Browsing by Author "Damtew, Abebe (PhD)"

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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) Ayalew, Esubalew; Damtew, Abebe (PhD)
    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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    Factors Affecting Students’ Participation in Writing Classes in EFL Classrooms: The Case of Grade 11 Students at Miskaye Hizunan Madhanealem Monastery School
    (Addis Ababa University, 2019-04) Tekliye, Abay; Damtew, Abebe (PhD)
    The main objective of this study is to examine factors affecting students’ participation in EFL writing classrooms of grade 11 students at Meskaye Hizunan Medhanealem Monastery School. In achieving the stated objectives; simple random sampling was employed to select the participants of the study. In order to collect data from the participants, classroom observations, questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews were administered. Then the data obtained using these tools were presented, analyzed and interpreted both quantitatively and qualitatively. The data obtained from the questionnaires were presented and analyzed with the interview and observation. Then all the results of the items from the three tools were triangulated at the discussion section. The findings of this research work were related to three factors. These were student related factors, classroom teacher related factors and school related factors. Student related factors are linguistic factors such as writing grammatically correct sentences, lack of interest for learning writing, fear and shorage of vocabulary. Teacher related factors are such as shortage of time, teacher’s lack of commitment, absence of writing items on mid and end term exams, etc. School related factors are class size, shortage of text books in class, etc. Finally, based on these findings, it is recommended that the students should practise writing to help them improve their problems. The teacher ought to adapt the writing activities to make interesting, motivating and achievable in the time given for the activity. The school should facilitate student class to be axcessible by the teacher for the practice writing and textbooks should be supplied to the learners. The school or the English department should facilitate learners to produce texts, write reports on school events and so on.
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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) Getahun, Samuel; Damtew, Abebe (PhD)
    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)
    (AAU, 2021-06) Tibebu Tegegne, Mesele; Damtew, Abebe (PhD)
    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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    A study on: Students Reading Attitude, Reading Instruction and Reading Performances: in the Case of Grade 10 Students of Entoto Amba Secondary School
    (Addis Ababa University, 2016-05) Hailu, Nardos; Damtew, Abebe (PhD)
    The main objective of the study was to explore students reading attitude, reading instruction and reading performances. A descriptive research design which consisted of first collecting quantitative data and then collecting qualitative was used to investigate the attitude of learners towards reading skills. That is, both quantitative and qualitative data analysis techniques were employed to analyze the data collected. There were four main measurement tools employed in this study: 1) a questionnaire, 2) an interview, 3) a class room observation and 4) a reading test. These tools were used to measure the attitudes of the students towards reading skills. The subjects of the study were selected from Entoto Amba secondary school that is in grade 10. Ninety one students who were selected using stratified sampling technique filled in the questionnaire and took the reading test. Six students were randomly selected from the group for interview. Three teachers were chosen by using purposive sampling technique and they were observed. After the administration of the data gathering tools, the data were collected and analyzed. The quantitative data was analyzed using frequency count and percentage. The qualitative data was thematically analyzed. Attempts were made to triangulate the qualitative and quantitative data. Thus, the results of the questionnaire, individual interviews, class room observation and the reading test showed that most students held positive attitudes towards reading skills in most aspects even if they were not committed to do reading tasks. The results of the interview and the class room observation revealed that reading was not taught effectively. Students did not get adequate reading practices. In addition to this, the results of the interview revealed that majority of the students agreed that the class room teacher was better in teaching reading skills than the plasma teacher. The performance of the students in the reading test was also found to be average. Finally, the results of the study also revealed that the reading instruction and the students’ reading performance were significantly interconnected. The study concluded that the weaknesses that the students show in reading in English are mainly rooted in the method of teaching reading. It is, thus, suggested that the teaching of reading in Entoto Amba secondary school needs a thorough revision in terms of the methodology used in the teaching of reading. Teachers also use the process and communicative approaches of teaching reading