An Exploration of the Correlation between First Year Students’ Performance in Communicative Skills and their Performance in English in the West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination
An Exploration of the Correlation between First Year Students’ Performance in Communicative Skills and their Performance in English in the West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination
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Date
2016-02
Authors
Torto, T. Richard
Boakyr, Jantuah Stephen
Yeboah, Amoah Napoleon
Peprah, Owusu Judith
Otchere, Gloria
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Publisher
Asian Journal of Humanities and Social Studies
Abstract
This paper explores the relationship between students’ scores in English Language (EL) in senior
high school (SHS) and those they obtain in Communicative Skills (CS), a course at the university level based on
English for Academic Purpose (EAP). Over the years, students’ performance in CS, which is geared towards
sharpening students’ language skills, has become a major concern to both students and lecturers at the University of
Cape Coast. Nonetheless, current literature on CS is bereft of connecting students’ output in EL with that of CS. This
study therefore attempted to bridge this lacuna by employing statistical analysis of students’ entry grades in EL and
the grade they subsequently obtain in CS to extrapolate the link between their scores in EL and CS. The analysis
shows that although there is a positive correlation between students’ score in EL and CS, that correlation is not
significant, suggesting that other factors like students’ attitude and lecturers’ teaching style and competence may be
responsible for the grades students acquire in CS. The findings have implications for further research and CS
pedagogy.
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Citation
Torto, R. T., Boakye, S. J., Otchere, G., Yeboah, N. A., & Owusu-Peprah, J. (2016). An Exploration of the Correlation between First Year Students’ Performance in Communicative Skills and their Performance in English in the West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination. Asian Journal of Humanities and Social Studies, 4(1).