English Speaking and Motivation for Saudi EFL/ESL Students



English Speaking and Motivation for Saudi EFL/ESL Students Ebtesam Alawfi35242536195002013Table of Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Abstract PAGEREF _Toc230764823 \h 3Introduction PAGEREF _Toc230764824 \h 3How A Language-learning Task Could Be Useful PAGEREF _Toc230764825 \h 5Task Components: PAGEREF _Toc230764826 \h 6Task Types: PAGEREF _Toc230764827 \h 7Motivation and Learning A Second or A Foreign Language PAGEREF _Toc230764828 \h 8Language Learning Anxiety PAGEREF _Toc230764829 \h 11Methodology PAGEREF _Toc230764830 \h 14Participants PAGEREF _Toc230764831 \h 15Research Trustworthiness PAGEREF _Toc230764832 \h 15Findings: PAGEREF _Toc230764833 \h 16Question 1 PAGEREF _Toc230764834 \h 16Question 2 PAGEREF _Toc230764835 \h 18Question 3 PAGEREF _Toc230764836 \h 19Discussion and Implications PAGEREF _Toc230764837 \h 20Limitations and Recommendations for Future Study PAGEREF _Toc230764838 \h 23Conclusion: PAGEREF _Toc230764839 \h 24References PAGEREF _Toc230764840 \h 25English Speaking and Motivation for Saudi EFL/ESL StudentsAbstractThis study investigates Saudi students’ feelings and attitudes towards speaking English in front of their classmates and teachers and explores their motivation towards certain speaking tasks. A group of forty-two ESL/EFL students who are/ were enrolled in English language courses responded to a voluntary survey that was sent by email. The analysis of the survey results showed generally that almost one third of these students experience medium to high language anxiety when they speak English in their classes. Problem solving activities are determined to be the most motivating ones while role-playing activities are determined to be the less motivating. Three fourths of the students decided that picking interesting speaking topics is the most important factor influences their motivation towards speaking tasks positively.Key words: speaking, tasks, motivation, language anxiety, EFL, ESL IntroductionI am Ebtesam Alawfi a MA/TESL student at Gonzaga University. I am (one of those people who is) interested in any topics related to promoting and developing speaking skills more than any other skills. Developing this speaking skill was one of my challenges when I started learning a second language, and it still is. I am interested in reading and learning more about the strategies that can be applied in EFL/ESL classrooms to motivate students practicing the target language as much as possible and to help them getting over their speaking challenges (e.g. lack of fluency or accuracy); adopting a variety of speaking tasks is one of these strategies. The study of “English Speaking and Motivation for Saudi EFL/ESL Students” is important because it assists teachers in getting better understanding of their students’ attitudes and feelings towards speaking English in front of their teachers and classmates and assisting them in exploring students’ motivation towards certain speaking tasks. The intent of this study is to investigate the attitudes and the feelings of one group of students (Saudis) towards speaking English and participating in different speaking tasks within their classmates. I will be also investigating the kinds of speaking tasks and activities that motivate this group most. I analyzed current data and used previous research in promoting students’ motivation and improving students’ feelings and attitudes towards speaking English in class. The following research questions have been investigated through this study: 1. How do EFL/ESL Saudi students feel towards speaking English in their classrooms? 2. What speaking tasks and communicative activities motivate them most? 3.What are some potential factors that might affect students’ motivation towards speaking tasks?The participants in this research were Saudi students who are 18 years and older. The research highlighted this group of students’ feelings towards speaking in class and what kinds of activities motivate them most. They were asked to go online and to voluntarily and anonymously complete a twelve-item survey via SurveyMonkey. I took advantage of the tools provided by SurveyMonkey to help me organizing the survey results. I also read through the responses of these participants and looked for the similarities to find general themes. The conclusion was drawn from the responses of these students. Before moving to the literature review, I would like to identify the term task. A ‘task’ could be identified in many different ways and from many different perspectives. From the pedagogical perspective, Nunan (1991a & 1991b) identifies a task as "a piece of classroom work which involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather than form” (as cited in Irmawati, 2012, p.10). In communicative and task-based methods, students give more priority to delivering the meaning rather than to making use of accurate forms. However, recent research in SLA field encourages instructors to design activities that focus on both meaning and form and balance between them. Another definition is given by Ellis (2000) who identifies a task from the psycholinguistic perspective as “a device that guides learners to engage in certain types of information-processing that are believed to be important for effective language use and/or for language acquisition from some theoretical standpoint” (p.197). This definition assumes that a task has some features encouraging learners to get engaged in processing and producing language, which in turn is beneficial to second and foreign language learning and acquisition. In the following sections, I am going to examine how a language-learning task could be useful, the