Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to assess the practices and challenges of speaking skills in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom in the case of grade 9 students at Kechi Secondary School, Dawuro Zone. This study employed a descriptive survey research design, and the data were analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The participants of the study were grade nine students and English teachers at Kechi Secondary School. The sample populations of this study were one hundred nine students, and these were selected simple random from three sections that had taken part in filling out the questionnaire, and two English teachers who have been teaching these sections were interviewed. Data collected through questionnaires, interviews, and observations were analyzed by quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods. The results obtained from the questionnaires were quantitatively analyzed with the Statistics Package for Social Science, version 26 software. The interviews and observations were analyzed qualitatively. The findings of the data showed that students' poor background speaking experience, students' beliefs about language learning, lack of confidence and anxiety, lack of motivation, interference of the mother tongue, lack of access to supplementary materials, teachers' manners of error correction, large class size, teachers proficiency, and on the other side, the teachers' roles were found to be some challenges that affect the practice of speaking skills in the English as a Foreign Language classroom. The English language classroom should be warm and cooperative between the teacher and students since language can be learned better through interaction than through memorizing and accumulating knowledge. Therefore, the study recommended that course designers and particularly English teachers should try to minimize these challenges and exert their maximum effort to alleviate the problems students face while learning speaking skills in English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom
