TEACHERS’ STRESS AS A FACTOR CONTRIBUTING TO THE MASS FAILURE OF STUDENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH LANGUAGE AT SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS
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TEACHERS’
STRESS AS A FACTOR CONTRIBUTING TO THE MASS FAILURE OF STUDENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH
LANGUAGE AT SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS
ABSTRACT
The study
examined the assessment of stress as a factor affecting mass failure of
students on Oral English Language at Senior Secondary School level in Mushin
local government area of Lagos State. In this study, some relevant and related
literatures were reviewed under sub-headings.
The
descriptive research survey design was used in this study in order to assess
the opinions of the respondents. the questionnaire was used to collect
necessary information from the selected respondents, while the subjects for this
study were sampled through the adoption of the stratified sampling technique.
A total of
100 (one hundred) respondents were used for this study. They are made of 20
(twenty) teachers and (eighty) 80 students who were randomly selected to
represent the population of this study.
The
following research questions were raised to guide the study:
1. What are the likely causes of
stress on Oral English teacher in the secondary schools?
2. To what extent does teachers’
methodology affect the failure of students in Oral English?
3. What is the difference between the
academic performance of students in Oral English who were taught by experienced
teachers and those taught by non-experienced teachers?
4. Does stress affect teachers work
performance in the schools?
5. How can unconducive environment
cause mass failure of students’ in Oral English?
The results
obtained from the questionnaire were analyzed to see if they answer the
research questions raised in this study. The data collected were analysed with
simple percentage frequency counts.
The results
that emerged at the end of the analysis of research questions showed that:
1) The likely causes of stress among
teachers are: Taken their unfinished works to finish at home; having ill
feeling or depression about the teaching profession, work overload, sadness
about delayed salaries etc.
2) It was equally found that stress affect
teachers’ methodology, which in turn affects the failure or success rate of
students in Oral English.
3) The findings also revealed that
students who were taught by well experienced teachers in Oral English differ in
their academic performances from those taught by non experienced ones in Oral
English.
4) It was equally found that stress
affects teachers work performances in the school.
5) Finally, the result obtained at the
end of the analysis showed that unconducive environment does not favour success
in academic careers of students; as it does not favour teaching and learning
process in schools.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.0 Background to the Study
The issue of
stress among teachers has become an issue of serious concern in Teacher
Education Worldwide. Its implication on the quality of education particularly
on Oral English and consequently on national development are obvious and
crucial.
A report of
the Educational Services Advisory Committee of the Health and Safety Commission
U.K. (1990) informs that about 105 of the workforce experience occupational
stress. Cooper (1994) submits that teaching is among the stressful occupations.
The issue of
stress in teaching and its implications has been a major concern and focus on
enquiry for teachers, teachers’ unions and other professional associations
(Rees, 1989). Stress is a major behaviooural psychological link to illness,
Strausser (2000), Johnny (2001) stress can lead to frustration, discomfort and
ineffective performance.
Wynne et al
(1991) Johnstone (1993) from their respective researchers on occupational
stress have reported that teaching is a stressful job. This situation is
observed by the researcher that it must have had a great effect on the Oral
English among some secondary school students and mostly likely influence the
poor performance of students in the final year West African Examination
Certificate (WASC) as recorded over the years.
Also it is
observed that the quality of the English spoken by most secondary school
students is perceived by some good speakers of English to have been
deteriorating over a long period. Such was the complaint of speaker after
speaker at a conference on English Language studies in Higher Education held at
Kano in September 1984. There were also reported cases of mass failure in Oral
English.
Although,
there are various factors that could also impede the teaching and learning of
Oral English, which could in turn, lead to mass failure. These include:
environmental factor, such as the non-availability of teaching and
instructional materials, physical factor such as unconducive classroom for
learning, psychological factor such as lack of interest on the learning of Oral
English by the learners etc.
Teachers
stress seems to be the most significant factor that could affect teaching and
learning of Oral English which can result in mass failure in Oral English
Language at the Senior Secondary School level. It is therefore, as a result of
this that researcher decided to carry out this study to survey and observe how
can teachers stress influence the performance of senior secondary school
students on Oral English with efforts to see how this occurs, so as to offer suggestions
on how it could be controlled.
The rate and
degree of failure in Oral English by the secondary school students at the
external examinations, especially West African School Certificate Examination,
seems to be a problem of national concern. Therefore, there has recently been
formed a consensus for national conference at the University of Ibadan,
Nigeria, to look into the causes of mass failure of students in public
examinations especially in Oral English. Some researchers such as Ifeanyi et al,
(1990) attributed to the mass failure of laziness and lack of seriousness on
the parents who exhibit non-challant attitude on the educational career of
their children especially, on their spoken English. For example, some parents
discouraged their children by keeping them away from attending debate or any
speech competition especially if such children are not participants, or key
actors. To be a good speaker of English, one needs to watch and listen to good
speakers of English language and practice what is learnt constantly, because,
practice makes perfect. Again, some literate parents do not complement the
efforts of the teachers for not correcting and teaching their children on Oral
English at home, even, some use the Pidgin English to communicate with their
children.
