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

Abstract

Abstract:This study aims to investigate which factors, linguistic or emotional, influence the development of oral communication skills in high school students in Ecuadorian face-to-face learning environments and identify which of them influences the most in order to find possible solutions to overcome the problem. It´s a qualitative and quantitative study that used a teacher and student questionnaire, an interview, and an observation sheet as instruments to collect data. The participants were 40 EFL high school students and one teacher at a private school in Daule-Guayas, Ecuador. The results show that the linguistic factors that most influence the development of oral communication skills are the lack of grammar, the lack of vocabulary, the lack of accuracy, and the use of complex structures, while the fear of making errors, the fear of being laughed at, and anxiety are the emotional factors.