Abstract:
There is a general public concern in Kenya that maj
ority of Form Four school leavers lack communicativ
e and
linguistic competence and thus cannot sustain conve
rsation in English language without occasionally co
de
switching to
Sheng
or Kiswahili. This study sought to find out the cla
ssroom activities used by teachers to
promote learners’ active participation in speaking
skills lessons in eight secondary schools in Eldore
t
Municipality, Kenya. The study was based on Krashen
’s (1985), Monitor Model specifically the input and
the
affective filter hypotheses which emphasize that le
arners acquire target language when they are motiva
ted and
involved actively in the learning process. The stud
y adopted mixed methods design and simple random sa
mpling
to select schools, students and English language te
achers from National, Provincial and District schoo
ls. In
certain cases, purposive sampling technique was als
o used. Data on classroom activities used to teach
speaking
skills were collected using Questionnaires administ
ered to teachers and students, direct observation
during
speaking skills lessons in Form three classrooms. T
he data collected was analyzed using descriptive st
atistics.
The study found out that: there was variation in u
se of classroom activities for example discussion w
as the most
used classroom activity while oral drill was the le
ast used, during classroom discussions, students co
de switched
to Kiswahili or
Sheng
due to low oral skills and teachers did not integr
ate various classroom activities in one
lesson thus denied learners chances of using authen
tic language in context. The study recommends that:
1)
students should be given chances to practice using
authentic English language in context, 2) teachers
should
integrate various activities in a lesson to meet le
arners’ needs and 3) Curriculum to acknowledge lear
ners’
cultural backgrounds in order to enhance their lear
ning outcomes. This study is useful to language edu
cators and
teachers of English language.
