Browsing by Author "Kitila, Tamene (PhD)"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    An Analysis Of The Police – Witness Interview Discourse: The Case Of Two Police Institutions In West Shoa Zone, Oromia Regional State
    (AAU, 2019-05) Bekana, Birhanu; Kitila, Tamene (PhD)
    The study aimed at analyzing the police _ witness interview discourses in Oromia Regional State,West Shoa Zone. Ambo town and Dire Inchini woreda police institutions were selected purposely for the study. Qualitative research methodology was employed to attain the research objectives. The participants of the study were eight police interviewers, four selected using convenience sampling from Ambo town police institution and four selected using available sampling from Dire Inchini Woreda police institution. Besides, four respondents to the researcher’s interviews (two from each site) selected purposely were participants of the study. Qualitative data were collected using audiotapping of the police _ witness interviews(interactions) and using the semi structured interviews from the four respondents. Totally, thirty six recordings (four hours) recordings were made from the two sites. Twenty two of the recordings were selected for the research purpose, transcribed using Gail Jeferson’s (1984) transcription conventions, translated into English and analyzed qualitatively using Conversation Analysis (CA), Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), and Pragmatics. Results obtained from the analysis of the data transcripts indicated that there was a strong power asymmetry (control of the discourses) slanted in favor of the police interviewers in the police_witness interviews. This power asymmetry was revealed mainly through poor rapport building at the opening phase of the interviews, the interviewers’ repeated interruptions of the witnesses’ utterances, the controlling of the turn takings, the commanding (ordering) utterances, the positioning of the police interviewers themselves as persistent questioners using (‘WH’ questions, Yes/ No questions and other syntactically non – interrogatives). The finding also showed that the police interviewers had the first go to set the agenda for the subsequent discussions with the participants (interviewees/witnesses) in the study. They were sources of the agenda for the interactions. The discursive roles given to the police interviewers and the witnesses, the higher status given to the police interviewers institutionally and their relative knowledge influenced the dynamics of the interactions during the interviews. Evadings from the main agenda of the interviews (intentional digressions), pauses and disagreements with the interviewers’ ideas were merely used by the witnesses as strategies to minimize the imposition from the interviewers. The finding also indicated that the witnesses had feelings of powerlessness in relation to the police interviewers who were perceived as persons with every power, right, dignity, status, freedom, and knowledge. Finally, it was recommended that police organizations are expected to implement comprehensive trainings on language technicalities, fundamental interviewings to develop more effective interviewers to help the judicial procedures. Police interviewers need to establish a better rapport with the interviewees or witnesses before they go into the interview proper. People (the society) should be given awareness about police_witness interviews through short trainings. Further studies must also be conducted on the relationship between the police interviewers and the interviewees witnesses) in the police _witness interviews.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Descriptive Analysis of Oromoo Personal Names and Naming Practices in Eastern Wollega Zone of Oromia National Regional State
    (Addis Ababa University, 2018-04) Jibril, Alima; Kitila, Tamene (PhD)
    This dissertation describes personal names and naming practices of Oromoo people in Eastern Wollega of Oromia National Regional state. The study was carried out at Naqamte Administrative town and Giddaa Ayyaanaa district in Eastern Wollega. The study describes how children are named and explores the factors that influence childnaming among the Oromoo people in the study area. It explains the connotations and social realities that are reflected in their personal names and analyzes the roles personal names play in construction of personal and social identity. In addition, it describes the linguistic descriptions and causes and purposes of the new emerging trends in Oromoo naming and name changing practices in the area. To this effect, the research employed descriptive analysis research design in qualitative methods to collect and analyze data. The data were collected through interviews, focus group discussions and document analysis. The data were gathered from ten parents and twelve key informants who are language experts, cultural and tourism officers and more experienced elders in naming practices. Moreover, four individuals who had changed their names were interviewed to investigate the reasons behind the name changing and their feelings about their names: both the previous and the current names. Two focus group discussions were held and documents from schools and Legal Court Offices were used. The data collected through these instruments were analyzed and interpreted qualitatively using Onomastic theory. The theory is used to glean the intended and implied meaning(s) of various personal names. The analysis of data indicated that fathers, mothers and close relatives such as grandfathers and grandmothers played a significant role in deciding a name of a newly born child. Unlike the past, naming children by traditional practices were forgotten and the involvement of Ayyaantuus, who are the blessed persons of the society, was stopped. As a result, naming becomes parents’ responsibility. Besides, the data reveal that factors such as parents’ life experiences, the circumstances happening during pregnancy and child birth and situations of life and living in the family and socio-political dynamics at the country level determine the names to be given. Moreover, the day, time and condition of birth, the family’s livelihood conditions, attitudes towards politics, social and cultural issues, their wishes, hopes, beliefs, successes and challenges they come across and theirfuture aspirations and hopes are also factors that govern the naming practices of the society. Furthermore, naming trends of the people have been changed from a single word names to coined phrase, clause and sentence form names. These happens to express the revival of nationalism, self-discovery and parents’ political devotions and assertiveness in different aspects of life such as social, cultural, political and identity issues. Depending on the meanings personal names communicate in social, political, economic and cultural issues, the current trend names express the people’s optimistic feelings. These names depict that the people are hopeful about the future. They wish and need betterment in politics and national issues in near future. Thus, for the Oromoo people of Eastern Wollega, personal names are an occurrence of language use for specific purposes which represent an important part of the people’s life. Finally, the name changing practices are widely happening in the research areas for different reasons. These reasons are for expression of individuals’ Oromummaa (feelings of Oromoness) and Saboonummaa (being proud of their Oromummaa), to search for their identity that they lost in the past system and feel comfort with their indigenous names. The other reasons of name changing practices are to express their identity and inspire generation in philosophical truth that lead to self-fulfillment and selfdescription
