Students' Attitudes towards their Oral Use of English in Formal Contexts: The Case of Third -Year EFL Students at Tlemcen University

Abstract

Various psychological factors play a key role in learners’ success to orally use the foreign language especially in classrooms. The present research was conducted to investigate the attitudes of third year EFL students towards the oral use of English in formal contexts at the University of Tlemcen. Furthermore, our study examines the effect of EFL students’ attitudes and other factors on their language learning achievement in general and, in particular, their oral performance and participation in the classroom. Throughout this work, two research instruments were used to collect data: a questionnaire was directed to third-year EFL students and a structured interview addressed to EFL teachers. Thus, the obtained results were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The outcomes of this study revealed that third-year EFL students maintain positive attitudes towards English. Besides attitudes, self-confidence, motivation, anxiety and learning styles are factors that have greatly influenced students’ oral use of English in classroom. To conclude, the EFL learners need to adopt a positive stand towards the oral use of English that would enable them to orally practice with their teachers inside the classroom and outside. Also, they have to be self- confident, motivated and reduce their anxiety when they speak in English.