A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree "Licence en Labgue et Littérature Anglaises"

RESUME

The objective of this work is to investigate if the students who complete the secondary school, first level, that is tenth form students, can effectively communicate in English language orally. It has been observed that many factors can prevent students from communicating easily in English language, but only two interested the researcher. The two different variables that the researcher laid more emphasis on are :

1.Students' attitude towards the English language.
2. The socio-economic status of students' parents.

This study was carried out with 100 students from four selected schools in Bubanza province. In addition, the questionnaire and the test were addressed to the students. The work is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is concerned with the general introduction. It deals with the background of the study, the statement of the problem, significance of the study, motivation and the purpose of the study. The second chapter, the literature review, shows what other researchers think and have observed in this area. The third chapter is concerned with the methodology and techniques used to collect, analyse and interpret the data. The fourth chapter is about the analysis of the data and results obtained. The last chapter is made up of the conclusion about the work and the recommendations concerning some groups of people.

Findings got from our study have shown that students' attitude towards the English language affects students' performance in oral communication in the English language.

Moreover, the socio-economic buckground of the students' parents partly affects students' performance in oral communication in the English language.