An Exploration of the Common Difficulties and Factors

Abstract

The endeavor of this study is to explore the common difficulties encountered by EFL students in speaking as well as the factors behind those difficulties. In order to realize these objectives and to evaluate the validity of the hypotheses, a field work was carried out in the Department of English at the University of Mohamed El Bachir El Ibrahimi for the academic year 2021- 2022. The quantitative method was adopted, and the data was collected through submitting a questionnaire to all second year students (males and females). After that, 86 participants were randomly picked out of 215 with a percentage of 40%. The analysis of the collected data revealed the following results: Second year English students encounter linguistic and psychological difficulties. The former include grammar confusion, lack of vocabulary, pronunciation problems, first language interference and the difficulty to balance accuracy and fluency. The latter refer to fear of making mistakes, shyness, lack of self-confidence, low selfesteem, anxiety and inhibition. However, the factors that contribute to the aforementioned difficulties are: lack of motivation and interest, irrelevance of topics to students‟ life, lack of activities devoted to speaking and lack of equipments and audio-visual aids, over-crowded classes and limited time, lack of exposure to English, lack of listening and speaking practice and excessive mother tongue use. These results confirm the hypotheses. Eventually, some recommendations and suggestions are provided for students, teachers, administrators and curriculum designers in attempt to help overcoming these problems