Teaching Essay Writing Skills using Games: an experimentation - Adejoke Jibowo

This study is an experimentation of the idea of using games to teach essay writing in the ESL environment, Nigeria. It is a step further the conventional method of giving instruction, reading of examples, and writing practice. This has been yielding some successes but incorporating games can lead to achieving more. (Morris 2009). 131 Junior Secondary School students were grouped according to their class arms (A & C, B & D) into experimental and control. The two groups were given pretest and post-test. The experimental group was taught essay writing using game, the control group was taught using the traditional/conventional method. The experimental group also responded to a questionnaire which sought their reactions to the use of games in teaching essay writing. Data collected were analysed. Results show that the experimental group performed significantly better than the control group due to treatment (the use of games to teach essay writing). Consequently, the experimental group and the teachers involved showed favourable disposition to the continuous use of the method (t = 1.282 and t = -0.351 respectively).