Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to find out English teachers’ and students perceptions and the
practice of using student-centered approach in teaching speaking lesson at Mieso secondary
school. Participant of the study were 91 students, 3 English language teachers and 2 principals.
Participant students were selected based on simple random sampling whereas the rest
respondents were taken based on availability sampling techniques. The data were collected using
questionnaire, interview and observations. Both the qualitative and quantitative data analysis
methods were employed. The finding revealed that the collections of instructional strategies used
during speaking lesson when implementing the methodologies. Student center approach
encourages working collaboratively, gives chance to students to interact, discuss, debate and ask
questions. Always when necessary the approach used by teacher and English teacher knows why
to use SCA, what goals to achieve with SCA, and the right time to move towards the approach.
Moreover, English teacher attending students’ readiness and interest to teach based on this
methodology. On other hand, there were many challenges that encountered the practices of the
program. The major problems identified by the finding were lack of budget to fill teaching
materials, shortage of time to cover textbook contents, language related problem, school
environment especially class room situation, lack of skill related to language and lack of
teaching materials were among the problems affecting practices of SCA. Therefore, based on the
results of finding the researcher recommended the following comment. Teachers should provide
learning strategy training, selecting motivating course books, and using motivating teaching
methodologies. Policy designer should match textbook contents with time to utilize the program
effectively. Moreover, teachers must keep individual differences in mind when forming groups.
Finally, to alleviate related problems more research should conduct by concerned body or other
researcher.
