ENHANCING STUDENTS' ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN LITERATURE-IN-ENGLISH THROUGH LITERATURE CIRCLES AND BOOK CLUBS

This study investigated literature circles and book clubs as instructional techniques in Benue State, Nigeria. The purpose of the study is to ascertain the effects of literature circles and book clubs on ND1 & NCE1 students’ performance in Literature-in-English in Polythenics and Colleges of Education in Benue State, Nigeria. The study adopted quasi-experimental, non-equivalent, non-randomised, pretest, and posttest design and control group. Two research questions were answered and two null hypotheses were tested. A sample of ND1 & NCE1 students was drawn from two polythenics and two Colleges of Education with the target population of 4956 in the study area using purposive sampling techniques. Experimental groups 1 and 2 were exposed to literature circle and book clubs respectively while the control group was exposed to lecture method. Data were collected using Students’ Literature-in-English Performance Test (SLPT) validated by three experts. Spearman Rank Order Correlation Co-efficient was used to determine the reliability of the instrument which yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.92. Data were analysed using mean and standard deviations to answer the research questions while Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that there is significant difference in the mean performance scores of students taught Literature-in-English using literature circles and those taught using lecture method (P = 0.000 < 0.05) in favour of literature circles. Findings also showed that there is significant difference in performance scores of students taught Literature-in-English using book clubs (P = 0.000 < 0.05). Based on findings, it was recommended among other things that Literature-in-English teachers should adopt literature circles and book clubs as teaching techniques to help students enhance their comprehension and academic performance.