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

Abstract

Abstract: Oral communication skill is considered one of the most challenging for students to master while acquiring English as a Foreign Language. The present study was carried out with the purpose of establishing the linguistic and emotional factors that influence the oral communication skills in English of high school students in face-to-face learning environments. This research tackled a quantitative-descriptive approach with a sample of 40 second-year high school students and an English teacher from a public Educational Institution in Puyango-Loja, Ecuador. To collect the necessary data, instruments were used such as: surveys of all the students and the teacher, interviews with 5 students chosen at random and observation sheets used by the researcher. The results showed that the linguistic factors that most affected the students' speech were pronunciation, precision, lack of vocabulary, and interference from the mother tongue. Additionally, regarding the emotional aspects: anxiety, fear, and lack of confidence also hindered the oral communication performance of EFL students. Then it can be deduced that the linguistic factors were the ones that most affected the speaking skill of the students.