INVESTIGATINGAFFECTING FACTORS OF GRADE 10th STUDENTS’ ENGLISH LANGUAGE SPEAKING SKILL IMPROVEMENT AT MEKANE-EYESUS AND JIBASRA GENERAL SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ESTIE WOREDASOUTH GONDAR ZONE OFAMHARA REGIONAL STATE

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to investigate affecting factors of grade 10th students‟ English language speaking skill improvemen. For this study Mekane-Eyesus and Jibasra general secondary schools were selected to be setting of the study. To achieve this objectivedescriptive survey of research design and mixed research (quantitative and qualitative)approach were employed to condact the study.The data gathering instruments were classroom-observation,questionnaire and interview of students and teachers.TheParticipants of the study were 144 grade ten studentsand 5grade ten English language teachers assiend to teach in 2012 E.C acadamic year selected from the sample groups by using simple random sampling and comprhensive sampling techniques respectivelyinorder to gather thedata inquestionnaire;On the other hand the interviewees were7 students and 5 grade 10th English language teachers who wereselected by using purposeful and comprehensive sampling techniquesrespectively to condact the study in those schools.The qualitative data were analyzed by categorizing and coding using themic analysis method of the data qualitatively, that means those were analyzed using words, phrases and sentenceswhereas, the quantitative data was analyzed in descriptive stastics in percentile andtabulation form. Lastly, both data forms were organized and presented thematically. At the end, the result of the study was discussed deeply.The findings of this study indicated that,students‟ English language speaking skill improvement in the EFL classroom was influenced by different factors. The affecting factors which found at the time of data gathering were categorized intoteacher-associated affecting factor,student-related affecting factor,classroom-environment and community socio-culture assiociated affecting factors of grade ten students‟ EL speaking skill improvement in EFL classroom at Mekane-Eyesus and x Jibasra general secondary schools.Therefore, based on the findingsit is recommended thatteachers should give great value and attention for active learning approach.They should focus on communicative teachingstrategy rather than grammer orented teaching approach by designing different speaking tasks and evaluating their students oral speaking performanceto develop students‟ EL speaking skill fluency. Furthermore, they should follow motivational and supportive way of teaching strategies. Inaddtion,students should avoid their anxiety,foreign language communicative stress and develop their vocabulary capacityand self confidence communicatively in EL speaking practice. Moreover,school administrators, and stake-holders should be work cooperatively to solve the problem of community socio-cultueand large class size of students in the schools.