Résumé:
The present study aims at investigating the causes of the students’ silence in third year
English classes at Chaalal Messaoud secondary school in Guelma. It focuses mainly on
the learners’ opportunities to speak in the classroom and the quality of classroom
discourse. To reach these aims, two methods of data collection were utilized: a
classroom observation and a students’ questionnaire which includes sixty (60) third
year secondary school students that are analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. In the
present study we hypothesize that the main reason behind learners’ poor performance in
the speaking skill would be the lack of interaction in the classroom. First, data utilized
for the present study were taken in order to report the quality of students’ interaction
both with their teacher and with each other. This study was carried out with three
teachers of English language in third year classes in Chaalal Messaoud secondary
school. The observational study that lasted for one hour per a session. Second, a
questionnaire was administred to third year secondary school students. It aims at
knowing the causes behind their poor performance in English language classes. On the
one hand, the analysis of the classroom observation findings reveals that secondary
school teachers are dominating almost the whole talking time of the classroom. On the
other hand, the analysis of students’ qestionnaire shows the different causes behind the
students silence in the classroom discourse.