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    The Effect of Modifying EFL Teachers’ Assessment on Students’ Integrated Approach to Learning English
    (Addis Ababa University, 2013-06) Asrade, Nibret; Kitila, Tamene (PhD)
    The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of modifying EFL teachers’ assessment on students’ integrated approach to learning English. One Grade 11 section was selected to be a single case experiment group. Interrupted time series quasi experimental design was employed to investigate the trends of students’ global-analytical learning dimension and the trends of their day-to-day performance in learning English. All the students of the section and the English teacher who taught the class participated in the study. Evaluation checklists were used to compare and contrast the nature of the teacher’s assessment before and after the training, and check whether or not the desired modification has been brought. Willing’s (1994) questionnaire was employed to collect data about the before and during intervention trends of students’ global-analytical learning dimension. Data about the trends of students’ day-to-day English learning performance were collected using worksheets adopted from students’ Grade 11 English textbook. Data obtained from the questionnaire were summarized based on the frequency distribution of students’ global-analytical learning dimension preference and eye-balled on line graphs having a cut of point. Student’s performance in the activities of each section were marked and scored out of 1o. The mean performances of students’ in the different section of the worksheets were calculated. Then, the means were summarized on line graphs in their respective section having a cut of point in order to display side by side the before and during intervention students’ English learning performance trends. Comparative analysis results of the checklists show that the teacher has made modifications on the assessment method after receiving the training. Trend analysis results of students’ global-analytical learning dimension preference reveal that the modification had an effect on students’ integrated approach. The global-analytical integration trend analysis results reveal that the intervention (the modifications) had an effect on students’ integrated approach to the global versus analytical learning dimension preference. The findings of Students’ day-to-day English learning performance trends have also showed the effects of the intervention on students’ emphasis shift from one language skill to the other to integrate the different skills.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    An Exploration of Beliefs about Language Learning and their Language Learning Strategy Use of EFL Learners: Debre Markos University in Focus
    (2013-06) Mitiku, Niguse; Kitila, Tamene (PhD)
    The purpose of this research is fourfold. The first is to examine the overall strategies and beliefs about language learning by EFL learners at university level. The second is to find out most/least common strategies used and beliefs held by EFL learners. The third is to investigate the correlation between EFL learners’ beliefs about language learning and their strategy use. The final purpose is to examine the effect of background variables (gender, proficiency and academic major) on EFL learners’ beliefs and their strategy use. This study investigated the beliefs about language learning and their strategy usage of 402 university EFL students. Five instruments were used to measure students’ belief and their strategy use: (1) Individual Background Questionnaire (IBQ), Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL), Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory (BALLI), TOEFL model test, and focused group interview. Descriptive analysis (frequencies, means and standard deviations), Pearson correlation analysis, a one way analysis of variance (ANOVA), a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), and post hoc Tucky HSD test were performed at the 0.05 level of significance to answer research questions. The findings indicated that EFL students at university level used a medium range of strategies. Metacognitive strategies were used most frequently where as memory strategies were used least frequently among university students. ii Students had strong beliefs of motivation and expectation whereas they had least beliefs on foreign language aptitude. There was significant correlation between language learning strategies and belief variables indicating the impact of beliefs on strategy use. Gender, English language proficiency and academic major had significant effects on the overall strategy use, the six categories of strategies, and individual strategy items. Gender and language proficiency did not affect overall beliefs, the five categories of beliefs, and the individual beliefs held by students. Academic major, on the other hand, had significant effects on overall belief, the five belief categories, and individual beliefs held by the students
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Exploring Teachers' Perceptions on Teaching Reading Skill: Grade 10 Chitu Secondary School in Focus
    (Addis Ababa University, 2018-08) Fikadu, Chali; Kitila, Tamene (PhD)
    The study explored teachers' perception and techniques they used to teach reading in Chi tu secondary school grade ten . In this study, descriptive rese arch design was used with th e mixed res earch methods. To achieve objective of the stu dy, the target school was selected for it is convenient for the study. With this, the researcher used all four EFL teachers available along with 1 71 students of grade ten out of 300 students. The students were sele cted through sampling technique fo rmu la proposed by Slov in s J 960 . Three data ga th ering il1Stru lI1 enl.1 were used to collect data. They were que stionnaire f or students, int erview for teachers and class room observation. The quantitative and qu alitative data gathered through these instrum ents were processed, analyzed and presented using descriptive statistics. The result of the study indicates th at teachers' classroom practice and students' response does not reflect their perception of reading. The result also reve aled th at teachers frequen tly used only two types of techniques which imply reading tec hniqu es advocate d in the literature were not effectivelv implemented by the target school teachers. Based on the findings and conclusion of sludy recommendations were forwarded for EFL teache rs and other responsible bodies