EFL Learners’ English Speaking Difficulties and Strategy Use

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the factors that caused the EFL learners’ English speaking difficulties and then investigate the successful learners’ strategy use to improve their English speaking performance. A five-level Likert-scale questionnaire was conducted to anonymously investigate 148 EFL sophomore and junior English majors in Taiwan. Results of the analysis showed that (a) psychological problems (e.g. nervousness, fear of making mistakes, and lack of confidence) was the primary reason for English speaking difficulties, followed by linguistic problems (e.g. insufficient vocabulary), and environmental problems (e.g. lack of learning context for English conversation); (b) a majority of successful learners tended to use various speaking strategies to improve their English speaking performance and particularly focused on linguistic accuracy by repeatedly practicing the pitch, pronunciation, and intonation. Furthermore, most of them seized the chances to practice speaking English, such as joining English social activities, or participating in English speech contests etc. They also used the body language (e.g. facial expressions, eye contacts, and gestures) for better communication. The findings suggest pedagogical implications for promoting the EFL learners’ speaking English.