THE STUDENT PERSPECTIVES OF COMMON PROBLEMS WHILE GAINING ENGLISH SPEAKING AND LISTENING SKILLS AND THEIR PROPOSED SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE SKILLS AUTONOMOUSLY

The importance of learning multiple languages is accepted universally. Improving language skills of the entire population is a priority for Turkey to increase the international competitiveness and also for the perspective integration to EU. Despite the fact that a long history and extensive efforts devoted to foreign language teaching in Turkey, the success has been noted to be limited. In this study, the potential problems and challenges during foreign language education in the higher education institutions were evaluated based on interviews with undergraduate students who are learnıng English. The study was conducted with a total of 32 students enrolled to various departments at Kafkas University. The results revealed that the students identified a number of challenges that they face while gaining the language skills along with personal strategies to overcome such challenges. Heavy grammar based teaching strategy and evaluation along with low level of native exposure and inadequate student participation were the main problems suggested by students