Use Of Role Play Technique In Teaching Language In Secondary Schools Of Wareng District -UASIN Gishu County, Kenya.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the use of Role play technique in teaching of English language in selected secondary schools of Wareng District following its dismal performance over the years. Objectives were: to determine the teachers’ and students’ attitude towards the teaching and learning of English language using role play technique, identify barriers that hindered its use, establish the teachers’ level of training in relation to role play technique and to find out other techniques used in teaching English language. The study was guided by Brunner’s (1966) Constructivist theory which emphasized the importance of cognition in teaching and learning. It adopted descriptive survey research design that made use of questionnaires, interviews and classroom observation to collect data from a sample of 335 form three students and 50 teachers of English language who were identified through purposive, stratified random and simple random sampling techniques. Data collected was analyzed quantitatively by use of descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages). Qualitative data was coded, tallied and discussed under themes. Conclusions of the study was that both teachers and students had positive attitude towards role play technique although many teachers never used it, time was the major barrier in its use, teachers had attained required professional qualification but some had inadequate training on the use of role play technique and most of them did not vary their teaching techniques for they relied heavily on the use of discussion and question and answer. The study recommended adoption of role play technique, enhance teacher awareness through in-service, curriculum developers to re-design the curriculum in order to allow more time for student activities and advocated for use of varied techniques in English language lessons. The findings would be useful to English language curriculum designers, teachers and students.