that the lii type of interaction is the most effective in distance learning situation. many studies (kolloff, 2011, algahtani 2011) have shown that lli has positive impact or influence on academic performance of students. interestingly, the results of this study showed that positive and statistically significant correlation exists between lli and academic performance of distance e-learners although the strength of the correlation was very weak, as shown in table 1. this may be because the online discussion forums among the learners play a role on the academic performance of distance e-learners. this may also be because the amounts of n 474 474 474 474 lli correlation coefficient .105* .401** .569** 1.000 sig. (2-tailed) .023 .000 .000 . n 474 474 474 474 male acadp erf correlation coefficient 1.000 -.013 -.067 .034 sig. (2-tailed) . .756 .114 .430 n 551 551 551 551 lci correlation coefficient -.013 1.000 .421** .418** sig. (2-tailed) .756 . .000 .000 n 551 551 551 551 lii correlation coefficient -.067 .421** 1.000 .536** sig. (2-tailed) .114 .000 . .000 n 551 551 551 551 lli correlation coefficient .034 .418** .536** 1.000 sig. (2-tailed) .430 .000 .000 . n 551 551 551 551 **. correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). *. correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 31 interaction that distance e-learners have with the course content reflect in their academic performance. this study is in agreement with rugendo (2014) who found that learner-to-learner interaction influenced academic performance of distance learners. this study is in line with agudo-peregrina et al. (2014) who reported that academic performance mostly depends student-student interactions in internet learning settings. this study is also in agreement with algahtani (2011) who found there was a statistically significant correlation (at 0.01 level) in learning interaction through e-learning and academic performance of distance learners. there was a statistically significant correlation (r= .121**p=0.009) between learner-content-interaction and female distance e-learners’ academic performance (see table 2). this implies that a positive correlation does exists between lci and academic performance of female distance e-learners although the strength of the correlation was weak. this may be because female distance e-learners are more actively engaged with course contents online than their male counterparts. it may also be that female distance e-learners improve productivity through lci than their male counterparts. this may because the female learners prefer to discuss their course contents with their colleagues while the male counterparts prefer to learn on their own. it is worthy of note that this result is in disagreement with the study carried out in a developed country by nesliha and mustapha (2016) who found that there was no statistically significant difference between the interaction and academic performance of male and female students and the reason may be due to the background of the students. the result also revealed there was a statistically significant correlation (r=.108*, p=0.018) between lii and female distance e-learners’ academic performance (see error! reference source not found.). this may be because female distance e-learners built a productive relationship with the instructor under an e-learning setting. this may also suggest that the female distance e-learners communicate and enjoy contacting their instructors online than their male counterparts. this result was consistent with another study by coldwell et al., (2008) and kunhimohamed (2012) who found that students who participated more frequently in discussion forums obtained significantly higher grades. it is interesting to find out that although the above study was conducted in australia, a developed country, a similar finding surfaced in a developing country like nigeria. the result revealed further that there was a statistically significant correlation (r = .105*, p = 0.023) between lli and female distance e-learners’ academic performance (see table 2). this implies that a positive correlation does exists between lli and academic performance of female distance e-learners, although the strength of the correlation was weak. this may suggest that female distance e-learners prefer to interact with their colleagues on the discussion forum and build a productive relationship with their colleagues but their male counterparts prefer to learn on their own. this may also suggests that female distance learners with similar goals and objectives study together, which resulted in better academic performance because this brought about better understanding of course materials. interestingly, this result was quite consistent with another study by coldwell et al., (2008) and kunhi mohamed (2012) who reported female students were more actively engaged in online discussions and outperformed than their male counterparts in online courses despite the fact that the study was carried out in australia. this finding is in contrast to fink (2007) who found males to be more actively engaged in online discussions by comparison to females. 8. conclusion the study concluded that learner-learner-interaction was the only factor that was significant, with very small weak correlation out of the three types of interactions discussed in this study. however, when the sample was split into male and female, all the three types of interactions were significant for female distance e-learners but none was significant for male distance e-learner as explained (see table 2). 9. recommendation the findings revealed that interactive learning affects academic performance of female distance e-learners. the researcher therefore recommends that the university should improve on the existing e-learning interactive forum (ilearn) and students should be encouraged to fully participate in the discussion forum. educational stakeholders, policy makers and planners should equally establish an e-learning interactive forum for other higher institutions. this will assist distance e-learners and other students to meet for discussions based on their studies and this should be monitored by university management to ensure effectiveness. for i-learn currently existing in the university to be successful live teleconferencing facilities should be made available to all the study centres across the nation. the researcher also recommends that instructional designers and curriculum developers should employ the modern technologies to increase the interactive system of delivery that are supposed to take learner characteristics and needs into account. references algahtani, a. (2011). evaluating the effectiveness of the e-learning experience in some universities in saudi arabia from male students' perceptions. unpublished doctoral dissertation.school of education,university of durham. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 32 agudo-peregrina, á. f., iglesias-pradas, s., conde-gonzález, m. á., & hernández-garcía, á. (2014). can we predict success from log data in vles? classification of interactions for learning analytics and their relation with performance in vle-supported f2f and online learning. computers in human behavior, 31(2014), 542-550. arbaugh, j. b., & benbunan-fich, r. (2007). the importance of participant interaction in online environments. decision support systems, 43(3), 853-865. alstete, j. w., & beutell, n. j. 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(2013). interaction in educational domains: springer science & business media. woo, y., & reeves, t. c. (2007). meaningful interaction in web-based learning: a social constructivist interpretation. the internet and higher education, 10(1), 15-25. yukselturk, e., & bulut, s. (2007). predictors for student success in an online course. journal of educational technology & society, 10(2). copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995 published by american center of science and education, usa 18 the effects of coaching and mentoring on metacognition knowledge among malay language teachers in sabah, malaysia asnia kadir kadir school improvement specialist coaches the education office of tuaran district, sabah, malaysia e-mail: eraasnia.ea@gmail.com dr. gunasegaran karuppannan associate professor faculty of education and social science university of selangor, shah alam, malaysia e-mail: drguna@unisel.edu.my dr. mohammad abdur rahman assistant professor department of business administration, faculty of business and entrepreneurship daffodil international university, dhaka, bangladesh e-mail: rahman@diu.edu.bd dr. mokana muthu kumarasamy lecturer faculty of business and accountancy university of selangor, shah alam, malaysia e-mail: mokana@unisel.edu.my abstract this study was conducted to examine the relationship between coaching and mentoring guidance and the levelof metacognition among malay language teachers. in 2013, the ministry of education malaysia implemented the district transformation programme as a pilot project before it was expanded nationwide in the following year.this step was taken to empowerteachers through the school improvement specialist coaches (sisc) programmethat develop the teachers’ competencies, metacognition and expertise. using a quantitative approach, the study analysed data were collected from 186 teachersteach in the tuaran district, sabah. study data were analyzed using descriptive and inference analysis. overall, the findings show that the level of coaching and mentoring is high, thus illustrating that teachers are ready to receive coaching and mentoring guidance in order to develop metacognition ability as well as to improve their teaching and learning performance. although not entire coaching and mentoring items have a significant relationship in terms of teachers’ metacognition, there is a significant relationship between coaching and mentoring guidance and teachers’ metacognition in terms of declarative knowledge element. mailto:rahman@diu.edu.bd mailto:mokana@unisel.edu.my www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 19 keywords: coaching and mentoring, school improvement specialist coaches programme, education system malaysia, teachers’ metacognition. introduction the district transformation program (dtp) (2015) was introduced under the malaysia education blueprint (meb) 2013-2025 to empower district education officers (deos) so that they could guide and provide supports to accelerate the improvement of school performance. in 2013, dtp was implemented as a pilot project in the states of kedah and sabah and then was expanded nationwide from january 2014. this scheme was implemented to empower teachers through the school improvement specialist coaches (sisc) programme to develop competencies, metacognition and expertise among teachers to enable them to carry the trust as the main driver of educational transformation. the role of sisc experts is as a transformation agent for the implementation of teacher professionalism development programmes in schools.the best education system in the world has shown that professional development practices will continue to be more effectiveif led by educators themselves compared to those provided and driven by the organisation. educators should realize that the development of professionalism is not an option, instead it is a requirement that must be met to remain relevant as a professional educator who can have an impact on student achievement (malaysia education blueprint, 2013). in this regard, the ministry of education malaysia (moe) hopes that coaching and mentoring guidance by sisc expertsshould be able to provide metacognitive changes among coachees who have undergone coaching and mentoring training. the sisc programme is a school-based training for teachers that using coaching and mentoring approach to encourage and enable collaborative learning among subject panel heads, teachers and other school communities. research background the moe's initiative in introducing the sisc programme to guide teachers is seen to be able to produce highly skilled educators in-line with current developments that is focusing on the 21st century learning environment. coaching and mentoring guidance isimplemented as a training and education programme designed to develop the potential of a person or group of people who lack knowledge and experience. this step is challenging because sisc experts are required to guide teachers to understand their responsibilities, to familiarize themselves with techniques, share experiences, meet personal needs and care about all aspects of pedagogy and teaching (harun, 2016). sisc expertsis a new position created under the meb to achieve the objectives of the dtp and it is among the principal position in the district education office (deo). the task of sisc expertsis to provide coaching and mentoring services to teachers in implementing interesting, creative and innovative pedagogy to provide a more effective impact. they serve as buddy who are helpsto convey information about moe’s policies and to strengthen teaching standards towards 21st century pedagogy, including information technology skills and life skills. coaching and mentoring is a process of guidance and monitoring that involves healthy communication relationships, leading towards behavioral changes or improved metacognition of guided teachers related to school pedagogy and curriculum. therefore, the field of coaching and mentoring as well as two-way feedbacks between sisc experts and the guided teacherswill then encourage the sharing of content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge. by having a www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 20 good understanding, sisc expertscould guide the teachersmore effectively. in addition, sisc experts will make observations and provide support to teachers who are not meeting their performance target, so that the classroom learning and teaching process is more effective. sisc expertswill act as mentors while teachers as mentees. reporting will also be made by sisc expertsto the head of deo after going through the observation process as well as coaching and mentoring the teachers. follow-up actions and interventions also will be carried, for example through the professional learning community (district transformation programme, 2015). coaching and mentoring tasks are given to sisc expertswho have undergone courses and trainings, and assigned to monitor and guide the teachers in low performing schools and those are in band 4 to band 7 groups.within a year, they need to return to the school they are supervising at least three times for the purpose of identifying problems faced by the school involved and also to think of intervention/rehabilitation programmes that can be carried out at the school with the cooperation of administrators and teachers (abdul razak, 2014). under this initiative, supports and assistanceto improve teachers’ metacognition and also its impact on students’ performance can be identified strategically and be more focused. in the meantime, school leaders such as headmasters, senior assistants and school organisations also need to act as mentors, develop and use best practices in order to meet the professional standards to be achieved (ministry of education malaysia, 2014). the relationship between coaching and mentoring practices is supported by cognitivebased theories. the principles articulated by bandura (2013) which explains that an individual's mental ability in understanding what is learned in a learning programmecould enhance the selfconfidence to improve individual’s behavior, especially psychosocial ascpet. in the context of coaching and mentoring practices, these cognitive theory explains that communication and participation are learning techniques that are capable of enhancing the new knowledge, skills and abilities to improve academic performance. problem statement this study focuses on the relationship between coaching and mentoring guidance on the teachers' metacognition. researcher examined the relationship between coaching and mentoring and the level of metacognition among the teachers who teachsmalay language.although the programme has been implemented for almost five years, the targeted level of teaching and learning is still not successfully realised in-line with the moe's inspiration towards 21st century learning (ministry of education malaysia, 2014). although there are basically many other factors that can be examined related to the aspects of coaching and mentoring, but the metacognition of school teachers is seen as more potential to be studied because the need for teachers' way of thinking is very important in determining the academic achievement of schools.in addition, this study is also carried out to examine whether there is any relationship in terms of gender and teaching experience on the level of teachers’ metacognition as a result of coaching and mentoring guidanceamong the malay languageteachers in primary schools in tuaran district in sabah, malaysia. these two constructs are also believed to be interrelated with each other and are predicted to provide a clear picture of the study related to coaching and mentoring guidance as well as metacognition of the teachers. the study looked at the overall guidance of coaching and mentoring effect on the metacognition level among teachers who teach malay language. researcher think that coaching and mentoring will be able to have a positive impact and it is very important to identify and confirm the relationship between coaching and mentoring and www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 21 teachers' metacognition. according to ismail and ridzuan (2013), the development of work process as well as interpersonalskills of teachers will be enhanced with the availability of integrated and structured guidance. it also acts as a tool to build the potential of individuals or groups in carrying out responsibilities or learning new things. therefore, the objectives of this study are:  to determine the level of coaching and mentoring practices among malay language teachers in the tuaran district.  to determine whether there is difference in terms of the level metacognition based on gender among malay language teachers in the tuaran district.  to assess the relationship between metacognition level and teaching experience among malay language teachers in the tuaran district.  to assess the relationship between performance of coaching and mentoring guidance, and metacognition level in terms of elements of declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge, conditional knowledge, planning, monitoring and evaluation among malay language teachers in tuaran district. importance of the study since this study involves a number of important aspects of coaching and mentoring guidance, it is researcher’s hope that the findings could have an impact on the increase of metacognition among malay language teachers. it is hoped that this study will be able to provide benefits to various parties, especially to the moe which has created the position of sisc experts in order to help subject teachers to strengthen the 21st century learning environment. the state education department, deo, principals, headmasters, committee heads, subject panel heads as well as interested members of the public could utilise the findings as a reference. in addition, the role of sisc experts is expected to assist the teachers in improving students’ performance. teachers are also expected to use the outcome of the study to help towards improving the knowledge and metacognition of teachers. research methodology in-line with the purpose of the study, this is a descriptive survey and suitable for use because the concepts of the study can be expressed using questionnaires (chua, 2006; creswell, 2012; mokhtar, 2011). researcher used quantitative method and therefore, relied on questionnaire form as an instrument, by sending it to the respondents for them to fill out. the population of study consisted of a total of 330 teachers who teach malay language in six zones in tuaran district: mengkabong (75), sulaman (50), kiulu (59), tamparuli (60), tenghilan (58) and nabalu (28). the district consists of 73 primary schools. the significance level of this study is p <.05 with reference to the sample size determination table of krejcie and morgan (1970). systematic random sampling was used to select sample where this selection only requires a list of names of the population and it does not necessarily require a random number table as mentioned by chua (2006). the researcher retrieved the survey forms after a few weeks. a total of 234 sets of questionnaires were returned and since the study only required 186 samples, the total set of questionnaires required was randomly selected for analysis purpose. the questionnaire consists of three parts, namely part a (demographic of respondents), part b (coaching and mentoring guidance) and c (teacher metacognition). section b represents 20 items where answers are measured using eight questions that were modified from the mentoring system literature and 10 questions were adapted from coaching and mentoring www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 22 instruments in education, concepts, roles and processes (abdul razak, 2014). meanwhile, in section c, respondents were asked to answer questions related to teachers' metacognition which includes six items, namely declarative knowledge, knowledge procedures, conditional knowledge, planning, monitoring and evaluation. the questions were adapted from the metacognitive awareness inventory for teacher (mait) questionnaire, developed by schraw and dennison (1995) and redeveloped by bacikanli (2011). for the purpose of instrument reliability, researcher reviewed the questions with the help of experts from the aminuddin baki institute, an agency under the moe. for items related to metacognition that was adapted from mait journal, the items were translated "back to back" by linguists from universiti malaysia sabah. some questions related to the metacognitive aspect had to be dropped because it did not fit the philosophy and value of education in malaysia. taking into consideration of cohen (2004) and creswell (2012), a pilot study was carried out among malay language teachers in five primary schools in the nearby district of kota kinabalu. this selection was made based on the location and environment of the schoolsas they are close to the actual respondents of the study. a total of 30 teachers were involved in the pilot study. the findings of the pilot study show that validity and reliability are very important aspects and should be considered in the development of research instrument. findings general information of the 186 respondents who were analyzed, 68 people (36.6 percent) are male teachers and the remaining 118 people (63.4 percent) are female. it shows that the number of female teachers who are teaching malay language is more than male. the unbalanced scenario may be due to the number of female teachers in tuaran district more than twice compared to male teachers. it is also possible that male teachers are more interested in less stressful subjects. in terms of basic teaching training qualification, a total of 18 or 9.7 percent respondents have a malaysian diploma in education (dpm), 16 or 8.6 percent of the respondents have attended postgraduate teaching course (kpli), 39 or 21 percent have a diploma in postgraduate education (dpli), 113 or 60.8 percent are bachelor of education (b. ed) holders. in short this development shows that teachers are also concerned about their academic improvement as they are preparing to adapt with the changing educational ecosystem at present. it also shows that teachers selected by the administrator to teach malay language subject are those who hold a degree, at least a bachelordegree. a total of 149 or 80.1 percent of respondents are teachers who are majoring in language studies and the balance 37 or 19.9 percent are those majoring in social science studies. item analysis coaching and mentoring guidance item analysis on coaching and mentoring guidance shows item no. 11: "does the mentor choose the mentoring methods that suit the teacher”, has recorded the highest mean value of 10.00 with a standard deviation value of 0.00 while the item that recorded the lowest mean value is item no. 3: "does the mentor give exposure to the concept of continuous learning to the coachee" with a mean value of 9.12 with a standard deviation value of 0.517. the high mean value indicates that the item is an option to the respondents of this study. in this study, the questionnaire uses a distance scale (interval) which represents 10 scales, starting with 1 to 5 means "strongly disagree" and 6 to 10 means "strongly agree". the purpose of using the distance scale is to measure from one point to another. the distance scale is a numerical scale where we know that www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 23 not only the data are arranged in sequence, but also the exact differences between the values (steve, 2017). table 1 shows with respect to the analysis on item no. 1, where there are no respondents who marked scale 1 to 6. however, two respondents marked scale 7, while 17 respondents (9.1 percent) have chosen scale 8. a total of 27 teachers marked scale 9 representing 14 percent of total number of respondents. these findings as a whole indicate that teachers agree that mentors can help improve their knowledge on the classroom teaching. on the other hand, a total of 140 respondents marked a scale of 10 representing 75.3 percent. this shows that the respondents expressed agreement that the presence of mentos in the school is not a form of interference, but rather a kind of support that can improve the knowledge of the supervised teachers. the mean value result for this item is 9.64 and the standard deviation value is 0.693. table 1. item analysis for coaching and mentoring guidance study tools item 1 on coaching and mentoring guidance strongly disagree strongly agree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 min s.p can mentors help to improve knowledge of teaching in the classroom? 0 0.0 % 0 0. 0 % 0 0. 0 % 0 0. 0 % 0 0.0 % 0 0. 0 % 2 1. 1 % 17 9.1 % 27 14. 5% 140 75. 3% 0.693 9.64 inference analysis for inference analysis, the researcher has used the correlation test to see the relationship between experience and teachers’ metacognition level and also to see the relationship between coaching and mentoring and teachers' metacognition. in the meantime, independent sample t-tests were used to identify the variables involved according to the order of the study questions.  objective: to determine whether there is difference in terms of the level metacognition based on gender among malay language teachers in the tuaran district. the results of the independent sample t-test showed no significant differences with respect to teachers' metacognition level by gender (t = 1.763, p> .05). this indicates that there is no difference in terms of gender in determining changes or improvements in the metacognition of teachers who have received coaching and mentoring guidance (table 2). www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 24 table 2. teacher metacognition differences by gender gender n min standard deviation t sig. malefemale 68 118 220.41 219.88 1.797 2.072 1.763 0.080  objective: to assess the relationship between metacognition and teaching experience among malay language teachers in the tuaran district. table 3. relationship between teachers' metacognition and teaching experience metacognition of teachers attending coaching and mentoring guidance pearson correlation 0.119 sig. (2-tailed) 0.106 n 186 the results show that there is no significant relationship between teachers' metacognition and teaching experience (r = 0.119, p> 0.05). these findings indicate that experience is not an important factor in the improvement or change of teachers' metacognition (table 3).  objective:to assess the relationship between performance of coaching and mentoring with teachers’ metacognitive elements of declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge, conditional knowledge, planning, monitoring and evaluating among malay language teachers in the tuaran district. the findings show that there is a significant relationship between aspects of coaching and mentoring guidance and teachers' metacognition in terms of declarative knowledge element (r = .161, p <0.05). relationships are positive and weak. therefore, the results of the study found that if the coaching and mentoring guidance score increases, then the teachers' metacognition level from the perspective of declarative knowledge element will also increase and vice versa (table 4). furthermore, the results of the study also show that there is a significant relationship between the elements of coaching and mentoring guidance and metacognition of teachers in terms of conditional knowledge element (r = 0.144, p <0.05). this relationship is also positive and weak. thus, if the coaching and mentoring guidance scores increase, then the teachers' metacognition scores for the conditional knowledge element will also increase and vice versa. in addition, the results of the study show that there is a significant relationship between aspects of coaching and mentoring guidance and metacognition of teachers in terms of monitoring element (r = 0.221, p <0.01). relationships are positive and weak. however, the results of other elemental studies indicate that there is no significant relationship between coaching and mentoring guidance on the teachers' metacognition from the perspectives of knowledge procedure element, planning elements (r = 0.137, p> 0.05) and evaluating element (r = -0.011, p> 0.05). www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 25 table 4. the relationship between coaching and mentoring guidance from the perspective of various elements in teachers' metacognition metacognition of teachers attending coaching and mentoring guidance pearson correlation 0.161* declarative knowledge sig. (2-tailed) 0.029 n 186 pearson correlation .b knowledge procedures sig. (2-tailed) . n 186 pearson correlation 0.144* conditional knowledge sig. (2-tailed) 0.049 n 186 pearson correlation 0.137 planning sig. (2-tailed) 0.063 n 186 pearson correlation .221** monitoring sig. (2-tailed) .002 n 186 pearson correlation -.011 evaluation sig. (2-tailed) .877 n 186 p<0.05* p<0.01** discussions this study was conducted to identify the level of coaching and mentoring guidance among new teachers, identify metacognition level differences based on demographic factors and examine relationship between coaching and mentoring guidance on teachers' metacognition in terms of declarative knowledge, knowledge procedures, conditional knowledge, planning, monitoring and evalution elements among the malay language teachers in the district of tuaran, sabah. first, the findings show that the coaching and mentoring sessions could reduce the level of work stress among the teachers because they have experts who can help to provide ideas and solve problems in the teaching and learning process, especially to teachers who teach year six,which is the year of examination. the teachers agreed that the sisc experts applying appropriate methods for the betterment of the teachers. this is in-line with the fact that teachers are able to improve work skills related to job performance due the exposure to teaching methods of cooperative learning, collaborative and entertaining learning. according to dtp (2015), the job of sisc experts is to help and guide the teachers so that they will apply interesting, creative and innovative pedagogy in the hope that it will have an effective impact. through this study, guided teachers are in dire need of sisc experts in strengthening their duties, but due to time constraints, visits to schools could not be carried out more regularly. some teachers who were guided found that the coaching sessions provided were not implemented continuously to the teachers involved. this is because there are 74 schools in www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 26 tuaran that need to be given guidance by sisc experts.the issue of time constraints and rotation in each supervised school are the most obvious reasons why coaching sessions could not be held continuously. overall, the study also shows that the sisc experts have been able to assist teachers in providing appropriate methods to be used in teaching and learning sessions. in addition, their presence also have contributed to reduce the feeling of stress among teachers because they have the supports of experts in the field of pedagogy from time to time, unlike in the past where knowledge gained only through courses or even while studying at the teaching training institutions. second, independent sample t-test results showthat there is no significant difference between teachers' metacognition by gender (t = 1.763, p> 0.05). this indicates that there is no significant difference in the metacognition of teachers whether they are male or female. regardless of gender each teacher is able to accept changes in terms of knowledge or metacognitive knowledge skills after being exposed to coaching and mentoring guidance. perhaps other factors can be considered if one wants to see the differences in teachers' metacognition. previously, the study of memnun and akkaya (2009) also showed that gender factors do not play any significant role in determining the improvement of a person's metacognitive level.in addition, these findings are also in line with the study of dilek and memnuna (2009). teachers' metacognition is more prominent with a change in a teacher's knowledge, knowledge sharing as a result of coaching and mentoring. in the current era of information and communication technology, a teacher's metacognitive knowledge depends on the individual's ability to gain new knowledge and prepare to improve their respective metacognition.several factors have been identified, among them the determination of teachers to acquire knowledge and skills, but not due gender factorof teachers.the teachers involved are taking such steps to improve their knowledge and skills as drastic changes are needed to cope with the 21st century pdp environment, and not because they are male or female teachers. third, the correlation test shows that there is no significant relationship between teachers' metacognition and teaching experience (r = 0.119, p> 0.05). in-line with the results of ananda (2009) study, the findings of this study indicate that the relationship is insignificant and the positive level is weak. it is clear that teaching experience has nothing to do with teachers' metacognition. whether they are a new teacher or an experienced teacher as all teachers are ready to receive coaching and mentoring guidance towards changing or improving the metacognition level. researcher found that effective teachers need a variety of techniques or methods to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their students, plan various activities for students from various backgrounds and understand their needs. this finding coincides with the opinion of kram and chandler (1991) that teachers are able to improve work skills related to job performance because with the exposure to cooperative learning methods, collaborative and entertaining learning. only the skills and diversification of methods that are a strength for the improvement of teachers’metacognition. this is in contrast to the opinion of brown (1987) who said that teachers will be more adept at using their metacogeneous knowledge as they serve longer. finally, there are three elements of metacognition that have a significant relationship to coaching and mentoring guidance namely declarative knowledge, conditional knowledge elements and monitoring elements. the results of the correlation test analysis showed that there is a significant relationship between coaching and mentoring guidance and teachers’ metacognition in terms of declarative knowledge elements (r = .161, p <0.05). relationships are www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 27 positive and weak. declarative knowledge means knowing what is being done in more detail (shraw & dennison, 2001). this includes the individual’s acceptance of the work structure, cognitive purpose and abilities. this significant relationship indicates that teachers know what is being done in the classroom as a result of receiving coaching and mentoring guidance from sisc experts.teachers know the skills they need to become capable teachers.this is also reinforced by darling-hammond et al. (2007). theory which says that all these types of intelligence work together in complex, evolving through education, a meaningful environment and that intelligence can be learned, shaped, enhanced and constantly changed throughout life. in conclusion, teachers' metacognition can be developed through the guidance of expets who often come to school to guide teachers. thus there is a significant relationship between coaching and mentoring guidance on the metacognition of declarative knowledge element. furthermore, the results of the study show that there is a significant relationship between coaching and mentoring guidance and the level of metacognition of teachers for the persepctive of conditional knowledge element (r = .144, p <0.05). in addition, the results of the study also show that there is a significant relationship between coaching and mentoring guidance with teachers' metacognition in terms of monitoring element (r = .221, p <0.01). according to a study of coaching and mentoring conducted by ismail (2009), the practice of communication between mentors and mentees done actively, planned and honest will be able to form positive individual attitudes and behaviors. teachers who are always mentored in the field will be more receptive to change and easier to communicate with mentors.teachers who are always mentored by sisc experts will be more receptive to change and easier to communicate with mentors. the monitoring carried out by experts is more of a supervisory and guidance and not aimed at monitoring and evaluating the teachers involved. this approach makes teachers feel comfortable when experts come to the school and carry out monitoring or even guidance in the classroom. according to ramizi (2005) that guidance is a form of assistance given to an individual to determine short-term and long-term goals, plan ways to act and improve attitudes and behaviors in necessary aspects. teachers are ready to be monitored because they think the help and guidance needed can help in implementing the goals of the education system effectively. in conclusion, there are three elements that have a significant relationship on the coaching and mentoring guidance, namely the declarative knowledge, the conditional knowledge and and the monitoring elements. overall, the findings have shown the presence of experts have an impact in terms of increasing knowledge and skills of metacognition malay language teachers in tuaran. impact of research findings in terms of models and theories the most important coaching and mentoring-related model in this study is grow, which is a specific model that shows the steps taken by a mentor so that the session presented is effective. grow is an original coaching model pioneered by whitmore (2009). the findings show that the question of experience does not have a significant relationship on the metacognition of teachers although in western countries the experience of teachers plays an important role and has a significant relationship on the metacognition of teachers.the flavell (1992) model divides metacognition into metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive experience. according to the findings of the study, the relationship of coaching and mentoring with metacognition found that only the declarative knowledge and conditional knowledge are elements that have a significant relationship on the coaching and mentoring aspects. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 1; 2021 28 this development shows that teachers are easily overwhelmed by the knowledge of coaching and mentoring and have an impact on teachers' metacognition.meanwhile, according to the flavell (1992) model, a person's ability to perform learning activities is influenced by the metacognitive experience used in a teaching and learning and metacognitive knowledge. through the findings of this study, the correlation test on teacher experience also shows that there is no significant relationship of experience to teachers’ metacognition. the findings of this study seem to refute the opinion in the flavell (1992) model. it is possible that these findings are no longer relevant to the model that has existed for a long time and the results of these findings also indicate that a new thing where experience has no significant relationship on the teachers' metacognition. in fact, the experience or how long a teacher has been teaching may no longer matter because teaching strategies are becoming more sophisticated, where the education system requires creative and innovative teachers. suggestions for future study this study has provided a fairly interesting and dynamic finding. even so, researcher hope thatfurther studies will examine coaching and mentoring items, especially items that record the lowest mean value, including aspect related to "does the mentor give exposure to the concept of continuous learning to the coachee". research should also be seen on metacognitive items, especially from the point of view of the element that recorded the highest mean value, namely the second element "knowledge procedure". future studies should also avoid districts where the researchers are the sisc experts to ensure the integrity of the data collected. further studies should also cover secondary schools or other institutions of higher learning to see the improvement of teachers' metacognition at their environment. conclusion this study shows that the level of coaching and mentoring guidance is at a high level. this illustrates that teachers are ready to receive coaching and mentoring guidance to develop teachers metacognition, while being able to improve teachers' teaching and learning performance. although not all coaching and mentoring items have a significant relationship in terms of teachers' metacognition, there is still a significant relationship between coaching and mentoring guidance with the level of metacognition in terms of declarative knowledge. for teachers of malay language in tuaran district specifically for those participated in this study,the finding of the existence of a significant relationship between mentoring and coaching and mentoring teachers metacognition in terms of declarative knowledge element indicates the importance of knowledge in order to improve teachers' metacognitive abilities. accordingly, the relationship should be taken into account in planning and teaching program that aims to enhance the ability of metacognition among malay language teachers in tuaran in the future. references abdul razak, a. 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(2009). coaching for performance: growing human potential and purpose. the principles and practice of coaching and leadership (2nd ed.). london: nb publishing. copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0). american international journal of education and linguistics research; vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995 published by american center of science and education, usa 1 focus constructions in ǹjo ̩̀-kóo 1 simeon o. olaogun ph.d lecturer department of linguistics and languages adekunle ajasin university akungba-akoko ondo state, nigeria e-mail: simeon.olaogun@aaua.edu.ng simeonlaogun2@gmail.com abstract focusing is a universal syntactic phenomenon. that is, there is no language in the world that does not have a means of placing prominence on constituents for focus purposes. however, the formal expression of focus differs from one language to another. some languages express focus morphologically by using distinct morphemes or elements while others employ suprasegmentally means. the paper, therefore examines the focus strategies in ǹjo ̩̀-kóo. it gives a detailed description of different constituents that may be focused in the language and the changes that are triggered in the clause as a result of the focusing. adopting the minimalist program of chomsky (1995) and cartographic analysis of rizzi (1997) split-cp projections within the clausal left periphery, the study investigates how focus clauses are derived in the language and reveals that the syntax of focus in the language involves two probes: focus (foc) and emphasis (emph) each of which can provoke displacement operations. the paper employs information and clause structure evidence to motivate the constituents being focused. it is also observed among other things, that the constituents that could be focused in ǹjo ̩̀-kóo are subject dp, object dp or object dp of preposition, possessor dp and a whole sentence, and that the language does not distinguish between sentence and verbal focus hence the same strategy is employed for both focus types. keywords: cartographic analysis, clausal left periphery, focusing, minimalist program,split-cp projection 1. introduction focusing is a universal phenomenon in that every language has a means of placing prominence on the constituent that is foregrounded. some languages employ syntactic, morphological or prosodic means for focus purposes. the english language is an example of language that employs prosodic means while most african languages including ǹjo ̩̀-kóo use distinct items for focus purposes. gundel (1988) and givon (1991) claim that hardly can there be any language that uses just one system/means, say, morphology, to code focus information. they argue further that word order variation and special syntactic constructions such as cleft sentences are also used to indicate focus. most existing works on focus constructions in nigerian languages commonly dwell on the constituents being focused or touch on argument on whether focus constructions are sentences or phrases (awobuluyi, 1978, 1992, and arokoyo, 2013). as far as i am aware, there is no known work that has employed information structure and clause structure to motivate the constituents being focused in a clause. this being the case, the present paper gives a detailed descriptive and theoretical description of different constituents that may be focused in the language, the changes that are observed in the clause as a result of the focusing, and also employ information and clause structure evidence to motivate the constituent being focused in a clause at any given instance. the article is organized into 1 ǹjo ̩̀ -kóo is the name proposed in olaogun (2016) for a group of relatively mutually intelligible speech forms formally called amgbè̩ ̩́ /arigidi-cluster spoken in the north-western part of akoko in ondo state, nigeria. ǹjò̩ -kóo is a language spoken in at least five towns; òkèàgbè, ìgás̩̀ í, àjò̩ wá, arigidi, and erús̩̀ ú made up of nine communities; ìgás̩̀ í, arigidi, erus̩̀ ú, oyín, urò in àjò̩ wá, and àfá, ùdò, ògè, àjè in òkèàgbè all in akoko north west local government in ondo state. ǹjò̩ -kóo is a compound name formed from ǹ jo ̩̀ o and ǹ kó o (or ǹ ghó o the variant of ǹ kó o used in urò) which is a form of greeting equivalent to pè̩ lè̩ ̩́ o in standard yoruba. mailto:simeon.olaogun@aaua.edu.ng mailto:simeonlaogun2@gmail.com www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 2 five sections. the first two sections centre on introduction and theoretical framework respectively. section three focuses on the constituents that can be focused. the fourth section touches on the derivation of focus constructions while section five concludes the paper. 2. the theoretical framework this study adopts the minimalist program framework as proposed in chomsky (1995, 1998 and 2002). minimalist program is a theory of grammar which employs minimal linguistic apparatus to form syntactic structures. the apparatus are operations select, merge, and agree. operation select chooses relevant lexical items from the lexicon and puts them in the numeration for the construction of syntactic structures. numeration contains the selected lexical items needed for constructing syntactic structures and an index that shows the number of times that each lexical item is used in the derivation. the lexical items in the numeration are therefore put together by operation merge based on their individual features. following the assumption that operation move is a form of merge and that movement of features has been replaced by agree, the computational system that builds the syntactic tree now consists of two operations, namely, merge and agree. merge is the operation that combines two syntactic elements to form larger constituents. it is a binary and recursive operation which puts together selected lexical items from the numeration. operation merge is divided into two, namely, external and internal. external merge involves merge operation that takes an item from the numeration to build a syntactic structure while internal merge is a syntactic operation that affects syntactic objects that are already introduced into the derivation. agree is a non-lexicalist approach to feature interpretability in the lexicon. the agree-based method holds the assumption that only [+interpretable] features of lexical elements are already fully specified in the lexicon before they enter the derivation, whereas elements with [interpretable] features acquire their features in the course of the derivation. according to hornstein et al. (2005: 317), agree is the operation that establishes a relation between two different linguistic elements, probe and goal, in the syntactic structure through which feature values can be exchanged. a probe is a head with [-interpretable] features, and a goal is an element with matching [+interpretable] features. some other minimalist assumptions and hypotheses that are relevant to the analysis and derivation of focus constructions in ǹjo ̩̀-kóo are discussed below. these assumptions are: phase impenetrability condition, vp-internal subject hypothesis, theta role assignment principle phase impenetrability condition: according to radford (2009:398), this is a constraint on grammatical operations which states that the domain of a phase head is inaccessible to an external probe (i.e. a c-commanding probe which lies outside relevant phase) vp-internal subject hypothesis: this hypothesis states that the subject of a tp is base generated at the spec of vp, the subject then raised to the spec tp to satisfy the epp feature of the t head. theta role assignment principle says that arguments receive their theta roles through a merge operation and an argument is theta-marked (i.e. assigned a theta role) via merger with a predicate (radford 2009:399). information structure: it has to do with the way speakers package information and transfer to the hearers. this also called information packaging. clause structure: this has got to do with how constituents are combined in a rule governed manner to form a convergent and acceptable structure 3. the constituents in focus this section discusses the categories of constituents that can be focused in ǹjo ̩̀-kóo as well as changes that are observed in the rest of the clause consequent upon focusing. the constituents that may be focused in the language are subject dp, object dp, possessor dp, a whole sentence and the verbs2. 3.1subject dp focus the focused constituent here is the dp with the grammatical role of subject. when the subject dp is focused, it is fronted and marked with a focus marker úwo ̩̀n and a clause final high tone morpheme. the former immediately 2 for detailed information on verb focus, readers should see olaogun (2017). www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 3 follows the focused constituent and the latter occurs in clause final position. this is the difference between simple non-focus clauses in (1a-e) and clauses whose subject dps are focused in (2a-e). 1. (a) délé ju ò̩ gè̩ dè̩ délé eat plantain ‘ade ate plantain.’ (b) títí da àju titi buy yam ‘titi bought yam.’ (c) bólú da ìwé bolu buy book ‘bolu bought a book.’ (d) igbée ̩̀ji ópú pu è̩ yè̩ the dog kill snake ‘the dog killed a snake’ (e) s e ̩́gun li bó̩ lá segun beat bólá ‘se ̩́gun beat bola’ 2. (a) adé úwò̩ n ˂adé˃ 3 ju ò̩ gè̩ dè̩ é̩ ade foc ade eat plantain emph ‘ade ate plantain.’ (b) títí úwò̩ n ˂títí˃ da àju ú titi foc titi buy yam emph ‘titi bought a tuber of yam.’ (c) bólu úwò̩ n˂ bólú˃ da ìwé bolu foc bolu buy book+emph ‘bolu bought a book.’ (d) igée ̩̀ji ópú úwo ̩̀n ˂ igée ̩̀ji ópú ˃ pu è̩ yè̩ e ̩́ the dog foc igée ̩̀ji ópú kill snake emph ‘the dog killed a snake’ (e) s e ̩́gun úwo n ˂ s e ̩́gun˃ li bó̩ lá s e gun foc segun beat bola+emph ‘segun beat bola’ as observed in the examples above, when a subject dp is moved for focus, there is a gap at the extraction site4 . that is, there is nothing that occupies the extraction position of the focused constituent. also, examples (2c and e) show that when the focused sentence ends with a high toned lexical item, the clause final high tone fuses with the high tone of the lexical item that ends the clause. the reason for this fusion may be to maintain euphony. 3 given the copy theory of movement, the angle brackets indicate that the element or constituent in the brackets has been moved. it is also important to say that the constituent so moved in each construction occurs in two places. this actually underscores the conception of movement in the current status of the minimalist theory as several occurrences of one constituent. so, when this happens, the highest copy is spelt out and pronounced in the pf component. 4 the fact that nothing occupies the position from where the subject dp is moved appears to be a piece of cross-linguistic evidence which supports awóbùlúyì’s claim that in sy when the subject is focused there is no resumptive pronoun at the extraction site contrary to some scholars that believe that the high tone syllable ‘ó’ that normally surfaces in the focus construction such as olú ni ói ti ra isu is a resumptive pronoun. part of awobuluyi’s argument against “o”, the so-called resumptive pronoun is that it does not agree in number and person with the focused subject dp in the language as given below. a olúini oi ra isu b àwai ni oi ra is u olufoc rp buy yam we foc rp buy yam ‘olu bought yam’ ‘we bought yam’ c [olú àti adé] i ni ói ra is u d àwo ni ni ói ra isu olu and ade foc rp buy yam they foc rp buy yam . olu and ade bought yam’ ‘they bought yam’ as evident in the above, the form of the so-called resumptive pronoun does not change with the number and person of the focused subject dps in examples (a-d). that is, the form remains constant in each case. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 4 it is very important to motivate the claim that the subjects are truly focused in the sentences above. there is both information structure and clause structure evidence to prove that the subjects in examples (2a-e) are focused. the focus constituents in these examples are adé in (2a), títí in (2b), bólú in (2c), igbée ̩̀ji ópú in (2d), and s e ̩́gun in (2e). for example, the speaker who makes the utterance in (2a) is questioning the subject dp in (1a) and accordingly responding to the wh-question konè̩ è̩ ju ò̩ gè̩ dè̩ ? ‘who ate banana?’ the fact that somebody ate banana is known to both of the discourse participants thereby constituting the background or existential presupposition of the sentence, whereas the intention of the speaker is to newly inform the hearer that it was adé that ate banana and not someone else. thus, the constituent adé conveys the most salient information in the sentence. put differently, the constituent is non-presupposed but novel to the hearer with regard to the question posed by the speaker which the sentence in (2a) is meant to answer. similarly, the two occurrences of each of the focused constituents is a compelling attestation to the fact that movement has taken place. the clause structure evidence reveals that the focused constituent is derived while its copy is base generated. for instance, adé in (2a), títí in (2b), bolu in (2c), igbée ̩̀ji ópú in (2d) and s e ̩́gun in (2e) are base generated before the verbs ju in (1a), dà in (1b and c), pu in (1d) and li in (1e), but each of them later shows up at the beginning of the clauses in (2a-e). precisely, each of them precedes the focus marker úwo ̩̀n in each focus sentence. 3.2. object dp focus these focus constituents concern the dps with core grammatical function of objects. examples (3a-e) illustrate this type of focus. 3 (a) o ̩̀ ge ̩̀de ̩̀ úwo ̩̀n adé ju ˂o ̩̀ge ̩̀de ̩̀˃ ú plantain foc adé eat o ̩̀ge ̩̀de ̩̀ emph ‘ade ate plantain.’ (b) àju úwo ̩̀n títí dà ˂àju˃ á yam foc titi buy yam emph ‘titi bought a tuber of yam.’ (c) ìwé úwo ̩̀n bólú dà ˂ìwé˃ á book foc bolu buy ìwé emph ‘bolu bought a book.’ (d) e ̩̀ yè̩ úwo ̩̀n ópú pu ˂ ópú ˃ ú snake foc dog kill ópú emph ‘the dog killed a snake’ (e) bó̩ lá úwo n s e ̩́gun lí ˂ bó̩ lá ˃ í s e gun foc segun beat bola+emph ‘segun beat bola’ the focused object dp is fronted and marked with a focus marker in addition to the clause final high tone. the syntactic process here is similar to what happens when a subject dp is focused in that the focused element is preposed and there is nothing that occupies the extraction site where the constituent is focused. apart from the copy of the focalised constituent traditionally referred to as a gap, no anaphoric or resumptive pronoun is licensed in that position. again, motivating the fact that it is the object dps that are focalised in the sentences, (3a-e) is also in order here. as said in respect of subject focalisation, there exists both information structure and clause structure evidence that the objects in examples (3a-e) are focused. the focus constituents in these examples are o ̩̀ge ̩̀de ̩̀ in (3a), àju in (3b), ìwé in (3c), e ̩̀ye ̩̀ in (3d) and bo ̩́ la ̩́ in (3e). for example, the speaker who makes the utterance in (3a) is questioning the object dp in (1a) and also responding to the wh-question ko adé yè ju? ‘what did adé eat?’. the fact that adé ate something is known to both the speaker and the hearer thereby constituting the background or existential presupposition of the sentence whereas the intention of the speaker is to newly inform the hearer that it was o ̩̀ge ̩̀de ̩̀, www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 5 ‘plantain’ that adé ate and not something else. thus, the constituent o ̩̀ ge ̩̀ de ̩̀ conveys the most salient information in the sentence. put differently, the constituent is non-presupposed and novel to the hearer with regard to the question posed by the speaker which the sentence in (3a) answers. similarly, the two occurrences of each of the focused constituents indicate that movement has actually taken place. the clause structure evidence reveals that the focused constituent is derived while its copy is base generated. for instance, o ̩̀ge ̩̀de ̩̀ in (3a), àju in (3b), ìwé in (3c), e ̩̀ye ̩̀ in (3d) and bo ̩́ lá in (3e) are base generated after the verbs ju in (1a), dà in (1b and c), pu in (1d) and li in (1e) but each of them later shows up in clause initial position in (3a-e). precisely, each of them precedes the focus marker úwo ̩̀n in each focus sentence. in more technical terms, the lower occurrence that is not spelt out is said to be found in the ip internal position, while the highest occurrence that is pronounced and spelt out is said to have moved to the left peripheral position. 3.3 possessor dp focus in ǹjo ̩̀-kóo genitive constructions, possessor dps may also be fronted and focus-marked as the sentences in (4b) and (5b) illustrate. 4 (a) dàda di ewó òjó dada steal money ojo ‘dada stole ojo’s money.’ (b) òjó úwò̩ n dàda di ewó o 5 ó ojo foc dada steal ewo rp emph ‘dada stole ojo’s money.’ 5 (a) èdi di ìwé ayò̩ thief steal book ayo ‘the thief stole ayo’s book.’ (b) ayò̩ úwò̩ n èdi di ìwé e é ayo foc thief steal book rp emph ‘the thief stole ayo’s money.’ 6 (a) bó̩ lá da àju ayò̩ rí aaja bola buy yam ayo in market ‘bola bought ayo’s yam in the market.’ (b) ayò̩ úwò̩ n bó̩ lá da àju ù 6 rí aaja ayo foc bola buy yam rp in market+emph ‘bola bought ayo’s yam in the market’ as evident in the (b) examples above, when a possessor dp is focused in this language, there is always a resumptive pronoun with 3sg feature that anaphorically refers back to it. it is also observed that the tone on this resumptive pronouns changes depending on the environment where it occurs. its inherent low tone always rises to mid when it 5 in examples 4b and 5b, the resumptive pronouns o and e are used for the lower occurrences instead of the exact copies of the moved elements in the clausal left periphery. these pronouns which show agreement in number and person anaphorically refer back to their respective moved constituents. the fact that the two occurrences of each of these moved constituents are spelt out and pronounced necessitates the non-use of the angle brackets for the lower occurrences. we can then speculate that when the lower occurrence of a moved constituent is realised as a pronoun, it is also spelt out and pronounced. as we know that languages detest unnecessary repetition, this may be the reason why any lower occurrence that has the same form with the moved element is not pronounced in the language. 6 for example, ‘his book’ and ‘his money’ in the language are rendered respectively as ‘ìwé è’ and ‘ewó ò’ meaning that the original/inherent tone on this third person singular pronoun in the language is a low tone www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 6 occurs between two high tones as examples (4b) and (5b) show. but in example (6b), the original low tone is retained on the resumptive pronoun. 3.4 preposition dp focus the dp that performs the grammatical function of object of preposition is the concern of focus in this section. in african languages, when the object dp of a preposition is focused, at least three strategies are involved: (1) the prepositional head may be stranded, (2) it may be pied-piped, and (3) it may disappear completely. for instance, in yorùbá the prepositional heads could be stranded or pied-piped with their dp objects 3 . however, in ǹjo ̩̀-kóo, prepositional heads are never stranded or pied-piped. they simply disappear as the ungrammaticality of (7b) and (7c) on the one hand, and grammaticality of (7d) on the other, show below: 7. a. bó̩ lá da àju ayò̩ rí aaja bola buy yam ayo in market ‘bola bought ayo’s yam in the market.’ b. * (rí aaja) úwò̩ n bó̩ lá da àju ayò̩ ˂ rí aaja ˃ ó̩ prep. market foc bola buy yam ayo in market emph ‘bola bought ayo’s yam in the market.’ c. *áájá úwò̩ n bó̩ lá da àju ayò̩ rí ˂ áájá ˃ market foc bola buy yam ayo prep market+emph. ‘bola bought ayo’ yam in the market.’ d. áájá úwò̩ n bó̩ lá da àju ayo ̩̀ ˂ áájá ˃ o ̩́ market foc bola buy yam ayo market emph ‘bola bought ayo’s yam in the market.’ 3.5 verb focus in ǹjo ̩̀-kóo, the process of verb focus in the language is that the verb to be focused will be nominalised attaching the morpheme ‘à-’ to its root word. when a verb is focused, a copy of the nominalised verb which is focused is left insitu i.e. in its ipinternal base generated position. the language has no mechanism to license a gap as demonstrated by the ungrammaticality of (8e-h). 8. (a) àju úwò̩ n adé ju 7 ò̩ gè̩ dè̩ é̩ nom-eat foc ade eat plantain emph ‘ade ate plantain.’ (b) àdà úwò̩ n adé da ìwé nom-buy foc ade buy book +emph ‘ade bought a book.’ (c) àro ùwo n mò̩ mó̩ ro e te é̩ nom-grind foc mummy grind pepper emph ‘mummy ground pepper (d) àli úwo n s e ̩́gun li bo ̩́ lá nom-beat foc s egun beat bola+emph ‘s egun beat bola’ (e) *àjui úwò̩ n adé ò̩ gè̩ dè̩ e ̩́ 7 the difference in the form of the lower and the highest occurrences of the focused verb necessitates the spell out and the pronunciation of both of them. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 7 non-eat foc ade plantain emph ‘ade ate plantain.’ (f) *àdà úwo ̩̀n adé – ìwé nom-buy foc adé book+emph ‘ade bought a book.’ (g) *àro ùwo n mò̩ mó̩ e te é̩ nom-grind foc mummy pepper emph ‘mummy ground pepper (h) *àli úwo n s e ̩́gun bo ̩́ lá nom-beat foc s egun bó̩ lá+emph ‘s egun beat bola’ 3.6 sentence focus the language employs the same strategy for the verb focus in sentence focusing. the verb of the sentence is copied, nominalised and fronted as the sentence in (9b) shows. 9. (a) kó̩ lá ju àran kola eat meat ‘kola ate meat’ (b) àju úwò̩ n kó̩ lá ju àran án nom-eat foc kola eat meat emph ‘kola ate meat’ 4. derivation of focus constructions in ǹjo ̩̀-kóo, just like in many african languages, there is a condition that every potential focus constituent must fulfill. the constituent to be focused must enter the derivation via internal merge while the focus marker must enter the derivation through external merge. the reason is that all the ɸ –features of the element or constituent to be focused must be valued and deleted appropriately for the movement of that item to take place. this requirement is subsumed under what is called focus constituent condition which says: all the ɸ-features of a potential focus constituent must be valued within the tp (that is the minimal/simplex sentence that contains it). therefore, the sample derivation of focus constructions below is in line with this assumption. 4.1 derivation of subject dp focusing a focus construction such as (10) is derived as given in (11) 10. òjó úwo ̩̀n ˂òjó˃ bo ùji í ojo foc drink water emph ‘òjó drank water’ www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 8 11. the syntax of focus projections involves two probes: foc and emph each of which is capable of triggering a displacement operation. from the minimalist perspective, the structure is derived by first merging the verb bo to its complement ùji in order to satisfy its c-selection requirement while the subject dp òjó is second merged with the same verb in the spec-vp (in line with vp-internal subject hypothesis) so as to satisfy the epp requirement of the head verb. in line with the trap (i.e the theta role assignment principle that some scholars labelled predicateinternal theta –marking hypothesis), it is assumed that the external argument òjó receives its theta role when it is merged in the spec-vp shell assuming further that arguments check their case features outside their theta domain. the subject dp òjó is raised to check its case feature in the spec-tp. if we assume that phi-features of arguments are [+interpretable/valued] and case features are unvalued/uninterpretable while the phi-features of t are [– interpretable/unvalued] but the case features on them are valued, then, following operation agree, t becomes the active probe by virtue of having [–interpretable] phi-features while the subject dp òjó in its c-command domain automatically becomes the goal because of its unvalued case feature. so, the external argument being the active goal with phi-complete features of t, is thereby attracted to spec-tp to fulfill the focused condition. the derivation proceeds by externally merging the emph head (which is morphologically realized as a clause final high tone morpheme) to the tp in order to satisfy its c-selection requirement thereby projecting an emph-bar. the emph head has an epp/edge feature which is why it projects emphp by pied-piping the whole tp to its specifier position. there are both empirical and theoretical reasons why the pied-piping to the spec of emphp is licensed in this structure. given phase impenetrability condition, if the focused constituent is moved before the pied-piping, the focp emphp emph 1 emph <tp> ú̩wo ̩̀n foc1 foc tp òjó vp v 1 obj <ùji> dp <úji> òjó t 1 vp t v 1 ùji vp v v 1 dp v <bo > <òjó> <bo > v bo t ø dp ø <òjó> t 1 t vp v 1 ùji v <òjó> v <bo > <bo > v t bo í www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 9 phase domain of the emph head will undergo transfer and will no longer be accessible for any syntactic operation. so, the pied-piping comes before the movement of the focused constituent. also, if the pied-piping is not done, the correct word order will not be realized. after this, the foc head úwo ̩̀n is also externally merged with emphp to also satisfy its c-selection requirement thereby becoming the probe at this point which begins to search for its ccommand domain for an active goal, that is, the constituent with a matching focus feature. in agree-based system, for a movement operation to take place, there must be an agreement relation between a probe and its potential goal, i.e. the probe must possess interpretable/unvalued feature while the goal should have a corresponding valued/+interpretable feature. on the basis of this agreement condition, the reasoning is that the subject dp òjó has [+focus] feature which has been valued before it entered the derivation i.e. it acquires the +interpretable focus feature as it enters the numeration while the foc head has an unvalued/uninterpretable [ focus-epp] feature which was acquired in the course of the derivation. it should be stated that the requirement for a foc constituent like úwò̩ n to have a specifier is said to be a consequence of foc carrying an [epp] feature requiring it to project a specifier. the [epp] condition specifies that an uninterpretable epp feature on a probe is deleted by movement of the closest active goal of the relevant type to become the specifier of the probe. therefore, the probe foc attracts the goal to its specifier position in order to value the unvalued focus-epp feature and subsequently deletes it because unvalued/uninterpretable features are not legible at lf component. the fact that the focused constituent acquires its focus feature before it is introduced to the derivation whereas the focus-epp feature of the probe is introduced after entering the derivation is compatible with the assumption that unvalued features are on-line features while valued features are offline features (christano 2004). given that all of the constituents within the tp are in the c-commanding domain of the probe of foc, the question arises as to how the goal of the focus head probe would be determined since all of the nouns and verbal expressions are in the c-commanding domain of the probes and, each of them is active for movement operations because each of them has one undeleted [-interpretable] feature or the other. put differently, what then determines the constituent to be focalised? apart from attract closest condition which says that, a head which attracts a given kind of constituent attracts the closest constituent of the relevant kind. the subject dp òjó is the only constituent that fulfills the focus constituent condition. besides, there are two other factors that also determine the constituent to be focused, namely, information structure factor as well as clause structure factor. discourse factor or information structure factor requires that the focused constituent in the tree diagram above can only be a felicitous answer to the wh-question konè̩ è̩ bò̩ ùji? so, if any constituent other than the subject dp is focused, the response will be inappropriate. similarly, the clause –structure, demands that the clause final high tone morpheme which superimposes on the vowel of the immediately preceding lexical item be spelt out as í. therefore, if any constituent other than the subject dp is focalised, the right word order and the desired meaning will not be realised as shown by the ungrammaticality of the focus construction below in (12) 12. * ùji úwo ̩̀n òjó bo o ̩́ water foc ojo drink emph ‘ojo drank water.’ one might quickly want to dismiss the claim that all of the constituents in the c-commanding domain of the foc probe are potential goals on the alleged ground that the epp feature of the foc head is [+n] and the verb dà has [–n] feature. well, cross-linguistic evidence shows that this observation might not hold water in that there are some languages whereby the spec, focp can host –n or +n constituent. that is, there are some languages where foc head does not have [+n] epp feature www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 10 2 derivation of object dp focus 13. the derivation of object dp focus also meets the phi-feature valuation condition as well as theta marking requirement. the object dp ùji receives its internal theta role within the contentful/main vp when it is merged with v as trap demands. it also checks its accusative features in the spec of outer vp-shell in line with chomsky (1999) msh and vp-shell analysis. having fulfilled this condition, it is well able to be focused or moved to spec of focp for scopal reason. the structure is derived by first merging the verb bo to its complement ùji in order to satisfy its c-selection requirement while the subject dp òjó is second merged with the same verb in the spec-vp (in line with vp-internal subject hypothesis) so as to satisfy the epp requirement of the head verb. given trap (i.e. the theta role assignment principle that some scholars labelled predicate-internal theta –marking hypothesis), it is assumed that the external argument òjó receives its theta role when it is merged in the spec-vp shell assuming further that arguments check their case features outside their theta domain. the subject dp òjó is raised to check its case feature in the spec-tp. assuming that phi-features of arguments are +interpretable/valued but case features are unvalued/uninterpretable while the phi-features of t are – interpretable/unvalued but the case features on them are valued, then, following operation agree, t becomes the active probe by virtue of having –interpretable phi-features while the subject dp òjó in its c-command domain ó̩ emph 1 emph <tp> tp ø òjó t 1 t vp v 1 <ùji> v vp v 1 òjó v obj <ùji> <bo > <bo > v t bo emphp úwòn foc1 foc focp ùji òjó t 1 vp t v 1 ùji vp v v 1 v v obj <bo > <òjó> <bo > v bo t ø <ùji> www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 11 automatically becomes the goal because of its unvalued case feature. so, the external argument being the active goal with phi-complete features of t, is thereby attracted to spec-tp to fulfill the focused condition. the derivation proceeds by externally merging the emph head (which is morphologically realised as a clause final high tone) to the tp in order to satisfy its c-selection requirement thereby projecting an emph-bar. the emph head has an epp or edge feature which is why it projects emphp by pied-piping the whole tp to its specifier position. there are both empirical and theoretical reasons why the pied-piping to the spec of emphp is licensed in this structure. given phase impenetrability condition, if the focused constituent is moved before the pied-piping, the phase domain of the emph head will undergo transfer and will no longer be accessible for any syntactic operation. so, the pied-piping comes before the movement of the focused constituent. also, if the pied-piping is not done, the correct word order will not be realised. after this, the foc head úwo ̩̀n is also externally merged with emphp to also satisfy its c-selection requirement thereby becoming the probe at this point which begins to search its c-command domain for an active goal, that is, the constituent with a matching focus feature. for a movement operation to take place, there must be an agreement relation between a probe and its potential goal i.e. the probe must possess [– interpretable/unvalued] feature while the goal should have a corresponding [valued/+interpretable] feature. on the basis of this agreement condition, the reasoning is that the object dp ùji has [+focus] feature which has been valued before it entered the derivation i.e., it acquires the [+interpretable] focus feature as it enters the numeration while the foc head has an unvalued/uninterpretable [ focus-epp] feature which was acquired in the course of the derivation. it should be stated that the requirement for a foc constituent like úwò̩ n to have a specifier is said to be a consequence of foc carrying an [eep] feature requiring it to project a specifier. the [epp] condition specifies that an uninterpretable epp feature on a probe is deleted by movement of the closest active goal of the relevant type to become the specifier of the probe. therefore, the probe foc attracts the goal to its specifier position in order to value the unvalued focus-epp feature and subsequently delete it because unvalued/uninterpretable features are not legible at lf component. the fact that the focused constituent acquires its focus feature before it is introduced to the derivation whereas the focus-epp feature of the probe is introduced after entering the derivation is compatible with the assumption that unvalued features are on-line feature while valued features are offline features (christano 2004). given that all of the constituents with the tp are in the c-commanding domain of the probe foc, what then determines the constituent to be focalised? apart from attract closest condition which states that, a head which attracts a given kind of constituent attracts the closest constituent of the relevant kind. the subject dp òjó is the only constituent that fulfills the focus constituent condition. besides, there are two factors that also determine the constituent to be focused namely; information structure factor as well as clause structure factor. discourse factor or information structure factor requires that the focused constituent in the tree diagram in (13) can only be a felicitous answer to the wh-question ko òjó yè bò̩ ? so, if any constituent other than the subject dp is focused, the response will be inappropriate. similarly, the clause structure demands that the clause final high tone morpheme be spelt out as ú which bears on the vowel of the preceding lexical item. therefore, if any constituent other than the subject dp is focalised, the right word order and the desired semantic interpretation will not be realised as shown by the ungrammaticality of the example sentence in (14). 14. * òjó úwo ̩̀n bo ùji í ojo foc buy water emph ‘ojo drank water’ one might quickly want to dismiss the claim that all of the constituents in the c-commanding domain of the foc probe are potential goals on the alleged ground that the epp feature of the foc head is [+n] and the verb dà is –n feature. well, cross-linguistic evidence shows that this observation might not hold water in that there are some languages whereby the spec, focp can host –n or +n constituent. that is, there are some languages where foc head does not have [+n] epp feature 5. conclusion the paper examined the focus strategies in ǹjo ̩̀-kóo. it gives a detailed description of different constituents that may be focused in the language and the changes that are triggered in the clause as a result of the focusing. the article reveals that the syntax of focus in the language involves two probes: focus (foc) and emphasis (emph), each of which can provoke displacement operations. the paper also employs both information and clause structure evidence www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 1; 2019 12 to motivate the constituent that is being focused. it is discovered that the language does not distinguish between sentence and verbal focus. that is, one and the same focus strategy is employed for both sentence and verbal focus. references arokoyo, b. (2013). unlocking focus construction. ilorin: chridamel publishing house. awobuluyi, o. (1978). focus constructions as noun phrases. linguistics analysis, 4(2). awobuluyi, o. (1992). issues in the syntax of standard yoruba focus construction. journal of west african languages. xxil, (2). chomsky, n. (1995). the minimalist program. cambridge: mit press. chomsky, n. (1998). minimalist inquiries. the framework. mit working papers in linguistics. chomsky, n. (1999). derivation by phase. mit occasional papers in linguistics 18 (also published in a life in language. m.kenstowicz. ed. 2001. ken hale. cambridge mass: mit press.1-52. chomsky, n. (2002). on the nature and language. cambridge: cambridge university press. christiano, c. (2004). phases and cartography in linguistic computation toward a cognitively motivated computational model of linguistic competence. phd. thesis. dept. of linguistics. university of siena. givon, t. (1991). syntax: a functional typological introduction. amsterdam: john benjamins. 2. grammar. eds. m..leonetti, o fernadez soriano & v.escandell vidal. 10th colloquium on generative grammar. selected papers,universidad alcala`de henares 31-50 gundel, j.k. (1988). universals of topic –comment structure. studies in syntactic typology. m. hammond, e.a. moravcsik, and j.r. wirth. eds. amsterdam: john benjamin’s publishing. 209-39. hornstein, n., nunes, j. and grohmann, k. (2005). understanding minimalism. new york: cambridge university press. olaogun, s.o. (2016). information structural categories of the ǹjo ̩̀ -kóo language in akoko north-west of ondo state, nigeria. phd. thesis. dept. of linguistics and african languages. university of ibadan. olaogun, s. o. (2017). predicate/verb focus in àfá. inquiry in african languages and literatures. 10, 154-163. radford, a. (2009). an introduction to english sentence structure. cambridge: cambridge university press. 398399 rizzi, l. (1997). the fine structure of the left pheriphery. element of grammar. handbook of generative syntax. l. heageman. ed. dordrecht: kluwer. 281-337 copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 2; 2021 issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995 published by american center of science and education, usa 1 teaching of mathematics in paktika teachers’ training center: the perspectives of teachers and students towards the use of various methodologies in their classrooms abdul rahim rahimi lecturer paktika teachers’ training centre, paktika, afghanistan e-mail: ab.rahimi786@gmail.com dr. meera chandran professor tata institute of social sciences, india e-mail: meera.chandran@tiss.edu sayed abbas hashimi lecturer department of psychology faculty of education kandahar university, afghanistan e-mail: kbforr@yahoo.com rahmatullah katawazai lecturer english department faculty of languages and literature kandahar university, afghanistan e-mail: rahmat.katawazai@yahoo.com abstract choosing the best pedagogies and methods for students has become a focal issue in education. hence, teachers need to evaluate and improve various skills. therefore, this study was set up to investigate the teachers teaching methods they use during their teaching. the researchers have selected this hence, teachers need to evaluate and improve various skills. therefore, this study was set up to investigate the teachers teaching methods they use during their teaching. the researchers have selected this topic because to find out the types of teaching methods and to evaluate that how teachers use the subject and pedagogical knowledge. currently, there are three teacher training colleges in paktika province, and the current study is conducted in zarghun shahr. the important thing is that how often they use the teaching method theories which they have learned, also at which level they understand their students to be able to identify students and their differences and learning styles. in this study, two mathematics teachers were observed during their teaching. which were quite important for the current study to observe which methods do teachers use while they teach. the researchers also interviewed both the https://www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 2; 2021 2 students who were in those classes and their teachers. the data have been collected by using observation and interview tools. and the unit of this research is teacher educators and students of teacher training colleges. this study will help all teachers (lecturers, teacher educators, and primary and secondary school teachers), to adapt useful methodologies in their classrooms. keywords: teaching, mathematics, methodologies, teaching training centre, paktika, afghanistan. jel classification codes: a19, b10, b25, c10, c53. introduction education is and always will be very important in building a strong foundation in the life of human beings. this is especially true in terms of looking at our future generation. education is a strong building block in building a strong and healthier importance effective teaching to our youth today, it can help the students to achieve the best results they can at school and in their long-term life. effective teaching requires considerable skills in managing the tasks and situations that occur in the classroom each day. skills such as effective classroom management are central to teaching and require "common sense". most people would agree that good teachers are caring, supportive, concerned about the welfare of students, knowledgeable about their subject matter, able to get along with patients, and so on good qualities. it is just the successful transference of knowledge and skills or application around a particular topic. whenever students are graduating from teacher training colleges or universities, they learn many things theoretically according to teaching, while, on the other hand, practically they do not know many things to teach or to use on time and in their place. if teachers want to teach very well or to try to teach according to the rules of education, they may face different kinds of difficulties and limitations at the beginning. for example; to learn driving of a bicycle; firstly it needs good thinking. secondly, the rider has to be motivated for doing this kind of work. thirdly, the rider has to do practice with the help of someone and at this time he/she must have the self-confidence to do so. after that, the rider may drive it more practically so at this time learning will take place, now still one cannot say that he/she has learned driving bicycle completely, because they may create some new thinking in our mind like how to save ourselves from the dangerous moments? how to cross from someone else? these all can improve our knowledge of driving a bicycle. moreover, if one claims that after graduation there are no difficulties in teaching, it is completely wrong, because it is right that one has learned many things theoretically, while practically it needs a new experience of teaching to manage classroom teaching. for this reason, this study has investigated the teaching methodology in paktika province in teacher training college (ttc), in the math subject which teacher educators use to their students. the important thing is that how much they use the teaching method theories which they have learned, and these teachers are applying these techniques in their schools, how much they follow the pedagogical aspects. what are their problems and why they cannot learn very well and how they can solve their problems? the data have been collected by using two instruments’ namely, observation and interviews. at first, the researchers have observed both classes five or six times, then interviewed the ttc teachers and students to have their views as well. https://www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 2; 2021 3 literature review the teacher should know the basic rules and techniques of education and training. he/she should have enough knowledge related to his/her subject. also, the teacher should know why some students can learn but some cannot learn very well, for what they learn. furthermore, it is important to know that how to teach, how to control the class, why it is important to use different methods, and which techniques are required for effective learning. the word method has been taken from latin “method us" which means rules, techniques, and the ways of solution for a problem. so, we can define it as teaching methods that are fixed and orientated ways in education and training that can reach the teachers and students to their goal immediately (aimal, 2012). using different methodologies is good for the students to be flexible mathematical thinkers and can motivate students to work for solving problems. progress in mathematics depends very much on the ability to see such underlying patterns, and this ability grows with the maturing child and can be encouraged by careful teaching and useful methods (wadhwa, 2006). all the time, whenever someone wants to teach mathematics, it takes time to make understand the young students. most of the time, effective teaching can be taught by professional teachers by using different methods and contexts. if a teacher who wants to teach math effectively should have two goals as he/she must help students to learn skills of solving problems and they should master critical thinking skills as well (halimi, 2013). the best way to teach mathematics is to clearly show the procedures (methods) to solve the mathematics problems. also, the best way to teach mathematics is to show students how to solve some example problems (kumar, 2013). whenever we want to teach, we might be dis-motivated, we might not control ourselves and we might not control our class and teach very well, for solving these kinds of problems we need the practice to do more practice, to have a good plan for our teaching and managing the time of class and teaching, also to take suggestions of expert people who are much experienced in teaching, can give us good confidence for teaching and to teach without any problem (azimi, 2017). science cannot be used in society without a body of men and women who have been specially trained for science-based vocations in industry, research, and teaching. a vocational justification is, therefore, possible for science teaching (jaya, 2004). one of the most powerful pedagogical moves a teacher can take is that supports making detail explicit in mathematics, in both explanations given and questions asked (franke et al., 2007). in afghanistan, teachers want to know about new methods, user experiences, and the types of rules which can improve teaching and make it a success. teachers must find the individual difference between students according to their ability; understand their specific needs in the learning process, respect individual differences of students, this is quite important to answer the questions in a different style and understanding the main parts of the curriculum and usage of that in its place. in students' life, the important elements are not a book, class, and passing from one class to another, while the important element is the teacher for the students because this is the teacher who can give self-confidence to each student and can open different kinds of success in their life. some expert and professional teachers can make the condition of class very well for learning. so teachers must know the rules and different methods of teaching, to teach with the importance of that subject and those subjects he/she wants to teach it must be based on the expertise level of him/her. https://www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 2; 2021 4 according to vij (2016), "schools are about teaching and learning; all other activities are secondary to these basic goals. but teaching and learning in the contexts just described can be challenging for both teachers and students". they raised one question that 'what is good teaching?' they claim that good teaching is not confined to classrooms; it occurs in homes and hospitals, museums and sales meetings, offices, and in many more places we can learn from each other's behavior. they state that good teaching will occur when teachers are both knowledgeable and innovative, they must be able to use different strategies and must be capable of utilizing new strategies, they must have some basic research on managing the class, they should have a framework for their teaching and classwork and they must know the ways of students' development. the first framework for teaching was published by danielson, in the year (1996) and has been revised three times since then, the latest in 2013. danielson's framework has four areas of responsibility: 'planning and preparation, classroom environment, instruction, and professional responsibilities (vij, 2016). within teaching, it is also important to use teaching materials, have a teaching plan, and making discipline in class as well as in school. teaching and teaching materials should be prepared for that to reach students and teachers to their goal, which improves the students and learning positively (aimal, 2012). according to husaini (2016), teaching method and pedagogy can be used differently by different stages in different times to be successful and reach our aim and it is stated that pedagogy is the way that content is delivered, including the use of different methodologies that help different levels of learners to engage in educational contents and learn much more effectively, recognizing that individuals learn in different ways. while discussing the method, it can enable students to reflect upon concepts through interactions with others engaged in the same activity as well as allow students to be familiar with certain ways of describing mathematics, also can provide students opportunities to be able to have enough knowledge (kosko & wilkins, 2010). moreover, it should be cleared that applied examples are important in improving one's conceptual understanding, the teacher needs to integrate the fundamental ideas of mathematics with the combination of "real-world applications” (muwahid, 2009). good methodologies are available for improving pedagogy; however, they have been applied systematically. to better understand how to deliver the curriculum most effectively, teachers must learn how to teach, how to engage the student in the classroom activities. in afghanistan, teaching mathematics and science have many problems. the main problem is that we do not have professional teachers to teach integrating different skills and pedagogies which are more important for teaching especially in math and science subjects. also, the teacher needs to know that how to apply these subjects in other fields, because most of the time students ask for the application of it, so it is important for the teacher to know all aspects of the teaching of these subjects. main question what are the pedagogies used by teacher educators for teaching math and science in ttc? sub-questions what kinds of methods the teacher educators implement in their teaching? https://www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 2; 2021 5 what is the teacher educators’ understanding of students’ learning? method research design the pilot study is a small-scale research project which involves the use of qualitative methods to collect data from ttc students and teacher educators. this research was conducted in the period 2019-2020, which had different phases, classroom observation of mathematic classes, and interviews with math teachers. i have also interviewed 8 math class students. the observations and interviews were conducted for about two months, then the remaining time researcher started converting the data from the local language to the english language. therefore, the researchers have taken each teacher's views, based on the observation of these two teachers and also interviewed them two. when it comes to the students, they were selected randomly. after that, the views of only 3 students were included as a sample from each class, because most of their views were the same. moreover, teachers’ ages were between 30-40 years old and students' ages were between 20-30 years old. site and participants the location of the study is paktika province, a teachers' training center which is in paktika province, in zarghun shahr district, to observe the teaching methodology, also to interview the students of ttc as well as with the teacher educators of ttc to interview them related to the teaching methodology. in this ttc there are only in-service students who come for learning, different classes are there like mathematics, science, islamic, english literature, pashto literature, and many more. in these classes, the number of in-service students is about 100-120. all teacher educators are holding bachelor's degrees from different universities and have 4-8 years of experience teaching in ttc, also some of them have experience in school teaching. limitation since there may be some objections in the educational process by some people that are part of the sample of this research and they refrain to share their viewpoint, but researchers tried to design some research tools to make the identity of participants confidential and to make them confident about their identity. a major problem all over afghanistan is not assisting researchers to collect their research as people do not help such activities which do not have monetary rewards. the second problem was the time limitation for collecting the data and working on that. data collection process actually, in ttcs there are two types of student’s pre-service students and in-service students. for those ttcs which have pre-service students, most of the time they are taught in the morning time while in-service students come, or we teach them a second time because for the first time they are already teachers and teach at schools. so, this observation and research are about inservice students. in this process, researchers have selected one ttc in paktika province, named zarghoon shahr ttc. i have interviewed and observed teachers and their classrooms for the data collection. furthermore, researchers have completed the observations in four weeks. after that, researchers interviewed teachers and students. each interview took approximately one hour. taking interviews took much time because participants were busy with their classes and it took almost one month. so, it took almost one month for collecting the data. https://www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 2; 2021 6 data analysis firstly, researchers have analyzed the observation of math classes in 6 different periods, then interviewed the math teachers, and after that, the math students were interviewed. the following is the table of teacher and students' activities that were observed during the six periods in math class. a math teacher has a bachelor's degree in mathematics. moreover, he has six years of experience in teaching the current subject in ttc. also, 25 students were in this class and it was their second year in ttc. there is only one math class when these students finish this course of two years, then other students take this class, all classes are going on in this pattern. so, the researcher observed one teacher teaching the same subject six times, three periods in one week and three periods in the next week. results the researchers observed and interviewed the math teacher who has a bachelor's degree in mathematics. moreover, he has six years of experience teaching the current subject in ttc. no question math teacher response remarks 1 what kind of teaching approach do you use? i use the lecture method, discussion method, group method, and q & a method, for their activeness as well as motivating them. here, if we look at the teacher educators' views the focus is on students' motivation. math subject may require much more practical work to solve the question, so for more practical work, it is needed to make students active. 2 which method you prefer more to work on and why? i prefer the group and discussion methods because here students engage in practical work, they feel free for achieving the goal, they learn from each other, they are get encouraged, they learn how to communicate, each of them takes part in all activities, they learn authentic learning, it motivates the students for further learning. students' do not learn only from books or teacher, while can learn from each other or classmates as well. furthermore, it is also important to take students to the computer lab to show them foreign countries teaching related to that specific lesson, for their understanding and to know that what we read here, these all can be taught in all countries and the same things they learn so it shows the importance of that subject to the students. the teacher is emphasizing students' communication and students can learn from each other. learning is not only related to the books and chapters. that's why the teacher may give much time to the group working and discussion. he also said that all students are not equal; there are individual differences among the students, so it is important to use different methods. this teacher may think that by using this way students may pay more attention to this subject and they may learn very well because the same thing can be taught in different countries. 3 which kind of reinforcement most of the time i use a reward for the students because i have experience from this teacher wanted to follow the reward for his students. he gives https://www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 2; 2021 7 do you use? my own student life, which i have learned by reward those things are still in my mind, so that’s why i use reward in my teaching. more importance to his experience and it may have given good results to his teaching that's why he follows only the reward. 