THE PRACTICE AND CHELLENGES OF COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TESTING IN EFL CLASSROOM: THE CASE IN THREE SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN LUME WOREDA

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the practice and challenges of communicative language testing in some selected secondary schools. In order to conduct this study, descriptive survey research design was employed. The subjects of this study were English language teachers and two semesters of English language teachers made tests of 2008 E.C. were collected from the selected secondary school. As tool of data gathering, questionnaire and document analysis were employed. The data obtained through document observation were analyzed qualitatively, whereas, the data gathered though questionnaire were analyzed using percentage and frequency. The findings of the study revealed that majority of the tests have problems in measuring students’ communicative competence. While the central idea of communicative language testing is assessing students’ communicative ability, the actual testing practice of English language teachers focused on testing learners’ grammatical competence. Factors such as absence of communicative language testing guide line, lack of in service training and lack skill to design assessment tasks using authentic materials were identified as the major hindrance to practice communicative tests in English class. To overcome this, it was suggested that providing adequate communicative tests guide line, further in service training program and minimizing excessive workload should be given due attention.