Effects of Medium of Instruction (Yoruba Language) on Secondary School Students` Performance in Mathematics.

Mathematics is one of the core subjects in secondary education and a good performance in the subject is a key to gaining admission into higher institution of learning. In any mathematical educational setting, the role of language cannot be deemphasized as it is a major tool that often determines the learning outcome of learners in the subject. To this end the medium of instruction in mathematics classroom should be one that the learners can easily decipher. This study therefore, investigated the effects of mother tongue as supplementary medium of instruction on junior secondary school students’ performance in Mathematics in Ekiti State, Nigeria. The purpose was to examine the effectiveness of mother tongue as a supplementary medium of instruction. The study adopted a three group pre-test post-test quasi experimental research design. The sample for the study consisted of 194 junior secondary school one students selected from three secondary schools in Ekiti State through multistage sampling procedure. One research instrument tagged Mathematics Performance Test was used for data collection in the study. MPT had a reliability coefficient of 0.82. Data collected were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, t-test, ANOVA and ANCOVA. Results of the study showed that those exposed to mother tongue as supplementary medium of instruction performed better than those not so exposed. Based on the findings it was concluded that mother tongue as supplementary medium of instruction is an effective medium of instruction for mathematics. It was therefore recommended that teachers should be more dynamic in their choice of instructional medium during classroom interactions rather than sticking to the conventional medium of instruction which may not be productive to the learner {"references": ["Abdu, A.C. (2011). 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