THE INFLUENCE OF ANXIETY AND PERSONALITY TYPE ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of anxiety on students’ academic performance in English Language in Lagos State secondary schools. The relevant and related literatures were reviewed in this study under specific subheadings. In this study, a descriptive research survey was used to assess the opinions of the selected respondents using a questionnaire and a sampling technique.
A total of 200 (two hundred) respondents were chosen and used in this study to represent the study’s entire population. In this study, six null hypotheses were developed and tested using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient statistical tool for hypotheses one, two, and three, and the independent t-test statistical tool for hypotheses four, five, and six, respectively.
The following results were obtained at the conclusion of the analyses: there is a significant relationship between anxiety and students’ academic performance in English language at secondary school level, there is a significant relationship between students’ attitude and their academic performance in
English language at secondary school level, and there is a significant relationship between students’ personality and their academic performance in English language at secondary school level.
Based on the study’s findings, the researcher made the following recommendations, among others: students should avoid being anxious before and during their English language examinations, and students should develop positive attitudes toward their English language studies.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
2.0The Study’s Background
The English language is very important in Nigeria’s social, political, and educational sectors. It is Nigeria’s official language, as well as a second language (L2). It serves as a vehicle for social, political, and even cultural interaction among the country’s various ethnic groups. This is why some people refer to English as a “lingua franca.” English is not only a subject in the school curriculum, but it is also the medium of instruction in all other subjects except indigenous language.
It is a crucial language (Jibowu, 2002). According to Jibowu (2002), poor English language performance by students at the West African Examination Council (WAEC), for example, causes great concern among parents, educators, and teachers, as well as the nation at large. A credit pass in the subject is required for admission to higher education and employment.
The ability to speak and write Standard English (SE) intelligibly is frequently regarded as a yardstick for determining a person’s educational standard; his/her ability and competence in the language of instruction have some influence on the quality of performance in other subjects.
According to Ubahakwe and Ebo (1989), Nigeria’s 1979 constitution advocated for equal educational opportunity for all citizens. Education in Nigeria is expected to play a harmonizing role as a tool for national unity. Nigeria is an egalitarian society in which citizens should have equal access to education, but suffice it to say that this is not the case.
A situation in which only a specific group of children is admitted to the unity schools does not allow for the same equality of education for all citizens.
According to Durojaiye (1994), the current issue in Nigeria is educational efficiency. According to him, in recent years, parents have claimed that there have been more sophisticated measures of efficiency in private fee-paying schools than in public non-fee-paying schools in state schools.
This efficiency in private schools stems from the employment of sufficient and qualified English language teachers, teacher motivation, adequate remuneration, and the provision of the same teaching-learning materials.
According to Durojaiye (1994), parents draw this conclusion from the fact that many children from these private schools gain admission to federal schools and, most likely, universities, while others end up working as bus conductors, drivers, carpenters, street traders, mechanics, apprentices, and in other low-wage jobs.
According to Adeleke (1990), many factors contribute to the widespread failure of students in English and other subjects, particularly in public non-fee-paying schools. He identified factors such as a lack of motivation for teachers and students, a lack of interest in studying, an unconducive school environment, a lack of current textbooks,
a lack of equipment, a lack of up-to-date art learning equipment, and an inadequate supply or provision of other important teaching and learning materials in public schools. Other factors include government neglect of teachers, a lack of staff training programs, and an insufficient staff training and retraining program.
Anxiety, according to David (2000), is an emotion characterized by feelings of impending danger, tension, and distress, as well as sympathetic nervous system arousal. Richardson and Suinn (2003), on the other hand, define mathematics anxiety as feelings of tension and anxiety that interfere with number manipulation and problem solving in a wide range of everyday and academic situations.
It is hypothesized that English anxiety affects both the extent to which a student pursues more than the bare minimum of English training and the extent to which the student is able to learn and perform English language skills and concepts.
Other factors that may influence students’ achievement in any subject, including English language, include attitude, interest, and perception. Attitude is a proclivity to perceive, feel, and act toward specific objects. An attitude toward something is a person’s collection of facts about the subject that may lead to apathy towards it, and that attitude is related to sex, age, and personality traits.
