FACTORS THAT AFFECT THE IMPLEMENTATION OF TEACHING WRITING SKILLS: FOCUS ON SECOND CYCLE PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN NORTH SHOA

Abstract

This research focused on exploring the factors that affect the implementation of teaching and learning writing skills in grade7 and 8 in North Shoa Zone Second Cycle Primary schools. The main objective of the study was to explore what challenges English language teachers and students face while teaching and learning writing skill in the English classrooms. For this purpose, 25 English language teachers and 1484 students of 14 Second Cycle Primary Schools participated in the study. In order to collect the necessary data, questionnaire, and Interview were used. Both teachers and students filled in questionnaires and interview was conducted with English language teachers. The data collected through questionnaire were tabulated and analyzed in terms of frequency and percentage quantitatively. Likewise, data obtained from interview were organized and described qualitatively. On the basis of the analysis made, it was concluded that most teachers and students were found to have their difficulties to teach as well as learn writing skill. Besides, English teachers and students think that they are doing some writing activities in the classroom, but the students’ writing performance is not as such encouraging which is obtained from the open ended questions and English language teachers’ interview responses. Based on the findings of the present study, some important recommendations are forwarded to lessen the factors that hinder the effective implementation of teaching and learning writing in second cycle primary schools. The main suggestion forwarded is to conduct proper and adequate training about the teaching of writing skill for English language teachers and then transferred to the students to be able to improve their writing performance.