1.1 Introduction
An English language teacher needs to be competent in the language to gain confidence in teaching. Competent teachers tend to be well respected not only by the school community, but also by the general public and their students as the end-receiver. To become competent in a language, it has always been assumed that the person need to be linguistically competent whether this be phonological, grammatical or lexical in relation to the language they are conversing (Nunn, 2012), in this case of their target group. Somehow, there are many other skills that teachers need to have in order to be competent other than linguistically competent. Due to that reason, teachers who involved themselves in professional development activities tend to acquire new level of confidence in the language resulted to acquiring competency in the teaching. But, the proficiency in language is not all about it to be competent in teaching per se. There are other aspects that are needed to be explored in order to be considered as a competent English Language teacher (Kuzilaslan, 2011; Murugesan, 2003; Penuel et al., 2007).
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
The teacher occupies a very important position in any school system. According to Akande (2005), teachers’ work is very crucial because without the teacher, there will be no president, no governors, no senators and illiteracy would have covered the whole earth. With the teacher, there is enlightenment, knowledge and civilization in the world. No nation can rise above its teachers. Therefore, the teaching profession is important because it is the job that produces educated and learned people for the development of the society (Wuji, 2005).
Before one becomes a professional English Language teacher, a studious stage is passed through. For instance Uzor (2006) agrees that a teacher passes through the teacher-training college or the University education to become a trained teacher. According to Uzor, the essence of an English language teacher going through rigorous teacher-education or training, is to arm oneself with the appropriate skill, ability and expertise that are inherent in the teaching and learning processes in the subject-matter.
As Onyeji (2007) puts it, English language teachers are trained in order to acquire the needed skills of teaching i.e. knowing what to teach (mastery of content) and knowing how to teach (mastery of methodology). The English language teacher, who is trained and experienced, equally knows how to manage the classroom and how to deliver the objectives of what is taught in the classroom. At any stage or school level, a teacher requires to acquire cognate experience and training to effectively deliver the good in the classroom, appropriately as a professional.
According to Arinze (2004), effective teacher preparation in English language comes as a result of previous professional development the teacher had undergone. This culminates from the strict education the teacher has received which had helped him to master the nitty-gritty of the arts of teaching and classroom management (Greenfield, 2006). Greenfield observes that both the preparation and professional development of a teacher, give the teacher the impetus and academic authority to effectively teach in the classroom, and by extension, the effective learning ability of the students. Greenfield is of the opinion that, effective teaching in English language as a result of effective preparation and professional development, result in effective students’ academic achievement in any subject-matter, at any school level (primary, secondary and tertiary institutions).
A teacher in English language needs to be developed professionally through the teacher-educational programmes that are available in the Nigerian higher institutions. According to Lawal (2002), an English language teacher is said to be effectively developed and professionally competent, when he/she is specifically trained or educated in order to train others in the school system, the (learner(s). Aside from knowing how to educate the learner(s), the teacher who is professionally developed, has some personality variables that distinguish him/her from a non-professional, non-trained teacher.
Leon (2004) says that a non-professional teacher is a ‘cheat’, because he does not know how to teach and as such, the learner learns poorly under a non-professional, non-trained teacher’s tutelage. Good teaching begets good learning. Trained teachers in English language, who are professionally sound, produce students who are academically sound. The primary goal of a teacher is for the students to have high academic laurels and to excel in their educational careers.
In effective schools, effective English language teachers monitor students’ progress which takes place at all levels of the school system. Effective English language teachers monitor minute-by-minute comprehension, reading and writing skills of students, their overall success and engagement rates along with the longer term achievement records of every student in the subject-matter.
For an English teacher to effectively handle any subject, preparation is needed. This could be in terms of reading through what is to be taught, writing note of lessons, doting appropriately all ‘Ts’ and all ‘I’s’, in order to deliver the lesson effectively and for the students to maximize the objectives of what has been taught. The teacher is expected to have a certain amount of knowledge and skills which is known as teacher’s competence. In other words, teacher competence includes the correct way of transmitting units of knowledge, application and skills to students (Bhat et al., 2008) as cited by Kuzilaslan, (2011); Murugesan, (2003); Penuel et al., (2007).
Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Impact of Professional Development of English Language Teachers on Students Outcomes in Secondary Schools.
1.3 Statement of Problems
Investigation revealed that the problem inherent in the teaching and learning processes in English language is as a result of teacher− factor. For instance, the academic performance of students is affected negatively, when teachers do not possess the necessary teaching competences in terms of mastery of the contents or possession of good teaching methods in English language as a subject of study in schools. Also, teachers’ negative attitudes, poor personality, inexperience, poor classroom management, poor personal hygiene, poor teacher-student relationship, lack of communicative skills and poor judgments in the classrooms, contribute greatly to the poor academic achievement of students in English language in the schools.
