Teaching methods employed by English teachers and their impacts on performance of English language at the JHS level a case of West Akim Municipality

Abstract

Generally, numerous teaching methods are widely used in teaching English as a second language, but the prevalent ones are Grammar Translation Method, Audio-Lingual Method, Communicative Language Teaching, Direct Method and Eclectic Approach. These methods play a vital role in the performance of students. However, most teachers who teach English at the JSH level in Ghana, especially West Akim Municipality have not specialized in the teaching of English language, yet they are required to teach the subject. The majority of these teachers tend to adopt methods which require the least participation from students, and in effect, most students can neither speak nor write well in English. Therefore, the study sought to investigate the methods employed by English teachers and ascertain the impact of the methods on the performance of English language at the Junior High School level in West Akim Municipality. The objectives of the study were to identify the dominant methods employed by JHS English teachers in West Akim Municipality, assess the factors that affect their selection of the methods they use, and evaluate the impacts of the dominant method on students’ performance in reading comprehension and writing. Bloom’s (1982) Model of Evaluation was employed to show the relatedness among the three variables; Predictor, Mediating and Performance. The study employed a mixed-methods approach with questionnaires, interviews, and observation to obtain data from 20 teachers and 251 students, who were randomly sampled as respondents. The results revealed that most of the teachers used the Grammar Translation Method. The findings of the study also revealed that the dominant method impacted negatively on writing but improved students’ reading comprehension performance. It is therefore recommended that English teachers should employ the Eclectic Approach because there is no single method that is optimal for every teaching method, and for this reason, it is ideal to integrate the different teaching methods, since they complement one another.