The Role of the ESL Teacher in the Use of Modern Techniques on Teaching Deletion-A Case Study Ringim Educational Zone, Jigawa State, Nigeria

: This research evaluated the role of the ESL teacher and the use of modern techniques on teaching deletion. Questionnaire and oral interview were the instruments that the researcher used to collect the data. The research findings showed that most of the students do not know how to pronounce some words correctly, that is, they have a problem with the silent words that have silent letters. The findings also revealed that some teachers do not pronounce the words correctly. It is concluded that the teachers transfer their inadequacy to the students and do not use appropriate techniques in teaching pronunciation especially words with silent letters. The researcher recommends that only teachers who are B.A. and B.A.Ed English graduates should teach the subject and they too, must use appropriate techniques when teaching pronunciation especially words with silent letters/sounds


INTRODUCTION
This study is based in the area of English phonology-which is a branch of linguistics that deals with the sounds of particular languages.It is concerned with how learners of a second language (Hausa native speakers) find problems in deleting some sounds when pronouncing some English words.It traces the way and how their teachers pronounce the words that have the silent sounds as may be the reason why the students find the problem in deleting them as Jibril(1982) noted that changes in the composition of teachers who teach the northern child is one of the reasons why students have changes in pronunciation.
Also Jibril (1982), Banjo (1992), Jowitt (2005) and Abubakar (2008) in a research conducted by Musa (2010) on how dental fricatives are produced by students, showed that there are a lot of linguistic changes in terms of pronunciation in Nigeria as a result of social factors especially contact.According to Jibril (1982), teachers with RP-like accent are fast disappearing and are being replaced by those with a southern accent.Jowitt (1991) has pointed out that the relationship between the native speakers and the students of English as second language learners is very far; thus both the teachers of English and the students have no much access to the native speakers of English.It is against this background that this study aims to find out the other likely factors (variables) that bring about these changes in pronunciation of words that have silent letters by students who are Hausa native speakers, i.e.ESL learners.
Speaking is the most essential among the four skills in English learning (Yule, 2007).Accurate pronunciation is also essential to good speaking in English.Pronunciation is the area in which the nonnative speaker very easily reveals his/her inadequacies in the language.This might be as a result of different language backgrounds or they might have been taught poorly.Linguists generally believe that spoken language is superior to its written version.The spoken language is 'primary' and the written language is 'secondary'.In other words, the original form of human language, however primitive, is speech.This clearly shows that adequate care and attention should be given when teaching pronunciation in English as a second language in a class.A teacher's pronunciation is of paramount importance in the success or failure in teaching English pronunciation as his competence in the language can be reflected on the students.Pourfeiz, (2015) affirmed that teachers' personality has significant role in learning and understanding pronunciation as his mastery of the concepts affect students' performance.Bayazidi and Behnam (2013) have stated that personality traits of teachers are reflected in the classroom and students' performance.

Statement of The Problem
English is an international medium of communication spoken as a second language (SL) in Nigeria.It is used as a medium of instruction from the third year at the primary school to the tertiary level in all disciplines with the exception of the courses taught in Hausa and Islamic Studies (Kamal, 2001:1).This notwithstanding, both the teachers and the learners of English find more access to its written form than the spoken one, the activities done in schools like continuous assessments, assignments and exams, as stated by Kamal (ibid.) are more on written form than the spoken one.This makes it difficult for them to pronounce some words or delete some letters which are present but silent or unpronounced because they do not have such similar words or expressions in their native language (i.e.Hausa).Thus, deleting some sounds could be difficult.
In this study, the teacher's role and the techniques he/she uses are examined in the English pronunciation by students especially in the production of words that have the silent sounds whether the pronunciation is as a result of teacher's pronunciation or the techniques involved in the activity.

Research Questions
This study asks and seeks to answer the following questions at the end of the research: 1.To what extent do teachers' pronunciations affect the students especially when pronouncing words with silent letters? 2. Do modern techniques of teaching pronunciation affect students' pronunciation?

