People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria

Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research

Ziane Achour University of Djelfa
Faculty of Letters, Art, and Foreign Languages
Department of Foreign Languages
English Division

The Impact of Using CLT activities in

overcoming students’ speaking
difficulties
The Case of Second-Year Students at Djelfa University

Thesis Submitted in Partial Requirements for the Fulfilment of Master’s Degree in

English Didactics and Linguistics

Submitted by: Supervised by:

Ms. CHERKI Samira Dr. BOUKHECHBA Hicham

Board of Examiners:

President: Mr. University of Djelfa

Supervisor: Ms. University of Djelfa
Examiner: Ms. University of Djelfa

Academic Year: 2020/2021

 I

Dedication

I dedicate this work to my dearest parents

This thesis would not have come to successful completion without the
unconditional love and support of my dear parents. No word is ever enough
to thank you. Your continuous assistance, encouragement, prayers, and
sacrifices are far from being paidback. I hope I made you proud…
 II

Acknowledgments

After my thanks to Allah, the almighty for granting me the energy

and power to finish this work. Alhamdulillah! First and foremost, I would like
to express my heartfelt gratitude and words of appreciation to my supervisor
Dr. Boukhechba who provided me with his valuable guidance and help
during the process of writing this paper. It has been an honour to be his
student. I would like to express my special regards to my lecturers in the
Department of English at Djelfa University who supported me academically.
I would like to extend my thanks to my colleagues in university with whom I
spent a fruitful time which I will never forget. Thanks also go to the judgment
committee for agreeing to take apart in examining this dissertation. Finally, I
would like to thank all my faithful friends who helped, encouraged, and
motivated me to continue this research.
 III

Abstract

Mastering English plays a critical role in the EFL student learning

journey, but many students face problems when trying to speak English. They
can not carry on spontaneous communication, because they have
psychological or linguistic problems, besides the traditional methods that
focus on teaching a set of grammatical rules which will not help the learners
to develop their speaking skill. To carry out this research and prove this
hypothesis we seek to determine if communicative approach activities help
learners to overcome their speaking difficulties. The study also seeks to
investigate what difficulties prevent them from speaking the target language.
To investigate the difficulties they face when speaking English, and discover
their attitudes toward the use of communicative language teaching activities.
Two questionnaires are administered, one for teachers of oral expression
which involved 6 teachers and the student’s questionnaire involving 20
second-year students at the Department of English at the University of Djelfa.
The data collected from this study shows that the communicative language
teaching activities are effective in helping students to develop their speaking
skill, overcome psychological and linguistic barriers. Also shows that
teachers who use CLT activities their students tend to participate in the
classroom. Also, the study shows that when teachers implement CLT
activities, the learners tend to participate and are willing to use the target
language.

Keywords: Communivative approach, teaching speaking, linguistic and

psychological problems, CLT.
 IV

Table of Content

Dedication .................................................................................................................. I
Acknowledgments ..................................................................................................... II
Abstract.................................................................................................................... III
Table of Content .......................................................................................................IV
List of Tables ........................................................................................................... VI
List of Questions ......................................................................................................IX
General Introduction................................................................................................... 1
Statement of the Problem ........................................................................................... 2
The Motivation of the Study ....................................................................................... 2
Significance of the Study............................................................................................ 2
Aims of the Study....................................................................................................... 2
Research Questions and Hypotheses ........................................................................... 3
Research Methodology and Design............................................................................. 3
Organisation of the Study ........................................................................................... 3
Introduction................................................................................................................ 6
1.1 The importance of teaching speaking skill..............................................................6
1.2 The importance of participation in the EFL classroom .......................................7
1.3 Methods prior to communicative language teaching ..........................................8
1.3.1 The Grammar-Translation Method ...........................................................8
1.3.2 The Direct Method ...................................................................................9
1.3.3 The audio-lingual Method ........................................................................9
1.3.4 The Silent Way ...................................................................................... 10
1.3.5 Suggestopedia ........................................................................................ 11
1.3.6 Community Language Learning .............................................................. 11
1. 3.7 The Total Physical Response Method .................................................... 13
1.3.8 Communicative Language Teaching ....................................................... 14
1.4 Fluency vs Accuracy....................................................................................... 15
 V

1.5 Components of communicative competence .................................................... 15

1.5.1Grammatical competence .........................................................................16
1.5.2 Discourse competence .............................................................................16
1.5.3 Sociolinguistic competence .....................................................................16
1.5.4 Strategic competence ..............................................................................16
1.6 Advantages of Communicative Language Teaching .........................................17
1.7 Critiques of CLT ............................................................................................... 18
1.8 The role of the teacher in the communicative approach ....................................19
1.9 Difficulties that prevent learners from participation .......................................20
1.9.1 Psychological barriers .............................................................................20
1.9.1.1 Language anxiety ............................................................................20
1. 9.1.2 Lack of self-confidence .................................................................. 21
1.9.1.3 Lack of motivation ..........................................................................21
1.9.1.4 Fear of making mistakes .................................................................. 21
1.9.1.5 Isolation during the global pandemic ...............................................22
1.9.1.6 Learners’ autonomy and personality ................................................. 22
1.9.2 Linguistic barriers .......................................................................................... 23
1.9.2.1 Lack of vocabulary ..........................................................................23
1.9.2.2 Poor grammar.................................................................................. 23
1.9.2.3 Poor pronunciation ..........................................................................24
1.9.2.4 The use of the mother tongue .......................................................... 24
1.9.2.5 They have nothing to say................................................................. 24
1.10 CLT Activities for the Enhancement of Speaking Skill ................................... 25
1.10.1 Discussions ........................................................................................... 25
1.10.2 Role Play .............................................................................................. 26
1.10.3 Information Gap .................................................................................... 26
1.10.4 Storytelling ........................................................................................... 26
1.10.5 Interviews................................................................................................26
1.10.6 Picture Describing...................................................................................27
1.10.7 Summary.................................................................................................27
1.10.8 Conclusion..............................................................................................28
 VI

Introduction ..............................................................................................................30
2.1 Research Methodology .................................................................................... 30
2.2 Justification for using qualitative research ....................................................... 31
2.3 Instrument .......................................................................................................32
2.4 Justifications for using questionnaire ............................................................... 32
2.5 Population and sampling .................................................................................. 32
2.6 Sampling .........................................................................................................32
2.7 Ethical considerations ..................................................................................... 33
2.8 Data collection process ................................................................................ 34
2.9 Data Gathering Tools ................................................................................... 34
2.10 Data analysis................................................................................................ 34
2.11 Validity and reliability in qualitative research ..............................................35
Conclusion ...............................................................................................................35
Introduction ..............................................................................................................37
3.1 Analysis of Students’ Questionnaire ............................................................. 37
3.2 The Analysis of Teachers’ Questionnaire ...................................................... 50
3.3 Interpretation and iscussion of the results ...................................................... 57
Conclusion ...............................................................................................................58
General Conclusion .................................................................................................. 60
Limitation of the Study ............................................................................................. 61
Pedagogical Implications and Recommendations ...................................................... 61
Suggestions for Further Research .............................................................................61
References ................................................................................................................ 63
Appendix A ..............................................................................................................67
Appendix B .............................................................................................................70
Abstract in Arabic ....................................................................................................73
Abstract in English ................................................................................................... 74
 VII

List of Tables

Table 1. Students’ g e n d e r .................................................................................... 38

Table 2. Students’ age............................................................................................. 39
Table 3. Students’ English learning journey ........................................................... 40
Table 4. Students’ most difficult skill .................................................................... 41
Table 5. Frequency of speaking English ................................................................ 43
Table 6. Students’ way of speaking ....................................................................... 45
Table 7. Students’ level of anxiety ....................................................................... .47
Table 8. Students’ oral exam mark ....................................................................... .47
Table 9. Students’ psychological and linguistic barriers ..........................................48
Table 10. Students’ prefered CLT activities .......................................................... .49
Table 11. The use of CLT activities...........................................................................50
Table12 Teachers’ degree .....................................................................................51
Table 13. Teachers’ results of favoring to taech oral expression ........................... .52
Table 14. Students’ participation frequency ......................................................... .52
Table 15. Results of students’ problems .............................................................. .53
Table 16. Results of the time devoted to oral session .......................................... .54
Table 17. Activities that can enhance the level of participation ........................... .56
Table 18. Classroom activity assessment ............................................................ .56
Table 19. Teachers’ most favored activities ....................................................... ..58
 VIII

List of Figures

Figure 1. Students’ gender .......................................................................................38

Figure 2. Students’ age ........................................................................................... 39
Figure 3. Students’ English learning journey ............................................................ 40
Figure 4. Students’ most difficult skill. .................................................................... 41
Figure 5. Students’ Choices of Studying English ...................................................... 42
Figure 6. Frequency of speaking English................................................................. 42
Figure 7. Students’ way of speaking ....................................................................... 45
Figure 8. Students’ level of anxiety ......................................................................... 46
Figure 9. Students’ oral exam mark ........................................................................ 47
Figure 10. Students’ psychological and linguistic barriers ...................................... 47
Figure 11. Students’ prefered CLT activities ........................................................... 49
Figure 12. The use of CLT activities ...................................................................... 50
Figure 13. Teachers’ degree .................................................................................. 51
Figure 14. Teachers’ attitude toward oral expression module ............................. 51
Figure 15. Students’ participation frequency ......................................................... 52
Figutre 16. Results of students problems .............................................................. 53
Figure 17. Results of students’ difficulties........................................................... 53
Figure 18. Results of the time devoted to oral session ........................................54
Figure 19. Most used activities in the classroom .................................................. 55
Figure 20 Classroom activity assessment ............................................................ 56
Figure 21. Teachers’ most favored activities ....................................................... 57
 IX

List of abbreviations

GTM: Grammar-translation method

DM: Direct method
ALM: Adiolingual method
SW: Silent way
CLL: Communicative language learning
CLT: Communicative language teaching
CA: Communicative approach
TL: Target language
EFL: English as foreign language
FL: foreign language
LMD: License Master Doctorate
 X

List of Questions

Question 7 ...........................................................................................................43
Question 8 ........................................................................................................... 45
Question 9 ................................................................................................................46
Question 8................................................................................................................55
Question 10 ......................................................................................................... 57
 GENERAL
INTRODUCTION
 1

General Introduction

The four English language skills are interconnected and important in

foreign language teaching and learning, but the ability to speak fluently
provides the speaker with many advantages. We use language in a variety of
situations to discuss different topics fluently and accurately inside or outside
the classroom, that is why mastering speaking is vital, but EFL learners suffer
from different obstacles that prevent them from participating in class which
lead them to lose interest and motivation to learn and achieve their academic
success. Also, teachers suffer when their learners face difficulties when trying
to speak the target language. two main factors are causing this problem,
linguistic barriers and psychological barriers. Many language teaching
methods have been introduced to enhance the quality of teaching and learning
and achieve the learners’ goal in which they can speak English fluently.
The grammar-translation method, The direct method, the Audiolingual
method, the silent way, suggestopedia, Communicative language learning,
Total physical response Among these methods communicative language
teaching (CLT) had been widely accepted as an effective way of teaching
English in contexts. The main goal of this approach is that language learning
emphasizes learning to communicate, unlike the traditional approaches which
focused on learning a set of grammatical rules and structures. Many teachers
agree that CLT activities are best to teach learners how to communicate in
real-life situations. In this study, we are going to investigate how
communicative approach activities can help students to overcome their
speaking difficulties.
 2

Statement of the Problem

Speaking is an important language skill. Yet, it was neglected by EFL

teachers for a considerable amount of time. According to a common
observation, teaching English to Algerian learners has always been a
challenging task for teachers. EFL Teachers neglect the importance of
teaching speaking, and EFL learners lack exposure to English during their
learning process. Unlike the communicative language teaching approach, the
traditional methods are not the ideal way for developing students’ speaking,
which causes various challenges that hinder the development of the learners’
speaking skill. The problem we shed light on refers to the fact that EFL
learners face difficulties when speaking English but can overcome this by
using CLT activities.

