Factors Associated with Mass Failure of Student in English Language
ABSTRACT
The study was conducted to investigate factors associated with mass failure of students in English language in senior secondary schools in Uyo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. In assessing this, three research questions were formulated based on the purpose of the study. The population of the study was 2103 senior secondary two (SS2) students from 11 public secondary schools.
Questionnaire on factors associated with poor students performance in English language was the instrument of data collection. Data collected were analyzed using simple percentage and mean. Findings showed that large class size, poor school environment and lack of utilization of instructional materials are those factors associated with mass failure of students in English language in senior secondary schools in Uyo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.
Based on the findings, it was recommended that the government should employ and post more English language teachers, construct more classroom blocks and provide relevant materials for secondary schools in Uyo Local Government Area to help in promoting effective teaching and learning of English language.
Factors Associated with Mass Failure of Student in English Language
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
English Language is said to be a human specific mode of expressing thought, ideas and wishes through verbal (that is spoken) and non-verbal (written) symbol. This definition reiterates that English Language necessarily serves humans in a multitude of ways. English Language is said to have a great impact on the cognitive development of man, (that is man is able to express his thought and views through language).
It is a well established fact that English Language came into Nigeria through colonization centuries ago and three main groups of people emerged from this contact of English with the indigenous languages of Nigeria, they are: the British, the new Nigerian elites trained in Britain and the native indigenous population trained in Nigeria. Similarly, English Language has established itself firmly in Nigeria thus; its importance cannot be over emphasized.
Apart from being an official language, it is the robe that ties members of the different speech communities together in inter-communication relationship. It is a common instrument that draws on socio-cultural identification.
Furthermore, in view of the importance of English language in Nigeria, the National universities Commission (NUC) adopted a policy and made English Language a compulsory subject for students to be eligible for admission into any university and other higher institutions of learning. Secondary school students must pass English Language at credit or distinction level in order to gain admission into higher institutions. Given the importance of English Language as a subject, common sense demands that students must perform well in it.
For some years now, quite a number of factors have been revealed as being responsible for students’ performance in junior and senior secondary schools certificate examinations (JSSCE and WASSCE). According to Oladiran (2000), ambiguous curriculum in most cases fails to realistically address the needs of students’ performance in English Language. While parents are blaming examination bodies for the decline in students’ poor performance, examination bodies are also blaming unseriousness on the part of the students for the mass failure.
Factors Associated with Mass Failure of Student in English Language
Meanwhile, students are saying that examination bodies intentionally fail them. Looking at students’ failure rate in the past years, one could allude the downward trends to many factors. Adejimola (2007) is of the opinion that many of our schools are poorly equipped; some do not have libraries, laboratories and conducive classrooms.
Ofogebu (2012) asserted that the poor performance is attributed to family background amongst other variables that is related to the home environment. Also, teaching equipment such as chalkboard, chalk and textbooks are lacking in some public schools. These inadequacies have a way of influencing English Language students’ performance.
Factors Associated with Mass Failure of Student in English Language
Moreover, Shittu (2004: 90) had earlier observed that students’ performance depends a lot on the socio-economic background of the child. The Ministry of Education on their part does not employ qualified teachers non post qualified teachers to schools. Umoh (2008) also noted that some of the staff of these examination bodies is not men and women of proven integrity, some of them leak examination questions.
This apart, staffing in most examination bodies is inadequate and so the resort to recruitment of supervisors and invigilators who do not share the same aspirations as their employers. He further concluded that this discourages students in performing well in English Language in secondary schools
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Scholars and researchers generally are in agreement that students’ performance in English Language is very poor and have presented several factors associated with the mass failure of students in secondary schools certificate examinations such as West African Certificate Examinations (WACE), National Examination Council (NECO) amongst others. The goal of WAEC is to be a world class examination body.
It is also aimed at maintaining internationally accepted procedures for examinations by providing qualitative and reliable educational assessment. Despite the efforts of WAEC officials and other bodies at improving the quality of students’ performance, there has been a noticeable decline in the performance of students in English Language and other subjects. Okoye (1999:12) observes that the high rates of failure noticed yearly in public examinations are only symptoms of a pervasive national failure syndrome.
It has also observed that most teachers lack the right attitude to work, experience and are sometimes overloaded in terms of students’ population. They believed that these deficiencies contribute significantly to the growing rate of failure of students in English Language. These trigger the researcher to investigate the factors associated with mass failure of students in English Language in senior secondary school in Uyo Local Government area and to proffer solutions to these problems so as to better the performance of students in English Language in certificate examination.
Factors Associated with Mass Failure of Student in English Language
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The main purpose of this study was to identify the factors associated with mass failure of students in English Language in senior secondary schools in Uyo Local Government Area. Specifically, the study intends to:
- Investigate into class size and its influence on the performance of students in English Language in senior secondary schools;
- examine school environment and students’ performance in English Language in senior secondary school and
- find out the extent to which instructional materials utilization influences student’s performance in English language in senior secondary schools in Uyo Local Government Area.
1.4 Significance of the Study
The findings of this study shall be significant in the following ways:
- The findings of this study will enable teachers to appreciate the effect of method of teaching, strategies and the selection of appropriate instructional materials in motivating the students during the teaching learning process.
- It is hoped that the outcome of the study will help the Ministry of Education (M.O.E) and school administrators to reassess the importance of instructional materials and at the same time make it as a law for all teachers of English Language to start using instructional materials in teaching.
