Thesis:

An investigation of the effectiveness of preschool teachers’ Supervision in the acquisition of language skills amongst Pre-school learners in Yatta division, Kitui County-Kenya

It has been established that early language skills play a significant role of communication in everyday life and from infancy through early childhood to primary levels of education. Acquisition of such skills is influenced by a number of factors ranging from home-based dynamics to school and teacher factors. However, in Yatta Division, communicative competency amongst preschool has been very poor and this has been a concern for different education stakeholders. Thus, the main objective of this study was to investigate how effectively school teacher were supervising language acquisition amongst preschool learners in Yatta Division, Kitui County-Kenya. These dynamics included supervision styles, preschool teachers’ supervisory skills, preschool teachers’ attitude towards supervision and supervision experience and review of the literature was based on the aforementioned aspects of preschool teachers’ supervision in relation to acquisition of language skills with a view of identifying research gaps. The researcher applied both qualitative and quantitative methodology. The study applied a descriptive survey since the researcher collect data and report the way things are without manipulating any variables. The study targeted the 76 primary schools translating into 76 preschools in Yatta Division a total target population of 501 preschool teachers and 2500 preschool children all totaling to 3001. The researcher applied The Central Limit Theorem to select 10 preschools, that is, 13.2% of the targeted 76 preschools in Yatta Division. Using the same theorem, the researcher sampled 300 respondents, that is, 10% of 3001. The researcher then applied stratified sampling to create 5 strata based on the number of administrative zones each consisting of 15 preschools. From each stratum, 2 preschools and 10 preschool teachers were selected using purposive sampling. 50 preschool children were selected using simple random sampling. This sampling procedure enabled the researcher to realize a sample of 51 preschool teachers and 249 preschool children. Qualitative data was analyzed thematically based on research objectives whereas quantitative data was analyzed using ANOVA Test Analysis in Statistical Packages for Social Science (SPSS version 21). The findings of the study were presented using tables. The study has established that supervision styles adopted by preschool teachers enhance preschool children’s acquisition of language skills. Such styles include’ directive, non-directive and collaborative approaches which when well-managed, together with teachers’ supervision experience and attitudes, enhance preschool children’s acquisition of reading, writing and listening skills. Thus, the study concludes that preschool teachers’ supervision significantly enhances preschool children’s acquisition of reading, writing and listening skills. The study thus recommends that preschool teachers should stress teaching and learning of phonemes to preschool children since it enhances their acquisition of basic reading skills. The Ministry of Education and other policy makers should provide language materials which are geared towards enhancing reading skills of preschool children and formulate regulations to enforce adherence to language policy in preschools which lays emphasis on literacy development. Curriculum developers should develop a language material with uniform scope and sequence to enable preschool teachers to effectively enhance reading, writing and listening skills.