ABSTRACT

This study focused on the Efficacy of Igbo Language as an additional medium of instruction on junior secondary school students’ academic achievement and interest in Mathematics in Imo State. A quasi-experimental research design of pre-test, post-test non-equivalent control group type was used for the study. Four research questions guided the study and four null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.5 level of significance for the study. The population of the study was made up of 4027 Junior Secondary Schools one (JSI) students in Imo State and this comprised 2457 males and 1570 females. The sample comprises 97 JSI students which comprised 48 in the experimental group and 49 in the control group drawn using simple random sampling technique. Instruments for data collection were Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT) and Mathematics Interest Inventory (MII) all which were validated by three experts: one from Measurement and Evaluation and two from Mathematics Education, all in the department of Science Education, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike. A reliability index of 0.72 was obtained using Kuder-Richardson 20 for MAT and 0.85 was obtained using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient for MII respectively. Data obtained for the study were analyzed using mean and standard deviation for the research questions while analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test hypotheses 1-2 and t test of independent was used to test the null hypotheses 3-4 at 0.05 levels of significance. Results of the work analyzed revealed that Igbo Language, as an additional medium of instruction has relative effect on students’ academic achievement in Mathematics; there was a significant difference in the mean achievement scores of JSSI students taught mathematics using Igbo Language as an additional medium of instruction and those taught using English Language only. It was also observed that students taught Mathematics using Igbo Language as an additional medium of instruction had more mean interest score than those taught using English Language only; that there was a significant difference between the mean interest scores of JSS I students taught Mathematics using Igbo Language as an additional medium of instruction and those taught using English Language only. Based on these findings, it was recommended that government should improve the use of Language of the immediate environment of the child as additional medium of instruction in schools in Nigeria.