CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Socialization is the process of imparting knowledge mostly from the old to the young. It is the transference of values to the young so as to perpetuate the society in question in Ojobo Charles (1992)

Language is a significant aspect of the culture of the people and all over the countries, mankind has transmitted language from one generation to another, through the process of socialization. A child through association with the adults in the society learns language. The adults on their part, have relied on manipulation of symbols as a form of teaching the young language. In that case, many have adopted varieties of aids to assist them to imparting knowledge from the adult to the offspring.

The mass media like radio and television have been utilized in the teaching and learning of English language. According to Schramm (1962), radio is an audio medium. As a mass medium, it has the capacities to cut through the Barriers of illiteracy and poor infrastructures in English language. Sometimes, the teaching is done in local or enhancing learning. In addition, radio has other peculiarities, which makes it the true mass medium in terms of teaching a mass audience in the developing world. Radio is relatively cheap and can be operated without electricity. It is television, which can also transcend such barriers as illiteracy and infrastructural facilities. Widely owned all over the third world even in remote areas.

Therefore, radio has been in use as a teaching aid in the learning of English Language because of its reachability and its transistorized nature. Teachers who replay to the students mostly use tape recorders to record instructions at convenient times. This has enhanced the teaching and learning of English Language over the years in the Nigerian education system. More over, television is another visual material like home video and cinemas it has been utilized in teaching and learning of English Language. Literacy works like Julius Ceaser by William Shakespeare and Things Fall Apart by Chinue Achebe are better illustrated through the use of television and the other visual devices. This has increased the speed of learning and teaching of English Language. Ojobo (1998) also writes as follows:

Teaching aids are important in the teaching of

language. This is more so in the teaching of

English Language because of its second status

in Nigeria. Teachers should evolve more efforts

in applying audio – visual aids and their teaching

and also evolve more practical means of teaching

aids and the enhancement of learning to make

it less stressful

Teaching aids are imperative in the teaching and learning of English Language. This is more important because English Language is not an indigenous language and there involves complicated concepts. The use of teaching aids simplifies these concepts and therefore, teaching and learning become pleasant and a worth – while venture.

However, visual aids are those materials that appeal only to the sense of sight. Visual aids are different from audio – aids because, audio – aids are those ones that appeal only to the sense of hearing. Audio – visual aids are those materials that appeal to the sense of hearing and sight at the same time. They are used to complement and supplement teachers’ verbal effort in teaching and learning. Some of these audio – visual aids include radio – cassette, tape – recorders, televisions, slides, transparent films, film – strips, opaque projectors, microscopes, globes, attass and so on. They make important contributions in teaching and learning process.

The use of audio – visual aid in teaching and learning comes into the branch of knowledge known as Educational Technology. They aid learning and help in realization of educational objectives. The application of audio – visual aids in the field of education started in the past (1973) in Vienna. During the time, an exhibit from an American school with maps, charts, textbooks and other equipment won the admiration of the people. Subsequent exhibitions at Paris in (1878) and Merbourne in 1880 marked the initiation. Education technology today tends to be a system rather than simply a package of instructional materials. Teachers of today use a variety of visual – aids such as overhead, films, film loops. They also use audio – aids like tape recorders, radio and language laboratory. Amuah (1986) observed that “teachers now use instructional materials in a more scientific way”. Teachers use them to the structure and evaluating their teaching.

In view of this, psychologists said that “human beings learn audio – visual in their senses” because of the audio – visual aids in education. John Lock, an empiric, talked on the “sensitivity of human wants from the external world through the sense of audio – visual.” Pestallazi also mentioned that “sense impression is the one condition of human learning”. In this case, children learn better when teachers appeal to more than one of their senses during instructions, that is they understand better when they hear and see what the teacher talks about . John lock (1997)

Federal government of Nigeria recommended the use of establishment of audio – visual aids centres because of their importance in education. The national policy on education also recommended the use of radio and television to develop and improve education as well as to expand the instruction techniques. According to (Bell – Gam, 1992), the use of audio – visual materials like film strips, slides, opaque projectors was recognized in the country in the 1950’s. According to him, in 1955, “a commission was set up to look at the possible way of using or applying for radio and television for teaching and learning”. His idea was accepted and this brought about the use of radio in 1957 and television in 1959. Although the use of audio – visual aids in Nigeria started during the colonial days their application to teaching and learning did not gain prominence until 1970. The curriculum conference of 1969 was forced to establish various audio – visual centres in different states of the federation. These centres went into development and popularization of audio – visual media in many education institutions in the country. The aims for setting up audio – visual centres is to reduce teaching deficiencies in certain syllabus courses such as sciences, to provide an examples of good teaching which can help upgrade the general ability of classroom instruction, to provide ideal materials that are not generally available in the classroom (UNESCO, 1969: 116)

Government made efforts to establish various audio – visual aids centres in different states because of the aims mentioned above. Despite the government efforts, several factors are seen as problems to achieve the audio – visual programme in Nigeria. Some of these factors include, “lack of fund appropriate man power, technical know how” (UNESCO, 1969). According to Okwor (1993);

Audio – visual equipments are lying unused in shelves and cupboards in many schools due to not having technical or knowing knowledge applying the operations. The problem is therefore, even when government and schools are able to obtain the expensive audio – visual aids, the ability required for the effective usage is lacking.