Why Students Fail To Speak English after Getting Sixteen Years

Education
Aqsa Arshad
Laiba.aqsa@gmail.com
Shakra Younas
B. S. English 4th semester

Department of English
University of Sargodha
 Outline
Sr. No. Topic Page No.
1 Abstract 3
2 Introduction 4
3 Statement of the Problem 4
4 Objectives 4
5 Resources Detail 5
6 Literatrue Review 6
7 Data Analysis 12
8 Conclusion 18
9 References 19
 Abstract

This present article deals with issues faced by Master level students in speaking English.
The aim of this study is to investigate factors that become student’s obstacles to speak
English. Furthermore, the causes of the factors and the possible solutions to overcome
the obstacles are also covered in this study. To analyze this hypothesis, a quantitative
survey is used having ten questions as an instrument for obtaining data from students of
university. According to results, majority of students have failed to speak English
properly. They have fallen victim of linguistics disorders such as grammar, lack of
vocabulary, syntax, pragmatic, lack of fluency in speaking, lack of understanding
grammatical pattern and lack of pronunciation. This article tries to give valuable
suggestions in order to solve their speaking problems. It aims to invite more researches
to be done on present study agenda.

INTRODUCTION
English is the language of science, technology and global communication. English plays a vital

role in developing the status of a country. Besides its importance as an international language it

is also called the major window on the world, which means that English gives us the view of the

various progresses taking place in the world. It also provides us distilled essence of advance and

up-to-date knowledge in all fields of human developments and activities.

In order to compete with the modern world, Pakistan needs to focus English language learning.

In Pakistan, English language is being taught from nursery to tertiary level of education. But the

problems remain growing as students are unable to communicate properly in English. To find out

the problems related to the English Language Speaking skill, we must find out the problems and

then solve them accordingly.

Statement of the Problem:

This present article deals with issues faced by Master level students in speaking English. The

aim of this study is to investigate factors that become student’s obstacles to speak English.

Furthermore, the causes of the factors and the possible solutions to overcome the obstacles are

also covered in this study.

Objectives:

1: To prove this hypothesis that students are fail to speak English properly.

2: To highlight factors which are causes of their failure in speaking English.

3: To highlight methods that are adopted by teachers in order to learn English to their
students.

4: To draw attention of students and teachers on this matter.

5: To provide research based guide to solve problems that are faced by students in order to
speak English.
 Resources detail:

Previous researches such as online articles and journals have been examined as resources in

order to identify and analyze the issues minutely. The detailed description of used resources is

provided in the reference section.

Literature Review
To explore the university students’ difficulties in learning English language skills Kanwal, &

Khurshid, (2012) conducted a study. In order to highlight the language difficulties they

developed a 27 items questionnaire was developed and it was administered to 200 randomly

selected students of department of English. Collected data was analyzed and percentages. Results

showed that overall university students require extra help in improving their English listening,

reading and writing skills. Moreover university students are not fully satisfied with their present

course contents of English language and teaching methodologies.

We all know that when Pakistan came into being on 14 August, 1947, there was resistance to the

study of English. Generally speaking, there were two groups of people - one was in favor of

learning English language and the other was against it. The second group of people did not want

to see English in their motherland. Although this resistance to learning and using English is now

heavily subdued, mastery of the English language differs from region to region and from one

socio-economic status to another.

Listening and reading are known as receptive skills while speaking and writing considered as a

productive skills. These skills are better learned and mastered through actual practice. In order to

become fluent in English language, learners must develop the habit of using the language

frequently. Trudgill, 1992 suggests the following processes: (i) Collect ideas (ii) arrange them in

the best sequence and (iii) choose the language in which he has to communicate with others.

Learners apply these habits in the mother-tongue and face their audience with confidence. These

habits will also help them in the case of foreign language use.

In our educational institutions in Pakistan, at the elementary level teachers give some instruction

in writing and reading skills but at the secondary level these skills are not taught in the same
way. In many rural areas of Pakistan the primary education is provided through the native

languages such as Urdu, Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi, etc., with not much emphasis on learning and

using English.

