EFFECTS OF DIGITAL MEDIA ON THE ACQUISITION OF LINGUISTIC COMPETENCY: THE USE OF ARTICLE BY UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN FULAFIA AND IBBUL

Abstract

French as a language has good grammatical structure and linguistic pattern that requires adherence 
to achieve effective communication. Non-adherence to this structure often leads to grammatical errors 
and complication in interpretation. This research aims at determining how digital resources used as 
instructional materials can affect the use of articles in French. The study adopts a mixed-method 
explanatory sequential design with a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group structure. A 
sample size of 48 undergraduate FLE students, including 7 males (14.6%) and 41 females (85.4%) 
from Federal University of Lafia (FULafia) and Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida University, Lapai 
(IBBUL) were selected for case study.  Pretest writing scores indicate moderate baseline proficiency 
in the correct use of articles with a degree of error of 40.38%, while the effect of instructional group 
was statistically significant (F (1, 45) = 16.42, p < .001), with a large effect size (partial η² = .26). 
This indicates that 26% of the variance in posttest writing performance in the correct use of French 
articles can be attributed to the use of digital media as instructional materials, independent of prior 
writing ability. These findings indicate that the degree of errors in the correct use of French articles 
is significant and that digital media used as instructional materials have positive effects on the choice 
of lexical diversity and grammatical accuracy at both articulatory and expressive levels. It is therefore 
recommended that increased exposure to digital instructional materials be encouraged due to its 
association with improved lexical diversity and grammatical accuracy and that teachers should ensure 
digital engagement and usage intensity in order to improve writing development outcomes among 
learners of French.