Teaching Literacy Skills in Standard One: Challenges Faced By Language Teachers in Rural Areas in Kenya
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Date
2017-09
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Publisher
International Journal of Science Arts and Commerce
Abstract
The language of instruction stipulated for lower primary by Kenya’s policy on language in
education is mother-tongue or Kiswahili, while English is introduced as a language activity. The
use of two languages in standard one can be challenging, cumbersome and demanding. The
study therefore sought to find out the challenges faced by standard one teachers in teaching
English Literacy skills in Ainamoi Sub-County, Kericho county Kenya. The study adopted a
descriptive survey design. The study focused on all public and private primary schools in the
county. Purposive and stratified simple random sampling techniques were employed. 12 public
primary and 8 private primary schools were sampled to participate. This formed a 10% sample
size from the private and public schools. Questionnaires were used to collect primary data from
the randomly selected standard one teachers and head teachers of the selected schools. Results
indicated that the challenges faced by language teachers related more to lack of the necessary
and appropriate teaching/learning resources. It was also established that there was severe
mother-tongue influence on English. It was found out that teachers employed certain strategies
to promote English literacy skills acquisition including building warm teacher/child
relationships. It is recommended that the strategies be up-scaled by teachers including
improvisation of locally appropriate resources and that further research would be necessary to
establish the effects of mixed languages of instruction on English language skills acquisition
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Citation
Marisin, A. C., & Ouko, O. H. M. (2017). Teaching literacy skills in standard one: Challenges faced by language teachers in rural areas in Kenya. International Journal of Science Arts and Commerce, 2(7), 53–63. http://www.ijsac.net