Project – PROBLEMS MILITATING AGAINST THE EFFECTIVE LEARNING OF FRENCH LANGUAGE IN NIGERIA

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ABSTRACT

The study examined “problems militating the effective learning of French Language in Nigeria”. The study objectives are to: Insufficient numbers of qualified teachers affects students’ mass failure in French Language subjects; Unavailability of instructional materials for teaching of French Language subject affects students’ mass failure in French Language subjects; The previous socio-economic backgrounds of the students affect them in studying French Language subject; and the attitude and interest of students towards the nature of French Language subject contribute deeply to their mass failure in SSCE. The study employed the descriptive survey design.  The nature of the problem was duly considered in the study.  The research design used for this study is the survey design. The reason why this design was adopted was because the researcher would make use of the primary data obtained through the questionnaire. The area of the study covers students of five selected secondary schools located within Eti-Osa Local Government Area, Lagos, Lagos. The target population consists of public secondary school students in Eti-Osa Local Government Area, Lagos. Simple random sampling technique was adopted for the study. The researcher useD a total of one hundred (100) students from five (5) selected public secondary schools in Eti-Osa Local Government Area, Lagos. The research instrument used was questionnaire. The data collected was analyzed using simple percentage while hypotheses were tested using Chi-Square Statistics. The study recommended that Government both at the federal and state levels should employ more qualified teachers for secondary schools to ensure efficiency and optimal performance in French Language subject. The study also recommended that Teachers should develop positive relationship with students and stress classroom activities, that will involve active teaching-learning process and students participation in the class. The study concludes that insufficient numbers of qualified French Language teachers and instructional materials for teaching affects French Language subject.

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1    Background of the Study

Little or no effort was made in propagating or integrating French Language subject until recently that French Language began gaining ground in the various level of education system, this has made it possible as a result of increase in the training of French Language teachers  and other were also trained in other related field.

Nigeria is an Anglophone country that is surrounded by francophone countries (Niger Republic in the North, Tchad in the North-East, Cameroon in the East and Benin Republic in the West). For effective interaction with the neighbouring countries, Nigerian citizens need the knowledge of French language. In fact, Onyemelukwe and Adie Offiong (2004) described Nigeria as “an Anglophone country in a sea of francophony” Nigerian citizens do not only need the knowledge of French language to be able to communicate with the neighboring countries but also to be able to interact with the francophone world entirely. In spite of the above- mentioned opportunities, French language is still given little recognition in Nigeria.

 

In the early sixties, French language was introduced into the education of the country after the extinction of Latin language. The language was held in a relatively high esteem then compared with how it is handled today. In the seventies and eighties, expatriates were brought into the country to come and teach the language in the secondary schools throughout the country. Since early nineties, Nigerian government has started deemphasizing the teaching of the language.

 

Nowadays, French teachers are no more employed in the secondary schools and the already existing ones are made to teach some other subjects like English language, literature in English and some other subjects. This attitude of the government has made both the parents and the students to have an aversion for the language. Many of the parents now consider French language learning as a waste of time. Consequently, the students too pay very little or no attention to French as a subject in the few schools (mostly private schools) where the language is still taught today. This attitude has led many French graduates into unemployment.

 

The teaching of French Language in our school system has been taught by both trained and quack teachers, making the teaching of the subject is done in a disjointed and uncoordinated manner which makes little sense and meaning to the student. Example History, geography, economic are taught separately by professionals especially in our secondary schools, but French Language has never been taught like that. The new French Language program is integrated in the sense that it is interdisciplinary in form as it draws its content from other social sciences.

Makinde (1979) observed that French Language tries to direct the attention of student to their immediate environment before showing them more of the other world. It begins with the family as the first unit of the community, then school, community, state, nation and the international community. The advantage of this system is that, it promotes greater integration of learning experience by unifying subject matter as it employs systematic correlation of subject around them drawn from the function of living things and their interactions with their environment.   French Language is also organized around the problems and needs of adolescent especially those that demand persona-social understanding as reflected in the French Language syllabus in secondary schools.

 

Effective teaching of French Language is a process by which a French Language teacher adopt all the possible method used in teaching in the classroom to make sure that students understand French Language and be able to respond positively during assessment or to produce a good result. Teachers’ effectiveness is exhibited in the teaching method, classroom managements, the material as well as the way students are being handled, a good teacher always bear in mind the individual differences of the students while presenting the lesson and frequently check the student’s understanding of his or her points to make sure that they are getting of understanding his lesson. This also includes the ability of the teacher to answer question asked by the students, having knowledge about his or her subject matter and ability to show students how to conduct appropriate research.

