AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE CHALLENGES FACED BY THE SECONDARY LEVEL STUDENTS IN SPEAKING ENGLISH IN DISTRICT KOHAT KPK PAKISTAN

Many studies were conducted in the area to uncover problems in Speaking English in various contexts because speaking of language is very important. It is one of the chief characteristics of language that it can be spoken (Barber C, 2000). Therefore this study was conducted on Challenges faced by the Secondary level students in speaking English in district Kohat. The main aim of this study was to investigate the specific challenges and problems faced by the Secondary level students in speaking English. The study hand sought out the challenges and difficulties faced by secondary level students in speaking English in district Kohat and provide possible solution for these problems. Class 10 the students were selected as Participants for this study from 5 Government High Schools in District Kohat namely, GHS Behzadi Chikarkot, GHS No 1 Kohat, GHS No 2 Kohat, Govt. Comprehensive High School Kohat and Govt. Centennial High School No 4 Kohat. The data were collected from 70 students i.e. 14 students were included from each school who were studying in class 10. Data were analyzed through SPSS software. In the present study, Questionnaire was used as a tool for data collection which contains 13 items. The study yielded important results. Some of the problems were highlighted by the study are Social, psychological, and cultural factors that hinder English language speaking proficiency at school level students in district Kohat.


INTRODUCTION
English language is one of the best tools for communication nowadays across the world. It is the language of trade and business. It is nowadays a considered a language of the world (Ali et al, 2022). Efficiency in English opens the doors of various educational and professional prospects. In Pakistan, English occupies an important role in all fields of life. It is the second and official language of Pakistan. There are many languages spoken in Pakistan and the national language is Urdu but English language plays an important role in our educational and national life.
English language learning is important in nowadays. There are four basic language skills which every learner must master. These skills are: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening. Reading and Listening skills are passive skills whereas Writing and speaking skills are active skills. Learning English language has been a problem for Pakistani students especially the ones who live in villages and small towns. A number of factors affect the English language learning by the students.

