Speaking Skills Problems Encountered by Iranian EFL Freshmen and Seniors from Their Own and Their English Instructors Perspectives
The present study investigated the speaking skills problems faced by Iranian EFL freshmen and seniors from their own and their English instructors' perspectives. To this end, 238 Iranian EFL students (138 freshmen and 100 seniors) and 30 English instructors from various universities participated in the study by completing a validated speaking skills problems questionnaire. To triangulate the data, 30 EFL students (15 freshmen and 15 seniors) and ten English instructors, selected randomly from among the participants of the study, also sat a semi structured interview. The results of the study revealed that some socially related and instructor related problems, the lack of teaching facilities, and the curricula of the education system of the country were among the major problem creating factors for the freshmen's and seniors' speaking skills. Furthermore, the t test results showed that overall there was no significant difference between the freshmen's and the seniors' perceptions of their own speaking skills problems. The results of Chi square analyses of the individual items of the questionnaire indicated that there was no significant difference between the freshmen's and the seniors' perceptions except for item 1 (I am afraid of making mistakes) In addition, the results of one way ANOVA showed that overall there was no significant difference among the freshmen's, the seniors' and the instructors' perceptions of speaking skills problems.