Study the Effects of Differentiated Instruction on English Grammar Teaching in Ethiopia

The purpose of the current study was to explore the effects of differentiated instruction, a neglected instructional practice in the Ethiopia in the EFL class in the contemporary diverse classroom situations. To achieve this purpose, the study adopted the quasi-experimental study design and randomly selected two intact classes consisting of 84 grade 12 students (CG:43, EG:41) and pre-tested to prove the comparability of the students’ grammar learning achievement. Relevant quantitative data were gathered using an English grammar learning achievement test. The intervention lasted for 12 consecutive weeks from October 2022 through early January 2022. The experimental group was taught using flexible grouping, tiered instructions, scaffolding techniques, and anchored activities as differentiated instructional strategies while the control group was taught English grammar following the one-size-fits-all conventional approach that hardly addresses or neglects students’ diverse learning needs. This group was taught a similar language focus using only textbook-provided activities. The quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS, version 24 software. Confirming the normality of the quantitative data, the independent t-test and dependent t-test were used in analyzing the pre-test and post-test data, but the qualitative data were analyzed descriptively. The findings of the study indicated that the overall mean gains for the experimental group significantly differed from the corresponding comparison group’s post-test test mean gains. The within-group comparison also showed that the post-test results of the experimental group were significantly different from the pretest results. The calculated effect size for the dependent t-test and independent t-tests were found to be moderate and large. The effect size for the treatment group exposed to differentiated instructions revealed meaningful improvement in the students’ English grammar learning. In light of the main results, the study concluded that DI significantly improved students’ English grammar learning achievement. Accordingly, the study suggested that differentiated instruction should be integrated into the regular EFL class to promote students’ learning.