Browsing by Author "Abebe Damtew"

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    A Study of English Teachers’ Perception of Preparedness and Practice of Teaching Early Grade Reading
    (Addis Ababa University, 2024-12) Endrias Yisihak Ukumo; Abebe Damtew
    The purpose of this study was to investigate English teachers’ perception of preparedness and practice of teaching early grade reading. The context of this study was randomly selected public primary schools in Hawassa City Administration, Sidama National Regional State, Ethiopia. To achieve its objectives, this study chose a descriptive research design of mixed methods. Quantitative data were gathered from 125 English teacher of 20 randomly selected schools through questionnaire of closed ended items of four scales adapted from (Salinger et al, 2010; Nyguyen, 2013) and knowledge assessment test of 40 multiple choice items; qualitative data were gathered through unstructured classroom observation of 60 video recorded lessons, two focus group discussions, 15 writtenclassroom assessment activities and semistructured interviews.The data gathered through knowledge assessment test and questionnaires were analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Scieneces (SPSS Version 25.0). The qualitative data from focus group discussions and interviews were coded by using grounded theory techniques, and categories were identified for interpretation and discussion. It has been learnt from the teachers’ responses that teaching early grade reading got little emphasis of coursework and practicum of primary English teacher preparation. As result, the teachers are not completely sure how to use the strategies and activities with students in all early grades and at all reading levels. Moreover,the results have revealed that early grades English teachers have serious knowledge limitations of early grade reading instruction; the average knowledge assessment test score is 36.4%; 113 (90.4%) teachers scored below 50%. and 57.5% of the items were answered incorrectly. The results of classroom observations also reveal that participant English teachers are not properly employing the strategies for effective early grade reading instruction. The participant English teachers are not systematically assessing and recording students’ progress of learning to read; some of the classroom assessment activities have been repeatedly used with no relevance to language and literacy skills development; instead such repeated and irrelevant assessments may have detrimental effects. That is, teachers are inadequately prepared and are teaching and assessing inappropriately. Therefore, due attention should be paid to revising primary school English teacher preparation curriculum with particular focus on teaching early grade reading and providing systematic, explicit and hands-on training to teachers on early grade reading instruction and assessment techniques. However, the implementation of curricular revision of primary English teacher preparation and professional development activities would be effective if the trend of attracting potential teachers of poor academic performance and low interest to the profession is improved.
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    Assessing the Role of Instructional Supervisors in Enhancing the Teaching-Learning of Elt and Professional Development of Elt Teachers: Gulele Sub-City Government Primary Schools in Focus
    (Addis Ababa University, 2019-05) Esubalew Ayalew ; Abebe Damtew
    It is clear that today people all over the globe find proficiency in foreign languages vital in the development of their communities in such a competitive global growing economy, where skilled workforce is an asset in the social and economic growth. The purpose of instructional supervision is to improve the quality of teaching through bettering skills of teachers which in turn enhance students’ academic achievement. This study sought to “Assess the Role of Instructional Supervisors in enhancing the teaching-learning of ELT and professional development at Gulele sub-city government primary schools”. A mixed method of descriptive survey designs was used. A total of 112 participants were selected through random and availability sampling procedures. Questionnaires and interview guides were used to collect data. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, mean, standard deviation and overall mean were used to summarize information obtained from the field. It was presented in distribution tables of frequency, percentages, mean and standard deviation. Qualitative data was categorized into themes guided by research questions and presented in form of narratives and direct quotes. The findings established that supervisors lack skills, knowledge and expertise on how to supervise teachers and how to build their capacity. Supervisors lack experience in primary school English language teaching since they are from different background such as general education, natural sciences and social sciences. These supervisors do not support English language teachers since they do not have the knowledge and skills in teaching English. However, the prime objectives of supervision are capacity building; supervisors are required to support teachers by giving trainings and workshops with regard to bridging the knowledge and skill gaps. The mismatch of the objective of supervision and lack of knowledge of supervisors contributed much for professional development obstacle. The study recommended that supervisors should be setting enough time for instructional supervision in schools and Supervisors’ should have specific professional qualification in each subject on this case in English to enhance ELT. The study further suggested that government through the Ministry of Education should organize training programs for ELT teachers on the need for effective instructional supervision in order to enhance teachers’ role effectiveness.
