Factors Affecting Oral Fluency of EFL Students A Case study of second year EFL LMD Students the University Centre of Barika

Abstract

Abstract The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that may lead to speaking difficulties among EFL learners. It also aims at evaluating the quality of the current practices of learning, teaching oral skill of English at Barika University center. In order to detect the points of strength and weakness in oral classrooms, a descriptive analysis was made based on quantitative method. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire that was given to 46 students and another questionnaire was given to 8 oral class teachers. Results were studied in a quantitative manner. Frequencies and percentages were manually figured out. Results showed the majority of students did not make enough effort to reach high level of competency in speaking, also results revealed that students face the following speaking difficulties when they try to speak: fear of mistakes, lake of accuracy, the disability to think of anything to say, speak very little, unjustified use of mother tongue and students' shyness. In addition, the majority of teachers did not use a common standard method for evaluation. Although teachers claimed using Communicative Approach and Task-based learning, there is medium success in developing students’ fluency and accuracy. Teachers also claimed that such lack of success is due to unmotivated students, lack of time, and lack of using technology, in addition to students’ insufficient efforts to prepare for oral classes. The study recommends that interconnected efforts by students, teachers, and the English Departments altogether should be increased to enhance students’ oral proficiency.