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Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to investigate teachers’ perception and practice on the use of Amharic language in the EFL classes. To achieve this objective, focus group discussion and key informant interview was conducted with six and three first year TEFL PhD students (2016 entry) of Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia respectively. The participants had varied experience of teaching English at different Ethiopian Universities, and they were selected using simple random sampling. The data obtained from both data gathering tools was recorded and transcribed in verbatim. Then, it was coded using open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. Finally, the results were analyzed qualitatively. The finding showed that almost all of the teachers had negative perception towards the use of Amharic language in the EFL classes. It was found that there exists a gap between teachers practice and perception on the use of Amharic in their EFL classroom due to endogenous and exogenous factors. Though they had a negative perception towards the use of Amharic in the ELT classes, they use it mostly for nonlanguage purposes and rarely for language purposes. Though the participants had varied experience of teaching English, they all had negative perception on the use of Amharic. This study also found that all the more experienced and less experienced teachers use Amharic for non-language purposes. This indicates that experience doesn’t bring any change on the teachers’ use of Amharic for language and non-language purposes. Besides, highly experienced teachers used Amharic due to exogenous factors whereas less experienced teaches used it due to indigenous factors.

 

Keywords

Teachers' perception and practice; use of Amharic language; EFL classes; purposes; factors