EFL TEACHERS’ PRACTICES AND LEARNERS’ PREFERENCE OF WRITING TECHNIQUES PARAGRAPH: THE CASE OF THREE SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN SOUTH WEST SHOA ZONE GRADE 9 IN FOCUS

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to investigate EFL teachers’ Practices and learners’ preference of writing techniques paragraph at three selected high schools in southwest shoa zone. The study was designed by descriptive case study design. The participants were all three selected secondary school EFL teachers and students in south west shoa zone. The sample was taken by comprehensive sampling technique for fourteen EFL teachers in three secondary schools. And also, students in three secondary schools selected by using simple random sampling technique as the sample of this study. The simple random sampling technique can be done either using the lottery method or table of random numbers. Therefore, comprehensive and sample random sampling techniques were employed to determine the participants of this study. In collecting data from these participants, similar questionnaires and class room observations (administered for both English language teachers and students) and semi- structured interviews with two English teachers were employed. Later on, the obtained data was presented, analyzed and into both qualitatively and quantitatively. The data obtained from the class room observations and two English teachers’ interviews were analyzed in a mixed way with the English teachers’ questionnaire. Whereas, the data obtained from the students’ questionnaire was analyzed separately. The findings of the research revealed that the English teachers use/ apply product approach frequently in teaching paragraph writing practices. The product approach was easy and suitable for English teachers to teach& students’ writing paragraphs. This can be implemented without losing energy and time from English teachers. However, the study designates that they hardly use the genre based approach in teaching writing paragraphs. Next, as the study revealed that speaking and listening skills are also some times practiced concurrently in the teaching of writing paragraph. However, English teachers did not use process approach to teach writing paragraphs due to students’ lack of motivation, lack of writing feedback, lack of target language proficiency and lack of knowledge to practice each steps in writing paragraph class room. And also, the study designated that they hardly use the genre approach in teaching writing paragraph. Furthermore, the study illustrated that English teachers did not consider the students & preferences of writing topics which the students practice in their writing paragraph lessons. Moreover, the investigation showed that the English teachers sometimes took reading, speaking and listening skills at a time while teaching writing paragraph. However, they hardly integrate all of the language skills with teaching writing paragraph at the same time. Furthermore, this study illustrated that English language teachers did not consider the students’ interests& preferences of writing topics which the students practice in their writing paragraph lessons. Finally, in these findings, it was recommended that English teachers would be more effective in teaching writing paragraph if they follow the process approach as claimed by many scholars. Besides to these, the English Department need to follow the annual and semester schedules strictly, increase the time allotted for the writing paragraph, minimize the number of students group in each section.