The study investigates the difficulties encountered by Saudi EFL university learners in oral communicative classroom activities and their impact on English oral performance communication. The Population of this study targets 20 EFL university instructors in the College of Science and Arts for female students and the College of Science and Arts for male students in Tanumah, King Khalid University in the first semester of the academic year 2019/2020. The population also consists of 35 EFL university third level female students and 35 EFL university third level male students in the two above-mentioned colleges. To collect data, the study depends on the analysis of structured interview conducted on EFL university instructors and on the analysis of the students’ oral test in addition to the personal observation of the researchers. The study has come out with the conclusion that, the oral English communicative performance of Saudi EFL university learners is characterized by errors of grammar, pronunciation, intonation, filler words, and inappropriate choice of words, lack of fluency, lack of confidence, hesitation and fear of making errors. However, the study attributes these difficulties to many factors including, for example, interference of the Arabic language of EFL university learners in learning and teaching process, EFL learners’ lack of motivation to develop their English oral communication skill, absence of speaking English courses at primary and high secondary school levels, in addition to that the learners lack the necessary vocabulary items and sentence formation skills that enable them to communicate in English. Finally, the paper recommends that EFL university instructors should try other different strategies for developing EFL learners’ oral communicative skills. In addition to that, they should build the learners’ self-confidence by creating a safe classroom environment, by giving learners more chances to speak in English on different situations and by using fun assignments and interesting topics regarding their age, gender, and context. Moreover, EFL learners should be encouraged to read more and more to get high quantity of vocabulary and be involved in intensive oral practice by encouraging them to have an English conversation club that consists of their own classmates.
Keywords: Classroom Activities, Speaking Skills, difficulties; Saudi EFL learners, oral communication
