Factors Responsible for Colleges of Education Students' Difficulty to Communicate Orally in French

The majority of Ghanaian French language students have wished that they speak some acceptable level of French in and out of their study institutions. This has however not been fruitful. This study set out to investigate the reasons for the difficulty in engaging in oral communication in the French language by French language students in colleges of education in Ghana. This quantitative study adopted the cross-sectional survey design. Out of 122 target participant populations, 93 students from the St John Bosco’s and the Gbewaa colleges of education provided responses to the questionnaire items. Data was analysed using Kendall’s coefficient of concordance to rank the factors responsible for students’ difficulty to communicate orally in French, from the most pressing factor to the least pressing factor. The study realized that fear of being mocked, interference of the English language and inadequate exposure to the French language were the most pressing reasons/factors responsible for college students’ inability to communicate orally in French while inadequate time allocation for French lessons and lack of encouragement from French teachers to speak French orally were among the least reasons for college students’ inability to speak French orally. It was therefore recommended that there is a need for pro-activeness on the part of French language tutors to frequently engage students in oral communication and also discourage students from mocking colleagues who might make mistakes in their efforts at oral speeches. Also, a deliberate policy by school authorities and the tutors alike to make French speaking attractive through reward schemes should be made available and students should be encouraged to form or create French language clubs which will provide them the platform to practise oral communication on campus to aid fluency in the French language.