Thesis and Dissertations

Effects of Self-Regulated Learning Strategies Instruction on Students’ Academic Writing Skills, Self-Efficacy, and Critical Thinking Skills: The Case of English Language Majors at Bahir Dar University

2026-02-01T00:00:00Z

Effects of Self-Regulated Learning Strategies Instruction on Students’ Academic Writing Skills, Self-Efficacy, and Critical Thinking Skills: The Case of English Language Majors at Bahir Dar University Zelalem, Ayalew Abate The purpose of this study was to investigate whether self-regulated learning strategies predicted students‟ writing skills/performance, self-efficacy, and critical thinking. The study participants consisted of eleven English majors who were taking the course, Advanced Writing Skills I, in the 2024/2025 academic year. An interrupted time-series within-group design was employed. Repeated measures MANOVA, repeated measures ANOVA, narration, and textual analysis were used to analyze the data obtained from writing tests, self-efficacy questionnaire, diary entries, and essay excerpts, respectively. Accordingly, a multivariate MANOVA results (F(9, 2) = 24.960, p = .039, Wilks’ λ= .009, ηp2= .991) revealed a significant effect of self-regulated learning strategies on writing performance and critical thinking. Likewise, the univariate MANOVA indicated a significant effect of these strategies on writing performance and critical thinking. The tests of within-subjects effects in repeated measures ANOVA (F(1.831, 18.310) = 392.511, p = .000, ηp2 = .975) also showed that the mean scores of the participants for writing self-efficacy changed over the six time points. Moreover, the results of the analysis of the diary entries evidenced that the application of self-regulatory strategies in EFL writing class was effective in enhancing the intended dependent variables. In terms of writing skills, organization, mechanics, grammatical accuracy, and coherence and cohesion were relatively significantly improved. With respect to self-efficacy, most of the students reported improved capability belief in writing. Regarding critical thinking, the participants were able to identify and analyze claims and arguments, interpret and explain controversial issues, evaluate the weakness and strength of their essays, and give judicious conclusions. Regarding their progress across time, slightly improved writing and critical thinking skills were reported during the first diary entry than before while significant progress was reported during the second diary entry better than ever before. Besides, textual analysis of essay excerpts moderately supported the results of diary entries. Overall, the findings were largely positive, with the exception of few qualitative findings, and the participants, indeed, perceived that the instruction in self-regulated learning strategies in EFL writing classes was motivating, encouraging, commendable, and enjoyable. Thus, the combined results indicate the need to incorporate these strategies in the instructional process.

Decolonizing Narratives: Identity Reconstruction in Selected Postcolonial Anglophone African Novels

2026-06-01T00:00:00Z

Decolonizing Narratives: Identity Reconstruction in Selected Postcolonial Anglophone African Novels Daniel, Belay The colonial experience profoundly disrupted African identities through the imposition of Eurocentric representations that relegated indigenous histories, cultures, and epistemologies. Although political independence has been attained across much of Africa, the bequests of colonialism continue to shape the ways Africans perceive and negotiate their identities. Existing scholarships on postcolonial African literature have extensively examined themes of colonial oppression, hybridity, migration, and resistance. However, limited attention has been paid to how postcolonial African novels employ decolonizing narratives as mechanisms for reconstructing African identities. This study, therefore, aimed to explore how postcolonial African novels reconstruct identity through decolonizing distorted narratives as reflected in selected Anglophone postcolonial African novels. To this end, three novels, namely Americanah (2013), We Need New Names (2013), and Season of Migration to the North (2009), were purposively selected and analyzed from the vantage point of postcolonial, Afrocentric, and deconstruction theories. The study adopted a qualitative research design grounded in interpretative textual analysis and employed thematic analysis to analyze and interpret patterns of meaning across the novels. As the study is entirely text-oriented, the main sources of data were the selected novels, and therefore relevant extracts for analysis were collected through a close reading of the texts. The results of the analysis reveal that the selected novels not only challenge colonial narratives and representations of Africa (ns) but also actively re-center African subjectivity by foregrounding African values, voices, experiences, and perspectives. In doing so, they celebrate pride, communal resilience, and indigenous knowledge systems. The novels are found presenting postcolonial concepts such as hybridity, othering, and mimicry as strategic narrative techniques for disrupting colonial binaries and destabilizing fixed meanings imposed by colonial discourse. The findings also disclose that, in all the three novels, memory, history, and ancestral consciousness play pivotal roles in decolonizing colonial narratives and reconstructing authentic African identity. The findings further unveil that, although each novel addresses narrative decolonization and identity reconstruction in its own way, they all share common themes such as critiquing colonial representation, resisting racism, portraying migration as both a source of disenchantment and an impetus for Afrocentric awareness, exploring Western education as both a source of alienation and enlightenment, questing for home/belonging, and reclaiming cultural continuity. The study, then, draws a conclusion that postcolonial African novels have the power xi to reconstruct fragmented African identity, enabling characters to decolonize dominant colonial/neo-colonial narratives by reclaiming African voices, histories, and epistemologies.