A good
number of the researchers blame it on the teachers or lack of devotion and
effectiveness towards their jobs. Yet, other blame the government for its
failure to provide adequate and suitable environment for teaching and learning
in the school. For this school of thought, government should be blamed for the
inadequacies and ineffectiveness in the teaching and learning of Oral English.
According to them, the government has failed to provide an environment that
makes teaching and learning friendly, teachers are not paid their salaries and
that commensurate with their jobs, their conditions of service is nothing to
write home about. Majority of our teachers who specialize in Oral English do
not teach with aids, language laboratories and current text books on Oral
English. Many English teachers are not specialized in Oral English and lack the
skills involved in it, but simply because they teach English, they are expected
to teach Oral English.
The above
factors made the teachers to teach students with great amount of stress.
What is
stress?
Longman
Dictionary of Contemporary, defines stress as continuous feelings of worry
about work or personal life. Syle (1996) defined stress as a response to a
challenging demand of event. According to Syle (1996), the circumstances that
placed physical or psychological demands on an individual could be quite
stressful, but in spite of this, throughout the life span of an individual,
stress is an inevitable accomplishment and influence on human existence. The
emotional and behaviour patterns that indicate the presence of stress include:
(a) Feeling of tension, apprehension and
fear
(b) Reactions that show that one is
worried by a particular incidence and
(c) Physiological and behaviour changes
that is associated with anxiety.
Quick and
Quick (1986) consider the topic of stress in the teaching profession as being
very important because of the health problems and subsequent reduction in the
effectiveness in work performance that would likely result from it. Such health
problems according to Cooper (1996) can take the form of headaches, insomnia,
nervous tension and eventually breakdown of the nervous system, fatigue and
many other health hazards, poor job satisfaction, lowered self esteem and
absenteeism which in turn lead to poor performance in teaching of Oral English.
Stress in
the teaching profession has been found to be a major cause of teacher burn out,
a term used by Enever (1988), to describe an individual’s condition of physical
and emotional exhaustion resulting from excessive demands on personal
resources.
Environmental
or work stressors have been examined in various ways in terms of their
qualitative and quantitative elasticity as perceived by an individual. When
teachers of Oral English Language are faced with stress, it could lead to:
1) the inability to develop the
necessary skills, knowledge and behaviours which could enhance the success of
the students in Oral English.
2) poor preparation of lessons which
in turn would result in an ineffective learning.
3) restriction only to teaching from
textbooks which in most cases may contain obsolete information and wrong
knowledge which the West African School Certificate Examination’s board do not
assess. English language students under such teachers have a great deal of
disadvantages in passing their examination and a great deal of problems
communicating effectively in the society where they live (Ajayi, 1995).
4) the possibility of teaching what
they are not supposed to teach and leaving taught what they are supposed to
teach, while a good number of them skip certain areas of the syllabus that they
found difficult and time consuming Onwuchekwa (1996).
Therefore,
what the Oral English Language teachers teach in such situation is only part of
what they are supposed to teach in the given subject. It is difficult to
guarantee that the secondary school students in Nigeria are actually learning
what they are supposed to learn in Oral English.
One can make
an endless list of the inadequacies that can result from stress on the
secondary school English teachers. According to Olupade (1996), at this period
of rapid changes in the educational structures with attendant psychological
problems, coupled with the high standard of works performance expected of
teachers, who are themselves faced with the biting effect of inflation in a
depressed economy, the teachers are in need of counseling to be able to cope
effectively with the stressful situations.
1.1 Statement of the Problem
There is no
doubt that English Language is the official language used in Nigeria both in
schools and outside of it. It is therefore imperative that students master the
subject very well, and speak it clearly and meaningfully. The essence of good
speech is to enable them to get along in their daily activities in life e.g.
buying and selling, interviews, interactions in the bank, hospitals, parties,
shopping centres etc. It also helps self preservation, respect, political
relationship with the appropriate use of language in different situations. Good
speech with appropriate pronunciation, commands respect and makes any symposium
lively, while poor speech results into boring communication which is very
common among students today.
Lack of
correct and good pronunciation by the students has been observed by the
researcher to have led to shyness in public. Some students have chosen to
withdraw or keep sealed lips during a discussion both within and outside the
school for fear that their colleagues might laugh at their pronunciations. This
shows the level of their exposure to learning of Oral English. Therefore, it
will be a wrong assumption that the students are being taught by the right type
of people under the appropriate condition and environment (Achuzie, 1988).
