Improving English Speaking Proficiency Among Students at Public Universities of Karachi

Abstract

The research examined the academic practices and activities the students of public universities of Karachi perform in order to enhance their English language skills and the challenges they face in speaking English. Mixed Method as a research design was adopted in this study. With the help of a survey questionnaire, quantitative data was collected whereas for qualitative data, semi-structured interview was employed. For quantitative data, 71 students belonging to different public universities in Karachi were surveyed with questionnaires while 12 students of public universities were interviewed for qualitative data. The quantitative analysis was performed on computer software with the help of descriptive statistical techniques to get means and percentage of the acquired data about different practices the students are performing to improve their English-speaking skills and the challenges they face in speaking. Thematic analysis proposed was performed to generate potential themes from qualitative data obtained with the help of semi-structured interview. The findings of the study revealed that making conversation with friends in English with highest means (2.933) and highest percentage (58.66%) is the most frequent practice to improve English speaking skills and making grammatical mistakes with highest means (3.2) and highest percentage (65.2) is most frequent problem in English speaking skills for the students. The findings of thematic analysis revealed different themes related to activities the students perform in order to improve speaking skills of the students such as interactive speaking, experiential and creative learning and related to challenge the students face in speaking English such as psychological challenges in Speaking English, Linguistic and cognitive challenges.