Exploring the Implementation of Teaching and Learning English Speaking Skills in Ethiopian EFL Classes: The Case of selected Five Woredas Secondary Schools in Kafa Zone

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-1431735/v1

Communication capacity (Speaking skill) in English in language education is a difficult task that needs effective guidance and sustainable practice. Therefore, this study aimed at exploring the Implementation of Teaching and Learning English Speaking Skills in Ethiopian EFL Classes. The design of the study was descriptive survey. The participants were 523 students included using simple random sampling technique and 30 EFL teachers using availability sampling technique. To collect data, questionnaire for students and Focus Group Discussions for teachers were used. Mixed method data analysis was used. The result showed that EFL teachers were not using different techniques of teaching English speaking skill, and they were not making sustainable follow up on how learners perform. They also apply teacher centered method than learner’s method. Learners faced challenges from mother tongue influence, lack of confidence, and fear of making a mistake. EFL teachers were also challenged by student related problem like disinterested to be involved in the actual teaching and learning actively, uncomfortably of the school compound, absence of well- equipped English mini-media and bulkiness of the textbook. Thus, EFL teachers should use various techniques, school administration should avail the resource and students should be participatory in their learning.

EFL

English speaking skill

Language Education

Teaching and Learning

According to Dereje Asfaw Bulbula et al (2021) Language learning is an active process by which human beings develop their language skills in order to use them effectively in their social life as well as their professional life. Whereas Wang, Shang, & Briody (2011) noted that the teaching and learning of any language skill needs the use of effective techniques and strategies this is because of the role language plays in communicating one own thoughts, opinions, information, experiences. Speaking is one of the four language skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking). It is the means through which learners can communicate with others to achieve certain goals or to express their opinions, intentions, hopes and viewpoints. In addition, people who know a language are referred to as ‘speakers’ of that language. Furthermore, in almost any setting, speaking is the most frequently used language skill. Rivers (1981) emphasized the role of speaking and argued as “speaking is used twice as much as reading and writing in our communication.” Developing speaking skills is of vital importance in EFL programs. Nunan (1999) argue that success in learning a language is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the (target) language. As the demand for speaking skills increases day to day, the learners try to concentrate on these skills as communication is the main aspect of the present global market. (Nunan (1999) Furthermore, if the right speaking activities are taught in the classroom, speaking can raise general learners' motivation and make the English language classroom a fun and dynamic place to be (Nunan, 1999).

Nowadays English in Ethiopia become one of the basic criteria for the employability and thought as the measurement of organizational and personal competence indicator (Temam, 2013). Even it is very rare to find a vacancy in Ethiopia that couldn’t require English language knowledge and competence, and it became an important asset for anyone seeking employment in business, industry or technology in Ethiopia. Accordingly, the main aim of teaching English in secondary schools is to enable students to communicate in English so that they become able to cope with the challenges of higher education and to enroll in different government and private sectors as well. Beside to this, English is used at both public and private schools in Ethiopia. In Ethiopia, once the learners leave their educational institutions after they complete their studies, they cannot learn speaking skills in their daily life. This indicates that the teaching and learning of English language is classroom dependent. Learning a language and getting mastery over speaking skills require regular practice and classroom is the main platform to acquire all the skills that they need. Hence it is the responsibility of the teachers to teach all the required skills, especially speaking skills, for the learners to develop their communicative competence and make them self-confident (Chen & Hashim, 2022). Despite this, there are a few things that require improvement by employing a variety of techniques and activities in teaching and learning. For instance, although the teachers have many opportunities to teach the language, it seems that they do not motivate their learners in oral communication skills. Teachers seem that they do not enable their students to practice their speaking skills in and out of the classrooms. The researchers assume that teachers still have problems related to limited implementation practicing of speaking skills and have also limitations in using various techniques/ strategies of teaching speaking skills.

Statement of the Problem

English Language speaking skill of secondary school students in EFL context are not as competent as that of ESL or native speaker and this happened due to lack of effective guidance and exposure for the learners. Ethiopian secondary school students most of the time showed weak oral communication competency in the classes and outside the classes, and based on the experience and belief of the researchers, secondary level EFL teachers have a great knowledge gap with current theories to language teaching and learning which result them not to use accelerated methods of teaching to teach various language skills in general and speaking skills in particular; therefore, a call for careful investigation is needed in this area as English served as medium of instruction in almost all level of education. In relation to the English speaking skill in Ethiopia some studies are tried to address speaking skill, but none of them amalgamated teaching and learning at secondary school level. Investigations on improving students’ speaking skills have been issues for long years. As reported by Tamiru (2013), most teachers in Ethiopian high schools are not proficient enough in English, which as a result, is the cause for the great majority of student’s lack of the basic language skills. Gudu (2015) also conducted a study to find out the classroom activities used by teachers to promote learners’ active participation in speaking lessons in eight secondary schools in Eldoret Municipality, Kenya. The study found out that there was variation in use of classroom activities. For example, discussion was the most used classroom activity while oral drill was the least used, during classroom discussions, students' code switched to Kiswahili or Sheng due to low oral skills and teachers did not integrate various classroom activities in one lesson. Huang and Hu (2015) conducted related research on 'Teachers’ and Students’ Perceptions of Classroom Activities Commonly Used in English Speaking Classes. The study found that teachers do not take students' perceptions and practices into consideration while designing classroom activities. Besides, some related researches have been carried out in different local contexts. For example, Abdisa (2011) conducted a research on classroom practice of teaching speaking skills at Ayertena secondary school. His findings depicted that inappropriate speaking techniques and procedures were used. Teachers were observed using the traditional way of teaching speaking which is dominated by reading model dialogues aloud. There has been little or no time given for the modern speaking skills teaching techniques such as group and pair discussions, oral report, drama, panel discussions, interviews etc. Dereje Asfaw Bulbula et al., (2021) also conducted study on EFL Teachers’ Practices and Implementations of Speaking Activities in Ethiopian English Textbooks. This study focuses only on textbook implementation, and it hasn’t seen the teaching method used by teachers and challenges teachers and learners face while teaching and learning speaking skill in English.

