A descriptive research on speaking problems faced by Turkish EFL learners: A case study in a high school

This study was carried out to investigate the difficulties in speaking skills experienced by Turkish EFL learners. The reasons for these difficulties are also in the scope of the current study. The problems were considered from both teachers' and learners' perspectives. The study was conducted at a high school in Diyarbakır, Turkey. The participants were 135 Turkish EFL students from 9th and 10th grades of the same school and 30 English teachers from various public high schools in the city. A quantitative approach was taken, and a 5-point Likert-scale questionnaire was used to collect data, and the data were analyzed through SPSS ver. 21. The findings showed that some social factors, the curricula of the education system, lack of classroom facilities, linguistic factors, and some teacher-related problems were the most common reasons that affect the 9th and 10th graders' speaking skills adversely. Moreover, teachers noted that psychological factors also negatively affect students' desire to speak. Based on the total scores, t-test calculations yielded statistically insignificant results for students in terms of their grade and gender. On the other hand, there were statistically significant differences between students and their teachers. Based on the t-test results for each category, significant differences were observed between male and female students concerning social factors, while no significant differences were noticed between teachers and students in this matter. Besides, significant differences were observed between the grades in terms of some perceptions concerning speaking skills. Key words: English speaking problems, English as a foreign language, gender, EFL teachers