The Motivation of the Study

This study is motivated by the desire to create autonomous, independent,

competent and creative learners. The lack of attention given to teaching speaking in
classes and the absence of implementing CLT activities in EFL classes are the
motives. Besides the need for investing in the difficulties that EFL students face.

Significance of the Study

This research is significant as it provides new insights into the impact of using
CLT activities in developing students’ speaking skill. This study is significant as it
introduces to the teachers and learners the importance of implementing
communicative approach activities. Also, the significance of this study lies in
inspiring teachers to consider communicative approach activities in the oral
expression session to open up opportunities to the learners to use the target language
outside and inside the classrooms.
 3

Aims of the Study

This study aims to contribute to improving the teaching and learning of

speaking in EFL classes through the use of CLT activities. It mainly intends to attract
the attention of teachers to adopt the communicative approach of activities. This
research will examine the use of CLT activities in the oral expression module and
measure its impact on improving students speaking skill. The primary aim of this
study regards driving attention to the importance of teaching speaking and assisting
learners to find remedies for their speaking difficulties.

Research Questions and Hypotheses

In an attempt to find possible solutions to the concerns mentioned above, this
study seeks to answer the following questions.
• To what extent do CLT activities help students improve speaking?
• What are the problems that prevent learners from participating?
Building on the above-stated research questions, this study states the following
hypotheses:
✓ CLT activities help EFL learners to overcome their speaking difficulties.

Research Methodology and Design

This study attempts to investigate the extent to which CLT activities help
students to overcome their speaking difficulties. Regarding collecting data, the current
study adopts a qualitative approach. The population of this study is Second Year
students of English at Ziane Achour University enrolled in the academic year
2020/2021. The selection of the sample was made conveniently using snowball
sampling to tools collected data to test hypotheses.

The organisation of the Study

The present thesis is composed of three chapters, namely the literature review
as the theoretical part, and methodology and data analysis and discussion as the
fieldwork part.
 4

The first chapter will provide you with a thorough look at the prior methods
that have been used before the communicative approach, also explaining the impact of
the communicative approach activities in overcoming students’ speaking difficulties
and how these activities develop their communicative competence. Besides, it
highlights the importance of teaching speaking and explains the difficulties that
prevent learners from participating in the classroom.

Chapter two is designed to familiarize the reader with the empirical part of the
work justifying the use of the qualitative approach as well as providing information
about the method used in undertaking the research. The Chapter also describes the
different stages of the research, which includes the selection of participants, the data
collection process and the data analysis. The final stage of this chapter ends with a
discussion of validity and reliability in qualitative research and discusses how these
two requirements were met in the current study.

Chapter three presents the findings of the study for the research questions
along with a detailed interpretation of the results with the stated hypotheses. In this
chapter, the interpretations are accredited, and the findings are linked to the review of
the literature to be ratified.
 5

CHAPTER ONE
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
 Chapter One Literature Review 6

Introduction

The four language skills are interconnected, but the ability to speak
fluently provides the speaker with several advantages. That is why Speaking
English is the main goal of many adults and young learners because being
able to communicate in English is important. It is a fact that students are
supposed to talk and express their opinions in a way that others can
understand, but their personalities play a vital role in determining how quickly
they will reach their academic goal. Those who are talkative, unafraid of
making mistakes acquire the language differently from those who are shy to
speak. However, most students remain passive and face many obstacles that
prevent them from participating in class. This can happen due to linguistics or
psychological problems.
This chapter will highlight the importance of teaching speaking and
the importance of participation. Also, provide you with a thorough look at the
prior methods that have been used before the communicative approach.
Besides, it explains the difficulties that prevent learners from participating in
the classroom. The chapter will throw light on the impact of the
communicative approach activities in overcoming student’s speaking
difficulties, and how these activities develop students’ communicative
competence.

1.1 The importance of teaching speaking skill

Speaking is defined as the process of building and sharing meaning

through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols in a variety of contexts
(Chaney & Burk, 1998). Teaching speaking has a fundamental part in foreign
language learning, because it contributes to the achievement of learners, gives
precise information about how to express oneself. Many teachers agree that
students should learn how to speak to be competent and achieve better
 Chapter One Literature Review 7

academic success because through speaking students can exchange

information produce accurate utterances, and involve in conversations, and
discuss different topics freely. teachers should provide feedback and become
aware of how well their class is doing, and what language difficulties they
are having.

Good speaking activities can highly motivate students to participate in

the classroom, and gain a positive attitude toward the language which can
increase their willingness to learn more about the language (Harmer, 2007).
To sum up, teaching speaking help EFL learners to develop their
ability to produce the language, discuss different opinions participate in the
classroom and interact with others, get feedback from teachers or raise their
feel of correctness they also can learn from other students, express their
communicative needs and certain attitudes like desire, belief, emotion regret
and so on.

1.2 The importance of participation in the EFL classroom

Students speaking in the classroom are regarded as participation they answer

teachers or ask questions or answer other student’s questions to get better
explanations and clarification. Participation is essential and necessary for learning and
understanding a language. It helps students to practice the language, express their
personal feeling, ideas, comment negotiate and suggest then it promotes cooperative
learning which encourages students to work together discuss, debate, think critically
and solve problems all these enhance their understanding and improve their learning.
Moreover, participation offers the opportunity to acquire new words and structures
and to practice them in the context to which they have been exposed during the
lesson. Moreover being exposed to several tasks help the learners to acquire different
forms and structures of language because they unconsciously learn a lot of new
vocabulary and grammatical rules and use them in appropriate contexts. Furthermore,
it brings positive energy, increase their motivation pay attention to the teachers talk to
discuss, engage, and interact with each other and be more productive, active, focus
 Chapter One Literature Review 8

more on the content, and make the classroom more conducive and successful. In this
context, participation helps the learners to master speaking which is a very important
skill. Usually, it gives students a chance to get feedback from their teachers to be
aware of what they need to develop then be more comfortable and overcome their fear
of hesitation, build their self-confidence and be more fluent and achieve success in
spoken communication.

1.3 Methods prior to communicative language teaching

Several teaching approaches and methodologies have been tested

throughout history with some being approved and effective than others.
Teaching a foreign language is challenging but beneficial for teachers to gain
knowledge of the many different language learning techniques and help the
learner to learn according to their learning preferences.

1.3.1 The Grammar-Translation Method

The Grammar-Translation Method has been used by language teachers for

many years this method is not new in language teaching. Before it was named
classical Method because it was used in the teaching of Latin and Greek. Later it
was used for the goal of teaching students how to read and understand foreign
language literature. The teachers who use the Grammar-Translation Method, a
fundamental purpose of learning a foreign language is to be able to translate the
target language. The teacher is the authority in the classroom his role is very
traditional. So students should do what the teacher says to learn what he/she knows.
The characteristics of the teaching/learning process, students are taught to translate
from one language to another language. Often they translate passages in the target
language talking about the cultural aspect of the foreign language community. Most
of the interaction in the classroom is controlled and guided by the teacher which
results from little students interaction. Literary language is viewed as superior to
spoken language.In the Grammar-Translation Method, the students should translate
it into the students' native language. The language that is used in class is mostly the
students' mother tongue. Written test in which students are asked to translate from
 Chapter One Literature Review 9

their native language to the target language or vice versa is often used. Besides
applying grammar rules and asking questions about the target language culture. If
students don’t know an answer or make errors, students get the correct answer
(Larsen-Freeman, Marti Andirson, 2000).

1.3.2 The Direct Method

The Direct Method was a reaction to the grammar-translation method

it has one basic rule no translation permitted and language is primarily
speech, meanings are directly connected with the target language, without
going through the process of translating into the students' native language.
The teacher uses the direct method aimed at teaching students how to
communicate in the target language. To achieve this, students should learn to
think in the target language. Although the teacher controls the learning
content, the student’s role is less passive than in the Grammar-Translation
method. The relation between teachers and students is more like partners in
the teaching/learning process. The teachers who use the direct method believe
that the association of meaning and the target language should be direct. Even
though this method is often teacher-centred. Student can converse with one
another and the interaction in the classroom goes both ways (Larsen-Freeman,
Marti Anderson, 2000).

1.3.3 The audio-lingual Method

The audio-lingual method has a different goal from that of the Grammar-
Translation method. The audio-lingual method was developed during world war II in
the United State. On that occasion, the Grammar-Translation method did not prepare
people to use the target language which created a need for people to learn a foreign
language rapidly for military purposes. The teachers who use the Audio-Lingual
Method aim to teach students how to use the target language communicatively. To
achieve this, they assumed that students need to attain proficiency in the target
language, to be able to use it automatically without stopping to think. The teacher is
 Chapter One Literature Review 10

like an orchestra leader providing students with a good model, guiding and controlling
the language behaviour of the students. The characteristics of the teaching/learning
process are through dialogues new vocabulary and structures are presented and
learned by imitation and repetition. The students to students interaction exist when
they take different roles in dialogues or chain drills, but this interaction is a teacher-
directed. Most of the interaction is initiated by the teacher and it is mostly between
teacher and students (Larsen-Freeman, Marti Anderson, 2000).

1.3.4 The Silent Way

Although people did learn languages through the Audio-Lingual

Method, and indeed it is still being widely practised today, the idea that
learning a language means forming a set of habits was seriously challenged in
the early 1960s. The teachers who use the Silent Way, aim at teaching the
students to be able to use the language for self- expression to express their
ideas, feelings, and perceptions. To do this goal, they need to develop
independence from the teacher, develop their inner feeling for correctness and
rely on themselves. The teacher, therefore, should provide them with what
they need to promote their learning. The role of the students is to make use of
what they already know, to free themselves of any obstacles that would
decrease their attention in the learning test, and to actively engage in
exploring the language. On the other hand, the teachers' role is seen as a
technician or engineer. the teachers rely on what the students already know so
they can learn freely. The characteristics of the teaching/learning process are
The teacher sets up the situations that focus students attention on the structure
of the language, and the students begin their study of the language through its
basic building block, its sounds.

The evaluation achieved is the teacher assesses students learning all

the time. Since “teaching is subordinate to learning,” the teacher must be
ready for immediate learning needs. The teacher does not give positive
 Chapter One Literature Review 11

feedback to students’ behaviour since this would interfere with students’

developing their inner criteria. When students make and the teacher uses those
errors as a basis for deciding where further work is necessary. Students need
to compare their production with their developing inner criteria (Larsen-
Freeman, Marti Anderson, 2000).

