COMMON FACTORS AFFECTING GRADE-12 STUDENTS’ SPEAKING FLUENCY: A SURVEY OF CAMBODIAN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Thon Houn; Sereyrath Em

doi:10.37249/assalam.v6i1.360

Authors

Thon Houn Faculty of Education, the University of Cambodia, Cambodia
Sereyrath Em Doctoral School of Education, University of Szeged, Hungary

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37249/assalam.v6i1.360

Keywords:

Speaking Fluency, Speaking Performance, Speaking Challenges

Abstract

The current study aimed to investigate the common factors affecting speaking fluency of grade 12 English-language students studying in the upper secondary school. The participants were composed of 100 students studying in grade 12 and 10 government teachers of English, teaching in grade 12. In collecting the data, two different groups of participants were asked to fill in two different questionnaires with close-ended questions. The obtained data were quantitatively analysed with SPSS, and descriptive statistics were used to determine the number and percentage of the respondents. As a result, the study discovered that instructional methods and the fear of speaking caused by inhibition and anxiety strongly affected the students’ English-speaking fluency the most, as well as many other subsequent factors. Thus, this study can be useful for teachers of English to reconsider their weaknesses and strengths, to identify their weakness and strength in teaching speaking and ascertain the students’ deficiency and potency in learning to improve their English learning, specifically, speaking skills. The study could also be used to help the teachers better understand their students’ speaking difficulties, and find appropriate ways to teach them efficiently.

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Author Biography

Sereyrath Em, Doctoral School of Education, University of Szeged, Hungary

Sereyrath Em is a government teacher of English with a higher education degree working at Kith Meng Brasat high school, a visiting lecturer at Chea Sim University of Kamchaymear (CSUK), and an Associate Editor at the Cambodian Education Forum (CEF). Prior to this, he was a secondary school teacher of English and Khmer language working at Darakum lower-secondary school between 2012 and 2015. In 2017, he graduated with a Master’s Degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (MA in TESOL) from Human Resource University (HRU), and in 2019, he graduated with a Master’ Degree in Educational Administration from National Institute of Education (NIE) with the support from Cambodia International Education Support Foundation (CIESF). He was also trained at Regional Language Center (RELC) two times between early 2020 and early 2021 with regards to teaching listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Currently, he is a PhD student in Educational Sciences at the University of Szeged, Hungary.

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