Browsing by Author "Mohammed, Nuru (PhD)"

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    The Ability of Grade 12 Students to Modify Their Interlanguage Utterances towards Comprehensibility and/or Target- like Use during Task- based Interaction
    (Addis Ababa University, 2003-06) Tekle, Yinager; Mohammed, Nuru (PhD)
    Key Words - Modification - Compressibility - Interlanguage utterances - Target-like use The purpose of this study was to investigate whether students modified their interlanguage utterances towards comprehensibility and/or target -like use when they experienced difficulty in message comprehensibility during task- based interaction which involved only students. To this end, twelve students of Grade 12 at Enjibara Comprehensive, Preparatory and Technic School were selected and participated in the study. These students were paired up and made to interact using a picture-dictation task. Their interactions were tape- recorded, transcribed and analysed. The results of the anlyses indicated that the participants were able to successfully negotiate for comprehensibility by modifying their trigger utterances in 30(63%) instances of the one-signal negotiated interactions. The findings of the study also revealed that when the participants generated modifications of initial utterances, they made use of target-like forms in 70% of the cases. However, when the rate of frequency of these modifications which exhibited the use of target-like forms was compared with the total number of responses made to clarification requests, it was found minimum, i.e. 44%. Furthermore, the investigation made to see why the participants did not engage in the modification of their trigger utterances more often than they did resulted in the knowledge that a particular type of incomprehension signal called trigger repetition signal was responsible for this situation. This signal type was found less effective in prompting the participants to modify their trigger utterances. Of the 48 incomprehension signals made in the one-signal negotiated interactions, 23(48%) of them were trigger repetition signals. However, only 11(36%) modified comprehensible output instances were made in response to this signal type. The majority number of responses (64%) were made in reply to either trigger modification signals or explicitly marked signals which accounted for 25% (12) and 27% (13) of the total number of incomprehension signals, respectively. Finally, conclusions were drawn based on the findings of the study and suggestions were made for future research on the area.
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    The Application of Interacting Reader Variables with Text Variables in a Reading Lesson: The Case of Debre Markos Cte First Year Trainees in 10+3 Program BY Haile Shibabaw
    (Addis Ababa University, 2007-07) Shibabaw, Haile; Mohammed, Nuru (PhD)
    Reading constitutes much of the work at colleges. For example, they read to study different courses, to do assignments and to write project works. To do all these, efficient reading is an instrument without which success in college studies is not possible. As Hedge (2000) states, the level of reader comprehension of a text is determined by how well the reader variables interact with the text variables.Hence, the main objective of this study is to examine the application of interacting reader variables with text variables in a reading lesson. Accordingly, the specific research questions are designed to see the extent to which EFL instructors used reading activities to activate trainees prior knowledge to create new knowledge; to examine the extent to which EFL instructors got trainees to have purposes of reading that helped them to construct meaning, and to investigate the major problems that trainees faced when interacting with reading texts. Moreover, the other research questions addressed in this research were related to examining whether the reading texts had clear organizational structure, and whether the level of difficulty of contents of the reading texts was appropriate to the trainees’ level of understanding. The subjects of the study were all the EFL instructors (8) and 96 EFL trainees at Debre Markos CTE. The 96 EFL trainees were selected using simple random sampling technique; that is, using lot. To gather data for the study, questionnaire, interview, and classroom observation were used. Mean, standard deviation and percentage were employed to analyze the data obtained through close-ended questionnaire whereas qualitative data analysis was used with the data obtained through open-ended questionnaire, interview and classroom observation. The results from both the quantitative and the qualitative study showed that EFL instructors frequently helped trainees to do pre-reading questions and share ideas with a partner about the pre-reading questions. However, they did not seem to understand why they let them do the pre-reading questions and share ideas with a partner about the questions. Because, after trainees had finished discussing the pre-reading questions, they were asked to read the passage silently to answer the comprehension questions. They were not asked to read part (s) of the passage to adjust their prediction to link the old knowledge with the new one. The types of purposes of reading used were reading to identify specific and general information. Though these purposes are crucial to reproduce the exact text, they do not enable trainees to maintain coherence. The coherent meaning constructed by the reading will be some how related to the reader’s prior experience (world knowledge) and the structures already formed in the reader’s mind (textual knowledge).Moreover, inability in English language; shortage of vocabulary knowledge; lack of reading habit; negative belief on the use of doing comprehension questions; lack of exposure to do comprehension questions in the lower grades, and not getting the necessary help and follow-up from instructors were the main problems for the trainees not to be interested in doing comprehension questions. These problems were also causes for trainees’ difficulty to express what they know about pre-reading questions in English. Regarding text variables, the results showed that most of the reading texts that trainees read were related to the trainees’ socio-cultural context; had clear organizational structure; introduced abstract concepts by using concrete examples; explicitly stated complex relationships, and included the three levels of comprehension questions. Nevertheless, they seemed to have problems in containing appropriate vocabulary load. Finally, it is recommended that reading should be taught based on predict-sample text- repredict –resample process. Setting continual individual and group purposes for reading is also crucial to help trainees to construct meaning from reading texts.
