INFLUENCE OF HOME BACKGROUND FACTORS ON ACHIEVEMENT IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN DALA EDUCATION DIRECTORATE KANO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined the influence of home background factors on achievement 
in English language of secondary school students in Dala Education Directorate 
Kano state, Nigeria. Four research objectives, four research questions and four 
null hypotheses guided the study. An Ex-post-facto research design was adopted. 
The population of this study comprised of 6,526 secondary schools students in 
Dala Education Directorate, from which 357 students were selected as sample 
using multi-stage sampling procedure. Data were collected using two instruments 
Parental support and Family size Questionnaire (PSAFSQ) and Socio economic 
status scale (SES-Scale). The instruments were revalidated via face, content and 
construct validity. The reliability of internal consistency of these instruments 
were established using split half procedure of PPMC and later applied Spearman 
Brown Prophecy formula and obtained 0.92 and 0.91 as the reliability of the 
instruments respectively. Also, English Language Qualifying Examination 
results of 2023/2024 was used as measures of achievement in English language. 
Data was collected using on-spot mechanism and was analyzed using inferential 
statistics of t-test for independent and multiple regression analysis. Hypotheses 
1, 2 and 3 were tested using t-test for independent sample while hypothesis 4 was 
tested using multiple regression analysis. Findings revealed that family size do 
not influence achievement in English language of secondary school students in 
Dala Education Directorate (p-value, 0.069, > 0.05). However, both parental 
support and socio economic status have significant influence on students’ 
achievement in English language (Parental support p-value, 0.000, < 0.05, SES 
p-value, 0.000, < 0.05) with students receiving higher support and from higher 
socio economic status performing better. It was concluded that family size, 
parental support and socio economic status interactively influence students’ 
achievement in English language in the study area (F=162.952, P = .000). Based 
on these findings, the study recommended that Educational policies and school 
programs should adopt a holistic approach that considers family size dynamics, 
strengthens parental support, and improves socio economic conditions to 
effectively support students’ academic Achievement.