Abstract:The focus of this study is to investigate family functioning on family quality of life among college students. The study used three scales, the family functioning scale (FFS) with 20 items, Family Quality of Life scale (FQOL) with 16 items and Perpetual Indicators of Family Life Quality with 35 items. A total of 150 undergraduate students participated in the study with age range of 18-52 years. The study sample was made up of 75 (50%) males and 75 (50%) females’ participants. Data was collected in a classroom setting during class time in fall 2018 in a university college. The findings indicate that participants with dissatisfied life and those concerned financially scored lower on family functioning than those satisfied financially and satisfied with life. Also participants with low social support and concerned financially scored lower on perceptual indicators of family life quality than those with high social support and financially satisfaction. Finally, participants with low social support and those concerned financially scored lower on family quality of life than those with high social support and financial satisfaction.
Keywords:Family-functioning, social-support, family, quality-of-life, perceptual-indicators.

Abstract:Provision, adequacy, utilization and management of educational facilities largely determine the quality and standards of education offered in a school yet there has been tremendous growth in students’ population without corresponding growth in number of facilities as a result of economic depression and corresponding rise in education cost. This has put much pressure on the existing facilities, thus it appears school facilities have been forced to depreciate faster than their normal rate of depreciation. The purpose of this study was to examine the contributions of principals on school building management. Specific objective of the study was to determine the contributions of principals on school machinery and equipment management. This study was anchored on Total Quality Management Theory. A review of literature on the contributions of the Principal on school plant management was done in line with the study objectives. The study adopted concurrent triangulation within a mixed method approach. The target population was 176 respondents; 35 principals, 35 deputy principals, 35 boarding/senior masters, 35 Parents Association Chairpersons, 35 Board of Management Chairpersons and 1 Sub-County Quality Assurance and Standards Officer totaling to 176 respondents. Saturated sampling technique was used to sample 31 principals, 31 deputy principals, 31 Boarding/Senior Masters, 31 Parents Association Chairpersons, 31 Board of Management Chairpersons, and 1 Quality Assurance and Standards Officer totaling to 156. Data collection instruments were questionnaires and interview schedule. Face validity of the instruments was determined and ascertained by experts in the faculty of education, department of curriculum and education management while 4 schools from the sub-county were used for pilot study to determine reliability of the data collection instruments. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency counts, percentages and means. Qualitative data was transcribed, put into various categories and reported in an on-going process as themes and sub-themes emerged. The study found out that Principals contribute to school building management by ensuring proper supervision of the buildings and ensuring appropriate repairs are done; by ensuring approved physical plans are available in the schools where they work and by organizing budget which includes school maintenance. The study reported challenges in school plant management such as Poor Planning by some Principals, Principals’ Lack of technical skills in the school plant management, inadequate time for supervision by school principals, poorly trained personnel to manage school plant, Poor maintenance of school facilities by school principals, High cost of maintenance of the school plant, Careless and Destructive Students in schools and Insufficient Funds in schools. It was recommended that the Ministry of Education in Kenya should enact regular in-service courses for School Board of Management Chairpersons on the management of school plant. This would make school Board of Management to be updated on best ways of management of school plant and utilization of machinery.
Keywords:Investigation, Contributions Plant Management.

Abstract:Oral skills in English are taught and examined in Kenyan secondary schools with the purpose of developing fluency and accuracy in speech communication. However, majority of students do not attain intelligibility at the close of their study. Oral skills are examined in paper one of the English language exam though in written form. In 2016 the students scored a mean of 29.15 in the paper. In 2017, the students scored 25.89 indicating a decline of 3.26 points. This shows that not many secondary school students in Kenya are competent in oral skills in the English language. English is a second language to Kenyan students after their mother tongue. They develop its competence through learning it in the classroom context. The objective of the study was to determine the pedagogical challenges involved in the teaching and learning of content of oral skills. The study attempted to explain the challenges involved in teaching and learning of oral skills in English language which could be of help to curriculum developers, teachers of English, students and future researchers. The study was confined to the pedagogical challenges that are involved in the teaching and learning of oral skills in English in relation to teaching content, teaching construct and teaching context. The theoretical framework on which the study was based was the socio-cultural- constructivism theory. This theory is relevant to the acquisition of oral skills in the classroom where both the teacher and the learner actively participate in the learning process. The study was done in Kisumu East Sub- county with a population of 4021 students and 47 teachers of English. Data was collected from 295 students and 35 teachers a total of 330 participants through the use of Krejcie & Morgan (1970) table of determining sample.  The study employed concurrent triangulation design with mixed methods approach. Questionnaires, unstructured interview schedules and observation schedules were used to collect and analyze data concurrently. The quantitative data was summarized using descriptive statistics and presented using tables, pie charts and bar graphs while qualitative data was put under themes and presented in verbatim and narratives. Analyzed data were then merged for presentation and discussions. The study established that there were pedagogical challenges in the teaching and learning of oral skills in English in relation to teaching content, teaching construct and teaching context. The study therefore recommended that the curriculum developers need to come up with comprehensive teaching and learning materials that would help both the teachers and the students to succeed in teaching and learning content of oral skills in English. Textbooks should be more comprehensive in oral drills exercises. English aural exams should be introduced in the curriculum as done in other foreign languages like French and Germany. All the stakeholders should be committed and work together for the success of oral skills acquisition in school.

