Browsing by Author "Nuru Mohammed"

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    The Ability of Grade 12 Students to Modify Their Interlanguage Utterances towards Comprehensibility and/or Target- like Use during Task- based Interaction
    (Addis Ababa University, 2003-06) Yinager Tekle ; Nuru Mohammed
    The purpose of this study was to investigate whether students modified their interlanguage utterances towards comprehensibility and/or target -like use when they experienced difficulty in message comprehensibility during task- based interaction which involved only students. To this end, twelve students of Grade 12 at Enjibara Comprehensive, Preparatory and Technic School were selected and participated in the study. These students were paired up and made to interact using a picture-dictation task. Their interactions were tape- recorded, transcribed and analysed. The results of the anlyses indicated that the participants were able to successfully negotiate for comprehensibility by modifying their trigger utterances in 30(63%) instances of the one-signal negotiated interactions. The findings of the study also revealed that when the participants generated modifications of initial utterances, they made use of target-like forms in 70% of the cases. However, when the rate of frequency of these modifications which exhibited the use of target-like forms was compared with the total number of responses made to clarification requests, it was found minimum, i.e. 44%. Furthermore, the investigation made to see why the participants did not engage in the modification of their trigger utterances more often than they did resulted in the knowledge that a particular type of incomprehension signal called trigger repetition signal was responsible for this situation. This signal type was found less effective in prompting the participants to modify their trigger utterances. Of the 48 incomprehension signals made in the one-signal negotiated interactions, 23(48%) of them were trigger repetition signals. However, only 11(36%) modified comprehensible output instances were made in response to this signal type. The majority number of responses (64%) were made in reply to either trigger modification signals or explicitly marked signals which accounted for 25% (12) and 27% (13) of the total number of incomprehension signals, respectively. Finally, conclusions were drawn based on the findings of the study and suggestions were made for future research on the area. Key Words – Modification Compressibility Interlanguage utterances Target-like use
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    An Investigation Into Health Science Students’ English Language Needs: Samara University in Focus
    (Addis Ababa University, 2025-03-02) Tessema Gilo; Nuru Mohammed
    English language courses are offered in higher education institutions across the majority of the world where English is spoken as a second or first language to address students' English language needs in the target-situation use. However, at all Ethiopian higher education institutions where English is spoken as a foreign language, two English language skills courses "communicative English language skills I" and "communicative English language skills II," are offered as common courses in the first year. As a result, meeting the specific language and communication needs of Ethiopian health science and medical students may be challenging. This might be reason for inadequate English language use in health science educational and professional contexts where English is largely expected. Hence, the purpose of this study was to investigate the English language needs of health science college students at Samara University for designing specific English language course that fit the needs of the students. Hence, 131 students from the Health Science College in the academic year 2021/2022 were chosen using a stratified sampling technique. Two English language course instructor and six subject area course instructors were selected from Samara University, Ethiopia through available sampling and simple random sampling respectively. Eight health professionals from Dubti General Hospital also selected via purposive sampling. Hence, a sequential explanatory mixed-methods research design was used. The data for this study were collected using a questionnaire, TOEFL test, interview, observations, and document analysis. The quantitative data was analysed quantitatively by using descriptive statistics, mean and percentage by using spss 25 version computer software, whereas the qualitative data analysis was made based on procedures to descriptive and themes and interpreted qualitatively. The findings revealed that highly technical medical English terms which deviate from general English were used in academic fields of study and professional settings, and students want to learn these technical terms in their target situations. This study identified the priority of each English language skill as they are used in the health science field of study and future professional contexts. The findings also displayed that throughout their internship programme, health science students need translation, reporting, and grammatical skills, as well as the ability to describe the patient, condition, location, and pathology of internal organs, which will help them in their future professional careers. The data also indicated that the participating student better performed the grammar and usage skills, as well as reading skills. They did, however, perform poorly in listening and writing. The study also discovered that students' failure to characterize a patient, the case, the complaints, and the prescriptions in medical terminology was partially due to a lack of English language skills. As a result, it is recommended that English language courses for health science students be developed throughout their undergraduate studies, taking into account both their academic field of study and future profession.