Furthermore, Sisay (2013) and Amanuel (2015) tried to find out the challenges English teachers face while teaching speaking skills and see what strategies teachers employ to promote speaking skills in the context of large classroom. According to his findings, the challenges that hinder teachers in implementing speaking activities were that classrooms were not convenient for pair and group works. The chairs and desks were not moveable. Additionally, teachers lack of commitment and failure of teachers and students to use different strategies to make the speaking classroom convenient and effective were some of them. Therefore, this study is different from the above global and local studies in as the aforementioned researchers mostly focused on the practices, the classroom arrangements, the techniques and challenges used by the teachers. However, this research mainly focuses on the techniques that teachers use in and out of the classrooms. In relation to this, the researchers intended to identify how far teachers facilitate to enhance the learners’ exposure of speaking ability outside the English classes. Thus, This study attempted to answer the following leading research questions:

What are the techniques that EFL teachers use while teaching speaking skills?
To what extent EFL do teachers enhance learners’ exposure while teaching speaking skills?
What are the challenges that students face in learning speaking skills?
What are the challenges teachers faces while teaching speaking skills?

Research design

Research design is the basic part of any research work where the researcher plans the methods and techniques of collecting and analyzing data. Accordingly, Kothari (2006) suggests that research design helps the researcher to advance planning of the methods to be adopted for collecting the relevant data and techniques to be used during data analysis. Both quantitative and qualitative research approach has been employed in this study so that the research is conducted by triangulation method. For this purpose, therefore, a descriptive research design was chosen as it is used to specify or describe a phenomenon without conducting an experiment (Selinger and Shohamy 1989). Such design integrates both approaches which complements each other to provide much more detailed and comprehensive pictures of what is going to be explored.

Settings

This study was conducted at five woredas’ of Kafa Zone which is found in south west region. The researchers selected five Secondary Schools from the five woredas and collected a data from grade 10 students and EFL teachers. This means grade 10 students and English language teachers from Tello, Decha, Bita, Shishionde and Chena were selected randomly and took part in providing a data for this study.

Participants

A total of 523 grade 10 students were selected using simple random sampling technique and participated in filling questionnaire, and 30 EFL teachers which were selected using availability sampling techniques were also participated in the current study, and they took part in focus group discussion (FGD). 6 English teachers from each school were involved in FGD. Grade 10 students were selected to take part in this study due to the reason that they have a perceived learning autonomy in self-expressing and evaluating their learning and their teacher teaching style than that of lower grade. Therefore, an average of 104 students from one woreda high school and a total of 523 students from five different schools were randomly selected and exposed to fill in a questionnaire. The participant’s age ranged from 17 to 19. This is because of the fact that they are perceived as representative to the whole group of population and it validated the generalizability to the total population.

Data Gathering Instruments

The researchers have adapted and developed two data gathering instruments and used it for gathering relevant data. Therefore a questionnaire that constituted three major parts and Focus group discussions (FGD) were used. The first Part of the questionnaire which has 12 items was adapted from Dereje Asfaw Bulbula et al., (2021), whereas the second and the third part of the questionnaire were adapted from Atkins (1995).

Data Collection Procedures

In order to keep the ethical consideration and to get ethical consent, before all the researchers took a letter from Bonga University research directorate and went to each schools and meet school principals for their willingness and cooperation. Then after assuring and getting the school principals the researchers meet the class representative of each section and randomly selected the participants from each section. After creating awareness about the purpose of the study both in English language and Amharic the researchers distributed questionnaire for 523 students, and latter collected a questionnaire from only 501. Which means 22 students didn’t give back the questionnaire and it was a missed data. Similarly, the number of assigned English language in each woredas and schools were identified, meet for their willingness and FGD were also conducted at each schools.

Method of Data Analysis

The data collected from student’s questionnaire were first tailed and tabulated using SPSS version 23, and latter presented using percentage, mean value and standard deviation, and finally interpreted using mean value of each items. The mean value was used on the basis of the responses of respondents to each item. Responses from the FGD were transcribed and discussed qualitatively on the basis of common themes. Therefore the data were analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative method.

Reliability and Validity of instruments

To measure the reliability of a questionnaire it was entered to SPSS and calculated by Cronbach’s alpha and confirmed for its reputability. Whereas to assure the validity of the questionnaire and FGD questions it was given to language teachers and experts for comments and corrections are made after a comments given. Pilot study of the instrument is also made before the actual use for data collections.

With this section the results of the research and comprehensive discussions can be presented in the form of tables and qualitatively to make it easily understandable by the reader. Therefore, the finding of this study is presented in table forms and interpreted in various forms following each table. Moreover a discussion is also presented near the end of this section. This part presents the major finding of this study and compered it with national and international studies. The basic research questions were addressed, and the objectives were also met in this section.