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    EFL Teachers’ Perceptions, Perceived Self-Efficacy Beliefs, and Practices of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) in Teaching Reading Skills: Selected Secondary Schools in Hawassa City in Focus
    (Addis Ababa University, 2024-11) Akalewold Samuel Aguye; Abebe Damtew
    The endeavor to improve teacher quality and instructional quality seems to be a pressing concern in modern education. It is also becoming crucial, particularly in the realm of foreign or second language learners’ pedagogy. The present study was sought to investigate secondary school English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ perceptions, perceived self-efficacy beliefs (SEB), and practices of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in the teaching of reading skills to grade nine students across selected secondary schools in Hawassa City administration. To achieve this objective, the researcher employed an explanatory sequential mixed methods design. In the pursuit of gathering the relevant data, the researcher employed questionnaires, a semi-structured interview, and classroom observation protocols (CROP). The teachers’ self-report questionnaire was meant for collecting pertinent data regarding English teachers’ perceptions of PCK in teaching reading. It was adapted from the standard questionnaires prepared by Janga et al. (2009). Orignally the questionnaire consisted of 28 items, but the present researcher modified and increased the number to 42 items comprising six distinct components so as to make it more comprehensive and appealing. Hence, these questionnaires were administered to (N = 70) EFL teachers to extract information about their perception of PCK. These items in teachers’ questionnaires were tested for reliability and found to be interanally consistent in that they yielded Cronbach’s alpha (α = 0.952). In its other continuum, to generate teachers’ perceived self-efficacy beliefs (SEB), a self-constructed or researcher-made questionnaire containing 21 items was also administered to those same number (N = 70) of teachers. The internal consistency reliability for items of SEB in teachers’ questionnaires was Cronbach’s alpha (α = 0.852). Data was also collected using a researcher-made questionnaire containing 34 items from secondary school students (N = 258) in order to capture their own perceptions regarding their teachers’ PCK performance. The items yielded Cronbach’s alpha (α = 0.948), indicating strong internal consistency and reliability. Moreover, an in-depth, semi-structured interview was conducted with (N = 10) EFL teachers from the six selected secondary schools in order to capture pertinent information about teachers’ perceptions, perceived self-efficacy beliefs, and practices of PCK under the umbrella of teaching reading skills. To get insight into the implementation of pedagogical content knowledge in the context of teaching reading, the researcher employed classroom observation protocol (CROP) as a tool, which includes a structured observation checklist that consisted of 55 items, and un-structured video recorded teaching episode, and field notes during the first academic semester in 2023. Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS version 26, while qualitative data were subjected to thematic analysis using the grounded theory approach. The grand mean value of teachers’ perception of PCK was (M = 3.91; SD = 0.559), indicating the presence of a moderately high positive perception of PCK in teaching reading skills. Similarly, the grand mean value of teachers’ perceived self-efficacy beliefs was (M = 3.74; SD = 0.533). This indicates that these teachers were somewhat efficacious. The results from the teacher interviews corroborated the questionnaire findings. The findings from students’ perception of their teachers’ PCK (SPTPCK) revealed that students had a moderately positive perception of their teachers’ PCK (M = 3.32; SD = 0.926). The Spearman’s Rank-order Correlation Coefficient between students’ perceptions and teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs was (r = -0.027; p=0.826) suggesting a weak, negative relationship between these variables. The results from the Classroom observation protocols (CROP), both from the observation checklist and video recordings together with field notes, revealed that EFL teachers lack the required level of competence in pedagogical content iv knowledge implementation. The relationship between EFL teachers’ perception of PCK and classroom observation result was Spearman’s Rho correlation coefficient (r = -0.306; p = 0.360). This value indicates inverse proportionality and the existence of weak relationships between the two variables. This finding seems to be consistent with what was gained through video recorded data. Therefore, to mitigate these shortcomings and to bridge the existing noticeable gap, tailor-made continuous professional development training schemes should be organized by concerned inistitutions. Such type of trainings should be given to EFL teachers, as they might play pivotal roles in enhancing teacher quality, instructional quality, and again gains in students’ reading skills achievement.
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    Investigating Effectiveness of Group Work Implementation In ELT Classes: The Case Of Grade 10 Students At Gute Secondary School
    (Addis Ababa University, 2024) Waqjira Mosissa Rorro; Abebe Damtew
    According to Brown (2014), language teaching has shifted towards authentic use of language in classrooms, emphasizing interpersonal relationships and cooperative strategies. Organizing and implementing group work enriches students’ language knowledge and use in daily life. It enables students to communicate genuinely, spontaneously, and meaningfully in a second language, facilitating interactive language acquisition. This study was done on investigating of group work the implementation in EFL classes at Gute Secondary School, focusing on Grade 10. It was aimed a t assessing students’ interactions and participation in performing group work activities in language teaching and learning activities. The objectives of the study were focusing on how teachers were implementing and students were interacting in groups to what extent did group work develop students’ communicative skills. To accomplish the study, a descriptive survey design was used to investigate the problems existing when implementing group work in teaching English, having employed both qualitative and quantitative methods, with random sampling for students and availability sampling techniques for teachers. Observation, interviews and questionnaires were used as data collection tools. The collected data were presented, interpreted, and analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. Group work was organized to enable students to use English effectively. The result of the study revealed that learners were having low interest, shyness, and dependency on teachers observed. Performance-based communicative skill was not practiced. The teachers were challenged by classroom discipline and monitoring group work. The participants were using native language resulting to ineffective group work implementation Therefore; the researcher recommended that the students should take responsibility for their learning. Students were advised to shift their focus from language structure and knowledge-oriented goals to communicative and interactive language goals, where they could use the language effectively. Stakeholders in education were encouraged to contribute to enhancing the effective implementation of group work in language teaching and learning classrooms.
