An Evaluation of the Design and Implementation of Reading Exercises of Grade Nine English Textbook
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Date
2011-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the design and implementation of reading exercises of
grade nine English textbook. The study was conducted at Mankusa General Secondary School.
Descriptive case study method was used to carry out the study. The main subjects of the study
were grade nine English textbook reading exercises. For case illustration of the study, one
hundred students and three classroom teachers were participated in the study. These students
were selected through stratified random sampling technique, whereas the teachers were included
in the sludy with the intention of observing their reading lessons. To gather valid and reliable
data, evaluative checklist and classroom observations were used as major data gathering tools.
Other tools-students ' questionnaire and teachers ' interview- were used to get the data that
could not be addressed by major tools. The collected data were analyzed and discussed together
under themes.
The finding of the study revealed that the pre-reading exercises of the units of analyses were
designed appropriately. Nevertheless, the practice of pre-reading exercises was hardly
implemented. The majority of the exercises (questiom) in during reading were devoted to ask
what students understood ji-om what they read. A few of them were designed (scanning and
guessing word meanings through context clues) in a way students understood a piece of
information ji-om the passage. Exercises after reading were almost none. Even the strategy of
summarization appeared once in the units of analyses. Again, the study disclosed that teachers
implemented exercises against the contemporary orientation of the teaching and learning of
second language reading.
Finally, exercises should be redesigned in a way that cultivates students more in strategies/skills
they apply them in tomorrow's readings and teachers should be acquitted with contemporary
nature of reading and its teaching were the major recommendations made.
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Evaluation of the Design