English Speaking Performance Difficulties Facing EFL Students in Oral Expression Course: Case of Second year LMD Students at Abou Bekr-Belkaid University

Abstract

In Algerian EFL classes, English speaking performance is mainly affected by some psychological factors (anxiety, fear of mistakes, shyness…); and also by linguistic problems; for example (mispronunciation of words, grammatical mistakes lack of vocabulary…). When real contact situations arise, many EFL students remain unwilling to perform and to speak English. Thus, the purpose of this research work was to investigate the issue of speaking performance from different perspectives taking into account its main variables. The present work is conducted with second year EFL students at Abou Bekr Belkaid University (Tlemcen). The purpose of this study was to investigate the speaking problems and identifying the psychological state of students when speaking through arising awareness of those obstacles; it also attempts to help them to cope with such problems in order to improve their speaking performance. In view of this, two chapters are brought into play; the first chapter introduces a review of literature; while the second chapter attempts at analyzing the data collected and discussion of the main results from students‟ and teachers‟ questionnaires. Accordingly, the outcome of this research work has shown the significance of dealing with the psychological factors that contribute in low speaking performance. It assumes that it is crucial for both students and teachers to be aware and to grant a special attention to these obstacles to enhance the speaking skill within the Algerian EFL classroom.