Listening Skills Teaching Practice at Secondary Level: Gondar Secondary Schools in Focus

Birhan Assefie

doi:10.24113/ijellh.v8i10.10808

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess the exercise of teaching listening skill at general secondary schools found in Gondar city. Thus, adopting descriptive survey design, a total of 115(male=90 & female=25) English language teacher who taught grade 9 students participated in the study. The study used both quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative data were collected through structured questionnaire whereas the semi-structured interview was used to collect the qualitative data. Data analysis was undertaken using quantitative and qualitative techniques. Quantitatively, frequency and percentage were used whereas thematic analysis was used for analyzing the qualitative data. Findings show that the majority of English language teachers use the bottom-up approach during the teaching of the listening skill. Findings also show that English language teachers failed to properly and fully implement the pre, while and post listening activities. Findings also show that teachers’ emphasis on grammar, teachers’ preference to explanation and demonstration than to create students listening opportunities, teachers’ preference to teacher-centered approach, teachers’ reluctance to provide students opportunities to exercise listening were some of the challenges facing the class room exercise of teaching the listening skill. Finally, it is recommended that English language teachers should clearly understand and properly exercise the pre, while and post-listening activities in the process of teaching the listening skills. Moreover, practical in-service trainings on how to teach listening skill should be given to teachers

Highlights

In Ethiopia, EFL teaching-learning process, listening has been consistently cited as an important skill because it is taught as one of EL skills and used as a medium of instruction in various grade levels where students attend lessons of various academic subjects (Taye, 2008)
School Selection As explained earlier, this study examined the exercise of teaching listening skill at general secondary schools found in Gondar city
With the objective of assessing the exercise of teaching the listening skill, this study was conducted among English language teachers who teach at general secondary schools found in Gondar city

Summary

Introduction

In Ethiopia, EFL teaching-learning process, listening has been consistently cited as an important skill because it is taught as one of EL skills and used as a medium of instruction in various grade levels where students attend lessons of various academic subjects (Taye, 2008). Though data may be old; various local studies consistently reported that the listening skill of students in various grade levels was found to be below the expected (Tewolde, 1988; Semie, 1989; Birhanu, 1993). When having a closer examination of the findings of each study, Tewolde (1988) studied the listening ability of grade 7 students and revealed that students had below the expected listening level required of them in understanding their subject areas. 8, ISSUE 10, OCTOBER 2020 with visual support She reported that the materials used to teach listening skills were inadequate in the sense that they did not express the real life of the learners. Muluken(2008) revealed that teachers failed to manage the listening lessons using the appropriate pedagogical procedures i.e. they did not employ the pre, while and post listening stages or activities

Objectives

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion