THE LOW EFL READING LEVEL OF GRADE FOUR STUDENTS AND REASONS: WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO STUDENTS IN ABOMSA PRIMARY SCHOOL, ETHIOPIA

The purpose of this study was to explore the EFL reading ability of fourth graders of students in one selected school in Ethiopia. To this end, selected with purposive sampling technique, 118 grade 4 students of Abomsa Primary school in Ethiopia were tested the EFL oral reading test. The results of the data analyzed through frequency and percent, show that the grade four students in the mentioned school were poor readers in English. They were able to name the upper and lower case letters of English language and decode one syllable words with three or four letters. Moreover, the study found the three confusing areas of English letters for these students such as letter shape, letter-sound name and letter similarity with L1 script. Recommendations and implications were provided according to the findings of the study.