Freshmen’s Handicaps for Learning English Oral Communication

Abstract

The English language is a means of instruction in the Ethiopian University of Madawalabu, where the students speak different mother tongues. However, some freshmen still enroll the university with difficulties in English oral communication, disturbing their academic success in the immersion learning process that takes place during the whole years of study. This research attempted not only to determine the main factors affecting these basic language users with English oral communication learning difficulties, but also to provide general methodological guidelines to assist this teaching-learning process taking into account the characteristics of this university. This study makes a dialectic integration of qualitative and quantitative research analyses incorporating the triangulation process for comparing and contrasting information in order to enrich its validity and feasibility. A combination of theoretical and empirical research methods were used like the analytical-synthetic and inductive-deductive methods including dialectic hermeneutics accompanied by lesson observation,  a questionnaire, two semi-structured interviews, participatory observation and achievement tests. The final research report includes not only outstanding linguistic, psychological and didactic theoretical backgrounds about oral communication in foreign languages, but also the research methodology specification, the data collection and their analysis concerning freshmen′s learning difficulties accompanied by the communicative methodology of oral language teaching, conclusion and recommendation. These research results were very useful to guide both students with learning difficulties and teachers about a productive way of enhancing the acquisition of oral English as a lingua franca.