Effective teaching is crucial, in order for students to reach educational success in and outside classroom setting, therefore, there has been some factors militating against effective teaching of French Language in senior secondary school in Nsukka Local Government Area, which some of them are as follows:

1. Unqualified French Language teacher: Inappropriate training background of science teachers especially French Language teachers and qualification of French Language teachers are the major factor that militate against effective teaching of French Language because some French Language teachers in some senior secondary school did not undergo enough training to enable them get skills, qualities and enough knowledge of the subject matter and how to impact the knowledge to the students.
2. Poor method of teaching French Language in senior secondary school: For teaching to be effectives one must use different methods of teaching. According to Eke (2001), teaching is effective if only it produces or yields the desired results, the ability of the teacher to adapt to different situations and produce a desired result in the classroom is a mark of teaching effectiveness. Vennier and Faith (2001) are of the opinion that all the teaching activities are supposed to produce learning, so that test of effective teaching will be amount of learning that occurs.

When the following methods are used, teaching of French Language can be effective. According to Bigmen (1999), activity method, inquiry method, and discovery method which elicit student’s interests and enhance their level of attainment or comprehension of French Language. Activity method the methods that encourage students to participate actively during the lesion while teaching at the same time. Oforkansi (2008) defined activity method as a method whereby the students learn through active involvement rather than being passive or being at the receiving end.

Inadequte supply of French Language equipment: In some schools, many laboratories equipments like microscope, glass tube, Beaker, slide, Bones of vertebrates etc. charts of different animals development, systems, organs, etc, work book for practical and textbooks are not adequate for the students in learning of French Language. French Language is a science subject which is all about practical and also when combined with other science subject one will be able to study courses like medicine, nursing, pharmacy etc in higher institution. Beaty and Woolnough (1990) are of the opinion that the obsolete and insufficient teaching of French Language in senior secondary schools. They stressed that the teacher may be competent enough and have all the qualities to impact the knowledge to the students but to the obsolete and insufficient availability of biological equipment the aim is defeated.

Teachers attitude towards the teaching of French Language: the teachers personalities such as the way the teacher walks, talks, reacts to issues, his/her code of conduct and dressing code has become the major factors which leads to the ineffective teaching of French Language. It goes with the saying that the personality of such teacher affect the effective teaching of French Language in a great way. Enwieme(2001) continuous to stressed that teachers personality invariably affect the effectiveness of teaching of French Language. Oforkansi(2008)opinion that personal qualities do not only enhance teaching and learning but also promotes the tone of the school as well as the profession.

Notwithstanding, it has been observed that there are many problems militating against the teaching and learning of French Language in Post primary schools as enumerated by many writers on problem of French Language in Nigeria. They attributed the high level of failures in French Language to lack of students concentration in the classroom, their view steamed from observed students performance in French Language.

Thus, observed failure could be as a result of inability of the students to understand economic terms, lack of finance to buy relevant textbooks, inadequate teachers, inability of the students’ to interpret French Language table and graph, inappropriate and ineffective method of teaching, lack of control over the attitudes of students and teachers and others which have contributed to low level of teaching French Language in secondary schools.

Okorie (1979: 152) suggested that for the effective teaching to take place, the skillful teacher needs to use the many effective method and techniques effectively because in them his success and failure depends. He further emphasized that the success in the use of methods depends on the intelligent analysis of educational purposes, pupil in the class and the curriculum content of the moment.

A few moment reflection is sufficient to reveal that every society faces crucial issues and problem in education which have very serious economic angles that cannot be overlooked easily for instance, the production of education as well as the acquisition of education both require the use of large qualities of scare resources (Production of education requires conducive classrooms, administrative blocks, personnel, librarians, laboratories while the acquisition of education requires expenditures on tuition fees, book, travels, uniform, lodging etc. and students time.

1.2    Statement of the Problem

It has also been observed that there are lots of factors militating against the effective teaching and learning of French Language in secondary schools in the study area.

poor performance in Secondary School Certificate Examination (WAEC) is caused by many factors such as; students ineffective study techniques, quality of teachers and method of teaching, the parents inability to provide useful materials like textbooks, exercise books and school fees and problem of inadequate instructional materials for teaching and learning of French Language in schools.

