EFFECTS OF TWO MODES OF CONCEPT MAPPING ON SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT AND RETENTION IN ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN NSUKKA EDUCATION ZONE, ENUGU STATE

ABSTRACT

The study investigated the effect of two modes of concept mapping on secondary school students’ achievement and retention in English grammar in Nsukka education zone of Enugu State. The influence of gender as well as interaction effects of two modes of concept mapping and gender were also investigated.. Six research questions and six null hypotheses guided the study. Quasi experimental design of pre-test non-equivalent control group was used for the study. The sample size of 352 JSS 2 English language students using purposive sampling technique constituted the target population. The instrument for data collection was English Grammar Achievement Test (EGAT) which was used to collect the data in this study. The data obtained for the study were analyzed using means and standard deviations to answer the research questions while analysis of co-variance (ANCOVA) were used to test the formulated hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that: collaborative method of concept mapping significantly enhanced students’ academic achievement in English grammar when compared with individualistic method; gender was a significant factor on students’ interest in English grammar; there is an interaction effect of two modes of concept mapping and gender on students’ achievement in English grammar; collaborative method of concept mapping was also found to significantly  enhance students’ retention in English grammar; there is no significant difference between the mean retention scores of male and female students in English grammar; interaction effect of two modes of concept mapping and gender on students’ retention in English grammar is significant. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that English teachers should adopt the use of collaborative method in their lessons in order to enhance the students’ academic achievement and retention in English grammar.