Speaking Through Stories : A Narrative Inquiry Into EFL Learners’ Cultural Experiences in English

Speaking English as a Foreign Language in Indonesian Institution educational has not been widely studied from the learners‘ perspective. This thesis reports the findings of interviews with four students at an institution that adopted English as the medium of interaction, focusing on their experiences and the barriers they faced during the learning process. One significant issue that emerged was a four year delay in achieving oral fluency in English. A narrative inquiry research design was used to explore the participants‘ live experiences in the context of this issue. The Learners‘ who participated in the study were selected voluntarily for in depth interviews, and the data were analyzed thematically to essence of each individealis story. The results showed that the learners‘ experienced various difficulities, especially in speaking English. They identified limited vocabulary and chellenges in pronounciation particulary due the irregulaty between English speeling and sound, as primary obstacles. In addition, low motivation, lack of confidence, and lack of confidence and fear of making mistake when formative sentences were found to be contributory factors. Based on these findings it is suggested that the role of the teachers or mentors and the team support system, should be evaluated and improved to be better address the obstacles faced by the learners in developping english speaking profiency.