An Exploration Of The Problems In Teaching English Language Skills In An Integrated Way A Case Of Four 1st And 2nd Cycle Primary Schools

The main focus of this study was investigating the problems of teaching macrolanguagernskills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) in an integrated way atrngrade 7 level. For this purpose four, 1st and 2nd cycle primary schools in AddisrnAbaba were selected based on the researcher's convenience. Seven Englishrnlanguage teachers and their 250 students at these schools filled in questionnairesrndesigned to generate data from them. Semi-structured interview as a supplementrnwas also used to collect further information from the teachers. Classroomrnobservation was the other data collection instrument used to see what is going onrnin actual classroom situations and check whether the teachers' and their students'rnbeliefs match.. Generally, the semi-structured interview and the classroomrnobservation were used for triangulation purpose.rnData analysis showed that the teachers had no adequate training in thernimplementation of skills integration i.e. how to teach language skills in anrnintegrated way. So instead they focused on grammar and vocabulary teaching.rnThere was a contradiction between what the teachers believe and what theyrnactually perform in the classrooms. There was also a contradiction between whatrnthe teachers and their students believe. The students were found to be ready tornlearn language skills in an integrated way although they had not clearrnunderstanding of what integrated skills mean and what their advantages are. Thernstudy also showed that the most serious problems or hindrances to the teaching ofrnlanguage skills in an integrated way in the four schools studied are the followingrnbased on the rank order of seriousness given to the problems by the teachers:rnThe schools have economic problem to · make teaching materials available, thernstudents expect everything from their teachers instead of learning by interacting,rnthe students will become out of control if they are allowed to interact in thernclassroom etc.rnBased on the students' responses the problems that hinder the teaching ofrnlanguage skills in an integrated way are lack of courage to speak in English, beingrnafraid of making mistakes, being afraid of laughed at, lack of the teachers' effort,rndisturbance of the students, the teachers' being busy to finish the textbook, lack ofrnthe teachers' encouragement, and lack of enough books in the libraries.rnAlmost all of the teachers were found to have no adequate training, and thisrnshould also be considered as a serious problem.

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