Enhancing speaking skills in EFL(English as a Foreign Language) learners

ENHANCING SPEAKING SKILLS IN EFL (ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE) LEARNERS
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Introduction
Speaking is the ability to produce vocal sounds while conversing or expressing individual opinions and feelings in a spoken language. Speaking skills are the skills that enable us to communicate effectively and often allow the speakers to convey a message in a convincing manner that is easily understood. The effective teaching of skills of speaking is a common issue in the EFL learners since English is a language that is used internationally. A number of the EFL learners study the English language mainly to apply it in the interpersonal communication. To assist the learners in becoming fluent in the language has become a challenge to the EFL teachers. Different EFL learners have different individual problems that can act as a barrier in becoming fluent in the English language and thus it is essential to examine the difficulties that the EFL learners face and come up with relevant teaching strategies to enhance their speaking skills.
Challenges
From the experiences obtained in teaching it was observed that most EFL learners had difficulties in expressing their opinions orally in English. The underlining causes were attached to numerous factors that attribute to such challenges that negatively affect their learning and hinder them from practicing and improving on the speaking skills.
Age constraints
Learning the foreign language in a tender age offer learners the ability to perfect and achieve increased proficiency as compared to adults (Agbatogun, 2014, pg.

262). The adults are not often exposed to the natural surrounding and are cautious about social distances. The brain of adults is not as flexible as compared to the one for children.
Aural medium
The inability to understand the words uttered leads to the failure in responding correctly since listening defines the feedback on the enhancement of speaking abilities (Atamturk, Dimililer, and Atamturk, 2017, pg. 673). False use of the English words creates a confounding environment of learning to the EFL learners hence limiting the level of speaking skills. Understanding the correct places to use certain words in English by the EFL learners have hindered the ability to speak fluently.
Socio-cultural factors
Choosing the words to use while speaking among the EFL learners is stumbled by the diversity in cultural norms interference of their native origin. The EFL learners are hence unable to understand and master the nonverbal communication used in English resulting in misinterpretation of information (Livingston, 2016, pg. 57). Therefore, speaking a foreign language obliges the EFL learners to understand the culture of the English people in addition to their native linguistic systems.
Affective factors
The significant influence on learning of a language and improvement on learning skills is the feelings of the learner. Human anxiety builds interest which initiates the process of learning a language and ultimately improves on speaking skills by the EFL learners (Raman, 2017, pg. 778). Learners can be affected by anxiety or inhibition factors especially when they don’t conform to the learning aspects used in the teaching process.
Teaching strategies that promote speaking skill
Through the application of communicative strategies, it is observed that to encourage learning of the foreign language among the EFL learners, they should regularly interact with one another in the English language. The EFL teachers should, therefore, assist the EFL learners to overcome the obstacles that may arise to create problems in communication by enhancing the strategic competence of the learners (Raman, 2017, pg. 780). The teacher should ensure that the EFL learners develop a good communicative strategy that enables them to manipulate and dominate a conversation and negotiate conversation in an effective means.
The teacher can initiate discussions where learners are encouraged to speak with a lot of freedom on a variety of topics. Collective participation of EFL learners in group discussions promotes the sharing of new English words (Scarinci and Howell, 2018, pg. 49). The teacher is required to explore the purpose of the activity for the discussion before the discussion is started.
Information gap where some information is missing and need to be discovered is also another vital strategy (Scarinci and Howell, 2018, pg. 53). The teacher should ensure it is done in pairs and the desired goal is achieved. Information gap enhances problem-solving and gathering of information and hence increases the ability to speak fluently. The activity encourages the bargaining of meaning through clarification and reformulation of utterances to examine the comprehension.
Conclusion
In conclusion, effective speaking of English language by the EFL learners requires quality speaking skills. To obtain quality speaking skills among the EFL learners, the teacher must fight to disorient socio-cultural factors, age constraints, and aural medium. Therefore, to enhance speaking skills in the EFL learners, the EFL teachers must promote effective communication strategies such as information gap and using discussions to initiate the learning process.

 References
Agbatogun, A. O. (2014) ‘Developing Learners’ Second Language Communicative Competence through Active Learning: Clickers or Communicative Approach?’, Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 17(2), pp. 257–269. Available at: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=96172824&site=ehost-live (Accessed: 28 October 2018).
Atamturk, N., Dimililer, C. and Atamturk, H. (2017) ‘Play Extracts in English as a Foreign Language Class in Higher Education: An Action Research’, International Journal of Economic Perspectives, 11(1), pp. 670–676. Available at: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=125083562&site=ehost-live (Accessed: 28 October 2018).
Livingston, G. (2016) ‘The Role of Story in Enhancing Critical Thinking and Group Discussion Skills’, IUP Journal of Soft Skills, 10(1), pp. 55–59. Available at: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=114194958&site=ehost-live (Accessed: 28 October 2018).
Raman, Y. (2017) ‘Implementations Versus Reality: EFL Teachers’ Beliefs About Teaching Speaking Skills in State Secondary Schools’, International Journal of Economic Perspectives, 11(1), pp. 773–781. Available at: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=125083571&site=ehost-live (Accessed: 28 October 2018).
Scarinci, J. L. and Howell, E. (2018) ‘Increasing Performance Through English Language Proficiency: American Cultural Model’, Management: Journal of Sustainable Business & Management Solutions in Emerging Economies, 23(2), pp. 49–56. doi: 10.7595/management.fon.2018.0014.