Browsing by Author "Dejenie Leta"
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Item An Assessment of the Extent of English Language Teachers' Involvement in Conducting Action Research (with Particular Reference to Teachers Teaching at Colleges of Teacher Education in Amhara Region)(Addis Ababa University, 2007-07) Mekuriaw Ayenew; Dejenie LetaThe main objective of the study was to find out the extent of English language teachers' involvement in conducting action research, with particular reference to teachers teaching at Colleges of Teacher Education in Amhara Region. In order to achieve this objective, relevant data were gathered from seventeen English language teachers, nine from Debre Markos and eight from Debre Birhan Colleges of Teacher Education. In addition, academic and research vice deans, and English language . department heads, in the two colleges, were included in the study. Questionnaires, structured interview and document analysis were used to gather data. The data gathered were organized by using tables, and analysis and interpretation were made on each datum. The analyses were done by both quantitative and qualitative methods. Based on the analyses and interpretations, it was found out that majority of the teachers had the interest and the confidence to conduct action research. The administration of each college was supportive of research activities. In this regard, there was provision of resources like finance and incentives even if not sufficient, computer and internet access, stationery materials, secretarial and printing service, moral support from each college for teachers' research activities. Shortage of time, work load, and lack of adequate action research skill were the main constraints for teachers to conduct action research whereas the supportive nature of college administration to research activities, the training teachers got from the Higher Diploma Program, the Research and Publication Office, the research finding presentations, teachers' level of qualification, teachers' teaching and research experience were facilitating factors of teachers' research activities. None of them had conscious effort to conduct action research and the extent of their involvement showed no improvement. Therefore, it was recommended that in order to enhance their involvement in action research, training programs should be arranged frequently, there should be pre-planning of the activities that are to be carried out in a year, and it is better if teachers conduct their action research collaboratively because it can avoid, if possible, or minimize certain constraints.Item An Assessment of the Relevance of the Business English Course at Addis Ababa Commercial College to the Needs of Employing Organizations(Addis Ababa University, 2001-07) Solomon Mogues; Dejenie LetaThe aim of this research was to study the relevance of the Business English course at Commercial College to the needs of employing organizations. Prior to the actual study on the Business English (LBC 201 ), a general survey study was conducted on equivalent Business English courses offered by five private colleges in Addis Ababa to s(~ e the importance given to such a course. Before selecting the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) for the main study a similar pilot study was also conducted on three other employing organizations: two banks and one soft drink factol)" The course objective, syllabus, textbook contents, test samples, as well as the grades and grade point averages (GPAs) were analyzed first in order to describe and assess the Business English course for present situation analysis. The target needs of the employed graduates were then specified in terms of the most frequent specific communicative and professional skills and the most common language activities under the major macro-skills. Data were then gathered on these variables using questionnaires for gJ'aduate employees, and semi-structured interviews for branch managers, supervisors and section heads of the CBE.Item An Assessmet of the Content Validity of High School English Language Tests in Relation to Textbooks Concerned(Addis Ababa University, 1995-06) Kifle Kebede ; Dejenie LetaThe main objective of this study is to examine whether or not high school English language tests currently administered in schools adequately represent - both in content and in format - the practice exercises contained in the corresponding textbooks. Since some research works were conducted concerning the teaching and learning activities of the other grades. for the purpose of this study, grade ten was selected. The main data sources thus were English language textbook and sample test papers of the said grade gathered from different government comprehensive. vocational and senior secondary schools. The contents of l O" grade textbook and those of the English language tests were analysed. For the purpose of this study a representative list of content areas was drawn up by referring to the instructional material concerned. In order to assess the attitude of teachers and students towards the current 1(Jh grade English examinations. questionnaires were administered to those subjects. Interviews were also conducted to some subjects for the same purpose. Then, the Spearman's rank- order correlation coefficient statistical method was used in order to determine the degree of the relationship between the frequencies from the analysis of the contents and formats of the textbook and those from the analysis of the examination questions. The results of the findings show that the contents of the sample test papers generally correlate with the contents of the textbook. However, in specific terms. The different content areas of the textbook were not proportionally represented in the sample test papers. The results of the study have shown that the