Gist Education and Learning Research Journal. ISSN 1692-5777.

No. 24 (January - June, 2022). pp. 65-94.

EFL Teachers’ Cognitions

about Teaching Speaking
Skills1
Conocimiento de los profesores de
inglés como lengua extranjera sobre la
enseñanza de las habilidades orales

Habtamu Adem and Mendida Berkessa*2

Wolkite University-Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia

1
Received: October 26th 2021/ Accepted: May 10th 2022
2
[email protected]; [email protected]
 Efl Teachers’ Cognitions about Speaking

Abstract
The main purpose of this study was to explore EFL teachers’ cognitions about teaching
speaking. To achieve the purpose, a sequential mixed-methods research strategy was employed.
A questionnaire was administered to 192 secondary and preparatory school English teachers
while an interview was conducted with four teachers. Descriptive and bivariate analyses were
computed for the analysis of the quantitative data, and a qualitative content analysis was used
for the qualitative data. The findings revealed that speaking was not the skill teachers enjoyed
teaching and learners liked to learn. The teachers considered speaking as the weakest part
of their learners. To most of the teachers, learning speaking was different and difficult from
learning other language skills. The teachers regarded group discussion as the most effective
classroom activity. The teachers’ self-concept was optimistic, but they were pessimistic about
the students’ interest in learning to speak. It was found that most teachers’ beliefs were primarily
influenced by prior teaching experiences. The teachers ranked the relationship between their
beliefs and the classroom practices as fair. Teachers thought the teaching of speaking was
predominantly influenced by learner-related factors. Moreover, there were teachers’ beliefs that
showed statistically significant relationships to their gender and year of teaching experience.
The study concludes that the teaching of speaking is still one of the disregarded areas of English
language teaching.
Keywords: Cognition; EFL teachers; Engish language teaching; Language skills; Teaching
speaking;

Resumen
El objetivo principal de este estudio fue explorar las habilidades de los profesores de inglés como
lengua extranjera sobre la enseñanza del habla. Para lograr el objetivo, se empleó una estrategia
de investigación secuencial de métodos mixtos. Los participantes fueron profesores de inglés
de escuelas secundarias y preparatorias de la Zona de Gurage. Se administró un cuestionario
a 192 docentes y se realizó una entrevista a cuatro docentes. Al analizar los datos, se hicieron
análisis descriptivos y bivariados para los datos cuantitativos y se utilizó un análisis de contenido
cualitativo para los datos cualitativos. Los hallazgos revelaron que hablar no era una habilidad
que los maestros disfrutaran enseñar ni los estudiantes aprender. Los profesores consideraban
hablar como la parte más débil de sus alumnos. Para la mayoría de los maestros, aprender a
hablar era diferente y difícil de aprender comparado con otras habilidades lingüísticas. Además,
los profesores consideraron la discusión en grupo como la estrategia más eficaz. A pesar de todos
los problemas, el autoconcepto de los docentes era optimista, pero se mostraban pesimistas
sobre el interés de los alumnos por aprender a hablar. Se encontró que la mayoría de las creencias
de los docentes estaban influenciadas principalmente por experiencias docentes previas. Los
maestros expresaron que la enseñanza del habla estaba predominantemente influenciada por
factores relacionados con el alumno. El estudio concluye que la enseñanza de la expresión oral
sigue siendo una de las áreas desatendidas de la enseñanza del idioma inglés. Con base en los
hallazgos, también se recomiendan más investigaciones y capacitación.
Palabras clave: Cognición; Profesores de inglés como lengua extranjera; habilidad de habla
en segunda lengua; actitudes frente a la enseñanza

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 Adem & Berkessa

Resumo
O objetivo principal deste estudo foi explorar as habilidades dos professores de inglês como
língua estrangeira sobre o ensino da fala. Para conseguir o objetivo, empregou-se uma estratégia
de pesquisa sequencial de métodos mistos. Os participantes foram professores de inglês de
escolas secundárias e preparatórias da Zona de Gurage. Administrou-se um questionário a
192 docentes e realizou-se uma entrevista a quatro docentes. Ao analisar os dados, fizeram-
se análises descritivas e bivariadas para os dados quantitativos e utilizou-se uma análise de
conteúdo qualitativo para os dados qualitativos. As descobertas revelaram que falar não era uma
habilidade que os professores desfrutaram ensinar nem os estudantes aprender. Os professores
consideravam falar como a parte mais débil de seus alunos. Para a maioria dos professores,
aprender a falar era diferente e difícil de aprender comparado com outras habilidades linguísticas.
Além disso, os professores consideraram a discussão em grupo como a estratégia mais eficaz.
Apesar de todos os problemas, o autoconceito dos docentes era otimista, mas mostravam-se
pessimistas sobre o interesse dos alunos por aprender a falar. Encontrou-se que a maioria das
crenças dos docentes estavam influenciadas principalmente por experiências docentes prévias.
Os professores expressaram que o ensino da fala estava predominantemente influenciado por
fatores relacionados com o aluno. O estudo conclui que o ensino da expressão oral continua
sendo uma das áreas desatendidas do ensino do idioma inglês. Com base nas descobertas,
também se recomendam mais pesquisas e capacitação.
Palavras chave: Cognição; Professores de inglês como língua estrangeira; habilidade de fala
em segunda língua; atitudes diante do ensino

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 Efl Teachers’ Cognitions about Speaking

Introduction

A
lthough a syllabus is believed to guide the instructional process, there are
also aspects that exert considerable influence. In this regard, the study of
teachers’ cognition has attracted considerable educational researchers’
interest. Beginning from the late 1980s, the study of teachers’ cognition,
which Borg (2003) defined as studying what teachers think, know, and believe, became
the focus of educational research. Borg claimed that the dominant idea of the time that
teaching is a complex cognitive activity that demands thinking, knowledge, beliefs,
and decisions of the teacher was the beginning of the focus of shift from tangible
behaviors to teachers’ mental lives. Besides, the advancement of cognitive psychology
and the popularity of qualitative research methods were the pushing factors for the
shift (Kim-Yin, 2006). Accordingly, the shift to teacher cognition researches can be
seen as the search for why classroom practices are in the way they are or understanding
the factors influencing the hidden pedagogy of the classroom (Burns, 1992).

Though the study of teachers’ cognitions seems to be a well-established area of

study, there are still issues that the teacher cognition researchers fail to resolve.
Besides, the classroom teachers do not unthinkingly implement curricula designed by
others. Hence, the study of teacher cognition continues to be a vital area of educational
research so far as teaching is done by human beings (Borg, 2009).

In the Ethiopian educational context, teachers’ cognition has not been given due
attention. The overall educational system is a top-down curriculum with little or no
room for teachers’ beliefs, opinions, suggestions, and comments (Seyoum, 1996).
The classroom teachers, therefore, are disregarded in the core educational decision-
making processes like curriculum development, textbook and material preparation
and instructional and program designing. Similarly, most studies in Ethiopia are
process-product oriented that investigate what the teachers do and what the respective
students gain from it (Birhanu, 2012). Hence, the study of teachers’ cognitions has
attracted few Ethiopian researchers’ interests despite its worldwide domination of
educational research in general and language studies in particular.

Though teachers are believed to have cognitions about all aspects of their work, the
study of teacher cognition about the teaching of speaking is one of the disregarded areas
in local and international studies. Borg (2003), for example, review 64 teacher cognition
studies in language teaching. Grammar and literacy were the two language teaching
areas that have been rewarded significant attention; 22 studies were on grammar while
7 were on literacy instruction of which 5 focused on reading. Contrarily, the teaching
of speaking was not included as the reviewer could not find any published work of
teacher cognition in the teaching of speaking.

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Besides the inadequacy of the studies, those few local teacher cognition studies
are broad that do not consider the nature of the mental construct. They focus on
investigating the teachers’ beliefs about teaching English and their classroom practices
(Birhanu, 2012; Awol, 1999). As teacher cognition is one of the difficult areas of
educational research due to the intricate and multifaceted nature of mental constructs,
the study of teachers’ cognitions about teaching English and their classroom practices
are extremely wide-ranging. Thus, a study that focuses on a single skill/aspect of
language teaching and investigates it comprehensively contributes greatly in providing
in-depth understanding. Besides, most of the teacher cognition studies are solely
qualitative that comprise few participants and fail to explore shared beliefs.

The interest in the teaching of speaking skills also originated from the challenges
the researcher has faced in making students speak English and the assertion that
oral communication is the area where most foreign and second language learners
encounter difficulty. Especially in countries like Ethiopia where English is not used
in the community, the classroom is the most important place to practice speaking.
However, the classroom speaking skills lessons may not often be effective as foreign
language teachers face difficulties in getting students to speak the language. Ur (1991),
for example, indicated four problems in making students speak a foreign language in
the classroom: inhibition, having nothing to say, low uneven participation, and mother
tongue use. Although it is claimed that students who can speak English have greater
chances of further education, finding a job, and gaining promotion (Baker & Westrup,
2003), the teaching of speaking for foreign or second language learners is challenging
and students’ mastery of oral skills is limited.

The following therefore were the rationales of this study: a) the claim that the
teaching of speaking remains unstudied from a teacher cognition point of view, b)
speaking is one of the challenging skills for foreign language learners, c) the teacher
cognition studies need to focus on a single skill or aspect of the language rather than
dealing with broader topics, and d) the teacher cognition studies do not have to focus
only on the in-depth understanding of the issue from few participants but need to
explore shared beliefs. Hence, this study is an attempt to address these gaps.

Research Questions
The main objective of this study was to explore EFL teachers’ cognitions about
teaching speaking. Thus, the following research questions guided the study:

• What cognitions do EFL teachers have about teaching speaking skills?

• Do gender and year of teaching experience significantly affect teachers’

cognitions about teaching speaking?

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 Efl Teachers’ Cognitions about Speaking

Literature Review
Teacher Cognition
The primary focus of foreign/second language teaching researches on observable
behaviors and what people do in the classroom, neglecting the teachers’ mental lives,
was not convincing for the educators in the late 1980s (Kim-Yin, 2006). The idea
that teaching is a complex cognitive activity that demands the thinking, knowledge,
beliefs, and decisions of the teacher became dominant in the late 1980s (Borg, 2003).
Hence, beginning from the late 1980s, studying what teachers think, know, and believe
has been the focus of educational research. Borg used ‘teacher cognition research’ in
referring to researches on what teachers think, know, and believe and the relationship
of these mental lives to the classroom practices.

In teacher cognition studies, establishing a clear distinction between knowledge

and belief is one of the major problems. The issue of subjectivity is often used to
differentiate knowledge and belief, but knowledge is also categorized as objective and
subjective. Hence, the distinction between subjective knowledge and belief is either
blurred or the two concepts stand for a similar concept (Pehkonen & Pietilä, 2003).
Besides, in philosophy, knowledge is defined as a justified true belief. Though the terms
justified and true are used to show the distinctive features of knowledge, it clearly
indicates that knowledge is a type of belief (Yero, 2002). Hence, knowledge is a type of
belief in the objective and subjective categorization of knowledge, and belief is a type
of knowledge in its philosophical definition. As Woods (1996) stated the boundaries
between the two concepts are not also clear when teachers were interviewed to justify
their decisions with a reference to their knowledge and beliefs. Woods reported that it
was difficult to distinguish what belief and/or knowledge refer to teachers. He further
added ‘assumption’ to the list and used a coined term of the three concepts (Belief,
Assumption, Knowledge) BAK. Borg’s explanation of teacher cognition as the notion
that refers to the “unobservable cognitive dimension of teaching- what teachers know,
believe and think” is comprehensive that governs the assertion of teacher cognition in
this study (2003, p. 81).

Approaches to Teaching Speaking Skills

Different approaches to teaching speaking have been adopted. Rhalmi (2017), for
example, reported three approaches: the traditional Present, Practice and Produce
(PPP) approach; the Test, Teach, Test (TTT) approach based on the task-based
instruction, and the discovery approach based on awareness-raising, appropriation,
and automaticity. Talley (2014), on the other hand, classified the approaches to teach
speaking into two: explicit and implicit. Predominantly, the approaches to teaching
speaking are categorized into two main types: direct approach and indirect approach.

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The direct approach to teaching speaking focuses on the practice and development
of isolated language forms (Goh and Burns, 2012). The practice involves a reproduction
of predetermined language through drills, pattern practice, and structure manipulation.
An indirect approach to teaching speaking, on the other hand, focuses on the creation
of conditions for oral interaction to enable learners to engage in communicative
activities (Richards, 2008; Goh & Burns, 2012). In the indirect approach, fluency is
the primary concern, and learners are exposed to authentic and functional language
use. Thus, the practice involves real-life communicative activities such as discussion,
information-gaps, role-plays, simulation, and so on (Burns, 1998).

