Browsing by Author "Leta, Dejenie(PhD)"
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Item An Assessmet of the Content Validity of High School English Language Tests in Relation to Textbooks Concerned(Addis Ababa University, 1995-06) Kebede, Kifle; Leta, Dejenie(PhD)The main objective of this study is to examine whether or not high school English language tests currently administered in schools adequately represent - both in content and in format - the practice exercises contained in the corresponding textbooks. Since some research works were conducted concerning the teaching and learning activities of the other grades. for the purpose of this study, grade ten was selected. The main data sources thus were English language textbook and sample test papers of the said grade gathered from different government comprehensive. vocational and senior secondary schools. The contents of l O" grade textbook and those of the English language tests were analysed. For the purpose of this study a representative list of content areas was drawn up by referring to the instructional material concerned. In order to assess the attitude of teachers and students towards the current 1(Jh grade English examinations. questionnaires were administered to those subjects. Interviews were also conducted to some subjects for the same purpose. Then, the Spearman's rank- order correlation coefficient statistical method was used in order to determine the degree of the relationship between the frequencies from the analysis of the contents and formats of the textbook and those from the analysis of the examination questions. The results of the findings show that the contents of the sample test papers generally correlate with the contents of the textbook. However, in specific terms. the different content areas of the textbook were not proportionally represented in the sample test papers. The results of the study have shown that the weighting allocated to the various content areas and skills in the sample test papers fail to adequately mirror that of the language components and skills of the instructional material. ill Regarding the formats, the two materials (the textbook and the sample test papers) were found to be at variance. In other words, the limited formats employed in the sample examination papers seem to fail in enabling candidates to make use of their knowledge of the English language in the various content areas and skills. On the bases of these findings, it is concluded that the English language examinations currently administered at Grade Ten level, relatively speaking, seem to possess low content validity.Item An Exploration into The Involvement of Elt Teachers in Action Research: The Case of Three Teachers’ Training Colleges(Addis Ababa University, 2003-06) Mesfin, Cherie; Leta, Dejenie(PhD)The present study was designed to examine the extent to which ELT teachers of three teachers' training colleges have been possibly involved in English language teaching action research, their attitudes towards action research, constraints which they have possibly encountered in carrying out action research, and some of the solutions to these constraints. To this effect, the researcher, with the help of his M.A. thesis advisor, developed and administered a questionnaire consisting of four different sections, and conducted an interview. The questionnaire was administered to 33 ELT teachers whereas the interview was held with 8 ELT teachers and 6 college principals. Depending on the nature and types of the different sections of the questionnaire and the interview both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were employed. As a result, the data gained through the semi-structured questionnaire and the interview were analyzed descriptively on the basis of common themes and issues of the respondents' responses. On the other hand, the respondents' responses to section 1 and section 3 of the questionnaire were analyzed through the help of the following inferential statistics: independent sample t- test, correlations, regression analyses, and one sample t- test. Accordingly, some of the results, for example, the independent t-test for the mean scores of the samples seem to show a significant difference between the samples' (B.As' and M.As') total English language teaching experience and their practical involvement in action research where the p-value of each is found to be .01 and .04 and statistically significant at 5% level of significance. Besides, the regression analyses appeared to show the number of years that the samples believed to be involved in action research (espoused beliefs) as the main predictor of the criterion variable (research in action). The pictures of both descriptive and inferential statistical analyses appeared to show that the ELT teachers did not make considerable efforts in undertaking English language teaching action research. However, the ELT teachers seemed to show positive attitudes towards action ix research as one could possibly infer from the attitudes scale of one-sample t-test computations as revealed in Table 16. In addition, undermining the role(s) of research, lack of enough research skills, and the insufficiency of English language teaching research courses offered were some of the most serious research constraints reported to hamper the involvement of ELT teachers in English language teaching action research. Accordingly, summary, conclusions, and recommendations were made based on the insights gained from these research findings. Finally, I forwarded some recommendations with the hope that the involvement of college ELT teachers in English language teaching action research would help to improve the instruction of English language in colleges, in particular, and would contribute to the betterment of English language teaching in Ethiopia, in general.Item High School English Language Learners' Perception of Teachers' Verbal Feedback: Grade 11 in Focus(Addis Ababa University, 1999-06) Mereba, Temesgen; Leta, Dejenie(PhD)The main purpose of this study was to investigate the kind of feeling high school English language learners have on their teachers' verbal feedback, their perception of the extent of information on the correctness or incorrectness of their responses contained in teachers' verbal feedback, their perception of the extent of