weighting allocated to the various content areas and skills in the sample test papers fail to adequately mirror that of the language components and skills of the instructional material. Ill Regarding the formats, the two materials (the textbook and the sample test papers) were found to be at variance. In other words, the limited formats employed in the sample examination papers seem to fail in enabling candidates to make use of their knowledge of the English language in the various content areas and skills. On the bases of these findings, it is concluded that the English language examinations currently administered at Grade Ten level, relatively speaking, seem to possess low content validity.Item The Effect of Placing Test Items in Different Positions in Listening Comprehension Tests: The Case of Unity College(2001-06) Aytaged Sisay; Dejenie LetaAn experiment was conducted to explore the effect of placing test items in different positions in listening comprehension tests. In this experiment three groups were made to view listening comprehension test items in three different positions. The first group viewed these items before two listenings while the second one viewed them after two Iistenings. The third group, on the other hand, viewed the questions between two listenings. First, Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) was used to divide the testees in to three groups which had comparable listening abilities. The data obtained from this standardized test was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The result then showed that the three gro ups were comparable in their listening abilities. After this was done, a test prepared for College English students by the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature at Addis Ababa University was administered to investigate the mentioned treatments. To accept or reject the null hypothesis which stated that placing test items in different positions in a listening comprehension test has no effect on the testees' performance, a one-way ANOVA was employed. The AN OVA, then detected a significant mean ditlerence in scores across the three approaches. The calculated value of F (F=8-440 with degrees of freedom 2 and 132) exceeded the value of F tabulated at .05 probability level set for this study. As a result, the null hypothesis mentioned above was rejected. The Scheffs posthoc comparison of means also helped to locate the direction of the difference. The result of this test, thus, showed that the 'Sandwich group' produced significantly higher scores in the listening comprehension test than did the 'After reading group' and the 'Before reading group'. On the other hand, these latter groups did not show a significant difference in their performances.Item Evaluation of Multiple-Choice and Free-Response Formats in English Language Tests: Are They Gender-Biased?(Addis Ababa University, 2001-10) Dessalegn G/Selassie ; Dejenie LetaThe choice as to which mode (s) of assessment to employ in constructing tests and/or examinations can affect the relative performance of male and female candidates. I t has been said by scholars that multiple-choice format favours male candidates while free-response format is to the advantage of female candidates. The present study was conducted on the basis of the data gathered from 114 (57 male and 57 female) candidates who were made to take multiple-choice and free-response versions of the same test. The result of the t-tests conducted to assess whether the difference between the performances of the male and female candidates on the two versions of the test was stati stically significant showed that femaletestees, compared with their male counterparts, performed better on the free-response test than they did on the multiple-choice mode of assessment, whereas the opposite is true for the male candidates. Based on the findings, the necessary conclusions were drawn and recommendations made.Item An Exploration into The Involvement of Elt Teachers in Action Research: The Case of Three Teachers’ Training Colleges(Addis Ababa University, 2003-06) Cherie Mesfin ; Dejenie LetaThe present study was designed to examine the extent to which ELT teachers of three teachers' training colleges have been possibly involved in English language teaching action research, their attitudes towards action research, constraints which they have possibly encountered in carrying out action research, and some of the solutions to these constraints. To this effect, the researcher, with the help of his M.A. thesis advisor, developed and administered a questionnaire consisting of four different sections, and conducted an interview. The questionnaire was administered to 33 ELT teachers whereas the interview was held with 8 ELT teachers and 6 college principals. Depending on the nature and types of the different sections of the questionnaire and the interview both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were employed. As a result, the data gained through the semi-structured questionnaire and the interview were analyzed descriptively on the basis of common themes and issues of the respondents' responses. On the other hand, the respondents' responses to section 1 and section 3 of the questionnaire were analyzed through the help of the following inferential statistics: independent sample t- test, correlations, regression analyses, and one sample t- test. Accordingly, some of the results, for example, the independent t-test for the mean scores of the samples seem to show a significant difference between the samples' (B.As' and M.As') total English language teaching experience and their practical involvement in action research where the p-value of each is found to be .01 and .04 and statistically significant at 5% level of significance. Besides, the regression analyses appeared to show the number of years that