Apart from the above mentioned problems, many English teachers are lazy and therefore, find it difficult to prepare themselves before appearing in the classrooms. This has caused them to be poorly exposed to the course materials and absolute deficiency appearing in their mastery of what to teach poor methodology on how to teach the subject in the classrooms. By extension, this has caused the great down-ward trends of the quality in the educational standards in Nigerian school system, with the attendant low performance of students in both spoken and written English language in and out of the school.
Many teachers who teach English language in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions these days are “cheats”, because they do not possess the required professional skills, the required cognate experience and the training that is innate in effective classroom teachers. Lack of competence and professional skills, are some of the main factors militating against high academic performance by students in the Nigerian school system.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to examine the Impact of Professional Development of English Language Teachers on Students Outcomes in Secondary Schools. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To find out whether there is difference between English Language teachers’ experience and students’ academic performance;
- To examine the difference between English Language teachers’ teaching methods and students’ academic achievement in schools;
- To find out whether English Language teachers’ mastery of content affects students’ academic achievements in schools; and
- To investigate whether there is difference between English Language teachers’ qualifications and students’ academic achievement in schools.
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- Will English Language teachers’ mastery of content affect students’ academic performance in schools?
- Is there any significant difference between English Language teaching methods and students’ academic performance in schools?
- Is there any difference between English Language teacher’s experience and students’ academic achievement in schools?
- Is there any significant difference between English Language teacher’s educational qualification and students’ academic performance in schools?
1.6 Research Hypothesis
In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.
Hypothesis One
- H0: There will be no significant relationship between English Language teacher’s mastery of content and students’ academic performance in schools.
- H1: There will be a significant relationship between English Language teacher’s mastery of content and students’ academic performance in schools.
Hypothesis Two
- H0: There will be no significant relationship between English Language teaching methods and students’ academic performance in schools.
- H1: There will be a significant relationship between English Language teaching methods and students’ academic performance in schools.
Hypothesis Three
- H0: There will be no significant difference in student’s academic performance due to English Language teachers’ educational qualifications in schools.
- H1: There will be a significant difference in student’s academic performance due to English Language teachers’ educational qualifications in schools.
Hypothesis Four
- H0: There will be no significant difference between English Language teachers’ years of experience and students’ academic performance in schools.
- H1: There will be a significant difference between English Language teachers’ years of experience and students’ academic performance in schools.
1.7 Significance of Study
This study will be of great benefit to the following:
- Teachers: They would benefit from the findings and recommendations of this study because it will give them an insight on how to carry out their jobs in the school. It will enable teachers to be more productive in doing their daily job of teaching and learning. With this study, many teachers would be-oriented in the art of teaching knowing fully well that the way they teach will affect students’ academic achievement in schools.
- Students: They would benefit from the study because it will help them to have the understanding that their teachers required to be an exemplary one, if his/her teaching experiences would be of great benefit to the child or the student. With the findings and the recommendations of this study, students would be able to identify teachers who “cheat” as a result of incompetence and real teachers of note in the school system. With this study also, students would be able to know that they need to be taught by trained and experienced teachers if they would put up high performances in their academic careers.
- Parents: They would learn that the careers of their children hang in the balance, if they are being coached by unprofessional, inexperienced teachers. With this study, parents would be able to know that there is a great difference between the academic achievement of students who are taught by well trained teachers and those taught by non-trained, inexperienced teachers.
- Society: The society will be able to understand the difference in the academic performance of children taught by two types of teachers (the trained and the untrained) in the school system. This is because the society benefits if the children are well brought up by a well trained teacher. Students will be well behaved apart from the exhibition of high academic achievement, and this will better the lots of the society.
1.8 Scope of Study
The scope of the research is focused on the Impact of Professional Development of English Language Teachers on Students Outcomes in Secondary Schools in selected Senior Secondary Schools in Mainland Local Government Area of Lagos State, Nigeria.
1.9 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this establishment to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- 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).
1.10 Definition of Terms
The School: The school is one of the chief agents of education. It is a formal and a planned institution with rules and regulations established for educating the young and charged with the responsibility of transmitting the cultural heritage of the people by showing knowledge and its appreciation as well as adherence to its norms.
Teaching Competence: This is the expertise of the teacher in English language or any other course taught in schools. It means in order words, the mastery of teaching contents and the methodology in classroom presentation of English language.