Rationale of the Study
Many studies are conducted on speaking skills such as  and (Lathifah, 2015) cited in (Siraranghom, W 2020) in Pakistani context. However, in the given context there is lack of research over the same topic i.e. speaking skills problems. Secondly, it is a common observation that at university level, students have very less command over speaking but that is not their fault because throughout our education career there is no proper focus on speaking skill. So, the base from where we can bring reforms in our education system is Matric level (class 9 th and 10 th ) so that is why secondary level students were chosen as participants for this study in hand. The aim of this study is to investigate that what are the challenges that affect students speaking skills and how to overcome over these challenges. Research Questions 1. What are the challenges that ESL students face in English language at Matric level? 2. What are the strategies uses for improving speaking skills? Aims and Objectives of the Study The main aim of the present study was to analyze the challenges faced by the secondary level students in speaking English language in District Kohat. Potential Significance of the Study Keeping in view the shortage of research in the arena of ESL in Pakistan, the present study could provide useful recommendations for language instructors, students, and also for educational/language material designers in Pakistan as well as in other countries. Also, it may reveal new avenues for future studies. Sandika, (2021) analyzed speaking Problem Faced by Second Grade Students in Conversation at SMA N 2 Kelayang. It was descriptive research. The methods of collecting data were interviews, observations and recordings. The conclusion of this research shows that the vocabulary of students is very low that is why they found difficulties in understanding a conversation. They have difficulties in pronouncing certain words because in English there is difference in speaking and writing certain words. There is a problem in arranging words. Students were worried about making mistakes so, that is why they cannot speak English.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Rehman and Tariq (2013) conducted a study in University of Lahore, Sargodha Campus. The purpose of their study was to find the factors affect English language speaking in Pakistan. They conducted data from 60 students including both male and female of age range was from13 to 18 years. Data were collected through questionnaires. Students were randomly selected from different secondary schools from rural areas of Sargodha. After conducted this they came to the conclusion that all factors to the great extent were against learning in rural areas because of uneducated background, poverty, and agriculture. Parents cannot give any importance to their children's education.
In 2015 (Lathifah, 2015), in Semarang State University conducted a study on the affective issues in English speaking that were faced by English and Accounting department students. There were forty students from both the departments in which 3 males and 37 females were analyzed. Data were collected through interviews and class observations and descriptive qualitative was used to find the results. The findings of this study showed that there is fear of committing mistakes and lack of selfconfidence in speaking English. The fear of making mistakes is the biggest issue in the students of English department and the lack of self-confidence was the affective issue in the students of accounting department. Tshotsho, Membenbe, and Cekiso (2015) conducted a research in university of Fort Hare King in South Africa conducted a research on investigating challenges that are faced by Congolese French speaking students while using English language as a means of instructions in university of South Africa. The participants were 8 university lecturers and a Congolese French speaking students. In the same study, data were collected through interviews and documents analysis of the students such as assignments, comments of teachers on those assignments. The lecturers were informed to take part in this study because in their classes had Congolese French Speaking students. Using descriptive analysis qualitative data were analyzed. After that they came to the conclusion that Congolese Students face challenges because of vocabulary choices, pronunciations, and uses of tenses, prepositions, conjunctions, articles, punctuation and demonstrative pronouns.
In October, Henna Paakki (2013) in University of Eastern Finland conducted a research on speaking difficulties in English of Finnish and Japanese English learners. The problems were analyzed on the basis of Second Language Acquisition Theory. Interviews were conducted from Finnish and Japanese who were learning English language. In their analysis qualitative methods were used but for the presentation of data quantitative data were used. The population was 56 in numbers, 29 were Finnish and 27 were Japanese. The reasons of difficulties in English are their previous education that had been too grammar oriented and theoretical fear of errors, lack of practice and experience, and social pressure. Ahmad, et al., (2013) conducted a research on the students of SSC and HSSC level in rural areas of Sargodha. In this research the problems that students faced in rural areas were discussed. Students were selected randomly and the samples were 30 male and female students of rural areas of Sargodha. Data was collected through questionnaires in which 26 questions were there. The problems that they came to know from the same study were lack of vocabulary, problems in listening faculties, L1's influence that is (Punjabi) , environment inability, lack of specialist English teachers, no provision of separate English spoken classes, no forms on speaking skills. Wahyuni, Rismaya, andEndang (2012-2013) conducted a research on students speaking problems in speech subjects in Tanjisnpuea University Research included 20 students. It was a descriptive research based on research findings. Most of the students faced both linguistics and nonlinguistics problems during speaking English. The result shows that most speaking problems in linguistics are fluency and comprehensibility where in non-linguistics aspects are eye contact and gesture.
In (Stella, et al., 2015) conducted a research on factors that influence the learning of English language. Data were collected through self-drafted questionnaires that were distributed to 36 students who learning English as foreign language. Data were analyzed through descriptive statistics. The results that affect the learning are technological factors, social factors, academic factors, cultural factors and economic factors.
John and Ehow (2011) found that the English language has been introduced in the school curriculum for lower secondary schools as a compulsory course in 1997 but unfortunately nowadays English is not taught in government primary schools so, due to this student face problems in English learning.
In September, Esma Maamouri Ghrib (2004) conducted study on Tunisian secondary school students for finding the difficulties in English speaking. The research was quantitative and questionnaires were distributed among the students of 6 th and 7 th grades. After analyzing data they found that pronunciation, grammar, shyness, socio economic factors, sex and gender are the difficulties they face while speaking English.
In December, (Dina et al., 2013) conducted a study on EFL setting students. Mix method approach was used to collect data. Questionnaire was distributed among 566 students and out of those 566 64 students were interviewed. The results of the study shows that the speaking proficiency of students were very low and the class room strength is high that's why they have problems and another main factor is lack of time.
In February, (Mehmood et al., 2014) conducted a research on communication problem in L2 in Federal Government secondary schools. Data were collected from 25 teachers and 50 students through questionnaires in which two questionnaires were designed one for the teachers and other for the students. The data was then analyzed through SPSS software. The findings of the research were that teachers should conduct activities like class presentations, dialogues, discussions among the students.
There must be open chances for the students to speak free so, in this way they will their listening and speaking skills.
Bashir, and Azeem, (2011) conducted a research in University of Education Bank Road Lahore. The population consisted for this study was all the teachers who are teaching English to class 9 th and 10 th in Punjab province and all the students who are studying in public schools in Punjab province. From district Faisalabad 20 schools were randomly selected for data collection. 8 teachers and 20 students were randomly selected from each school. Separate questionnaires were developed for teachers and students and 10 data collectors were trained to collect data from 2 schools. The results were that teachers cannot use English language as a means of instructions. Some students are against with the use of mother tongue during lectures. Some students say that environment also plays a key role in our English speaking. Kabir (2014) conducted her research on challenges of speaking English in Bangladeshi classrooms. Mix method approach was used in this research in which interviews, questionnaires, survey, focus group discussions and observations were done. The participants that took place in this research were randomly selected from 3 high schools and 1 college of Dhaka city. The schools were of coeducation. The total numbers of participants were 60. 3 interviews were also conducted. The results of this research were that there is lack of administrative facilities. The method of teaching is not good and the lack of supportive environment is the hurdles in teaching-learning spoken English.
The present study investigated the factors that contribute to poor quality of English language learning as a second language at secondary level to conduct this study few research questions were posed. The questions reflected the following five variables: (1) The Psychological Factors affecting English language learning (2) The Social Factors (3) The Economic Factors (4) The School learning Environment (5) The Cultural Factors Students' poor performance in English language speaking at secondary level, teachers, and students parents, employees are worried and concerned about the students' performance. Therefore, Problem is what factors that contribute to the poor performance of students in English language Speaking an ESL or EFL. There are many factors which affect the students at secondary level.
1. Psychological Factors 2. Social Factors 3. Cultural Factors 4. Learning Environment and Financial Problems Psychological Factors Psychological Factors provide insight into the teaching and learning process and students' behavior, and are concerned with the actual classroom application of psychological principles.
If we stay for a moment in classroom we quickly note the impact of diversity on the teaching and learning in our school. How many problems are due to the lack of the understanding about student background? Cultural differences, languages differences, economic problems etc.
To achieve these goals we will discuss the significance of different factors in students' lives. We will stress the need to avoid misunderstanding, misconception and the importance of learning from different culture experiences.
At secondary level mostly students belongs to different cultures, face a lot of problems in learning English language. Due to the culture problems they are not ready to adopt and learn the English culture and language. Some problems faced at secondary level are given below: 1. The students face the problems of weak command on vocabulary. 2. They need strong base. Their basic education is very weak 3. They are using grammatically wrong language. 4. Lack of motivation. 5. Lack of healthy learning environment. 6. Shyness 7. Lack of Confidence. Human behavior is very complex issue; no worthwhile education can be imparted without understanding the behavior of the students at various stages of his development. Education functions in an atmosphere largely determined by the attitude, interest pupils, teachers, administrations, parents and school members. The basic purpose of this process is to influence the development of an individual to produce personal qualities of physical, social, intellectual and emotional readiness to meet a complex array of life situations.

