PROBLEMS AND STRATEGIES OF TEACHING ENGLISH IN A MULTI LINGUAL CLASSROOM

ABSTRACT

This study was carried out to ascertain the problem of teaching English in a multi lingual classroom in Egor local government area and identify suitable strategies for solving the problems. To achieve the purpose of the study, five (5) research questions were raised. The study adopted the descriptive survey research design and a total of total of two hundred and forty-three (243) students selected from SS1 and SS2 classes in public secondary schools in Egor local government made up the sample for the study. The instrument used for data collection was the questionnaire which was validated using the face and content approach. The reliability of the instrument was also ensured using the test re-test procedure. A reliability coefficient of 0.68 was obtained using Pearson product Moment Statistical Formular. The data collected for the study were analysed using descriptive statistics comprising of frequency count, simple percentage and mean. The analysis led to the following findings: English is very often taught in secondary schools in Egor local government, English teachers are not regular to class, there are no teaching aids for English language in secondary schools in Egor local government, some of the challenges English teachers encounter in the course of doing their job includes lack of concentration of students in the classroom, poor interest in learning English language, lack of constant practice among students and large population of students for a teacher and that strategies for teaching English language in multilingual classes are ensuring moderate class size, improving teachers’ classroom management skill, ensuring adequate use of instructional materials and enlisting active participation in class. Based on the above findings, the researcher recommended that school administrators should increase the number of times English language is taught in school so as to enable students gain mastery of the subject, serious sanctions should be meted out on teachers who miss their classes indiscriminately, efforts should be made by school administrators to provide teaching or instructional materials especially for English language.