NGHIÊN cứu THỰC TRẠNG VIỆC dạy và học nói TIẾNG ANH đối với SINH VIÊN năm THỨ HAI KHÔNG CHUYÊN TRÌNH độ TIỀN TRUNG cấp TRƯỜNG đại học CÔNG NGHIỆP hà nội

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION
I. RATIONALE OF THE STUDY
Since the open-door policy adapted to Vietnam, the need for integrating into the world has
increased. That is why, English teaching and learning have become very important to our
country’s modernization and industrialization.
However, in some places in Vietnam English teaching has been strongly influenced by the
traditional methods. Teachers as well as students paid too much attention to the grammatical
items. In these classes, teachers mainly focused on explaining the grammatical rules and
structures to students who were considered as passive recipients. As a result, those students might
be structurally competent but communicatively incompetent. That causes a lot of difficulties in
using English in their real-life communication.
In addition, the political and economic changes have a great positive impact on the
teaching methods of teachers of English in Vietnam. They have realized that students can only
improve their language competence through communication. It is the need for oral competence in
English that has turned the teachers’ emphasis from teaching grammar into teaching
communication. Therefore, speaking skills nowadays play a much more important role in modern
English than ever before. In every English class, teachers would like to develop students’
speaking skills by applying the communicative language teaching method known as one of the
most effective approaches that help students speak.
To meet the demand of students, English teachers in general and English teachers at
Hanoi University of Industry (hereafter HaUI) in particular have been trying to find out the most
suitable and effective method of teaching English Speaking. Thus, the Communicative Language
Teaching Approach (hereafter CLT) is applied to teach English Speaking at all levels at this
university. Teachers hope with this teaching method, they can help their students both improve
their English knowledge and use it effectively and fluently in communication. This idea is also
suggested by many linguists and methodologists such as Nunan, 1991 and Das, B.K, 1985.
As one teacher of English at this university I realize that although both the teachers and
students try their best to reach their goals to teach and study English Speaking skills effectively,
up to now the results have been still far from satisfaction. Hence, I would like to do something
with a hope to improve Speaking skills for our students so that I have carried out the study
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entitled “An investigation into the Reality of Teaching and Learning Speaking Skills to the 2
nd
year non-major English students at Pre-Intermediate level of Proficiency at Hanoi University
of Industry. ”
II. AIMS OF THE STUDY
The main purpose of this study is to research the reality of teaching and learning speaking
skills to the 2
nd
year non-major English students at Pre-Intermediate level of Proficiency at HaUI
in order to find out the problems preventing the students from willingly taking part in speaking
activities at the English class. The writer also makes some recommendations for the English
teachers to consult and apply in their teaching speaking skills with a view to help the students
improve their speaking competence.
III. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The above aims of the study can be realized by the following research questions:
(i) What is the present situation of teaching and learning English speaking skills at HaUI?
(ii) Which problems do the teachers and students have in a speaking lesson?
(iii) What are the techniques to be used to improve speaking skills for the 2
nd
year non-
major English students at HaUI?
IV. SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The study focuses on the reality of teaching and learning English speaking to the 2
nd
year
non-major students at Pre-Intermediate level of English Proficiency at HaUI. Although the author
is well aware that the survey statistics are not fully representative of all the non-major students of
English at many universities in Vietnam, she hopes to propose some of the most popular facts
that occurring in the study.
V. METHODS OF THE STUDY