1.3.5 Suggestopedia

Usually considered to be the strangest of the so-called "humanistic

approaches", suggestopedia was originally developed in the 1970s by the
Bulgarian educator Georgi Lozanov. Lozanov declared that memorization in
learning through suggestopedia would be accelerated up to 25 times over that
in traditional learning methods. Suggestopedia was based on the power of
suggestion in learning, the notion being that positive suggestion would make
the learner more receptive and, in turn, stimulate learning. Lozanov holds that
to create a relaxed and focused state in the learner and to promote positive
suggestion, teachers should make use of music, to create a comfortable and
relaxing environment. The relationship between the student and the teacher is
similar to the parent-child relationship. Suggestopedia has no apparent theory
of language and no obvious order in which items of language are presented.
The teachers who use Suggestopedia, teachers aim to accelerate the process by
which students learn to use a foreign language for daily communication. To
achieve this, more of the students’ mental powers must be tapped. This is
accomplished by overcoming the psychological barriers learners bring with
them to the learning situation. So, they have to try their best and study hard.
The teacher’ role in Suggestopedia Method is the authority in the classroom.
The success of the method relay on student’s trust and respect toward the
teacher. The students will retain a better understanding of someone whom
they trust to overcome their limitations and suggesting how easy it will be for
them to succeed. And how is the evaluation accomplished, the latter normally
 Chapter One Literature Review 12

is conducted on students usual in-class performance and not through formal

tests, which would threaten the relaxed atmosphere considered essential for
accelerated learning? (Larsen-Freeman, Marti Anderson, 2000).

1.3.6 Community Language Learning

Charles Curran in the early seventies developed an innovative

education model named “Counselling-Learning”. This was essentially an
example of a new model that considered affective factors as paramount in
the learning process. On the other hand, Carl Rogers’ view that learners were
to be seen not as a class, but as a group, Curran’s philosophy dictated that
students were to be thought of as “clients” – their needs being addressed by a
“counsellor” in the form of the teacher. Curran was best known for his
extensive studies on adult learning, and some of the issues he addressed were
the threatening nature of a new learning situation to many adult learners, and
the anxiety created when students feared making “fools” of themselves.
Curran sees that the counselling-learning model will help lower the
instinctive defences adult learners throw up, that the anxiety caused by the
educational context could be decreased through the support of an interactive
community of fellow learners. Another important goal was for the teacher to
understand students and help them in the learning process, not put them in a
stressful situation. Community Language Learning looks for encouraging
teachers to see their students as “whole” persons, where their interpersonal
relationships, protective reactions, feelings, intellect, and desire to learn are
addressed and balanced. Students typically sit in a circle using their first
language to develop an interpersonal relationship based on trust with the other
students, with the teacher (as a counsellor) outside the ring. When they want
to say something, they first say it in their native language, which the teacher
then translates back to them using the target language. Then students attempt
to repeat the English used by the teacher, and then a student can respond
using the same process. This technique is used over a significant period, until
students can apply words in the new language without translation, gradually
moving from depending on the teacher as a counsellor to a state of
independence.
 Chapter One Literature Review 13

The goal of The Community Language Learning method does not just
to attempt to teach students how to use another language communicatively, it
also tries to encourage the students to take increasingly more responsibility for
their learning, and to “learn about their learning”, so to speak. Learning in a
nondefensive manner is seen to be vital, with teacher and student regarding
each other as a “whole person” where intellect and ability are not separated
from feelings. The initial struggles with learning the new language are
addressed by creating an environment of mutual support, trust and
understanding between both learner-clients and the teacher-counsellor. The
goal of the teachers who use the Community Language Learning Method is
teaching their students how to use the target language communicatively.
Besides, they want their students to take responsibility for their learning. Both
of these are to be achieved in a non-defensive manner. For non-defensive
learning to occur the teacher and the learner should treat each other as a
whole person, and do not separate each other’s intellect from his or her
feelings (Larsen-Freeman, Marti Anderson, 2000).

1. 3.7 The Total Physical Response Method

Founded by an American professor of psychology James Asher, in the

1960s, the theory of Total Physical Response (TPR) sees that memory can be
enhanced through association with physical movement. TPR theory is closely
similar to the theories of mother tongue language acquisition in very young
children, where they respond physically to the commands of their parents,
such as "Pick it up" and "Put it down". Total Physical Response is an
approach to teaching a second language is based, on listening which is
associated with physical actions which are designed to increase
comprehension of particular basic items. Total Physical Response activities
might contain instructions such as " close the door", "Open the window", "
 Chapter One Literature Review 14

Stand up" and "Give Sarah your dictionary".The students are asked to carry
out the instructions by physically performing the activities. Given an
encouraging classroom environment, such activities can be both motivating
and fun, and it is also likely that with even a fairly limited amount of
repetition basic instructions such as these could be assimilated by the
learners, even if they were unable to reproduce them accurately themselves.
The above examples, however, also show some of the possible weaknesses in
the approach. Firstly, from a purely practical point of view, the activity
became repetitious a few minutes after the lesson begins which makes it
difficult even for the most skilled and inventive teacher, although the use of
situational role-play can help in widening the range of lexis. Secondly, it is
fairly hard to give instructions without using imperatives, so the language
input is restricted to this single form. Thirdly, it is quite difficult to see how
this approach could extend beyond the beginner level. Fourthly, the
significance of some of the language used in TPR activities to real-world
learner needs is debatable. Finally, moving from the listening and responding
stage to oral production might work in a small group of learners but it would
appear to be difficult when applied in large classes.
The teacher who uses the Total Physical Response Method believes
that it is important to have their students enjoy their experience in learning to
communicate in a foreign language. The Total Physical Response Method was
developed to decrease the stress of the students when studying foreign
languages and thereby reinforcing students to continue in their study beyond
a beginning level of proficiency (Larsen- Freeman, Marti Anderson, 2000).

1.3.8 Communicative Language Teaching

Communicative Language teaching (CLT) emerged in the 1970s and 1980s.

The "term communicate" is meant to convey opinions verbally or non-verbally. This
approach focuses on the communicative ability of the learners. Communicative
language teaching is an approach to foreign or second language teaching which
 Chapter One Literature Review 15

concentrates on the idea that language should be learned through communication. The
goal of the communicative approach is to make learners communicatively competent
to use the language in everyday life. This approach is learner-centred It provides the
learner with a social skill besides grammatical competency. How to say, when to say
and where to fulfil the daily needs. The communicative approach tries to develop both
accuracy and fluency from the very beginning of the learning journey. In this
approach, the teacher is not an authoritarian master, however, a co-participant. The
teacher should provide all the necessary resources for communication to be effective
in every situation. CLT makes communicative competence the goal of language
teaching that involves speech where learning is contextualized and learners are
engaged in the situation, interact with others negotiate several meanings in different
situations inside and outside the classroom. Communicative language teaching is not
teaching language as a matter of delivering structured rules, it also offers a great
opportunity for students to participate and engage in real communication. This
improves their abilities to speak and increase their level of performance when doing
tasks or makes use of any activity (Larsen-Freeman, Marti Anderson, 2000).

1.4 Fluency vs Accuracy

Fluency is the ability to produce speech without straggling or

inappropriate slowness, or hesitating. Many speakers think that fluency is to
speak fast, that is why they speak rapidly without pauses. However natural
pauses occur in any interaction that is to say fluency is speaking rabidly with
an acceptable amount of natural pauses. On the other hand, Accuracy is
viewed as the ability to produce grammatically correct sentences. using
language accurately means focusing on the grammatical structure,
vocabulary, and pronunciation. accuracy focused tasks are designed to
practice the language in a limited way, so learners must be aware of this. If
they do so, their language skills will hardly develop because they will be
focusing on the structure of the utterances instead of conveying the message
(Ed, 2017).
 Chapter One Literature Review 16

1.5 Components of communicative competence

Communicative competence refers to the ability to use language

accurately and fluently producing grammatically correct utterances used in an
appropriate context. This term was introduced by Dell Hymes based on
Chomsky’s competence and performance. He believed that to learn a
language, learners should know how to communicate using the rules of
language not only knowing them. In this context, communicative competence
is a tool for learners to apply certain grammatical rules express views
negotiate to mean, and know what and how to use and produce their opinions
appropriately according to the given situation. (Canale and Swain, 1980)
classified communicative competence into four categories, grammatical
competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence, and finally
strategic competence.

1.5.1 Grammatical competence

For students to participate, they need to have sufficient grammatical

knowledge about the language which means they should have the ability to
produce different grammatical structures and using them correctly while
participating. Grammatical competence is composed of a grammatical and
linguistic system that enables the learners to participate and produce pieces of
spoken discourse that are meaningfully structured and comprehensible
(Canale and Swain 1980, 1981).

1.5.2 Discourse competence

Discourse competence is the ability to combine and produce unified,

coherent, and cohesive utterances then is viewed as the ability to understand a
given context and know-how to link utterances of language to make speech
 Chapter One Literature Review 17

coherent and meaningful they need to know what linguistics resources can be
used to organize and structure the speech that they want to utter and express
within the classroom (Brown, 2007).

1.5.3 Sociolinguistic competence

Sociolinguistic competence is using language according to the social context.

Knowing how to express messages according to the social rules and context, speaker,
listener, topic, and the setting, that is to say, learners should know the social context
to behave, participate and adjust their message according to the situation they are in
(Brown, 2007).

1.5.4 Strategic competence

Strategic competence is viewed as the ability to avoid communication

breakdown when there are difficulties and keep it going to enhance the effectiveness
of the communication(Canale & Swain, 1980). Pragmatic competence helps us to
repair, cope with imperfect knowledge, and to sustain communication because in the
same situations students are uncertain or unable to, express what they have in their
mind due to their lack of competence in this case pragmatic competence take place in
which learners paraphrase, try to avoid hesitation, and guessing for their participation
to become smooth and they speak properly(Canale & Swain,1980).

(Communicative Competence – Supporting English Language Learners, 2021)

 Chapter One Literature Review 18

1.6 Advantages of Communicative Language Teaching

Communicative teaching focus on “task-oriented, student-centred” that

focuses on the interaction between students and teachers. Unlike the traditional
approaches where the teacher is the authority and the centre of the class in CLT
students are more active and their relation with the teacher is interactive more like a
harmonious relationship. To relate the basic knowledge and ability to skillfully
combine the development. Traditional classroom teaching only emphasized the
teachers it was teacher-centred, neglecting the needs of students and their abilities.
Communicative teaching focuses on the learner’s cognitive ability and operational
capabilities, which let the students themselves think about and express their ideas and
develop their ability to use language in real life. Communicative language teaching
Greatly enhanced the student’s willingness to participate in the classroom, because it
is based on their needs so they start learning English with pleasure because they were
seen as the main character in their learning process, they learn a meaningful language
using authentic materials with motivating them to learn the English language.
Communicative language teaching helps in developing learner’s fluency in the target
language. This enables them to increase their confidence when interacting with other
people and they also enjoy talking more. The approach also leads to gaining
knowledge in different areas of the target language such as grammatical/
sociolinguistic/ discourse /strategic competence through communication.