1. What are the techniques that EFL teachers use in teaching English speaking skills?

Table 1: the following table illustrates techniques that EFL teachers uses while teaching speaking skills

	Descriptive Statistics
No	ITEMS	Response										N	Mean	Std. Deviation
	Techniques EFL Teachers uses while teaching speaking skills:	Always (5)		Usually (4)		Sometimes (3)		Rarely (2)		Never (1)
		F	%	F	%	F	%	F	%	F	%
1	Discussions	94	18.0	220	42.1	87	16.6	50	9.6	50	9.6	501	3.5150	1.19427
2	Role play activities	20	3.8	54	10.3	33	6.3	355	67.9	39	7.5	501	2.3234	.91172
3	Simulations	36	6.9	112	21.4	14	2.7	250	47.8	89	17	501	2.5130	1.21915
4	Information gap such as sharing ideas with each other	36	6.9	113	21.6	13	2.5	250	47.8	89	17	501	2.5150	1.22077
5	Brainstorming	50	9.6	-	-	25	4.8	383	73.2	43	8.2	501	2.2635	.98308
6	Storytelling	-	-	-	-	24	4.6	153	29.3	324	62	501	1.4012	.58027
7	Interview	84	16.1	25	4.4	312	59.7	82	15.7	-	-	501	3.2176	.91355
8	Story completion/ sequencing	-	-	-	-	141	27.0	154	29.4	206	39.4	501	1.8703	.82288
9	Debates	78	14.9	337	64.4	54	10.3	15	2.9	17	3.3	501	3.8862	.82282
10	Picture describing	12	2.3	16	3.1	51	9.8	391	74.8	31	5.9	501	2.1756	.69071
11	Find the differences	40	7.6	32	6.1	26	5.0	118	22.6	285	54.5	501	1.8503	1.25521
12	Language games	33	6.3	9	1.7	23	4.4	100	19.1	336	64.2	501	1.6088	1.10934
	Valid N (list-wise	501	95.8 (Total Percent of collected Data)
	Missed	22	4.2 (Total Percent of Missed Data)

Scales <1.49= almost never (very slightly), 1.5-2.49= rarely (slightly), 2.5 – 3.49=Sometimes (moderately) 3.5 – 4.49=usually (highly) >4.5=always (extremely)

As it is shown in the table 1 above, as to the respondents response, the mean score of item number 9 is 3.88 and also the mean score of item number 1 is 3.51, and these result is in between (3.5 - 4.49) and the result is inclined to usually. Thus, an EFL teacher usually uses Debate and Discussions in the class to teach speaking skills. In response to items number 3 and 4 the mean score is 2.51. Additionally the mean score to item number 7 is 3.21. These mean value is approached in between (2.5 -3.49); therefore, the result is inclined to ‘sometimes’. As a result EFL teachers sometimes use Simulations and Information gap such as sharing ideas with each other and interview respectively while teaching speaking skills. Moreover the mean score of student’s response to items number 2, 5, 8, 10, 11 and 12 is 2.3, 2.2, 1.8, 2.17, 1.8 and 1.6 respectively. The mean score of all items are found between (1.5-2.49) and the result is inclined to ‘rarely’. Thus EFL teachers rarely use Role play activities, Brainstorming, Story completion/ sequencing, Picture describing, Find the differences and Language games respectively to teach speaking skills. Whereas in response to item number 6 the mean value is 1.4 which is less than 1.49, and this result is inclined to ‘never’; as a result, EFL teachers never applies Storytelling as a technique while teaching speaking skills.

2. How often EFL Teachers Enhance Learners’ Exposure While Teaching Speaking Skills?

Table 2: The following table illustrates to what extent teachers enhance learners’ exposure in implementing speaking skills

	Descriptive Statistics
No	ITEMS	Responses											N	Mean	Std. Deviation
	How often EFL Teachers enhance learners exposure while teaching speaking skill:	Always (5)		Usually (4)			Sometimes (3)		Rarely (2)		Never (1)
		F	%	F		%	F	%	F	%	F	%
1	Encourages students to participate in mini media English program.	106	20.3	219		41.9	41	7.8	91	17.4	44	8.4	501	3.5030	1.25160
2	Creates room for debate during speaking class	20	3.8	200		38.2	176	33.7	60	11.5	45	8.6	501	3.1796	1.00383
3	Prepares question and answering competition both inside and outside the classroom	37	7.1	17	3.3		18	3.4	94	18.0	335	64.1	501	1.6567	1.17894
4	Encourages students to engage in English club and creates English club for students.	37	7.1	17	3.3		18	3.4	94	18.0	335	64.1	501	1.6567	1.17894
5	Establishes and helps students to participate in English day	1	0.2	34	6.5		15	2.9	418	79.9	33	6.3	501	2.1058	.61220
	Valid N (list wise)	501		95.8 (Total Percent of collected Data)
	Missed	22		4.2 (Total Percent of Missed Data)

Scales <1.49= almost never (very slightly), 1.5-2.49= rarely (slightly), 2.5 – 3.49=Sometimes (moderately) 3.5 – 4.49=usually (highly) >4.5=always (extremely)

Table 2 above indicates how EFL teachers enhance learners’ exposure to practice and develop their speaking skills. Accordingly, in response to item number 1 the mean value is 3.5 and its result is found in between (3.5-4.49. This mean score tends to ‘usually’; therefore, EFL teachers usually Encourages their students to participate in mini-media English program. Moreover, the mean score of item number 2 is 3.17 which is bounded between (2.5-3.49) and its result is inclined to ‘sometimes’. Thus, the result indicated that EFL teachers sometimes create room for debate during speaking class. Additionally, the mean score according to student’s response to item 3, 4, and 5 is 1.6, 1.6 and 2.1 respectively and this result is found in between (1.5-2.49) and its result is inclined to ‘rarely’. Therefore, EFL teachers rarely Prepares question and answering competition both inside and outside the class room, Encourages students to engage in English club and rarely creates English club for students and Establishes and helps students to participate in English day while teaching speaking skill.

3. What are the challenges that learners encounter while learning speaking skills?

Table 3: the following table illustrates the challenges that students face in learning speaking skills?