In order to achieve the aims mentioned above, the researcher collects information from
the teachers of English who have been teaching non-major English students at HaUI. Firstly,
questionnaires are delivered to the teachers so that more information on the reality and problems
they face and solutions implemented can be collected. Then, questionnaires are also given to the
students to investigate their problems in learning speaking skills. The information from
questionnaires can help to draw a general picture about the reality of teaching and learning
speaking skills at HaUI and suggest some solutions for this situation.
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VI. DESIGN OF THE STUDY
The thesis consists of three parts:
Part one is the INTRODUCTION which presents the rationales, the objectives, the
method and the design of the study. It expresses the reason why the author decided to choose this
study and the methods for the fulfillment of the study.
Part two, DEVELOPMENT, includes three chapters. Chapter one deals with a historical
overview of literature. It starts with the theoretical issues on Communicative Language Teaching
(CLT), which consist the definition, characteristics, communicative competence, using CLT in
teaching speaking, conditions of applying CLT, and the factors affecting CLT application. The
next part discusses about the definition of speaking skill, the characteristics and three stages of
teaching and learning speaking skills as well as the problems of speaking and speaking activities.
This chapter also presents the motivation and types of motivation which is considered to be a
very important factor in a speaking lesson. Chapter two emphasizes the study methodology. The
method of the study is carried out by investigating the teaching staff’s perception of
communicative approach and the difficulties they confront with in their teaching process with a
questionnaire distributing to 15 teachers and another one to 110 students. Also, in this chapter the
author would like to provide some information about the findings of the study. Chapter three
suggests some recommendations to improve the teaching and learning to speak English.
Part three, CONCLUSION, summarizes the thesis with key issues in the study, makes
some suggestions for further study.
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PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)
1.1.1. Concept of CLT
There are varieties of definitions about CLT. Nunan (1989:194) overviews the methods,
which are adapted below, certain aspects that are common to many definitions of CLT.
CLT views language as a system for the expression of meaning. Activities involve oral
communication, carrying out meaning tasks and using language, which is meaningful to the
learners. Objectives reflect the needs of the learners; they include functional skills as well as
linguistic objectives. The learner’s role is as a negotiator and integrator. The teacher’s role is as
a facilitator of the communication process. Materials promote communicative language use; they
are task-based and authentic.
Nunan also asserts that in communication process, learners are negotiators and integrators
whereas teachers are facilitators.
The definition above, as with any definition of the language teaching method, represents a
particular view of understanding and explaining language acquisition. It is socially constructed
and must be seen as a product of social, cultural, economic, and political forces.
Canale and Swain (1980) expanded on the theoretical basis of CLT for both teaching and
testing. In their reaction against an over emphasis on function and a lack of emphasis on
grammatical complexity, they pointed out that externally oriental communication is not
necessarily more essential than other proposes of language such as “self-expression, verbal
thinking, problem solving, and creative writing”.
1.1.2. Characteristics of CLT
Language is not simply a system of rules. It is now generally seen “as a dynamic resource
for the creation of meaning” ( Nunan, 1989). This point of view is really supports CLT.
- CLT is aimed at (a) making communicative competence the goal of language teaching and (b)
developing procedures for the teaching of the four language skills that acknowledge the
interdependence of language and communication. (Le Van Canh, 2004).
- The goal of CLT is to create a realistic context for language acquisition in the classroom to
develop Hymes’ notion of communicative competence.
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- CTL is also associated with learner-centered and experienced based tasks.
- The focus of CLT is on functional language usage and learners’ ability to express themselves. In
other words, for CLT, developing learners’ skills is more important than the content of the
teaching and learning ( Johnson, 1982).
- There are three major principles of CLT:
(1) communication principle: emphasizes activities that involve real communication
promote learning.
(2) task principle: purposes that activities in which is used for carrying out meaningful
tasks promote learning.
(3) meaningfulness principle: claims that language that is meaningful to the learners
supports the learning process. (Le Van Canh, 2004)
- In communicative classes, learners communicate with each other and learning tasks are
completed by means of interaction between learners. It is clear that learners’ completing a task is
fore-grounded and communicating with each other is back-grounded. This may lead to
considerable use of pair work, group work and mingling activities.
- In ESL classes, teachers are facilitators and monitors, usually, without interruption and then to
provide feedback on the success.
However, CLT is not a perfect method. There still exist critical remarks on CLT like: its
inappropriateness to local contexts and cultures; its negation of rote-learning, memorization,
displaying questions, teacher’s talk, etc.
In spite of its limitations and shortcomings, no one can negate that CLT allows teachers to
incorporate motivating and purposeful communicative activities and principles into their
teaching, which later results in the improvement of their learners’ proficiency.
For the seasons mentioned above, CLT has served as the dominant approach to language
teaching since the demise of the Audio-lingual Method.
1.1.3. Conditions of Applying CLT
1.1.3.1. Authentic materials
To overcome the typical problem that students can’t transfer what they learn in the
classroom to the outside world and to expose students to natural language in a variety of
situations, adherents of the Communicative Approach advise the use of authentic language