1.7 Critiques of CLT

Although the communicative approach has many uses and advantages it has
weaknesses and has received some criticism over the decades like any other approach.
(Canale & Swain, 1980) stated that adults trying to learn a second language would
perhaps want to know how the grammatical rules worked which make them not be
satisfied with getting the meaning only with CLT there is a risk of focusing too much
on oral skills and less emphasis is given to reading and writing skills. A decade earlier
(Savignon, 1972 ) had found something alike which was the emphasis on function
instead of form. Besides, this approach is great for intermediate level and advanced
 Chapter One Literature Review 19

level, but for beginner students is a bit difficult for them to participate in oral
communicative activities. Moreover, the challenges that teachers encounter when
using this approach and when assessing a student’s communicative skills. The
teacher’s monitoring ability must be very good. Even though classroom activities are
not real-life and it can be difficult to create truly authentic language use. ,
Furthermore, the main principle underlying the CLT approach is focusing on learners'
needs and interests. Which put much pressure on teachers to create and modify the
syllabus according to the needs of the learners.

1.8 The role of the teacher in the communicative approach

Despite the development of the teaching system, It is universally

acknowledged that the teacher is the backbone of any educational system, and is an
important element in the success of the learning process. The teacher is in complete
control of the class, He/She assumes the role of the controller when a new language is
being introduced. In this classroom, the teacher is mostly the centre of focus, what
students do what they say and how they say it using well-organized activities and
dividing students’ tasks and time efficiently. The teacher assesses students and sees
how well they are performing giving them feedback and correction in a manner that
the student will not feel offended and as a result of this they will have low self-esteem
and low confidence in learning the target language. They might also create a negative
attitude toward the target language. There are many ways to garden learners'
performance for instance repeat what they said in-concretely using the correct form
without letting others notice. Also, the teacher is a walking resource ready to offer
help if needed or provide learners with whatever language they lack when performing
communicative activities. Making her/him available so that learners can consult
her/him when it is necessary. As a resource, the teacher can give instructions to
learners to using the available resources such as the internet, or their previous
knowledge to not make them reliant on the teacher. The teacher as a tutor can pay
individual attention to a student to tailor and make a course fist the students’ needs.
However, in this situation, students can become too reliant or even too comfortable
with one teacher and a certain method or pedagogy of teaching. The teacher displays
the role of a coach when students are involved in self-study or project work. The
teacher gives advice and guidance and helps students clarify ideas. The teacher
 Chapter One Literature Review 20

motivates students to participate and makes suggestions about how students may
proceed in an activity. The teacher should help students only when they are lost for
words or struggling to express an idea sometimes they lose the thread or become
unsure how to proceed, the prompter can encourage them by discreetly nudging in a
supportive way. The teacher is an independent participant taking part in the activity
when necessary without dominating the activity when performing it. This role helps to
improve the atmosphere in the class. Here the teacher can energize a class; this can be
a great way to interact with learners without being too overpowering or becoming the
centre of attention. Finally, the hardest and important role the teacher has to play. A
good organization leads to successful activities besides providing students with
instructions to accomplish any activity productively and constructively. The organizer
can also serve as a demonstrator, by getting involved and engaged with learners. solve
activities with learners and provide them with content feedback.

1.9 Difficulties that prevent learners from participation

The majority of foreign language learners face problems and difficulties which
prevent and deceive their participation. Linguistics and psychological barriers are the
factors that prevent students to take part and participate in class.

1.9.1 Psychological barriers

Student’s psychological problems. Anxiety, shyness, lack of motivation, low self-

confidence, fear of making mistakes, and lack of interest are the most psychological
difficulties they encounter.

1.9.1.1 Language anxiety

Anxiety is the frustrations that the learners feel before they speak a foreign language.
It is associated with emotions of worry uneasiness, and self-doubt, apprehension
(Horwitz et al, 1986) it is a normal and natural reaction that every person can have it
in fact, all human beings at the beginning of their activities in different domains, show
signs of anxiety. Sometimes learners fail to deliver a certain message which prevents
any future participation they prefer to remain silent and passive instead of taking the
risk of failure again. So, whenever they face a task and find it difficult they will feel
 Chapter One Literature Review 21

uncomfortable and doubt themselves thinking they can not accomplish that task. in
this situation, Anxiety takes place and affects their performance it also influences the
quality of oral production and makes them appear less fluent and passive.

1. 9.1.2 Lack of self-confidence

It is the belief that students can achieve success and competence based
on the abilities to produce and speak a language confidently. self-confidence
is one of the psychological problems that lead the students to hesitate in
classroom discussion. In other words, Students who are not self-confident
always question themselves they become shy and build the fear of making
mistakes Moreover, they prefer to avoid any challenges and take the risk, as a
result, their chances of speaking and participating will be reduced.
1.9.1.3 Lack of motivation
Motivation is a crucial element in determining success or failure it is
the Centre end the heart of learning. In the EFL classroom, the lack of
motivation can be considered one of the main aspects that prevent students
from participating. It appears in form of uninteresting activity or topic or the
learner's state like illness, tiredness or hungry, etc... As a result, those factors
may decrease student’s motivation and prevent their engagement in classroom
activities. Hence, Students have no goals to reach and they have a weak desire
to learn and participate in a class (Dornyei, 2001).

1.9.1.4 Fear of making mistakes

Fear of making mistakes limits learner’s participation in the

classroom. Students are frustrated to participate in a class due to their
linguistic inadequacy and fear of making mistakes, which stops students from
interacting and sharing their thoughts and opinions. they prefer to be passive
observers in order not to make mistakes because the majority think if they
make a mistake while talking others will laugh at them and they will be
criticized by the teacher and their classmate. Overall the teacher should
 Chapter One Literature Review 22

encourage the learners to speak even if they make mistakes or errors due to the
misunderstanding of the rules. This is useful because practice makesperfect, also it

helps learners to avoid fossilized words(UR Penny, 2000).

1.9.1.5 Isolation during the global pandemic

School closure and social isolation drastically affected the students,

leaving them behind. Forgetting some of what they have learned in school is
not new. But there’s a big difference between summer learning loss and
pandemic-related learning loss it is a fact that the educational system have
been replaced by the use of on-line classes in order to pursue the program
some countries have a good internet connection and professional tools to fill
the gap that the global pandemic created however some countries have weak
internet connection and their learners are not acquainted with the idea of E-
learning specifically EFL learners they listen to the taps given by their teacher
read books or article they also can improve their writing skill by doing their
homework and assignments the difficulty is how can they improve their
speaking skill through on-line classes it is well known that the classroom is
the ideal platform to develop speaking skill because learners can talk
according to the context they are put in also we should not forget the
motivation and the positive energy beside the productivity that the classroom
provide on-line classes can not provide they may discuss several topics but to
a limited extent another factor is that students are at home which means that
they will communicate using their mother tongue even if their parents try to
speak English they can not create the atmosphere that the classroom have
1.9.1.6 Learners’ autonomy and personality
Understanding the relationship between personality types and
autonomy can be one of the many innovative factors in academic success
which informs creative teachers what aspects of personality traits can predict
and promote learners' autonomy in the educational system. Improving
autonomy in learners help them to become aware of their knowledge and
 Chapter One Literature Review 23

monitor their learning process. However, in some situations learners’ are not
dependent on themselves and do not take charge of their learning.

1.9.2 Linguistic barriers

Generally, EFL learners want to speak, interact and participate
fluently and accurately, but when they try to express themselves and share
ideas they face some linguistic difficulties such as lack of vocabulary, poor
grammar and pronunciation poor listening, fear of making mistakes or they
have nothing to say. all these factors prevent students from participating in
the classroom.

1.9.2.1 Lack of vocabulary

Lack of vocabulary is a crucial problem that EFL students face. To

learn a language student, need to have a linguistic package that allows them
to express themselves freely. Students are not able to express their opinions
or introduce themselves . They find it difficult to put their ideas into words.
So, they prefer to keep silent and avoid intervening in the conversation as
well as produce influence speech embedded with mistakes and pauses or
start repeated words and lines which they had uttered before(Thornbury,
2005).

1.9.2.2 Poor grammar

Grammar is needed to produce the correct sentence and if students do

not have grammar mastery, they will not able to produce grammatically
correct sentences. So they prefer to keep silent in order not to produce
ungrammatical structures and being ridiculed by their classmates and the
teacher. Grammar is the basis of any language and if students do not acquire
it, they will face problem in participation, there will not interact nor engage in
classroom discussions instead they remain silent all the time feeling afraid of
 Chapter One Literature Review 24

producing ungrammatical and incorrect sentences and being laughed at or get

negative feedback from teachers.

1.9.2.3 Poor pronunciation

Pronunciation is the way certain words are produced or expressed. It is

the most important and difficult problem that non-native English speakers
face when studying. Speaking a language means having good pronunciation
and students have to be familiar with the rules, stress, and intonations of
English pronunciation. (Tergujeff, 2013). Lack of pronunciation can lead to a
negative impression when students talk to each other in the classroom or real
life, their way of speaking is the first thing that students are judged, they
avoid participating to avoid misunderstanding and ineffective communication
among each other. Students remain passive and silent to avoid pronunciation
mistakes and being laughed at (Bada, Genc, and Ozkan, 2011).

1.9.2.4 The use of the mother tongue

Allowing the students to use L1 to find the similarities and

differences between the two languages can be a powerful technique in the
learning process to a limited extent, it is not an effective or beneficial
technique for all situations because for the students to acquire a foreign
language they have to speak it. It is a fact that when students use their native
language tongue to speak and participate inside the classroom they feel
comfortable and unstressed. but this is this will lead them to be passive in
classroom discussion and participation. Consequently, they will not improve
their language abilities if they keep on using their native language.

1.9.2.5 They have nothing to say

Students should share their thoughts opinions and talk about a given
topic during classroom discussion. Some students keep silent when they
 Chapter One Literature Review 25

asked to participate while others are unable to think they simply say “I have
nothing to talk about” or “no comment” or “I don’t know”. This due to their
lack of self-confidence, lack of preparation or they are afraid to talk in front
of the class. Learners have nothing to say because they have difficulty
expressing themselves. However, when a student has nothing to say about a
certain topic here comes the role of the teacher to suggest topics according to
students interests (Penny Ur, 1991).

1.10 CLT Activities for the Enhancement of Speaking Skill

Communicative activities play a vital role in communicative

language teaching (CLT) as one of the methods for best facilitating students’
learning and improving their communicative competence. A communicative
task brings the language to real-life situations alongside using discussion
activities pair work activities, interview, role-play, group work activities
storytelling, fill in the gap, and so on, in which teachers bring the real world
in the classroom.

