A Holistic Approach for Enhancing English Speaking Proficiency

Abstract

Speaking English is one of the essential skills required by students nowadays due to its significant advantages and influences in every aspect of life, especially in education. Most of the countries worldwide have implemented English as one of the school subjects in their curriculum having the purpose to escalate their language proficiency and hence, steering them to compete in the global network. This article aims to explore students’ speaking proficiency encompassing the nature of speaking, factors affecting students’ speaking problems, factors for high speaking proficiency, and teachers’ strategies in teaching English. The data are gathered from various sources such as research findings, articles, online books, and theses. The result showed that students’ speaking problems are caused by several factors which are divided into two groups; Internal and External Factors. Internal factors consist of students’ problems such as fear of making mistakes, hesitation, lack of motivation, and many others. External factors refer to students’ environmental problems including friends and other surroundings. Besides, this article also found that teachers’ strategies used in teaching English in the classroom and their efforts to become effective teachers assisted the students in improving their speaking skills. Overall, this article concludes that collaboration between teachers and students is a requirement to promote students’ speaking proficiency.