An Investigation into the Psychological Barriers that Hinder the Normal Development of Writing and Speaking: The Case of First Year EFL Students at the Department of English Tlemcen University

Abstract

When teaching a foreign language, the teacher deals with the four language skills with more emphasis on the productive skills mainly speaking and writing in order to facilitate the task of communication in English in a target situation. Students are progressing and learning constantly and encounter several barriers because of psychological imbalance. They pass through a long way to reach success in their studies because of these barriers most EFL students have problems in the speaking and writing skills. This research is divided into two main chapters. The first one is about the review of the literature. The second one is about the field study; analysis of data collected and the results drown from it.In order to collect data, an interview was addressed to EFL teachers and a questionnaire for first year EFL learners in the Department of English in Tlemcen University. At the end of the practical part the analysis of the questionnaire and the interview and the findings that revealed students do really complain from some psychological obstacles that, according to them, are behind their speaking and writing ill- performances in the target language. Finally, many suggestions are given to both students and teachers to improve these skills overcomethe impediments and acquire better the mastery of the speaking and writing skills.