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

Abstract

Abstract: Oral communication skills are a challenging skill for English learners. The present study aimed to determine whether linguistic or emotional factors influence the oral communication skills in English of high school students in Ecuadorian face-to-face learning environments. The investigation involved an English language teacher and a group of 40 students from a public educational institution in Gualaquiza, Morona Santiago. In addition, the research used a qualitative and quantitative approach to collect and analyze the numerical and non-numerical data that was collected in four weeks. For the collection of information, tools such as students and teachers questionnaires, observation sheets and the interview with the students were used. The study showed that the lack of vocabulary, the interference of the mother tongue, the fear of making mistakes, the difficulty to restructure sentences affect oral communication in the English language, among others. As result, it is concluded that emotional factors mainly affect the speaking ability of high school students.