COMPUTER SOFTWARE AS A DETERMINANT OF ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN TARABA STATE

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of computer software on academic achievement of secondary school students in English language in Taraba State. The study was guided by 3 objectives with corresponding research questions and hypotheses. It was a quasi-experimental research design that involved 377 sample size selected from 19,510 total population. Multistage sampling method as well as Krejcie and Morgan sample size table of determination was used to 377 SSII students as respondents for the study. A researcher-developed instrument titled Computer Software in relation to English Achievement Test- CSEAT was used for data collection. The respondents were randomly divided into experimental (188) and control (189) groups, while 167 respondents from rural area and 210 respondents from urban area participated in the study. Also, 177 male and 200 female participated in the study. Following adequate procedures for face and content validity of the instruments, reliability coefficient for the instrument stood at .84 using Cronbach’s Alpha analysis. The data collected from field were analyzed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviations to answer research questions while analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings from the study revealed significant difference in mean academic achievement of students taught using computer software; no significant difference between male and female students mean academic achievement; and no significant difference between urban and rural students mean academic achievement. However, the study indicated a positive relationship with male students mean academic achievement when taught English language with computer software; and a positive relationship with urban students mean academic achievement when taught English language with computer software. Therefore, it was concluded that there is significant effect of computer software on academic achievement of secondary school students in English language. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended, among others that, English teachers should be trained and encouraged to use computer software tools rather than conventional teaching method that does not improve on academic achievement of English language students.