Exclusive reliance on one of the approaches to teaching speaking is disadvantageous

as both approaches have their limitations (Goh and Burns, 2012). Thornbury and
Slade (2006) for example stated that the direct approach focuses on the component
of the language while the indirect approach focuses on the context of use. The focus
on one aspect of teaching the skill and neglecting the other forces the learners to be
good at the area of focus and weaker on the neglected one. Hence, an approach to
teaching speaking that combines the features of the two approaches is considered to
be the solution. Accordingly, Thornbury (2005) introduced a general approach to
teaching speaking that consists of three cyclic stages: awareness-raising, appropriation,
and autonomy. Awareness-raising is the first stage during which the learners identify
their gaps and familiarize themselves with the knowledge designed to address the gap.
Appropriation is the second stage at which the learners integrate the new knowledge
into the existing one. At this stage, the learners start progressing from other-regulated
practices to self-regulated ones. Autonomy is the final stage during which learners use
the newly constructed knowledge in a real-life situation.

Methods
Research Design
This study aimed to explore EFL teachers’ cognitions about teaching speaking
skills. To achieve this purpose, a sequential mixed-methods research strategy was
used. As Creswell (2003) stated this is a mixed-methods strategy that gives researchers
the freedom to decide on the sequence and priority of the methods. Accordingly, a
strategy that employed quantitative data collection and analysis first and also gave
priority to the quantitative method was employed in this study.

Research Sites and Participants of the Study

The study was conducted at secondary and preparatory schools in Gurage Zone,
Southern Nations Nationalities Regional State, Ethiopia. 192 English teachers in 62

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schools filled in the teacher questionnaire. Of the 192 participants, 139 (72.4%) were
males while the remaining 53 (27.6%) were females. For the interview, four English
teachers from three schools were chosen. The experienced teachers were purposefully
selected to gather in-depth information from teachers with rich insights about the
issue under investigation.

Instruments

Teacher Questionnaire

The teacher questionnaire was designed to survey English teachers’ cognitions of

teaching speaking. The questionnaire was prepared by reviewing the existing literature
on teachers’ cognitions and revision of questionnaires that have been used for similar
research intents (Yoneska & Tanaka, 2013; Khader, 2012; Shigeru, 2012; Richards
& Lockhart, 1996; Johnson, 1992; Horwitz, 1987). The items in the questionnaire
were grouped into four categories. The items in the first section were designed to
investigate the participants’ conceptions of teaching speaking skills in comparison to
other language skills. The second section of the questionnaire was intended to explore
teachers’ cognitions about teaching speaking. It was designed in the form of five point-
Likert scales ranging from “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree”. In the third part
of the teacher questionnaire, three multiple-choice and four multiple response items
were given. Finally, demographic questions were asked. The questionnaire was pilot
tested to ensure face and content validity. Accordingly, some modifications were
made to the wordings of the items and about 12 monotonous items were deleted.
Besides, Cronbach’s alpha was computed to determine the reliability of the items. It
was computed for the two groups of items independently. The Cronbach’s alpha result
for the items in the first group was .706 while the result for the Likert-scale items was
.722. Accordingly, the results show that the questionnaire has an acceptable degree
of reliability as Cronbach’s alpha greater than 0.7 is considered to show sufficiently
reliable internal consistency (Muijs, 2004).

Interview

A semi-structured key informants’ interview was conducted with four core participants
of the study. A semi-structured interview is a balance between structured and
unstructured interviews in which guiding questions are prepared in advance that are
often developed and elaborated during the interview (Dorneyi, 2007). In qualitative
studies, the employment of a semi-structured interview is believed to minimize
validity and reliability problems often caused by the overload of information as a semi-
structured interview ensures consistency in data collection.

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The interview guide was prepared based on the literature review and the data from
the survey questionnaire. Afterward, the interview was done after the questionnaire
was administered aiming to elicit teachers’ cognitions, sources of teachers’ cognitions,
and espoused contextual factors that affect classroom practices in sufficient depth and
breadth. The interviews were recorded with audio-recording material with the consent
of the participants. Considering the interest of the participants, the interviews were
conducted in English.

Methods of Data Analysis

Descriptive statistics (frequency counts) were computed to summarize teachers’

cognitions. Crosstabs and Chi-square tests were also computed to see the relationships
between teachers’ reports of their beliefs and their gender and year of teaching
experiences. Fisher’s Exact test was also computed as an alternative to Chi-square tests
when the expected counts less than five were more than twenty percent of the cells. A
Phi-test was also computed for the variables that showed significant relationships to
determine the strength of the relationships.

Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the data from the key informants’
interviews. As Ellis and Barkuizen (2005) explained that qualitative content analysis
follows the sequence of coding for themes, looking for patterns, making interpretations,
and building theory. Dorneyi (2007) included transcribing the data and came up with
four phases of the qualitative content analysis process: transcribing the data, pre-
coding and coding, growing ideas and interpreting the data, and drawing conclusions.
In this study, the four phases of the analytical process were performed. Having the side-
by-side collection and interpretation of the qualitative data in mind, the data analysis
was commenced with the verbatim transcription of data from the participants into
word processing documents. All the recordings were transformed into texts. Then,
the texts were read and re-read in their entirety aiming to be familiar with the data.
The reduction and interpretation of the data then started with the initial coding of the
text. In the initial coding, the texts were broken into segments, and labeling was given
to the segments often by using the participants’ own words. For the initial coding,
hardcopy printouts of the texts were used, and labeling was given on the margin. Then,
the initial codes with common concepts were grouped, and higher-order themes were
developed. As the first coding may not always work well, the codes were reexamined
and relabeled. The coding was similar to what Strauss and Corbin (1998) mentioned
as open, axial, and selective coding of the ground theory analysis.

