Analyzing the Current English Language Teaching Materials in Line with the Academic and Professional Needs and Interests of Diploma Theology Students

Abstract

The study aims to analyze the current English language teaching/learning materials in line with the academic and professional needs and interests of diploma theology students in some selected seminaries and theological colleges of Oromia. The study is a descriptive survey that makes use of a mixed-method approach. The data were collected using a questionnaire, interview, and content analysis. The participants of the study were second and third-year diploma theology students, former theology students, theology instructors, and EFL teachers in the seminaries and colleges. All the students were chosen using comprehensive sampling technique, and ten former theology students who were working as priests and evangelists using the snowball technique to fill out the questionnaire. EFL teachers and theology instructors were chosen for the interview. Additionally, the contents of three units of the current English language teaching materials’ were evaluated using the checklist. The study revealed that both students and EFL teachers perceived the teaching materials less assisting the students in their academic and professional contexts. Regarding problems that theology students had in using the English language were the background of the students, the inappropriateness of the teaching materials, the environment in which they grew up, and the ways they were selected for attending the program, which was not academic based but spirituality based. Based on the results of the contents analysis, the contents of the teaching materials hardly meet the needs and interests of diploma theology students. Finally, the researcher developed a sample unit (teaching/learning material) that can be used as a model.