Abstract:
Assessment is necessary to both teachers and students to identify learning obstacles in general,
and to monitor learners` learning progress in particular. This study aimed to examine EFL
teachers` attitudes, practices and challenges of early grade reading assessment in Gamo Zone,
Arba Minch Town Primary Schools in academic year 2018/19. The study has aimed,
specifically, to assess EFL teachers` attitudes towards assessing reading at early grade, to
evaluate to what extent communicative language test based assessment of reading are
practiced, and to identify the major challenges they have been facing during assessing reading.
To attain this, descriptive study and mixed approach was employed in this study. Systematic
sampling was used to select participants for questionnaire, and purposive sampling techniques
for semi-structured interview respectively, that is, 18 primary school English language
teachers participated. Data were collected using questionnaire, semi-structured interview and
document review tools. The data which were collected from the respondents further
interpreted, analysed, and then discussed accordingly. The study findings revealed that
primary school English language teachers had positive attitude towards assessing reading at
early grade. Whereas, the extent they practice communicative language test based assessment
of reading was only twice in a month. They had encountered challenges when assessing reading
such as large class size up to 70, some students` struggle to read letters; others were unable to
read words in English, and most of them cannot read sentence correctly, subjectivity of
grading, time-constraint and workload. Therefore, it is worth recommending that they should
practice communicative language test approach assessment of reading ongoing and
continuous classroom-based reading assessments, so as to address the demand of reading
literacy at early grade.
