Birhanu Simegn

2 Publications in AERD

Author Publications

Self-Efficacy and Metacognitive Strategy Use in Reading Comprehension: EFL Learners’ Perspectives

By Tadele Muche

A review of the literature on second language learning indicates scanty skill-specific research related to efficacy beliefs and metacognitive strategy use, particularly in students’ English reading skills. This study, thus, investigated the influence of metacognitive strategies use and self-efficacy beliefs on EFL reading comprehension of 150 learners enrolled in three randomly-selected government high schools in Ethiopia. The study findings revealed that the participants used metacognitive reading strategies and self-efficacy at a moderate level, and problem-solving strategies were the most frequently utilized strategies when compared to global and support reading strategies. In addition, a significant positive relationship was unveiled among all the variables. Moreover, the analysis showed that metacognitive reading strategy use and efficacy belief jointly account for significant variance in students’ reading comprehension performance with self-efficacy being the stronger predictor. However, gender disparity was not detected in strategy use and self-efficacy beliefs. Results are discussed vis-à-vis implications and future research. © 2023, De La Salle University.

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Using grammar consciousness-raising tasks to enhance students' narrative tenses competence

By Saleamlak Tilahun

Enhancing learners' grammar competence basically improves their communication skills. Nevertheless, the question of which grammar teaching technique is highly useful for the purpose is arguable. In light of that, this study was set out to examine the effects of using grammar consciousness-raising tasks in enhancing students' narrative tenses competence vis-a-vis the conventional method in which grammar is taught mainly through teacher explanations and sentence level practices followed by corrective feedback. To this end, the study included a total of 90 grade eleven students in the experimental and the comparison groups. In the intervention which lasted for five weeks, the experimental group participants were taught narrative tenses via consciousness-raising tasks, and the comparison group ones were taught the same grammar features via the conventional method. Tests and semi-structured interviews were employed to collect data. The findings revealed that grammar consciousness-raising tasks were more effective than the conventionally used grammar teaching method in improving students' ability to understand and use the target grammar features. Moreover, data from the interviews showed that participants in the experimental group had positive perceptions about grammar consciousness-raising tasks. Based on the findings, it was recommended that grammar consciousness-raising tasks should be used in the teaching of grammar.

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