SPEAKING ACQUISITION STRATEGIES EMPLOYED BY SENIOR EFL STUDENTS OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Abstract

This study was conducted to identify speaking acquisition strategies employed by senior EFL students of secondary schools in overcoming speaking difficulties and their effect on students’ speaking performance. It is supposed, that appropriate speaking acquisition strategies employed by EFL students appear to be one of the essential aspects in developing speaking proficiency. The study used qualitative approach in exploring the speaking strategies used by EFL students; furthermore, the research findings revealed the major speaking strategies utilized by EFL students and the effect of these strategies on students’ speaking performance. To qualitatively reveal the most successful speaking acquisition strategies to overcome speaking difficulties and to explore the effect of these strategies on EFL students’ speaking performance, a representative sample of 30 EFL senior students of secondary school were interviewed. Based on the conducted interview results, it was discovered that EFL students mostly apply cognitive and communication strategies and the findings demonstrated that these strategies effectively influence on students speaking skills. According to the results of interview, it can be summarized that EFL students have their strategies in overcoming the difficulties in speaking skills. Most of the students attend English language courses to improve speaking abilities, try to memorize new English words. The vocabulary accuracy is essential to understand speaking context, sufficiency of vocabulary repertoire encourages EFL students to speak in the target language and to understand other people. Moreover, the students also believe that sufficient speaking practice strengthens their speaking proficiency, the other respondents highlighted that watching, reading and listening authentic materials helped them to overcome speaking difficulties and progressed their speaking skills.