1.10.1 Discussions

Discussion activities encourage critical thinking the students have

the chance to conclude, share opinions about an event, or find solutions in
their discussion groups. The discussion activity should be set by the teacher
so that students do not spend their time chatting with each other about
unnecessary things. For instance, students can become involved in
agree/disagree discussions 4 or 5 students in each group setting a topic that
can make them communicate and say their ideas feely, Then each group and
presents their opinions to the class this motivates them to be productive work
together speaking equally among group members and learn from each other.
In the end, the class decides on the winning group who defended their idea in
the best way. This activity helps students how to express and justify
 Chapter One Literature Review 26

themselves in polite ways while disagreeing with others it also encourages

critical thinking and quick decision making.

1.10.2 Role Play

In role-playing students pretend they are in various social contexts and

have a variety of social roles. In this type of activity, the teacher gives
information to the learners such as who they are and what they think or feel
the way they should performthe role they are given.

1.10.3 Information Gap

In this activity, students are supposed to be working in pairs. One

student will have the information that the other partner does not have and the
partners will share their information. Information gap activities serve many
purposes such as solving a problem or collecting information. Also, each
partner plays an important role because the task cannot be completed if the
partners do not provide the information the others need. These activities are
effective because everybody has the opportunity to talk extensively in the
target language.

1.10.4 Storytelling

Students are asked to summarize a tale or story they heard before, or

they may create their own stories also can tell riddles or jokes to their
classmates. Storytelling encourages students’ creative thinking. It also helps
them express ideas in the structure of start, development, and ending,
including the plot characters and so on. For instance, the teacher can ask them
to do this at the very beginning of each class to tell short riddles or jokes as
an opening.
 Chapter One Literature Review 27

1.10.5 Interviews

It is a good idea that the teacher conduct interviews on selected topics

provide the students with instruction so that they know what type of
questions they can ask, how to answer certain questions this helps them to
learn how to ask formal question in different situations it also gives the
chance to practice their speaking ability inside and outside the classroom
(Pawarit Pingmuang, 2017).

1.10.6 Picture Describing

Another way to make students speak is to ask them to describe a

picture. They can form groups and each group is given a different picture.
Students discuss the picture with their groups, then the speaker for each
group represents in words the picture to the entire class. This task fosters the
creativity and imagination of the learners as well as their public speaking
skills. Overall speaking is the key to communication and teaching it is a very
important part of second language learning, because it contributes to the
success of the learner in school and success later in every phase of life.
Therefore, language teachers must pay great attention to improving students’
oral competency. Rather than leading them to pure memorization, providing a
productive environment where meaningful communication takes place. With
this aim, various speaking activities such as those listed before can contribute
to a great extent in developing basic interactive skills necessary for life.
These activities make them more active in the learning process and at the
same time make their learning more meaningful and fun for them.

1.10.7 Summary

Communicative language teaching origins are many, in so far as one

teaching methodology tends to influence the next. The educators felt that
students were not learning enough realistic, the whole language using the
 Chapter One Literature Review 28

audiolingual and grammar-translation methods. They did not know how to

communicate using appropriate social language, expressions, or gestures; in
brief, they were not able to communicate in the target language culture. In the
intervening years, the communicative approach has been adapted to the
elementary, middle, secondary, and post-secondary levels, and the underlying
philosophy has generated different teaching methods known under a variety
of names, including notional-functional, teaching for proficiency,
proficiency-based instruction, and communicative language teaching.
Communicative language teaching creates real-life situations that require
communication. The teacher initiates a situation that students are likely to
face in real life. Unlike the audiolingual method of language teaching, which
focuses on repetition and drills, the communicative approach can leave
students excited, which will vary according to their reactions and responses.
Students' willingness to learn comes from their desire to communicate in
meaningful ways about meaningful topics. The goals of the teacher who
uses The Communicative Approach is to develop student’s communicative
competence While this has been the main goal of many other methods, in the
communicative approach the notion of what it takes to be communicatively
competent is much expanded.

Conclusion

The purpose of this chapter was to give a historical overview of the

communicative approach and methods before these teaching methods also
this chapter highlights the importance of teaching speaking skill to EFL
learners using communicative language teaching activities to overcome their
fear and explore the difficulties that hinder them from participating inside the
classroom. We dealt with some definitions of concepts related to our research
such as communicative approach, speaking skill, and how to teach speaking
the role of the teacher in the classroom, and suggest some activities that can
develop students’ communicative competence. In addition to that, we have
 Chapter One Literature Review 29

mentioned the concept of participation, its features, and its importance in the
learning process. In the second part, we focused on the linguistic and
psychological problems that university students encounter when trying to
producethe language.
CHAPTER TWO
METHODOLOGY
 Chapter Two Methodology 31

Introduction

After highlighting the importance of speaking skill to EFL learners and

defined concepts related to the difficulties that they face, besides the impact
of CLT activities in overcoming their speaking difficulties. This chapter is
designed to familiarize the reader with the empirical part of the work,
justifying the use of the qualitative approach as well as providing information
about the method used in undertaking the research, to answer these questions
Is the use of CLT activities effective and help the students to overcome their
speaking difficulties? what are the problems that students face when speaking
English?

The Chapter also describes the different stages of the research, which
includes the selection of participants, the data collection process and the data
analysis. The final stage of this chapter ends with a discussion of validity and
reliability in qualitative research and discusses how these two requirements
were met in the current study The interaction between the researcher and the
participants consisted of a well-structured questionnaire. The researcher drew
attention to asking questions that elicit information from participants to fulfil
the research objectives by exploring the speaking difficulties encountered by
EFL learners whether the psychological and linguistic barriers prevent them
from speaking English, also investigating the impact of CLT activities in
overcoming students speaking difficulties.

2.1 Research Methodology

To provide answers to the research questions and to put the hypothesis into
practice, this research adopts a qualitative method. A qualitative approach was seen to
be the most appropriate choice because this approach aims at exploring psychological
and linguistics problems relying on the perception of a learner's experience explaining
the difficulties they face, and suggesting the communicative approach as a solution to
 Chapter Two Methodology 32

develop EFL learners' communicative competence, help them overcome their

linguistic and psychological problems. Data was collected using questionnaires. The
interaction between the researcher and the participants consisted of a well-structured
questionnaire. The researcher drew attention to asking questions that elicit
information from participants to fulfil the research objectives by exploring the
speaking difficulties encountered by EFL learners whether the psychological and
linguistic barriers prevent them from speaking English, also investigating the impact
of CLT activities in overcoming students‘ speaking difficulties.

2.2 Justification for using qualitative research

Field research or qualitative research is done to obtain an in-depth

comprehension of a specific organisation or event rather than the surface
description. The main goal is getting a better understanding through the first
experience, truthful reports and quotation of actual conversations also aims to
know how participants derive meaning from their surroundings and how their
meaning influences their behaviour. Qualitative research makes use of
observation as a data collection method this is the selection and recording of
behaviours of people in their environment, observation is practical for
generating in-depth descriptions of organisations or events, for obtaining
otherwise inaccessible information, and for conducting research when other
methods are inadequate.

Qualitative research was seen as suitable for this research project as the
purpose of this study was to explore the difficulties that EFL learners face when they
speak English. Also, the research approach is based on the personal experiences of
each participant. Moreover, the concern is understanding the problem under
investigation instead of making predictions about it. In the present study,
questionnaires were used as the main method of data collection. Teachers'
questionnaire to investigate if they favour using CLT activities in their oral classes, a
students' questionnaire to explore the difficulties they face and the methods that they
find useful in improving their English speaking skill
 Chapter Two Methodology 33

2.3 Instrument

The instrument that the researcher used in the questionnaire, consists

of items that focused on speaking difficulties that second-year LMD students
encounter.

2.4 Justifications for using questionnaire

A questionnaire has become one of the most used means of collecting

information. If well constructed, the questionnaire permits the collection of
reliable and reasonably valid data in a simple, cheap and timely manner. The
decision to use a questionnaire is often motivated by a need to collect routine
data from a large number of respondents who may be in one or several
locations, for example, during this global pandemic most of the students are at
home finishing theirs studies online. In this situation, a questionnaire can be
administered to a group at one school or it may be widely dispersed
throughout the district .

2.5 Population and sampling

The population of the research is represented in the second-year

English LMD students at the University of Djelfa in the English department.
The selection of participants was random, from both genders in the second
year.

2.6 Sampling

Research participants are generally chosen because they can provide useful
information based on their experiences, thereby enriching the researchers’
understanding. Two non-probability sampling approaches were used to choose the
 Chapter Two Methodology 34

participants for this study. The sampling method was judgment and snowball
techniques. The researcher initially approached participants through using the
official Facebook group of the foreign languages department directly addressing the
second year LMD students. The researcher specifically selected participants who
would be able to contribute to the research topic and would like to share their
obstacles in speaking English by doing this only the students who met the criteria of
the research contacted us, It took three days to receive messages from the participants
the researcher explained in details what was needed from them and how they can help
in developing the thesis by sending each participant a well-explained message via
messenger saying that this is a Master Two dissertation and the researcher wants to
explore the difficulties that EFL learners face when speaking English, asking them to
answer the questionnaire according to their experience, mentioning that their real
names will not be mentioned and their answers will only be used to fulfil the goal of
the study. We have been contacted by 30 participants, six males and 24 females. All
participants were interested and wanted to share their experience. The sample was
then expanded by asking the participant to ask other second-year students to answer
the questionnaire this is known as snowball sampling. These potential participants
were approached by the researcher and those that fulfilled the criteria and were
willing to participate in the study were subsequently sent the questionnaire.

2.7 Ethical considerations

The proposal for the research was approved by committees in the Department
of English, following a formal ethical procedure. Several ethical considerations were
taken into consideration to ensure that the study was conducted in an appropriate
manner (Babbie & Mouton, 2001). To comply with ethical considerations in
conducting research all participants provided verbal consent to answer the
questionnaire and to participate in the research. The participants, therefore, accepted
to participate in the study after they were approached by the researcher and the
research purpose and process were explained to them. The purpose of the research
was explained to the participants and the participants were told that should they
wish to withdraw if they do not want to answer the questionnaire. The participants
and the supervisor were unknown to each other. In the final step, the identity of the
participants was removed.
 Chapter Two Methodology 35

2.8 Data collection process

The participants were asked to answer the questionnaire according to

the time that was convenient for them. Once they agreed to answer the
questionnaire, an appointment was made with each participant at the time
convenient to both themselves and the researcher. The researcher sent the
participants the questionnaire via messenger using google forms.

2.9 Data Gathering Tools

This study took place at home, during the first semester after the
global lockdown of the academic year 2020 \2021. It aimed to gather data
about the main goal of this research, to discover the different problems that
EFL learners face when trying to speak English besides exploring the
effectiveness of CLT activities in reducing psychological problems when
speaking English and to what extent is it favoured by the students.

2.10 Data analysis

The researcher distributed several (20) copies of the sample of the

questionnaire selected randomly. This questionnaire related to two parts, difficulties
that EFL learners encounter when speaking English, and the effectiveness of CLT
activities in developing communicative competence and reduce those psychological
and linguistic problems.

2.11 Validity and reliability in qualitative research

Qualitative research focuses on understanding the case under

investigation and in doing so the analysis aims at ensuring that the research
findings capture what the participants say or what is happening. Validity
measures the extent to which the analysis reflects what was said by the
participants. Consistency in the answers received from different participants
enabled the researcher to compare the extent of stability in the findings.
Stability is also measured by the extent of the researcher's level of empathy
 Chapter Two Methodology 36

and the extent to which the researcher reflects on her understanding of issues
to the participants (Gibbs, 2002).

