ASSESSING THE PRACTICE OF TEACHING ORAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN BORA SECONDARY SCHOOL BORA WOREDA, EAST SHOA ZONE OROMIA REGIONAL STATE: GRADE 10 IN FOCUS

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the Practices of Teaching English Oral Communication Skills in Bora Secondary School: Grade 10 in Focus. Simple random and purposive sampling techniques were used to select the respondents. Questionnaire, interview and classroom observation were used to gather data. Mean and frequency were used to analyze data. Low practices in facilitating pair or group discussion, poor encouraging the students to use English language, less experience in describing events, objects and pictures in the text book orally, making less attempts in teaching key vocabulary words were the major findings under practices. On the other hand, the over domination of most class discussion and oral activities by the teacher, lack of practice in giving corrective feedbacks, the inability of the students of speaking fluently were another points. Concerning the challenges in teaching English Oral Communication, the study found out that there was shyness, interference of mother tongue language, poor attitude towards English language, lack of confidence, less practices, lack of feedbacks, poor motivation and inability to speak, inadequate background knowledge in grammar and vocabulary were the major findings. The suggested strategies to improve teaching English Oral Communication were encouraging the students to use English language in and outside the class room, avoiding interference of mother tongue languages, teaching key vocabulary and grammar, motivating the students to participate in oral communication, minimizing teacher and peers’ domination during oral discussion, giving immediate feedbacks, improving speaking ability, maximizing interest towards English were the major findings. Teachers’ poor practice to avoid shyness, the frequent use of mother tongue languages, less attempts made to arouse students’ interest and confidence towards English language, inadequate oral practice, lack of giving feedbacks, less attention to increase knowledge in grammar and vocabulary words are the conclusions that can be drown from the findings. English teachers are recommended for further improvement of teaching English Oral Communication. Eventually grade ten students of Bora Secondary School were recommended to attend the class of English Language willingly