Significance of the Study
This study which focuses on the role of the ESL teacher and the use of modern techniques is of paramount importance to the ESL teachers because some English language learners approximate the spoken form of English with their native language which causes them to erroneously pronounce some sounds which are silent but present in the words or expressions.
The research also gives detail information to the teachers and researchers who are interested in finding the best way to solve the English pronunciation problem so that they can have an effective way in its teaching especially in the L2 classroom situation.It also fills a knowledge quota in the area of teaching pronunciation in an ESL classroom especially Hausa native speakers and is also of academic interest to linguists.The research also helps the English curriculum planners in getting the best way to suggest the required techniques and instructional materials in teaching English pronunciation.

Acquisition and Learning
Different scholars have attempted to differentiate between 'acquisition' and 'learning' regarding L1 and L2.There are a lot of controversies regarding their definition which has resulted to have series of definitions, thus no universally accepted definitions exist.Yule (2007) argues that the term 'acquisition' in terms of language, refers to the gradual development of ability in a language by using it naturally in communicative situations.The term 'learning' however, applies to a conscious process of accumulating knowledge of the vocabulary and grammar of a language.For example activities associated with learning have traditionally been used in language teaching in schools and when it is successful, it results in knowledge about the language studies.While activities related to acquisition are the experiences gained by the young child (Krashen1982) as cited by Mustapha (1988), dual 'acquisition -learning theory' and the 'monitor -hypothesis' seem to offer a more plausible relationship not only between L1 and L2, but between learning and 'acquisition.'Krashen (1982) fuses both learning and acquisition in the same individual arguing that while 'acquisition' initiates our utterance and therefore accounts for our fluency, 'learning' has only one function to "monitor" or to "edit" our utterances.Learning is thus responsible for our grammatical competencea conscious knowledge of the language, whether first or second language.

Major Approaches to Language Teaching
One area where in spite of the differences of methods there is a remarkable concession on L1 and L2 learning is in psychology and psycholinguistics.There are two major approaches to this study of language, which have naturally spilled into area of language teaching.These are the behaviourists and mentalists view of the nature of language.
The behaviourists, whose clearest statement on language learning is found in B.F Skinner's works, view language learning as a set of habits acquired through stimulus -response and suitable reinforcement.This principle holds true for both L1 and L2 language learning.They also argue that there is no difference between language learning and learning to do anything observable in life.Thus from their point of view, language learning and teaching could be reduced to the acquisition of "habits" and "skills" Brooks (1960:46 cited by Alhassan 2001:78) affirms: "The single paramount fact about language learning is that it concerns not problem solving, but the formation and performance of habits." On the other hand, the mentalists, whose views were first clearly stated by Chomsky and his associates, see language as rule -governed activity.Whether L1 or L2, they state that if we are to understand learning we cannot limit ourselves to observable behaviour.We have to concern ourselves with the learner's mental ability to re-organize his psychological field that is his inner world of concepts, memories, etc in response to experience.This makes the learner become an active agent in the learning process.It is the consensus between these two schools rather than their conflict that is significant.Wilkins (1982:175) cited by Alhassan (2001:78) referring to the behaviourist and mentalist views of language said that it is better for a person to adhere to both the theories as they support each other, failure to do such will be unjustified.

SECOND LANGUAGE PRONUNCIATION
Pronunciation has been variously used by different speakers of either English as a second language (ESL) or English as a native language (ENL).But whatever definition might be given, pronunciation is the way in which a language or a particular word is pronounced.O'Connor (2004) said that writing consists of marks on paper which make no noise whilst speaking (pronunciation) is organized sound; the former is taken in by the eye whereas the latter is taken in by the ear.Pronunciation varies from one dialect or accent to another.This resulted in the rise of regular English pronunciation which is aimed to make English pronunciation standard.The aims are to provide a pronunciation of writing English that is highly intelligible, easy to learn and logically connected to the current spelling of English.Received Pronunciation (RP) which is called BBC pronunciation (Roach 2000) is the one that is accepted to be a standard pronunciation.
Writing on second language speech development, Baygate (1987) in Cater and Nunan (2001:16) states that speaking in a second language (L2) involves the development of a particular type of communication skill and that oral language tends to differ from writing because of its circumstances of production.At the same time, some of the processing skills needed in speaking differ from those involved in reading and writing, adding that there is confusion in current development between speaking as a skill in its own right, with speaking being a central medium for learning.

