Assessing Sudanese University Students’ Oral communicative Competence in an EFL

Abstract

This study aimed at assessing Sudanese university students’ oral communicative competence in an EFL environment. The study attempted to assess, investigate and determine the level of oral communicative competence attained by Sudanese university students who are majoring English language. The study, moreover, aimed at exploring new ideas and views to develop the students’ oral communicative competence in classroom and outside the school environment. For this purpose two tools were designed to collect data and details from the sample of the research. First, a questionnaire for university students and an interview for teachers of different qualifications. The data were analyzed and computed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, (SPSS). The study concluded to some findings of which learners pay much attention to accuracy and grammar rather than pragmatic competence and fluency using the target language. The study also found that students need much practice of their English in the real world because the communicative activities in class don’t fulfill their need. Another finding is that, the evaluation of the learners depends mainly on the written exams, so teachers pay attention only to literacy skills. The study found that most of the students have little opportunity to practise their English in the real world which leads to serious problems when they encounter real life situational conversations. On the basis of the results, the study finishes with some recommendations for teaching and learning oral communicative competence in the EFL context.