Exploring Influence of School Type, Gender and Parental Engagement on Pre-Schoolers’ Acquisition of Early Language Competencies in Busia County, Kenya
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Date
2025-10
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Kenyatta University
Abstract
Early language competencies such as listening, speaking, reading, and writing enable learners to communicate and use both printed and electronic learning resources effectively. These competencies serve as the foundation for gradual development of other core competencies. This study was therefore conducted to explore children’s acquisition of early language competencies, owing to their significance in pre-primary school. Specifically, the study aimed at exploring the influence of type of school, gender and parental engagement on children’s acquisition of early language competencies. The parental involvement theoretical model by Epstein (2009), was used to inform the study, while ex post facto research design was utilised to guide the research. Purposive, stratified, and simple random techniques were used to select 7 public schools and 4 private ones out of the 67 public and 40 private schools. A similar number of teachers were purposively sampled from the above schools, while 172 PP2 children/ parents from public schools and 82 children/parents from private randomly selected, formed the study’s sample. Early language skills checklist, questionnaire and interview schedules were used for data collection. A pilot study was conducted in two primary schools. Content validity was used to determine research tools validity, whereas reliability of the instruments was established using test-retest method. Thematic analysis was employed to probe qualitative data, while descriptive analysis was used to summarise quantitative data where frequencies, percentages, and means were generated. Additionally, inferential statistics involving two-sample t test (independent t test) and Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient were used to test null hypotheses. Results revealed that majority of learners had not acquired the expected early language competencies. Learners in private schools had acquired higher language competencies compared to their counterparts in public pre-primary schools. In addition, female learners had acquired more early language competencies than their male counterparts. The results further revealed that majority of parents did not adequately participate in activities to develop their children’s early language competencies. This research recommends that parents should get more involved in activities to develop their children's early language competencies. Management of pre-primary school should introduce programmes to encourage parents to closely monitor and participate in activities that may enhance pre-school children’s acquisition of early language competencies.
Description
A Research Thesis Submitted in Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Early Childhood Studies) in the School of Education & Life-Long Learning of Kenyatta University. October 2025
Supervisors
Nyakwara Begi
Juliet W. Mugo