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materials. Materials like newspaper articles, books in target language, live radio or television
broadcast programs are only suitable for students of high intermediate level of proficiency. For
those with lower proficiency in the target language, simpler authentic materials are realistic and
most desirable. Besides, the lower level class can use authentic materials without containing a lot
of complicated language items, but a lot of discussion could be generated.
1.1.3.2. Teachers
Teacher’s role is also one of the most important components in applying CLT. In CLT
class, teachers are not only facilitators of students’ learning but also advisors of the students’
wonderings. Sometimes, they can act as a co-communicator to engage in the communicative
activities along with students. Teachers are the initiators of classroom activities but they do not
always interact with the students. They give the students chances to express their individuality by
having them share their ideas and opinions. As for Littlewood (1981) this helps learners integrate
the target language with their own personality and feel more emotionally secure with it.
For the ones who never or rarely attend any language courses on CLT, training or
retraining in CLT is always necessary because teachers’ competence decides the success or
failure of applying CLT.
1.1.4. Using CLT in Teaching Speaking Skills
When using communicative activities, it is important to make students feel comfortable
and confident, feel free to take risks and have opportunities to speak. According to Pica, Young
and Doughty (1987), there are two kinds of classroom available to second language learners:
Input has been modified or simplified such as a traditional “teacher-fronted” classroom;
and authentic students-to-student interaction is emphasized. It provides the learners more
opportunities for speaking since the learners try to achieve mutual understanding and modify
their language according to the demand of the situation.
Objectives for speaking are often given by the particular program in which the teacher
must work. In some cases, the syllabus will consist of a list of grammar structures to be taught.
The teacher needs to be flexible in making best use of what is available for teaching purpose. In
other words, the teacher must have some freedom in deciding what objectives to meet, what
content to cover, and what activities to use. In this case, the teacher can go beyond the more

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specific goals and objectives of the particular program to the speaking needs that the students
have in the “real world”.
There are many speaking activities can be used in classroom such as scrambled sentence,
language games, role-plays, problem-solving, discussion, cued story, picture story etc.
1.1.5. Factors Affecting CLT Application
It is commonly seem that any choice of an approach of teaching needs favorable
conditions for effective application. The following sections will deal with the factors often cited
as influential to CLT application. These factors are: Learners’ motivation, Learners’ beliefs and
attitudes, Learners’ learning styles, Learners’ anxiety and confidence, Teachers’ attitudes and
beliefs, Teachers’ qualities and personalities, Language environment, Classroom conditions,
Syllabuses and textbooks, Tests and evaluations.
1.2. Speaking Skill
Many language learners consider speaking ability the measure of knowing a language. As
for them, fluency is the ability to converse with others much more than the ability to read, write
or comprehend oral language. They regard speaking as the most important skill they can acquire
and they assess their progress in terms of their accomplishments on spoken communication.
Therefore, if learners do not learn how to speak or do not get any opportunities to speak in the
language classroom, they may soon get de-motivated and lose interest in learning. On the
contrary, if the right activities are taught in the right way, speaking in class can be a lot of fun,
raising general learner motivation and making the English language classroom a fun and dynamic
place to be.
1.2.1. Concepts of Speaking
Speaking is fundamental to human communication. Different linguistics have different
concepts of speaking but they are all agreeing with this idea.
Brown (1994) defines speaking as an process of constructing meaning that involves
producing, receiving and processing information.
In Brown and Yule’s opinions ( 1983), spoken language consists of short, fragmentary
utterances in a range of pronunciation. Usually, there is a great deal of repetition and overlap
between one speaker and another. Speaker usually uses non-specific references. They also add

