Impact of Tense Instruction on Narrative Composition Writing in Senior Secondary Students

Abstract

The study examined the effect of tenses instruction on sentence construction, paragraphing, and editing in senior secondary students' narrative composition writing achievements in Shendam Local Government Area, Plateau State, Nigeria. The study investigated three research questions and three hypotheses. The study adopted a quasi-experimental (non-randomised control group) research design. The study's population included all 959 senior secondary II English students in Shendam Local Government Area, Plateau State, Nigeria, and a sample of 90 students from two intact classes (Experimental group 50, control group 40) participated in the study. Students in the experimental group received six weeks of training on tenses instruction, while those in the control group received standard conventional instruction. The researchers used the Narrative Composition Achievement Test for obtaining baseline and after the intervention data. A reliability of 0.80 was calculated using the Pearson product moment correlation coefficient, which was satisfactory. Data were examined using descriptive statistics (means and SDI) and analysis of covariance ANCOVA. At baseline, students revealed inadequate abilities in sentence construction, paragraphing, and editing on the narrative composition accomplishment test. Students' ability to form sentences, generate paragraphs, and edit narrative composition writing was also significantly improved by tenses instruction. The study concluded that tenses instruction has significant effects on sentence construction, paragraphing, and editing in the achievement test for narrative composition.