ABSTRACT: The study was carried out to examine Motivation and Pupils’ Academic Performance in English Language in Public Primary Schools. Two research questions were raised. Two research hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Survey design was adopted for the study. The total population of the study is made up of five thousand three hundred and four (5,304) pupils in the seventy five (75) public primary schools. Two hundred (200) pupils were chosen to form the sample size for the study. The instruments for data collection were Questionnaire on Pupils’ Motivation (QPM) and Pupils’ Raw Scores in English Language in the Third Terminal Examination of 2019/2020 academic session.
Data collected were analyzed using independent t-test. The result from the findings shows that Parental Motivation influence pupils’ academic performance in English Language. Also, reinforcement also influences the academic performance of pupils in primary schools in Oruk Anam Local Government Area. It was therefore recommendations among others that Parents should endeavour to motivate their children by providing necessary learning materials for them to help them perform better academically.
Motivation And Pupils’ Academic Performance In English Language In Public Primary Schools
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Motivation is the process through which individuals are charged to increase their action or performance either by internal intrinsic (external or extrinsic) factors. Intrinsic motivation is said to be derived internally in the task itself. It occurs while a person is performing an activity in which he takes delight and derives satisfaction in doing such activity. Tella (2013) motivation can be influenced by both intrinsic and extrinsic factors such variables are considered in this study, in the context of this study, pupils motivation is the extrinsic variables that are not within pupils themselves (intrinsic) that can change or encourage them to learn and perform better in their examination, these motivational variables include Parental motivation, reinforcement, teachers teaching methods e.t.c.
Motivation plays an important role in influencing pupils academic performance in learning situation. Individual learners have varying levels of psychological needs that do exert much influence on their academic performance and determine the degree of their activities in the classroom. The extent to which ability can be translated or elevated into performance is dependent on the level of incentive provided by the organization which satisfies the needs of people. For this reason, parents have the role and responsibility of motivating their children towards effective learning in school and subsequently toward recording successes in their examination. It is not only sending their children to the most expensive school that matter but ensuring that all their learning needs are provided (Davidson, 2012).
Parents also have roles to play in motivating their children to learn. There are parents who equipped their children with all the recommended textbooks as well as other school requirements most of such parents equipped student take interest in academic activities demanded the needed learning materials. Some pupils are on the other hand handicapped and not motivated to participate in academic activities because, they lack the learning materials (Okoro, 2007).
Teachers equally places an importance role in motivating the learners, Moreover, most of the social-cognitive models of motivation assume that pupils’ motivation is influenced by rewards and praise by their teacher, classrooms interactions, activities, reinforcement practices and culture (Pintrich, 2003). Therefore, the teacher’s instructional practice has a crucial role in facilitating pupils’ motivation. The relation between different aspects of teachers’ instructional practices and pupils’ motivation in mathematics is quite strong.
Specifically, the use of reinforcement strategies in the lesson can be motivating factor for managing student behavior and maximizing the learning outcome. Programmed instructions can be used to make reinforcements effective (Skinner, 1968). In addition to other strategies in classroom teaching, having good strategies of reinforcement can attract the attention and boost the interest of the pupils in teach (Newcomer, 2009). Therefore, it is important that teacher must make instruction interesting using various strategies and materials. That way, it will make the learning of English Language not only interesting, will be engaging, investigative and adventurous and motivating.
Motivation And Pupils’ Academic Performance In English Language In Public Primary Schools
1.2 Statement of the Problem
In any educational system, success is measured by academic achievement or how well a student meets the standard set out by the institution. The menace of failure among the young school pupils has stared parent, government and stakeholders in the face. The persistence low performance in economics by pupils has been tackled in various ways by parents, schools, educationist and the government in a bid to solve the problem of poor academic performance in English Language in schools. Parents teachers association (P.T.A) in schools have been bridging the gap between parents and teachers with the view of overcoming the root of this problem as such they have provided buildings, desks, laboratories equipment etc. in some of the schools on the basis of uplifting the problem of pupils poor performance, agencies like non-governmental organization and government have done their best in improving the educational performance in Nigeria.
Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), Education Trust Fund (ETF), etc, have been building and supplying materials but the problem seems to be magnified. The government has averred teachers re-training but the root of the problem are yet to be resolved. Since all the efforts made so far have not been able to solve the problem of poor academic performance of pupils in English Language, the researcher is therefore interested to find out if motivation influences pupils’ performance in English Language.