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    The Application of Communicative Approach to Grammar Teaching in High School Efl Classes: The Case of Some Selected High Schools in Addis Ababa
    (Addis Ababa University, 2014-05) Rega Hailu ; Nuru Mohammed
    The purpose of this study was to assess the application of CA to grammar teaching in EFL classes of government high schools in Addis Ababa. To attain this objective, three secondary schools were selected for the study. The data were gathered through questionnaires (for teachers and students), classroom observation, and interview (for teachers). The data obtained through the questionnaire were analyzed and discussed quantitatively whereas the data obtained through the classroom observation and the interview were analyzed and described qualitatively. The results of the study revealed that EFL teachers and students have good perceptions about the application of CLT to grammar instructions. However, the results also showed that their perceived CLT principles were not practiced in the actual classroom in most cases because of low proficiency levels of teachers and students, lack of teachers and students interests, lack of materials and problem of large class sizes. At last, recommendations were made based on the findings of the study. The recommendations forwarded include: teachers should be better equipped to reconcile beliefs and practices in order to provide more effective use of CLT principles to grammar instruction; despite their positive perceptions about the CLT principles, teachers should also be given workshops and other in- service programs that maximize the practical implementations of the approach, and the schools and other concerned bodies should provide carefully designed textbooks, supplementary materials and other facilities.
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    An Assessment of the Practice of Teaching Listening in Efl Classrooms: the Case of Two High Schools in Eastern Wollega
    (Addis Ababa University, 2011-06) Dagim Endale ; Nuru Mohammed
    The study was conducted to assess the practice of teaching listening in EFL classrooms with reference to grade 9 at two high schools in eastem Wollega. Interview, questionnaire, classroom observations and content analysis were used as data gathering tools. The interview was conducted with six teachers teaching English language at this level, and four of them were also observed three times each. One hundred twelve sampled s tudents were also filled in the questionnaires prepared, and students textboole and teachers ' guide were inspected. Data collected through these tools was analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. Then, the analyzed data revealed as various types of listening sub-sleills were not practiced simultaneous ly. On top of this, though teachers teach listening lessons, they did not use appropriate procedures at pre, while and p ostlistening stages. The listening texts and tasles were also not well prepared so as to help leamers practice listening comprehension. At las t, it was recommended that the p ractice of sub-skills should be of various types, English language teachers should appropriately implement the ti1ree phases of teaching listening, especially the pre and pos t-lis tening activities and material designers were also recommended to prepare various types of texts and activities, and to add visual supports in to the texts.
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    The Effectiveness of the Practice of the Plasma-channeled EL T in Addis Ababa Preparatory Schools Berhanu Abera
    (Addis Ababa University, 2012-06) Berhanu Abera ; Nuru Mohammed
    This study was designed to assess the overall effectiveness of the practice of the plasma-channeled English language teaching (EL T) and its developments. It aimed to find out whether or not the plasma-based English language instruction was practised as planned and to examine the improvements that have been made. To gather data for the study, five different instruments, namely observation, questionnaire, interview, researcher's diary and documentary source were used. Both quantitative and qualitative techniques were employed to analyze the data obtained. The results of the study revealed that the screen teachers' ways of delivery were tended to mismatch with students' level of understanding. Moreover, televised activities were found to be interesting and fitting to develop students' different language skiffs, and the participation of students during the televised instruction was encouraging. However, students were given insufficient time to perform the activities and were provided with less support from their classroom teachers. The required arrangements (administrative and technical support services) were not also made for students and their teachers. Furthermore, the knowledge of the classroom teachers was found to be linked with subject matter knowledge and pedagogical knowledge; their technological pedagogical content knowledge was low. Moreover, problems like awareness, attitude, systematic linkage, professional competence, teachinglearning philosophy, speed, time, psychological and political factors were identified as major challenges of the practice of the plasma-channeled EL T The study also revealed that allocating equal time for the classroom teacher and the plasma presenter, improving the pace of plasma presenters and the nature of screen activities and setting up a digitization project were among the improvements that have been made. Based on the results, recommendations have been forwarded and further studies have been recommended. Keywords: English language teaching, instructional technologies, instructional television, plasma-channeled instruction, and technological pedagogical content knowledge.