relation between motivation and learning a second language, and language anxiety in ESL/ EFL classrooms. Next, I am going to present the methodology of my study, and explain the data collected from the survey of this study. Finally, some discussion, implications, and recommendations for future studies will be presented. How A Language-learning Task Could Be Useful In the last forty years, there has been a growth in interest about task-based teaching and learning. Many studies indicate that second and foreign language learners highly benefit from being exposed to a variety of communicative activities that promote both fluency and accuracy (Van Patten, 2003). Pica et al. (1996) assume that "participation in verbal interaction offers language learners the opportunity to follow up on new words and structures to which they have been exposed during language lessons and to practice them in context" (p. 59-60).Lightbown and Spada (2006) point out that “in communicative and task based approaches there are more opportunities not only for a great variety of input but also for learners to engage in different roles and participant organization structures” such as pair and group work (p.103). Encouraging students to do speaking tasks in pairs or groups provides them with more opportunities to speak productively and to practice actively in the target language. Gutiérrez (2005) states that collaborative group work assists students to interact comfortably, to neglect or forget their fear of making mistakes, and to perceive speaking activities as continuous practice. In addition, Tsou (2005) demonstrates that doing more practice helps students to be more comfortable in speaking tasks which in turn improves their speaking proficiency. He also argues that passive and non-participative language learners restrict the improvement of their speaking. Gu (1998) indicates that communicative tasks provide learners with the functional language needed in different social and situational contexts. To achieve a successful communication, a language speaker needs to make use of both linguistic and communicative competence. For instance, in dialogues and role-play activities students are required to perform a scenario (e.g. a potential conflict between a bank teller and a student who newly opened an account) and to formulate their own sentences regarding that scenario (Lynch, 2007). In such activities, students become more motivated when they create their own scenarios and dialogues rather than repeat a given one (Nunan, 1989). Task Components:There are many different components of speaking tasks. Nunan (1989) identifies four essential components for a language learning task: The goals, the input, the activities derived from this input, and finally the roles implied for teachers and learners” (p.47). ‘Goals’ are identified by Nunan as “a range of general outcomes (communicative, effective, or cognitive) or may directly describe teacher or learner behavior.” It could be either explicit or implicit though they often “can be inferred from an examination of a task”(p.49). ‘Input’ refers to “the data that form the point of departure for the task” (Nunan, 1989, p.53). Sources of data exist everywhere around us; it could be picture stories, magazines, newspapers, letters, etc. So, teachers can benefit from daily input materials that are offered all over around us and use them as the basis for their different forms of communicative tasks. Activities are identified by Nunan, as “what learners will actually do with the input which forms the point of departure for the learning task” (p.59). In communicative tasks, different activities serve different learning purposes. Activities could be designed to promote students’ fluency, to promote students’ accuracy, to enable students to practice the kind of language they might encounter outside their classes, and to increase students’ mastery of some skills. Task Types:Pattison (1987) sets out seven activity types as the following: “questions and answers, Dialogues and role-plays, matching activities, communication strategies, pictures and picture stories, puzzles and problems, discussions and decisions” (as cited in Nunan, 1989, p.68). ‘Questions and answer activities’ rely on the idea of designing an information gap and ask students to use a language item list to make secret choices, “which all fit into a given frame” (Nunan, 1989, p.68). These could be used to provide students with plenty of chances to rehearse any function or structure. Dialogues and role-play activities require students to perform a scenario (e.g. a potential conflict between a bank teller and a student who newly opened an account) and to formulate their own sentences regarding that scenario. Nunan indicates that students become more motivated when they create their own scenarios and dialogues rather than repeating a given one. Matching activities are identified by Nunan as, the activities in which learners match items to complete pairs or sets. ‘Bingo’ and ‘matching given phrases’ are two examples of this type. Communication strategies could be identified as the communication activities in which students are encouraged to practice some strategies of communication, as paraphrasing and simplifying (Nunan, 1989).