According to Ayoola (2004), value influences attitude. A person’s attitude can be either positive or negative. According to Monly (2002), attitude formation may be a matter of limitation. Many of our attitudes are simply borrowed, such as when a student accepts the opinions of their teacher and other important people in their success. Attitude can also be developed through deliberate cultivation, particularly by parents or teachers.
Positive attitudes of teachers, rather than words, will thus foster desirable attitudes. This statement is pertinent to students’ attitudes toward the English language. Hart (2005) discovered a significant relationship between attitude and achievement.
Wardehn (2006) discovered that differences in attitude can be significant predictors of English language achievement. Students who have a negative attitude toward the English language will perform poorly in the subject. Not only that, but a negative attitude causes English language anxiety, which leads to poor performance in the subject.
According to Uzor (2004), students’ interests and perceptions play a significant role in their over or underachievement in subjects taught in school systems around the world. According to Uzor, if a student has no interest in a subject or has a negative perception of a subject, the student will struggle to succeed in that subject.
According to Adewunmi (2006), for a student to achieve relative success or high achievement in any subject pursued in the school system, the student must develop the right attitude, interest, and perception that will lead to the right learning achievement in his/her educational career.
Students develop anxiety in achieving it because English language is a core subject offered in school, and because of its importance and compulsory nature in any child’s upward movement in academic pursuit. Amaonye (2006), for example, believes that most students fear failing the English language and, as a result, will use any means necessary to pass it. This is because they are aware that failure will jeopardize their educational progress in the future.
1.1 Theoretical Foundation
Sigmund Freud (1957) believes that instincts govern human behavior to a large extent. Freud agrees that the theory of psychosexual development is central to the process of personality development. This theory of psychosexual development is essentially biological in nature, with different stages of development at which specific behaviors occur.
The normal process of personality development occurs from stage to stage, but this process can become abnormal when an individual is exposed to traumatic events in early childhood. When this occurs, the flow of the personality development process becomes fixated at any given stage, resulting in a crisis for the individual later in life.
Because of the person’s abnormal development, which resulted in fixation when confronted with stressful situations or conditions later in life, he may be unable to handle this. Rather, the individual will regress, possibly exhibiting infantile behaviors. According to Freud, there is a corresponding character pattern displayed as an adult during any of the stages in which an individual experiences conflict.
Other stages of a person’s personality development, according to Freud (1957), exist. These stages are as follows: the oral stage, during which the self is separated from the environment; and the anal stage, which occurs between the second and third years of life.
Pleasurable sensations shift from the mouth to the anal cavity at this stage. The phallic stage is characterized by pleasurable sensations shifting from the anal to the cavity to the genital area between the ages of four and five. The latency stage and the genital stage are two other stages of an individual’s development.
1.2 Formulation of the Problem
Instincts control human behavior. The normal process of personality development progresses from one stage to the next, but the process can become abnormal if an individual experiences traumatic events during the early stages of development.
When this occurs, the flow of the process of personality development becomes fixated, resulting in a crisis for the individual later in life. The extent to which an individual carries out life’s affairs, including academic activities, is determined by the type of personality he or she possesses.
English Language, as one of the core and compulsory subjects that a student must pass at credit level before gaining admission into Nigeria’s higher institutions, has been a thorn in the flesh for many students. In general, students’ performance in the English language has been declining in both privately and publicly organized examinations in Nigeria.
The difficulty in conducting a comparative study of students’ academic performance in English Language cannot be overstated. In general, many students may be found to have poor English language performance, and the problem of poor performance is relatively prevalent among students in public schools. This is because many teachers in public secondary schools may lack the positive attitudes required to impart knowledge to students.
There are numerous factors that have been identified as causing students’ anxiety or fear of the English language. The perceived factors are: poor or negative attitudes toward the subject; a lack of background in the subject; the nature of the subject’s teaching application; poor teaching methods; a lack of students’ interests and motivation; poor teacher mastery of content; an overcrowded classroom (i.e., a poor teacher-student ratio); a lack of teaching material(s), and so on.