Abstract:Oral skills in English are taught and examined in Kenyan secondary schools with the purpose of developing fluency and accuracy in speech communication. However, majority of students do not attain intelligibility at the close of their study. Oral skills are examined in paper one of the English language exam though in written form. In 2016 the students scored a mean of 29.15 in the paper. In 2017, the students scored 25.89 indicating a decline of 3.26 points. This shows that not many secondary school students in Kenya are competent in oral skills in the English language. English is a second language to Kenyan students after their mother tongue. They develop its competence through learning it in the classroom context. The objective of the study was to establish the challenges of teaching constructs. The study attempted to explain the challenges involved in teaching and learning of oral skills in English language which could be of help to curriculum developers, teachers of English, students and future researchers. The study was confined to the pedagogical challenges that are involved in the teaching and learning of oral skills in English in relation to teaching content, teaching construct and teaching context. The theoretical framework on which the study was based was the socio-cultural- constructivism theory. This theory is relevant to the acquisition of oral skills in the classroom where both the teacher and the learner actively participate in the learning process. The study was done in Kisumu East Sub- county with a population of 4021 students and 47 teachers of English. Data was collected from 295 students and 35 teachers a total of 330 participants through the use of Krejcie & Morgan (1970) table of determining sample.  The study employed concurrent triangulation design with mixed methods approach. Questionnaires, unstructured interview schedules and observation schedules were used to collect and analyze data concurrently. The quantitative data was summarized using descriptive statistics and presented using tables, pie charts and bar graphs while qualitative data was put under themes and presented in verbatim and narratives. Analyzed data were then merged for presentation and discussions. The study established that there were pedagogical challenges in the teaching and learning of oral skills in English in relation to teaching content, teaching construct and teaching context. The study therefore recommended that the curriculum developers need to come up with comprehensive teaching and learning materials that would help both the teachers and the students to succeed in teaching and learning content of oral skills in English. Textbooks should be more comprehensive in oral drills exercises. English aural exams should be introduced in the curriculum as done in other foreign languages like French and Germany. All the stakeholders should be committed and work together for the success of oral skills acquisition in school.
Keywords:Pedagogical Challenges; Oral Skills in English.

Abstract:The study investigated the extent to which language skills predicts academic performance of female and male students in public secondary schools in Rivers State, Nigeria. The predictive correlational research design was used for the study with a sample of 230 secondary school students drawn using stratified random sampling techniques. An instrument titled English Language Skills Scales was used for data collection, while students’ school-based performance in English Language and Mathematics were used for assessing their academic performance. The ELSS had an alpha coefficient of 0.82. For answering the research questions, simple linear regression was used, while the hypotheses were tested using ANOVA associated with linear regression. Result from the study showed that while written language and reading comprehension skills had significant predictions on the academic performance of both female and male students, spoken language skills only had significant prediction for female, but not for male students. Based on the results, appropriate recommendations were made.
Keywords:Language Skills, English Language, Academic Performance.

Title:LANGUAGE SKILLS AS PREDICTORS OF ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN NIGERIA
Author:ORLUWENE, GOODNESS WOBIHIELE (Ph.D.), UDECHUKWU, JONATHAN (Ph.D.), EKAWU, ANTHONY ODEY
ISSN 2394-9694
International Journal of Novel Research in Humanity and Social Sciences
Novelty Journals

Abstract:English and Chinese are radically different languages and belong to the different language’s groups. We see a distinction in the following grammatical segments: alphabet, phonology, spoken language, vocabulary, grammar, word sequence.  Chinese is a language with tones, which make Chinese language expressiveness and give musical sound. In English, however, this is not a problem and the tone does not change the meaning of the word.
The translation of Chinese idioms into English and vice versa is one of the important topics of translation practice. There are quite a lot scientific papers on this topic, where are many practical examples that will help us to solve important problems during translation. According to the different cultures of two countries, many researchers feel that translating idioms is associated with the great difficulty. If we just follow the literal translation method, the metaphorical meaning of idioms will be lost. Despite our knowledge of the theoretical and practical aspects of translation, unless we know the characteristics and elements of English-Chinese to an appropriate level, it is still very difficult to create the equivalent of idiomatic expressions in any other languages.Thus, the translators work really hard to know how to use the proper methods to translate the exact meanings of English and Chinese idioms.
Keywords:English and Chinese Idioms; Free Translation Method; LiteralTranslation; Translating Methods; Translation Practice; Metaphorical Meaning.

Abstract:The contribution of new technology to economic growth can only be realized when and if the new technology is widely diffused and used. Diffusion itself results from a series of individual decisions to begin using the new technology, decisions which are often the result of a comparison of the uncertain benefits of the new invention with the uncertain costs of adopting it. An understanding of the factors affecting this choice is essential both for economists studying the determinants of growth and for the generators and disseminators of such technologies. The study was to determine the factors affecting farmer’s adoption of improved agricultural innovation in Welmera district western part of Oromia regional state Ethiopia. Non replaceable lottery method and proportional to size sampling techniques were employed for the selection of 130 respondents; structural questionnaires and group discussion were used. Data were analyzed using Statistical tests like chi-square, t-test, one way ANOVA and econometric model Tobit was used to identify the effect of the hypothesized variables on the dependent variable . The result of the econometric model indicated that educational level of respondent, total land holding, accesses to research and access to extension were found significant to influence adoption of improved potato production packages. The mean average age of sample respondent was 45-54. The independent t-test result shows that there was no significant difference between adopter categories in terms of age to the adoption of improved potato technology (t=1.747, p 0.991). From the sample household heads 13.85% of respondent farmers are illiterate and the remaining 86.15% are educated. Majority of high adopters have been educated from grade 5 to 10 Chi-square test also shows the significant difference between adopter categories of improved potato technologies (χ2=17.25a, P=0.004). It is time to look participatory extension approach which invites different stakeholders. FRG approach contributed significant role in the diffusion and adoption of agricultural innovations.
Keywords:Agricultural new technology, adoption, Farmers Research Group.