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
Keywords:
Communicative Skills, English Language, Correlation, WASSSCE, PerformanceAbstract
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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