ASSESSING THE TEACHING OF SPEAKING SKILL AT GELEGU PREPARATORY SCHOOL: GRADE 11 STUDENTS IN FOCUS

Abstract

This study was conducted to assess the teaching of speaking skill at Gelegu Preparatory School, particularly grade 11 students. The quantitative and qualitative methods were used to analyze the data. The participants of the study were sixty students and their English Language teacher. Simple random sampling technique was employed to select the participants. Questionnaires with close ended items for students, semi-structured interview questions, and Classroom observation check-lists were employed as data collection instruments. The data collected through questionnaires were described using frequency and percentages while data those are collected through interview and classroom observation were narrated qualitatively and data from all sources were triangulated to increase reliability of the findings. The reason behind using this is the limitation of one instrument can be strengthened by using another instrument. The results suggested that only few students have a positive attitude towards learning speaking skill. Therefore, it is suggested that teachers should make changes to the speaking lessons so that they can attract the students to speak. Regarding to the text book’s speaking activities; it consists of enough speaking lessons. It was found that the common classroom teaching procedure to teach speaking skill was chiefly teacher centered as it was in the traditional method of teaching. The study also revealed English language teachers do not have a positive attitude to the teaching of speaking skill in communicative way. They teach the speaking lesson in the way that they teach grammar through teacher centered approach. Besides this, possible advice is given to the teacher to use the appropriate methods of teaching speaking through having a positive attitude to the teaching of speaking skill. On the students’ side, they are advised to understand the importance of speaking skills.