EFL Teachers’ Productive Skills Errors and their Effects on Students English Language Proficiency: The Case of Selected Preparatory Schools in East Wollega Zone

Abstract

The objective of this descriptive study was to investigate the types of oral and written errors EFL teachers make, the sources of the errors and their potential effects on students’ English language proficiency. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from 16 teachers found in 4 preparatory schools in East Wollega Zone. The schools were selected purposively according to their locations and the teachers were selected by availability sampling technique. To get the quantitative and the qualitative data on the types of written and the oral errors, essays and interviews were used. The sources and effects of the written and oral errors were found through classroom observations, dictation of English words and interview. The written errors were grouped as grammatical, lexical, semantics and mechanics, and the oral ones were grouped as grammatical, lexical and semantic. The findings indicated that the teacher-participants made 380 written errors which occurred in 19 categories 360 oral errors which occurred in 16 categories. The analysis of the interview data attributed sources of the teachers’ written errors to the grammatical, lexical, semantics and mechanics errors made as intralingual transfer. From the dictation of 30 English words made by the researchers. It was found out that the teacher-participants’ primary school experiences had an interlanguage error transfer on them such that their spelling errors were due to a lack of appropriate pronunciation teaching by their primary and secondary school teachers. The other source of teachers’ written errors was the mismatch between their English language learning experiences with their current teaching experiences. The findings also indicated that the fact that teachers made oral and written errors undeservedly, posed problems on their students language proficiency. Thus, it could be concluded that the targeted teachers need lots of trainings and workshops not to let them spoil their students’ language proficiency.