	Descriptive Statistics
No	ITEMS	Response										N	Mean	Std. Deviation
	Challenges students face while learning speaking skills	Strongly Agree (5)		Agree (4)		Undecided (3)		Disagree (2)		Strongly Disagree (1)
	Challenges students face while learning speaking skills	F	%	F	%	F	%	F	%	F	%
1	The teacher does not put pressure on students (me) to speak English in the classroom	109	20.8	256	48.9	45	8.6	50	9.8	41	7.8	501	3.6826	1.15977
2	I usually suffered from mother-tongue interference when I express my ideas.	251	48.0	120	22.9	31	5.9	30	5.7	69	13.2	501	3.9062	1.42730
3	Because I am are poor at English I would not speak in class even if there is something I do not understand.	73	14.0	250	47.8	64	12.2	78	14.9	36	6.9	501	3.4910	1.13420
4	At home when I was young, I was always told to listen and not to speak when elders were talking, so now I do not feel free to speak	18	3.4	65	12.4	103	19.7	119	22.8	196	37.5	501	2.1816	1.18699
5	I am afraid to speak because I am shy. This has always been with me.	72	13.8	256	48.9	120	22.9	53	10.1	-	-	501	3.6926	.84459
6	My Teacher does not give me a chance to speak in the class.	23	4.4	31	5.9	43	8.2	266	50.9	138	26.4	501	2.0719	1.00937
7	Activities in the textbook are unfamiliar to me during the speaking session.	59	11.3	110	21.0	215	41.1	86	16.4	31	5.9	501	3.1597	1.04233
8	I do not speak in class because I fear making a mistake in my speech.	331	63.3	81	15.5	53	10.1	26	5.0	10	1.9	501	4.3912	1.00132
	Valid N (listwise)	501	95.8 (Total Percent of collected Data)
	Missed	22	4.2 (Total Percent of Missed Data)

Scales <1.49= strongly dis agree, 1.5-2.49= disagree), 2.5 – 3.49=undecided 3.5 – 4.49=agree) >4.5=strongly agree

Table 3 above shows the Challengesstudents face while learning speaking skills. Thus,according to learners’ response to item number 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8 the mean score is 3.6, 3.9, 3.4, 3.6 and 4.3 respectively. The mean score of the items are founded between 3.5-4.49, and all the mean score of the aforementioned items are inclined to ‘agree’. This shows that EFL teacher does not put pressure on students to speak English in the classroom, students usually suffered from mother-tongue interference when they try to express their ideas in English, learners are poor at English and this results in them not speaking in English in the class even if they do not understand something, students fear to speak in English because they are shy, and they do not speak in class because of fear of making a mistake in their speech respectively. Moreover as to the students’ response to items number 4 and 6 the mean score are 2.1 and 2.0 respectively, and the result of both items is therefore in between 1.5-2.49 and these results are inclined to ‘disagree’; as a result, learners are not discouraged to speak at home when they were young because they were not always told to listen and not to speak when elders were talking, and they were not denied a chance to speak in English in the class as they disagree to the items. Whereas the mean score of item number 7 according to learners response is 3.1, and this result falls between 2.5-3.49 of which the result is inclined to ‘undecided’. This indicated that learners were not sure whether the Activities in the textbook are unfamiliar to them during their speaking session.

4. What are the challenges English Language teachers faces while teaching English speaking skills?

This section tries to present the challenges English language teachers faces while they are teaching English speaking skill in the EFL context. In order to achieve this objective and as well as to partially substantiate data from students’ questionnaires, teachers’ FGD was held in five schools found in five woredas. This means one FGD group from one school found in one woreda was held. Under the major objective of “what are the challenges English Language teachers faces while teaching English speaking skills?” three leading FGD questions were formulated by the researchers in order to clearly address the problem, substantiate some data from students questionnaire and achieve the intended objective. The three leading questions were:

What are the techniques that EFL teachers use in teaching speaking skills?
What are the difficulties teachers’ faces in teaching speaking skills? And
how teachers enhance learners’ exposure while teaching speaking skills

Table 4: The following table illustrates the number and name of woreda’s participated in FGD and their coding system

No.	Woreda’s and school Name	School Name	Number of English Language teachers participate on FGD	Teachers Name Coding
1	Shishionde	Shishionde Secondary and Preparatory School	6	T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6
2	Bita	Bita Secondary and Preparatory School	5	T1, T2, T3, T4, T5,
3	Chena	Chena Secondary and Preparatory School	6	T1, T2, T3, T4, T5,T6
4	Tello	Tello Secondary and Preparatory School	7	T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6,T7
5	Decha	Decha Secondary and Preparatory School	6	T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6

What are the challenges you face in teaching English speaking skill?

English language teachers in different FGD addresses various challenges that they encountered during teaching speaking skills. The challenges they have addressed more frequently were summarized and categorized into three perspectives. Those challenges are student’s perspective, teacher’s perspective, text perspective and environment perspective.

Students’ perspective

As to the data from FGD one the most challenges that teachers addressed were students’ related problem. They said that students in English classroom specially in speaking session have low confidence to speak in English; they [students] assumed that other students might laugh at them if he/ she makes a mistake in the class when they tries to speak in English. Lexical knowledge especially shortage of vocabulary in target language is another challenges that the students face to make dialogue with each other or with their teachers. Moreover, Fear and shyness is another challenge they face to speak in front of the students. The students use their first and second language when activities are given to discuss together rather than English language; so students preferences another challenges.

Teachers’ perspective

They discussed some problem relating to teachers as follows. From Talo’s FGD group T2 said ‘’Sometimes, we teachers forget majority of the students and go with a few students those are active in participation; we forge majority of the students during this time they become silent and prefer to listen rather than to take part on the given activity. In short we do not facilitate the students effectively.

