CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
- BACKGRPOUND OF STUDY
Teaching Method can best be defined as the type of principal & methods used for Instruction. There are many types of teaching methods, depending on what information or skill the teacher is trying to convey. Class participation demonstration, recitation and memorization are some of the teaching methods being used. When a teacher deciding in their method, they need to flexible and willing to adjust their style according to their student, student success in their academic achievement based on effect on effective teaching methods.
According to study statistically significant difference teaching strategies of teaching used by the learner & the teacher. While the relationship between the compensation strategy & the academic success of the student was found to have a negative meaningful relation with academic success. However, the students the teachers were met cognitive strategies & compensation strategies. For effective teaching to take place, a good method must be adopted be a teacher. A teacher has many options when choosing a style, by which to teach. The teacher may write lesson plan of their own, borrow plans from other teacher, or search online, or within book for lesson plan. When deciding what method to use, a teacher needs to consider student background, knowledge, environment & learning goals. Teacher are aware that student’s have different way of absorbing information & of demonstrating their knowledge. Teacher often use to techniques which cater to multiple learning style to help students retain information & strength in understanding. A variety of strategies & method are used to ensure that all students have equal opportunities to learn. A lesson plan may be carried out in several ways. Like Questioning, Explaining, Modeling, Collaborating, Demonstrating.
The primary purpose of teaching at any level of education is to bring a fundamental change in the learner (Tebabal & Kahssay, 2011). To facilitate the process of knowledge transmission, teachers should apply appropriate teaching methods that best suit specific objectives and level exit outcomes. In the traditional epoch, many teaching practitioners widely applied teacher-centered methods to impart knowledge to learners comparative to student-centered methods. Until today, questions about the effectiveness of teaching methods on student learning have consistently raised considerable interest in the thematic field of educational research (Hightower et al., 2011). Moreover, research on teaching and learning constantly endeavour to examine the extent to which different teaching methods enhance growth in student learning.
Language learning in the schools is often considered a lesson that is not quite important. This fact caused by the mindset of teachers and parents which regard the clever children can only be reflected by higher value in the exact subjects, such as mathematics. This mindset resulting in a lack of awareness about the importance of language subject, even there are some people who assume that language subject is not something that should be studied seriously. The efforts to improve the speakability should not be overlooked in order to improve the student’s writing ability. Language subject that can improve the speakability of the students, which furthermore will take effect on student’s writing ability, are not considered as an important thing. The result is often encountered on students who have difficulty in expressing and writing their ideas. This problem will continue and persist until they pursue to the higher education, even up to the university.
Based on the fact mentioned, it is necessary to improve the learning strategies that can help the learner in developing and improving their ability to write essays. Language learning, especially writing, basically focused on guiding the students so they can express their ideas, thoughts, feelings or opinions through essay writing, writing a personal book, summarizing books, making posters, and making a logbook.
Another drawback in language learning is a factor from the teacher who emphasizes the theory more than practice, by motivating the students to habituate writing their ideas is the first step to inculcate the culture of writing to our young generation. Language learning particularly covering two main categories which are interrelated like, speaking and writing. Based on these problems, a method of learning is needed that can motivate the students to be creative and active in language learning, especially in writing essays. Important methods of learning to write which should be applied are the “whole language” method. Furthermore, the “whole language” method is combined with the student's learning styles, that are field independent and field dependent style. Both factors become independent variables in this context which affect the ability of students in writing essays.
Based on the background mentioned earlier, this study narrows down the problem on experimental treatments variables which were learning methods that included “whole language method” and free writing method. Other variables are the students' learning styles (field independent and field dependent) as the variable of character attributes. These variables will be linked with the ability of secondary school children to write essays.
The terminology of “writing” is a creative process that resulted in the creation of non-fiction article. Writing can be done without having to wait for an idea to come. If the inventions phase: finding an idea or topic to be written has been done and the materials are ready, the writing process already can be started (Son, 2010: 15). Furthermore, Dalman (2015: 4) defines the writing process as an activity of delivering the messages (communication) with the use of written language as an instrument or media. Thus, the author can produce the variety of shapes and colors in a creative writing which accordance with the aims and objectives of his writings. According to Emigs (1977) as cited by Boscolo et al. (2007: 76) about writing, which described as the following: “Study of writing as learning models anticipated the emphasis of the cognitive approach to writing to learn the concept. Since the 1980’s, studies on the elaborative function of writing mainly focused on two main research lines: the discourse synthesis and writing to learn. In the studies of writing to learn, the thing must be emphasized in the role of writing as thinking and the learning instrument, and the researcher's attention is focused on the effect of writing on the comprehension of information learned from oral or written communication at various levels of complexity. In studies of writing from the various sources, the additional focus of the research is on how to elaborate the knowledge and organize it into a new text.”
According to Natzir (2010: 24), writing is basically narrated. In storytelling, there are three basic components, namely: heading (lead), contents (body), and closing (ending). Lead or intro are passages which contain an opening that serves as an introduction to the story. The body is the main part of writings that became the content of the story, the core, or the description of an article. Ending or closing as the final part of the article. This section must conclude a good, clear, and precise idea. Ending section should serve as a cover that resolves an idea that was discussed earlier. From a conceptual earlier description, it can be synthesized that, essay writing ability is the result of someone's imagination and creativity through certain paths, there are lead, body, and ending to be written into a story that is complete and easily understood by the others.