More importantly, as the researchers’ capability to manage excessive amounts of

qualitative data manually is the area of difficulty, the data analysis process was assisted
with a computerized qualitative data analysis program, OpenCode 4.02

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Results
The Teaching of the Language Skills and the Status of
Speaking
Grammar was chosen by 67 (34.9%) of the respondents as the first aspect of the
language they favored teaching the most. It was followed by writing while speaking was
ranked third with a percentage of 28.6 and 20.8 respectively. Reading and vocabulary
were ranked fourth and fifth with a percentage of 10.9 and 4.7 respectively. None of the
participants chose listening as the skill they favored to teach. There was a statistically
significant relationship between the skill the teachers favored teaching and their gender
(P < .05). The skill male teachers preferred to teach the most was grammar. It was
followed by writing, speaking, reading, vocabulary, and listening descendingly. On the
other hand, females’ ranking of their preferences from the most to least chosen was:
speaking, writing, reading, grammar, vocabulary, and listening. Similarly, there was
a statistically significant relationship between the skill the teachers favored teaching
and their experiences (P < .05). The least experienced teachers (teachers with 1 to 5
years of experience) favored teaching speaking while the more (teachers with 6 to 10
years of experience) and the most experienced (teachers above 10 years of experience)
preferred grammar. As the Phi results show, gender and experiences had moderate
relationships with teachers’ favorite skills to teach (Phi value < 0.5).

Regarding the skill the teachers wanted to improve the most, speaking came first as
it was chosen by 72 (37.5%) of the respondents. Writing and reading were the second
and third skills the teachers wanted to improve with the percentage of 28.1 and 13
respectively. Vocabulary and listening ranked fourth and fifth while grammar was the
least aspect teachers wanted to improve. The skill the teachers wanted to improve and
their experiences had statistically significant relationships (P < .05). Speaking was the
most chosen by the least and most experienced teachers while teachers with 6 to 10
years of experience chose writing. On the other hand, the skill the teachers wanted to
improve was not dependent on their gender as the relationship was not statistically
significant.

Concerning the skill teachers wanted their students to improve the most, speaking
and reading came first and second as they were chosen by 62 (32.8%) and 43 (22.4%)
of the teachers respectively. Writing and grammar were chosen by 30 (15.6%) of the
participants each as the skills they wanted their students to improve. Vocabulary
and listening were the least selected skills. As the Chi-square and Fisher’s exact tests
show, there was no statistically significant relationship between the skill the teachers
wanted their students to improve and their gender. However, teachers’ experience had
shown statistically significant relationships with their responses to the item (P < .05).
Teachers with one to ten years of teaching experience wanted their students to improve
speaking while those with above ten years of experience chose reading.

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As regards the most difficult skill to teach, the majority of the teachers (106/54.9%)
chose listening. The participants placed speaking as the second most difficult skill to
teach while writing and reading ranked third and fourth. Conversely, none of the
participants considered grammar and vocabulary as difficult to teach. As listening was
the most difficult skill to teach for the respondents in different groups, there was no
statistically significant relationship between teachers’ beliefs about the most difficult
skill to teach and their gender and years of teaching experience.

A relative majority of the teachers thought that grammar was the first aspect of the
language the learners were interested to learn (74/38.5%). It was followed by writing,
speaking and reading with the percentage of 28.6, 19.3 and 11.5 respectively. On the
other hand, vocabulary and listening were the least chosen ones as vocabulary was
chosen by 1.6 percent of the teachers while only 0.5 percent of them went for listening.
There was a statistically significant relationship between teachers’ beliefs about the
skills the learners wanted to learn the most and their gender and experiences (P < .05).
Male teachers perceived that learners were attracted by grammar while females thought
their learners were interested in speaking. As far as their experiences are concerned, the
teachers with one to five years of experience believed that the learners were interested
in speaking while grammar was chosen by the more and most experienced ones. The
Phi-values show that the relationships between teachers’ beliefs and their gender and
experiences were moderate (Phi value < 0.5).

Speaking was chosen by most of the participants (117/60.9%) as the weakest part of
their learners. The other oral skill, listening, ranked as the second weakest side of the
learners as it was chosen by 56 (29.2%) of the respondents. The remaining four skills/
aspects were only selected by about 10 percent of the respondents. Teachers’ evaluation
of the weakest part of the students did not have statistically significant relationships
with their gender and experiences.

Reading was chosen as the first most important part of learning English (44/22.9%).
Writing and speaking took the second and third places as they were chosen by 20.8 and
19.3 percent of the teachers respectively. Grammar was the fourth, listening the fifth,
and vocabulary the least important aspects of learning English. The teachers’ gender
and experiences had a considerable impact on their belief about the most important
part. As regards their gender, speaking was the most important and writing was the
second most important for females, but for males, reading and grammar were the
first and second most important parts respectively. As the effect size result shows, the
strength of the relationship was moderate (Phi value < 0.5). Teachers’ years of service
had also shown a statistically significant relationship to their beliefs. The teachers into
the three categories of service years chose three different aspects. Speaking was the
most important for teachers with one to five years of teaching experience, writing for
teachers with six to ten years of experience while grammar was for those with above
ten years of experience. Reading, which was chosen as the most important based on

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the frequency counts, was the second most important for the teachers in the three
categories. The Phi-value also revealed that the relationship between teachers’ beliefs
and experiences was strong (Phi value < 0.8).

There were also associations among the skills teachers enjoyed teaching, the skill
they thought the learners were interested in, and their beliefs about the most important
part of English instruction, and their gender and experience. For example, grammar was
an aspect of the language male English teachers enjoyed teaching, thought the learners
were interested in and considered as the second most important area of the language.
On the other hand, female teachers reported that speaking was the skill they preferred
to teach, the learners wanted to learn the most and the most important part of learning
English. Regarding experience, speaking was the chosen skill to teach, the favorite
skill of the students to learn, and the most important aspect to the least experienced
teachers. However, the more and most experienced teachers went to grammar.

Briefly, the results from the items in the first section of the questionnaire revealed
the following points about speaking instruction. First, speaking was not a skill most of
the teachers enjoyed to teach. It was chosen only by 20.8 percent of the teachers and
was ranked as the third skill teachers favored to teach. However, it was the favorite skill
to teach for females and the least experienced teachers. Second, speaking was the skill
the teachers themselves wanted to improve and required their students to improve the
most regardless of their gender and experiences. Third, speaking was perceived as the
second most difficult skill to teach following listening. Fourth, most of the teachers
believed that speaking was the weakest part of their learners. Though teachers believed
that speaking was the weakest side of their learners and wanted them to work on it,
they supposed that learners were interested in grammar and writing. Still, females
and the least experienced teachers believed that learners were interested in speaking.
Lastly, as far as teachers’ beliefs about the most important part of learning English is
concerned, speaking came third following reading and writing.

