An Analysis of the Factors Affecting the Mastery of English Language Skills among English as a Foreign Language University Students: Strategies for Improvement

Abstract

This study focuses on investigating the factors affecting the mastery of English language skills  amonguniversity students. While plenty of quantitative studies were accessed in this systematic review, the evaluation highlighted the most significant gap as the lack of extensive purely qualitative studies on the factors affecting mastery of English language skills from the perspective of university students. Moreover, majority of university students in English as a Second Language (ESL) countries like Somalia, China, South Korea and Saudi Arabia among others still display poor mastery of basic English language abilities such as speaking, writing, listening, and reading. This is so despite efforts by many ESL countries in Africa, Asia and Europe accepting English as a national or official language for usage in educational institutions and offices. As a result, a complete assessment of studies on the factors influencing the mastery of English language skills in universities in ESL countries was required in order to shed light on the issue and discover missing links. The study also offers key insights into Somalia, a country that is investing a lot in popularizing English as an official and instruction language. The researcher looked up relevant existing literature using search engines like Semantic Scholar, Google Scholar, ProQuest, and Connected Papers. Consequently, the review’s key recommendation is that, in order to get a more in-depth and thorough understanding of the situation, more substantial purely qualitative studies be widely conducted in these countries to address the issue through the judgements and experiences of students. This could help to strengthen present efforts to find a long-term solution to the English language deficit in these countries. Other interventions such as engaging more stakeholder groups, embracing English literature, international benchmarking, refresher courses for teachers and clear policies on language of instruction in universities should be adopted.