EFL TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS ON ACTION RESEARCH AND ITS PERCEIVED CONTRIBUTION TO IMPROVE ELT: SIX GOVERNMENT SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN FOCUS

Abstract

This study aims to reveal EFL teachers’ perceptions on action research and its perceived contribution to improve ELT. The main objective of the study, therefore, was to investigate EFL teachers’ perception on action research and perceived contribution of it to improve English Language Teaching with relation to six government secondary and preparatory schools of Kembata Tembaro Zone, SNNPRS. In order to attain the objectives, the study used both quantitative and qualitative research approach for data collection and analysis. The participants of the study were 42 English language teachers in the six schools who were selected using comprehensive sampling. While questionnaire was used to collect data from teachers, interview was held with six randomly selected English language teachers in the six schools. The interviewees were interviewed using semi-structured questions in conversational style. To analyze quantitative data, frequency and percentage were used. The data were presented in narrative forms based on the participants’ understanding and interpretation in addition to my reflective analysis. As the findings, EFL teachers’ perception on action research in the six schools was very low. Only 24.6% had conducted action research in their schools. Most of the teachers in the six schools did not understand the contribution of action research work. Teachers should perceive action research works positively and use the findings. This helps them to become eager for next operations.