4 do you consider gender issues in your class? we have only male students here in ttc. however, when it comes to gender, so we should be accurate in these issues because people are a bit sensitive towards girls' schooling and education. gender issue was challengeable for this teacher because of cultural sensitivity and the lack of girls schools, so when there is no girls school, how we may have girls in ttcs. 5 have you ever faced that kind of question that you could not solve that? when it comes to problem-solving; commonly my students have problems in some basic mathematical structures and formulas. sometimes when i use one thing without process, they directly ask that where it came from. in this case, i give the current question to the students if someone knows or can solve it, then if they cannot do it, i solve it or give the direction of solving, also sometimes i give it to them to find it from books. sometimes, i also cannot solve that problem then search it on the internet, in books, or from my expert teachers. the math teacher used to facing problems with the students and trying to solve their problems by engaging the students also he is trying to solve. he may think that the first chance should be given to the students to find out the result and students may learn struggling and finding the answer. 6 why many students afraid of math and science subjects? student's fear will finish if the teacher teaches conceptually then procedurally, give connection to the real-life that how we can use it in our daily life, what is the benefit of it and how we can use it. we are not that much advanced in mathematics, to remove this belief that i cannot learn, but only that particular student can learn, so the teacher should make students believe that i can learn too and i have this ability to learn, also to make their mindset that it is for me and if that person can learn, so i also can learn and i have to learn. for him it is important that to give the connection to real life, teach them conceptually. all the time students ask their teachers that "how we can use it in our lives and what is the importance of this in our daily life" like these kinds of questions they urge. it means they want conceptual learning. so the teacher may also spotlight the real use of mathematics in their real life. the following table shows the responses of the math teacher about his subject no question strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree 1 practical work of a subject is the base of learning and can take place in mind;  2 teaching and learning by  https://www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 2; 2021 8 the new and modern method are very important; 3 the methods which you apply here in ttc, are they all applicable in schools?  4 are these all facilities available at all schools?  5 satisfaction of students are important in class like in subject, lecture, homework;  interview with the math students in this section, eight math students were interviewed. however, the views of only 3 students have been selected as a sample and because the data were already saturated. randomly these 8 students are selected from twenty-five students (25). the interview process took four days, two students per day were interviewed and this interview took place in their part-time class because they were familiar with this class environment, in the place where they feel free or comfortable they may tell the fact. during this interview, their speeches were recorded instead of writing it, because writing the answers takes much more time or sometimes the researcher may miss some important facts and valuable opinions. moreover, the interview was in their native language (pashto), then researchers translated it into english. no question student 1 student 2 student 3 remarks 1 can you define the teaching method? the teaching method is a way by which teachers and students both can reach their goal quickly. the teaching method is a technique and logical ways by which teachers can make students understand. the teaching method is a logical way by which teachers can make their students close to the goal, for that we can say learning. and the teacher looks at the situation then selects the method. it means using methods in teaching are the source by which teachers and students can reach the goal immediately. 2 when your teacher teaches you do you understand which method, he/she use? not completely because most of the time he mixes different methods. nonetheless, in some cases, we understand yes, we can understand which method is used or take benefits from that. commonly, our math teacher uses we understand during the lecture that this method he selected for us to make us understood, like when someone asks the question, most of the time i think it would be good that students understand the methods because they might also take benefits from them during their teaching. https://www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 2; 2021 9 which method is used. the discussion method to engage us in solving the problems. at first he allows students to respond and solve the question. 3 it is important to use different methods? it is important to use different methods in teaching because some students understand the group method, discussion method, or sometimes if there is no time, it is important to use the lecture method. using different methods is a part of the curriculum and it is the responsibility of each teacher to use different methods. experienced teachers know better how to use different methods. it is better to use different methods in teaching because all students cannot why understand in one method some students can learn from one and some can learn from another method. we assess students that which method is beneficial for them. individual differences are there among the students. it might be better for the teacher to know the individual differences, then he may select the method very easily and students may understand easily. 4 what do you think in ttc textbooks or chapters the problem solving is well structured or not? in many cases, it is wellstructured. the problems are just given for solving without direction, for those we try to use different ways and methods to find out the result or correct answer for that. for this kind of problem at first, the teacher gives us time to work in groups or discussions, after that if we in ttc textbooks the problems are weakly structured. many questions we have here in the textbook, they just gave the questions without direction, especially in exercise those questions which we cannot solve, so we leave for the teacher to solve it, when the teacher solve it, the at first, here we have dictation problems in textbooks which make us disturb. second, there are typing mistakes like they have changed the sign of (+) to (-), so our answer and teacher answers are completely different, and it makes us confused. here i think some time teacher might not prepare himself for the class, that's why students' answer is different because if he has checked the book before coming to the class, he might say that this sign you can change to (+) or (-) or this is a mistake you can correct it, it means preparation is more important for the teacher when he/she comes to the class. https://www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 2; 2021 10 could not or it is difficult to solve it, then the teacher is trying to solve it and give the direction for that. way is completely different. 5 which method do you prefer in the class and why? i like the group working method. at first, the teacher gives us a question to work on individually, then work in a group, because it eliminates the pressure and we learn from each other as well. i love the discussion method to talk about issues and to find out the result of some problems. because i have well confidence to talk in front of the class or front of people. so through this method, i can learn very well. i like group methods and discussion methods to be utilized in class. most of the time we learn from other views, also here we feel free and without pressure, the pressure can be divided by all groups. moreover, one mind can think one thing while four or five minds can think differently and may find an easy way to solve a problem as well can use different ways for the finding of the result. they may learn very well in group working and may have seen the benefits from these methods. or they may not feel themselves safely in working individually and they might afraid of the wrong answers, they do not want to be threatened in front of classmates. 6 are you applying these methods in your classes and which method you prefer more? i am looking at the classroom conditions as well as the textbook after that i select a method that is useful for students. while commonly i most of the time, i use the lecture method and discussion method, because i teach to the eighth and ninth-grade students, so i prefer the lecture method in my classes at school because students are more than 40, so it is difficult to use group work or discussion. also, they are too noisy; it is the condition of ttc is a little bit different from the school because ttc students are not that number in classes, also the materials which are available here in ttc that much https://www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 2; 2021 11 focus on studentcentered learning and working on students. they can understand and can share their views also respect each other's views. difficult to control them. they might not have, so it might be a little bit difficult for them to apply all the methods over there. 7 why many students afraid of mathematics? because students do not follow the daily lectures and do not practice examples. moreover, they do not connect previous lessons to the new lesson. the teacher only focuses on solving questions; does not do practical work which is more important for the students. most of the time students learn through practical activities like our teacher gave us a question to estimate the classroom and find the center of the class, then he showed different kinds of pictures on projector and the foreign countries lectures for our more understanding and make acknowledge that in foreign countries also the same thing can be there is no practical work for the math subject that’s why students cannot understand well, they learn theoretically which they forget soon. lack of methods that teachers cannot use the method on time and logically applying of math to give connection with life. the teacher does not know the pedagogical content of knowledge for the students. they might give more importance to conceptual learning in place of procedural learning. they might think that this is how students learn by heart. also, pck (pedagogical content knowledge) is important for the teacher like we can say that; teacher knowledge teaching students learning. https://www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 2; 2021 12 taught. 8 have you ever faced that kind of question from students which made you confused? yes, many times students ask different kinds of questions. those questions which i can solve i make students engaged to solve if they could not, then i give the direction. however, those questions which i cannot do it i tell them that i will bring them tomorrow. i search it in different books also ask the expert teachers to give the correct answer. sure, many times we face different kinds of questions. when i face that kind of question which i cannot, i search in different books to find out the solution and then search the internet. for example; once one student asks me in the class that “every number at the exponent of zero is equal with one (a 0 =1), so zero at the exponent of zero is equal to what (0 0 =?)" it was a completely new question to me. i searched it on the internet and found the solution. yes, sometimes we face different questions that students ask. in this case, i give it to the students to search the solution because it makes students active and creative, also which things they searched, they will never forget. they face problems when they teach at their schools, some of them first give to the students to engage them in, and then give the direction to solve it. if the teacher also could not at that time, so they search in books also on the internet. while the third student was more focusing on students working to engage them in question because when they engaged in and found the answer, they will never forget it. 9 do you consider cultural norms in your we must focus on and respect cultural and religious issues. yes, we focus on cultural issues. we are a part of this society; sure, i give attention to cultural issues because our society is they all are more focusing and respecting the culture and religion. i asked https://www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 2; 2021 13 teaching? because this is the society where people respect and give much attention to the culture, as well as reject the things which are against religion and culture. we had one teacher in our school, who was not giving attention to these things, people made him leave this school and he finally moved to another one. we should follow the rules of our society. religious and cultural. people respect these things, so we must focus on these things during our lectures. for instance; to wear the clothes which are the custom of this society, giving the examples in a lecture which are more famous here, and showing them things on the projector which are not against of this society. them that "here you saw the thing which was against your culture?" they told me that "the videos of foreign countries which teacher shows us, lady teacher clothes were informal and it was against our culture, we cannot show these kinds of videos to our young students." they may think if someone does not follow society's rules he/she might be rejected from the job. 10 how you found the center of that computer lab when the teacher asked that "who can find the center of this room or center of this carpet" and you found it without measuring? the second student told me that "before asking the teacher i thought by myself and count the flowers which were on the carpet. from four sides i count the flowers and found the center of this room." it might be the teacher used different methods for their understanding that made the student think about anywhere related to their study and lesson to apply it in their life. or might be this student was giving connection to the life that how to apply it in our life. 11 can you explain the differences between the new methods can include studentcentered new methods include group methods, discussion while teachers use various types of methods, students can also https://www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 2; 2021 14 new method and the old method of teaching? methods, active learning methods, and practical methods. and traditional ones include; teachercentered methods, lecture methods, and so on. methods q & a methods. the traditional ones: lecture, theoretical methods, and teachercentered methods. decide which method is useful for them and how to adapt them with this particular method. discussion during the observation of mathematics class, it has been found that the teacher was normally teaching to his class, giving more time to the students, asking questions, working in front of the class on the whiteboard, working in groups. therefore, it can suggest that it was a studentcentered learning class. they were looking very active during group discussions also at the time of the experiment or at the time of practical work they were feeling happy. also, these methods could be used in school as well. in the interviews, the math teacher often expressed views that give time to the student to work especially work with his classmates, to learn from each other; also, they may get the courage of speaking and social behavior of life. as per the remark made by the teacher during the interview that only learning is not important that just complete and finish the books, it does not matter that they have learned something or not, they can solve their future problems by this learning, how they can apply it in their life like to teach to others and many more. moreover, students were also emphasizing that to be done for them the group work as well the practical work, because whenever we see something and the process of that, it will remain in our mind and is unforgettable. one thing more, that some of them mentioned that we understand which method and pedagogy teacher use during his lecture, but some of them were saying that in some cases we cannot understand which method teacher use because we focus on approaches to learning what the teacher teaches. also, we need to learn well because we are also teachers in schools, we have to teach these things, to make our students understand and provide the facilities for their better learning and to bring changes in their mind. finally, interview responses and classroom observations indicated that most of the time teachers gave time to the students to work individually, then work with classmates in groups, after the teacher gave the direction of the problem and solving the question for them. also, it should be taught conceptually, then procedurally. furthermore, the teacher was telling them that you may teach it to your students in this and that way to make them understand, also the teacher was giving time to the students to think that how this to be taught to your school students to make them understand. the teacher educator was able to teach professionally with all those https://www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 2; 2021 15 approaches to make the students teach in their classes in a very good way. from the observation of the class looks the teacher was assessing the students daily by asking the questions, also the teacher educator was trying to train the students for their work and assess their students. furthermore, the findings described here as well as findings from studies conducted elsewhere suggest that teachers should focus more on practical work, teach conceptually than procedurally, and give time to the students to work on problem-solving with/her classmates also work individually, these kinds of pedagogies using for the students, can make students active, intelligent, creative, and they can memorize also can learn very well. conclusion this research was conducted in a teacher training college (ttc) of paktika province for math subjects teaching pedagogies. teaching observations were conducted several times in math classes, teachers used different pedagogical aspects for the students and different methods, giving time to the students to ask and solve the questions, first tried to find the solution by students, and then the teacher was giving the directions and solving questions. it is good to use different methodologies because it can make students flexible mathematical thinkers; also it is good for motivating the students for solving the problems. moreover, in the interview section, math teachers gave their responses to those questions, which were asked, like the pedagogies they use in teaching, how they understand the students and how they solve their problems. also, the materials they use for teaching like using laboratory, computer lab, watching different videos related to their topics, and doing different experiments. commonly, these mentioned materials and things are often in use in the afghan ttcs, also in some schools. furthermore, teachers and students were thinking about the cultural and religious issues in teaching, like showing the foreign countries videos also these pedagogies were able to use at schools as well. students were given more chances for the practical activities to be done for them and more focusing on conceptual learning. first, it is important to make students understand conceptually and then procedurally. also, focusing on individual differences among the students is more important for the teacher, here they were also emphasizing this. however looking at these aspects is to be expected from professional teachers that they can take benefits from their knowledge and experiences, as mentioned in the framework of teaching in the literature review that preparation, classroom environment, instruction, and professional responsibilities. these all can be applicable in ttcs and they give these norms to their students and encourage them to apply them in their classes as well. references aimal, a. h. (2012). mathematic teaching methodology. ministry of education; kabul, afghanistan. (pp.4). azimi, a. (2017). maseer tadres larshod (contemporary teaching guide). kabul, afghanistan. franke, m. l., kazemi, e., & battey, d. (2007). mathematics teaching and classroom practice. second handbook on mathematics teaching and learning, 1(1), 225-256. halimi, n. (2013). mathematics education in secondary school in afghanistan: teachers’ view and practices on teaching problem solving; karlstad university, sweden. husaini, g. r. (2016). wali methodona zarore de (why methods are important). kabul, https://www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 2; 2021 16 afghanistan. jaya, s. k. (2004). method of teaching science. discovery publishing house; new delhi, india. kosko, k. w., & wilkins, j. l. m. (2010). mathematical communication and its relation to the frequency of manipulative use. international electronic journal of mathematics education, 5(2), 79-90. kumar, r. s., & subramaniam, k. (2013). elementary teachers' beliefs and practices for teaching of mathematics. in proceedings (pp.247-254). muwahid, a. k. (2009). research on undergraduate mathematics education in afghanistan: how students understand and learn the concept of “function”. retrieved from https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cie_capstones vij, s. (2016). educational psychology (13th ed.). pearson india education service. wadhwa, s. (2006). modern methods of teaching mathematics. sarup & sons; new delhi, india. copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). american international journal of education and linguistics research; vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995 published by american center of science and education, usa 11 needs analysis in esp context: a project in english for specific purpose: english writing course for diploma students in management zia ur rahman zaheer master of education faculty of literature and humanities english language and literature department baghlan university, baghlan, afghanistan e-mail: zzia8927@gmail.com wahidullah alokozay master of education faculty of languages and literature english language department paktia university, nangarhar, afghanistan e-mail: wahidullahalokozay123@gmail.com hamza atifnigar master of education faculty of literature and humanities english language and literature department laghman university, laghman, afghanistan e-mail: hamza.honaryar@gmail.com abstract this study aims to analyse the needs of management students for english for specific purpose (esp) course as well as to design an esp course for the management students. in addition, this research is carried out to answer the research questions; 1. what is the importance of the use of english in management program? 2. what are the most important language skills used in management program? 3. what is the frequency of the language skills used in management program? 4. what is the level of students’ performance based on the academic task? the findings of the study indicated that the use of english is very important as it is used in every task related to management. the students revealed that they have to give presentations in english and have discussions with peer in english. the listening skills are known to be least used in management program. furthermore, the findings revealed that the students mostly have some difficulty in completing speaking tasks in their program. keywords: management program, english for specific purpose, language skills, presentations, writing skills. 1. introduction 1.1 introduction to syllabus according to graves (2000), a syllabus is an organized and detailed outline of a course that highlights “specific course goals, requirements, readings, assessments, and scheduled assignments” throughout the course (as cited by brown & lee, 2015, p. 179). for instance, to teach in a classroom, the teachers may need to have or make an outline of what they want to achieve and to meet the students’ needs in acquiring the language. parkes and harris (2002) stated that a course syllabus can serve as a highly effective facilitator of student learning. course syllabus will allow the students to see the content of the course. in this section, a syllabus is made base on the need analysis that has been done previously. from the need analysis, the important skills that has been highlighted by the diploma in management students is writing skill. moreover, the writing tasks deemed to be the most difficult task for the students is report writing. therefore, a writing course for the diploma in management is designed to cater the students’ needs in improving their writing skills. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 12 1.2 content-based and task-based syllabus the syllabus for teaching of language is the integration or combination of two or more of the types of syllabus. in this study, the combination of the two types of syllabus which are task-based and content-based syllabus are used to design the syllabus. content-based syllabuses, act as a vehicle for communicating of a specific context because language is not seen as a subject on its own right (nunan et al., 1988, p.38). the primary task of a content-based syllabus is when language is being taught through content and information. in this syllabus, teacher used the content in management which is report writing to teach writing skills. according to ellis (2003), stated that task-based language teaching highlighted the “use tasks at the core of the language teaching” (as cited in brown & lee, 2015). students learn the language through tasks given rather than ‘chalk and talk’ method. the tasks will help the students to engage with real-world tasks in their field. the tasks involved in a language class considered being specific to the subject matter and the target language is used to stimulate learners to think and learn (brinton & snow, 1989). the tasks should be relevant and meaningful so that the students can apply what they have learnt in the course to their academic context. 1.3 need analysis english for specific purposes or esp is the teaching and learning of english as a second language or foreign language where the goal is for the learners to be able to use english in their particular academic needs and professional or occupational domain (plesca, 2016). egp is taught in the school for the students to be able to use english in their daily life for simple conversation. esp on the other hand, is focusing on the needs of language that the learners will use in their academic settings and professional working environment. egp does not emphasize on the learners’ specific context of language learning compared to esp (pradhan,2013). in malaysia, english is a crucial language that is taught not only in the schools but also in universities or institutions. the students had learnt english from their primary school until secondary school which is almost 10 years in total. even in their tertiary education, english language is still being taught. however, some of them are still unable to use and master the english language. it is essential for the students to master english language in order to help their tertiary education become more conducive and to cope with the challenges. this is because in educational institutions nowadays, english is used as the medium of instruction and mostly the literature is written in english. moreover, the students are required to use english in most of the academic tasks, for instance, giving presentations, writing report, reading for information and many more. students with different academic fields will have different learning demands of english. therefore, this study aims to designed an esp course for diploma in management students. 1.4 research questions the target needs analysis is necessary in order for researchers to understand what they need to know and understand about the target community needs in their esp course. needs analysis was conducted to identify the students’ language learning needs and to ascertain the students’ weaknesses in language learning (cohen et al, 2005, pp. 390). in this study, the data required for the needs analysis is derived from questionnaire and interview. the questionnaire was distributed to the students of management to acquire information of their needs in language learning. furthermore, the interview was done by the course lecturer and a student of management to obtain initial information about the program and also the language used in the program.  what is the importance of the use of english in management program?  what is the most important language skills used in management program?  what is the frequency of the language skills used in management program?  what is the level of students’ performance based on the academic task? 2. methodology 2.1 participants the participants were 20 students of the operational management course. the students are currently in their third semester of diploma in management at a private university. english is used for the medium of instruction for this program. this highlighted importance to identify the students’ needs and deficiencies in language learning. 2.2 preliminary survey an interview was conducted in order to get an overview of the students’ needs of using the english language in the course. more specifically, the interview was done through phone calls and whatsapp conversation with the lecturer and a few students from this course. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 13 2.3 data collection two instruments of questionnaire and interview were used in order to get the information needed. the questionnaire has two sections which are: section a: respondents’ background and section b: the use of english in management program. the questionnaire was distributed and collected by the lecturer of this course. moreover, interview with the teacher was conducted via phone call to obtain further information of the students’ academic tasks. 2.4 data analysis the data was analyzed and the results are organized to identify (1) the level of importance of english language use in management program, (2) the most important language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) used, (3) the frequency of the language skill used and (4) the students’ performance based on the academic task. the questions emphasized the context of english language used by the management students. 3. findings and discussions after the data is collected from the questionnaire and interview sessions, the findings of the needs analysis questionnaire and interview are being analyzed and discussed. there is two parts in this section namely section a: findings of students’ data and section b: findings of lecturer’s data. moreover, in section a, the findings of the questionnaire were justified with further confirmation and clarification from the students of management through an interview. thus, the findings and discussions were interpreted based on the questionnaire and interview of the students. furthermore, section b, the findings from the lecturer’s interview were being interpreted. question 1: the importance of the use of english in management program figure 1: importance of the use of english in management program figure 1 depicted the students’ claims of the importance of english use in their management program. the students indicated that the english use is “very important” and “important” in the management program. this is due to the medium of instructions and the academic tasks were given in english. this determined that english is widely used in the program. thus, this has emphasized the need to design an esp course for the management students. question 2: the most important language skills used in management program table 1: ranking of language skills used in management program. skills no. of students the most important important least important not important at all listening 0 0 7 13 speaking 6 10 4 0 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 14 table 1 showed the ranking of the importance of language skills in management program. the students stated that the listening skills were the ‘least important’ and ‘not important at all’ in the management program as the students did not use the skills explicitly. the students are well-aware of the use of listening skills where this skill were not given emphasis as they only have to listen to lectures, discussions and presentations. furthermore, the 6 and 10 students ranked speaking as ‘the most important’ and ‘important’ skills in the management program respectively. this is due to the fact that the students have to give presentations in english. in the class, the students sometimes use their l1 to make meaning as well as giving and answering questions. moreover, the students used their l1 when doing discussions with their peers. as for reading, only one student indicated that reading skills were the most important and 4 students indicate it is just an important skill. while, 8 and 7 students stated that reading skills were the least important and not important at all in the management program respectively. this finding showed that the students did not give focus on reading skills as they rarely read extensively. lastly, 13 and 6 students ranked writing skills as the most important and important skills used in the management program. this suggests that the students used writing skills in most of their academic tasks. from the findings of this question, it is clear that writing skills should be given more emphasis to ensure the students’ success in the program. question 3: the frequency of the language skills used table 2: frequency of language skills used in management program table 2 depicted the frequency of language skills used in the management program. the students’ use of listening skills ranged from ‘seldom’ to ‘very often’. they often used listening skills during listening to lecturers and presentations. moreover, 9 students stated that they used speaking very often in the management program. the students stated that reading skills has the lowest usage as 8 students claimed that they “sometimes” employed reading skills in the management program. this is due the students not emphasizing any extensive reading tasks on their own. furthermore, the students ‘often’ and ‘very often’ used writing skills in the management program. writing skills were highlighted as the most used language skills in the management program. from this finding, it is clear that all four language skills are used in the program, but writing was the most frequently used language skills. thus, it is important that the students should have competency in all the language skills but focus on writing skills should be made to ensure that the students can write competently and effectively in their own context. question 4: the students’ performance based on the academic task table 3: students’ rating of their own performance in listening tasks table 3 showed that the students use the listening skills at ease when listening to lectures. the lectures in management program were conducted in english; however, sometimes the lecturer might use l1 to help the students to understand better. when the students are doing group discussion in english, the students have some difficulty in listening to their peers when conversing. this is because, sometimes, the messages or points were not properly reading 1 4 8 7 writing 13 6 1 0 skills no. of students seldom sometimes often very often listening 1 7 8 4 speaking 0 3 8 9 reading 0 8 9 3 writing 0 0 10 10 tasks part a : listening skills tasks evaluation with a lot of difficulty with difficulty with some difficulty with ease 1. listening to lecture 1 1 5 13 2. listening to group discussion 0 1 12 7 3. listening to oral presentation 2 0 8 10 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 15 conveyed due to inappropriate vocabulary used and incorrect sentence structure. however, 10 students stated that they could use their listening skills at ease. during oral presentation, the students are required to prepare on their presentation, thus, their peers have no trouble in listening and understanding what is being presented. generally, the students could easily use their listening skills to perform listening tasks in the classroom although there were slight difficulties. table 4: students’ rating of their own performance in speaking tasks table 4 depicted the students rating of their own performance in completing speaking tasks. for oral presentation, 2 students rated that they have difficulty and 11 students rated they have some difficulty in completing the task respectively. the challenges that the students faced when speaking in oral presentation were being afraid of making errors, not confident in speaking in english, lack of vocabulary and grammar knowledge. these challenges have affected the students’ performance and motivation when doing oral presentation. moreover, 11 students indicated that they have some difficulty in speaking for group discussion. the students have ‘some’ difficulty in completing the task because they are speaking among their peers. they are more comfortable speaking with their friends even though they are making mistakes. however, the problem that students faced is conveying messages in the appropriate language use which resulted in the use of l1. lastly, 4 students have a lot of difficulty in speaking in a forum. this is due to the format of the forum which is more structure and formal where they have to use the right terms and terminology to present the points. therefore, the findings revealed that the students mostly have some difficulty in completing speaking tasks in their program. table 5: students’ rating of their own performance in reading tasks table 5 showed the students’ rating of their own performance in reading tasks. 12 students stated that they read textbooks in their program with ease. meanwhile, 6 and 2 students indicated that they have some difficulty and difficulty in reading the textbook as the language used for textbook are formal and difficult terminology is used. moreover, the students have some difficulty in reading journal articles. similar to textbook reading, the language used for the journal article made it hard for the students to understand the content. lastly, the students could easily complete tasks on reading for specific information. this is because sometimes the students are required to browse for extra information in order for them to complete their academic tasks which includes surfing the internet and reading extensive books. hence, the findings in this section concluded that the students can easily complete the reading task, although they face some difficulty in the formality and difficult terminology of the language in the reading texts that they had to read and use. tasks part b: speaking skills tasks evaluation with a lot of difficulty with difficulty with some difficulty with ease 1. oral presentation 0 2 11 7 2. oral group discussion 0 1 11 8 3. forum 4 3 10 3 tasks part c: reading skills tasks evaluation with a lot of difficulty with difficulty with some difficulty with ease 1. reading of textbook 0 2 6 12 2. reading of journal articles 1 5 10 4 3. reading for specific information 1 1 6 12 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 16 table 6: students’ rating of their own performance in writing tasks table 6 depicted the students’ rating of their performance in completing writing tasks. as mentioned in the previous findings (question 2 and 3), writing skills is deemed as the most important skills used in the management program. thus, the findings in this section will identify the students’ deficiency in writing tasks. based on the four writing tasks, 4 students stated that they have a lot of difficulty in writing a report. this is because report writing requires a lot of attention to the contents, language structures and many other linguistics aspects. hence, some students are unable to write effectively in their reports which is a concern. moreover, only 2 students have a lot of difficulty in completing summary writing as they were unsure of how to simplify the content of the reading materials. furthermore, 13 students indicated that they have some difficulty in writing for commentary. they are unable to express themselves in words effectively. lastly, majority of the students could complete note-taking task with ease. as the note-taking task is a more personal task, the students have more confident in writing for their own understanding. therefore, the findings of this section concluded that the students have a lot of difficulty in report writing due to several challenges of linguistics aspects. this has highlighted the need for a writing course for the management students and emphasis on the language used in report writing should be taught in the esp course. 5. conclusion based on the findings of data, it can be concluded that there is a need to design an esp course which includes all four of language skills, however, writing skills should be given more emphasis. the foundation of this esp course is to raise the students’ awareness of appropriate language used in different academic context. language tasks on report writing should be highlighted to improve the students writing skills and correct usage of language. the language tasks in the esp course should be designed to serves specific language focus. furthermore, according to angus and de oliveira (2012), the teachers can implement a well-researched pedagogy to ensure effective teaching in the classroom. hence, an integration of more than one syllabus types (content-based and task-based syllabus) would be beneficial in order to design a coherent esp course for the students in management. acknowledgement first of all, i would like to express our sincere thanks to the respected ministry of higher education of afghanistan and higher educational development in afghanistan (hedp) who financially supported us. secondly, we are thankful to miss. putria senior lecturer at the university technology malaysia (utm) whose valuable instructions helped us in completing the project and the research. we would like to thank our dear classmates who assisted us in accomplishing our work. references angus, r., & de oliveira, l. c. (2012). diversity in secondary english classrooms: conceptions and enactments. english teaching: practice and critique, 11(4), 7-18. bhatia, v. k. (2014). analysing genre: language use in professional settings. routledge. bhatia, v. k. (1997). introduction: genre analysis and world englishes. world englishes, 16(3), 313-319. bhatia, v. (2002). applied genre analysis: a multi-perspective model. ibérica: revista de la asociación europea de lenguas para fines específicos (aelfe), (4), 3-19. brinton, s., & snow, m. (1989). wesche. content-based language instruction. brown, h., & lee, h. (2015). teaching by principles: an interactive approach to language pedagogy (fourth edi). london: white palms: pearson education inc. cohen, l., manion, l. & morrison, k. (2005). research methods in education, 5th edition ny: routledgefalmer. devitt, a. j. (2015). genre performances: john swales' genre analysis and rhetorical-linguistic genre studies. journal of english for academic purposes, 19, 44-51. farrah, m. (2012). reflective journal writing as an effective technique in the writing process. tasks part d: writing skills tasks evaluation with a lot of difficulty with difficulty with some difficulty with ease 1. report writing 4 2 4 10 2. summary writing 2 2 8 8 3. commentary 1 2 13 4 4. note-taking 0 2 3 15 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 17 graves, k., & xu, s. (2000). designing language courses: a guide for teachers (no. 428 g7.). boston, ma: heinle & heinle. helder, b. (2011). textual analysis: an approach to analysing professional texts. samfundslitteratur. javid, c. z. (2015). english for specific purposes: role of learners, teachers and teaching methodologies. european scientific journal, 11(20). kerka, s. (1996). journal writing and adult learning. eric digest no. 174. namaziandost, e., esfahani, f. r., nasri, m., & mirshekaran, r. (2018). the effect of gallery walk technique on pre-intermediate efl learners’ speaking skill. language teaching research quarterly, 8, 1-15. nunan, d., candlin, c. n., & widdowson, h. g. (1988). syllabus design (vol. 55). oxford: oxford university press. parkes, j., & harris, m. b. (2002). the purposes of a syllabus. college teaching, 50(2), 55-61. slavkova, r. g. (2016). central european university in part fulfilment of the degree of master of science pradhan, a. k. (2013). english for specific purposes--research trends, issues and controversies. language in india, 13(9). reynolds, d., & goodwin, a. (2016). supporting students reading complex texts: evidence for motivational scaffolding. aera open, 2(4), 2332858416680353. salazar, e. u. (2017). designing and implementing an esp course: revisiting an experience. pensamiento actual, 17(28), 197-207. swain, m. (1995). three functions of output in second language learning. principles and practice in applied linguistics: studies in honor of hg widdowson, 125-144. swales, j. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge university press. swales, j. (2004). research genres: explorations and applications: ernst klett sprachen. swales, j. m., irwin, v., & feak, c. b. (2009). online commentary for abstracts and the writing of abstracts. ann arbor, mi: the university of michigan press. copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). american international journal of education and linguistics research; vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995 published by american center of science and education, usa 10 investigating the causes and negative effects of english language speaking anxiety: a case study among efl learners at kandahar university ahmad anwari kandahar university kandahar, afghanistan e-mail: ahmad.anwari1198@gmail.com abstract the present study has been conducted to investigate the causes of english language speaking anxiety among efl learners at kandahar university. furthermore, the second goal of the study to investigate the negative effects of speaking anxiety. this study uses a quantitative research approach. similarly, the questionnaire had two parts the first part had comprised 14 items and the second part 7 items and applied randomly. besides, the data analyzing was performed in spss (version, 24) and bring out the mean and standard division. finally, the findings revealed those factors which caused efl learners to feel anxiety during english speaking and numbered as follow: (1) i feel fear of making pronunciation mistakes, (2) i am afraid that my classmates will laugh at me when i speak english. (3) i feel worried during performing communication orally. in addition, the following factors are the negative effects of anxiety on learners: (1) anxiety limits my speaking fluency, (2) anxiety causes me to become under pressure during presentation and (3) anxiety decreases my oral performance and self-confidence. keywords: anxiety, causes, negative effects, efl learners, speaking. 1. introduction in recent years, there has been an increasing interest in english language, which is the international communication language, language of internet, and the language of science, activities, computer, technology, diplomacy and tourism, so learning english language in every branch of education is important for socialization. however, that is clear that english is an international language since it has been largely spoken among foreign language speakers. equally, dewi (2015) asserted that english was used in every corner of the world as a medium to interact among people from different cultural, ethnic, and social backgrounds. moreover, farther researches indicate that the english language, at present isn’t being articulated by native speakers, but also non-native speakers. aside from being the world language for international communication, english is used in foreign countries in major places, like the news station, factories and etc… (erling, 2011). therefore, in every language, there are four ways or abilities for learning of the literal of a language, which includes speaking, listening, writing and reading, which all of them are interconnected with each other and speaking play very important rule in learning a language (ashari, 2015). however, speaking for special communication usually occurs in contexts where speaking performance is conducted for an audience in different qualities. the principles of public speaking are also intertwined with the development of speaking for special communication. hence, when a speech involving an audience is taken into consideration, the act of speaking is considered to be more complicated than general everyday conversation and a number of other skills (lucas, 2001). with the regardless, the point mentioned above, still those countries, which they speak or learn english as a foreign language, they have many challenges in their learning or speaking, and the anxiety is one the biggest challenge in this language. unfortunately, afghan’s efl learners face with this problem, which may adversely affect the learning process in this country (kamran, 2017). www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 11 2. what is anxiety? anxiety is a psychological construct, commonly described by psychologists as a state of apprehension, fear, tension, nervousness, and worry associated with an arousal of the autonomic nervous system. indeed, anxiety as perceived sensitively by many language learners negatively influences language learning and has been found one of the most highly examined variables in all of psychology and education (horwitz, 2001). furthermore, anxiety can be classified into three types: trait anxiety, state anxiety, and situation-specific anxiety (scovel, 1978). traditionally, speaking is one of the most significant parts of language learning. due to the great influence on the process of language learning, speaking anxiety, one of the affective variables that influences foreign language learning, often has a detrimental effect on the students oral performance of english (melough, 2013). it negatively influences the adaptation to the learning atmosphere of students and their achievement (mohammed & wahid, 2009). it can be argued that many learners are afraid of using a foreign language orally. aydın (2001) categorized the reasons of speaking anxiety into four groups: personal reasons, the teacher’s manner in the classroom, learner’s beliefs and testing and teaching procedures. in order to be successful in language learning, speaking anxiety must be overcome (chaokongjakra, 2013). 3. significance of study this project will provide an important opportunity to advance the understanding of all those learners and lecturers whom study or teach english speaking as an efl learner or teacher at all over afghanistan especially, those whom enter to the kandahar university. in addition to that, it will help english departments to consider the factors and will change their plans accordingly. the findings will make an important contribution to the field of education. this study is an attempt to fill a gap in the foreign language speaking anxiety on efl learners at kandahar university. in regardless, all the researches that have conducted in this field of education, the researcher still see a need to conduct research at kandahar university because other research has been conducting in other countries and their educational system is different from afghan’s cultures. 4. problem statement indicating a problem, anxiety on the most cumbrous challenge in educational background, so in afghanistan especially in kandahar, province efl learners when learning a foreign language have many challenges and they feel anxiety in their learning. apart from general foreign language anxiety, many learners are highly anxious because of participating in speaking activities. in fact, it is often suggested that speaking is the most anxiety-provoking language skill in a foreign language learning situation (keramida, 2009). the worldwide expansion of the english language has increased the demand to acquire good communication skills in english. nevertheless, learners of english language often express a feeling of stress, nervousness or anxiety while learning to speak english language and claim to have (tanveer, 2007). farther more, the researcher has claimed the problem exists among efl learners from beginning to more advanced levels. even highly advanced efl learners feel anxious while learning and particularly speaking english in some situations. liu (2006) conducted a study with chinese undergraduate nonenglish majors at three different proficiency levels. based on the findings, liu concluded that more than one-third of the students in each group appeared to be anxious in the oral english classroom. the more proficient students tended to be less anxious, the students felt the most anxious while talking to the teacher and speaking alone in front of the classroom, yet they felt the least anxious during pair work and even much less anxious in speech communication. 5. purpose statement the major purpose of the research is to identify factors causing anxiety in speaking in efl learners and the negative effects of speaking anxiety on learners’ learning. to be more specific, the major objectives of this study:  to investigate the major factors that cause anxiety for efl students in learning english speaking.  to figure out the negative effects of speaking anxiety on learners. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 12 similarly, this paper investigates the following research questions:  what are the major factors that cause anxiety for efl students in learning english speaking?  what are the negative effects of speaking anxiety on learners? 6. literature review in this part of the study the author has collected other scholars’ findings and results of their studies about english language speaking anxiety and negative effects of anxiety on efl learners at all over the world. according to pathan, ahmed & khan (2017) have conducted a study at pakistan, university of balochistan, on efl learners accordingly to english language speaking anxiety. finally, the findings of the research concluded that there are many factors that efl learners feel anxiety in their speaking which numbered as follow; efl learners feel anxiety when they become fail to use correct grammar in their speaking, they also reported that they suffer from anxiety when grammar hinders them from speaking in their language class. secondly, the fear of communicating with foreign language instructors caused anxiety among learners since they were afraid of committing grammatical errors. chan & wu (2004) have figured out in their research the causes of communication anxiety among efl elementary school students in taipei county, which have numbered as follow: firstly, less competent than their classmates. secondly, afraid to speak in english are the major factors that have limited students speaking ability. a series of a recent study which has conducted at preparatory school of a private university on efl learners have indicated that students suffer from anxiety when they speak with the teacher and in front of the classroom (tercan and dikilitas, 2015). a quantitative study by alrabai (2015), investigated the level and sources of speaking anxiety of saudi efl university students. furthermore, the research findings showed that the main cause of speaking anxiety among participants was their communication apprehension due to lack of preparation before the english class. according to awan, azher, anwar & naz (2010) the results of their study claimed there are many causes that caused efl learners anxiety in universities of pakistan, “speaking in front of others is rated as the biggest cause of anxiety followed by worries about grammatical mistakes, pronunciation and being unable to talk spontaneously”. the research that has conducted by yahya (2013) asserted in the result of the study that dislike of participation, participating in the english class and feeling afraid to express the opinion in front of the classmates, are the major factors of speaking anxiety. a recent study by mukminin, et al (2015) concluded that english language speaking anxiety at one senior high school in jambi, indonesia have shown five major themes, which were related to students’ english language speaking anxiety, including “low speaking skill due to lack of vocabulary and grammar, fear of negative responses from others, low self-esteem to speak in english, fear of being evaluated by teachers, and cultural influences to speak english due to a more teacher-centered style”. a large and growing body of literature has investigated the causes of english language speaking anxiety at japans’ universities; the findings of research claimed that in japanese classes they have the low proficiency of speaking, speaking activities and fear of negative evaluation by classmates which cause them anxiety during english speaking (kondo & yong, 2003). similarly, the study of mak (2011) asserted that fear of negative evaluation make many foreign language learners experience anxiety. another research, which has conducted, by ansari (2015) stated the similar result due to the causes of english speaking anxiety, which are the fear on negative evaluation from peers and perception of low ability in relation to their peers. in another research the causes of english speaking anxiety have been widely investigated by jackson (2002), results have shown that the lack participation in the classes of japans’ universities efl learners injured their speaking and they feel anxiety during the speaking. regarding to hamouda (2013) has conducted a research on arabs’ efl learner’s classroom anxiety and figured out that the following causes which caused efl learners anxiety in their english speaking, the shy and reluctant of saudi efl learners with communication in foreign language and the lack of motivation from teachers and peers, have considered a major factor of speaking anxiety. referring to the views of qzurk, & gurbuz (2014) that have conducted research at a state university of turkish, about the causes of efl learners speaking anxiety. in addition, they have figured out that the following factors have been caused the learners to feel anxiety in their speaking; difficult pronunciation of english, immediate questions, fear of making mistakes and negative evaluation and these factors have been identified as major causes of efl speaking anxiety. similarly, the research of dörnyei (2001) has shown the causes such as fear of making mistakes and fear of test, assessment, social comparison and competition. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 13 according to williams & andrade (2008) have figured out many factors that make japanese efl learners fearful and they feel anxiety during the speaking of the english language. for instance, the researcher claimed the following factors; “did not know how to say something in english, speaking in front of others, worried about pronunciation, worried about grammatical mistakes and confused between english and japanese” are the major factors that japanese efl learners feel anxiety and their speaking become in low level. with regard to the study of alrabai (2014) which, has conducted a study on saudi efl learners speaking anxiety. as the result of the study, figured out that the follow causes such as; “in language class, i can get so nervous that i forget things i know, i start to panic when i have to speak without preparation in language class, i get nervous when the language teacher asks questions that i haven’t prepared for in advance and i feel overwhelmed by the number of rules you have to learn to speak the english language”. the above causes are the major factors that caused efl learners anxiety in speaking.the findings of the study by timina (2015) revealed that the majority of the taiwanese university first-year students were unwilling to speak english loudly due to the fear of not getting or misunderstanding the teachers’ tasks. the findings reported that the students also complained that english language teachers speak too fast and use many difficult words. these factors are likely to cause anxiety among foreign language learners. bozavli & gulmez (2012) have conducted a study on turkish native speakers and non-native speakers and asserted that in a language class, the activity of speaking by a learner in front of the class provokes anxiety, which means that less self conscious in front of peers when they know that they are better. furthermore, the study, which took place at tennessee university, and claimed that majority of the learners become anxious when they are asked to perform in the foreign language in front of their class (young, 1990). a study that has been conducted at our neighbor country iran by yamat & bidabadi (2012) investigated the factors that caused efl learners speaking anxiety are fear of negative evaluation, test anxiety and anxiety of english classes. a study that has conducted on esl learners by woodrow (2006) reported the causes of speaking anxiety, which were investigated through interviews. the results indicate that most esl students feel anxiety whenever they are facing with native speakers. furthermore, the result of the study among the first-year license, master and doctorate efl students at the saad dahlab university of blida, algeria, appeared anxiety in their speaking, because of fear of interaction, error correction, language proficiency, and low self-confidence cause them to have anxiety in their speaking (melouah, 2013). with regard to the study of kitano (2001) have conducted a study on learners of japanese college, and revealed that; fear of negative evaluation and self-perception of speaking ability in the target language are the two potential sources leading to a foreign language speaking anxiety. according to çagatay (2015) has conducted a study on efl learners at turkish state university about speaking anxiety. furthermore, the result of the study shows that anxiety increase in efl learners when speaking with native speakers. mohtasham and farnia (2017) have claimed in their research that students feel anxiety when they speak in front of classmates and teacher and when they an important speech they feel uncomfortable. a study that has conducted by aydin (2008) on language anxiety among efl students and the finding of the study claimed many reasons that cause efl learners anxiety in balikesir university at turkish. thus, the factors numbered as follow: fear of making verbal or spelling mistakes and negative thoughts of others during speaking are the major factors that cause efl learners anxiety in their speaking. according to rafada (2017) conducted a mixed method on arabs efl schools students and claimed that peer anxiety causes them to have anxiety in their speaking, which means during performing the presentations and discussion others classmates are laughing on them. similarly, tsui (1996) figured out the same cause on students of esl feel anxiety when other classmates laugh on them during the speaking. 7. negative effects of speaking anxiety in this part of the literature, the author has collected the literature about the negative effects of speaking anxiety on learners learning. according to onwuegbuzie (1999) argue that the existence of foreign language anxiety can affect negatively the fluency of learners’ speech. similarly, chan and wu (2004) claimed in their finding the same result of the negative effects of speaking anxiety cause students to become poor in speaking fluency. research that has conducted by mahmud (2017) about the effects and problems of english language speaking anxiety among efl learners, the results, they cannot communicate in class, which means they become under pressure of teachers and students during spacing and them. philips (1992) has conducted a study and stated the effects of anxiety on speaking, in the result of his study that learners feel anxiety when they are performing oral presentation and they cannot perform perfectly. the researcher has brought a solution, which is lack of practice of speaking. with regard www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 14 to the study of wilang and singhasiri (2017) at king mongkut’s university of technology thonburi, argued that when anxiety increase in speaking, ineligibility, and comprehensibility will decrease. according to na (2007) has conducted a study of speaking anxiety and negative effects of anxiety on learners’ learning, the results of his study show that anxiety may negatively affect learners’ performance and decrease their self-confidence. similarly, spielmann and radnofsky (2001) have explored foreign language anxiety among different efl learners and have maintained that foreign language anxiety can generally influence negatively on learners’ performance. a study that has been conducted at spanish by sellers (2000) the finding of the research include that the major cause of reading anxiety is to have anxiety in speaking and the students face with many challenges in their reading. on the other hand, a study that has been conducted by elkhafaifi (2005) on arabs efl learners, have claimed that those students who have anxiety in their speaking and their anxiety caused them to be poor in listening skill. melouah (2013) has conducted a study in first year efl learners of license, master and doctorate at saad dahlab university of blida, algeria, and the result of his study claim that the anxiety affected their oral performance negatively. liu (2006) have conducted a study on efl classroom anxiety and have argued that the majority of china efl students believed that anxiety negatively affected their performance in spoken english, which contributed as major effects of language anxiety. according to the findings of zhang (2004) have conducted a research on the language anxiety and its effects on oral performance and claimed in the result of his study that, when the students have anxiety the oral performance would decrease. similarly, park and lee (2004) have asserted that when students have anxiety their oral performance would decrease and when have self-confidence their oral performance would increase. 8. methodology research design as the present study tried to identify the causes and negative effects of speaking anxiety among efl learners at kandahar university. the study is descriptive in nature in which a quantitative questionnaire has been used to collect data. descriptive quantitative approach examines the phenomenon by collecting the data numerically. moreover, “survey research designs are procedures in quantitative research in which investigators administer a survey to a sample or to the entire population of people to describe the attitudes, opinions, behaviors, or characteristics of the population” (creswell, 2012). population & sampling the participants of the study were efl learners of kandahar university from which 103 efl students from english language and literature department of education faculty and english language and literature department of literature faculty has been selected based on (morgan) through simple random sampling. according to creswell (2012) in simple random sampling, the researcher selects participants for the sample so that any individual had an equal probability of being selected from the population. the intent of simple random sampling is to choose the individual to be sampled who will the representative of the population. instrument this study adopted a questionnaire on foreign language classroom anxiety scale designed by al-saraj (2014). the questionnaire comprised of 33 items but only 14 items were included in the first part of the questionnaire and the second part of the questionnaire had 7 items which, made from the literature review and self-experience of the author. in addition, the first part of the questionnaire comprised of demographic information of the participants and the second part comprised of items based on five-point likert-scale, which were the causes of foreign language speaking anxiety and the last part were the negative effects of speaking anxiety on learners. validity and reliability of the questionnaire before the dividing of the instrument (questionnaire) among learners, for the establishment of the questionnaire’s validity, the researcher consulted with supervisor and instructor lecturer for creative feedback and comments. the lecturer advised for the structure, statements and likert scales of the questionnaire and the adjustments with objectives. after entering the data to spss, the consistency of the questionnaire items was 0.88 cronbach’s alpha. it seems that the questionnaire was reliable. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 15 data collection procedure prior to data collection, the researcher sought consent from the head of the faculty. students were also informed of the nature of the study and they were assured that their participation is voluntary and their names would not be revealed in the publication of this research. after seeking the consent of the research participants, the questionnaire was distributed among them and they were directed to fill up the questionnaire in the presence of the researcher. all the research participants were assured that they would be given access to this study once it is completed. all the participants responded to the questionnaire and handed over to the researcher. 9. data analysis procedure in order to answer the first and second research questions, data were performed in spss (version, 24) in which researcher calculated means, and the standard deviation to determine the causes of english speaking anxiety among the participants. to answer the second research question cited above, the negative effects of speaking anxiety on learners’ learning was also performed in the spss to determine the negative effects of speaking anxiety. findings the below table 1 shows the demographic information of participant in the categories of gender, age, level of education and faculty. table 1: demographic information. characteristics no of participations percentage gender male 94 91.3% female 9 8.7% age of participants 18-20 21 20.4% 21-25 71 68.9% 26-30 10 9.7% upper30 1 1.0% level of education freshman 13 12.6% sophomore 23 22.3% junior 32 31.1% senior 35 34.0% faculty education faculty 49 47.6% literature faculty 54 52.4% the first research question aimed at determining the causes of english speaking anxiety among efl learners at the university of kandahar, afghanistan. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 16 table 2: the causes of speaking anxiety. statement mean sd.div i feel fear of making pronunciation mistakes 3.60 1.38 i am afraid that my classmates will laugh at me when i speak english 3.54 1.33 i feel worried during performing communication orally. 3.50 1.21 even if i am well prepared for english class, i feel anxious about it. 3.33 1.30 i feel overwhelmed by the number of rules i have to learn to speak english 3.29 1.08 lack of participation causes me anxiety during speaking. 3.24 1.29 i feel fear of making verbal or spelling mistakes. 3.23 1.25 i get tense and confused when the teacher does not understand what i mean in english 3.22 1.23 in my language class, it bothers me when i cannot speak english very much because of my grammar 3.13 1.34 i think that my classmates’ english is better than me. 3.11 1.23 i feel fear of negative evaluation in the class from students and teachers. 3.07 1.33 error correction style of the teacher causes me anxiety. 2.88 1.32 i start to panic when i have to speak without preparation in english class. 2.82 1.44 i feel shy when speaking english in front of other students. 2.8137 1.41932 likert scales: 1=strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3=somehow agree, 4=agree and 5=strongly agree the results of table 2 illustrate that efl learners feel anxiety because of making pronunciation mistakes (m=3.60, sd=1.38). furthermore, they also reported that they suffer from anxiety when other classmates laughing on them during speaking (m=3.54, sd=1.33), the third major cause of speaking anxiety is that students feel anxiety during the oral communication in class or presentations (m=3.50. sd=1.21). therefore, the teachers of efl learners in kandahar university don’t paying attention to the learners’ participation in class and the lack of motivation of classmates cause them to have anxiety. furthermore, the items with the lowest mean and standard division are scored: i feel shy when speaking english in front of other students (m=2.81, sd=1.41), i start to panic when i have to speak without preparation in english class (m=2.82, sd=1.44), error correction style of the teacher cause me anxiety (m=2.88, sd=1.32). the second research question of research aimed to determine the negative effects of speaking anxiety on learners’ learning. table 3: the negative effects of speaking anxiety. statement mean sd.div anxiety limits my speaking fluency. 3.65 1.16 anxiety causes me to become under pressure during the presentation. 3.60 1.44 anxiety decreases my oral performance and self-confidence. 3.56 1.31 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 17 anxiety stops me to remember vocabulary. 3.30 1.27 anxiety stops me to learn grammar practically. 3.24 1.33 with have speaking anxiety i feel anxiety in reading and listening. 2.79 1.38 anxiety causes me to leave the class. 2.42 1.31 likert scales: 1=strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3=somehow agree, 4=agree and 5=strongly agree the above table 3 shows the negative effects of anxiety on efl learners’ learning, which have noted that the learners’ anxiety causes them to be poor in their speaking fluency(m=3.65, sd=1.160) the second effect of anxiety that learners become under pressure during presentations and participating in the class (m=3.60, sd=1.44). furthermore, anxiety decreases my oral performance and self-confidence. (m=3.56, sd=1.31). even though, those items with the lowest mean and standard division are scored: anxiety causes me to leave the class (m=2.42, sd=1.31) and with have speaking anxiety, i feel anxiety in reading and listening (m=2.79, sd=1.38). 10. discussion the present study confirmed the findings of the research questions. from the short review above, key findings emerged: the major factors, which caused efl learners’ anxiety in speaking, numbered as follow: first kandahar university efl learners feel anxiety in speaking because they are not familiar with the hard pronunciation of english language. the pronunciation of the english language is a little hard for those who learn english as esl and efl; in this research, this is the major cause that students feel anxiety during speaking. similarly, this finding is in line with the findings by ozturk and gurbuz (2014). contrary to the findings of pathan, ahmed & khan (2017) we did not find and they have demonstrated that students feel anxiety when they become fail to use grammar practically. secondly, the laughing of other classmates cause them to feel anxiety, which refers to the lack of motivation and peer anxiety from other classmates and friends, it means that other students do not know how to behave with other classmates and motivate them. the finding is in line with the finding of rafada (2017) and tsui (1996). furthermore, the third highest cause of anxiety is the being of oral performance, which students feel anxiety during oral communication. it means that the lack of confidence for getting oral presentation and speaking is one of those factors which cause them to have anxiety in speaking. this finding is in accordance with findings reported by hamouda (2013). in addition, the answers of the second research question show the following results: the highest negative effect of anxiety on learners’ learning is the limitation of speaking fluency, which means with having anxiety the students will become poor in the speaking fluency and they couldn’t speak as well as possible. this is consistent with what has been found by onwuegbuzie’s (1999) study. in contrast to the finding of alemi, daftarifard and pashmforooshs’ (2011) study. hence, the second highest effect of speaking anxiety is that learners become under pressure, which itself need to conduct research on. it means that anxiety is one of the big challenge for learners, with having speaking anxiety learners become under pressure of teacher and students and couldn’t to present their presentation perfectly and the same couldn’t understand their audiences. similarly, the finding is directly in line with the finding of mahmud (2017). thirdly, with having anxiety efl learners loss their self-confidence and oral performance. it means that when students feel anxiety they couldn’t say, read and presents their speeches confidently. similarly, this basic finding is consistent with the findings. 11. conclusion in summary, this academic study aimed to investigate all those factors that caused efl learners anxiety in their speaking and the negative effects of speaking anxiety on their leaning. however, all the participants showed their satisfaction toward the study. anxiety is a psychological emotion, which the people show the apprehension toward it. furthermore, the literature review showed different findings and results such as; fear of negative evaluation, pronunciation mistakes, grammar mistakes, lack of participation, lack of motivation and etc… in spite, the method of the study included a quantitative research approach and the data have been collected by questionnaire from participants. in order, the findings of the study show the major factors of anxiety, which are the fear of learners from english pronunciation, fear from the presentation and the lack of motivation. furthermore, the second part shows the www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 18 major effects of speaking anxiety among students, which are the limitation of speaking fluency, the pressure among students and the decreasing of self-confidence. 12. limitation the limitations of the present studies naturally include that the author had many challenges during conducting the study; the biggest challenge was the lack of time for investigating the study. it means that there was not enough time to conduct the study perfectly. another limitation of this was the weaknesses of internet during downloading the articles and using for other function of the study. an apparent limitation of the study was that participants didn’t participate honestly. references ahmed, n., pathan, z, h., & khan, f, s., (2017). exploring the causes of english language speaking anxiety among postgraduate students of university of balochistan, pakistan. international journal of english linguistics.7 (2), 99-105. alemi, m., daftarifard, p., & pashmforoosh, r. 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(2004). language anxiety and its effects on oral performance in the class. retrieved on, 14, 2018. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 20 appendix dear participants, this academic research is conducted by a senior student of english department of education faculty for the purpose of identifying all those factors that cause anxiety in speaking of efl learners at kandahar university and the negative effects of anxiety. this study will help students, lecturers and other responsible circles to understand the present situation your anxiety of speaking. all the given information is for the research purpose. we will be grateful for your volunteer participation. part one: demographic information gender: male □ female □ age: 18-20 □ 21-25 □ 25-30 □ upper 30 □ class: freshman □ sophomore □ junior □ senior □ faculty: education faculty □ literature faculty □ part two: statements (1) through (14) describe how you feel about speaking english. please read the statements carefully and give your first reaction by choosing an answer for each statement: (1) strongly disagree, (2) disagree, (3) neither agree nor disagree (4) agree, (5) strongly agree. no statements strongly disagree disagree somehow agree agree strongly agree 1 i think that my classmates’ english is better than me. 2 i am afraid that my classmates will laugh at me when i speak english 3 i feel overwhelmed by the number of rules i have to learn to speak english 4 i feel shy when speaking english in front of other students. 5 i get tense and confused when the teacher does not understand what i mean in english 6 i feel fear of making verbal or spelling mistakes. 7 i feel fear of making pronunciation mistakes 8 lack of participation causes me www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 21 anxiety during speaking. 9 in my language class, it bothers me when i cannot speak english very much because of my grammar 10 error correction style of the teacher causes me anxiety. 11 i feel worried during performing communication orally. 12 i feel fear of negative evaluation in the class from students and teachers. 13 i start to panic when i have to speak without preparation in english class. 14 even if i am well prepared for english class, i feel anxious about it. part three: in this part of the questionnaire there are many negative effects of speaking anxiety that adversely affect learners’ speaking ability. no statements strongly disagree disagree somehow agree strongly agree 1 anxiety limits my speaking fluency. 2 anxiety stops me to remember vocabulary. 3 anxiety stops me to learn grammar practically. 4 anxiety decreases my oral performance and self-confidence. 5 anxiety causes me to become under pressure during presentation. 6 anxiety causes me to leave the class. 7 with have speaking anxiety i feel anxiety in reading and listening. copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 published by american center of science and education, usa 9 teachers’ instructional workload management and students’ academic performance in public and private secondary schools in akoko northeast local government, ondo state, nigeria adeolu joshua ayeni, ph.d department of educational management adekunle ajasin university akungba-akoko, ondo state nigeria e-mail: ayeniadeolu@yahoo.com gsm no. +2348139654848 arinze prince amanekwe department of educational management adekunle ajasin university akungba-akoko, ondo state nigeria e-mail: arinzechukwuamanekwe@gmail.com gsm no. +2348071920901 received: november 16, 2018 accepted: november 25, 2018 online published: december 2, 2018 abstract the study examined teachers’ workload and determined its implication on students’ academic performance in secondary schools in akoko north east local government area of ondo state. descriptive design of the survey type was adopted and a stratified random sampling was used to select 12 schools, which were 6 public and 6 private secondary schools, involving 132 participants who included 120 teachers and 12 principals. a self-constructed questionnaire titled “teachers’ workload and student’s academic performance questionnaire” (twsapq), was administered. five (5) hypotheses were tested using pearson’s product moment correlation (ppmcc) and t-test at p<0.05 level of significance. the results showed that there was a negative correlation between teachers’ workload and students’ academic performance (r-cal= -0.420), and a disparity between teachers’ actual workload and workload policy standard (t-cal=27.219), also there was significant difference in teachers’ workload between public and private secondary schools (t-cal=2.364). the findings indicated that teachers’ workload is high in teaching activities (75.8%), data imputation (62.5%), and marking of students’ scripts (76.7%), .and impacted negatively on teachers’ instructional tasks performance and students’ academic performance. it is hereby recommended that the state government and proprietors of private secondary schools should employ adequate number of qualified teachers to meet the workload standard for effective teaching, while learning facilities should be upgraded to enhance workload implementation and improve students’ academic performance in secondary schools. keywords: teacher’s workload, class size, teaching subjects, school policy, students’ performance 1. introduction public secondary schools are institutions established and funded by the government and administered by principals who are appointed by the government to superintend over teachers and students. on the other hand the private secondary schools are institutions established, funded and managed by the private sector (individuals and nongovernmental corporate organizations). both the public and private secondary schools operate the same curricula for the purpose of training students for higher education and useful living in the society. the attainment of the set educational goals depends largely on effective and efficient management of teachers’ instructional workloads in secondary schools. mailto:ayeniadeolu@yahoo.com mailto:arinzechukwuamanekwe@gmail.com www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 10 teachers’ instructional workload management is the process of allocating subjects, periods and other administrative duties on curriculum planning, implementation and reviews to teachers depending on their area of specializations, professional knowledge, skills and experiences which determine the quality of instructional tasks performance. this also has significant impact on the level of students’ academic performance and the overall achievement of educational objectives in the school system. teachers’ instructional workload is expressed in terms of curriculum organization, lesson note preparation, learners’ engagement in curriculum instructions, continuous assessment and class management. teachers’ instructional workload is directly measured by the total number of teachers that are available in the system against the number of students that are taught, the number of scripts that are marked, and other responsibilities considered worthwhile by the school principal that are regularly or occasionally assigned to teachers. the extent to which students have achieved educational goals in terms of academic performance depends largely on how well teachers carry out their instructional tasks. teachers with moderate instructional workloads are said to be more effective and efficient than teachers with heavy workload in the secondary school system. teachers’ instructional workload is faced with serious challenges which among others include shortage of teachers, lack of instructional materials, students’ over-enrolment, high number of teaching periods per week, lack of wellequipped laboratories and large class size without instructional technology affect students’ academic performance in secondary schools. these challenges need to be professionally addressed by principals and other stakeholders in education. the school principal being an instructional leader occupies an important position in the management of teachers’ workloads. it is therefore expected that principals should consider variables such as teachers’ area of specializations, professional competence and class size, and the recommended teacher-student ratio which ranged between 35 and 40 students per class (federal republic of nigeria, 2013). it is necessary therefore for the school principal to work out the most efficient method in assigning workloads that will enable the teachers put in their best towards achieving the desired output/ result. effective management of teachers’ workload is necessary because teachers, first and foremost must be seen from the angle of humans who have emotions and can be stressed, depressed, agitated and get bored if overworked. based on these reasons, ukeje (1992) viewed excellent management as “knowing exactly what the manager want employees to do and seeing that they do it in the best cheapest way”. the problem in the way schools are managed lies in the non-adherence of government to its policy on teachers’ workloads which resulted in much work that create unnecessary burden for teachers within the stipulated period of working hours. this can undermine the attainment of educational objectives. the nigerian national policy on education stipulated that “no education system can rise above the quality of its teachers” thus implying the important role played by teachers in facilitating teaching and learning, and determining the quality of education service delivery. however, every poor performance of students is usually blamed on the teachers by the management while teachers also complained of excessive workload. this perhaps has been caused by the ever-increasing students’ population and expansion of subjects in the curriculum, which placed more responsibilities on teachers and over-stretched them beyond their manpower carrying capacity thus resulting in overbearing workloads. this study is significant as it will reveal the current state of teachers’ instructional tasks performance and implication on students’ academic performances. this study would indicate a warning signal for the educational planners, school administrators, human resource managers, and providers of education services to take a holistic view and diagnostic analysis of teachers’ workloads in order to strengthen the teaching staff capacity, provide adequate instructional resources and implementing reasonable workload policy to minimize stress and improve teachers’ instructional tasks performance and students’ academic performance in secondary schools. 2. theoretical framework on teachers’ workload the management of teachers’ instructional workload is an important aspect of school management that can make or mar the attainment of the educational goals. instructional workload distribution is expected to be guided by the arousal theory that considered the basic energetic state of an organism (razmjou, 1996). as the school management mobilizes and regulates the human stress response with moderate level of arousal (often used synonymously with stress) results in optimal performance, whereas too little arousal or too much arousal will degrade performance (staal, 2004). 3.the concept of workload ksenia (2012) described workload as tasks performed in the working environment exceeding personal capabilities and resulting in threats, and the reactions of nervousness, anxiety, frustration, pressing, or annoyance. such reactions www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 11 would change the physical and mental conditions of a normal person as well as the behaviour in carrying out the assigned tasks in an organization. marina (2012) considered workload as role overload/personal work extended from single item to multiple duties, and the risk of overload resulted in emotional exhaustion of employees, delaying work, low team spirit, and not obeying rules, which could have negative impact on the overall organization performance. 4. determinants of teachers’ instructional workload the various ways of measuring teachers’ workload among others include class size, subject areas, condition of service, school policy, teaching staff strength and teachers’ abilities. these factors are explained in the conceptual framework below. figure 1. conceptual framework on workload determinants source: researchers’ illustration 4.3.1. class size and composition class size as one of the sub-variables of school quality exerted significant influence on teachers’ instructional workload in terms of lesson planning, teaching, assessment of students’ academic performance and classroom management (wosyanju, 2005; osim, 2009). class workload could lead to burnout if not properly managed; consequently leading to the failure in the completion of academic curriculum and poor academic performance of students. large class size that is not supported with technology poses serious challenge to the teaching-learning process as teachers sometimes have real difficulty in dealing with students on individual bases. the nigerian national policy on education (federal republic of nigeria, 2013) stipulated that a class size in secondary schools should have a ratio of 1:40. regrettably, classes are very large especially in urban schools in nigeria that teachers often find it difficult to recognize their students by names and teachers have limited spaces for instructional tasks performance in congested classes. this situation limits teacher-learners interaction, learnerlearner interaction, and impedes academic, psychological, guidance or counseling services for students on individual bases where necessary. goodrum, hackling and rennie (2001) in their studies revealed a correlation between class size and the quality of teaching and learning among schools in australia. however, earlier study conducted in australia in 1984 and 1994, revealed that workload increased as a result of longer working hours, teaching more students and having more professional, pastoral and administrative duties to perform (easthorpe & easthorpe, 2000). 4.3.2. subject area working conditions teaching staff strength ability/ competence subject area school policy class size and composition workload determinants www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 12 core courses in the secondary schools such as mathematics, english, and subjects in the sciences which require high level cognition and/or effort to comprehend and interpret are also causing increase in teachers’ workloads. according to findings by mbugua, kibet, muthaa & nkonke (2012), 66.7% of mathematics teachers teach between 16 to 30 lessons, while 27.8% teach more than 30 lessons in a week. this indicates that 27.8% of mathematics teachers are overloaded. in order to help students, teachers go extra length in the preparation of lessons and most times organize remedial and after-school lessons for students who could not catch up with the formal class instruction. 4.3.3. conditions of work or service certain factors inherent in the way the work is organized constitute sources of restraints that require additional actions and coping strategies, which in turn have consequences for both the individuals and their effectiveness at work. every institution has certain rules and regulations which need to be followed by the employees. relating the incidence of excessive workloads to private schools, sultana, bano & shafa, (2012) observed that there are very strict rules in private schools. they posited that some of these rules relate to teachers’ punctuality, collection of fees, extra lessons, developing lesson plans and partaking in some other unidentifiable tasks that are termed as unnecessary by the school management and teachers. sometimes teachers could not follow these rules and the principals reprimanded them. 4.3.4. school policy teaching according to section 7.2.3(a) of the nigerian teachers’ service manual (1990) is twenty-four hour service. a teacher in the school system is therefore on call twenty four hours a day. the ‘b’ part of it stated further that the teaching load for a post-primary school teacher shall be between the range of 15 and 25 periods per week or such minimum as the ministry of education or the school board may from time to time prescribed. the provisions of the workload policy determines the extent of work that would be assigned to any worker, also, if workload policy statement is not followed to letter, it could amount to principal assigning additional tasks to teachers. in a survey on workload pressure in 2010 by new zealand post primary teachers’ association, nearly 50% of teachers reported an increase of workload arising from the national standards (new zealand post primary teachers’ association, 2010). effective workload management in the educational system requires the ability of the school principal in applying the following variables: equity, transparency, prioritize activities, appropriate work-life balance, prompt response to short term changes in staff resources and work demands, consistency in staff resource allocation to teaching programmes and course review, and measured data which can be used for the purposes of recognition, reward and promotion of teachers. 4.3.5. teaching staff strength teachers’ workload continues to increase in the face of emergent demand for education by all and sundry. the equilibrium which is based on students-teaching staff strength ratio is required in the supply of teaching manpower. the distribution of workload by the principal is dependent on the available manpower. where this is small, the workload will be high per teacher and some work will be left undone. this is responsible for variation (small, moderate, high) in teachers’ workload. teachers’ productivity is directly related to the workload assigned to them. when the number of teachers is inadequate, there is excess workload. 4.3.6. abilities vroom (1964) stated that ability is an individual’ capability to complete tasks and it is a stable trait. halim, diane, catherine, and shrout (2012) mentioned that work performance is the combination of mental and physical capability of an individual to complete a task, francoise and winterton (2005) explained that ability is competence that touches on knowledge and skills. they explained ability as involving four dimensions, namely, cognitive, functional, social and meta. the level of knowledge is explained by the cognitive competence, level of skill by functional competence, social competence explains the behaviour and attitude of individual workers, while meta competence is related to ability to acquire these competencies through the individual’s own knowledge. 5. teachers’ workload and students’ academic performance academic performance of a student can be regarded as the observable and measurable behaviour of a student in terms of scores obtained from a teacher-made test, terminal examinations and external examinations such as the west african senior school certificate examinations (wassce), national examinations council (neco) and so on. teachers’ workload has direct impact on students’ academic achievement. however, overworked teachers are less likely to bring the energy, insights and resilience, positive and caring relationships that effective teaching requires in the classroom (grenata, 2014). these prevailing conditions would definitely show a negative influence on the instructional quality in schools, which may translate into poor attitudes and values, and low academic performance of students in secondary schools. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 13 ayeni and afolabi (2012), stated that the teacher’s role in the instructional process is sine qua non, the teacher is expected to provide essential inputs like adequate planning of lesson notes, effective delivery of lessons, proper monitoring and evaluation of students’ performance, providing regular feed-back on students’ performance, improvisation of instructional materials, adequate keeping of records and appropriate discipline of students to produce and enhance expected learning achievement in secondary schools, all of which forms part of teachers’ workloads on a daily basis. however, the poor condition of learning infrastructure and lack of instructional materials impede effective teaching-learning process. poor academic performance of students in nigeria has been further linked to poor teachers’ performance in terms of accomplishing the teaching tasks, negative attitude to work and poor teaching habits (ofoegbu 2004). 6. statement of the problem teachers’ instructional workloads determine to a great extent the level of students’ academic performance and the quality of education. however, there is a general public outcry over the deteriorating level of quality of education as reflected in the low level of students’ academic performance in wassce which is often below 50% in nigeria. the perceived inequality in workload distribution has the potential to create feelings among teachers who have excess workloads that they are being treated unfairly. this could be partly attributed to non compliance with workload policy resulting in overstretching the available teaching staff strength in varying dimensions; almost all official time is devoted to the classroom instruction. in reality; such feelings impede and lower the standard of instructional tasks performances and students’ academic achievement. the craziness for profit-making over standard among many private investors in education with their erroneous orientation of “the more students’ population, the more money realized” with little consideration for instructional technology and adequate number of teachers impede the quality education. the identified gaps portend serious danger for the education system and perhaps been responsible for the inadequacies in teachers’ instructional tasks performance and low academic performance of students in nigerian secondary schools. this study therefore sets out to investigate the criteria used by principals in allocating instructional workloads to teachers and examine its adequacy or otherwise, with a view to determining the implication on teachers’ instructional tasks performance and students’ academic performance in secondary schools, using akoko north east local government area of ondo state, nigeria as a case study. 7. research questions i. what are teachers’ perceptions on workload allocation in secondary schools? ii. what are the factors influencing teachers’ workload in secondary schools? iii. are teachers’ actual workloads consistent with workload policy standard? iv. what types of class size exist in secondary schools? v. how are workloads distributed to teachers in secondary schools? vi. what is the difference between public and private teachers’ workloads in secondary schools? vii. what are teachers’ perceptions of tasks performance in secondary schools? viii. what intervention strategies are provided to improve teachers’ workload? 