Modern Strategies/Techniques for Teaching Pronunciation
As a result of the difficulties found by the English teachers when teaching pronunciation, the following strategies can help the teachers to teach it easily and successfully.a) Use of phonic letters e.g.a, as in ant b, as in bed etc. b) Being good role models: Teachers should be good models for the pupils to imitate.They should perfect their own mastery of English sounds and use correct pronunciation always.These, they can achieve through listening to news from radio, cable; extensive reading of newspapers, novels, magazines, books, etc c) Frequent use of English: Teachers should speak English in and outside the classroom.d) Use of tape recorders and cassettes: teachers should record or use prerecorded tapes of good English and bring them to the class for the pupils to listen to for example minimal pairs can be recorded on cassettes ,CDs, DVDs and computers for use in the classroom.e) Use of drills: pupils can be drilled in the correct sounds through the use of tongue twister, poems, and songs containing the sounds being taught, etc.Other techniques include storytelling and dramatization, conversation chart, single-slot substitution drill.

DELETION/ELISION/LOSS
In linguistics, deletion is the removal of a sound from a word often for easier pronunciation.A phoneme may appear or be realized as zero.That is it may be deleted (Roach 2000).The elision may be in rapid or casual speech which usually happens within the internal structure of words and those associated with weak sounds; and others that are realized in fast colloquial speech (Cruttenden 2008).Elision can be either at the end (apocope) or elsewhere (syncope).There are two broad categories of elision viz: at word level and at phrase or sentence level in fast colloquial speech.

Elision that happens at word internal structure level and those connected with weak sounds
The elision phenomena affected the vowels, consonants and syllable Loss of vowels according to Cruttenden (2008) under weak accent within the word has occurred at various stages of the languages development as it is now established.write, know, gnaw, knew, psychology, pterodactyl, gnaw, gnat, honest, heir, etc At medial e.g listen, isle, island, often, cupboard, receipt, corps, debt, subtle, castle, whistle, Wednesday, handsome, muscle, sign, feign, salmon, palm, Holmes, vehicle, vehement ,annihilate, etc At final e.g lamb, hymn, bomb , limb, comb, condemn, autumn, etc Loss of alveolar sounds /t,d/ occurs at medial in a cluster of three consonants.
Example: mostly, landlord, perfectly, etc /Ө/ is usually deleted in words like asthma and isthmus and may sometimes be deleted from months, etc.

METHODOLOGY Population and Sample of the Study
The area of this study is Ringim Educational Zone which comprises four local governments: Ringim,Taura,Garki and Babura.The population in this research work comprises all the students in all senior secondary schools under Ringim educational zone with the exception of senior secondary schools that are Arabic based under the zone.Ringim educational zone is the zone that has the highest number of senior secondary schools in Jigawa State.It has twenty six senior secondary schools out of which six are senior Arabic secondary schools.The senior Arabic secondary schools were excluded as they are Arabic based .Ballot papers were twisted in order to be unbiased in selecting the schools.Three twisted ballot papers were randomly selected and the schools that are involved are: 1. Government Day Secondary School, Taura; 2. Government Day Secondary School, Babura; and 3. Government Girls Secondary School, Garki.

Sampling Technique
The schools where the students were sampled were already mentioned above.Fifty students from senior secondary two (SS2) were randomly selected.The subjects were selected by the chat-drawn method of random sampling.Small pieces of paper bearing 'selected' and 'not selected' were cut and mixed thoroughly in a bowl for the students to pick.Those who picked 'selected' were the ones used for the study.Applying this method in all the schools visited, all the samples are selected.A total of one hundred and fifty (150) students were sampled.Therefore, they were the ones tested by the researcher.On the other hand, the questionnaires were given to all English teachers who are in the schools under study

Data Collection Instruments
The following instruments were used to collect data in this study: I. Structured questionnaire (for the teachers) and II.Structured oral interview (for both the teachers and students)

Teachers' Questionnaire
The aim of this research is to find out the role of the teacher and the use of modern techniques on teaching deletion.In view of the above, a questionnaire was set for the English teachers in order to get information about their professional administration.In the questionnaire, there are options that cover the expected answers to be given by the teachers, sometimes alternatives were given and a teacher was asked to give his/her reason(s) for choosing each.Sample of the questionnaire is included in the appendix.