As a complement to this part, the four teachers in the qualitative part of the study
were asked about the following points: how much they enjoyed teaching speaking,
how difficult was teaching speaking, how weak were their students in spoken English,
and how interested were their students in learning to speak. The teachers reported that
teaching speaking was challenging as it was the skill the learners were uninterested
in and had no the required background skill to understand even simple lessons. This
contradicted their beliefs about how important speaking skill is to the academic and
overall life of the students. T1 for example believed that being able to speak English
was the means to show one’s competence in the language; T2 and T3 supposed that
the mastery of spoken English boosted students’ confidence which in turn would help
them succeed in academia, while T4 thought oral proficiency played a paramount role
in the job-hunting process. Thus, the teachers were not pleased with their experiences
of teaching speaking skills.

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Beliefs about What Learning Speaking Meant

The majority of the teachers (71.3%) did not believe that learning speaking was
more about learning and memorizing common phrases and expressions. On the
other hand, nearly twenty-two percent of the teachers took learning and memorizing
common phrases as a key to learning speaking while seven percent of the teachers were
uncertain. The item that presented teaching speaking as providing equivalent phrases
or expressions in students’ mother tongue was one of the items most of the teachers
disagreed with as the vast majority of them (98.4%) did not endorse the statement. The
statement “Learning speaking is mostly a matter of practicing real-life communicative
activities,” was accepted by most of the teachers (62%) while 25.5 percent disagreed
and 12.5 percent were uncertain.

As the findings from the Chi-square and Fisher exact tests and Phi-values show
there were significant relationships between teachers’ perceptions of memorization in
teaching speaking and their genders. The use of memorization was relatively favored
by males over females. The relationship however was modest as the Phi-value was
below 0.3. Perceiving the speaking instruction as a matter of practicing real-life
communicative activities was a shared one, statistically significant relationships were
also found between gender and experience. As far as their gender was concerned, the use
of communicative activities was favored by males over females. Of the 119 respondents
who agreed with the statement, 84 percent were males while only 16 percent were
females. With regard to their experiences, the most and more experienced teachers
agreed the most with the statement than the least experienced ones. The influence
of gender was moderate as the Phi-value was less than 0.5; whereas, the influence of
experience was stronger.

From a multiple-choice item, it was found that the vast majority of the participants
(78.6%) accepted that learning English was mostly a matter of practicing the language
and being able to use it for communication. Those who considered learning English as
learning the grammar of the language and learning and memorizing the vocabulary
words were 10.4 and 8.9 percent respectively. On the other hand, translation was
chosen only by 2.1 percent of the teachers.

Similarly, the interviewed teachers thought learning speaking was all about
practicing the language than the memorization of phrases and the study of equivalents
in the students’ mother tongue. For T1 and T2, for example, teaching speaking was
helping the learners to practice the language by using a variety of classroom activities.

Accordingly, it was possible to say that the teachers’ beliefs about what learning
English in general and speaking in particular meant matched with the communicative
views of language teaching.

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Beliefs about Teaching Speaking in Comparison to other

Skills
The majority of the teachers (63%) assumed that learning speaking was different
from learning other skills while thirty-three percent disagreed. Besides, the teachers
considered speaking as a difficult language skill when compared to reading and writing.
This is because most of the teachers (78.1%) believed that it was easier to read and
write English than to speak it. Similarly, the findings from one of the multiple items
revealed that most of the teachers (57.3%) rated speaking as a difficult skill while it was
rated as a medium by about thirty-four percent, as easy by five percent, and as difficult
skill by about four percent of the teachers. The statement “Students who are good at
speaking are not good at written English,” was accepted by most of the participants
(55.2%) while about thirty percent disagreed and fifteen percent were uncertain.

The teachers’ evaluation of whether speaking was an easier skill than reading
and writing and their gender and experience had shown statistically significant
relationships. Speaking was easier to the relative majority of males and teachers with
six to ten years of experience than to the females and the most and least experienced
ones. As the Phi-values indicate, the relationships between teachers’ evaluations and
their gender and experience were moderate. Besides, the teachers’ belief students who
were good at speaking were not at written English was significantly related to their
gender and experience. The statement was endorsed by a relative majority of males
and the most experienced teachers as compared to females and the least and more
experienced ones.

To the four teachers as well, teaching speaking was different from teaching other
language skills that require teachers’ commitment and good command of the language.
T1 for example stated the preconditions required for effective teaching speaking skills.
These were: teachers’ conviction that speaking should be taught in the language class,
positive attitude towards teaching speaking, working on students’ attitudes towards
speaking and cleansing their misconceptions, patience and readiness to pay the prices
of teaching speaking as they might be contested by students’ lack of interest in learning
to speak and different contextual factors. Despite the list of preconditions by all the
teachers, they all agreed that teaching speaking lessons required good oral proficiency
and understanding of a variety of teaching techniques when compared to teaching
the other skills. They have also constantly indicated that teaching speaking to their
students was a daunting task. As they indicated, they used to jump speaking lessons of
the textbook like their teachers did.

In short, the followings were revealed. First, learning speaking was different from
learning other language skills to most of the teachers, a belief which would have a
methodological impact. Second, most of the teachers believed that speaking was a
difficult language skill by itself or when compared to other language skills. Third, most

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of the teachers believed those learners who were good at oral skills were not good at
written English.

Beliefs about the Effective Classroom Activities and

Modes of Interactions
Discussion was chosen by the vast majority of the teachers (94.3%) as an effective
classroom activity in teaching speaking. Presentation and role-play took the second
and third places as they were chosen by seventy-three and seventy percent of the
teachers respectively. These were followed by interview and storytelling activities as
they were chosen by forty-three and thirty-three percent of the teachers respectively.
The classroom activities that were labeled as the least effective in teaching speaking
were picture description/narration and repetition of drills.

Figure 1. Teachers’ beliefs about the effective classroom activities in teaching speaking

Regarding the modes of interaction, group work was the most chosen mode of
interaction as it was chosen by eighty-seven percent of the teachers. Pair-work was
ranked as the second effective mode of interaction as it was picked by sixty percent
of the teachers. On the other hand, whole-class work was the least chosen mode of
interaction during a speaking task.

Group discussion was also the most effective classroom activity in speaking class
for the four interviewed teachers. T1 for example mentioned discussion, interview
and role-play as effective classroom activities but ranked discussion as the best. T4,
on his part, reported that group discussion was the most effective classroom activity
in teaching speaking. Discussion was also one of the three (discussion, picture
description and presentation) effective classroom activities for T2. Though T3 did
not list the activities, he thought that classroom activities that promote interaction are
effective to which discussion can be a part.

