CHAPTER FOUR

PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA

This chapter specifically discusses the analysis of data collected in the course of the study. It

deals with the finding out of answer to some questions raised in chapter one.

The analysis will be carried out with the following objectives in mind. After which are the tables

showing the analysis of the study and their interpretations.

1. To find out if the school has enough English language teachers.

2. To find out if the class size affects teachers’ willingness to give written assignment to

students.

3. To find out if parents motivate and support their children to study English language.

4. To find out whether parents’ socio-economic status or background affect/influence

students study of English.

5. To find out if pidgin English is allowed to be used as a means of communication within

the school premises by the students.

6. To find out if mother tongue interference pose any difficulty in the students’ learning of

English.

7. To find out if students are permitted to speak their mother tongue within the school

environment.

8. To find out if the school has a well-equipped library.

9. To find out if the school library has enough English textbooks.

10. To find out whether students make effective use of the library facilities?

11. To find out if students take the study of English language seriously.

12. To find out if participation in school debates and drama is encouraged by the school.
13. To find out if prizes are available for good performance in English.

14. To find out if students are encouraged to participate in creative writing.

15. To find out if the language of the head community/environment influence students’ use

of English.

16. To find out if the language of interaction and association of friends and peer groups

influence students’ we of English.

17. And lastly to find out what teachers and senior students think on how to improve

students’ mastery of English.

TABLE ONE

Availability of the responses and percentages of the influence of the environment on English

language mastery in secondary schools.

STUDENTS’ QUESTIONNAIRE ITEMS

(SECTION B) TOTAL RESPONSES

Urban Rural Response

S/N Items Response
Yes No Yes No
1. School having enough qualified English teachers 54 6 31 9
2. Class-size influence on teacher’s willingness to 31 29 18 22
give written assignment
3. Parents’ motivation and support of their children 52 8 28 12
studying English.
4. Parents’ socio-economic influence on the study of 30 30 16 24
English.
5. Pidgin English being allowed as means of 7 53 30 10
communication in school.
6. Mother tongue interference in the learning of 28 32 20 20
English by students.
7. Mother tongue permitted to be spoken in the 5 55 10 30
school environment.
8. Well-equipped school library 38 22 12 28
9. School library having enough English language 44 16 26 14
textbooks.
10. Students making effective use of the library 18 42 14 26
facilities.
11. Students’ seriousness in the study of English. 53 7 29 11
12. Participation in the school debates and drama by 49 11 31 9
students.
13. Prizes available for good performance in English. 25 35 27 13
14. Students encouraged to participate in creative 36 24 38 2
writing.
15. Influence of the language of the local community 39 21 15 25
on students.
TABLE TWO

WRITTEN AND ORAL RESPONSES (IN PERCENTAGES)

(Percentage Total N = 100)

Written Oral
S/N Items % %
Yes No Yes No
1. Availability of enough qualified English 85 15 70.2 29.8
teachers.
2. Influence of class size on teachers’ assignments 49 51 31.8 31.2
to students.
3. Parents’ motivation and support of their 80 20 76.3 23.7
children’s study of English
4. Influence of parents socio-economic status in 46 54 30.2 69.8
English.
5. Pidgin English allowed as means of 48 52 30.5 60.5
communication in the school.
6. Mother tongue interference in the learning of 37 63 20.2 79.8
English.
7. Mother tongue permitted to be spoken in the 15 85 20.0 80.0
school environment.
8. A well-equipped school library 70 30 40.0 60.0
9. School library having enough English language 50 50 66.4 33.6
texts.
10. Students making effective use of the library 32 68 14.8 85.2
facilities.
11. Students seriousness in the study of English 82 18 79.9 20.1
12. Students’ participation in school debates and 80 20 78.3 21.7
drama
13. Availability of prizes for good performance in 52 48 39.9 60.1
English.
14. Students encouraged to participate in creative 74 26 70.0 30.0
writing.
15. Influence of the language of the local 54 46 43.6 56.4
community on students.
16. Influence of the language of friends and peer 68 32 62.4 37.6
groups interaction.
Total 984 716 830.3 860.7
Research Question One

Does the school have enough qualified English language teachers?

From this item, 85% of the number of respondents said “Yes” that their schools have got enough

qualified English language teachers, while 15% said ‘N’ that their schools have not got enough

qualified English language teachers. However, from face to face interview with some teachers

and students, about 70.2% said ‘Yes’ that they have qualified teachers but not in English

language; while 29.8% were sincere enough to say they lack qualified English language teachers.

Hence they are forced to recruit any teacher to teach English language as long as the individual is

an NCE or a degree or even a TC II holder.

Research Question Two

Does the class size influence teachers’ willingness to give written assignments to students?

From the table above on this item of questionnaire, 51% of the total number of respondents

stated that the class size influence greatly teachers’ willingness to give written assignments to

students. While 49% of the number stated that the class size do not influence teachers’

willingness to give written assignments to students.

Furthermore, from the structured interview, 31.8% responded negatively, while 31.2% responded

positively.

Research Question Three

Do parents motivate and support their children to study English language?

To this item, 80% of the total respondents stated that the parents motivate and support their

children to study English, while 20% of the number of the respondents stated that the parents do

not actually motivate and support their children to study English.

From the structured interview with some students, 76.3% said ‘Yes’ while 23.7% said ‘No’.

The general view of this item is greatly reflected in the socio-economic status of upper and

middle class families mainly found in urban areas, who would want their children to excel in

English language. They would do anything to motivate and support the children especially by

purchasing all the necessary textbooks, giving them remedial lessons, presents and writing

materials. This is uncommon with the lower class families.

Research Question Four

Does parents’ socio-economic status influence students’ study of English?