Structured Oral Test (for both the Teachers and students)
Seven (7) words were selected in order to test the students' ability on the topic under study.The words were boldly printed on paper and students of the sample were asked to pronounce them one after the other while the researcher was listening and recording the answers on his paper which later would be summed up and tabulated in chapter four (4).The teachers were also tested in the same way.

Method of Data Analysis
The researcher adopted simple percentage and frequency techniques in analysing the data.The simple formula is: Where:

NR= Number of respondents on the test
TR=Total number of respondents under study The items are presented in a tabular form.Each item is shown in its table showing its detail analysis in the next chapter.That is chapter four.

DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
This chapter is mainly concerned with presentation, analysis and interpretation of data based on the topic under discussion-the role of ESL teacher and the use of modern techniques on teaching deletion.The data collected were strictly based on oral test and questionnaire instruments administered to the respondents.In analysing and interpreting the data percentage distribution method is used; each of the word/question is presented, analysed and interpreted based on the number of responses as explained in detail in the previous chapter.In all the three schools under the sample there were eight (8) teachers who were teaching English while a total of one hundred and fifty ( 150) students (50 from each school) were randomly selected.The questionnaires were successfully returned as the researcher waited and collected them.

DATA ANALYSIS ON STUDENTS AND TEACHERS ORAL TEST
Both the student and teachers were tested orally with the same word.Therefore they were all analysed based on correct or wrong pronunciation of the words under study.
Target Word: listen /`lisn/ Table 1a shows that out of 150 respondents from the students, six (6) which is equivalent to 4% pronounced the word correctly, while 144 which is 96% of the sample pronounced the word wrongly.Table 1b shows that out of the 8 respondents from the teachers, three (3) which is 37.5% pronounced the word correctly, while 5 which is 62.5% of the sample wrongly pronounced the word.
Target word: principal /`prinsəpl/  Table 2b shows that 50% from each side simultaneously pronounced the word that is 50% pronounced the word correctly, while the remaining 50% pronounced the word wrongly.
Target Word: subtle /`sʌtl/ Table 3a shows that 87 which is 58% which happens to be the higher wrongly pronounced the word while 63 (42%) correctly pronounced the word.Table 4a shows that 141 which is 94% and it is the higher percent of the sample pronounced the word wrongly, while 9 which is 6% pronounced the word correctly.Table 4b shows that 5 which is 37.5% of the respondents correctly pronounced the word, while 3 which is 62.5% wrongly pronounced the word.
Target word: Handkerchief /`haeŋkətʃif/ Table 5a shows that 135 which is 90% wrongly pronounced the word while 15 which is 10% pronounced the word correctly.Table 5b shows that 6 out of 8 which is 75% wrongly pronounced the word while 2 which is 25% of the sample correctly pronounced the word from the teachers' side.
Target word: Hang/`haeŋ/ Table 6a shows that 116 out of 150 respondents from the students which is 77.2% wrongly pronounced the word, while 3 of the remaining respondents which is 22.7% correctly pronounced the word.Table 6b shows that 1 out of 8 of the respondents from the teachers which is 12.5% correctly pronounced the word, while 7 which is 87.5% of the remaining sample wrongly pronounced the word.
Target Word: Honour/`ɒnə/ Table 7a shows that 147 out of the sample which is equivalent to 98% have wrongly pronounced the word while the remaining 3 which is 2% have correctly pronounced the word.Table 7b shows that all the respondents correctly pronounced the word correctly.Table 22 shows that all the respondents answered that they involve their students while teaching.Table 26 shows that 6 out of the 8 respondents which is 75% do not use a tape recorded activity at all while teaching pronunciation, while 2 which is 25% use it but is not always and non of the respondent has answered that he/she is using a tape recorded activity when teaching pronunciation.Table 27 shows that 3 out of 8 of the respondents which is 37.5% used imitation and drilling method each when teaching words with silent letters while 1 which is 12.5% uses all the methods and the remaining 1 (12.5%) did not use any method when teaching words with silent sounds.

