EFL Speaking Acquisition: Identifying Problems, Suggesting Learning Strategies and Examining Their Effect on Students' Speaking Fluency

Abstract

Qualitatively speaking this study aims at discovering, identifying and sorting out the most difficult EFL speaking problems Jordanian students encounter and the most effective speaking acquisition strategies that can overcome these speaking problems. A representative sample of 100 male students is interviewed. This sample is randomly chosen from students who recently graduated their secondary school and started their first year in the different faculties at Yarmouk University in Irbid, Jordan. The problems are classified into a set of three major groups: (1) lack of lexis, (2) lack of listening and practicing and (3) psychological problems. Related strategies to face each problem are suggested. To quantitatively investigate the effect of the suggested strategies on the speaking fluency, a pretest-posttest is implemented. Two sections of 20 male students each are assigned for the investigational and control group. The investigational group is exposed to these strategies and the control group is taught the same material and exposed to different strategies. The t-test results demonstrates a significant difference between the two groups mean scores in the pretest-posttest on students’ speaking fluency in favor of the investigational group.