Adoption of Computer Assisted Language Learning Software among Nigerian Secondary School Students
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Learning a language can be a daunting task especially if a
learner has acquired his/her first language. In second or foreign language
learning (L2 or FL), an effective learning strategy can contribute very
much to one‟s success. Hence, computer assisted language learning
(CALL) materials could be used in teaching to facilitate the language
learning process. CALL encompasses broad range of information and
communication technology applications and approaches. CALL materials
are useful for two reasons; they are focused on learning rather than
instruction or teaching and student-centered which enables a learner to
learn at his/her pace. The four skills covered by CALL are listening,
speaking, reading and writing. There are evidences in the literature that
CALL has performed well in promoting three skills; listening, speaking
and reading while substantial gains have not been made in writing skill.
CALL, like other educational software has the potential to facilitate,
accelerate, motivate and deepen skills in language learning. This study
therefore examined the level of adoption of CALL among secondary
school students in Nigeria. The study covered two geopolitical zones
(North-central and South-west) in Nigeria. Four states were randomly
selected; two from each zone. The states are Kogi and Kwara from Northcentral,
and Lagos and Ogun from South west. Eight secondary schools
from each of the state participated in this study. Twenty students were
selected from each of the thirty-two schools (371 girls (58%), 269 boys 42%)). The ages of the participants range from 12-18years with mean age
of 14.63years and standard deviation of 2.08. All the participants had
English language as one of their subjects while 23% had French language
in addition. CALL Adoption Questionnaire (CAQ) was designed and used
to measure adoption. Four research questions were raised and answered.
The findings revealed that only 147 students representing 23% adopt
CALL applications in their language learning activities. The factors that
promote the adoption of CALL include; educational qualification of
fathers, type of school, peer influence and class of students. The study
concluded that the adoption of CALL is low among secondary school
students and recommended that parents, government and proprietors of
private schools should procure and enforce the use of CALL in our
secondary schools to reduce abysmal failure rate in English and French
languages.
Keywords
P Philology. Linguistics