There are several factors which affect students’ performance in speaking English fluently. They

are scared about committing mistakes while they speak. They cannot also express themselves

well or adequately because they lack adequate and appropriate vocabulary. Another factor that

makes students to hesitate to speak in English is that they are shy and nervous. They feel fearful

to speak English in front of other people because they lack confidence about their own

competence in English. So, it is important to help the learners overcome their anxiety,

nervousness and fear with encouraging words. Good atmosphere and suitable environment can

also help students to speak actively, correctly and fluently (Mueen, 1992).

The study tries to uncover all perceived difficulties assumed in the learning English language

skills among the university students.

The study was descriptive in nature. After going through the relevant literature, a questionnaire

was developed for the university level students. All the students of the NUML University in the

English department FC/GS were considered as population of study. In order to check the

reliability and validity of research 27 items questionnaire it was administered to 30 students from

the population to check the reliability and validity of research questionnaire. Various statistical

analyses were performed such as alpha coefficients and items total correlation. The Alpha

cofficient yield .79 and correlation of entire 31 items ranged from .54 to .89 which means that all

items have significant correlation to include in the questionnaire for present sample.
Students are not fully satisfied with the learning outcomes of this course. So teachers should

work hard and try to improve students’ writing as well as speaking skills through extra reading or

computer assisted programs.

On the basis of the research findings, it is concluded that students are hesitant in speaking

English and using reading skill. It is recommended that the exercise part should be improved and

exercises should be added in order to improve the reading, writing and speaking skills of the

students.

Findings show that many students still prefer to write in their native languages (Urdu, Punjabi)

so in order to develop literary writing skills students can asked to for creative writing, may be

ask to write poems or essays daily just to overcome hesitation of writing.

Finally it was concluded that students are not fully satisfied with existing teaching

methodologies so methodology of teaching English should be revised and A.V aids should

provide in all English teaching classroom.

Start speaking English and do it more and more. You can do this by standing in front of mirror.

This will inculcate the confidence in speaker and hesitation will be reduced. Start reading

English newspaper and involve other people to rectify your mistakes and correct them. Listening

to the English news or even watching the English movies will also help as listening improves

confidence in speaking.

Problems of feeling inexpressive in target language are commonly expressed by majority of

second language learners in learning to speak a second language. These problems are always

considered to hinder the communication in the target language. This paper most commonly
highlight the struggles that students of Sardar Bahadur Khan Women’s University Quetta make

during the process of learning English as a second language. It brings forward to limelight the

ways in which lack of fluency in English complicates the process of learning and also negatively

affects their academic growth. Major focus is on the inadequate input of language rules i.e.

grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation which leads to poor production of fluent oral speech full

of mistakes and pauses due to hesitation. This paper also attempts to bring forward the reasons

that why students are unable to use automatic, smooth and rapid language production. This study

uses a qualitative interview approach which is later on turned into quantitative format of data.

The data collection is done through simple random sampling. The research participants consist of

total fifty students, randomly selected from each department of the University. The findings

suggests that verbal fluency is always correlated and affected by the components of oral

proficiency i.e. grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. The greater number of students in SBK

Women University believes that the production of their fluent oral speech is dependent upon

their knowledge of grammar of the target language; many others believe that it depends upon

vocabulary and very few thinks that it is related with the pronunciation.

It is considered highly essential to know the language for communicative purposes. In general,

the most popular language is English, which has attained the status of a global language. It plays

a role of second language for those who learn it after their mother tongue and plays a role of

foreign language for those who migrate from their country to foreign country for purpose of

studies or settlement. One of the most challenging difficulties in learning a second language is

finding ways to improve one’s oral fluency. This is most commonly true in countries like

Pakistan where the learners share a common mother tongue and have very little or no exposure to

the second language outside the classroom. Most of the linguists believe that language is just like
a habit formation. In their view language is learnt through use and practice. According to them,

the more one is exposed to the use of language, the better one learns. In Pakistan though English

is used with great emphasis in educational context but still within their institutions students have

very limited understanding and exposure of English. As a result when they speak to express their

thoughts they find it difficult to put their ideas into proper words and as a consequence produce

influent speech embedded with mistakes and pauses.

In the correlation study it is evident from the results that all independent variables have positive

relation with dependent variables. This shows a directional relationship among those variables.

