Browsing by Author "Demisse, Teshome (PhD)"
Item Analysis of How Gender Relations Have Been Portrayed In Elt Materials for Primary Schools in Addis Ababa and Its Implications for Learners' Performance and Future Career(Addis Ababa University, 2006-06) Getaneh, Seife; Demisse, Teshome (PhD)Thi s stud y was designed to examll1e the portrayal o f m a le a nd fem a le sex es in ELT material s fo r primary schools in Addis Ababa a nd to c h eck \I·hether there a r c manifestations o f sexism in those textbooks . T o this end, linguistic a n d no n -ling uistic aspects t ogeth e r with illu strations were examin ed . The paper h as two section s : t h e fir st section treats the textual con tents a nd th e second section explores th e pictoria l ana lysis of the tex tbooks. Wi th regard to th e textual con t e nt, different lingui stic and n o n -linguis ti c catego ri es \,· e r e considered. First, a systema tic conte nt analysis was carried out \\· ith reference to topics and sub-topics, t h e la n gu age use d , adjectives u sed with male a nd fema le subjects, and the masculine ge n e ri c co n struction s . An inquiry was a lso m a d e to see oc c u pational possibilities, ac ti vit ies, d iscourse r o les g iv e n to the sexes , a n d c h a racte r s in passages a nd b io g r a phies . In the second section of the paper, the type of activ itie s and the total numbe r of pictures were iden tifi ed for each sex by grade level. Overall results revealed th a t the textbooks portray job possibilities for females stereotypically. Femal e s are g iven limited job possibili ties compa red with. their counter p a rts. The re are also some instances of generic ma sculine l a n guages . Howeve r, other cate go ries r evealed no sex bias. Finally, these res ul ts suggested that the r e shou ld be a review of the textbooks for thei r gend e r r epr ese ntation s .Item An Assessment of English Language Writing Test Anxiety: The Case of Two Private University College Students Taking Sophomore English Writing Course(Addis Ababa University, 2007-08) Mitiku, Melese; Demisse, Teshome (PhD)The main objective of this study was to assess students' levels of English language writing test anxiety with reference to Admas and St. Mary's private University College students taking sophomore English writing common course in the second semester of 1999 E.C. The subjects of the study were one hundred thirty (i.e. 30% of the total population, 432) in which eighty six (86) of them were selected from Admas University College (AUC) while forty four (44) of them were from St. Mary's University College (SMUC). Subjects were selected using systematic sampling technique. Four kinds of data collection instruments were used in this study, namely, questionnaire, observation, focus group discussion, and interview. The data collected using these instruments were analyzed by making use of different statistical analysis methods and qualitative description, such as frequency counting percentage, mean, and description of some qualitative data. The findings (i.e. the results) indicated that the large majority of the subjects of the study were found to be poor in their writing background before they joined university colleges. And, as a result, their levels of anxiety were high when taking the writing tests. So, the administrations of both university colleges should look for some possible mechanisms (or strategies) which may be helpful to minimize students' levels of writing test anxiety, by giving simple additional writing courses before those complex ones like those of sophomore, for example.Item An Assessment of English Language Writing Test Anxiety: The Case of Two Private University College Students Taking Sophomore English Writing Course(Addis Ababa University, 2007-08) Mitiku, Melese; Demisse, Teshome (PhD)The main objective of this study was to assess students' levels of English language writing test anxiety with reference to Admas and St. Mary's private University College students taking sophomore English writing common course in the second semester of 1999 E.C. The subjects of the study were one hundred thirty (i.e. 30% of the total population, 432) in which eighty six (86) of them were selected from Admas University College (AUC) while forty four (44) of them were from St. Mary's University College (SMUC). Subjects were selected using systematic sampling technique. Four kinds of data collection instruments were used in this study, namely, questionnaire, observation, focus group discussion, and interview. The data collected using these instruments were analyzed by making use of different statistical analysis methods and qualitative description, such as frequency counting percentage, mean, and description of some qualitative data. The findings (i.e. the results) indicated that the large majority of the subjects of the study were found to be poor in their writing background before they joined university colleges. And, as a result, their levels of anxiety were high when taking the writing tests. So, the administrations of both university colleges should look for some possible mechanisms (or strategies) which may be helpful to minimize students' levels of writing test anxiety, by giving simple additional writing courses before those complex ones like those of sophomore, for example.Item English Language Needs Analysis of Construction Trainees in Entoto Technical Vocational Education And Training (TVET) College(Addis Ababa University, 2008-06) Zerihun, Belachew; Demisse, Teshome (PhD)The main concern of this study was to explore English language needs of construction TVET trainees with particular reference to Entoto TVET College. To achieve this, questionnaires were designed and distributed to trainees, major course instructors, construction graduates and employers while interviews were conducted only with trainees and English language instructors. Observations were also conducted in classroom lectures and field practices. The data gathered via different instruments were compared and contrasted. Findings of the study indicated that trainees need to listen to lectures in English and take notes, listen to class discussions, listen to instructors’ instructions, read trainees’ reference books, read construction manual guides, ask and answer questions, participate in discussions, give oral reports, write notes from books. Thus, all language skills are needed with relatively more emphasis on listening and speaking. In addition, all genre types are needed for the trainees academic study with their respective order of importance, i.e description first, exposition second, argumentation third and narration fourth. In occupational settings, the graduates need to listen at meetings and conferences, read work programs and schedules, read professional books, read manuals, give presentations, reports and papers, give instructions, write reports and write specific work programs and schedules. Here, all the language skills are important with relative emphasis to reading and writing skills The study has also identified that the trainees have difficulties in giving oral reports, writing term papers, answering questions, understanding lectures, writing field and lab reports. Relatively the trainees, however, are better in receptive skills than productive ones. Similarly, the graduates have difficulties in reading manuals, giving presentations, reports, giving workshops, delivering speech at meetings, conferences and seminars, giving instructions, writing reports, writing specific work programs and schedules. Based on the findings of the study, it has been recommended that syllabus designers need to design appropriate English syllabus and learning materials for construction TVET trainees taking in to account the trainees’ needs of English for study and occupational purposes, their difficulties, their learning style preferences and wants and their educational background.Item An Exploration into the Use of Pedagogic Monolingual Drctionaries at High School Level (WITH Special Reference to Grade 11 Students(Addis Ababa University, 1999-05) G.Kldan, Fikre; Demisse, Teshome (PhD)This study is aimed at finding out the views and attitudes of hi gh school students in genera l, and grade II students in particular, toward the use ofMLD as one independent and se lfstudy source of lingui stic information in the process of learning EFL. In other words, it tries to explore and describe the various uses ofMLD and see how much of these pieces of pedagogic information is recognized and exploited by grade II students. In short, the study tries to answer the question, "To what extent do high school students benefit from the MLD." To do thi s, three types of instruments were employed: A test of practical use<"of a dictionary, questionnaires and an observation. A class of30 randomly se lected students and 20 English teachers from 6 different schools were also invovled in the study. The test whi ch comprises 30 items on the various uses of the dictionary was administered to the 30 students. The questionnaires which al so try to elicit views and opinions of the teachers and students regard ing the role of MLD in learnning EFL were distri buted to both subjects. The third type of instrument-observation, was made to see how quick or slow the students were in finding a word in the dictionary. In doing the test and the activity (task) for observation, the students were provided with the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English. The instruments were collected and analysed by converting the responses into percentag figures. Comparisons were made between the responses of the students to all item s subsumed in the instruments to see the effectiveness of the studen ts in usi ng the dicitonary. The results obtained showed that the students are not generally good at using the dicti onary for wide range of in formation. The results also indicated that there are no initiatives from Engli sh teachers to coach students how to make an effective use of the MLD. It is, therefore, recommended that teachers, syllabus designers and material writers shou ld take remedial measure to broaden the view of students to the use of MLD by integrating different tasks that call for dictionary skills.Item An Investigation of the Minimum threshold Level towards the end of the first cycle: reading Skills in Focus(Addis Ababa University, 2000-05) Beyene, Zenebe; Demisse, Teshome (PhD)The principal objective of the study was to investigate the reading achievement of the first cycle students and then compare this with the achievement level expected of them. As a corollary to this, the investigation sought to discover whether the reading objectives of the first cycle are met or not. To this end, an achievement test and two sets of questionnaires were employed to collect the data. To prepare the test, the profile for the first cycle was closely analyzed. The textbooks for grade one, two, three and four were surveyed. Based on the objectives of the syllabi and the proportional representation of the sub-skills in the textbooks, a table of specifications was prepared. A test comprising literal comprehension, vocabulary in context, word recognition (identification), information transfer, comprehension-at-word level, comprehension-at-sentence level, reordering jumbled sentences and reading for the main ideas was developed as this would most likely gauge students' expected performance at the level. This test was administered to 180 randomly selected students from six schools: three from Government and three from Public Schools. The test was piloted on 40 students and then was administered to the 180 sample students. The result of the test indicated that from the total of 180 sample students 94 students or 52% scored below the overall average of the test (54%). A close examination of student's performance further revealed that students performed better in comprehension-at-word level, information transfer and reordering jumbled sentences tests. They performed adequately in literal comprehension test. The students performed below average in comprehension at sentence level, in Reading-for-the main idea and word identification tests. The results of teachers' questionnaire also corroborate the test results. The response of teachers' questionnaire indicated that students' reading performance was below standard. Further analysis of the questionnaire revealed that there were some problems which account for such poor performance. On the basis of the results, some recommendations were forwarded. These recommendations call for some remedial activities on the part of the teachers, supply of reading materials on the part of the parents and school administrators, syllabus and other minor policy adjustments on the part of the bodies concerned and improving reading practice on the part of the students.Item Teacher Intention and Learner Interpretation of English Language Learning Tasks(Addis Ababa University, 2007-07) Lilay, Neguse; Demisse, Teshome (PhD)This study is about language learning tasks. It attempted to find out whether English language teachers’ intentions match learners’ interpretations of English language learning tasks in grade 11. It also set out to assess the possible problems that create a gap between the two parties. Questionnaires, classroom observations and interviews were used to collect data in three general and preparatory government high schools in Addis Ababa. Based on the data, analysis was made and the teachers’ intentions and the learners’ interpretations compared accordingly. The findings indicated that in certain areas both the teachers’ intentions and the students’ interpretations of the tasks seemed to match positively. However, in several issues of the classroom practices, both parties have mismatched. And when the seemingly positive matches were deeply looked into by crosschecking the various data obtained, they showed essential disparity. The teachers indicated that they explain the purpose of tasks and their significance to other subjects. Moreover, they indicated that they simplify difficult language, contextualize tasks. However, the students indicated that they face difficulty in reading and understanding other subjects. They also indicated that the writing skills activities are not intended to help them for their academic writing. Besides, they indicated that the various English language skills activities are not up to enabling them to develop their communicative ability. It is therefore suggested that the English language teachers be committed enough to use the different activities for teaching the language in ways that solve the students’ problems of speaking, reading, writing, etc.