Assessing The Practice And Challenges Of Teaching Reading Skills In Efl Classes: The Case Of Grade 9 At Lalo Secondary School

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to assess the practice and Challenges of teaching reading skills in EFL classes of Lalo Secondary School. It is also to find out procedures and techniques of teaching reading employed by English teachers and identify challenges teachers and students face in the reading skills classes. To collect data on the above main objectives, Classroom observation, students’ questionnaire and students’ and teachers’ interview have been used. Furthermore, one hundred sixteen grade nine students were selected from Lalo Secondary School using simple random sampling and four English language teachers were selected purposively. Data from questionnaire and classroom observation were analyzed quantitatively using tables and percentages whereas, interview data were analyzed qualitatively. In order to understand the phenomenon in-depth, classroom observation checklist of 20 statements and questionnaire consisting of closedended and open-ended statements were used. Ten students and four teachers of ninth-graders were interviewed. The interview result of four teachers and students’ questionnaire showed that teachers rarely divided reading lesson into stages. Meanwhile, the teachers present reading lesson by writing date, subject, and topic followed by discussing it in English and Afan Oromo. As a result, the findings depicted that all of the teachers rarely or never present reading lesson in line with the procedures and techniques of teaching reading. With regard to challenges teachers face in the reading classes, the result of four teachers’ interview indicated that students’ fear of reading, poor vocabulary knowledge of students, large class size, mismatch of reading content with background knowledge of students ,uncontrolled use of mobile phone, and students’ misbehavior remain the major problems of teachers. On the other hand, concerning to challenges students faced in the reading classes, as students’ questionnaire and interview data pointed out fear of pronouncing wrongly, poor word power, and variety of English words pronunciation at the beginning of different words are some of major problems of students. The study suggests that English language teachers are expected to work to overcome the problems and give due attention to the techniques and procedures of teaching reading.