THE INFLUENCE OF TEACHING AIDS ON THE PERFORMANCE IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN SELECTED SCHOOLS IN OGUN STATE

 Abstract

This study is on the influence of teaching aids on the performance in English language in selected secondary schools in Ogun state. The total population for the study is 200 staff of selected secondary schools in Ogun state. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made up principals, vice principals administration, senior staff and junior staff was used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies

 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• Background of the study

English language is a study connected with all other subjects and all aspects of human life to enable people live a fulfilled, free interaction and achievement in life. It involves a study of people in relation to the social, academic, economic, cultural, physical and psychological lives. It has to do with all round development of human beings to enable them become useful citizens in the society. Kochhar (2012) saw Economics as a portion of the Social Sciences selected for instructional purposes applied to include anything pertinent to the immediate purpose of learning and adapted to the level of comprehension of the students. Therefore, the importance of teaching aids cannot be underestimated in developing students‟ skills in English as a second language. Since teaching aids are the devices developed to assist teachers in transmitting, organized knowledge and attitudes toward learners within an instructional situation (Nwachukwu, 2006). Teaching aids are essential and significant tools needed for teaching and learning in order to promote teachers‟ efficiency and improve students’ performance. The colonial masters introduced the English Language to Nigerians. English Language became a second language in Nigeria due to the multi-lingual nature of the nation and it helps in the unification of the nation. The English Language was considered as the only official means of instruction in training people to serve in the government and the only official means of communication. Thus the English Language became Nigeria’s lingua franca. That is language of ‘convenience’ for communicating with diverse ethnic groups in Nigeria. The English Language became an indispensible tool for national unity, integration and global communication. Baldeh (1990) referred to it as “a window on the world”.  Teaching aids are essentials tools in English Language classroom. In recent years, many teachers of English department and school districts have taken steps towards averting censorship and strengthening the professional basis for English Language teaching Okoro (2001). By specifying the criteria used in selecting literacy works, and other instructional materials, they have initiated a front-end process that provides a context for their choices. In doing so, they demonstrated a high standard of professionalism while assuming various communities, parents, administrators, and others that they have chosen materials responsibly and reflectively, with intensive knowledge of both their discipline and their students Okeke (2004). However, instructional materials allow students to interact with words, images and ideas in ways that develop their abilities in reading, listening, reviewing, and thinking, speaking, writing and using media as well as technology. Because instructional materials are primary resource for English Language teachers, they must be selected wisely George (2002). The cornerstone of consistent pedagogically sound selection practices is a clear written policy for the selection of materials in the English Language programme. The need to teach through the use of tools must have been discovered quite early in the history of mankind. Before the invention of reading and writing, parents taught their children using simple tools. The growing child needed to be taught how to perform certain task using simple tools like hunting with bow and arrows or with spears and sticks. Sometimes explanations are unnecessary if the tool was used to demonstrate a given task. The teacher soon discovered that the use of such tools lessened the task of detailed explanation and made teaching more effective and interesting. Today, teachers still depend on teaching tools to make their teaching effective and interesting. In some respect, these tools have become more sophisticated than those of old, yet their purpose are still very much the same; to clarify concepts, to make teaching more concrete or real, to spice up the teaching process. Indeed, it is not an overstatement to say that it is impossible to teach without some tools. The need to use teaching tools is perhaps more acute in the teaching of English Language. Given the many problems associated with learning English as a second language.

• STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

It has been observed that the teaching and learning of English in our schools (especially in our senior secondary schools) is done without the use of teaching aids. Today, teachers are found giving abstract explanation on what necessarily should have been made easier with the employment of teaching aids. Students, on their part, do not bother to use their textbooks during classroom instruction. Many of them still do not use them after school as an additional learning resource. The question then is, do we have most of these materials in our secondary schools for actual classroom work? It is not clear how teachers of English select and use these materials. If such materials are available in their schools; for example, over head projector, slides and film strips, the micro-projector, tape recorder and radio. On this background the researcher wants to investigate the influence of teaching aids on the performance in English language in selected schools in Ogun state.