The relevance of grade 10 listening comprehension Texts and activities to the students' academic needs

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Date

2001-05

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Addis Ababa University

Abstract

In this study, an attempt has been made to investigate the extent to which grade 10 listening texts and activities cater for the academic needs of the students. That is to say, the extent to which the listening lessons help students to develop skills in listening that are required in situations where English is the medium of instruction. To obtain the information required, all the listening sections of the first part of the textbook for grade 10 were evaluated against criteria suggested by scholars. To support this information, a questionnaire involving 24- teachers and 120 randomly selected students of grade 10 at Higher 12, Ethiopia Tikdem and Nifasilk Comprehensive Secondary Schools was distributed. Besides, an interview with eight teachers and six classroom observations were conducted in order to get some insight into the implementation of the listening lessons at the classroom level. The information obtained was analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. A qualitative analysis was carried on the information obtained from the textbook analysis, the open-ended questionnaire for the students, the interview with teachers and classroom observations. On the other hand, a quantitative analysis was carried on teachers" and students' reactions to the closeended questionnaire items. Accordingly, the analysis showed that the listening texts and activities seem to be relevant and suitable to cater for the needs and goals of the students in developing skills of listening required in academic settings. The aims and objectives of the listening lessons, the content of the listening texts and the type and nature of the activities designed appear to relate to the students' needs and interests in the practicing of listening skills which are of paramount importance in situations requiring the ability to comprehend lectures and take notes in the different academic subjects they study. Furthermore, the recommended procedures accompanying the listening lessons seem to be effective and appropriate to the students in the practicing of listening skills they require in their academic settings. However, they appear to be a bit demanding for the teachers as they are not aided by recorded texts. Seeing that, recommendations were made to support the listening lessons with recorded texts and increase the awareness of teachers through workshops, seminars and the like on how to implement effectively the teaching materials for high schools in general and the listening lessons in particular.

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Keywords

listening comprehension

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