EXAMINING FACTORS AFFECTING GRADE ELEVEN FEMALE STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN ENGLISH CLASSROOM: THREE PREPARATORY SCHOOLS IN GURAGE ZONE IN FOCUS

Abstract

The participation of all students in EFL classroom plays essential role in effective of communicative language teaching. Because students who are actively involved in English classroom, they can report higher satisfaction and higher persistence rate. However, factors are common in the participation of female students in language classroom. Therefore, the general objective of the study was to examine factors affecting grade 11 female students’ participation in EFL class. The study used descriptive survey. . Five English language teachers from three sample schools and 48 grade eleven female students (twenty percent) out of 240 female students in the academic year 2010 E.C participated in the study. The teachers were selected using available sampling while the students were selected using a systematic sampling technique. In order to collect the data questionnaire, interview and classroom observation were used. The data collected through questionnaire were analyzed quantitatively in terms of frequency and percentage, and the data obtained via interview and classroom observation categorized thematically and described verbally. The study suggested that female students were less participant in EFL class due to the following; female students, teacher, family, classroom and task related factors, female students cultivation of poor cultural attitude from the family and strict religious principle from Church or Mosque were found as the dominant traits more affected their participation. Finally, based on the findings the study recommended that English teachers, female students’ families, religious institutions and educational stakeholders were responsible to solve the problem of less participation of female students in EFL classroom.