7
that spoken language is made by using the loosely organized syntax, and non-specific words,
phrases and filters such as oh, well, uhuh etc.
1.2.2. Characteristics of Speaking
As for Bygate M. (1987:12), in most speaking the person to whom we are speaking is in
front of us and able to put right if we make mistakes. He/ She can also generally show agreement
and understanding - or incomprehension and disagreement. Unlike readers or writers, speakers
may need patience and imagination, too. While talking, speakers need to take notice of the other
and allows listeners chance to speak it. It means that we take turns to speak. Brown (1983) and
her colleagues point out that a listener helps speakers improve their performance as a speaker
because being a listener gives learner models to utilize when acting as a speaker. In addition,
being a hearer first helps the learner appreciate the difficulties inherent in the task. It is clear that
giving speakers experience in hearer’s role is more helpful than simple practice in task in which a
speaker is having real difficulties in appreciating what a particular task required.
Speaking has the following characteristics:
Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the
participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes
for speaking. It is often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving. However, speech is not always
unpredictable. Language functions ( or patterns) that tend to recur in certain discourse situations
can be identified and charted.
Speaking requires that learners not only know how to produce specific points of language
such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary (“linguistic competence”), but also that they
understand when, why, and in what ways to produce language (“sociolinguistic competence”).
Speech has its own skills, structures, and conventions different from written language. A
good speaker synthesizes this array of skills and knowledge to succeed in a given speech act.
Bygate (1987) considers speaking as an undervalued skill in many ways. The reason is
that almost all people can speak, and so take speaking skill too much for granted. He also asserts
that speaking skill deserves attention every bit as much as literacy skilled. Learners often need to
be able to speak with confidence in order to carry out many of their most basic transactions.
Bygate also highly appreciates speaking by stating that speaking is the medium through which

much language is learnt.
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To sum up, it is undeniable that speaking is key to communication. By considering what
good speakers do, what speaking tasks can be used in class, and what specific needs learners
report, teachers can help learners improve their speaking and overall oral competency.
1.2.3. The Development Approach of Speaking Skill
There are three main phases in the teaching of a speaking lesson. Byrne (1991:22-31)
points out that there are three phases to develop learners’ oral ability, which are as follows:
- The Presentation Phase ( when you introduce something new to be learned)
In this phase, teachers are centre. It means that they work as information provider, since
they know English, select materials to teach and present the material in such a way that the
meaning of the new language is as intelligible and memorable as possible while the learners are
motionless. As far as we know, oral materials are written mainly in two forms in every course-
book. They are dialogues and prose. And obviously these two forms must be presented in
different ways.
According to Byrne (1991:22) 10 different steps are used to present a dialogue. They are
the following:
1. Establish setting by using pictures. At this phase English should be used as much as possible.
2. Draw out learners’ experience related to situation.
3. Explain some key words.
4. Set listening task by asking key information of the dialogue.
5. Ask learners listen without looking at the books.
6. Allow learners to have a look at their book when necessary for them.
7. Ask the learners to listen and repeat.
8. Ask learners to pick up difficulties ( good chance for them to speak) and explain difficulties.
9. Ask them to practice ( role-play).
10. Ask them to dramatize the dialogue.
It is known that this procedure is perfect and logically arranged. However, it is dependent
on learner’s competence so some steps can be left out. It is quite hard for Vietnamese learners to
conduct the step 10 because they are generally shy and time is limited. 9 other steps are used to

