THE PRACTICES OF COMMUNICATIVE GRAMMAR TEACHING IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS OF ARSI ZONE, DIGALUNA TIJO WOREDA: GRADE 10 ENGLISH TEACHERS IN FOCUS

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to assess the practices of communicative grammar teaching in grade 10 English classroom in secondary schools of Digaluna Tijo woreda. To this end, a descriptive survey research design was employed to achieve the research objective. 9 EFL teachers and 168 students were selected using convenience and simple random sampling techniques respectively. The data were collected through three instruments: questionnaire, interview and classroom observations. The data gathered through questionnaire and interviews were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively and triangulated with the classroom observation data. The results of the study indicated that the teachers are not teaching grammar communicatively. Teachers still teach grammar following structural approach which has been criticized as traditional, teacher centered and focus on accuracy or grammatical correctness. Furthermore, the study identified the major barriers of communicative grammar teaching like poor speaking background, large class size, unsuitability of seats, vocabulary knowledge, mother tongue use, lack of practicing speaking and teaching methodology. Finally, on the basis of the key findings, it was recommended that teachers should use different techniques of grammar teaching to help the learners learn according to their learning preference. They should also integrate the grammar items with the language skills. Besides, the regional, zonal and woreda education offices need to deal with the problem of large class size