Abstract

Objectives: The study aimed to identify the obstacles facing students in the first three grades in acquiring speaking skills from the point view of English language teachers in Naour District- Jordan. Methods: The researchers used the descriptive approach. To achieve the goal of this study, they developed a questionnaire of speaking skill obstacles, consisting of (26) paragraphs, and distributed into four areas: obstacles related to the student, obstacles related to educational means and techniques, obstacles related to the curriculum, and obstacles related to the teacher. It was applied to a sample of English language teachers affiliated with the Education Directorate of Naour District. The study sample consisted of (105) teachers. Results: The results showed that the field of obstacles related to the student came in first place, and the field of obstacles related to the teacher came in last place. The study concluded that there were no statistically significant differences in the obstacles facing students in the first three grades in acquiring speaking skills from the point of view of English language teachers attributed to the variables (academic qualification and years of experience) while there was a statistically significant difference in the responses of English language teachers about obstacles related to the curriculum according to the variable of years of experience, and in favour of teachers with less than (5) years of experience. Conclusions: The study recommended increasing attention to speaking skills in teaching English to primary school students in Jordan.