present a prose. Byrne ( 1991:26) suggests that teachers should use the following steps to present
a prose passage.
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- Introduce the topic by asking to look at the picture or asking them about the related thing.
- Introduce the text. New words and structures are given.
- Provide relevant practice.
- Set the reading task: make questions.
- Ask the learners to read the passage in silence and find the answer.
- Explain difficulties they still have.
- Do silent reading again because the learners need to go on with the step 9.
- Get the learners to talk about what they have to learn based on the previous answers.
- The Practice Phase (when you allow the learners to work under your direction)
Unlike the presentation phase, this phase learners have to do most of talking. Teachers
provide maximum amount of practice. Practice is usually in the forms of activities to improve
fluency of speaking. At this phase, pair work or group work is used.
- The Production Phase (when you give learners opportunities to work on their own)
At this phase learners need chances to speak English freely. A real chance to speak
English takes place when the learner is able to use English naturally for themselves, not for their
teachers. Group work plays an important part in making learners practice speaking here.
Doing group work, all learners can have chance to participate in talks. Time can be saved
and learners seem more confident.
Byrne ( 1988:2) concludes that in order to improve speaking ability of learners. These
three phases should be followed orderly. But in fact, they might not be applied as expected due to
time limitation, types of learners and materials in use.
1.3. Problems with Speaking and Speaking Activities
1.3.1. Problems with Speaking
Brown (1994:256) points out the characteristics of spoken language that make speaking
skills difficult as follows:
- Clusterings: In order to speak fluently, speakers have to select from their store of language
clusterings, that is groups of words, not word by word.

- Reduced forms: Contractions, elisions, reduced vowels, etc. create difficulties in teaching and
learning spoken English. If learners do not learn colloquial contractions, they can develop the
kind of speaking that is stilted, bookish.
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- Colloquial language: Colloquialism appears both in monologues and dialogues. If learners are
only exposed to standard English and/or “textbook” language, they sometimes find it hard to
understand and produce words, idioms and phrases of colloquial language.
- Stress, rthym and intonation: Learners of English often find it difficult to pronounce English
words, to stress the right syllables, to follow the stress-times rhythm and intonation patterns of
spoken English.
- Affective factors: Learners learning to speak often encounter the risk of saying out things that
may be wrong, stupid and incomprehensible. At those times, they tend to be anxious because they
do not want to be jugded by other learners.
- Interaction: The greatest difficulty that learners face in learning to speak originates from the
interactive natural of most communication. Engages in process of negotiation of meaning with
many discourse constraints, learners have to do the complex task of choosing what to say, how to
say, when to speak, etc. Learners are afected by their interlocutors’ performance.
1.3.2. Problems with Speaking Activities
Classroom activities that develop learners’ abilitty to express themselves through speech
is an important component of a language course where CLT is applied. However, it is more
difficult to design and administer such activities than to do so for listening, reading or writing.
Teachers often come across the problems that Ur (1996:121) lists out:
- Worries: Unlike reading, writing or listening activities speaking requires some degree of real-
time exposure to an audience. The student speaker has to face the teacher and other students in
class. Learners are often worried about trying to says something in a foreign language in the
classroom because they are worried about making mistakes, afraid of criticism or losing face, or
simply shy of the attention that their speech attracts.
- Nothing to say: Teachers often hear learners, even if they are not worried or nervous, complain
that they can not have anything to say. They may have no motivate to express themselves beyond
the guilty feeling that they should speak. When they say something in class, they feel that they

are forced to say.
- Uneven or low participation: Usually, there are many students in one class ( between 25 and 35
students). Only one student can talk at a time in a large group. This means that each one have
only very little time for talking. This problem is compounded by the tendency of some learners to
11
dominate the group, while others speak very little or not at all. In some cases some students
haven’t got any chance, intentionally and unintentionally, to speak for a long time.
- Mother-tongue use: When all, or a number of the learners share the same mother tongue, they
may tend to use it frequently. This happens because the native language is easier to use and
because they feel unnatural to speak to one another in a foreign language and become learners
feel less “exposed” if they are speaking the language they master. If they are talking in a small
group, it can be quite difficult to get some classes, particularly the less disciplined or motivated
ones, to keep to the target language.
- Teacher domination: Teaching in a crowded class, many teachers tend to spend much time
explaining words, phrases and grammar structures in details for fear that otherwise the students
can not understand and fail in their tests. During explanation, teachers find it is easier and less
time consuming to the use of the mother tongue. Another important thing is that the teachers
seem more interested in individual work ( between teacher and one student or the whole group, or
one student and another student or the whole group). They fear that other kinds of student
grouping (pair work and group work) may cause noise or discipline problems.
1.4. Motivation
Overcoming the above-mentioned problems to create a successful speaking activity where
learners talk a lot, participation is even, motivation is high certainly requires a lot of teachers’
efforts in designing and carrying out speaking activities.
1.4.1. Definition of Motivation
Motivation plays very important role in teaching and learning as “positive attitudes and
motivation are related to success in second language teaching” (Gardner, 1985). And he also
emphasized that motivation is “a key consideration in determining the preparedness of learners to
communicate” (Gardner, 1985:10).
Motivation refers to the combination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal of learning

the language plus favourable attitudes towards learning the language. It means that if learners
need to speak the second language in a wide range of social situations or to fulfill professional
ambitions, they will perceive the communicative value of the second language and will therefore
be motivated to acquire proficiency in it.
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Thus, as Nina Spada (1999:56), motivated learners are those who participate actively in
class express interest in the subject and study hard. If teachers can make classroom the places
where learners enjoy coming and where the atmosphere is supportive and non-threatening, they
can make a positive contribution to learners’ motivation to learn ( Nina, 1999:55).
1.4.2. Types of Motivation
So as to answer whether the learners are driven by the same kind of motivation Garder
and Lambert (1985:10) distinguish between two major types of motivation: integrative and
instrumental, and also the others: resultative and instrinsic.
- Instrumental motivation: when learners need English as an instrument to reach a particular goal
such as getting a job or pay a rise or rewards. In this case, therefore, motivation is the refection of
an external need.
- Integrative motivation: when learners internally want to integrate him-/herself in to the culture
of target language ( English).
- Result active motivation: known as the cause of achievement. It also can be the result of
learning. The facts show that learners who experience success in learning may become more
motivated to learn.
- Instinsic motivation: plays a vital part in most learners’ success or failure as language
learners…For them, what happens in the classroom will be of vital importance in determining
their attitudes to language and in supplying motivation. Instrinsically autonomy and self-
actualization whereas extrinsically motivated learners anticipate a reward from outside and
beyond the self such as money, prizes, and grades… Therefore, it seems to be the problem that
learners with different reasons will be differently motivated to learn the language.
In short, motivation plays a vital part in developing language skills. It can be considered
both the cause and the result of language teaching achievement. That is, learners who experience
success in learning may become more or in some contexts, less motivated to learn (Ellis,

1997:75). The four types of motivation should be seen as complementary rather than as distinct
and oppositional. Learners can be both interrogatively and instrumentally motivated at one or at
the same time.
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This chapter has been concerned with establish the theoretical backgrounds related to the
topic of the study. It has discussed issues concerning CLT application in teaching, the problems
occur in speaking activities and the importance of motivation in teaching and learning a language.
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CHAPTER TWO: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In the previous chapter, the theoretical matters related to the topic have been covered.
However, in order to see how they work in real teaching and learning, a practical research was
carried out. The research underwent the following steps:
1. Designing survey questionnaires
2. Delivering questionnaires to the pilot informants
3. Collecting the completed questionnaires
4. Analyzing collected data
5. Proposing some remarks and comments from the results of the questionnaires and
giving suggestions
In this chapter, only the first four steps will be mentioned. The last step will be presented
in the next chapter.
2.1. Practical Situation of Teaching and Learning English Speaking Skills at HaUI
2.1.1. Description of the English Course and its Objectives at HaUI
Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI) has been known as one of the leading providers of
skill-based diploma degrees in Vietnam. Any students who passed the entrance examination to
HaUI must study English as a compulsory subject. Students learn this subject during five terms at
university. However, before students are asked to learn this foreign language they can take part in
the replacement test which divides students into three different levels: A class (Elementary level
of proficiency), B class (Pre-Intermediate level of proficiency) and C class (Intermediate level of
proficiency and students at this level can skip one semester). Each level lasts 120 periods (45
minutes per period) equivalent to one semester and students learn from 8 to 12 periods in a week.

