FACTORS INFLUENCING FEMALE STUDENTS' PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING SKILL IN ENGLISH LESSON: A CASE OF GRADE 10 HASSASA HIGH SCHOOL

This study was designed to assess the factors that influence grade ten female students’ participation in English speaking lesson at Hassasa High School. The participants of the study were teachers and students of the school. From the total 580 female students in the school174 (30%) of them were randomly selected to answer the questionnaires, 32 students to participate in the FGD and all the 6 English teachers of grade 10 were selected comprehensively to answer the interview. The research design used was descriptive type. The instruments of data collection used in this study were interview, FGD and questionnaire. The researcher used descriptive method to analyze qualitative and quantitative data gathered from the respondents using frequencies, percentage and mean. The findings of the study showed that female students have poor English speaking back ground, low motivation to speak, low initiation to ask and answer in English language. Also female students’ individual and group participation was found to be low. The psychological factors like fear and lack of confidence were found to be among the factors. The study have illustrated that teachers lack of encouragement, lack of giving feedback and lack of the use of teaching aids. In addition, teachers did not facilitate female students’ participation other interactive methods like drama, debate, demonstration of pictures, maps and the likes. Regarding parents, lack to give moral support and encouragement, gender bias, work over load, cultural attitude and financial problems were among the factors affecting female students’ participation in EFL lesson. Large class size, was among the main problems related to the school administration. Finally, based on the findings of the study, the researcher recommended that the teachers should encourage, apply interactive methods, give feedback and use teaching aids to help female students participate actively in English speaking lesson.<br>