Enhancing Students’ Grammar Acquisition with the Use of Dictionary

Abstract

The study examined the use of the dictionary in teaching English grammar in senior secondary schools in Osun State. It also determined the effectiveness of the use of dictionary in enhancing students’ acquisition of grammatical concepts in the schools. The study adopted the descriptive survey and the non-equivalent pretest-post-test control group research designs. The population and the sample consisted of three hundred and fifty-six Senior Secondary Two (SS II) students in nine intact classes and nine English teachers selected from the existing 30 LGAs in the State. Intact classes of SS II students with their English teachers were selected in each of the schools. Two intact classes were selected as the experimental and control groups. Two instruments titled Use of Dictionary Observation Schedule and Students’ English Grammar Achievement Test were used to elicit information from the respondents. Simple percentages, Analysis of Co-variance and t-test statistics were employed to analyse the data. The results showed that the use of the dictionary in teaching and learning English grammar in senior secondary schools in Osun State was low as 100% and 87% of teachers and students failed to use the dictionary to teach and learn English grammar respectively. The results also showed that there was significant effect of the use of dictionary on students’ achievement in grammar (F=37.87, p<0.05). The study concluded that the dictionary was not effectively used in teaching and learning of English grammar in secondary schools in Osun State.