THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BACKGROUNDS AND COMPETENCE OF STUDENTS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGES: A CASE STUDY OF SELECTED INSTITUTIONS IN KWARA STATE

BY

S.A. ADEYEMO
R.O. ADEKEYE
T.C. EJIWUMI
F. ISMAEEL

MARCH, 2017

ABSTRACT

This study examined the relationship between backgrounds and competence of students in English language in selected institutions at all levels of education in Nigeria. Kwara State in the North Central part of Nigeria was used as the case study. It considered the problems that learners of English languages have at all levels of education and how their backgrounds affect their competence in its usage in the Nigerian institutions of learning. The linguistic competence of the learners and users of the language in the Nigeria schools for various communicative purpose was also considered. Thirty-three schools in Kwara State were used for this research. Five schools each at both primary and secondary school levels as well as one tertiary institution each from the three Senatorial Districts of the State-Kwara North, South, and Central were examined. In addition, seventy-five (75) students were selected randomly in each of the selected primary and secondary schools while one hundred and fifty (150) students were selected in each of the selected technical higher institutions. Altogether the subjects were two thousand, nine hundred and twenty-five (2,925). Questionnaires were administered on the selected pupils/students in these institutions to determine their various backgrounds and performance in the use of English language. These were also used to determine the influence of the school environment and government contributions to performance of students; staff and students were interviewed. The responses to the questionnaire and the oral interview coupled with the findings from the analysis of learners’ results in English language were used as the data for the study. Having used simple distribution percentage statistics for the data analysis, the study found out that, there are many problems facing learners of English language in Nigerian schools; there is deterioration in the effective use of English language among Nigerian learners of the language; and the backgrounds of pupils/students influence their competence in English language. The study further concluded that there is relationship between the backgrounds of learners of English language and their competence in the language and that there is no significant correlation between the performance of students in secondary schools and tertiary institutions because many of the secondary schools’ students passed English language with the availability of the “miracle centre” and assistance given to them by their English language teachers. Finally, based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that the government should play its roles in the uplifting of the educational standard in Nigeria. The Nigerian educational policy should give adequate consideration to the deterioration in the effective use of English language in the country with the specification of the roles of government, teacher, and parents towards the success of the language programme, and all the stakeholders in the language teaching programme in Nigeria should have a forum through which learning problems would be discussed so as to improve the standard of language education in the country.