the samples believed to be involved in action research (espoused beliefs) as the main predictor of the criterion variable (research in action). The pictures of both descriptive and inferential statistical analyses appeared to show that the ELT teachers did not make considerable efforts in undertaking English language teaching action research. However, the ELT teachers seemed to show positive attitudes towards action ix research as one could possibly infer from the attitudes scale of one-sample t-test computations as revealed in Table 16. In addition, undermining the role(s) of research, lack of enough research skills, and the insufficiency of English language teaching research courses offered were some of the most serious research constraints reported to hamper the involvement of ELT teachers in English language teaching action research. Accordingly, summary, conclusions, and recommendations were made based on the insights gained from these research findings. Finally, I forwarded some recommendations with the hope that the involvement of college ELT teachers in English language teaching action research would help to improve the instruction of English language in colleges, in particular, and would contribute to the betterment of English language teaching in Ethiopia, in general.Item An Exploration of the Content Validity of the 1997 E .C. EHEEC English Language Examination(Addis Ababa University, 2006-06) Kassaw Baye ; Dejenie LetaItem High School English Language Learners' Perception of Teachers' Verbal Feedback: Grade 11 in Focus(Addis Ababa University, 1999-06) Temesgen Mereba ; Dejenie LetaThe main purpose of this study was to investigate the kind of feeling high school English language learners have on their teachers' verbal feedback, their perception of the extent of information on the correctness or incorrectness of their responses contained in teachers' verbal feedback, their perception of the extent of explanation given in teachers' verbal feedback on the correctness or incorrectness of responses, and their perception of the kind of direction given in teachers' verbal feedback for better or improved responses or output. To achieve the objectives, four grade eleven English language lessons of four sections at the Higher 12 Comprehensive Secondary School here in Addis Ababa were recorded and extracts of classroom exchanges or discourses were transcribed to be used as basis for the study. The feedback types found in the lessons were categorized and ana lysed in terms of frequencies and percentages. Accordingly, the twenty types of feedback employed in the recorded lessons were used to develop a questionnaire so that the learners of the four sections from which the lessons were recorded could give their perception on these types of teachers' verbal feedback used in the four lessons and presented in the questionnaire. One hundred and sixty eight learners from the four sections filled in the questionnaire while twenty others from these sections were interviewed. Then, the results were analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Some of the results showed that most of the respondents have positive feeling about all the feedback types employed in the four lessons except in the case of the provision ( Some of the results showed that most of the respondents have positive feeling about all the feedback types employed in the four lessons except in the case of the provision of "Interrupt" and "Simple Reproof Denial" which are found to provoke the feeling of learners negatively. The learners have positive feeling when they are praised by their teachers for their adequate or correct responses, and contrary to this, most of the learners have negative feeling when their teachers comment on their wrong or inadequate performance. All the respondents positively or favourably perceive the extent of information on correctness and/or incorrectness of responses contained in all the teachers' verbal feedback and have similar perception on the extent of explanation contained in all the teacher's verbal feedback except in the case of the provision of "Interrupt" where the majority of the respondents have negative or unfavourable perception as regards the extent of explanation contained. Except in the case of the provision of 'Interrupt' and 'Simple Reproof Denial, most learners positively perceive the kind of direction given in the teachers' verbal feedback, and, in general, the respondents' understanding of their teachers' verbal feedback is favourable or positive. On the basis of these findings, conclusions were drawn and possible recommendations put forward to hopefully help improve the English language teaching/learning process.Item The Impact of The Multiple-Choice and the Short-Answer Format on Students' Performance: Three Government Senior High Schools in Addis Ababa in Focus(Addis Ababa University, 1995-06) Wogari Negari; Dejenie LetaIn this study, an attempt was made to look into the impact of the multiple-<:hoice and the short answer fonnals on students' perfonnances. The study population comprised three senior secondaIy schools (Abyot Kirs, Ayer Tenna, and Higher Four) in Addis Ababa One hundred and twenty Grade Eleven students (65 male and 55 female) enrolled during the 1994/95 academic year participated in the study. The students were divided according to achievement levels (hi~ average, and low) based on their first semester English results. In addition, nine Grade Eleven English teachers were sampled for the study. The instruments employed were two tests on the same content in three parts each (comprehension, vocabulary, and structure) , and two questionnaires comprising three parts each (bio-data, attitudes, classroom practices). The results were computed on the basis of a two-way analysis of variance(A"J'OV A), correlated samples of two-tailed t-test (t-dependent