Abstract:
This study investigated the learners’ autonomy in speaking classroom. A descriptive survey study was employed with 110 students and 2 teachers of English language. Availability sampling and random techniques were employed. Observation, interview and questionnaire were used for gathering data. Descriptive statistics, such as frequency, percentages and the mean value were calculated and used to analyze the data. The results indicate that the sufficiency of materials like text book for teaching speaking skill, the encouragement of speaking skill activities for the whole task practice, the provision interest to learners by speaking activities to practice the skill in the classroom was low. In contrast, the pleasure activities provide for learners and help them to perform the speaking tasks in pairs/small groups was high. In addition, majority of the teachers’ engagements regarding the teaching of speaking in the classroom were good, though provision of feedback for students’ oral errors was poor. Students’performance in speaking tasks and students’ use of appropriate guidelines to accomplish speaking tasks was also low while students’ discomfort with speaking tasks and use of other languages during speaking lesson was high. Teachers’ provision of feedback on students’ oral performance was observed as low. Furthermore, Students’ discomfort with the tasks and use of other languages than English were higher than the extent of their practice using English with tasks in the classroom. Finally, the need for further studies on the other types of the language skills to improve students’ English language performance in various skills.