As in the results two variables i.e. grammar and vocabulary are highly correlated with the pauses

due to hesitation and word repetition and the remaining variables pronunciation is least

correlated with the dependent variable. It is therefore clearly understood that grammar and

vocabulary is producing direct impact upon the dependent variables pauses due to hesitation and

word repetition.

Frequency distribution clearly shows that 40% of the population is facing oral fluency problems

due to limited grammar and 39% is facing the problem due to lack of vocabulary and 20% are

facing problem because of pronunciation.

Whenever these students are given some verbal task in group, they just start talking in their

mother tongue. Although they may want to express their ideas orally in English but they find

themselves unable to do it. The major reason behind all this is that they do not have proper

knowledge of a target language.

From the results of this study it is evident that the oral fluency of a student is most of the time

affected by grammar. If they don’t have proper knowledge of grammar rules and their automatic
application in verbal speech, they won’t be able to speak fluently. After grammar, the second

factor which affects the verbal fluency is lack of vocabulary. While speaking whenever students

get short of appropriate words; supposed to be used in relation with particular context, they start

feeling hesitation or start repeating words and lines which they had uttered before. This thought

is proved with evidence in correlation study where word repetition has a strong relationship with

vocabulary mistakes.

You can never speak a language by just studying it, no matter how much you study. Studying

will never help you speak a language, but (as long as you do it right) studying will help you

speak a language better.

You have to speak it

Any foreign language cannot be learnt without practice. So you have to speak it in order to learn

it. Because a language is a set of habits so habit will be formed with practice.

If students today graduate from high school or even from university without being able to

“speak” English, it is simply because we are not giving them enough practice in… speaking. Ask

students to give you feedback or to explain their wishes, and they will inevitably say, “More

speaking in class.”

Methodology and population:

Present research have been done, interpreted, reviewed and examined by four members of resent

research group. A questionnaire comprised of ten questions is used for survey through random
sampling method. For this purpose, two fifty students are selected from university. The person

who are voluntarily agreed to give the data needed for the study was taken as sample.

The data collected by this survey was entered into MS Excel and MS word in order to present

figures and graphical explanation. The questionnaires were distributed one by one and get back

at the same time after they finished.

Data Analysis
As it is stated that two fifty students were selected from University for survey, as a result the

diversity of response is there. The results are given below along with discussion.

Note: The students who marked “Neutral” can be due to two possible reasons. Either they could

not understand the question or they were not explained about questions.
 Can you speak English fluently?

30
20
10
0
l Column1
e e ee ee
re gre tra gr gr
ag A u a a
ly Ne di
s
Di
s
bg lg y
rt o
S r ob
St

Figure.1

In above figure there are one blocks which reflects the majority of students. Its mean majority of

students are failed to speak English fluently. Cause of this factor that they develop habit of

translating from primary classes. They think first in their native language and then, translate it

into English. So, they can’t speak fluently. Another cause of this factor is lack of practice. For

every skill, practice is required. More we practice to speak English, more we can speak fluently.
 I cannot speak English due to lack of practice
40
30
20
10
0
ee e l ee ee
gr re ra gr gr
A Ag eut sa sa
ly N Di Di
ng lg y
rt o n
S ro
St

Figure.2

The result of these figures reveals that reason of failure in speaking English of majority of

students is lack of practice. They do not have sufficient practice in speaking skill. Because, they

do not have such an environment in which they make practice. This factor is more explained

through next figure.

For most of time period during class you don't get chance for
improving your speaking skills.
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
ee
e
ee

ee
l
ra
re

gr
gr

gr
ut
Ag

sa

sa
A

Ne

Di

Di
ly
ng

ly
ro

ng
St

ro
St

Figure.3

The results of above figures reveals that majority of students are agreed upon this point that they

do not get chance for practice or improving their speaking skills. Teachers do not provide them

chance for improving English speaking skills during class time.

 Do you like to speak English in class?
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
e e l ee ee
re re tra gr gr
Ag Ag Ne
u si a si a
ly D D
ong gly
r n
St r o
St

Figure.4

The results of above figures tell that most of students do not like to speak English in class. There

may be two possible reasons of this. Either they have lack of confidence and feel hesitation while

speaking or they do not know how to speak English.

