Influence Of Teaching Phonology On Spoken English Of Secondary School Students
[A CASE STUDY OF ILORIN EAST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, KWARA STATE]

Research Question 3: Is there any significant relationship between the teaching of phonology and the spoken English of the senior secondary school students?

Table 3 above shows at a glance, the significant relationship between the teaching of phonology and the spoken English of students in the senior secondary schools in Ilorin East L.G.A, Kwara State.
    58.3% of the respondents agreed that knowledge of phonology was capable of facilitating the use of English among the senior secondary school students; although 41.7% disagreed with the statement. In a related development, the claim that phonology makes for confident speaking among learners was supported by 66.7% of the respondents, while 33.3% did not support. 75% of the sampled population agreed that a skill in phonology makes the use of English among learners a more interesting exercise, but 25% disagreed. Moreover, the view that lack of phonology study in schools hinders the spoken English of potential learners has 50% of the respondents in favour as well as against it. Even as 97.5% against 2.5% of the sampled population made a strong case for the provision of language laboratories and language teaching facilities in the senior secondary schools to aid teaching and learning of phonology in particular and English language in general. To cap it all, 87.5% of those who respondents to the questions conceded that lack of incentives to language teachers, operational funds and qualified personnel and a host of others, were among the major obstacles to the teaching of phonology in the senior secondary schools in Ilorin East L.G.A. of Kwara State and by extension, Nigeria, while 12.5 discarded the claim.
Summary of the Findings
    Based on the data collected and analysed, the following are the summary of the findings.
1.    In the view of the students, only the knowledge of phonology was not what was needed to pass all other subjects.
2.    They explicitly supported the claim that phonology like any other subject should be taught by a specially trained and skilled English teacher in order to get positive results.
3.    The students strongly agreed that there is a correlation between the teaching of phonology and their spoken English because phonology helps them to speak confidently as well as promotes their speech potential.