Motivating ESL Students and Improving Fluency in Speech

Abstract

The objective of learning a language is to achieve fluency in the language. In order to obtain fluency lot of strategies are being used. However, majority of the learners of English as a second language, having had little or no opportunity to use, release or express the vocabulary and knowledge of structure with which their many years of study have endowed them, do not realize that it is possible for them to speak English. Indeed, for most of them English may merely be another school subject that they have had to take year after year. This study therefore attempts to research on motivation and ESL students’ fluency in Speech. Fifty students from the Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce were randomly selected and two questionnaires were administered to them. They were also interviewed. The objective of the study is to find out whether motivation can be used to improve students’ fluency in speech. It was hypothesized the motivation has a positive influence on fluency of speech. The hypotheses were tested using the data collected from the questionnaires survey and interview with the staff and the results have been discussed in favour of the research questions formed in this study. The data collected from the respondents reveal the fact that motivating ESL students has a positive influence on the fluency in the ESL students’ speech