EFL Students’ Difficulties in Speaking: A Descriptive Study

Abstract

The present research work is a descriptive study; qualitative and quantitative data were analyzed to find the perspectives of 63 students who participated in this research. To gather data, a survey was applied as research instrument. It was divided into two sections, the first for linguistic data and the second for speech problems; a Google Form survey was applied as an instrument, with a reliability value of 0.912 for Cronbach’s alpha. It is concluded that psychological factors impair students’ performance in speaking English. Also, most problems students focus on are fear of making mistakes and lack of confidence. Motivation on the part of teachers is a methodology that gives good results at the time of learning, and it is a fundamental psychological element in reaching students’ goals when seeking to achieve English language proficiency. This document will be a bibliographic reference for professionals dedicated to the education of the English language in search of descriptive studies that reflect students’ behaviour when learning English to make decisions to improve their work in the classroom based on the results of this document.