1.1 Introduction
English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Britain by Germanic invaders and/or settlers from various parts of what is now northwest Germany and the Netherlands. Initially, Old English was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo-saxon kingdoms of Britain. One of these dialects. late West Saxon, eventually came to dominate. The English language underwent extensive change in the Middle Ages.
Written Old English of AD 1000 is similar in vocabulary and grammar to other old Germanic languages such as Old High German and Old Norse. And completely unintelligible to modern speakers, while the modern language is already largely recognizable in written middle English of AD 1400. The transformation was caused by two further waves of invasion: the first by speakers of the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic language family, who conquered and colonized parts of Britain in the 18th century in the 8th and 9th centuries. The second by the Normans in the 11th century, who spoke old Norman and ultimately developed an English variety of this called Anglo-Norman.
A large proportion of the modern English vocabulary comes directly from Anglo-Norman. Close contact with the Scandinavians resulted in a significant grammatical simplification and lexical enrichment of the Anglo-Frisian core of English. However, these changes had not reached South West England by the 9th century AD, where Old English was developed into a full-fledged literary language. The Norman invasion occurred in 1066, and when literary English rose anew in the 13th century, it was based on the speech of London, much closer to the center of Scandinavian settlement.
Technical and cultural vocabulary was largely derived from Old Normans, with particularly heavy influence in the church, the courts, and government. With the coming of the Renaissance, as with most other developing European languages such as German and Dutch, Latin and Ancient Greek supplanted Norman and French as the main source of new words. Thus, English developed into every much a “borrowing” language with an enormously disparate vocabulary.
The languages of Germanic peoples gave rise to the English language (the Angles, Saxons, Frisii, Jutes and possibly the Franks, who traded, fought with and lived alongside the latin-speak peoples of the Roman Empire in the centuries —long process of the Germanic peoples expansion into Western Europe during the Migration Period). Latin loan words such as wine, cup, and bishop entered the vocabulary of these Germanic peoples before their arrival in Britain and the subsequent formation of England.
Tacitus Germanic, written around 100 AD, is a primary source of information for the culture of the Germanic peoples (The ancestors of the English) in ancient times, Germanies were in contact with Roman civilization and its economy, including residing within the Roman borders in large numbers in the province of Germania and other serving in the Roman military, while many more retained political independence outside of Roman territories. Germanic troops served in Britainnia under Roman command. Except for the Frisians, Germanic settlement in Britain, according to Bede, occurred largely after the arrival of mercenaries in the 5th century. Most Angles , Saxons and jutes arrived in the 6th century as Germanic pagans, independent of Roman control.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle relates that around the year 449 Vorrigern, King of the Britons, invited the “Angle Kin” (Angles allegedly led by the Germanic brothers Hengist and Horsa) to help repel invading Picts. In return, the Anglo-saxons received lands in the southeast of Britain. In response “came men of Ald Seaxum of Angulum of lotum” (Saxons Angles and Jutes). The Chronicle refers to waves of settlers who eventually paganism, who ultimately stem from the religion of the proto-Indo-Europeans.
The Dictionary of the English Language was the full featured English dictionary, Samuel Johnson published the authoritative work in 1755. To a high degree, the dictionary standardize both English spelling and word usage. Meanwhile, grammar texts by lowth, Murray, Priestly, and others attempted to prescribe standard usage even further.
Early modern English and Late Modern English vary essentially in vocabulary. Late Modern English has many more words, arising from the Industrial Revolution and the technology that created a need for new words as well as international development of the language.
The British empire at its height covered one quarter of the Earth's surface, and the English language adopted foreign words from many countries. British English and American English, the two major varieties of the language, are spoken by 400 million persons. Received Pronunciation of British English is the prestige variety, while General American English is more influential. The total number of English speakers worldwide may exceed one billion.
Ejiogu (1986) it brings to bear on the fear, being expressed today as regards the poor performances in English being experienced in our secondary education today even higher institution of learning are out free from this dilemma
For some years now, most state secondary school students perform badly and quite below expectation in English Language. This work therefore intends to investigate the reasons behind this unhealthy performance and give possible recommendations on how to solve the problem.
1.2 Need For The Study
In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of candidates offering mathematics in West African school certificate Examination (WASCE) with high number of failure. The subject is compulsory for all the study and also the key to further ones education in major areas of discipline, more so, the scientific and technological breakthrough which is spends billions of Naira to bring to reality is centered on the subject (English Language)
Having realized the important and subsequent contribution of English in the areas of communication, science, social and economics enhancement, technology, and education, agriculture efficiency in management and bilateral relation with other countries, the need to encourage the study and development at all levels remains a fact that cannot be resisted
English Language have become a terror to many students, this is not only challenging but also a treat to our educational institutions and future of our society. It because world while to question the reasons behind the poor performance of students in these care subjects for a healthy improvement and meaningful contribution to the progress of the state secondary school and the society at large, this study seek to invest gate into the factors that give rise to this shabby performance, analyses them and make recommendation based on the following findings.
1.3 Aims and Objectives
The aims and objectives of this study include the following:
- To find out whether students and teachers opinions on the coverage of syllabus is dependent on school]2. To determine whether students opinion on the student level of interest on the subject is dependent on class
- To find out the ratio of student to teachers on the course (English) (i.e. those who specialize in English).
- To recommend solutions to the problems.
1.4 Scope of the Survey
The frame for this survey consists of only state secondary school in Owerri having JSS and SSS classes. The list was obtained from the statistics unit of the state education commission of imo state, Owerri. The scope for this study covers total population of 13600 JSS and SSS students, 128 English Language teachers and 10 principal.
1.5 Significant of the Study
In recent years, there have been an increase in the number of candidate offering mathematics in both junior and senior secondary school examination (JSS/SSCE) with high number of failure with this study, it will be possible to find the contributing factors to this failure. This is because the first step of finding the solution to a problem is determining the source of the problem it self
If the problems is from the nature of the syllabus this can be restructured to suit the school's curricula. If the problem starts from the junior secondary level, it then means that it is poor academic foundations that bring about the final failure for some years, the teachers have been bearing the blame as the sole offended in this case as a result of neglect of responsibility.
This study will determine if and otherwise to what extent this assertion is true. If it is true, it then means that the standard of teaching in the schools have to be improved. If on the other hands, the teachers are dissatisfied because of poor tending environment and disincentive work it then means that the government has to try to improve the working conditions of the teachers
1.6 Limitations
Government secondary schools in Owerri have been chosen to study in this research work but to reduce cost 10 out of the 39 of them will be chosen randomly to study wabehov of the schools in Owerri owned by government. Primary data's will be collected from the students, teachers and the principals of those ten (10) secondary school and secondary data from the ministry of education Owerri to enable me study this work perfectly those reductions will be made due to cost and time constant.