for repeated measures), the Pearson product moment correlation, r, and percentages. The level of significance was set at 0.05. The results of the computation exhibited that there was statistically significant difference between the students' perfonnances in the two tests. The students invariably scored higher on the multiple~hoice test than on the short-answer test Regarding the attitude description questionnaires, there was no significant difference between the stude~ attitudes towards the two fonnalS, whereas the teachers had favourable attitudes towards the short-answer format. Inconsistencies were seen in the students' and teachers' responses to the items dealing with the frequency of empJoying the multiple-choice and the short-answer formats. Based on the results of the findings, conclusions were drawn and recommendations made.Item An Investigation of the Washback Effect of the Ethiopian School Leaving Certificate (Eslc) English Language Examination(Addis Ababa University, 2000-05) Dereje Negede ; Dejenie LetaThis study investigates the washback effect of the ESLC English language examination Oln what happens in secondary school language classrooms. The study employed various methodological techniques such as questionnaire, interviews with Grade 12 English teachers, with the English Curriculum Designer, and with the Senior Expert in English Language Examination Development, and classroom Observation. Besides, to examine whether or not the ESLC English language examination mirrors the secondary school English textbooks, the contents and methods of the textbo, ks and the 1997, 1998 and 1999 ESLC English language examination papers were ~z';;d~ ~~d~ • The results of the study revealed that ESLC English language examination has an impact on the secondary school English language classrooms. Moreover, there was strong undesirable ESLC English language exam inat ion's impact on the teaching content and,to some degret;/"on f... A teaching methodo!Qg\' as \Veil as on students' study technique. E\'! (' ''~'' of :1cgati\'e \\'8')bb~ck on the \': ~:y t::: J.chers design testslexan1inations wa:J u.lso observed . The ESLC English language examination failed to ad equately reflect the secondary school English language textbooks. Based on the results of the find ings, concl usions were drawn and recommendations made.Item An Investigation of the Washback Effect of the Ethiopian School Leaving Certificate (Eslc) English Language Examination(Addis Ababa University, 2000-05) Dereje Negede; Dejenie LetaT hi s study in vestigates th e wash back effec t of th e ESLC Eng lis h langu age exa minat io n 0 n what happens in seco nda ry sc hool la ng u age class r ooms . The study empl oyed vari ous meth o d o logical techn iqu es suc h as qu es ti onnai re, inte rviews with Grade 12 English teacher s, wi th the E ng li s h Curri culum Desig ner, and w ith the Sen ior Expert in Eng li sh La nguage Exa min ation Developm ent, an d classroom Ob servati on . Besides, to exami ne w hether or not th e ES LC E ng li s h la ng uage examin at ion mi r ro rs t he seco ndary sc hool Engli sh textbooks, the co nte nts and me th o ds of th e tex tbooks and t he 1997,1998 a nd 1999 ESLC English la nguage examinat io n papers were analyze d and compared . The resu lts of the study revealed that ESLC Eng li sh la nguage exami nation ha s an impact on the secondary sc hool Engl ish la ng u age classrooms. Moreover, the re was strong unde sirable ESLC E ng li s h la ng u age exa mination's impact on the teachi ng co ntent and-to somedeg reeon teachin g met hodo logy as we ll as on students' study techni que. Eviden ce of negative was hb ack o n t he way teachers des ig n tests/examinations was a lso observed . The ESLC Engl is h language exa mina t io n fa il ed to adeq uately re fl ect th e seconda ry school English la ng uage text b ooks. Besed o n th e res u lt s o f th e findin gs, conclus io ns were draw n and reco mm endat ionsmade.Item Motivation in Listening Classes of College English At Addis Ababa University(Addis Ababa University, 1997-05) Mulugeta Teka ; Dejenie LetaIn this study attempts were made to investigate the degree of students' intrinsic motivation for studying listening and the motivational roles of the listening tasks, the listening texts and the instructors in the listening classes of College English in relation to students' achievement in the listening tests at the Addis Abeba University Freshman Programmer. Seventy- seven students from College of Social Sciences and seventy-one from Science Faculty completed a questionnaire and twenty of these students were interviewed. These students' results on the two listening tests given by the department during the first semester were collected. To cross check the information given by the students, a questionnaire was administered to twenty instructors. Descriptive statistical analysis was first employed to analyse the responses given to each item. The analysis showed that the students' intrinsic motivation is accounted for by their perception of the relevance of the skill, the tasks and the texts to their needs in the academic setting. Correlational analysis was then made to see the interrelations among the variables. This analysis showed significant relationship among each other. Then, multiple reg ression models of analysis were employed to examine the contribution of the motivational variables to the students' achievement. The analysis revealed that the motivational variables together explained 46.2% of the variation in the students' achievement scores. The stepwise regression model confirmed that the greatest of th is contribution was accounted for by the students' intrinsic motivation . To see if the motivating natures of the listening tasks, the tasks, and the instructors have significantly different effects on social science and