ASSESSING THE PRACTICE AND CHALLENGES OF TEACHING AND LEARNING SPEAKING SKILL IN ENGLISH CLASSROOMS: THE CASE OF GRADE 9 STUDENTS AT DEBRETSIGE SECONDARY SCHOOL, NORTH SHOA

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the practice and challenges of teaching and learning speaking skill in English language classroom. The study was conducted to find out how the English teachers teach speaking lesson, whether the students are engaged in learning speaking skill and what challenges hinder to progress the practice of speaking lesson in EFL classroom. Debretsige secondary School was purposively selected to be the setting of the study in Oromia Region North Shoa Zone. Descriptive method was employed to establish the existence of phenomena by explicitly describing them. 3 grade nine English teachers and 84 grade nine students were involved in the study. The data were collected by using three tools: questionnaires, classroom observation and semi- structured interview. Both quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods were employed to analyze the data. The study shows that there are a number of challenges that contribute not to practice teaching and learning speaking skill in English classrooms. According to the findings, The major challenges are students interest to practice speaking, teachers failure of playing his own role effectively, teachers failure of getting all students to participate in the practice of learning speaking, students shyness or fear of making mistakes, the students’ lack of adequate motivation to speak, the failure of classroom teachers to be committed and use their effort in the practice of teaching and learning speaking, failures of teachers and students to use different strategies/methods in order to make the practice of teaching and learning speaking in classroom convenient and effective are some major challenges. Therefore, based on the above findings and conclusions appropriate recommendations are drawn.