Conclusion

The current study adopts a qualitative approach. It aims at highlighting

the importance of speaking skill to EFL learners and investigating the
difficulties that prevent them from participating. The participants of this study
were ( 20) pupils which were chosen randomly to complete our questionnaire
about English speaking difficulties of the second year LMD student at the
University of Djelfa Ziane Achour in the English department. The
instruments which were used in this research to collect data were mainly based
on the questionnaire to answer the research questions.
 36

CHAPTER THREE
DATA ANALYSIS and DISCUSSION
 Chapter Three Results and Discussion 38

Introduction

The third chapter is devoted to something more practical that intends

to obtain valuable insight into the difficulties second-year LMD students face
when they try to speak. This chapter presents our work of study which was
conducted under analytical and descriptive method. To investigate that we
designed two questionnaires one for Oral expression teachers. and the second
one for the second year LMD students to obtain their responses.

3.1 Analysis of Students’ Questionnaire

Question 1 Students’ gender

Are you ? 25%

75%

Male Female

Figure 1. Students’ gender

Gender Number of students Percentage

Male 15 75 %

Female 5 25 %

Total 20 100 %

Table 1. Students’ gender

A quick look at the table above we can notice that females students are
numerous than males. ( 15) Participants in this study are females making up ( 75%) of
the whole sample (20) students. Whereas; (5) males making up (25%) of the whole
 Chapter Three Results and Discussion 39

sample. This result shows that girls tend to study foreign languages better than males
do. Maybe because boys prefer to study other branches, or females have more interest
in learning foreign languages.
Question 2 Students’ age

Students' age
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
18 19 20 21 22 23 28

student' s age

Figure 2. Students’ age

Students’ age Number of participant Percentage

18 7 35 %

19 4 20 %

20 2 10 %

21 4 20 %

22 1 5%

23 1 5%

28 1 5%

Table 2. Students’ age

The results show variety in the age of the students in our sample. The
age of the students in the table above is divided into (7) groups. The
participants’ age varies between (18) years old and (28) years old, out of the
total number of our sample (20) students. We have (7) students representing
(35%) who are (18) years old. This means they have started studying English
early, four participants who are (19) years old making up (20 %). And only
 Chapter Three Results and Discussion 40

(2) participants who are (20) years old making up (10 %). And 4 participants
who are ( 21) years old which is the normal age of the second year
LMD students making up (20%) of the sample. One (22) years old participant
making up 5%, one 23 years old participant making up (5 %), and (28) years
old participant making up (5 %). in this sample the old participants may
have repeated the year or started university after getting a job.

Question 3 Students‘ Englsih learning journey

How long have yoyu been learning English?

5%
15%

50%

30%

More than 5 years 1 -2 years Less tha one year More than 5 years

Figure 3. Students’ English learning journey

Answers Percentage
Less than one year 15 %
1 - 2 years 30 %

3 - 5 years 5%

More than 5 years 50 %

Table 3. Students’ English learning journey

The result in the table above shows that the majority of students
making up(50%) were studying English for more than( 5 ) years which will
help them to reach their academic level however they still get anxious when
speaking English. Whereas;( 30%) have been studying English for 1_2 years
 Chapter Three Results and Discussion 41

and ( 15%) were studying English for less than a year.

Question 4 Which aspect of English you find most difficult?

Which aspect of English you find most difficult?

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
Listening Reading Writing Speaking

Figure 4. Students’ most difficult skill

Skills Percentage
Listening 10 %
Reading 10 %

Writing 35 %
Speaking 50 %

Table 4. Students’ most difficult skill

(10) participants making up (50%) find speaking the most difficult

aspect in English, and (7) participants making up (35 %) find writing a
difficult skill to master, (2) participants making up (10 %) said that reading is
difficult for them with the same percentage (10 %) of the sample said that
listening is difficult for them. The majority of the participants declared that
speaking is the most difficult skill maybe that is the reason they get anxious
when they try to speak
 Chapter Three Results and Discussion 42

Question 5 Students’ Choices of Studying English

Why are you learning English?

75%

50%

20%

Just for fun Becasue my parents forced me Because I want to teach English
to learn it

Figure 5. Students’ Choices of Studying English

A quick look at the figure above reveals that (15) participants go for
“yes” which represent ( 75%) of the whole sample; while ( 4) students have
chosen “ just for fun” making up (20%). We believe that the minority of the
students ( 5%) did not choose English as a branch in the university maybe
because they have other preferences but their baccalaureate average did not
allow them to choose what they want or because their parents forced them to
study English. This question aims to know student’s motivation toward
studying English.
Question 6. How often do you speak English?

How often do you speak English

10%

0%

90%
Sometimes Never Everyday

Figure 6. Frequency of speaking English

 Chapter Three Results and Discussion 43

Answers Percentage
Sometimes 90 %

Never 0%
Everyday 10 %

Table 5. Frequency of speaking English

A quick look at the table above shows that ( 18) students making up (
90%) who sometimes speak English outside the classroom may be because
students prefer to speak using their mother tongue rather than TL which
explains why they encounter many difficulties in speaking English. ( 2)
Students making up ( 10%) answered with every day. We can notice from the
results that many students tend to use their native language to communicate
with others outside the classroom which makes it hard for them to speak
English fluently.
Question 7 What are you doing to improve your English?
Students’ answers
Watch TV program & series
I'm studying it and I'm reading books and talking with friends in
Englishlisten to music and watch movies
Listening podcast and
reading booksWatching
series & movies
Read books
I watch all kind of videos on YouTube but especially I watch gaming
videos.practicing english with strangers
I'm trying my best really .. I'm trying to improve the language , pronunciation
, vocabulary and writing...etc by using english everyday with my classmates
or Roommates even with teachers .. since they have a great empact on our
way of talking ...they tend to discuss helpful topics , and a living problems or
 Chapter Three Results and Discussion 44

issues that can be solved .

Also I used to work on some stories or a fairy tales ( my personal working), I didnt
puplish them yet ...because I'm not really sure if these stories doesn't
contain agrammatical mistakes (note: I have a lot of difficulties in
grammar)
Since I was in my 15 year I tried a lot of apps that can help me to have a contact
withenglish people so that I can improve my English more and more.
Trying to communicate with other people
I’m reading books,listening to music and try to
speak it moreTaking conversations with some
friends from time to time.
Watching movies listening music in English also helps me to improve my
English.Study ( grammar)
Have conversations with native speakers in some applications
*Studying at college .
*chatting with native and nonnative English speakers .
*watching videos and movies
Try to speak with it the
maximumRead books
and watch movies
try to speak it

Interpretation of question 7

The purpose of this question was to know what students are doing to improve
their English, we asked a general question instead of a direct question (what are you
doing to improve your speaking skill) to see which skill they are focusing on as
expected the majority are trying to develop their speaking skill through talking to
native anon native speakers which shows the importance of speaking to them.
Listening ranked in second place in which participants are trying to develop it by
watching movies, series and TV programs while developing their listening they may
get familiar with English pronunciation which is a part of developing speaking, the
third option that participants are doing to improve their English is reading books this
 Chapter Three Results and Discussion 45

does not develop their reading skill it also helps them to build their vocabulary to
overcome the linguistic barrier while speaking.

Question 8 Is your spoken English mainly ?

Is your spoken English mainly?

10%

90%
Formal Informal Both

Figure 7. Students’ way of speaking

Answers Percenatge
Formal 0%
Informal 10 %
Both 90 %

Table 6. Students’ way of speaking

In the table above (18) participants making up, (90 %) said that they
speak formal and informal English and (2) participants making up (10 %)
said they only speak informal English maybe this is one of the reasons that
prevent them from participating in the classroom because their vocabulary in
informal and for those who said they use both formal and informal English
they may also face problems in switching between the formal way of talking
to informal way. None of the participants uses only formal English that is
why CLT activities are important they teach the learners how to use formal
English inside and outside the classroom.
 Chapter Three Results and Discussion 46

Question 9 Did the global pandemic affect your speaking skill? If yes how?

Students’ answers
No
No
yes because of lack of communication
Watching movies in my free time
I think I watched more YouTube during the time of the pandemic
no
Unfortunately ,No..
I don’t think so,because I was watching movies and reading books so that it doesn’t
make a change
Yes, I found time to practice English.
No the panademic helped me to develop my skills because i found a lot of time to
learn it in my home with videos and some apps...

Only (10) participants attempted to answer this question, but the majority of
them developed other skills except speaking which makes it even harder for them to
socialize or participate during the oral session due to the long period they spent at
home communicating using only their mother tongue. The global pandemic helped
students to develop other skills not speaking.

Question 10 Students’ level of anxiety

Do you get anxious when you speak English?

25%

5%

70%

Yes No Sometimes

Figure 8. Students’ level of anxiety

 Chapter Three Results and Discussion 47

Answers Percentage
Yes 70 %
No 5%

Sometimes 25 %

Table 7. Students’ level of anxiety

A quick look at the table above shows that ( 14) participants making
up (70%) who make the majority of the ample go for yes that they get
anxious when they speak English. this confirms that the psychological and
linguistics barriers prevent them from speaking in class and (5) students
making up (25%) of the sample said they sometimes get anxious when
speaking English and one participant making up (5%) said that they do not
get anxious when they speak English.
Question 11 Is your oral exam mark?

Is you oral exam mark?

15,8% 5,3%
0%
5,3%

73.70

Very good Good Bad Very bad Bad

Figure 9. Students’ oral exam mark

Options Percentage
Very good 5,3 %
Good 73,7 %

Bad 5,3 %
Very bad 0%

Average 15,8 %

Table 8. Students’ oral exam mark

 Chapter Three Results and Discussion 48

The table above reveals that only (19) participants answered this
question ( 14) participants considered their level in English as good making
up ( 73,7%) of the total sample. While ( 3) participants state that their level
in English is average making up ( 15,8%) of the total sample. (1 ) Participant
making up ( 5,3 %) state that their oral exam mark is very bad and (1)
participant state that their level oral exam mark is very good and none of the
participants considered their level to be poor.

Question 12 Students’ psychological and linguistic barriers

You do not speak English because you have psychological

barriers or linguistic barriers or you have both?
60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
Psychological barriers Linguistic barriers I have both Exceptions

Figure 10. Students’ psychological and linguistic barriers

Problems Percentage
Psychological 10 %

Linguistics 25 %
Both 55 %

Exceptions 10 %

Table 9. Students’ psychological and linguistic barriers

This question aims to know what prevent students from speaking

English whether they have psychological or linguistics barriers or they have
 Chapter Three Results and Discussion 49

both. (2) participants making up (10%) said they have psychological

barriers, and (5) participants making up (25%) said they have linguistic
barriers and (25%) of the sample said they have both the rest (10%) had some
exceptions such as I’m just not surrounded with people who can understand
what I’m talking about another participant said I do speak English.

