ABSTRACT
This research work was aimed at investigating the Problems
Confronting the Teaching and Learning of English Comprehension Among Selected
Secondary School Students in Ilorin West Local Government Area of Kwara State.
Five schools were selected out of the 25 secondary schools in Ilorin West Local
Government Area of Kwara State. Also twelve teachers and twenty-eight students
were randomly selected from each school as research subject giving a total of
twelve teachers and twenty eight students as the respondents. The instrument
used was the questionnaire consisted of four categories corresponding to the
research questions. Frequency counts and percentages were the statistical
approaches for data analysis. The results showed that the parents, teachers,
pupils and the government have a great role to play in ensuring improvement in
the learners reading and comprehend abilities. The pupils should develop
positive attitude to reading. The teachers should be effective tolerant and up
and doing in their teaching. The parents should encourage the pupils to speak
English at homes as a continuity of the language used in schools.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE i
CERTIFICATION ii
DEDICATION iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv
ABSTRACT v
TABLE OF CONTENT vi
LIST OF TABLES x
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study 1
Statement of the Problem 6
Purpose of the Study 6
Research Questions 7
Research Hypotheses 8
Significance of the Study 9
Scope of the Study 10
Definition of Terms 11
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF RELATED
LITERATURE
Introduction 13
The Standard of English in Nigeria 13
Development Reading Habits among
Children 17
Technique of Reading Comprehension 20
Problems of Reading Comprehension 26
The Role of the Teacher 31
Appraisal of Literature Reviewed 38
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction 40
Research Design 40
Population 41
Sample and Sampling Techniques 41
Instrument for the Study 42
Validity of the Instrument 43
Reliability of the Instrument 43
Procedure for Data Collection 44
Data Analysis Techniques 45
CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Introduction 46
Analysis of Data 47
Discussion of the Findings 53
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATION
Introduction 59
Summary 59
Conclusion 59
Recommendations 60
Suggestion for Further Research 62
REFERENCES 64
APPENDIX 65
LIST OF TABLES
Table
1: Comparison of Male and
Female Teachers’
views on the problems confronting the
teaching
and learning of English comprehension
in
frequency count and percentage. 48
Table
2: Comparison of the views of
experienced and
in experienced teachers on the
problems
confronting the learning and teaching
of
English comprehensions 49
Table 3: Comparison of Students and Teacher’s views of
the
Problem Confronting the Teaching of
English
Comprehension in frequency counts
and
percentage 51
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
English language is a medium of communication
and expression, a medium through which facts, news, opinions, requests,
feelings, are made known.
English language originated from
England as the Local (dialect) language or mother tongue of the British people.
But today it is spoken in America, India, Ghana, Australia and other countries
of the world including Nigeria as their second and official language.
Hence, the speakers of the language
in these countries are referred to as members of “English speech community”.
These countries came to have the language as their official language i.e. the
language of government, trade and commerce, justice and instruction in the
educational system, due to their being colonised by the British Government.
In Nigeria the origin of the first
use of English Language could be traced to the period of the settlement of the
Christian Missionaries in the country before the era of colonization, which
were faced with communication problems between them and the natives. Thus, the
missionaries established schools alongside with the churches with the principal
aim of training the converts in the art of reading and writing and to interprete
the Bible and messages to the converts as well as to teach in Sunday schools.
The acquisition of English language
has assumed a wider dimension in English especially when Universal Free Primary
(UPE) was introduced in 1976.
English language this day has come to
play a dominant role in the linguistic development of Nigeria, however, despite
the wide spread use of the local languages in the Nigerian society none of these
languages has yet emerged as the country’s dominant language. This is so
because none of these languages could be spoken and understood by an
over-whelming Nigerians. Likewise, none of these languages would be willingly
adopted by an over-whelming majority of Nigerians. i.e. the language situation
of the country is heterogeneous.
It is therefore apparent that since
Nigerian languages situation is one in which a multiplicity of language
co-exist (Multilingualism), English language became an inevitable instrument
for communication in the Nigerian society However, inter-ethic communication
too is hard i.e no speaker of Nigeria language speaks the language in the same
way an English man would speak English. With this view, the huge gap that
English language fills in Nigeria could easily be seen.
In this note, the Nigerian language
situation today is a pointer to the role and status of English langue as an
inevitable panacea to the problem of multiplicity of language in Nigeria.
English language helps to facilitate contact between Nigerian of diverse
backgrounds. It has thus become the official language of documentation and
communication. English language plays a unifying role in Nigeria almost in the
same way as other instrument of communication it is the only language which
Nigerians of diverse linguistics, geographical, social, cultural and religion
background have in common. It is the language of business, social and
commercial life (Obayan 1982).
English as an international language
today occupies the position Latin and Greek occupied in the ancient world.
English as used in the native speakers environment reflects the cultural
background of the speakers (Perpetual et al, 1989). Social, political,
geographical and attitudinal peculiarities are some of the elements super-imposed
over the common background.
These peculiarities are what account
for the different varieties of English, which depend on time, distance, and
geographical factors. In Nigerian society, these varieties are manifested in
pronunciation, use of expressions, meanings attached to words and so on.
As a subject, English language can be
divided into several parts comprising Phonology, Lexis and Structure,
comprehension (reading) and others. Comprehension being the focus of this study
can be defined as: ‘The ability to interpret a message according to the
circumstances or context shaping the writer’s knowledge and the reader’s expression.
In view of the above definition, the
teacher, and the students have a lot to do in ensuring perfect teaching and
learning of comprehension in secondary schools.
What are the prospects of achieving
the perfectness in the teaching and learning of comprehension, which is a very
vital aspect of English language as a means of communication leaves much to the
desired in this area.
