CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Over the years, divergent views
have been expressed as to the falling standard of education in the country.
This view has been attributed partly to the woeful performance of the students
with particular reference to junior secondary school certificate examination.
English studies assert the need to inculcate in our youths, the essential
knowledge, skills and attitude in the discipline. In all educational system,
teacher's performance is one of the handful factors that determine the
effectiveness and learning outcomes. Mohanty (2003)explain that teacher's performance as the most
crucial input in the field of education. Teachers are perhaps the most critical
components of any system of education. How they teach depends on motivation,
qualification, aptitude, training, experience etc.
Rockoff (2004), Motivation is a
psychological feature that induces an organism to act towards a desired goal
and elicits, controls, and sustains certain goal-directed behaviors. It can be
considered a driving force; a psychological one that compels or reinforces an
action toward a desired goal. For example, hunger is a motivation that elicits
a desire to eat. Motivation is the purpose or psychological cause of an action.
Motivation has been shown to have roots in physiological, behavioral,
cognitive, and social areas. Motivation may be rooted in a basic impulse to
optimize well-being, minimize physical pain and maximize pleasure. It can also
originate from specific physical needs such as eating, sleeping, resting and
sex. Rivkin, Hanushek, and Kain (2005), using a unique matched panel data from
the UTD Texas Schools Project, also find that Motivation s an inner drive to
behave or act in a certain manner. "It's the difference between waking up
before dawn to pound the pavement and lazing around the house all day."
These inner conditions such as wishes, desires and goals, activate to move in a
particular direction in behavior Muralidharan
and Sundararaman (2006)
Qualification Capacity,
knowledge, or skill that matches or suits an occasion, or makes someone
eligible for a duty, office, position, privilege or status. Qualification
denotes fitness for purpose through fulfillment of necessary conditions such as
attainment of a certain age, taking of an oath, completion of required schooling or training, or
acquisition of a degree or diploma.
Qualification does not necessarily
imply competence. In the UK education sector, there are a wide range of
qualification types offered by the United Kingdoms awarding bodies. Qualifications range in size and type, can be
academic, vocational or skills-related, and are grouped together into different
levels of difficulty. Qualifications are grouped together into different
levels. Each level corresponds to a particular qualification's degree of
difficulty. However, qualifications within any one level can cover a huge range of subjects and take
different amounts of time to complete.
Lavyand Paserman (2004) an aptitude is a component of a
competency to do a certain kind of work at a certain level, which can also be
considered Aptitudes may be physical or mental. Aptitude is not knowledge,
Minding, learned or acquired abilities (skills) or attitude. The innate nature
of aptitude is in contrast to
achievement, which represents knowledge or ability that is
gained a standardized test designed to measure
the ability of a person to develop skills or acquire
knowledge.
Lavy (2002) also use this
"natural experiment" approach training is the acquisition of
knowledge, skills, and competencies as a result of the teaching of vocational
or practical skills and knowledge that relate to useful competencies. Training
has specific goals of improving one’s capacity, productivity and performance. It
forms the core of apprenticeships and provides the backbone of content at
institutes of (also known as technical colleges or polytechnics). In addition
training required for a trade, occupation or profession, of the labor-market
recognize as of 2008 the need to continue Training beyond initial qualifications: to maintain, upgrade
and update skills throughout working life.
People within many
professions and occupation may
refer to this sort of training as professional development. (2001) Training is an educational process.
People can learn new information re-learn and reinforce existing knowledge and
skills, and most importantly have time to think and consider what new options
can improve their effectiveness at work. Effective trainings convey relevant
and useful information that inform participants and develop skills and
behaviours that can be transferred back to the workplace.
Baumgardner (1993:43) said
Experience comprises knowledge of or skill g or some event gained through
involvement in or exposure to that thing or event. The history of the word experience aligns it closely with the concept of experiment. For example, the word
experience could in a statement like: "I have experience in fishing".
The concept of tee generally refers to know-how or procedural knowledge, rather
propositional knowledge: on-the-job training rather than book-learning.
philosophers dub knowledge based on experience "empirical knowledge” or “a
posteriori knowledge “. The interrogation of experience has a long
tradition in continental philosophy. Experience plays an important role
in the philosophy of Sren Kierkegaard. The German term Erfahrung, often translated into English as
"experience", has a slightly different implication, connoting the
coherency of life's experiences. A person with considerable experience in a
specific field can gain a reputation as an expert. Experience refers to the nature of the events someone or
something has undergone. Experience is what is happening to us all the time -
as we long we exist (Yadved and
Singh, 1988).
Teaching is no doubt one of the
most wonderful, challenging and rewarding careers in the universe and of course
has been described as the noblest of all professions. The key role of a teacher
is to teach the students and to ensure mat they are learning through the
various teaching skills which abound especially in the present day classroom
situations. The task of teaching is simply too important, complex and
challenging to be left in
the hands of individuals who are not well equipped and knowledgeable to fully
help the students acquire knowledge, skill and application by means of
systematic method of instruction.
The process of teaching the
learners is to provide meaningful experience or accommodate individual learning
styles. Success in teaching depends on the teacher ability to provide positive
reinforcement, maintain appropriate discipline, inspire interest in the subject
matter, present and existing challenging lesson, use of appropriate logic,
diction and a pleasant tone of voice, exhibit warmth and humour, and provide
rightful and cheerful classroom.Unfortunately, English studies is at present in
an unfavourable teaching and learning condition in the secondary schools which
are expected to generate adequate number of independent Nigerian citizen and
self reliance in the country. This poor performance has been attributed to a
number of factors, among which is laxity on the part of the teacher, poor
quality of teaching are among the noticeable problems which remained a major
challenge to the teacher's poor performance in the discipline.
