Teachers’ Perceptions Towards the Usefulness of Lesson Plan Manuals in the Teaching of Language Arts at the Junior Secondary School level Saidu Challay*, Vandi S. Kanneh Institute of Languages and Cultural Studies Njala University, Bo Campus Private Mail Bag, Freetown, Sierra Leone Corresponding Author: Saidu Challay, E-mail: s_challay@njala.edu.sl ABSTRACT This paper examined the perceptions of teachers regarding the use of Lesson Plan Manuals (LPMs) in the teaching of Language Arts at the Junior Secondary School level within Bo using data from an MA dissertation. Since the introduction of the Lesson Plan Manuals in 2016, a study to assess the impact of their use in schools has not been done. It is based on this that an assessment was carried out to seek the opinion of Language Arts teachers with regards the use of the Lesson Plan Manuals. It was also intended to investigate whether pupils’ performance in Language Arts has improved or not since the introduction of the Lesson Plan Manuals. The study adopted a qualitative study design and non-probabilistic sample design paradigms. A total of forty (40) Language Arts teachers at the Junior Secondary School level were purposefully selected to serve as respondents for this study. Twenty-five(25) respondents completed and returned the five-point Likert scale that was used for data collection. Respondents were also interviewed in focused group discussions on some key issues that were not captured in the questionnaires. The results indicate that Lesson Plan Manuals in Language Arts are available in most schools. However, not all pupils have access to these manuals, which makes it difficul for most of the learners to follow the steps and actively participate in the lessons. It was also revealed that with the use of the Lesson Plan Manuals, the performance of pupils has gradually improved, although some teachers need training in the use of these Lesson Plan Manuals. Key words: Lesson Plan Manual, Language Arts, Teaching, Reading Skills, Performance INTRODUCTION The teaching and learning of English as a second language often have a number of challenges ranging from poor les- son plan preparation by teachers, lack of requisite resourc- es, non-conducive classroom environment, negative attitude of learners etc. A combination of these factors are often the reasons why pupils’ performance in examinations has been abysmally low. Ideal teaching that provides the learners the opportunity to learn concepts and relate appropriately to one another in a learning situation requires adequate professional preparation and planning (Woodward, 2009). It is obvious that learning and comprehension of ideas could only occur when the teacher provides the learners their needs, and such needs have to be carefully described in the lesson plan, a structure that dictates the way a lesson should be taught and the activities learners need to do during the lesson (Milko- va,2012; Woodward, 2009; Serdyukov& Ryan, 2008). When lessons are planned very well, with a focus to making sure learners’ interests are reflected the outcome is that learn- ers acquire the skills and concepts taught in a productively remarkable way (Strassle, 2014). Also, teacher planning is considered an important aspect for educational researches Published by Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD. Copyright (c) the author(s). This is an open access article under CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.10n.6p.93 and policy. Also, teacher planning is considered an import- ant aspect for educational researches and policy designing in which 1.) decisions about planning activities are identified as one of the major problems affecting the quality, quantity and nature of classroom instruction, 2.) planning decisions may have effec s on instruction, 3.) the cost of altering and adjusting planning decisions is less thereby making planning to serve as a powerful tool that improves classroom instruc- tion (Smith, 1977:1). The main reason for planning a lesson is to improve on the delivery method in the classroom so as to enable both the learner and the teacher to have a clear idea as to what is to be learned and taught in a particular lesson. This is aimed at improving the performance of learners when it comes to assessment of learning. However, in Sierra Leone, the per- formance of many learners particularly at public exams is abysmal especially in Language Arts. Based on the perfor- mance of pupils particularly in Language Arts at the BECE level, one may tend to believe that there might have been a neglect in the use of lesson plan which is supposed to guide the teaching process or that there may be no adequate lesson planning done on the part of the teacher. Recent studies have shown that pupils’ reading comprehension ability is so low, ARTICLE INFO Article history Received: September 12, 2021 Accepted: October 29, 2021 Published: November 30, 2021 Volume: 10 Issue: 6 Advance access: November 2021 Conflicts of interest: Non Funding: None International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature E-ISSN: 2200-3592 & P-ISSN: 2200-3452 www.ijalel.aiac.org.au