The present work aims at making a comparison of performance in speaking English between the learners in formal teaching institutions and those learning English in teaching centres in Bujumbura city. This comparative study springs from the fact that speaking a language remains the most inportant skill when we want to demonstrate that we know the language.

A comparison brings out the similarities and dissimilarities observed between two things, two persons or two groups. The aim of this work was to know sthe best performers in speaking English between students of 1st Form Arts in public secondary schools and learners at English Teaching Centres at the Intermediate High Level.

To get the data constituting the basis for the analysis between the two groups' performance, the researcher gave a speaking test to the 19 randomly selected subjects from secondary schools in Bujumbura city and learners in English teaching centres. A comparison was then made between their results, giving a situation that had to be confirmed by answers to a questionnaire and classroom observation. The results form both areas showed that learners of 1st Form Arts in Public secondary school scored highly in speaking English than learners of English Teaching centers in the intermediate high level.

Whast is more, the analysis of answers to the learniers' questionnaire brings in an additional element that explains the supremacy of oral expression in 1st Form Arts students over those of English teaching centres. In fact, all learners in centres, (100 % of the respondents) confessed that they were still hesitant ; they even commented that, they had no other occasion to speak English with their peers except in the classroom, because activities at the work place are held either in French or tin Kirundi.