Assessing EFL Teachers’ Implementation of Continuous Assessment in Reading Skills and Students’ Response to Teachers’ Practice: Kolfe Secondary School in Focus

Abstract

The main aim of this research was to assess EFL teacher's Implementation of continuous assessment (CA) in reading classes of Grade 10 at Kolfe secondary school which is found in Addis Ababa city, Addis Ketema Sub-city. To attain this objective, a descriptive research method was employed. The sample consisted of 6 grade 10 English language teachers and 139 students of grade 10 students of Kolfe secondary school. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the target school while comprehensive and simple random sampling techniques were employed to select the sample teachers and students respectively. To gather the necessary data, questionnaire, interviews and observations were employed. In analyzing the data, percentage and mean were used. The results of the study indicated that teachers' understanding the purposes of CA was insufficient. Besides, there was a gap in the implementation of CA in their reading classes properly. From the results of the study, teachers had experience in supplying feedback for their students based on the effect of the assessment but the provision was below expected. Even though there were various assessment devices in assessing reading skills, a few of them were only implemented in the reading classes, namely tests and quizzes, group assignment and think aloud predominantly. Furthermore, the finding of the study indicated that large class size and high teaching loads were identified as the main impeding factors of the implementation of CA in their reading classes. Thus, based on the findings of the study, recommendations were forwarded to minimize the aforementioned problems in Kolfe secondary school.