Do you feel any hesitation participating in speaking?

Do you find it hard to participate in a discussion going on in your
class in English language?
120
80
40
0
e
ee

ee

ee
l
ra
re
gr

gr

gr
ut
Ag

sa

sa
A

Ne

Di

Di
ly
ng

ly
ro

ng
St

ro
St

Figure.5

The result of above figure suggests lack of competence, level, proficiency level. It can also

predicted that students who are not able to participate in a debate going on in English language

are actually fallen a victim of anxiety disorders. The major problem is that the students do not

practice of speaking English. As a result, the performance of mostly students is disturbed. So,

they do not participate in speaking activities as result of above figure reveals. Lack of confidence
also becomes cause of hesitation. Therefore, students find difficult to participate in discussion or

any speaking activities. Results suggest that practice develops confidence. Because majority of

students have lack of practice as results of figure 2 tells. So, they are facing lack of confidence.

Do you brainstorm in English language?

30
20
10
0
e e l ee ee
gre gre utra gr gr
A a a
ly
A Ne Di
s
Di
s
ong lg y
r on
St r
St

Figure.6

In above figure, there are two blocks which reflects majority of students. Students who marked

the “Neutral” can be due to this possible reason that they cannot understand question. Other

blocks tells majority of students do not brainstorming in English. Due to this reason, they cannot

speak fluently. They should chose a topic and start brainstorming in English language. In this

way, they can make practice and can start speak English.

I try my best to convey my message in English but I am short of

words.

40
30
20
10
0
e e l ee ee
gre gre utra gr gr
A a a
ly
A Ne Di
s
Di
s
ng lg y
rt o on
S r
St

Figure.7
The result of above figure tells that students are facing vocabulary issues. This factor becomes

their obstacle to speak. This problem did not enable them to express and to convey their ideas by

speaking and to understanding what other said. This confirms the report by smith saying that

vocabulary is the basic for speaking or conversation skill because the more words someone

knows, the more he/she can say and understand. That is why most students are not able to speak

English. This condition needs the teacher’s attention to encourage students to read or to look up a

dictionary and ask them to memorize some words. It is necessary to do because to enable

students to communicate well in a foreign language, they should acquire an adequate number of

words and should know how to use them accurately.

I get confused while expressing complex ideas in English language.

80
60
40
20
0
e
ee

ee

ee
l
ra
re
gr

gr

gr
ut
Ag

sa

sa
A

Ne

Di
ly

Di
ng

ly
ro

ng
St

ro
St

Figure.8

The result of above figure tells that students are facing syntax problems. They do not know how to built

complex ideas in English language. Teachers should draw their attention on grammar and teach students

about syntax. Cause of this factor is that students have lack of understanding of grammatical pattern.

Teacher should teach students how to built complex sentences through TGG grammar.
 Do you find it difficult to pronunce English words?
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
e e l ee ee
re re tra gr gr
Ag Ag Ne
u si a si a
ly D D
ong gly
r n
St r o
St

Figure.9

The results of above figure reveal that students are facing issue of pronunciation. With regard to

incorrect pronunciation, students felt that this kind of obstacle made them afraid to speak and found it

difficult to pronounce English words. With regard to overcome incorrect pronunciation, it is said that

watching English movies and listening English songs could be the solutions of incorrect pronunciation.
 Conclusion

The results are clearly indicated that students are failed to speak English, even getting sixteen

years education. They are facing English speaking problem including lake of confidence,

pronunciations etc. This study investigates factors that become student’s obstacle to speak English.

In addition, this study is also focused on finding out some causes and solutions of the obstacles.

Overall it can be concluded that, most student believed that the lack of practice was the main factor

causing an obstacle for them to speak English. To turn to the possible solutions to overcome their

problem in speaking English, this article suggests that more exercises or activities that can develop

their vocabulary and speaking skills are worth considering. This shows that teacher should be more

aware of their student’s obstacles and reluctance to speak English. To help students gain more

knowledge of other linguistics aspects such as grammar and correct pronunciation. It is also

important that teachers teach those aspects explicitly in order that students have good

comprehension toward the aspects. This way is expectedly contributed to the development of the

student’s speaking in English. As a result, students can become success in speaking English.
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