Why Do Young EFL Learners Find Speaking Difficulties？

Rong Xie

【Abstract】This study attempts to discover what speaking difficulties are encountered by pupils in primary school of Guizhou province in China. It also intends to find out the potential factors that contribute to the existence of these difficulties. The results have been obtained in detail via the first-hand sources derived from the in-depth classroom observation and the analysis of curriculum/assessment materials. The findings revealed that the main speaking difficulties encountered by young learners in China are pronunciation， vocabulary， grammar， unwillingness to participate， etc. Additionally， There are following several aspects that contribute to the existence of these speaking obstacles and dilemmas， such as， reticence， mother tongue use， linguistic competence， teachers intolerance of silence， conversational context， curriculum， syllabus and assessment materials， etc. The findings of this study can help us to reflect our own teaching approaches， the design of curriculum and assessment materials/tools to realize the reasons why young learners in primary school find it difficult to speak English in real life.

【Key words】Young learners； speaking； English

【作者簡介】Rong Xie， Tongren Preschool Education College.

1. Introduction

With the rapid development of economy， trade and tourism， foreign language has been continuously expanded and developed throughout the world. English has become a compulsory course of primary school from Grade 3 in China since in 2001. Ur （1996） argued that speaking seems to be regarded as one of the most important skills among the four skills （speaking， listening， reading and writing）. The Ministry of Education （2011） stipulated that teaching English to young learners should be mainly cultivate learners to gain necessary skills refer to speaking and listening to communicate in life， with little focus on literacy skill. Obviously， speaking skills play a significant role in teaching English to young learners.

Although speaking is regarded as the primary language skill that young learners should be improved. It is widely noticed that they confront numerous difficulties and dilemmas in the process of speaking. In the past， through the observation of my own class， I saw examples of learners trying to express what they wanted to say， but owing to lack of grammar， vocabulary and structures they needed. Caused them to stutter or hesitate in the process of speaking， presented not fluently and accurately in what they said. Even in the most of time， probably they do not know how to pronounce the words， etc. Consequently， part of the learners try to eliminate a problem by changing the topic or switching to the mother tongue to appear （I dont like to say...， its boring...）， lead them unwilling to participate in conversation.

This study attempts to discover what speaking difficulties are encountered by pupils in primary school of Guizhou province in China. It also intends to find out the potential factors that contribute to the existence of these difficulties. The findings of this study can help me to reflect my own teaching approaches， the design of curriculum and assessment materials/tools to realize the reasons why young learners in primary school find it difficult to speak English in real life.

2. Findings

2.1 The Main Speaking Difficulties Encountered by Young Learners

◆ Pronunciation appears unclear or ambiguous.

◆ Grammatical and lexical accuracy is not consistently.

◆ When they confront communication obstacles， try to switch to new topics or give up speaking.

◆ Lack of being capable of making lengthy sentences or discourse.

◆ Lack of being able to expand and develop ideas under the conversational context.

◆ Have not responding coherently with the turns of the conversation.

◆ Leading undue hesitations and too many fillers.

◆ Speakers cant interpret the meaning of what his/her peers utterances.

◆ The topic beyond his/her ability， they choose to close a conversation without hesitation.

◆ Lack of words， phrases or structures.

◆ Lack of time for negotiation of meaning， paraphrase and repair/clarification.

◆ Can not participate in the interaction speaking situation for a long time.

◆ Genre is too difficult to them.

2.2 What are the factors that cause the existence of these speaking difficulties in primary school？

◆ Reticence /Mother tongue use/Conversational context.

◆ Communicative competence/Teachers intolerance of silence.

◆ Textbook analysis.

Analysing primary English textbook for Grade 5 revealed to focus on the type of speaking activities and the frequency of speaking activities to some extent which there are very few involved. Those activities are in terms of asking and answering questions. Many activities obviously indicate the form is more emphasised than the meaning.

◆ Assessment materials analysis.

According to the Ministry of Education （2001）， the test should be assessed in young learners communicative language ability. However， after a systematic analysis of the young learners English test paper by the author， an astonishing result was revealed.

A set of test papers included two major sections： Listening （40 points） and writing （60 points）. The total score is 100 points. The result was revealed that assessing speaking items were zero （Xie， 2017）.

3. Conclusion

This study has highlighted a great number of issues in teaching English to young learners. To explore a range of speaking difficulties encountered by young learners in primary school in China. The data collected on this question revealed that there are following aspects. Pronunciation， vocabulary， grammar， syntax， the sentence expand， unwillingness to participate and hesitation， etc. They also lack of sentence structure skills， which leading to switching the mother tongue. It was noticed during the classroom observations that part of learners keep silent and only listening to class.

There are following several aspects that contribute to the existence of these speaking obstacles and dilemmas. Reticence， mother tongue use， linguistic competence， Teachers intolerance of silence， conversational context， curriculum， syllabus and assessment materials， etc. The study also showed that the teachers teaching activities and the assessment as the most serious impact factors， do not spend enough time to participate in English speaking because priority is given to the coverage of the textbook contents， which emphasise the vocabulary， grammar structure， syntax， reading and writing rather than speaking. The teaching activities are mainly required to produce short accurate sentences， while the usage of the language is almost ignored. In addition， the mother tongue is also used to convey the regulations of activities in the classroom. The teacher believes that it is helpful to make sure that the young learners understand the meaning in conversation. The testing is also based on the vocabulary， grammar， listening， reading and writing. Speaking skill is the only skill that is not included in the exams. Speaking item is given less teaching emphasis.

This assignment revealed some of the problems that exist in my local context refer to speaking difficulties in primary school. The results have been obtained detailed via first-hand sources derived from classroom observation and the analysis of curriculum/assessment materials. Then， the author have conducted concrete analyze the data to find the reasons.

Finally， on the basis of former studies and the author own thought. Part of recommendations are proposed in the final section of the article. Although there are slight limitations in the process of study. It must be helpful to my own English teaching in the future. I would like to try my best to explore the mystery of English pedagogy in primary school for a long time， to improve the quality of English instruction， and to become a qualified or excellent young learner English teacher.

Note

This study is sponsored by the Youth Project （Project No.： 2017C003 ） by the project of Educational Science Planning in Guizhou. The title of the project is “Research on the Path of Curriculum System Construction in the Major of Preschool Education （Young Learners English） in College”.

References：

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