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An exploration of teachers’ perception and practice of teaching sociolinguistic aspects in the EFL speaking classroom with reference to Ilu Aba Bor Zone, eight selected preparatory schools

Author Affiliations

  • 1Mettu University, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Department of English Language and Literature, Mettu, Ethiopia
  • 2Mettu University, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Department of English Language and Literature, Mettu, Ethiopia
  • 3Mettu University, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Department of English Language and Literature, Mettu, Ethiopia
  • 4Mettu University, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Department of English Language and Literature, Mettu, Ethiopia

Int. Res. J. Social Sci., Volume 6, Issue (9), Pages 35-54, September,14 (2017)

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to explore preparatory school EFL teachers’ perception and practice of teaching sociolinguistic aspects in the EFL speaking classroom. For this purpose, some selected preparatory schools from Ilu Aba Bora Zone were selected. To collect the necessary data, 8 preparatory schools English language teachers were selected as the participants of the study. And the instruments used to collect data were semi-structured interview, focus group discussion and non-participant classroom observation. To analyse, the collected data, qualitative data analysis method was employed. That is, data collected through semi-structured interview, focus group discussion and non-participant classroom observation were described and discussed. From the analysis of data, different findings were obtained. The study reveals that all the participants agreed with the importance of teaching sociolinguistic aspects in the speaking lesson. However, the majority of the English language teachers perceived that it is impossible as well as infeasible to teach sociolinguistic aspects in the speaking class. As a result, majority of the teachers do not practice teaching sociolinguistic aspects in the speaking classroom. In addition, most of the teachers do not contextualize their speaking lessons to their students in order to practice teaching sociolinguistic aspects during the speaking lesson. As the result of the study shows, the teachers of English language themselves have misunderstanding about the concept sociolinguistic competence. That is they think it is not worthwhile to speak about sociolinguistic competence in the speaking lesson. The respondents reported that they face different factors that hinder them from practicing sociolinguistic aspects in the speaking class. Based on the findings, conclusions were drawn and recommendations were forwarded to improve the teachers’ teaching methodology.

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