Question 13 Students’ prefered CLT activities

Which of the tasks do like most for the speaking

activities?
60%
50%
40%

30%
20%
10%

0%

Figure 11. Students’ prefered CLT activities

Activities Percentage
Role play 25%

Group work 35 %

Discussion 50 %

Problem solving 25 %

Storytelling 45 %

Individual work 30 %

Pair work 15 %

Presentation 45 %

Table 10. Students’ prefered CLT activities

The purpose behind this question is to show the favoured speaking

activities for learners. The big amount of answers revealed that students
 Chapter Three Results and Discussion 50

prefer discussions making up (50%) and (9 )students making up (45%) prefer

presentation and storytelling and (7) students making up (35%) prefer group
work. 6 students making up (30%) prefer individual work students (5)
students making up (25%) prefer role paly ( 5) students making up (25%)
prefer problem-solving activities and the small portion of 3 students making
up (15%) prefer pair work these have indicated that these activities make
learners motivated to learn speaking.
Question 14 The use of CLT activities

Does your teacher use any of the activities mentioned

above?

30%

70%

Yes No

Figure 12. The use of CLT activities

Answers Percentage
Yes 70 %

No 30 %

Table 11. The use of CLT activities

A communicative classroom requires a friendly relaxed

environment. Teachers should create a de-stress atmosphere to motivate their
students and let them interact freely. The result in the table above shows that
15 students making up 70% declared that their teachers use CLT activities
whereas 5 students making up (30%) said that their teacher does not use CLT
activities. We assume that those who are their teachers use CLT activities tend
to have a pleasant classroom atmosphere and the small portion who’s their
teachers do not use CLT activities their classroom environment is not
enjoyable.
 Chapter Three Results and Discussion 51

3.2 The Analysis of Teachers’ Questionnaire

Teachers’ questionnaire was administered to six teachers of oral

expression, some of them still teach this module and others have taught it
before.
Question 1 Teachers’ degree

Degrees held

PhD

MA

BA

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%

Figure 13. Teachers’ degree

Degrees held Percentage

BA 0%

MA 83.3 %
PhD 33.3 %
Table12. Teachers’ degree

A quick look at the table above shows that only two teachers making up(83.3 %)
hold PhD degree, and four teachers making up (33.3 %) hold master degree.

Question 2 Teachers’ attitude toward oral expression module

Do you like teaching oral expression module?

100%

80%

60%

40%

20%

Yes No

Figure 14. Teachers’ attitude toward oral expression module

 Chapter Three Results and Discussion 52

Answers Percentage
Yes 100 %
No 0%

Table 13. Teachers’ attitude toward oral expression module

A quick look at the table above shows that the majority of the
teachers prefer to teach oral expression module. (6) teachers making up
(100%) go for yes we prefer to teach oral expression.
Question 3 Students’ participation frequency

How often do your students participate in the classroom?

16,7% 0%

83,3%

Always Sometimes Never

Figure 15. Students’ participation frequency

Students participation Percentage
Always 83.3 %

Sometimes 16.7 %
Never 0%

Table 14. Students’ participation frequency

This question aims to know the frequency of the students'

participation in the oral class and if they are motivated and interested to speak
the target language. The majority of teachers making up (83.3%) declared
that their students frequently participate during the oral session (16.7%)
 Chapter Three Results and Discussion 53

declared that sometimes their students participate during the oral session.
We believe that these students are motivated by their teachers and
interested in the different activities that are used in the classroom.

Question 4 Students’ problems

Do your students face problems when participating?

0%

100%

Yes No

Figutre 16. Results of students’ problems

Answers Percentage

Yes 100 %

No 0%

Table 15.Results of students’ problems

A quick look at the figure above shows that (6) teachers making up
(100%) stated that their students feel uncomfortable in the oral expression
session. We believe that the reason behind the students feels is that their
psychological barriers or linguistic barriers or even both prevent them from
participation.
Question 5 Students’ difficulties

If yes what difficulties that prevent them from participation?

100%
66%
16%
6%
Low-self confidence Lack of vocabulary Lack of motivation Anxiety

Figure 17. Results of students’ difficulties

 Chapter Three Results and Discussion 54

Teachers’ justifications
This question aims to know what is the main reasons behind the
students’ fear to speak. (6) teachers go for “ lack of vocabulary” we believe
that many students suffer from this linguistic problem of small baggage of
vocabulary hinder them from speaking the target language, teachers should
push these students to participate to build new vocabulary. (4) teachers
making up (66.7 %) declared that students have low self-confidence. While
other teachers making up ( 66.7%) stated that anxiety is the main reason
behind the students' refusal of participating. (16.7 %) declared that students
with low motivation refuse to speak.
Question 6 The time devoted to oral session

Do you find the amount of time devoted to the Oral

Expression module is sufficient?
0%

100%
Yes No

Figure 18. Results of the time devoted to oral session

Answers Percentage

Yes 100 %

No 0%

Table 16. Results of the time devoted to oral session

Looking at the figure above (6) teachers agreed that the time
devoted to oral expression session is not enough to make all students
participate using communicative approach activities.
 Chapter Three Results and Discussion 55

Question 7 What are the most used activities in the classroom?

What sort of activities do you use in the classroom?

Pair work 33%

Individual work 50%

Story telling 83%

Problem solving 16%

Group work 66%

Role paly 33%

Oral presntations 66%

Discussion 100%

Figure 19. Most used activities in the classroom

A quick look at the figure above reveals that all the teacher making up
(100%) go for communicative activities. Such role play; discussions,
presentations, role-play, storytelling, pair work...etc. they agree that
communicative activities should be used to enhance students speaking skill,
through these activities student will develop their communicative competence
using the target language accurately and fluently, besides overcoming the
linguistic, psychological barriers.
Question 8 From your experience as a teacher, is it possible to make all the
studentsparticipate in the classroom? explain why?
They are not sufficient due to the time of OE that is only 1h per
weekYes
Yes,they are. The use of varied activities helps students develop their oral
expressionskill and manage stress.
Yes, because practice is essential to develop students' productive skills.
No, there are much more activities to enhance student's level, like debating, the use
ofgames.....
Yes . they can be sufficient for oral expression module
 Chapter Three Results and Discussion 56

Answers Justification
4 Yes Agreed that these activities can be
sufficient to enhance the level of
participation in the classroom

2 No One teacher believes that the time

devoted to the oral expression
module is not sufficient. Another
teacher declared that there are
other CLT activities to enhance
students’ level like debating, the

use of games

Table 17. Activities that can enhance the level of participation

Question 9 Classroom activity assessment

When assessing classroom activities, do you focus on?

16,7%

16,7%

66,7%

Fluency Accuracy Both of them

Figure 20. Classroom activity assessment

Answesr Percentage
Fluency 16,7 %

Accuracy 16,7 %
Both of them 66,7 %

Table 18. Classroom activity assessment

 Chapter Three Results and Discussion 57

Looking at the figure above (66.7%) declared that they focus on

fluency. (16.7%) declared that they focus on accuracy. (17.7 %) declared
that they focus both on accuracy and fluency. We believe that the mutual
reason between teachers is developing their student’s communicative
competence, motivate them to speak and use the target language inside and
outside the classroom.
Question 10 From your experience as a teacher, is it possible to make all the
studentsparticipate in the classroom? explain why?
No it's impossible due to some personalty features like the introvert learners
Yes
It's difficult but possible (due to the different levels of students and lack of
confidence)
Yes, by choosing topics of general interest all students can engage in the
classroom discussions.

Yes, it depends on the subjects they are discussing, also on the teacher, he
canmotivate all of his students to participate.
It is very hard...but .we can try...there are always some students who are resistant.
Looking at the responses above reveals that (4) teachers agreed that it
is possible to make all the students participate in the classroom giving
different justifications. (2) teachers go for No one teacher declared that it is
impossible because some students are introverts, another teacher said some
students are resistant.
Question 11 Teachers’ most favored activitie

Which of the tasks do you like most for the speaking activities

Presentations
Pair work
Individual work
Storytellin
Problem solving
Discussion
Group work
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Figure 21. Teachers’ most favored activities

 Chapter Three Results and Discussion 58

Activities Percenta
ge
Precentations 45 %

Pair work 15 %
Individual 30 %
work
Storytelling 45 %
Problem 25 %
solving
Discussion 50 %

Group work 35 %
Role play 25 %

Table 19. Teachers’ most favored activities

Usually; in communicative activities, teachers should divide the

students into groups and pairs to make them share their opinions and ideas
and use the target language to develop their speaking skill. The results show
50 % are using group work; presentations. And (33.3 %) stated that they are
using pair work, storytelling, reading aloud.

3.3 Interpretation and discussion of the results

The analysis of the students’ questionnaire reveals that the

communicative approach affects the development of students’ speaking skill.
The majority of students show a great willingness to learn English especially
learning to speak it fluently and accurately besides developing their
communicative competence. The collected data show that the majority of
students want to participate in the oral class and they are willing to improve
their speaking skill but the psychological and linguistic barriers prevent them
they only like to participate when the CLT activities are implemented. From
learners’ favoured CLT activities, the collected answer shows that the
majority of the students are willing to work in the discussion, storytelling,
presentations, and group work activities. On the other hand; the students
 Chapter Three Results and Discussion 59

who are not willing to speaking because they have psychological or linguistic
barriers will be assisted by the teacher who will be a guide, a corrector but not
a controller in which he/she creates a relaxed encouraging atmosphere to push
them to participate in different activities used in the classroom. Secondly, the
analysis of the teachers’ questionnaire shows that most teachers are applying
some principles of communicative language teaching in their classes. In the
teachers’ questionnaire, the collected answers reveal that the majority of their
students are motivated to speak. such as; discussions, role plays, group work
...etc. We believe that from the collected answers the majority of the teachers
see that the communicative approach activities help develop student’s
communicative competence and push them to overcome their fear of speaking
English.

Conclusion

To conclude this chapter, the collected results from students’ and

teachers’ questionnaires show that communicative language teaching is an
effective method to help students improve their speaking skill overcome the
psychological and linguistic barriers. The analysis of students’ and teacher
questionnaire revealed that the communicative language teaching approach
activities have a positive effect on the student's oral performance. It
encourages participation, promotes confidence, prepares them for real-life
communication. in addition, it allows the students to use the target language
freely and teach them how to express, achieve the goal of developing their
speaking skill.
 60

GENERAL CONCLUSION
 61

General Conclusion

This current study aims to investigate the impact of communicative language

teaching activities in overcoming students’ speaking difficulties. Its main concern is to
investigate whether the use of communicative language teaching activities will help
students to overcome their speaking difficulties and improve their oral performance. The
ability to speak fluently in FL has a great contribution to the success of the learners.
Many methods have been introduced to enhance the quality of teaching and learning but
they fail to help the learners to communicate effectively using the target language. As a
result, Communicative language teaching was developed focusing not only on teaching
grammar but also involves language functions such as inviting, agreeing, suggesting.
The second stand is that CLT develops from the idea that if students are exposed to the
target language and are given opportunities to practice besides being motivated the
language will take care of itself and they will overcome any speaking difficulties. Most
researchers and teachers around the globe agree upon the idea that the use of a
communicative language teaching approach will improve the students’ speaking skill.
This is confirmed through the data collected from the two questionnaires which show
that the CLT activities are effective to solve the problem that exists among students in
traditional classrooms. The communicative approach activities are very motivational
because they are learner-centred. The analysis of students’ and teacher questionnaire
revealed that the communicative language teaching approach activities have a positive
effect on the student's oral performance-boosting their confidence performance-boosting
the difficulties they face. Finally, the current dissertation has shed some light on the
impact of communicative language teach g activities in overcoming students’ speaking
difficulties, improving students oral performance and creating a pleasant atmosphere
where the teacher acts as a guide and facilitator to make the learners feel comfortable to
participate and use the target language.
 62

Limitation of the Study

Although the research has accomplished the objectives, it has certain
inevitable limitations which should be acknowledged.
Sample size:
The study was limited to only one group of the experiment, the
experiment involved only those who were willing to cooperate. The
research was conducted in one department (department of English in Djelfa
University). Therefore, results cannot be overgeneralised to other
departments and universities.
Research setting:
No access was possible to the oral sessions because of the pandemic.
Thus, thequestionnaire was answered by students in their proper homes.
Time constraints:
Concerning the time of the experiment, it lasted for one month.
Having more timewould have allowed us to interview the students to
collect more data.