‘Pictures and picture stories’ are the activities that require students to describe a picture, to find the differences, or to reorganize a group of pictures to create a logical story. These activities are widely used by teachers and students in ESL/ EFL classrooms to foster students’ communication. Puzzles and problems activities require students to reason, imagine, guess, and draw on their personal experience and knowledge. These kinds of activities are very beneficial for students, and they encourage them to get involved in long conversational interaction because they can relate them to their experiences and prior knowledge. Lastly, discussion and decisions activities ask students to “collect and share information” to make a decision “(e.g. decide which items from a list are essential to have on a desert island” (Nunan, 1989, p.68). Thinking of how to encourage EFL/ESL students to get engaged in these speaking tasks lead us to think of the influence of two factors: motivation and language anxiety in learning a target language. Both of them play a necessary role in increasing or decreasing students’ level of engagement, and that what I am going to cover in the next section.Motivation and Learning A Second or A Foreign LanguageMotivation plays a crucial role in learning and acquiring a second or a foreign language, and it could be identified as “why people decide to do something, how long they are willing to sustain the activity, [and] how hard they are going to pursue it” (D?rnyei, 2002, p. 8).“Many researches in the motivation field proved that there was an inseparable relationship between motivational strength and oral English proficiency” (Xu Liu, 2010, p.138). Mayer goes further, to claim that students’ motivation should be “When students are motivated to learn, they try harder to understand the material and thereby learn more deeply, resulting in better ability to transfer what they have learned to new situations” (Mayer, 2003, p.459). Therefore, students’ motivation should be enhanced as the first step towards achieving success in learning a second or a foreign language. Many researchers indicate that motivation and language proficiency are found to be positively correlated (Liu, 2010). Researchers are interested in identifying the relation between motivation and language proficiency. They usually select groups of learners and ask them to take a questionnaire to measure their degree and type of motivation (instrumental or integrative) and then to take a test to assess their proficiency in second language. Scoring both the questionnaire and the test showed that “learners with high scores on the motivation questionnaire will also have high scores on the language test” (Lightbown & Spada, 2006, p.65-45). ESL/ EFL “teachers have the unique opportunity to improve student motivation through fostering desirable student goals, stimulating active learning, and leading dialog about the purposes of learning” (Wu, Yen, & et al., 2011, p.119). Active learning in particular motivates students to interact and to communicate more in the target language inside and or even outside classrooms. Pleasant and joyful experiences increase “self-confidence of the students”, which in turn affect “their motivation in a positive way” (Wu et al., p.120) Students might be affected by the negative self-image that they draw of/for themselves when they went through unpleasant experience. Wu (2011) indicate that teachers should provide their students with chances of “successful interactions with native speakers, or excellent speakers of English from any other culture, on topics of particular interest to the students” as they help them building their motivation and improving their ability and speaking skill (Wu et al., p.127) D?rnyei (2002) demonstrates that self- efficacy is considered to be another factor that impacts students’ motivation either negatively or positively. Students’ self-efficacy is influenced by many factors such as: observing other peers, “persuasion, reinforcement,” in addition to teachers and parents’ feedback (p.277). Littlejohn (2001) suggests that teachers should be careful about their evaluative feedback and support students’ sense of optimism that assist students to build up positive attitudes. He also suggests some strategies that help teachers maintaining their students’ motivation such as trying on a variety of classrooms activities and to observe what works best with students, and then to adopt the kinds of tasks that allow students to make more decisions and to have wide range of responses.Liu (2010) conducted a study with Beijng City University’s students who take English classes there. He points out that the students in his study were not interested in ‘the traditional methods of learning English,’ and that is why they have low motivation to speak English. So, he changed his class teaching methods into a more communicative ones, “which requires learners to practice in real situations” such as role-play (p.138) His study shows that students who used “role-play activity became more interested in speaking English than the students” who used “oral English tests”. He reports that “there were great changes of using role-play activity method on the aspect of arousing the students’ motivation of English speaking” (Liu, 2010, p.142). Similarly, Littlewood (1981) mentions that communicative activities such as role-play have many benefits for ESL and EFL learners as they encourage language learning naturally and in a context in addition to enhance both practice of the whole-task, and students’ motivation.Gardner (1985) & Oxford and Shearin (1994) identify two types of motivation: integrative and instrumental motivation. “Integrative motivation (willingness to learn a new language in order to become part of a particular speaking community)” and “instrumental motivation (willingness to learn a new language to accomplish immediate goals and needs) are both important aspects of why adults try to learn languages” (as cited in Schwarzer, 2009, p.27). “Teachers need to discover what motivates the learners to come to their classes and take on the very challenging task of learning another language” (Schwarzer, 