TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION AND PRACTICE OF ASSESSING SPEAKING SKILLS IN EFL CLASSES: THE CASE OF SOME SELECTED SENIOR SECONDARY AND PREPARATORY SCHOOL IN CHAGNI TOWN

Abstract

Abstract The main purpose of this study was to explore teachers’ assessment perception and practice of using different techniques of students’ speaking skills in Chagni and Hidase General Secondary, 26 EFL teachers were selected using comprehensive sampling from the grade level and 6 EFL teachers were selected from grade nine using random sampling(drawing lots) and 72 of grade 10 students were selected using simple random sampling as the participants of the study. Interview, questionnaire and document analysis were used to gather data. The reliability of the instruments was tested by the cronbach alpha coefficient. The computed cronbach alpha of the instrument was 0.86 for the practice questionnaire items. Since the minimum cronbach alpha result is <0.5) or poor, the result showed above 0.66 is said to be acceptable, so that it was found as reliable. Both quantitative and qualitative methods of data analysis were used. The finding of the study revealed that EFL teachers rarely implement classroom assessment techniques in their speaking classroom. Furthermore, EFL teachers did not use different classroom assessment methods in their school rather they use summative assessment to assess their students’ speaking skill. Teachers’ lack of knowledge, students’ lack of interest, lack of instructional materials, large class size, time constraints and classroom seating arrangements were some of the challenges to implement classroom assessment in speaking. Regarding classroom assessment guideline, the researcher observed no classroom assessment guideline to measure speaking skills. Several factors related to the school, the students and the teachers directly or indirectly hampered the practice of assessment in EFL speaking classroom. To conclude this, a few suggestions were sent based on outcomes, i.e. teachers need to coordinate plans, teachers should benefit from exchanging ideas themselves, continuous follow-up and assistance and the like are assumed to strengthen the actual appraisal practices of the teacher