AFFECTIVE HINDRANCES IN THE ACHIEVEMENT OF COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE AMONGST YEAR ONE NIGERIA CERTIFICATE IN EDUCATION STUDENTS, OWERRI

Abstract

The substantive one hundred level in the Nigeria Certificate in Education, NCE are students to read courses streamlined by the National Commission for Colleges of Education, NCCE that for a period of three years.  These students are confronted not only with academic challenges but also affective nuances. Competence in English Language is a sine qua non for students’ success because of the exacting demands of higher education in the college. The nagging problems in this paper, are the hindrances that affect students to achieve their communicative competence. Three research questions guided the study.  Conversation Linguistic Theory was used to discuss and unearth some communicative issues thereby giving more insight to the study.  A correlation survey was a design with a population of 200 students and a sample size of 60.  Level of Affective Filters Questionnaire (LAFQ) was used as a tool for data collection.  Descriptive statistics guided in the data analysis. The results of the study show that affective hindrances rated high. While Communicative competences like General English (GS 101), construction of simple sentences without mixing Broken English, or code-mixing with Igbo language as their LI, effective communication is equally problematic.  In conclusion, the high rate of affective hindrances has negative effects on the Year one NCE Students from being communicatively competent. Recommendations on reducing affective filters to their barest minimum were highlighted.