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    An Assessment of the Content Validity of English Language Tests: The Case of Awassa College of Health Sciences
    (Addis Ababa University, 2008-06) Mehret, Asmare; Mohammed, Nuru (PhD)
    The purpose of this study was to assess if the coverage of English language tests administered in Awassa College of Health Sciences (ACHS) fairly represent the coverage of the coursebook. Hence, to meet the purpose of the study, English tests for third year students were selected. The main data sources, therefore, were the English coursebook for third year students and sample test papers administered for the same group of students in the academic years 2006-2008. From each year, one progress test and one final classroom achievement tests were included in the study. Then, the contents of the coursebook and sample test papers were analyzed in order to get the required data for the study. Besides, unstructured interview was administered to all English language teachers in the college. After the necessary data had been obtained, Siegel’s formula was used to determine the extent to which the two observations (Coursebook and sample test contents) are related. The result of the study shows that the content of sample test papers does not adequately represent the coverage of the coursebook. Some content areas, for example, grammar pronunciation, listening in the coursebook were not proportionally incorporated in the sample test papers. That is, there was a problem in allocating the percentages in tests from each content area in the teaching material coursebook. The degree of relationship between the coursebook and sample test papers was found to be 0.13. Thus, it was concluded that English language tests in Awassa College of Health Sciences were poor at content validity since they were unrepresentative.
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    The Classroom Language of Primary School English Teachers in Ethiopia: A Study in Communication Strategies
    (Addis Ababa University, 2010-07) Makonnen, Yoseph; Mohammed, Nuru (PhD)
    The purpose of this study is basically to identify the communication strategies used by Ethiopian second cycle primary school teachers of English to compensate for the linguistic deficiencies that they encounter while conducting their lessons. It aims at identifying the strategies in their immediate context of language functions. This makes the task of investigation double-pronged. Both communication strategies and language functions are the focus of the investigation. In addition, the study attempts to explore whether the use of communication strategies has any relationship with the lesson topics, and attempts to discover a pattern that shows the link among the three features of the classroom language of the teacher: lesson topic, language functions and communication strategies. Four government second cycle primary schools were selected for the study. From the twelve teachers working in these schools eight were selected and their performance was recorded while they were teaching English in the classroom. The lessons so recorded were then transcribed and analyzed in order to identify the communication strategies in the context of language functions. While the communication strategies were identified on the basis of the model of classification developed by Faerch and Kasper (1983, 1984), language functions were analyzed on the basis of the system of analysis developed by Sinclair and Coulthard (1975, 1992). Both systems of analysis were used with slight modifications made by the researcher. The results of the analysis indicated that the teachers employed 11 types of communication strategies classified under two broad categories: achievement strategies (99.4%) and reduction strategies (0.6%). The nine types of achievement strategies that were identified are: language switch (73.1%), repeating (10.1%), paraphrasing (8.7%), reading from textbook/blackboard (2.3%), writing on blackboard (2.0%), literal translation (1.4%), word coinage (0.9%), non-verbal (0.6%), and appeal for assistance (0.3%). In the second broad category of reduction strategies two types of strategies were identified, namely: topic avoidance and meaning abandonment, which occurred only once each. These strategies were employed by two of the teachers.
