ABSTRACT
The study investigates the relationship between secondary school students’ parental background and performance in English Language in Ilorin Metropolis.
Data were collected from 200 randomly selected through relationship between parental background and students’ performance in English questionnaire. Data collected were analysed through frequency counts, percentage Pearson correlation and t-test.
The result revealed that there was no significant relationship between parental background and students performance in English Language on the comparism, there were no significant different in the relationship between parental background and students performance in English Language on the basis of sex, age group and family type.
Based on the outcome of the study, it was recommended that schools should strife to improve the teaching and learning process in English Language by providing textbooks at all levels. Teachers in English competence should also be improved by training and retraining.
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
CONTENTS
PAGE
TITLE PAGE i
CERTIFICATION ii
DEDICATION iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv
ABSTRACT v
TABLE OF CONTENTS vi
LIST OF TABLES ix
CHAPTER
ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background to the
Study 1
Statement of the
Problem 4
Purpose of the Study 5
Research Questions 6
Research Hypotheses 7
Significance of the
Study 8
Delimitation
and Scope of the Study 9
Definition of Terms
(Operational Definitions) 10
CHAPTER
TWO: REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE
Concepts
of Academic Performances 12
Student
Home Background 16
Indiscipline
as an Hindrance to Academic
Performance
17
Roles of Parents in Educational Development of Students 19
Parents’ Level of Education and Student’s Academic Performance 23
Parents’ Type of Occupation and Student’s Academic Performance 25
Parents’ Income and Students Academic Performance 28
Home Environment and Student’s Academic Performance 31
Family Size and Birth Order and Students Academic Performance 37
Parent-child Interaction and Student’s Academic Performance 38
Appraisal
of the Review of Related Literature 40
CHAPTER
THREE: RESEARCH METHOD
Research Design 42
Population of the
Study 43
Sample and Sampling
Techniques 43
Instrumentation 43
Validity of the
Instrument 44
Reliability of the
Instrument 45
Administration of the
Instrument 46
Method of Data
Analysis 46
CHAPTER
FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Results 47
Discussion of
Findings 52
CHAPTER
FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary 54
Conclusion 55
Implications of the
Study 54
Recommendations 57
Suggestions for
Further Study 58
REFERENCES 59
APPENDIX 62
LIST
OF TABLES
Table 1: Distribution of Respondents by Sex 47
Table
2: Distribution of Participants by Age 48
Table 3: Distribution of Participants by Family Type 48
Table 4: Results of Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient on parental background and Student Performance 49
Table 5: Results of t-test analysis on male and female performance 49
Table 6: Results of t-test statistics on student performance
by age group 50
Table 7: Results of t-test statistics on student performance by Family type 51
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
It
is normal in Nigeria
to use proficiency in the use of English Language as a barometer for evaluating
the height of any person’s educational attainment. Today many teachers report
quote often to the use of vernacular even in the teaching of their subjects.
One is often dismayed at the incompetence of many teachers even graduated in
the use of the English language. Throughout the colonial period Nigeria formal
education was patterned after the English system. The accent was on English in
through and culture. The ability to speak English fluently and if possible with
an oxford accent was the full mark of excellence even if the speaker was empty
of through and ideas (Balogun 2000).
Balogun
(2000) furthers emphasized that in those days it was a serious offence for a
secondary school boy or girl to “laugh in the vernacular”, but we have now swing
to the other extreme Nigerians would say they are not English people, some would
say they did not specialized in English in the university. But the country has
adopted the English Language as our official language. The language for
instruction for school, the language parliamentary proceedings, the language
for the conduct of official business and indeed lingual Franca. If imperative that we all agree on
the pattern of corrections in the language so that communicating in can be
effected this could also be through effective learning of the language by
students in the schools.
The
examinations councils have been forced into exposition where correctness in the
use of English matters only in the English Language paper. All other subjects
can be passed with distinction even if the candidate disobeys all the rules of
English Language. But the candidate who passes many subjects but fails will
regret at the door steps of the university when there will be no opportunities
for admission to offer a course of his choice. This is the plight of many
students today.
The
rate and the degree of failure by secondary schools students at the external
examination is now a problem of national concern. Therefore, one is not at all
surprised that it has formed a theme for national conferences where some
commentators have attributed the poor performance to lack of seriousness
boarding on indiscipline on the part of the students some other blame is on
parents for their failure to bring up their children properly. While a good
majority of the commentators, especially government functionaries blame it on
teachers that they are not devoted and therefore do not do their work properly.
However, to find a solution to this national problem, the possible factors
responsible for the problem must be identified either empirically or in some
logical manner.
The
nation through the ministries of Education has failed to provide the nations
secondary schools with the necessary human and material resources to facilitate
teaching and learning of the subject of the teachers in the secondary schools
have failed to develop in their students the necessary skills knowledge and
behaviours which the examination council (WAEC) assess or the student refused
to learn the skills, knowledge and behaviour which the teacher try to develop
in them and which the examination council has failed to measure adequately the
skills, knowledge and behaviours which the teachers in the nation” secondary
schools have laboured over the years to develop in the students and which they
have so developed waiting for assessment (Ezewu 2001). Therefore the study
focuses on relationship between secondary school students’ parental background
and performance in English Language is the focus of this study.
Statement of the Problem
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS PARENTAL BACKGROUND AND PERFORMANCE IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN ILORIN METROPOLIS
