UTILIZATION OF AUDIO RESOURCES IN THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF 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. According to Harold (1995), the teachers are to integrate the key elements of the language experiences at school. English at this stage tends to receive more critical attention. He posits that the professional English language teacher is one who has been trained or has trained himself to do a competent work. He should at least possess a college major in English or a strong minor. He must have deep interest in literature and a solid knowledge of the language skills. Moreover, he has to acquire strong skill in the handling of the instructional materials and educational problems. The emphasis here lies on training and qualification of the teachers.

The importance of instructional materials in teaching the English Language in Junior Secondary School cannot be under-estimated. It makes whatever amount of work being done at Junior Secondary School easy and fast. It promotes greater acquisition and high retention of actual knowledge. They provide increased interest and integrated experience (Eya and Ofoefuna, 1999)

Vikoo (2003) observes that the most suitable instructional materials for the effective teaching and learning of the English Language at this information age are audio resources materials. He describes the audio resources materials as the instructional system which uses the operations of the scientific and technological equipment combining both visual projections and sound productions to provide tangible experiences to learners. Some of such materials are computer assisted instruction, video – taped instruction and film shows. Baldeh (1990) states that audio resources aids have been introduced, tested and tried in the school system and found effective.

In spite of the importance of the English Language and the effectiveness of the audio resources aids in teaching English Language in Nigeria, the students’ performances are found low in the Junior Secondary Examination in Chief Examiner’s report (2006), it is stated that the students attainments in English Language have been dwindling every year while the enrolments of the candidates are astronomically increasing. Rowtree (1994) still, describes audio resources aids as the most fitted materials to aid the teachers to inculcate the language competence in students. It uses electric method to enhance learning. Yet, the results of the students are found low.

Therefore, in Oguta LGA, Imo State where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Utilization of Audio Resources in the Teaching and Learning of English Language in Junior Secondary Schools.

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1.3 Statement of Problems

English Language emerged from a common origin of the Germanic branch of indo European language family, and has far–reaching spread and uses in Nigeria, it is her lingua franca and a second language. It is the official language, which has gained it’s endorsed statutory legal position. It is the language of education and all other transactions in Nigeria. In effect, it is of paramount importance for all users of the language in the country; in education, all students of Junior Secondary School should gain competence in it.

In order to gain the required competence, audio resources materials are specifically used in instructional activities to mitigate the instruction problems and improve knowledge of both teachers and students in relatively short time. Incidentally, the failure rate of the students is disturbing.

This poor performance may imply that the students have not grasped the basic language skills. Secondly, it suggests that the teachers may use it on a minimal level or may have ignored the use of the materials in their classroom practices. Thirdly, the training of the teachers may contribute to its success or failure in the students’ performances. Again, there is controversy on gender differences. It is not certain whether female and male teachers react differently in the extent of use of audio resources aids.

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to examine the Utilization of Audio Resources in the Teaching and Learning of English Language in Junior Secondary Schools. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To determine the degree of the use of audio resources aids in teaching and learning English Language.
2. To find out the level of the utilization of audio resources aids to improve the students’ performances in English Language.
3. To examine whether the male and female differences affect the extent of use of the audio resources aids in teaching and learning in Junior Secondary Schools.
4. To ascertain whether the difference in the education of the teachers affect the extent of the use of the audio resources aids in the teaching and learning of the English language in Junior Secondary Schools

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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 the degree of the use of audio resources aids impact teaching and learning of English Language?
• Does a male and female difference affect the extent of use of the audio resources aids in teaching and learning in Junior Secondary Schools in Oguta LGA, Imo State?
• What is the level of the utilization of audio resources aids to improve the students’ performances in English Language?
• What are the difference in the education of the teachers affect the extent of the use of the audio resources aids in the teaching and learning of the English language in Junior Secondary Schools?
• To what extent does the teacher use audio resources materials in learning English Language in Junior Secondary Schools in Oguta LGA, Imo State?

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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 significant difference in the achievement of male and female English students taught with audio resources material.
• H1: There is a significant difference in the achievement of male and female English students taught with audio resources material.

Hypothesis Two

• H0: Teachers do not make use of audio resources material in teaching and learning English in Junior Secondary Schools in Oguta LGA, Imo State
• H1: Teachers do make use of audio resources material in teaching and learning English in Junior Secondary Schools in Oguta LGA, Imo State

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1.7 Significance of Study

The study will inspire teachers and inspectors of the State and Federal Ministries of Education to improve their competence and performance by adopting instructional audio resources materials to suit their proper use in the classroom. This will improve the teaching and learning of English language in particular and other subjects in general. This study also will help educational planners to lay more emphasis on teachers’ use of the audio visual instructional materials when drawing up an English Language curriculum. The Federal Ministry of Education and State Education Commission, when recommending text books for English Language, should ensure that text books should contain CD ROMS, films and tape recorded work of the same text books and that teachers should be made to have and use audio visual materials such materials should be available for the teachers’ use in the classrooms.

Finally, this study shows that each of the students has absolute control of his potentials and as such is capable of developing his potentials and attain high academic excellence commensurate with those potentials through the use of audio resources ads.

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1.8 Scope of Study

The study focuses on the Utilization of Audio Resources in the Teaching and Learning of English Language in Junior Secondary Schools in Oguta LGA, Imo 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

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