Abstract:
This article presents the findings from our investigation of teachers’ characteristics that influence development of oral language skills among pre-primary pupils. The study was conducted in 83 schools in Kibra Sub-County, Kenya. Questionnaires and observation schedules were used to collect data. Data was analysed using SPSS. The main findings of the study indicate that teaching strategies that were mostly used by pre-primary school teachers were code-switching, examples, repetition, substitution and explanation. On the other hand, questions, direction, expansion of children words and contrast were the least used teaching strategies when teaching oral language skills. The study revealed that the there is a slight correlation between the type of training teachers received and the teaching strategies they used as most of the DICECE (District Centres for Early Childhood Education, Kenya) trained teachers used more teaching strategies when teaching oral skills compared to non-DICECE teachers. The findings also revealed that there was some correlation between teacher’s academic qualifications and their use of a few teaching strategies. There was also some correlation between teaching experience and the use of a few teaching strategies. Since the strategies used by pre-primary school teachers under the study were less than half of the recommended teaching strategies to promote oral skills, the study recommends that teachers should be encouraged to use more in structural strategies to improve children’s oral language skills.