Pedagogical Implications and Recommendations

The study findings gave rise to pedagogical implications related to

implementing CLT activities in an oral session. For optimal benefits,
communicative approach activities should be considered by curriculum
designers and teachers. Communicative approach activities have been
confirmed to be effective in helping students to overcome their speaking
difficulties. However, more time should be devoted to oral sessions to give
the chance to all the learners to speak.
 63

Suggestions for Further Research

Based on the results of this research. Some suggestions can be listed for
further research:
Algerian EFL teachers should include more CLT activities in their
classes. Future research can be done on teachers’ attitudes towards the use of
CLT activities to develop students’ speaking skill. This study’s main focus
was on overcoming students’ speaking difficulties. Learning styles and
strategies were not distinguishing factors in this study. Future research
suggested the correlation between students’ learning styles and strategies
and the use of communicative approach activities.
 64

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Consulté 27 mai 2021, à l’adresse
https://www.learnalberta.ca/content/eslapb/about_communicative_compete
nce.ht ml

Communicative Language Teaching. (s. d.). Consulté 27 mai 2021, à l’adresse

https://www2.vobs.at/ludescher/alternative%20methods/communicative_langua
g e_teaching.htm

(PDF) Communicative Language Teaching Today. (s. d.). Consulté 27 mai

2021, à l’adresse
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242720833_Communicative_Lan
guage
_Teaching_Today

Advantages and disadvantages of CLT | Methods of Language Teaching. (s. d.).

Consulté 27 mai 2021, à l’adresse
https://mkhaledbh.wordpress.com/2015/11/14/advantages-and-
disadvantages-of- clt/
 66

Kazakh Ablai Khan University of International Relations and World

Languages— Kazakh Ablai Khan University of International
Relations and World | Course Hero. (s. d.). Consulté 27 mai 2021, à
l’adresse

https://www.coursehero.com/file/37297054/Kazakh-Ablai-Khan-
University-of- International-Relations-and-World-Languagesdocx/

View of Article Review : A Critical Look at the Communicative Approach (1) and
(2) (Michael Swan). (s. d.). Consulté 27 mai 2021, à l’adresse
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13

Communicative approach—Teflpedia. (s. d.). Consulté 27 mai 2021, à

l’adressehttps://teflpedia.com/Communicative_approach

Class Discussions : Promoting Participation and Preventing Problems –

Associationfor Psychological Science – APS. (s. d.). Consulté 27 mai
2021, à l’adresse https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/class-
discussions-promoting- participation-and-preventing-problems

(PDF) Speaking Difficulties Encountered by Young EFL Learners. (s. d.).

Consulté 27mai 2021, à l’adresse
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(DOC) SPEAKING PROBLEMS IN EFL CLASSES - Graduation Thesis by

Mustafa KARADEMİR | Mustafa Karademir—Academia.edu. (s. d.).
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 67

_CLASSES_Graduation_Thesis_by_Mustafa_KARADEM%C4%B0R

Communicative language teaching activities to be the best CLT teacher. (s. d.).
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(PDF) Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) | Pawarit Pingmuang—

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CLT_
 68

Appendix A

Students' Questionnaire

You are kindly requested to fill in this questionnaire, your responses are very
important for the validity of our work. Thanks in advance.

1. Are you?
□ Male
□ Female
2. How old are you?
3. How long have you been learning English?
□ Less than one year
□ 1 - 2 years
□ 3-5 years
□ More than 5 years
4. Which aspect of English you find difficult?
□ Listening
□ Reading
□ Writing
□ Speaking
5. Why are you learning English?
□ Just for fun
□ because my parents forced me to learn it
□ because I want to teach Englis

6. How often you speak English outside the classroom?

□ Sometimes
□ Never
□ Everyday
7. What are you doing to improve your English?
 69

8. Is your spoken English mainly?

□ Formal
□ Informal
□ Both
9. Did the global pandemic affect your speaking skill? If yes how?
10. Do you get anxious when you speak English?
□ Yes
□ No
□ Sometimes
11. Is your oral exam mark?
□ Very good
□ Good
□ Bad
□ Very bad
□ Average
12. You do not speak English because you have psychological barriers such as
anxiety low motivation.. or because you have linguistic barriers ... or you have both

13. Which of the tasks do you like best for the speaking activities ?
□ Role play
□ Group work
□ Discussion
□ Problem solving
□ Story telling
□ Individual Work
□ Pair work
□ Oral presentations
14. Does your teacher use any of the activities mentioned above?
□ yes
□ No
 70

Appendix B

Teachers' Questionnaire
Dear Professors,
We would be very grateful if you help us answering the following
questions in order to gather information about the difficulties that prevent EFL
learners from participation. Your answers will be of a great help for the
research, Thank you very much for your help.

1. Degrees held
□ BA
□ MA
□ PHD
2. Do you like teaching Expression module
□ Yes
□ No
3. How often do your students participate in the classroom?
□ Always
□ Sometimes
□ Never
4. Do your students face problems when participating?
□ Yes
□ No
5. If yes what difficulties that prevent them from participation?
□ They have low self confidence
□ lack of vocabulary
□ lack of motivation
□ Anxiety
 71

6. Do you find the amount of time devoted to Expression Modules are sufficient?
□ Yes
□ No
7. What sort of activities do use in classrooms?
□ Discussion
□ Oral presentations
□ Role play
□ Group work
□ Problem solving
□ Story telling
□ Individual work
□ Pair work
8. Do you think that these activities are sufficient in order to enhance the level
of participation in class? Justify why Yes, why No When assessing classroom
activities, do you focus on
9. When assessing classroom activities, do you focus on?
□ Fluency
□ Accuracy
□ Both of them
10. From your experience as a teacher, is it possible to make all the students
participate in the classroom? explain why?

11. Which activities are most helpful to those who do not participate because of
their low self- esteem
□ Pair work
□ Group work
□ Reading aloud
□ Story telling
□ Presentations
 ‫‪72‬‬

‫ملخص‬

‫دورا هاما عند طالب اللغة االجنبية ‪ ،‬لكن العديد من الطالب يواجهون مشكالت عند‬
‫يلعب إتقان اللغة اإلنجليزية ً‬
‫محاولة التحدث باللغة اإلنجليزية ال يمكنهم التواصل بطالقة ألنهم يعانون من صعوبات نفسية أو لغوية ‪ ،‬ناهيك عن أساليب‬
‫التدريس التقليدية التي تركز على تدريس القواعد النحوية التي لن تساعد الطالب في تطوير مهاراتهم اللغوية ‪.‬إلجراء هذا‬
‫البحث وإثبات هذه الفرضية ‪ ،‬نسعى لتحديد ما إذا كانت أنشطة ‪ CLT‬تساعد المتعلمين في التغلب على صعوبات التحدث لديهم ‪.‬‬
‫كما تسعى الدراسة إلى تقصي الصعوبات التي تمنعهم من التحدث باللغة االنجليزية ‪ ،‬ومعرفة مواقفهم تجاه استخدام أنشطة‬
‫‪20‬طالبًا‬ ‫‪.CLT‬لقد تم إجراء استبيانين ‪ ،‬أحدهما الساتذة اللغة االنجليزية الذي شمل ‪ 6‬مدرسين واستبيان الطالب الذي شمل‬
‫في السنة الثانية في قسم اللغة اإلنجليزية بجامعة الجلفة ‪.‬تظهر البيانات التي تم جمعها في إطار هذه الدراسة أن أنشطة‬
‫‪CLT‬فعالة في مساعدة الطالب على تطوير مهارات التحدث لديهم ‪ ،‬و التغلب على الصعوبات التي يواجهونها ‪.‬تظهر‬
‫الدراسة أنه عندما يقوم االساتذة بتطبيق أنشطة‪ CLT‬ينجحون في تحفيس الطالب على المشاركة اثناء الحصة و يصبحون‬
‫‪.‬‬ ‫اكثر اهتماما باللغة‬

‫الكلمات المفتاحية‪ :‬أنشطة ‪, CLT‬صعوبات نفسية ‪,‬صعوبات لغوية ‪ ,‬التحدث باللغة اإلنجليزية‪.‬‬
 73

Résumé

La maîtrise de l'anglais joue un rôle essentiel dans le parcours d'apprentissage

des étudiants en EFL, mais de nombreux étudiants rencontrent des problèmes
lorsqu'ils essaient de parler anglais. Ils ne peuvent pas communiquer spontanément,
parce qu'ils ont des problèmes psychologiques ou linguistiques, sans compter les
méthodes traditionnelles qui se concentrent sur l'enseignement d'un ensemble de
règles grammaticales qui n'aideront pas les apprenants à développer leur compétence
d'expression orale. Pour mener à bien cette recherche et prouver cette hypothèse, nous
cherchons à déterminer si les activités CLT aident les apprenants à surmonter leurs
difficultés d'expression orale. L'étude cherche également à enquêter sur les difficultés
qui les empêchent de parler la langue cible. Pour enquêter sur les difficultés qu'ils
rencontrent lorsqu'ils parlent anglais, et découvrir leurs attitudes envers l'utilisation
des activités d'enseignement communicatif des langues. Deux questionnaires sont
administrés, un pour les enseignants de l'expression orale qui a impliqué 6 enseignants
et le questionnaire de l'étudiant impliquant 20 étudiants de deuxième année au
département d'anglais à l'Université de Djelfa. Les données recueillies dans le cadre
de cette étude montrent que les activités d'enseignement communicatif des langues
sont efficaces pour aider les étudiants à développer leur compétence d'expression
orale, à surmonter les barrières psychologiques et linguistiques. L'étude montre
également que les enseignants qui utilisent les activités CLT ont tendance à faire
participer leurs élèves en classe. L'étude montre que lorsque les enseignants mettent
en œuvre des activités CLT, les apprenants ont tendance à participer et sont prêts à
utiliser la langue cible.

Mots clés: Problèmes psychologiques, Problèmes linguistiques, Activités d'enseignement

communicatif, communication.