Effects of Teacher-student Negotiated Interaction on EFL Students’ Grammar Competence and Classroom Participation

2025-12-01T00:00:00Z

Effects of Teacher-student Negotiated Interaction on EFL Students’ Grammar Competence and Classroom Participation Teshome, Abel The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of teacher–student negotiated interaction (TSNI) on grade 10 EFL students‟ grammar competence, the retention of the grammar competence, the students‟ classroom participation, and their perceptions about the approach to learning grammar. The study used a quasi-experimental design and a mixed-methods research approach. The investigation focused on past tenses and passive voice. TSNI was implemented in the experimental group to teach grammar. The comparison group received conventional (teacher-led) grammar instruction without collaborative dialogue with the teacher. The intervention lasted for eight weeks. Data were collected through tests, questionnaires, semi- structured interviews, and classroom observation. Independent samples t-tests, one-way repeated measures ANOVA, one-sample t-tests, and descriptive statistics were employed to analyze the quantitative data. Thematic analysis and classroom discourse analysis were used to analyze and interpret the qualitative data. In the past tenses, the experimental group showed a mean score of 64.83 in the posttest, while the comparison group scored 50.07. The independent samples t-test (t = 14.875, p < 0.05) confirmed a statistically significant difference between the two groups. Likewise, in the posttest results of passive voice, the experimental group scored 66.31, while the comparison group scored 53.32. This study suggested that TSNI is more effective than conventional (teacher-led) grammar instruction in improving students‟ past tense and passive voice competence. In addition, the findings revealed that the overall frequency of students‟ participation in grammar classes showed a significant increase over time. The results also indicated that TSNI interaction could lead to sustained grammar competence across time. Furthermore, data from questionnaires and semi-structured interviews showed that experimental group participants had positive perceptions about teacher–students negotiated interaction in grammar classes. Based on the findings, it is recommended that TSNI be adopted in EFL classrooms to teach grammar and boost students‟ classroom participation.

Effects of Explicit and Implicit Written Corrective Feedback on Writing Quality, EFL Learners’ Engagement, and Perceptions of the Feedback Type

2026-06-01T00:00:00Z

Effects of Explicit and Implicit Written Corrective Feedback on Writing Quality, EFL Learners’ Engagement, and Perceptions of the Feedback Type Tadesse, Bunaro This study employed an embedded mixed-methods quasi-experimental design at Hidassie Secondary School in the Kambata Zone of Central Ethiopia to examine the effects of explicit and implicit written corrective feedback (WCF) on the writing quality of Grade 11 EFL students, categorized into explicit (n=31), implicit (n=30, and comparison (n=27) groups. Quantitative data were collected through tests and analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-tests, ANOVA and MANOVA, while think-aloud protocols (TAP) and semi-structured interviews explored students’ cognitive, affective, and behavioral engagement and perceptions. The research demonstrated that while both feedback types enhanced improvement in writing quality, explicit feedback produced statistically significant advantage (p < .001) over implicit and control groups, whereas the variation between implicit and control conditions remained statistically non-significant (p > .05) over time. While all writing components exhibited improvements and large effect sizes, ranging from the threshold .14 to .325, lexical resources showed the largest effect size at η² = .325. Crucially, the qualitative findings revealed a paradox between performance and cognitive engagement. Explicit feedback facilitated higher revision success through direct, often surface- level noticing, but implicit feedback fostered deeper cognitive processing and linguistic synthesis despite resulting in lower immediate test scores. Furthermore, students across all groups exhibited a similar affective reaction, transitioning from initial confusion to eventual appreciation. Based on the results, it is possible to conclude that both explicit and implicit WCF is effective in the similar EFL context. However, effectiveness of WCF is not merely a matter of feedback type, but interplay of affective, cognitive, behavioral engagement and learners’ perceptions. These findings imply that pedagogical practitioners should conceptualize WCF not merely as an instrument for error correction, but as a multifaceted cognitive catalyst. Consequently, teachers in similar EFL contexts are advised to strategically integrate both feedback types to balance immediate mechanical accuracy with the promotion of long-term metacognitive development, thereby addressing the nuanced relationship between pedagogical interventions, student engagement, and writing quality