An Investigation of Challenges Teachers Face in Teaching Speaking Skill in Large Classes’ Context: Secondary School EFL Teachers in Focus

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the challenges of teaching speaking skill in a large EFL classrooms. The study was conducted to find out the challenges EFL teachers face while teaching speaking skills in a large classrooms, analyze how the factors affect teaching speaking skill in large classes and see what strategies teachers employ to promote speaking skills in the context of large classrooms. Descriptive method was employed to establish the existence of phenomena by explicitly describing them. Six grade nine EFL teachers and 100 grade nine students were involved in the study. The data were collected by using three tools: questionnaires, classroom observation and interviews. Both quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods were employed to analyze the data. The study showed that there are a number of challenges that contribute not to practice teaching speaking skill in large English language classrooms. According to the findings, although English language teachers have positive attitude towards teaching speaking skill, there are a number of problems that challenge them to practice it. The major challenges were classroom atmospheres which are not convenient for pair and group works, the nature of chairs and desks which are not moveable, the students lack of adequate motivation and courage to speak, the failure of classroom teachers to be committed and use their effort in the teaching learning process, the wide coverage of the contents in the students text book, failures of teachers and students to use different strategies in order to make speaking classroom convenient and effective are some of them. Finally, it was recommended that all concerned bodies, including parents are the most responsible to overcome the challenges and create a conducive atmosphere to conduct speaking classes.