- It will assist the curriculum planners to put in place those missing links in the use of instructional materials and fill i8n the gap during curriculum planning.
- It will serve as a reference material for future researchers on related topic.
- If this is achieves, there will be a better performance in English Language and in all the subjects offered in secondary schools.
1.5 Research Questions
In order to achieve the objectives of this study, the following questions were formulated to guide the study
- To what extent does class size affect student’s performance in English Language in senior secondary schools?
- To what extent does school environment affect students’ performance in English Language in senior secondary schools?
- To what extent does instructional materials utilization influence students’ performance in senior secondary schools?
Factors Associated with Mass Failure of Student in English Language
1.6 Scope of the study
Since all the secondary schools in Uyo local government area could not be covered, the study only considered some selected secondary schools in Uyo local Government Area. This means that the findings made cannot be generalized beyond the study area.
1.7 Limitation of the Study
The study was faced with certain limitations such as inadequate finance, insufficient research information on the topic of the research, time and the distance to the research area during the period of the research.
Based on this, and many others, the research was limited to factors associated with mass failure of students in English Language Certificate Examinations in Uyo Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State.
Factors Associated with Mass Failure of Student in English Language
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
In this chapter, literature was reviewed under the following sub-headings:
2.1 The Concept of English language in Nigeria
2.2 Class size and students performance
2.3 Effect of school environment on students performance
2.4 The impact of instructional materials on students’ performance
2.5 Summary of Literature Review
Factors Associated with Mass Failure of Student in English Language
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter focused on the procedure adopted in carrying out this study. It focused on research area, design, and population of the study, sample and sampling technique, instrument for data collection, validation of instrument, administration of the instrument as well as method of data analysis.
3.2 Research Design
Survey research design was adopted for the study. This was seen to be appropriate since the study aims at obtaining information which can be analyzed and findings extracted as well as making comparisons. Also, because the study aimed at obtaining information from a representative selection of the population and from that sample will then be able to present the findings as being representative of the population as a whole. In this study, all the respondents will be asked the same questions as far as possible in the same circumstances through the questionnaires.
3.3 Population of the Study
The population of the study consisted of all senior secondary two (SS2) students in all the public secondary schools and their English Language teachers in Uyo Local Government Area. The population was 2103 in eleven public secondary schools in Uyo Local Government Area.
Factors Associated with Mass Failure of Student in English Language
3.4 Sample and Sampling Technique
The simple random sampling technique was adopted to select the sample size of 200 respondents from four schools. This procedure ensured that all the students had equal chances of being selected for the study.
3.5 Instrument for Data Collection
The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire entitled “Questionnaire on Factors Associated with Poor Students Performance in English Language (QFAPSPEL)”. The instrument was divided into two sections A and B, section A consisted of demographic information of the respondents while section B consisted of 15-itemed statements based on a “YES” or “NO” responds.
The questionnaire is seen appropriate as the instrument for data collection since the research focused on people agreement to existing factors that affect the performance of students in English Language. These factors as used in the study include school environment and instructional materials utilization.
Factors Associated with Mass Failure of Student in English Language
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This chapter deals with the summary of the whole research, conclusion and recommendations made by the research based on the findings of the study.
5.1 Summary
The research study was on factors associated with mass failure of students in English language in senior secondary schools in Uyo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. In assessing this, attempt were made to point out the background to the study, statement of thee problems and also purpose of the study to guide the study.
Three research questions were stated based on the purpose of the study. The population of the study was 2103 senior secondary two (SS2) students from 11 public secondary schools in Uyo Local Government Area. The sample size was 200 senior secondary two students from 4 public secondary schools. A questionnaire titled “Questionnaire on Factors Associated with Poor Students Performance in English Language (QFAPSPEL)”.
The data collected were statistically analyzed using simple percentage and mean in the line with the items in the questionnaire. Findings showed that large class size, poor school environment and lack of utilization of instructional materials are those factors associated with mass failure of students in English language in senior secondary schools in Uyo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.
Factors Associated with Mass Failure of Student in English Language
5.2 Conclusion
The study effectively reviewed factors associated with mass failure of students in English language in senior secondary schools in Uyo Local Government Area. The responses of some students were closely examined so as to arrive at a conclusion. The result showed that there are several factors associated with mass failure of students in English language in senior secondary schools in Uyo Local Government Area.
These factors as indentified in this research include class size, school environment and instructional materials utilization influences students performance in English language in secondary schools in Uyo Local Government Area. The result also revealed that large class size restrict students participation and teachers movement during lesson delivery, lack of qualified teachers, textbooks and well ventilated classroom discourages learning of English language.
Also that English language textbooks and relevant instructional materials utilization increases retention of learnt concepts by students which directly increases the performance of students in English language in secondary schools in Uyo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.
5.3 Recommendations
Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations were made by the research:
- The government should employ and post more English language teachers to secondary schools in Uyo Local Government Area in order to reduce the large class size.
- There should be construction of more classrooms block by the government to create a good and conducive teaching and learning environment.
- The school libraries should be stocked with relevant textbooks and journals on various subjects to improve students attention and encourage their reading interest.
- Teaching English with relevant instructional materials should be emphasized in the primary and secondary schools in order to prepare the students for the learning task ahead of them.
- Teachers should adopt effective teaching method during English language lesson delivery in secondary schools.
- English language students should participate actively in class in order to promote effective learning thereby reducing mass failure in English language in secondary schools.
Factors Associated with Mass Failure of Student in English Language