On this item as shown is the table above, 54% of the respondents filled ‘No’ and 46% of the

number filled ‘Yes’.

However, when face to face of structured interview was carried out, 23.7% of the respondents

responded negatively while 76.3% of the number responded positively. Nevertheless, the

parents’ socio-economic status and background are reflected in private schools mainly where a

lot of school fees are paid for the child to get a standard education, especially in studying English

language.

Research Question Five

Is Pidgin English allowed to be used as a means of communication within the school premises by

the students?

In the table items five above, 52% of the respondents shows that Pidgin English is not allowed to

be used as means of communication within the school premises by the students; while 48% on

the other hand agreed that they are allowed to use pidgin as means of communication.

But when some oral interview was carried out, about 60.5% said ‘NO’ while about 30.5% said

‘Yes’.
Schools from urban areas especially the students said they cannot do within pidgin as means of

communication since that is the most common language everyone speaks in the community of

urban areas.

Research Question Six

Does the mother tongue pose any interference in the learning of English?

Following the table of questionnaire, 63% of the total number of respondents said that the mother

tongue does not pose any interference in the learning of English language by the students while

37% of the number said that it poses interference in the learning of English.

However, from teachers and students interview orally, about 20.2% said ‘No’ while about 78.8%

said ‘Yes’. Yet, others said that the interference of mother tongue is slight on the learning of

English language.

Research Question Seven

Are the students permitted to speak their mother tongue within the school environment?

85% of the number of respondents said that students are not permitted to speak their mother

tongue within the school environment; while 15% of the number said they are permitted to speak

their mother tongue within the school. Nevertheless, from the personal oral interview carried out

80.0% of the respondents said equally ‘No’ while 20.0% said ‘Yes’. Reasons being that there is

much quest for English language in the society and high demand of it in further studies.

Research Question Eight

Do you have a well-equipped school library?

70% of the total number of respondents said ‘Yes’ that they have a well-equipped school library,

while 30% said that they have no well-equipped school library. Again, from the oral interview

conducted, 40.0% answered ‘Yes’ while 60.0% answered ‘No’.

Research Question Nine

Does your school library have enough English language texts to facilitate the teaching of

English?

Here the number of respondents are in equilibrium. That is to say 50% said yes that their school

library have enough English language texts; while 50% of the number also said ‘No’ that their

school library do not have enough English language texts.

From personal oral interview with teachers and students, about 33.6% answered ‘No’ while

about 66.4% answered ‘Yes’.

Research Question Ten

Do students take the study of English seriously?

From the table above, 82% of the respondents answered positively while 18% answered

negatively, that students do not take the study of English language seriously. Again, from

personal interview of some teachers and students, 79.9% responded positive, while 20.1%

responded negatively. However, some of the respondents complained that there are lack of

qualified English teachers that can arouse the interest of the students to take English language

seriously.

Research Question Twelve

Is participation in school debates and drama encouraged by the school?

From the table above, 80% of the respondents stated that they participated in school debates and

drama through the encouragement by the school; while 20% of the respondents said they are not

encouraged by the school. Also, from the personal interview, it was discovered that 78.3% of the

respondents answered ‘Yes’ while 21.7% answered ‘No’.

Research Question Thirteen

Are prizes available for good performance in English?

To this questionnaire item, 52% of the number of respondents said that prizes are available for

good performance in English, while on the other hand 48% of the number said that prizes are not

available for good performance in English. However, from personal interview, it was discovered

that 39.9% mostly private schools award prizes to English language students for good

performance while 60.1% mostly public schools do not award prizes to English students to

encourage them.

Research Question Fourteen

Are students encouraged to participate in creative writing?

To the above item, 74% of the total respondents said that they are encouraged to participate in

creative writing; while 26% of the number said that they are not encouraged to participate.

Also, with the oral interview with some students, 70% answered ‘Yes’ while 30% said ‘No’.

Research Question fifteen

Does the language of the local community influence students use of English?

From the table of items above, 54% of the number of the total respondents stated that the

language of the local community affect students use of English; while 46% of the number gave a

negative response.

Moreover, 56.4% of the total number of teachers said that the influence is more prominent in the

students’ spellings/pronunciations when writing/reading essays. Then 43.6% however said that

the language of the local community or environment do not influence the students use of English.
Research Question Sixteen

Does the language of interaction and association of friends and peer groups influence students’

use of English?

To this question, 32% of the total number of the respondents answered that the language of

interaction and association of friends and peer groups do not influence students’ use of English;

while 68% of the number are of the opinion that the language of interaction of friends and peer

groups influence students greatly. Still, 37.6% after personal interview said that such language

do not influence; while 62.4% of the number said that such language do influence students use of

English.

DISCUSSION

From the data collected as well as the analysis made, it is obvious that the results revealed that

secondary schools in Ijebu Ode Local Government Area have only a few qualified English

language teachers. However, there are other factors influencing the mastery of the subject by

students. These are due to some environmental influences which have been identified as those

that impede the students’ good performance in English language in Ijebu Ode Local Government

Area. Other major factors includes; unavailability of instructional materials, well-equipped

libraries, lack of qualified teachers, lack of interest from students. Again, the influence of

students’ lack of interest in English is not doing enough assignment due to large class-sizes,

unavailability of instructional materials and good libraries in schools. Hence one cannot expect

teachers to perform wonders in such a situation and students on the other hand cannot perform
better either in English considering the fact that most of them come from poor homes and

families.

Also drawn from the analysis is the fact that the interference of the mother tongue or language of

the immediate environment, language of interaction and association of friends, and peer group

influence, have also contributed to the influence of students’ performance in English as a subject.

Apart from the above, hindrances, students need to be motivated and encouraged by parents and

schools through awards of prizes especially in creative writing and debates.