Abstract
English Language Teaching (ELT) has undergone immense changes over the years in terms of using different methods, but none of the methods till this date have proved what they had proclaimed. The paper believes in the hypothesis that learning is understanding the linguistic components of a language, whereas mastering is the part of using them in a well structured way with perfection and ease. Viewing this dichotomy between learning and mastering, the paper examines a problematic discourse: English in Eastern Ethiopia is often learnt; but not mastered. The broad concern of the paper is to draw the attention of the local and global ELT practitioners towards the dismal state of English in Eastern Ethiopia. In this pursuit, the paper set three prime objectives: (i) exploring global and local uses of ELT methods, (ii) exploring major linguistic and non-linguistic impediments in mastering English, and (iii) proposing an empirical approach to overcome the impediments from remedial perspective. Participant observation, unstructured Interview, and document analysis were employed to gather the data, whereas analytic induction was used to analyze the data. Under findings, seventeen linguistic and non-linguistic impediments were found as serious deterrents in mastering English. From remedial perspective, the paper proposes an empirical Integrated Iconic Approach to overcome the linguistic impediments followed by seventeen apposite recommendations to pave the path of quality English education in Eastern Ethiopia.
Highlights
Item learning refers to learning a language at word level; system learning refers to learning at sentence level; natural learning refers to the state in which learner starts learning a language either inductively or deductively using generalization, under-generalization, and over-generalization (Krashen, 1987)
The Ethiopian teachers do not keep abreast of ongoing English Language Teaching (ELT) activities of worldwide significance
English is being taught and learnt as a subject rather than as a language because English is exposed to the learners only within the four walls of classroom as a part of sloppy curriculum
Summary
3) How to devise an empirical approach to overcome linguistic impediments faced by the learners?. 3) To propose an empirical approach to overcome linguistic impediments. As for the significance of this study, the paper has pioneered a new area of discussion by addressing the learners’ suppressed and accumulated outburst of not mastering English timely. A host of local researchers like Bogale (2009), Jeylon (2010), Eshetie (2010), and many others have discussed ELT issues from assessment, syllabus design, language planning, and gender perspectives, there is almost no local research concerned with exploring and rectifying the impediments in mastering English. Most of the local researchers often perceive and investigate ELT issues in terms of what rather than why, whereas the present work discusses the issues from causal as well as remedial perspectives
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