2009, p.27). D?rnyei (1994) points out that “Individuals with a high need for achievement are interested in excellence for its own sake, tend to initiate achievement activities, work with heightened intensity at these tasks, and persist in the face of failure” (p.277). D?rnyei indicates that “one of the most general and well-known distinctions in motivation theories is that between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Extrinsically motivated behaviors are the ones that the individual performs to receive some extrinsic reward (e.g., good grades) or to avoid punishment. With intrinsically motivated behaviors the rewards are internal (e.g., the joy of doing a particular activity or satisfying one's curiosity).” Many studies prove that traditionally, extrinsic motivation can “undermine” the intrinsic one so students might “lose their natural intrinsic motivation” in tasks when they are only required to fulfill the extrinsic one’s requirements (p.275-76). Language Learning Anxiety Language Learning Anxiety could be referred to as “an experience of a foreign language that can pose potential problems for a learner with their acquisition, retention, and production of the new language” (MacIntyre & Gardner, 1991a, as cited in Sparks & Ganschow, 2007). It is “a complex, multidimensional phenomenon. It manifests itself in students quite differently depending on ethnic background, prior language experience, learner personality, and classroom circumstances” (Young, 1991, p.434). Young (1991) states that language anxiety could be attributed to many factors; however, many studies suggested that there is a strong correlation between language anxiety and the performance of second or foreign language. In addition, he indicates that this relation could not be showed without considering a variety of factors such as the definition of the term ‘anxiety,’ the age of learners, the sitting and the proficiency of the target language, etc. Siew & Wong (2009) investigated how psychological aspects (high language anxiety (HLA), moderate language anxiety (MLA), and low language anxiety (LLA) influence students’ acquisition and learning of English language. [“One hundred and seventy-seven students from a government secondary school” in Malaysia participated in this study (p.2).] Siew & Wong found out that (LLA) students pay more efforts to develop their own four skills while HLA students- the ones who indicated that they feel anxious in English classes did not put in efforts to improve their basic skills. Most of these HLA students attributed their stress to: their inability to understand, to speak, or to answer teacher’s questions and speaking in general. Interestingly, results also indicated that girls were slightly more anxious than boys. For many reasons, girls were more afraid of “volunteering answers”, “being laughed at,” and “speaking English” (p.11).Horwitz et al. (1986) claim that language anxiety plays a crucial role in the failure or the success of ESL/EFL learners. Many students have perfect English, but this proficiency is affected by their passiveness and unwillingness to speak or participate in their classes as a result of their anxiousness. Qian (2012) pointes out that “mentality is an important factor affecting one’s oral English, if one has a strong and brave heart to learn English, when meeting difficulties, he or she will resist it and continue to do what they have done before” (p.2205). “Making the classroom experience more dif?cult for students and instructors alike, EFL anxiety can deter students from pursuing academic or professional careers in which FLs are essential for success”. Learning a language in a relaxed classroom assists students to achieve better results in a healthy environment where they do not “feel nervous or get pressure by being laughed at or making mistakes” (Qian, p.2205). Making classrooms a comfortable and successful environment for learning a new language is mostly in the hand of language teachers. Siew &Wong (2009) report:“Teachers’ supportive attitude towards students and efforts to understand the affective needs of students can make a significant contribution towards making students, especially anxious ones feel more comfortable and motivated to learn in English classes” (p13).Achieving such goals is not easy, it needs teachers to be patient and hard-working in order to crearte an ideal environment for their students to learn in without any kind of anxiety.Leichsenring (2010) examined “the effects of Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety (FLCA) on learning outcomes and oral performance of participants.” The findings have showed that “sociocultural factors; learner motivation; Self-efficacy; and the perceptions that learners have of their classroom learning environments influence learning outcomes and oral performance in the classroom” (p.2). Another study conducted by Katalin (2006) studied FLCA of 5 Hungarian secondary school students who were studying two foreign languages. Regarding FLCA, some participants reported that they feel anxious when there is a level of perceived competence, which indicate that self-efficacy and self-confidence seem to be necessary factor impacting foreign language classroom anxiety. In conclusion, this literature review increased my knowledge and understanding of this topic and showed me how applying language learning tasks generally and the speaking ones particularly in EFL/ ESL classrooms are very beneficial for improving students’ speaking skill. Furthermore, it demonstrates the relation among these following items: motivation, anxiety, and foreign/second language proficiency. Reading through these different past and current works on this topic led me