However, it should be noted that
comprehension a vital aspect of English language has its impact on all other
subjects taught in schools e.g. mathematics, social studies, technical
subjects, sciences and other subjects. Hence lack of good grip in comprehension
is bound to have effect on the teaching and learning of these subjects since
instructions on the teaching of the subjects are based on English Language.
Therefore, inability to comprehend well
results into mass failure of students in their various examinations.
It is apparent therefore that the
developments in the teaching and learning of English language are reflections
of the dwindling standard in the performance of children in English language
generally and comprehension in particular. Thus the researcher is inspired to
carry out this study due to the prevailing poor performance of children in English
language and particularly comprehension and the desire to proffer a panacea to
the problem among secondary school students.
Statement of the Problem
While stating the problem, the
researcher is quite aware of the important role of English language as an instrument
for impacting education the role it has to play in the society. The researcher
is also conscious of the place of comprehension as an integral part of English
language in the total education process.
The researcher is also well aware of
the dwindling nature of the performances of students in their examinations,
which resulted from lack of comprehension ability.
The problem of this study therefore
is fining out the problems facing effective teaching of comprehension in
secondary schools with specific reference to some selected secondary schools in
Ilorin West Local Government Area of Kwara State.
Purpose of the Study
The research is aimed at finding out
the divergent views of male and female teachers, trained and untrained
teachers, experienced and less experienced teachers and students the problems
facing effective teaching of comprehension in secondary schools. The study was
to find out whether there would be significant difference in the view of male
and female teachers.
The study was to find out the extent
to which lack of adequate teaching of comprehension in secondary school affects
the teaching of English comprehension.
The study also aims at providing solutions
to the problems confronting effective teaching and learning of English
comprehension.
Research Questions
The following research questions are
raised to guide the study:
(1)
Will
there be any significant difference between the view of male and female
teachers of the selected secondary schools with respect to the problems facing
effective teaching and learning of comprehension in their schools?
(2)
Will
there be any significant difference between the view of trained and untrained
teachers with respect to the problems confronting the teaching and learning
comprehension in their schools?
(3)
Will
there be any significant difference between the view of experienced and less
experienced teachers with respect to the teaching and learning of English
comprehension in their schools?
(4)
Will
there be any significant difference between the view of teachers and students
with respect to the teaching and learning of English comprehension in their
schools?
Research Hypotheses
H01: Will there be any difference in the view of male and
female teachers’ with respect to the problems facing effective teaching and
learning of English comprehension in secondary schools?
H02: Will there be no difference in the view of trained and
untrained teachers’ with respect to the problems facing effective teaching and
learning of English comprehension in secondary schools?
H03: Will there be any difference in the view of teachers and
students with respect to problems facing effective teaching and learning of
English comprehension in secondary schools?
Significance
of the Study
This study was undertaken with the
view that it would provide. Information about the effect of poor comprehension
on the academic performance of children in secondary schools.
The study will enable the teacher to
re-assess himself, adopts new methods of teaching and evaluation to meet the
needs of the children who are poor in reading and in understanding. The study
will encourage the students to personally get themselves in reading varieties
of texts to increase their vocabulary, readability and raise their academic
performance as a result of their being able to read and comprehend.
It will be useful for the students to
know and master the steps to take when reading a given passage in the English
language. They will also know the errors usually committed while answering
questions in the English language and guide against them.
The curriculum planners too stand to
benefit from the study as information from the study will enable them to
prepare for the use of a well planned curriculum on English language which will
guide textbook, writes and publishers with respect to the patterns they should
adhere to in writing and publishing books. Such books should be able to guide pupils
from easy to complex reading particularly in comprehension texts and ease the
problems of teaching and learning comprehension texts and ease the problems of
teaching and learning comprehension in schools.
It is therefore apparent that this
study will be immense value to the overall development of education in Nigeria.
The study will be useful to the
parents as they will be enlightened concerning the advantages of exposing their
children or wards to several reading texts as this will increase their
readability, improve their vocabulary and accelerate their academic
performances.
Scope of the Study
This study is very important for the
overall development of Education in Nigeria and the world at large, but the
study is delimited to Ilorin West Local Government Area of Kwara State from
which five secondary schools were randomly selected in the bid at investigating
the problems facing effective teaching and learning of comprehension passages
in schools.
The schools selected for the study
are as follows:
(1)
Government
High School, Ilorin
(2)
Government
Day Secondary School, Adeta
(3)
Baboko
Community Secondary, Ilorin
(4)
Government
Day Secondary, Barakat
(5)
Mount
Carmel College Ilorin.
The results of this study are
therefore limited to them. Also the results of this study will be limited to the
responses of the participants that will be involved in the study. Finally, the
results of the study will be limited to the variables measured by the research
instrument used for this study.
Definition of Terms
The following are defined as follows
to indicate what they mean in this study.
Comprehension: Involves ability to understand and
translate from one form to another without losing the original meaning of
content of what is being told, narrated or written.
Experienced Teacher: Experienced teachers as used in this
study are those teachers that have spent nothing less than ten years in
teaching and they have at least Grade Two teacher’s certificates.
Inexperienced Teachers: Inexperienced teachers are the ones
without professional certificate and have less than ten years teaching
experience.
Less Experience Teachers: Less experience teachers are teachers
with less than ten year teaching experience but have at least Grade Two
teachers’ certificate as professionals.
Learning: Is a relatively permanent change in
behaviour which occurs as a result of prior experience or practice.
Students: Students are persons who studied or
who are devoted to the acquisition of knowledge.
Teaching: Teaching is an attempt to help an
individual a (learner) to acquire change of some skill, attitude, knowledge
ideal or appreciation.
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