Certain factors affecting students’ English-speaking skill in a Mongolian university’s context

Abstract

English has been taught only for three decades significantly in Mongolia as a foreign language. As a landlocked country with limited opportunities to practice English, learners usually lack authentic circumstances to improve their language skills. Out of the four macro skills, speaking has been addressed as the most challenging skill in our context. Hence, learners face problems to express themselves and communicate with other English speakers because of their weak speaking skill. The modern world of media and mass communication demands decent knowledge of spoken English. In this article, we are concerning the term speaking, the importance of attaining speaking skill, characteristics of speaking performance, confronting problems in speaking and some factors influencing speaking performance. This study could be used as a fact to reveal the needs of English speaking in the frame of the EAP course in Mongolian context. Moreover, the study aimed at investigating factors affecting learners’’ English speaking skill. The researcher randomly chose 48 students who are taking English as Academic Purposes (EAP) courses in the university of Finance and Economics, Mongolia. The result of the survey showed certain factors that influence students' speaking performance in English, such as social factors and educational context factors.