Factors that influence the lack of english speaking and pronunciation skills of EFL learners

Abstract

Acquiring oral skills currently appears to be a challenge for most EFL learners. English as a foreign language lacks of teaching pronunciation and speaking, creating a deficiency of accurate oral performance in the target language. This research synthesis is intended to determine the main causes behind EFL learners´ lower achievement in speaking and pronunciation performance. For this purpose, 20 research papers with a quantitative, qualitative, mixed-method, and phenomenological approach were selected and analyzed in order to identify the main factors affecting learners' communicative skills. Findings reveal that (1) language barriers and psychological factors affect both: speaking and pronunciation skills of EFL learners, (2) teaching instruction has a minimum importance within English classrooms, concluding that there is a lack of creditable methodologies, (3) learning environment contributes to problems faced by EFL practitioners