Factors that influence high school students' English oral communication skills in Ecuadorian face-to-face learning environments

Abstract

Abstract: Since there are different factors that influence the learning of English as a foreign language, it has been proposed to determine the linguistic and emotional factors that influence high school students English oral communication skills in face-to-face learning environments, in a public school in Quito, Ecuador. A mixed method (qualitative and quantitative) was used on 44 senior high school students between 16 and 17 years old who have an A2.2 English level according to the national curriculum, through techniques such as the survey, the interview and direct observation, which have been triangulated through the analysis and contrast between each one of them. It has been obtained that there is a high level of anxiety and concern in students about the reaction of classmates when student makes a mistake, making it difficult to transmit the speech and causing them to block themselves. In conclusion, emotional factors have a bigger impact on oral communication skills than linguistic factors, being the main ones fear and anxiety while speaking. On the other hand, it is suggested that emotional factors have an impact on linguistic skills since some linguistic problems are caused by fear.