Assessing the Practice of Teaching English Reading With Reference to Students’ Preferred Learning Styles:-Grade 9 in Focus
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Date
2019-05
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
In this study an attempt was made to assess the practice of teaching reading with reference to grade nine students’ preferred learning styles.The required data for the study were collected using questionnaire, classroom observation and interview. Eight Grade 9 English teachers from Kolfe and Millennium Schools completed the teachers’ questionnaire. To cross check the information given by the teachers, questionnaire was administered to 243 students. Among the Eightsubject teachers, fivevoluntaryteachers were observed (each three times) to see how they actually match their teaching styles with their students’ preferred learning styles.Then, using frequency and percentage, descriptive analysis was employed to analyze the responses given to each item in the questionnaire and the findings of the classroom observation. The result revealed that there has been a mismatch between the teaching practices of reading implemented by the teachers and the students’ preferred learning styles.It is recommended that in order to develop teachers’ awareness’s of using the appropriate teaching styles based on students’ learning preferences, officials at the Ministry of Education, school administrators, department heads and the teachers themselves should take responsibilities to organize practice-based in-service professional trainings and perfect multisensory reading classrooms which has: firstly reading materials on many levels in multiple genres, secondly noise reduction headphones and audio books available for students who want or need to use them and thirdly areas where students can: sit quietly and read, move around while they read, work alone, & work together as groups in those schools. Besides, since the sample teachers seemed to have heterogeneous classes (the four types of learners mixed in the same class), they are also recommended to adapt the reading lessons that include multiple sensory learning style techniques.
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Foreign Language and Literature