SPEAKING IMPEDIMENTS ENCOUNTERED BY LEARNERS:
TABLE 1: SPEAKING PROBLEMS AND REASONS AMONG ESL LEARNERS
Total Respondents Problems Reasons
18 respondents
• Hesitated to speak English with
their teachers and friends in and/or
outside the classroom.
• Worried about making grammatical mistakes.
• Felt embarrassed of their low language proficiency.
• Received negative physical response (smirk).
16 respondents • Felt self-conscious about their
speaking proficiency.
• Negative preliminary presumptions about
proficient speakers’ views towards them e.g.
not intelligent, incompetent, dull.
31 respondents
• Difficulty in speaking fluently.
• Mixing other languages with
English in their conversation.
• Unfamiliar with certain English vocabulary.
6 respondents
(Band 5 students) • No difficulty in speaking.
In Table 1, 18 respondents stated that they hesitated to speak English with their teachers and friends in or
outside the classroom because they worried about making grammatical mistakes and felt embarrassed of their