RESEARCH FINDINGS
The following are the research findings extracted from the data analysis: To what extent do Teachers' Pronunciation Affect the Students Especially when Pronouncing Words with Silent Letters?
Responses from the students in table 1a which is 96%, 2a with 74.7%, 3a with 58%, 4a with 94%, 5a with 90% 6a with 77.30%, and finally 7a with 98% have shown clearly that most of the students do not know how to pronounce the words correctly.They have problem with the silent letters/sounds in the words.The students that have pronounced the words correctly might be as a result of intrinsic motivation or their parents and teachers do motivate them.It might be as a result of good background during their early studies like nursery or been taught at home after school hour by their home teacher whose parents pay the teachers for the service they rendered to their children.
Responses from the teachers show that some teachers have pronounced the words correctly while others have not.In table 7b most of the teachers did not pronounced the word correctly (i.e.62.5%).But in 2b 50% of the teachers pronounced the word correctly while the remaining 50% do not pronounce it correctly likewise in table 3b of the teachers side 75% pronounced the word correctly while the remaining 25% pronounced it wrongly but in table 5b of the teachers side the 75% of the respondents pronounced the word wrongly and the remaining 25% pronounced it correctly.Also in  Pourfeiz (2015) has affirmed that teachers' personality has significant role in learning and understanding pronunciation as his mastery of the concepts affect students' performance.This from the data analysed is proved as most teachers do not pronounced the words correctly which might be as a result of teachers' low proficiency.Most of the teachers do not use appropriate technique(s) when teaching pronunciation especially words with silent sounds.The teachers do not use the modern techniques which when appropriately and skillfully applied can facilitate the teaching of pronunciation especially words with silent sounds.Inadequate facilities provided by the school management constitute additional problems as most of the teachers cannot have access to them.Inadequate teaching of the pronunciation also is another factor that affects the students in the aspect of pronunciation.
Adequate pronunciation is among the major if not the most crucial in teaching English, so, more period need to be allowed for the teaching of English pronunciation.The school or the parents or both should provide sufficient and current textbooks and other related materials that will help the students to learn easily and which will give them adequate opportunity to learn personally before and after the lesson.There are a lot of games/simulations which teachers should use in teaching pronunciation or words with silent sounds, e.g.flash cards, a short conversation in form of drama which will foster their spoken English.The teacher is of the opinion that instructional materials such as tape recorder, filmstrip, and video recordings should be used to teach second language learners the target language.These materials, if effectively used, will enable the learners see and hear the actual speech production as produced by the native speakers.
Spoken words need to be thoroughly taught before reading is introduced so that the learners can easily pronounce the words in context or in isolation.Teaching and learning should be geared towards standard speech of the target language.
bjmas.org/index.php/bjmas/indexPublished by the European Centre for Research Training and Development UK 23 3. What other factors influence students to pronounce the silent letters?
Example: at initial, as in state, sample, scholar etc. at medial, as in evening, gooseberry, Marriage, and in final as in: time, name, loved, Weak sound / ə / is lost in:Temperature, factory, history, etc /i/ is mostly lost when it appears in pre-primary positions: believe, ferocious, veranda, etc Loss of consonant occurs at the initial, medial, or final position in a word: at initial e.g.

Table 1a :
Students responses on 'listen'

Table 2a :
Students responses on 'principal'

Table 21 :
How many times do you teach pronunciation in a week?

Table 23
shows that half of the respondents answered that the students have English textbooks while the other half responded that the students do not have English textbook.

Table 27 :
In teaching words with silent letters what method do you use?
table 6b and table 2b of the teachers' side majority of them pronounced the word correctly.This indicates that teachers proficiency can affect the students pronunciation.Do Modern Techniques of Teaching Pronunciation Affect Students Pronunciation?Responses from the teacher's questionnaire indicate that in table21shows that majority of the teachers teach pronunciation only once in a week (62.5%).In table 22 all the teachers showed that they do involve their students while teaching.In table 23, the teachers equalised that some other students had English textbooks while others had not; in table 24 shows that most of the teachers do not use educational games/simulations which are applicable to teaching English.In table 25 shows that only 50% of the respondents use all the techniques listed when teaching pronunciation and in table 26 majority of them (75%) do not use a tape recorded activity when teaching pronunciation.Finally in table 27 only 12.5% of the respondents (one teacher only) used all the techniques when teaching words with silent letters.
CONCLUSION: SUMMARY OF KEY FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS