what are the factors influening the difficulty in speaking english?

Answer 1

slang - definitely.

Answer 2

I guess the individual's desire to learn the skill in speaking the language contributes a lot to the development!

Answer 3

Hey, i just finished a research on that! several factors actually account for difficulty in speaking English according to the findings of my research coupled with related literature that i went through. Note, however, that my respondents were second language users of English.

Let me share with you some highlights of related literature that pertains to your question:

Second language acquisition research has shown that the level of proficiency in the first language has a direct influence on the development of proficiency in the second language. The lack of continuing first language development has been found, in some cases, to inhibit the levels of second language proficiency and cognitive academic growth. Saville-Troike (1988) reports that "in almost all cases, the bilingual instructors' judgments of students' relative competence in native language studies coincided with the same students' relative achievement in English." Hakuta (1990) views native language proficiency as a strong indicator of second language development.

Lih-wen Sue (2004) claims that speaking may be the most complicated process for second language learners because the learners have to apply their knowledge when they converse with others in the target language. Second language learners tend to be so concerned with correctness that they may avoid speaking or turn away from conversing in English. More often than not, students tend to attribute their lack of fluency in conversation to poor mastery of grammar and work even harder at grammar in hopes of achieving the goal of perfection in speaking.

In a study conducted among second language learners of English in Tunisia, Ghrib (2004) found that when asked about their difficulties in speaking English, the students said that most of their problems stemmed from their lack of knowledge of vocabulary and meaning; they also mentioned grammar as their second major obstacle, and considered pronunciation only as a third problem. Moreover, the students reported that they had difficulties with logical reasoning and argumentation.

The results indicated that the reasons for the learners’ difficulties varied, and were mainly linguistic; i.e., lexical, semantic, grammatical, and phonetic. The respondents reported that they had problems mainly with vocabulary, meaning, grammar and pronunciation when learning the various skills. In addition, 65.38% of the students mentioned the fact that transfer from the first to the second language, was a great handicap. Generally speaking, the problems were internal due to learner factors rather than external resulting from teaching/ training.

Carson (2001) concludes that, if second language learners are motivated to integrate into the second language, they will develop a higher level of proficiency and positive attitudes, which can have a positive effect on their studies. In short, learners may continue to exhibit errors for the following social reasons: negative attitudes toward the target language; continued lack of progress in the second language ; and a wide social and psychological distance between them and the target culture, and, a lack of integrative and instrumental motivation for learning.

It's a mouthful, i know; but i do I hope that helped.

Answer 4

Our language is a crazy mix of dialects, words robbed from other languages, slang, words and phrases with double or triple meanings, profanity, jargon, sarcasm, use of letters that make no sense (kn, gh, sc, ps, ph, etc)

I feel truly sorry for anyone trying to learn (American) English.

Answer 5

It depends partly on what your native tongue is. Different language speakers experience different problems. Pronunciation, word order, indefinate and definate articles, listening, and other specialised areas of difficulty. These can all be overcome with willpower and dedication.

Answer 6

The slang and the verbs make it very difficult to speak english correctly

Answer 7

the various problem faced in speaking english is first the region of the person living in .i.e a person other than an american cannot speak fluent english.even lack of confidence can be one of the reasons.

Answer 8

Intransigence.

Answer 9

Particles. Very difficult to explain to a non-native speaker

Answer 10

I speek hanglish good non? Hi have no a defikculty n'est pas?
Telleh vous me wad you taink, oui oui?

Answer 11

So many words for the same thing and so many words with more than one meaning.