Most of the studies which have been
carried out on the teaching of English studies confirm the deteriorating
condition of learner's poor performance in English studies examination. In addition,
English studies have not been able to win adequate number of adherents.
All have pointed to a number of
human, materials and financial problems which are clogs in the wheel of
students progress in the learning identifiable problems facing effective
teaching of English studies at the dearth of professionally qualified and
dedicated teachers in the classrooms, inadequate and ineffective use of
instructional materials, lack of appropriate and easily affordable textbooks,
inadequate time task and gross negligence of field survey in the discipline.
Eminent scholars of English studies
Lavy (2002), Rivkin, Hanushek, and Kain (2005), Jacob and Lefgren (2004). Have
consequently called for a radical change in English studies objective in
English objectives, content and the methodology, teacher cannot afford to
ignore the factors of effective teaching and teaching begins where the learners
are adequately prepared.
It is therefore becoming
increasingly important of immediate need to engage in a challenging and high
quality instruction strategy to improve the level of student's performance in
teaching and learning process. An effective teacher English study should be
seen not only as an organizer of learning but as someone who is capable of
contributing to the development of the society. Nevertheless, it is an
acceptable thinking of the society that the role of English studies is to build
an independent Nigerian citizen and to build self reliance in our society.
All developing nations are aware of
the fact that learning a English language is of vital importance in order to
adopt the latest scientific and technological innovations in the word; and are
determined to establish a system in which while evaluating the human resources
available in their countries, those who have a good command a English language
have great advantage over the ones who do not Council of Europe (2001).
Undoubtedly, English has become a
world language rather than the language of only the English speaking countries
such as the UK and the USA because the number of the people who use English as
a means of communication exceeds much more than the number of the people who
speak it as their mother tongue. Hence, in Nigeria generally, English is used
as a common language to contact the people in other countries, and thousands of
people belonging to various professional groups are going abroad (either with
the support of some institutions or not) or learning English in some language
courses in Nigeria. Moreover, most academicians prefer small private groups
aiming at preparing for such specific proficiency exams. When the numbers of
the people who need to learn English to take these exams are considered, it is
safe to infer that it is quite wise to develop certain strategies in designing
some specific proficiency exam-based English courses (Benson, 200; Camilleri, (2010). For this aim to be
achieved there is need to improve the teaching effectiveness of this course,
and this can be made possible through effective and efficient relationship
between teachers' performance and the learners.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Students especially those studying
English Language in most Schools fail in this subject area due to some reasons.
Such reasons include the attitudes f their parents, teachers, students themselves,
the people in the society and the government at times. While the learning
failure rate is disturbing, it brings about serious concern to most parents and
education state holders. Apart from academic disturbance which students
that fail subject face in terms of progress to higher institutions,
incompetency in English language undoubtedly affect the expressions of students
in this official language in their endeavors. The study therefore examined the
factors militating against teachers performance in English language in
secondary school with the hope that recommendations towards solving the
problems of academic laxity will be proffered. Problematic teachers present one
of the toughest challenges school principal may ever face. Poor performing
teachers not only, do not provide the expected results, but their negative
behaviour may distract others from doing their work and reduces teacher's
credibility.
1.3 Purpose of the
Study
The principle aim of this study is
to assess the factors militating against performance in English language
secondary school in Ijebu Ode as following objectives were set up;
Objective of the Research
(i) To
identify the factors responsible for poor teaching of English language in
secondary schools
(ii) To assess the role of teachers motivation of effectiveness in
the teaching and learning of English language.
(iii) To identify and describe in details the major factors
affecting the teaching of English language in secondary schools.
(iv) To identify some guiding principles towards optimal learning outcomes in English language.
(v) To
proffer alleviating measures to the identified problems in the study
1.4 Research
Questions
The research would provide answers
to the following research questions;-
(i) To
know if student do
well not minding the
teacher's qualification?
(ii) What are the roles of teacher
effectiveness in the teaching of English language?
(iii) What is the influence of conducive
environment on teachers' quality in teaching of English language?
(iv) What are
the interest polices
that affects the
teacher qualification in English language and solutions to the
identified the problems?
1.6 Significance of the
Study
The importance of this study was to
enhance massive improvement in teaching of English language in Nigeria
secondary schools, so as to achieve better and sustainable outcome in the
nearest future of the discipline as a course and to build an independent
Nigerian citizen through the knowledge of this course.
1.7 Scope of the Study
The scope of the study covers the
following secondary school in Ijebu-Ode;
(i) Epic international school, Ijebu-Ode
(ii) Dupmos secondary school, Ijebu-Ode
(iii) Our Lady of Apostles (private) secondary
school, Ijebu-Ode.
1.8 Operational Definition of Terms
This are the operational terms that
could be found in this research work, the meaning of some of this terms are
explain below:
Teacher: A teacher can be defined as one who is engaged by
educational institution to instruct either private or public. A teacher is
someone who has completed a minimum programme of professional teacher education
met other requirement of teaching certification.
Teaching: This is the process of developing the cognitive,
affective and psychomotor powers of the learners through giving the learners
knowledge of fact about subject matter; reinforcing, or developing the positive
attitude of the learners and also developing in the learners certain physical
or manipulative skills.
Learning; This is simply an acquisition of knowledge through a
specialized process involving the teacher and the learner in a learning
environment
Schools: These are institutions for educating learners through
giving instruction. It can also be described as a place where formal education
is being given to the learners.
Performance: A thing done
successfully, especially with effort and skill.
Militating: These are
factors that disturbed the smooth and proper running of an activity.
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