Onwucheka
(1996) states the following categories of teachers that can be found in the
nation’s secondary schools: The Grade II, the (NCE) Nigeria Certificate in
Education, (OND) Ordinary National Diploma, (HND) The Higher National Diploma,
the graduates without teaching qualification. There are also the NCE, the
OND/HND and the graduate with teaching qualifications.
In many
states, the N.C.E. teachers are over stretched. They are only trained to teach
at the junior levels of the secondary schools, but one finds that they now
teach up to the senior secondary schools. Some of them are Heads of English
Departments in our secondary schools in some states. This development has
watered down the standard of learning Oral English in our secondary schools, as
such, teachers lack the ability to cope with the skills that are inherent in
English Language, especially in Oral English. Due to the fact that they do not
have the wherewithal to teach Oral English effectively, coupled with the poor
environment in which learning takes place and the poor conditions of service,
these poorly trained and trained and inexperienced teachers teach Oral English
with stress, in a manner that students can hardly learn effectively. This has
caused dismal performance of students in Oral English in public examinations
like West African School Certificate and General Certificate Examinations
respectively (WASC) (GCE).
Also, the
categories of teachers that are classified to possess teaching qualification
are overstressed with other activities in school such as assigning them to
teach other subjects that are irrelevant to their discipline, etc.
It is on
this assertion that this study seeks to examine various things that lead to
teachers stress and the effect on the students’ performance in Oral English at
S.S. level in some selected schools in Mushin L.G.A. of Lagos State.
1.2Purpose
of the Study
The purpose
of this study includes:
i) To evaluate teachers’ role in the
mass failure of students in Oral English in some selected secondary schools.
ii) To find out likely causes of stress
in the teacher and whether it affects teachers’ work performance.
iii) To find out whether there is
difference in the academic performance of students who are taught under a
conducive environment and those taught under an un-conducive environment.
iv) To find out whether there is any
possible solutions to the problems of mass failure in Oral English by students.
1.3Research
Questions
1. What are the likely causes of
stress on Oral English teacher in the secondary schools?
2. To what extent does teachers’
methodology affect the failure of students in Oral English?
3. What is the difference between the
academic performance of students in Oral English who were taught by experienced
teachers and those taught by non-experienced teachers?
4. Does stress affect teachers work
performance in the schools?
5. How can unconducive environment
cause mass failure of students’ in Oral English?
1.4Significance
of the Study
This study
will be beneficial to the school as it will change their bad attitude and
approach towards school organization. The school will have more in depth
understanding into the importance of given full support to the teachers towards
effective performance, by making provision for instructional materials and
teaching aids such as tape recorder, charts, videotapes, languages laboratory,
library etc to facilitate the teaching and learning of Oral English, and
thereby reduce teachers stress.
Teachers of
Oral English will also benefit from this study, as it will enable them to have
greater insight in the appropriate methods devoid of stress in delivering Oral
English lessons to students, and thereby, overcome the problems identified and
enumerated.
Students
will also benefit from the findings, as they will have a great insight into the
causes of mass failure both internal and external examinations in our country
especially at West Africa Examination Council (WASC), General Certificate of
Education (GCE), Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB), etc., so as to
work harder and reduce the mass failure which is repeatedly recorded yearly in
our public examinations. It will enable them to improve on their weak
foundations as they are exposed to co-curricular activities such as symposia,
talks, impromptu speeches, debates etc.
The external
examination bodies such as WAEC, NECO, GCE, etc will also benefit as it will
enable them to have an insight and understanding to how, and why students fail
mostly the public or externally organized examinations in Oral English, so as
to ensure that questions set are relevant to what the syllabus stated.
The society
too will benefit, because the society is one of the stakeholders in our
educational system. The society should therefore not be kept in the dark
concerning the welfare of the students. They will be able to make more useful
suggestions and recommendations.
1.5The Scope
and Limitations of the Study
The scope of
this study covers the evaluation of teachers’ stress as one of the major
factors contributing to the mass failure of students in Oral English language.
Due to the
limited time available for the research work and limited financial resources,
the study is restricted to some selected secondary schools in Mushin Local
Government Area of Lagos State.
1.6Definitions
of Terms
Operational
definitions of terms:
Assessment:
This is an act of expressing one’s opinion on the worth of somebody or
situation.
Stress: This
is the outcome of force or pressure caused by difficulties or various problems
in life.
Influential:
Power to contribute to one’s change in behaviour either positive or negative
change.
Multilingual:
Ability to understand and speak fluently two or more official languages.
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