SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS FAILURE IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE

1.1 Introduction

English is a language of the people of England. It originates from the Jute, Angles and Saxon, who are the early settlers in Britain. It is part of the Germanic branch of the Indo European language family. At the initial state, English was confined to Britain alone. Later, it grew wide within the British Empire as a Prestigious Core Language among all other European languages in the upper classes of London, Oxford, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Cambridge and England. It further developed and got to other people of the world. It spread to Asia, Germany, Africa and other continents as a Native Language, Second Language or Foreign Language. Progressively, English Language has spread virtually all over the world.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

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1.2 Background of Study

In Nigeria, English language is a second language and a lingua franca. This means that it is the language for unit, communication economy, national pride, law, press, trade and instruction. As a language of instruction, it is an essential prerequisite for an advancement and career succession in the country. It means a lot in the life and progress of a child as it is a key subject with profound influence on all the school subjects. The English Language is used in the Junior Secondary Schools as core school subject. It is a solid foundational course. The key elements of the course are designed to cover the basic four language skills, which are listening, reading, speaking and writing. It is expected that after learning these skills in Junior Secondary School, the students who choose to work can use the language fluently while those who wish to go further can be very proficient in the language.

There is no doubt that the main purpose of teaching is to cause learning to take place, and English language is an important factor that contributes to students achievements. Many factors are contributory to the high performance of students in English Language (Esun, 2014). Notable among the major factors, among others, that causes failure in English language examinations such as the WAECC (West African Examinations Council), the General Certificate of Education (GCE), the National Examinations Council (NECO), the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) and Internal examinations and tests in English Language in the classrooms are: the non-availability of teaching and learning facilities, poor students interests and motivation, poor teachers mastery of contents in which English is taught, low teacher-student ratio, poor school attendance, poor academic background, poor study habits, lack of concentration, ineffective memory and comprehension are largely responsible for failure in English language in Nigeria secondary schools and beyond (Owuamanam, 2017).

According to Adeoye (2015), many students in English language, do not possess interests in the subject and do not have the required motivation to study the subject in teaching and learning of English Language. For students to perform well in English both external and internal examinations, they need to put proper interest and be motivated in the subject. Adeoye (2017) submitted that, absence of interest and motivation in anything one does, is the main factors militating against teaching and learning of English Language in secondary schools. Other factors that militate against teaching and learning of English Language in secondary schools are non-mastery of what is taught in the classroom by teachers and the non-availability of teaching/learning materials in the classrooms. Most teachers according to Adeleke (2016), do not possess the proper mastery of content of the aspect of English they teach in the classrooms, coupled with the non-availability of teaching materials which help the teacher to carry out effective presentation in the classrooms. If teachers carry out effective presentation of the subject-matter in the classroom, students will learn effectively, thereby leading to their success in the classroom (Lamu, 2010).

High teacher-student ratio in English language classroom enables teachers to be in-effective in their teaching if the ratio is not as recommended by the National Policy on Education (NPC, 2018), which stipulated that, teacher-student ratio should be 1-30. The recommendation is that, for effective teaching and learning to take place, teacher-student ratio should be 1-30 in the classroom.

According to Uzor (2014), when teacher-student ratio is low or moderate, it results to high academic achievement of students. In another development, Osarenren (2013), is of the opinion that, good school attendance, and effective study habits are pluses to the examination success of students in English language. For Osarenren (2013), if students attend their English language classes regularly and listen with rapt attention, they will obviously put up good performance in the subject during the examinations or tests. Again, good study habits of students in the subject are a great assistance to their effectiveness needed in examinations. When students study seriously, they obviously come out in flying colours in the subject which they are examined.

Proper study-habit means effective or high academic performance in examinations in English language amongst secondary schools. Other factors that militates against teaching and learning of English Language in secondary schools include: students academic backgrounds, students home background, students socio-economic status: paying proper attention to home works taking notes during examinations; allocation time to daily activities which may interrupt effective reading or studying, drawing time table etc.

Therefore, in Oguta LGA, Imo State where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Secondary School Students Failure in English Language.

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1.3 Statement of Problems

Investigation revealed that perhaps not much attention has been given to the performance of students in junior secondary school subjects in recent years. This neglect, no doubt has relegated this junior subjects to the background in our junior secondary certificate examination. A close look at the 2004/2008 JSSCE result records, confirms that students’ performance has been very poor generally and the increase number of school dropout in the area of study is a clear pointer of theme. The poor performance is caused by many factors such as; students ineffective study techniques, quality of teachers and method of teaching, the parent’s inability to provide useful materials like textbooks, exercise books and school fees and problem of inadequate instructional materials for teaching and learning of English language in schools.

In philosophical view of these causes, this study therefore is specifically designed to assess the factors associated with mass failure of English language in junior secondary school certificate examination in Oguta local government area, Imo state.

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to examine the Secondary School Students Failure in English Language. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To find out if there are sufficient numbers of qualified English language teachers and instructional materials for teaching of English language;
2. To examine the previous socio-economic background of the students affect them in studying English language; and
3. To examine attitude and interest of students towards the nature of English language contribute deeply to their mass failure in JSSCE especially in English language.

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1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• Are there sufficient numbers of qualified English language teachers and instructional materials for teaching English language?
• Does the previous socio-economic background of the students affect them in studying English language?
• Does poor attitude and low interest of students towards the nature of English language contribute deeply to their mass failure in JSSCE especially in English language?

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1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0: There are no significant factors militating against the teaching and learning of the English language in Oguta Local Government Area Secondary Schools
• H1: There are significant factors militating against the teaching and learning of the English language in Oguta Local Government Area Secondary Schools

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1.7 Significance of Study

The student will be able to appreciate the importance of the effective domain like interest and motivation in improving their performance. With this awareness, the student might put up a positive attitude towards English language which will increase their performance and enhance higher grades in junior secondary school certificate examination.

Teachers will also be able to adjust their teaching methods and offer remedial helps where they find out that student are putting up a low attitude. State government will also see the need of guidance and counseling in each school, the ministry of education and curriculum planners for better organization of junior subjects in education.

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1.8 Scope of Study

The study focuses on the Secondary School Students Failure in English Language using Oguta Local Government Area, Imo State as a case study.

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1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
3. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
4. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

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1.10 Definition of Terms

English language: English is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in early medieval England and is now a global lingua franca.

Academic Performance: can be defined as the outcome of education, the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has achieved their educational goal. Academic achievement is commonly measured by examination or continuous assessment.