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    Exploring the Nature and Role of Classroom Interaction in Developing Early Grade Reading skills: The case of Afan Oromo mother tongue
    (Addis Ababa University, 2019-12) Getachew Teshome ; Nuru Mohammed
    he objective of the study was to explore the nature and role of classroom interaction in the development of early grade reading skills. Specifically, it tried to address mediational strategies teachers and students used in creating meaning and understanding, theoretical assumptions that inform teachers’ classroom practices and the nature of classroom activities in early grade reading classes. The study focused on teacher-student and student-student interactions as mediators and mediatee in co-constructing meaning and skills. To this end, ethnohraphic research design was employed on Grades 1, 2, and 3 students at Abdi Bori Primary School at Mendi, West Wollega. The school was selected purposively as it was a private school catering for better quality education than other schools in the district. To achieve its objectives, qualitative data were collected using different instruments, such as non-participant observation with field notes, interview and document analysis and analyzed qualitatively. The result uncovered that the three classrooms observed were mostly teacher-controlled and textbook-directed that limited students’ active participation. It revealed a mixed mode of teaching: traditional transmissive, constructivist(joint discovery) and dialogic methods with more focus on the former. Teachers controlled content and direction of the lesson through frequent use of display questions that limited extended classroom interaction. However, when constructivist approach was employed, classroom interaction created better learning opportunities and co-construction of knowledge and skills, through the proper mediation of more knowledgeable others, who used both verbal and non-verbal modes of interaction. Mediation strategies used by participant teachers and students, like repetition, summarization, prosodic chopping, elicitation and uptake questions, significantly contributed to the meaning making and skill development processes. The study also disclosed and acknowledged the multimodal nature of early grade reading lessons, like physical objects, verbal cues, images, audio, etc that assisted literacy skill acquisition and development. Since the environment that surrounds children—inside and outside of school—is not only print-rich but also rich with multiple modes of expression, children combined different sign systems to represent, interpret and share meaning with others. Moreover, the participants demonstrated numerous strategies such as graphophonic, semantic and syntactic cueing systems in constructing meanings of what they read. The study also showed disparity between the teachers' perceptions on the role of classroom interaction in developing early grade reading skills and their actual classroom practices. Based on the finding, it was concluded that classroom interaction, and students and teacher mediations immensely contribute to the development of early grade reading skills.
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    Feedback in the Efl Classroom: an Exploration of its Role in The Communica Non of Teacher Expect a Tions
    (Addis Ababa University, 2000-06) Nuru Mohammed ; Gebremedhin Simon
    lowe a great debt of heartfelt gratitude to so many people for their contributions that I cannot thank them all personally, but [ would particularly like to thank following. I am deeply indebted to Professor Keith Johnson, my supervisor on the Lancaster University side, for his insightful and critical comments on the drafts of my chapters. [ consider myself lucky and privileged to have done this work under his supervi sion. Special thanks, too, are due to Dr Gebremedhin Simon, my supervisor on the Addis Ababa University side, for his constructive comments and constant encouragement. I should like to thank all those teachers and their pupils who so kindly suffered my presence in the classroom and put up with the numerous questions that I had to ask during the interview and in the questionnaire. The project would have been impossible without The British Council who financed my study in the UK. Finally, I must thank my wife, Rahma Tirfu, tor her encouragement, and our children, Feti ya, Mubarak, and Aziza for bearing my absence.
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    Feedback in the EFL Classroom: An Exploration of its Role in the Communication of Teacher Expectations.
    (2000-06) Nuru Mohammed; Johnson Keith
    This study examines teacher feedback practice in a foreign language classroom in relation to the proposition in the field of general education that teacher differential expectations for students' performance may be expressed in differential treatment toward students. More specifically, the purpose of this research is to explore whether ( I) the teacher provides different feedback to students whom he perceives as high and low achievers and, (2) differences can be attributed to differential teacher expectations. It also investigates whether (3) students perceive any difference in the ways the teacher works with high and low achievers as regards the provision of feedback and (4) the teacher sees his own treatment of high and low expectation students as being different. The analysis of observational data collected on a teacher's classroom feedback behaviour revealed great quantitative differences in the feedback received by hi gh and low expectation students on their successful and unsuccessful performances. Further analysis suggested that many of the differences are attributable to differences in performance among students although there were also several other differences e.g. those that relate to the teacher's use of praise and failure to give feedback) that are interpretable as evidence of differential teacher treatment. In addition, the likelihood of the teacher's use of certain types of feedback (e. g. repetition and explanation of a correct answer) tended to vary with the expectation group membership of students. As regards the students' and the teacher's perceptions, both parties demonstrated a considerable degree of sensitivity to differential treatment of high and low achievers.