Hence, depending on the results of the test students will be arranged in a proper class basing on
their English competence.
The English course at HaUI is divided into two stages: The first stage – the stage for
General English lasting in four terms. This early stage aims at providing students with general
knowledge of vocabulary, phonology, English grammar as well as developing students’
integrated four language skills with the focus on speaking skill. At this very first stage, the
textbooks Expressions (Intro, I and II) published by Thomson Heinle are used in the first three
terms. Each of these textbooks consists of 16 units with a variety of topics such as yourself,
15
family, entertainment, food, jobs, vacations, health problems, education, etc. In fact, these
textbooks do not require learners to have much grammar knowledge because its objective is to
practice speaking and listening skills. However, in the fourth term students learn the textbook
International Express published in 2004 by Oxford University Press at three levels (Elementary,
Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate). International Express (Pre-Intermediate level of proficiency)
contains 12 units with four skills. The topics in this material focus especially on first meetings,
work, plans and arrangements, lifestyles, cultures, environment, and transportations. This book
includes four main parts: Language focus which provides students with grammatical items, Word
power which concentrates on vocabulary (pronunciation, stress pattern, meaning, etc), Skills
focus and Focus on functions emphasizes four basic skills especially speaking and listening
skills. By using this textbook, we can improve our students’ communicative competence and our
students can learn the real things from business fields. Students are asked to work in pairs, in
groups to practice English in situational contexts. At this stage, in each semester students are
required to complete three progress tests and a final test.
The second stage – the stage for English for Specific Purposes – lasts 60 periods. At this
stage, our students are provided with the knowledge of terms and structures related to their future
profession. The materials used during this stage vary depending on the majors of the students.
These materials collected and designed by teachers at HaUI themselves mainly focus on students’
specific vocabulary, reading and translation.
2.1.2. Description of the Students at HaUI
Like the students of other colleges and universities, in order to be the students of HaUI,

they have to pass a challenging University Entrance Examination. Students of HaUI come from
all parts of the country: big cities, provinces, mountainous and remote areas.
New students of HaUI do not have the same level of English language proficiency. Some
of them have learnt English for 7 years at secondary and high schools. Some have only learnt
English for 3 years and others have never learnt English but French. Students from big cities like
Ha Noi, Hai Phong, Nam Dinh seem better. However, they are only good at grammar, not
speaking. They can do grammatical exercises very quickly but they cannot speak fluently. Also,
most of them do not feel confident when communicating in English.
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Moreover, their individual difficulties in attitudes, motivation, studying methods may be
the cause(s) of potential problems arising during the course.
2.1.3. Description of the Teachers at HaUI
If students are the most important factor in the learning process, teachers are the most
important factor in the teaching process. At HaUI, there are more than 100 teachers of English
language (about 50 of them are permanent staff and the rest are temporary ones) aged from 22 to
45 but only some of them have ever been to English speaking countries like Australia and the
USA. HaUI has been a university since 2006; it needs a greater number of English teachers to
teach all students coming from different majors. Therefore, every year this university hires nearly
50 English teachers from other universities in Hanoi. These teachers are still quite young and
even some of them have just graduated from universities so they do not have much teaching
experience but the university doesn’t offer new coming teachers any further training courses to
adapt the new teaching environment. Besides, in order to improve the quality of teaching and
learning English at this university, the board of administrators divides the major classes into
many small English classes. That leads to the lack of classrooms, so that most of non-major
English classes have to study English both in the day time and night time. Consequently, many
teachers have classes all day so they feel exhausted and have enough time to neither prepare for
the lessons before class nor get higher education. All of the above reasons create the hardship for
teachers during the time they teach English at HaUI.
2.2. The Study
2.2.1. Participants