These factors work against effective subject-matter teaching and learning, resulting in students’ dismal or poor academic achievement in the subject. No wonder, year after year, students record very low marks on the subject, resulting in the academic setback of many students who were unable to pass it in order to advance in their academic career.
The aforementioned issues prompted an investigation into the impact of anxiety and personality type on students’ academic achievement in the subject at the senior secondary school level.
1.3 The Study’s Purpose
The study’s primary goal is to determine whether anxiety and personality type have an impact on students’ academic achievement in the subject. The study’s specific objectives are as follows:
(1) Determine whether there is a link between anxiety and students’ academic performance in the subject.
(2) Determine whether there is a link between students’ attitudes and their English language achievement.
(3) Determine whether there is a link between students’ personalities and their English language achievement.
(4) Determine whether there is a gender difference in student achievement as a result of English language anxiety.
(5) Determine whether there is a gender difference in student academic performance as a result of students’ attitudes toward the English language.
(6) Determine whether there is a gender difference in English achievement due to personality differences among students in school.
1.4 Research Concerns
As a result, the purpose of this research is to provide answers to the following questions.
(1) Is there a link between anxiety and students’ academic performance in English language?
(2) Will there be any correlation between students’ attitudes and their English language achievement?
(3) Will there be a link between students’ personalities and their English language achievement?
(4) Will there be a gender difference in student achievement as a result of English language anxiety?
(5) Will there be a gender difference in student academic performance as a result of attitudes toward the English language?
(6) Will there be a gender difference in students’ English language achievement due to personality type?
1.5 Propositions
At the 0.05 level of significance, the following hypotheses were tested.
(1) There will be no statistically significant relationship between anxiety and students’ academic performance in English.
(2) There will be no significant relationship between students’ attitudes and their English language achievement.
(3) There will be no significant relationship between students’ personalities and their English language achievement.
(4) There will be no significant gender differences in student achievement as a result of English language anxiety.
(5) There will be no significant gender differences in student academic performance as a result of attitudes toward the English language.
(6) There will be no significant gender differences in students’ English language achievement due to personality type.
1.6 Importance of the Research
The following people would benefit from the study’s findings and recommendations:
(1) Students: They will gain a better understanding of the significance of English language achievement and its role in academic progress. This study will provide students with a new perspective on their negative perceptions of the English language. It will allow students to view mathematics in a more positive light.
(2) Teachers – would be able to learn more about the impact of anxiety on students’ English language achievement; additionally, the study’s findings and recommendations will assist many English language teachers in being aware of some major factors that impede the teaching and learning of mathematics in school. The study will assist English language teachers in correcting some of their negative attitudes toward the use of English in the classroom, among other things.
(3) School Authorities – The study’s findings and recommendations would allow school authorities to reorder their priorities and change some of their policies that are detrimental to the teaching and learning of English, particularly at the secondary school level of the Nigerian school system.
(4) Parents – would be able to obtain accurate information about the importance and relevance of English language to their children’s/wards’ academic careers as a result of this study. With the findings of this study, parents will be able to help their children/wards pay more undivided attention to the issues of English language in school, knowing its unavoidability in school and its relevance to their children/wards’ academic progress.
(5) The Society – Through the contents of this study, the society will be properly informed and educated. This is due to the fact that members of the public would have firsthand information and would be properly informed about the issues of English language, its relevance, importance, and unavoidability by students who wish to advance in their academic or educational careers.
1.7 The Study’s Scope and Limitations
The study looked at the impact of anxiety and personality type on English language achievement among students in senior secondary schools in Lagos State’s Mainland Local Government Area. Finance, time frame to complete the study, and other unforeseen circumstances would be some of the study’s constraints.
1.8 Terms and Definitions
In this study, the following operational terms were defined:
(1) English Anxiety: This is a term used to describe students’ level of fear or uneasiness when confronted with English language problems in school. Because they do not study well when they are anxious, their anxiety causes them to perform well in the subject.
(2) English Achievement: This term refers to the level of performance achieved by students who study English in school. It could be their performance in school tests or overall school exams, for example.
(3) Students’ Attitudes: This is how and in what way students perceive the subject (English language) in school. Their attitudes may be negative or positive, depending on how they perceive the subject (English language, for example).
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