Text’ perspective

Relating to students text book the teachers discussed about the bulkiness of the materials. The materials contains 12 units and the given time to accomplish the text is not used effectively because of local ceremony, day after and day before different holy days, pandemic disease like COVID-19.

Unfamiliarity of some given activity is another problem they raised. Some of the activities provided on the student textbook are not familiar with the students; thus, the do not actively participate on the activities.

School or Environmental perspective.

The seating arrangements and its nature is not flexible to make group discussion face to face dialogue easily to move from place to place to facilitate groups or pair.

They also discussed on environmental influences on teaching speaking skills. They said the students spend more time with the society where kafinoono and Amharic dominate. They use these two languages in the society and they don’t have chance to practice English language. And also there is no more exposures that make them to use the language.

1. What are the strategies that you use to overcome the challenges?

First, awareness should be made for the student based on the speaking skills. Then, they should be motivated to take part in speaking skills activities. They said teachers should creative and we should create participatory environment and give a chance equally and the students should participate in the given activities to improve their speaking skills. Student-centered activities should be employed. The students should participate in the given activities in order to improve the skills. They also said that if the classroom teachers are committed and use different strategies and techniques well in the speaking classrooms, they can surely improve our students’ speaking skill. As language teachers, we have to be responsible to teach our students’ speaking skills properly in the classroom and also we must flow their progress.

To solve the problems they faced in teaching speaking skill classes, the teachers pointed out some solution. FGD from Shishionde said students should be aware about speaking skills and they should be motivated to take part in oral communication skills activities. The student should get chance to practice randomly so that they can prepare themselves as presenter. Giving time as they practice on tutorial class with some students then gradually, they can overcome their fear and practice in front of the normal class.

FGD from Bita High School said that speaking skills activities like language games, dialogue, role play, story- telling, feeling gaps, riddles, simulation and the like which are real life based should be presented in speaking class continuously relating with real life situation which make students more participant.

FGD from Chena reflected that we teachers should work hard to improve our students’ oral communication skills, students should be facilitated, guided, coordinated, appreciated, and awarded for their practices and also assessment should be given equally as other skills in order to drive attention of the students to use speaking skill in English so that they are more interested to learn the skills.

2. Do the students get exposure in the school compound and out of the school compound? What are the exposures they get? And how often they use?

FGD members discussed that the students get some exposure in and out of the school compounds as follows. Even though it not satisfactory, the school organized English club and some of the students and English teachers meet each other once a month and try to practice for 40-50 minutes. Another group added that we do have English day in the school and they can practice also but the matter is they do not get out of the school compound to practice outside of the school, because, the societies of the area use kafinono and Amharic mostly. They added the students from the town can get different exposure watching TV during English program, movies, listening radio, DSTV but they do not give attention to use the exposures to improve their speaking skill.

Group from Decha said that there was English club and English day in the school but these are posted on the notice board and it is paper value; no more students practiced even the teachers and enforced the students to take part in activities like debating story telling presenting poem.

Another FGD members said there was English Day in the school but the students are not interested to join the clubs they preferred another clubs like sport club. A few student joined the club with full interest but the others were enforced thus why they are not active participants.

FGD members from Chena said that the club in the school held on the last period commonly when the students and the teachers are bored and their attention is to their home, thus why it is no more active. Additionally, they said as there is no English mini media in the selected school. Outside of school compound, the students from town get some exposure like TV English program Radio, DSTV, film and movies in English, but, more of our students come from rural area and they do not get any exposure.

In this section, the data that were collected from student’s questionnaire and FGD were discussed under four major objectives in response to the four basic research questions. In doing so the major findings of the study were briefly discussed and substantiated by other study and recent literature studies depending on the following four themes.

What are the techniques that EFL teachers use while teaching speaking skills?

To what extent EFL teachers enhance learners’ exposure while teaching speaking skills?

What are the challenges that students face in learning speaking skills?

What are the challenges teachers faces while teaching speaking skills?

The first research question was aimed to identify the techniques that EFL teachers use while teaching English speaking skills. The data from student’s questionnaire and teachers FGD indicated that EFL teachers usually use Debate and Discussions while teaching English speaking skills, and they sometimes also uses Simulation, interview and information gap. By contrast EFL teachers rarely use role play, brainstorming, story completion, picture describing, finding the difference and language game while teach English speaking skills. In a detail discussion on FGD almost all teachers confirm that they are rushing to cover the portion of the textbook and learners are not willing to be actively involved on different techniques and that is the driving forces for them not to use all techniques of teaching speaking skills equally. Regarding this a study by Dereje Asfaw Bulbula et al., (2021) using students questionnaire, classroom observation and teachers interview indicated that EFL teachers do not use a wide variety of techniques while teaching English speaking skills and they rarely use questions and answers, dialogue and drills. Even teachers in this study context are grammar oriented and give much emphasis to the other skill than speaking. Therefore the study by Dereje Asfaw Bulbula et al., (2021) more likely in line with the current study finding which is conducted in five high schools found in different five woredas of Kafa zone.

