Impact of Psychological Well-Being on the Vocabulary Acquisition Level of Nigerian Adolescents Learning French Language in Rural Settings

Abstract

There is now clearer recognition that, in a country as culturally and linguistically diverse as Nigeria, specific attention must be paid to the mental readiness of learners especially in acquiring language different from their first language or lingua franca such as French language. Vocabulary acquisition is part of the psychology of foreign language learning that has received short shrift from applied linguistics, and has been very largely neglected by recent developments in research. This study therefore examined the impact of psychological well-being on the vocabulary acquisition level of Nigerian adolescents learning French language in rural settings. Survey research design was adopted in this study. Sixty eight students from fourteen secondary schools were randomly selected for this study with age range 15 to 18 years. They were made up of 38 males representing 52.9% and 30 females representing 47.1%. Out of this sample 42% were in SS1, 36% in SS2 and 22% in SS3.  All these students had French language as one of subjects they were taking in school. These schools were located in rural areas in Ogun and Oyo states, Southwest Nigeria. A questionnaire was developed to measure students’ psychological well being while cloze test was used to measure vocabulary acquisition level. The two instruments yielded 0.78, and 0.76 test-retest reliability respectively with 0, 64 Cronbach Alpha for Psychological well being measure and 0.66 for cloze test. The findings revealed low level of performance in the five subscales of Psychological Well being Measure, self-acceptance, quality ties to other, autonomy in thought and action, the ability to manage complex environments to suit personal needs and values, the pursuit of meaningful goals and a sense of purpose in life and continued growth and development as a person.  The study equally reported low level of vocabulary acquisition of French language across all the levels.  A significant impact of psychological wellbeing on the vocabulary acquisition of French language was found at r=0.62, adj r²=0.59 and f_(1,66)= 48.26, p<0.05. It was concluded that improved psychological wellbeing will definitely leads to high level of vocabulary acquisition of French language among students even in rural areas. It was recommended that health-promoting factors for maintaining good health should be strengthened in learners for positive learning outcomes.