8. research hypotheses i. there is no significant relationship between teachers’ workload and students’ academic performance in secondary schools in akoko north east local government area of ondo state, nigeria. ii. there is no significant relationship between teachers’ workload distribution and workload implementation in secondary schools. iii. there is no significant relationship between class size and teachers’ workload in secondary schools in akoko north east local government. iv. there is no significant difference between actual teachers’ workload and workload standard in secondary schools . v. there is no significant difference between teachers’ workload in public and private secondary schools in akoko north east local government. 9. research method the study adopted the descriptive design of the survey type. the researcher used stratified random sampling to select 12 secondary schools (6 public and 6 private) which represented about 40% of the entire secondary schools in akoko north-east local government area. a total of 120 respondents were randomly selected, with a random www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 14 selection of 10 teachers in each of the 12 schools that were sampled for the study. the principals of the 12 schools were purposively selected. data was collected using self-developed questionnaire titled: “teachers’ workload and students’ academic performance questionnaire (twsapq). a 5point likert scale was adopted to elicit information from the respondents, using strongly agree (sa), agree (a), fairly agree (fa), disagree (d), and strongly disagree (sd) with the value of 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 respectively. the questionnaire was divided into sections a-h which included a profoma which was used to collect data on students’ academic performance. the questionnaire was validated both in face and content by experts in the department of educational management, adekunle ajasin university, akungbaakoko, ondo state, nigeria. the test-retest method was used to determine the suitability of the research instrument while cronbach’s alpha was used in determining the internal consistency of the research instrument, which yielded a coefficient of r = 0.84. the research instrument was administered on principals and teachers in the selected schools by the researchers. in a bid to achieve a 100% rate of return of questionnaires, the researchers waited while respondents filled the questionnaires, also phone contacts of those who could not fill the questionnaires at the spot were collected and appointments for the collection of the completed questionnaires were made. descriptive statistics (frequency counts, percentage and multiple bar charts) were employed to present responses on the research questions, while pearson product moment correlation (ppmc) and t-test were used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. 10. results the results and discussions of data analyses are presented in two parts based on the research questions and hypotheses that were formulated for the study. data collected on research questions were analyzed using frequency count and percentage, while hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using pearson product moment correlation coefficient (ppmcc), and t-test statistics. the results are presented in tables 1 – 13. research question 1. what are teachers’ perceptions on their workload allocation? table 1, teachers’ perceptions on workload allocation in secondary schools s/n items sa a fa d sd total 1 your workload as a teacher is very high freq. 55 (47.5) 34 (28.3) 18 (15.0) 7 (5.8) 4 (3.3) 120 (100) % 2 you often carry over undone tasks to the next day freq. 23 (19.2) 31 (25.8) 23 (19.2) 27 (22.5) 16 (13.3) 120 (100) % 3 you do some of your official work at home freq. 46 (38.3) 63 (52.5) 4 (3.3) 3 (2.5) 4 (3.3) 120 (100) % 4 duties are always delegated to you in particular freq. 31 (25.8) 46 (38.3) 18 (15.0) 13 (10.8) 12 (10.0) 120 (100) % 5 your administrative duties affect the quality of your instruction freq. 21 (17.5) 15 (12.5) 21 (16.7) 40 (33.3) 24 (20.0) 120 (100) % source: field survey the analysis of data in table 1 and figure 1 on teachers’ workloads revealed that the percentage points recorded for strongly agree (17.5 47.5%) and agree (12.5 – 52.5%) were greater than the percentages recorded in fairly agree (3.3 19.2%), disagree (2.5 – 33.3%) and strongly disagree (3.3% 20%). these indicated that most of the teachers’ workloads were very high as reflected in percentage points of strongly agree and agree responses combined in items 1, 3 and 4. research question 2. what are the factors influencing teachers’ workload in secondary schools? table 2. factors influencing teachers’ workload in secondary schools s/n items sa a fa d sd total www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 15 1 you set goals for yourself and achieve them freq. 56 (46.7) 58 (48.3) 2 (1.7) 1 (0.8) 3 (2.5) 120 (100) % 2 parents usually hold you accountable for the performance of their wards freq. 27 (22.5) 49 (40.8) 19 (15.8) 17 (14.2) 8 (6.7) 120 (100) % 3 protocols and bureaucracies makes tasks burdensome freq. 24 (20.0) 34 (28.3) 29 (24.2) 25 (20.8) 8 (6.7) 120 (100) % 4 frequent supervision makes tasks more demanding freq. 31 (25.8) 62 (51.7) 7 (5.8) 17 (14.2) 3 (2.5) 120 (100) % 5 the new curriculum influenced your workload freq. 38 (31.7) 58 (48.3) 10 (8.3) 11 (9.2) 3 (2.5) 120 (100) % 6 frequent changes in school policies influence your workload freq. 50 (41.7) 46 (38.3) 8 (6.7) 10 (8.3) 6 (5.0) 120 (100) % source: field survey the analysis of data in table 2 on factors influencing teachers’ workloads revealed the following percentage points strongly agree (20.0 – 46.7%), agree (28.3 – 51.7%), fairly agree (1.7 24.2%), disagree (0.8 – 20.8%) and strongly disagree (2.5 6.7%). these indicated that most of the teachers worked under strict supervision as reflected in percentage points of strongly agreed (25.8%) and agreed (51.7%) in item 4, while changes in school policy had serious implications on teachers’ workload as indicated in strongly agreed (41.7%) and agreed (38.3%) in item 6. research question 3. are teachers’ actual workloads consistent with national workload standard? table 3. analysis of teachers’ workload standard no. of period allocatedper week. no. of teachers involved. % remarks 1-5 4 3.33 low 6-10 10 12.0 low 11-15 16 13.3 low 16-20 25 20.8 moderate 21-25 44 36.67 moderate 26-30 11 9.16 outrageous 31-35 3 2.5 outrageous 36-40 5 6.0 outrageous 41-45 2 1.66 outrageous total 120 100% source: field survey the analysis of data in table 3 on national workload standard revealed that teachers’ workload are not evenly distributed while 25.0% of teachers have their workload below the specified standard of 15-25 periods per week. this implied that there is no absolute compliance with the expected workload standard in secondary schools. research question 4. what type of class size exists in secondary schools? table 4. class size and teachers’ workload s/n items sa a fa d sd total 1 high level of infrastructure means fewer work to do freq. 43 (35.8) 44 (36.7) 5 (4.2) 11 (9.2) 17 (14.2) 120 (100) % 2 having large classes increases freq. 65 34 8 7 6 120 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 16 your work demands % (54.2) (28.3) (6.7) (5.8) (5.0) (100) 3 inaccessibility and proximity to school learning facilities influence your work intensity freq. 55 (45.8) 45 (37.5) 11 (9.2) 7 (5.8) 2 (1.7) 120 (100) % 4 the school needs more learning infrastructure to improve teacher workload freq. 75 (62.5) 33 (27.5) 4 (3.3) 5 (4.2) 3 (2.5) 120 (100) % 5 you devote more time on larger classes than smaller classes freq. 55 (45.8) 31 (25.8) 7 (5.8) 10 (8.3) 17 (14.2) 120 (100) % source: field survey the analysis of data in table 4 on class size and teachers’ workload revealed that the work demands of most teachers increased as they taught large classes as revealed in strongly agreed (54.2%) and agreed (28.3%) in item 2. large classes take more instructional time than smaller classes as revealed in strongly agreed (45.8%) and agreed (25.8%) in item 5. research question 5. how are workloads distributed to teachers? table 5. principals’ responses on workload distribution to teachers. s/n items yes no total 1 there is no general teacher workload policy standards freq. 6 (50.0) 6 (50.0) 12 (100) % 2 male teachers are assigned more tasks than female teachers freq. 7 (58.3) 5 (41.7) 12 (100) % 3 the salary that a teacher receives determine the workload freq. 6 (50.0) 6 (50.0) 12 (100) % 4 you consider teacher experience in assigning duties freq. 8 (66.7) 4 (33.3) 12 (100) % 5 age factor is considered in workload distribution freq. 7 (58.3) 5 (41.7) 12 (100) % source: field survey the analysis of data on table 5 revealed that 50% of principals have awareness of workload policy. 58.3% male teachers were assigned more tasks in most of the schools. 66.7% teachers’ years of experience determined workload allocation in most schools. research question 6. what is the difference between public and private school teachers’ workload? table 6. teachers’ workload distribution in private and public secondary schools type of school number of periods taught in a week number of teachers involved. average workload public 1145 60 19 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 17 private 1253 60 21 source: field survey data analysis on table 6 showed that teachers in private schools have a higher workload compared to teachers in public schools on a weekly basis. teachers in public secondary schools have an average of 19 periods per week while teachers in the private secondary schools have an average of 21 periods per week. on a general note, workloads of private school teachers are higher than public school teachers. research question 7. what are teachers’ perceptions of tasks performance in secondary schools? table 7. teachers’ perception on tasks performance in secondary schools s/n items necessary % unnecessary % tiring % time consuming % 1 teaching activities 22 (5.8) 2 (1.6) 2 (1.6) 94 (75.8) 2 recording, inputting data analysis 11 (6.5) 1 (0.8) 36 (26.7) 75 (62.5) 3 marking of students scripts 13 (18.3) (16.7) 92 (76.7) 6 (5.0) 4 administration and supports 106 (88.3) 4.8 4.0 2.5 5 staff meetings 102 (82.3) 3 (2.4) 3 (2.4) 5 (9.6) 6 reporting on student progress 107 (86.3) 5 (4.0) 2 (3.2) 2 (3.2) 7 curriculum review initiative 103 (83.1) 9 (7.3) 2 (3.2) 2 (3.2) 8 improvisation of instructional materials 96 (77.4) 5 (4.0) 1 (2.4) 9 (12.9) 9 co-curricular activities 89 (71.8) 6 (6.5) 8 (9.2) 2 (3.2) 10 feedback to parents and home contact 87 (70.2) 19 (15.3) 6 (7.2) 4.0 11 disciplinary works 97 (78.2) 17 (13.7) 2 (2.4) 2 (2.4) 12 supervising lunch/break times 69 (55.6) 36 (29.0) 6 (5.6) 8 (6.5) 13 guard duties 79 (63.1) 27 (21.8) 9 (8.1) 4 (3.2) 14 assembly function 98 (79.0) 16 (12.9) 3 (2.4) 3 (2.4) 15 completing incidence/ad-hoc report 83 (66.9) 22 (17.7) 7 (6.2) 6 (4.8) 16 pre-term briefings 88 (71.0) 19 (15.3) 6 (4.8) 7 (5.6) 17 invigilation of external examinations 82 (66.1) 28 (22.6) 2 (1.6) 5 (6.4) 18 collection of fees/dues 38 (30.6) 79 (63.7) 2 (1.6) 1 (0.8) www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 18 source: field survey result of data analysis on table 7 revealed critical areas of teachers’ overload with the following percentage points: teaching considered to be time consuming (75.8%), data imputation is time consuming (62.5%), and marking of students’ scripts is tiring (76.7%). figure 1. component bar chart on teachers’ perception on tasks performance. research question 8. what intervention strategies are provided in tackling teachers’ excess workload? table 8. intervention strategies for tackling teachers’ excess workload s/n items adequate % inadequate % 1 modifying marking requirements. 93(75.0) 27 (21.8) 2 reduction of administrative duties. 84 (67.7) 36 (29.0) 3 employing teachers to fill vacant positions. 91 (73.4) 29 (22.6) 4 hiring part-time teachers. 59 (46.8) 61 (49.2) 5 improving teamwork among teachers and across departments. 95 (76.6) 25 (20.2) 6 clarification of goals by school heads. 101 (81.5) 19 (15.5) www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 19 7 reviewing remuneration packages. 67 (54.0) 53 (42.7) 8 encouraging parent involvement and support services. 93 (75.0) 27 (21.8) 9 improvement of information technology systems. 84 (67.7) 36 (29.0) source: field survey the analysis of data in table 8 revealed that modification of marking requirements were adequate (75.0%), reduction of administrative duties were adequate (67.7%), team work across staff and departments was adequate (76.6%), clarification of school goals by school heads reduced teachers’ workload (81.5%). parental involvement reduced teachers’ workload (75.0%) and improvement in information technology systems enhanced teachers’ workload (67.7%). hypothesis 1. there is no significant relationship between teachers’ workload and students’ academic performance in secondary schools. table 9. relationship between teachers’ workload and students’ academic performance variables n mean sd r-cal r-crit p<0.05 teachers’ workload 120 20.3700 7.82724 -0.420 0.256 0.000 students’ academic performance 120 60.7600 12.11320 p<0.05 results of data analyzed on table 9 shows a negative correlation between teachers’ workload and students’ academic performance (r-cal=-0.420< r-crit=0.256) at df 118 at p<0.05 alpha level. therefore the null hypothesis that there is no significant relationship between teachers’ workload and students’ academic performance is accepted. hypothesis 2: there is no significant relationship between workload distribution and workload implementation in secondary schools. table 10. relationship between workload distribution and level of workload implementation variables n mean sd r-cal r-crit p<0.05 workload distribution 120 27.0583 9.37662 0.211 0.11 0.021 workload implementation 120 12.8667 4.01872 p<0.05 the result on table 10 showed that the calculated r-value (0.211) is greater than r-critical value (0.11) at p<0.05 is significant. hence, the null hypothesis (ho) is rejected while the alternate hypothesis (ha) is accepted. this implied that there is significant relationship between teachers' distribution and workload implementation. hypothesis 3. there is no significant relationship between class size and teachers’ workload in secondary schools. table 11. relationship between class size and teachers’ workload in secondary schools variables n mean sd df r-cal r-crit p<0.05 teacher workload 120 27.0583 9.37662 118 0.096 0.139 0.296 class size infrastructure 120 9.6417 3.96581 p<0.05 the result on table 11 showed that the calculated r-value (0.096) is less than r-critical value (0.139) at p<0.05 is not significant. hence, the null hypothesis (ho) is accepted while the alternate hypothesis (ha) is rejected. this implied that there is no significant relationship between teachers' workload and class size. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 20 hypothesis 4: there is no significant difference between teachers’actual workload and workload standard in secondary schools. table 12. test of difference between teachers’ actual workload and workload standard variables n mean sd df t-cal t-crit p<0.05 teacher actual workload 120 20.1261 7.66519 118 27.219 2.052 .000 workload standard 120 1.0000 .00000 p<0.05 the result on table 12 indicated that there was a significant difference (t-cal= 27.219> t-crit= 2.052) at 118 degree of freedom and at 0.05 level of significance. hence, the null hypothesis (ho2) is rejected while the alternate hypothesis (ha) is accepted. this implied that there is significant difference between teacher actual workload and workload standard. hypothesis 5: there is no significant difference between teachers’ workload in public and private secondary schools. table 13. test of difference between teachers’ workload in public and private schools type of school n mean sd t-cal t-crit p<0.05 workload public 60 25.3833 8.72381 2.364 1.964 0.20 private 60 29.2931 9.24332 p<0.05 results of data analyzed on table 13 above showed a significant difference in teachers’ workload between private and public secondary schools (t-cal=2.264>t-tab=1.96) at 118 degree of freedom and at 0.05 level of significance. the hypothesis that there is no significant difference in the workload of teachers between public and private secondary schools is rejected, while the alternate hypothesis is accepted. 11. discussion of findings the result of data analysis on hypothesis one showed a negative correlation between teachers’ workload and students’ academic performance (r-cal= -0.420). this implied that teachers’ workloads have increased beyond their capacity and students’ academic performance is relatively low. the excess workload overstretched teachers’ instructional tasks and account for the low academic performance of students due to the inadequacies inherent in teachers workload.. this finding agrees with those of naylor and malcolmson (2001) who reported that teachers had to adjust their teaching methods to enable them cope with the pressure of the workload. the finding from this study also agrees with the findings of nwikina and nwanekezi (2010) that in the federal capital territory (abuja), teachers’ high workload hindered students’ academic performance but when workload was reduced, students’ performance improved. the study by olaoye (2012) on the relationship between teachers’ workload and students’ academic performance indicated a negative coefficient of r= -0.235. the contrast was attributed to teachers’ inability to cover the school syllabus and improper teaching due to the myriad of responsibilities assigned to teachers. the implication is that students who repeat a class create additional tasks for teachers. the result of data analysis on hypothesis two revealed a relationship between workload distribution and the level of workload implementation (r-cal=0.211). the ineffective implementation of teachers’ workload affects instructional task performance. also, supervisory pressure, large class size and unstable workload distribution policy increase teachers’ workloads. accountability to parents and school administrators increased workload pressure for many teachers. the demand for in-depth reports by parents and other authorities are very intense and stressful for teachers. the analysis of data in table 7 indicated that 75.8% of teachers perceived teaching as time consuming, while keeping of students’ data is highly demanding (86.3%), and marking of scripts also seen to be a demanding task (76.7%). this finding corroborated the finding by kolawole (1982) that a negative relationship exists between the class size and students’ academic performance. teachers’ workload becomes much more acute when class sizes are too large. this result further agrees with the findings of goodrum, hackling and rennie (2001) which showed a correlation between class www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 21 size and the quality of teaching and learning among schools in australia. again, findings of this study agree with asiyai and ajudeonu (2010) who reported that large class size has a lot of negative effects on teaching and learning quality in public secondary schools in delta state, nigeria. this has perhaps been responsible for the cases of examination malpractices, violence and barbaric characters among students in secondary schools. on the issue of teachers’ workload standards, there is a gap. teachers’actual workload in the area of study was significantly different from the workload standards. this is corroborated by the findings of nwikina and nwanekezi (2010) who found that the disparity in workload standards inhibited the academic performance of junior secondary schools (jss) students in the federal capital territory, abuja, nigeria. the result of data analysis also revealed that workload policy is not strictly adhered to. some teachers are allocated less than the minimum teaching periods while others have more than the maximum. in the area of study, teachers taught 20 periods per week on the average which is considered moderate as indicated on table 3. however, there are teachers who taught 40 periods weekly, such teachers take more than one subjects, which requires additional planning of lesson notes, improvisation of instructional materials and marking of students’ scripts. unequal distribution of workload is a function of insufficient teaching staff strength (tss), especially in core subject area like mathematics, english language and some science subjects like biology, physics as well as newly introduced subjects like animal husbandry and civic education. this is evident in table 7 on teachers’ perception of teaching as time consuming (75.8%), data imputation also felt to be time consuming (62.5%), and marking of students’ scripts seen to be stressful (76.7%). the reason why the workload of private school teachers outnumbered that of public school is centered on the unavailability of capital or funds in providing necessary human and other learning resource (teachers, classrooms, and equipment). this often results in over-utilization of available resources in order to make profit at all cost. the quality of education is jeopardized; hence a higher workload in private schools is expected as found in this study. most often than not, a private school teacher teaches about four school subjects and handles about six classes coupled with some administrative duties. with this in perspective, the academic performance of private schools is also doubtful because the excess workloads impede quality service delivery. 12. conclusion the issue of teachers’ workload is hinged on the increasing demand for education and the inadequate number of teachers to carry the excess workload. it has been established through empirical findings that teachers’ workload is an indicator in measuring teachers’ instructional performance and students’ academic performance. it is evident in the study that teachers are overwhelmed with excessive workload as school managers usually combine classes thereby having class size of over 60 as against 40 students per class, which negates the national teacher workload standards. this has perhaps been responsible for the poor implementation of curriculum and low academic performance of students in secondary schools. 13. recommendations based on the findings of the researcher, the following recommendations were made. i. the government and other proprietors should employ adequate number of qualified teachers to improve the quality of teaching-learning process in secondary schools. ii. principals should review workload distribution on a periodic basis to ensure equitable distribution of tasks to teachers and shed off unnecessary duties from teachers’ workload. iii. teachers who teach core subjects such as mathematics and english language or perhaps any subject that has a few number of teaching staff should be relieved of administrative tasks. in addition, the coverage of topics may be shared among the available teachers in related subjects so that no teacher is overloaded unnecessarily. iv. government and other proprietors should provide adequate learning facilities and maximize the use of information and communication technology in large classes to reduce teachers’ workload. v. data entry clerks should be employed in secondary schools that will be responsible in inputting data and analyzing terminal scores in order to shed off burden on teachers. vi. operators of private schools should consider the carrying capacity of their schools in making decisions on increasing enrolments hence, they should be quality conscious. references asiyai, r. i. & ajudeonu, h. (2010). effects of school population and class size on the academic performance of secondary school students in delta state, nigeria. nigerian journal of educational administration and planning, 1(10), 221231. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 22 ayeni, a. j. & afolabi, e.r.i. (2012). teachers’ instructional task performance and quality assurance of students’ learning outcome in nigerian secondary school, international journal of research studies in educational technology, 1(1)2243-7738. easthope, c. & easthope, g. (2000) intensification, extension and complexity of teachers' workload. british journal of sociology of education, 21, 1, 43-58. federal republic of nigeria (2013). national policy on education. lagos: national educational research and development council. federal republic of nigeria (1990). nigeria teachers’ service manual. lagos: federal ministry of education.. françoise, d. & winterton, j. (2005). what is competence? human resource development international, 8(1), 2746. doi: 10.1080/1367886042000338227 goodrum, g., hackling, b. & rennie, s. (2001). the status and quality of teaching and learning of science in australian school. canberra: department of education, training and youth affair, common wealth of australia. grenata, (2014). teacher stress and disengagement impacts on students’ performance, education world. retrieved june 7 2015, from http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/teacher-stress-impacts-student performance.shtml halim, l. m., diane, r., catherine, t. & shrout, p. e. (2012). rigidity in gender-typed behaviors in early childhood: a longitudinal study of ethnic minority children. child development, 0(40), 1-16. kolawole, s. k. (1982). impact of class size on student’s achievement in secondary schools in ibadan. unpublished m.ed. thesis, university of ibadan. ksenia, z. (2012). taking the strain: the impact of musculoskeletal disorders on work and home life. retrieved from http://www.vra-uk.org/node marina, z. (2012). job factors related to musculoskeletal symptoms among nursing personnel. a review, 41, 25162520. mbugua, z. k., muthaa, g. m., kibet, k. g., & nkonke, g. r. (2012). factors contributing to students’ poor performance in mathematics at kenya certificate of secondary education in kenya: a case of baringo county, kenya. american international journal of contemporary research, 2(6), 10-17. naylor, c. & malcomson, j. d. (2001). a study of workload of english teachers in b.c. secondary grades. bctr research report. rto 1-0036 16-17. nwikina, l. & nwanekezi, a. (2010). management of job-related teacher burnout in nigerian schools. academic arena, 2(7), 23-34. ofoegbu, f. i. (2004). teacher motivation: a factor for classroom effectiveness and school improvement in nigeria. gale group. retrieved from http://www.findarticles.com olaoye, a. a. (2012). preparation and availability of nce mathematics teachers in nigerian teacher education. book of proceedings of the national conference organized by faculty of education, university of abuja, nigeria. osim, r. o. (2009). school quality, principals’ administrative characteristics and secondary school teachers’ task performance in cross river state. nigeria. unpublished ph.d thesis, faculty of education, university of calabar. razmjou, s. (1996). mental workload in heat: toward a framework for analyses of stress states. aviation, space, and environmental medicine, 67(6), 530-538. staal, m. a. (2004). stress, cognition, and human performance: a literature review and conceptual framework, ames research center, moffett field, california. sultana, b., bano, y., bano, f. & shafa, m. d. (2012). the nature and impact of teacher stress in the private schools of gilgit-baltistan, pakistan. international journal of academic research in progressive education and development, 1(2), 64-84. ukeje, b. o. (1992). educational administration. enugu: fourth dimension publishing company ltd. vroom, v. h. (1964). work and motivation. oxford, england: wiley wosyanju, m. g. (2005). assessment of large classes. a paper presented at the 31st annual conference of international association for educational assessment, abuja, september 4th -9 th . copyrights https://doi.org/10.1080/1367886042000338227 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 1, no. 1; 2018 23 copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). american international journal of education and linguistics research; vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995 published by american center of science and education, usa 34 consonant insertion in iyinno: a critique abiodun samuel ibikunle department of linguistics and languages adekunle ajasin university akungba akoko, ondo state, nigeria e-mail: abiodun.ibikunle@aaua.edu.ng nureni oluwaseyi bakre modibbo adama university of technology, yola adamawa state, nigeria e-mail: bakrenureni8@gmail.com o̩lalekan malik adebayo department of linguistics and languages adekunle ajasin university akungba akoko, ondo state, nigeria e-mail: leklinguist97@gmail.com abstract unlike vowel insertion (epenthesis), consonant insertion is a rare occurrence in languages. it is against this backdrop that this study examines the occurrence of consonant insertion in i ̩̀ yí̩̩̀ nnò̩ ̩́ as claimed by ibikunle (2008:122). he (ibikunle 2008:122) claimed that, there is an insertion of voiced bilabial nasal [m] between two nouns while combining them to form new words. this paper shows that, the voiced bilabial nasal [m] found between two nouns in the lect is not the case of consonant insertion but rather, an associative morpheme (a genitive marker) [mὲ] which has lost its vocalic anchor as a result of hiatus resolution across morpheme boundary. also, our study reveals that, after [mέ] has lost its vocalic anchor, the nasal feature of [m] got transferred to the (oral) v1 of the second noun across morpheme boundary. keywords: epenthesis; associative morpheme; vocalic anchor; hiatus, possession. 1. introduction i ̩̀ yí̩̩̀ nnò̩ ̩́ also known as i ̩̀ í̩̩̀ nó̩̩̀ , is a lect of aika 1 spoken in ayánrán, a linguistic community in ondo state, nigeria. by the west, ayánrán is bounded by ìse ̩̀ and ìsùà to the south, both located in akoko south-east local government area of ondo state, nigeria. to the north, we have ìkiràn-òkè and ìkirà-ile. by the east, we have ìbílò and ìkákumò̩ ò̩ láyè̩ le according to oyebade (2004:73), consonant insertion is not common in languages. also, researches show that any language that seems to have such, need to be carefully examined by looking at the occurrence of the consonant in question, that the consonant must have lost its vocalic anchor, which might be as a result of hiatus resolution across morpheme boundary and at the same time, has a grammatical or lexical function(s) it performs in the construction. however, ibikunle (2008:112) argues that whenever two (2) nouns are combined to create possessions in i ̩̀ yí̩̩̀ nnó̩̩̀ , there will be voiced bilabial nasal [m] insertion. this paper sees this as a rare occurrence and hereby challenges it by exploring the situation with a different view. 2. the claim according to ibikunle (2008:112), there is insertion of voiced bilabial nasal [m] in i ̩̀ yí̩̩̀ nnó̩̩̀ whenever two (2) nouns are combined to create possessive constructions. 1 although arohunmolase et al (2006a), salfnner (2009) and a host of others use ukann/ikaan instead of àíka in their research. but recently, àíka has been used by other scholars. it is an acronym made up of the initials of the villages where the lect is spoken i.e. ayánrán-ìs̩̀ è̩ -kákùmò̩ -àúga (abiodun 1999, elugbe 2001). mailto:abiodun.ibikunle@aaua.edu.ng mailto:bakrenureni8@gmail.com mailto:leklinguist97@gmail.com www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 35 the data he used to buttress his points are presented thus: 1. (a) [ὲnͻ̩́] [àháɪ ̩́] [ὲnͻ̩́mã háɪ ] “animal” meat farm (b) [aʃʊ̩́ ] [itítí] [aʃʊ̩́mɪ títí] “titi’s feaces” feaces titi (c) [aʃʊ̩́ ] [ehú] [aʃʊ̩́me hú] “rice” feaces rat (d) [ɪ ʃͻ̩́] [ikέhi dé] [ɪ ʃͻ̩́mi kέhi de] “kè̩ hinde’s head” head kè̩ hinde (e) [àháɪ ̩́] [ͻlá] [àháɪ ̩́mͻ lá] “farm” farm ò̩ lá (f) [òrù] [ufúdʒídʒí] [òrùmu fúdʒídʒí] “snake’s tail” tail snake (g) [èʃìgè] [ejú] [èʃìgème jú] “friend’s house” house friend (h) [èdédé] [umͻ̩́] [èdédému mͻ̩́] “water pot” pot water (i) [èrùrù] [ὲmà] [èrùrùmε mà] “tortoise’s heart heart tortoise 3. interrogating the claim the assumption that a voiced bilabial nasal [m] is inserted between two (2) nouns while combining them to form possessions in i ̩̀ yí̩̩̀ nnò̩ ̩́ by ibikunle (2008:11) is phonologically unacceptable. our study shows that the voiced bilabial nasal [m] found at the right side of the arrow is not the case of consonant insertion but rather, an associative morpheme (a genitive marker) [mὲ] which has lost its vocalic anchor as a result of hiatus resolution across morpheme boundaries. this is shown in (2) below: 2. (a) ὲnͻ̩́ mὲ àháɪ ̩́ [ὲnͻ̩́mã háɪ ̩́] “animal” meat gen. farm (b) àʃʊ̩́ mὲ itítí [àʃʊ̩́mĩtítí] “titis feaces” feaces gen. títí (c) àʃʊ̩́ mὲ ehú [àʃʊ̩́me hú] “rice” feaces gen. rat (d) ɪ ʃͻ̩́ mὲ ikέhɪ dé [ɪ ʃͻ̩́mi kέhɪ dé] “kè̩ hinde’s head” www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 36 head gen. kehinde (e) àháɪ ̩́ mὲ ͻlá [àháɪ ̩́mͻ lá] “ola’s farm” farm gen. ò̩ lá (f) òrù mὲ ufudʒidʒi [òrùmu fúdʒídʒí] “snake’s tail” tail gen. snake (g) èʃìgè mὲ ejú [èʃìgème jú] “friend’s house” house gen. friend (h) èdédé mὲ umͻ̩́ [èdédému mͻ̩́] “water pot” pot gen. water (j) èrùrù mὲ ὲmà [èrùrùmε mà] “tortoise’s heart heart gen. tortoise from the data above, we could see that the voice bilabial nasal [m] found in between the two (2) nouns in each data is not the case of consonant insertion but rather, it is a morpheme (genitive) on its own, which is affixed to indicate possession in the lect. furthermore, it can be deduced that the genitive marker [mὲ] lost its vocalic anchor as a result of hiatus resolution across morpheme boundaries, and then the nasal feature of the consonant got transferred to the (oral) v1 of the second noun across morphemes. this paper will be an incomplete and controversial one without indicating how we derived the original vowel ([ὲ]) of the voiced bilabial nasal. this is explained with the aid of the data below: 3. (a) [ὲnͻ̩́] “meat” [ʊmͻ̩́] “water” it was observed that, when the speakers want to show that the “meat comes from the water not from the bush” they will add the morpheme [mὲ] (in form of emphasis) to show that the meat is from the water. this is shown below; (b) / ὲnͻ̩́ mὲ ʊmͻ̩́ / [ὲnͻ̩́mʊ mͻ̩́] “fish” meat ‘that comes from’ water also, the example in (4) buttresses the point above; 4. /mὲ àʃèi / [ma ʃèi ] “that of egg” of egg /mὲ ejú/ [me jú] “that of house of house it was from these instances we derived the vowel [ὲ] for the voiced bilabial nasal [m] for the lect. most importantly, whenever a consonant initial noun is emphasized like what is obtained in 4 above, the morpheme {mɛ } shows up while its vowel invariably survive as shown below: 5. /mὲ músù/ [mɛ músù] “that of cat” of cat /mὲ kpɛ̩́kpɛ̩́jɛ/ [mɛ kpɛ̩́kpɛ̩́jɛ] “that of duck” of duck www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 37 4. conclusion this paper has shown that it is not valid to argue that there is consonant insertion in i ̩̀ yí̩̩̀ nnò̩ ̩́ as claimed by ibikunle (2008:112). there are two major arguments proposed to debunk this claim: first, the proposed consonant that is inserted between the nouns is not a consonant but a morpheme which indicates possession and lost its vocalic anchor as a result of hiatus resolution across morpheme boundaries. second, literature has it that consonant insertion is not common in languages like vowel insertion. references arohunmolase, o. ( 2006).a brief linguistics desription of ìígau and ìyínno ̩́ and the outline of the social and historical situation of the languages and their communities. ondo:lekoba publishers. elugbe, b. (2001). the classification of akpes and àíka(unpublished). ibikunle. (2008). aspect of phonology of ayánrán. project work submitted to the department of linguistics & languages, adekunle. ajasin. university. akungba. ibikunle. (2014). an autosegmental phonology of ìyínnó̩̩̀ . unpublshed m.a. project submitted to the department of linguistics & african languages, university of ibadan, ibadan. oyebade, f. (2008). a course in phonology. ijebu ode: shebiotimo publications. salffner, s. (2009). tone in the phonology, lexicon and grammar of ukaan. phd dissertation london: university of london. copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995 published by american center of science and education, usa 29 knowledge and perception of secondary school teachers on global warming in ibadan oyo state, nigeria samuel olanrewaju oladapo adekunle ajasin university akungba akoko, nigeria e-mail: lanree2007@gmail.com abstract this study examines the knowledge level of teachers in ibadan on global warming, the factors influence it and how they perceived it. questionnaire was used as the main instrument for data collection. it was designed to elicit information on the basis of research questions set for this study. a total number of 450 teachers were used as the sample size. descriptive statistics such as simple percentages and frequency counts were used in the analysis of the research data collected. the study revealed that teachers have knowledge on global warming and aware of its threat to human existence. it was observed that the source of their knowledge on global warming by teachers include the media and attendance at conferences and workshops. as a result of the above findings, it was recommended that efforts should be made to make relevant and up-to-date information on global warming available to the teachers. emphasis should be made to make the teachers participate in programmes that address adaptation policies on global warming. keywords: global warming, knowledge, awareness, teachers. 1. background of the problem global warming constitutes one of the 21st century key challenges to development the world over (undp, 2007). as such, global warming have become issues of global concern in the recent decades. this is evidenced by the flurry of conferences, campaigns, reports and researches on this subject since the rio earth summit in 1992. while there are natural causes of global warming, the current warring trend has been largely blamed on human activities mainly the burning of fossil fuels, industrial pollution, deforestation, and land use changes (ipcc, 2007; canadel , 2010; weart, 2010). all these anthropogenic activities either increase the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (canadel 2010), as is the case of combustion of fossil fuel and industrial pollution, or interfere with the absorption of carbon by terrestrial sinks (ipcc, 2007), as is the case of deforestation and land use changes, leading to global warming. global warming is, quite literally, when temperatures of the world's atmosphere rises. between the periods 19562005, the average earth's temperature rose and 13°c per decade. this might not seem like much, but it was double the rate for the 100 years from 1906 to 2005. temperatures in colder areas, like the arctic, rose twice as fast as the average. the increase of temperatures on the land doesn't tell the full story. that's because the ocean absorbed 80% of the heat. this has led to the ice caps melting at a rate of 2.7% per decade since 1978. it also caused sea level to rise at an average rate of 3.11mm per year between the periods 1993-2003, nearly double the rate between the periods 1961-2003 (ipcc climate change 2007). scientific and government organizations have agreed that global warming is caused by a man-made increase in greenhouse gases, which include carbon dioxide, hydrofluorocarbons (hfcs) and perfluorocarbons (pfcs). it is one major worldwide change that most people do not take into account. global warming which is due to climate change refers to a change in climate that is attributable directly or indirectly to human activities, that alters the atmospheric composition of the earth the result has been the loss of farmlands and conflicts between farmers and herdsmen over ever decreasing land for animal gracing. many different communities, including fishermen, farmers and herdsmen, are now confronted with difficulties arising from climatic changes. nigeria is one of the countries expected to be most affected by the impacts of climate change through sea level rise along her coast line, intensified desertification, erosion and flooding disasters and general land degradation. according to a report in guardian newspaper, nigeria www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 30 lose close to $9 billion as a result of the catastrophe while, at least, 80per cent of the inhabitants of the niger delta will be displaced due to the low level of the oil-rich region (hassan and nhemachena, 2008) the impact of global warming has become obvious in nigeria necessitating the need for adaptation and mitigation at the country level. however, adaptation to and mitigation of global warming and climate change require the public to be fully aware and perceive climate change as a problem of global concern. yet, the vast majority of nigeria is unaware of global warming, there has been alarming fear in the heart of environment experts on the rate at which the temperature of the earth changes. this has brought about global warming, causing diverse degree of damage to man, animals, plants and their environment. this has made nations to meet to agree on how to reduce the human activities that has been identified as a major cause of global warming. despite their awareness of changing weather patterns, people in africa, are poorly informed about global climate change (godfrey, 2009; taderera, 2010). the low level of awareness on global warming across sub-saharan african countries is attributed to limited awareness campaigns on one hand and the fact that african countries have got too many problems ranging from poverty to political conflicts on the other hand hence global warming and climate change is never a priority issue (unfccc, 2007; undp, 2007). contrary results were, however, reported by pugliese and ray (2009) who states that global warming is more likely to be perceived as a serious problem in the developed world than in developing countries, despite developing countries being the most vulnerable to global warming impacts. in nigeria today, some state governments including oyo state government in collaboration with the federal government have begun taking steps to mitigate the effects of global warming in nigeria. even as resources are put together to mitigate global warming, there is need to educate people on what global warming really is. the city of ibadan has been selected as an examination of this trend because of its unprecedented growth in nigeria and ibadan happened to be the capital city of oyo state. analysis shows that the temperatures in ibadan have been increasing at significantly higher rates than its surrounding rural temperatures. the growth of settlements in the capital city of oyo state results to rise in temperature because most common construction materials absorb and retain more of the sun’s heat than natural surfaces in lessdeveloped rural areas. urban heat island in turn, modifies local metrological conditions, such as wind patterns, cloud cover, humidity and rates of precipitation. however, air temperatures in urban areas have been measured to be up to ten degree celsius (18 degree fahrenheit) warmer than the air temperature of their surrounding rural areas (carlowiez, 2009). increasing people’s awareness on global warming through education is an important measure to persuade people at all levels in the community to play an active role in mitigating and adapting to global warming and climate change. it is paramount to assess the teachers’ level of knowledge on global warming since the teachers’ level of knowledge and awareness is likely to influence how they conduct global warming knowledge transfer in the classroom. the government therefore needs to largely educate nigerians on how best to safeguard their lives and properties in the light of global warming in nigeria. this study was designed to fill this gap by assessing the level of global warming knowledge among ibadan teachers. despite all the measures adopted, there seem to be extreme weather changes, which have been as a result of environmental pollution by different strata of society, which involve both literate and illiterate. it is essential that without the knowledge of a problem there must be no solution insight. therefore, this work is aimed at investigating the knowledge of global warming issues among teachers in ibadan. 2. research questions  what is the level of awareness of teachers on global warming in ibadan?  what factors influence teachers’ level of awareness on global warming?  do teachers in ibadan perceive global warming as a threat? the design for this study is descriptive survey research design. the population for this study comprises of teachers from public and private secondary schools located in ibadan the capital city of oyo state, nigeria. the study targeted a population of secondary school teachers in the study area. the choice of secondary school teachers as the unit of observation was guided by the vital role they could play not only in imparting knowledge of global warming, but also in shaping attitudes and behaviors of the students. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 31 3. sample and sampling technique ibadan was purposively selected as the study area due to its diverse nature of settlement, which gave the researcher the opportunity to collect data from schools, located in the study area. since the population is large, the researcher used simple random sampling technique to select 450 respondents from ten secondary schools in ibadan. the sample for this study comprises of forty-five (45) teachers randomly selected from ten public secondary schools. 3.1 research instrument the main instrument used by the researcher is questionnaire to collect data for this study. the questionnaire consisted of 2 sections labelled a & b. section a consisted of demographic questions. section b consisted of awareness questions to establish respondents’ basic knowledge of global warming issues. a five-point likert scale was used to rate respondents attitude towards various likert items. the questionnaire was drawn to extract information from respondents by circling and ticking appropriate responses from the alternatives provided with the use of “agree (a), strongly agree (sa), disagreed (d), and strongly disagreed (sd)”. 3.2 validity of instrument to ensure validation of instruments, the instrument was given to the supervisor for necessary correction and modification. the corrections made were effected and required copies printed to be administered on the respondents. 3.3 reliability of instrument the reliability coefficient for the instrument was 0.75 which is above average in reliability, therefore the instrument is reliable. these reliability coefficients were considered adequate for the consistencies of the instrument. 4. data analysis the data collected from the respondents were analyzed using spss 20 software. the results were discussed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation, frequency distribution tables and percentages. the data collected from the respondents were analyzed using spss 20 software. the results were discussed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation, frequency distribution tables and percentages. table 1: frequency and percentage distribution of respondents by sex sex frequency percentages male 87 58.0 female 63 42.0 total 150 100.0 table 1 showed that majority 87 (58.0%) of the respondents were males while the remaining 63 (42.0%) were females. research question 1: what is the level of awareness of teachers in ibadan on global warming? table 2: rating of teachers’ awareness on global warming in ado – ekiti awareness level frequency percentage good (8 – 16) 103 68.7 poor (0 -7) 47 31.3 total 150 100.0 the mean awareness score of the respondents was 3.7±0.75. majority (68.7%) of the respondents had a good awareness while only 31.3% have poor awareness of global warming (table 4.6a). www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 32 table 3 : showing level of teachers’ awareness on global warming i table 3 revealed the level of teachers awareness on global warming as follows; 74(48.7%) and 87(58.0%) of the respondents strongly agreed that global warming leads to waterborne diseases informed that global warming is an issue of global concern respectively. while 72(48.0%) and 75(50.0%) of the respondents agreed that the increase of greenhouse gases is mainly caused by human activities and aware that global warming is mainly caused by natural variations respectively. this revealed that the teachers had a good awareness of global warming research question 2: what factors influence teachers’ level of awareness on global warming? table 4: showing factors influence teachers’ level of awareness on global warming in ibadan items sa(%) a(%) d(%) sd(%) mean std. dev. i learn about global warming through seminar, workshop 62(41.3) 86(57.4) 0(0.0) 2(1.3) 3.39 0.57 through electronic media 79(52.0) 56(36.8) 7(4.6) 8(5.3) 3.37 0.81 i heard through people around me 54(36.0) 82(54.7) 14(9.3) 0(0.0) 3.27 0.62 it also talk about in religious places 49(32.7) 84(56.0) 17(11.3) 0(0.0) 3.21 0.63 through home video 0(0.0) 58(38.7) 36(24.0) 56(37.3) 3.13 0.77 * strongly agree (sa), agree (a), disagree (d), strongly disagree (sd) table 4 revealed the factors that influence teachers’ level of awareness on global warming as follows; workshop/seminar(b9) 86(57.4%) agreed with mean and standard deviation score of (3.39 and ± 0.57), television and national radio(b10) 79(52.0%) strongly agreed with mean and standard deviation score of (3.37 and ± 0.81), newspaper magazines, journals/internet(b11) 82(54.7%) agreed with mean and standard deviation score of (3.27 and ± 0.62) while friends/family members, neighbor and coworkers(b12) 84(56.0%) agreed with mean and standard deviation score of (3.21 and ± 0.63) and learning materials (b13) 58(38.7%) agreed with mean and standard deviation score of (3.13 and ± 0.77) respectively. the responded however disagreed that it’s been talked about in worship places items sa(%) a(%) d(%) sd(%) mean std. dev. it leads to water born diseases 74(48.7) 67(44.7) 4(2.7) 5(3.3) 3.40 0.70 it leads to lost of revenue 62(41.3) 72(48.0) 12(8.0) 4(2.7) 3.28 0.72 it reduces farm land 66(44.0) 75(50.0) 9(6.0) 0(0.0) 3.38 0.59 its affects human heailth 87(58.0) 62(41.3) 1(0.7) 0(0.0) 3.57 0.51 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 33 research question 3: do teachers in ibadan perceive global warming as a threat? table 5: showing teachers perception of global warming as a threat in ibadan global warming is a threat because; items sa(%) a(%) d(%) sd(%) mean std. dev. it reduces food production 240(53.3) 210(46.7) 0(0.0) 0(0.0) 3.53 0.50 it leads to ash environment 150(33.3) 270(60.0) 24(5.3) 2(1.4) 9.25 0.62 it brings in many epidemic of new ailment 120(26.7) 258(57.3) 72(16.0) 0(0.0) 9.11 0.65 it’s a threat to human existence 108(24.0) 186(41.3) 156(34.7) 0(0.0) 2.90 0.76 it can reduce life expectancy 120(26.7) 228(50.7) 102(22.7) 0(0.0) 3.04 0.70 it makes weather prediction difficult 126 (28.0) 240(53.3) 84(18.7) 3(0.9) 3.09 0.68 table 5 revealed teachers perception on global warming as a threat as follows; reduces water resources (b14) 80(53.3%) strongly agreed with mean and standard deviation score of (3.53 and ± 0.50), harsh and unfavorable weather condition(b15) 90(60.0%) agreed with mean and standard deviation score of (3.25 and ± 0.62), associated with frequent drought and floods(b16) 86(57.3%) agreed with mean and standard deviation score of (3.11 and ± 0.65) ,while food shortage and extinction of animals(b17) 64(41.3.0%) agreed with mean and standard deviation score of (2.90 and ± 0.76) malnutrition, famine and drought(b18) 76(50.7%) agreed with mean and standard deviation score of (3.04 and ± 0.70) and learning materials (b19) 58(38.7%) agreed with mean and standard deviation score of (3.13 and ± 0.77) respectively. 5. discussion and findings the study revealed the inference into the study of knowledge of global warming among teachers in ibadan. global warming happens as a result of both human activities and a natural change in the environment and that global warming is the change/increase in the world’s average temperature respectively. this revealed that the teachers had a high knowledge of global warming the findings in this study revealed that the teachers in ibadan have knowledge of on global warming. the findings of this study also revealed teachers are strongly aware of global warming in ibadan, they agreed that global warming leads to waterborne diseases informed that global warming is an issue of global concern respectively. the findings of this study affirmed the findings of aluko et al. (2008) who were of the opinion that global warming has significant impact on fragile soil and traditional farming systems which also affect food supply in the market among traders. the factors which influence the level of awareness of global warming among teachers in ibadan are the media, internet/journal. the media can play crucial roles in informing the public about climate change. the findings buttressed by saroar and routray (2010), that access to information determines individual’s knowledge of climate change, which eventually influences behaviour. people who either read newspapers or other related prints, listen to radios, watch tvs, or have access to the internet are more likely to be familiar with climate change than those who do not have access to such media of information. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 34 also the study revealed that teachers in ibadan perceived global warming as threat as it is been associated with drought and flood, food shortage and extinction of animal. the findings also supported by litus (2012) that climate change causes rising temperature, droughts and desertification, heavy precipitations, flooding, rising sea level, extreme weather events such as cyclones, floods and droughts leading to mal-nutrition, waterborne diseases as diarrhea and vector-borne diseases as malaria, drowning, severe mental and physical trauma. 6. recommendation the following recommendations were made from the study:  introduction of environment education in the teacher education system: the curriculum should include environment education as to equip the teachers and their class children on how to be environment friendly and to know the consequence effect of climate change on them. to achieve this curriculum review is required.  organize workshops. regular workshops, seminar, conferences should be organized for teachers as regards climate change and its impacts and ways these impacts can be mitigated. this will help the teachers to be informed about new findings on global warming, its impacts and mitigation and how to transfer same to their class children.  regular in-service training. regular in-service training should be organizes for teachers to keep them abreast with the research finding on global warming and other issues of life.  there should be public awareness of the global warming problem and its solutions. the worship centers should be encouraged to be talking along this as all strata of the society attend worship center  researchers should also explore the link between level of awareness on global warming and behaviour change to inform any policy that seeks to make the public adopt positive environmental behaviours through awareness creation. references ipcc.(2015). summary for policymakers. in: climate change 2013: the physical science basis: contribution of working group i to the fifth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change [stocker, t.f., d. qin, g.-k. plattner, m. tignor, s.k. allen, j. boschung, a. nauels, y. xia, v. bex and p.m. midgley (eds.)]. cambridge university press, cambridge, united kingdom and new york, ny, usa. ipcc online, glossary of terms used in the ipcc third assessment report (2001) ipcc_third_assessment_report (accessed december 2009). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ okechukwu, nnodim. (2013), the punch newspaper, tuesday november, 19th 2013 [33]. okon, julius. (1998), nigeria newswatch magazine october, 26th 1988. nicholas o., madukwe m. c, enete a. the guardian. (2012). world carbon emissions: the league table of every country. retrieved june 21, 2013 from pew research centre (2013). most americans believe climate change is real, but fewer see it as a threat. washington, d.c.: the pew research centre for the people & the press. pugliese, a. & ray, j. (2009). gallup presents...a heated debate: global attitudes toward climate change. harvard international review, 31,64-68. strahler, a and strahler, a. (2006), introducing physical geography, fourth edition, john wiley and sons inc. taderera, d. (2010). south african’s awareness of climate change. briefing paper no. 235. cape town, s.a: the catholic parliamentary liason office thomas, a. easton. (2009), classical edition sources, environmental studies, third edition published by mcgrawhill company inc. undp (2007). fighting climate change :human solidarity in a divided world. new york: undp weber, e.u. (2013). psychology: seeing is believing. nature climate change, vol. 3, pp. 312-313. whitmarsh, l. (2008). are flood victims more concerned about climate change than other people? the role of direct experience in risk perception and behavioural response. journal of risk research,11(3),351-374. copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 2; 2021 issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995 published by american center of science and education, usa 17 excursion to the smart dimension through mathematics: significance of outcome-based education nushrat hashmi lecturer department of mathematics ccn university of science & technology, bangladesh monica rani das lecturer department of mathematics ccn university of science & technology, bangladesh ikbal ahmed lecturer department of cse ccn university of science & technology, bangladesh abstract the advancement of a smart society depends to a large extent on the standard of the higher education system. the fourth industrial revolution (fir), or smart industry, is the trend related to artificial intelligence, changing various aspects of life, especially the education system. the flow of the smart industry, spurring bangladesh to accept the technologies of the fir. the drift of fir will drop a strong impact on our graduates. the smart industry needs the efficiency of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (stem). mathematics is a scaffold to the next industrial revolution. so, our university education system should be convenient to set up our graduates all around the smart world and overcome the industrial requirements; it is compulsory to adopt outcome-based education (obe). obe templates were approved at the 157th meeting of the university grants commission of bangladesh (ugc) on 06 february 2020. recently, ugc has requested that all universities modify their undergrad educational plans depending on the outcome-based education (obe) layout. the purpose of this article is to look at the significance of skilled mathematics alumni for the smart world, and we also examine the challenges of actualizing outcome-based education (obe). keywords: fourth industrial revolution(fir), smart industrial requirements, education system, outcome-based education (obe). introduction we stay close to the unstable edge of a mechanical change that will, on a fundamental level, adjust the way we live, work, and relate to one another. in its scale, expansion, and multifaceted nature, the change will not be typical for anything humankind has experienced already. we don't https://www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 2; 2021 18 yet know precisely how it will spread out; anyway, one thing is clear: the response to it ought to be facilitated and broad, including all accomplices of the overall nation, from individuals all in all and private regions to the insightful network and regular society. like the transformations that went before it, the fourth industrial revolution can raise worldwide pay levels and improve the personal satisfaction for populaces around the globe. developing the first industrial revolution, which used water and steam ability to mechanize creation, the second, which used electric ability to make huge scope, producing and the third, which used devices and information advancement to automate creation; the fourth industrial revolution is taking computerization higher than at any other time, darkening the lines between the physical, progressed, and natural circles and utilizing advances to perform assignments recently completed by people. source: how will we work? how will your job change? (2025) a new report found that computerization will substitute 800 million incompetent laborers worldwide by 2030 (world economic forum, 2020). to get the advantage of new technological opportunities, employees need to be ready with 21st-century aptitudes, consisting of essential thinking, participation, basic reasoning, creativity, analytic thinking, and flexibility. industry 4.0 that grasps the computerization in savvy industrial facilities requires improved limits in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (stem). the stem aptitude of workers not just development essential logical information yet additionally utilizes this information to plan and fabricate new products. math energizes coherent thinking, basic thinking, innovative thinking, theoretical or spatial reasoning, critical thinking capacity, and even viable relational abilities. moreover, mathematics is the language of research and creative work in applied and mechanical fields. as the speed of social and mechanical change expands, these abilities will become progressively significant. so, it's essential to take considering the significance of mathematics for new dimensions. as a readiness to take up the difficulties of the ir 4.0, graduates should be presented with suitable aptitudes to guarantee their work and to stay working in the always-changing industry and innovation climate. research objective in this study, we will discuss the significance of mathematics through outcome-based education (obe) to confront the flow of the fourth industrial revolution (fir), and we will find out the main challenges of implementing obe in our country, moreover to overcome the challenges of obe we will give our proposals. https://www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 2; 2021 19 methodology the method utilized in finishing this paper is library research. this paper's information and data were gathered from research reports, reliable papers, journals, seminars, and electronic sources. to know the present and future state of the job market, we read several reports based on challenges of fir, and we also collected information from annual reports over the period of 2017 to 2020 of world economic forum and price water house coopers (pwc). we studied various articles, magazines, reports based on fir and obe to enrich our research. furthermore, to get a clear idea of obe, we take help from the template of obe provided by the university grants commission of bangladesh (ugc). literature review in the hour of globalization, conventional instruction structure is losing its importance. these days, everything changes quickly and interminably. more aptitudes are required to work with smart-making progression. the world bank assessed in 2019 that around 57 percent of occupations in oecd (organization for economic co-operation and development) nations, 77 percent occupations in china, and 47 percent of occupations in the usa would be in danger because of the expansion of robotization. another report shows that 60% in lower education, 48% in medium, and 19% in high-level training occupations will be unstuck by means of computerization (pricewaterhousecoopers bv, n.d.). the fitness bundles, which administrators see as rising in prominence in the main spot up to 2025, join social events, for instance, fundamental thinking and examination similarly as issue solving, which have stayed at the most noteworthy purpose of the arrangement with year-on-year consistency. this year's late-emerging capacities in self-organization, for instance, dynamic learning, strength, stress obstruction, and versatility (the future of jobs report 2020 | world economic forum, 2020). the relative importance of different skill groups: source: the future of jobs report (2020) | world economic forum (2020) https://www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 2; 2021 20 mathematics instructors have superpowers. they have the ability to comprehend and esteem mathematics. what is the premise of their force? it is their arithmetic instructive and content information. not exclusively would they be able to do mathematics? however, they can build a learning climate where their understudies create theoretical knowledge and profound learning. they utilize the most recent advancements in innovation to help their fight with the powers of obscurity and innumeracy (white, 2011). numerical proficiency is fundamental to stem schools. an office in managing vulnerability and information is integral to settling on proof-based choices, including moral, financial, and ecological measurements (australia. office of the chief scientist., 2013). different reports, for example, those from the (australia. office of the chief scientist., 2013, 2014) and the australian council of learned academies (marginson et al., 2013) moreover stress the significance of all understudies having solid stem information, aptitudes, and imaginative miens. (english, 2015) also explained mathematics education gives basic substance and cycles that associate the stem orders, and math ought to be raised to the apexes of the stem mountain reach. we should promise it stays there with its commitments saw and applauded. stem training all in all, and particularly mathematics schooling, has all the earmarks of being the areas pre-famously fit for encouraging 21st-century abilities. indeed, aptitudes, for example, basic reasoning, issue presenting, critical thinking, working together, and conveying, have just been on the plan of science teachers for quite a while. these aptitudes are viewed as instrumental in issue-focused instructional methodologies that perceive that information isn't sent and target supporting understudies in building mathematics (gravemeijer et al., 2017). nakkeeran et al. (2018) stated that more aptitudes are needed to work with, quick creating technology along these lines to conquer the necessity, it is obligatory to shift from a traditional education system to outcome-based education (obe), which incorporates program outcomes (po), learning outcomes (lo), and course outcomes (co). tezer (2019) stated that the teaching done by utilizing mathematical modeling along with stem expands the understudies' inspiration toward the exercise; they learn better by focusing their consideration regarding the matter, leaving a beneficial outcome for them; and the understudies' prosperity and perspectives toward the exercise increment. he also further added taking care of genuine issues later on through stem and mathematical modeling will keep on assuming a significant job in giving inventive and imaginative critical thinking points of view in the social and monetary advancement of the nations. the fir will bring a significant test for the education sector as bangladesh elevates training to its understudies through instructional teaching methods. a large scope professional and viable preparing program should have been incorporated with the current education system (rumi et al., 2020). it refers to any learning activity in which not all answers and exchanges occur simultaneously but may be completed when a participant chooses (typically within a given time frame). participating in an online forum or taking an online quiz are examples of asynchronous activities where learning occurs between two or more individuals. teachers and students must use hybrid teaching to preserve social distance while continuing their educational pursuits. (ahmed et al., 2020). https://www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 2; 2021 21 outcome-based education in mathematics mathematics plays a cardinal role in every sector of science, engineering, and technology. fuzzy mathematics forms a branch of mathematics that strongly impacts automation with artificial intelligence (ai). ir 4.0, or smart industry, is the trend towards automation related to artificial intelligence. mathematical optimization (mo), another branch of mathematics, provides an analytical process for minimizing cost and maximizing profits and efficiency for industry. similarly, most of the pure and applied mathematics branches have a vast application in the technological revolution. but our mathematics graduates are still unconscious of their importance in this stream of globalization. efficient mathematics graduates will play a vital role in the smart industry and be able to create a new smart nation to confront the drift of smart technologies. outcome-based education (obe) is a smart system in which students know their purpose of learning clearly. at the beginning of courses, the teacher provides a smart curriculum consists of program outcome (po), learning outcome (lo), and course outcome (co). in obe, great sharable assets, evaluations, and rubrics are intended to help learning results. obe is a blend of three kinds of skill: a) down to earth: realizing how to get things done, capacity to decide, b) principal: understanding what you are doing and why c) intelligent: learn and adjust through self-reflection; apply information properly and mindfully. students assume liability for their own learning and are propelled by criticism and certification of their value. it is high time to make our math graduates capable of the new dimension through obe. advantages of obe  the aim of obe is to expand the knowledge, basic reasoning capacity, and skill of the understudies.  obe is a student-oriented system.  provide a clear idea about their purpose of learning.  it makes understudies more mindful.  increases students are thinking ability.  learners are assessed on an ongoing basis.  content is coordinated, and learning is important and associated with genuine circumstances.  enhances the communication skills of students.  expands student's adaptability and flexibility. comparison of te and obe traditional education (te) is exceptionally subject to hypothetical parts of learning. this approach is totally instructor-focused. this training technique is regularly reprimanded on the grounds that: (i) little consideration is paid to understudies if they comprehend the idea, (ii) it doesn't draw out the best in understudies, and (iii) it doesn't include students in learning (hassan, 2021). outcome-based education implies centering and arranging everything in an instructive framework around what is basic for all understudies to have the option to do effectively toward the end of their learning encounters. this implies beginning with an away from what is significant for understudies to have the chance to get then sorted out educational plan, guidance, and appraisal to make sure this adapting eventually occurs (spady, 1994). https://www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 2; 2021 22 obe system vs traditional education system (ashish vyawhare, 2020) source:(outcome based education vs. traditional education | obe system, n.d.) present situation of obe in bangladesh in march 2017, bangladesh accreditation council (bac) was set up and began working in may 2020. the main purpose of bac is to advance and guarantee quality affirmation in advanced education in bangladesh through executing capability structure and authorize the scholarly projects and advanced education organizations. to implement the obe curriculum, the university grants commission of bangladesh (ugc) has taken steps in 2018 to set up a standard format for the universities of bangladesh to prepare their curriculum of existing and upcoming courses. after a series of conversations on the drafted obe layout readied as a rule by a specialist council in 2019 and opinions got from the different specialists, at last, the formats were affirmed in the 157th gathering of the full commission of ugc on 05 february 2020. ugc sent the soft copy of the obe template to all universities on 17 june 2020 and requested to update their curriculum on the outcome-based education (obe) format. challenges of implementing obe the selection of obe brings numerous difficulties for us. we recognized some significant challenges to execute obe as follows:  lack of training: the idea of obe is new for our teachers. the main challenge of implementing obe is the lack of proper training in certain aspects like the design of curriculum, writing of course outcomes (co), program outcomes (po), assessment and evaluation processes.  lack of proper knowledge of our students about obe: obe is a student-centered method. to implement obe properly, students' participation is very important. but most of our students are not aware of the importance of obe, which will make it difficult to communicate with our students. https://www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 2; 2021 23  lack of well-equipped laboratories: lab facilities are fundamental in obe to upgrade students' understandings of theories in science, engineering, and technology education. lack of well-arranged laboratories will be the major problem for us.  financial instability: as a developing country, we have limited financial resources. training, modern lab equipment, a smart library, organized educational institutions, sufficient manpower are essential for obe, which is impossible without strong financial support.  lack of proper research: unfortunately, due to a lack of relevant researches, we still don't have a clear idea about the genuine condition of our students, teachers, and educational institutions proposal to confront difficulties of obe adoption of obe is the demand for new technological flow. to achieve the goal of a smart society through obe we have to prepare our educational institution with some significant elements as follows:  training: teachers are the main driving force to implementing obe. to prepare program outcome (po), course outcome (co), and program educational objective (peo) through bloom's taxonomy, our teachers need proper training. during training, teachers will be able to practice the hypothesis to enrich their idea about obe.  spontaneous participation of students: the obe system engages students by continuous assessments and enhances their flexibility to adopt new ideas in a frank way. to ensure students' participation, teachers have to motivate them by spreading the advantages of obe. spontaneous participation of students is the most important fact in implementing obe because obe is students centered system.  convenient curriculum: convenient curriculum has a cardinal role in obe. to implement obe, it is necessary to prepare a smart curriculum with vision, mission, program educational objectives (peo), and program learning outcomes (plo).  long-term planning: for obe, long-term planning should be taken. at the starting of the program, it is essential to provide students a clear idea about their learning outcomes after 4/5 years. moreover, teachers can categorize students with their creativity and skills by continuous assessments from the beginning and motivate students for their future life on the basis of their capability. in this continuous process, our graduates will be able to identify their worth to prepare themselves for the future.  financial stability: to ensure training, modern lab equipment, smart library, organized educational institution, sufficient manpower, and other equipment of smart education, we need to make an effort to increase our financial sources.  industrial collaboration: our educational institution should make more collaborate with national and international industries to know their smart industrial requirements to make our generation ready for new flow through obe.  relevant research: more research with a larger sample should be performed to get a deeper insight into developing our education system. furthermore, relevant research will help us to bridge the gap between education systems and industrial needs.  flexibility to adopt new ideas: to cope with the latest technological flow, our curriculum and education system should be flexible. after every certain period, it should be revised to make it convenient for our students to prepare them for the new flow https://www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 2; 2021 24 research findings  the flow of fir will bring authentic challenges for developed and developing countries. due to advanced technologies and skilled human resources, developed nations will face less risk than developing nations. as a developing country, we have many difficulties, but the unskilled human resource is one of the major problems for us. to cope up with the new flow, our country needs imaginative, skilled, adaptable, creative, enterprising alumni who can face the difficulties of the present changing workplace.  the smart technological flow needs the efficiency of stem, especially mathematical knowledge. math expands intelligible reasoning, essential reasoning, creative reasoning, hypothetical or spatial thinking, basic reasoning limit, and even feasible social capacities, and these are the most important component of the fitness bundle for the smart industry. every student from different subjects or fields needs basic mathematics skills, and it's clear that skilled mathematics educators can help make a skilled nation confront the new technological flow. in addition, mathematics has huge applications in engineering, science, and technology, and we know it is the language of technology. so mathematic is the platform to the following modern transformation. due to a lack of proper guidance, most of our mathematics students are still oblivious to the significance of mathematical knowledge.  it's a convenient time to utilize the advantages of outcome-based education (obe) to make our graduates ready for the new technological world. obe is learners centered system. it gives students a clear idea about their learning purpose by providing a smart curriculum consists of course outcome (co), program outcome (po), learning outcome (lo), and it helps to make students more conscious about their aim. in this smart teaching system, learners are assessed on an ongoing basis through bloom's taxonomy, which increases students thinking ability, communication skills, adaptability, and flexibility.  ugc's template of obe will help bridge the gap between the higher education system and industrial needs. most of the universities of bangladesh already take the initiative to update their curriculum with the template of obe given by ugc. but adoption of obe brings many challenges for us. to confront the challenges of obe, we need to prepare our higher education sector with many fundamental components such as training, financial stability, relevant research, flexibility, organized laboratory, long-term planning, and most importantly, we have to ensure students' spontaneous participation. conclusion smart technologies will drop a strong impact on many aspects of life, especially the education system. mathematics is the language of a new technological dimension. but unfortunately, our graduates are not properly conscious of their role in the present flow of smart technologies. the smart education system can give them appropriate direction to understand their importance for our country to face the drift of fir. in this paper, we discussed the significance of skilled graduates through obe. we also find out some challenges of implementing obe and give some proposals to overcome them. finally, the study suggests that to confront the flow of fir, we need more research work in our country. we should take the proper initiative to face the challenges of implementing obe in our education system. https://www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 4, no. 2; 2021 25 references ahmed, i., eunus, m., helal, s., & banik, n. 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(2011). school mathematics teachers are super heroes. southeast asian mathematics education journal, 1(1), 3–17. https://doi.org/10.46517/seamej.v1i1.6 copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0). american international journal of education and linguistics research; vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995 published by american center of science and education, usa 1 stress factors and sustainable development among undergraduates of adekunle ajasin university, akungba-akoko, ondo state, nigeria ojewola, florence o. phd department of guidance and counselling adekunle ajasin university, akungba-akoko, ondo state, nigeria e-mail: fojewola@yahoo.com abstract stress is a serious problem that students tend to contend with in the course of their academic pursuit. the study investigated stress factors and sustainable development among undergraduates of adekunle ajasin university, akungba-akoko. descriptive research of the survey type design was adopted for this study. the population of the study consisted of all the students of adekunle ajasin university, akungba-akoko . sample for the study was made up of 450 students selected through simple random sampling technique from the six faculties in the university. questionnaire was used to collect data from respondents. one research question was raised and three hypotheses were tested at 0.05 alpha level. data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. the results revealed that there was a significant difference in the academic stress of undergraduates of aaua. the second hypothesis showed that there was a significant difference in the financial stress of undergraduates of aaua. the third hypothesis also indicated that there was a significant difference in the psychosocial stress of undergraduates of aaua. it was recommended that stress among the undergraduates should be handled through the help of counselors, financial assistance through the university work study. adequate counseling should be made available to teach interpersonal skills and social adjustment programme should be made available for undergraduates. keywords: stress, sustainable development, undergraduates, academic stress, financial stress, psychosocial stress. 1. introduction stress is an essential component of everyday lives of the human beings. man is confronted with a kind of stress or another. but the level of stress and the stressor among different people varies from one person to another. the mode of coping with it also varies from one person to another. from observation, it appears that certain level of stress are necessary for virtually everyone to cope with life challenges but when it seems excessive or going to the extreme, then it could be dangerous for human survival. according to berstein, penner, clark-stewart and roy (2006) stress is basic to life, no matter how wealthy, powerful, attractive, or happy one might be. students in their different institutions tend to contend with one level of stress or another. exposure of an individual student to stress may make such students to see it as a stepping stone to greatness or challenges that could mar his/her development in life. students in their different institutions are confronted with various categories of stressful conditions ranging from academic stress, financial, psychological and social stress. there are some students who had gone through these stressors and were able to cope successfully while some had given in to such stressors and developed depression and other health related challenges. stress is referred to as the body response to psychological perception of pressure. stress can lead to hormonal changes and/or response in the body. stress becomes life threatening or dangerous to the body, when it is prolonged or extended or unexpected (samson-akpan, john, edet & ella, 2017). omoniyi (2013) defined stress as an organism’s total response to environmental demands and pressure. stress is also a necessary and unavoidable concomitant of daily living because without some stress one may not be able to cope as a living creature. to be successful as an individual, a level of stress is virtually necessary with such challenge. one may be forced to do some extral things which ordinarily one may not be ready to do under-relaxed mood. devi and mohan (2015) opined that stress is a mental as well as a physical phenomenon that occurs from cognitive appraisal of stimulation from individual interaction with the environment. stress is said to be part and parcel of the human life (kumar & www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 2 hegde, 2012,; kumar & bhumar, 2013). akande olowonirejuaro and okwara-kalu (2014) stated that stress is a normal part of life and that it can come from any situation or thought that can make one frustrated, angry or anxious. for students who are undergraduates in the universities stress may be caused by failure in academics, sports, financial problems or relationship problems with close friends, lecture venues, lecture time-table, assignment, lecture hours and note-taking. events that bring about stress are called stressors (elias, ping & abdullahi, 2011).according to samson-akpan, john, edet and ella (2017) college students are faced with many obstacles which they have to overcome for optimal performance. it is observed that there are some perceived stress in college students which sometimes takes the form of academic stress that involves multiple stressor the likes of academic demands which includes grades, paper assignments, physical health and health related issues and other self-imposed type of stressors (pamela, 2009). shamsuddin et al (2013) reported that there are high prevalence of stress anxiety and depression 27.09%, 47.1% and 27.1%. respectively in certain group of turkish students. they also found that females were having high level of stress, anxiety and depression and it was attributed to biopsychosocial factors that included factors like social roles and physiological status. taha, el-shereef, althobaiti and algethami (2017) also observed an increasing stress among university students in the last few years and this, probably linked to many negative academics, emotional and health problems among university undergraduate students. the important academic stress faced by most students is attributed to fatigue while reading, poor study habits such as poor time management, sleeplessness while studying for examinations and course work which may eventually lead to poor academic performance. (baldwin, wikinson & barkley 2009). poor finance could constitute another level of stress among university undergraduates. students often need money to meet so many financial obligations while they are in the school. the payment of school fees is a necessity that students are confronted with per session or yearly. for instance, increase in the school fees most especially in adekunle ajasin university recently has made many students to abandon school while some are often in search of money for the better part of the semester. hence, such students hardly have time to attend lectures and may probably be in the lecture room some few days to the commencement of examinations. parents and guardians who are supposed to be of great assistance to these students financially may not be able to do so due to the fact that they are also handicapped financially and probably faced with other financial obligations/problems elsewhere. the increasing level of unemployment, retrenchment and non-payment of salaries is not making parent to discharge their responsibilities to their children and wards. this is becoming a very serious stressor to the students in the higher institutions. this is also supported by some studies that indicated that sex and socio-economic statues are the most important predictors of these disorders (mirza & jenkins, 2004) samson-akpan et al (2013) also asserted that parental low socio-economic status could also contribute to depression, anxiety and stress among students. psychosocial is another important stressor that many university students tend to contend with while they are in school. the type of friend that a student relates or interacts with could either make an individual to be stable emotionally or destabilised. some students that are properly brought up in terms of training and discipline in a good home may start to relate with wayward and troublesome students. this could be a great source of stress and distress for such students. khamar and kaur (2011) observed that students grappled with social, emotional, physical and family problems which may interfere with their academic performance. some of these students get involved in relationship with the opposite sex that could become detrimental to their academic performance. samson-akpan et al (2013) vividly discussed the importance of social support in assisting students to cope with stress in the university. fresh students coming into the university need this type of social support system to be able to cope with different stressors in their new environment. social support is concerned with the actual care an individual received or assistance available from other people, and that one is part of a supportive social network (samson-akpan et al 2013). fair brother (2011) observed that social support is important for maintaining proper physical and mental health. it is noted that positive social support of high quality can build resilience to stress, help protect against developing traumatic induced disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd) and reduce medical morbidity and mortality (ozbay et al, 2007). therefore, the issue of stress is very germane to the student’s academics and even overall success in life. stress if not properly handled could become detrimental to the overall development of any university student. sustainable development deals not only in terms of ecological, economic and social environment but also in terms of improving the quality of life of every human being (di fabio, 2017). sustainable development is concerned with the primary prevention of the perspective that can foster well-being of individual to function effectively in their daily living. the united nations was able to proposed 17 sustainable development goals which includes no poverty, no hunger, good health and wellbeing; quality education, gender equality; clean water; sanitation; affordable and clean energy decent work and economic growth; industry, innovation and infrastructural growth; reduction in inequality, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production; climate action; life below water, life on land, peace, justice and strong institutions; partnerships to achieve goals www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 3 (united nations, 2017). thus ,these goals underline the importance of increasing opportunities for progress and promoting the development of individuals, families and communities to ensure sustainable development and global growth. it is on this basis that the researcher tends to utilize this sustainable development goals principle in order to make use of different psychological approaches to assist the undergraduate students to reduce the incidence of stress among them. hence, this study investigated stress factors and sustainable development among aaua undergraduates of akungba. 2. statement of problem the students in the higher institutions are confronted on daily basis with one form of stress or another. these ranges from academic stress, social stress, and financial stress, religious and other psychological or emotional stress. there are some students who despite this stress are able to struggle and forge ahead in life whereas some may not able to cope but stumble under such stressful situation. ability to manage stress is vital if students will emerge victorious at the end of the day academically. stress is part of every human being the ability to cope is what distinguish one individual from another. studentship is a phase, hence students should not see it as something that last forever, thus while they are in the school they must play their part well with all their power and strength to succeed and make it in life. again, there are avoidable stresses which students often put on themselves. these often weigh them down and prevent them from being the best. for example a student that is not sound academic may refuse to prepare for his/her semester examination until the last minute. such student may be putting himself/herself under unnecessary stress, which could be avoided if he/she has been consistent with his/her readings and preparation for examination. therefore, students should try as much as possible to avoid every stressful situation that could hamper their academic progress. thus, there is the need to assist students to go through their academic, psychosocial and financial life with less stress so that they can perform greatly and not become drop-out in life. 3. research question: what is the mean of stress on the basis of gender among aaua undergraduates? 4. research hypotheses  there is no significant difference in the academic stress of undergraduates of aaua.  there is no significance difference in the financial stress of undergraduates of aaua.  there is no significant difference in the psychosocial stress of undergraduates of aaua. 5. methodology this research is a descriptive research of the survey type designed to capture large sample size from the population to make generalization. the population of the study consisted of all undergraduates of adekunle ajasin university, akungbaakoko, ondo state. the 450 sample used for the study was randomly selected from male and female students from the six faculties in the university. simple random sampling technique was used to select the respondent for the study. a questionnaire titled stress factors among undergraduate students questionnaire (sfusq) was developed by the researcher from relevant literatures. the questionnaire has four sections a,b,c,d section a consisted of demographic data on respondents such as age range, gender, and faculty. section b,c, and d consisted of ten items each on factors responsible for academic stress, financial stress and psychosocial stress. experts opinion were consulted to ascertain the validity of the instrument. test-retest method was used to find the reliability of the instrument. the data collected through the use of test-retest approach were analysed using pearson product moment correlation for each of the section of the questionnaire and the reliability coefficient were found to be 0.70, 0.68 and 0.67 respectively. the service of research assistants were employed to help in administering the instrument to 450 respondents in adekunle ajasin university. the research assistants and students were thoroughly intimated with the purpose of the study. the questionnaire was distributed to the respondents by hand and retrieved immediately after the completion for the purpose of data analysis. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 4 6. results: research question: 1. what is the mean of stress on the basis of gender among aaua undergraduates table 1: stress factors on the basis of gender. stress factors gender n mean s d academic stress financial stress psychosocial stress male female male female male female 233 217 233 217 233 217 22.61 21.94 23.67 21.13 24.46 24.12 5.55 5.08 6.83 6.52 5.01 4.54 the result in table 1 indicated the various stress factors on the students on the basis of gender. the factor of academic stress indicated that the males had higher stress of 22.61 for mean score with standard deviation of 5.55 while the females had a lower mean of 21.94 and standard deviation of 5.08. this indicated that the male students had greater stress when it comes to the issue of their academics. the result of financial stress indicated that the male students had the mean score of 23.67 and standard deviation of 6.83 which was higher than the female students with 21.13 for the mean score with standard deviation of 6.52. this was lower than the scores for the males. thus it also indicated that the male students scored higher than the females in financial stress. in psychosocial stress the males had the mean score of 24.46 with the standard deviation of 5.01 while the female students scored lower than the male students with the mean score of 24.12 and standard deviation of 4.54. thus, again the males tend to have higher mean score than the females which indicated that the males are experiencing greater stress in the psychosocial aspect of their lives. h01 there is no significant difference in the academic stress of undergraduates of adekunle ajasin university. in testing this hypothesis, the means and standard deviation values of the date collected on factors of academic stress among aaua students were subjected to chi-square analysis and tested at 0.05 alpha level. table 2: test of significant difference on academic stress of undergraduates of aaua. items response vmt gt rt nt total 1 the movement from one lecture room to another is not often easy. f 260 119 52 19 450 % 57.8 26.4 11.6 4.2 100.0 2 it is not easy reading and preparing for examination. f 124 182 105 39 450 % 27.6 40.4 23.3 8.7 100.0 3 it is not easy attending lectures. f 123 125 135 67 450 % 27.3 27.8 30.0 14.9 100.0 4 largeness of the class often make it f 174 146 85 45 450 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 5 difficult to listen in the class % 38.7 32.4 18.9 10.0 100.0 5 i have difficult in coping with the different lecturing styles of the lecturers. f 111 170 114 55 450 % 24.7 37.8 25.3 12.2 100.0 6 it is not easy taking note during lectures. f 104 131 119 96 450 % 23.1 29.1 26.4 21.3 100.0 7 it is not easy getting reading materials to assist while reading. f 123 134 125 68 450 % 27.3 29.8 27.8 15.1 100.0 8 i always have problem with limited time during each semester. f 123 133 129 65 450 % 27.3 29.6 28.7 14.4 100.0 9 i have problem coping with many courses in each semester. f 110 122 143 95 450 % 24.4 27.1 31.8 16.7 100.0 10 i have problem of not passing my courses as i desired. f 109 116 123 102 450 % 24.2 25.8 27.3 22.7 100.0 average total f 136 137 113 65 450 x2 308.26 chi square df 9 p <.05 the result in table 2 showed that the calculated x2 was 308.26 more than the table value of 16.92. thus, the result showed that there was significant difference in the academic stress of undergraduates of aaua. h02: there is no significant difference in the financial stress of undergraduates of aaua. to test this hypothesis the data collected on financial stress among aaua students was subjected to chi-square analysis and tested at 0.05 alpha level. table 3: test of significant difference on financial stress among aaua undergraduates items response vmt gt rt nt total 1 i often have difficulty in the payment of my school fees f 144 160 90 56 450 % 32.0 35.8 20.0 12.4 100.0 2 i have difficulty in meeting my daily needs f 125 149 126 50 450 % 37.8 33.1 28.0 11.1 100.0 3 i do not have enough f 129 149 123 49 450 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 6 money to buy my essential needs as a woman/young man. % 28.7 33.1 27.3 10.9 100.0 4 i have no enough money to buy necessary reading materials f 157 160 83 50 450 % 34.9 35.6 18.4 11.1 100.0 5 i have no enough money to buy good dress and shirt. f 139 134 127 50 450 % 30.9 29.8 28.2 11.1 100.0 6 i do not have enough money to get good accommodation f 123 144 108 75 450 % 27.3 32.0 24.0 16.7 100.0 7 i must hustle as a student to survive in the school f 100 139 110 101 450 % 22.2 30.9 24.4 22.4 100.0 8 my financial constraint does not allow me to belong to the right social; group that i desired. f 117 158 85 90 450 % 26.0 35.1 18.9 20.0 100.0 9 my parents are not financially buoyant to meet my needs f 111 132 114 93 450 % 24.7 29.3 25.3 20.7 100.0 10 i often have to depend on my friends to survive financially. f 88 130 109 123 450 % 19.6 28.9 24.2 27.3 100.0 average total f 123 145 108 74 450 x2 170.46 chi square df 9 p <.05 the result in table3 showed that the calculated x2 was 170.46 more than the table value of 16.92. thus, the result showed that there was a significant difference in the financial stress among aaua undergraduates. h03: there is no significant difference in the psychosocial stress of undergraduates of aaua. table 4: test of significant difference on psychosocial stress of undergraduates of aaua. items response vmt gt rt nt total 1 i am not stable emotional due to the level of stress that i go through as a f 102 108 133 107 450 % 22.7 24.0 29.6 23.8 100.0 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 7 student. 2 i am very anxious about succeeding i n this university f 153 155 94 48 450 % 34.0 34.4 20.9 10.7 100.0 3 i am fearful about making it in life f 134 128 106 82 450 % 29.8 28.4 23.6 18.2 100.0 4 i enjoy good relationship with my friends on campus f 131 139 94 86 450 % 29.1 30.9 20.9 19.1 100.0 5 i do not relate with my schoolmates/classmates f 108 `135 113 94 450 % 24.0 30.0 25.1 20.9 100.0 6 i relate well with the people of the opposite sex here on campus f 100 153 109 88 450 % 22.2 34.0 24.2 19.6 100.0 7 i mingle well with my colleagues here on campus f 110 153 114 73 450 % 24.4 34.0 25.3 16.2 100.0 8 i am hostile with students here on campus f 76 143 138 93 450 % 16.9 31.8 30.7 20.6 100.0 9 i have plenty of time to relate and socialize with people f 74 117 147 112 450 % 16.4 26.0 32.7 24.9 100.0 10 i am not a social person f 76 119 136 119 450 % 16.9 26.4 30.2 26.4 100.0 average total f 107 135 118 90 450 x2 154.71 chi square df 9 p <.05 the result in table 4 showed that the calculate x2 was 154.71 more than the table value of 16.92. thus, the result showed that there was a significant difference in the psychosocial stress among aaua undergraduates. 