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    A Comparative Study of the Methods of Teaching Reading Employed by the Televised Teacher and the Classroom Teacher With Especial Reference To Grade Nine Students of Jimma Town Senior Secondary Schools
    (Addis Ababa University, 2008-02) Getachew, Negash; Mohammed, Nuru (PhD)
    The main objective of this study is to compare the methods of teaching reading employed by the televised teacher and classroom teachers. The study was conducted at Jiren and Setto Senior Secondary Schools of Jimma Town. The former is Plasma and the latter is non-Plasma school. The subjects of the study were grade nine students and English language teachers of the aforementioned schools. 410 students (210 from Plasma and 200 from non-Plasma school), and 6 teachers (three from each school) were randomly selected as source of data. To collect the necessary information from the subjects, three data collection instruments (classroom observation, questionnaire and interview) were used. The findings showed that the method of the teaching reading employed by the televised teacher was found to be relatively different from the classroom teacher. The televised teacher employed the teaching methods that assured students' active involvement in the reading activities, and that provided enough opportunity for students to interact with each other in pairs and groups. On the other hand, the classroom teacher used method of teaching reading, where students' involvement in learning through interaction among themselves, was more or less negligible. Only oral question-and-answer work, where the role of majority students was not that of active participants, was the predominant classroom practice of the teachers, i.e. students were given no more chances to communicate or interact among themselves. Compared to the televised teacher, the classroom teacher did not employ the classroom procedures which help students comprehend the text better and practice the important sub skills (such as skimming and scanning) of reading. Besides this, unlike the televised teacher, the classroom teachers predominantly practiced reading aloud instead of silent reading. Most of the class time of reading lessons was employed for reading aloud by students. Based on the findings it was concluded that relative to the classroom teachers, the televised teacher seems to employ the techniques and procedures that experts and researchers of reading propose. However, there are areas that are found difficult for the televised teacher but easy for the classroom teacher and the vice versa. It was, therefore, recommended that reading should be better taught by the televised teacher with active involvement of the classroom teacher.
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    Critical Analysis of the Representations Ofhiv/Aids in Ethiopia’s Policy Documents and Newspapers
    (Addis Ababa University, 2013-06) Gutema, Kassaye; Mohammed, Nuru (PhD)
    HIV/AIDS is one of the worst epidemics in modern history. The language used to portray this pandemic in policies and mass media has been an object of study in many countries. However, in Ethiopia, the language used to represent this epidemic in policies and newspapers has not been thoroughly investigated using systematic methods of linguistic analysis. The current study aims to partially bridge this gap by deconstructing the representations of this pandemic in Ethiopia’s policy documents and government run newspapers using the interdisciplinary approach of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The current study drew from a number of CDA frameworks. However the major analytic method used in the study are Van Dijk’s (1988, 1998 and 2001) ideological square and sociocognitive frameworks which were used for expounding the socio-political implications of the discourses. Thus, after the internal structure of the texts were described drawing on theories of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), the underlying meanings conveyed by such texts were explicated in terms of the wider contexts in light of social theories. Basically the current study asked and answered the question: ‘How was HIV/AIDS represented in Ethiopia’s HIV/AIDS policy documents and newspapers?’ Specifically, the study addressed questions like: ‘How were identities produced in HIV/AIDS related policy documents and newspapers, how were issued aligned, what sorts of treatments were sought, what metaphors were used to represent the pandemic and those afflicted?’
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    The Effect of Interaction Strategy Training on Students’ Participation in Small Group Discussions: The Case of Awassa College of teacher Education
    (Addis Ababa University, 2008-06) Zewdu, Abiy; Mohammed, Nuru (PhD)
    This research project was designed and conducted to provide students with strategy training in order to ensure more effective communicative interaction during group work carried out in the language classroom. The assumption is that appropriate classroom organization and detailed task definition, although imperative, are not always sufficient for achieving successful interaction. One way to improve the quality of communicative interaction in the class room is increase students’ use of interaction strategies. The concern of this study is to show how training in such strategies improves interaction in small group discussions. Forty two 3rd year diploma language stream students in to two classes at Awassa College of Teacher Education participated in this study. The classes were randomly assigned as an experimental group and a control group. Both groups were involved in similar cooperative group work activities, but the experimental group underwent special training in the use of interaction strategies. Each group was video recorded before the six week experiment and at the end of this period. The finding indicates that as a result of the training in the use of interaction strategies, the experimental group used more interaction strategies than the control group. The increased use of interaction strategies improved the students’ communicative interaction and decreased their non-interactive participations in the small group discussions.
