Browsing by Author "Libbie, Josephus K. L."

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An Analysis of the Grammatical Errors in the Written English Compositions of JSS 1 Pupils in Five Junior Secondary Schools in Bo City, Southern Sierra Leone
(Macrothink Institute, 2023-04-16) Libbie, Josephus K. L.
This study focuses on the grammatical errors in the essays written by JSS1 pupils in five junior secondary schools in Bo city. It aims at identifying the errors occurring in the use English grammar by pupils, classifying the errors, determining their frequency levels and their sources. The descriptive survey design was used in this study, where out of a population of 853 pupils, 250 pupils were used a sample for this study. Each of the pupils was asked to write an essay, and the scripts were marked to identify all grammatical errors made by the pupils. From this study, it was discovered that out of 250 scripts, 32% of the pupils were not able to communicate their thoughts meaningfully. Out of the comprehensible scripts the following errors were identified and their frequencies: wrong use of tense 29.54%, errors in spelling 24.67%, errors in the choice of words 13.13%, wrong use of prepositions 7.79%, verb addition errors 5.84%, preposition addition errors 4.87%, pronoun addition, subject-verb agreement errors, wrong use of pronouns, plural and verb omission errors all received 1.62% each. The study further revealed that a good number of errors discovered from students’ writings were intralingual errors.
An Evaluation of the Lesson Plan Manual for Language Arts in Junior Secondary Schools in Southern Sierra Leone
(2026-03-11) Libbie, Josephus K. L.
Questions continue to be raised about the effectiveness of the Lesson Plan Manual (LPM) because pupils’ performance in Language Arts remained low. Thus, it became necessary to evaluate the LPM to determine whether it is aligned with lesson planning best practices around the world. The research questions raised in the study are: Are the language contents of the LPM clear in terms of examples given, guided and independent practice activities? Does the LPM respond to diversity issues in the Language Arts classroom? Does the LPM have in-built classroom management strategies? Is the LPM flexible enough to deal with changing situations in the classroom? The convergent mixed-method design was used. Out of a population of 458 Language Arts teachers, 210 were used as the sample for quantitative data collection, and Language Arts teachers with at least three years of teaching experience were selected for qualitative data collection. Quantitative data were collected using a self-developed questionnaire. For the collection of qualitative data, a focused group discussion question guide was used. Findings revealed that teachers viewed the LPM as a very useful tool in lesson delivery; the content of the LPM addressed diverse issues in the classroom; the LPM allows teachers to be flexible in adjusting their lessons to the classroom environment and to change their teaching strategies to meet the needs of learners. It is recommended that the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education conduct symposia for Language Arts teachers to share experiences with the LPM and conduct refresher training regularly on its effective use.
Impact of the use of the Lesson Plan Manual on the Academic Performance of JSS Pupils in Language Arts in Southern Sierra Leone
(2025-04-22) Libbie, Josephus K. L.
The Lesson Plan Manual was introduction in 2017 into the Sierra Leonean classroom for the teaching of Language Arts, as a result of the appalling performance of Junior Secondary School pupils in the BECE examination. The Lesson Plan Manual was introduced following the outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease which had a negative impact on the educational delivery at all levels of the education system. This study was conducted to investigate whether the use of the LPM had any impact on the performance of JSS pupils. The design used in this study was the quasi-experimental design of the Non-equivalent control group design (NEGD) type with a pre-test and post-test. This design allows for measurement of both quasi-experimental and comparison before and after the intervention. All 63 Junior Secondary School in Bo City served as the population for the study. From this population, 12 schools were selected using the fish bowl method with 16 groups: 8 experimental and 8 control groups. Only JSS 1 pupils participated in the experiment, because at the time of the experiment, they had not been exposed to the LPM at the Junior Secondary School level as they had just been enrolled in JSS 1. Pre-tests and post-tests were administered to the participants from which data were collected. Data were analyzed using inferential statistics – paired sample t-test statistics. The research results show that there is no significant difference in the pre-test scores between the experimental group and the control group, but more importantly, there is no statistically significant difference in the post-test scores between the experimental group and the control group. This means that the use of the LPM has no effect on the academic performance of JSS pupils in Southern Sierra Leone.