Assessment of Encarta Software in the Teaching and Learning of Vocabulary in Senior Secondary Schools in Port Harcourt City Local Government Area of Rivers State

Abstract

The study accessed the use of Encarta software in the teaching and learning of vocabulary in senior secondary schools in Port Harcourt Local Government Area of Rivers State. The study adopted the quasi-experimental research design, which consisted of two groups, the experimental group and the control group. The population of the study comprised of 100 students from two schools which were divided into 50 for the experimental group and 50 for the control group. Students in the two schools were administered the EVAT as a pretest before the commencement of the treatment. The students in the experimental group were taught vocabulary using Microsoft Encarta software while instruction was given to the control group using the normal traditional method of teaching. At the end of the lesson, the post test was administered to both groups and data was collected after it was marked.  The mean and standard deviations were used to analyze the research questions while Analysis of Variance (ANCOVA) was used to analyze the hypotheses. All the hypotheses were tested at 0.05 alpha level of significance. Recommendations were made that trainings/workshops should  be  organized  for English language teachers  in  secondary  schools  on  the  use  of  Microsoft Encarta software.