The second research question was designed to know the extent at which EFL teachers enhance learner’s exposure while teaching English speaking skills. The overall data from student’s questionnaire obtained from five woredas high schools showed that EFL teachers usually encourage and even advice learners to participate in the English mini media. Whereas EFL teachers sometimes organize a debate, and they also very rarely organize question and answer, English club and English day. Moreover a data from FGD confirmed that EFL teachers usually tries to advice learners to participate in English mini media in their period, but teachers do not follow learners how much they are effectively participated and sometimes they also let students make a debate but when they have a time to do that only. EFL teachers in the FGD confirmed that due to the shortage of time and also due to the fact that they hold a number of sections they rarely prepare question and answer eventually. This means they in collaboration with school principals organize question and answer once a year only, but this is not always happen. They also organize and English at the beginning of the year and decided English day celebration, but they reason out that there is no sustainable follow up regarding the functionality of the organized club and day. The reason they indicated is that the volume of the textbook and the number of the sections they are assigned to teach cannot allow them to carefully apply means of enhancing learners exposure to English speaking skill even though they know how much it is useful for learners. On this, in their literature review Al-Hassaani and Qaid (2021) points out that motivating, encouraging and exposing learners to various English commination and real life situation is a key for learners to developing their language skill. Thus, EFL teachers in the case of Ethiopia particularly to the context of this study have knowledge of the role of exposure and motivation, but they couldn’t use their maximum effort to increase learner’s exposure to the intended language as they use only some of the strategies of increasing learner’s exposure. Moreover Gathumbi and Masembe (2005) specified that learners centered teaching like the use of storytelling, debate and discussion can solve the problem of inefficiency in English language; however, the teachers of the current study use more of teachers centered classroom teaching style, and their practice are not concurrent to the issues recommended by Gathumbi and Masembe (2005), so their practice cannot enhance learners exposure.

The third research question was formulated to spot out challenges students face while learning speaking skills. All data gathering tools obtained from five schools in five woredas indicated that learners in EFL context faces various challenges while learning English speaking skill, and some of the problems they faced were: their teachers do not continuously put pressure on them to speak in English both in and out of the classroom. Whenever they [learners] tried to speak in English, they are highly challenged by the interference of their L1 (mother tongue) and being poor in English language forced them to keep silent in and out the classes even though they have something to say and ask. The other is fear of making a mistake in their speech and not to be judged by their peer, and shyness and anxiety was also a great challenge for learners of the current study. In relation to this a review by Haji and Jejo (2020) which focuses on pupils communication interaction briefly discussed that anxiety, shyness and first language interference is the one challenge that hinders learners speaking or communication. The data from high school teachers and students in the current research context also confirmed the points reviewed by Haji and Jajo (2020). This means not only pupils but also high school students face similar problem. Liu (2021) has also conducted a quasi-experimental research on the role of TED on decreasing anxiety during English speaking skill and he has found that the TED played a great role to minimize the anxiety during speech, so as anxiety is also a problem identified in the current study, the EFL teacher of the current study should use technology based education in order to increase learner’s confidence and avoid anxiety.

The fourth research question was carried out to know the challenges teachers faces while teaching English speaking skills. This objective was answered by FGD data gained from 30 EFL teachers involved in FGD from five high schools found in five woredas in Kafa zone. The detailed discussion identified five distinguished factors that highly challenge EFL teachers while teaching English speaking skills. The first one is learner’s oriented problem. EFL teachers reason out that learner in language classroom shy to speak in English as they fear of making a mistake. Low level of confidence and lack of lexical knowledge were also another students oriented problem challenged the teacher, and this problem led learners to shift the medium of instruction from English language to their mother tongue (L1) and unwillingness to participate in group work and doing another issues out of the topic given to them while they are ordered to perform group work in English. Regarding to this Alimorad & Yazdani (2020) recommended that in order to communicate successfully in English learners should possess a fair level of oral proficiency. The students in the context of this research should fit the ideas recommended by Alimorad & Yazdani (2020). The second identified factor was teacher’s oriented problem. This means due to large number of student in one class EFL teachers were not involving all students to participate in the class rather they rash with few participants’ only. Teachers were not preparing themselves well for the speaking session and inclined to grammar. They most of the time cover the class on doing exam papers and questions focusing on grammar as it frequently appears on students’ national examination. The third identified problem was school oriented factor. On this EFL teachers pin point that the sitting arrangement and the schools are comfortable to the teachers to teach speaking skills. For these they claimed that there are no good speakers in mini media and the mini-media is not equipped with sufficient materials, but it is composed of few outdated and nonfunctional tapes and cassettes. The classroom along with its chair is not comfortable for teachers to arrange the learners in interactive communicative environment as it is not movable. Moreover, the fourth identified challenges were text book oriented factors. On this EFL teachers affirmed that the textbook is too bulky and it is difficult to complete on the specified time. Some of the activities provided on the student textbook are not familiar with the students; thus, the do not actively participate on the activities. Finally, COVID-19 pandemic were also another challenges seriously affected teachers not to create interactive environment for student while teaching English speaking skill. In relation to the current study, a research finding conducted by Dereje Asfaw Bulbula et al., (2021) in Gimbo secondary and preparatory school which is geographically nearby the current research study area founded similar challenging factor and it is confirmed in this research as well.

Recommendations

Based on the major findings obtained from student’s questionnaires and teachers FGD, the following significant recommendations are made for various contributing stake-holders.

EFL teachers of Kafa zone, south west Ethiopia should employ different strategies of teaching English speaking skills based on the needs and its significance in enhancing learner’s communicative competence specifically English speaking skills. They should apply and follow communicative language teaching strategy so as to make the English speaking skill interactive successful.

Apart from providing advice for students, EFL teachers should identify learner’s needs and establish well organized English mini media and should also celebrate English day to increase learners’ exposure to the target language. In doing so, EFL teachers along with students should monitor, host and take part in mini media and English day, and must follow up its effectiveness for the department stream and committee.
Administrative body like school principals and education bureaus at woreda and zonal level should collaboratively work, and must establish e- learning platforms for teachers and learners in order to minimize student and teachers body contact during COVID-19 pandemic and maximize learner’s exposure to technology based learning. The aforementioned stakeholders should hire and assign adequate competent English language teachers at all secondary level high schools found in south west Ethiopia particularly in Kafa zone so as to minimize teachers work load and help them carefully deliver the subject effectively.
EFL teachers of Kafa Zone should adjust their teaching style as teaching strategies in teaching English-speaking skills should use a student-centered approach instead of a teacher-centered one, and they must employ different technology based teaching and learning to motivate learners and minimize student’s anxiety and increase their level of confidence to use English.
Students in EFL context at Kafa zone should be ready to involve themselves in any activities given to them and must meet the required language competence level. They should also speak freely without any fear of making a mistake and must have a knowledge that mistake is natural and common.
Curriculum organizer should look again the content of grade 10 student’s English textbook for its content and volume, and take into consideration to adjust the syllabus. Finally, for a future studies it would be good to see the role and impact of different strategies of teaching speaking skill on enhancing learner’s communicative competence.

