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8. EFL students’ speaking difficulties:

During the oral performance, students usually face some difficulties and find themselves

unprepared to speak, they generally struggle with linguistic features of the language such as the

lack of vocabulary, the misuse of grammar, and pronunciation. Students may also struggle with

psychological factors.

8.1. Linguistic difficulties:

Linguistic factors are considered major influential factors in students' speaking

proficiency. Thornbury (2005, p.11) suggests that: “being skillful assumes having some kinds of

knowledge base (…) Knowledge that is relevant to speaking can be categorized either as

knowledge of features of language (linguistic knowledge) or knowledge that is independent of

language (extra-linguistic knowledge).” In other words, lacking the linguistic features while

speaking may lead to some difficulties during the students’ oral performance, these linguistic

difficulties are identified as follows:

8.1.1. Deficient vocabulary:

As Abdul-Majeed (2022) mentions: “Vocabularies are one of the most important

component and challenges learners face throughout the process of English language learning.

They are considered as the successful key in learning English because they help to develop

English in all its aspects”. That is to say, vocabulary is one of the most crucial skills in EFL

learning; it is essential for language learning. However, it is also one of the main difficulties that

EFL students face. When they attempt to learn new vocabulary words, they find that they are

unable to satisfy themselves because they encounter numerous obstacles in memorizing and

applying these new words. This will eventually lead to a limited vocabulary, which may affect

their participation in speaking and expressing thoughts negatively.

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8.1.2. Grammatical mistakes:

Grammar knowledge is one of the most essential components to achieve oral proficiency.

Many EFL students prefer to remain silent rather than speak because of the fear to make

grammatical mistakes, these mistakes can affect their ability to perform in the classroom. They

also caused a scary atmosphere for them by being ridiculed and producing ungrammatical

sentences in front of their classmates and teachers.

Davies and Pears (2000, p.82) stated: “Many people do not like speaking in front of large

groups of people. This is especially true in a foreign language, because we may worry about

producing utterances with many errors or oddities in them.” Thus, grammatical mistakes may be

an obstacle that prevents EFL students’ from speaking and achieving oral proficiency.

8.1.3. Pronunciation difficulties:

The first thing that students are judged and evaluated on when they speak is their

pronunciation, because of that having a good pronunciation means speaking the language.

However, many students have pronunciation difficulties which may prevent them from talking

and sharing their ideas. Bada, Genc, and Ozkan (2011) underline the importance of

pronunciation in speaking skills “in speaking, they compete with limited time to recall words,

and also take care of their pronunciation … Speaking is often dealt with at pronunciation level”

(p. 122).

Generally, students' unpronounceable speech indicates a lack of experience with English

sounds, rhythms, and word stress, as well as the student's poor listening to native speakers or the

teacher's mispronunciation as a non-native speaker. As a result, pronunciation errors are one of

the primary issues that prevent students from speaking easily and without stress. This is the cause

of the difficulties in participation.

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8.2. Psychological difficulties:

Various psychological issues stand in the way of learning a foreign language. These

issues include a lack of self-confidence, a lack of enthusiasm for the subject, anxiety, and so on.

8.2.1. Lack of confidence:

Self-assured students prefer to express their speaking abilities without regard for such

situations they place themselves in. Many students, however, choose to avoid expressing their

thoughts and perspectives orally because they are doubtful of their speaking abilities and are

afraid of damaging their good image. For example, students may know the correct answer to an

activity, but due to a lack of confidence, they prefer to remain silent or ask their colleagues to

answer instead of them.

8.2.2. Lack of interest in the subject:

The issue of communication can have an impact on students' speaking engagement both

within and outside of the classroom. Inadequate information on the subject, or unfamiliarity with

it, causes the speaker to lose interest in discussing it. Ur (1981, p. 5) states: “The first thing to do

to encourage fluency is to bring interesting subjects of the conversation to classroom (…). This

means that, students need a reason to speak more than they need something to speak about.” That

means, that if students develop a negative attitude toward the subject, they will be likely to

perform poorly in speaking.

8.2.3. Anxiety:

This means, that if students develop a negative attitude toward the subject, they will be

likely to perform poorly in speaking.

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Language anxiety is a problem that causes students to feel anxious and worried when

they try to speak. When the anxious student is called upon to speak in front of others, he gets

anxious. He often avoids any oral contact with his colleagues, which may have a negative impact

on his communication performance.

Davies, P, and Pearse, E. (2000). Success in English Teaching. Oxford: Oxford

University Press

Thornbury, S. (2005). How to teach speaking. Harlow: Longman.

Abdul-Majeed, M. (2022). Investigating EFL College Students' Difficulties in

Vocabularies.

Ozkan, Y. Bada, E, and Genc. B. (2011) Speak the Real: News Articles as Major

Source for Oral Competence. David, J.A. English as a Second Language: Languages

and Linguistics. New York: Nova

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