Abstract:
This study mainly aimed to assess the EFL teachers' perceptions and classroom practices of
active learning method in English classrooms of grade 10 at Tabo secondary school. In doing
this, a descriptive research design was employed by utilizing a mixed method. Accordingly, 5
English language teachers and 64 students were included in this current study by availability
and simple random sampling technique respectively. The data for the study were gathered by
classroom observations, Likert scale type of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Data obtained using classroom observations and questionnaires were analyzed quantitatively
whereas data collected through teachers' interviews were analyzed qualitatively/thematically.
The study revealed that, English teachers have a higher level perception of ALM concepts as
implementing active learning; for instance, has a great contribution in encouraging students' self-confidence and independent-learning in English classes. The result again confirmed that, despite EFL teachers' well understanding of ALM implementation, the actual practices of its
techniques in English classrooms of the afore-referred school was poor. The overall findings
further proved that, English teachers' perceptions of ALM is mismached with their classroom
practices statistically since the p value is greater than 0.05. Large class size, time constraint
to cover the prescribed syllabus and teachers' work load to plan and practice different active
learning techniques were found to be the major challenges that hindered the implementations
of active learning in EFL classes. Based on the conclusion made, possible recommendations
were forwarded to maximize the implementation of active learning in English classrooms.