However, the pivoting problems of French Language is complex and can minimally be solved if the teachers and students change their attitude towards teaching and learning in schools generally and to French Language in particular.

French Language is one of the core science subjects, which is supposed to be the most interesting subject to students in senior secondary schools. It has been discovered that the effective teaching of French Language has been very important. But the rate at which students fails French Language in result time’s shows that effective learning has not been attained by these students. Aganga (2000) observed that “Many secondary schools, especially the public schools have insufficient competent teachers as well as biological equipment in their different schools”. Therefore, there is the need to answer certain questions to re-enforce their effectiveness in teaching.

 1.3    Purpose of the Study

Study has been undertaken with a view to identify the problems militating the effective learning of French Language in Nigeria and factors responsible for these problems. Specifically, the study sought to find out if:-

1. Insufficient numbers of qualified teachers affects students’ mass failure in French Language subjects.
2. Unavailability of instructional materials for teaching of French Language subject affects students’ mass failure in French Language subjects,
3. The previous socio-economic backgrounds of the students affect them in studying French Language subject.
4. The attitude and interest of students towards the nature of French Language subject contribute deeply to their mass failure in SSCE.

Research Questions

In assessing the purpose of the study, this research project will answer the following questions:

1. Does insufficient numbers of qualified French Language teachers affects students’ mass failure in French Language subject?
2. Does unavailability of instructional materials for teaching of French Language subject affects students’ mass failure in French Language subjects?
3. Does previous socio-economic background of the students affect them in studying French Language subject?
4. How would interest of students towards the nature of French Language subject contribute deeply to their mass failure in SSCE?

 Research Hypotheses

In carrying out this research work the following theoretical statements are buttressed to serve as a direction on which the work will be premised:

1. H₀: Insufficient numbers of qualified French Language teachers does not affects students’ mass failure of students in French Language subject

H₁:  Insufficient numbers of qualified French Language teachers and instructional materials teaching affects French Language subject.

1. H₀: There is no significant relationship between availability of instructional materials for teaching of French Language subject and students’ mass failure in French Language subjects.

H₁:   There is significant   relationship   between availability of instructional materials for teaching of French Language subject and students’ mass failure in French Language subjects.

 1.6    Scope of the Study

The research work seeks to examine the factors militating against effective teaching and learning of French Language in secondary. The study will be limited to five selected schools in Eti-Osa Local Government Area, Lagos.

1.7   Significance of the Study

There is need to apply knowledge from French Language to many area of our life in other to benefit the society. The achievements of the objective necessitates an understanding of the basic teaching of French Language. We cannot attain national objectives in the light of poor or average performances in examinations and lack of application of French Language to life students.

Without doubt, improved teaching and learning of French Language will spur us into greater heights. This study will help to make our educational administrators to see the need to have qualified French Language teachers to handle the subject effectively for the benefit of the students and society at large.

This study will help to sensitize the educational administrators to appreciate the need to make available the necessary materials, example, chalkboard, graphs, audio-visual materials etc. that will enhance effective learning of French Language if they are not available.

This study will if need be direct the French Language teachers’ attention to the need for them to adopt more appropriate teaching method in order to bring about the above mentioned desirable experience in the learners. This study will have a great significance because it is going to provide information to French Language teachers for formation and evaluation of their plans.

It will be useful to learners for through this, they will be able to identify the factors militating against the proper teaching and learning of French Language. This study will help to produce sound French Language students that will function very well in the economy such as:

(a) Knowing how to use scarce productive resources with alternative uses to meet prescribed ends and be able to apply the principles of French Language.

(b)  The product of French Language that should be able to pick employment within a limited employment opportunity in any economy.

This work will serve as a source of encouragement to students and teachers that will come across it. It is hoped that the findings of this study would also form the basis for further research work by future researchers on this issue.

 1.8 Definition of Terms

French Language: French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul.

Instructional Materials: These are materials that are used to aid in the transference of information from one student to another in Education arena.

Teaching: the act or profession of a person who teaches.

Job Performance: This is the work related activities expected of an employee and how well those activities were executed.

Remuneration: Reward for employment in the form of pay, salary, or wage, including allowances, benefits (such as medical plan, pension plan), bonuses, cash incentives, and monetary value of the noncash incentives.

Condition of Work: Regulations governing on-the-job standards and conditions of work such as those affecting health and safety of workers.

 

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Project – PROBLEMS MILITATING AGAINST THE EFFECTIVE LEARNING OF FRENCH LANGUAGE IN NIGERIA