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    The Effectiveness of the Practice of the Plasma-channeled EL T in Addis Ababa Preparatory Schools Berhanu Abera
    (Addis Ababa University, 2012-06) Abera, Berhanu; Mohammed, Nuru (PhD)
    This study was designed to assess the overall effectiveness of the practice of the plasma-channeled English language teaching (EL T) and its developments. It aimed to find out whether or not the plasma-based English language instruction was practised as planned and to examine the improvements that have been made. To gather data for the study, five different instruments, namely observation, questionnaire, interview, researcher's diary and documentary source were used. Both quantitative and qualitative techniques were employed to analyze the data obtained. The results of the study revealed that the screen teachers' ways of delivery were tended to mismatch with students' level of understanding. Moreover, televised activities were found to be interesting and fitting to develop students' different language skiffs, and the participation of students during the televised instruction was encouraging. However, students were given insufficient time to perform the activities and were provided with less support from their classroom teachers. The required arrangements (administrative and technical support services) were not also made for students and their teachers. Furthermore, the knowledge of the classroom teachers was found to be linked with subject matter knowledge and pedagogical knowledge; their technological pedagogical content knowledge was low. Moreover, problems like awareness, attitude, systematic linkage, professional competence, teachinglearning philosophy, speed, time, psychological and political factors were identified as major challenges of the practice of the plasma-channeled EL T The study also revealed that allocating equal time for the classroom teacher and the plasma presenter, improving the pace of plasma presenters and the nature of screen activities and setting up a digitization project were among the improvements that have been made. Based on the results, recommendations have been forwarded and further studies have been recommended. Keywords: English language teaching, instructional technologies, instructional television, plasma-channeled instruction, and technological pedagogical content knowledge.
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    The Effectiveness of the Practice of the Plasma-channeled ELT in Addis Ababa Preparatory Schools Berhanu Abera
    (2012-06) Abera, Berhanu; Mohammed, Nuru (PhD)
    This study was designed to assess the overall effectiveness of the practice of the plasma-channeled English language teaching (ELT) and its developments. It aimed to find out whether or not the plasma-based English language instruction was practised as planned and to examine the improvements that have been made. To gather data for the study, five different instruments, namely observation, questionnaire, interview, researcher’s diary and documentary source were used. Both quantitative and qualitative techniques were employed to analyze the data obtained. The results of the study revealed that the screen teachers’ ways of delivery were tended to mismatch with students’ level of understanding. Moreover, televised activities were found to be interesting and fitting to develop students’ different language skills, and the participation of students during the televised instruction was encouraging. However, students were given insufficient time to perform the activities and were provided with less support from their classroom teachers. The required arrangements (administrative and technical support services) were not also made for students and their teachers. Furthermore, the knowledge of the classroom teachers was found to be linked with subject matter knowledge and pedagogical knowledge; their technological pedagogical content knowledge was low. Moreover, problems like awareness, attitude, systematic linkage, professional competence, teachinglearning philosophy, speed, time, psychological and political factors were identified as major challenges of the practice of the plasma-channeled ELT. The study also revealed that allocating equal time for the classroom teacher and the plasma presenter, improving the pace of plasma presenters and the nature of screen activities and setting up a digitization project were among the improvements that have been made. Based on the results, recommendations have been forwarded and further studies have been recommended. Keywords: English language teaching, instructional technologies, instructional television, plasma-channeled instruction, and technological pedagogical content knowledge.
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    Exploring the Nature and Role of Classroom Interaction in Developing Early Grade Reading skills: The case of Afan Oromo mother tongue
    (AAU, 2019-12) Teshome, Getachew; Mohammed, Nuru (PhD)
    he objective of the study was to explore the nature and role of classroom interaction in the development of early grade reading skills. Specifically, it tried to address mediational strategies teachers and students used in creating meaning and understanding, theoretical assumptions that inform teachers’ classroom practices and the nature of classroom activities in early grade reading classes. The study focused on teacher-student and student-student interactions as mediators and mediatee in co-constructing meaning and skills. To this end, ethnohraphic research design was employed on Grades 1, 2, and 3 students at Abdi Bori Primary School at Mendi, West Wollega. The school was selected purposively as it was a private school catering for better quality education than other schools in the district. To achieve its objectives, qualitative data were collected using different instruments, such as non-participant observation with field notes, interview and document analysis and analyzed qualitatively. The result uncovered that the three classrooms observed were mostly teacher-controlled and textbook-directed that limited students’ active participation. It revealed a mixed mode of teaching: traditional transmissive, constructivist(joint discovery) and dialogic methods with more focus on the former. Teachers controlled content and direction of the lesson through frequent use of display questions that limited extended classroom interaction. However, when constructivist approach was employed, classroom interaction created better learning opportunities and co-construction of knowledge and skills, through the proper mediation of more knowledgeable others, who used both verbal and non-verbal modes of interaction. Mediation strategies used by participant teachers and students, like repetition, summarization, prosodic chopping, elicitation and uptake questions, significantly contributed to the meaning making and skill development processes. The study also disclosed and acknowledged the multimodal nature of early grade reading lessons, like physical objects, verbal cues, images, audio, etc that assisted literacy skill acquisition and development. Since the environment that surrounds children—inside and outside of school—is not only print-rich but also rich with multiple modes of expression, children combined different sign systems to represent, interpret and share meaning with others. Moreover, the participants demonstrated numerous strategies such as graphophonic, semantic and syntactic cueing systems in constructing meanings of what they read. The study also showed disparity between the teachers' perceptions on the role of classroom interaction in developing early grade reading skills and their actual classroom practices. Based on the finding, it was concluded that classroom interaction, and students and teacher mediations immensely contribute to the development of early grade reading skills.
