Assessing Students’ Oral Interaction In English Classes: The Case Of Grade Nine Students At Gassera Secondary School

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to identify the major problems impeding students' classroom oral interaction in English class as a foreign language at Gassera Secondary School. Thus, it was aimed to answer teachers' and students' perception to words oral interaction, the frequencies students' participation in oral interaction, factors hindered students oral interaction and attempts teachers made to minimize students speaking problems. During the actual research three data collecting tools: observation, questionnaires, and interview were implemented Accordingly, an attempt was made to see the English teachers and students' awareness about the role of oral interaction in the language and the implementation of oral interaction activities in the classrooms. Besides, data were gathered through questionnaires and interview from five English teachers and two hundred twenty sample students The collected data were analyzed and discussed in quantitatively and qualitatively under main specific, and sub-specific categories. Thus, the findings of the study showed that although both teachers and students had good awareness about the role of oral interactions in the language the actual practices of oral interaction activities were ineffective. This happened because of three main dimensional constraints: text book related, students related and teacher related problems. Textbook related problems include unclear instruction, vague and beyond the actual knowledge level contents, and the big volume and large size of the textbooks Students related problems were mainly having poor background of linguistic proficiency, fear as a barriers of oral interactions, and lack of motivation Teachers related problems also include giving less emphasis to the oral interaction activities, lack of motivation, unable to control the students activities, and often translating the lesson into the students mother tongue. To manage these problems teachers and students made good attempts for nothing. Consequently, to alleviate the problems a set of recommendations are suggested to the English teachers, students, and textbook developers.