Browsing by Author "Guade, Adugna"

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    High School English Language Teachers' Beliefs about Grammar Teaching and Their Actual Classroom Practices: Four High Schools in Amhara Region in Focus
    (AAU, 2008-06) Guade, Adugna; Banteyerga, Hailom (Phd)
    The main purpose of this study was to inves tig.c;rte high school English language teachers' beliefs about grammar and teaching methods, and their actual classroom practices. It was particularly targeted at revealing whether the teachers' actual classroom practices diverged from or converged with their belief s . The need for uncovering such issues sprang from the fact that teachers ' pedagogical beliefs are believed to influence their instructional judgments and educational outcomes. The required data for the study were gathered through questionnaire, classroom observation and focus group discussion from high school teachers. To analyze and interpret the data, the researcher used both the qualitative and quantitative methods. The results of the questionnaire generally indicated that teachers believe in the positive eff ects of the inductive grammar teaching approach and communicative language teaching to enhance students' language competences. The actual classroom practices, however, immensely deviated from their expressed beliefs. It was also found out that the teachers had unfavorable beliefs about tralIitional teacher-centered approach. The actual classroom did not, however, commensurate with the teachers' beliefs. These clashes are against what some scholars in the literature say about the decisive effects of teachers' beliefs to guide their clas s room practices . It was then pointed out that these discrepancies between teachers ' beliefs and their activities could affect p edagogical outcomes, and it was generally concluded that such disparities could have contributed their shares to the deterioration of high school students' English proficiency. Finally, it is recommended that the Minis try of Education, teacher educators and other concerned bodies should exert a maximum effo rt to reconcile the teachers' beliefs and their classroom practices to alleviate the negative impacts on the effectiveneSS of English language teaching.