Students’ and teachers’ attitude towards group work in learning and teaching English: grade nine students and teachers in some selected secondary schools of hawassa city administration in focus

The main purpose of this descriptive study was to find out grade nine students’ and teachers’ attitude towards learning and teaching English in group work modality and related factors to their attitudinal problems with reference to some selected secondary schools of Hawassa City Administration in Ethiopia; the secondary schools selected were Addis Ketema and Alamura and these schools were selected purposefully. To that end, from the total population of seven-hundred twenty (720) students and twelve teachers, ninety-four (94) students and six teachers were selected by employing simple random sampling. Data gathering tools like attitude questionnaire and, interview were employed. After the data were gathered, the quantitative data were analyzed by employing the techniques of comparing means, frequency counts and percentile counts, while the qualitative data were thematically analyzed; the findings showed that the students and teachers have positive attitude towards learning and teaching English in group modality, though students have low level of language ability and lack of practice in group work. The result obtained through the questionnaire and the interview confirmed this reality; Based on the result, the researcher recommends that the use of group mode of learning English should be encouraged from early grades, for it develops students’ independent learning.