to form my ideas and to be more specific about what I would like to investigate. It also increased my curiosity towards exploring such items with ESL/EFL Saudi students in particular and to reformulate my research questions many times to address Saudi students feelings towards speaking in classrooms, to explore the speaking tasks that motivate them most, and to investigate the factors that affect their motivation towards these tasks. MethodologyThis research is a quantitative one, which “involves data collection procedures that result primarily in numerical data which is then analyzed primarily by statistical methods” (D?rnyei, 2007, p.24). D?rnyei points out that “the quantitative inquiry is systematic, rigorous, focused, and tightly controlled, involving precise measurement and producing reliable and replicable data that is generalizable to other contexts” (p.34). Quantitative research enables conducting large-scale studies in short time and less effort. It is also interested in “the common features of groups of people” and “identifying the relationship between variables by measuring them and often also manipulating them” (p.33). Quantitative research eliminates “any individual based subjectivity from the various phases of research process by developing systematic canons and rules for every facet of data collection and analysis” which gives it more credibility (D?rnyei, 2007, p.34). This quantitative research is a survey research that collected data by sending a survey to selected individuals and groups of students who are Saudis and study/have studied English as a foreign/ second language. I chose to use a survey rather than other instruments of collecting data because it helps me as a researcher to get responses from many people in short time. Also, as D?rnyei (2003) mentions questionnaires assist researchers to get “three types of information: factual or demographic, behavioral, and attitudinal” (as cited in Burns, 2009, p.81). My survey focuses on both the first and the third types. In my survey, students were asked to indicate to their English language experience and to express their interests in speaking activities in addition to their feelings towards speaking in front of their classmates and teachers. Some questions are provided with comments’ box so students can add further information or it can be used to “give examples of quotes from participants” as I did in this study (Burns, 2009, p.85).ParticipantsBecause my research questions are based on Saudi students, all participants in my study are Saudis who were selected according to their background of studying English in the U.S or Saudi Arabia. These Saudi students are eighteen years and older, and they were asked to complete a voluntary survey that was sent via email. In the first item of my survey, students were asked to give their consent to their responses to be used as data in this research. Only forty-two students responded to the survey, and about forty students (have not skipped any question and) answered all the twelve items in the survey. Some of these items have a comment box where students can explain their choices, provide more details, or specify other reasons.Research Trustworthiness“The credibility of quantitative designs is based on examining effects in controlled situations, looking at variables uniquely, one at a time” (Newman & Benz, 1998, p.79). So, in this study I surveyed a group of Saudi students, and I attempted to look at what elements they have in common so I can then generalize the results. As I mentioned before, the data of this study is collecting from a survey that was sent to EFL/ESL Saudi students who are/were enrolled in English courses, and they are in different ages and levels of proficiency of English. I intended to design the items of my questionnaire in various ways to get different responses. There are the rating scale, Yes/No, multiple choice, and open-ended items that are represented in the comments’ boxes. These comments’ boxes provide students with chances to rationale their responses or to specify much information. I also thought that it would be a good idea if I combined the survey’s results with some examples of quotes from students, which might be partially similar to the notion of interviewing students after they completed a survey. Findings:Question 1How do EFL/ESL Saudi students feel towards speaking English in their classrooms?This first question boils down to two things, speaking English in class with classmates in pairs or small groups and speaking English to the whole class or the teacher. Regarding the first issue, 38.1% answered that they ‘always’ feel comfortable to speak in pairs or small groups, 33.3% answered with ‘usually’, 26.2% answered with ‘sometimes’, and only 2.4% answered with ‘never.’ 6858004127500Students who have no problem speaking in pairs or small groups attributed their comfort to the following reasons: “I am in university and I have to speak English all the time,” “that helps me a lot to develop my English language and to have confidence as well,” “we all are in the same level,” “because I don't care about mistake,” “because we all like to help each other and motivate each other,” and “its easy and I like to speak English in my home to improve my ability and to learn more.” On the other hand, students who do not feel comfortable speaking in pairs or groups activities rationale as the following: “I can't understand when I talk with classmates who are from” other nationalities, “Maybe I do not want to make a mistake,” “because they do not like international students,” and “I'm so shy” Regarding the second issue, 24.4% determined that they ‘always’ feel comfortable speaking to the whole class or the teacher, 34.1% chose ‘usually’, 36.6% chose ‘sometimes’, and finally 4.9% chose never. 