The Practicability of Task-Based Efl Instruction in Higher Institutes
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Date
2008-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The main objective of this study was to explore the extent to which task-based language teaching
is being implemented in Ethiopian higher institutes. To this end, two government colleges,
College of Commerce, Addis Ababa University, and Kotebe College of Teacher Education were
chosen to be the target of the study. The study was conducted on 10 English language instructors
and 150 first year degree students of the two colleges. The sample of the study was taken by
using stratified random sampling method.
In order to gather data from the subjects of the study, questionnaires, observation and interview
were used. Close-ended questionnaires were prepared for both students and instructors and
distributed to the subjects and all of them were returned. The classes were also observed using
observation checklist while tasks were being implemented. The interview questions were
prepared to get detailed information from the instructors and to cross- check the data gathered
by other tools.
The collected data showed that higher institutes are using tasks to teach English language to
some extent, but they are not following the basic principles of task-based language teaching and
learning. It was also found out that instructors use the pre-task cycle better than other cycles, but
they do not give more attention to planning and reporting stages of task cycle. The post-task
cycle was almost not implemented in colleges. Factors that negatively affect the implementation
of task-based instruction in the Ethiopian context are identified. These include students’ poor
background, lack of authentic materials, shortage of time to prepare lessons and lack of
students’ interest to involve in learning process. Finally, some recommendations were forwarded
based on the main findings of the study.
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Keywords
Practicability of Task