CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

There is always an unavoidable relationship between the teachers personality and how the students learn. Statistically, students who dislike a particular teacher or lecturer always record very low performance in the course the said teacher is handling so that there is a correlation between the teachers and student academic performance.

In the event that the obstacle is the teachers qualification, the effect is usually impossible to be mitigated by the student even the most disciplined of them all. A teacher’s qualification goes a long way in determining the academic performance of the teacher. A well grounded teacher would engage the questions and doubts of the students critically thereby encouraging them to question, to study and to read more and give them more than the needed clarification. On the other hand, a well qualified teacher would most likely discourage such curiosity and yearning to learn better from the students thereby instilling in them a lackadaisical attitude towards their academics. Which results in a low performance from the latter.

A subject like English language reflects immediately more than other subjects the teacher’s qualification in the students. As a second language, one that is very flexible, any teacher of it would need to have studied extensively in other to command the limitless intricacies of the language.

1.2   STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The study and teaching of English language in Imo state Nigeria, is one that cannot escape the complexities of the language as a second language and also the presence of the first language usually seen in it’s interference with the learning object- English. As far as the research effort which has gone into this work is concerned, the relationship between the teacher’s qualification and students' academic performance in English language in Imo state has not been studied before with the aim of mapping out the ways the teacher affects the student in performance. It is this lacunae in academics that has called this research into being.

1.3   RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1.3.1      Can the qualification of the teacher be directly proportional to the student’s academic performance.

1.3.2      How particular is this situation with teachers and students in Imo state Nigeria.

1.3.3      How thorough is that teacher’s qualification vetting system.

1.4   OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The objectives of this research is to study the connection between a teacher’s qualification level and dexterity and a student’s academic performance by finding out first what goes in the proper learning of the English language subject by students. The factors that inform the learning speed and skills of students will be studies and briefly enumerated. The percentage of these factors that are informed by the teachers academic and experiential qualification.

The work also aims at highlighting the learning process of the students and which of the teaching skill sets are most resourceful and result oriented. This will be pursued through a study of a cross section of teachers’ qualification within and outside the classroom, drawing a table of related qualifications in the areas of English language teaching.

1.5   SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This research work is significant in that it will highlight greatly the importance of a teachers academic qualification and level of experience in determining the students performance in the course and in this case the English language subject.

With this attention will be drawn towards this and more emphasis will be laid on the teachers qualification alongside good learning

1.6   RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

The hypothesis on which the present research work is founded on the assumption that there is a direct relationship between a teachers academic qualification and his or her students' academic performances.

1.7   SCOPE OF THE STUDY

Our focus is on the above research problem as it pertains English language teachers and their students in Imo state Nigeria. The scope is designed to cover teachers and students of secondary and primary schools. This is because in primary schools there a many other factors that inform the pupils academic performances beyond a teachers qualification namely age, parental background and commitment, etc. However at secondary and university levels a student’s learning pattern is relatively stable so that to a great extent it is what is received and in what manner it is given that is often reflected in the end of the term/semester.

1.8   LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

Even though, as we mentioned earlier that it is very easy to pinpoint the impact of a teacher’s qualification on his or her students’ academic performance at secondary and tertiary levels, however it is often difficult sifting through other factors that bear upon a student’s performance. This is one of the challenges of this research and while it serves as a motivation for it, it has been a limitation in that it in some ways reduces the reliability of our hypothesis.