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    An Investigation of the Correlation among Efficacy Sources, Students’ Self-Efficacy and Performance in Reading and Writing Skills: Bahir Dar University in Focus
    (Addis Ababa University, 2008-06) Amogne, Dawit; Mohammed, Nuru (PhD)
    The aim of this study was to find out the correlation among sources of self-efficacy, selfefficacy and performance in reading and writing skills of Bahir Dar University students (N=106). In addition, the degree to which the reading and writing efficacy beliefs and performance differ as a function of gender was examined. To this end, two instruments (questionnaires and tests) and three statistical tools (correlation, t-test and regression) were employed. The data analysis revealed that there exists significantly strong positive relationship between writing efficacy and writing performance. Likewise, the reading efficacy and the corresponding performance of students showed significant positive correlation. With regard to gender, males reported stronger writing and reading efficacy than females. Males also outperformed significantly in both reading and writing tests. The multiple linear regression analyses for the full sample indicate that efficacy sources collectively predicted the self efficacy beliefs of students in writing and reading. It was, however, only mastery experience, while other sources were controlled, which could significantly predict writing and reading self-efficacy. Others, with the exception of social persuasion for writing efficacy, also, though non-significant, could modestly influence students’ capability beliefs of both skills. Findings of this study are consistent with the tenets of social cognitive theory. As theorized, students’ capability beliefs are positively correlated with their writing and reading performance. In the other phase of the investigation, mastery experience, among the four sources, accounted for the greatest proportion of the variance in writing and reading efficacy of students.
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    Investigation of the Implementation of Grade ten English Syllabus in Selected Governmental Secondary Schools in Mekelle Town
    (Addis Ababa University, 2009-06) Kidane, Solomon; Mohammed, Nuru (PhD)
    The aim of this study was to evaluate the implementation of grade ten English syllabus in selected secondary schools in Mekelle town. Attempts have been made to examine whether the instructional guidelines set in the syllabus and teacher's guide are properly implemented at classroom levels, the favorability of the school and classroom environments for effective implementation of the syllabus, the attitudes of the students towards learning English and their exposure to the teaching and learning activities, and the factors affecting the implementation of the syllabus in the schools. To this end, a descriptive survey approach was used as a method of the s tudy. The data was collected from 236 sample students, a ll English teachers of grade ten who are twelve (12) in number, a ll the three school directors and two English department heads in three selected governmental secondary schools. Respondents were selected by using systematic random sampling and purposive sampling techniques. Questionnaires, observations, interviews and documents were used as data gathering instruments. The result of the study revealed that most of the demands of grade ten English syllabu ses were not implemented as intended. Teacher s ' extent of implementation of the instructional guidelines su ggested in the syllabus and teacher's guide was found to be low. Teachers frequently used explanation or lecture and questions and answers instructional strategies. Moreover, the English teachers did not use continuous assessment techniques to evaluate their student's performance. Besides, the result of the study indicated that the majority of the students have positive attitude towards learning English. However, as the fi ndings of the study showed, the students are not exposed to a variety of teaching and learning activities, which give them opportunity to use the language. There was scarcity of curricula materials and time to implement the syllabus effectively,
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    The Practice of 'Repair' During Conversational Discourse in EFL Classes
    (Addis Ababa University, 2009-06) Getachew, Anteneh; Mohammed, Nuru (PhD)
    The main aim of Ihis slUdy is to investigale Ihe practice of repair during conversational discourse in a foreign language classroom. Thus, il is mea11l to assess the nature of repair and repair-initiation patterns practiced during conversalional discourse in EFL classes, see the extent to which students and teachers use repair-initiation strategies during S-S and T-S interactions respectively, examine where the repair-initiations occur with reference to the trouble-source (I'S) in the observed palterns, find out the most fi'equent repair and repairinitial ion strategies used during classroom conversational discourse. The main subjects of the study were first year English major students taking the course Communicative English Skills-II and their teacher. Eight lessons recordings were made, fi'om all four sections students, fi'om whichfour lessons were transcribedfor analysis. The analysis of the transcribed data shows that all of the four repair initiation patterns were used during conversational discourse in EFL classes except a variation in frequency of use. In addition, the qua11litative analysis reveals that both slUdents and teachers play repair-initiation roles in S-S and T-S interactions respectively fi'om which other-initiation stralegy is more fi'equently used than self-initiation. Moreover, other initiated self repair pattern is most fi'equently used during conversational discourse in EFL classes. Along with this, concerning the position where repair-initiations occur in the observed patterns, in self initiated patterns the repair-initiations mostly occur in same turn; whereas in other initiated repair patterns the repair-initiations fi'equently occur in next turn immediately after the trouble-source. Finally, the thesis concludes by considering the implications of the .findings forfurther researches as to why other repair-initiation mechanism is highly apparent as well as other initiated self repair pal/ern is most fi'equently occur during conversational discourse in EFL classes. So, the study recommends EFL teachers to conduct CA researches in their classrooms to see the meaning negotiation strategies, in light with the practice of repair, and thereby 10 get feed back for remedial works and enhance students ' communicative competence.
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    The Role of Extra Class Activities in Improving Students' English Language Skills -SPEAKING And Listening Skills in Focus (WITH Reference to Gilgel Beles College of Teachers’ Education
    (Addis Ababa University, 2008-06) Atnafe, Biniam; Mohammed, Nuru (PhD)
    This study was mainly aimed at examining the role of student activities outside the regular class hours in improving learners’ English language skills (speaking and listening skills in focus) in teacher Education Institutes (TEIs). In order to see the role of extra class activities on the students’ English language skills improvement, an experiment was carried out and speaking proficiency and listening comprehension tests were designed and administered to the students in the study. Questionnaires were also developed and employed as other tools among the experimental group students and English language teachers in the college to investigate their attitudes. Furthermore, open ended interview to the teachers and a focus group discussion with the experimental group students were also used as supplementary data collecting tools. Together with these, incidental observation was carried out for the experimental group to see how they were doing with the activities during the experiment. The results from the post tests indicated that the performance of the students in the experimental group was found to be statistically significant in both the listening and speaking skills. The result from focused group discussions and questionnaire showed that the students have positive attitudes towards the extra class activities though there are no such activity programmes in the college. On the other hand, the result from these tools revealed that the students do not seem to be aware that extra class activities are learner led. Data from observation showed that the students were interested in the activities and they were increasing their participation from day one on wards. Teachers were found to have mixed attitudes and awareness about the role of the activities on EFL skills improvement. Based on the findings recommendations were made to the students, the teachers and to the institution.