explanation given in teachers' verbal feedback on the correctness or incorrectness of responses, and their perception of the kind of direction given in teachers' verbal feedback for better or improved responses or output. To achieve the objectives, four grade eleven English language lessons of four sections at the Higher 12 Comprehensive Secondary School here in Addis Ababa were recorded and extracts of classroom exchanges or discourses were transcribed to be used as basis for the study. The feedback types found in the lessons were categorized and ana lysed in terms of frequencies and percentages. Accordingly, the twenty types of feedback employed in the recorded lessons were used to develop a questionnaire so that the learners of the four sections from which the lessons were recorded could give their perception on these types of teachers' verbal feedback used in the four lessons and presented in the questionnaire. One hundred and sixty eight learners from the four sections filled in the questionnaire while twenty others from these sections were interviewed. Then, the results were analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Some of the results showed that most of the respondents have positive feeling about all the feedback types employed in the four lessons except in the case of the provision ( Some of the results showed that most of the respondents have positive feeling about all the feedback types employed in the four lessons except in the case of the provision of "Interrupt" and "Simple Reproof Denial" which are found to provoke the feeling of learners negatively. The learners have positive feeling when they are praised by their teachers for their adequate or correct responses, and contrary to this, most of the learners have negative feeling when their teachers comment on their wrong or inadequate performance. All the respondents positively or favourably perceive the extent of information on correctness and/or incorrectness of responses contained in all the teachers' verbal feedback and have similar perception on the extent of explanation contained in all the teacher's verbal feedback except in the case of the provision of "Interrupt" where the majority of the respondents have negative or unfavourable perception as regards the extent of explanation contained. Except in the case of the provision of 'Interrupt' and 'Simple Reproof Denial, most learners positively perceive the kind of direction given in the teachers' verbal feedback, and, in general, the respondents' understanding of their teachers' verbal feedback is favourable or positive. On the basis of these findings, conclusions were drawn and possible recommendations put forward to hopefully help improve the English language teaching/learning process.Item Motivation Techniques Employed by EFL Teachers (Two Primary Schools in Focus)(Addis Ababa University, 2007-08) Tibebu, Bayush; Leta, Dejenie(PhD)The purpose of this study was to find out how English language teachers’ use motivation techniques in EFL classroom to motivate their students. Motivation is normally considered as important factors that contribute to initiate learners’ English language skills particularly in the primary level. In order to gather data for the study, two instruments: questionnaires to students and teachers, and interview with English language teachers were used. Ten grade seven sections from the two schools (Abober and Ediget Behibret) were taken as a sample. After the selection, the students and teachers were made to give their responses about the motivation techniques employed in the ELT classrooms. To get information about what motivation techniques employed by EFL teachers, 21 items of questionnaire were distributed to the students and 20 to the teachers. In addition to this, the four teachers in the selected schools were interviewed. Both quantitative and qualitative techniques were used to analyze the data. The results of the study showed that there was a good relationship between the classroom teachers and the students. And teachers tried to motivate the learners to participate without fear during classroom interaction. The study, furthermore, revealed that praise words such as “excellent”, “good”, and “nice”, rewards, clapping hands, were the most frequently used motivation techniques by the English language teachers. Moreover, the study indicated that the students have different reactions to these motivation techniques of their teachers: students felt very happy and struggled to participate freely. They also raised their hands up to ask and answer questions. Nevertheless, there were some problems that affected the students’ motivations in the classroom and around the school compound. Some of them were the huge number of the students and lack of teaching materials. That is, due to the immense number of students in a small classroom and inconvenience classroom conditions, it was found quite hard to manage and to motivate every students. These problems hindered the teacher from using different motivational techniques. Based on these results, conclusions were drawn, and recommendations were made.Item The Role of Subject Matter Teachers in Promoting English Learning(1997, 1997-05) Sahlu, Tiruneh; Leta, Dejenie(PhD)This study explored eleventh grade students' difficulties in speaking and writing, and their subject teachers' concern in improving their student' deficiencies in these skills. One hundred and sixty five students and sixteen teachers drawn from four high school in Addis Ababa were taken as subjects for the study. Questionnaires were designed for both teachers and students in order to collect the necessary information on the subj ect under investigation. Moreover, test papers, examination papers and exercise books of students were also examined. An analysis of the information thus collected seems to indicate that the students' ability in speaking and writing and the level expected of them in their content subject do not tally. Though subj ect teachers were aware of their students' deficiencies, they hardly showed effort to promoting their language skills. Based on this finding, it was recommended that subject teachers need to be made aware of the additional responsibilities of promoting their students' language skills and, thus, work in collaboration with language teachers in this regard.