A case study of factors which affect eleventh-grade students' ability to speak English in a foreign language classroom

The aim of this study is to examine the 11th grade students' problems towards speaking English. A five-point Likert type scale consisting of 17 items was used to measure students' problems towards using the target language (English) in the classroom. The questionnaire, then, was administered on 191 eleventh grade students who are between 16 and 17. The data which was obtained from the questionnaire were analyzed by using SPSS 20 (Statistical Package for Social sciences). Factor analysis and descriptive analysis were carried out; for the data distribution, frequency, percentage and means were calculated. The means and standard deviations were calculated under four categories which are lack of confidence, fear of making mistakes, lack of motivation and readiness in order to describe the overall picture of how the students rated their perceptions on speaking English. The results of this study revealed that most of the students had problems such as fear of making mistakes, lack of motivation, readiness and lack of confidence towards speaking English. No significant difference was found out among the sub-scales in terms of gender. Keywords: Fear of Making Mistakes, Lack of Motivation, Lack of Confidence, Readiness.