ABSTRACT

This study investigated “Teachers’ communication strategies and students’ academic performance in private secondary schools in Abia State”. The study adopted correlational research design which sought to explain the kind of relationships between the variables. The population of the study consisted of 36,068 students in 481 registered private secondary schools in the 17 Local Government Areas of Abia State. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to generate the sample size of 396 students using Taro Yamane’s formula. Seven research questions and seven hypothesis guided the study. The research questions were analysed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. Linear regression was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study showed that there is a high positive relationship between teachers’ communication strategies and students’ academic performance; moderate positive relationship between teachers’ verbal communication strategies and students’ academic performance; high positive relationship between teachers’ written communication strategies and students’ academic performance; moderate positive relationship between teachers’ symbol communication strategies and students’ academic performance; moderate positive relationship between teachers’ electronic communication strategies and students’ academic performance; moderate positive relationship between teachers’ kinetic communication strategies and students’ academic performance; moderate positive relationship between teachers’ visual communication strategies and students’ academic performance, and all the relationships were significant. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that government, missionaries/religious organizations and private individuals who own and manage schools should sustain the use of various good communication strategies in the teaching-learning process by organizing seminars and workshops for training and re-training of new and old teachers on the use of ideal communication strategies; providing the necessary facilities including Language Laboratories towards the improvement of students’ academic performance. The researcher is of the opinion that if the recommendations are well considered and implemented, it will go a long way in addressing the problems of poor academic performance of students recorded in English Language and Mathematics in recent times in both internal and external examinations