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TEACHING AND LEARNING PROSE IN SCHOOLS

ABSTRACT

The study investigated teaching and learning prose: a study of Oko-Afo Senior Secondary School and Government Senior college, Badagry. The researcher mode use of 50 secondary school students and 10 teachers from two different school in Badagry Local Government and five research questions were also used to test the opinion of the students. The researcher also used simple percentage. Suggestion and recommendations were mode.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1      BACKGROUNDTO THE STUDY

According to Aristotle(1956) in his book "Peotic" literature is defined as serious enterprise bringing out its special differentiating qualities, demonstrating its functions, and vindicates literature against those who consider it useless or immoral page (20)

Literature refers to any kind of composition 'in prose or verse which has for its purpose not the communication of facts but the telling of a story or the giving of pleasure through some use of the inventive imagination in the employment of word. Literature by implication springs from our in-born live of narrating a story or experiences. It is the totality of man's action in his social environment

GENRES OF LITERATURE

All literary works are grouped under three basic classes. These classes are technically termed genres. The three branches of literature constitute the component parts of imaginative or artistic creative work. Have the following.

·        DRAMA

·        PROSE/NOVEL

·        POETRY

The basic difference in this various divisions depends on the narrative language used in each of them.

NATURE OF PROSE

Prose basically refers to all types of writing that use the normal linguistic apparatus, marked by plain sentences, paragraphs and chapters, as distinct from drama and poetry. It is unique as a form of story telling art characterized by a subject matter.

Prose means an ordinary form of spoken or written language. It is arranged in verses and rhymes. It comes, in sentences form through dialogue and conversation, the sentences are added together to make paragraphs. Prose is a genre(s) of literature which is one of the subjects in the school curriculum. It explains, describes and narrates events.

Adejumo (2003) claims that ''prose simply means story telling" It requires that usual comprehensive skill that has the ability to identify the imagery or figurative expression used in the chapters.

Prose demands the individual interest, dedication, commitment and, time. It should be noted that even English language which is considered very important cannot stand without literature and there is no way a teacher will teach Iiterature without English prose being integrated in it.

TYPES OF PROSE

There are sub-genres of prose like short story, the novel, novella and the novelette.

The Short Story: This is the shortest form of prose that shares all that features of an averages novel. The short story simply distances itself from the novel by its length or coverage.  It is absolutely complete on its own, in terms of presentation of characters, setting and theme.

The Novel:  The novel is the most ambitious of the sub-genres of prose. It relates its story in manners resembling the others sub-genres, nonetheless, it does this through a rational coverage.  It is total and wide ranging in its coverage of those actions presented. Moreover, characters are wholly developed, with well marked-out complexities, presented in a relaxed manner. 

The Novella: The word novella is an Italian word applied by the Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio. It is an known as the intermediary prose form; this is varied between the short story and novel, equally sharing all the qualities of the novel.  It reveals a natural tendency of being longer than the short story but shorter than the novel.

The Novelette:  The novelette is another Italian word for the genres which is an anthology of short stories.  More than one story is incorporated within the volume of novelette.

The problems encountered in teaching  and learning of prose and the suggestion of possible solutions as well as what should be the teachers role in teaching and learning of prose constitute our focus in this study.

Over the years the rate at which students fails their final examinations especially in literature (prose) has given causes for public concern.  The achievements of students in WASC examinations for the past five years was nothing to write on according to Momoh (2010). Many blame the government  for this deficiency while others believe that parents and even teachers are parties to the failure of the students themselves.  It is therefore against this back chop that we decided to carry out this research in other to find solution to the stated problems and possibly improve the teaching and learning of prose in schools.

It is our believed that having outlined the problems of teaching and learning the above subject.  Useful recommendations and suggestions for overcoming such problems could then be offered with a view to improving the teaching and Iearning of prose (literature) not only in the selected schools, but also for others offering the course as well.  Education planners Curriculum developments, teachers, student and others concerned individual could find this project useful.

1.2    STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

The study is to find possible solution to making the teaching and learning of prose effective in Oko-Afo Senior Secondary School and

Government Senior College, Badagry. The following problems are outlined.

First the problem of qualified teacher is a great hindrance that affects the teaching of prose in schools.

Second the issue of overcrowding in class of literature (prose) makes learning ineffective in a literature class.

Also, the, problem, of instructional materials is another issue facing student’s performance in English literature.

However the problem of irrelevant textbooks affects the effectives of prose teaching.

1.3    PURPOSE OF STUDY

This research project is designed to investigate the following.

1.     To identify and examine the cause of the problems of the students failures in literature in external examinations.

2.     To investigate the teachers role in teaching prose in our data.

3.      To examine factors that enhances and negates the teaching and learning of prose in Oko-Afo Senior Secondary School and Government Senior College Badagry.

4.      To proffer possible solution to make the teaching and learning of prose meaningful.

1.4    RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The following are raised to guide the research study in finding solutions to problems of teaching and learning of prose in Oko-Afo Senior Secondary

School and Government Senior College Badagry.

1.     What are the causes of students' failure in literature in examinations?

2.     To what extent does the teacher of literature contribute in students performance in the learning of literature in schools.

3.     What factors enhance and negate the students learning literature in schools.

4.     What is the solution to effectives teaching and learning of literature in our chosen data?

5.     What are the criteria for choosing textbooks at secondary school level?

1.5    SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The teacher and student of English will find the result of this study helpful in many ways.

1.        It could serves as sources of further knowledge in solving problems that might be militating against the effective teaching and learning of prose.

2.        This research project will help teachers in Oko-Afo senior secondary

schools and government senior college Badagry and help students development their vocabulary and reading speed.

3.        It also hoped that this project will help the students to re-shape their reading ability and vocabulary.

Some useful information derived from the result of this research could be a description about the nature of materials used for teaching of prose, the attitude of teachers towards the subject English and the students.  The project will help the teacher to rectify the deficiency in the subject.

The importance of this project study could be felt when most of the solution suggested' are put into practice.  Potentials researchers could find the result useful to them and may serve as stepping stone to provoke further research studies:

1.6      LIMITATIQN OF THE STUDY

The research tend to make this research study to be of immense value to the teaching and learning of prose in Oko-Afo Senior Secondary Schools and Government Senior College Badagry, it should be comprehensive enough to take care of all secondary schools.

The study is limited to Oko-Afo Senior Secondary School and Government Senior College Badagry while selected samples were obtained from the students and teachers.

The research work is limited to only novels as a sub-genre of prose.

1.7    DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The study is delimited to the problems of teaching and learning prose in two selected schools in Badagry. The researchers delimit the research work to Oko-Afo Senior Secondary School and Government Senior College Badagry.