natural science students, a t-test was employed for comparing the mean scores. Accordingly, the motivational roles of the listening tasks and texts did not have significantly different effects on the two groups of students, but the instructors' motivational role had significantly different effect on the two groups. The mean scores of each motivational variable showed that they had a varying degree of motivating power. The instructors' responses to the qualitative data collected through the interview and the open-ended items in the questionnaire also confirmed this finding. Finally it has been recommended that students' awareness of therelevance of the listening component in the course should be more developed and the department should organize a workshop for the instructors to narrow the gap between the instructors' practices to motivate students to study listening.Item Motivation Techniques Employed by EFL Teachers (Two Primary Schools in Focus)(Addis Ababa University, 2007-08) Bayush Tibebu ; Dejenie LetaThe purpose of this study was to find out how English language teachers’ use motivation techniques in EFL classroom to motivate their students. Motivation is normally considered as important factors that contribute to initiate learners’ English language skills particularly in the primary level. In order to gather data for the study, two instruments: questionnaires to students and teachers, and interview with English language teachers were used. Ten grade seven sections from the two schools (Abober and Ediget Behibret) were taken as a sample. After the selection, the students and teachers were made to give their responses about the motivation techniques employed in the ELT classrooms. To get information about what motivation techniques employed by EFL teachers, 21 items of questionnaire were distributed to the students and 20 to the teachers. In addition to this, the four teachers in the selected schools were interviewed. Both quantitative and qualitative techniques were used to analyze the data. The results of the study showed that there was a good relationship between the classroom teachers and the students. And teachers tried to motivate the learners to participate without fear during classroom interaction. The study, furthermore, revealed that praise words such as “excellent”, “good”, and “nice”, rewards, clapping hands, were the most frequently used motivation techniques by the English language teachers. Moreover, the study indicated that the students have different reactions to these motivation techniques of their teachers: students felt very happy and struggled to participate freely. They also raised their hands up to ask and answer questions. Nevertheless, there were some problems that affected the students’ motivations in the classroom and around the school compound. Some of them were the huge number of the students and lack of teaching materials. That is, due to the immense number of students in a small classroom and inconvenience classroom conditions, it was found quite hard to manage and to motivate every students. These problems hindered the teacher from using different motivational techniques. Based on these results, conclusions were drawn, and recommendations were made.Item The Role of Subject Matter Teachers in Promoting English Learning(Addis Ababa University, 1997-05) Tiruneh Sahlu ; Dejenie LetaThis study explored eleventh grade students' difficulties in speaking and writing, and their subject teachers' concern in improving their student' deficiencies in these skills. One hundred and sixty five students and sixteen teachers drawn from four high school in Addis Ababa were taken as subjects for the study. Questionnaires were designed for both teachers and students in order to collect the necessary information on the subj ect under investigation. Moreover, test papers, examination papers and exercise books of students were also examined. An analysis of the information thus collected seems to indicate that the students' ability in speaking and writing and the level expected of them in their content subject do not tally. Though subj ect teachers were aware of their students' deficiencies, they hardly showed effort to promoting their language skills. Based on this finding, it was recommended that subject teachers need to be made aware of the additional responsibilities of promoting their students' language skills and, thus, work in collaboration with language teachers in this regard.Item Verbs in Oromo Sentence Patterns(Addis Ababa University, 1980-06) Dejenie Leta ; Tilahun GamtaThe main purpose of this. research was to find the categories of verbs that determine the various Dromo sentence patterns. At the initial stage, a review of all available books and publications on Oromo in general, and the .verb in particular was made. In cases where adequate information was lacking an interview of the people concerned was~conducted. Besides, to get a good picture of what sentence patterns look like, certain books on English sentence patterns were reviewed. Five categories of verbs have been determined. These categories of verbs fit into the following five basic Oromo sentenoe patterns which also have been studied in the course of the research: 1. Npl v. 9utAman inDufe. (Gutama came). 2•. v. gutAman dAljessa ajjese .•. (Gutama killed a baboon). 3. Npl Npl v. gutl\man hakimi Da. (Gutama is a phys ic:ian)• s c 4:. NP Adj. v. 9u~man 9Ababa Da. (Gutama is short) •• s 5. Npl NP2 NP2 V •• gutAman Cala minje goDAte e (Gutama made s 0 oc Chala his bestman).The researcher believes that these five basic sentence patterns form the basis for the various kinds of transforms that can be derived. Though the researcher has not dealt with• the transforms in this study, it is anticipated that once they are determined properly, the teaching of Oromo syntax may be facilitated immensely ••