An investigation into the causes of speaking problems experienced by learners of English at tertiary level

Abstract

This study was carried out to investigate reasons of students for not speaking in English speaking classes as well as solutions suggested by students to overcome problems in speaking classes. This study also tried to find out the influence of individual differences such as gender, marks, self- perceived success, and field of study on speaking problems experienced by participants. The study was conducted at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University with 235 participants in the spring term of 2008-2009 Academic Year from Preparatory Classes and English Language Teaching Department. Data was collected through a questionnaire that sought to collect information concerning problems experienced and suggestions for solving these problems. The data obtained from these questionnaires were analyzed through SPSS 16.0. The findings of the questionnaire showed that our participants mostly experienced problems related to their language proficiency, content knowledge and materials and methods. Solutions offered by students are mostly related to contextual factors, materials and methods and affective and personal factors. Gender seemed to influence problems experienced. Male students tend to experience more problems related to classroom climate, language proficiency and teacher stated by male and female students as these categories while female students seemed to experience more problems related to affective and personal factors. Selfperceived success had a negative correlation to all problem areas. Students’ marks were negatively correlated to classroom climate, content knowledge, language proficiency and teacher. Concerning the field of study, preparatory students reported more language proficiency and teacher related problems. The study concludes that having a more positive and humanistic classroom climate, encouraging learners to speak English, tolerating their mistakes and giving them more opportunities to practice English may be helpful for speaking classes.