Social Factors
Man is social animal. He cannot live without an organization. Therefore, the collectivity which man has created during the long course of his evolution is known as society. Society is a complex term. Man lives in society having culture. Man and his culture are in separable by nature.
The position that a person occupies in a society may be due to the tradition or custom through his own efforts is called status. As a result of that status and position he is expected to discharge certain functions. These functions are known as role. The role and status co-exist and there are certain roles attached to different status in a society. There are various important functions of the institutions. New members are introduced and socialized by the society.

Cultural Factors
Our society is a traditional society. Traditional society is governed by traditions, customs, religions and conversations. In traditional society special significance is attached to primary institutions like family, neighborhood and community. Traditional society comparatively isolated from progressive society. Traditional society is very backward from technological point of view. In this society there is prominence of primary control. Families, caste, religion and clan are the main agencies which regulates social behavior. In traditional society there is lack of intellectualism and conflicting ideologies, members are highly motivated by their tradition. The traditional society is custom bound society therefore its structure and organization is not changing very quickly. In such society life is guided by specific custom and tradition. In open society there is no uniformity. People take different occupations and vocations and follow it.

Economic Factors
Our society is categorized into three major strata.
1. Upper strata 2. Middle strata 3. Lower strata The Govt. High School Behzadi Chikarkot is based upon poor people. They have no proper source of income. It is very difficult for the parents to buy the English newspaper regularly and other important books which are helpful in English language learning. In Govt. High School there are lacks of resources and there are also lacks of learning friendly atmosphere. Such atmosphere provides the students background for learning. Pakistani is also poor country, it is impossible for government to arrange the language labs for different schools and colleges. The above discussion shows that status and wealth are necessary element in our life as well as in our society. We can improve our English through reading English books, newspapers etc. According to our society and culture it is very difficult to follow formula as buying these learning materials are beyond are affordability of learners.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Piloting of the study
Before collecting the data, piloting study was conducted in order to check the authenticity of the tool i.e. questionnaire. The piloting was done on the students of 10 th class of Sarhad Public High Kohat which is a private institution. After doing piloting study it was found that students have some problems in two items in understanding. So, the same were rephrased in order to avoid the confusion.

Methodology
The descriptive statistics was employed in this study for frequencies, percentage and other statistical calculation. The study is quantitative in nature. Data was explained in the form of tables and diagrams.

The Site Selection and Sampling
Quantitative approach was used in study in which 70 questionnaires among the students of class 10 th who were selected from the five Government schools of district kohat. The same questionnaires were used by Al-Saadi and Tonawanik and Al Harthy (2013) for data collection. But for study in hand these questionnaire were adapted in order to meet with purpose of the same study. The data were collected from 5 Government High Schools in District Kohat namely, GHS Behzadi Chikarkot,GHS No 1 Kohat, GHS No 2 Kohat, Govt. Comprehensive High School Kohat and Govt. Centennial High School No 4 Kohat. For the data collection class 10 students were selected from each school. The data were collected from 70 students from 14 students included from each school who were studying in class 10. Data were analyzed through SPSS software. Questionnaire, containing 13 items was used as a tool for data collection in the study in hand. The questionnaire was consists of 13 items and each item were having six Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree, disagree, slightly disagree, slightly agree, agree, and strongly agree. I randomly distributed questionnaires among the students of 10 th class. Tuan.H.N and Mai.T.N (2015) also use questionnaires to collect data.

Tools for data collection
The questionnaire was translated from English to Urdu so that students can easily understand the questions because at secondary level students do not have full command over English. Tuan.N.H and Mai.T.N (2015) also translated questionnaires from English to Vietnamese so that students can easily understand the questions. Al-Saadi and Tonawanik and Al Harthy (2013) also translated questionnaires from English to Arabic. Procedure for data collection Questionnaires were distributed randomly among students. The researcher explained all the items to the students in order to clear their minds on questionnaire. The researcher also explained the goal of data collection. Reasonable time was given to the students for filling the questionnaire and students were ask to feel free if there is any problem they can ask for. After filling all the questionnaires they returned those questionnaires.

Procedure for Data Analysis
The data were analyzed through SPSS software which is software for quantitative data analysis. Descriptive statistics was used to answer the research questions. Descriptive statistics gave me the frequency and percentage of my data