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    Investigating the Effects of Explicit Strategy Instruction on Reading Comprehension and Strategy Use of Grade Eleven Students in Addis Ababa High Schools
    (Addis Ababa University, 2024-06) Desta Wendaferew; Abebe Damtew
    The general objective of this study was to investigate whether explicit teaching in combined reading strategies improves reading comprehension and strategy use of grade eleven students in Tesfa Birhan General Secondary School in Addis Ababa. Using a quasi- experimental pre-test-post control group design, eighty-seven students were selected from two intact classes that were assigned to the control and experimental groups. Having ensured both groups’ homogeneity in terms of reading comprehension and reading strategy use, the experimental group received explicit instruction in a variety of reading strategies embedded into their English reading lessons for about four months. Data were mainly collected via reading comprehension tests, reading strategy questionnaires and interviews. The reading test and the questionnaires were administered to both groups before and after the training, whereas the interview was conducted only with the experimental group after the training. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The independent sample t-test indicated that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group in terms of post-test overall reading comprehension mean scores with a large effect size. The paired sample t-test result also indicated students in the experimental group significantly improved their overall reading comprehension post-test mean scores with large magnitude difference. Similarly, Mann Whitney U test results of the posttest indicated students in the experimental group significantly outperformed their counterparts in three reading comprehension sub-skills: reading for the main idea, detail, and vocabulary skills, however, no significant difference was found for inference and reference skills. Furthermore, the result of the questionnaire showed that students in the experimental group significantly increased their overall reading strategy use after the training. The interview findings also suggested that the experimental group greatly benefited from the training. Finally, the overall finding implied that explicit instruction in a combination of various reading strategies is vital in promoting secondary school (particularly grade eleven) students’ English reading ability in Ethiopian context. Accordingly, it was recommended that English teachers could consider implementing explicit instruction in a variety of RSs in teaching English reading, and students should be adequately supported and encouraged to use different reading strategies to avoid their reading difficulties. Keywords: Explicit instruction, Combined reading strategies, Reading comprehension, Reading strategy use.
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    The Practices and Challenges of Teaching Writingskill: in The Addis Ababa Peacekeeping English Training Center: Level-2 Students in Focus
    (Addis Ababa University, 2019-06) Samue Getahun ; Abebe Damtew
    The main objective of the study was to explore the practices and challenges of teaching writing skills with reference to students in the Addis Ababa Peacekeeping English Training Center. In order to achieve this goal, level-2 students of the center were taken as the participants of the study. The purpose was to explore techniques and strategies used by the teachers to practice writing, the types of classroom activities often used in writing lessons, the roles of teachers and learners in writing classes, the factors that cause difficulties or problems that learners face in learning writing skills and the type of error correcting techniques frequently used in writing lessons. The researcher used descriptive survey methods for the study. For the purpose of gathering sufficient and reliable data, four instruments were used. These are: questionnaire (for the students), interview (for teachers), classroom observation and content analysis. The data obtained through questionnaire was analyzed quantitatively whereas data obtained through interview; observation checklist and the content analysis (tasks from the students’ course book and students’ writing assignments) were analyzed qualitatively. The findings of the study demonstrated that appropriate techniques and strategies were often used in teaching writing skills for level- 2 students. There is a good culture of using more recent language teaching techniques such as pair work, small group work and sometimes individual work, information gap and problem solving that could promote active learning in the writing lessons. Furthermore, the teachers used different strategies that could help the learners to develop their writing skills and the students mostly played their role actively in a writing class despite shortage of time to complete writing tasks in the class. Teachers also implemented all types of error correction techniques when teaching writing skills. However, teacher correction technique (mostly directly written feedback and correction) was observed more frequently than self-correction and peer-correction techniques both in and outside the classrooms. Even though results drawn from the entire data gathering instruments show that there is a good tendency of teaching writing skills for level-2 classes, the students still have some difficulties or challenges that emanated from a multitude of variables such as poor language background of the students, lack of opportunities to practice writing outside the class, lack of time to accomplish writing tasks in the classroom, lack of teachers’ support and motivation that was reflected by lack of giving regular and timely feedback and correction and sometimes too much reliance on the mother tongue. Generally, the results of this study indicated that there are good practices and good opportunities in the teaching and learning of writing skill in the Addis Ababa peacekeeping English training center of level- 2 classes, though the students face some difficulties or challenges in learning and developing their writing skills. Finally, based on the findings of the study, possible implications and recommendations were drawn and presented.