Learning the whole language is based on observation so that teachers need to provide opportunities and encourage the learners into the learning process so they can learn independently. This process includes: teachers provide guidance to the children, teachers and children learn together to take risks, and make decisions together. The teacher should introduce a social interaction between children, discuss, share ideas, and work together to solve problems encountered in the study. Teachers provide materials and tests to every child to be able to distinguish which capabilities are not yet optimal and encourage children to discover and criticize their own weaknesses. Furthermore, the assessment combined with the learning process. Teachers have to build and develop this type of behavior and attitudes needed in a child's learning progress (Daniel and David, 2008).
- STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Suboptimal academic performance by the majority students at secondary school level has largely been cited to be the result of ineffective teaching methods by lecturers.
The global spread of the English language as one of the most far-reaching linguistic phenomena of our time is already an established fact. It not only serves as Nigerian’s official language, but also used for business transaction, teaching language and medium of communication with the outside world. It is also the language of the press, satellite and computer. These made it so important that it has remained a subject of constant examination and analysis. That notwithstanding, many students still have little or no interest, and perform poorly in English language in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State, Nigeria.
This is due to a number of reasons, which include the use of inadequate methodology in teaching. The methodology used in teaching essay includes giving instructions, reading sample essays, dependence on textbooks and chalkboard as media for disseminating knowledge. With these methods, the learners‟ creativity and experiences are not considered. Learning here is based on other people’s views and experiences. Although studies have been conducted to determine the different methods of teaching skills by teachers in different secondary schools has been done in Nigeria to examine the effect in essay writing. Thus, the problem of this study is, the effects of teaching method (effective and non effective) on academic performance of students in essay writing (a case study of some selected secondary schools in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State.
- AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The main aim of the study is effects of teaching method (effective and non effective) on academic performance of students in essay writing (a case study of some selected secondary schools in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State. Other objective of the study includes:
1. to determine the relationship between teaching method and the academic performance of students in essay writing in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State.
2. to examine the effect of teaching method on academic performance of students in essay writing in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State.
3. to evaluate the different teaching method of teachers on academic performance of students in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State.
4. to examine the challenges of teachers and students in the effective teaching of essay writing in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State.
5. to proffer solutions to the challenges of teachers and students in the effective teaching of essay writing in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State.
- RESEARCH QUESTION
1. what is the relationship between teaching method and the academic performance of students in essay writing in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State?
2. what is the effect of teaching method on academic performance of students in essay writing in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State?.
3. what are the different teaching methods of teachers on academic performance of students in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State?
4. what are the challenges of teachers and students in the effective teaching of essay writing in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State?
5. what are the solutions to the challenges of teachers and students in the effective teaching of essay writing in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State?
- STATEMENT OF RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
1. H0: teaching method has no significant effect on the academic performance of students in essay writing in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State.
2. H1: teaching method has significant effect on academic performance of students in essay writing in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State.
- SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
The results of this study will provide useful insight son the differential effectiveness diverse teaching methods have on students’ academic performance especially in essay writing.
Results of the study will provide useful information to researchers continuing in this line of inquiry. The findings of this study will help in training students to become creative writers; creating vivid, clear and concrete descriptions in stories, novels, songs or poems, when they are taught how to use language properly in essay writing.
The findings of the study will expose teachers to the needs of their students in essay writing. It will help the teachers to make the teaching of essay writing interesting and participatory by involving the students in the creation of scenes, events, concepts, and even organizing the plots. The students when taught with imagery could become more interested in essay lessons thereby becoming creative writers.
Essay writing task could improve students critical thinking abilities, and let them discover more knowledge. Students‟ writing skills will be improved generally, making failure in essay writing in particular and English Language in general to become a thing of the past.
The findings will lead to the organization of workshops and seminars to get English language teachers more equipped to face the challenges of poor performance of students in essay writing in particular, and in English language in general.
Consequently, the findings of the study will be beneficial to teachers in the planning of instruction. In the planning of the scheme of work and lesson, teachers will incorporate the use of feasible and more effective methods as a part of methodology and resources for improved learning.
Writers and authors of English textbooks could use the findings to update their books on the methodology for effective teaching of essay to students. This could go a long way in remedying the problems associated with mass failure of students in English language.
The findings will also lead to re-visiting and reviewing teacher education curriculum to include the use of imagery technique in teaching essay writing to students. Student teachers would be exposed to the use of this technique during training. On graduation they would be equipped to use it to improve students’‟ performance in essay writing.
- SCOPE OF STUDY
The scope of the study will cover the effects of teaching method (effective and non effective) on academic performance of students in essay writing (a case study of some selected secondary schools in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State
- LIMITATION OF STUDY
1. Financial constraint- Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
2. Time constraint- The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work.
- DEFINITION OF TERMS
Effects: a change which is a result or consequence of an action or other cause.
Teaching: the occupation, profession, or work of a teacher.
Method: a particular procedure for accomplishing or approaching something, especially a systematic or established one.
Academic performance: Academic performance or "academic achievement" is the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has attained their short or long-term educational goals.
Students: A student is a person who goes to school and is learning something. Students can be children, teenagers, or adults who are going to school, but it may also be other people who are learning, such as in college or university
Essay writing: essays are a short piece of writing representing one’s side of the argument or one’s experiences, stories, etc. Essays are very personalized.
