INVESTGATING STUDENTS' AND TEACHERS' PRACTICES AND CHALLENGES OF HOME TAKE ASSIGNMENT IN ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE: GRADE 11 IN FOCUS AT ALAMURA AND MISRACK CHORA GENERAL SECONDARY AND PREPARATORY SCHOOLS

Abstract This study investigates grade 11 students’ and EFL teachers’ practices and challenges of home take assignment in English as a foreign language at Alamura and Misrack Chora General Secondary and preparatory Schools in Hawassa city .To achieve the objectives and research questions this study was used descriptive survey. In addition, quantitative and qualitative approach was employed in order to show the general picture of this study. This study was used grade 11 students, grade 11 EFL teachers, EFL department heads, and focus group discussion participants and documents analysis as primary sources. As a result, the relevant data were collected through questionnaire, semi-structure interview, documents analysis and focused group discussion. Therefore, the questionnaire was the major data instrument for the students but the semi- structure interview, document analysis& focus group discussion were used as supportive data inputs. The researcher was used simple random sampling technique to select 150 students that account totally 3o.54% of students’ from both Alamura and Misrack Chora General Secondary and preparatory schools. In addition, 7 EFL teachers and 2 EFL department heads’ were included using available sampling technique since their numbers were few in one of the schools. The quantitative and qualitative research approaches were employed in order to conduct this research. Therefore, bar graph was used to analysis quantitative method using the software package of SPSS 26 version whereas the qualitative data was presented in the form of narrations. The findings of the study revealed that most of the sample participants were perceived negative attitudes in doing home take assignments English as a foreign language since they mainly challenging in shortage of time, lack of updated reference materials, poor internet service and overlapping of many different assignments. EFL teachers also did not fully practice systematic and continuous feedbacks when they corrected their students’ home take assignments. As a result, to improve the practices of EFL home take assignments the researcher forwards the following recommendations: the directors’ and EFL teachers’ ought to work collaboratively to make continuous awareness and counseling to build the students’ negative attitude towards EFL home take assignments. Additionally, school administrators should create favorable conditions for short and long term continuous training to build the capacity of EFL teachers by working together with the nearby government universities.