CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0 BACKGROUND OF STUDY

Instructional materials are materials or tools used to enhance or enlighten the effective teaching and learning process among students in schools. Teaching and learning are concerned with the training of students, but learning is a complete process.

It can however be defined as a change in disposition, a relatively permanent change in behaviour overtime and this is brought about by experience, learning can occur as a result of newly acquired skills, knowledge, perceptions, facts, principles, new information at hand etc Adeyangu (1997). Learning can be reinforced with learning aids of different variety because they stimulate, motivate as well as arrest learner’s attention for a while during the instructional process.

Learning aids are instructional materials and devices through which teaching and learning are done in schools as in Enugu urban secondary schools (junior). Examples of learning aids (instructional materials) includes visual aids, audio – visual aids, real objects and many others like laboratory apparatus which are test – tube, Boiling tube, conical flask, spring and chemical balance, separating funnel, filter paper, burettes, retort stand, pipette, beakers etc for effective stability of teaching and learning of integrated science. Again materials for effective teaching and learning of English language are use of textbooks, specimen or chart and chalkboard for demonstration. The same holds in English language, students can take a tape recorder as an instructional material in language laboratory in part of oral English. Alkinson (1995) pointed out that the language laboratory is based upon on an extension of the tape recorder, and the simplest may be just a signal tape recorder with slight modification, so that students have control over one or two tracks for recording to their own speech, this arrangement of instruction allows the students to listen and respond and replay and repeat when necessary and the students will learn effectively by building their own vocabulary.