45720032004000 Comfortable students commented as the following: “because I don't care about mistakes and I came here to learn,” “they understand my ability,” “Maybe this depends on the personality. I like to talk A LOT,” and “it is the chance for me to learn correct English.” In contrast, uncomfortable students commented as: “because I'm afraid that not the whole class will understand my pronunciation,” “I do not have enough confidence because of my thick accent,” “I don't like making mistakes in front of every one,” “I have a fear of speaking in public places,” “because I get a little nervous,” and “I forget many words when I am talking.”Further, students were asked do they “feel afraid of making mistakes”? More than the half of these students (68.3%) decided that they have negative feelings towards making mistakes generally. Almost all of (85.4%) decided that they like to be helped with some words when they get stuck.Question 2What speaking tasks and communicative activities motivate them most?22860011747500 Students were asked to choose from a list the kinds of activities that motivate them most (information gap activities, activities using pictures, role playing activities, problem solving activities, and presentations). The Results showed that problem-solving activities received the most votes with a percentage of 53.8% followed by activities using pictures (51.3%), information gap activities (43.6%), presentations (33.3%), and roleplaying activities (25.6%) respectively. Surprisingly, 55% of the students decided that they have no problem with speaking activities and they do not consider them difficult, which totally contradicts my assumptions. I personally expected that more than half of these Saudi participants would decide that they feel anxious and uncomfortable towards these tasks, but they did not. Question 322860071120000What are some potential factors that might affect students’ motivation towards speaking tasks? Almost three fourths (74.4%) of the participants decided that they get motivated when the speaking topics are interesting, 51.3% when the level of activities is suitable (not too hard or too easy), 46.2% when it is fun, 43.6% when they feel that others can understand them, 30.8% when activities’ objectives are clear and they get enough chance to deliver their voices, and lastly 25.6% determined that they get motivated when they try a variety of speaking activities. Students were also asked whether they prefer to do speaking activities individually (presentations), in pairs, or in groups. More than half of the students decided that they prefer to do them in groups and interestingly, the percentage of students who prefer doing speaking tasks individually (25.6%) is slightly higher than the percentage of students who prefer doing them in pairs (20.5%). Earlier, in the survey, I indicated that the word ‘individually’ means individual presentations. In other words, students are interested most with group-work activities followed by individual presentations and lastly by pair-work ones. Interestingly, I was wrong in my assumptions for the second time as I did not think that anybody would like to stand in front of the whole class and to speak alone!Discussion and ImplicationsThe findings of this study ‘Motivation and English Speaking’ surprisingly contradict my previous assumptions of Saudi students’ anxiety towards speaking English in their classes. As a matter of fact, fewer Saudis have speaking anxiety than what I originally thought and most of these participants feel quite comfortable speaking English whether it is within their groups only or to the whole class.As results have shown, students have different preferences in learning generally and in speaking activities particularly. It is important for teachers to be aware of at least some of these varied preferences and learning styles and to adopt a variety of activities and materials that go along with their interests. For instance, some learners are more kinesthetic, so tasks that require “physical action such as miming or role-play seems to help the learning process” (Lightbown & Spada, 2006, p.59). To achieve that, teachers could observe students’ acts and reactions during speaking activities, evaluate their performances, or to talk with them openly about what they like and do not like regarding these tasks.Because getting advantage from speaking tasks in language classes improves students’ quality of learning, self-confidence, and motivation, teachers should give designing language learning activities the priority in their instruction. Furthermore, Lightbown & Spada (2006) demonstrate “lessons that always consist of the same routines, patterns, and formats have been shown to lead to a decrease in attention and an increase in boredom.” “Varying the activities, tasks, and materials can help to avoid this and increase students’ interest level.” (p.65-45). Bored students will not be able to apply themselves in their classes.By taking a look at students’ responses, you can notice that there are many issues had been decided as the most important items that keep students motivated towards speaking tasks. Most students determined that interesting speaking topics impact their motivation positively. That in turn means that teachers need to be updated with any new suitable topics that would attract their students most and improve their enthusiasm. Moreover, they could assign their students to pick the topics that they are interested in and to prepare related questions as a way of keeping up the flow of and the motivation in the discussion. On the other hand, half of the students decided that