CHAPTER ONE 

INTRODUCTION 

1.1   BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

There is always an unavoidable relationship between the teachers personality and how the students learn. Statistically, students who dislike a particular teacher or lecturer always record very low performance in the course the said teacher is handling so that there is a correlation between the teachers and student academic performance. In the event that the obstacle is the teachers qualification, the effect is usually impossible to be mitigated by the student even the most disciplined of them all. A teacher’s qualification goes a long way in determining the academic performance of the teacher. A well grounded teacher would engage the questions and doubts of the students critically thereby encouraging them to question, to study and to read more and give them more than the needed clarification. On the other hand, a well qualified teacher would most likely discourage such curiosity and yearning to learn better from the students thereby instilling in them a lackadaisical attitude towards their academics. Which results in a low performance from the latter. A subject like English language reflects immediately more than other subjects the teacher’s qualification in the students. As a second language, one that is very flexible, any teacher of it would need to have studied extensively in other to command the limitless intricacies of the language. 

1.2   STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The study and teaching of English language in Imo state Nigeria, is one that cannot escape the complexities of the language as a second language and also the presence of the first language usually seen in it’s interference with the learning object­ English. As far as the research effort which has gone into this work is concerned, the relationship between the teacher’s qualification and students' academic performance in English language in Imo state has not been studied before with the aim of mapping out the ways the teacher affects the student in performance. It is this lacunae in academics that has called this research into being. 

1.3   OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The objectives of this research is to study the connection between a teacher’s qualification level and dexterity and a student’s academic performance by finding out first what goes in the proper learning of the English language subject by students. The factors that inform the learning speed and skills of students will be studies and briefly enumerated. The percentage of these factors that are informed by the teachers academic and experiential qualification.The work also aims at highlighting the learning process of the students and which of the teaching skill sets are most resourceful and result oriented. This will be pursued through a study of a cross section of teachers’ qualification within and outside the classroom, drawing a table of related qualifications in the areas of English language teaching.