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In short, the discussion was regarded as an effective classroom activity and group
work was picked as an effective mode of interaction in teaching speaking by the
majority of the teachers. Jointly, group discussion was the effective classroom activity
for the teachers in this study.

Beliefs about the Ability to Learn Speaking

Most of the participant teachers thought that some people were born with an
ability that was useful to learn speaking. Those who disagreed with the statement were
about sixteen percent while eight percent were uncertain. The teachers’ responses
to the item that compared girls’ and boys’ capabilities at learning speaking did not
clearly show where most of their beliefs laid. Accordingly, girls were better than boys
at learning speaking to forty-five percent of the teachers while thirty-seven percent of
them rejected the statement. Most of them (68.2%) thought Ethiopians were not good
at learning to speak English. Those who endorsed the statement were only eighteen
percent of the teachers while thirteen percent were uncertain.

As the results from the bivariate tests showed, girls were better than boys at learning
speaking to the majority of female respondents as 77 percent of them agreed with
the statement while only 33 percent of males did. The same was true to the relative
majority of the experienced teachers (teachers with six and above years of experience)
than to the least experienced ones. The relationships between teachers’ evaluation of
who was good at learning speaking and their gender and experience were moderate.

Teachers’ Self-concept
The majority of the respondents (68.3%) assumed that they had sufficient English
proficiency essential to be good English teachers while only eleven percent disagreed
with the statement. The teachers’ response to the item that enquired if they believed
their oral proficiency could be exemplary to the learners was mixed. The teachers who
thought they were fluent and accurate in spoken English and could be role models to
the students were about forty-three percent while about forty percent rejected it. As
the teachers’ response to the last item revealed, most of them (62%) thought they had
an adequate methodological understanding that enabled them to use diverse teaching
methods in speaking classes.

As the results from the bivariate analysis revealed, the males significantly
outperformed the females in their perception of themselves. The majority of the
males agreed with the statements that enquired the rating of their English proficiency
and methodological understanding than females did. The relationships between male
and female teachers’ perception of their English proficiency and methodological

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understanding were strong (Phi-value < 0.8); whereas, the influence of gender on their
belief that their fluency and accuracy could be model to the learners was modest (Phi-
value < 0.3).

Like the teachers’ gender, their experience has also shown statistically significant
relationships with the perceptions of their proficiency and understanding of the
speaking skills teaching methods. As the females were outperformed by the males,
the least and more experienced teachers were also outperformed by the experienced
ones. In other words, the teachers with more than 10 years of teaching experience
perception of their proficiency and understanding of the teaching methods were by far
positive than those with ten and fewer years of experience.

Like those who filled in the questionnaire, the interviewed teachers were also
positive about their language proficiency and understanding of the methods. However,
the nature of the data gathering instrument gave them the chance to mention some of
their weaknesses. T1, for example, said that he lacked commitment and determinations
which he believed were mandatory in teaching speaking. T2 also declared that she
focused on covering the textbook than helping the learners to understand the lessons.
Likewise, T3 reported he was not well prepared for speaking lessons ahead of time.

In general, the majority of the participants were optimistic about their English
proficiency and understanding of the speaking skills teaching methods. Moreover,
males and the most experienced teachers were more optimistic than the females and
the least experienced ones.

Teachers’ Beliefs about the Learners

The vast majority of the teachers believed that the learners were interested in
grammar and vocabulary than oral skills. The statement that stated learners considered
learning to speak as a waste of time was endorsed by most of the teachers (56.3%) while
twenty-seven percent of respondents disagreed. As to most of the teachers (62.5%),
the learners thought speaking English perfectly with good pronunciation and fluency
was a complex task to achieve. One of the statements the vast majority of the teachers
agreed with was the one that talked about learners’ fright. To ninety-two percent of the
teachers, the learners feared to speak English in front of others. Asked if the learners
used translation as a technique, almost half of the respondents (49.4%) affirmed
that most students first thought how to say it in Amharic before saying it in English.
However, thirty-four percent of the teachers were uncertain about the learners’ use of
translation as a technique while speaking in English while sixteen percent disagreed.
Bearing the amount of time the learners have studied English in mind, most of the
teachers (62%) were not satisfied with their students’ overall progress. Those teachers
who were satisfied with their students’ progress amounted to forty-six percent.

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In the Chi-square test, the teachers’ gender and experiences and their evaluation
of how the students consider the ability to speak English have shown statistically
significant relationships (P-value < .05). The relative majority of males and the most
experienced teachers thought speaking perfectly with good pronunciation and fluency
was considered a complex task to fulfill by the learners. The bivariate test was also
computed to see which groups of teachers were highly dissatisfied with their students’
progress. Males and the most experienced teachers were very much dissatisfied with
their students’ progress in learning English than the females and the least experienced
teachers. The relationship between teachers’ dissatisfaction and their gender and
experience was strong (Phi-value >0.8).

As the findings from the teacher questionnaire, the results from the interview
data also showed that the teachers were not pleased with their learners’ interest and
ability in speaking. As to T1, for example, the learners were simply attending speaking
classes because it was part of the syllabus. T2 also indicated that grammar was the only
aspect of English language teaching that the students were interested in. T4 viewed
the issue differently; he said the learners’ had the desire to fluently speak English, but
their desire even was naïve as they did not want to practice. Lack of interest was not
the only issue the teachers complained about the students but also their lack of the
basic background skills and experience of practicing classroom speaking activities. In
this regard, T4 indicated his students could not understand the lessons due to their
background while T1 labeled his students unfit to the grade level they were in. T3 on
his part recommended that intervention is needed from the concerned bodies as the
learners’ command of English was very poor.

Briefly, the majority of the teachers were pessimistic about the students’ interest
and courage in learning to speak. On the contrary, they believed that the students were
interested in grammar and vocabulary. They were also not satisfied with the overall
progress of their learners as far as learning English was concerned.

Beliefs about the Aspects that Exerted Influences on their

Beliefs
The vast majority (83.6%) of the teachers thought that their beliefs about teaching
speaking skills were very much influenced by their teaching experiences. Of the
given alternatives, experiences as a learner at high schools and pre-service education
programs in college/university ranked second as they were chosen by an equal
number of the teachers (32.3%). The influence of the books/articles the teachers read
and in-service training were picked by twenty-nine and twenty-seven percent of the
respondents respectively. On the other hand, Continuous Professional Development
(CPD) program was the least chosen.

