Exploring factors that inhibit EFL learners from speaking English effectively : a case study of Libyan students

Abstract

The present study investigates factors that inhibit EFL Libyan learners from speaking English proficiently. It aims to understand why EFL Libyan learners are unable to use the target language successfully in communication. These issues have been studied by looking into a number of aspects including, an exploration of the EFL Libyan learners’ educational experience and its influence on the development of their communicative competence; examination of potential psychological constructs such as anxiety, fear of making mistakes and negative evaluation, lack of confidence and shyness; These factors are found to be among speaking barriers in other EFL contexts;. Another factor which is looked into is the identification of linguistic difficulties that may be a hindrance for the learners to speak English confidently; as well as an investigation of cultural norms that Libyan students and teachers bring to classrooms and the extent to which they affect the learners’ achievement with regard to speaking. Each of the above aspects is discussed thoroughly in the Literature review (Chapter Two) clarifying how they contribute in the EFL learners’ inability to speak. The materials used in the literature review are carefully selected to relate with the purpose of the study and the research questions. The current researcher carried out this study in Sebha city in the South of Libya. Fieldwork was conducted at the University of Sebha. The participants in this study comprised 125 students. They were randomly selected from different Departments; namely, Arabic, English and Media Departments. The reason for selecting students at university level is that they would have spent a considerable number of years in studying English either as a specialty or a school subject; and thus gave the researcher the opportunity to examine their lack of competence in speaking skills. A mixed methods approach in which both qualitative and quantitative methods and data analysis combined was applied to explore the research problem. This methodological approach was advantageous because it helped in exploring the problem under investigation in a more in-depth manner. Data was thus collected by means of a survey-questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. An analysis of the data derived from both instruments was executed in two stages. First, the quantitative data gathered from the administered questionnaires was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software. Second, the qualitative data was analysed by adopting content-analysis techniques which helped in documenting written texts into unified themes. The analysis from both data approaches provided detailed information. Based on the results, it was found that EFL Libyan learners have difficulties in speaking because they had not been sufficiently exposed to the English language inside classrooms. Rather, Arabic is found to be used as means of communication most of the times instead of English. Moreover, due to limited speaking opportunities and the ignorance of speaking activities that may promote the students’ speaking skills, students cannot speak good English. Also, students are incompetent in speaking because teachers focused on accuracy at the expense of fluency through memorization drilling exercises. The results also suggested that feelings such as anxiety, fear of making mistakes and negative evaluation, shyness, and lack of confidence prevented students from speaking properly and confidently. These negative feelings led to hesitation in speaking and the production of incomprehensible speech. Other obstacles that face EFL Libyan learners in speaking are inadequacy of vocabulary and grammar rules. Furthermore, because they were introduced to grammar and vocabulary out of context, they fail to apply them in everyday communication. In addition, it was revealed that Libyan cultural norms that emphasise respecting older people and not to disagree with their opinions reflect the kind of relation students have with teachers, which lead students to remain quiet in class and speak little. Also, the sensitivity of sharing communicative activities that require engaging boys and girls in one group reduced the opportunities to develop the students’ speaking skills. What this research indicates is that teachers should reconsider their style of teaching English to EFL Libyan learners. More emphasis should be given to elements of communicative competence that require the engagement of students in the process of learning and that they be active-agents in classrooms. In addition, EFL Libyan learners should be given more opportunities to use the target language in a cooperative and collaborative manner by means of speaking activities to develop proficiency in speaking. Aspects such as fluency should also be highlighted rather than putting the sole focus on accuracy. As the classroom represents the only place in which EFL Libyan learners have contact with the target language, teachers need to create a comfortable learning atmosphere where students express themselves more easily with no stress or fear. An understanding of the previously mentioned recommendations can allow for more improvement with regard to teaching and learning speaking skills in the EFL Libyan context.