Students´ perceptions on the factors that influence their willingness to orally communicate in the EFL classroom in Ecuadorian high schools /

Abstract

Speaking activities during EFL classes are very complicated for the majority of high school students. The purpose of this study is to identify the perceptions of students about the different factors that influence their oral communication; for example, how factors such as motivation, proficiency level and personality influence throughout their participation in speaking activities. One hundred male and female students in a public high school from Quito took part in the sample. Divided in five groups, both the work of students and teachers were observed. These learners answered some questions in a questionnaire with closed questions about their motivation, proficiency level and type of personality for a quantitative analysis and opened questions about their reasons for a qualitative one. The results were positive in all the questions. This gives us a conclusion that teachers gave students enough extrinsic motivation to participate actively in speaking activities during the class. According to the students, the most important reason for an active participation during oral activities was improving the level. This showed that the students have intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to acquire communicative competence during EFL classes.