A Thesis submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of Degree of "Licenciée en Pédagogie Appliquée, Agrégée de l'Enseignement Secondaire en Anglais".

Résumé,

The English language has gained importance all over the World in recent decades. It is increasingly used in nearly all the countries. This study aims at assessing the techniques used in teaching the English language with an emphasis on the speaking skill. In fact, the speaking skill is very important as far as communicaton is concerned. This study is concerned with dentifying different problems encountered in teaching and learning English in Bujumbura private primary schools as far as the speaking skill is concerned. In addition, in the teaching of the English language, the speaking skill is neglected by many teachers. Consequently, this study aims at making a step further in the process of improving the speaking skill teaching since there s no improvement which is made in speaking and since the young learners from primary grade do not have oral communicative competence. This study sets out t answer the following research questions : Are he methods of English teaching in primary schools lack sufficient and varied speaking materials to address the needs of the learners? What improvements should be made and which techniques and activities should be used to develop the learning of the speaking skill in private primary schools? Does the length of time spent in teaching the speaking skill allow teachers and learners to achieve the goal? In order to answer the above questions, a number of private primary school teachers and pupils were used. The results of the study have indicated that the methods of English teaching in primary schools are handcapped by the lack of sufficient and varied speaking materials to address the needs of the learners. And, techniques and activities used in teaching English do not allow learners to improve and develop the oral communicative competence. Furthermore, the time allocated to English lessons in private primary shools does not allow the development of the oral communication.