ASSESSING STUDENTS’ READING SKILLS FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSE IN GURAGE ZONE IN THE CASE OF TIYA SECONDARY SCHOOL GRADE 10TH STUDENTS IN FOCUS.

Abstract

The main objective of this study is assessing students‟ reading skills for academic purpose in Gurage Zone in the case of Tiya secondary school grade 10th students. The researcher used descriptive research design. This was because as the researcher tried to describe the observed data which were collected through the three data collection tools (questionnaire, interview and observation). There were 200 students who have been attending their grade 10th education with four separate sections and there were four home room teachers and one English teacher who have been teaching them at Tiya secondary school. Of these, 30% (60) students were selected for this study. To achieve the intended objective of the study, four home room teachers and one English teacher were selected for interview purposefully and twelve(12) students also were selected for it in lottery method (simple random sampling technique).The researcher mainly used forty eight(48) students for questionnaire from the whole sections( 12 students were selected randomly in each section). In addition to this, the researcher employed class room observation on English teacher at this school. The researcher mainly used questionnaire and interview as main tools for data collection and observation also used for cross-checking the data which were given in the questionnaire and interview. The result of the study obtained in thequestionnaire showed that English teacher mainly used teacher-centered teaching methodology in teaching reading skill. English teacher highly provided the post reading tasks to the learners and the learners were less motivated to do the pre and while- reading tasks as well. Since English teacher's teaching reading was so poor, the learners were supposed to do only the given or the post reading task as they suggested. The data obtained from interview depicted that the learners have lack of vocabulary knowledge, lack of reading habit, and their irritated kind of early schooling(reading) background were mainly affected them unable to improve their reading skills and academic performance. In addition, the poor implementation of teaching reading skill was also made the learners unable to improve their reading skills and academic performances. Similarly, the result obtained from the classroom observation revealed that teaching reading skill was given less emphasis as the English teacher used teacher-centered teaching methodology and as the learners did not get ample opportunities in guessing, predicting, analyzing and relating their prior knowledge with the existing knowledge. V 8In general, the students‟ lack of reading habit, lack of vocabulary knowledge, family (parents) work load, the irritated kind of their early schooling background and the poor implementation of English teacher‟s teaching reading skills were the major factors that hindered the students‟ reading skills for academic purpose in the case of Tiya secondary school grade 10th students. According to the results of the three instruments, it is possible to conclude that teaching reading skills at Tiya secondary school was very poor and it was given less emphasis. Hence, it is possible to recommend that reading skill should be taught in accordance with the students‟ involvements (student-centered teaching methodology)