THE ROLE OF ACQUISITION IN THE SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING

1.1 Introduction

Learning English as a second language is of utmost critical, and the need to guide the educators to contribute to successful teaching seen to be a vast necessity. Second-language acquisition plays an enormous role in a person’s holistic development. It has covered the entire aspect of personal development. According to Thirusanku & Melor (2012), the history of English as a second language is intimately associated with the United Kingdom’s age of imperialism over people of various countries, such as India, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, and so forth. The importance of English as a second language has been established in order to strengthen the individual capability to communicate globally in order to achieve one’s desired task (Gill & Kirkpatrick, 2013).

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

Origin of English language: English language originated in the North Western Europe, going by the history of the English. It is therefore said to have involved from the Germanic branch of Indo-European language family. Apart from having the widest geographical spread, the indo-European language family is spoken by the greatest number of people. The language was first spoken by various tribes in Denmark and Northern Germany. Uchechukwu (2008) said that, the word English is used to denote the name of people. By the time of the Northern conquest (1066) English was the name for all the inhabitant of English.

ENEH (2008) observed that, English was the name for all the inhabitants of England. He also observed that English language is the name for all subject in Nigeria except Igbo language. This observation is a reality because since we gained independence from the British people, English has been enjoying a high status within the Nigeria society. English language is not only used in Nigeria but also has domains of usage in international levels too. Paul (2005) said that, English is flexible enough to be used for the most trivals conversation or for transacting the most important affairs of the day.

In a globally interconnected world, learning a second language is a great way to progress as students, and later on in their lives, as professionals. A psychologist identified that speaking more than one language enhances cognitive functioning and leads to numerous mental wellbeing advantages. Being bilingual has also shown to improve decision-making skills.

Learning English as a second language increases opportunities, social status, and social elasticity. It also continuously differentiates between the elite and the ostracized community (Gill & Kirkpatrick, 2013).

According to Scrase (2003), English is not only important for getting a better job, but it is present everywhere in social interaction. A person’s second language is the language that is not their mother tongue, but it is used in that person’s geographical area. Before independence, English was considered as a foreign language because it was not widely spoken in our country nor was it for general use until it reached prominence and started to be used liberally. Teaching English as a second language has become significant around the globe.

According to Abutalebi (2008), the successful learning of a second language happens mostly in the presence of the intended spoken language environment as compared to first language learning, which is acquired effortlessly. Verga and Kotz (2013) claimed that social interaction plays a major role and is a contributing factor towards the successful learning of a second language, but they failed to provide an adequate explanation of their finding. They also overlooked the finding of the study due to the technical constraints posed by interactive settings in imaging studies.

In order to advance the capability of students acquiring the necessary skills in English, every teacher who conducts lessons about any subject should not only focus on a specific subject, but continuously utilize various languages, especially English, to maximize its usage among their students.

In Nigeria, English serves several purposes that are very important to her existence. It is the lingua franca of the country and the official language in the society due to multi ethnic groups that speak different language. For this diversity of language, Nigeria needs one language that will bridge the linguistic barriers among its component states.

Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Role of Acquisition in the Second Language Learning.

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1.3 Statement of Problems

Investigation revealed that the standard of English language is rapidly a great problems to the educationist especially specialist teachers of English language. The student find it difficult to the English language as a medium of expression in many social gatherings or in their academic purposes. They make a lot of grammatical mistakes when speaking or writing English.

The issue of this problem is the concept of teachers and students due to the problems faced by students in the secondary school at the secondary school. English is not native language of Nigeria and it is not being spoken in homes. For English students, it is very difficult for English at secondary level, and students are afraid of learning English, writing and learning English.

The successful implementation of the curriculum in each of the school subjects which depends to a large extent on availability of specialist teachers in the English has led to employment of graduates from other disciplines such as mass communication to teach English language in some secondary schools. This constitutes a serious problem to the teaching and learning of English language in secondary schools.

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to examine the Role of Acquisition in the Second Language Learning. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To know if there is any problem in the time allotted to the teaching and learning of English language as a second language;
2. To ascertain the effect of shortage of specialist teachers on the teaching of English language as a second language; and
3. To find out how lack of teaching and learning material has contributed problems in the teaching and learning of 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:

• Does lack of teaching and learning material contributed to the problems the teaching and learning of English language?
• Is there any problem in the time allotted to the teaching and learning of English language as a second language?
• What is the effect of shortage of specialist teachers on the teaching of English language as a second 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 is no problem in the time allotted to the teaching and learning of English language as a second language
• H1: There is problem in the time allotted to the teaching and learning of English language as a second language

Hypothesis Two

• H0: Lack of teaching and learning material does not contribute to the problems in the teaching and learning of English language
• H1: Lack of teaching and learning material contribute to the problems in the teaching and learning of English language

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1.7 Significance of Study

The study on the problem of teaching and learning of the English as a second language in secondary school in Igbo Etiti local government area of Enugu state will help the teacher of English to know the strategies to adopt in. Improving their acquisition of skill in English language through this study too, the educational policy makers and the administration will know the resources to be provided in school so as to improve the teaching and learning of English.

This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.

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1.8 Scope of Study

The scope of the research is focused on the Role of Acquisition in the Second Language Learning in Igbo Etiti Local Government Area of Enugu State.

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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. Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this establishment to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
3. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
4. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
5. 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

Language: This can be said to be human or the communication of all creature through the structural use of word. It is also a system of symbols and rules for writing something.

Second: Learn as an imitation or learned from others.

English: It is the language of England, use in many varieties throughout the word.

Problems: It can be defined as something that is very difficult to deal with or understand.