Abstract            Volume:7  Issue-9  Year-2019         Original Research Articles

Online ISSN : 2347 - 3215 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcret@gmail.com

The purpose of this study was to find out the factors affecting the students’ oral communication in English class, to assess the roles of English teachers in enhancing the students’ oral communication and causes of students’ poor oral communication. To conduct the study, descriptive survey method was employed. The study was conducted in grade eight students of Gurumo Koysha primary school, South Ethiopia and to collect the data, from 225 students, 30 top ten students from three sections (i.e. section A-C) were used for distributing questionnaire, and 6 students, 3 from each class were selected using purposive sampling technique for interview. These students were the three top ranking students who were selected to keep the quality of interview data. All six English teachers were selected using purposive sampling technique for the interview due to their limited number in the school. Questionnaire consisting of closed and open ended questions was used as the main data gathering tool. It was substantiated with in depth interviews. The findings of the study revealed that both the teachers and students have positive attitude towards English oral communication, or continuous oral assessment. Surprisingly, however, the results of the study indicated that continuous oral assessment in English is a neglected area of practice. Among the factors affecting the effective implementation of continuous oral communication are the students’ linguistic background, structural constraints, absence of primary school level assessment policy, in adequacies in the use of informal continuous oral assessment methods, negligence of formative continuous assessment, negative attitude of teachers and students towards speaking lesson, students seem to have lack of motivation for speaking skill because their teachers didn’t encourage them, and their teaching method don’t allow students to speak freely were found to be the major ones. Finally, recommendations were put forward based on the major findings so as to minimize the problems affecting the effective implementation of continuous oral communication.

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