Factors Negatively Affect Speaking Skills at Saudi Colleges for Girls in the South

Abstract

This study investigated factors negatively affect English language speaking skills in Saudi colleges for girls in the South in terms of: a) Instructors. b) Students. c) Curriculum and textbook. d) English Language teaching methods and exercises. e) Teaching and learning environment. To collect data for the study, a questionnaire papers were distributed to 150 students studying at Mhayeal and Almajardah colleges of King Khalid University (KKU) at English languages department, and 10 female instructors were interviewed about the students' questionnaire information. Data generated were subjected to descriptive and analytical approach using SPSS. The findings were: 1. Using Arabic in class affect students' proficiency. 2. Students fear speaking English Language in public and can't make a phone conversation, presentation in English without Arabic translation. 3. Curriculum of listening and speaking does not contain enough exercises for speaking skills. 4. Instructors do not use strategies that develop speaking such as: role-play, debates, and presentation -assignment. 5. More time is devoted to listening skills than speaking skills. 6. Labs are not used for teaching listening and speaking skills. 7. Rarely CD is used as speaking model. 8. More than 30 students are in listening and speaking class. It has been strongly recommended: 1. Prohibit the students from using Arabic in English Language classes. 2. Use motivating teaching strategies such as: cultural debatable topics, discussions, role-play, and presentationsassignment to develop speaking proficiency. 3. Teach Listening and speaking course in the lab. 4. Increase the time of listening and speaking course to six hours instead of three to develop speaking proficiency. 5. Activate English club and societies inside the colleges. 6. Students' number in listening and speaking class must not exceed 30.

A Systematic Review of Research on Teaching English Language Skills for Saudi EFL Students

“…Of the most important barriers of oral proficienc , using Arabic in class, lack of practicing speaking, devoting more time to listening skills than speaking skills, lack of laboratories for teaching listening and speaking skills, rare use of CD as speaking models. More than 30 students are in listening and speaking class (Hamad, 2013). In concluding, these difficulties are mainly due tointense mother tongue interferences and intralingual interference (Alamin & Ahmed, 2012;Al-Hassaani, 2016).…”

The Effectiveness of Oral Assessment Techniques Used in EFL Classrooms in Saudi Arabia From Students and Teachers Point of View

“…Many studies have discussed speaking anxiety as one of the major factors that affect learners' performance including: Al Asmari (2015), Hamad (2013), Mukminin, Masbirorotni, Noprival, Sutarno, Arif and Maimunah (2015), Sook (2003), and Alrabai (2014). Al Asmari (2015) indicated that Saudi preparatory year students suffer from high levels of anxiety if they are involved in EFL classroom tasks without proper preparation.…”

“…A. (2013), Aljumah (2011), Hamad (2013), and Tokoz-Goktepe (2014). Further, numerous research has examined the effectiveness of specific strategies in teaching speaking skills and how it helps learners improve in these skills including: Aliakbari and Jamalvandi (2010), Correa (2015), Diyyab, Abdel-Haq and Aly (2013), Phaiboonnugulkij and Prapphal (2013), and Tuan (2012).…”

Implementing Interest Based Instructional Materials to Minimize EFL Learners’ Speaking Skills De-motivating Factors

“…Fourth, the identification of the de-motivating factors permits speaking class teachers to avoid those factors during pre-teaching phase by selecting interesting instructional materials, selecting effective teaching techniques, and choosing appropriate teaching media (Hamad, 2013;Richard and Roger, 2014). Finally, some researchers believe that those de-motivating factors impede motivation of language learners (Chambers, 1993;Dornyei, 2001; Gorham and Christophel, 1992;Hamad, 2013;Lamb, 2007;Shen, 2013). These arguments imply that role and ability of language teachers to pre-identify the motivating and de-motivating factors to learn in the pre-teaching phase are challenging.…”

“…Despite the fact that some learners in non-native English speaking countries have studied English for some years, the speaking performance is still limited. Many researchers have researched factors causing the limited ability in speaking (Bashir et al, 2011;Hamad, 2013;Ho, 2009;Juhana, 2012;Lamb, 2007;Latha and Rames, 2012;Manurung, 2015;Rubin, 1992;Shen, 2013;Soureshjani and Riahipour, 2012). The results of the identification and investigation of the factors forward some solutions on how to minimize those factors and at the same time improve the speaking ability.…”