The primary purpose of this research was exploring the Implementation of Teaching and Learning English Speaking Skills in Ethiopian EFL Classes. The data were collected from EFL teachers and students that were teaching and learning at different five secondary high schools found in different woredas of South West Ethiopia particularly in Kafa zone. Therefore in conclusion we can say that EFL teachers of Kafa zone regarding the techniques they use while they are teaching English speaking skills is not inclusive and they use only one or two strategies like debate and discussions. This indicates that the actual classroom practices of EFL teachers at the intended schools are not participatory as they use few techniques. EFL teachers were not seen in using various techniques and this result the class to become teachers centered than that of student centered and their practice put a great impact on enhancing learner’s communicative competence specially on speaking. Moreover, EFL teachers of Kafa Zone were not creating a good and participatory environment for their students always rather they wait for context to do so. This means apart from offering advice, EFL teachers in the intended schools were not following up their students and checked their students’ progress. Even though there is a perceived English mini media and English day, it is not functional and it is not well equipped and also not hosted by English teachers. Additionally, there are a number of challenges learners’ faces while learning English speaking skills. Students were not motivated and positively forced to speak in English inside and outside the classes by their teachers. They fear of making a mistake and shy to speak in English as speaking in English is sometimes recognized as a sense of boosting by their classmates. EFL teachers dominate the class with very few active or high achiever students and couldn’t even remember the presence of medium and slow learners in the class, so their teachers teaching style is not participatory and inclusive for all students and this affect their involvement in the class. Learners face a great challenge from mother tongue (L1) influence every time they want to speak in English. Finally, not only students but also EFL teachers were influenced by various problems that forced them not effectively enhance learners exposure to English speaking skills. Some of the common challenges are: in Ethiopia grade 10 students are expected to take national examination, and students most of the time need their teachers to do questions related to the exam than learning the intended lessons, and teachers most of the time spent their time on doing the exam paper, so this consume teachers time not to spent their time on teaching the intended language skills effectively. The length and the content of the book is not attractive and EFL teachers focus on trying to cover the overall chapter than giving careful emphasis on teaching English speaking skills effectively. Lack of interest from the students to participate in the class actively even if the teachers tries to participate them in the class, limited vocabulary knowledge they have and the absence of well-organized mini-media decrease learners exposure to the target language and those factors affected teachers practices. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic were also another severe problem that closed teachers and learners contact, and the small number of teachers assigned to teach English in the Kafa Zone its work load on teacher to cover a number of sections they are assigned to teach couldn’t permit them to focus on effective enhancement of learners communicative competence in English speaking.

Acknowledgement

The researchers would like to acknowledge Bonga University office of research and community service for funding this research. The researcher also extends their school principal, students and teachers of five woredas found in Kafa Zone for their support during the data gathering.

Availability of data and material

The data used in this study is available from corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Competing interests

The authors have no conflict of interest.

Funding Source

Bonga University office of research and community service funded the researchers to conduct this study.

Authors' contributions

All authors developed the questionnaire, read and confirmed the submission of this research. The first author designed the manuscript and developed the proposal. The second, third, fourth and seventh authors collected the data. The seventh author edited the language and content of the manuscript.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable for this study

