CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the methodology that was employed to successfully conduct the

study. The methodology was designed to meet the research objectives and to address the data

that is important to the research. This part of the study covered the research design, population

of the study, sample and sampling procedure and data collection procedures. The other areas

explored in this section are the research tools and Data Analysis.

Research Design

The researcher used action research design. Action research refers to a wide variety of

evaluative, investigative and analytical research methods designed to diagnose problems in

academic field or organization and help educators develop practical solutions to address them

quickly and effectively (Bryman, 2019).

Moreover, action research helped in equipping me to understand the various methods or

approaches that best suit the learners. Thus, through action research, the effectiveness of teaching

and learning can be evaluated.

Again, findings from action research provide teachers with the opportunity of acquiring

a better understanding of all aspects of their own practice, be it in relation to subjects, content,

the curriculum or the methods appropriate to the level of the learners in the class.

Finally, because the researcher was working within a short time frame, action research

was chosen in order to find immediate solution to the identified problem. This research entails

or involves a well-structured or planned procedure.

According to Beins and McCarthy (2012), population of a study is the entire set of people

or data that are of interest to a researcher. The study was done in Hohoe M/A Experimental Basic

School, Hohoe Municipal. The Hohoe M/A Experimental Basic School has a total population of

280 learners (168 females and 112 males), 26 staff members (15 Primary teachers and 11 JHS

teachers) The study was limited to the lower primary, precisely Basic two, which had an

enrolment of 37 learners in the class, 17 boys and 20 girls.

Sample and Sampling Procedure

Research sample, according to Beins and McCarthy (2012), refers to a subset of the

population that is studied in a research work. The sampling procedure used was purposeful

sampling. Avoke (2000) citing Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2003) saw purposeful sampling

as hand picking the cases to be included in the sample on the basis of their judgments of the

typicality of the issue identified for the study. This means choosing a sample for a specific

purpose. Purposeful sampling is the process of including whoever happens to be information rich

and available in the sample Gay, Mills and Airasian (2009).

This is the process of selecting a sample using a technique that does not permit the

researcher to specify the probability, or chance, that each member of a population has been

selected for a sample (Gay, Mills and Airasian, 2009). The advantages of this method are

convenience, economy and the easy in obtaining a suitable sample size, and the disadvantage is

that the readily available participants are most likely not a random sample of the overall

population (Gay, Mills and Airasian, 2009).

The Basic two learners are expected to be able to spell simple English words without

difficulties. Since some have difficulties, they become the appropriate persons to be included in
this study. This is the reason why the sample is deemed satisfactory to their specific need. On

the basis of this, the sample size for this study was 20 out of the 37 learners in class two and the

2 class teachers out 15 teachers ranging from class 1 to 6, so the total sampled population is 22.

Research Instruments

These are instruments that I used to gather data for the study. I made use of Test and an

interview as instruments for collecting the data for the study which were self-constructed. Data

was obtained from primary and secondary sources. Primary data was collected through

interviews and tests given to two class teachers and twenty basic 2 learners at Hohoe M/A

Experimental Basic School. The secondary data included review of documents, information from

books, journals, articles and other research materials from other researchers relating to the said

research topic. The information served as useful guide to the problem solving, because it helped

to understand common spelling problems and how teachers can help learners overcome them.

Interview

Juliet Corbin (2008) said an interview is a qualitative data collection method that involves a

conversation between the researcher and participant, aiming to gain a deeper understanding of

the participant's experiences and perspectives. The researcher used simple and clear language in

undertaking the interview. The interview was aimed at obtaining information from two teachers

about the challenges they encounter in the spelling lessons, causes, effects and strategies to

remedy them.
Test

A test, according to Lewis Terman (2019) is to ask someone spoken or written questions

or make them to do a practical activity, to discuss what they know about a subject.

Test is an instrument or tool adopted to gather information whereby the researcher

employed (pre-test) as her main means of collecting facts which she would later use to draw

conclusions about her research. With reference to this study, I tested class two learners at Hohoe

M/A Experimental Basic School to identify problems relating to the spelling of English words

correctly. Learners were tested in order to identify their spelling challenges. Some challenges

identified after the test were;

i. Inability to identify the various vowels and consonants to be put together in writing word.

ii. The problem of identifying the number of syllables that makes up a word, and their

inability to pronounce the words influenced how they spelt it.

