Institute of Languages and Cultural Studies
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://dspace.njala.edu.sl/handle/20.500.144402/144
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Item A Study of the Errors in the Use of Capitalisation Among Junior Secondary School Pupils in Bo District(2019-11-03) Challay, SaiduWriting constitutes one of the main skills that second language learners find difficulty in. One area they find difficult in the process of writing compositions is the correct use of capital letters. This study is an attempt to describe the common errors that pupils commit in the use of capitalisation in written texts. Since the use of capital letters constitutes an important area in the overall assessment of pupils’ written texts, this study provided necessary information to guide teachers of Language Arts in preparing pupils for writing tasks. The main objective therefore was to categorise and determine the extent to which errors are committed by Junior Secondary School pupils. In order to obtain data for this study, three Junior Secondary Schools were selected in the Bo Municipality. Fifty pupils were randomly selected from each of the three schools, comprising twenty-five from JSS 2 and twenty-five from JSS 3. This gave a total of one hundred and fifty pupils in all. The pupils were given a task to write a composition of at least one hundred and fifty words under normal examination conditions. The study revealed that pupils had generally not understood the rule involved in the use of capital letters. The areas where errors were more prominent involved proper nouns, beginning of a sentence, poor background knowledge of letter shapes, overgeneralisation and not capitalising the first word in the closing of a letter.Item Teachers’ Perceptions Towards the Usefulness of Lesson Plan Manuals in the Teaching of Language Arts at the Junior Secondary School level(Australian International Academic Centre PTY. LTD., 2021-11-30) Challay, SaiduThis paper examined the perceptions of teachers regarding the use of Lesson Plan Manuals (LPMs) in the teaching of Language Arts at the Junior Secondary School level within Bo using data from an MA dissertation. Since the introduction of the Lesson Plan Manuals in 2016, a study to assess the impact of their use in schools has not been done. It is based on this that an assessment was carried out to seek the opinion of Language Arts teachers with regards the use of the Lesson Plan Manuals. It was also intended to investigate whether pupils’ performance in Language Arts has improved or not since the introduction of the Lesson Plan Manuals. The study adopted a qualitative study design and non-probabilistic sample design paradigms. A total of forty (40) Language Arts teachers at the Junior Secondary School level were purposefully selected to serve as respondents for this study. Twenty-five(25) respondents completed and returned the five-pointLikert scale that was used for data collection. Respondents were also interviewed in focused group discussions on some key issues that were not captured in the questionnaires. The results indicate that Lesson Plan Manuals in Language Arts are available in most schools. However, not all pupils have access to these manuals, which makes it difficulfor most of the learners to follow the steps and actively participate in the lessons. It was also revealed that with the use of the Lesson Plan Manuals, the performance of pupils has gradually improved, although some teachers need training in the use of these Lesson Plan Manuals.Item Grammatical Errors in the Expository Essays of Public Health Students of Njala University(Macrothink Institute, 2022-01-06) Challay, SaiduThe purpose of this study was to identify and analyse the grammatical errors in the expository essay of second year students pursuing a programme of study leading to the Bachelor of Science degree in Public Health at the Njala University, Bo Campus. 100 students were randomly selected from among 190 students of the same class who wrote the test on a subject matter that falls within their domain. Errors were identified and categorized into ten: verb usage, noun usage, punctuation marks, spellings, wrong words, capitalization, pronoun usage, prepositions, abbreviations/coinages and articles. To ascertain the percentage and mean score of each error category, descriptive statistics was used. Using this criterion, five error areas: verb usage, punctuation marks, spellings, wrong words and capitalisation were identified to be significant because of mean scores exceeding 2.0 in each case. The remaining error categories were not significant but show that the students have problem using them correctly in expressing their ideas in written form. Most of the errors made were as a result of overgeneralisation of grammatical rules, L1 interference and ignorance of many rules of English Grammar, and the inability of second language learners to construct the forms of the target language because of inadequate exposure to the target language. These error problems would only be overcome if the learners are adequately exposed to the grammar of English from primary school to university, and if they also adopt favourable attitude towards the learning of English.Item Pedagogical Approaches, Implementation Factors, and Outcomes of Peace Education in Higher Education Institutions in Post-conflict Sierra Leone(Science Publishing Group, 2026-08-27) Challay, SaiduThis study examined the pedagogical approaches, implementation factors, and perceived outcomes of peace education in higher education institutions (HEIs) in post-conflict Sierra Leone. Situated within the country's enduring peacebuilding project following the 1991–2002 civil war, the study is guided by three complementary theoretical frameworks: Galtung's Positive Peace Theory, Novelli, Lopes Cardozo, and Smith's 4Rs Framework (Reconciliation, Recognition, Redistribution, and Representation), and Lederach's Sustainable Peacebuilding Model. A mixed-methods descriptive survey design was employed, drawing on structured questionnaire data from 43 academic and administrative staff respondents drawn from five HEIs University of Makeni, Eastern Technical University, Njala University, University of Sierra Leone (Fourah Bay College), and Every Nation College supplemented by qualitative data from 30 Focus Group Discussions with 240 students and 16 Key Informant Interviews with university administrators and national peacebuilding practitioners. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and Spearman rank-order correlation, while qualitative data were thematically analysed. The findings reveal that peace education is formally embedded in university curricula and that content substantially reflects local conflict dynamics (mean = 4.41; 90.2% agreement). However, pedagogical delivery remains predominantly lecture-based, with limited integration of participatory, experiential, and competency-based approaches. Assessment systems inadequately capture peace-related competencies (mean = 3.52; 61.9% agreement). Regarding implementation, political and social sensitivity arising from the civil war history constitutes the most significant barrier (mean = 3.59; 68.3%), followed by inadequate infrastructure, resource constraints, and instructional material shortages. Spearman correlations indicate that teaching materials, local curriculum relevance, monitoring frameworks, and institutional political will are closely interconnected. Peace education was perceived to produce meaningful outcomes, including fostering tolerance among diverse students (mean = 4.24; 85.7%), promoting peaceful coexistence (mean = 4.25; 85.0%), and influencing institutional policies toward inclusion (mean = 4.19; 85.7%). Correlational analysis confirms that impact dimensions are mutually reinforcing, with the strongest association between tolerance and policy influence (ρ = 0.874, p < 0.001). Qualitative findings substantiate these patterns while highlighting gaps in community engagement, institutional leadership commitment, and the depth of local contextualization in curricula. The study recommends transitioning peace education pedagogy from lecture-based delivery toward participatory and experiential approaches; strengthening institutional monitoring and evaluation systems; deepening curriculum contextualization around Sierra Leonean conflict history and transitional justice processes; and building structured partnerships between HEIs and national peacebuilding institutions.