Author: Sunday Abua Ogbor & Rasaq Ayodeji Iliyas
Date: 2026
Communicative language teaching method entails a need-based communication by learners in the target language for attainment of communicative competence. With eighteen distinctive local languages in the study area, prevailing students' inability to articulate and discriminate among the English vowel sounds continue to distract them from making intelligible expression in English language. The study, a pre-test/post-test quasi-experimental design with an intact class of thirtynine male and female secondary school students in Cross-River Northern Senatorial district, was carried out to ascertain the effect of the CLTprocedure on students' performance in English vowels based on gender. The study adopted the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) items on English vowels as instrument to gather data. The collated data were analysed using mean score, standard deviation and t-test. The study found that communicative language teaching method improved both male and female students' performance in vowel sounds and that male recorded slightly higher performance at the post-test, which could not reach a significance level. The study, therefore, recommends amongst other things that teachers of English should be made to undergo continuous retraining to be conversant with CLTskills for improved students' understanding of vowel sounds; and that teachers and parents should encourage students to communicate in English beyond just the school environment to gain confidence in and familiarise with the vowel sounds.
Keywords: Articulation; Interference; Intelligibility; Practice; Mastery
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