INFLUENCE OF TEACHING METHOD IN THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Language is the vehicle of social interaction and we need effective
language to function properly in the work place, social interaction, and indeed, for
functional literacy. It must be emphasized that “a person is functionally literate when he has acquired the knowledge and skills in reading and writing which enable him to engage effectively in all those activities in which literacy is normally assumed in his culture of group” (Gray, 1969). In an analysis of the senior
secondary school certificate results in English language between 1988 and 1996, Olapoopo (1998), indicated that the percentage of failure was between
53.36% and 72.71%. English language teachers play a fundamental role in their learners’ learning and academic achievement. Effective and efficient learning
on the part of the students highly depends on teachers and the actions they take in their classes (Markley, 2004). The way teachers behave and the
methodologies they exploit in their teaching, to a large extent, depend on their perceptions of effective teaching and their beliefs about teacher efficacy
(Ghaith & Shaaban, 1999). It also acts the way they understand and organize instruction (Chacón, 2005). Therefore, the teachers’ perceptions of an effective teacher can highly influence their teaching and as a result their learners’ learning (Dembo & Gibson, 1985; Goddard, Hoy, & Hoy, 2000). Students also bring their own beliefs about learning and their perceptions about effective teachers into classroom and their beliefs seem to have obvious relevance to their expectations of the course (Horwitz, 1988). Some characteristics of effective teachers are universal, but others are domain-specific. Different
groups such as teachers and students (Brosh, 1996; Lang et al., 1993), males and females (Witcher et al., 2001; Minor et al., 2002), good students and less-good students
(Koutsoulis, 2003), and students with different majors (Check, 1986) held different
views on effective teachers. These studies except Brosh’s were conducted
outside the domain of foreign language education. Considering the uniqueness of foreign language education in terms of subject matter knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and socio/active skills, the characteristics of effective
foreign language teachers (EFLT) need to be investigated in-depth rather
than merely applying what was found in general education to foreign language education.
