An Investigation of the Oral Proficiency Barriers Facing Second-Semester Libyan EFL Students at the Faculty of Education, Janzour

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating the problems that face EFL Libyan students at the Faculty of Education- Janzour in learning the English-speaking skill. Moreover, it is aimed at identifying the problems that face EFL instructors in teaching the English speaking, besides, the researcher attempted to determine the speaking strategies used by them in teaching this skill.
For achieving these aims, the researcher employed the explanatory mixed method design. The quantitative data came from the multiple-choice questionnaire which was assigned to fifty female EFL Libyan students at the Faculty of the Education –Janzour, whereas the qualitative data were drawn from a semi-structured interviews that the researcher conducted with ten (10) EFL Libyan instructors who taught English speaking courses in the same college.
Concerning the first objective of the study, the research findings revealed that there was a number of hindrances that diminish the learners from mastering the English-speaking skill adequately; some of which is related to lack of opportunities to practice using the language either inside or outside the speaking classes. Other encumbrances are related to different categories such as affective factors which are expressed in terms of the learners’ anxiety to speak the language, as well as their apprehension of errors, lack of motivation, and of lack of self-confidence. Other obstacles were related to the language itself (linguistic factors). For example, most of the participants expressed that they are unable to speak the language fluently due to their lack of vocabulary, inability to use the grammatical structures correctly. In addition, some of the subjects under investigation clarified that they have listening problems which was the main cause of their lack of prober pronunciation, and they also expressed the lack of subject matter as another reason that diminishes them to speak inside the speaking classes. Other impediments behind the learners speaking deficiency are reported in terms of the subjects’ mother tongue interference, the lack of the proper educational environment and the negative feedback that the learners receive from their instructors.  
As for the second objective of the study, the obtained data clarified that the instructors come across different problems that hinder their way from teaching the English-speaking skill appropriately. These problems are expressed in terms of the scarcity of the teaching material inside the college, the large number of the students compared with the shortage of time given to the speaking lectures and the learners’ low level of proficiency.
Regarding the third objective, the findings revealed that most of EFL Libyan instructors do not use effective teaching strategies. However, they asserted that they teach the English speaking depending mainly on asking the low-level learners to work with the high level once and then they will be asked to choose one of them to say the notes they have written about the topic of discussion. This way is useless since only the high-level learners will have the encouragement to speak however the low-level learners will avoid speaking.