Perceptions and Difficulties of Students in Large EFL Classes. Grade 11 Students in Focus

Master's Thesis from the year 2023 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Pedagogy, Literature Studies, grade: 3.81, Addis Ababa University, language: English, abstract: The major objective of the study was to assess students' perceptions towards EFL large classes in terms of its instructional, psychological and social aspects and their perceived challenges. To this end, two preparatory schools were selected owing to their convenience for the study, the researchers' familiarity with the situation and the serious situational constraints related to EFL large class size with special reference to grade eleven. To achieve the purpose of the study, a descriptive research method was employed because the main objective was just to gather information about students' perceptions and their perceived difficulties. Likert-scale type questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were employed to gather adequate data from the student respondents, but only open-ended and close-ended questionnaires were distributed to eight randomly selected EFL teachers to confirm data obtained from their students. The instruments were piloted before the main study on 20 students and some modifications were made on their grammar and wordings, but six items were rejected. Out of 1545 students, 155 were selected as samples through simple random sampling technique and ten of them were voluntarily selected and interviewed. The data collected through likert type questionnaires were analyzed through descriptive statistics like frequency, percentages and means. Data gathered through interview were analyzed through descriptive statements. The data gathered through questionnaires were substantiated by the data obtained through interview.