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    An Investigation of the Correlation among Efficacy Sources, Students’ Self-Efficacy and Performance in Reading and Writing Skills: Bahir Dar University in Focus
    (Addis Ababa University, 2008-06) Dawit Amogne ; Nuru Mohammed
    The aim of this study was to find out the correlation among sources of self-efficacy, selfefficacy and performance in reading and writing skills of Bahir Dar University students (N=106). In addition, the degree to which the reading and writing efficacy beliefs and performance differ as a function of gender was examined. To this end, two instruments (questionnaires and tests) and three statistical tools (correlation, t-test and regression) were employed. The data analysis revealed that there exists significantly strong positive relationship between writing efficacy and writing performance. Likewise, the reading efficacy and the corresponding performance of students showed significant positive correlation. With regard to gender, males reported stronger writing and reading efficacy than females. Males also outperformed significantly in both reading and writing tests. The multiple linear regression analyses for the full sample indicate that efficacy sources collectively predicted the self efficacy beliefs of students in writing and reading. It was, however, only mastery experience, while other sources were controlled, which could significantly predict writing and reading self-efficacy. Others, with the exception of social persuasion for writing efficacy, also, though non-significant, could modestly influence students’ capability beliefs of both skills. Findings of this study are consistent with the tenets of social cognitive theory. As theorized, students’ capability beliefs are positively correlated with their writing and reading performance. In the other phase of the investigation, mastery experience, among the four sources, accounted for the greatest proportion of the variance in writing and reading efficacy of students.
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    The Role of Extra Class Activities in Improving Students' English Language Skills -SPEAKING And Listening Skills in Focus (WITH Reference to Gilgel Beles College of Teachers’ Education
    (Addis Ababa University, 2008-06) Biniam Atnafe ; Nuru Mohammed
    This study was mainly aimed at examining the role of student activities outside the regular class hours in improving learners’ English language skills (speaking and listening skills in focus) in teacher Education Institutes (TEIs). In order to see the role of extra class activities on the students’ English language skills improvement, an experiment was carried out and speaking proficiency and listening comprehension tests were designed and administered to the students in the study. Questionnaires were also developed and employed as other tools among the experimental group students and English language teachers in the college to investigate their attitudes. Furthermore, open ended interview to the teachers and a focus group discussion with the experimental group students were also used as supplementary data collecting tools. Together with these, incidental observation was carried out for the experimental group to see how they were doing with the activities during the experiment. The results from the post tests indicated that the performance of the students in the experimental group was found to be statistically significant in both the listening and speaking skills. The result from focused group discussions and questionnaire showed that the students have positive attitudes towards the extra class activities though there are no such activity programmes in the college. On the other hand, the result from these tools revealed that the students do not seem to be aware that extra class activities are learner led. Data from observation showed that the students were interested in the activities and they were increasing their participation from day one on wards. Teachers were found to have mixed attitudes and awareness about the role of the activities on EFL skills improvement. Based on the findings recommendations were made to the students, the teachers and to the institution.
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    Washback of the University Entrance English Exam (UEEE) on Teachers’ and Students’ Practices: The Case of Preparatory Schools in Amhara National Regional State
    (Addis Ababa University, 2012-06) Simachew Gashaye ; Nuru Mohammed
    The main purpose of this study was to examine the influence of the UEEE on teachers’ and students’ practices. Specifically, it examined the influence of the exam on the domains of teaching and learning. It further explored mediating factors of washback on teachers’ and students’ practices. The study employed concurrent mixed methods research design. The participants of the study were all the 62 Grades 11 and 12 English language teachers and 1,579 randomly selected students from nine preparatory schools in Amhara National Regional State. Different instruments were used to collect data. Classroom observations were conducted to look into what teachers’ and students’ practices looked like. To assess teachers’ perceptions about the influence of the exam on their practice and mediating factors of washback, questionnaire and interview were utilized. On the other hand, to examine students’ perceptions about the influence of the exam on their practice and mediating factors of washback, questionnaire and focus group discussion were used. To further examine the influence of the exam on teachers’ and students’ practices, document anlyses were conducted on Grade 11 and 12 English syllabi, the UEEE, and teacher-made tests. The collected data were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. Findings of the study reveal that the UEEE affected the domains of teaching and learning to be exam-oriented. Teachers’ pervceived awareness of the exam, students’ learning attitudes, external pressure in teaching, and their teaching experience mediated washback on their practice. Correspondingly, students’ perceived ambition for success in the exam, importance of the exam, awareness of the exam, external pressure in learning, and teachers’ teaching attitudes mediated washback on their practice. The exam yielded overt, strong, and harmful washback on teachers’ and students’ practices that in turn led the implementation of the syllabi to be less successful.