Browsing by Author "Mesfin, Cherie"

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    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.