Data Collection procedure

Data was collected using three stages; pre- intervention, intervention and post–

intervention stages.

I used 6 weeks to conduct the study. In all, twenty- five (25) working days was used to

carry out the various stages involved in collecting the data for this study. Two weeks for the

pre-intervention, another two weeks for the intervention and remaining two weeks for the

post-intervention.

Pre-intervention stage

A pre-test was conducted to ascertain the fact that basic two learners of Hohoe M/A

Experimental Basic School could not spell some English words correctly. I gave a set of words

with some missing letters for the learners to write them correctly. At the end, it was realized that,
 the learners were unable to identify and write the various vowels and consonants sounds that

were in each word. They also could not identify the number of syllables that made up a word,

which made pronunciation also difficult. Therefore, only seven out of the twenty learners were

able to spell the words correctly, which represents 37% of the sampled learner.

Intervention

An intervention is a set of strategies implemented to solve specific problems. The

intervention involves a step-by-step procedure which aims at solving the problem identified.

Below are the strategies I considered using to curb the problem.

THE S-H-A-R-P step-by-step plan

The S-H-A-R-P Step-by-Step plan to study and spell words was one of the means I

adopted to solve the spelling problem. She believes that work words are words used daily. With

this approach, the words can be used by the learners daily with ease.

SHARP is an acronym which stands for

S – See the word

H – Hear the word

A – Adopt the word

R – Record the word

P – Proof read the word

The above are elaborate as;

Learners think about the word; let learners look at the word carefully, think about the

letters that spell the word critically.

To hear the word; teacher says the word and learner's repeats the words continuously ie,

(Silent and aloud).

carefully to the consonant and vowel of the sounds in order to pronounce words correctly.

Adapt the word; - close your eyes, help Learners to memorize the alphabets in the word.

e.g. School, to spell the word school learners must learn the alphabets with the help of the

teacher, after that the teacher ask the Learners to close their eyes and spell.

See the word in your mind’s eye. Learners see the words in their mind's eye and thinks

critically to be able to spell words correctly.

Think about how it looks and sounds, recording the word; cover the word and write the

word. Teacher should write the words boldly on the board for easily identification.

To proof read the word, - correct the word. The teacher must read the word and correct

every mistake.

Touch each letter

Think about the word again.

The word could be used in a sentence, phrase or clause or the sentence from which the

word was taken could be repeated severally.

Mother – and – Child

Mother- and – child is a type of language game which aids a child to form certain basic

words from a “mother” word. The game is played in a specific time range to make it more

competitive. I put the class in two groups say group ‘A’ and ‘B’. The group which comes out

with more words after the given time emerges first. For instance, using ‘Entertainment’ and

Management as a ‘mother’ word.

Entertainment
 For instance, the word entertainment will be written on the board by the teacher where

the teacher will tell learners to make words out of the word Entertainment i.e. tent, net, mint,

tint, enter, entertain etc. These words become the children of Entertainment.

Management

Age, men, man, net, manage, eat, net, ate etc.

NB: One of the rules of the game is that two-letter words are not allowed.

Post intervention

During the post-test, a test was conducted to determine the overall effectiveness of the

interventional used to remedy spelling problems identified from the pre-test. In this test, a set of

words were given to learners as their spelling exercise. The outcome was very positive it was

realized that 65% of the learners performed well. This shows that, the interventions had helped

to improve upon the spelling skills of the learners.

Data Analysis Plan

Results from the administration of the instruments; pre-intervention and intervention

processes were put together by me. I administered pre-tests and post-test to assist me diagnose

the problem of spelling some English words appropriately. Description statistics were used to

analyze the data. Percentage values were calculated for various items using scientific calculator.

The research question guiding the study was addressed using the results from the data

analysis. After the analysis, the data was presented in tabular form for easy reference and

discussions.