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    A study on Students’ use of Listening Comprehension Strategies in EFI Class: The Case of Samara University (Second Year English Majoring students)
    (Addis Ababa University, 2021-06) Mesele Tibebu Tegegne ; Abebe Damtew
    In this study, an attempt was made to explore students’ use of listening comprehension strategies in English as a foreign language (EFL) class. To achieve this, descriptive survey design with both quantitative and qualitative nature was employed. Subjects were 39-second year English major students of Samara University. Out of these, five students were randomly selected for interview. To collect data, listening comprehension test and listening strategy questionnaire were adapted and administered to 34 students. Semi-structured interview was also held with five students and five purposively selected teachers. The listening test and the listening strategy questionnaire were analyzed quantitatively whereas interview items were analyzed qualitatively. The results of the study revealed that participants use meta-cognitive strategies such as writing down the words they do not know after listening and looking up in a dictionary, double-checking again for their answer while listening, reflecting on their problems after listening. They also use cognitive strategies like translating words or sentences, applying new vocabularies, phrases, or grammar they have learned, trying to understand each word, repeating words or phrases softly, forming pictures mentally and listening for main ideas first and then for details. However, participants do not often use the socio-affective, eight metacognitive and five cognitive strategies. Participants reported that inattentiveness, noisy classroom setting, lack of awareness of the various listening strategies, and lack of motivation are the problems they faced while listening a text. Finally, it was concluded that the participants of this study do not use many listening strategies as intended. This might imply that students are less aware of the various strategies. Based on the findings, recommendations were made for concerned bodies.
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    Teaching Reading Skills in English as a Foreign Language through Interactive Classroom Teaching Versus Plasma Teaching with reference to Grade Ten Students in Addis Ababa
    (Addis Ababa University, 2012-06) Abebe Damtew; Tibebe Alemayehu
    The purpose of this study was to investigate teaching reading skills in English as a foreign language through interactive classroom teaching versus plasma television teaching. An experiment was designed and conducted to investigate the difference between teaching reading skills in English as a foreign language with and without Plasma television. The design of the study was mixed method design which consisted of first collecting quantitative data and then collecting qualitative data i.e. both quantitative and qualitative data analysis techniques were employed to analyze the data collected. There were four main measurement tools employed in the pilot as well as the main study: 1) The preand post-tests reading comprehension and vocabulary tests, 2) a questionnaire 3) an interview and 4) classroom observation. The pre-and post-tests aimed at measuring reading comprehension and vocabulary. The last three tools namely a questionnaire, an interview and classroom observation measure the attitudes of both teachers and students toward teaching reading skills and they were used in the post-test only. The study measured and compared the performance of four groups: two experimental groups (N = 35 and 35) and two control groups (N = 38 and 40) of Grade 10 students at two secondary schools with two teachers from each school in Addis Ababa during a period of four months one academic semester. After the administration of the tests, the data were collected and subjected to statistical analy is. An independent and paired t-test was used to test the hypothe es in this study. The results suggest d that teaching reading skills through interactive classroom teaching had a positive influence on the subjects post-test scores. The major findings obtained from the statistical analysis revealed that the iii improvement between the pre-test and po t-test of reading skills is significantly greater for the experimental groups than the control groups. This suggests that teaching reading skills through interactive classroom teaching has a positive effect on students' reading comprehension. In addition, the re ults from the comprehension post-test between the two groups were significantly different which suggests that the post-test scores of reading comprehension between the two groups are not equal. The results of the experimental groups oulperformed than the control groups students. Finally, the results of the questionnaires individual interviews, and classroom observation showed that the students in experimental groups held a positive attitude toward teaching reading skills through interactive classroom teaching and the experimental group students were observed working in small groups and helping each other in trying to understand the passage. The results of the interview and the classroom observation revealed that majority of the students agreed that the classroom teacher was giving better teaching method than the plasma teacher was. Implications drawn from the findings suggest that, for English language teachers, this research could assist them in improving their current teaching performance and syllabus. Based on both the pilot and the main study, teaching reading skills through interactive classroom teaching would work best in the Ethiopian context if the classroom teacher is given further training to interactive classroom teaching. This study suggests that teachers need to devote significant class time to teaching reading skills through interactive classroom teaching and encourage students to engage in it.