Investigating the Role of Social / Affective Strategies in Enhancing EFL Speaking Proficiency

Abstract

In the process of learning a foreign language, students achieve competency at different rates even if they have subsequent encounter with the same input, and have the same learning environment. The current study aims to explore the influence of social/affective strategies on students’ speaking proficiency in the Department of Letters and Foreign Languages at Abdelhafid Boussouf University Center/ Mila. It also aims at presenting the teachers’ and students’ views about the viability of incorporating social/affective strategies into the Oral Expression classes. We hypothesize that students of English would enhance their speaking proficiency if teachers and learners focus on the social/affective strategies and match their learning and teaching styles accordingly. Our hypothesis is checked through a Teachers’ Questionnaire and a Students’ Questionnaire. The findings obtained allow validating our hypothesis, and reveal that the use of social/affective strategies may positively influence students’ speaking proficiency. On the basis of these findings, recommendations are suggested to teachers and students to make social/affective strategies part of their learning and teaching processes.