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Figure 2. Issues that influence the teachers’ beliefs about teaching speaking

The findings from the teacher questionnaire revealed that the majority of the teacher
believed their cognitions about teaching speaking skills was primarily influenced by
their teaching experiences. The remaining four aspects (experience as a learner, pre-
service education programs, books, and training) almost had a similar impact on their
beliefs while CPD was the least influencing aspect.

Unlike those who filled in the questionnaire, only one of the four interviewed
teachers (T2) mentioned prior teaching experience as the source of his beliefs about
teaching speaking. To T1 and T4, own learning experiences exerted the primary
influence on their belief about how speaking could be effectively taught. Despite the
labeling of own learning experience as the main source, T1 also added workshops and
training he took part and the courses he took to the list. T3 on his part reported that
in-service training played a pivotal role in shaping his thoughts.

Beliefs about the Contextual Factors that Influence the

Teaching of Speaking
To the vast majority (94.3%) of the teachers, the teaching of speaking was highly
influenced by the students’ lack of basic background skills. Of the given alternatives,
four of them, which were ranked from second to fourth, were picked by a nearly
similar number of the teachers. These were: the use of students’ mother tongue in the
classroom (84.9%), uncomfortable classroom atmosphere and inadequate classroom
facilities (81.3%), large class size (79.2%), and students’ lack of interest in speaking
lessons (78.1%). Besides, the students’ low and uneven participation was selected
by fifty-three percent of the teachers. The two least chosen contextual factors were:
teachers’ insufficient oral proficiency and inadequate methodological understanding
of teaching speaking (20.8%) and washback effects of national examinations (27.6%).

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Figure 3. Teachers’ beliefs about the contextual factors that influence the teaching of
speaking

In the interview, the nature of the instrument gave the participants the possibility
to mention most of the factors they thought were influencing the teaching of speaking.
Still, most of the contextual the teachers reported were learner-related. All the teachers,
for example, mentioned the following factors: learners’ lack of the basic background
skills that were required to understand even simple classroom instructions,
inexperience in practicing classroom speaking activities, fear of the stage and making
mistakes, and lack of interest in speaking lessons. As T1 indicated, the learners’ lack of
interest in speaking lessons originated from three sources: the focus on standardized
tests to which speaking was not a part, hopelessness speaking in English was difficult
to achieve even if they learn and practice it, and the misconception that learning
English meant all about studying and knowing the grammar and vocabulary of the
language. Besides the learners, three of the participants (T2, T3 and T4) reported that
some of the speaking contents of the textbook were ineffective. To T3, for example,
the textbook did not promote interactions while T4 oral skills were disregarded in the
textbook as the focus was on the grammar of the language. T3 and T4 also blamed
most of the English teachers for not having the expected command in the language
and determination which they thought were fundamentals to teach speaking. Like
the learner-related factors, the teachers also agreed that the teaching of speaking
was impeded by large class size. As to T4, it was not only the size that impeded the
instruction but also the seats as the learners sat on sealed desks which made group
discussion, a speaking activity he regarded as the most effective, difficult. T2 and
T3 also seemed to be bothered by the school administrators’ demand to cover the
textbook at any cost within the given time. Finally, T1 indicated that the students’
master of speaking was hindered by the school culture. To him, the learners who
practice speaking in and outside the classroom were afraid of their peers’ criticism as
speaking in English was considered showing off one’s ability not only by the students
but also by the teachers.

In general, the teachers thought that the student-related factors (lack of

background, use of mother-tongue, and lack of interest) and the classroom-related

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factors (inadequate classroom facility and large class size) played the leading roles in
influencing the teaching of speaking. Most of the teachers however did not think that
their English proficiency and methodological understanding had that much influence.

The Relationships between Beliefs about Teaching

Speaking and the Classroom Practices
In the questionnaire, the respondents were asked to rate the relationships between
their beliefs how speaking could be effectively taught with the actual classroom
practices in a five-point Likert scale item. The result revealed that a relative majority
(49.5%) of the teachers believed there was a fair relationship between their beliefs
and the classroom practices. However, thirty-one percent of the teachers rated the
relationship as poor. Those who regarded the relationships between their beliefs
and classroom practices as excellent and good were sixteen percent and two percent
respectively.

Table 1. Teachers’ rating of the relationships between their espoused beliefs and
the classroom practices

Item Ratings Freq. Percent

The relationships between teachers’ Excellent 4 2.1

beliefs and the classroom practices Good 30 15.6
Fair 95 49.5
Poor 59 30.7
Very poor 4 2.1

Discussions
Speaking was considered as one of the important aspects of English language
instruction to the learners’ academic achievement and personal success. Besides,
speaking was one of the vital productive skills the teachers wanted their students to
improve the most. Identifying speaking as one of the most important skills and the
teaching of the speaking lessons as a must was not only a shared belief for teachers in
this study. Tleuov (2016) and Vibulphol (2004), for example, reported that teachers
thought speaking has been one of the most important skills that needed to be learned
and practiced. Leong and Ahmadi (2017) and Ur (1991) also stated that speaking is
the most important aspect of learning a second or foreign language as success is often
measured by how well the learners have improved their spoken ability. The teachers’
beliefs about the benefits of speaking also matched with the reports of Baker and

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Westrup (2003) that indicated individuals with good speaking skills have greater
chances of better education, finding good jobs, and getting a promotion. Accordingly,
speaking was the skill the teachers themselves wanted to improve and required their
students to improve the most.

Though the teachers agreed on the importance of the ability to speak English and
the essentiality of teaching speaking lessons, it was not the skill the teachers enjoyed
to teach and the students preferred to learn as they were interested in grammar and
vocabulary lessons. The teachers perceived speaking, the skill itself, and the teaching of
speaking lessons as difficult when compared to other language skills. These all showed
how speaking is overlooked in the instructional process. Likewise, Leong and Ahmadi
(2017) and Musliadi (2016) reported that speaking is one of the disregarded areas
of English language teaching at schools. It was alarming because speaking was also
identified as the weakest part of the learners; it was the weakest but also the disregarded
part of the instructional process.