7. discussion the first hypothesis indicated that significance difference existed in academic stress among the students of aaua. this showed that the students often experience stress in their academics. this result supported the assertion of elias, ping & abdullahi (2011) that undergraduate students in the universities may experience stress due to failures in academics, sports, financial problems or relationship problems with close friends. samson-akpan, john, edet and ella (2017) observed that college students are faced with many obstacles which they have to overcome for optimal www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 8 performance. the result of this finding also lend credence to the findings of pamela (2009) that there are some perceived stress seen in college students which sometimes takes the form of academic stress that involves multiple stressor the likes of academic demands which includes, paper assignments, physical, health and health related issues and other self-imposed type of stressors. shamsuddin et al (2013) equally noted that there are high prevalence of stress, anxiety and depression 27.09%, 47.1% and 27.1% respectively in certain group of turkish students. thus, stress especially academic stress is a common phenomenon among the students of adekunle ajasin university. the second hypothesis also indicated that there was significant difference in financial stress of undergraduates of aaua. that is all students are exposed to financial stress in the institution. the reality is very clear, since these students need to spend money on daily basis for their everyday need. the students spend money on feeding, clothing, accommodation and school fees payment. many of these students are the ones responsible for themselves with no parents to assist them with their financial obligations. often times some of these students engaged themselves in business to sustain themselves in the school. this supported the findings of samson-akpan et al (2013) that parental’s low socio-economic status could also contribute to depression, anxiety and stress among students. mirza and jenkins (2004) also supported this finding that sex and socio-economic status are the most important predictors of these disorders. whereas, fisch (1996) did classified stressor into three main categories these are academic pressures, social issues and financial pressures. the third hypothesis also indicated that there was significant difference in the psychosocial stress of undergraduates of aaua. that is the undergraduate students of aaua had psychosocial stress. this deals with the psychological, social interaction and emotional stability among the students. a student that is not stable and welladjusted emotionally may find it difficult to cope with his/her academic challenges. thus, the emotional, psychological and social relationship of an individual can go a long way to establish the psychological and physical well-being of an individual students. hence, this aspect of the student’s life must not be taken for granted. this is equally supported by the assertion of karmar and kaur (2011) that student grapple with social emotional, physical and family problems which may interfere with their academic performance, samson-akpan et al (2013) were able to stress the importance of social support in assisting students to cope with stress in the university. fairbrother (2011) suggested that social support is important for maintaining proper physical and mental health 8. conclusion stress is a major problem that students in the university contend with on regular basis. but the attitude and the reaction of these students to this stressful situation will go a long way to assist these students positively. everybody in life are confronted with one form of stress or another but their attitude and manner of management is what differentiate each individual. students’ should try to develop positive attitude to every stressful situation that come their way. they should try to resolve the ones within their capacity and the ones that they may not be able to tackle should be left or a referral could be encouraged. academic stress can be avoided by adequately planning, attendance at lectures, doing assigned assignment, seeking for assistance when confronted with difficult topics before the commencement of examination. there should be adequate preparation through effective studying for examination. question answering skills can be learnt by the students financial stress could be handled by the students when they learn to live within their means. students should desist from the act of comparing themselves with other students. for students with serious financial challenges they must not pretend that all is well, but should go to the university work study office to register for assistance. loans can be taken to assist such students. thus, students with financial difficulties should come up for help and assistance. for the students with psychosocial stress, assistance can be sought in their interpersonal relationship with others. this group of students could seek the assistance of professional counselors on how to develop good interpersonal relationship skills. those with emotional and psychological instability could be assisted to become stable emotionally. there is no need for any students to be under any stress as long as they can visit the counsellors. 9. implication for counselling and sustainable development the issue of stress is a global one that affect every human being, but the way that the individual manages it is what makes a difference. whether, one likes it or not man goes through stress on daily basis. the mechanism which a person employs in managing it is what makes the difference. some will see stressful situation as something that they can handle and make something good out of. whereas, some may become anxious and eventually develop depression and may not be able to get through such challenges. therefore, stress management should be inculcated into the university curriculum to reduce the incidence of crumbling under the weight of stressful situations. many students had ended their lives due to one stress or www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 9 another especially those related to academics. some students have become cultists due to the negative influence of bad friends. whereas, financial challenges have made students to company with bad guys which had lured some into wrong gangs or groups. some students had to join the company of yahoo boys just “to belong” to the “happening guys” on the campus. all these have resulted into untold hardship and challenges not only for the students but also for their parents. these students must be properly helped to cope and avoid every stressful situation in the course of their academic pursuit in the university.  adequate counselling must be provided to the students on stress management counselling programmes that would be provided should include academic counselling, financial counselling and psychosocial counselling. all these programmes will help the undergraduates to be able to handle every stressful situation that may be confronting them.  financial assistance should be provided for the indigent students so that they would be able to cope financially even while they are in school. avenue should be provided to identify students that are having financial difficulties to register and be employed in the university work study programme. there should be adequate information made available for these students so that they would be properly informed about the various opportunities that are available for student that are financially handicapped. there are loans within the university system that the students could accessed. thus, students must be aware of this privileges and should be able to take advantages of such.  students with academic challenges must be able to seek for assistance from the intelligent and smart students to assist them to enhance their performance.  seminars and lectures can be organized to assist students to cope and address all these stressors.  academic seminars can be organized to help to improve students with poor academic performance  financial seminars can also be organized to teach students on how to create and make wealth.  interpersonal relationship programmes can be organized to teach good relationship among the students.  many other necessary skills can be taught to enhance the overall development of these students.  counselling clinic in the university should be more alive to its responsibilities in assisting these students to solve their everyday problems/challenges. more counselors should be employed and be made to do the work of assisting these undergraduates. references akande, j.a.; olowonirejuaro, a.o. & okwara-kalu, c.e. (2014). a study of level and sources of stress among secondary school students. journal of research and method in education. 4(5), 32-36. baldwin d.a.; wikinson, e.c. & barkley, d.c (2009). effective academic libraries englewood: libraries unlimited inc. berstein, d.a.; penner, l.a.; clark-stewart, a. & roy, e.j. (2006). psychology (7th ed.)boston: houghton mifflin. devi, s.r. & mohan, s. (2015). a study on stress and its effects on college students. international journal of scientific engineering and applied science. (ijseas) 17, 210-217. di-fabio, a. (2017). psycology of sustainiability and sustainable development for well being in organization. front psychology 8:1534. elias, h.; ping, w.s. & abdullahi, m.c. (2011). stress and academic achievement among undergraduate students in university putra, malaysia. procedia social and behavioural science 29: 646-655. fairbrother, n. (2011). social support. issues of vision journal 6 (4), 7 fisch, n.m.a. (1996). health students in college environment. public health nursery, 104-111 kumar, g.j. & hedge, s. (2012). prevalence of depression and its associated factors using beck depression inventory among students of a medical college in karnataka indian. j. psychiatry 54(3) 223-226 kumar, s.& bhukar,j.p. (2013). stress level and coping strategies of college students journal of physical education and sports management 4(1) 5-11. macan, i.h.; shahani, c.; dipboye, r.l.; & philips, a.p.t. (1990). college students time management correlation with academic performance and stress j.educ. psychology 82:760-768. mirza, i. & jekins, r. (2004). risk factors prevalence and treatment of anxiety and depression disorders in pakistan. systematic review bmj 328 (7443) : 794 omoniyi, m.b.i. (2013). sources of workplace stressors among university lecturers in southwest, nigeria: implication for counselling 1st annual international interdisciplinary conference, allc 24-25 ozbay. f.; johnson. d.c; dimoulas, e.; morgan, c.a.; charney, d. & southwick, s. (2007). social support and resilience to stress from neurobiology to clinical practice psychiatry (edgmont) 4 (5), 35-401 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 10 pamela, l. (2009). prementral syndrome and academic stress in emerging adulthood women available at http:/www.nursing garizona.edu (library/091) as cited by ekpenyoug et al 2011 samson –akpan, p.e.; john, m.e.; edet, o.b. & ella, r.e. (2017). stress and coping strategies among undergraduate nursing students calabar, nigeria. iosr journal of nursing and health science (iosgjnhs) 6(3), 61-70. shamar, n. & kaur, a. (2011). factors associated with stress among nursing students nursing and midwifery research journal 7 (1), 12-21. shamsuddin, k.; fadzil, f.; salwina, w.; ismail, w.; shah, s.a.; omar k.; mohammed, n.a.; jaffar, a.; ismail, a. & madadevan, r. (2013). correlates of depression, anxiety and stress among malaysia university students asian journal of psychiatry 6, 318-323. taha, a.a.; el-shereef, e.a.a.; althobaiti, w. & algetham, m.m. (2017). study of perceived stress among female students, taif university, saudi arabia. american journal of public health research 5(3), 50-55 doi 10.12691/ajphr -5-3-1 united nations. (2015). sustainable development goals available at http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainble-development-goals. (google scholar) copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). http://www.un.org/sustainable american international journal of education and linguistics research; vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995 published by american center of science and education, usa 1 investigating efl students’ poor speaking skills at kandahar university abdullah rahimi english language and literature department, kandahar university, kandahar, afghanistan e-mail: abdullahhaidari365615@gmail.com parveen quraishi english language and literature department kandahar university kandahar, afghanistan e-mail: parveen.quraishi100@gmail.com abstract this study reveals the causes that make the efl students poor in speaking skills. the problem was efl students’ poor speaking skills at kandahar university. the study used quantitative approach by developing a questionnaire consisting 15 items based on five likert scales. two faculties were the target population of the study, and data was collected from 100 students as a random sampling which 81 were male and 19 female students. the data was analyzed and interpreted based on mean and standard deviation through spss software (24) version. it was revealed by the present study that different causes like, feeling shyness during presentation, nervousness when speaking with strangers even with family members, weakness of speaking when whole class pay attention, no motivation from peers and feeling fearful when speaking with lectures affect efl students’ speaking skills. keywords: efl students, poor speaking skills, kandahar. 1. introduction english today is considered as the international language and, according to some estimates, it is spoken (at various levels of competence) by more than 2000 million people around the globe, including native speakers (over 380 million) and those who learn it as a second/foreign language (munat, 2005). one of the most important english language skills that must be mastered by any foreign language learner is the ability to speak. the common question that arises from anybody who wants to know one’s ability in foreign language is whether he or she can speak english or not. according to nunan (1991) who stated that for most people, mastering speaking is the most important aspect of learning as a second language and success is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in a language. speaking is required by people to interact among them. in speaking activity, many things that should be paid attention, not only related to what is being spoken, what the language is used, but also who is our interlocutor. in addition, a good speaker should pay attention what the topic is being spoken by him/her, what the language that he/she uses in order to be understood easily by his listener, and to whom he/she speaks. hence speaking is a tool to communicate ideas that are arranged and developed accordance with listeners need (tarigan, 1987 cited in musaddat, 2008). the researcher also stated that the speaker must strive to communicate his/her ideas clearly so that those ideas can be comprehended well with what is wanted by the listeners. burnkart (1998) explained that language learners need to have three areas of knowledge involved with speaking namely (1) mechanics of language elements (pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary) which emphasize on use of right words in the right order with the correct pronunciation, (2) the functions of the language that deals with speaking performance in the form of transaction and interaction, (3) the sociocultural norms (such as turn-taking, rate of speech, length of pauses between speakers, relative roles of participants, understanding how to take into account who is speaking to whom, in what mailto:abdullahhaidari365615@gmail.com www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 2 circumstance, about what, and for what reason). furthermore, language learners must also acquire the knowledge of how native speakers use the language in the context of structured interpersonal exchange owing to the fact that effective oral communication is called for the speakers to use the language in various social interactions. with regards to speaking skills, nazara (2011) stated that non-linguistic elements such as gestures and body languages, facial expressions and so on, may accompany speech to convey massages directly. according to al zedjali (2009) who stated that it is necessary to develop communication skills, english oral communication skills are part of this skill set, and thus, students should be supported to gain these skills. the researcher also mentioned that learners of english in oman often do not have opportunities to speak english outside the classroom, and for many of them, the course book is the only place where they meet english. speaking is the prime means of communication and the structure of society itself would be substantially different if we had failed to develop communication through speech (laver, 1994). also, venkateswaren (1995) explained that if you want to develop your oral communication, information gap activities are suggested. the researcher further described that, information gap activities have the scope of integrating all the speaking skills. the international use of english between non-native speakers of different nationalities, in situations where no native english speakers are present has become an important feature of business, diplomacy, education and personal relationships around the world wattereson (2008). in esl/efl contexts, speaking is the most important of four language skills such as listening, reading, speaking and writing (carter and nunan, 2001). if all the language production of the student is controlled from outside, he will hardly be able to transfer his knowledge from a language learning situation to a language using situation (bygate, 2003). 2. statement of the problem in general it seems that foreign language is not easy to speak fluently, and there are more problems that prevent our speaking skills, such as vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammatical problems. thus, there are some difficulties of efl students’ poor speaking skills at kandahar university. although the students have been trained for twelve years at school term, then they have got four years university training, and still they are poor speakers. a similar concern was revealed by kasim (2003) that the english language ability of students, including university students was still unsatisfactory. at the university level, few students can communicate english and give responses to their lecturer’s questions but most of the others seem to keep quiet. there are very few studies conducted regarding efl students’ poor speaking skills, therefore i want to fill this gap. 3. significance of the study this study may help the relevant organizations and students to bring positive changes in this part (poor speaking skills in efl students at kandahar university). 4. purpose of the study the purpose of this study is to find out the challenges that prevent efl students to speak fluently at kandahar university. 5. research objective  to identify the causes that make the efl students poor in speaking skills at kandahar university. 6. research question  what are the causes that make efl students poor in speaking skills at kandahar university? 7. literature review speaking is probably the language skill that language learners wish to improve as soon as possible. there is a large volume of previous studies available such as (yingji, 2013; wood, 2004; savasci, 2014; tanveer, 2007; shukla, 2017; holland, 2018; hadijah, 2014; and imene, 2012) describing the issue of poor speaking skills of efl students. in a long term, the speaking fluency achievement to practice in class will be beneficial for the real life conversation that requires the similar languages and contents (yingji, 2013). of all the four macro english skills, speaking seem to be the most important skills required for communication (zaremba, 2006 cited in boonkit, 2010). wood (2004), www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 3 savasci (2014) and tanveer (2007) mentioned several factors regarding efl learners’ poor speaking skills that include: 1) anxiety, 2) shyness, 3) lack of interest in the class, and 4) fear of being wrong. 7.1 anxiety the first factor, according to holland (2018), is anxiety that is our body’s natural response to stress. furthermore, it’s a feeling of fear or apprehension about what is to come. in addition, giving a speech may cause most people to feel fearful and nervous. a considerable number of students at each level felt anxious when they are speaking english in the class, learners responded to the teacher felt the most anxious, and the students during pair work felt least anxious (liu, 2006). anxiety about speaking a certain language can affect students' performance. the researcher further stated that anxiety can influence the quality of oral language production and make individuals appear less fluent than they really are (horwitz, 1991). most importantly, the level of perceive teacher’s support have the strongest relationship with students feelings of anxiety. the researcher also stated, that teacher support is defined as the help and friendship the teacher shows toward students; how much the teacher talks openly with students, trusts them, and is interested in their ideas, may be possible to reduce the anxiety of language learners (trickett & moos, 1995). 7.2 shyness researchers such as butt, moosa, ajmal and rahman (2011) explored the effects of shyness on the self-esteem of 9th grade female students, and stated that some students suffered from occasional shyness while other experienced acute shyness, which obstructed the development of students. teachers are more likely to encourage shy children by providing learning opportunities for them (lao, 2013). shy learners experience difficulties in their peer relationships through peer exclusion and peer rejection, as well as, close teacher student relationships may serve a protective role for shy children and adults in terms of improving school adjustment outcomes. furthermore, the absence of parents and teachers are the authority figures for children and adults to help (saima, 2017). 7.3 lack of interest in the class teachers good attitude, in particular plays an integral part in the effort to improve students’ interest to participant in the class (lee, chao and chen, 2011). shukla (2017) asserted some reasons regarding students losing interest: most students do not have the power of self-control. they switch their focus from important things to some unimportant things. there are many students who do not know what actually their goal is. ((they lose interest in the related subjects. there are some students who are highly confused about studies and it becomes headache for the students)). according to salim and mustafa (2012) who identified some factors with regards to students lack of interest, which indicate that there are two major factors affecting students interest, situational factors and individual factors. the situational factors are: (1) the parents' influence, (2) the teachers influence and, (3) the education curriculum, whereas the individual factors are: (1) initial interest that resides within each individual and, (2) learner diversity in learning. in addition, about student’s lack of interest, thomas (2013) has found that students felt more academic support from significant of others and more practical class activities could have increased their interest in the academic subjects. another study has revealed that the goals that individual adopt in achievement situations, as well as the value students perceive in activities, promote the development of subsequent interest in topics and activities (harackiewicz and hulleman, 2009). 7.4 fear of being wrong another contributing factor that causes poor speaking is fear of being wrong. in this regard, florescu and pacurar (2016) discovered that the main barrier causing poor or lack of communication between students and teachers in higher education remains the fear of making mistakes. the researchers also stated that professors should manifest students that the wrong answer does not imply something negative, thus believe that questions are an important aid in the teaching of the human experience. debrincat (2015) have conducted research with benefits that can come being wrong in front of their teachers and peers. according to the author, teachers should work with students to reframe their fear of ultimately a painless experience. furthermore, teachers want them to see error as a simple component of the human experience. metcalfe (2016) asserted cause of students' fear of being wrong, that errorful learning followed by corrective feedback is beneficial to learning. zua (2008) provided several suggestions. first, www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 4 emotional bonds between students and teachers should be build. this way, the students are expected to feel comfort with their teacher and believe that the teacher will help them if they make mistakes. second, the teacher should improve the students' concentration when learning english. finally, the teacher creates a harmonious atmosphere that can reduce students ‘nervousness. 8. previous studies hamad (2013) conducted study and asserted some factors in saudi colleges for girls in the south, which negatively affected english language speaking skills in terms of: a) instructors b) students c) curriculum and text book d) english language teaching methods and exercises e) teaching and learning environment. banu (2017) found difficulties faced by college students in speaking english. the study revealed that students use english more frequent only inside the class and less frequent outside the class. as well as students have limited time to learn english in the class, and they still do not have enough encouragement to practice english outside the class in order to get familiar with english. hadijah (2014) identified the problems of english speaking of the students of islamic boarding school program. the quantitative data gathered from the speaking test result by involving 130 students and the qualitative data gathered through questionnaire and interview. the findings showed that the students’ ability categorized low majority of students have problems in grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary, fluency and students have problems in comprehension. in addition, minority of students have own personal reasons, such as shy to perform speaking, lack of self-confidence, lack of peaking practice, limited time given for preparation on english speaking test, difficulties in speaking materials found in the english text book and lack of support from teacher side. an investigation in srinagar city by mullick, and riyaz (2016) focused on speaking difficulties encountered by learners at higher secondary level. the authors stated that, there is no significant difference in speaking skills from their initial level to final levels. the study also showed that efl learners did not have that much exposure to english language use inside and outside the classroom. 9. material and method 9.1 research design this research was quantitatively conducted to investigate the efl students’ poor speaking skills factors at kandahar university. according to fraenke, wallen and hyun (2016), in a survey method, the researchers collect information from a large group of participants through their responses to the questionnaire items. the researchers added that quantitative study essentially tries to explain the problem using numbers and attempts to generalize the study from a larger population. 9.2 research site kandahar university is selected as the data collection source because it is one of the biggest universities of afghanistan and also many students from different provinces come here for getting their higher education. 9.3 sampling and population the total population of the study was two faculties 1education faculty 2language and literature faculty. then the researchers select a sample of 100 students, among which 81 are males and 19 are females and from each faculty 50 students were selected. participants were all aged between 20 to 30 years old. participants were selected through random sampling in this study. 9.4 instrument the main instrument used in this survey research was a questionnaire. the questionnaire had two parts part: a demographic information and part: b consisted 15 statements that participants were putting the tick mark in the given boxes through the five likert scales 1strongly agree 2agree 3undecided 4-disagree 5-strongly disagree. the researchers created the items of the questionnaire based on the literature review. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 5 9.5 questionnaire validity and reliability when the researchers designed the questionnaire then researchers shared it with the supervisor and have taken his ideas and feedback about the questionnaire as well. thus, the consistency of the questionnaire and item’s scales was (0.79) cronbach’s alpha, which means that the scales and items were reliable. seliger and shohamy (1989) stated that “the criterion of the reliability provides information on whether the data collection procedure is consistent and accurate”. 9.6 data collection procedure the researchers collected the data through questionnaire in two weeks and participants were invited to participate and find out the relevant factors. the researchers have selected their target population from two faculties education faculty and languages and literatures faculty. as the participants were from english departments classes it was not necessary to design the questionnaire by pashto. first the researchers took the permission from the dean of faculty to collect the data. then researchers went to the classes introduced themselves, explained the questionnaire to the participants and described their aim for conducting this research. and all the participants (male and female) were satisfied to participate in this study. 10. data analysis after collecting the data from participants the data was analyzed in order to know the result of the research. the analysis process was held with the help of (spss) software 24 version. data was analyzed from different aspects regarding the poor speaking skills factors based on mean standard deviation. 10.1 result and findings characteristics of the respondents table 1.1 shows the demographic information of the respondents in categories of gender, level of education, age, and faculty. characteristics no. of respondents percentage gender: male 81 81 female 19 19 level of education: freshmen 30 30 sophomore 19 19 junior 26 26 senior 25 25 age: 18-25 89 89 25-28 8 8 28-35 3 3 faculty: education faculty 50 50 language and literature faculty 50 50 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 6 table 1.1 shows that there were hundred participants. out of hundred, 81 were male and 19 female students. depending on their level of education, freshmen were 30, sophomore 19, junior 26, and 25 senior students. with regards to age, 18-25 years old were 89, 25-28 years old 8, and 28-35 years old were 3 students. regarding faculty division, 50 were from education faculty and 50 students were from language and literature faculty. research question: what are the causes that make efl students poor in speaking skills at kandahar university? table 1.2 indicates the factors affecting efl students’ speaking skills at kdr university. likert scales: 1=strongly agree, 2= agree, 3=undecided, 4=disagree, and 5= strongly disagree. table 1.2 shows the mean scores for the efl students’ poor speaking skills at kdr university. all of the items had the mean scores between the ranges of two to three. the average level of the efl students’ poor speaking skills was in the range of “agree” and “undecided”. items which gained higher mean scores in this dimension were identified as “i have no interest with speaking” (m= 3.80, sd= 1.31), “speaking is hard skill than other skills for me” (m= 3.09, sd= 1.41) and “i have problem with the teacher speaking strategy” (m= 3.06, sd= 1.40). meanwhile, the three items with comparative lower mean scores were “i am nervous when i speak with strangers.” (m= 2.32, sd= 1.42), “i feel shyness during the presentation in the class.” (m= 2.28, sd= 1.22) and “i speak nervously with other people even my family members.” (m= 2.12, sd= 1.05). the result reveals that minority of the participants were (undecided) but, majority of the participants were (agree) with the questionnaire items. thus, the researchers emerged the major factors that affect efl students’ poor speaking skills. those risky factors are called: 1) efl factors that affect efl students’ speaking skills mean std. deviation i have no interest with speaking. 3.80 1.31 speaking is hard skill than other skills for me. 3.09 1.41 i have problem with the teacher speaking strategy. 3.06 1.40 i can’t speak in class because my lecturer is serious, so i feel fearful. 3.05 1.55 i felt nervousness when my lecturer interrupting to correct my speaking. 2.92 1.41 i feel anxious during speaking in a meeting. 2.86 1.49 i become under pressure during presentation. 2.84 1.47 i have faced problems with my peers in speaking. 2.79 1.43 do you agree with the saying “to learn a language you must speak it?” 2.77 1.44 i feel fearful and my hearth beating very fast in time of speaking with lecturer. 2.66* 1.39 i have no motivation from my peers when i speak about something. 2.59* 1.30 i can’t speak when whole class pay attention to me. 2.49* 1.40 i am nervous when i speak with strangers. 2.32* 1.42 i feel shyness during the presentation in the class. 2.28* 1.22 i speak nervously with other people even my family members. 2.12* 1.05 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 7 students speak nervously with other people even with their family members. 2) students feel shyness during presentation in the class. 3) students are nervous when they speak with strangers. 4) students cannot speak when whole class pay attention to them. 5) students do not have motivation from their peers when they speak about something. 6) students feel fearful and their hearth beating very fast in time of speaking with lecturer. 11. discussion the findings of this study identified that there is lack of confidence in terms of speaking english. students responded that they could not even speak with their parent liberally. this finding is in line with tinkler (2002) who concluded that sometimes students feel less confident when speaking english in front of their parents, thus it caused them discouraging from attending school functions. meanwhile, the findings also suggested that students feel nervousness when speaking to the people who are stranger or unfamiliar and met for the first time which they never saw before. as well as, fearful and their hearts beat while talking to the teacher or when teacher correct their mistakes during presentation and speech. accordingly, ohata (2005) and woodrow ( 2006) stated that giving oral presentations and performing in front of teachers was reported to be one of the most anxiety provoking situations, as well as, giving feedback to the students' during speaking failed their purpose. furthermore, the research findings also points towards students shyness which the students feel themselves shy in front of teacher and audience when giving presentation and reading the lesson. therefore, this factor can cause poor speaking skill in students. moreover, another study concluded by crozier (2002) investigated that shy children and adults are more quite than their peers in social circumstances. they are slower to start conversations with unfamiliar people, take longer to break silence, give shorter utterances and avoid elaborating. the author further explained, that they make less eye contact and touch their faces and bodies more frequently with their hands. as revealed in this research that there is insufficient motivation from peers when speaking about something or when offering presentation and they are afraid of getting things wrong that caused peers amusing and making fun. this was also found by zarina and shamsa (2011) who demonstrated that peer pressure negatively impact on academic achievement of students. moreover, peers aggrieving can deprivate students from academic obtain. 11.1 suggestion students are recommended for future study to collect data from teachers teaching methods in order to know how teachers teach efl learners and which methods and techniques they are using. 11.2 implications efl learners at kandahar university have speaking difficulties that can be overcomed by putting more emphasis on this skill. many issues related to teachers, teaching strategies, curriculum, extracurricular activities, and assessment regulation should be considered. teachers need to be trained on how to integrate speaking to other skills and how to teach it communicatively. moreover, teachers need to be enlightened on the different teaching strategies that may reduce their use of l1 in their classes. curriculum should be designed to provide students with frequent opportunities of speaking and communicative tasks should be included. this can help students acquire the language better as many researchers declared involving students in extracurricular activities can provide them with more chances to use the language, and the classroom will not be the only place where they are exposed to the english language. 12. conclusion the current study was designed to identify the causes that make the efl students poor in speaking skills. the problem was efl students’ poor speaking skills. accordingly with the previous literature, the researchers stated that there were some causes that affected efl students’ speaking skills. such as, anxiety, shyness, lack of interest in the class and fear of being wrong. moreover, the study was conducted quantitatively by providing questionnaire through random sampling. likewise, the data was analyzed through spss software (24) version in terms of mean and standard deviation. finally, the present study found that there were six major causes that affected efl students’ speaking skills. like, speaking nervously with other people, feeling shyness during presentation, nervousness when speaking with strangers even with family members, weakness of speaking when whole class pay attention, no motivation from peers and feeling fearful in time of speaking with lectures. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 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(2008). exploring the affective factors influencing teaching of spoken english. online available. copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). american international journal of education and linguistics research; vol. 3, no. 2; 2020 issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995 published by american center of science and education, usa 1 self-image as predictor of stigma consciousness among physically challenged students in tertiary institutions in oyo state, nigeria somotan oluwayomi abdulmojeed department of educational foundations and counselling, obafemi awolowo university, ile-ife, nigeria atoyebi adeola olusegun department of educational foundations and counselling obafemi awolowo university, ile-ife, nigeria e-mail: adeola671@gmail.com abstract the study investigated the levels of stigma consciousness among physically challenged students in tertiary institutions in oyo state. it ascertained the effect of stigma consciousness on the academic performance of physically challenged students. also, the study determined the relative influence of self-image on stigma consciousness of physically students. furthermore, it examined the influence of self-image on stigma consciousness of physically challenged students. these were with a view to providing information on the factors that could influence stigma consciousness of the physically challenged students. the study adopted the descriptive survey research design. the population for the study comprised physically challenged students in tertiary institutions in oyo state. three institutions (university of ibadan, the polytechnic ibadan and emmanuel alayande college of education, oyo) were purposively selected within oyo state because they have the physically challenged students. a sample size of 120 physically challenged students were selected from the institutions using proportionate random sampling technique. one adapted instrument with two scales was used to collect data from the students. the scales were “stigma consciousness scale (scs) and self-image questionnaire (siq). data collected were analysed using percentage, frequency counts, one-way anova and multiple regressions. the results of the study showed that 4.8%, 88.6%, 6.7% of tertiary institutions in oyo state demonstrated low, moderate and high levels of stigma consciousness respectively. the results showed that there was no significant effect of stigma consciousness on the academic performance of the physically challenged students (f (2.102) =0.059, p=0.943). it was also discovered that there was a significant positive influence of self-image on stigma consciousness of physically challenged students (n=105, t= 0.198, p< 0.05). finally, the results showed that the self-image (β =0.019, f=1.98, p<0.05) contributed significantly in influencing stigma consciousness with coefficient of multiple regression (r2) of 0.164 at p < 0.05 .it was concluded that self-image could influence stigma consciousness among physically challenged students in tertiary institutions. keywords: stigma consciousness of physically challenged and self-image. 1. introduction students with physical challenges are those students suffering from one challenge to other and who may wish to achieve financial and personal independence need to access postsecondary education and overcome numerous academic barriers. it appears therefore that challenged students are experiencing many barriers to their presence, participation and learning at school and little is known of the specific nature of these barriers. physically challenged person may be referred to as people who have substantial, adverse and long-term effect on their ability to carry out normal day to day activities. lawal-solarin (2010) in an article titled banks and the physically challenged quoted msn encarta dictionary which defines physically challenged as an inability to perform some or all the tasks of daily life or a medically diagnosed condition that makes it difficult to engage in the activities of daily life. some people are born with disabilities and challenges, while others develop them later in life. there are, however, many types of challenges or disabilities; both physical and mental, and they vary greatly in causes, degrees and treatments. common disabilities include blindness, deafness, and deformity, loss of limbs, mental illness and mental retardation, muscular, nervous and sensory disorders. this opinion was supported by adesokan (2003) when he noted that most challenged persons suffer rejection, isolation, and maltreatment from other members of the society. he opined that challenged persons are shown negative attitudes and in the traditional www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 2; 2020 2 yoruba society terms such as abirun meaning handicap, didinrin meaning imbecile, abami meaning strange person, and alawoku meaning mentally imbalance are used to refer to them. they are seen as objects of ridicule, shame and pity. meanwhile, there is a great deal of disagreement as to what should be considered offensive or derogatory by people with or without disabilities, wikipedia (2010) noted that views vary with geography and culture, over time, and among individuals. furthermore, terms such as, ''retarded'' and '' lame'' are said to be a deliberate insult. also the term ''wheelchair-bound'' is inherently negative. yet another term ''mongolism'' is based on stereotypical ideas of certain groups of individuals with disabilities. the word 'handicapped'' is considered by some people to be derogatory, while others see it as a synonym for ''a person with a disability'', and it is still used by adesokan (2003). the researchers observed that physically challenged students are present in tertiary institutions in nigeria, oyo state in particular. some of these physically challenged students may be signally conscious because of their perceived low self-image. this is likely to result in poor academic performance and incompetence when compare with their able colleagues and this gives the need for this study in tertiary institutions in oyo state, southwestern part of nigeria. differences in stigma consciousness of physically challenged students may be explained by differences in cognitive aptitude, but variables like self-image status stereotype may also intervene. the potential consequences that individuals may experience as a result of high stigma consciousness are important. one study revealed that women high in stigma consciousness avoided engaging in tasks in which they may be vulnerable to prejudice (pinel, 1999). additional research has linked high stigma consciousness to lower grade point averages for ethnic minority students (brown & lee, 2005), as well as poorer performance on a math exam for women (brown & pinel, 2003). in another study of biracial individuals, high stigma consciousness was related to lower levels of belongingness (wilton, sanchez, & garcia, 2013). all this may affect the academic performance of a normal person and physically challenged in tertiary institutions in nigeria. although, several studies have been carried out on the factors that could predict stigma consciousness of students of physically challenged student. one of the factors that can predict it is the self-image. selfimage is seen as the way individuals regularly describe themselves in relation to their physical, social, emotional, and psychological feelings. according to martin, (2007), self-image has to do with the individual’s feelings, knowledge of self, and ideas about self. this means that self-image is the totality of an individual and all that is peculiar with the person. at the center of self-image is one’s self-schema, which is a mental framework, a cognitive structure that organizes individuals’ emotions, knowledge, and ideas. social psychologists believe that self-image has to do with individuals’ possible selves. therefore, one’s self-image plays a lot of roles in the development of the person academically, socially, and psychologically. when students are stereotyped and work along the same view, it tends to affect them from different dimensions. martin and osborne (1992) stated that individual self-image is the collection of beliefs, thoughts, and feelings that individuals have about themselves. it is the individual’s self-image that is the way the person sees himself or herself. self-image is seen as a general term that refers to the wide range of one’s self-descriptions made by individuals. most of the individuals’ self-descriptions have been associated with rewards that are likely to elicit very positive images and emotions. this implies that how individuals perceive themselves in terms of the stereotypes eventually affects the totality of their behavior. according to demidenko, tasca, kennedy, and bissada (2010), self-image contains three parts: self-esteem, stability, and self-efficacy. self-esteem is the evaluative component, where one makes judgment about his or her self-worth. in their views, stability refers to the organization and continuity of one’s self-image. for mcgraw (2008), self-image is a person’s composite or collective view of himself or herself across a multi-dimensional set of specific precepts. it is based on self-knowledge and evaluation or worth of a person’s capabilities that one formed through experience and interpretation of the environment. mclead (2008) sees self-image as how people think and evaluate themselves. features associated with self-image include personality, skills, abilities, occupations, hobbies, and physical characteristics, among others. a person’s self-image may change with time as reassessment occurs, which in some cases leads to identity crises (gerrig & zimbardo, 2002). self-image is not restricted to the present; it includes past selves and future selves. the past self represents the activities and experiences of the individual in previous occasions, while the future self indicates one’s proposals and intentions that have not been accomplished. these correspond to hopes, fears, standards, goals, and threats (santrock, 2009). the aim of this present study is to investigate to what extent the variability in self-image, could predict stigma consciousness among physically challenged students. studies had been done on the related issue around the globe, but the present study is focused on nigerian sample and oyo state to be precised. the study will add to the existing literature on the issue and will also have implications for educationalists, counsellors and therapists, who work in school settings. it is expected that self-image will reveal the nature of its predictability of stigma consciousness of physically challenged students. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 2; 2020 3 2. objective of the study the broad objective is to determine the impact self-image as a predictor of stigma consciousness among special students in a tertiary institution in oyo state, nigeria. the specific objectives of this study are to:  investigate the levels of stigma consciousness among physically challenged students in tertiary institutions in oyo state  ascertain the effect of stigma consciousness on the academic performance of physically challenged students  determine the relative influence of self-image on stigma consciousness of physically challenged students; 3. research questions the following research question will be addressed in this study:  what are the levels of stigma consciousness among physically challenged students in tertiary institutions in oyo state? 4. research hypotheses  there is no significant effect of stigma consciousness on the academic performance of physically challenged students.  there is no significant relative influence of self-image on stigma consciousness of the physically challenged students 5. methodology the study adopted the descriptive survey research design. this entails the process of gathering information from a representative sample of a population. the descriptive survey design studies characteristics and opinions of relatively small samples of a population through which it seeks to determine the incidence and distribution of such characteristics and opinions in the population. using small sample for fact gathering and testing theories and hypotheses, it has the ability to provide accurate information on the whole population of people. due to its techniques of sampling and the capacity of the results from such samples to be generalized to the whole population, the descriptive survey research is widely used by researchers, especially for practical and policy goals. the results from researcher have usually been remarkably accurate and generalisable. this study adopted this research design because it sought to obtain information from a representative sample of the population. the dependent variable was physically challenged. the independence variable was self-image. stigma consciousness of physically challenged students was measured using stigma consciousness scale to establish the levels of stigma consciousness of physically challenged students. also, the independence variable, self-image was measured using self-image scale of chen and gully (2001) to establish students’ self-image. this consists of three sections: section a is the bio-data of the respondents while section b and c were stigma consciousness and self-image scale respectively. the instruments were validated with the help of experts in tests and measurement and psychology of education at obafemi awolowo university, ile-ife. kaiser-olkin measure of sampling adequacy (kmo) and bartlett’s test of sphericity (bts) were carried out to ascertain the usability of factorial validation for the validation of the items in each section of the questionnaire and each item yielded uniform data. the kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy (kmo) value for stigma consciousness and self-image scale were 0.85 and 0.925 respectively which is greater than critical value at 0.05 level of significance and so is acceptable. the cronbach’s alpha approach was adopted in determining the reliability of the scale and it yielded a coefficient of 0.756and 0.884 6. results research question 1: what are the levels of stigma consciousness among physically challenged students in tertiary institutions in oyo state? in order to answer this research question, items on stigma consciousness scale (scs) were scored such that a strongly agree response was allotted 4, agree response 3, disagree response 2, and strongly disagree response as 1. in this scale, high scores represent a high level of stigma consciousness and vice versa. however, negatively worded items such as items 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, and 14 were reversed in scoring. students’ responses to these items were cumulated to build a measure of stigma consciousness. the minimum and maximum scores obtained in this scale were 14 and 56 respectively while the range was 42. scores of 14-28 were described as a low level of stigma consciousness, 29-42 as moderate level while scores of 43-56 were described as a high level of stigma consciousness. this categorization is then subjected to descriptive statistics of frequency and percentage, mean and standard deviation. the result is presented in table 1 below. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 2; 2020 4 table 1. levels of stigma consciousness among physically challenged students in tertiary institutions in oyo state levels score range mean sd frequency (f) percentage (%) low 14-28 27.00 1.41 5 4.8 moderate 29-42 34.86 3.20 93 88.6 high 43-56 43.86 0.90 7 6.7 total 105 100.0 table 1 shows the levels of stigma consciousness among physically challenged students in tertiary institutions in oyo state. as shown in the table, out of 105 (100.0%) of the physically challenged students that participated in this study, only 5 (4.8%) exhibited low level of stigma consciousness. the score range for this group on stigma consciousness scale is 14-28 with respective mean and standard deviation values of 27.00 and 1.41. also, 93 (88.6%) exhibited moderate level of stigma consciousness with score range of 29-42 (mean=34.86, sd= 3.20) while 7 (6.7%) exhibited high level of stigma consciousness with score range of 43-56 (mean=43.86, sd= 0.90). it is shown in this result that the majority of the physically challenged students in tertiary institutions in oyo state exhibited a moderate level of stigma consciousness. research hypotheses research hypothesis 1: there is no significant effect of stigma consciousness on the academic performance of physically challenged students. in order to test this hypothesis, students’ scores (gpas) were subjected to a one-way analysis of variance using level of stigma consciousness as a factor variable. the result is presented in table 2 below. table 2.one-way analysis of variance of effect of stigma consciousness on the academic performance of physically challenged students source df ss ms f p between groups 2 .053 .027 .059 .943 within groups 102 46.272 .454 total 104 46.325 table 2 shows a one –way between groups analysis of variance conducted to explore the effect of stigma consciousness on the academic performance of physically challenged students. it can be observed from the result that there was no statistically significant effect of stigma consciousness on the academic performance of physically challenged students with low, moderate, and high levels of stigma consciousness as determined by one-way anova (f(2,102) = .059, p = .943). since the p-value is greater than 0.05 level of significance, we do not reject the stated null hypothesis. this result concludes that there is no significant effect of stigma consciousness on the academic performance of physically challenged students. . research hypothesis 2: there is no significant relative influence of self-image and status stereotype on stigma consciousness of physically challenged students. in order to test this hypothesis, students’ scores on the measure of stigma consciousness were subjected to multiple regression with self-image and status stereotype jointly treated as the predictor variables. the coefficients indicating the individual contribution of the independent variables were obtained and are presented in table 3 below. table 3.results of relative influence of self-image on stigma consciousness of physically challenged students model unstandardized coefficients standardized coefficients t p b std. error beta (constant) 25.990 4.144 6.272 .000 self-image .014 .071 .019 .198 .843 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 2; 2020 5 table 3. shows the result of the relative influence of self-image on stigma consciousness of physically challenged students. as shown in table … self-image had t-value of .198 and beta weight of .019. from the values of beta weights and t-ratio for independent variable (self-image), it is shown that status stereotype had significant influence on self-image. it can be concluded from this result that self-image had no significant influence on stigma consciousness of physically challenged students. 7. discussion of findings it was discovered that most of the physically challenged students in tertiary institutions in oyo state had a moderate level of stigma consciousness. this may also aid the high academic performance of physically challenged students in their studies. the result of the three hypothesis shows a significant correlation between stigma consciousness and the self-image of students. a study by barker in awan, (2011), a positive and statistically significant correlation was found between self-image and stigma consciousness of physically challenged students. mccoach (2002) indicated that self-image is a significant predictor of stigma consciousness. the same author further states that as much as one-third of the variance in achievement can be accounted for by academic self-image alone. in a study to investigate the relationship between self-beliefs, academic background and achievement of adolescent asianamerican students in post-secondary education (house 1997), self-image was found to be a significant predictor of asian-american students’ subsequent academic performance. in another study, self-image was found to be directly and significantly related to the deep rather than the surface learning approach (drew and watkins 1998). it was also observed from the analysis that self-image had an influence on stigma consciousness. the findings of the current study emphasized a positive relationship between ‘self-image’ and ‘stigma consciousness of physically challenged students’. to be more specific, self-image and stigma consciousness of physically challenged students were strongly correlated (ahmed (1986), gordon (1997), haque and sarwat (1998), sabir (1999), and shafique (2002). gage and berliner (1992) research findings on the relationship between self image and stigma consciousness of physically challenged students and this suggests that measures of general or even self-image are not significantly related to stigma consciousness of physically challenged. and this is against the findings of this current study which states that self-image had an influence on stigma consciousness of physically changed students in tertiary institutions in oyo state. the finding of the study shows a significant positive relationship between stigma consciousness of physically challenged and self-image of the under-graduate students of tertiary institutions in oyo state. this finding has been supported by researchers (barker, mcinerney, and dowson (2003) lawrence and vimala, (2013). as per the interview and discussion with the subjects, it was observed 80% of the participants were of the view that their target is to have good selfimage of themselves and which may also aid the good performance of the students in their studies. in turn, it makes them try to achieve excellence in their area of interest. they become confident about themselves and able to choose the career they want. to conclude, in order to improve the self-image of students, efforts must be taken by the teachers and parents to provide a good environment both inside and outside the educational environment. it will develop their self-image which will further lead to an understanding of their capabilities, strengths, weaknesses, interests, attitude, aptitude, emotions, knowledge etc. this will finally lead them to develop stigma consciousness. 8. conclusion the present study established that majority physically challenged undergraduates possessed a moderate level of stigma consciousness. the study concluded that self-image predicted stigma consciousness. the study also concluded that there was a significant influence of self-image on stigma consciousness of physically challenged. 9. recommendations arising from the findings and conclusion of this study, various recommendations were proposed to further enhance stigma consciousness of physically challenged students, which will result in academic excellence and high performance of the students. therefore, this study should be applied in various educational and counseling settings. these recommendations are given subsequently. there is a need for students to make real commitments to their stigma consciousness with the intention to be successful academically. it is also important that physically challenged undergraduates should develop good selfimage and this will also aid their academic performance. school counsellors should organize periodic academic seminars for physically challenged students on how to develop and maintain good self-image and this will enhance their stigma consciousness and result in high academic performance. teachers, school owners and parents should www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 2; 2020 6 also encourage students to develop positive image toward their academics and this will help them to be successful at school. references awan run, noureen i, naz a (2011). a study of relationship between achievement motivation, self-concept and achievement in english and mathematics at secondary level. international education studies, 4(3): 72-79. adesokan, z. a. 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http://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?publication_year=2010&pages=1131-1152&issue=10&author=n.+demidenko&author=g.+tasca&author=n.+kennedy&author=h.+bissada&title=the+mediating+role+of+self-concept+among+women+with+an+eating+disorder&&hl=en http://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?publication_year=2002&author=r.+j.+gerrig&author=p.+g.+zimbardo&title=glossary+of+psychological+terms&&hl=en http://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?publication_year=1992&author=g.+l.+martin&author=j.+g.+osborne&title=psychology,+adjustment,+and+everyday+living&&hl=en http://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?publication_year=2007&author=g.+n.+martin&author=n.+r.+carlson&author=w.+buskist&title=psychology&&hl=en http://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?publication_year=2007&author=g.+n.+martin&author=n.+r.+carlson&author=w.+buskist&title=psychology&&hl=en http://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?publication_year=2008&pages=1-20&author=c.+l.+mcgraw&title=ethnic+and+minority+parenting&&hl=en http://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?publication_year=2008&author=j.+mclead&title=aspiration+and+attainment+in+a+low-income+neighborhood&&hl=en http://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?publication_year=2008&author=j.+mclead&title=aspiration+and+attainment+in+a+low-income+neighborhood&&hl=en http://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?publication_year=2009&author=j.+santrock&title=adolescence&&hl=en american international journal of education and linguistics research; vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995 published by american center of science and education, usa 38 influence of self-efficacy on academic competence of secondary school students in osun state atoyebi adeola olusegun department of educational foundations and counselling obafemi awolowo university, ile-ife, nigeria e-mail: adeola671@gmail.com omoteso bonke adepeju department of educational foundations and counselling obafemi awolowo university, ile-ife, nigeria babalola tofunmi matthew department of educational foundations and counselling obafemi awolowo university, ile-ife, nigeria abstract the study ascertained the level of academic competence of secondary school students in osun state and also determined level of self-efficacy of the students. it investigated the influence of self-efficacy on the students’ academic competence. these were with a view to providing information on factor that could influence the academic competence of secondary school students. the study adopted descriptive survey research design. the population for the study comprised senior secondary school students in osun state. the sample size comprised 600 respondents, selected using multistage sampling technique. one local government area (lga) was selected from each of the three senatorial districts in the state using simple random sampling technique. from each lga, four senior secondary schools were selected using simple random sampling technique (12 schools in all) and from each school, 50 students were selected from senior secondary ii using simple random sampling technique. three instruments were used to collect information for the study, namely: academic competence evaluation scale (aces), and general self-efficacy scale (gses). data collected were analyzed using percentages and anova. the results showed that 9.41%, 60.21% and 30.37% of secondary school students in osun state demonstrated low, moderate and high levels of academic competence respectively. the results of the study also indicated that there was a significant positive influence of self-efficacy on academic competence of the students (f =69.35; p<0.05). the study concluded that self-efficacy influenced academic competence of secondary school students in osun state. keywords: academic competence, self-efficacy, secondary school. 1. introduction it is expected that most students when coming to school at the beginning of the term will develop aspirations for a better future for themselves through the achievement of academic goals and competence. they also bring with them varying levels of confidence to complete those academic goals. however, secondary school experience is unique to every student; while some students find it easy to succeed (competent) and some students find it difficult to succeed (incompetent). academic competence is one of the variables that measure an individual’s success or failure in academic or school activities. the goal of every educational programme is to ascertain that learners are able to apply or use related skills and knowledge to perform assigned task (academic competence). competence may be referred to as use of set of related knowledge and skills required to successfully perform a task. competencies often serve as the basis for skills standards that specify the level of knowledge, skills and abilities required for success in the task (rajesh, 2014). academic competence is the capability of students to apply or use a set of related knowledge, skills and abilities required to be successful in an academic task. according to gettinger (2002), academic competence refers to a cluster of related abilities, skills, knowledge and dispositions of cognitive and non-cognitive nature that allow students to perform the necessary academy activities in the school. academic competence also involves the ability of students to work on their academic goals without being influenced www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 39 by other party. for instance, if students feel they cannot handle a given task, they intend to experience fear and avoid the task. on other hand, if learners believe that they can succeed, first, they accept the responsibility of the task given to them. indeed, if learners think that they can learn and understand with reasonable effort; they will put forth greater effort, do not give up in the face of obstacles, and use a variety of strategies to achieve their goals (hoy, 2010). academic competence can also be associated with knowledge and use of effective study skills (gettinger & seubent, 2002). academic study skills are one of the important concepts of academic competence. study skills are directly linked with student academic competence and it is also fundamental to academic competence. effective study skills are associated with positive outcomes across multiple academic content areas. capable students at all grade levels may experience difficulty in school, not because they lack ability, but because they lack good study skills. although some students develop study skills independently, even normal achieving students may go through school without acquired effective approaches for study (nicaise & gesttinger, 2005). the competence (academic achievement) plays an important role in producing the best quality graduates who will become great leader and manpower for the country thus responsible for the country’s economic , social and educational development (ali, 2009). academic competence in a school setting include skills, attitude and behavior of learners towards teaching and learning activities in the school which may translate to academic success and academic competence. the researcher observed that many of the secondary school students in osun state may not have proper study skills, attitude and behavior to achieve academic success and academic competence due to unconducive learning environment, lack of availability of materials, teacher’s lack of subject content and relevant resources which could help students to possess academic competence. when there is no availability of necessary and required materials in the school, this may also affect student’s academic competence. this lack of academic competence of secondary school students in osun state has become worrisome to the populace. however, there has been sparely research especially on the combined influence of self-efficacy and task-value on academic competence. this therefore formed the premise of this study. according to gettiner & seibert (2002), students who are equipped with excellent study skills, attitude and behavior perform well in their studies. students acquiring academic competence may be affected due to teacher’s role, study skills, psychological, economic, environmental and personal factors etc. these factors have strong influence on the student academic competence, but these factors vary from person to person and country to country. several researchers have documented students who do not possess academic competence, as having weak study kills, and experiencing learning problems (leskey, 2000). teacher role is to adjust with a view towards quality and quantitative education so as to being in agreement with self-development, accrue knowledge, competencies and crucial skills. the competencies required for learning from the teacher is called academic competency and which is been expressed in terms of knowledge, skill and academic capability (orhstein & lasley, 2000). capable students at all levels, especially secondary school may experience difficulty in school not because they lack ability, but because they lack good study skills, attitude and behavior toward learning and this is common among secondary school students in osun state. the researcher observed that secondary school students in osun state may not have proper study, behaviourial skills and attitude to achieve academic success and academic competence due to unconducive environment, lack of availability of materials, relevant resources, lack of trust in their abilities, nonchalant attitude, lack of parental care, peer influence and so on. however, there has been sparely research in local settings on the combined influence of self-efficacy and task-value on academic competence of secondary school students. however, there has been sparely research especially in local settings on the combined influence of self-efficacy and task-value on academic competence. this therefore formed the premise of this study in order to add to existing research on it. other factors such as teachers related factors, students’ factors, environmental factors, peers factors, family factors and so on can play good roles in influencing students’ academic competency. differences in academic competence can surely be explained by differences in cognitive aptitude, but variable like self-efficacy may also intervene. various variables are known to influence academic competence; consequently, educational researchers and other allied discipline are usually interested in such variables. recently, there is focus on the student’s sense of self as a principal component of academic competence (pajares & schunk, 2001). parjares and schunk (2000) asserted that this focus is grounded on the assumption that the beliefs that students create, develop and hold to be true about them are vital forces in their success (competence) or failure (incompetence) in school. if someone holds a strong belief for success, then success will be achieved but if there exists an element of doubt in one’s ability to do well or be competent, then the possibility of incompetence will be high. the variable of interest is self-efficacy. self-efficacy refers to individual belief(s) in his/her competency, ability to perform a task, achieve the goal, and overcome the obstacles. it also stands for the abilities of people to produce desired levels of competence that exercise impact over events which affect their lives. self-efficacy is defined as a person’s conviction and belief that he/she can successfully achieved the desired levels and goals in some academic scenario (feltz, 2008) and beliefs that personal efficacy affect level of motivation, life choice, www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 40 quality of work, resilience to hardship, susceptibility to depression and stress (ciccarelli & meyer 2006), capable of executing those behaviours successfully. other psychologist such as al-harthy & was (2013) and al-harthy, (2010) also shed light on self-efficacy as a motivational variable. findings from different studies conducted at the high school levels have demonstrated the importance of self-efficacy as a predictor of students’ academic competence (goodarzi & hosseinzadeh, 2012). for instance, barkley (2006) study investigated whether sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students’ efficacy beliefs were predictors of reading comprehension achievement as measured by a reading comprehension subset score on the standford achievement test. there was also a survey designed to measure the students’ efficacy about four categories that improve reading comprehension(prior knowledge, self-monitoring, cooperative learning, and using graphic organisers), and the results of the study demonstrated a positive correlation between subjects’ efficacy beliefs regarding prior knowledge, self-monitoring, graphic organizers, and their reading comprehension achievement. it can be deduced here that self-efficacy can influence student’s academic competence. for instance, when a student believes in his/her ability or capability to successfully perform a task, he or she may be successful in the task. another variable that may influence student’s academic competence is task-value. this present study investigated to what extent the variability in academic competency of the participants is attributed to self-efficacy. studies have been done on the related issue around the globe, but the present study is focused on a nigerian sample and osun state to be precise. the specific objectives of the study are to:  ascertain the level of academic competence of secondary school students in osun state;  determine level of self-efficacy of secondary school students;  investigate the influence of self-efficacy on academic competence of the students 2. research questions the following questions were reviewed  what is the level of secondary school students’ academic competence in osun state?  what is the level of self-efficacy of the students? 3. research hypotheses there is no significant influence of self-efficacy on academic competence of secondary school students in osun state. 4. methodology the study adopted descriptive survey research design. the population for the study comprised senior secondary school students in osun state. the sample size comprised 600 respondents, selected using multistage sampling technique. one local government area (lga) was selected from each of the three senatorial districts in the state using simple random sampling technique. from each lga, four senior secondary schools were selected using simple random sampling technique (12 schools in all) and from each school, 50 students were selected from senior secondary ii using simple random sampling technique. two instruments were used to collect information for the study, namely: academic competence evaluation scale (aces), general self-efficacy scale (gses). the questionnaires were used to elicit information from the respondents in order to investigate the influence of selfefficacy on academic competence of secondary school students in osun state. this consists of three sections: section a is the bio-data of the respondents while section b and c were academic competence and self-efficacy scale respectively. the instruments were validated with the help of experts in tests and measurement and psychology of education at obafemi awolowo university, ile-ife. kaiser-olkin measure of sampling adequacy (kmo) and bartlett’s test of sphericity (bts) were carried out to ascertain the usability of factorial validation for the validation of the items in each section of the questionnaire and each item yielded uniform data. the kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy (kmo) value for academic competence and self-efficacy scale were 0.85 and 0.925 respectively which is greater than critical value at 0.05 level of significance and so is acceptable. the cronbach’s alpha approach was adopted in determining the reliability of the scale and it yielded a coefficient of 0.852 and 0.895. 5. results research question 1: what is the level of academic competence of secondary school students in osun state? www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 41 in order to answer research question one, items in academic competence evaluation s cale (aces) were scored such that “strongly agree” response was allotted 4. reverse scoring was used for item 2 and 10. individual responses to each item were computed and the mean and standard deviation values were 68.0 and 4.3 respectively ( = 68.0 & sd= 4.3). the minimum and maximum scores obtained in this scale were 59 and 78 respectively. students whose rated scores on this scale were 1 standard deviation below the mean (i.e43-62) score were adjudged as having low level of academic competence. those whose scores were within 66 to 70 were adjudged as moderate level of academic competence while those whose scores were 1 standard deviation above mean score (i. e 71 and above) were adjudged as high level of academic competence. the summary of the results is presented in table 2. table 1. level of academic competence of secondary school students levels frequency(563) percentage (%) low moderate high total 53 339 171 563 9.41 60.21 30.37 100 table 1: shows the distribution of the level of academic competence of secondary school students in osun state. it can further be inferred that 9.41% of the students had low level of academic competence, 60.21% of them had moderate level of academic competence while the remaining 30.37% had high level of academic competence. the finding of this study indicated that more than half of the secondary school students in osun state had moderate level of academic competence. research question 2: what is the level of self-efficacy of the students? in order to answer research question two, items in general self-efficacy scale (gses) were scored such as “strongly agree” response was allotted 4, “agree” response 3, “strongly disagree” response 2, and strongly disagree response was allotted 1. reverse scoring was used for item 9 and twenty. individual responses to each item were computed and the mean and standard deviation values were 81.2 and 3.2 respectively ( =81.2 & sd=3.2). the minimum and maximum scores obtained in this scale were 72.00 and 87.00 respectively. students whose rated scores on this scale were 1 standard deviation below the mean (i.e 72-80) score were adjudged as having low level of self-efficacy. those whose scores were within 81 through 83were adjudged as moderate level of self-efficacy while those whose scores were 1 standard deviation above the mean score (i.e 84 and above) were adjudged as high level of self-efficacy. the summary of the results is then presented in table 3 table 2. level of self-efficacy of the students levels frequency(563) percentage (%) low moderate high total 114 385 64 563 20.25 68.38 11.37 100 table 2 shows the distribution of the level of self-efficacy of the students. it can further be inferred that 20.25% of the students had low level of self-efficacy, 68.38% of them had moderate level of self-efficacy while the remaining 11.37% had high level of self-efficacy. the finding of this study indicated that more than half of the secondary school students in osun state had moderate level of self-efficacy. research hypotheses: there is no significance influence of self-efficacy on academic competence of secondary school students in osun state. in order to test the research hypothesis on the influence of self-efficacy on academic competence, the data collected on the independent variable were coded. having done this, the influence of independent variable was cross tabulated with the dependent variable using anova. the results of the cross tabulated are presented in table 4. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 42 table 3. the mean and standard deviation of influence of self-efficacy on academic competence of secondary school students n s. d std. error self-efficacy 563 81.16 3.22 0.044 table.1, from table 1, the number of students is 563, the is 81.16 and the sd is 3.222 table 4 influence of self-efficacy on academic competence of secondary school students sum of squares df mean square f p between groups 2124.899 9 236.100 69.346* <0.05 within groups 1882.784 553 3.405 total 4007.684 562 significant at 0.05 level table 4 shows the anova table of influence of self-efficacy on academic competence. the findings of the study showed that sum of square between groups is 2124.899 and within groups is 1882.784. the degree of freedom between groups is 9 and within groups is 553. the mean square between groups is 236.100 and within groups is 3.405. the f-value is gotten as 69.346 at <0.05 level of significance. hence, the null hypothesis is rejected. therefore, there is a significant influence of self-efficacy on academic competence. table 5. post-hoc multiple comparison of difference in self-efficacy on academic competence dependent variable: academic competence (i) selfefficacy (j) selfefficacy mean difference (i-j) std. error sig. 95% confidence interval lower bound upper bound low moderate .43829* .05578 .000 .3103 .5674 high .58865* .06289 .000 .4582 .7438 moderate low -.43829* .05578 .000 -.5674 -.3103 high .14726* .04933 .008 .0326 .2637 high low -.58865* .06289 .000 -.7438 -.4582 moderate -.14726* .04933 .008 -.2637 -.0326 *. the mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level. table 5. is the post hoc test carried out to determine the mean difference between each of the self-efficacy level. the study revealed that the mean difference between low and moderate self-efficacy was .43829 and this value is significant. also, the mean difference between low and high self-efficacy was gotten to be .58865 and this value is significant. the results also indicated the mean difference between moderate and high self-efficacy was .14726 and it is significant. 6. discussion of findings the primary goal of this study was to determine the influence of self-efficacy on academic competence of secondary school students in osun state. the result of the first research question showed that most of the secondary school students in osun state had moderate level of academic competence which may lead to high academic performance. from this study, it could be seen that students possessed different levels across all subjects areas of academic competence as against yusuf and adigun (2010) and kurumeh, igyu and muhammed (2013) which asserted that variables like school types (single school and mixed school) did not show any difference in academic competence. available statistics of national examinations council (neco) and west africa examinations council, waec chief examiner’s report (2014, 2015, and 2016) on senior secondary school students’ achievement as cited by www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 43 josiah (2013) revealed a poor achievement. a number of factors are said to have contributed to students’ poor achievements in the examinations. ajewole (2000) stated that some of these factors include: poor study habits, lack of available resource materials, teachers’ ineffectiveness, the teaching methods, and the type of learning of learning environment available to students to teachers. the poor performance of students in west africa examination council (weac) and national examinations council (neco) may be a reflection of the type of learning environment. given self-efficacy as the factor, the findings is also in line with the current findings since performance in waec and neco by secondary school students in osun state is poor as a result of their selfefficacy levels and probably other factors. conclusively, it can be observed that the academic competence of osun state secondary school students is at moderate level (i.e most them of them possess moderate level of academic competence) despite their self-efficacy levels. another major finding of this study was that most of secondary school students in osun state had moderate level of self-efficacy. this implies that larger proportion of the students have moderate self-efficacy level. selfefficacy predicts and influence intellectual performance better than skills alone, and it directly influences academic performance through cognition. perceived self-efficacy predicts future achievement better than past performance (chemers, hu, & gracia, 2001). fluctuations in performance may be explained by fluctuations in self-efficacy. for example, varying beliefs in self-efficacy or different levels of self-efficacy may alter in two different situations. the present findings is in accordance with the above findings since in osun state there exists different levels of selfefficacy and the different levels of self-efficacy resulted in different levels of performance. self-efficacy had influence on academic competence of secondary school students in osun state .the particular concern of educators is that failure to attach value and possessed academic competence may result to low self-efficacy and it may block the pursuit of careers and schooling. in high school students, self-efficacy influence academic competence and is a better influence of achievement, engagement and competence with activities in and out of the classroom. the likely explanation for having moderate self-efficacy has been observed in this research could be that, the prior mastery experience (i.e., scoring good results in the class, scoring good results in the nigerian higher education entrance qualification certificate examination and getting an opportunity to join higher learning institutions) might have inspired students to have moderate and high self-efficacy. self-efficacy and taskvalue are essential for students in acquiring academic competence. this is because, it has been consistently noted by bandura in his social-cognitive theory, when compared to the other sources of self-efficacy beliefs (i.e., vicarious experience, verbal and social persuasions, and emotional and physiological states), prior mastery experience is the most dominant and plays a crucial role in enabling students to believe in their capability to be successful in related tasks and motivated to achieve their planned goals. according to bandura, when students believe that their efforts have been successful (i.e. they experienced mastery in prior activities), their confidence (i.e., self-efficacy) to accomplish similar or related tasks is raised and they are highly motivated to succeed it has been shown in this study, that self-efficacy is linked with academic competence. it is evident from numerous studies reviewed and results of these findings that self-efficacy will significantly influence academic competence. finally, it is therefore noteworthy that self-efficacy had the strongest influence on academic competence. from the study, it was discovered that students who possesses high level of self-efficacy will perform well in the school than those who have low self-efficacy. it is important to emphasize that student with high level of selfefficacy stands better chance of possessing academic competence. 7. conclusion the present study established that majority of secondary school students possessed moderate level of academic competence. it was also realized that the larger percentage of students had high self-efficacy which contributed to academic competence. finally, it was concluded that academic competence depended on the influence of selfefficacy. 8. recommendations arising from the findings and conclusion of this study, various recommendations were proposed to further enhance academic competence of secondary school students, which will result to academic excellence and high performance of the students. therefore, this study should be applied in various educational and counseling settings. these recommendations are given subsequently. there is a need for students to make realistic commitments to their academic pursuits with the intension to be successful academically. it is also important that secondary school students should develop high self-efficacy and this will also aid their academic competence not academic failure. school counselors should organize periodic www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 44 academic seminars for secondary school students on how to develop and maintain high self-efficacy and this will enhance their academic competence. references ali, norhidayah, jussoff, kamaruzaman, ali, syukriah, mokhtar, najah and salamt, azni syafena andin. (20 december 2009). the factors influencing students’ performance at university technologies mara kedah, malaysia’. canadian research & development c enter of science and culture;:vol.3 no 4 al-harthy, c. was and r. isaacson, goals, efficacy and metacognitive selfregulation: a path analysis, international journal of education, 2(2010), 1-20. al-harthy, i.s. and was, c. (2013). knowledge monitoring, goal orientations, self-efficacy and academic performance: a path analysis, journal of college teaching &learning, 10), 263-278. ajewole j.o (2000). creativity in human development. lagos: elshaddai global ventures ltd barkley, z.d (2006) social cognitive theory in cultural context. applied psychology: an international review. psychology in the schools chemers, m.m., hu, l, garcia b.f. (2001). academic self-efficacy and first-year college student performance and adjustment. journal of educational psychology, 93(1), 55-64. ciccarelli, s.e. and meyer, g.e. 2006.psychology.london: mcgraw hill. feltz, d., short, s. and sullivan, p. (2008). self-efficacy in sport – research and strategies for working with athletes, teams, and coaches. united states: human kenetics gettinger, m., & seibert, j.k. (2002). contributions of study skills to academic competence. school psychology review,31(3), 350-365.gree gettinger, p.m & seubent,r.a (2002). admission of failure and symbolic self-completion: extending lewinian theory. journal of personality and social psychology, 43(2), 359-371.doi:10.1037/0022-3514.43.2.358 gettinger, m., & seibert, j.k. (2002). contributions of study skills to academic competence. school psychology review,31(3), 350-365.gree goodarzi, a.d & hosseinzadeh, f.f (2012). conducting social psychological research in educational settings: ‘‘lessons we learned in school’’. in a. t. panter, c. sansone & c. c. morf (eds.),the sage handbook of methods in social psychology (pp. 471–484). thousand oaks, ca, usa: sage publications leskey, r.m. (2000).perceived family environment in relation to adjustment and academic achievement. journal of the indian academy of applied psychology, 31: 18-23. pajares, f., & & schunk, (2001). self-efficacy beliefs and mathematical problem-solving of gifted students. contemporary educational psychology rajesh, v.r. and chandrasekaran, v. (2014).educational aspirations of high school students. indian journal of applied research, 4(12): 4-6 yusuf & adigun et.al (2010) guidance and counseling strategies for handling youths in mixwd sex school. unilorin: university press copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 2; 2020 issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995 published by american center of science and education, usa 19 testing communicative language teaching (clt) through english for today (eft) in bangladesh: challenges faced by tertiary students initially c. m. julker nayeen independent researcher dhaka, bangladesh e-mail: husain.martuza@gmail.com k. m. anwarul islam associate professor department of business administration the millennium university, dhaka, bangladesh phd candidate university of selangor, malaysia e-mail: ai419bankingdu@gmail.com fatema nusrat chowdhury assistant professor department of real estate faculty of business and entrepreneurship daffodil international university, bangladesh e-mail: nusrat.bba@daffodilvarsity.edu.bd nurul mohammad zayed assistant professor and head department of real estate daffodil international university, dhaka, bangladesh e-mail: zayed.bba@daffodilvarsity.edu.bd abstract the idea of using language as a tool of communication is the main principle of the communicative language teaching (clt) approach. english for today (eft) as a textbook was designed to develop the overall english language competence at a higher secondary level. this paper aims at justifying the suitability of eft for implementing communicative language teaching in bangladesh. this study shows english for today is not effective for creating communicative competence among its learners. moreover, the tertiary students initially face challenges while enrolling in undergraduate programs under the medium of instruction is english. data have been collected through classroom observation, interviews with teachers, students, and experts. structured questionnaires for students, teachers, and experts have been used as tools for data collection. finally, the paper concludes that revised abbreviations may be suitably adaptable to impose a communicative language teaching approach by overcoming the challenges in the large classrooms in bangladesh. mailto:husain.martuza@gmail.com mailto:ai419bankingdu@gmail.com mailto:nusrat.bba@daffodilvarsity.edu.bd mailto:zayed.bba@daffodilvarsity.edu.bd www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 2; 2020 20 keywords: communicative language teaching (clt), grammar-translation method (gtm), english for today (eft), four language skills, tertiary students, challenges. introduction since the independence of bangladesh in 1971, there have been many policy changes regarding the teaching and learning of english. the english textbooks also underwent a lot of changes and revisions. the existing english for today (eft) was designed and introduced as a textbook among the students of higher secondary level in 2001 to introduce communicative language teaching (clt) replacing the earlier method known as grammar translation method (gtm). at first, clt was introduced in 1997 in-class seven, in 1998 in-class eight, in 1999 in class nine, and in 2001 at higher secondary level. despite all these changes, no remarkable improvement has been found in the overall english competence of students in bangladesh. according to the preface, this book is based on the principle of learning a language by practicing it. this practice covers four skillslistening, speaking, reading, and writing to facilitate students to use english appropriately for practical purposes in different situations. but in reality, only two skillsreading and writing are evaluated with the other two skills not tested in the final examination. this leads to neglecting the development of listening and speaking skills. every lesson of each unit of the textbook contains one or two passages that do not sometimes meet the purpose of the students’ learning. some of the units contain backdated and irrelevant content in the passage. as a result, when the learners of higher secondary level passed and enrolled in an english based undergraduate program, they face failing in communicative competence initially. thus the clt cannot justify the proper communication buildup strategy from the root level. literature review in 1972, hymes coined the term communicative competence and emphasized not only the knowledge of the language but also the ability how to use the language in communication to contrast a communicative view of language. in 1981 littlewood stated clt is that it advocates going beyond teaching grammatical rules of the target language and recommended that by using the target language in a meaningful way, learners will develop communicative competence. in 1986, richards and rodgers agreed with hymes’s law and figured out clt is the modification of the british language teaching convention dating from the late 1960s. they emphasized the basic structures in meaningful situation-based activities in the clt approach. in 2000, larsenfreeman said the communicative approach in language learning and teaching considers that the primary focus of language learning is to build up communicative competence and to be able to use the language appropriately in a given social context. in 2006, richards defined communicative language teaching (clt) as a set of principles about the objectives of language teaching, the types of classroom activities that effectively promote learning, and the responsibility of teachers and learners in the classroom. but in 2007 savignon argued clt as a teaching method rather, clt is an approach that understands the language to be inseparable from individual identity and social behavior. but in 2014 shurovi and in 2015 rahman and karim agree the goal of clt is improving learners' communicative competence. later in 2019, ahmed added the conversation capability should be ensured by enduring the efficiency of self-driven exercise for students. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 2; 2020 21 in 1997, nctb guidelines uphold in the secondary and higher secondary level, public examinations in bangladesh should test english language skills rather than students’ ability to memorize and copy without understanding matching with the principle of the clt approach. objective of the study the main objective of the study is to explore how far the book english for today for classes xixii is suitable for creating communicative competence among its learners. to achieve this objective, the study determines the following specific objectives-teachers’ evaluation of the textbook, teaching methods-techniques in the classroom by teachers, the system of education prevailing in the country, and tools used by the teachers and students in the classroom. research methodology multiple triangulation approaches that include classroom observation, interviews, and questionnaires have been followed to generate data to answer the research questions. this study has involved subjects of 3 categories: experts knowing syllabus design and evaluation, teachers teaching eft at the higher secondary level and students reading this book as their textbook. all the subjects have been interviewed with 3 different structured questionnairesquestionnaires for experts, questionnaires for teachers, and questionnaires for students. subjected are from both urban and rural areas of bangladeshi living in dhaka, chittagong, khulna, rajshahi, and sylhet. the data have been collected from higher secondary classes that follow the national curriculum. the target group of this study was the students of classes xi-xii, teachers, and experts of different colleges and universities. the participants are 30 teachers from five colleges, 50 students from each college in five separate districts, and 5 experts from three universities in dhaka and chittagong. the collected data have been analyzed by simple count and percentage and shown in the form of tables according to the nature of the information. discussion application of clt through eft in bangladesh the textbook eft for higher secondary classes prescribed by the nctm was designed focused focusing on the communicative functions of language. the syllabus based on the principles of the clt was designed to serve the purpose of making the learners competent in both receptive and gives importance to functional aspects of language learning. the textbook aims at providing ample opportunities for learners to use english for a variety of purposes in different situations. some of the lessons of every unit of this book contain a range of tasks and an activity framed to enable learners to practice four basic skills both individually and in pairs or groups but the scenario throughout the country regarding the implementation of these communicative functions of language is sorrowful. the reality is that in classroom activities life pair work, group work, role play, etc for creating meaningful communication. moreover, teachers do not use target language as a medium of communication in the classroom and they also never encourage the learners to speak in the target language. the untrained teachers of bangladesh do not have a clear idea about the clt approach. they simply read out the passages of the lessons and translate them into bangla. they try to make the students understand everything in bangla avoiding the target language. besides, the textbook lacks proper exercises that can help learners for meaningful communication in an interactive way. the textbook prescribes various classroom activities at the end of some lessons to develop learners four basic skillslistening, speaking, reading, and writing but practically teachers of this country emphasize reading and writing skills www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 2; 2020 22 ignoring the other two major skills which are vitally essential for meaningful communication. on the other hand, many educational institutions do not have the requisite number of well-trained teachers and so they have to manage a very large classroom where class activities suggested by clt are impossible. besides, educational institutions can do not provide enough logistic support to motivate them and make their language learning interesting. the large size of the classroom, lack of well-trained teachers, lack of logistic support, lack of motivation among the learners, faulty examination system, poor infrastructure, etc hurdle to the success of the clt approach in achieving communicative competence among the learners of higher secondary level in bangladesh. assessment of experts’ view from the table 1, of the five experts, two say the book eft for classes xi-xii is written on clt pattern. the other two opine that the book maintains clt. the rest one views the book is written partly in clt pattern. of the five experts, three think the book is not enough to create communicative competence among its learners and the rest are positive in view. all the experts believe that without listening and speaking skills, the book cannot create communicative competence. so they suggest the inclusion of these skills. three experts opine that students do not fee; interested in reading this book and rest one says they do and another expert partially agrees on this point. as a weakness of the book, they mention the exclusion of listening skills and literary pieces. they, therefore, suggest their inclusion and exclusion of irrelevant and unnecessary lesson contents. table 1. experts’ view from experts as respondents 1. did eft write in clt pattern? yes: 2 no: 2 partially: 1 2. in the textbook effective for creating communicative competence? yes: 2 no: 3 3. listening and speaking skills should be included in eft? yes: 5 no: 0 4. is the textbook effective without evaluating listening and speaking skills in the final exam? yes: 0 no: 5 5 are students interested in reading the textbook? yes: 1 no: 3 partially: 1 6 the weakness of the book ignoring listening speaking skills, exclusion of literary pieces, introducing backdated, irrelevant, and uninteresting lessons, the gap between the textbook contents and the test contents. 7 suggestions for standardizing the book reducing the book in size and content, the inclusion of literary pieces, having language materials with exercises, exclusion of irrelevant, unnecessary, and uninteresting lessons 8 strength of the book having some materials relevant to present globalized situation, life, culture, education, etc. source: survey report http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=08321b7a-ea28-4b23-b8e7-c37736b9c443%40sessionmgr101&bdata=jnnpdgu9zwhvc3qtbgl2zq%3d%3d#toc www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 2; 2020 23 assessment of teachers’ view from the table 2, of the teachers interviewed, 37% have an additional degree and 63% do not. 37% of teachers have received training on how to teach english following clt, and the rest 63% do not have. in the classroom, 3% use english always, 7% sometimes, 80% most of the time, 5% seldom, and 5% never. 95% of teachers speak more than students do in the class. 63% of teachers let their students do pair/group work and the rest 37% do not. they generally use a textbook, grammar book, board, chalk, duster, and marker. 56% of teachers say students do not feel interested to read this book and the rest say they (students) do. 76% of teachers feel interested to teach books and 24% do not. 24 % of teachers do not let their students relate their personal experience and 76% do. 73% of teachers opine that the book is not enough to create communicative competence among its learners and the rest 27% think it to be enough. to comment on the strength of the book, the teachers say that it is written on the communicative method. it teaches students how to write letters, reports, and paragraphs. it is good for pair/group work. it has some lessons on ideas related to culture, environment, life, etc. to comment on the weakness, the teachers say the book excludes literary pieces. it ignored listening and speaking skills. so, it is an incomplete book which should include listening and speaking skills to the question of rearrangement to be excluded. lessons are to be selected to interest the students. table 2. teachers’ view from teachers as respondents 1 having any additional degrees in language teaching? yes: 37% no: 63% 2 receiving training on how to teach english? yes: 37% no: 63% 3 making students participate in pair work or group work? yes: 63% no: 37% 4 is eft effective in creating communicative competence? yes: 27% no: 73% 5 are teachers interested in teaching the book? yes: 76% no: 24% 6 teachers’ using english in the classroom always: 3% often: 80% sometimes: 7% seldom: 5% never: 5% 7 strength of the book written on the communicative approach, teaching culture, how to write reports, letters, paragraphs, etc. some lesions on an idea related to life, culture, and environments. 8 the weakness of the book excludes literary pieces, ignores listening and speaking skills, contents fail to satisfy learners’ needs. lengthy and boring text lacking good materials, having impractical passages without effective exercises for students’ practice. 9 suggestions to improve the textbook listening and speaking skills to be evaluated, question item rearrangement to be excluded, lessons to be selected based on students’ need and interest, dialogues for the real-life situation to be included, irrelevant and unnecessary passages to be excluded, and effective exercises to be introduced after every lesson for students’ practice. source: survey report http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=08321b7a-ea28-4b23-b8e7-c37736b9c443%40sessionmgr101&bdata=jnnpdgu9zwhvc3qtbgl2zq%3d%3d#toc www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 2; 2020 24 assessment from students view from table 3, of the 50 students interviewed, only 3% speak english always, 5% most of the time and 7%sometimes, 5% seldom and 80% never. 3% of students always participate in pair work or group work, 10% usually, 7% sometimes and 80% never. again 85% of students get never interactive classes, 5% always get and 10% sometimes get. 60% of the student feel interested to read the book and the rest do not. 50% of students are satisfied with the book and the rest 50% are not satisfied. 75% of students say that the book is not enough to create communicative competence and 25% say it is enough. to comment on the weakness of the book, the students say the book does not have literary pieces. grammar is ignored in it. the lessons presented in it are boring. the book does not have the material needed for communication. so, it is not a standard book for class xi-xii. to comment on the strength of the book, the students say the book gives its readers cultural information. it follows communicative methods. it reflects their culture. it also reflects a global concern. it gives ideas about gender discrimination, world heritage sites, and some famous personalities home and abroad. some students suggest the inclusion of good content, authentic materials, and effective exercises according to their needs and interests for developing their speaking and listening skills. table 3. students view from students as respondents 1 using english in the classroom always: 3% most of the time: 5% sometimes: 7% seldom: 5% never: 5% 2 students engaged in pair work, group work, or discussion: always: 3% usually 10% sometimes: 7% never: 80% 3 having interactive classes always: 5% sometimes: 10% never: 85% 4 students interested in reading the textbook yes: 60% no: 40% 5 book effective enough to help learners communicate in english yes: 30% no: 70% 6 strength of the book providing cultural information, following communicative methods, having good vocabularies, reflecting our culture, global concern, ideas about various aspects, etc. 8 the weakness of the book having no literary piece, ignoring grammar, boring lessons not effective for communication, in many lessons difficult language. 9 language activities are done in the classroom reading the textual passage, translating the passage into bangla, practicing grammatical rules, vocabulary, various question items, and free handwriting. 10 suggestions to improve the textbook the inclusion of literary pieces by native writers, listening and speaking skills to be evaluated, rearrangement to be excluded, question patterns to be changed, selection of good contents according to learners’ needs and interests, having topics on a real-life situation. source: survey report www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 2; 2020 25 limitations of tertiary students in bangladeshi context in bangladesh, english is taught from grade one to grade twelve as a compulsory subject. however, many students in bangladesh cannot develop the ability to use english appropriately in real-life communication even after completing twelve years of education. after the higher secondary level, the vast size of the student gets admitted in the undergraduate programs taught in english. but they lack communicative competencies which were the main concern of the clt approach. fifteen years have passed since clt was introduced in bangladesh, and still many students in bangladesh do not have the expected level of communicative competence in english. therefore, it is important to look into the factors that hinder the successful implementation of clt in bangladesh. based on the previous research, shows that large class sizes, mismatches between curriculum and assessment, cultural inappropriateness, lack of training, and poor socioeconomic conditions are the major challenges to implementing clt in bangladesh. furthermore, teachers’ evaluation, teaching methods, and techniques, the system of education, and tools used for teaching and learning have been focused on this study. findings the textbook eft for higher secondary classes proves itself a failure to meet the objectives of the clt approach. it was found to be unsuitable and inadaptable for the students in the bangladeshi context. the large size of the classroom, lack of well-trained teachers, lack of logistic support from the government and institutions, lack of motivation among the learners, faulty examination system, poor infrastructure, and learning atmosphere, the textbook without good contents and curriculum, etc. altogether hurdle the suitability and adaptability of the textbook in applying clt to achieve communicative competence among the learners of higher secondary level of bangladesh. recommendation in the context of clt though clt has been used for many years in bangladesh for teaching and learning the english language, it still has not been adequately used to develop critical thinking. clt is based on learning by doing approach and focuses on participatory processes where every student can get equal opportunity and learn accordingly even in a classroom with a large number of students. however, clt is only exercised to get fluency in communication. the data of this study support this. students were found to be doing better in written skills comparing oral skills. however, functional communicative competence in english in itself is not enough to fulfill the aspiration of preparing bangladeshi students to become global citizens. our students need not only improved communication strategies but also strategies to examine and critique received ideas to live and negotiate one’s position in terms of international influences and to understand, and balance, power status in this age of internationalism. clt could be utilized using appropriate themes in classrooms to facilitate students thinking about others and evaluating positions in this world. so my suggestion is that our bangladesh curriculum needs a mix of critical literary topics in the textbooks, use of student responsive pedagogy, and a positive attitudinal change towards learning english as a language. such change could extend language learning into developing critical awareness about global needs, possibilities, and limitations. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 2; 2020 26 in the context of eft to get the expected outcomes from the communicative language teaching approach, the following suggestions are proposed for eft. first of all, listening and speaking skills ignored in eft are to be included. the book must be taught and read as suggested in it. instructors are to be trained to teach the book. the size of the class must be smaller. it should consist of 25-30 students to ensure their active and equal participation in classroom activities. therefore, english teachers have to be properly trained to teach the english language according to the communicative language teaching approach. however, if the examination system is not properly taken care of to prevent the students from memorization, no measure will work for the improvement of the english language skills of the movement. finally, for implementing all these measures, proper coordination is needed among all the factors influencing english education in bangladesh. the realization that brought about the changes in the national curriculum by introducing compulsory english for all levels of education will go in vain without a concerted effort in the total procedure of policy-making to make the policies successful and sustainable. conclusion the textbook eft for higher secondary level, to a great extent, fails to create communicative competence among its learners making them able to communicate with others in different situations. although the textbook eft is designed on the principles of clt, the lack of proper coordination among the factors of the clt approach has brought about its failure in bangladesh. these discrepancies among the factors are so-called teaching methods (gtm), faulty examination systems, untrained teachers, unusually large classrooms, lack of proper learning atmosphere, lack of logistic supports, de-motivated students, etc. if the teachers are well-trained in the clt approach and if the teachers and learners play their proper roles imposed by the clt curriculum, the concept of the clt approach will be successfully implemented. finally, the book eft is an attempt to introduce communicative english. as an introducer, it has initiated some loopholes. it is edited and revised; it may be a good book that will keep pace with the demand of the day. references ahmed, p. (2019). english learning with clt. times review of literate: english, 4 (1), 70-78. hymes, d. h. (1972). on communicative competence. in j. b. pride, & j. holmes (eds.), sociolinguistics: selected readings (pp. 269-293). harmondsworth: penguin larsen-freeman, d. (2000). techniques and principles in language teaching (second ed.). (r. n. campbell, & w. e. rutherford, eds.) new york: oxford univeristy press. littlewood, w. (1981). communicative language teaching: an introduction. cambridge: cambridge university press. rahman, m. s., & karim, s. (2015). problems of clt in bangladesh: ways to improve. international journal of education, learning and development, 3 (3), 75-87. richards, j. c., & rodgers, t. s. (1986). approaches and methods in language teaching: a description and analysis. cambridge: cambridge university press. richards, j. c. (2006). communicative language teaching today. new york: cambridge university press savignon, s. j. (2007). beyond communicative language teaching: waht's ahead. journal of pragmatics, 39, 207-220. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 2; 2020 27 shurovi, m. (2014). clt and elt in bangladesh: practice and prospect of speaking and listening. journal of language teaching and research, 5(6), 1263-1268. copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). american international journal of education and linguistics research 6(1) (2023), 1-6 1 education and linguistics research aijelr vol 6 no 1 (2023) p-issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995 available online at www.acseusa.org journal homepage: https://www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr published by american center of science and education, usa use of code-switching in fijian elt classrooms by higher education academics: a language learning strategy ravnil narayan (a)1 (a) phd candidate in applied linguistics, school of foreign languages, tsinghua university, beijing, china; e-mail: ravnilnarayan@gmail.com a r t i c l e i n f o article history: received: 8th august 2023 revised: 24th october 2023 accepted: 29th october 2023 published: 6th november 2023 keywords: elt, code-switching, academics, linguistics, applied linguistics jel classification codes: l33, h44, j24 a b s t r a c t code-switching is a natural phenomenon that allows educators and learners alike to communicate in a classroom setting, which is multilingual in nature with diverse linguistic backgrounds. hence, this study has aimed to explore whether higher education academics in english language teaching classrooms incorporate code-switching or not and what are the reasons for their incorporation. to achieve the aims of this study, two research tools were used for data collection namely checklist and observation. the checklist consisted of eleven reasons that are introduced by gulzar (2010) for codeswitching that showed where higher education academics code-switch in their classrooms and in which contexts. on the other hand, lesson observations were made during the participant’s classroom teaching and notes were taken. it is envisaged that the aim of code-switching is mainly to transfer the understanding of materials being used in elt classrooms in the most effective manner. more imperatively, a mixed method research design was used to achieve the results output of the present study. the study has found that code-switching is indeed a spontaneous occurrence that happens naturally, and higher education academic professionals use it as a linguistic tool to assist learners in comprehending difficult nuances. code-switching worked as a bridge between higher education academics and learners alike. © 2023 by the authors. licensee cribfb, usa. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). introduction whenever there is a communication taking place between two people, code-switching is bound to happen either consciously or subconsciously. for one or many reasons, people do code-switch to ease their understanding of a particular subject and respond to that accordingly. as asserted by brice (2009), code-switching (henceforth cs) is an unintentional phenomenon that defines a shift from one language to another by the speaker of a language. mainly, it takes place in a bilingual and multilingual societies to ease the burden amongst the monolinguals, who are not able to communicate in the target language (cook, 2013). crucially, these fecund patterns of communication are restricted by the english only policy in the classrooms, and thus are only practiced when the teacher is not present, or indirectly involved in the group discussions (gulzar, 2010). however, until recently and due to the advancement in e-learning, code-switching is now being considered as an option to be used by many teachers in the elt classrooms. learners cannot be simply denied and penalised or punished for using their l1 in their l2 classrooms (ariffin & rafik-galea, 2009). cs should be recognised and given all due prominence in the elt classrooms for the betterment of the learner’s comprehension of complex nuances. furthermore, this phenomenon is highly prevalent in the educational contexts that allows the teachers and learners alike to switch to their l1 whenever there is a need. according to cook (2013) and timor (2012), the incorporation of learners l1 should be integrated into the l2 curriculum, which uses l2 to facilitate the teaching. further, this point has gained emphasis from setati and adler (2000), who have stated that cs entails a switch by the teachers to learners l1 as a strategy to harness the understanding of what cannot be understood by them. most of the cs that takes place in the four walls of a classroom has a precise purpose that is associated to pedagogical objectives. in other words, cs is undeniable, as much as inevitable in an elt classroom, particularly in a context where teachers and learners share the same l1 (fareed, humayun, 1corresponding author: orcid id: 0000-0001-7634-6065 © 2023 by the authors. hosting by acse. peer review under responsibility of acse, usa. https://doi.org/10.46545/aijelr.v6i1.303 to cite this article: narayan, r. (2023). use of code-switching in fijian elt classrooms by higher education academics: a language learning strategy. american international journal of education and linguistics research, 6(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.46545/aijelr.v6i1.303 https://doi.org/10.46545/aijelr.v6i1.303 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7634-6065 narayan, american international journal of education and linguistics research 6(1) (2023), 1-6 2 & akhtar, 2016). factually, many learners are depended heavily on their l1 in l2 classrooms for the paramount reason to understand the teacher and contents. cs works as a guiding tool for all types of learners and higher education academics also consider it as a boon to be used in the elt classrooms. in fijian society, i-taukei and fiji-hindi is spoken by the vast majority of the people and is country’s main languages. the english language, which is nation’s lingua franca is used as the medium of instruction in education, law and order, air and sea speak, trade and commerce and so forth (gulzar, 2010). in regard to learning and teaching, elt classrooms get affected when learning materials that are used is challenging and beyond learners’ comprehension. as such, codeswitching is bound to be incorporated in fijian esl classrooms if it is used as a teaching strategy and not be considered as a bane. according to gulzar (2010), there are various reasons for higher education academics to use cs. some of these reasons include clarification, ease of expression, emphasis, repetitive function, socialising, translation, linguistic competence, checking understanding, giving instructions effectively, topic shifts and create sense of belongingness (canagarajah, 1995). basically, all these reasons are considered as the pivotal justifications as why cs takes place in the elt classroom. literature review code-switching concept different scholars have defined the word code-switching differently. the pioneer of this concept (gumperz, 1977) defines code-switching as the juxtaposition of passages that belongs to a repertoire of grammatical systems or subsystems that takes place within the same exchange. on the other hand, code-switching refers to instances in which speakers alternate between two languages in a single conversation (van-herk, 2012). subsequently, a change in language form with the same meaning conveyed using a more available word that happens to be from the other language is referred to as code-switching (moreno, federmeier, & kutas, 2002). in simple terms, code-switching allows people to ease their communication and be understood by inserting words and phrases from other languages. types of code-switching tag switching this switching takes place as a tag, a brief statement, or a phrase on one speech that works as a filler/s to an utterance of another language. for example, “tum janta ki nai!” (you know or not!), “arey bhaiya!” (oh brother!). due to tags having no syntactical restrictions, it can be used anywhere in a particular conversation or a sentence, without violating any rules of the grammar. it is confirmed that an addition of tags to a particular utterance does not have any effect on the rest of a phrase (poplock, 1979). also, this type of switching is highly common amongst the bilinguals/multilinguals as most of the users apply tag switching almost at the end of all their conversations. it is also known as emblematic or extra-sentential codeswitching. intra sentential switching usually, this type of switching is difficult and takes place within a clausal level that contains a phrase, a single word, or across morphemes. as such, it necessitates a considerable amount of effort, which is associated with proficient bilinguals or multilinguals due to phrases from another language that are combined into a single sentence in the native language, which has greatest syntactic risk. in addition, intra sentential switching requires a speaker to be well versed with the grammar of two different languages to prevent the usage of ungrammatical phrases (nunan, 2001). for example, “eela word ke isse koi connection haiye nai hai” (this word has got no connection with this). inter sentential switching mainly, it occurs between the clauses or phrases in which the clause or phrase is written in a different language. as such, it requires the least amount of integration. according to eldin (2014) and macswan (2012), inter sentential code-switching takes place in the same sentence including both the languages. in other words, it posits that the user can apply the rules of grammar for both the languages simultaneously. for example, “humme etna kharaab seh piyaas lage hai” (i am feeling so thirsty). reasons for higher education academics code-switching there are eleven reasons that prompts higher education academics to use cs in their elt classrooms (gulzar, 2010). these are stipulated below: clarification whenever there is any unfamiliar vocabulary of difficult expressions, higher education academics resorted to cs. as stated by sert (2005), clarification of meaning made the process of cs quite simple and more effective for day-to-day classroom interaction. usually, this takes place when learners are not able to comprehend complex sentences. ease of expression higher education academics switched between languages because they were able to use simple vocabulary in their l1 when compared to those used in l2. this function allowed the knowledge to be transferred and materials being understood well. narayan, american international journal of education and linguistics research 6(1) (2023), 1-6 3 emphasis when a point/s needed some emphasis, higher education academics used cs either consciously or unconsciously to convey the message effectively and properly. repetitive functions in this function, higher education academics used l2 and then repeated what has been said in the l1. the repetition in the l1 could be partial or full and is often expanded with further information, but more frequently cs has been used as a repetition of the uttered sentences previously (flyman-mattsson and burenhult, 1999). socialising through socialisation, cs can be employed towards building good rapport with the students that will encourage them to learn a foreign language, while at the same time making language learning a fun filled activity for all the learners. giving instructions effectively considered as a common phenomenon, higher education academics used cs to the learners l1 whenever there was a need to give an order in the most effective way, and to sound ‘demanding’ so that any work that was given would be done properly. translation it is illustrated that higher education academics often switched between codes to translate the imperative message in the process of explaining grammar points. this translation would mostly be free in form; as literal translation may not be comprehended by the learners. linguistic competence this reason is considered as a complex notion in an elt classroom interaction (flymen-mattsson and burenhult, 1999). it is envisaged that it is the responsibility of the higher education academics to convey knowledge of l2 to the students. therefore, it is unsuitable to use words that the learners may not have good knowledge about it. the higher education academics need to avoid using such vocabulary, as it might damage the learner’s self-confidence in learning the l2. also, it would also arise language anxiety that could be considered detrimental in learning l2. checking understanding mainly, teachers’ reason in this stance is to check first the learners understanding of their utterances. the emphasis is given to the repetition of function in cs for checking the understanding (brice, 2000). topic shift cs for topic shift is a common phenomenon is an elt classroom interaction. there are two reasons for this: firstly, due to the message’s imperativeness, the teacher does not want the learners to misinterpret the messages and secondly, the teacher wants to get the attention of the learners right (lin, 2013). create sense of belongingness to have a meaningful and understanding relationship between the teacher and learners, it is crucial to do cs to maintain the rapport and intimacy with the learners. when cs is allowed, classroom engagement becomes more natural and simpler (cook, 2001). materials and methods this study has adopted the qualitative and quantitative research design to explore whether higher education academics in fijian elt classrooms utilise cs or not and what are their common reasons for the utilisation. further, the study also tends to show whether there are any differences between higher education academics, who teach linguistics and those who teach literature of their use of cs. this study ought to give an accurate stance on the types, nature and the reasons of cs that is utilised by higher education academics in the elt classrooms. further, the teaching academics will put greater emphasis on the acts of cs and apply it as specifically when there is a need to be fully understood. more imperatively, this study will also pave directions for the future research to be conducted in the same line, however with an innovative cs outcome in the accelerating l2 learning ambience. the research questions stipulated below have worked as the rudiments to collate the overall findings of this study:  do higher education academics utilise cs during elt interactions?  what are the most common and least reason for cs by higher education academics?  are there any differences between language and literature teaching staff use of cs? additionally, the study ought to give an accurate stance on the types, nature and the reasons of cs that is utilised by higher education academics in the elt classrooms. further, the teaching academics will put greater emphasis on the acts of cs and apply it as specifically when there is a need to be fully understood. more imperatively, this study will also pave directions for the future research to be conducted in the same line, however with an innovative cs outcome in the accelerating l2 learning ambience. to achieve the aims of this study, the researcher utilised two types of instruments to collect the data: checklist and observation. the checklist consisted of eleven reasons of cs that showed where do higher education academics did cs (gulzar, 2010), while on the other hand, observation was conducted after taking the permission in the teaching classes that narayan, american international journal of education and linguistics research 6(1) (2023), 1-6 4 were conducted by a staff. in totality, there were fifteen participants who were higher education academics of linguistics and literature that were selected for this study. they were all teaching in one university of fiji but at different campuses. mainly, these higher education academics were selected as all of them had a master’s degree or a phd in english language teaching and literature. either fiji hindi or i-taukei language was their mother tongue, english was their l2. in the process of teaching, each participant was observed taking into consideration of the eleven reasons of cs as stipulated by gulzar (2010). all the data was collected through observations of the classroom teaching by the higher education academics. results the tabulated analysis below shows the observations of the higher education academics of a fijian university that employed cs during their classroom teaching. the table contains the reasons for cs and the frequencies for each switching that took place in a classroom. table 1. code-switching frequencies by higher education academics in percentages reasons count and percentages literature linguistics totals clarification count 14 11 25 % horizontal 56.00% 44.00% 100.00% % vertical 15.9% 16.2% 16.04% ease of expression count 13 10 23 % horizontal 56.52% 43.48% 100.00% % vertical 14.8% 14.7% 14.74% emphasis count 7 6 13 % horizontal 53.85% 46.15% 100.00% % vertical 8.0% 8.8% 8.39% repetitive functions count 5 4 9 % horizontal 55.56% 44.44% 100.00% % vertical 5.7% 5.9% 5.78% socialising count 8 5 13 % horizontal 61.54% 38.46% 100.00% % vertical 9.1% 7.4% 8.22% translation count 9 8 17 % horizontal 52.94% 47.06% 100.00% % vertical 10.2% 11.8% 11.00% linguistic competence count 1 1 2 % horizontal 50.00% 50.00% 100.00% % vertical 1.1% 1.5% 1.30% checking understanding count 4 3 7 % horizontal 57.14% 42.86% 100.00% % vertical 4.5% 4.4% 4.48% giving instructions effectively count 12 9 21 % horizontal 57.14% 42.86% 100.00% % vertical 13.6% 13.2% 13.44% topic shift count 10 7 17 % horizontal 58.82% 41.18% 100.00% % vertical 13.6% 13.2% 13.43% create sense of belongingness count 3 2 5 % horizontal 60.00% 40.00% 100.00% % vertical 3.4% 2.9% 3.18% totals count 88 68 156 % horizontal 56.41% 43.59% 100.00% % vertical 100.00% 100.00% 100.00% discussions according to the data postulated above (see table 1), it is indicated that clarification is the most used reasonable excuse for higher education academics of l2 to utilise their l1 to assist the learners in understanding confusing concepts. however, they mostly utilised l2 for teaching but transferred the code into l1, whenever the need aroused. the second most ranked reason was ease of expression, as it aimed to transfer the materials of complex knowledge to be understood in the most effective way. again, the need for l1 is highly imperative here to make learners accommodative in the elt classrooms. giving out instructions to learners so that they can understand it effectively is another reason of high importance that is ranked third on the figure above. it is common as much as obvious for higher education academics to switch between learners l1 to impart instructions. the higher education academics employed cs to translate the essential messages to elucidate new vocabulary and grammatical rules. hence, this has been ranked fourth as it benefits the learners towards reducing comprehension burden and further assists them to remain focused on the gist of the that has been conveyed. to teach complex grammar concepts and other associated materials, higher education academics used their l1 for a topic shift so that learners were able to understand. while it was challenging as much as difficult to grasp the complex grammar concepts and other associated materials, a topical shift has allowed an ease for the higher education academics to narayan, american international journal of education and linguistics research 6(1) (2023), 1-6 5 make learners understanding easier. this was ranked fifth on the figure depicted above. the sixth most reason on the figure stated above is emphasis, which is utilised by higher education academics to convey the messages properly and effectively. according to eldridge (1996), “messages are reinforced, emphasised and clarified where the messages have already been transmitted in one code but misunderstood”. figure1. code-switching frequencies by higher education academics the higher education academics switched codes for socialising purposes as well. this is ranked seventh on the figure above. by engaging in socialisation, they tend to build an everlasting rapport with their learners, which in return creates a sense of belongingness. by repeating the speech in the l1, which is preceded by the target language, this has allowed the higher education academics to align the meaning of two different languages. this shows that the teaching academics have utilised cs for repetition purpose which ranks eighth on the figure above. another imperative reason to check the comprehension of the student’s prompted cs by higher education academics. on the figure above, it is ranked ninth. this function is utilised to determine the level of understating of the materials that are being used as teaching aid. the higher education professional’s code switched to show their expression of feelings as if he/she was one of them. by having this sense of belongingness, cs has contributed towards creating a supportive and conducive ambience for elt to be executed effectively. this was ranked second last on the figure. the least reasoned function of cs that was utilised by the higher education academics was linguistic competence. all the participants were area specialist in linguistics and literature, though they have english as their l2, and they had good number of teaching experience. generally, the figure 1 stipulated on top has shown that the higher education academics utilised cs for almost all the reasons that gulzar (2010) has mentioned. for any esl teacher whose l1 is not english are bound to switch codes for all the reasons mentioned above in an elt classroom. factually, this makes their work easier to impart the l2 knowledge easily, and for the learners to comprehend complex nuances to the best of their ability. conclusions overall, this study has revealed that code-switching has been valued in accelerating esl/efl learning, particularly when it is utilised for the purpose and awareness for which it has been adopted and employed for. as per the results of this study, it was found out that code-switching was utilised for several reasons irrespective of the topics that were being taught in linguistics and literature classrooms. the most common function that was utilised by the higher education academics to use code-switching in their teaching was clarification, while the least was linguistic competence. however, whatever reasons are stated by gulzar (2010) and including the findings of this study above, all these reasons tend to transfer the knowledge from materials in the most effective way that can be easily comprehended by the learners. this is further supported by wardhaugh (2021), who has claimed that the code-switching has the power to facilitate greater comprehension and cohere the classroom population in the lesson execution. indeed, code-switching is considered as a boon and not a bane in the fijian elt classrooms, as it has been taken in as a language learning strategical tool by higher education academics. author contribution: conceptualization, r.n.; data curation, r.n.; methodology, r.n.; validation, r.n.; visualization, r.n.; formal analysis, r.n.; investigation, r.n.; resources, r.n.; writing – original draft, r.n.; writing – review & editing, r.n.; supervision, r.n.; project administration, r.n.; funding acquisition, r.n. author has read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. institutional review board statement: ethical review and approval were waived for this study, due to that the research does not deal with vulnerable groups or sensitive issues. funding: the author received no direct funding for this research. acknowledgement: not applicable. informed consent statement: informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study. data availability statement: the data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author. the data are not publicly available due to restrictions. conflicts of interest: the authors declare no conflict of interest. 0 2 4 6 8 10 c larificatio n e ase o f ex p ressio n e m p h asis r ep etitiv e fu n ctio n s s o cialisin g t ran slatio n l in g u istic co m p eten ce c h eck in g u n d erstan d in g g iv in g in stru ctio n s t o p ic sh ift s en se o f b elo n g in g literature linguistics narayan, american international journal of education and linguistics research 6(1) (2023), 1-6 6 references ariffin, k., & rafik-galea, s. 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(2021). an introduction to sociolinguistics. john wiley & sons. https://doi.org/10.18309/anp.v51i1.1248 publisher’s note: acse stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. © 2023 by the authors. licensee acse, usa. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). american international journal of education and linguistics research (p-issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995) by acse is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jss.2016.44030 https://doi.org/10.3109/14417040008996783 https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.1995.9994599 https://doi.org/10.3138/cmlr.57.3.402 http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v4n6p78 https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/50.4.303 .%20http:/dx.doi.org/10.20547/jess0411604101 https://doi.org/10.1177/003368827700800201 https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2013-0009 https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118332382.ch13 https://doi.org/10.1006/brln.2001.2588 http://doi:%2010.11648/j.ijll.s.2014020501.17 http://doi:%2010.11648/j.ijll.s.2014020501.17 https://doi.org/10.15700/saje.v39n3a1528 .%20http:/dx.doi.org/10.24191/ajue.v18i4.20038 https://doi.org/10.18309/anp.v51i1.1248 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) http://ssbfnet.com/ojs/index.php/ijrbs http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995 published by american center of science and education, usa 46 attaining a lifelong and equitable literate society: the challenges of national policies on education for all oluwatoyin dorcas ayimoro phd department of adult education adekunle ajasin university akungba-akoko, ondo state, nigeria e mail:ayimorooluwatoyin@gmail.com tel: +234-816-256-5765 abstract evidence abounds on the fact that literacy and education are important for a developed state. also, there are global records on the movement to a knowledge based economy rather than a resource based. thus, globally efforts are being put in place to achieve a considerable percentage of literacy among citizens if not for all because a nation that refuses to place high premium on the education of her citizenry may be toying with her level of development. nigeria is endowed with a rich culture and indigenous education but colonization disrupted the system she would have built upon to sustain her own philosophy. she is a signatory to policy documents on the attainment of education for all (efa). however, despite the institution of several policies on the promotion of literacy education from pre-independence tilldate, nigeria is still battling with a large population of illiterates especially, among its females; gender inequality and less development is evident in the society. this is a reflection of inadequate attention to lifelong learning opportunities for the citizenry. policy formulation without adequate commitment towards development from all stakeholders also pervades the nigerian society. this, question arise, will universal basic education (ube) thrive, especially within the context of the sustainable development goals (sdgs) taking into cognizance, the past history and the present situation on the approach to enhancing lifelong and inclusive efa in nigeria? can the universal basic education enhance an equitable society which will create an enabling environment for an all-round oriented sustainable development with equal opportunities for all? more so, education is essential for societal development. this paper thus examine past education initiatives of the nigerian government within the context of enhancing a lifelong well informed egalitarian society. keywords: education for all, egalitarian society, lifelong learning, nigerian culture, sustainable development goals. 1. introduction evidence abounds on the fact that literacy and education are important for a developed state. also, there are global records on movement to a knowledge based economy rather than a resource based economy. thus, globally efforts are being put in place to achieve a considerable percentage of literacy among citizens if not for all because a nation that refuses to place high premium on the education of her citizenry may be toying with her level of development. literacy has been identified as fluid, the reasons for viewing lifelong learning with a continuing lens. the world is no longer looking at literacy as an act of being able to read, write and compute but rather as various types which could be used to bridge identified lacuna in societies through an informed action. in fact this realisation brought about education for sustainability. although, nigeria had her indigenous education, she is endowed with rich culture. her pre-colonial education exhibits skill acquisition, oral numeracy, reading of signs especially weather signs, the inculcation of culture and moral values through the transmission of skills and knowledge from one generation to another throughout life and in an informal way. this can be likened to the present lifelong learning because it was a continuum which provided for the needs of people then. however, as a british colony, the sustainability of indigenous education in the nation was tempered with thereby disrupting sustainable living of the people as an independent, healthy and happy people whereas, it has been established by global educators that education must be orientated to reflect a vision of sustainability linking economic wellbeing with cultural traditions and respect for earth and its resources {unesco, 2002} www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 47 global movements and policy strategies towards achieving equality among all citizens were also enshrined in ‘education for all ’{efa} in which nations are to domesticate. nigeria had hers domesticated as a signatory towards achieving efa especially because patriarchal and inequality tendencies were reinforced by the british in nigeria during colonization. males were exposed to formal education earlier than females, where females received formal education, they were educated to become good wives; ‘victorian style’. again, the formal education of the colonialists were less impactful as they do not provide for the philosophy, needs and aspiration of the nigerian people nor tend to protect the indigenous culture of the people. at independence, she had to continue with the education legacy provided by the british which equally does not conform to a growing agricultural state for self-reliance and sustenance. however, nigeria was exposed to formal education for the first time; it is believed that writing and literacy play increasingly important role in the mental and socio-economic lives of the people. nigeria had her first national curriculum conference on education in 1969 in order to input philosophical relevance, the needs and aspiration of the people in the national curriculum, several editions of the national policy on education emerged. these include 1977, 1981 and the acclaimed 2004 model that changed from the british style to the american structure called 6-3-3-4 system of education (okudo, 2013). it is a government tool of achieving the five national objectives of:  a free and democratic society.  a just and egalitarian society.  a united strong and self-reliant nation.  a great and dynamic economy.  a land of bright and full opportunities for all citizens. these specifics are quite good and would have nailed the colonial sentiments and acculturation but the cog in the wheel of the manifestation was built in section 18 of the constitution of the federal republic of nigeria and was stated as educational objectives of the government that:  government shall direct its policy towards ensuring that there are equal and adequate educational opportunities at all levels.  government shall promote science and technology.  government shall strive to eradicate illiteracy and to this end shall, as and when practicable, provide.  free compulsory and universal education;  free secondary education;  free universal education  free adult literacy programme.  government shall promote the learning of indigenous languages. (fgn, 1999) also, there are constraints towards achieving success in the 6-3-3-4 policy of education funding and the population of nigerians particular constraints, there is cultural imbalance and diversity, multiplicity of languages and traditions, religious beliefs, inequality in educational provision, insecurity non ownership of the policy as a responsibility for all, family planning, death of qualified teachers to teach the new skills among others. the universal basic education act (ube) was to complement the 6-3-3-4. it has early child care development and education. (eccde) arising from the fact that children should start school early and be fed in school to provide for good growth, development and education. the vision is that after nine years of continuous education of the child, he or she should have acquired relevant skills and values to contribute his or her quota to national development (etuk, ering & ajake 2012). it is however curious that 10.5m children in nigeria are out of school while 40% of her adults are illiterates of which women and girls are prominent. it is against this background that this study sought to do a review of nigeria’s basic education in implementing her efa strategies towards achieving a lifelong literate and egalitarian society. 2. literature review 2.1 the indigenous nigerian education system obanya (2007) had a good coinage for indigenous nigerian education when he exclaimed “the education that africa lost’! nigeria belongs to africa, her indigenous education is very rich, it provided for the requirements of social cohesiveness and regeneration of the society, traditional africa had a lot in common with education everywhere else but it lost this through colonization (obanya,2007) corroborated by sarumi (2011), he asserted that the nigerian traditional system of education encompasses all aspects of social, cultural, political, economic, oral, intellectual, physical and spiritual orientations, entailing various forms of traditional judicial systems, community and co-operative affairs . www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 48 indigenous education in nigeria starts from childhood and continues to adulthood (sarumi, 2011) . according to obanya (2007) indigenous education is mapped out to fall in line with the development stages of life. he further said that children receive primary socialisation; adolescents consolidate this and add life skills while adults consolidate the two. organisation and social skills are added through communalism as such, special needs are taken care off without exclusion. it is erroneous to say that africans do not have their own system of education. omolewa (1981) submits that western education is predated by traditional education in nigeria. indigenous education is holistic and had personality development notion, emphasising learning rather than curriculum and examination based school. 2.2 literacy and sustainable development for a lifelong educated society educational reforms and government mandates have had significant effect on literacy thus contributing to its fluidity. literacy has gone beyond skills in reading, writing and numeracy and as such we can talk of literacy from the perspective of attaining a lifelong learning society. when people are literate in climate concerns for application to their environment, or in performing their civic responsibilities, to operate a mobile phone or a computer, they can read prescriptions from health care professionals and apply literacy skills to their day to day activities throughout life; such a society is building its people for a lifelong task. according to constance (2011) the scottish minister for skills and lifelong learning, she averred that “strong literacies skills help people fulfill their potential, achieve their goals, and take advantage of opportunities. she reiterated that when individuals do well, so do their families, communities and employers. similarly sustainability literacy believes that; education, including formal, public awareness and training should be recognized as a process by which human beings and societies can reach their fullest potential. education is critical for achieving environmental and ethical awareness, values and attitudes, skills and behaviour consistent with sustainable development and for effective participation in decision making. both formal and non-formal education are indispensable to changing people’s attitudes so that they have the capacity to access and address their sustainable development concerns. p4 … lifelong learning is essential to sustaining a civilized and cohesive society, in which people can develop as active citizens, where creativity is fostered and communities can be given practical support to overcome generations of disadvantage. (unesco, 2002 p.35) nigeria would have had it better if her indigenous education had been harnessed with those she diffused for breeding a sustainable egalitarian society. this clearly reflects that sustainable development is a means to an end because it is a continuum, a sustainability literate person must:  understand the need for change to a sustainable way of doing things individually and collectively;  have sufficient knowledge and skills to decide and act in a way that favours sustainable development; and  be able to recognize and reward other people’s decisions and actions that favour sustainable development ( obe et al 2015 in ayimoro, 2017 p26) 2.3 literacy for an egalitarian society one wonders at the intricacies of inequality in societies especially, developing and low income economics and begin to sense that if parity and equality were allowed to thrive, these societies would have had it better. literacy as a right based approach specifies that no one should be left out; the females, males and special need children and persons. an educated society is a developed and civilised society. girls and women lag behind boys and men in literacy skills. two out of every three 110 million children in the world who do not attend school are girls (unesco, 2013/2014). record has it that 10.5m nigerian children are out of school while forty percent of nigerian adults are illiterates where women are a larger percentage ( ayimoro and unicef, 2017). insecurity and flood in the northern part of the country has aggravated the incidence of accessibility to basic education in nigeria recently. boko haram insurgents, religious intolerance and conflicts generally are factors to be dealt with to enhance accessibility. the foot print of colonialism is still evident in nigeria. females in the northern and rural part of the country are highly affected while males in the east prefer to trade than go to school, courses of study at the higher level in nigeria is a big issue as few females venture into courses like engineering, architecture and sciences generally. this has placed women in disapproptionate positions in decision-making spheres. policies that affect women and families are largely made by men in senate and house of representatives. only few women are involved in politics in nigeria where women aspirants vie for positions, finance and female representation in politics relegate their coming up as party candidates. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 49 2.4 the nigerian literacy history and education laws the relevance of the past cannot be under estimated in development discourse. nigeria went through literacy historical reminiscence since the 19th century although, records had it that the art of reading and writing was brought by muslim traders and teachers to the northern parts of nigeria in the 11th century and by the portuguese traders to the southern parts in the 15 th century (sarumi, 2011). between 1842 and 1882, there was intense missionary activities and the expansion of formal education in the south to enhance conversion of christian adherents. also, with the second world war of 1945, colonial administration had to embark on an aggressive mass literacy campaign to enable african troops understand the logistics of war which is disseminated through english language (sarumi, 2011). these soldiers returned to african as literates. also, there is educations ordinance of 1882-1884 known as west african ordinance already in use by other british west africa territories (ayeerun, 2018). the ordinance took roots from the british act of 1884, providing a general board of education for settling lagos, nigeria with the setting up of general board of education on the establishment of government schools, conditions for granting certificates to teachers and eligibility of government school to grant – inaid, the inspectorate for schools and the establishment of two types of schools namely ‘’government primary schools’’ and ‘’assisted primary schools’’ to be established and maintained solely by government the assisted school is to be established by mission and communities but shall be financially assisted by the government.(ayeerun,2018p.33-34) the 1887 education ordinance was the first nigerian education ordinance including a board of education to be established for lagos colony consisting of governor as chairman, members of house of legislature and four people nominated by the governor. the board shall assist schools with grants and award scholarship to pupils. also, the board shall fix conditions for the distribution of grants to schools for excellence. the 1908 education ordinance was as a result of merging of the colonies of lagos and southern nigeria in 1906 (abari & shonubi, 2003). the provisions of the ordinance include that there should be a department of education in the colony, a director of education in the colony reporting directly to the governor of education matters only and the superintendent of schools. the 1926 ordinance spelt out the order and direction to the development of nigerian education. it gave recognition to the standardisation and professionalisations of teaching as a job (ayeerun, 2018). it emphasized registration of teachers, only registered teachers should be allowed to teach in schools, the regulation of minimum pay for teachers in assisted schools among others. the 1948 ordinance gave recognition to regionalisation and decentralisation of education in nigerian while the 1952 acts reflected the socio-political aspirations of the nation. this also allowed each region to develop education according to its values and needs. this is one of the reasons for the lacuna between the literacy gap in the north and the south. in 1969, nigeria had her first national curriculum conference on education to make the curriculum relevant which led to several editions of the national policy on education (npe). the versions include 1977, 1981, 2004 and 2013. in order to correct the imbalance of the education of the colonialists, nigeria took a bold step by correcting the education policy to meet the needs and aspirations of her people and promote the philosophy of the society. the npe is thus a government tool to achieving national objectives of:  a free and democratic society.  a just and egalitarian society.  a united, strong and self-reliant nation.  as great and dynamic economy and  a land of bright and full opportunities for all citizens.  consequently, instructions at levels of education were set towards inculcating these values. they are  respect for the worth and dignity of individuals.  faith in man’s ability to make rational decisions.  moral and spiritual values in interpersonal and human relations.  shared responsibility for the common good of society.  respect for the dignity of labour, and  promotion of the emotional and psychological health of all children.  this paper wishes to base its argument on the nine years of basic education to achieving literacy for all. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 50 2.5 nigeria is a signatory to  the jomtien (1990) declaration for basic education for all.  the new delhi (1991) declaration on e-9 countries for a massive reduction of illiteracy within the shortest possible time-span.  the ouagadougou (1992) pan-african declaration on the education of girls and women.  the amman re-affirmation (1995) calling for the implementation of the jomtien recommendations of education for all.  the organisation of african unity decade of education for africa (1997, 2006) on inter-african cooperation on education, with a strong emphasis on the vigorous pursuit of basic education.  the child rights law, 2003.  action on corrupt practices and other related offences act, 2000. 2.6 steps to redeeming her commitment on literacy for all include  the nine year compulsory primary and junior secondary education.  literacy and adult education  science and vocational training. (fgn, 2000)  it is doing this through formal and non-formal measures, public enlightenment, community mobilization, the enactment of necessary legislation, training of teachers, implementation of school-based health (focusing resources on effective school health, 2000).  also, non-governmental organisations like rochas foundation, university village (univa) of the university of ibadan, religious organisations like the catholic mission are not left out in promoting literacy for all (sarumi, 2006). in 2004, the nigerian education system charged its structure from the british model to the american style. this gave birth to the acclaimed 6-3-3-4 system of education. it provides for six years of primary education, followed by an unbreaking three years of junior secondary, three years of senior secondary and four years of university. the 6-3-3-4 system had the objective of enhancing acquisition of skills, appreciation of the dignity of labour, promoting literacy, manpower development, scientific and technology advancement. its objectives are to:  universalise access to basic education;  engender a conducive learning environment; and  eradicate illiteracy in nigeria within the shortest possible time. (npe, 2004) the 2004 policy has an outstanding feature of nine years of compulsory basic education for the nigerian child which is the universal basic education (ube). this study is based on assessing the basic education for achieving an egalitarian society. 2.7 the universal basic education act (ube) the ube of 2004 covers early child care development education (eccde )of the child, six years of primary school and three years of junior secondary school . it specifies that  it is imperative that school age children must be in school and that this must be the responsibility of all (ayimoro, 2017).  there must be one hundred percent transition to the junior secondary at the completion of six years primary education.  completers of basic education must possess literacy, numeracy and basic life skills as well as ethical, moral and civic values.  all teachers in basic education must possess a minimum of the nigerian certificate in education (nce).  a review of basic education curriculum to conform to the reform agenda.  achievement of one hundred percent awareness on hiv/aids in schools.  establishment of an effective institutional framework for monitoring learning and teaching.  active involvement in and participation and eventual ownership of schools by local communities. (ebuk, ering & ajake, 2012) 2.8 challenges to implementing the national policy on education the acclaimed npe of 2004 would have been a huge turn around in the socio-economic and political sphere of the country because it captured the needs, aspiration and philosophy of the people but for defects in its planning and implementation, lacking in political will, monitoring and evaluation. for every programme planning is money and www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 51 commitment. the government played lip service to financing educational policies in nigeria. although, government invested heavily in education during the 1960 to 1970 decade of the oil boom as there was rapid expansion of education and facilities in nigerian education institutions then. in fact, facilities and curriculum where at par with global practices at the period but the economic crisis of the 1980s, the structural adjustment programmes, the international monetary fund and world bank reduction in public investment in education policies all did a big dent on the nigerian education ( eisemon,1980; babalola et al, 1990; igbuzor, 2006 in esere,2015). unesco recommended twenty-six percent of the nations budgetary allocation to education but, evidence revealed that education in all sector has been underfunded in nigeria. right now the academic staff union of universities (asuu) is on strike throughout the nation because of poor funding of education in nigeria. below is the resources allocated to education for the last ten years. the field survey conducted to centres of basic education in ondo, oyo and kogi states revealed that a good proportion of pupils learn under unconducive environment. the buildings are dilapidated, some buildings are just being erected through the state universal basic education board (subeb), teachers have no spaces and rooms to sit, basic infrastructural facilities are lacking. for instance, free textbooks were given to few pupils only in subjects known as ‘’core’’ that is, english language, mathematics, social studies and science. pupils have to share the textbooks. the teachers said they have to adopt coping strategies of asking pupils in the same streets to read together and do assignments. a strategy of the ube is eccde where pupils less than six years are expected to be in school for easy and onward transmission to the primary school. all pupils are to be fed and given health care facilities in school. during the survey, the researcher was made to realise that not all schools covered in ondo state have such facility. only pupils in primary four to six are fed by the federal government. the state is expected to take care of children less than six years of age and primary one to three pupils. these are yet to benefit from the free feeding programme. how do you ensure quality and equality education like this? the picture below is a testimony to this www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 52 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 53 again, the responsibility of all towards achieving literacy for all is lacking. people do not see it as their civic responsibility of making sure that all age school children are actually in school. poverty is so evident that some children are bread winners of their household. they hawk products during school period, while the security agents and citizens go about their normal businesses rather than reporting the situation to the appropriate quarters. also, the policy did not take into consideration the training of man power in its planning. the teachers do not have the technological skills for some of the subjects in the policy. for instance, woodwork, teaching of the three main languages – hausa, igbo and yoruba and other minority languages. nigeria is densely populated; it has multiplicity of languages and dialects. the right textbook for the languages are also not available, the planners did not cater for cultural imbalance of the nation and the difference in religious belief. immigrants seize this as an opportunity to cause conflict especially because of the porosity of nigeria’s borders. the level of insecurity in the northern and eastern parts of nigeria is equally a factor causing disruption in school environment and attendance. children whose parents are displaced or have died through insurgency and tribal conflicts are having difficulties in accessing education in internally displaced persons (idps) camps. there is inequality in educational provisions in the country. there are traditional schools, private nursery and primary schools, model and mega schools. the traditional schools are government funded and equipped while the model, mega and private schools are better equipped, because the fees paid are beyond the reach of the masses. again, the teachers in the public basic school are in a group of three. the first group comprises of trained teachers traditionally posted to the school, the second are those who had an intraining service but were staff of local government areas. they were recruited back to schools during verification of certificates in the state, while the third group is known as n power federal government volunteers also who are paid directly by the federal government. the head teachers of these schools said they do not have a good grip of the latter two groups (former local government workers posted to schools and n power groups). they noted that these groups come to school when they want. this is an account of inconsistencies in policies and lack of proper monitoring. there is no adequate provision for a good learning atmosphere or incentives for enhancing better enrolment and sustenance of the girl child in schools. pupils with special needs education in the form of gifted and handicapped are not well taken care of. the facilities to cater for them are lacking. there is little or no provision at all for adult and non-formal education where rural communities would have benefited in lifelong learning processes. majority of early school leavers drop-out completely thereby adding to the percentage of illiterate adults. lifelong learning centres would have served as centres to teach civic education and other identified educational needs of the nation from time to time. 3. conclusion it is important to note that an educated society breeds a healthy, civil and developed state. as such, government, individuals, international donor agencies and all stakeholders need to prioritise educational issues in nigeria as a means of enhancing global peace. the way forward  nigerians right to education is procured in the 1999 constitution but remains a fallacy.  first, education for all should be the responsibility of all, by ensuring that all children of school age stay in school.  there should be improvement on budgetary allocation to education.  there is need to improve on funding and quality of adult literacy programmes conducted in various locations of the country.  finance and resources meant for basic education, should be well utilised, rather than serving as conduit pipes to corrupt officials.  government need to take security and religious issues seriously in nigeria.  universal primary education should be free indeed for all citizens of nigeria.  government should design its policy to ensure that educational opportunities at all levels are equal.  the promotion of science and technology should start from the basic level.  efa cannot be achieved without improvement in quality of basic education in nigeria, therefore policies that provide for this type of education, should be enacted.  there should be provision of trained teachers and facilitators.  improved working conditions should be made available for teachers to serve as motivation.  learning materials used in the classrooms should be void of difficulty to read.  well-structured facilities should be made available for the learning process to take place. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 54  health care facilities should be functional around areas where schools are located references abari ,a.o & shonubi, (2003). the teacher and the law lagos: halmat and associates. ayeerun, m.s education laws and effectiveness of public secondary schools in ondo state, nigeria. a ph.d thesis submitted to the department of educational management. faculty of education, adekunle ajasin university akungba-akoko, ondo state nigeria p .205. efa global monitoring report (2013/2014) teaching and learning: achieving quality for all unesco. esere, m.o (2015) nigeria: financing education in west africa, bloomsbury publishing plc new york, usa. etuk, g.r, ering s.o and ajake u.e (2012) american international journal of contemporary research, 2 (7). federal republic of nigeria (1999) the constitution of the federal republic of nigeria lagos federal ministry of information. moland, n.a(2015). nigeria: an overview in emefa. j. takuyi-amoako(ed). education in west africa, bloomsbury publishing plc new york, usa. national policy on education (2004). national policy on education. 4th edition. lagos, nigeria: nigeria educational research and development council (nerdc). nwangwu, n.a (1987) education and the law in nigeria : the right of teachers and students. owerri, kay beecee publishers. obanya, p (2007) continuing relevance of african traditional education african journal of historical sciences in education, 3 (2) p 5 – 16. ogwo, b (2015). nigeria: technical, vocational educationand training in emefa j. takyir amoako (ed) education in west africa, bloomsbury publishing plc new york, usa. ojebiyi, o.a (2007) universal basic education . the bedrock of social restructuring and poverty alleviation. afican journal of historical sciences in education 3 (2) p 39 – 45. okudo, a.r (2013) national policy on education : problems and prospects for teaching and learning of igbo as a second language in nigerian secondary schools. journal of educational and social research 3 (2). owolewa, m.a (1981) adult education practice in nigeria, ibadan evans publishers. sarumi, a (2011) contemporary issues in historical foundations of adult education ibadan university press publishing house university of ibadan, nigeria. the scotitish government (2011) adult literacies in scotland 2020 : strategic guidance. aps group, edinburg, scotland. unesco (2002) education for sustainability from rio to johannesbur : lessons learnt from a decade of commitment. unesco (2014) efa global monitoring report teaching learning : achieving quality for all unesco 7 place de fontenoy 75352 paris 07sp, france. copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). american international journal of education and linguistics research; vol. 3, no. 2; 2020 issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995 published by american center of science and education, usa 7 effects of alternative assessment in efl classroom: a systematic review wali khan monib lecturer department of english faculty of languages and literature shaikh zayed university, khost, afghanistan walikhan.af@gmail.com abdul qudos karimi lecturer department of english faculty of education paktika university, paktika, afghanistan e-mail: abdulqoduskarimi@gmail.com nazifullah nijat lecturer department of english faculty of education paktika university, paktika, afghanistan e-mail: nazifullahnijat@gmail.com abstract alternative assessment has been the focus of many educational researches in efl classroom. this study was carried out to highlight the definition, characteristics and effects of alternative assessment in efl context by reviewing current research on assessment. the research consisted of a systematic review of the empirical studies on alternative assessment in efl classroom. focusing solely on online search, many studies were found but only (n=24) met the inclusion criteria involving a total of (n=1588) participants. also, it aimed to scrutinize the methods, participants and findings of the selected studies as well as the locations where they were conducted. the findings indicated that most of the studies (18 out of 24) reported positive effects of employing alternative assessment on language learning skills in efl classroom. the results also show that the dominant method employed in the articles was quantitative where students were the main focal point involved in the research as their participants. the study is further concluded with a discussion on definition, characteristics and effects of alternative assessment in efl context. keywords: alternative assessment, systematic review, language skills, efl context. 1. introduction recently, a reform took place in the field of evaluation in terms of a paradigm shift from traditional testing to assessment (charvade, jahandar & khodabandehlou, 2012). in education field, innovations have been witnessed in procedures to assess students’ performance where summative assessment is gradually changing to formative assessment (alternative assessment). according to al-mahrooqi and denman (2018), alternative assessment is a blanket term employed to cover a set of various alternatives to traditional or standardized form of assessment. moreover, these alternatives emerged with regards to the perceived deficiencies of traditional assessment methods. to worthen (1993), alternative assessment is a universal term used for several types of assessments such as authentic assessment, performance assessment and direct assessment. alternative assessment employs various forms of assessment involving different tasks whereby learners are required to get use of high-level thinking skills in real life situations or the use of these skills in authentic context (al ruqeishi, 2015). in alternative assessment or criterion-referenced assessment, an individual’s performance is measured against specific learning objectives or mailto:walikhan.af@gmail.com www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 2; 2020 8 performance standards, not against performance of other students on national or local level (dung & ha, 2019). while conducting classroom assessment, teachers are required to develop, analyse and administer the assessment (questions and techniques) themselves and then compare the results of assessment to their teaching (jabbarifar, 2009). therefore, alternative assessment provides teachers with feedback on the effectiveness of instruction and students with measurement of their progress. according to brown and hudson (1998), alternative assessment has attained a larger degree of importance and acceptance in efl/esl field of instruction. it is due to the fact that the practices of language-testing connected with language learning are inevitably different from testing practices prevalent in other fields. in fact, both the process of english language learning and its assessment are very nature complex, and in order to deal with such complexities english language teachers and administrators have used various assessment techniques (al-mahrooqi & denman, 2018). a primary focus of evaluation in education is to examine whether objectives of the course of a study are attained by students or whether the scope and sequence of curriculum are achieved (jabbarifar, 2009). in classroom, the purpose of assessment is to provide the learners with opportunities to exhibit what they have learned rather than catching them out to display what they have not learned. a plethora of literature exists on alternative assessment, but there seems to be no consensus on the unified definition of alternative assessment among scholars. according to gipps and stobart (2003), it is an umbrella term covering any alternatives to standardized multiple-choice testing, information technology (it) based testing, and an alternative approach making assessment an integral part of the learning and teaching process where the focus is more directly on the performance. as stated earlier, the main focus of alternative assessment is to assess performance where the emphasis is on the similarity between the performance observed and the performance expected or of interest (gipps & stobart, 2009). other equivalent terms for alternative assessment found in current literature are authentic assessment, performance assessment and direct assessment. brown and hudson (1998) list some characteristics of alternative assessment based on the studies of (aschbacher, 1991; herman, aschbacher and winters, 1992; huerta-macías, 1995), and the summary of these characteristics include: requiring problem solving and higher level thinking, using authentic contexts and simulations, focusing both on process and product, using human judgement, requiring students to produce, performing or creating something, requiring teachers to perform new instructional and assessment roles, providing information both on students’ strengths and weaknesses. there are numerous forms of alternative assessments employed in efl/esl classrooms such as portfolios, teachers’ and students’ reflective journals, reading logs and diaries, writing folders, projects, teachers’ observations and anecdotes, teacher-student-parent conferences, audio-visual recordings, checklists, peer-assessment, selfassessment, conferencing, demonstrations and self-assessments (al-mahrooqi & denman, 2018; janisch, liu & akrofi, 2007; yildirim & orsdemir, 2015). all these forms of alternative assessment contribute to the development of four basic language skills namely reading, writing, listening and speaking. numerous past studies conducted on the impact of alternative assessment on language skills revealed a positive correlation between alternative assessment and language abilities (naeini, 2011). besides, an increase is witnessed in learners’ motivation, interest and confidence. the purpose of current study is to present an overview of internationally published empirical studies on alternative assessment in efl context. an international perspective is taken into consideration to observe the characteristics, impacts and techniques of assessment in various efl settings. also, empirical studies were chosen to examine its practicality and to know its real impact from both students’ and teachers’ experiences. a brief account of methodology including the criteria for inclusion and exclusion is provided. 1.1 research objectives  to identify the characteristics/reasons of alternative assessment.  to examine the effects of alternative assessment on basic language learning skills. 2. research method in order to systematically analyze the topic (petticrew and roberts, 2006), different search strategies (e.g. similar terms) were tested in various search engines such as google, google scholar, taylor & francis, sage, eric online open access databases to name a few as to ensure reliability and to yield best results. the reviewers searched articles online published between 2008-2019. searching in different search engines, specific keywords were used including alternative assessment, authentic assessment, direct and holistic assessment in efl as well as effects of alternative assessment, alternative assessment vs traditional assessment in efl. numerous (n=373) publications resulted from initial search and were screened by reviewing the titles, keywords and abstracts. however, most of the research studies did not meet the inclusion requirement. based on the selection criteria, only the articles addressing the stated research objectives for current study were focused. in www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 2; 2020 9 addition, solely empirical studies that clearly indicated research design, participants and results were considered in the inclusion requirements. other reasons that excluded many of the articles were inaccessibility, publications in languages other than english, concept papers, conference proceeding papers and working papers. finally, a total of 24 journal articles were eligible for the systematic review and were included in the data-set for analysis.the background of this systemic review, however, was not limited to the empirical studies. 3. results 3.1 methods used in the reviewed studies from a systematic review of 373 articles published between 2008-2019, the researchers found only 24 empirical studies which met the inclusion criteria. of these, four (n=4) were qualitative studies involving: (n=1) interviews, classroom observations and document analysis; (n=1) survey, teacher’ journal, self-reflection format and interview; (n=1) in-depth semi structured interview and (n=1) a case study. fourteen (n=14) of the studies used quantitative methods among which (n=4) employed experimental design, (n=1) a quasi-experimental design, (n=2) semiexperimental intact comparison group design, and (n=2) applied survey design. five others (n=5) used mixed method where likert scale questionnaires and opinion questionnaires were used for quantitative, and an open-ended interview, a focus group interview, a semi-structured interview, ongoing document analysis, and participants’ portfolios applied for qualitative method. see table 1. table 1. methods used in the reviewed studies methods frequency percentage quantitative 15 62.5 mixed 5 20.8 qualitative 4 16.7 total 24 100 3.2 participants of the reviewed studies as can be seen in table 2, nine (n=9) of the articles included efl teachers as their participants among them (n=5) involved school teachers, (n=2) engaged university teachers and (n=2) included college teachers. there were (n=14) studies focused on students where (n=4) involved learners from institutes, (n=5) had responses from university students, (n=5) included school students and only (n=1) study focused on both students and teachers as its respondents. table 2. participants involved in the reviewed studies participants frequency percentage teacher 9 37.50% student 14 58.35% teacher and student 1 4.15% total 24 100% 3.3 main findings table 3 shows the findings of reviewed studies on alternative assessment in efl classroom from 2008-2019. based on the objectives of the current study, the selected research studies were analyzed where two broad themes were identified: (1) definition and rationales of employing alternative assessment and (2) methods of alternative assessment and their effects on language skills detailed in the following sections respectively. table 3. findings of the reviewed studies author(s) and date study method participant location findings wubshet & menuta investigating the practice of alternative qualitative six (6) grade 9 english hawasa zuria, teachers did not have a clear understanding of alternative assessment. hence, they were www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 2; 2020 10 (2015) assessment in english classrooms: the case of selected grade nine english teachers assessment practices. teachers ethiopia using traditional assessment such as multiple choice, matching and true or false questions.they did not use process and product equally and did not use alternative assessment. aliasin & amanlu (2017) the effect of alternative assessment techniques on efl learners' reading comprehension ability and selfefficacy in reading: the case of iranian junior high school students. quantitative 77 male intermediate junior high school students zanjan, iran learners were aware of selfefficacy; alternative assessment had no significant effect on the self efficacy, but the use of alternative assessment techniques had significant effects on the participants’ performance on the reading comprehension test. javaherba khsh (2010) the impact of selfassessment on iranian efl learners’ writing skill quantitative 73 efl students selected based on means of toefl scores. zabansara and marefat institutions , iran the results of t-test show that students in experimental group improved their writing skills by employing several selfassessment techniques. safari & koosha, (2016) instructional efficacy of portfolio for assessing iranian efl learners' speaking ability. quantitative 64 efl students including male and female randomly selected from kowsar language institute kowsar language institute,es fahan, iran the results suggested that the eportfolio group performed better regarding language quantity, use of various lexical items and vocabulary. also, it revealed that the experimental group using video-portfolios performed better than the control group. advantages of speaking portfolios such as selfassessment, peer-feedback, and improvement of speaking skill were highlighted. soodman d afshar & bastami, (2012) the effect of portfolio assessment on iranian preintermediate efl learners’ autonomy. mixed 60 preintermedia te female learners studying english in a private language institute. cambridge open centre, iran both quantitative and qualitative data analyses revealed that portfolio assessment significantly enhanced learners’ autonomy in the experimental group, and offered them an opportunity to reflect upon their learning process, growth, and progress overtime. baleghiza deh & masoun the effect of selfassessment on efl learners’ goal quantitative 57 university efl iran students’ learning goal orientation significantly increased as a result of inclusion www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 2; 2020 11 (2014) orientation students of the self-assessment element in efl classes. also, the learners got more learning-oriented through applying self-assessment during the course. khonbi & sadeghi (2012) the effect of assessment type (self vs. peer vs. teacher) on iranian university efl students' course achievement quantitative 40 university students: 19 in selfassessment and 21 in peerassessment group. iran there was a significant difference in the course achievement of students in the selfand peer-assessment groups, with the latter outperforming the former. this over performance of students in the peer-assessment group on the post-test was contrary to what was expected from the analyses of the four series of assessments in all of which it was the selfassessment group that over performed the peer-assessment group. moradan & hedayati (2012) the impact of portfolios and conferencing on iranian efl learners’ writing skill quantitative 92 male iranian intermediate efl students iran the performance of two experimental groups was better than the control group though there was no significant difference in the two experimental groups. also, no significant difference was found between the effectiveness of portfolio and conferencing methods. teachers’ feedback was considered helpful in removing the gaps between what has been learned. iraji, enayat & momeni (2016) the effects of selfand peer-assessment on iranian efl learners' argumentative writing performance quantitative 36 intermediate efl students iran self/peer-assessments were helpful and influential in improving learners’ argumentative writing ability. by providing alternative assessment techniques, learners could write better compositions. using selfassessment checklists also provide teachers with complete information about students’ progress and failure in the process of learning. azarnoos h (2013) peer assessment in an efl context: attitudes and friendship bias quantitative 26 participants: 24 females and 2 males tertiary level students. iran the results of this study revealed no significant difference between learners’ peer assessment and teachers’ assessment. moreover, no friendship bias was found in peer assessment. however, this practice led to the change of students’ attitude to a positive perspective on peer assessment. while they expected the practice www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 2; 2020 12 to be difficult, they found it not to be so; learners became assured that peer assessment was useful, motivating and interesting. abbas, z. (2012) difficulties in using methods of alternative assessment in teaching from iraqi instructors points of view. quantitative 30 efl instructors college of education (alassmaie) and the college of basic education at diyla university, iraq the findings indicated that iraqi instructors of english face difficulties in using methods of alternative assessment in teaching. yildirim & orsdemir (2013) performance tasks as alternative assessment for young efl learners: does practice match the curriculum proposal?. mixed 43 english teachers from 10 state primary schools. adana, turkey the results indicated that goals of alternative assessment were achieved moderately. the benefits of alternative assessment reported are vocabulary improvement, grammar reinforcement, increased motivation and improved confidence. however, cognitive and effective skills were not improved as much as psycho-motor skills, and also the integration of four language skills is partially missed. ataç (2012) foreign language teachers’ attitude toward authentic assessment in language quantitative 37 randomlyselected instructors. atilim university preparatory school of english, turkey participants hold positive attitudes and showed a strong sense of inclination toward goal setting in their classes with regards to authentic assessment. yurdabak an & erdogan (2009) the effects of portfolio assessment on reading, listening and writing skills of secondary school prep class students quantitative: experimental 44 participants: treatment group (n=22) and control group (n=22) english preparatory classes in secondary school, turkey the findings showed that portfolio assessment had significant influence on students' writing skills; however, same results were not found for the reading and listening skills. also, it was found that portfolio assessment is a fair method compared to traditional applications of assessment. also, it is a more down-to-earth approach that increases responsibility of students and motivates them. cuesta, mayorga, padilla and mayorga alternative assessment tools for the writing skill development of efl learners quantitative 23 first level english students private university, ecuador it was concluded that alternative assessment positively affects the development of writing skill of efl learners. thus, they have all enhanced their writing www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 2; 2020 13 (2019) competence. al-nouh, taqi & abdulkareem (2014) efl primary school teachers' attitudes, knowledge and skills in alternative assessment. mixed 335 female efl teachers 40 primary schools in six educational zones, kuwait the findings indicated that teachers were skillful and knowledgeable in alternative assessment; their attitude was at medium level. putri, pratolo & setiani (2019) the alternative assessment of efl students’ oral competence: practices and constraints. qualitative two efl teachers with more than five years of experience. islamic boarding school (ibs), indonesia findings revealed that participants applied alternative assessment such as peer assessment and inside class observation, feedback on their assignment while teachers had difficulties in practicing the alternative assessment. ardianti & mauludin (2017) students’ responses on the application of authentic assessment in efl reading class. qualitative 27 efl reading students: 22 female and 5 male in university east java, indonesia alternative assessment methods such as portfolios, selfassessment and performance assessment make the reading enjoyable that becomes as a routine activity. also, it contributes in vocabulary building, reading comprehension and improving reading performance. phongsiri kul (2018) traditional and alternative assessments in elt: students’ and teachers’ perceptions. mixed 103 firstyear students majoring in english and five teachers in a university bangkok, thailand. teachers and students hold positive attitudes toward alternative assessment in terms of its validity and reliability. alternative assessment was valued as a catalyst in enhancing learners’ motivation in english skills. kalra, sundraraj un& komintar acat, (2017) using portfolio as an alternative assessment tool to enhance thai efl students' writing skill. quantitative 56 senior undergradua te thai students studying business english thailand portfolio-an alternative method had significant effects on the students’ performance in writing skill. chan, (2008) elementary school efl teachers’ beliefs and practices of multiple assessments quantitative 520 efl teachers female: 503 male: 17 taiwan the study found that the efl teachers had strong beliefs of multiple assessments and a better understanding of the concepts of assessment and multiple assessments such as portfolio, classroom observation. multiple assessments were considered more practical than traditional assessment and believed that efl teachers can easily assess students’ achievement in all language skills and can diagnose www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 2; 2020 14 students’ difficulties. ghaicha & omarkaly (2018) assessment in the moroccan efl classrooms teachers’ conceptions and practices. mixed 73 both male and female high school teachers inzeganeaitmelloul and agadiridaoutanane, in the south of morocco. the results revealed that the practice of alternative assessment is slowly evolving within the moroccan efl context in spite of the very positive attitudes expressed towards it; teachers’ main concerns were time constraints, class size, and lack of training. rojas serrano (2017) making sense of alternative assessment in a qualitative evaluation system. qualitative 7 english students bogotá, colombia students hold optimistic views toward alternative assessment in english classrooms in terms of encouraging awareness and reflection, students’ centeredness, lowering students’ anxiety, integrating different areas of learning and providing prompt and meaningful feedback. ali & al ajmi (2013) towards quality assessment in an efl programme. quantitative 37 efl teachers from public college oman quality assessment can be developed through teachers’ views and beliefs. 3.3.1 definition and rationales of employing alternative assessment the researchers found that the definitions used for alternative assessment are largely consistent in meaning but slightly differs in terms of labeling. nine (n=9) articles employed the word alternative assessment in their titles and there were only three studies used other terminologies such as authentic assessment (n=2) and quality assessment (n=1). the remaining studies focus on either strategies, techniques or methods of alternative assessment (e.g. selfassessment (n=2); assessment type (n=1); portfolio and conferencing (n=1); multiple assessments–portfolio and classroom observation (n=1); self-and peer assessment (n=1); peer assessment (n=1); portfolio (n=4); performance tasks (n=1). though it is very difficult to have an inclusive definition of alternative assessment, it can be defined as a broad assessment approach in the field of education generally opposing traditional assessment. on the other hand, some of the articles reasoned for incorporating alternative assessment in efl classroom (e.g. abbas, 2012; wubshet & menuta, 2015; aliasin & amanlu, 2017; afshar & bastami, 2012). for instance, afshar and bastami (2012) stated that standardized tests do not consider individual differences among students which truly exist and need low level of cognitive ability–memorizing and recalling. this may cause students failing to actualize learning in real life situations. alternative assessment engages learners in self-evaluation and peer evaluation of performance (ali & ajmi, 2013), encourage autonomous learning, emphasis on students’ performance, consider language proficiency, learning styles, cultural and educational backgrounds and grade levels (javaherbakhsh, 2010). in addition, wubshet and menuta (2015) cited other rationales for employing the mentioned assessment: (1) to know the complex outcome–beyond the assessment of fact and knowledge, alternative assessment evaluates more complex goals where products and processes are equally valued and develops life-long skills: creative thinking, problem solving, summarizing, synthesizing and reflecting. (2) to address realistic tasks–utilizing authentic assessment, students are engaged in performances, tasks, demonstrations and interviews reflecting daily situations within meaningful contexts. (3) to include good instruction tools–instruction and assessment interact continuously where assessment can provide feedback for students’ learning and cause changes in the instruction. focusing on students’ strengths, alternative assessment enables teachers to have a more accurate view of their achievements. (4) to communicate what we value–instruction and assessment have to be aligned. valuing oral proficiency but assessing it only through written tests, students will infer that only written language matters. (5) to meet the students’ different learning styles–alternative assessment offers a large amount of possibilities, for instance, some students exhibit understanding by writing about something while others may perform or display their actions. while screening the selected studies, majority of the articles indicated reasons behind using alternative assessment www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 2; 2020 15 in efl classrooms though some articles did not mention obvious reasons for applying the alternative assessment. studying the selected articles comparatively, the reviewers provided a compiled number of reasons offered by the cited researchers stated in table 4. table 4. reasons of employing alternative assessment in efl classroom alignment between instruction and assessment, real use of language, contextualization of learning, focusing on higher order thinking skills (hots), considering language proficiency, learning styles, cultural and educational backgrounds, students know criteria for evaluation, learners’ autonomy (students take responsibility for own learning and evaluation while identifying their progress), motivation, developing creativity, focusing both on product and process, encouraging lifelong skills, leading to active performance involvement, promoting a wide range of assessment strategies and ensuring successes. 