they get motivated towards speaking activities that have suitable level (not too hard or too easy). Therefore, teachers should be careful about this point when they designing or picking their activities because hard activities lead to disappointment and easy ones lead to boredom.Results also indicate that more than half of the participants are afraid of making mistakes, which could be attributed to some issues such as feeling afraid of being laughed at and lack of self-confidence. Teachers need to ensure that idea that ‘everybody makes a mistake’ and to “encourage the view that mistakes are a part of learning” (Dornyei, 1991, p.282). Providing motivating and positive feedback in addition to “pointing out the value of the accomplishment, focusing on individual improvement and progress, and avoiding any explicit or implicit comparison of students to each other” are also some strategies that could be used to decrease students’ negative feelings of making mistakes specifically and to reduce their anxiety generally (D?rnyei, 1991, p.282) Encouraging students to engage in peer interaction is a necessary component in reducing their anxiety of speaking English and making mistakes. As the survey results have shown, most participants decided that they prefer to work in groups, which might be attributed to the comfortable, cooperative environment that this instructor create and the supportive evaluation of “the group's-rather than the individual's-achievement” (D?rnyei, 1991, p.282). Most of my participants (60%) determined that they do not, which I consider a very positive thing. However, almost one third of the students experience language anxiety whether they are in ESL or EFL settings that requires teachers to be very careful about how to deal with this group of students. For instance, if “students’ anxiety is a consequence of weak language skills rather than a cause of poor performance in foreign language classes, then classroom teachers will need to address these language issues as a primary focus of instruction prior to or simultaneously with efforts to address students’ anxiety” (Sparks & Ganschow, p.279). Finally and as I mentioned before, teachers could reduce these students’ anxiety by enhancing their self-confidence, highlighting their achievements and points of strength, praising them, and creating a positive competitive atmosphere. Limitations and Recommendations for Future Study This study aimed to explore how Saudi students feel toward speaking English in their classes, what speaking tasks and activities motivate them most to speak, and what potential factors that might influence their motivation. The main limitation in this study is that the number of participants is small which might weaken the strength and validity of this study. The survey was sent to a large number of students (more than a thousand), but it did not receive many responses. Furthermore, I think it would be great if future research employed more than one method of collecting data (questionnaire, observations, interviews, etc.) In addition, this research would have been better if the perspectives of speaking teachers were taken into consideration, through interviews or a survey.Further research may evolve from this study ‘English Speaking and Motivation for Saudi EFL/ESL Students.’ Similar studies can be done with more participants, more than one method of collecting data, and combining both quantitative and qualitative approaches. It would be interesting to make a comparison between Saudi students’ attitudes towards speaking English in ESL and in EFL settings and the factors that impact these students in both situations. As this study indicated, speaking English in ESL/EFL is not a big problem for Saudi students. So, it might be a good idea to tackle a topic that clearly affects Saudi students like reading anxiety. Conclusion: This study explored a group of Saudi students’ feelings and attitudes towards speaking English in pair or group work and to the whole class, examined their motivation towards certain types of speaking tasks, and investigated the potential factors that might influence their motivation towards these tasks. Forty-two ESL/EFL Saudi students participated in this study and responded to a voluntary anonymous survey sent by email. Generally, findings have shown that only one third of these students experience medium to high language anxiety when they speak English in their classes. Students attributed their anxiety to many reasons such as: lack of self-confidence, shyness, fear of making mistakes or speaking in public, etc. Problem solving activities are decided to be the most motivating ones while role-playing activities are determined to be the less motivating. Three fourths of the students decided that picking interesting speaking topics is the most important factor influences their motivation towards speaking tasks positively followed by picking appropriate level of activities (not too hard or too easy). Some implications and suggestions for English language teachers have presented in this paper. Hopefully, this study can help teachers getting better understanding of their Saudi students’ attitudes, challenges, and motivational preferences in speaking tasks particularly and speaking classes generally. ReferencesBurns, A. (2009). Doing action research in English language teaching: A guide for practitioners Rutledge.D?rnyei, Z. (1994). Motivation and motivating in the foreign language classroom. The Modern Language Journal, 78(3), 273-284. D?rnyei, Z. (2002). The motivational basis of language learning tasks. Individual Differences and Instructed Language Learning, 2, 137-158. D?rnyei, Z. (2007). 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