Abstract:
BACKGROUND : Teachers are responsible for developing and enhancing communication skills
amongst young learners. Unfortunately, the overly structured pedagogy which many teachers
adopt inhibits the optimal development of oral communication skills. Hence, the researchers
investigated ways of strengthening group-work play-based pedagogy to stimulate oral
communication.
AIM : This research aimed to find out (1) what prior knowledge, skills and classroom practice
teachers have and how they demonstrate their competence in implementing group play-based
pedagogy; and (2) how a professional development programme assists teachers to implement
play-based group pedagogy to develop oral communication skills in young learners.
SETTING : The study took place in the Owerri Education Zone in the eastern part of Nigeria.
METHODS : The researchers implemented a participatory action research (PAR) design. Nine
participants were purposively selected from a cohort of teachers who taught the 5–9-year age
group. Teacher participants responded to the semistructured interviews and observational
schedules used as tools for data collection. The researchers used inductive thematic data
analysis techniques to make sense of the data. This was performed in three phases: sorting
the data and organising them in data sets, after which the analysis process commenced.
RESULTS : Findings from the study showed that although the participants had a fair
understanding of play-based pedagogy, they did not know how to operationalise their
understanding of play-based pedagogy directed at oral communication
CONCLUSION : The participants gained expert knowledge of play pedagogies that require
children to increase oral language use in interaction with each other, using vocabulary and
phrases introduced by the teacher as scaffolding for their communication.