Abdisa Guye. (2011). The Practice of Teaching Speaking Skills (unpublished MA thesis). Addis Ababa University: Addis Ababa.
Al-Hassaani, A. M. A., & Qaid, A. F. M. (2021). Challenges and Strategies in Teaching Speaking Skills to the Yemeni EFL Learners at Aden University: A Case Study. Arab World English Journal, 12 (1) 498 -514. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol12no1.32.
Alimorad, Z., & Yazdani, S. (2020). Self-Image Improvement and Iranian EFL Learners’ Oral Performance: Effects on Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency. Journal of Language and Education, 6(4), 11-29. https://doi.org/10.17323/ jle.2020.9772.
Amanuel Abebe. (2015). A study on the Problems that Affect Students’ English Speaking skill: Homecho Secondary School in focus, SNNPR. (Unpublished MA thesis). Addis Ababa University: Addis Ababa
Atkins, J., Hailom Banteyerga and Nuru Mohamed. (1995). Skills Development Methodology: Part one. Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa University Press.
______ (1996). Skills Development Methodology Part Two. Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa University Press
Baker, J., & Westrup, H. (2003). Essential Speaking Skills: A Handbook for English Language Teachers. London: Continuum.
Brewster, J. and Ellis, G. (2002), Tell it Again – The New Story Telling Handbook for Primary Teachers. Harlow: Pearson.
Brown, H. D. (1994). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Brown, H. D. (2000). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. (4th ed.). New York:Addison Wesley Longman
Cooter, L. (1991).In adventure with words.Retrieved, February 06, from: http: ites.org/Techniques/Jianting story telling. html.
Chapelle, C. A. (2007). Technology and second language acquisition. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 27, 98-114.
Chen, X.-W., & Hashim, H. (2022). The Effect of Vlogging on Year 5 ESL Students’ Speaking Performance. Creative Education, 13, 698-716. https://doi.org/10.4236/ce.2022.132044.
Dereje Asfaw Bulbula, Tesfa Alemu Bulti, & Eyasu Yaya Sada,. (2021). “EFL Teachers’ Practices and Implementations of Speaking Activities in Ethiopian English Textbooks", Education Research International, vol. 2021, Article ID 8696278, 11 pages, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/8696278
Doff, A. (1990). Teach English: A training course for teachers : trainer's handbook. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ersoz, A. (2000). ‘‘Six Games for the EFL/ESL Classroom''. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. VI, No. 6, June 2000. Taken from http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Ersoz-Games.html at 15^th January 2021.
Gökmen, M. F. (2019). Student teachers’ attitudes towards the compulsory English lessons at a Turkish university. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 15(3), 876-894. Doi:10.17263/jlls.631529.
Gathumbi, A. W., & Masembe, S. C. (2005). Principles and techniques in language teaching: A text for teacher educators, teachers, and pre-service teachers. Jomo Kenyatta Foundation.
Gudu, Bentor Oseno. (2015). “Teaching Speaking Skills in English Language Using Classroom Activities in Secondary School Level in Eldoret Municipality, Kenya.” Journal of Education and Practice 6(35): 55-63.
Hadfield, J. (1998). Elementary vocabulary games: A collection of vocabulary games and activities for elementary students of English. Harlow: Longman.
Jejo, S., & Haji, S. (2020). Teaching Strategies to Increase EFL Speaking Skills in a Communicative Learning Environment (Dissertation, Malmö universitet/Lärandeoch samhälle). Retrieved from http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-31617.
Harmer, J., (1991).The Practice of English Language Teaching. (New Ed).Longman: Longman Group UK Ltd
________ (2001). The Practice of English Language Teaching. Harlow: Longman.
Huang, X.,& Hu, X. (2015). Teachers’ and students’ perceptions of classroom activities commonly used in English speaking classes. Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education
Hidayat Y. (2019) The Effect Of Storytelling towards Students' Speaking Skill At X Grade Students Of Ma Nurul Haramain Boarding School Jollt Journal Of Languages And Language Teaching, Vol. 7 No.2, November 2019 132
Huyen and Thu Nga, (2003) Learning Vocabulary Through Games: The Effectiveness of Learning Vocabulary Through Games
Kramsch, C. (2006). From Communicative Competence to Symbolic Competence. The Modern Language Journal, 90(2), 249–252. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3876875
Landousse, G. D. (1987). Role- Play. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lewis, G., & Bedson, G. (1999). Games for children. New York: Oxford University Press.
Littlewood, W. (1981).Communicative Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Liu, M. (2021). Changes in and Effects of TED Talks on Postgraduate Students’ English Speaking Performance and Speaking Anxiety. Journal of Language and Education, 7(3), 104-118. https://doi.org/10.17323/jle.2021.11632
Mei, Yin Y. and Jang Y. (2000). Using Games in an EFL Class for Children. Daejin McIntyre and Noels (1996) Language Learning Strategies Among EFL/ESL Learners: International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Vol. 2 No. 5; March 2012
McNulty, A., & Lazarevic, B. (2012). Best practices in using video technology to promote second language acquisition. Teaching English with Technology, 12(3), 49-61.
Nancy C., Fred, G and Else H, Dual Language Instruction, (Colonia Polanco: Thomson Learning, 2000), 51
Nunan, D. (1999). Second Language Teaching and Learning. Boston: Heinle & Heinle Publishers.
Piccolo, L. (2010).Teaching speaking to English Foreign languages students. Retrieved January 21, from: http: www Suzie. Com/Content/ teaching- speaking-to-English-ForeignLanguage Students a 261761.
Rivers, W. (1981). Teaching Foreign Language Skills (2nd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Selinger, H. W., & E. Shohamy. (1989). Second language research methods. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Silberman, M. (1996) Active Learning: 101 Strategies to Teach Any Subject. Prentice-Hall.
Sisay Tilahun (2013). Assessing the Challenges of Teaching Speaking Skill in a Large Classroom in Ethiopian Context. Haramaya University. MA Thesis
Smith. E. (1996). The Educators Encyclopedia. Englwood: Prince Hall. Inc.
Squazzin, T. and Grann, M.V. (1998). Education Reform and Innovations in Namibia. Okahandja: Namibia.
Temam, H. (2013) Students’ Major Problems in Learning Speaking Skill at Jimma Teachers' College. Jimma University 83. Jimma: Jimma University. Retrieved from: https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/6915.
Tamiru Olana (2013). Students' and teachers' use of English as the medium of instruction in Nekemte town grade 9 History and Geography classes: Oral interaction in focus. Ph.D. Thesis, Addis Ababa University
Tschirner, E. (2001). Language acquisition in the classroom: The role of digital videos. University ELT Research Paper Fall, 2000. http://www.iteslk.org.
Wandi S. and Siti N. (2017). “Speaking Skill Eglish Day Bagi Guru dan Karyawan di SMA Islam Terpadu Fadhilah Pekanbaru”. 1(2): 50.
Wang, Y., Shang, H., & Briody, P. (2011). Investigating the impact of using games in teaching children English. International Journal of Learning & Development, 1(1), 127-141. http://dx.doi.org/10.5296/ijld.v1i1.1118

No competing interests reported.

APPEDIXA.docx

Exploring the Implementation of Teaching and Learning English Speaking Skills in Ethiopian EFL Classes: The Case of selected Five Woredas Secondary Schools in Kafa Zone

Status:

Version 1

Abstract

Introduction

Materials And Methods

Results

Discussions

Conclusions

Declarations

References

Additional Declarations

Supplementary Files

Status:

Version 1