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    The Use of Authentic Materials in Teaching Listening Skills to College Students: The Cause of Bonga College of Teacher Education
    (Addis Ababa University, 2013-05) Mamo, Kochito; Mohammed, Nuru (PhD)
    The main objective of this study was to investigate the use of authentic materials in teaching listening skills to college students. For selecting students, simple random sampling technique was used. Regarding the sample size, 25% of sample students from 247 total populations of students were taken to fill the questionnaire. In this regard, 62 first year language stream (i.e. students who were taking the listening course) students were randomly selected. The study also included all the available English language instructors. Three data gathering tools namely, questionnaire, interview and observation were used to collect required data. A questionnaire contains closed-ended items was administered to 62 sample students. In addition, semi-structured interview questions were held with all the available English language instructors who were offering different courses including listening skills. Classroom observation was carried out using structured checklist. Besides to this, library, English language improvement resource center observation was also carried out to check the sources and availability of authentic listening materials. To describe, delineate and explain the data gathered via the aforementioned tools, descriptive and qualitative methods were employed. Results of the study showed that listening to materials such as songs, radio/TV news, films, and recordings of short stories, telephone conversation, announcements, and different interviews; etc in English exposed students to the real language. It also revealed that instructors were aware of the use of authentic materials in teaching listening skills. In addition, it showed that instructors dominantly used non-authentic materials in listening instructions. Instructors disclosed that they had an easy access to authentic listening materials. They also indicated that students‟ level, interest, relevance and quality of the material should be considered in selecting appropriate authentic listening materials. Besides, instructors mentioned TV/video, radio, audiotapes and the internet as the main sources to obtain authentic listening materials. Finally, on the basis of the major findings and conclusions reached, recommendations have been made for EFL teachers, students and further research. Acknowledgements
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    Washback of the University Entrance English Exam (UEEE) on Teachers’ and Students’ Practices: The Case of Preparatory Schools in Amhara National Regional State
    (Addis Ababa University, 2012-06) Gashaye, Simachew; Mohammed, Nuru (PhD)
    Washback of the University Entrance English Exam (UEEE) on Teachers’ and Students’ Practices: The Case of Preparatory Schools in Amhara National Regional State Simachew Gashaye Addis Ababa University, 2012 The main purpose of this study was to examine the influence of the UEEE on teachers’ and students’ practices. Specifically, it examined the influence of the exam on the domains of teaching and learning. It further explored mediating factors of washback on teachers’ and students’ practices. The study employed concurrent mixed methods research design. The participants of the study were all the 62 Grades 11 and 12 English language teachers and 1,579 randomly selected students from nine preparatory schools in Amhara National Regional State. Different instruments were used to collect data. Classroom observations were conducted to look into what teachers’ and students’ practices looked like. To assess teachers’ perceptions about the influence of the exam on their practice and mediating factors of washback, questionnaire and interview were utilized. On the other hand, to examine students’ perceptions about the influence of the exam on their practice and mediating factors of washback, questionnaire and focus group discussion were used. To further examine the influence of the exam on teachers’ and students’ practices, document anlyses were conducted on Grade 11 and 12 English syllabi, the UEEE, and teacher-made tests. The collected data were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. Findings of the study reveal that the UEEE affected the domains of teaching and learning to be exam-oriented. Teachers’ pervceived awareness of the exam, students’ learning attitudes, external pressure in teaching, and their teaching experience mediated washback on their practice. Correspondingly, students’ perceived ambition for success in the exam, importance of the exam, awareness of the exam, external pressure in learning, and teachers’ teaching attitudes mediated washback on their practice. The exam yielded overt, strong, and harmful washback on teachers’ and students’ practices that in turn led the implementation of the syllabi to be less successful.
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    Washback of the University Entrance English Exam (UEEE) on Teachers’ and Students’ Practices: The Case of Preparatory Schools in Amhara National Regional State
    (Addis Ababa University, 2012-06) Gashaye, Simachew; Mohammed, Nuru (PhD)
    The main purpose of this study was to examine the influence of the UEEE on teachers’ and students’ practices. Specifically, it examined the influence of the exam on the domains of teaching and learning. It further explored mediating factors of washback on teachers’ and students’ practices. The study employed concurrent mixed methods research design. The participants of the study were all the 62 Grades 11 and 12 English language teachers and 1,579 randomly selected students from nine preparatory schools in Amhara National Regional State. Different instruments were used to collect data. Classroom observations were conducted to look into what teachers’ and students’ practices looked like. To assess teachers’ perceptions about the influence of the exam on their practice and mediating factors of washback, questionnaire and interview were utilized. On the other hand, to examine students’ perceptions about the influence of the exam on their practice and mediating factors of washback, questionnaire and focus group discussion were used. To further examine the influence of the exam on teachers’ and students’ practices, document anlyses were conducted on Grade 11 and 12 English syllabi, the UEEE, and teacher-made tests. The collected data were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. Findings of the study reveal that the UEEE affected the domains of teaching and learning to be exam-oriented. Teachers’ pervceived awareness of the exam, students’ learning attitudes, external pressure in teaching, and their teaching experience mediated washback on their practice. Correspondingly, students’ perceived ambition for success in the exam, importance of the exam, awareness of the exam, external pressure in learning, and teachers’ teaching attitudes mediated washback on their practice. The exam yielded overt, strong, and harmful washback on teachers’ and students’ practices that in turn led the implementation of the syllabi to be less successful.