| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of the study was to investigate the factors affecting performance ill
Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) English examination in Nyamache Division, Gucha District. Five research questions were formulated to guide the study. The review of the literature focused on the nature of language; learning a second language; teacher and qualifications; instructional methods;
teaching/learning materials; evaluation methods and the role of mother tongue and
attitudinal aspects of teaching and learning.
This study adopted the Ex-post-facto research design. Simple and stratified random
sampling techniques were used to select the participants for the study. The sample
consisted of 342 students and 34 teachers out of which 284 (83.0%) of the students'
and 34( 100%) of the teachers' questionnaires were returned and considered. Data was
collected through the use of questionnaires.
The findings revealed that teachers were qualified and so the issue of teacher qualification was not a factor that may have affected students' performance. It was
also found out that teachers' evaluation methods had an effect on students performance in English examination. For example, 72.5% of students said that teachers rarely gave them assignments and home work. Majority of the students (94.1 %) said that teachers did not correct their assignments. It was also revealed that lack of teaching and learning materials -sad an effect of poor performance in English.
For example 64.7% of teachers said that they did not have teachers reference books
and guides. Additionally, a majority, (85.3%) of the teachers and 73.6% students said
they had inadequate audio tapes while 91.2% of the teachers and 73.6% students said they had quite inadequate visual tapes.
The research also revealed that teachers used methods of teaching which were seemingly of a lower level. For example, 79.4% used lecture method of teaching and 66.2% never used demonstration method of teaching, which is a higher level method. The use of mother tongue was another factor which affected students' performance. For example, 58.8% of the teachers said that mother tongue was the most frequently used language in the school, while many students, 39.4 % said they used mother tongue at school. Furthermore, students were found to have negative attitude towards English as a subject and towards areas tested in English which also contributed to poor performance in English. For example, majority of the students (66.2%) had negative attitude towards learning English and 72.5% of them had negative attitude towards areas examined in English.
Based on the findings it was recommended that teachers should use methods of teaching that involve students more as students participation in teaching and learning is very important. In addition, schools should provide the required teaching and learning facilities. School administration should encourage students to communicate in English while at school. This would help in learning spoken language and also assist in making students learn how to think and express themselves in english.
It was also recommended that school-administration should find ways of helping students cultivate positive attitude towards English. This could be done by planning for school drama, going to theatres which show English plays, encouraging students to join English clubs such as journalism, debating, young writers and others. The researcher made the following suggestions for further research; There is need to conduct a research to investigate home background and its effect of students performance; a study to investigate how administrative factors contribute to poor performance should also be conducted. | en |
