| This study deals with the English oral proficiency of Jordanian students attending public secondary schools, with special emphasis given to final-year (i.e., third-secondary-class) students. The purpose of this study is to determine the English speaking proficiency of secondary school graduates and the impact it may have later on their university careers.; The following procedures are employed to investigate the above problem: (1) an oral interview between a native speaker of English and each of 50 third-secondary-class students in their final week of school training. The interview, which was conducted entirely in English and lasted approximately ten minutes with each student, was scored according to the FSI Oral Proficiency Testing Scale; (2) a questionnaire distributed to first-year students and their professors at The University of Jordan and Yarmouk University who are in disciplines which are supposed to use only Enlgish as a medium of instruction; (3) taped classroom performances of English classes at the three secondary school levels: first secondary, second secondary, third secondary; and (4) a review of the current English public-school curriculum and examination system of the secondary stage.; The results obtained from the gathered data underline the weaknesses in the speaking ability of public secondary school graduates. According to the findings of the oral interview, for instance, the average score of the 50 students interviewed stands close to 1+ at the end of eight school years of English instruction which provides a total of 206 English class periods per year. To improve the English teaching situation at the secondary school level in general and the students' oral proficiency in particular, certain suggestions are advanced at the end of the study which mainly involve: the teaching methods used in class, the English level of public secondary school teachers, and the English texts taught in the classroom. |