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
The present research was conducted to analyze the challenges faced by secondary level students in speaking English in District Kohat. The questionnaires were distributed among 70 students of class 10 th who were studying in five government schools in district Kohat. Data were analyzed through descriptive statistics in which the researchers looked for the frequency and percentage of the given responses of the students. Graphs for each items are drawn and they are analyzed on the bases of frequency and percentage.  Table 2 shows that 5.7% students are strongly disagree, 18.6% are disagree, 12.9% are slightly disagree, 7.1 are slightly agree, 32.9 are agree, and 22.9 are strongly agree with the statement. From the above findings it is clear that English is thought as a subject not as a language so that is why students have complications in speaking English. 1 The data in table 3, represents that 8.6% students are strongly disagree, 8.6% students are disagree, 7.1% students are slightly disagree,21.4% students are slightly agree, 37.1% students are agree, 17.1% students are strongly agree. We see that most of the students are agree with the statement and it shows that students are not given opportunities to speak in English in the language classroom so, that's why they do not have command over English speaking. In the above table 4, 11.4% students are strongly disagree, 8.6% are disagree,17.1% are slightly disagree, 10.0% are slightly agree, 22.9% are agree and 30.0% are strongly agree. In the above findings most of the students are strongly agree with the statement and it shows that their family members encourages them to speak in English so that they can improve their speaking and have a great command on English spoken. 27.1 In the above table 5, 5.7% participants are strongly disagree, 14.3% are disagree, 11.4% are slightly disagree, 20.0% are slightly agree, 21.4% are agree, 27.1% are strongly agree. In the above findings most of the students 27.1% were strongly agree with the statement. It shows that their friends encourage them to speak in English. Thus they can improve English spoken. .6% students are strongly disagree, 5.7% are disagree, 11.4% are slightly disagree, 8.6% are slightly agree, 17.1% are agreed, and 48.6% students are strongly agree with the statement that English speaking is important now a days. From this statement we can say that majority of students are agree with the statements because they know that English is now a days an international language in the world and most of the dealings are being done in English language, so knowing and speaking English is very important in order to communicate with outer world. strongly agree. In the above findings most of the students are agree with the statement. They feel less creative if they use Urdu in English language classroom. They think that using Urdu in English classroom does not bring creativity in them and there should be the use of English language throughout the class.  Table 8 shows that 5.7% participants are strongly disagree with the statement, 11.4% are disagree, 10.0% are slightly disagree, 11.4% are slightly agree, 20.2 % are agree, and 41.4% are strongly agree with the statement that use of English in the classroom encourages them to speak in English.
Classroom environment is such an environment where pressure is greater than outward general environment. So the availability of encouraging environment in classroom gives confidence to speak English inside classroom as well as in outer environment.  Table 10 shows that 5.7% participants are strongly disagree with the statement, 14.3% are disagree, 14.3% are slightly disagree, 7.1% are slightly agree, 28.6% are agree, and 30.0% are strongly agree with the statement that they do not have a lot of opportunities to speak in English language classroom. The medium of communication in teaching learning process is native language that's why students have fewer opportunities to speak English.  Table 11 shows that 8.6% students are strongly disagree with the statement, 7.1% are disagree, 10.0% are slightly disagree, 7.1% are slightly agree, 18.6% are agree, and 48.6% are strongly agree with the statement that they feel nervous and confused when they are speaking in language classroom. Students are nervous and confused because they are having problems of grammar and fluency and they cannot speak.

CONCLUSIONS
This quantitative study was attempted to explore challenges faced by the secondary level students in speaking English in district Kohat. The data revealed that English is taught as a subject not as a language in classroom in the given context. Teacher just come to the class, starts delivering lectures and then leaves the class without providing any opportunity for speaking. It implies that there is lack of focus on speaking activities in classroom in Government schools in district Kohat. Students are not given opportunities to speak in front of the class. Teachers mostly rely on Grammar Translation Method (GTM) while teaching English to the students which leads to teacher -centered classroom in the given context. Consequently, students feel less creative and de-motivated to speak English in classroom. Furthermore, most of the students in five Government High Schools in District Kohat were suffering from anxiety (psychological factors) because they cannot discuss ideas openly in front of the students and teachers. They had fear of mistakes and mentally they were depressed. Less Self-confidence was also found in the participants. It was also explored that Environmental factors play an important role in speaking English. The area where these Government High Schools in Kohat are located mostly Pashto speaking area where people always speak in Pashto and no other language is spoken. Therefore, students had not that much opportunity to speak in English outside the classroom. In addition, social factors were also explored in the study. In district Kohat, traditions and norms are given preferences. Thus, people considered English as the language of the English. So, English language is not liked by them. They discourage speaking English at homes.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Government High Schools in District Kohat teachers need training in teaching English in Pakistani context. They are not aware of instructional mode of teaching. They would be informed regarding the novel developments in teaching method and techniques brought by the development of science and technology. Technology such as audio videos, language laborites and computer can be the more effective teaching tools for English language lessons as they offer authentic learning experience interlinking with existing curriculum. Therefore, teachers in the given context would be equipped with the technology.
Teachers would be trained to provide chances for the students to speak English in classroom in order to develop a habit of speaking of target language. There should be debate competition in English at secondary level in the given context. Students would be motivated to take active part in such competitions. Furthermore, students should be given opportunities to speak English, i.e. classroom discussions, presentations, etc. Different teaching aids and techniques would be taken into account in order to motivate and maintain students' interest in speaking English. Because various technique creates very comfortable environment for learning a language and lessen lethargy and stress.