The teachers’ beliefs about the purpose of teaching speaking could play pivotal
roles in their selection of the classroom activities and their classroom decisions.
Therefore, it was important to understand the teachers’ beliefs about the objectives
of teaching speaking and the areas they wanted to focus on. The teachers in this
study believed that developing learners’ ability to form coherent connected speech
with a normal level of speed, which we literally referred to as fluency, should be
the primary focus. The teachers’ prioritization of fluency accords with what Brown
(1993) said that developing fluency has become a major objective in language teaching
methodology. On the other hand, it contradicted with the arguments of educators
like Lindahl (2018) who claimed that there should be a balance between fluency (i.e.,
being able to speak fluidly to convey meaning) and accuracy (i.e., being able to create
utterances and pronounce words relatively error-free). However, if teachers’ views of
the speaking teaching objectives were used alone to match their cognitions with the
speaking teaching approaches Goh and Burns (2012) mentioned (direct, indirect, and
balanced), the teachers’ views went to an indirect approach that prioritizes fluency
over accuracy.

The teachers’ were against learning and memorizing common phrases and
expressions, and providing equivalent phrases or expressions in students’ mother
tongue in teaching speaking. They rather supported practicing real-life communicative
activities. This belief of the teacher matched with the communicative views of language
teaching as Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) claims learners learn a language
through the process of communicating in it rather than studying the given phrases and
looking for their equivalents in the students’ mother tongue (Richards, 2006; Richards
and Rodgers, 1999).

It is assumed that teachers have different levels of language competencies

(Shamim, 2008). The teachers in this study were confident that they had sufficient

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English proficiency and adequate methodological understanding of teaching speaking

which were required to become qualified English teachers. This finding disagrees with
the reports by Young et al., (2014) that stated English language teachers knew their
command of English was not sufficient for classroom teaching or communication.
However, the experienced teachers’ optimism than the least experienced ones
coincided with what was reported by (Pennington and Richards, 2016).

Skehan (1991:276) stated the following about language aptitude: “there is a talent
for learning languages that is independent of intelligence; it varies between people.”
Accordingly, to the teachers in this study, some students were better in their speaking
aptitude (the ability to learn speaking), and speaking aptitude and writing aptitudes
were incongruent as those who were good at written English were not good at speaking.
By and large, they thought Ethiopians’ speaking aptitude was not good.

Previous studies report that discussion exercises were the most preferred and used
ones by English language teachers in oral skills lessons (Esayas, 2019; Gudu, 2015;
Kaski-Akhawan, 2013). This was true to the majority of the teachers in this study as the
discussion was the effective classroom activity and group work was the effective mode
of interaction in teaching speaking.

Of the different sources of teachers’ cognitions reported by different scholars, the

ones by Richards and Lockhart (1996) were common. They identified six sources of
teacher cognition which could be categorized into three major sources: own learning
experience at primary and secondary schools, pre-service education programs (college
and/or university), and teaching experiences. Of these, Borg (2003) reported that prior
language learning experiences laid the foundation for teachers’ cognitions that are often
stronger and resistant to change. However, the teacher believed that their cognition
about teaching speaking skills was primarily influenced by their teaching experiences.
The remaining four aspects (experience as a learner, pre-service education programs,
books, and training) almost had a similar impact on their beliefs while CPD was the
least influencing aspect.

Regardless of the length of study, EFL learners have difficulties in using English
for academic work and communication (Lee, 2009; Sawir, 2005). This seemed why
the teachers were dissatisfied with the students’ overall progress. The teachers did not
think that the students were even good at the aspects, grammar and vocabulary, they
were interested in let alone the skill they disliked. Moreover, the teachers assumed that
the learner-related factors (i.e. lack of background, use of mother-tongue, and lack of
interest) were the most responsible for the difficulties of teaching speaking.

The debate on the relationships between teachers’ cognitions and their classroom
practices is yet unresolved as different teacher cognition researchers have reported
three forms of relationships: congruent (Mansour, 2009; Pajares, 1992), incongruent
(Khader, 2012; Hendric, Harmon, & Linerode, 2004) and mixed (Borg, 2006; Farrell

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& Lim, 2005). To the relative majority of the teachers in this study, the relationship
between their beliefs and the classroom practices was fair.

Conclusions and Recommendations

Conclusions
Based on the findings, the following conclusions are drawn:

• Though speaking was considered an important part of English language

instruction, it was one of the disregarded skills that the teachers did not enjoy
teaching.

• The ability to speak English and teaching speaking lessons were difficult
tasks for the teachers though they seemed to be confident about their English
proficiency and understanding of the speaking skills teaching methods.

• To the teachers, practicing real-life communicative activities was more

essential than memorization and translation to teaching speaking.

• Group discussion was an effective classroom speaking activity for the teachers.

• The teachers were doubtful about the relationships between their beliefs about
teaching speaking and classroom practices.

Recommendations
• The following recommendations are given to researchers who are interested in
the teaching of speaking:

• It is pivotal to investigate the problems the teachers encounter in teaching

speaking and show the possible solutions.

• Studies on why females and least experienced teachers are pessimistic about
their English proficiency and understanding of the speaking skills teaching
methods than the males and experienced teachers are also required.

• It is also important to study if what the teachers think of the students is real or
teacher constructed.

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• The practice and contributions of the Continuous Professional Development

(CPD) program for the teachers’ professional developments needs to be
investigated as it was the least chosen regarding its contributions to the
teachers’ beliefs.

• The study on the relationships between teachers’ beliefs about teaching

speaking and their classroom practices can also contribute greatly.

The researcher also recommends awareness-raising and professional training to

be given to the teachers. Thus, the teacher training colleges and universities or the
zonal and Wordea education bureaus need to shed light on the teachers’ conceptions
of the ability to speak and the teaching of speaking lessons as difficult as that can have
methodological impacts.

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Authors
*Habtamu Adem is an English lecturer at Wolkite University, College of Social
Science and Humanities, Department of English Language and Literature. He is a PhD
candidate at Addis Ababa University, College of Humanities, Language Studies, and
Journalism and Communication, Department of Foreign Languages and Literature.
His area of research interest include teachers’ cognitions and classroom practices,
teaching English to young learners, teaching speaking, and teaching grammar.

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6540-7579

Dr Mendida Berkessa is an assistant professor of English at Addis Ababa University,

College of Humanities, Language Studies, and Journalism and Communication,
Department of Foreign Languages and Literature.

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0638-7579

How to reference this article: Adem, H., & Berkessa, M. (2022) EFL Teachers’ Cognitions about
Teaching Speaking Skills . GIST – Education and Learning Research Journal, 24. 65-94. https://
doi.org/10.26817/16925777.1308