English language certificate of pedagogical secondary approaches education and performance the Kenya in public secondary schools in Kisii central sub-county, kenya

Abstract

English Language plays a central and strategic role in the school system because almost all the school subjects are taught using English language. However, students’ achievement in this subject in secondary school is not encouraging. Therefore, the purpose of the study was be to investigate the factors influencing performance of English language in public secondary in Kisii Central Sub- County, Kenya. Chapter one of the project gives a background to the study which shows that though tremendous research has been done on factors influencing language studies, the influence of these factors in rural Kenya is still unknown. The study was guided by the following objectives; to assess the influence of teacher qualifications on performance in English, to determine the extent to which the availability of teaching and learning materials affects performance in English, to investigate the extent to which school factors affect performance in English and to investigate the extent to which home factors influence performance in English in public secondary schools in Kisii Central Sub- County. Chapter two reviewed the empirical literature related to factors that influence students’ achievement in English and it was organized according to the research objectives that addressed: teacher quality, teaching and learning resources, school factors, home background respectively. The study was guided by the Communicative Language Theory which explains the processes and goals in language teaching and learning. The influence of linguistic factors on achievement were summarized by a conceptual framework. The study adopted the descriptive survey research design. The target population was 18,434 students and 76teachers of English in Kisii Central Sub-County, and a sample of 26 English Language teachers and 374 students selected through stratified sampling procedure. Questionnaires were administered to the sampled respondents. The data collected was presented in frequency distribution tables and analysed using descriptive statistics. The results of the study are expected to be useful to parents, students, teachers of English and policy makers. The findings will also be useful in giving information and possible ways of improving performance of English Language in public secondary schools in the whole country.