Target language speaking problems in students taking Advanced Intensive English I, intermediate Intensive English I and Readings and Conversation I at the Foreign Languages Department, University of El Salvador, semester II, 2016. A diagnostic study from the teachers’ perspective

There is no doubt that every person who learns English as a second language face several problems when learning the target language, surely, it is not easy, but it is not impossible either to develop an acceptable performance in the target language. We all know that every time we decide to learn something we are going to face different situations, some will help us to learn and probably some other will not, but we have to be aware that everything we do will require some effort from us to get what we expect, and the English language is not the exception, as everything we learn, we have to be focused on achieve all of our goals in the language; for example having a good pronunciation, a good listening skill, an acceptable level in the knowledge of grammar rules, a good ability in writing using the target language, and an extended vocabulary are some of the keys we have to learn, and to keep in mind in order to have a good performance in the language, in this case English. Our research team knows some of the problems students have when learning the second language, and for sure we as students had to deal with these problems when taking some of the subjects of the Major in English Teaching, there are also many factors that affect students learning English not only in our environment but also in our country and around the world. There is a recent study made in 2015 by a research team at the Foreign Language Department at the University of El Salvador, in which that team got data about the speaking problems in students and analyzed it based on students’ experiences and point of view, at the end new questions came up, for example: which is the teachers’ opinion? What could they conclude about this topic? Do they consider students could improve their performance in the language? Taking into account the necessity of knowing what is the teacher’s perspective about the problems that students at the Foreign Language Department face at the time they are taking some specific subjects, the research team decided to study the most common problems students have when speaking in English, to be more specific, we will study the problems that students face while taking Readings and Conversation I, Intermediate Intensive English I and Advanced Intensive English I, at the Foreign Language Department at the University of El Salvador, in this case we are including the students in the level of second and third year of the English Teaching Major, but studied from the teachers’ perspective.