Teachers’ and Learners’ Attitudes towards the Impac t of Availability and Use of Daily Newspapers on Student s’ Speaking Competence in English Language in Secondary Schools in Bungoma County, Kenya

Abstract

his paper highlights the results of a research con ducted in Bungoma County of Kenya between 2008- 200 9.The objective of the study was to investigate the attit udes of teachers and students towards the impact of availability and use of daily newspapers on students’ speaking competence in English language. The study was based on the Communicative Language Teaching Approach and the th eory underlying this approach is Krashen’s Second Language Acquisition, the monitor model. The study used the mixed methods research approach adopting a correlation research design. Stratified, purposive and simple random sampling techniques were used to get the sample. The sample involved 16 teachers of English language and 135 form three students. The questionn aire, students’ focused group discussions, and interview guide were used to collect data from the students a nd teachers respectively. The data collected was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The h ypotheses were tested using non –parametric inferential stati stics-Mann-Whitney U-test. From the analysis and interpretation of data, it was deduced that student s who used daily newspapers showed better speaking competence in English language than those who did not use them. Consequently, it is recommended that the use of the daily newspapers as an instructional resourc e in teaching speaking skills in English language s hould be encouraged and improved in secondary schools in Ken ya