CHAPTER ONE
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE PROBLEM
English language originated in the north widely used in the world and so it has been classified as the world language. From Europe to America, ancient and Africa continent. It is a language one encounter in a various ways. Nigeria just like any other nations gain in contact with the English language as a result of various factors. It is therefore said to have involve from the Germanic branch of Germany in indo European language family. Apart from having the widest geographical spread, the indo-European language family spoken by the greatest number of people. The language was first spoken by various tribes in Denmark and Northern Germany.
Uchechukwu (2008) said that, the word English is used to denote the name of people. By the time of the northern conquest (1066), English language was the language of all the inhabitant in the heritage left behind in Nigeria by the British at the end of the colonial administration probably none is more important than the English.
English language in Nigeria owns its origin by the advent of European in Nigeria. first the Portuguese then the British who rules Nigeria between 1914 and 1960. Thus, they marched the language with Nigeria languages and Europeans thought the Portuguese were only interested in trading and their advent witnessed some revolutionary consequences both for the delta and the whole of Igbo land.
English language is now the language of government, internal, business and commerce, education, the mass media. Eneh (2008) observed that, English was the name for all the inhabitants of England. He also observed that English language is the name of all subject in Nigeria except Igbo language. This observation is a reality because since we gained independence from the British people, English has been enjoying a high status within Nigeria.
English language is not only used in Nigeria but also has domains of usage in international levels too. Paul (2005) said that, English is flexible enough to be used for the most trials conversation or for transacting the most important affairs of the day.
Thus, it is English language that gives Nigeria opportunity to take part in the deliberation and decision in international organisation such as united nation organization (UNO) common wealth of the nation (CWN), and World Bank Organisation (WHO).
In Nigeria, English serves several purpose that are very important to her existence. It is the lingua franca in the country and the official language in the society due to multi ethnic groups that speaks different languages. For the diversity of languages, Nigeria needs one language that will bridge the linguistic barriers among its component state. The choice of such language (English) has been made for Nigeria by the British colonial administration. Uchechukwu (2008) observed that English is spoken by more than a quarter of a billion people. It is becoming increasingly popular as a second language for non-English speaking people throughout the world.
Thus, English is regarded as a second language.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
This is a wide spread feeling that the standard of English language is rapidly a great problems to the educationalist especially, specialist teachers of English language. The pupils find it difficult to understand English language as a medium of expression in many social gathering or in their academic purpose. They make a lot of grammatical mistakes when speaking or writing English. We have shortage of specialist teachers, implementation of the curriculum in each of the school subject which depends to a large extent of availability of specialist teachers in English has led to employment of graduates from other disciplines such as mass communication to teach English language in some primary schools.
This constitutes a serious problem to the teaching/learning of English language in primary schools.
Since the most important factors in the teaching/learning process is the teacher, there is a great need to train more teachers in English language. Teachers provide background experiences for their pupils and also determine their academic achievement
1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The purpose of the study includes:
i. To know if there is any problem allotted to the teaching/learning of English languages as a second language
ii. To find out how lack of teaching/learning materials and how it contributed to the problem.
iii. To ascertain the effect of shortage of specialist teachers on the teaching of English language as a second languages.
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The study on the problem of teaching and learning of the English as a second language in primary schools in Ifo Local Government Area in Ogun State will help the teacher of English to know the strategies to adopt in improving their acquisition of skill in English language through this study too, the educational policy maker and the administration will know the resources to be provided in school so as to improve the teaching/learning of English.
1.5 RESEARCH QUESTION
The following research questions were formulated to guide the study
- Does insufficient time allocated to the teaching/learning of English language in the school time table affect the mastery of English language?
- Does inadequate supply of teaching/learning materials militate against the teaching of English as a second language
- Does shortage of specialist teachers hinder the teaching/learning of English as a second language?