Global Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

Are Elt-Practitioners Products of Ideal Elt Courses? (The Case of Eight Ethiopian Universities)

Dr. Sanjay Kumar Jha

Given the fact that qualification of an ELT practitioner considerably accounts for the low or high performance of EFL learners, today’s ELT world has seen an unprecedented array of ELT courses vis-à-vis qualifications especially at tertiary level. Amid these outnumbering ELT courses, Ethiopian ELT practitioners are flummoxed by two intertwined conundrum. Firstly, they are apprehensive about the recognition of their MA (TEFL) in global scenario. Secondly, they have started realizing in the wake of declining English education that the ELT curricula used in Ethiopian universities do not compete with the curricula of international stature. Hence, the paper limits its scope by setting two objectives: (i) exploring the most preferred ELT qualification globally and see whether 20 % Ethiopian-ELT-practitioners at least have the preferred qualification or not; (ii) finding the pedagogic lacunae between internationally acclaimed ELT curricula and the Ethiopian curricula. The required data were collected through document analysis of online and offline archival artifacts (documents). The data were analyzed using Pareto analysis (80/20%), and descriptive statistics. Under findings, MA (TESOL or/and Applied Linguistics) was found to be the most globally acclaimed ELT qualification but there are far less than 20% Ethiopian-ELT-practitioners who have the same degree. Moreover, the study showed a huge deviation between internationally acclaimed ELT curricula and the Ethiopian curricula. From remedial perspective, the paper forwards apposite recommendations to spread awareness of an ideal ELT curriculum for better prospect of ELT in Ethiopia.