Examining academic oral communication difficulties and speaking proficiency
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2024
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oum-El-Bouaghi
Abstract
Developing effective oral communication skills in English as a foreign language (EFL) is prioritised by many learners as it allows them to express themselves and succeed academically. However, students often encounter various difficulties that hinder their speaking proficiency. This quantitative study aims to investigate the most prevalent oral communication difficulties faced by Algerian EFL students and their perceived impact on speaking proficiency. Furthermore, it seeks to evaluate students' perceptions of the effectiveness of different strategies and techniques for improving oral communication skills. The study used a structured online questionnaire administered to a random sample of 60 second-year students from the LMD program at L'arbi ben M'hidi University. The research questions focused on quantifying the most common oral communication difficulties reported by students, their relative frequencies or rankings, and the perceived effectiveness of various strategies and techniques for enhancing speaking proficiency. The results showed that most second year students actually face linguistic and psychological difficulties while speaking English. The majority of them suffer from lack of grammar and vocabulary, poor pronunciation, in addition to anxiety, shyness and lack of self-confidence without forgetting the interference of the mother tongue. We found that these difficulties have a huge impact on students’ speaking proficiency. Solutions to overcome These difficulties were suggested. The findings of the study are valuable for Future research and highlight the importance of Technology and classroom strategies in Developing speaking skills.