3.3.2 methods of alternative assessment and their effects on language skills the concept of assessment in efl is discussed extensively in international literature. however, methods of assessment in efl field, especially of alternative assessment, is the major topic explored by researchers from iran in current study (baleghizadeh & masoun, 2014; khonbi & sadeghi, 2012; moradan & hedayati, 2012; iraji, enayat & momeni, 2016; soodmand afshar & bastami, 2012; safari & koosha, 2016 and azarnoosh, 2013). the methods of assessment found in these studies are: self-assessment, peer assessment, teacher assessment, portfolios, and conferencing. also, yildirim and orsdemir, 2013; ataç, 2012; yurdabakan and erdogan, 2009 notified favorable contributions of alternative assessment. for instance, yildirim and orsdemir found that the usage of the mentioned assessment resulted in vocabulary improvement, grammar reinforcement, increased motivation and improved confidence. however, cognitive and effective skills were not improved as much as psycho-motor skills, and also the integration of four language skills is partially missed. yurdabakan and erdogan (2009) explain the effects of portfolio assessment on reading, listening and writing skills where the findings showed that portfolio assessment had significant influence on students' writing skills; however, same results were not found for the reading and listening skills. also, it was found that portfolio assessment is a fair method; compared to traditional applications of assessment increasing responsibility of students and motivates them. in addition, other studies in efl context such as (abbas, 2012 in iraq; putri, pratolo and setiani, 2019 and ardianti and mauludin, 2017 in indonesia; kalra, sundrarajun and komintaracat, 2017 in thailand) also reported on the implementation of different alternative assessment methods in classroom. according to jabbarifar (2009), alternative methods, in efl, are the various tools available in classrooms for teachers to collect essential information of language learning process and the factors related to the students which impact the process of language learning and teaching. furthermore, to siedentop and tannehill (2000), methods of alternative assessment are the tools different from traditionally used techniques, standardized tests, instead alternative methods are the learners’ active involvement in solving realistic problems by implementing new knowledge, recalling prior knowledge and relevant skills. the methods or tools of alternative assessment in language classroom are called alternatives in assessment by brown and hudson (1998). more specifically, personal-response assessment is used as a category term to include various methods used in alternative assessment. this type of assessment is an individualized assessment where learners are allowed to produce what they want in their own language that provide teachers with an on-going manner of assessing learners’ performance throughout instruction (brown & hudson, 1998). all methods mentioned in the reviewed studies were considered more beneficial in enhancing students’ development in foreign language learning. the results of the studies indicated that all basic language learning skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) have been significantly developed by implementing alternative assessment methods. moreover, there has been a positive effect on learners’ autonomy and goal orientation. writing skill was one of the most focused skills in the reviewed studies. a total of 7 studies (yurdabakan and erdogan, 2009; kalra, sundrarajun and komintaracat, 2017; cuesta, mayorga, padilla and mayorga, 2019; iraji, enayat and momeni, 2016; moradan and hedayati, 2012; javaherbakhsh, 2010) reported the positive influence of alternative assessment strategies on students’ writing skills ranging from simple writing to argumentative writing skill. based on the findings of the reviewed studies, portfolio and self-assessment were found the most used strategies to enhance writing skill among other strategies such as peer-assessment, conferencing, etc. moreover, the implementation of these strategies positively influence learners’ writing competence and were considered more practical than traditional methods. not only students were motivated by producing and assessing their own compositions but also their responsibility of learning was increased. also, teachers found these methods very beneficial in assessing students’ ability in writing and in diagnosing their difficulties. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 2; 2020 16 three studies (aliasin and amanlu, 2017; ardianti and mauludin, 2017; yurdabakan and erdogan, 2009) investigated the effects of alternative assessment on reading skill both at tertiary and secondary level. the results of the mentioned studies indicated a substantial improvement in students’ reading comprehension skills. the results of students’ performance revealed that implementing methods of alternative assessment such as portfolio, selfassessment and performance assessment prepared the students enough to get high scores on reading comprehension tests. moreover, implementing alternative assessment methods in reading classes make the complicated readings enjoyable that becomes a routine activity contributing in vocabulary building and in improving reading comprehension and performance as well as a factor of motivating students. other studies (putri, pratolo and setiani, 2019; safari and koosha, 2016) examined the practice of alternative assessment in efl classrooms in regards to its impact on speaking skill and oral abilities of students. the students managed to increase the quantity of spoken language and to use various lexical items and vocabulary of foreign language by applying alternative assessment methods such as e-portfolio and video portfolio. moreover, self-assessment and peer feedback were considered as catalyst factors in improving speaking and listening skills. however, yurdabakan’s and erdogan’s (2009) study show that implementing alternative assessment method such as portfolio doesn’t have considerable results in improving listening skill as compared to speaking skill. 4. conclusion this study reports systematic literature review of empirical studies on assessing alternative assessment in efl classroom published between 2008-2019. based on the selected number of studies (n=24), majority of the articles (19 out of 24) reported positive attitudes and effects of utilizing the alternative assessment providing more opportunities for both teachers and students. there were very limited difficulties (n=2) indicated in the implementation, two others (n=2) argued no significant difference in the performance and only (n=1) reported no clear understanding from respondents employing alternative assessment. in addition, the definitions used for alternative assessment are largely consistent in meaning though minor nuances in terms of labeling existed. while only focusing on the terms in the titles of the studies, most of them used alternative assessment as part of their titles. moreover, all of the methods of alternative assessment reviewed in the selected studies were deemed helpful in enhancing students’ development in foreign language learning. the reported findings indicated significant improvement in the basic language learning skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) of the students. majority of the articles were focused on portfolio, self/peer assessment contributing much to learners’ performance and achievements. in terms of methodology, the result of the systematic review showed that the dominant method employed in the articles was quantitative, and students were the main focal point involved in the research as their participants. it should be acknowledged that several limitations might influence the results of this systematic review. firstly, the study is not exhaustive, as relevant research may have been missed because of the limited choice of search terms and databases. although a thorough search for covering alternative assessment in efl contexts holistically would be quite difficult, the reviewers hope that the included articles will represent the current status of alternative assessment in efl settings. future reviewers with more resources can include several other databases and choice of research works to provide a more comprehensive picture of alternative assessment in the efl context. it is hoped that the findings of this systematic review will provide useful guidance for educators, practitioners and researchers in the area of education. references abbas, z. 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(2009). the effects of portfolio assessment on reading, listening and writing skills of secondary school prep class students. journal of international social research, 2(9). copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). american international journal of education and linguistics research 5(1) (2022), 1-7 1 education and linguistics research aijelr vol 5 no 1 (2022) p-issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995 available online at www.acseusa.org journal homepage: https://www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr published by american center of science and education, usa the challenges and prospects of online education in the department of english during covid 19 in selected private universities in bangladesh monir hossen (a) asif mahbub karim (b) farha atif (c)1 (a) phd researcher, binary university of management & entrepreneurship, malaysia; e-mail: monir.eng.cou@gmail.com (b) professor & dean, binary graduate school (bgs), binary university of management & entrepreneurship, malaysia; e-mail: profdrasifmahbubkarim@gmail.com (c) lecturer, department of english, khwaja younus ali university, sirajganj, bangladesh; e-mail: monir.eng.cou@gmail.com a r t i c l e i n f o article history: received: 25th october 2022 accepted: 30th november 2022 online publication: 30th december 2022 keywords: online teaching, e-learning, google classroom, google meet, zoom, what’s app, facebook messenger, internet technology jel classification codes: h75 a b s t r a c t online education is getting popularity in the last few decades and the pandemic “covid 19” has fostered this education activities working from distant places around the world including bangladesh. technology is the key innovation of the 21st century which has a great influence upon every sector of human life. people in the last few decades have been getting the benefits of using technology in education. in recent time in the covid 19 situation, the education is provided through online from the primary to the higher education level in many countries. bangladesh government also has tried to telecast online classes and recorded classes on bangladesh television and other various social media. the public and private universities have also conducted classes from their respective places through zoom, google meet, facebook live, and youtube and so on. here a noticeable progress occurred in the private universities in spite of having some challenges. as a faculty member of a private university, the researcher has got some experiences while teaching at university. from this concern the researcher has got the interest on conducting research on the private university students and teachers to check the real scenario of online teaching and learning here in bangladesh. this research is a quantitative in nature and questionnaire survey would be conducted for collecting data for analysis and finding out the real information. the main focus of this research is to find out the challenges and prospects of online education of the department of english in the private universities in bangladesh. © 2022 by the authors. licensee cribfb, usa. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). introduction according to who, the current outbreak of coronavirus disease (covid 19) was first reported from wuhan, china, on 31 december 2019? from then this covid 19 rapidly has spread out all over the world. in bangladesh this covid 19 was identified and noticed on march 8, 2020. the government declared lockdown from march 17, 2020 for a certain period. from then the school, colleges and universities are shut down physically. at that time the private universities come forward to continue teaching learning activities in the end of the march 2020. they took the initiative to teach students through online by the help of technological devices. they first conducted research on the ability of using the online platform and after getting satisfactory response from both the students and teachers, they started teaching through online. still now the third phases of “covid 19” like delta and omicron variants have been attacking bangladeshi people. from march 2021, online teaching and learning is going on continuously. there have a lot of challenges and difficulties that have to be faced by this online teaching and learning. after all, this has given a great opportunity to the students and teachers for developing their technological knowledge. according to unesco about 1.5 billion students and youth around the world were affected by school and university closures due to the global outbreak of coronavirus. in bangladesh, all kinds of on-campus activities and face-toface educational activities were suspended till september 2020 later on, the suspension was extended till june 2021. 1corresponding author: orcid id: 0000-0001-5556-9585 © 2022 by the authors. hosting by acse. peer review under responsibility of acse, usa. https://doi.org/10.46545/aijelr.v5i1.274 to cite this article: hossen, m., karim, a. m., & atif, f. (2022). the challenges and prospects of online education in the department of english during covid 19 in selected private universities in bangladesh. american international journal of education and linguistics research, 5(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.46545/aijelr.v5i1.274 https://doi.org/10.46545/aijelr.v5i1.274 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7067-3540 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6654-7496 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5556-9585 hossen et al., american international journal of education and linguistics research 5(1) (2022), 1-7 2 online teaching is the process of educating others via the internet. various methods can be used, such as one-onone video calls, group video calls, and webinars. online teaching does this beautifully. anyone with an internet connection can attend livestream college lectures, learn a language via video-call, or coach themselves through an online video course. plus, students can participate in interactive discussions through the creation of small groups to examine topics from various perspectives. actually “covid 19” pandemic has changed every aspect of human life like education, business, economy, health, and communications. in recent years it has been observed that virtual activities are on great progress and due to this pandemic, it has reached to its pick. especially, education sector has got new shape on the virtual platform. many universities and colleges across the world including bangladesh have taken the initiatives to continue education through this platform. online education has become a new phenomenon in bangladesh during this pandemic. background of the study bangladesh declared that all educational activities would be continuing through online platform from the primary to the higher education level during early period of covid 19 in the country. the university grants commission (ugc) bangladesh as a responsible body of the government for higher education (he) and policy maker also provided a guideline for running education through online. it is important to mention that online learning is not that easy for a country like ours. it is a big challenge not only for the learners but also for the teachers. changes to the educational system including technical support, administrative planning, maintaining online schedule and data, all are very much new for the teachers. in this regard along with preparing lectures they must have proper skills and knowledge of using technical properties. the 21st century has brought about a massive change in the field of education in the present world. those days gone are when teaching was limited only within the confine of a classroom. internet has brought about a paradigm shift in the fundamental way in which learning is done. though there are numerous examples of the usage of machines and tools in education throughout history, e-learning in the modern sense of the term is a relatively new concept. slide projectors and television-based classes have been in use since the 1950s. however, one of the first instances of online learning in the world can be traced back to 1960, at the university of illinois, usa. though the internet wasn’t invented back then, students began learning from computer terminals that were interlinked to form a network. in 1984 the university of toronto offered completely online course for the first-ever. in 1986, the electronic university network was established for being used in dos and commodore 64 computers. three years later, the university of phoenix became the first educational institution in the world to launch a wholly online collegiate institution, offering both bachelor’s and master’s degrees. the open university in britain was one of the first universities in the world to begin online distance learning, in the early 1990s. currently, the indira gandhi national open university in india is the largest university in the world with around 4 million students enrolled, most of whom currently receive education via online methods. online learning is no longer just limited to colleges and universities. the recent covid-19 pandemic further illustrates the importance of online learning in today’s school system, as it has proven to be a boon to both students and teachers alike who are unable to attend school due to the risk of disease spread. significance of the study the pandemic is an unexpected situation when people have to face lot of problems in every spare of life. every section like economical, commercial, social, religious, as well as educational activities are strongly hampered. this covid 19 has given many restrictions to do the normal activities like before. after the declaration of who this covid 19 as pandemic, almost all the activities of the world have got a new shape and changed a lot. in education section, this impact also has strikingly affected. observing the situation many researchers suggested the policy makers and educationists to continue education through online platform. bangladesh has also taken this initiative seriously from various education sections. many private universities started continuing their educational activities from late of march 2020 when the country got lockdown from march 17, 2020. although the public universities firstly did not encourage continuing education through online but later on, they also started teaching online to their students. this study is really essential to find out the challenges in running education work from home through online. it is also necessary to bring out various prospects that have been also visible in education sector. research objectives  to identify the challenges of online education of the department of english amongst the selected private universities in bangladesh during the covid 19 pandemic.  to study the prospects of online education of the department of english amongst selected private universities in bangladesh.  to analyze the rate of success of online education of the department of english amongst the selected private universities in bangladesh.  to justify the online education of the department of english amongst the selected private universities in bangladesh. hossen et al., american international journal of education and linguistics research 5(1) (2022), 1-7 3 research questions  what are the challenges of online education during any crisis moment like “covid 19” pandemic?  what are the prospects of online education of the department of english in bangladesh?  how successful this online education of the department of english in bangladesh?  how online education is justified in the department of english amongst the selected private universities in bangladesh? scope of the study the researchers from different corner of the world have conducted study on online education in the world including bangladesh. they have done overall survey at the beginning of this pandemic whether this online platform could be continued for teaching and learning here. most of the researchers have conducted research on public universities as well as private universities. there have some specific purpose and the sample was different. sometimes the participants were the students and sometimes it was the faculty members. therefore, the researchers have tried to focus on the specific department of the private universities namely the department of english amongst selected private universities in bangladesh. limitation of the study this study is not a large sample study and there is a huge opportunity to conduct study on many others departments at private and public universities. hypothesis of the study  h1: online education leads to physical hazards / health problems.  h2: low quality internet / wi-fi connection is the cause of less student’s attendance in the online classes.  h3. low salary and extreme work load leads to lack of motivations of the faculty members.  h4: null: lack of experience and training of the faculty members make students dissatisfied in the online class. literature review tabassum et al. (2021) has brought the teacher’s perception about the online education of private and public universities in bangladesh during this pandemic. according to their findings, about 88.5% of the participants take online classes during the pandemic among them majority (91.3%) of them were staying at home and continue their online educational support to the students. dutta and smita (2020) also have found some challenges from analyzing the data findings. such as: university closure, disruptions in learning, loss of social interaction, physical health problems, and mental health problems, shifting to online education, and financial crisis and parental involvement. the study recommended that urgent steps should be taken to provide technical resources and improve internet connection for ensuring uninterrupted online education in bangladesh to fulfill the education needs of tertiary level students in this crisis period of covid-19 pandemic. mishra, gupta, and shree (2020) conducted another study on “online teaching-learning in higher education during lockdown period of covid-19 pandemic.” this study is a portrayal of online teaching-learning modes adopted by the mizoram university for the teaching-learning process and subsequent semester examinations. it looks forward to an intellectually enriched opportunity for further future academic decision-making during any adversity. hasan and islam (2020) focused on the views of the teachers of private universities in conducting online classes during the corona pandemic in bangladesh. it is found that significant differences in the uses of technology, internet, and equipment by the teachers before and during the corona pandemic. online teaching has significant effects on teachers' training, student's punctuality in attending classes, interactions between teachers & students. it also helps authority in monitoring the classes. arora and srinivasan (2020) mentioned that the internet is keeping the world somehow walking in the darkest hours of the covid-19 pandemic. and mobile telephony is the tool that is keeping bangladesh limping. the support of technology cannot be denied in this pandemic situation. hasan and islam (2020) conducted a research on the academic, financial and administrative issues of online teaching during corona pandemic. according to them, private universities conducted online classes which affect positively to resume the classes. the study found class monitoring becomes easier by the authority during the corona pandemic through the online class system. it is agreed upon and strongly agreed by 63% of teachers. only 5.3% of teachers strongly disagreed with this argument. moreover, about 43.9% faculty members strongly agreed on the work from home during this pandemic. in a circular, ugc stated that during the coronavirus situation, the salaries and allowances of all the teachers/ officers/ employees of the university are to be paid regularly as before (ugc, 2020). the study also finds that at least 16% of teachers have purchased new equipment to conduct online classes. that means modernization and technological awareness are increased and improved by the faculty members. many of the universities of bangladesh had arranged online training programs for the teachers after the corona pandemic. technology and network-based interactions between teachers and students are significantly improved through online teachings. arora and srinivasan (2020) conducted a study on student’s acceptance of mobile learning on higher education in saudi arabia. here the researcher has found many positive advantages. for example: learners can interact with each other and with the practitioner instead of hiding behind large monitors. it's much easier to accommodate several mobile devices in a classroom than several desktop computers. mobile phone devices can be used anywhere, anytime, including at home, hossen et al., american international journal of education and linguistics research 5(1) (2022), 1-7 4 on the train, in hotels this is invaluable for work-based training. these devices engage learners young people who may have lost interest in education like mobile phones, gadgets and games devices such as nintendo ds or playstation portable. this technology may contribute to combating the digital divide, as this equipment is generally cheaper than desktop computers. morales et al. (2020) has conducted a research on “depression and anxiety among university students during the covid-19 pandemic in bangladesh”. here they found that around 15% of the students reportedly had moderately severe depression, whereas 18.1% were severely suffering from anxiety. comparing to the earlier studies, their study suggests that university students in bangladesh are experiencing an unparalleled growth of depression and anxiety under the current global pandemic situation. in the first phase of covid 19 dhaka university was reluctant to go online class system thinking of the inconvenience of the students. some teachers expressed their opinion about taking academic activities online as the university was closed due to the corona outbreak, but not everyone from remote areas of the country thinks that equal participation was possible in online platforms. the top authorities of the university expressed their concern about the student's family's financial condition, access to healthy life style, social distancing, mental state, and ability to buy internet and compatible device during this covid outbreak to continue online class (bangla tribune, 2020). the main argument against online class in developing countries is lack of proper internet connection with stable speed. even if they are able to attend classes, the experience is extremely inefficient because they have trouble following the lecture because the network breaks down frequently not able to communicate properly with the teachers. this problem becomes worse for the students who have visited or resided in the village during pandemic due to poor internet connection. online classes also discourage class participation because most of the students do not own laptop or computers. it is not possible to do assignments and tasks in a smart phone. in this situation, students cannot use cyber cafes or fix their computers if there is a malfunction. students are also expressed their opinion that online classes are not the same as in-person classes because it is less engaging than normal cases. the concerned gets even worse when it comes about conducting online exams, quizzes, presentations or any sort of graded activity through online platforms. students from engineering background are also concerned about the way they are being taught in online. they faced difficulty understanding equations and doing math’s online because not all the course instructors are using white boards. many students also have concerns regarding the mental pressure such classes and exams are putting on the students during a global pandemic. materials and methods design of the study this research is a quantitative in nature. the questionnaire has been made in the google doc form and sent to the faculty members of different private universities through email and messenger. there are some demographic questions and two focused questions related to the topic. the questions are mostly close ended (yes/no) and two are open ended. the other seven questions are in the form of 5 points likert scale. among the private universities of bangladesh, twelve university faculty members responded to this questionnaire. sampling the researcher has adopted snowball sampling technique for collecting date for this research. as this research is about the challenges and prospects of online education of the department of english at private universities in bangladesh, the researcher has chosen the university faculty members as the participants. in fact, they have been working in this pandemic situation and have gathered a lot of experiences by this time. research instrument as the study is a quantitative in nature and hence as a survey tool questionnaire method has been used for collecting data from the faculty members of different twelve private universities of bangladesh. data collection the researcher has sent questionnaire on google doc form to the faculty members through email and facebook messenger and what’s app. the total responders of the questionnaire were twenty. among them 50% was female and other 50% was male. they were from eleven different private universities of bangladesh. the responders working position were mostly lecturer and assistant professor. survey this study conducted survey through the questionnaire format with help of internet technology. the questionnaire was made in the google doc form and sent the faculty by email for collecting the responses. results and discussions table 1. the question regarding internet and other issues. sn justify the following statements. yes no maybe 01 do you have a proper internet/ wi-fi connection in order to continue your online classes and exams work from home smoothly? 70% 10% 20% hossen et al., american international journal of education and linguistics research 5(1) (2022), 1-7 5 02 do your students find it difficult using software applications in attending online classes and exams? 25% 25% 50% 03 do you think the current classroom size is convenient for online classes and exams? 60% 20% 20% 04 do you agree that distance learning or online education could be set as an institutional form in order to keep up to date to the developed countries? 75% 5% 20% table 2. the question regarding online education and adoption of technology. sn justify the following statements. strongly agree agree neutral disagree strongly disagree 01 online teaching and learning can be an alternative to the education system during the unexpected situation like covid 19. 30% 45% 10% 10% 5% 02 online education during these unexpected situations can fulfill the targeted goal of your students in order to meet the digital vision of the country. 42.1% 21.1% 26.3% 10.5% 03 adopting technology in education in the normal and new-normal situations is essential for the 21st century. 40% 55% 5% 04 the implementation of online education during unavoidable circumstances like this pandemic. 30% 50% 20% table 3. the question regarding using software, maintaining standard, and health issues sn justify the following statements. always often sometimes rarely never 01 facing any difficulties in using software applications in conducting online classes and exams 80%% 10% 10% 02 online teaching leads your health problem. 15% 5% 60% 15% 5% 03 online evaluation is maintaining standard. 5% 45% 20% 30% based on response of the questionnaire the study found that most of the faculty members which were 55% think that online education work from home is effective and other 15% believes that it is mostly effective. the rest 20% state that it is more effective. very few faculty members responded that this is less effective. from the real observation it was really difficult make online education effective at the beginning. but later on, the students and faculty receive some practical knowledge of online education and finally almost all have got to know the proper application of the different technological tools like google classroom, zoom, google meet, messenger, what’s app, and internet technology. networking is a crucial issue for bangladesh especially for the rural area. regarding the internet and wi-fi connection, the study has found that 70% of the responder has proper connection while some others 10% has no proper internet connections. and the rest 20% has no idea about the internet connection. in response to the open-ended questionnaire, this study has found a wide range of mixed opinions and suggestions from the faculty members. to mention about the challenges, they have found as given below:  technical issue like lack of proper internet connections/ wi-fi, devices, and electricity.  student’s participation in the class is not satisfactory like before.  lack of motivations regarding online class from the authority and governments as well.  miscommunications are other key problems to continue online education in this crisis moment.  health issues like headache, dizziness, high pressure, stress and anxiety are the difficulties faced by the faculty members.  maintaining standard on evaluation system. there are questions regarding online education and evaluations.  family issues like bothering, no proper place and disturbing’s from others. there was another open-ended question regarding the most important aspect of online evaluations. to this question the responders have given their real perceptions they follow in evaluating the students during this pandemic. it is found that many questions arose at the beginning of the online education at private university regarding the proper evaluations of the students through online platform which leaded face a lot of challenges. after one year and four months of online activities, the faculty members have expressed their way of evaluation. here mentioned some of important formats of examining the students.  written exam both broad and short type of questions.  open book exam, take home exam and creative exam  google doc mcq, quiz test and short question answer  viva, presentation, making video lesson, book review, and documentary making  assignment, term-paper, research based work, projects and case study hossen et al., american international journal of education and linguistics research 5(1) (2022), 1-7 6  surprise test, sudden test, class test, group work, and pair activities.  class response, attendance and participations conclusions online education or e-learning has become one of the most talked topics of the present world. due to “covid 19” most of the countries of world have taken initiative to continue education through online platform. bangladesh has also taken such measure to run the educational activities during this crisis moment. this study focuses on the challenges and prospects of online education activities of the department of english at private universities in bangladesh. the finding of this research has a great importance for understanding and realizing the present situation of the educational activities during the crisis moment or during any kind unexpected situations. the study has found a lot of challenges which are pointed out through the questionnaire analysis. such as: technical issues like lack of proper internet connections/ wi-fi, electricity problems, fewer attendance of the students, lack of motivation for learning, health issues like headache, stress and anxiety, and quality maintenance. in addition, regarding the experience and effectiveness of the online education the study noticed that this education and learning is mostly effective and the faculty has got a very good experience of it. adopting new technology in the 21st century is also essential which is also found in the study. thus, there are a lot of scopes for analyzing and modifying the context. by this research finding it can be projected to the educationists and researchers for the proper concern. the government and higher authority can get the benefits of the essence of this research for better understanding and initiating effective steps in this field. this study has not added the students’ perception and observations regarding online education. it is also mentionable that this study has not conducted in large scale from both public and private university. there is a scope for further study in this field. recommendations based on the analysis of the finding, the study recommends to the two important bodies closely associated with private university. the most important and powerful body is the government republic of bangladesh and another one is the private university authorities. there should have taken effective steps from both of these bodies. for example:  the government should ask the mobile networking companies to ensure their internet providing service throughout the whole country.  the government must make a strong policy for developing the online education.  the government should encourage the students and teachers for the online education.  especial encouragement also should be given to the faculty members and students to adopt technology to keep balance with the developed nations of the world.  the government also needs to monitor the current phenomena keenly and take proper step to control everything.  private university should arrange training, seminar and workshops for both the teachers and students.  they also need to encourage the faculty members by providing salary in time and extra performance bonus which will enhance the activities.  they should have built up relationship with the developed countries for getting some potential support in this regard.  they should also maintain standard of evaluations through discussing with the experts.  they should also be careful about the health issues of the faculty members and students. for this reason, they can raise fund and arrange medical facilities for all the students, teachers, administrative and staffs.  after all, they should reduce the payment and offer scholarships for the students those who need serious financial help during this pandemic. contributions of the study this study helps us to get a real picture of online education work from home and the challenges of the new phenomena. it also tries to check the true experience of these activities in bangladesh. like other researches this study has also a great significance in the field of education during this pandemic. bangladesh is a least developed nation (world bank overview 2020). according to them, the pandemic may also have long term economic implications as a result of reduced female labor force participation, learning losses, and heightened financial sector vulnerabilities. therefore, it has become a matter of a great concern to make proper investigation for implementing new ideas in education, business, health and other sustainable issues. author contributions: conceptualization, m.h., a.m.k., and f.a.; data curation, m.h.; methodology, m.h.; validation, a.m.k.; visualization, m.h.; formal analysis, m.h.; investigation, m.h.; resources, m.h.; writing – original draft, m.h.; writing – review & editing, m.h., a.m.k., and f.a.; supervision, a.m.k.; software, m.z.; project administration, a.m.k.; funding acquisition, m.h., a.m.k., and f.a. authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. institutional review board statement: ethical review and approval were waived for this study, due to that the research does not deal with vulnerable groups or sensitive issues. funding: the authors received no direct funding for this research. acknowledgement: not applicable. informed consent statement: informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study. hossen et al., american international journal of education and linguistics research 5(1) (2022), 1-7 7 data availability statement: the data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author. the data are not publicly available due to restrictions. conflicts of interest: the authors 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(2021). online education during covid-19 in bangladesh: university teachers’ perspective. aquademia, 5(1), ep21005. publisher’s note: acse stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. © 2022 by the authors. licensee acse, usa. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). american international journal of education and linguistics research (p-issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995) by acse is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. https://doi.org/10.17010/pijom/2020/v13i4/151825 https://www.banglatribune.com/others/622416 https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2020.89004 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) http://ssbfnet.com/ojs/index.php/ijrbs http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ american international journal of education and linguistics research; vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995 published by american center of science and education, usa 18 staffing and managing human resources of higher degree programme of adult education for inclusiveness in universities in nigeria moshood ayinde hassan phd professor department of adult education faculty of education adekunle ajasin university akungba-akoko, ondo state, nigeria e-mail: ayindeayindeayinde@hotmail.com abstract the status accorded to adult education among universities-based educators and researchers appears to be very low. this may be due to scanty knowledge about the discipline and wrong perception held by the bureaucrats, policy makers and administrators within and outside the university system. the hamburg declaration in 1997 underscores the importance of adult education when it describes it as a key to the twenty-first century. realising the fact that adult education is needed in this 21st century, it follows that provision of higher degree programme should be well staffed and properly managed in order to produce learners that will contribute meaningfully to the development of the society. therefore, this study entitled: “staffing and managing human resources of higher degree programme of adult education in universities in nigeria” is embarked upon. the aim of the study is to improve human and institutional capacity for required manpower in adult education for national development. the objectives of the study include: to identify and discuss framework for staffing higher degree programme in adult education in nigerian universities; to find out how human resources for production of higher degrees students are sourced and managed; to assess framework for ensuring inclusiveness in managing higher degree adult education programme in universities; to explore strategies that can be employed to make adult education popular and acceptable among educators and researchers in universities; to explore motivational factors for students' enrollment in adult education higher degree programme; and to examine learning delivery techniques of lecturers/faculty in higher degree programme of adult education. the work employed research design of the survey type. seven federal and state universities offering adult education at higher degree level were sampled. statistical instruments were employed to analyse the data collected. all the results were decided at point 05 level of confidence with appropriate degree of freedom. the study revealed that 86.3% of the respondents opined that lack of understanding of the concept of adult education prevented people from enrolling into the course in the university, while 13.7% felt otherwise. majority of the respondents (89.8%) held that universities in nigeria do not discriminate against any sex (male or female) when admitting students for any education programme including adult education, while 10.2% did not. there is significant difference in the perception of staff and students on the framework that can be used for staffing higher degree programme in adult education in nigerian universities (x2=2.882, df=3, p > .05). there was no significant difference in the perception of staff and students on how human resources are sourced and managed for production of higher degree students in adult education programme (x2=3.741, df=3, p > .05). there was a significant difference in the perception of staff and students on learning delivery techniques of lecturers/faculty in higher degree programme of adult education (x2=9.336, df=3, p < .05). it is recommended that efforts should be made by the stakeholders to popularise the discipline of adult education with a view to making people to understand its meaning and usefulness to the growth of the society. adequate budgetary allocation should be made by the owner universities to adult education so as to attract qualified staff, regular payment of salaries and comprehensive welfare programme. keywords: staffing, managing human resources, adult education, university based-educators. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 19 1. introduction the status accorded to adult education among universities-based educators and researchers appears to be very low. perhaps this may be due to scanty knowledge about the discipline of adult education or disdain look cast on the discipline by the bureaucrats, policy makers and administrators within and outside the university system. nonrecognition of the importance of adult education may have accounted for the paucity of funds allocated to education generally and adult education in particular. the hamburg declaration in 1997 underscores the importance of adult education when it states as follows: adult education thus becomes more than a right; it is a key to the twenty-first century. it is both a consequence of active citizenship and a condition for full participation in society. it is a powerful concept for fostering ecologically sustainable development, for promoting democracy, justice, gender equity, and scientific, social and economic development, and for building a world in which violent conflict is replaced by dialogue and a culture of peace based on justice. adult learning can shape identity and give meaning to life. learning throughout life implies a rethinking of content to reflect such factors as age, gender equality, disability, language, culture and economic disparities. there are over 150 universities in nigeria both public and private. out of this number the universities offering adult education at both first and higher degree levels cannot be up to forty. there are state agencies for adult education and national commission for adult education which is coordinating the activities of other agencies, both public and private in nigeria. in addition, there are other non-governmental organizations that are promoting adult education activities in nigeria. nigeria is a heterogeneous society in terms of ethnic groups, languages, natural resources, wildlife, landscapes, and cultural practices. all these are reflected in managing and educating nigerians in institution of learning. nafukho, wawire and lam (2010) conceive diversity as any dimension that can be used to differentiate groups and group from one another. also, three broad dimensions of diversity namely: internal, external, and organisational are identified. in other words, diversity dimensions can be seen in differences among people, differences in creative ability, rationality and comprehension, problem solving skills, emotional intelligence, gender, ethnicity, language of instruction, sexual orientation, age, educational background, social economic background, physical and mental health and learning style. (nafukho, wawire and lam 2010). since higher educational institution is part of the society, the diversity noticed in the larger society is reflected in the former. for educational institution to achieve its set objectives there is the need to embark on adequate staffing and proper management of resources with a view to achieving inclusiveness. unesco (2005) describes inclusiveness or inclusion as a process of addressing and responding to the diversity of needs of all learners through increasing participation in learning, cultures and communities, and reducing exclusion within and from education. meanwhile, out (2007) describe human resource management as the methods of integrating and maintaining workers in an organization so that the organization can achieve the purposes and meet the goals for which it was established. in order words, human resource management is the process of motivating workers in the organisation so as to obtain maximum output from them. staffing involves hiring workers with required skills to manage positions in the organisation in order to achieve goals of organisation. it also involves developing and updating professional skills of workers in the organization. realising the fact that adult education is a key to 21st century; it follows that provision of higher degree programme should be well staffed and properly managed in order to produce learners that will contribute meaningfully to the development of the society. consequently, this study entitled: “staffing and managing human resources of higher degree programme of adult education in universities in nigeria” is embarked upon. the aim of this study is to improve human and institutional capacity for required manpower in adult education for national development. towards this end the objectives of this paper include:  to identify and discuss framework for staffing higher degree programme in adult education in nigerian universities.  to find out how human resources for production of higher degrees students are sourced and managed.  to assess framework for ensuring inclusiveness in managing higher degree adult education programme in universities.  to explore strategies that can be employed to make adult education popular and acceptable among educators and researchers in universities.  to examine learning delivery techniques of lecturers/faculty in higher degree programme of adult education.  to explore motivational factors for students' enrollment in adult education higher degree programme. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 20 arising from these objectives, the following research questions are generated:  what form of framework can be used for staffing higher degree program in adult education in nigerian universities?  how the human resources are sourced and managed for production of higher degrees students in adult education program?  what form of framework can be used to ensure inclusiveness in managing higher degree adult education program in universities?  what are the strategies to be employed to popularize adult education among educators and researches in universities?  what are the learning delivery techniques of lecturers/faculty in higher degree program of adult education?  what are the motivational factors for students' enrollment in adult education higher degree programme? 2. literature review 2.1 staff development staff development or staffing is a key element in the production of higher programme in any type of education including adult education. stephenson (1983) states that higher education enables people to cope with a wide varieties of different situations, without being dependent upon the direction of others. in other words, students acquire educational experience which enables them to be generally competent and independent. it follows that staff that would work in higher education institution must be knowledgeable and skillful and be ready to be exposed to continuing education in order to discharge their duties expeditiously. the credibility of any academic system is dependent on the quality of academic input and the teachinglearning apparatuses on the ground to create required learning experience. unesco (1994) notes that staff development is to promote cooperative and innovative action so as to strength the quality and relevance of higher education both now and in the coming years. to improve staffing development in higher education certain things must take place, according to unesco (1994), they are: increase demand for higher education; reform of higher education system; ensuring quality assurance in higher education provision; and inter university cooperation; others are upgrading of knowledge through sabbatical arrangement, visiting professorships and academic networking opportunities; and curricular innovation. 2.2 strategies for popularizing adult education adult education as a course of study is not receiving high enrollment subscription from the students because they do not understand its usefulness. to increase its popularity among prospective students, certain things need to be done by the adult education specialists in the departments. there is the need to improve on methods of delivery in teaching–learning process, improving on the contents of the programme of adult education to accommodate contemporary issues, and organising continuing education programme for adult education lecturers from time to time. anderson (2008) identifies three strategies for increasing educational inclusivity. the first concerns the involvement of community in all levels of education. the second is provision of opportunities to increase the access to education, employing many of the techniques for mass education. evolving a new model of production of education that engages learners and faculty to co-create their educational opportunities is the third one. furthermore, tenebe and mundi (2008) identify some strategies that can be employed to popularise the discipline of adult education. these include development of technology based on the students’ learning that can used to create things to satisfy human needs such as shelter, food production, transportation e t c; making adult education have bearing on the environment; increase access to education through programme to remedy lapses of people in the first education; and agencies of adult education to encourage people to enroll in adult education related programmes. the main objective of producing higher degree programme of any discipline is to provide manpower to drive economy. the recruited staff need to be exposed to induction programme that will familiarise them to the mechanics of their job as well as having opportunity for continuing education. needless to state, that senior colleagues and heads of departments are to guide and provide mentorship for the rest of workers. managing staff of universities demands the involvement of many stakeholders from among the community. there is the need for transparency and accountability in the resources supplied to the management of universities to achieve the goals of producing manpower for the development of the nation. figure 1 contains the framework for the production of higher degree in adult education. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 21 production of higher degree in ade exposure of university staff to continuing education figure 1. framework for staffing and managing human resources higher degree of adult education source: author 2.3 learning delivery techniques these are numerous challenges confronting teachinglearning process in adult education class. some of these may include delivery method, use of equipment and classroom facilities. to address some of these and other challenges, some measures may be adopted. according to biney (2015) lecturers could improve on methods of teaching that would encourage learners to engage in independent study and model intellectual attitudes of the learners. lecturersstudents interactions should be encouraged so that students could express their minds freely in the class on topics of discussion. the third approach recommended by biney (2015) is for the lecturers to intermittently stop during the course of lectures in order to give opportunity for students to ask question on the topic being discussed. 2.4 inclusiveness in managing higher degree programme in adult education diversity refers to any dimension that can be used to differentiate groups of people from one another (nafukho, wawire and lam, 2010).citing giovannini (2004) and bruno (2004),the three scholars identify three broad dimension of diversity in organization. citing bruno (2004) they note: the internal dimensions include characteristics such as age, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, race and physical ability. the external dimension characteristics influence our lives and value systems such as religion, geographic location, income, personal and recreational habits, education, appearance, and marital status. the organizational dimension affects our work experiences and includes work location, management status, union affiliation, functional classification, seniority, and work content. diversity has implication for education organization including adult education. two categories of people can be seen in adult education in universities: the lecturers and the students. for lecturers, diversity can be noticed in their methods of teaching, problemsolving skills, teaching style, social economic status, educational background and world view. diversity appears to have similar influence on the students and the supporting staff working recruitment of qualified staff in ade head of department and senior colleagues providing mentoring and guidance collaboration between town and gown in producing needed man power in adult education products of adult education rendering services to the community www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 22 together with lecturers to achieve organization’s goals. diversity and inclusiveness go together. unesco (2005) sees inclusiveness as a process of addressing and responding to the diversity of needs of all learners through increasing participation in learning, cultures and communities, and reducing exclusion within from education. for all the stakeholders in the education system to realise their goals, there is the need to harmonise their needs in order to accommodate everyone without any one being excluded. 2.5 inclusive education inclusive education presupposes that every segment of the society is taken care of in terms of educational provision without any discrimination of any kind. anderson (2008) makes reference to the united nations declaration of human rights, article 26, when defining inclusive education. on the declaration, the author writes: everyone has the right to education, and that…..technical and professional education shall be made generally available. education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. citing kisanji (1998), anderson (2008) defines inclusive education as the meeting of the needs of all learners in a given community, in formal and non-formal setting, without sacrificing their uniqueness. learners have different characteristics: some are economically bouyant, while some have physical disabilities or impairments; while others may have been highly gifted. thus, they should not be discriminated against if inclusive education is to be achieved. unesco (2005) and ungei (2010), inclusive education means responding to the diversity of needs among all learners, through increasing, participation in learning, culture and communities, and reducing exclusion from and within education. it involves changes in content, structures and strategies, driven by a common vision that covers all children and the conviction that it is the responsibility of the regular system to educate all of them. 2.6 motivational factors for students’ enrolment in adult education higher degree there are various factors that motivate students to enroll for adult education in nigeria in spite of the fact that many people do not understand what adult education stands for. some of these include: inability to get admission to other departments in the faculty of education and even other programmes in other faculties; poor financial status of the guardian or parent (based on the belief that financing adult education is cheaper); and the decision of the university to rake students from other departments into adult education. the question at this juncture is: what should be the major factor motivating students into adult education? biney (2015) describes motivation, citing a number of scholars, as an internal state that arouses, directs and maintains behaviour. in other words, motivation is seen as a need or desire that energizes behaviour and directs it towards a goal. invariably, students should enroll in adult education on voluntary basis without any compulsion. european commission (2014) describes motivation as having intrinsic and extrinsic components. intrinsic components include curiousity, involvement, importance and preference for challenges. according to the commission, the interplay between intrinsic and extrinsic (external motivation) motivations to learn may be important for adult learners. 2.7 managing and sourcing for human resources staff in higher education needs to be managed by ensuring that they are adequate and well equipped in terms of required knowledge and skills in higher education. unesco (1994) observes that higher education staff should extend their professional skills so as to meet the needs which arise during the course of their careers. replacing the aging and redundant staff should be taking place every time in order to meet the national university commission requirement on staffing. the need to hire qualified staff is dependent on financial resources at the disposal of the universities. the owner of the university system whether private or government need to provide adequate financing for the university system. the economic situation in the country demands that the university need to look inward in order to augment the finances obtain from the owner. 3. research method the study was conducted in seven universities in nigeria, namely: adekunle ajasin university, akungba-akoko; ekiti state university, ado ekiti; university of ibadan, ibadan; university of lagos, lagos; obafemi awolowo university, ile-ife; ibrahim badamosi babangida university; and university of benin, benin. 3.1 research design the study employed the descriptive research design of the survey type, which measured the phenomenon already present in the respondents. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 23 3.2 population there are over one hundred and fifty (150) universities in nigeria, both public and private. 3.3 sample and sampling technique the study employed random sampling technique in selecting the universities that participated in the study. the sample for the study is contained in tables 1 and 2. 4. limitation of the study the study set out to examine the staffing and managing human resources of higher degree programme of adult education in universities in nigeria. however, all other aspects of education are not covered in the study. this serves as the limitation of the study. thus, efforts should be made in subsequent research to address this limitation. 5. data analysis table 1. frequency distribution showing responding staffs’ personal information factors option sampled frequency % institution population in selected department of education university university of ibadan 13 (department of adult education) 8 19.5 university of lagos 15 (department of life long and continuity education) 7 17.1 adekunle ajasin university, akungbaakoko, ondo state 8 (department of adult education) 6 14.6 obafemi awolowo university 8 (department of adult education and life long learning) 6 14.6 ekiti state university 6 (department of adult education) 4 9.8 ibrahim badamosi babangida university 8 (department of adult education) 4 9.8 university of benin 10 (department of adult education) 6 14.6 total 41 100.0 education qualification master degree 8 19.5 ph.d 33 80.5 total 41 100.0 years of experience 1 5 years 5 12.2 6 10 years 8 19.5 11 15 years 10 24.4 16 20 years 14 34.1 above 20 years 4 9.8 total 41 100.0 job status assistant lecturer lecturer 11 9 22.0 lecturer 1 5 12.2 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 24 senior lecturer 11 26.8 associate professor 10 24.4 professor 6 14.6 total 41 100.0 source: field work, february 2017 it was indicated in table 1 that 19.5% of the responding lecturers were from university of ibadan, 17.1% were from university of lagos, 14.6% were from adekunle ajasin university in ondo state, 14.6% also were from obafemi awolowo university in osun state, 9.8% were from ekiti state university, 9.8% were from ibrahim badamosi babangida university, while 6% were from the university of benin in edo state. their educational qualification was such that majority had their doctorate. the distribution showed that 19.5% had master degree, while 80.5% had ph.d. further test showed the years of experience of the responding lecturers and it was noted that 12.2% had working experience ranging between 1 and 5 years, 19.5% had working experience ranging between 6 and 10 years, 24.4% had experience ranging between 11 and 15 years, 34.1% had experience ranging between 16 and 20 years, while 9.8% had working experience of above 20 years. lastly indicated was the responding lecturers’ job status and it was observed that 22% were either assistant lecturer or lecturer ii, 12.2% were lecturer i, 26.8% were senior lecturers, 24.4% were associate professor, while 14.6% were professors. table 2. frequency distribution showing responding students’ personal information 2factors option sampled frequency % institution population in selected department of education university university of ibadan 70 (department of adult education) 15 19.7 university of lagos 46 (department of life long and continuity education) 12 15.8 adekunle ajasin university, akungbaakoko, ondo state 10 (department of adult education) 5 6.6 obafemi awolowo university 26 (department of adult education and life long learning) 13 17.1 ekiti state university 15 (department of adult education) 7 9.2 ibrahim badamosi babangida university 35 (department of adult education) 15 19.7 university of benin 22 (department of adult education) 9 11.8 total 76 100.0 education qualification first degree 12 15.8 master degree 64 84.2 ph.d 0 total 76 100.0 source: field work, february 2017 on the responding students’ information, table 2 indicated that 19.7% of the postgraduate students sampled were from university of ibadan, 15.8% were from university of lagos, 6.6% were from adekunle ajasin university in ondo state, 17.1% were from obafemi awolowo university in osun state, 9.2% were from ekiti state university, 19.7% were from ibrahim badamosi babangida university, while 11.8% were from the university www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 25 of benin in edo state. their educational qualification revealed that 15.8% had first degree as their highest form of qualification, while 84.2% had master degree. research question 1: what form of framework can be used for staffing higher degree programme in adult education in nigerian universities? table 3. respondents view on framework for staffing higher degree programme in adult education in nigerian universities items response sa a d sd total training of adult education specialists should be undertaken in universities f 47 55 9 6 117 % 40.2 47.0 7.7 5.1 100.0 provision of scholarship by universities and governments encourage people to study adult education. f 39 26 26 26 117 % 33.4 22.2 22.2 22.2 100.0 during the employment interview, priority should be given to those who perform better f 27 39 39 12 117 % 23.1 33.3 33.3 10.3 100.0 employment of adult education specialists into faculties of education is based on whom you know, in order words; employment is not based on merit f 38 26 26 27 117 % 32.5 22.2 22.2 23.1 100.0 lack of understanding of the concept of adult education prevents people from enrolling into the course in the university f 62 39 4 12 117 % 53.0 33.3 3.4 10.3 100.0 the contents of adult education motivate some people to study the discipline in universities f 29 38 26 24 117 % 24.8 32.5 22.2 20.5 100.0 source: field work, february 2017 in table 3 it is revealed that majority of the respondents (87.2%) reported that training of adult education specialists should be undertaken in universities, while 12.8% expressed contrary view. another notable point is the provision of scholarship. it was observed that majority of the respondents (55.6%) held that provision of scholarship by universities and governments encouraged people to study adult education, while 44.4% did not agree. for effective staffing, priority should be given to those who perform better during the employment interview. this was expressed by 56.4%, while 43.6% did not think in that line. furthermore, 86.3% of the respondents opined that lack of understanding of the concept of adult education prevented people from enrolling into the course in the university, while 13.7% felt otherwise. lastly, 57.3% of the respondents concurred with the statement that the contents of adult education motivate some people to study the discipline in universities. while 42.7% held contrary views. this implies that for effective supply of staffing, there should be improvement in the understanding of the concept of adult education in the university so as to increase enrollment into the programme. some of the findings of the study here appear not in line with diversity principles as expressed by nafukho, wawire and lam (2010), one of which is taking care of everyone in education system. research question 2: how are the human resources sourced and managed for production of higher degrees students in adult education program? table 4. respondents view on sources and management of production of higher degree students in adult education programme items response sa a d sd total adult education workers in universities are exposed to training & retraining programmes. f 25 41 12 39 117 % 21.4 35.0 10.3 33.3 100.0 faculty members who specialize in adult education joined professional organization f 22 63 30 2 117 % 18.8 53.8 25.6 1.7 100.0 staff are mentored by their senior colleagues f 27 83 5 2 117 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 26 source: field work, february 2017 it was noted in table 4 that most of the respondents (56.4%) concur with the statement that adult education workers in universities are exposed to training & retraining programmes, while 43.6% did not agree. it was also observed that great number of respondents (72.6%) held that faculty members who specialize in adult education joined professional organization, while 27.3% expressed otherwise. further test revealed that 94% of the respondents affirmed the statement that staffs are mentored by their senior colleagues, while 6% felt otherwise. it was indicated that the universities sponsor staff for national and international conferences. this was with 94% confirmation, while 6% did not. it was also observed that majority of the respondents (82.9%) held the statement that promotion of staff is hinged on university rules and regulations, while 17.1% expressed contrary view. majority of the respondents (88%) held that welfare programmes and salaries of workers were not paid as and when due, while just 12% felt otherwise. this finding is contrary to what biney (2015) stated on motivation, that it is a need or desire tat energises behaviour and direct it towards a goal. non payment of salaries and poor welfare of staff may not be a motivating factor for workers to put in their best. the finding has implication for the sourcing and managing of staff in adult education. staff that specialised in adult education maintains a reputable profile with the professional organizations that keep them intact with recent events around the field of adult education; the welfare and payment of salary of staff appeared not given priority of place. research question 3: what form of framework can be used to ensure inclusiveness in managing higher degree adult education programme in universities? table 5. respondents view on framework that could be used to ensure inclusiveness in managing higher degree adult education programme in universities items response sa a d sd total students are recruited from all sections/tribes in and outside the country f 25 53 24 15 117 % 21.4 45.3 20.5 12.8 100.0 students with disability are not excluded from studying adult education programme in universities f 91 26 117 % 77.8 22.2 100.0 teaching and learning in adult education involves the use of equipment and facilities that facilitate academic work in the classroom f 27 65 25 117 % 23.1 55.6 21.4 100.0 the needs of different learners may be difficult to meet in adult education degree programme f 7 81 8 21 117 % 6.0 69.3 6.8 17.9 100.0 students from educationally disadvantaged states in nigeria use lower scores in university tertiary matriculation examination (utme) for admission into adult education programmed. f 52 38 27 117 % 44.4 32.5 23.1 100.0 universities in nigeria do not discriminate against any sex (male or female) when admitting students for any education programme including adult education. f 65 40 12 117 % 55.6 34.2 10.2 100.0 source: field work, february 2017 table 5 shows responses of respondent of the framework for ensuring inclusiveness in managing higher degree programme in adult education. majority of the respondents (66.7%) were of the view that students are % 23.1 70.9 4.3 1.7 100.0 the universities sponsor staff for national and international conferences f 53 57 5 2 117 % 45.3 48.7 4.3 1.7 100.0 promotion of staff is hinged on university rules and regulations. f 46 51 18 2 117 % 39.3 43.6 15.4 1.7 100.0 no qualified staff is derived promotion at any time f 28 53 23 13 117 % 23.9 45.3 19.7 11.1 100.0 welfare programmes and salaries of workers are paid as and when due f 5 9 64 39 117 % 4.3 7.7 54.7 33.3 100.0 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 27 recruited from all sections/tribes in and outside the country, while 33.3% felt otherwise. also, it was reported by almost all respondents that students with disability were not excluded from studying adult education programme in universities. similarly, 78.7% of the respondents held with the view that teaching and learning in adult education involved the use of equipment and facilities that facilitated academic work in the classroom, while 21.4% expressed contrary view. however, most of the respondents (75.3%) reported that the needs of different learners may be difficult to meet in adult education degree programme, while 24.7% did not agree. furthermore, majority of the respondents (55.6%) opined that students from educationally disadvantaged states in nigeria were not using lower scores in university tertiary matriculation examination (utme) for admission into adult education programme, while 44.4% held contrary view. the implication of this finding is that it appeared that some universities lowered their admission requirement in order to attract more students to their institutions. lastly, majority of the respondents (89.8%) held that universities in nigeria do not discriminate against any sex (male or female) when admitting students for any education programme including adult education, while 10.2% did not. the implication of this finding is that it looked as if universities uphold principle of inclusiveness in admitting students for programmes in the universities. anderson (2008) defines inclusive education as the meeting of the needs of all learners in a given community, in formal and non-formal setting, without sacrificing their uniqueness, whether male or female or whether christian or muslim or traditional worshippers. research question 4: what are the strategies to be employed to popularise adult education among educators and researchers in universities? table 6. respondents view on strategies to popularise adult education among educators and researchers in universities items response sa a d sd total changing the name of the department of adult education to other names that can attract young ones into enrolling in it f 79 36 2 117 % 67.5 30.8 1.7 100.0 encouraging all university students to take courses in adult education with a viewing to solving illiteracy problem in the country f 64 37 14 2 117 % 54.7 31.6 12.0 1.7 100.0 engaging in national public enlightenment campaign on the usefulness of adult education to the growth of the economy by the agencies of adult education at both federal and state levels is required. f 53 62 2 117 % 45.3 53.0 1.7 100.0 the nigeria national council for adult education should popularise its activities among adult education professionals and the generality in nigeria f 73 36 3 5 117 % 62.4 30.8 2.6 4.3 100.0 separating adult education from ministry of education in all states of the federation. f 40 49 28 117 % 34.2 41.9 23.9 100.0 university department of adult education to collaborate with non-governmental organizations in literacy advocacy campaign. f 61 46 8 2 117 % 52.1 39.3 6.8 1.7 100.0 working with government policy makers in formulating relevant policy on adult education in nigeria. f 86 25 4 2 117 % 73.5 21.4 3.4 1.7 100.0 source: field work, february 2017 table 6 shows that 98.3% of the respondents were of the view that changing the name of the department of adult education to other names that can attract young ones into enrolling in it is one of the strategies to popularise adult education, while just 1.7% felt otherwise. majority of the respondents (86.3%) agreed that encouraging all university students to take courses in adult education with a viewing to solving illiteracy problem in the country, while 13.7% expressed contrary view. in a positive view, 98.3% of the respondents held that engaging in national public enlightenment campaign on the usefulness of adult education to the growth of the economy by the agencies of adult education at both federal and state levels is required, while just 1.7% held contrary view. another point www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 28 supported by majority (93.2%) was that the nigeria national council for adult education should popularise its activities among adult education professionals and the generality in nigeria. further results indicated that separating adult education from ministry of education in all states of the federation could be a strategy to popularise adult education. this was such that 76.1% concurred, while 23.9% did not. also, 91.4% of the respondents opined that university department of adult education should collaborate with non-governmental organizations in literacy advocacy campaign, while 8.5% reported otherwise. lastly, 94.9% of the respondents affirmed the statement that working with government policy makers in formulating relevant policy on adult education in nigeria could help popularise adult education, while 5.1% expressed contrary view. findings of the study indicated that popularising adult education among the populace is needed for the development of the society. this is in line with anderson (2008) when the scholar identifies three strategies for increasing educational inclusivity which include the involvement of community in all levels of education; provision of opportunities to increase the access to education; and evolving a new model of production of education that engages learners and faculty to co-create their educational opportunities. research question 5: what are the learning delivery techniques of lecturers/faculty in higher degree programme of adult education? table 7. respondents view bon learning delivery techniques of lecturers/faculty in higher degree programme of adult education items response sa a d sd total making learning materials available before the beginning of the class. f 64 48 4 1 117 % 54.7 41.0 3.4 .9 100.0 discussion method appears to be desirable method because it will elicit the participation of learners in classroom activities. f 87 11 16 3 117 % 74.4 9.4 13.7 2.5 100.0 interaction between students and lecturer in a friendly and harmless manner f 49 48 19 1 117 % 41.9 41.0 16.2 0.9 100.0 adult education students should have opportunity of field work experience f 85 25 6 1 117 % 72.6 21.4 5.1 0.9 100.0 creation of awareness of employment opportunity in adult education f 87 13 4 13 117 % 74.4 11.1 3.4 11.1 100.0 periodic workshop, conferences and seminars on topical issues in adult education f 75 25 4 13 117 % 64.1 21.4 3.4 11.1 100.0 source: field work, february 2017 one observes in table 7 that 95.7% of the respondents affirmed that making learning materials available before the beginning of the class could facilitate delivery of lesson in adult education class, while 4.3% did not. similarly, majority of the respondents (83.8%) concurred with the statement that discussion method appears to be desirable method because it would elicit the participation of learners in classroom activities, while 16.2% expressed contrary view. another identified technique is the interaction between students and lecturer in a friendly and harmless manner. this was with 82.9% agreement and 17.1% disagreement. further findings showed that majority of respondents (94%) agreed that adult education students should have opportunity of field work experience, while 6% did not see it as a learning technique. the creation of awareness of employment opportunity in adult education was perceived by 85.5% of the respondents as a learning technique for adult education, while 14.5% of the respondents did not see it that way. lastly, majority of the respondents (85.5%) confirmed that periodic workshop, conferences and seminars on topical issues in adult education were learning techniques for adult education, while 14.5% did not concur with it. the finding agrees with biney (2015) when he reported that lecturers could improve on methods of teaching that would encourage learners to engage in independent study and model intellectual attitudes of the learners; and the lecturers to intermittently stop during the course of lectures in order to give opportunity for students to ask question on the topic being discussed. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 29 research question 6: what are the motivational factors for students' enrollment in adult education higher degree programme? table 8. respondents view on motivational factors for students' enrollment in adult education higher degree programme items response sa a d sd total exposing students to job opportunities in adult education f 86 24 6 1 117 % 73.5 20.5 5.1 0.9 100.0 knowledge of relevance of adult education to contemporary issues in the society f 60 49 4 4 117 % 51.3 41.9 3.4 3.4 100.0 encouraging students to form students association in order to create platform for interaction and useful discussion in adult education. f 70 25 8 14 117 % 59.8 21.4 6.8 12.0 100.0 level of communication between students and lecturers should be clear and unambiguous. f 69 37 11 117 % 59.0 31.6 9.4 100.0 source: field work, february 2017 it was indicated in table 8 that exposing students to job opportunities in adult education is a motivational factor for students' enrollment in adult education higher degree programme. this was such that 94% of the respondents affirmed the statement, while 6% negated it. also, it was observed that majority of the respondents (93.2%) held that knowledge of relevance of adult education to contemporary issues in the society motivates students to enroll in adult education higher degree programme, while 6.8% did not perceive it that way. similarly, majority of the respondents (81.2%) opined that encouraging students to form students association in order to create platform for interaction and useful discussion in adult education motivates students to enroll in adult education higher degree programme, while18.8% did not agree. lastly, 90.6% of the respondents affirmed that the level of communication between students and lecturers should be clear and unambiguous, while 9.4% felt otherwise. this implies that job opportunities, orientation on relevance of adult education, formation of associations and increasing communication levels are ways to motivational factors for students' enrollment in adult education higher degree programme. all the factors discussed in this finding fall within what biney (2015) describes as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. according to the scholar, motivation is an internal state that arouses, directs and maintains behaviour. in other words, motivation is seen as a need or desire that energizes behaviour and directs it towards a goal. test of hypotheses hypothesis 1: there is no significant difference in the perception of staff and students on the framework that can be used for staffing higher degree programme in adult education in nigerian universities table 9. chi square summary showing difference in the perception of staff and students on the framework that can be used for staffing higher degree programme in adult education in nigerian universities respondents’ status sa a d sd total concordance with itemised framework that can be used for staffing higher degree programme in adult education in nigerian universities staff f 15 11 6 9 41 % 36.6 26.8 28.6 22.0 100.0 students f 25 27 15 9 76 % 32.9 35.5 19.7 11.8 100.0 total f 40 38 21 18 117 % 34.2 32.5 17.9 15.4 100.0 df 3 x 2 2.882 p > .05 source: field work, february 2017 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 30 the result indicated that there is no significant difference in the perception of staff and students on the framework that can be used for staffing higher degree programme in adult education in nigerian universities (x2=2.882, df=3, p > .05). this implies that both students and staff perceived and responded to the statements regarding framework that can be used for staffing higher degree programme in adult education in nigerian universities. the summation revealed that 66.7% of the respondents concur with identified frameworks that could be used for staffing higher degree programme in adult education in nigerian universities, while 33.3% did not agree. based on the findings, the hypothesis 1 was rejected. hypothesis 2: there is no significant difference in the perception of staff and students on how human resources are sourced and managed for production of higher degree students in adult education programme table 10. chi square summary showing difference in the perception of staff and students on how human resources are sourced and managed for production of higher degree students in adult education programme respondents’ status sa a d sd total perception of on how human resources are sourced and managed for production of higher degrees students in adult education programme staff f 12 17 5 7 41 % 29.3 41.5 12.2 17.1 100.0 students f 17 34 18 7 76 % 22.4 44.7 23.7 9.2 100.0 total f 29 51 23 14 117 % 24.8 43.6 19.7 12.0 100.0 df 3 x 2 3.741 p > .05 source: field work, february 2017 table 10 indicated that there was no significant difference in the perception of staff and students on how human resources are sourced and managed for production of higher degree students in adult education programme (x2=3.741, df=3, p > .05). this implies that both staff and students responded in similar form on statements relating to how human resources are sourced and managed for production of higher degrees students in adult education programme. this confirmed the formulated null hypothesis 2 and it was accepted. from the findings in table 10, it was observed that in total, 68.4% of the respondents concur with the identified ways through which human resources are sourced and managed for production of higher degrees students in adult education programme. hypothesis 3: there is no significant difference in the perception of staff and students on form of framework that can be used to ensure inclusiveness in managing higher degree adult education programme in universities table 11: chi square summary showing difference in the perception of staff and students on form of framework that can be used to ensure inclusiveness in managing higher degree adult education programme in universities respondents’ status sa a d sd total concordance with the form of framework that can be used to ensure inclusiveness in managing higher degree adult education programme in universities staff f 12 20 1 8 41 % 29.3 48.8 2.4 19.5 100.0 students f 24 33 17 2 76 % 31.6 43.3 22.4 2.6 100.0 total f 36 53 18 10 117 % 30.8 45.3 15.4 8.5 100.0 df 3 x 2 15.970 p < .05 source: field work, february 2017 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 31 it was indicated in table 11 that there was significant difference in the perception of staff and students on form of framework that can be used to ensure inclusiveness in managing higher degree adult education programme in universities (x2=15.970, df=3, p < .05). this negates the formulated hypothesis 3 and it was rejected. the total summary of both sample revealed that majority concur with the statement such that 76.1% concur, while 23.9% did not. the percentage that strongly disagreed among the sampled staff (19.5%) was high, thus resulting to a valid variation in their responses compared to those of the students where just 2.6% strongly disagreed. this implies that students agreed with the form of framework that can be used to ensure inclusiveness in managing higher degree adult education programme in universities, compared to staff. hypothesis 4: there is no significant difference in the perception of staff and students on strategies to be employed to popularise adult education among educators and researches in universities table 12. chi square summary showing difference in the perception of staff and students on strategies to be employed to popularise adult education among educators and researches in universities respondents’ status sa a d sd total concordance with strategies to be employed to popularise adult education among educators and researches in universities staff f 23 15 2 1 41 % 56.1 36.6 4.9 2.4 100.0 students f 43 26 6 1 76 % 56.6 34.2 7.9 1.3 100.0 total f 66 41 8 2 117 % 56.4 35.0 6.8 1.7 100.0 df 3 x 2 .595 p > .05 source: field work, february 2017 the result in table 12 indicated that there was no significant difference in the perception of staff and students on strategies to be employed to popularise adult education among educators and researchers in universities (x2=0.595, df=3, p > .05). this implies that both staff and students perceived the strategies to be employed to popularise adult education among educators and researchers in universities in similar form. the finding, thus confirmed null hypothesis 4 and it was accepted. the summation revealed that 91.4% of the respondents were in concordance with the identified strategies to be employed to popularise adult education among educators and researches in universities. hypothesis 5: there is no significant difference in the perception of staff and students on learning delivery techniques of lecturers/faculty in higher degree programme of adult education table 13. chi square summary showing difference in the perception of staff and students on learning delivery techniques of lecturers/faculty in higher degree programme of adult education respondents’ status sa a d sd total perception on learning delivery techniques of lecturers/faculty in higher degree programme of adult education staff f 20 16 4 1 41 % 48.8 39.0 9.8 2.4 100.0 students f 54 12 5 5 76 % 71.1 15.8 6.6 6.6 100.0 total f 74 28 9 6 117 % 63.2 23.9 7.7 5.1 100.0 df 3 x 2 9.336 p < .05 source: field work, february 2017 www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 32 it was noted that there was a significant difference in the perception of staff and students on learning delivery techniques of lecturers/faculty in higher degree programme of adult education (x2=9.336, df=3, p < .05). although, from observation, it was noted that both staff (87.8%) and students (86.9%) affirmed the statements regarding learning delivery techniques of lecturers/faculty in higher degree programme of adult education, the sample that strongly agree among students (71.1%) were greater than that of staff (48.8%); thereby proving that students confirmed the usefulness of the techniques more compared to the staff. this result negated the formulated null hypothesis 5, therefore, it was rejected. hypothesis 6: there is no significant difference in the perception of staff and students on motivational factors for students' enrollment in adult education higher degree programme table 14. chi square summary showing difference in the perception of staff and students on motivational factors for students' enrollment in adult education higher degree programme respondents’ status sa a d sd total perception on the motivational factors for students' enrollment in adult education higher degree programme staff f 17 19 4 1 41 % 41.5 46.3 9.8 2.4 100.0 students f 54 15 3 4 76 % 71.1 19.7 3.9 5.3 100.0 total f 71 34 7 5 117 % 60.7 29.1 6.0 4.3 100.0 df 3 x 2 12.328 p < .05 source: field work, february 2017 the result showed that there was a significant difference in the perception of staff and students on motivational factors for students' enrollment in adult education higher degree programme (x2=12.328, df=3, p < .05). this implies that there are visible variations between the responses of staff compared to students in their opinions on the motivational factors for students' enrollment in adult education higher degree programme indicated in the statements discussed above in research question 6. although, it was observed that majority of both staff (87.8%)) and students (90.8%) concur to the itemized motivational factors, majority of the responding students (71.1%) strongly agreed with the motivational factors compared to staff that strongly agreed (41.5%). this implied that students had stronger perception on the effectiveness of the identified motivational factors compared to the staff. this finding negate hypothesis 6 and it was rejected. 6. recommendations  based on the findings of the studies the following recommendations are made:  all efforts should be made by the stakeholders to popularise the discipline of adult education with a view to making people to understand its meaning and usefulness to the growth of the society.  adequate budgetary allocation should be made, by the owner universities to adult education so as to attract qualified staff, regular payment of salaries and comprehensive welfare programme. also the universities should make efforts to embark on internal generation of income in order to supplement subvention from owner universities.  lecturers are enjoined to employ method of teaching that recognises the independence and involvement of students in classroom situation.  efforts should be made by the departments of adult education to explore avenue in order to increase enrollment in to adult education programme.  the need and involvement of the community in managing and sourcing for funding adult education programme should be priority by the universities. 7. conclusion the main objective of producing higher degree programme of any discipline, including adult education, is to provide manpower to drive economy. that is why funding of the university by its owners is sine qua non for increased www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 3, no. 1; 2020 33 enrollment into the discipline. the need for the university to look inward for its financing is also germane. managing staff of universities demands the involvement of many stakeholders from among the community and should be based on the principles of transparency and accountability. references acde (2008) proceedings of the 2nd acde conference and general assembly hosted by the national open university of nigeria, held in lagos,8-11th july.www.acdeafrica.org/sites/default/files/publication/conferenceproceedings.pdf biney, i k (2015) teachers’motivation and learners’ interest in learning: perspectives of an adult educator,basic research journal of education research and review 4(5) pp.81-90. www.basicresearchjournals.org/education/pdf/biney.pdf european commission (2014). improving basic skills in adulthood: participation and motivation, www.ec.europa.edu/dgs/adult-basic-skills_en. lyons,g &arthur-kelly m (2014) unesco inclusion policy and the education of school students with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities: where to vow? filescrip.org/pdf/c 2014042811540527.pdf nafukho, f m, wawire ,w.h.w., & larn, p.m.k,. (2016) african perspectives on adult learning: management of adult education organization in africa,unesdoc, unescoo.org/images/0021/0021187e.pdf ojuah,m u &arikpo ba(2011)role of non-formal education (nfe)under universal basic education ube law in nigeria proceedings of the zoll international conference on teaching, learning and change. www.hrmars.com/admin pics/131.pdf out ,d o (n.d) eda 721:human resource management in education national open university of nigeria. www.non.edu.ng/uploads/noun ocl/pdf2/majn eda 721.pdf stephenson, j. (1983). higher educatio: school for independent study, in tight, m. (ed.) education for adults, volume 1 adult learning and education, london: croom helm ltd, p169-185. unesco (1994) higher education staff development: directions for twenty-first century,www.unecom.org/education/pdf/24-234.pdf. unesco (2005) guidelines for inclusion: ensuring education for all unescbc.unesco.org/images/0014/001402/1402222e.pdf. unesco (2009) policy guidelines on inclusion in education unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0017/001778/177849 e.pdf. unesco (2009) towards inclusive education: a guideline www.nis.unesco.org/library/document/disabchild09en.pdf. ungri (united nation education initiatives/ 2010) equity and inclusion in education: a guide to support education sector plan preparation, revision and appraisal. https;/www.unicef.org/education/files/equityandinclusion.guide.pdf yeager, k l & nafukho f m (2012) developing diverse teams to improve performance in the organisational setting, ejtd36(4),https:articles.extension.org/sites/default/files/developing diverse teams to improve performance in the organization setting.pdf copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). http://www.basicresearchjournals.org/education/pdf/biney.pdf http://www.ec.europa.edu/dgs/adult-basic-skills_en http://www.hrmars.com/admin%20pics/131.pdf http://www.non.edu.ng/uploads/noun%20ocl/pdf2/majn%20eda%20721.pdf http://www.nis.unesco.org/library/document/disabchild09-en.pdf http://www.nis.unesco.org/library/document/disabchild09-en.pdf american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995 published by american center of science and education, usa 55 psychological factors that affect english speaking performance among malaysian primary school pupils nazifullah nijat faculty of education paktika institute of higher education e-mail:nazifullahnijat@gmail.com hamza atifnigar faculty of humanities and literature laghman university school of education e-mail:hamza.honaryar@gmail.com kanageswary chandran school of education faculty of social science and humanities university technology malaysia, malaysia e-mail:saikana9696@hotmail.com siva letchumi tamil selvan school of education faculty of social science and humanities university technology malaysia, malaysia e-mail:cva_15@ymail.com vijayaletchumy subramonie school of education faculty of social science and humanities university technology malaysia, malaysia e-mail:vijayaletchumy@jb.real.edu.my abstract speaking is considered as one of the most important skill in learning a language especially english but many language learners find it difficult and need much effort to produce acceptable utterances in english. the aim of this study is to investigate psychological factors that become obstacles to spoken english among malaysian primary school pupils, and suggest possible solutions from the student’s perspectives to overcome the obstacles. for conducting current research, a questionnaire was used to collect data and identify the factors that affect students speaking performance, and find out possible solution from the students’ perspectives. after the data analysed, it was noticed that majority of students were the victims of the common physiological factors such as fear in the class, shyness and anxiety. most pupils did not have confident to speak because they felt fear to speak in english. while some other were felling shy and anxious when speaking in the class. thus, pupils suggested solutions like interesting activities, encouraging learning atmosphere, a good rapport between teacher and students to help them to overcome these psychological factors that hinder them to speak in english. keywords: speaking english, physiological factors, primary school pupils. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 56 1. introduction speaking is an interactive process of constructing language that involves producing, receiving and processing information (brown, 1994). speaking is the second productive skill among four language skills (ahmed & raba, 2017). richard (2008) states that most language learners evaluate their success and the usefulness of english course on the basis of how much they have improved in speaking proficiency. thus, teachers need to pay special attention to the students’ speaking ability. in addition, learning to speak is considered the greatest challenge for all language learners (pinter, 2006). similarly, richard (2008) claims that one of the productive skills in teaching english is to assist students to communicate and use english focusing on speaking activities. also, brown (2001) says that providing more opportunities to the students to express themselves through giving speaking activities enable students to speak english fluently. sometimes within the opportunities to speak learners fail to communicate well. the reasons found in literature among malaysians students is the influence of the first language, lack of vocabulary knowledge and the socio-economic status of the family affect english language learning (misbah et al., 2017). in contrast, brown, 2001; elhadi, 2015; gebhard, 2000; schwarz, 2005) argued that psychological factors such as anxiety, shyness, lack of confidence, and motivation are the main causes of high school and tertiary level students’ reluctance to speak in english. though, numerous researches (mas, 2009; sanchita, 2017; zua, 2008; affat, 2008; juhana, 2012; pesce, 2011; erny 2014). have been conducted in different countries both on university and high school levels, in addition a few ( rusli et al., 2018; azizi.yahaya et al. 2011; misbah et al., 2017) of them have been carried out on high schools and university in malaysia to identify the factors that affect the speaking performance and predict some solutions to overcome these factors. consequently; motivation, friendly and cooperative environment, authentic activities and materials, emotional rapport, and developing student’s self-confidence are the best antidotes to overcome the obstacles. as indicated the demographics position of the researches specifically, in malaysian high schools to found out psychological factors that affect speaking performance. but none of the researchers have focused on the primary school level students. this research paper aims to identify the psychological factors that affect speaking performance among malaysian primary school pupils and analyze their perception on how to overcome the psychological factors that affect speaking performance. looking at the age of the pupils the study was carried out through a questionnaire which was developed by the researchers. the participants of the study were 60 pupils from three primary schools. thus, this research paper tries to answer the following questions.  what are the psychological factors that affect speaking performance among malaysian primary school students?  how to identify the possible solutions to improve speaking performance among primary school pupils? 2. literature review 2.1 psychological factors according to elhadi (2015), some psychological factors affect students when practicing their speaking and they are interrelated to each other. multiple researches had been done to establish the role of psychological factors in the success and failure of learners speaking english. brown (2001) has stated that there are several psychological factors such as shyness and anxiety are considered as the main root cause of students’ antipathetic to speak. this is also in same ballpark with gebhard (2000) who clearly defined that the students’ complication in speaking is occurred mainly by their shyness or anxiety; all of these effects stipulated that the teachers play major role to guide and assist the students to reduce those feelings and encourage their learning to speak in english. furthermore, schwarz (2015) says that psychological factors such as fear of mistakes, anxiety, shyness, lack of confidence, and lack of motivation are the factors that have been hindrance to students’ speaking skill. the exchange of the view above clearly proves that psychology plays a vital role in placing the students’ speaking skill in a difficult state. as mentioned by schwarz (2015) on the premier five psychological factors that leads to speaking difficulties are also supported by burns & joyce in nunan (1999) which strongly proves that psychological factors are one of the major factors make the students reluctant in speaking english. as discussed by various researchers as stated above, the foremost psychological factors will be presented such as anxiety, shyness, lack of self-confidence and lack of motivation. these are the main causes why psychological factors have great effect on speaking english as a target language. 2.1.1 anxiety many researchers have found that second language learners have obstructions and complications in speaking english language. khadija (2016) has stated that learners did not like to take risk in speaking english due to the feeling of anxious. according to diao and shamela (2013), the learners fear being negatively evaluated and were www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 57 apprehensive about public speaking classroom and teacher evaluation. based on the research done by ariyanthi (2016) has found out that the students were able to involve themselves and exchange ideas, views and their knowledge with their classmates, but the obstacle that she has encountered in her schools is that they are worried and reluctant to take risk because they are scared by students laugh and teachers’ judgment. moreover, in case of the learners who speak the second language cannot be understood or not acceptable then there are high possibilities of be embarrassed and accepting ignorance from others. heron (2005), has stated in his research that anxiety act as a part of negative influential affective factors which intercept the learners to master their speaking skill; it triggers the feel of nervous and afraid which might responsible to deficient oral performance. 2.1.2 shyness elia and irianti (2015) have clearly define the internal meaning of shyness by saying that it is an emotional thing which often become apparent to the feeling of agitation, uneasiness, or awkwardness experienced when a person doing something, engage in conversation, or been approached by other people, especially in new situations or with unfamiliar or unknown people. the above statement clearly stipulates that shyness is also counted as an obstacle to students in speaking english language. in line with this, the above statement was also given further explanation by baldwin and caroline, (2011) that the feel of obsessive fear or detestation that encountered by the students when speaking in public or speaking in front of people and feeling of shyness makes their mind go blank or that they will forget what to say. there are also some discussions on the nature of the students like being too passive and quiet that leads to their shyness to speak in english as stated by bowen (2005). their feeling of shyness directly blocks and hinders the students’ ability to speak in english. 2.1.3 lack of confidence lack of confidence occurred among the students is when they are aware that their conversation partners failed to perceive the intended meaning of their message or when they wrongly interpret the message delivered by other speakers. in this situation, the students’ lack of confidence to communicate can be seen undoubtedly when they prefer to keep themselves passive or silent while others do talking. chen (2010) said that the main reason of students’ lack of confidence is their incapacity in speaking english. in this case, they also stated that the students think their english speaking skill is poor and they are not capable to speaking in english very well and fluently. on the other hand, brown (2001) has explained further by saying that the lack of encouragement from the teacher is also one of the main reasons for the students’ lack of confidence. from this point of view, we could clearly say that the teacher didn’t give enough priority to convince students and make them believe that they are able to speak english well. this situation makes the students to lose hope in their ability and also indirectly demotivated to speak in english. this indicates that support and encouragement plays a major role to boost and enhance the students’ confidence. 2.1.4 lack of motivation motivation is a fundamental element in students’ learning to achieve the success point. nunan (1999) have stated that motivation can easily influence the students’ reluctance to speak in english. in this sense, motivation is scrutinized as an essential factor that leads to a successful communication. many studies have proved that the students with high and strong motivation to succeed able to persevere in learning and achieved good and better results when compared to those who have lack of motivation of success. in response to the issue of motivation, babu (2010) argues that lack of motivation in learning can hinder the students to speak english in the classroom. situation like this occurred due to the absence of motivation and support from the teacher towards the communication in english. in his further discussion, teachers with passion, creativity and interest in their students are also fundamental elements for motivating students apart from motivating students to learn well and actively communicate in english. 2.2 solution to overcome the psychological factor in terms of solution, numerous researches (mas, 2016; sanchita, 2017; zua, 2008; affat, 2008; pesce, 2011) conducted to overcome the psychological factors that affect the speaking performance of primary school students. 2.2.1 emotional rapport zua (2008), proposed that an emotional rapport should be built between students and teachers. by doing this, a comfortable zone will have between a teacher and students. the comfortable environment will help the pupils to believe on the teacher and pupils will not feel fear to speak in english. moreover, a teacher should create an encouraging learning atmosphere where teacher indirectly develop pupil’s concentration when learning english. for an example, by creating encouraging learning atmosphere pupils will able to speak without any hesitation because www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 58 they will get support from a teacher to speak well in english and they tend to focus more on their speaking activity. the same solution can be used to motivate the pupils to speak. this notion is further supported by affat (2008), constant encouragement and support by way of ask questions will encourage the pupils’ motivation to overcome their speaking difficulties. the example given by sanchita (2017), a teacher must give equal attention to all the pupils in the classroom and encourage everyone to participate in classroom discussion and activities due to enrich the pupils’ enthusiasm to speak. the encouraging atmosphere provides the pupils the feel of secure and helps them in the speaking of english. nadeem and arsyad (2010) also agreed that to reduce shyness problem during speaking encouragement, motivation and counselling can be given. that encouragement will help pupils to overcome their shyness due to laughing of their classmates during their speaking activity. the exact solution given by mas (2016), pupils need stable encouragement and sufficient chances to establish their speaking skills. therefore, creating an encouraging surrounding is very important in order to help the pupils to overcome their psychological factors that affect in their speaking. 2.2.2 friendly and cooperative environment lai and seyedeh (2017) states that a friendly and cooperative environment will help pupils to defeat their problems in oral performance. the same recommendation given by pesce (2011), to lessen the pupil’s shyness it is crucial to create a friendly and open classroom. by having this friendly environment, the shy pupils feel acceptable when they make any wrong during their speaking activity. the shy students will not concern of their flaws in terms of pronunciation and grammars rather they will feel motivate to speak. this has been supported by chinmoy (2007) that shy pupils do not consider shyness as a problem when they have friendly atmosphere. hence, it is essential to form a friendly environment, to hinder pupils’ psychological problem in speaking. 2.2.3 self-confidence liu and huang (2010) suggested that to overcome psychological factor like lack of motivation, teacher need to boost pupils’ self-confidence. lai and seyedeh (2017), also agreed that teachers should develop their pupil’s selfconfidence. they give an example where teacher can praise their pupils’ during or after the speaking activity. by praising them, students will feel motivated and confident to speak more in next classes. mas (2016) supported that to motivate pupils to speak; a teacher should provide motivational feedback. motivational feedback stimulates pupil’s self-confidence to a greater level. the feedback helps the pupils to get motivated and to speak in english. dawood (2015) explained that self-confidence general require accomplishing self-esteem, persistence and patient are some important solutions that are vital in increase students’ motivation to speak. thus, many researchers conclude that self-confidence is significant in enhancing pupil’s motivation to speak. 2.2.4 authentic activities and materials to motivate learners teacher can motivate the pupils by using the authentic activities and materials which will prompt the motivation for the low proficiency of pupils to speak in the classroom (rusreena, melor & harwati, 2018). lin and huang stated that, teacher can do activities that can stimulate pupils understanding of the prominence of english and enriching learners’ concern in english. sakiroglu and dikilitas (2012) further supported that, pupils who strongly motivated will like to learn the language and make an effort to learn the language. moreover, they claimed that the learning must be enjoyable, provoking and enthusing. pupils will feel motivated by participating in various learning activities. hence, variety of activities and materials in the classroom help the teacher to motivate the pupils to perform well in their oral performance. 3. research methodology the quantitative research method was used in the study to investigate the phycological factors that affect speaking performance of pupils. in the current study, a survey research design is used to collect data. for achieving the objectives of the study, a total of sixty pupils in upper primary level in johor bahru city were chosen randomly. where they are varied by age and grader, they are from primary four, five and six students, in the age group of ten to twelve. 3.1 data collection and instrument data collection method in this quantitative study was done with the assistance of an instrument, which was abstracted and restructured for the level of the students, the upper primary level. the questionnaire filled with twelve questions that categorized as guided questions, likert questions and dichotomous questions. the questionnaire is restructured as, to have more ideas on the psychological factors that factors that affect speaking performance of the upper primary students. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 59 3.2 data analysis the required data for study was collected from the participants through questionnaire. the collected data was analyzed question by question, to measure the most chosen factors. the results of the gathered data are presented in diagrams and charts in the findings, through the findings, on the identified factors, suggestions were given to improve the psychological factors based on the students’ perception. the limitations were seen later with the recommendation to overcome the limitation in the future. 4. analysis of the result the small-scale research was conducted with the purpose the psychological factors that influence the primary school pupils’ speaking performance and solutions to overcome the psychological factors that affect their speaking skill. in this section, we will elicit on student’s point of view because their opinions are mandatory to answer the research questions and the students’ questionnaire played major role in this part. 4.1 students’ questionnaire a questionnaire consisted of structured questions was designed and distributed to 60 upper primary school pupils in order to acquire and examine the psychological factors that hinder their english speaking skill and also to extract the appropriate solution that suggested by the pupils to overcome the problem. we will further describe and elaborate more on the main psychological factors that affect their english speaking skill and also applicable solutions based on the pupils’ responses in the questionnaire given. the questionnaires were mainly given to 5th standard pupils with mix ability which consists of 60 pupils from two different classes. this questionnaire contained 12 questions which are arranged in sequence and in smoothly-moving. it comprises variety of questions which are based predominantly on closed questions and open questions which were given to allow the pupils to have the freedom to choose and to answer in their own words. the closed questions are given choices to the pupils to choose “yes” or “no” and the pupils needed to select and tick the suitable answers from the choices given and also provide their opinion and justification for certain open questions. 4.2 findings and discussion this section composed of the summarized data that gathered throughout the research procedure. the analysis is based on the pupils’ questionnaire which is quantitative data. 4.2.1 analysis of the result 62% 38% percentage i don't like speaking english in class i like speaking english in class figure 1: pupils’ interest in speaking english in class it can be seen clearly from the figure 1 above, that very less quantity of pupils prefers to speak english in class. overall 62% of pupils asserted that speaking english in class is less favourable and not interested. the higher proportion of dislike indicates that english language is not their favourable language to speak and less importance was given to practice the language in their daily communication in class. on the other hand, (38%) of the other www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 60 respondents’ stated that they have the desire to speak in english in class due to their capability and confidence to communicate in english language. for the second question, regarding the consistency of speaking english in school was mostly responded as once in a wile which represents 53% of participants while 28% of pupils stated (not at all) indicate they never speak english in school. the above results revealing that higher portion of the pupils use their native language to communicate with teachers and also to their classmates even during the english lesson. this divulged that the pupils have less opportunity to speak english in classes or lack of speaking activity classes that contribute to less practice of english language. the absence of target language environment in the classroom brings to the lack of participation in real life circumstances. apart from that, most of the pupils found it difficult to speak in english because they have negative perception on speaking english language like shyness, less confident to use the language, feel of anxiety and fear of making mistakes. this points out that, the pupils who never use english to speak in the school is due to the lack of practice, their laziness to take initiative to use the language and they do not aspire to reach their goal in speaking english language. besides, 19% of other respondents speak english almost every day in the school indicates that there are some portion of pupils who are confident to use the language and they have practice the language inside and outside the classroom actively. happy fear 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 the teacher your classmate parents outsider happy fear figure 2: feelings of the pupils when speaking with the following people in english. this part is devoted to identify the pupils’ feelings of fear and happy with teacher, classmates, parents and outsiders when speaking in english. the results show the greatest part of the pupils denoted that they have the fear of speaking in english with the teacher while only 20% of the pupils feel happy. this elicit the higher portion of the pupils worried over the teachers’ dismissive evaluation towards their speaking ability and it influenced them negatively by fostering the feel of fear, restless and makes the pupils to feel less confidence in their ability to speak english. when it came to the classmates, results seemed to switch towards the positive end of the scale. the majority of the pupils (87%) clarify that speaking english with their classmates trigger the feeling of happiness and they feel free to use english language without any feel of fear or anxious. however, 68% of the pupils feel fear to express themselves in english with their parents while 60% feel fear to speak in english with outsiders. overall, the results showed that higher portion of the pupils feel happy to speak english with their friends compared to their parents, teachers and outsiders. this reveals that, most of the pupils do not seem to be nervous, anxious or fear when speaking english with their friends instead feel confident, more comfortable, and highly motivated due to the absence of the feel of making mistakes, fear and negative judgments. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 61 18% 82% percentage yes no figure 3: confident level of the pupils when speaking in english the fourth question in the questionnaire is focused on the confident level of the pupils when speaking in english. the largest part of the population 82% said that they do not have enough self-confidence when speaking in english. majority of the pupils assumed that their speaking skill needs improvement. even after many years of studying english language in school yet they still feel apprehensive when communicating in english due to many factors. lack of practice, did not participate in discussions during speaking lessons, scared to voice their opinions in their classes, fear of making mistakes, lack of vocabulary, scared they would make some noticeable grammatical errors, lack of knowledge about a topic and fear of peers laughing at them could be suggested factors that affect their self-confidence when speaking in english. in question 5, when asked about the importance of speaking in english, 100% of the pupils stated that they completely agree with the statement. this indicates that the pupils aware of the importance of speaking in english for various reasons. pupils have the conscious knowledge on the necessity of speaking in english because it is the only way learners can express their ability through, share their ideas with people around and act as a communication tool which is the fundamental element in their life. joanna and heather (2006) has scrutinized that speaking english assist the pupils to deliver their information or to receive message in any field of study. however, the pupils are still do not participate in speaking activities, being very passive and keep silent all the time without giving any responses or show voluntary actions to speak out or communicate in english due to various reasons which hinder their speaking ability. percentage realia 30% ict 23% media 28% other teaching aids 19% figure 4: pupils’ feelings towards various situations during english lesson www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 62 the sixth research question is about the pupils’ feelings towards various situations during english lesson in the classroom. the pupils were asked to choose among the four different feelings that they encountered from the list of feelings given in the questionnaire. according to the results of this questionnaire, as presented in figure 4, the pupils felt more confident (82%) when the teacher asks them to have a small group discussion and (63%) asks them to speak with the partner. by contrast, the pupils feel more worried (40%), shy (32%) and afraid (18%) when the teacher asks them questions in front of the class. whilst, 47% of pupils also felt worried and shy (25%) when they have a question to ask in the class. thus, pupils’ desire to have a discussion in a small group and to speak with a partner seems to encourage and provoke them to speak and exhibit their capabilities and competencies. on the other hand, some psychological factors like worry, shy and afraid directly and indirectly deterred the pupils’ capability to speak in english. this could be the feel of making mistakes in front of their teacher and classmates, shyness, nervousness, lack of self-confident and worry of being laughed by others. tanveer (2007) scrutinized the above factor in his case study by stating that the pupils speaking ability, language learning and performances are might get affected by their feeling of stress, anxiety or nervousness. in question 7, 63% of the pupils agreed that the teachers should wait until the end of their speech to correct their speaking mistakes. this seems clear because most the people dislike or demotivated when the teacher interrupts them every time when they make mistakes (3%) or ask them to stop half way through their speech to give them corrections (5%). this point out that pupils prefer when the teacher encourages their attempt to speak in english and they feel unrestrained when the teacher didn’t evaluate them while they are speaking. at the same time, pupils agreed the act of the teacher when they give written feedback (29%) after they completed their speech in english language during the lesson. results from question 8 revealed that when doing speaking activities, 48% of the pupils prefer to do speaking activities with a small group of three or four classmates while very least proportion 3% of the pupils wish to do on their own. that is, pupils are more willing to speak out and communicate in situation where there are more people to support them which indirectly boost their self-confident and reduce the feel of anxious and shyness. besides, most pupils tend to do speaking activities with a partner (23%) and also with a large group of about 10 classmates (19%). the result shows that the psychological factors like anxiety, shyness, fear of making mistakes and lack of self-confidence were least affected the pupils during english speaking activities when they are in group and with a partner. thus, the findings from the research done by park & lee (2005) reinforced that higher proportion of the pupils’ anxiety level was negatively affected their oral performances. this indicates that the pupils’ psychological factors hinder their speaking abilities during individual oral performance when there are absences of encouragement, motivation and support. percentage realia 30% ict 23% media 28% other teaching aids 19% figure 5: resources for speaking activities the pie chart above illustrates the pupils’ choice of resources need to be used by the teacher to makes them feel free to speak in english. 30% of pupils stated that the use of realia (real objects) during speaking activity will help them to overcome their psychological barriers and support them to speak in english. besides, the use of ict (23%) likes power point slides, audio, video and media (28%) such as youtube and television also encourage as well as raise their motivation to speak in english. this indicated that, the teacher should make use of the resources www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 63 suggested above in order to foster the pupils’ capability to speak and to make them feel free during speaking activities which will break the psychological factors that hinder their speaking ability. 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% interest & experiences facts issues free topics topics topics figure 6: the preferred topics to talk during speaking activities when asked about the topics that they prefer to talk freely during speaking activities in class, majority of the pupils agreed to speak on free topics (55%) and topic related interest and experiences (42%). the results above revealed that, psychological factors are absence when the pupils speak based on their previous knowledge, experiences and familiar topics. more attention should be given to this point because it is considered as highly impactful to boost pupils’ motivation to overcome their psychological factors and it is the most fundamental element that influences their desire to speak. teacher should take responsibility to lessen pupils’ pressure and anxiety through the selection of the topics for speaking activities. around 0% pupils feel the facts related topics and topics based on issues (3%) will negatively influence their speaking ability and they might not be able to speak about facts. this clearly shows that; the teacher should be aware of the selection of topics to be given to their pupils during speaking activities. riasati (2012), explicates that one’s lack of knowledge, desire, and preparation to a particular topic will highly effect one’s perceived competence which will make the pupils to feel empty and feel like they have nothing to share or give hence prefers to remain silent. this shows, proper motivation and appropriate teaching method as well as suitable selection of topic will help the pupils to overcome the psychological barriers that hinder their speaking ability as well as arouses their interest to learn and foster them to involve more in the class activities and oral practices. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 64 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% role play debating retelling stories story telling description talking according to the picture short play speech contest acting and speaking problem solving hundreds speaking activities speaking activities figure 7: favorite types of english speaking activities this graph shows the favorite types of speaking activities that can be carry out during the speaking lesson to reduce the psychological factors that hinder their oral performance as well as to enhance the pupils’ ability to speak in english. as showed above, it seems clear that higher proportion of pupils prefer role play (68%) for speaking activity and this revealed that they feel more confident and motivated when they do acting as well as imitating the role of a character that they knew and familiar. besides, talking according to the picture (48%) is also stated as most favorable speaking activity since the pupils can refer to the picture as a guidance to use proper vocabularies and examples. story telling activity (45%) is also considered as an interesting speaking activity that helps the pupils to use their prior knowledge to talk about a specific story that they heard or watched earlier. this activity also provides them extra space to use their own imagination as well as motivate them to come out with some vocabularies to talk and share something. teacher should implement the speaking activities that make the pupils to show better participation and also activities that can stimulate them to engage in the discussions which will provide better learning environment. teacher plays a fundamental role to overcome the fear of making mistakes, lack of selfconfidence, anxiety and shyness that obstruct the pupils’ speaking ability and sparkle the pupils to engage actively in speaking activity. the last question is aimed to discover the ways to motivate pupils to participate in english speaking activities in class. pupils were asked to choose the best methods and solution that can arouse their confident level to speak as well as trigger their ability to communicate in english. largest part of the proportion (69%) has suggested the role of the teacher as a best remedy to overcome the psychological factors that obstruct and inhibit their ability in speaking skill. teacher should aware that their positive evaluation and positive emotion will make the pupils to overcome their fear to speak. offering them an appropriate learning environment which is student-friendly and stressfree environment with less judgments, rules, negative feedback and strict comments will enhance their selfconfident and reduce the anxiety level when speaking in english. riasati (2012) scrutinize that learners get to know and trust each other better in friendly and secure environment which will lead to more involvement and participation of the pupils. whilst, a teacher also should be kind to the pupils, give respect and trust them as well as take care of them which will make the pupils to start believe in themselves and feel comfortable to speak. apart from that, appropriate speaking activities like role play, storytelling, and speaking based on the pictures are activities that makes the pupils feel free, relax to talk and boost their spirit to speak in english without the feeling of shyness. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 65 communicative activities bound all activities that aim, basically, to trigger pupils to talk freely and foster them to deal and interact with their surroundings. 4.3 solution from students’ perspective based on the questionnaire analysis, pupils offered some solutions from their perspective to hinder their psychological factors that affect their speaking performance. firstly, they wanted interesting activities to be carried out in the classroom. based on the answers given, most pupils chose the activities like role play, talking according to the pictures and storytelling. pupils wanted the activities to be more authentic. authentic activities defined as “tasks identical or similar to those that children will eventually encounter in the outside world” (ormrod, 2008, p.343). as rusreena, melor and harvati (2018) said, authentic activities and materials stimulated the motivation of pupils to speak in the classroom. moreover, students also suggested that they preferred to do the speaking activity with a partner or in a group. they did not want to do the speaking activity alone. for an example, the activity like role play will create opportunity for pupils to communicate with others and pupils will not feel shy to speak with their friends. next, solution given by pupils was the role of teacher in the classroom. this solution was based on the answers given in the questionnaire for question number twelve where pupils answered they wanted teachers to motivate them to speak. they required teachers to play crucial role in creating situation that pupils can speak. hence, a teacher should create an encouraging learning atmosphere. the encouraging learning atmosphere helps pupils to speak without any hesitation with the support from a teacher and they tend to focus more on their speaking activity. this solution supported by affat (2008), continuous encouragement and support by way of ask questions will encourage the pupils’ motivation to overcome their speaking difficulties. pupils also recommended the best way for the teacher to correct their speaking mistakes is after they finished their speaking activity. pupils did not prefer the teacher to interrupt during their speaking activity because it may cause fear for pupils to speak. furthermore, student’s answers inferred that as a teacher a good rapport between teacher and students was very important. a good rapport between students and teachers develop a comfortable zone. the comfortable environment will aid the pupils to trust on the teacher and this will lead the pupils to overcome the feel of fear to speak in english. 5. suggestion and conclusion 5.1 suggestion after analysing the psychological factors that affect speaking performance among, the expectation or desire from students were identified. therefore, the implication of suitable pedagogical also important to teach speaking. interesting speaking activities will definitely contribute a great deal to students to develop their speaking skills. based on the findings it is clearly understood that, there should be a suitable environment with collaborative work, teaching materials and sharing ideas. kayi (2006) suggested that, teachers have to engage the class with the speaking activities, such as group discussions, role play, information gap, brainstorming, storytelling, story completion and playing cards, these type of activities are appealing for collaborative tasks where the pupils have to work in group to speak up their mind. moreover, teacher should have less speaking time in class while increase the pupils speaking time, while teachers would be playing the role of facilitators who observe the flow of the activities, and provide assistance when needed. when these pedagogical being implied in a speaking classroom, pupils would be more active to take part and would feel their learning is meaningful. 5.2 conclusion as mentioned earlier, this study was carried out to identify psychological factors that affect speaking performance of 60 primary school pupils and solutions from students’ perspective to hinder those psychological factors. as a result, it has been revealed that, the main psychological factors that hinder pupil’s to speak in the classroom was fear, shyness and worried. most pupils did not have confident to speak because they felt fear to speak in english. thus, pupils suggested solutions like interesting activities, teacher’s role, encouraging learning atmosphere, a good rapport between teacher and students to help them to overcome those psychological factors that hinder them to speak in english. there are few limitations of this study. the study was carried out only in 3 schools and it is limited to 60 pupils only. therefore, it is suggested to consider a bigger sample size to be engaged for future study. furthermore, the current study conducted using a quantitative approach and data collected through only questionnaire. hence, in future research, qualitative approach recommended to use to gather more data. this can be done through document analysis, interview with the students and observation to study more on psychological factors that influence pupils’ speaking performance. www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr american international journal of education and linguistics research vol. 2, no. 2; 2019 66 references aftat, m. 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(2008). exploring the affective factors influencing teaching of spoken english. retrieved october 24, 2018, http://okarticle.com/html/thesis/20080104/26.html copyrights copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). american international journal of education and linguistics research 5(1) (2022), 8-20 8 education and linguistics research aijelr vol 5 no 1 (2022) p-issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995 available online at www.acseusa.org journal homepage: https://www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr published by american center of science and education, usa acoustic correlates of stress assignments of loanwords among nigerian speakers of english oluwasegun matthew amoniyan (a)1 abiola mary oladipo (b) odilia ifeanyichukwu ogunka (c) (a) department of linguistics, university of pittsburgh, usa; e-mail: oma55@pitt.edu (b) department of english and literary studies, university of nigeria, nsukka, nigeria; e-mail: abiola.oladipo@unn.edu.ng (c) department of english and literary studies, university of nigeria, nsukka, nigeria; e-mail: odiliamicheal@gmail.com a r t i c l e i n f o article history: received: 26th october 2022 accepted: 30th november 2022 online publication: 30th december 2022 keywords: bre, igbo english, loanwords, praat, yoruba english jel classification codes: h75 a b s t r a c t nigerian english as a variety of world englishes has received scholarly investigations at the segmental and suprasegmental levels. at the suprasegmental level, studies on the major varieties of nigerian english have identified characteristic nature of stress assignment and interactions, but little or no research has explored stress assignment on loanwords in nigerian english. the study examines the stress placements on loanwords among educated igbo and yoruba speakers of english. a wellprepared text is read by sixty (60) educated igbo and yoruba speakers of english, and daniel jones’ 8th edition cambridge english pronouncing dictionary serves as a control variable. the study uses praat 6.0 to ascertain the degree of prominence of each syllable in the tokens among the respondents (dependent and control). the samples are analyzed using the metrical theory of stress for theoretical relevance. findings reveal that the stress patterns of educated igbo and yoruba speakers of english in loanwords are 65% and 70% (respectively) closer to british english (hence, bre), while the average percentage for both educated igbo and yoruba is 67.5%, similar to bre. the study shows that educated igbo and yoruba speakers of english preferably stress the second syllable regardless of what is obtainable among the native speakers. © 2022 by the authors. licensee cribfb, usa. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). introduction the spread of the english language in nigeria can be pinned down to the colonization of africa. the european languages had spread their tentacles to the extent that even after the african countries gained their independence, their importance as the only option for a common language of communication could not be ignored. as the english language spread, it was consistently marked by deviations from the native norms. the dialectal differences that characterize geopolitical boundaries contributed to native varieties such as british english, american english, african american (gooden & eberhadt, 2007), australian english, and new zealand english, and non-native varieties such as nigerian english (ne), indian english, liberian english, and singaporean english. the reference made to the dialects of english implies that each of the varieties possesses distinct features at the level of grammar (syntactic categories), vocabulary (lexical categories), and pronunciation (phonological categories). from the foregoing, studies on the english accent have revealed that even within national boundaries, accent variation (e.g., geographically induced variation) is inevitable. in non-native english-speaking communities, accent differences are being investigated along the dimension of local language influences (anyagwa, 2013). furthermore, completely different labels that have recently appeared within the literature on ne suggest the tendency to spot accents of ne from a geo-ethnic perspective. such labels as hausa english, nigerian english, and yoruba english have become official topics of careful tutorial investigations by such scholars as igboanusi (2001, 2002, & 2006) and akinjobi (2000, 2006) respectively. these studies lend weight to the fact that the nigerian english accent is a cluster of accents (anyagwa, 2013). recent studies have ascertained if there is a common similarity among the sub-varieties of the ne as upheld by previous studies. however, it has been discovered that studies that closely investigate how loan words receive prominence among educated igbo and yoruba speakers of english have yet to receive an enquiry. it is against this identified backdrop 1corresponding author: orcid id: 0000-0001-6513-4681 © 2022 by the authors. hosting by acse. peer review under responsibility of acse, usa. https://doi.org/10.46545/aijelr.v5i1.275 to cite this article: amoniyan, o. m., oladipo, a. m., & ogunka, o. i. (2022). acoustic correlates of stress assignments of loanwords among nigerian speakers of english. american international journal of education and linguistics research, 5(1), 8–20. https://doi.org/10.46545/aijelr.v5i1.275 https://doi.org/10.46545/aijelr.v5i1.275 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6513-4681 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9436-1605 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5556-9585 amoniyan et al., american international journal of education and linguistics research 5(1) (2022), 8-20 9 that the current study intends to achieve, with a particular focus on the stress patterns of loanwords among educated igbo and yoruba speakers of english. specifically, the study identifies how stress is assigned to loanwords by educated igbo and yoruba speakers of english using metrical phonology and aims to identify the similarities and differences in the stress patterns of loanwords among educated igbo and educated yoruba speakers of english. literature review previous studies on nigerian english encompass a wave of efforts to ascertain the segmental and supra-segmental features of the nigerian accent in english. this chapter explores such works, including their objectives, methodologies, and the findings of their investigations. this enables the present research work to be situated within the existing body of knowledge as well as clearly show the gap in scholarship that the current study intends to fill. for example, igboanusi (2006) compares the pronunciation features of igbo english (hence, ie) and yoruba english (hence, ye) speakers. the data for the study was drawn from previous studies, observations made through fieldwork, and daily interactions both as a lecturer and a competent bilingual in nigerian society. however, the study was restricted to segments, particularly consonant sounds. hence, some peculiarities associated with the ye speaker of english are identified. such peculiarities include/v/, which is occasionally realized as [f] because it is absent in the phonology of yoruba, as in 'fegetable' for 'vegetable', 'fanguard' for 'vanguard', etc. from the foregoing, the identified peculiarities underscore the basilectal and mesolectal speakers of ye as catalogued by udofot (2003), although they also occur consciously and unconsciously in the pronunciation of some educated ye speakers. on the other hand, the study states the features of the ie that the tendency of the igbo to imitate other people's way of life including language habits can be known as a serious issue that has compelled ie speakers to lose most of their distinctive pronunciation patterns in favour of alternative pronunciation patterns, notably that of ye (see adegbija, 2004; banjo, 1996). the only surviving accent which is regularly associated with ie speakers is the alternation between /l/ and /r/. the feature is commonly found among some basilectal speakers of ie, particularly those from the anambra and enugu states. for example, ''lebel' (for rebel), 'sullounded' (for surrounded), 'dangelous' (for dangerous). igboanusi (ibid) concludes that the gradual loss of most of the features originally associated with the ie accents and the retention of most of the ye accents by the yoruba speakers of english has one obvious implication, which is that ye pronunciation features are likely to emerge as the standard ne accent. the study fails to investigate the respondents with empirical evidence and it did not focus on the patterns of stress with acoustics, which the current study promises to find out. adesina and oyatokun (2016) analyze stress in educated nigerian english (ene) using optimality theory to underpin cognition that characterizes patterns of stress in ene at the word level. specially prepared normative texts were given to 150 educated nigerians from the three major language groups (hausa, igbo, and yoruba). the classes of words that formed the data for the study included nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and the recorded productions were analysed perceptually, theoretically, and acoustically. unlike in british english (bre), no syllable was found obscure; they all have the full forms of vowels. there was no significant instance of syncope; rather, where such vowel deletion is expected, alternatively, there is an insertion of a vowel, although the inserted vowel depends on the l1 of the speaker. there were hardly any instances of syllabic nasals. the study mirrors some of the segmental properties of the three indigenous languages. where syllabic nasals were expected to occur, there was typically an insertion of a vowel. also, in bre, stress may be a product of pitch modification, intensity, and duration; however, in ne, the high frequency is typically comfortable to work out the position of prominence. the high pitch is like the high tone of the indigenous languages of the participants. in other words, the feature of tone, which these three languages have in common, influenced their stress patterns. also, it was acknowledged that there is a lack of uniformity amongst ne speakers because of some factors, ranging from some stress patterns that cut across all tribes, age ranges, and educational attainment. the analysis affirms hyman’s (1975) discovery, which implies that ne speakers have a distinct stress system different from bre. it was concluded that, unlike bre, where word stress is generally backward, that is, it tends to fall on syllables closer to the beginning of the word (hyman 1975: 210), ne shows a preference for more rightward stress and is sometimes predictable. udofot (2003) in stress and rhythm in the nigerian accent of english identifies three varieties of spoken nigerian english as non-standard, standard, and sophisticated varieties, which by the identity of varieties differ from bre. the three varieties are characterized by their disposition to stress and speech rhythm. sixty nigerians of different educational and ethnolinguistic backgrounds, and a native (british english speaker), made up the participants for the study. each respondent was asked to read a passage at a normal conversational speed. they were also engaged in conversations on random topics. the speeches were analysed perceptually, statistically, and acoustically. the acoustic analysis shows that the sixty nigerian respondents used a long time to produce unstressed syllables and a shorter time to produce stressed syllables than the native speaker, resulting in a tendency to have an even duration. the analysis also shows that the stress patterns of the respondents were, in many words, different from those of the native speaker, who was used as a control. it was suggested that the variations noticed in the performances of the individuals in the group were not due to chance, but that the varieties of spoken nigerian english identified existed and differences in their stress patterning. the statistical analysis shows that the varieties have a similar tendency to stress many syllables in an utterance. for example, in the analysis of the spontaneous speeches, there were more stressed syllables than expected in each case. that is, in spoken prose, some syllables are stressed in positions that differ from those of the native speaker. perceptual analysis of the study corroborates, jowitt (1991), which notes that in popular nigerian english, there is a tendency to shift primary accents (stress) to the right from the left hand. this suggests that the rhythmic pattern of spoken nigerian english cannot be completely homogenous with the bre which is stress-timed. despite the significance of the study and its connection with the present study, the study fails to explore patterns of stress in loan words among educated igbo and yoruba speakers of english with acoustic evidence. amoniyan et al., american international journal of education and linguistics research 5(1) (2022), 8-20 10 gut and milde (2002) analyse the prosody of nigerian english and compare it with the prosody of british english and three west african tone languages (anyi, eka, & ibibio). five nigerians and three british english speakers with a minimum of a university degree served as participants, and the participants were made to read a story of 268 words as a token for the study. subsequently, they were asked to retell the story in their own words for naturally occurring data. two anyi speakers, two ega speakers, and one ibibio speaker were among the participants chosen for the west african tone languages. the data was analysed acoustically. the results show characteristic prosody differences between the varieties of english spoken in southern britain and nigeria. in terms of speech rhythm, nigerian english is different from both the speech rhythm of the west african tone languages and that of british english. in particular, the percentage of vowel intervals is greater in nigerian english than in british english, and syllabification is also different in nigerian english compared to british english. in nigerian english, a higher percentage of cv syllabic structure occurs, and the ratio of open and closed syllables is different from british english. inter-individual differences between the nigerian english speakers were also prominent. in terms of tone, contour tones on syllables are very rare in nigerian english and only occur in very restricted environments, mainly on pre-pausal syllables. a tendency to produce stressed syllables with a high tone and unstressed ones with a low tone was not found. rather, words of particular grammatical categories seem to be associated with specific tones. it was concluded that nigerian english prosody is thus closer to the tone languages that have tones associated with grammatical rather than lexically contrastive functions, than to the use of tone in intonation languages. in addition to that, akindele (2015) examines stressed and unstressed syllable alternation and duration of rhythmic units in a connected speech to account for the description of syllable-timed or stressed-timed in educated edo english (eee) speakers, and the implications for nigerian english rhythm description. the study explores the metrical theory of stress, which explains the alternation of strong and weak constituents in bre rhythmic units. the purposive sampling technique was used to select 150 (75 males and 75 females) eee undergraduates from the university of benin and ambrose ali university as respondents. two bre speakers served as the controls for the study. the data consisted of 35 rhythm units with an anacrusis, 40 rhythm units, and 10 english words with syllabic consonants. the analysis shows that the participants rarely produce the unstressed syllable appropriately. all stressed and unstressed syllables of english words with syllabic consonants were produced with the same prominence. the participants’ inability to appropriately alternate stressed and unstressed syllables in the english rhythm groups is considered to be due to the absence of a phonological feature in the edo language and their lack of intuition in the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in the connected speech of bre. it was also observed that the marked difference in the educational measures of english rhythm groups in connected speech, of educated edo english speakers (eees), compared to the bre form could as well be a result of the linguistic background of the informants. stressed and unstressed syllable alternation and duration of rhythm units in the connected speech of educated edo english speakers do not conform to bre pattern. this implies that nigerian english rhythm tilts more towards syllable-timing than stress timing. hamad (2013) attempts to investigate the role of suffixes in determining the place of stress within words in english and kurdish. by comparing the suffix-derived word stress between english and kurdish, it is observed that suffixes in english are mainly divided into two types: stress neutral (that is, most inflectional suffixes) and those that affect stress (derivational suffixes). however, in kurdish, suffixes in general affect stress placement. suffixes in kurdish attract stress on the syllable that is attached as a suffix to the end of the root. the paper concludes that certain derivational and inflectional suffixes do not change stress in english and kurdish. in english, inflectional suffixes are stress-neutral, whereas, in kurdish some inflectional ones also affect the place of stress. for example, certain suffixes move stress onto the syllable before the suffix in english, while in kurdish most of the suffixes are auto-stressed. also, suffixes being auto-stressed in the kurdish language is considered the main difference between english and kurdish. in summary, the review of the existing literature so far on the suprasegmental features in different varieties of english has not been able to investigate and take into cognisance the peculiarities and similarities in the stress patterns of educated igbo and educated yoruba speakers of english in loanwords and metrical stress theory is used to account for them while optimality theory is employed to underpin cognitive processes that characterise stress assignment. materials and methods the study involves a total sample of sixty educated nigerian speakers of english (nse) who have igbo and yoruba (respectively) as l1, and english as l1 or l2 as well. the l1 yoruba respondents have been sampled from the university of lagos, southwest region where yoruba is spoken as l1 (dominantly), while the igbo respondents were drawn from the university of nigeria, nsukka. thirty (30) respondents were selected from each tribe. that is, out of the three major ethnic groups that make up nigeria as a country, two were selected for the study. the selection conformed to udofot’s (2003) classification of an educated variety of nigerian english (ne), which included penultimate, final year, and postgraduate students who have english as their medium of instruction and communication. their variant stress patterns were crosschecked against the bre pronunciation patterns as contained in daniel jones’ cambridge english pronouncing dictionary (18th edition), which served as a control for the study. a well prepared, sectionalized text was given to the respondents. the part a section required each of the respondents to give brief bio-data such as linguistic backgrounds (to validate respondents’ l1 and l2 accordingly), age brackets, sex, and educational qualification. the part b section contained twenty english loanwords of variant syllabic constructions. the respondents read aloud the tokens aloud for voice recording after giving consent. the tokens included chauffeur, nonchalant, limousine, adult, debris, sachet, chalet, elongate, vaccine, fiancée, address, cigarette, magazine, pulsate, locate, donate, dictate, chiffon, demonstrate, and matinee. the tokens read by the respondents were amoniyan et al., american international journal of education and linguistics research 5(1) (2022), 8-20 11 recorded through a sound recorder for perceptual, statistical, and acoustic interpretation using praat (6.0 version) and metrical phonology. theoretical framework metrical phonology is a phonological theory concerned with stress phenomena in natural language. it was first mentioned by liberman (1975) in his doctoral dissertation then, it was further elaborated in liberman and prince (1977), halle & vergnaud (1978) and selkirk (1980). as a theory of stress or linguistic prominence, it is used to categorize stress and stress rules. that is, it is a theory concerned with the organization of segments into groups of relative prominence and the parameters that determine the position of stressed and unstressed syllables in words. it posits a hierarchical structure to represent stress patterns in the minds of speakers. hence, segments are organized into syllables, syllables into metrical feet, metrical feet into phonological words and words into larger units. the organization is represented formally by metrical trees and grids. in the metrical tree, stress is represented as a hierarchy of binary branching structures, it is either strong-weak (sw) or weak-strong (ws). however, in the english language, there is a tendency for the first syllable of words to be strong and for words not to have adjacent strong syllables. for example, words like ‘lantern’ (s w) and ‘halogen’ (s w w) are far more common than ‘arise’ (w s) and ‘apex’ (s s). s s w s w lan tern s w w ha lo gen diagram 1a diagram 1b s and w indicate relative stress at the word and foot level. while s indicates stronger prominence, w indicates weaker prominence. hence, in a metrical tree, s and w are used to show the relative prominence of each constituent (ugochukwu, 2016). metrical grid is another way of representing the internal metrical structure of words, phrases and sentences hierarchically. in a metrical grid, all the words in a phrase are arranged along the bottom, and the rows of the grid indicate different levels of prominence. the most prominent syllable in a phrase is the one that does not have any node above it. this syllable is called the designated terminal element. metrical grids were originally developed to handle a phenomenon that appears in some languages including english, where stress shifts resolve stress clashes. a stress clash can occur when two stressed syllables are too close to each other without intervening unstressed syllable between two stressed syllables. for example, the word, ‘sixteen’ spoken in isolation has stress on the second syllable. but when placed before ‘men’, the stress on ‘sixteen’ shifts to the first syllable. x x x x x x six teen men two syllables exhibit stress clash if there are two successive rows on the grid in which their columns are adjacent. so, in the diagram above, the columns for ‘teen’ and ‘men’ are adjacent in the first and second rows, indicating a stress clash. however, ‘stress clashes can be resolved by the rhythm rule which reverses the s-w elation for some pair of sister nodes, as long as such a reversal does not put a designated terminal element of a phrase under any w node and does not put a [-stress] syllable under an s node.’ (ugochukwu, 2016). this means, the w and s nodes over ‘six’ and ‘-teen’ can be reversed resulting to a non-clashing grid. x x x x x x six teen men amoniyan et al., american international journal of education and linguistics research 5(1) (2022), 8-20 12 results table 1. occurrence of stress placement on loanwords in igbo english and yoruba english discussions the stress patterns obtained from the educated igbo and yoruba speakers of english were represented using the metrical tree. the frequency tables of the stress patterns obtained among the respondents were also shown in this section. the metrical grid was used (only) in the case of stress clash; and the stress patterns obtained from the native speakers were represented using only the metrical tree, and the acoustic pictures were also shown. stress patterns for chauffeur the word chauffeur has prominence on the first syllable according to bre but among the respondents for the study, it received varied stress patterns among the respondents showing that there was no common stress pattern for chauffeur. table 2. stress patterns for chauffeur among the educated igbo and yoruba speakers table 2 showed that a total of thirteen (43.33%) respondents correctly stressed the first syllable as obtainable among the native speakers while seventeen respondents (56.67%) stressed the second syllable. among the thirty yoruba respondents, a total of eighteen (60.0%) respondents correctly stressed the first syllable while twelve (40.0%) respondents stressed the second. the study revealed that igbo english was closer to bre for chauffer, while only 40% of the educated yoruba speakers were closer to bre. the statistical analysis can be represented on metrical tree as seen in figure 1 (below). s s w s s w chauf fer chauf fer figure 1. metrical tree for chauffeur among igbo and yoruba speakers figure 1 attested that though educated igbo and yoruba speakers of english belong to the same country, however, the two tribes had similarities as well as differences in stress patterns for chauffeur. tokens igbo english (%) yoruba english (%) chauf-feur 43.33 60.0 chauf-feur 56.67 40.0 non-cha-lant 56.67 50.0 non-cha-lant 26.66 30.0 non-cha-lant 16.67 20.0 li-mou-sine 33.33 26.67 li-mou-sine 30.0 20.0 li-mou-sine 36.67 50.0 a-dult 53.3 56.67 a-dult 46.67 43.3 de-bris 63.33 53.33 de-bris 36.67 46.67 cha-let 66.67 56.67 cha-let 33.33 43.33 e-lon-gate 26.67 36.67 e-lon-gate 40.0 60.0 e-lon-gate 33.33 56.67 vac-cine 36.67 33.33 va-cine 63.33 66.66 mag-a-zine 30.0 36.67 mag-a-zine 10.0 13.33 mag-a-zine 60.0 50.0 igbo english yoruba english frequency percent (%) frequency percent (%) chauf-feur 13 43.33 18 60.0 chauf-feur 17 56.67 12 40.0 total 30 100.0 30 100 amoniyan et al., american international journal of education and linguistics research 5(1) (2022), 8-20 13 stress pattern for nonchalant the word nonchalant has prominence assigned to the first syllable in bre and this could also be obtained among the respondents for the study. the token had three syllables and three realisations. the varied stress patterns showed that the longer the syllables, the more variant realisations were identified in the study. table 3. frequency table for nonchalant among the educated igbo and yoruba speakers table 3 showed, that a total of seventeen (56.67%) people correctly stressed the first syllable as obtainable among the native speakers; eight (26.66%) respondents stressed the second syllable, while five (16.67%) stressed the third syllable. among the yoruba respondents, a total of fifteen (50.0%) people correctly stressed the first syllable, nine (30.0%) people stressed the second, and six (20.0%) stressed the last syllable. the statistical analysis was represented on the metrical tree as seen in figure 2 (below). s s w w s w w s w w non cha lant non cha lant figure 2. metrical tree for nonchalant among igbo and yoruba speakers figure 2 identified varied stress patterns that occurred among the educated igbo and yoruba speakers of english. it showed that the igbo and yoruba speakers of english did not have 100% homogeneity in the stress pattern of nonchalant. figure 3. representation of nonchalant among the igbo and yoruba speakers figure 3 described that educated igbo and yoruba speakers shifted the stress to the left as non in nonchalant had 104hz, cha in nonchalant was 91hz and lant in nonchalant had 79hz pitch tracks. it implied that non had the highest pitch value among other syllables in the word (nonchalant). stress pattern of limousine the word limousine has prominence on the third syllable according to bre and this was also obtainable among the respondents. table 4. stress pattern for limousine among the igbo and yoruba speakers igbo english yoruba english frequency percent (%) frequency percent (%) non-cha-lant 17 56.67 15 50.0 non-cha-lant 8 26.66 9 30.0 non-cha-lant 5 16.67 6 20.0 total 30 100.0 30 100.0 igbo english yoruba english frequency percent (%) frequency percent (%) li-mou-sine 10 33.33 8 26.67 li-mou-sine 9 30.0 6 20.0 li-mou-sine 11 36.67 15 50.0 total 30 100.0 30 100.0 amoniyan et al., american international journal of education and linguistics research 5(1) (2022), 8-20 14 table 4 explained that ten (33.33%) igbo participants stressed the first syllable, nine (30.0%) stressed the second, while eleven (36.67%) correctly stressed the third syllable. among the yoruba respondents, eight (26.66%) stressed the first syllable, six (20.0%) stressed the second syllable, and fifteen (50.0%) correctly stressed the third syllable as obtainable among the native speakers. the statistical analysis was represented on the metrical tree as seen in figure 4 (below). s s w w w w s w w s lim ou sine lim ou sine figure 4. metrical tree for limousine among igbo and yoruba speakers respectively stress pattern of adult the word adult has prominence on the first syllable according to bre and it was obtainable among the respondents for the study. table 5. stress pattern for adult among the igbo and yoruba speakers table 5 showed that, sixteen (53.33%) igbo respondents correctly stressed the first syllable as obtained among the native speakers, while fourteen (46.67%) stressed the second syllable. seventeen (56.67%) yoruba respondents and thirteen (43.33%) respondents stressed the second (see figure 5). s s s w s w a dult a dult figure 5. metrical tree for adult among igbo and yoruba speakers respectively figure 6. representative praat picture for adult among igbo and yoruba speakers figure 6 further revealed stress placement with acoustic cues. the representative picture described that the respondents assigned prominence to the syllable towards the left. stress pattern for debris according to bre, the word "debris" has prominence in the first syllable, and it also was realized among the respondents. this was in consonance with banjo’s (1996) position that educated speakers of english in nigeria were similar to bre. it explained that the respondents were familiar with the stress pattern of the french word (debris). igbo english yoruba english frequency percent (%) frequency percent (%) a-dult 16 53.33 17 56.67 a-dult 14 46.67 13 43.33 total 30 100.0 30 100 amoniyan et al., american international journal of education and linguistics research 5(1) (2022), 8-20 15 table 6. stress pattern for debris among the igbo and yoruba speakers table 6 showed that nineteen (63.33%) and sixteen (53.33%) igbo and yoruba respondents stressed the first syllable as obtained among the native speakers, while eleven (36.67%) and fourteen (46.67%) stressed the second syllables accordingly. the stress patterns preferred to assign prominence to de in debris. stress pattern of sachet for example, the word "sachet" has prominence on the first syllable according to bre and this aligned with the pattern of stress among the respondents. for example, 60% and 53.33% of the educated igbo and yoruba speakers of english agreed with the bre accordingly. for example, eighteen (60.0%) igbo respondents stressed the first syllable as obtained among the native speakers, while twelve (40.0%) respondents stressed the second. sixteen (53.33%) yoruba respondents stressed the first syllable, while fourteen (46.67%) stressed the second. the results pictured the syllable that received preference among the participants. it connoted that 56.66% of the educated igbo and yoruba speakers of english assigned prominence to the syllable that aligned with the bre. stress pattern of chalet the word chalet has prominence on the first syllable according to bre and the results supported the stress pattern in ie and ye. table 7. stress patterns for chalet among the igbo and yoruba speakers table 7 explained that twenty (66.67%) igbo respondents stressed the first syllable as obtained among the native speakers while ten (33.33%) respondents stressed the second. seventeen (56.67%) yoruba respondents stressed the first syllable while thirteen (43.33%) stressed the second. stress pattern of elongate the word elongate has prominence on the first syllable according to bre. the educated igbo speakers stressed the second syllable while yoruba speakers stressed the first syllable. the juxtaposition identified that the second syllable was preferred as a primary stress among igbo speakers. table 8. stress pattern for elongate among the igbo and yoruba speakers in table 8, igbo speakers, eight (26.67%) stressed the first syllable, twelve (40.0%) stressed the second syllable while ten (33.33%) stressed the third syllable. among the yoruba respondents, eleven (36.67%) speakers stressed the first syllable, two (6.0%) speakers stressed the second syllable, while seventeen (56.67%) stressed the third syllable. the statistical analysis was theoretically represented on the metrical tree as seen in figure 7. s s s w w s w s w s e lon gate e lon gate figure 7. metrical tree for elongate among igbo and yoruba speakers respectively igbo english yoruba english frequency percent (%) frequency percent (%) de-bris 19 63.33 16 53.33 de-bris 11 36.67 14 46.67 total 30 100.0 30 100.0 igbo english yoruba english frequency percent (%) frequency percent (%) cha-let 20 66.67 17 56.67 cha-let 10 33.33 13 43.33 total 30 100.0 30 100.0 igbo english yoruba english frequency percent (%) frequency percent (%) e-lon-gate 8 26.67 11 36.67 e-lon-gate 12 40.0 2 6.0 e-lon-gate 10 33.33 17 56.67 total 30 100.0 30 100.0 amoniyan et al., american international journal of education and linguistics research 5(1) (2022), 8-20 16 stress pattern of vaccine the word "vaccine" has prominence in the first syllable according to bre, but among the respondents for the study, the second syllable was stressed. this stress pattern that favoured second syllable was also obtainable in american english (ame). it could be concluded that the pronunciation of vaccine among the educated igbo and yoruba speakers was closer to ame than bre. table 9. stress pattern for vaccine among the igbo and yoruba speakers table 9 displayed that eleven (36.67%) igbo respondents stressed the first syllable as obtained by the native speakers of bre, while nineteen (63.33%) that stressed the second syllable were closer to ame than to bre. ten (33.33%) yoruba respondents stressed the first syllable while twenty (66.67%) speakers stressed the second. the summary further revealed that 65% of the ie and ye respondents were closer to ame stress pattern for vaccine than to bre. s s w s w s vac cine vac cine figure 8. metrical tree for vaccine among igbo and yoruba speakers in figure 8, stress patterns for vaccine were rather than at the right hand than at the left. it means that educated igbo and yoruba speakers of english prefer to assign prominence to ccine in vaccine. stress pattern of fiancé the word "fiancé" has prominence on the second syllable according to bre but among the respondents for the study, it received varied stress patterns, showing that there was no common stress pattern for fiancé in ie and ye. stress patterns showed that the igbo respondents, 23.33% stressed the first syllable, and 26.67% stressed the second syllable, while 43.33% stressed the third syllable. among the yoruba respondents, 46.67% stressed the first syllable, 26.67% stressed the second syllable and 30.0% stressed the third syllable. the second syllable was stressed by the native speakers. the metrical representation was presented in figure 9. s s w w w w s s w w fi an cé fi an cé figure 9. metrical tree for fiancé among igbo and yoruba speakers figure 9 showed that the word fiancé had varied stress patterns, for example, igbo participants stressed the last syllable; while yoruba participants stressed the first syllable. this means that igbo and yoruba speakers did not have a common stress pattern in the fiancé. stress pattern of address the word "address" has prominence in the second syllable according to bre, and the results in the study were similar though not without any difference. this supported that the second syllable was preferred for primary stress not only among educated igbo speakers but also among educated yoruba speakers. twelve (40.0%) igbo respondents stressed the first syllable, while eighteen (60.0%) stressed the second syllable. ten (33.33%) yoruba respondents stressed the first syllable while twenty (66.67%) stressed the second syllable. the results showed that majority of the educated igbo and yoruba speakers of english as respondents for the study assigned prominence to the second syllable for address, realizing the ad as an unstressed syllable. igbo english yoruba english frequency percent (%) frequency percent (%) vac-cine 11 36.67 10 33.33 va-cine 19 63.33 20 66.66 total 30 100.0 30 100.0 amoniyan et al., american international journal of education and linguistics research 5(1) (2022), 8-20 17 stress pattern of cigarette the word cigarette has prominence on the third syllable according to bre but among the respondents for the study, it was stressed on the second syllable. it was glaring that there was no observation of weak syllables in ie and ye. there was an easy replacement of the schwa sound /ə/ for /æ/ and /ɔ/ respectively. evidence revealed that seven (23.33%) igbo respondents stressed the first syllable, seventeen (56.67%) stressed the second while six (20.0%) stressed the third syllable. among the yoruba speakers, five (16.66%) stressed the first syllable, fourteen (46.67%) stressed the second syllable while eleven (36.67%) stressed the last syllable (see figure 10a and 10b) s s s w w s w w s w ci ga rette ci ga rette figure 10a. metrical tree for cigarette among igbo and yoruba speakers below is the metrical tree for cigarette as obtained among the native speakers? s w w w s ci ga rette figure 10b. metrical tree for cigarette in bre. figure 10a and 10b represented that educated igbo and yoruba speakers of english did not have a common stress pattern with bre for cigarette. stress pattern of magazine the word magazine has prominence on the third syllable according to bre. in table 10 (below), it expressed that 30.0% igbo speakers stressed the first syllable, 10.0% stressed the second syllable and 60.0% stressed the third syllable; but among the yoruba respondents, 36.67% stressed the first syllable, 13.33% stressed the second syllable, and 50.0% stressed the third syllable. table 10. stress pattern for magazine among the igbo and yoruba speakers stress pattern of pulsate the word "pulsate" has prominence in the second syllable according to bre, and this was also obtainable among the respondents as well. this further affirmed that educated igbo and yoruba speakers preferably stress the second syllable in loanwords. a simple percentage revealed that the igbo respondents, fourteen (46.66%), stressed the first syllable, while sixteen (53.33%) stressed the second syllable. in contrast, eighteen (60.0%) yoruba respondents stressed the first syllable, while twelve (40.0%) stressed the second as obtainable among the native speakers. the results were similar in the stress patterns for locate. for example, six (20.0%) igbo respondents stressed the first syllable, and eighty-four (80.0%) stressed the second syllable. ten (33.33%) yoruba respondents stressed the first syllable, while twenty (66.67%) stressed the second syllable. the same stress pattern that applied to the greater percentage of the respondents was similar to the native speakers. in addition, the word "donate" has prominence on the second syllable in bre that served control and more than 50% of the respondents articulated stress pattern that was similar to bre. for example, twelve (40.0%) igbo respondents stressed the first syllable, while eighteen (60.0%) stressed the second syllable. in contrast, fourteen (46.67%) yoruba respondents stressed the first syllable, and sixteen (53.33%) stressed the second. the results explained that the respondents of ie and ye preferred to assign prominence to the second syllable than the first. similarly, the stress patterns igbo english yoruba english frequency percent (%) frequency percent (%) mag-a-zine 9 30.0 11 36.67 mag-a-zine 3 10.0 4 13.33 mag-a-zine 18 60.0 15 50.0 total 30 100.0 30 100.0 amoniyan et al., american international journal of education and linguistics research 5(1) (2022), 8-20 18 for dictate indicated that ten (33.33%) igbo respondents stressed the first syllable while twenty (66.67%) stressed the second syllable as obtainable among the native speakers. thirteen (43.33%) yoruba respondents stressed the first syllable, while seventeen (56.67%) stressed the second syllable. stress pattern of chiffon the word chiffon has prominence on the first syllable according to bre but among the respondents for the study, the only igbo speakers stressed the first syllable while the yoruba speakers had no definite stress pattern (that is, the syllables were stressed equally). stress patterns identified that nineteen (63.33%) igbo respondents stressed the first syllable while eleven (36.67%) stressed the second. among the yoruba respondents, fifteen (50.0%) stressed the first and the second syllables. findings revealed that when 63.33% of the educated igbo assigned prominence to the first syllable, 50% of the educated yoruba stressed the first syllable in consonance with the educated igbo speakers while 50% of the educated yoruba assigned prominence to the second syllable. it implied that educated igbo speakers were closer to the bre than educated yoruba speakers. the word ‘demonstrate’ has prominence on the first syllable according to bre but among the respondents for the study, it received stress on the third syllable. eight (26.67%) igbo respondents stressed the first syllable, six (20.0%) stressed the second syllable while sixteen (53.33%) stressed the third syllable. eleven (66.67%) yoruba respondents stressed the first syllable, seven (23.33%) stressed the second syllable while twelve (40.0%) stressed the third syllable. likewise, the word matinee has prominence on the first syllable according to bre but among the respondents for the study, it received stress on the second syllable. statistics showed that, among the igbo speakers, three (10.0%) stressed the first syllable, fifteen (50.0%) stressed the second syllable, while twelve (40.0%) stressed the third syllable. among the yoruba speakers, seven (23.33%) stressed the first syllable, sixteen (53.33%) stressed the second syllable, while seven (23.33%) stressed the third syllable. the statistical analysis was represented on metrical tree as seen in figure 11. s s s s w s w w s w ma ti nee ma ti nee figure 11. the metrical tree for matinee as obtained among the native speakers was shown below: s w s s w ma ti nee hence, to resolve the stress clash, we have: x x x x x x x ma ti nee from the analysis, results underscored that educated igbo and yoruba preferred to stress the second syllable as opposed to the first and third which was obtainable among the native speakers as stress was not absolutely predictable in nigerian english. it therefore implied that the preference for the second syllable could be considered as typically nigerian in stress patterns of loanwords. in all, fourteen (14) words (46.67%) were correctly stressed by yoruba speakers while only thirteen (13) words (43.33%) were correctly stressed by the igbo speakers respectively. that is, for stress patterns in loanwords, educated yoruba speakers were closer to the bre form than the educated igbo speakers. six (6) words (20.0%) were not properly stressed by both speakers. another similarity was that, there was no observation of weak syllables. the schwa sound /ə/ was readily replaced with /æ/ and /ɔ/. this could also be considered as typically nigerian. also, the stress patterns of educated igbo english speakers in loanwords could tentatively be said to be 65% closer to bre, when the educated yoruba speakers were 70% closer to bre. conclusions the study identified and discovered how igbo english and yoruba english speakers assigned stress to loanwords. since most english loanwords usually remain relatively faithful to the phonology of the source language and many non-native amoniyan et al., american international journal of education and linguistics research 5(1) (2022), 8-20 19 speakers were not aware, there was a corresponding impulse for the non-native speaker to attempt pronunciation with familiar sounds in his or her mother tongue. popular loanwords were said to spread in speech communication, while learned loanwords were first used in written language, often for scholarly, scientific, or literary purposes. this showed that loanwords could be useful in deducing intelligibility problems in the language interactions of non-native speakers of english, especially in their stress patterns. so far, the study revealed that there was a great degree of similarity between the igbo english and yoruba english speakers. there was no observation whatsoever of weak syllables. the schwa sound /ə/ was readily replaced with /æ/ and /ɔ/. individual accent markers were made prominent in the pronunciation of unpopular loanwords (that is, loan words that were hardly used in daily language interactions in nigeria). for instance, in the word, chauffeur, only thirteen igbo respondents correctly pronounced the first syllable as /ʃ/ while seventeen others pronounced the first syllable as /tʃ/. however, igbo and yoruba english speakers could conclusively be said to prefer the second syllable as opposed to what was obtained among the native speakers. in all, thirteen (13) words (65.0%) were correctly stressed by both respondents, while seven words (35.0%) were not properly stressed. amongst the thirteen words, eleven (11) were popular loanwords that could be found in daily language interactions in nigeria. the present study has reaffirmed that the stress patterns in igbo and yoruba english were were fixed and had similarities with and differ from the bre. however, as revealed in the study, the percentage of similarities was higher than the differences. author contributions: conceptualization, a.m.o., o.m.a., and o.m.a.; data curation, a.m.o.; methodology, a.m.o.; validation, a.m.o.; visualization, a.m.o., o.m.a., and o.m.a.; formal analysis, a.m.o., o.m.a., and o.m.a.; investigation, a.m.o., o.m.a., and o.m.a.; resources, a.m.o., o.m.a., and o.m.a.; writing – original draft, a.m.o., o.m.a., and o.m.a.; writing – review & editing, a.m.o., o.m.a., and o.m.a.; supervision, a.m.o.; software, a.m.o.; project administration, a.m.o.; funding acquisition, a.m.o., o.m.a., and o.m.a. authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. institutional review board statement: ethical review and approval were waived for this study, due to that the research does not deal with vulnerable groups or sensitive issues. funding: the authors received no direct funding for this research. acknowledgement: not applicable. informed consent statement: informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study. data availability statement: the data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author. the data are not publicly available due to restrictions. conflicts of interest: the authors declare no conflict of interest. references adegbija, e. 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(2016). “metrical phonology”. theories of linguistics. nsukka: university of nigeria nsukka press ltd, 43-54. publisher’s note: acse stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. © 2022 by the authors. licensee acse, usa. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). american international journal of education and linguistics research (p-issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995) by acse is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) http://ssbfnet.com/ojs/index.php/ijrbs http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ american international journal of education and linguistics research 7(1) (2024), 1-11 1 education and linguistics research aijelr vol 7 no 1 (2024) p-issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995 available online at www.acseusa.org journal homepage: https://www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr published by american center of science and education, usa pronunciation problems encountered by mozambican efl teacher trainees in higher education joaquim vicente vinte (a)1 carlos quenesse mataruca (b) (a) lecturer, faculty of education, licungo university, quelimane, mozambique; e-mail: jvinte@unilicungo.ac.mz (b) professor, faculty of language, communication sciences, and arts, pedagogical university, maputo, mozambique; e-mail: cmataruca@gmail.com a r t i c l e i n f o article history: received: 28th october 2024 reviewed & revised: 28th october 2024 to 26th december 2024 accepted: 27th december 2024 published: 31st december 2024 keywords: pronunciation challenges, efl teacher trainees, echuwabo language, phonological processes, elision, insertion, substitution, mozambique jel classification codes: o14 peer-review model: external peer review was done through double-blind method. a b s t r a c t english pronunciation poses significant challenges to many efl mozambican students, yet it remains a critical aspect of effective communication. for teacher trainees, in particular, it is essential to enhance their pronunciation skills during their academic training to ensure they are well-prepared for their teaching careers. this study examines the phonological challenges faced by mozambican teacher trainees whose first language (l1) is echuwabo. it aims to explore the influence of echuwabo phonology on their english pronunciation and identify specific difficulties encountered. the research employs a mixed-methods approach for data collection and analysis. data were gathered from 14 efl teacher trainees through observations, semi-structured interviews, and audio recordings. the analysis was conducted with the assistance of ms word and excel to identify major themes and quantify the frequency of observed phonological issues. the results indicate that while previous efl studies have widely noted the absence of the voiced (inter)dental fricative phoneme /ð/ in many languages, echuwabo includes this phoneme, making it less problematic for learners compared to other sounds. conversely, significant difficulties were observed with the voiceless (inter)dental fricative phoneme /θ/, which is not present in the echuwabo language. this gap leads to frequent pronunciation errors among the trainees. the challenges identified were categorized into three phonological processes: elision, substitution, and insertion. the findings suggest that echuwabo phonological structure impact english pronunciation of the participating mozambican teacher trainees. however, other factors need to be further explored in order to explain some of the identified problems which had less to do with l1. © 2024 by the authors. licensee cribfb, usa. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). introduction the acquisition of english language pronunciation has been a prominent area of research focus. given the global prevalence of english and the increasing number of english learners across diverse nations, pronunciation challenges persist for many english as a foreign language (efl) students striving to utilize the language for effective communication. therefore, numerous researchers have investigated pronunciation challenges affecting english language students (almusharraf, 2024; chitulu & njemanje, 2015; ercan & kunt, 2019). in particular, their analyses have often centred around the influence of the first language (l1) on spoken english. for example, hassan (2014) conducted a study on phonological problems encountered by sudanese efl students, while bian (2013) explored the impact of chinese stress on english pronunciation teaching and learning. similarly, mompean (1997) investigated the english pronunciation challenges faced by brazilian students. his participants were portuguese native speakers. previous research in mozambique explored the impact of portuguese on the pronunciation of english (mambico, 2024). other scholars have looked at the phonological challenges mozambican english language students face but their studies did not focus on a specific language group (gonçalves, 2019; momade 2021). for instance, momade’s findings highlight that it is the “ignorance of teaching pronunciation in the classroom and a lack of motivation” (p. 31) that contribute to mozambican students phonological problems. although these studies contribute valuable information, they fall short of offering a comprehensive understanding of the specific difficulties efl teacher trainees whose l1 is echuwabo face in 1corresponding author: orcid id: 0000-0002-2689-0975 © 2024 by the authors. hosting by acse. peer review under responsibility of acse, usa. https://doi.org/10.46545/aijelr.v7i1.325 to cite this article: vinte, j. v., & mataruca, c. q. (2024). pronunciation problems encountered by mozambican efl teacher trainees in higher education. american international journal of education and linguistics research, 7(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.46545/aijelr.v7i1.325 https://doi.org/10.46545/aijelr.v7i1.325 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) https://www.openaccess.nl/en https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2689-0975 https://orcid.org/0009-0006-5109-5451 vinte & mataruca, american international journal of education and linguistics research 7(1) (2024), 1-11 2 mozambique. therefore, this study aims to fill this gap by conducting an analysis of the phonological aspects inherent in both english and echuwabo languages. the primary objective is to discern the extent of their dissimilarity and, subsequently, to present the implications of the similarities and differences on the pronunciation skills of echuwabo efl students. to achieve this, the study seeks to address the following two research questions: (i) what pronunciation challenges do mozambican efl teacher trainees whose l1 is echuwabo face? (ii) to what extent do the phonological disparities between english and echuwabo hinder students in pronouncing english accurately? literature review english is widely regarded as a vital medium of communication in numerous countries, making it an indispensable tool across diverse cultural and national contexts (jahara & abdelrady, 2021). mozambique is no exception to this global phenomenon, as english plays a crucial role in communication within the country. in fact, due to interaction needs among individuals of various nationalities, a considerable number of mozambicans find it crucial to learn, and employ english in their daily correspondence. the mozambican linguistic diversity, which includes not only local languages, but also portuguese (the official language), and other foreign languages, highlights the importance of english as a key component in the linguistic competencies of mozambican citizens. however, the process of learning and adopting english as an additional language remains challenging. pronunciation, in particular, emerges as a notable aspect (jihad & damayanti, 2024) influenced by individuals’ linguistic background. taking into account that mozambique is characterised by a rich linguistic diversity, quelimane citizens demonstrate such differences by using echuwabo and many other languages including english. different languages coexist in this city. this multilingual characteristic not only adds levels of complexity to the foreign language learning process, but also contributes to the unique linguistic identity of english spoken in this regional context. therefore, the following sections start with a basic description of english and echuwabo consonants aiming at contrasting their phonology. the phonological processes within pronunciation in language studies are also presented. contrasting english and echuwabo consonant phonemes in the study of sounds of language/s, it is possible to distinguish consonants from vowels. for this study, only consonants are explained. consonants are those sounds that are pronounced with some sort of obstruction or constriction to the flow of air (trask & stockwell, 2007; roach, 2009; yule, 2010). in this work, whenever the word consonant is used, it will be in the phonological sense described previously, that of sounds. our emphasis on sounds and not letters comes from the fact that many sounds do not correspond exactly to the letters, that is, there is no one-to-one correspondence between the sounds and letters of english. for example, the sound /f/ represented by the letter ‘f’ in ‘fit’ is represented by ‘ph’ in ‘phonology’; ‘ff’ in ‘office’; and ‘gh’ in ‘enough. contrastive analysis in the field of language studies, researchers frequently employ the contrastive analysis hypothesis (cah) to analyze linguistic phenomena. this hypothesis facilitates the comparison of languages for various purposes. as bian (2013) notes, cah aims to predict “the likelihood of linguistic transfer in second language acquisition based on the similarities as well as differences between various aspects of l1 and l2” (p. 200). drawing on this theoretical framework, we conducted a comparative analysis of phonemes from the echuwabo language, as presented by ngunga and faquir (2012), and english phonemes, as detailed by roach (2009, p. 52). our findings reveal that the representation of echuwabo phonemes in ngunga and faquir’s work largely aligns with the english phonemes described by roach, with a few exceptions. for instance, the voiced interdental fricative /dh/ in echuwabo corresponds to /ð/ in english, while the nasal velar /ng’/ aligns with the english sound /ŋ/. furthermore, we observed that some echuwabo phonemes are not represented using the international phonetic alphabet (ipa) symbols, as employed by roach. the echuwabo and english consonant phonemes show that in terms of sounds, echuwabo has retroflex phonemes, which do not occur in english (cf. roach, 2009; ngunga & faquir, 2012). in this study, the sounds found in english that are not present in the phonology of echuwabo are of our interest. based on the data in such sources, we can highlight the following patterns: i. the english voiceless (inter)dental fricative /θ/ does not exist in echuwabo. however, both languages share its voiced counterpart, the interdental fricative /ð/ that is represented in echuwabo as /dh/. notably, while the sound /ð/ often poses challenges for learners of english as a foreign language (efl), speakers of echuwabo naturally use it, as evidenced in words such as modha (meaning “one”), which is similar to the english /ð/ found in words like ‘mother’. ii. for the palato-alveolar and palatal sounds, we noticed that the english /tʃ/ corresponds to /c/ in echuwabo, and /ʃ/, /ʒ/, and /dʒ/ sounds found in english can be found in the words ‘ixanu’ – friday, ‘ojwa’ – to burn oneself, and ‘oja’ – to eat, respectively. in conclusion, the echuwabo language does not include the voiceless interdental fricative /θ/, as found in the english word three, within its phonological inventory. applying the principles of contrastive analysis, we predict that efl teacher trainees whose first language (l1) is echuwabo may substitute the /θ/ sound with an alternative sound. this finding contrasts with observations in many other languages, where the commonly confused english sound is /ð/, which is absent in those languages. vinte & mataruca, american international journal of education and linguistics research 7(1) (2024), 1-11 3 phonological processes in english pronunciation deletion in phonology, deletion refers to the removal of sounds from a word or sentence, particularly when a sound that would typically be pronounced in a deliberate or careful utterance is omitted. this phenomenon is also known as elision or omission (hebert, 2002; trask & stockwell, 2007; yule, 2010). gimson (1989) asserts that “sounds may be elided in rapid, colloquial speech, especially in or in the vicinity of word boundaries” (p. 300). in this article, the term deletion is used to describe the process of omitting a sound (phoneme) in a word, where the sound would otherwise be pronounced in certain phonological contexts. for the sake of clarity, the terms deletion and elision will be used interchangeably throughout this discussion. insertion another phonological process observed in language users is insertion, also referred to as addition or epenthesis in various literature. for instance, fromkin et al. (2014) define epenthesis as “the process of inserting a consonant or vowel” (p. 247). merkel-piccini (2001) further explains that insertion occurs when a sound is added either within a word or between consonants. as highlighted by these scholars, insertion plays a significant role in instances where the addition of a sound— such as a plural or past tense morpheme—helps distinguish one word from another. for example, the insertion of the vowel sound /ɪ/ before the plural morpheme /z/ in dishes, and before the past tense morpheme /d/ in added, is crucial for english speakers to clearly differentiate between words. substitution efl learners often replace sounds in the target language when they face difficulties in pronouncing certain words. this process is known as substitution. merkel-piccini (2004) defines substitution as the alteration or replacement of one sound or group of sounds with another from a different sound class. typically, the replaced sounds are those that are more challenging for the speaker to articulate. bowen (1999) and merkel-piccini (2004) identified different types of substitution. in this article, we concentrate on four of the ones they described. a) stopping – is the substitution of a stop consonant for a fricative. for example, “pit” for “peach” /t/ replacing /tʃ/; “sail” is pronounced “tail” /t/ for /s/; “knife” is pronounced “knipe” b) fronting (velar and palatal) – substitution of sounds in the front of the mouth, usually alveolars, for velar or palatal sounds. for example, “kea” is pronounced “tea” /t/ for /k/; “get” is pronounced “date” /d/ for /g/. c) affrication when a non-affricate is replaced with an affricate. for example, “sheep” is pronounced “cheap” /tʃ/ substituting /ʃ/; d) deaffrication is the substitution of an affricate sound with a fricative. for example, “chips” is pronounced “ships” /ʃ/ replacing /tʃ/. to become effective communicators, language learners are expected to refine their english pronunciation by applying phonological processes appropriately and avoiding them in contexts where they may hinder communication. in some cases, understanding efl learners becomes challenging when they persist in using processes such as omission or substitution in unsuitable contexts. merkel-piccini (2001) argues that phonological processes in language learners should typically cease by the age of seven for those acquiring the language from early childhood. however, he acknowledges that certain processes, such as stopping and cluster reduction, may persist. when these issues continue to affect learners, targeted practice activities focusing on the problematic sounds are necessary to address them effectively. materials and methods research design to identify the predominant pronunciation challenges faced by echuwabo speakers when speaking english, this study adopted a mixed-methods approach (fetters et al., 2019; schoonenboom, 2023). to ensure the investigation was grounded in authentic contexts and provided insights into real-world scenarios, the researcher initially employed qualitative methods, primarily through observations. this approach allowed for the capture of pronunciation problems as they naturally occurred. in addition, text recordings were used to gather specialized phonological data, which facilitated a focused examination of specific words, enabling the study to assess the frequency and nature of pronunciation challenges faced by echuwabo speakers. the qualitative data were then transformed into quantitative data for further analysis. similarly, during the interview phase, both qualitative and quantitative methods were integrated to provide a comprehensive understanding of participants’ experiences with efl pronunciation. this methodology allowed for the collection of both rich, contextual data and quantifiable insights. by employing mixed methods, the study aimed to triangulate findings, offering a more robust representation of the difficulties encountered by echuwabo speakers in the process of english language acquisition. research setting this study was conducted at a public university in quelimane, mozambique. given the presence of several universities in the city, the research was carried out at one institution, referred to in this study as kafilili university. the selection of this university was based on the availability of efl students and a significant number of english speakers, including lecturers, students, and some staff members. sampling sampling refers to the intentional selection of subjects for a study, involving the process of identifying and selecting some vinte & mataruca, american international journal of education and linguistics research 7(1) (2024), 1-11 4 people from a larger research population to represent the broader research group (blaxter et al., 2006; bhardwaj, 2019). the selection of a sample is a critical step, requiring the use of appropriate techniques to ensure the validity of the insights gathered and, in the case of quantitative studies, the ability to generalize the findings to the broader population under investigation (denscombe, 2003). in the present study, a purposive sampling strategy was employed to select participants. initially, we identified students who spoke echuwabo from the 1st to 4th year. with the assistance of a student, we randomly asked two students to choose one paper from a set numbered 1 to 4. the selected students were from the first and fourth years. consequently, we worked with students from these two academic years. within each of these classes, we then purposively selected students who spoke echuwabo (chauvet, 2015). in total, 28 students whose first language (l1) was echuwabo were identified. using random sampling, 14 participants were chosen from the two groups, with 7 from each class. the primary criterion for inclusion in the study was the ability to speak echuwabo. this sampling strategy was deemed appropriate for understanding the phenomenon under investigation. after selecting the participants, we obtained their oral consent to participate in the study. this step was preceded by a detailed explanation of the project and the guarantee that their names would not be revealed at any stage of the study, allowing anonymity of the participants. additionally, we informed them that they would be free to quit the study at any time if they changed their mind throughout the study. in such cases, their data would not be included in the final analysis. data collection techniques this study used three different data collection techniques, namely observation, interview, and audio recording. the use of these different techniques is known as triangulation. bell and waters (2018) explain that the essence lies in observing a particular phenomenon from various points of view, which are based on the data collected from two or more techniques. this enables the ability to validate or question the results obtained through one technique by comparing them with those derived from another. before data collection, at the time researcher 1 was doing his ma, taking into account the internal procedures adopted at the pedagogical university, maputo – in elt department, and in order to meet the ethical procedures, the project was presented to three elt professors within the courses they taught and they all approved it. after this stage, the faculty issued a credential in order to collect data in a public university, in zambézia province. all participants were informed about the research purposes and following local practices, they provided oral consent. observation when conducting language research, scholars defend the need to be involved in the field through observations. the language researchers must analyse by moving from observed facts to broader generalizations and then testing these generalizations through further observations (kreidler, 2014). in this study, observations played a significant role in identifying and determining the phonological segments which needed attention. therefore, researcher 1 went to field and worked with the participants in their classrooms observing what was occurring with primary focus on the pronunciation aspects. this procedure follows what bell and waters (2018) believe when talking about observation. these scholars claim that the participant observer is able to remember actions and speech, and to interact with people in their own environment. since one of the objectives of the study was to find the most mispronounced words in english, observation was used in the first phase of data collection with english language teacher trainees whose first language is echuwabo. although the classes had speakers of different l1, our special attention was to those previously selected, based on their l1 echuwabo. therefore, the researcher paid attention to their pronunciation in four weeks, allowing us to obtain natural data. in total, fourteen lessons were observed. the time each participant spent speaking was about 6 minutes each. this was because during these four weeks, the students were presenting the topics given by their lecturer, thus, while our participants were presenting their topics, we paid special attention to them. interview in addition to observation, we also used semi-structured interviews for data collection. as we stated previously, in total, 14 participants attended the interviews. the interview method in research consists of asking questions or engaging in discussions (blaxter et al., 2006) with previously selected participants in order to explore their experience, perceptions, attitudes, knowledge, behaviours, actions, or difficulties of the phenomenon under investigation. ruslin et al. (2022) explain that in the semi-structured interview, the interviewer is prepared to be flexible in terms of the order in which the topics are considered and perhaps more significantly to let the interviewee develop ideas and speak more widely on the issues raised by the researcher. drawing on labov’s (2006) approach to data collection, we adapted the interview guiding questions from his study on the social stratification of language to gather sociolinguistic information about our participants’ backgrounds, including the contexts in which they use english, echuwabo, or other languages, as well as their overall experiences with learning english. however, due to word count limitations, some of this information, which is detailed in the original dissertation, has been excluded from this article. audio recordings as part of the data collection tools, we included a text and a list of words for participants to read aloud. audio recordings were employed to capture participants’ pronunciation (amoniyan et al., 2022). creswell and plano clark (2018) emphasize that when interviews are used in research, recording participants is essential to ensure a backup of information for the analysis process. indeed, audio recordings are increasingly utilised in many efl studies (lam & thi, 2022). for this study, participants were informed in advance that their readings would be recorded solely for academic purposes. initially, recordings were used during interviews to collect sociolinguistic data from participants. following this, teacher trainees vinte & mataruca, american international journal of education and linguistics research 7(1) (2024), 1-11 5 were asked to read a text adapted by the researcher and a list of minimal pairs which were organised or included following the analysis of data we collected from the observation stage. in general, the recording process averaged nine minutes per participant. data analysis procedures different types of data were collected for this study, with the analysis of observation data beginning with the transcription of commonly mispronounced words identified in the classroom. one of the techniques employed in the analysis of observation data was selection. using this technique, researchers identified interesting, significant, unusual, or representative phonological issues to illustrate key arguments (blaxter et al., 2006; proudfoot, 2023). in contrast, data collected through interviews and audio recordings were analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. for the semi-structured interviews, qualitative analysis was applied to provide a general description of the data, starting with transcription based on participants’ responses. this analysis involved organizing the data into thematic categories (proudfoot, 2023), such as elision and substitution. furthermore, the audio recordings of the text and the word list were analyzed descriptively by listening to the recordings and manually transcribing the mispronounced words (jahara & abdelrady, 2021). the identified mispronunciations were then categorized into three themes: elision, substitution, and insertion. regarding the procedures, researcher 1 repeatedly listened to the recordings to phonetically transcribe the mispronounced words. subsequently, researcher 2 reviewed the transcriptions to validate them against the original recordings. after validation, the transcriptions were inputted into a computer to facilitate further analysis. this process enabled the calculation of frequencies, which were then presented in tables and figure created using ms word and excel. results data from observation as we stated in the last section, the initial data for this study was collected through classroom observations. this technique allowed us to identify general pronunciation issues in the speech of mozambican efl teacher trainees whose first language (l1) was echuwabo. the primary goal of this stage was to determine the phonological segments that would be incorporated into the reading text for further analysis. in general, the analysis revealed that participants experienced difficulties with the pronunciation of certain consonant and vowel sounds. however, as this study focused specifically on consonants, we examined words where consonant mispronunciations occurred. based on the observed data, the findings were organized into three distinct categories: omission, substitution, and insertion. these categories are discussed in detail in the following sections. phonologically, the analysis revealed that students often omitted certain sounds in their pronunciation. for instance, they failed to pronounce the sound /k/ in words such as structure and accent. the second phenomenon observed was the substitution of one phoneme for another. a significant number of participants replaced the voiceless dental fricative /θ/ in think with the voiceless labiodental fricative /f/, among other substitutions. the third identified process was insertion, where participants added non-existent sounds to words during pronunciation. for example, the consonant /n/ was inserted in mouth, and /p/ in assert, among other cases. additionally, there were frequent insertions of vowel and consonant sounds across various words. the results from the observations informed the organization of the text and word list used in the study. based on the three phonological aspects identified in the respondents’ speech, a text was specifically designed to incorporate the majority of the commonly mispronounced words. insights from interviews and audio recordings this section presents the results, focusing on the segmental pronunciation challenges encountered by the participants. the data are organized into three themes representing the phonological processes identified in the field: elision, substitution, and insertion. the analysis emphasizes the sounds that occurred most frequently, while less prominent occurrences are included in the accompanying tables for reference. elision under elision, we observed that echuwabo speakers usually delete phonemes such as, /k, s, θ/. from the data obtained, we found that many participants, in a number of eleven out of fourteen, elided the sound /k/ in the words ‘texts, access, express’, which were pronounced as /tests/, /əˈses/ and /espres/. the way these speakers pronounced the first two words sounded as if they were reading the words ‘tests and assess’, while the third word was read totally odd way, that is, they produced a strange or non-existing word. for example, when pronouncing the words ‘accept’ and ‘accepted’ deletion of /k/ was discovered. these words sounded as [əsept] and [əseptɪd], instead of /əkˈsept/ and /əkˈseptɪd/. in addition, other speakers read ‘access’ as [əseks] which is a strange word taking into account the context in which it was pronounced. we notice something meaningful in the latter case whereby the same /k/ that was elided appeared in a different position within the very same word. last but not least is the word ‘express’ which was also pronounced as [spres]. in relation to this latter case, we found that participants elided not only the /k/ sound but also the initial short vowel sound /ɪ/ which is not part of our study. the word ‘texts’ was sometimes pronounced without two sounds /k/ and /s/ resulting in [test]. some participants pronounced the singular of this word, that is, ‘text’, as [tete] eliminating the sounds /k/ and /s/. the very same two sounds were elided in the word ‘sixth’ that was read as [si:f]. still about the elision of /k/ and /s/ phoneme, some other words were read without the occurrence of them. for example, in the word ‘sixth’ /k/ and /s/ were omitted. more than four participants read this word as [si:θ], a pronunciation vinte & mataruca, american international journal of education and linguistics research 7(1) (2024), 1-11 6 that could be confused with the word ‘seethe’ pronounced as /si:ð/. when presenting data about /s/ phoneme we can match it with the plural allophones /s, z, ɪz/ that were not pronounced by about nine participants. they simply omitted them. starting from the plural phonemes in words ‘pigs, materials, steps, points, tests, utterances, circumstances’, we noticed that the speakers could not pronounce these words correctly. all plural words were pronounced singular, that is, they omitted the allophone /s/, /z/, and /ɪz/. the phoneme /z/ was elided in ‘pigs, and materials’, while the sound /s/ was not heard in the words ‘steps, points, tests’. the last plural allophone /ɪz/ was not pronounced in ‘utterances, and circumstances’. the word ‘circumstances’ which was pronounced as [sɪrkʊnstans] had no plural marker /-ɪz/. furthermore, in the recordings we could hear [tekst] and [teks] for the word ‘texts’. we verified that the participants did not include in their pronunciation the plural phone [-s] for the first time, while in the second time they elided not only the /s/ sound but also the preceding sound /t/. the word ‘topics’ was pronounced without its plural phone [-s], and the possessive phone [-z] in the word people’s could not be heard. another phoneme that caused difficulty for echuwabo speakers is the voiceless (inter) dental fricative phoneme /θ/. as a result, more than half of the participants elided it in some words. for instance, the word ‘sixth’ was pronounced as ‘six’ [sɪks] instead of /sɪksθ/. in this situation, they elided the sound /θ/ which affected the meaning, since the word he utters is different from the one written and meant in the text. in general, the words ‘fifth and sixth’ were read as [fɪf] and [sɪks] in the same way by many participants. it is worth noting that under elision, out of the 14 participants, it was only ndapota who did not face this challenge. table 1. elided phonemes phoneme mispronunciation examples mispronunciation frequency percentage (%) /k/ texts, access, accept, express [te_st, ə_ses, ə_sept, _spres]. 40 40.40 /θ/ fifth [fɪf_], sixth [sɪks_] 21 21.21 /s/ topics [tɒpɪk_], steps [step_], points [pɔɪnt_] 16 16.16 /t/ texts [teks_] circumstances [sɑːkums_ensiz] 9 9.09 /z/ materials [məˈteriəl_], pigs [pɪg_] 7 7.07 /d/ accepted [əˈsept_] 3 3.03 /f/ fifth [fi_t] 3 3.03 total 99 100 substitution while learning a second language, learners often replace one sound of the target language with another. this section provides the results of our study which reveal the occurrence of substitution of english sounds in the teacher trainees whose l1 is echuwabo. the data presentation of this phonological process starts with three phonemes /tʃ/, /ð/, and /v/. in the word ‘which’ the /tʃ/ phoneme was replaced with /f/ while in ‘choose and chosen’ the phoneme /tʃ/ was substituted with /ʃ/. the result was the production of words such as [wɪf] for ‘which’, [ʃuːz] for ‘choose’ and [ʃuːzən] for ‘chosen’. some participants read the words ‘which’ and ‘with’ as [wɪf] where they replaced both /tʃ/ and /ð/ in these words with /f/. the same /f/ sound was used in the place of /v/ where the word ‘of’ was pronounced as if it was ‘off’ [ɒf]. from these three situations we concluded that the /f/ sound is used by some participants to substitute /tʃ/; /ð/ and /v/. however, in different situation some participants replaced the sound /ð/, in the article ‘the’, with /t/ sound, pronouncing it as [tu:], a totally different word. the way they pronounced the word ‘the’, sounded as if they meant one of the three words ‘too’, ‘to’ or the number ‘two’. another replacement occurred with the sounds /θ/. from the data collected, it was found that the participants face serious challenges with the voiceless dental fricative sound /θ/. in almost all the words that this phoneme occurred they replaced it either with /t/ or /s/. as the following examples illustrate, in each of the words ‘three, think, thank thought, thick, through, fifth, and sixth’ the sound /θ/ was replaced by /t/. as a result they pronounced them as [tri:], [thɪŋk], [taŋk], [tɪk], [thaʊts], [tru:], [fifti], and [sixti] respectively. in communication, such pronunciation could be perceived as, for example, “tree, tink, tank, taught, true, and fifty”, thus affecting the comprehension. moreover, when reading the words ‘third, something’, as well as the other reading the word ‘think’, the same phoneme /θ/ which was replaced in the former examples with /t/ was substituted by /s/. they pronounced them as [sɜːd], [ˈsʌmsɪŋ], and [sɪŋk]. still, other participants substituted this sound differently. they pronounced the first word ‘thought’ as /ðəʊ/, sounding like the word ‘though’. the word ‘through’ sounded like ‘throat’ [θrəʊt]. and ‘fifth’ and ‘author’ were read as /firt/ and /æktə/. as can be seen from the transcription, it is possible to note that the sound /θ/ which does not occur in echuwabo is also replaced by /ð/ in the words ‘thought’ and ‘through’. the same sound /θ/ was also replaced by /d/, /t/ or /f/. to illustrate this we have the words ‘through’ and ‘thick’ which were read as [dru:] and [dik]. for these words /θ/ was replaced by /d/. while in the words ‘third, three’ the /θ/ was substituted with /t/ and resulted in the following pronunciation [tɜːt], and [tri:]. finally, the word ‘mouth’ was read as if it had the phoneme /f/ at the end, instead of /θ/. it sounded [məʊnf]. we should note that in the pronunciation of ‘third’ the final /d/ sound is replaced by /t/. the word ‘clothe’ was several times read correctly with /ð/ and in a few cases as ‘cloth’ producing the /θ/ sound. when reading the word ‘these’, very few participants replaced the consonant sound /ð/ with the voiced alveolar stop /d/, and in the same word some replaced the phoneme /z/ with /s/. the word ‘these’ was articulated as [di:s] instead of /ði:z/ but the number of people with this problem is very reduced compared to the ones who replaced /θ/. vinte & mataruca, american international journal of education and linguistics research 7(1) (2024), 1-11 7 table 2. substituted phonemes phoneme mispronunciation examples mispronunciation frequency percentage (%) /θ/ three [fri:]; fourth [fɔːf]; sixth [si:f]; through [dru:]; thick [dik] 138 64.79 /ʃ/ should [saʊnd]; shoes [tʃu:z]; shake [tʃek] 29 13.62 /ð/ these [dezə], clothe [klɒθ] 20 9.39 /v/ of [ɒf] 7 3.29 /s/ sink [tɪŋk] 5 2.35 tʃ/ speech [spi:k], cheat [ʃi:t], 4 1.88 /t/ thought [təʊnz] 3 1.41 /z/ clothes [klɒts] 3 1.41 /d/ third [tɜ:t] 2 0.94 /f/ laugh [lɑːg/ lɑːv] 2 0.94 total 213 100 insertion in the last two sections we concentrated on elision and substitution. in this section, we concentrate on insertion where a nonexisting sound in a word is introduced. from the collected data, it was found that in terms of insertion the participants introduce the phonemes /r/; /n/; /s/; and /j/ in their pronunciation as illustrated in the following paragraphs. the phoneme /r/ was inserted by 11 participants out of 14. almost all participants inserted the /r/ frequently in the words ‘disturb’ and ‘circumstances’, as shown in the following transcriptions. some participating echuwabo speakers pronounced the words ‘disturb’ and ‘circumstances’ as [dɪˈstɑːrb], and [sɪrkunsntəs], others pronounced ‘circumstances’ as [sɪrkəstɑːnts]. the words ‘fifth’ and ‘assert’ were read as [fɪrt] as [əsɜːrt] respectively inserting the /r/ phoneme. the same phoneme was also inserted in the word ‘hear’ which was read as [irə]. the next sound which was found to be introduced in the words is /n/. it was heard in the word ‘mouth’ pronounced by different speakers as [maʊnθ], [məʊnf], [maʊnt], [mɑːntθ]. the way the word was pronounced could be perceived as meaning ‘month’ /mʌntθ/ or mouth /maʊθ/. the insertion of /n/ in the word ‘utterance’ resulted in [ʌntərənts]. also /n/ was inserted in the words ‘thought, should’ articulated as [təʊnz, saʊnd]. equally important result is the insertion of /s/ in the words ‘thought’ and ‘fourth’ which were pronounced as [thaʊts], [tɔːts] and fɔːts]. the word ‘sheet’ was pronounced as [sɪts]. looking at the transcription of these words, the insertion of /s/ is visible as the last phoneme of the words which is not found in the orthographic word. similarly, the participants inserted the /j/ phoneme in the word ‘utterance’ and pronounced it as [juːtərənts]. while the word is normally pronounced as /ˈʌtərənts/, the way it was pronounced by the participants could create some problems in normal conversations. table 3. inserted phonemes phoneme mispronunciation examples mispronunciation frequency percentage (%) /r/ disturb [dɪˈstɑːrb]; circumstances [sɪrkunsntəs] 23 52.27 /n/ utterance [ʌntərənts]; thought, should, mouth [təʊnz, saʊnd, and maʊnt] 7 15.90 /s/ thought [tɔːts]; fourth [fɔːts]. 4 9.09 /j/ utterances [juːtərənts] 4 9.09 /θ/ through [θɔːθ]; true [θɔːθ] 2 4.54 /k/ assess [æk.ses] 2 4.54 /g/ through [tru:g]; sometimes [sʌmtɪngs] 2 4.54 total 44 100 in terms of insertion, this table reveals that two phonemes /r/ and /n/ are frequently inserted by the english teacher trainees. the other two, /s/ and /j/, are not frequently observed. whereas the remaining phonemes can be considered to occur in particular people due to other factors which might need to be studied and discussed in a different paper. the following figure summarises the general major pronunciation problems identified: figure 1. the most mispronounced phonemes vinte & mataruca, american international journal of education and linguistics research 7(1) (2024), 1-11 8 discussion learning a foreign language often involves overcoming various challenges, including the accurate production of sounds in words or sentences. this study revealed that echuwabo speakers face different difficulties grouped in three different phonological processes: elision, substitution, and insertion. the findings indicate that the participating efl learners struggle particularly with the voiceless dental fricative phoneme /θ/, which is absent in echuwabo. according to the contrastive analysis hypothesis (cah), similarities between the target language and the learners’ first language (l1) tend to minimize pronunciation challenges, whereas the absence of specific sounds in the l1 increases the likelihood of difficulties in accurately pronouncing words or sentences (bian, 2013; larsen-freeman & long, 1991). the difficulty in producing the /θ/ sound can be attributed to its absence in the participants’ first language (l1). this challenge was observed in all the efl students involved in this study, except for one. to compensate for this gap, participants employed two distinct phonological processes in their attempts to articulate the /θ/ phoneme correctly. they either omitted /θ/ entirely or, more commonly, substituted it with sounds such as /f/, /t/, /s/, or /ð/, which are present in their l1. these findings are consistent with the results of previous studies, including those by ercan and kunt (2019). our findings revealed several instances of mispronunciation involving the substitution or omission of the /θ/ phoneme. examples include words like thought [tɔːt], think [sɪŋk], three [fri:], and cloth [kləʊð], where substitution of /θ/ occurred, and fifth [fif], where elision of the same phoneme was observed. these results align with the principles of the contrastive analysis hypothesis (cah) as defended by ellis and other scholars. drawing on richards and schmidt (2002), it can be concluded that the difficulty echuwabo-speaking learners’ face in pronouncing the voiceless dental fricative /θ/ stems from first language (l1) interference. as they explain, interference or negative transfer occurs when the phonological features of the l1 hinder the acquisition of sounds in the second or foreign language. the absence of /θ/ in echuwabo, therefore, poses a significant challenge to the accurate pronunciation of english by these students. moreover, it is crucial to examine how differences in the pronunciation of the voiceless dental fricative /θ/ impact communication. while the context in which words are spoken often provides clues to the interlocutor about the intended meaning, there are instances where mispronunciation may lead to misunderstanding, even within a given context. in some cases, phonological processes, though natural, may not require correction. however, in many situations, incorrect pronunciation can result in confusion. for instance, consider a scenario where the question is “what did you do before coming here?” and the response is “i thought about the importance of english.” if the verb “thought” is pronounced as [tɔːt], it could be misheard as “taught” due to the minimal pair relationship between the two words. as a result, the listener may misunderstand the response as “i taught (a lesson) about the importance of english.” this example illustrates how incorrect pronunciation can affect intelligibility and cause confusion. in the contrastive analysis section, we noted that the /ʃ/ sound is present in the echuwabo vocabulary. however, the results showed that more than half of the participants replaced this voiceless palatal fricative /ʃ/ with the voiced palatal affricate /tʃ/, as seen in words like shoes [tʃu:z] and sheet [tʃi:t]. this type of substitution, where /tʃ/ is used in place of /ʃ/, is referred to as affrication (bowen, 1999; merkel-piccini, 2001, 2004). such mispronunciations can negatively impact meaning and comprehension. interestingly, this issue cannot be attributed to l1 influence, as the /ʃ/ sound exists in both english and echuwabo. therefore, it appears that the problem extends beyond l1 interference, suggesting other factors may be contributing to this mispronunciation. in contrast, when some participants substituted the voiced dental fricative /ð/ with the voiced alveolar plosive /d/ in words such as this [dis] and these [di:z], the meaning was not affected, primarily due to the context in which these words were pronounced. as gimson (1989) suggests, the substitution of /ð/ with /d/ is not always problematic, especially when the /d/ sound is aspirated as /dh/. it is worth noting that similar studies have reported the non-existence of /ð/ and /θ/ in many languages (mikuláštíková, 2012; pal, 2013). however, while this study’s results align with previous findings showing that the /θ/ sound, which does not occur in echuwabo, causes the most confusion, the counterpart /ð/ is present in echuwabo. the difficulty with /ð/ was therefore less pronounced, as this sound appears in echuwabo words like ‘odhowa’ – go; and ‘vinama dhigwa’ the animals fell down. this presents an opportunity for teachers to make good use of the presence of the /ð/ sound in echuwabo when teaching english. by focusing on words with the /ð/ phoneme that are already familiar to students, teachers can avoid extensive drilling and more effectively address the challenges students face with the /θ/ sound. our data revealed that the participants elided the voiceless dental fricative /θ/, which occupied the first position in the rank of difficulty phonemes for echuwabo speakers. similarly, /k/, /s/, /d/ and /z/ were also elided though in less often cases. therefore, it can be concluded that gimson’s (1989) preview on the environments in which this phonological process is more likely to occur is confirmed. for instance, we found that many students elided the /k/ phoneme in ‘texts’, ‘access’, and ‘express’. we also found that the plural marker /s/, /z/ and the past tense /d/ were deleted in words like ‘texts, steps, pigs, and accepted’. this takes place when the word is found in a sentence in order to facilitate the ‘pace’ of the pronunciation. unlike echuwabo, english has words that have more consonant clusters. they are frequently reduced in both second and foreign learning context. the elision of the plural marker or past tense phoneme may be compensated by the context in which the word is found. we cannot affirm that this phenomenon is only the result of l1 as we did with the voiceless (inter)dental phoneme. it is considered as occurring with regularity in formal speech even of the native speakers (gimson, 1989). the reasons behind it may be related to the target language itself. speakers tend to reduce the number of consonants in consonant cluster so that they can easily and quickly pronounce the words. however, as we said previously this process should not affect the meaning of the content to be communicated. our findings revealed that the phonemes /r/, /n/, /s/ and /j/ were inserted in some words. different scholars say that in some cases people will insert a sound between consonant clusters as a way of minimizing the problems they encounter with the pronunciation of consonant sounds combination (lam & thi, 2022). the phenomenon of insertion as heard in vinte & mataruca, american international journal of education and linguistics research 7(1) (2024), 1-11 9 some words like ‘utterance’ pronounced as [ʌntərənt s] and [juːtərənts], mouth [maʊnt] and fourth [fɔːts], clearly affects the meaning of the message to be conveyed. as such, it is necessary to deal with these words in order to get efl students articulate them correctly. in relation to /r/, it was found that most of the participants insert this sound in words like ‘disturb’ [dɪˈstɑːrb], and ‘circumstances’ [sɪrkunsntəs]. the insertion of this phoneme cannot be directly attributed to the phonological differences between the two languages. upon examining these words, it is plausible that the issue may be related to spelling conventions. in echuwabo, the presence of the /r/ sound is evident in words such as ‘muri’ and ‘miri’, meaning “tree” and “trees”, where the letter ‘r’ is pronounced, unlike in english, where the pronunciation of ‘r’ can sometimes be silent, as in the words being analyzed. this suggests that pronunciation challenges cannot be solely explained by a single factor (jones, 2002; chitulu & njemaze, 2015). it can be concluded that both internal and external factors play a role in shaping the pronunciation patterns of foreign language learners. summing up, since the participants are being trained to become english teachers, accurate pronunciation is crucial. if these pronunciation problems persist, their students may encounter similar difficulties, not necessarily due to the differences between l1 and l2, but because of the teachers’ own pronunciation challenges. conclusion this study aimed to examine the pronunciation challenges faced by echuwabo speakers learning english, with a focus on segmental phonological issues that arise due to the phonological differences between the two languages. the findings reveal that these learners encounter significant difficulty with several english consonant sounds, most notably the voiceless dental fricative /θ/, which does not exist in their l1, echuwabo. the most pronounced difficulty involved the substitution of /θ/ with other phonemes such as /s/, /t/, /f/, and sometimes /ð/, indicating that the absence of this sound in their l1 contributes substantially to the mispronunciation. in addition, the substitution of the voiceless palatal fricative /ʃ/ with the voiceless palatal affricate /tʃ/ was another major issue, highlighting a phonological process known as affrication. the analysis revealed three major phonological processes under which pronunciation difficulties were grouped: elision, substitution, and insertion. the /θ/ sound was particularly affected by substitution, while the /k/ sound was often omitted (elision), and the /r/ sound was occasionally inserted where it was not supposed to be. these processes reflect the complexity of l1-l2 phonological interactions, where sounds in english either align or differ significantly from those in echuwabo, influencing the way learners articulate them. these challenges suggest that pronunciation difficulties in english for echuwabo speakers are not solely due to l1 interference but may also be influenced by other factors, such as spelling conventions or a lack of awareness of english phonological rules. the lack of a one-to-one correspondence between spelling and pronunciation in english may add the level of difficulties to the learners’ ability to produce certain sounds correctly. interestingly, the voiced dental fricative /ð/, often considered a particularly challenging sound for efl learners, did not present the same level of difficulty for the participants in this study. this finding contrasts with previous researches that have identified /ð/ as a major source of pronunciation problems. the reduced difficulty level with /ð/ could be attributed to the presence of a similar sound in echuwabo, which facilitated the students’ ability to produce it correctly in most cases. this fact highlights the importance of understanding the phonological similarities and differences between languages, which can either ease or exacerbate the learning of specific sounds in mozambican or other similar efl contexts. this paper offers a unique contribution to the understanding of phonological challenges faced by echuwabo speakers in the context of english language learning. the identification of specific problematic sounds, particularly those not present in the learners’ l1, provides valuable insights for efl lecturers working with this group of students. the study also contributes to the broader field of contrastive analysis by demonstrating how specific language phonological patterns impacts the efl learners’ pronunciation. in conclusion, this study highlights the importance of understanding the phonological challenges faced by learners with specific l1 backgrounds, particularly when these challenges arise from the absence or difference of certain sounds in their native language. teachers of english as a foreign language should be aware of these phonological differences to adapt their teaching strategies effectively. given the significant role of pronunciation in communication, these challenges should be addressed early in the language learning process to ensure that learners can produce intelligible and accurate speech. while the study offers significant insights, it is important to acknowledge its limitations. mozambique is a linguistically diverse and expansive country. therefore, future studies should focus on different languages rather than echuwabo, and be conducted in different locations within the country and focus on different study group since a larger and more diverse sample could provide more generalizable findings. furthermore, the study concentrated on segmental pronunciation aspect, but other aspects of language acquisition, such as prosody and vocabulary, were not explored. future research could concentrate on these aspects, and investigate the relationship between segmental and suprasegmental features in the english pronunciation of echuwabo speakers. moreover, the study’s focus was primarily on identifying and categorizing pronunciation aspects, but it did not explore the cognitive or socio-cultural factors that may influence the pronunciation process. further studies could explore the role of cognitive processing, motivation, and exposure to english in enhancing pronunciation skills. additionally, the potential impact of explicit phonological instruction on improving pronunciation could be explored to offer practical recommendations for efl lecturers or teachers. author contributions: conceptualization, j.v.v.; methodology, j.v.v. & c.q.m.; software, j.v.v.; validation, j.v.v. & c.q.m.; formal analysis, j.v.v.; investigation, j.v.v.; resources, j.v.v. & c.q.m.; data curation, j.v.v. & c.q.m.; writing –original draft preparation, j.v.v.; writing – review & editing, j.v.v. & c.q.m.; visualization, j.v.v., supervision, c.q.m.; project administration, j.v.v.; funding acquisition, j.v.v. & c.q.m. authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. vinte & mataruca, american international journal of education and linguistics research 7(1) (2024), 1-11 10 institutional review board statement: ethical review and approval were waived for this study due to that the research does not deal with vulnerable groups or sensitive issues. funding: this research received no external funding. acknowledgement: we would like to express our sincere gratitude to all the efl teacher trainees who participated in this study. our thanks are also extended to the reviewers of the aijelr for their insightful comments, which significantly contributed to the improvement of this manuscript. this article represents part of the findings from researcher 1 master’s dissertation, supervised by researcher 2. additionally, the data was presented at the international conference held in 2019 at rovuma university in lichinga, mozambique. informed consent statement: informed consent was obtained from all subjects who participated in the study. data availability statement: the data presented in this study are available upon request from the corresponding author. they 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(2010). the study of language (4th ed.). cambridge university press. publisher’s note: acse stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. © 2024 by the authors. licensee acse, usa. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). american international journal of education and linguistics research (p-issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995) by acse is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. https://theses.cz/id/svihrl/master_thesis_teaching_pronunciation.pdf https://gnosipress.com.ng/index.php/alkebulan/article/view/4/3 https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266078400009433 https://conference.pixel-online.net/conferences/ict4ll2013/common/download/paper_pdf/243-rvs01-fp-pal-ict2013.pdf https://conference.pixel-online.net/conferences/ict4ll2013/common/download/paper_pdf/243-rvs01-fp-pal-ict2013.pdf https://doi.org/10.1177/15586898221126816 https://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jrme/papers/vol-12%20issue-1/ser-5/e1201052229.pdf https://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jrme/papers/vol-12%20issue-1/ser-5/e1201052229.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/fqs-24.1.3986 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) http://ssbfnet.com/ojs/index.php/ijrbs http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ american international journal of education and linguistics research 7(1) (2024), 12-25 12 education and linguistics research aijelr vol 7 no 1 (2024) p-issn 2641-7987 e-issn 2641-7995 available online at www.acseusa.org journal homepage: https://www.acseusa.org/journal/index.php/aijelr published by american center of science and education, usa echoes of emotion: a stylistic analysis of taylor swift's reputation album and its reception among “swifties” brandon nacua obenza (a)1 rolando b. teringtering jr. (b) (a) professor, college of arts and sciences education, university of mindanao, davao city, philippines; e-mail: bobenza@umindanao.edu.ph (b) instructor, hinatuan southern college, hinatuan, philippines; e-mail: rolandoteringteringjr@gmail.com a r t i c l e i n f o article history: received: 28th october 2024 reviewed & revised: 28th october 2024 to 26th december 2024 accepted: 27th december 2024 published: 31st december 2024 keywords: reputation album, thematic analysis, musical discourse analysis, stylistic devices, taylor swift, qualitative research jel classification codes: z13, a20 peer-review model: external peer review was done through double-blind method. a b s t r a c t taylor swift’s reputation album was released during a period of intense media scrutiny and public controversy, significantly shaping its lyrical themes and reception. the album presents a transformation in swift’s artistic persona, showcasing themes of defiance, empowerment, and selfreclamation amidst external criticism. given the intersection of music, discourse, and fan engagement, analyzing the stylistic and thematic elements of reputation provides insight into how linguistic and narrative strategies reinforce artistic identity and audience connection. this study investigates the stylistic devices and thematic elements present in the album, as well as their reception among "swifties." using norman fairclough’s critical discourse analysis (cda) framework and i. r. galperin’s taxonomy of stylistic devices, all 15 songs from the album were examined. additionally, focus group discussions (fgds) were conducted to explore how fans interpret and relate to swift’s lyrics. the analysis identified metaphor as the most prevalent stylistic device (51.11%), followed by simile, apostrophe, antithesis, and others such as personification and hyperbole. thematic analysis revealed recurring motifs of public scrutiny, reputation, loyalty, betrayal, emotional resonance, and privacy. results highlight how swift strategically employs stylistic devices to construct a compelling narrative, resonating deeply with listeners' personal experiences. through fgds, fans articulated the album’s emotional impact and its role in shaping their perceptions of identity and resilience. the findings position reputation as a bridge between personal storytelling and broader cultural discourse, contributing to a deeper understanding of the interplay between music, language, and audience engagement. © 2024 by the authors. licensee cribfb, usa. this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). introduction taylor swift's "reputation" album, released in november 2017, marks a significant departure from her earlier country and pop music stylings, embracing a darker, more introspective approach that reflects complex themes of love, media scrutiny, and personal transformation. this transition not only underscores swift's evolution as an artist but also invites a deeper exploration into the album's lyrical content and its emotional impact on listeners, particularly her fanbase known colloquially as "swifties." swift's reputation album serves as a rich text for analysis due to its intricate production, lyrical depth, and the context of its release during a tumultuous period in swift's public life. the album's reception was polarized, with significant attention from both media critics and fans, making it a pivotal point in swift's career and popular music culture (tanujaya & purnomo, 2023). the lyrical content of reputation diverges significantly from swift's previous albums, incorporating a blend of pop, electroclash, and r&b influences, which has been described as a symbolic armour crafted in response to personal and public battles (pradana et al., 2024). music is one of the very common vessels of humans which is mainly aired at communication; music refers to things that are inside of itself, such as a theme that alludes to an earlier occurrence or a discordant note that suggests a resolution that comes later (meyer, 1961). emotions can be expressed through music (grimaud & eerola, 2022), or perhaps emotions can be expressed through music (cespedes-guevara & eerola, 2018). its 1corresponding author: orcid id: 0000-0001-6893-1782 © 2024 by the authors. hosting by acse. peer review under responsibility of acse, usa. https://doi.org/10.46545/aijelr.v7i1.342 to cite this article: obenza, b. n., & teringtering jr, r. b. (2024). echoes of emotion: a stylistic analysis of taylor swift’s reputation album and its reception among “swifties”. american international journal of education and linguistics research, 7(1), 12-25. https://doi.org/10.46545/aijelr.v7i1.342 https://doi.org/10.46545/aijelr.v7i1.342 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) https://www.openaccess.nl/en https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6893-1782 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4412-3590 obenza & teringtering jr american international journal of education and linguistics research 7(1) (2024), 12-25 13 ability to elicit emotional resonance and transmit emotional information, music is a significant part of human culture (lee et al., 2017). further, in view of musical discourse music can be subversive and challenge power. as leone (2012) demonstrates in this issue, music has been feared and suppressed by dictators around the world since 1979, when khomeini outlawed it completely, claiming that it was like a drug and that "we must eliminate music because it means betraying our country and our youth". taylor swift began her career in 2006 as a country music performer and has since continued to explore new creative directions as a singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. with numerous important accolades for her songs, songwriting, tours, and other accomplishments, she has now emerged as one of the top pop performers in the world. taylor swift must put up with the public's and media's ongoing scrutiny of her private life in addition to her popularity. social media has been a crucial tool for constructing an online identity that fosters an audience in favor of her, considering her over 15 years of expertise in the entertainment industry. swift's enduring presence in the industry and her capacity to sustain a tight rapport with her followers warrant additional scrutiny. in 2005, taylor swift commenced her social media presence on myspace, employing the platform as an online journal to disclose facets of her daily existence, intertwining components of her distinctive career with the experiences of a typical young girl (daly, 2022). taylor maintained a steady display of authenticity on twitter and instagram for her online followers (wilkinson, 2019). according to junes (2023), taylor swift is one of the most successful musical artists in history and holds a pivotal role in pop music. swift has garnered numerous professional accolades, including grammy awards and billboard records, and has maintained a prominent position in the music charts for nearly two decades, releasing 10 critically acclaimed studio albums. with more than 336 million followers on social media sites, she is a notorious figure in the domain of pop culture. she is among the rare instances of women who have attained her degree of accomplishment despite contending with systems of sexism and patriarchy. consequently, swift's career provides unique insights and serves as a valuable case study of celebrity, the american music industry, and public persona. since swift's online battle with kanye west and kim kardashian, her social media profile has evolved from that of a girl-next-door who is approachable to that of a successful business prodigy in 2017 (fogarty & arnold, 2021). additionally, swift has reduced the amount of time she spends on social media. taylor swift vanished from the public eye and disappeared from instagram and facebook on august 18, 2017. swift reappeared on social media three days later, this time with a 10-second black-and-white film clip of a slithering snake. the post received a ton of feedback and startling impact from her followers and coverage in traditional media. this was the first of several calculated steps that swift took to involve fans in the promotion of her next album, reputation. according to functional theories, the word "reputation" implies that the reputations of persons are connected to the activity that they have participated in in the past. indirect evidence, on the other hand, implies that the connection between behavior and reputation may be, at best, a fragile one (anderson & shirako, 2008). taylor's issue requiring alteration is her reputation. before the composition and release of this album, considerable dispute surrounded swift's genuineness. this is particularly evident in the tumultuous relationship between her and kanye west/kim kardashian following the microphone theft incident in 2009.visual rhetoric comprises visuals designed to influence the spectator. the most notable recurrent motif is that of snakes. during the west/swift exchanges, kim kardashian implied that taylor was duplicitous. by portraying herself in this manner, taylor is appealing to her fans' perceptions of her identity and the impact of this criticism on her. the snake symbol signifies taylor's assertion that she is not characterized by another's unfounded allegations. she urged her supporters to trust in her true identity and encouraged them to adopt a resilient mindset in their own life in the face of criticism (alek et al., 2020). in the music industry's marketing strategy, most artists and performers seek to generate buzz to enhance their visibility and maintain their prominence. in the entertainment industry, a celebrity's life is perceived as a commodity that can be extensively sold (rupp, 2016). reputation is the sixth album of the american singer-songwriter taylor swift. according to taylor swift’s official youtube channel, this album received 12,484,039 views as of december 2024, which shows that this album is quite renowned and frequently streamed by the public. moreover, various metaphors are incorporated in this album, as swift remarked, “reputation is a metaphor”. the findings in the study of tanujaya and purnomo (2023) demonstrated the expectations to help listeners better know and comprehend the stylistic devices especially metaphors and their meanings and theme elements in the reputation album. by their knowledge of the metaphors and their significance, miscommunication between the singer-songwriter and “swifties” can be prevented. this study aims to dissect the stylistic and thematic elements of the "reputation" album, examining how these components contribute to its narrative coherence and resonate on a personal level. research questions: (i) what are the most frequently used stylistic devices in taylor swift’s reputation album? (ii)what thematic elements are recurring throughout the reputation album and how do they contribute to the album’s narrative coherence? (iii)what personal context can be identified within the lyrics of the reputation album and how do they shape listeners’ interpretation? the following sections begins with a discussion of the study’s theoretical framework, followed by the study’s methodological procedures, and the presentation of findings and conclusion. literature review this study is analyzed within the framework of fairclough's social theory of discourse. as articulated by fee and fairclough (1993), this theory encompasses three core principles that define discourse as an aspect of social practice. first, discourse simultaneously shapes and is shaped by social structures, playing a pivotal role in their formation and representation. second, social practice actively constructs social identities and relationships, particularly among various groups and classes within society. finally, social practice influences systems of knowledge and belief, underpinning diverse obenza & teringtering jr american international journal of education and linguistics research 7(1) (2024), 12-25 14 language functions, including identity, relational, and ideational functions. the foundation of fairclough's critical discourse analysis (cda) is comprised of three essential elements: description, interpretation, and explanation. in order to accomplish this, it is necessary to identify the linguistic characteristics of texts through the process of text analysis, to understand the connection that exists between the processes of discursive practice and the texts, and to provide an explanation of the connection that exists between social practice and discursive practice (fee & fairclough, 1993). in order to accomplish this, fairclough devised a methodical strategy for investigating the connection that exists between a text and the social environment in which it is situated. the following are some of the ways in which this analytical technique contributes to improving the current inquiry. the textual, processing, and social layers of discourse analysis are first incorporated into the multi-layered analysis. second, the analysis revolves around the text. as a result, claims produced from the discourse analytical work are supported by linguistic analysis of texts. this study draws on the foundational principles of galperin’s framework of expressive means (em) and stylistic devices (sd) as outlined in his seminal works, including stylistics (1981). galperin distinguishes em and sd through a level-oriented approach, focusing on the semantic and structural features of language. sd are literary models that integrate semantic and structural elements to represent generalized patterns in texts, while em are defined as linguistic forms that enhance the forcefulness or expressiveness of statements. galperin (1981) classified em and sd into three principal categories: (1) phonetic em and sd, which includes devices such as alliteration, assonance, and onomatopoeia; (2) lexical em and sd, comprising tools like personification, allegory, irony, metonymy, synecdoche, pun, zeugma, tautology, epithet, oxymoron, antonomasia, simile, hyperbole, meiosis, litotes, periphrasis, and euphemism; and (3) syntactical em and sd, which involves structures such as gradation, bathos, enumeration, suspense, antithesis, parallel constructions, chiasmus, inversion, repetition, detachment, prolepsis, rhetorical questions, and narrative questions. recent scholarship has built on galperin's work, such as the contribution by salih et al. (2023), who proposed a modern division of em and sd based on paradigmatic stylistics (focused on individual language units) and syntagmatic stylistics (focused on sequences and combinations within texts). galperin’s framework views stylistically significant phenomena through a paradigmatic and syntagmatic lens, encompassing phonetics, morphology, lexicology, syntax, and semantics. galperin emphasized that stylistic devices serve dual roles. historically, they were employed to make texts aesthetically pleasing and persuasive. however, they are also pivotal in contemporary text interpretation, aiding in understanding an author’s message, the main idea, and the author’s attitudes toward narrative elements such as characters and their actions. stylistic devices are inherently emotionally charged, dense with information, and versatile, enabling their use in diverse stylistic objectives. these include emphasizing critical points, clarifying ideas, engaging or entertaining readers, creating imagery, or producing humorous effects. materials and methods research design this study adopts a qualitative research design, utilizing the method of critical discourse analysis (cda), specifically fairclough’s three-dimensional framework and galperin’s stylistic features, to analyze and discuss taylor swift’s reputation album. qualitative research is concerned with exploring the nature and quality of phenomena, including their various manifestations, the contexts in which they appear, and the perspectives through which they can be understood. it excludes considerations of range, frequency, and cause-and-effect relationships, which are more characteristic of quantitative research (creswell & poth, 2017). among the various qualitative research designs, this study employs content analysis, a systematic technique for the subjective interpretation of textual data through a structured process of coding and the identification of themes or patterns (hsieh & shannon, 2005). content analysis offers a methodical, empirical, and controlled approach to the investigation of texts within their communicative contexts. it adheres to established step-by-step procedures and norms without premature reliance on quantification. additionally, qualitative analysis seeks to uncover new themes, patterns, concepts, insights, and understandings (patton, 2002). unlike quantitative approaches that address questions of "how many" or "how much," qualitative research focuses on answering questions about the "what," "how," or "why" of a phenomenon, making it particularly suitable for indepth explorations of textual and communicative content (patton, 2002). corpora of the study this study utilized the entire taylor swift’s reputation album which includes songs titled ready for it?; end game; i did something bad; don’t blame me; delicate; look what you made me do; so it goes…; gorgeous; getaway car; king of my heart; dancing with our hands tied; dress; this is why we can’t have nice things, call it what you want; and, new year’s day. the researchers analyzed and interpreted the corpora using critical discourse analysis filtered through the lens of fairclough’s framework of cda, along with galperin’s stylistic devices. data gathering and analysis in this study, fifteen (15) songs from the reputation album of taylor swift were used. moreover, the lyrics of the songs were taken from taylor swift’s digital platform. furthermore, coding was used in this study to arrange the corpora into lyrical pieces or chunks before assigning meaning to the data. it entails taking text data that was acquired during data collection, breaking up lyrics into categories, and then labeling those categories with a term often one that is derived from the participant's actual language (creswell, 2009). obenza & teringtering jr american international journal of education and linguistics research 7(1) (2024), 12-25 15 in systemic functional linguistics, the primary unit of analysis is the text, as the functional meaning of language is fully realized only at this level. similarly, halliday and matthiessen (2013) noted that text serves as the primary data for linguistic analysis, with all grammatical descriptions rooted in text. in this study, the song lyrics were divided into lines, since the basic compositional structure of english grammar typically begins with a clause or a line (halliday & matthiessen, 2013). firstly, all the songs were sequentially coded as (rep1, rep2, rep3), starting with the first paragraph (line) in each stanza. next, for stylistic device, the lyrics in the songs were coded as (metaphor, simile, antithesis), and so on until all the lyrics in each song were numbered. for thematic analysis, the lyrics in the songs were coded as (public scrutiny and reputation, defiance and revenge, etc.) and finally, for the key informants’ focused group discussion (gfd), the responses as essential theme coded as betrayal, love, reputation, etc. meanwhile, color coding was utilized to show the stylistic device, thematic analysis and essential themes found in reputation album of taylor swift. also, for the convenience of the researcher during the coding period, maxqda software was utilized. fairclough's conceptualization of cda served as the foundation for this study's methodological approac. the discourse (lyrics) was examined utilizing a top-down methodology that was broken down into three analytical stages. at the text level, linguistic aspects were examined using galprine's stylistic device. in order to establish the validity and reliability of this study, the analysis's findings were presented, debated, and conclusions and suggestions were made. the results were validated and reviewed by experts who are faculty members of literature and languages department of university. results and discussions stylistic devices in taylor swifts’ reputation album this section presents the results of the study based on the research questions which talks about the stylistic devices, thematic analyses, and the swifties reception on taylor swift’s reputation album. figure 1. frequency stylistic device as presented in figure 1, it can be gleaned from the table that metaphor emerges as the predominant figurative language device, constituting a substantial 51.11% of the total frequency. following, other stylistic devices namely: synecdoche, euphemism, metonymy, paradox, aphorism, litotes, pleonasm, consonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia, and hypophora contribute significantly at 14.81% respectively. notably, simile and apostrophe at 10.37%, antithesis at 6.67%, anapohora with 5.92%, hyperbole at 4.44%, assonance at 3.70% and personification at 2.98%. this distribution highlights the variety of techniques authors use to elicit imagery and convey meaning in their writings, with metaphor emerging as the most frequently selected linguistic device among the linguistic devices examined. table 1. stylistic devices and sample lyrics stylistic devices lyrics metaphor i never trust a narcissist (i did something bad, rep. 1) simile cause my baby's fit like a daydream (call it what you want, rep. 7) apostrophe they say, "she's gone too far this time" (don't blame me, rep. 14) antithesis some boys are tryin' too hard, he don't try at all though (...ready for it?, rep. 5) metaphor simile and apostrophe antithesis anaphora hyperbole assonance personificatio n other stylistic devices series1 51.11% 10.37% 6.67% 5.92% 4.44% 3.70% 2.98% 14.81% 0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00% a x is t it le figure 1: frequency of stylistic devices on taylor swift’s reputation album obenza & teringtering jr american international journal of education and linguistics research 7(1) (2024), 12-25 16 anaphora is it cool that i said all that? is it chill that you're in my head? (delicate, rep. 20 21) hyperbole ocean blue eyes looking in mine (gorgeous, rep. 25) assonance both sprung, i got issues and chips on both of my shoulders (end game, rep. 37) personification late in the night, the city's asleep (king of my heart, rep. 20) synecdoche all eyes on you, my magician (so it goes..., rep. 2) euphemism made your mark on me, golden tattoo (dress, rep. 4) metonymy this is how the world works (i did something bad, rep. 7) paradox i don't trust nobody and nobody trusts me (look what you made me do, rep. 42) aphorism the world moves on, another day another drama, drama but not for me, not for me, all i think about is karma (look what you made me do, rep. 25-26) litotes it was the great escape, the prison break (getaway car, rep. 23) pleonasm he built a fire just to keep me warm (call it what you want, rep. 15) consonance and i'd do it over and over and over again if i could (i did something bad, rep. 18) alliteration so, so, so it goes (so it goes..., rep. 38) onomatopoeia i hit you like, "bang" (end game, rep. 68) hypophora why's it feel, why's it feel so good? (bad) it just felt so good, good (i did something bad, rep. 59-60) table 1 presents the stylistic devices identified in taylor swift’s reputation album, analyzed through the lens of galperin’s framework of expressive means and stylistic devices (1981). among these devices, metaphor stands out prominently due to its frequent occurrence across the majority of the album's songs. this prevalence underscores metaphor's unique capacity to convey complex concepts and emotional depth in the lyrical narrative. as a figure of speech, metaphor draws comparisons between seemingly unrelated elements, operating under what leech (1969) describes as the "metaphoric rule," expressed as f=like lf = \text{like} \, lf=likel. this rule implies that a figurative language construct (metaphor, fff) is derived from a literal meaning (lll) by suggesting a likeness or resemblance to lll. the importance of metaphor in lyrical analysis is further evidenced in related studies. tanujaya and purnomo (2023), for instance, explored the metaphorical meanings in the lyrics of queen’s another one bites the dust through a semantic approach. their analysis revealed multiple layers of meaning within the lyrics, including interpreting the metaphor "another one bites the dust" as a euphemism for death, with references to its poignant use in the context of the 2018 santa fe high school shooting. similarly, rifki (2016), in his semantic analysis of metaphors in selected song lyrics by the script, katy perry, and michael bublé, identified 259 metaphorical instances, employing the theories of crystal (1999) and beckson and ganz (1975). these studies highlight metaphor as a pervasive and impactful stylistic device in songwriting, enabling lyricists to engage listeners on both intellectual and emotional levels. other studies have illuminated the role of stylistic devices in songwriting. for example, song (2020) differentiates between similes and metaphors, noting that similes involve explicit comparisons, while metaphors are understood as categorization assertions. ahmed (2022) further elaborates on similes as traditional and easily recognizable figures of speech. similarly, sangki et al. (2024) discovered a prevalence of open similes (57%) in adele’s song lyrics compared to closed similes (43%), underscoring stylistic diversity in songwriting. apostrophe, as defined by flannery (2020), is a rhetorical device used to address an inanimate object, an abstraction, or a deceased or absent person. sayakhan (2016) expands on this, explaining that in poetry, apostrophe serves to personify or animate non-living entities, allowing the poet to address them directly. through this figure of speech, abstract concepts, inanimate objects, or imaginary individuals are given life, enhancing the expressive depth of a text. similarly, fahnestock (2011) describes antithesis as a rhetorical device that creates parallel phrases by pairing opposing terms— whether as contraries, contradictions, or correlatives. antithesis appears in both serious literature and memorable catchphrases, exemplified in phrases like "buy low, sell high" or martin luther king jr.’s defense of civil disobedience, where he asserts that “one has a moral as well as a legal responsibility to obey just laws” (green, 2022). another impactful stylistic device, anaphora, involves the repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of successive clauses, sentences, or lines. according to mustafayeva (2023), anaphora is often employed to emphasize and create rhythm in speech or writing. dhayef and mahdi (2022) further note that this repetition imbues the text with a unique rhythm that seamlessly combines the sound patterns of prose and poetry, enhancing its aesthetic and emotional appeal. hyperbole, a device characterized by intentional exaggeration, is used to emphasize or overstress ideas without the intent of being taken literally. vlasova (2023) describes hyperbole as a linguistic tool for overstating ideas in excessive detail, which can enhance dramatic or humorous effect. sangki et al. (2024), in their analysis of hyperboles in adele's albums 19 and 21, identified 79 instances of hyperbole, categorized into phrasal (66%), clausal (25%), numerical (3%), comparative (1%), and repetitive forms (5%). this study highlights the versatility of hyperbole in enhancing lyrical narratives. assonance, the repeated use of vowel sounds within a line or verse, and alliteration, the repetition of consonant sounds, are also key stylistic devices. toxirova (2024) differentiates the two, emphasizing that while both involve repetition, assonance focuses exclusively on vowel sounds. rahmani (2020), in an analysis of figurative language in a million dreams, found that assonance occurred once, representing 1.58% of the figurative language used, underscoring its subtle yet significant role. similarly, personification, another figurative device, attributes human qualities to inanimate objects, animals, or abstract ideas. faqeabdulla (2024) describes personification as a metaphorical language tool that humanizes non-living entities to deepen emotional connection and convey abstract ideas vividly. figurative language is not only prevalent in literature but also integral to songwriting, where it enhances artistic quality and emotional resonance. sari and anindita (2020) assert that figurative devices, such as metaphor, simile, and obenza & teringtering jr american international journal of education and linguistics research 7(1) (2024), 12-25 17 hyperbole, allow songwriters to capture human experiences and emotions more effectively. beyond aesthetics, figurative language stimulates listeners’ imagination and makes lyrics more engaging and memorable. songwriting legend taylor swift affirms this perspective, stating, “composers must communicate, and part of effectively communicating is releasing a message that resonates with your meaning.” taylor swift's reputation album exemplifies the use of diverse stylistic devices, including synecdoche, euphemism, metonymy, paradox, aphorism, litotes, pleonasm, consonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia, and hypophora. while these devices occur less frequently than metaphor and simile, they collectively enhance the literary richness of the album. through the strategic use of stylistic tools such as apostrophe, personification, hyperbole, antithesis, and anaphora, swift creates narrative-driven lyrics that subtly convey the emotional and dramatic themes of her songs. these devices open a new dimension of storytelling, establishing reputation as a masterful integration of literary artistry and contemporary songwriting. essential themes in taylor swift's reputation album the thematic analysis of taylor swift’s reputation album reveals a rich tapestry of essential themes that reflect her personal experiences, emotions, and societal commentary. these themes are intricately woven into her lyrics, showcasing her narrative depth and artistic versatility. table 2 illustrates the thematic elements identified, accompanied by sample lyrics that exemplify their presence. table 2. thematic elements and sample lyrics essential themes sample lyrics public scrutiny and reputation reputation precedes me, they told you i'm crazy i swear i don't love the drama, it loves me (end game, rep. 7172) i don't trust nobody and nobody trusts me (look what you made me do, rep. 41) even in my worst times, you could see the best of me (dress, rep. 39-40) but i'm not the only friend you've lost lately if only you weren't so shady (this is why we can't have nice things, rep. 20-21) my castle crumbled overnight (call it what you want, rep. 1) all my flowers grew back as thorns, windows boarded up after the storm (call it what you want, rep. 13-14) defiance and revenge they say i did something bad then why's it feel so good? (i did something bad, rep. 13 14) but i got smarter, i got harder in the nick of time honey, i rose up from the dead, i do it all the time (look what you made me do, rep 29-30) the world moves on, another day another drama, drama but not for me, not for me, all i think about is karma (look what you made me do, rep. 25-26) cause forgiveness is a nice thing to do hahaha, i can't even say it with a straight face (this is why we can't have nice things, rep. 34-35) admiration and i can't let you go, your handprint's on my soul it's like your eyes are liquor, it's like your body is gold (end game, rep. 73-74) stealin' hearts and runnin' off and never sayin' sorry (...ready for it?, rep. 19) dark jeans and your nikes, look at you oh damn, never seen that color blue (delicate, rep. 10-11) handsome, you're a mansion with a view (delicate, rep. 31) sometimes when i look into your eyes i pretend you're mine all the damn time (delicate, rep. 55-56) of your magnetic field being a little too strong (gorgeous, rep. 4) you're so gorgeous, i can't say anything to your face (gorgeous, rep. 10-11) ocean blue eyes looking in mine i feel like i might sink and drown and die (gorgeous, rep. 25-26) and all at once, you are the one i have been waiting for king of my heart, body and soul (king of my heart, rep. 1112) my, my love had been frozen deep blue, but you painted me golden (dancing with our hands tied, rep. 5-6) say my name and everything just stops, i don't want you like a best friend, only bought this dress so you could take it off (dress, rep. 27-29 cause my baby's fit like a daydream (call it what you want, rep. 7) i want to wear his initial, on a chain 'round my neck, chain 'round my neck, not because he owns me obenza & teringtering jr american international journal of education and linguistics research 7(1) (2024), 12-25 18 but 'cause he really knows me (call it what you want, rep. 32-35) vulnerability don't blame me, love made me crazy if it doesn't, you ain't doin' it right (don't blame me, rep. 1-2) if you've got a girlfriend, i'm jealous of her (gorgeous, rep. 21) you make me so happy, it turns back to sad, yeah there's nothing i hate more than what i can't have (gorgeous, rep. 34-35) i brought a knife to a gunfight (call it what you want, rep. 2) empowerment if a man talks shit, then i owe him nothing i don't regret it one bit, 'cause he had it coming (i did something bad, rep. 11-12) you must like me for me (delicate, rep. 3) look what you made me do look what you just made me do (look what you made me do, rep. 13-14) salute to me, i'm your american queen (king of my heart, rep. 5) i'm a mess, but i'm the mess that you wanted (dancing with our hands tied, rep. 31) self-reflection for all my flaws, paranoia, and insecurities (end game, rep. 43) i once was poison ivy, but now i'm your daisy (don't blame me, rep. 28) no, nothin' good starts in a getaway car (getaway car, rep. 1) i wanted to leave him, i needed a reason (getaway car, rep. 7) i'm perfectly fine, i live on my own i made up my mind, i'm better off bein' alone (king of my heart, rep. 1-2) this is why we can't have nice things, darlin' because you break them, i had to take them away (this is why we can't have nice things, rep. 11-12) and i know i make the same mistakes every time, bridges burn, i never learn, at least i did one thing right (call it what you want, rep. 19-20) loyalty and friendship even when we'd argue, we'd not do it for long and you understand the good and bad end up in the song (end game, rep 40-41) so, baby, can we dance oh, through an avalanche? (dancing with our hands tied, rep. 28-29) here's a toast to my real friends, they don't care about the "he said, she said", and here's to my baby, he ain't readin' what they call me lately (this is why we can't have nice things, rep. 27-30) he built a fire just to keep me warm (call it what you want, rep. 15) not because he owns me, but 'cause he really knows me (call it what you want, rep. 34-35) don't read the last page but i stay when it's hard, or it's wrong, or we're making mistakes (new year's day, rep. 13-14) betrayal i never trust a narcissist, but they love me (i did something bad, rep. 1-2) they're burning all the witches, even if you aren't one they got their pitchforks and proof (i did something bad, rep. 40-41) the role you made me play of the fool no, i don't like you (look what you made me do, rep. 3 4) i don't like your perfect crime how you laugh when you lie (look what you made me do, rep. 5-6) you (you) asked me for a place to sleep locked me out and threw a feast (what?) (look what you made me do, rep. 23-24) it's no surprise i turned you in (oh-oh) 'cause us traitors never win (getaway car, rep. 46 47) there i was, giving you a second chance but you stabbed me in the back while shakin' my hand (this is why we can't have nice things, rep. 15-16) and therein lies the issue, friends don't try to trick you, get you on the phone and mindtwist you, and so i took an axe to a mended fence (this is why we can't have nice things, rep. 17-19) so why'd you have to rain on my parade? (this is why we can't have nice things, rep. 7) they took the crown, but it's alright (call it what you want, rep. 3) i've been breakin' hearts a long time, and toyin' with them older guys (don't blame me, rep. 5-6) obenza & teringtering jr american international journal of education and linguistics research 7(1) (2024), 12-25 19 heartbreak i'm in a getaway car, i left you in a motel bar, put the money in a bag and i stole the keys, that was the last time you ever saw me (oh!) (getaway car, rep. 48-51) i was dyin' in a getaway car. said goodbye in a getaway car (getaway car, rep. 6566) emotional resonance i get so high, oh, every time you're, every time you're lovin' me (don't blame me, rep. 41-42) it was the great escape, the prison break the light of freedom on my face (getaway car, rep. 23-24) i was cryin' in a getaway car (getaway car, rep. 64) your love is a secret i'm hoping, dreaming, dying to keep (king of my heart, rep. 21) my hands are shaking from holding back from you (dress, rep. 24) hold on to the memories they will hold on to you (new year's day, rep. 17-18) please don't ever become a stranger whose laugh i could recognize anywhere (new year's day, rep. 2425) privacy our secret moments in your crowded room they got no idea about me and you (dress, rep. 1-2) everyone thinks that they know us, but they know nothing about (dress, rep. 21-22) nobody's heard from me for months, i'm doing better than i ever was (call it what you want, 5-6) i want your midnights but i'll be cleaning up bottles with you on new year's day (new year's day, 7-8) public scrutiny and reputation a central theme in reputation is the tension between taylor swift's private self and the public persona shaped by media and societal perceptions. the album title itself is derived from the latin word prutatio, which means “reckoning” or “calculation,” reflecting the complexities of navigating public judgment. swift's lyrics highlight the distortions of her image, the drama associated with fame, and the persistent scrutiny of her personal life. as zafina and sinha (2024) argue, swift masterfully utilizes social media to curate an online persona, leveraging it to maintain a supportive audience while addressing the challenges of public visibility. this aligns with marshall et al. (2019), who describe celebrities as active participants in shaping their public identity through performative and educational practices. swift's lyrical explorations in tracks like call it what you want and look what you made me do vividly portray this theme, blending vulnerability with resilience. defiance and revenge defiance and revenge emerge as dominant themes, as swift reclaims her narrative and confronts adversities through assertive and aggressive lyrical tones. tracks such as look what you made me do and i did something bad reflect her transformation from vulnerability to strength. tanujaya and purnomo (2023) interpret the metaphorical "death" in look what you made me do as a representation of swift’s withdrawal from the public eye during a tumultuous period, only to re-emerge stronger and more self-assured. this thematic exploration highlights the resilience of individuals navigating betrayal and public backlash, underscoring the power of self-reinvention. admiration swift's admiration for those who provide unwavering support amidst external turmoil is evident in tracks such as delicate, gorgeous, and king of my heart. the lyrics often express deep respect and affection for a romantic partner, emphasizing their steadfastness during challenging times. yastanti and susilawati (2020) note that swift employs vivid imagery, such as "ocean blue eyes," to convey awe and admiration, blending emotional depth with poetic artistry. this theme resonates as one of the most prevalent across the album, underscoring the interplay between love and gratitude. vulnerability vulnerability is another recurring theme, as swift candidly explores personal struggles, emotional wounds, and the journey toward resilience. lyrics such as "i brought a knife to a gunfight" from call it what you want symbolize inadequacy and unpreparedness, while metaphors like "burning bridges" depict irreversible mistakes and their consequences (tanujaya & purnomo, 2023). this openness allows swift to reclaim her narrative while inviting listeners to reflect on their own vulnerabilities and growth. empowerment empowerment is a dominant theme in taylor swift's reputation album, as she asserts her independence and challenges societal norms with resilience and confidence. tracks like i did something bad and delicate reflect swift's refusal to conform to societal expectations or be silenced by criticism. in i did something bad, she directly confronts double standards, declaring, “if a man talks shit, then i owe him nothing,” which epitomizes her defiance of patriarchal norms and gender inequality. according to cookson et al. (2024), empowerment enables individuals, particularly women, to redefine societal expectations, pursue their goals, and assert autonomy. swift’s lyrics encapsulate this transformative power, allowing her to reclaim agency over her life and narrative. this theme resonates strongly in her assertive tone and bold musical choices, obenza & teringtering jr american international journal of education and linguistics research 7(1) (2024), 12-25 20 demonstrating her strength and perseverance in the face of adversity. self-reflection self-reflection is an equally significant theme in reputation, as swift delves into her personal journey of growth, acknowledging her flaws and learning from past experiences. in call it what you want, she candidly admits, “and i know i make the same mistakes every time,” illustrating her awareness of recurring patterns in her life and her willingness to confront them. similarly, in king of my heart, she embraces the solitude that has allowed her to rediscover herself, singing, “i’m perfectly fine, i live on my own.” these introspective moments highlight her transition from emotional turmoil to selfacceptance. through this theme, swift underscores the importance of introspection in personal transformation, navigating her vulnerabilities with grace and authenticity. as dewi max et al. (2023) suggest, self-reflection fosters emotional growth and resilience, empowering individuals to move forward from past challenges. loyalty and friendship the themes of loyalty and friendship reflect swift’s journey through complex relationships and the enduring connections that offer emotional support. bukowski et al. (1996) describe friendship as a reciprocal social relationship that provides a unique resource of emotional sustenance. vaquera and kao (2007), friendships that are reciprocal as opposed to ones that are one-sided are a unique resource, particularly in terms of emotional support. tracks such as this is why we can’t have nice things and new year’s day celebrate the depth of genuine connections, highlighting their importance in navigating life’s challenges. betrayal betrayal is a pervasive theme, exploring dishonesty, damaged trust, and the psychological impact of being wronged by others. swift’s lyrics often juxtapose betrayal with resilience, as seen in look what you made me do and this is why we can’t have nice things. dewi max et al. (2023) argue that swift’s lyrics invite listeners to examine the complexities of human relationships and the nuances of justice and retribution. references to historical witch-hunt phenomena further contextualize swift's experiences, likening her to a persecuted figure facing societal condemnation (tanujaya & purnomo, 2023). emotional resonance the theme of emotional resonance is deeply embedded in swift’s reputation, as she crafts songs that evoke intense feelings and foster a deep connection with her audience. tracks like new year’s day and don’t blame me explore the raw complexities of love and its emotional impact. in new year’s day, she reflects on the enduring power of memories, singing, “hold on to the memories, they will hold on to you,” emphasizing the significance of shared moments. similarly, in don’t blame me, she captures the intensity of love, describing it as a force that makes her “crazy.” prigerson and jacobs (2001) note that emotional resonance, particularly in the context of relational experiences, allows individuals to process complex emotions and find catharsis. swift’s lyrical vulnerability invites listeners to engage deeply with her experiences, creating a shared emotional journey that transcends individual narratives. heartbreak heartbreak is a recurring theme throughout reputation, as swift explores the pain and loss associated with failed relationships. songs such as getaway car and don’t blame me narrate stories of betrayal, regret, and emotional turmoil. in getaway car, she poignantly sings, “i was cryin’ in a getaway car,” a metaphor for the fleeting nature of love and the inevitable pain of separation. similarly, in don’t blame me, she describes the emotional highs and lows of love, capturing the fragile balance between passion and heartbreak. prigerson and jacobs (2001) emphasize that heartbreak mirrors the symptoms of grief, underscoring the profound emotional impact of relational loss. by addressing these feelings openly, swift not only processes her own experiences but also provides a voice for listeners grappling with similar emotions, creating a sense of solidarity and understanding. privacy finally, privacy is a prominent theme as swift grapples with media intrusion and the challenges of maintaining boundaries. tracks like dress and call it what you want reflect her efforts to regain control over her narrative and protect her personal life. putra and agung (2023) interpret these lyrics as expressions of self-awareness and accountability, emphasizing the importance of introspection and growth in safeguarding one’s privacy. the thematic elements in taylor swift’s reputation album offer a multifaceted exploration of personal and societal issues, blending vulnerability, empowerment, and emotional resonance. through her introspective and poetic songwriting, swift transcends the boundaries of pop music, delivering a compelling narrative that resonates deeply with her audience. swifties’ personal context and interpretation of the reputation album table 3 presents the essential themes derived from swifties’ personal contexts and interpretations of taylor swift’s reputation album. the themes were identified through a focus group discussion (fgd) conducted via the zoom platform, where participants explored how swift's lyrics resonated with their personal experiences. the lyrics served as a canvas upon which listeners projected their emotions, navigating themes of betrayal, love, retaliation, reputation, privacy, and selfreflection. this section delves into the interplay between these themes and the personal reflections they evoke. obenza & teringtering jr american international journal of education and linguistics research 7(1) (2024), 12-25 21 table 3. swifties’ personal context and interpretation essential themes sample lyrics betrayal “when i listened to the album, many tracks deliver vivid actions of betrayal.” informant c “the reputation album made me a realization that there are people whom must never be given second chances in our lives. once a traitor will always be a traitor.” informant h “the album describes how some certain human beings born bad and that’s how the universe created them.” informant j love “when i was listening to the reputation album; i feel how relevant is love or to have someone that will bring you solace during the lowest point of your life.” informant a “the album addressed how love blossomed throughout the most depressing moments in someone’s life.” informant g “i noticed how the subject/songwriter put into words the metaphors and adjectives to mention “ocean blue eyes and he built a fire just to keep me warm” in the song “call it what you want”, the feeling of admiration and desire are quite evident.” informant e retaliation “when i listened to the song "i did something bad" there is a line that resonates me the most which is (i did something bad but why's it feel so good) for me, the best thing to live up with the people who hurt us is to own the narrative they want us to be included.” informant i “i applaud how taylor retaliated against her archnemesis in the album, as always her songwriting prowess is unmatched and words as daggers will always be a testament of her wit and excellence as a songwriter.” informant d “i learned from the album the essence of being "calculating". there are right timings to defend yourself and there are moments, silence is the best revenge.” informant b reputation “the title of the album itself tells how a person's reputation can be changed in a "snap" due to all the traumas and tumultuous public scrutiny.” informant f “the album describes how character development took place from being a girl-next-door or american sweetheart to someone gothic and brave.” informant h “the album revolves into keeping up with the current situation. to adapt and protect oneself what the people throw at you and rebranding ownself will never be out of style.” informant a privacy “when i listened to the album, some lyrics convey disappearance and break from the public eye.” informant f “the album taught me a lesson how privacy will help us to protect our peace of mind and rebuild our self to the people who used to throw rocks at things that shine.” informant d self-reflection “the album open how taylor swift reflects on her personal and public struggles being a celebrity against the media and the haters.” informant j “the album explores her identity of becoming resilient and to embrace her true self amids the chaos.” informant c “the album conveys how a person gains her trust back to the world and to the people who value her the most without judging the predicament of her ruined reputation.” informant g betrayal the theme of betrayal is a cornerstone of reputation, as taylor swift delves into the emotional aftermath of broken trust from friends, lovers, and the media. participants expressed how the lyrics vividly portrayed the pain of deceit, emphasizing the strength required to overcome such experiences. informant h noted, “the album made me realize that there are people who must never be given second chances. once a traitor, always a traitor.” swift's lyrics often reflect this sentiment, exemplified by her ability to weave narratives that are both deeply personal and universally relatable. betrayal, whether through metaphorical language in taylor swift's "reputation" album or in broader contexts like personal relationships and celebrity actions, can evoke strong emotional responses and lead to significant psychological effects such as distress, mental contamination, and shifts in parasocial relationships (pradana et al., 2024; tanujaya & purnomo, 2023). love love emerges as a central theme, showcasing its transformative and redemptive power amid adversity. swifties reflected on how the album celebrates love as a source of solace and resilience during difficult times. informant a remarked, “i feel how relevant love is during the lowest points of your life,” while informant g highlighted the portrayal of love blossoming even in moments of despair. through vivid imagery and poetic expressions, swift captures the complexities of love. for instance, the lyric “ocean blue eyes looking in mine” in call it what you want conveys admiration and deep affection. this emotional depth aligns with liao’s (2020) analysis of swift's discography, where love often intertwines with themes of longing and vulnerability, resonating with listeners who share similar experiences. retaliation retaliation is a prominent theme, reflecting swift's defiance against those who have wronged her. tracks like i did something bad capture her boldness and resilience, as she reclaims control over her narrative. informant i shared how the obenza & teringtering jr american international journal of education and linguistics research 7(1) (2024), 12-25 22 lyrics inspired a sense of empowerment: “the best way to live with people who hurt us is to own the narrative they want us to be included in.” this sentiment aligns with tanujaya and purnomo’s (2023) findings that swift transformed vulnerability into strength, using her lyrics as a platform to assert her identity and fight back against public criticism and personal betrayals. reputation the concept of reputation is intricately woven throughout the album, exploring how public perception shapes personal identity. informant f noted, “the album shows how a person’s reputation can change in a ‘snap’ due to public scrutiny.” zafina and sinha (2024) argue that swift’s career has been characterized by a constant negotiation between fame and privacy, with the album reflecting this tension. the recurring snake imagery symbolizes her embrace of criticism and her transformation into a stronger, more self-assured individual, as she rebrands herself to adapt to challenges. privacy privacy is another recurring theme, as swift reflects on the impact of media intrusion on her personal life. informant d commented, “the album taught me how privacy helps protect peace of mind and rebuild self-esteem.” tracks like dress and call it what you want underscore the importance of retreating from the public eye to regain control over one’s narrative. according to putra and agung (2023), swift’s lyrics highlight her self-awareness and acceptance of her role in creating public scrutiny, while also emphasizing the need for introspection and self-improvement. self-reflection self-reflection resonates deeply throughout reputation, as swift examines her identity and growth amid personal and public challenges. informant j observed, “the album reflects taylor swift’s struggles as a celebrity against media scrutiny and haters,” while informant g highlighted how the lyrics explore regaining trust and resilience. mansfield and seligman (2021) note that swift's songs often evoke nostalgia and introspection, offering listeners an opportunity to reflect on their own journeys of growth and self-awareness. the thematic exploration of betrayal, love, retaliation, reputation, privacy, and self-reflection in taylor swift’s reputation album demonstrates the profound interplay between music and personal context. through introspective lyrics and evocative storytelling, swift not only shares her own experiences but also invites listeners to navigate their own complexities and emotions. the album stands as a testament to the transformative power of music, resonating deeply with swifties and offering a narrative that is both personal and universal. conclusions the findings of this study offer significant contributions to the fields of discourse analysis, popular music studies, and celebrity culture. first, the integration of fairclough’s critical discourse analysis (cda) and galperin’s taxonomy of stylistic devices underscores the interplay between linguistic features and broader social constructs. by demonstrating how taylor swift's reputation album employs a variety of stylistic devices to convey complex emotional and societal themes, this research highlights the potential of cda as a robust framework for unpacking cultural texts. the use of metaphor, simile, and other rhetorical strategies reinforces the importance of stylistic analysis in understanding the layered narratives within music lyrics. second, the study enriches our understanding of the role of narrative in shaping celebrity identity and audience engagement. as illustrated by the themes of betrayal, empowerment, and self-reflection in the reputation album, swift’s lyrics act as both a mirror and a medium, allowing listeners to navigate their own emotions and social experiences through her storytelling. this aligns with theories of parasocial interaction and audience interpretation, offering insights into how popular culture artifacts foster emotional resonance and collective identity among fans. third, this research bridges the gap between musicology and sociolinguistics, illustrating how lyrical content serves as a site for identity negotiation and cultural commentary. swift’s deliberate rebranding in reputation—from a perceived victim to a resilient artist reclaiming her narrative—demonstrates the capacity of music to challenge societal norms, particularly those surrounding gender and power dynamics. by framing her lyrics as tools for defiance and empowerment, this study expands the discourse on the sociopolitical potential of popular music, particularly in the context of celebritydriven narratives. lastly, the methodological approach, which combines lyrical analysis with fan interpretations through focused group discussions (fgds), provides a comprehensive lens for examining the interplay between text and audience. this dual-layered analysis not only validates the relevance of textual features but also highlights the subjective meanings ascribed by listeners, offering a holistic view of the communicative power of music. this study has several limitations. first, the analysis focuses exclusively on taylor swift’s reputation album, which, while thematically and stylistically significant, represents only one artifact within her extensive discography. a comparative study of multiple albums could provide a broader understanding of her artistic evolution and thematic development. second, the qualitative approach, though well-suited for examining audience interpretations and textual features, limits the generalizability of the findings, as they reflect the perspectives of a specific group of fans. expanding the sample to include participants from diverse cultural and demographic backgrounds could yield more comprehensive insights. lastly, the reliance on linguistic frameworks such as fairclough’s cda and galperin’s stylistic taxonomy, while effective, does not address the multimodal aspects of musical discourse, such as visual storytelling and musical composition. future research incorporating these dimensions could offer a more holistic perspective on the album’s impact. obenza & teringtering jr american international journal of education and linguistics research 7(1) (2024), 12-25 23 author contributions: conceptualization, b.n.o. and r.b.t.j.; methodology, b.n.o.; software, b.n.o.; validation, b.n.o.; formal analysis, b.n.o.; investigation, b.n.o.; resources, b.n.o.; data curation, b.n.o.; writing –original draft preparation, b.n.o. and r.b.t.j.; writing –review & editing, b.n.o. and r.b.t.j.; visualization, b.n.o., supervision, b.n.o.; project administration, b.n.o.; funding acquisition, b.n.o. and r.b.t.j. authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. institutional review board statement: ethical review and approval were waived for this study due to that the research does not deal with vulnerable groups or sensitive issues. funding: this research received no external funding. acknowledgement: not applicable. informed consent statement: informed consent was obtained from all subjects who participated in the study. data availability statement: the 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