INFLUENCE OF LITERATURE IN ENGLISH GENDER AND ENVIRONMENT ON SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN NSUKKA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF ENUGU STATE project
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
In Nigeria, English language is the medium of instruction in schools, medium for government administration, mass media, commerce, law and politics. Apart from being a core subject in the school curriculum, the Federal Republic of Nigeria National Policy on education (2004) has it that all school instructions from upper primary (4-6) to tertiary level will be carried out in English language.
The policy states:
- for primary school, which lasts six years, each child must study two languages, namely his mother tongue (if available for study) or indigenous language of wider communication in his area of domicile and English language.
- For junior secondary school (JSS) which is for three years’ duration, the child must study three languages viz:
- his mother tongue (where it has orthography and literature) or and indigenous language of wider communication in his area of domicile,
- English language, and
- Anyone of the three major indigenous languages in the country, namely, Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba provided the language chosen is distinct from the child’s mother tongue.
- In Senior Secondary School (SSS), which lasts three years, the child must study two languages; viz:
- An indigenous language, and
- English language
Of all the subjects which Senior Secondary School students and other candidates take in West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), English has remained a core subject both in Junior and Senior Secondary classes. It is a subject which candidates must pass if their overall success in the examination is to have any value. Considering different universities’ departmental requirements, a candidate who has „A’ grade pas in all subjects he/she offered in WASSCE but fails English language cannot gain admission into any university. A pass at credit level is an essential requirement for admission into any higher Institution of learning irrespective of the course of study. (JAMB 2009/2010 Brochure).
Judging from the above, therefore, English language learning in Nigeria is a matter of ensuring that students have a complete mastery of the language. The Nigeria students’ use of the English language in schools has numerous learning problems. Many students come from homes and environments in which English is not used. The students, therefore, have a lot of difficulties mastering the language. The students need to be proficient in English in order to benefit from entrance into tertiary institution or gain employment. This proficiency calls for reading, comprehension, structural competence and a large stock of vocabulary for the students to understand and produce utterance on various topics. According to Akabogu (2002), a student who does not have enough vocabulary can neither understand comprehension passages nor construct sentences to express himself/herself freely on various topics.
Reading and comprehension are specialized activities which are very important in a person’s educational pursuit. Effective compression helps the reader to read, extract meaning and generate ideas from the information got from the text (Akpama, Egong and Akwa, 2005). Reading and comprehension have to operate as one concept due to their synonymous relationship. Comprehension is a by-product of reading. It does not occur in the absence of reading neither is reading interesting or meaningful without understanding. For whatever reason a student decides to read, comprehension is aimed at, and a reader does not continue to read if he does not comprehend the material.
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INFLUENCE OF LITERATURE IN ENGLISH GENDER AND ENVIRONMENT ON SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN NSUKKA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF ENUGU STATE project
