Abstract:
In Kenya, English is the language of instruction in schools as well as one of the official languages. Despite this, the performance of students in the subject at the secondary school level has not been satisfactory. This may be attributed to traditional instructional methods used in the teaching of the subject. An effective instructional method is critical for learner motivation which leads to higher achievement scores in a subject of study. The Neurological Bimodal teaching approach which entails the use and adaptation of current knowledge about the functionality of the human brain to the teaching of a second language has been used elsewhere with promising results.
This study investigated the effects on learner motivation when Neurological Bimodal Teaching Approach is utilized in English language teaching and learning at the secondary school level. The study was guided by Danesi’s (1987) Neurological Bimodal teaching approach to language acquisition. A quasi-experimental research design, the Solomon-Four-non-equivalent Group design was used. The study focused on creative composition writing. The target population for the study was 1080 Form Two secondary school learners. Purposive sampling was used to select the four schools for the study, all co-educational. An accessible population of 184 Form Two students was involved. Piloting of the instruments was carried out to find out the content validity of the items. The reliability coefficient of 0.7 and above was established for the instruments for acceptance. Data was analyzed using t-test, one-way ANOVA, ANCOVA, and Pearson correlation coefficient. The level of significance for acceptance and rejection of the hypothesis was determined at α = 0.05. The findings of the study indicated that NBTA promoted learner motivation in English language learning more than did the conventional teaching approaches. The findings of the study may lead to well- informed decision making at all levels of education planning and development of the curriculum, instructional materials for language education; making decisions on the training of teachers; and making choices for classroom teaching activities and techniques.