In order to server the purposes of the study and, at the same time, to facilitate data
collection and analysis, a sample of 15 teachers who are currently teaching English for all
students at non-major English Departments at HaUI, and the other sample of 110 2
nd
year
students randomly selected at Faculties of Economics, Engineering, Chemistry, Electronic and
Computer Science. There are some reasons for the selection:
First of all, the author chooses teachers and 2
nd
year non-major English students at HaUI
because she thinks it will be easier for her to invite more teachers and students to participate in
completing the survey questionnaires, and she will have more samples to judge the validity and
the reliability of the research data.
17
As for the teachers, the author invites 15 teachers ages from 24 to 30 belonging to non-
major English group number 2 and they have taught English for at least 2 years. They are all
dedicated and receptive teachers. The selected teachers have not only the knowledge of English
but also knowledge of the subject matter. Thus, the author believes that from these teachers’
experience she will get information about teaching and learning speaking of the second year non-
major English students. Besides she can take a look at students’ major problems in learning
speaking English, the techniques teachers often use in teaching English speaking as well as the
teachers’ recommendations for the improvement of the students’ speaking skills.
In addition, the selected students are necessarily in the classes of participating teachers
with the anticipation that the writer can make a comparison between the information given by the
teachers and their students. Then, there will be a discussion about the gap between them. The
students under investigation aged from 19 to 25 both males and females are in the second year at
the non-major English Faculties. They have at least two terms learning General English. Thus,
the information collected from the students can be quite reliable.
2.2.2. The Setting of the Study
The study was conducted at the non-major English Faculties of Economics, Engineering,

Chemistry, Electronic and Computer Science. The students at these Faculties have to take a four-
year training course in which English is considered a compulsory subject. Like many other
subjects, English is taught in a formal setting, namely a classroom. The teaching and learning of
English is divided into two main stages - General English and English for Specific Purposes.
The resource pool for intake of the 2
nd
year non-major English students at HaUI is from
two major exam groups – group A and D1 in the university entrance exams. These students
taking exams in mathematics, physics and chemistry (group A) or mathematics, literature and
English (group D1) so their English competence is in a mixed level. Before being divided into a
suitable class, the English Faculty requires the students to take part in a placement test then the
students of the same level of proficiency will be placed in a class. However, through informal
interview with some teachers and students they said that the placement test is not effective
because it is an optional test so those who do not take the test are placed in A class though their
English competence is not at A level. That causes uneven level among students in the English
classes. This uneven level posed great problems on the one hand for the teachers of English
18
because they had to find the suitable way to cater for the needs of the entire class and on the other
hand for the students themselves to deal with an English speaking lesson. Thus, there is a need
for improving students’ English speaking level in general in order to benefit both the strong and
the weak students. To achieve this, practicing speaking in and out class is very important for each
student.
2.2.3. The Data Collection Methods
To reach the primary purposes of the study, a survey questionnaire has been chosen as
main method for data collection for this particular research. The questionnaires consist of two
main parts with the first one intended to explore the teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards
speaking skill, the second one dedicated to identify speaking problems and techniques used by
these teachers and students. One survey questionnaire with 17 questions is designed for teachers
who are currently teaching or have taught English speaking to get their ideas on the learning
reality, problems experienced by their students as well as their recommendations for improving

the students’ English speaking skills. Another survey questionnaire with 19 questions is for the
2
nd
year non-major English students to identify their opinions on their speaking lessons, the factor
affecting their speaking competence, and to find out their expectations to achieve better speaking
skills. To make sure that the subjects understand the questions properly, the author asks them to
answer the questions truthfully and trustworthily with the translation from English into
Vietnamese.
Survey questionnaire is intended to serve as the main source of data because it is
undeniable that questionnaire is valuable tool for researching the attitudes, images, concerns,
needs, etc. held by a group of interest. Hence, it will certainly be valuable for the author in
exploring the subjects’ difficulties in learning speaking skill. Moreover, this research tool is also
relatively more comfortable, time-saving and economical to administer as compared with other
survey methods like interviewing, telephoning, mailing, videotaping, etc. It also makes the
analysis of data easy and simple as all the subjects answer the same questions. This method is
also supposed to be of great advantage in the sense that it is easier for the subjects to answer the
questions. Besides, the survey questionnaire preserves the subjects’ anonymity so they are more
likely to give unbiased answers.
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2.2.4. Data Analysis of the Teachers’ and Students’ Survey Questionnaires
This section of the thesis is the treatment of the data collected from the survey
questionnaires conducted on 15 teachers from English Department and 110 second year non-
major English students of Economics, Engineering, Chemistry, Electronic and Computer Science.
This part will present the analysis of the data collected from the English teachers and the
2
nd
year students of non-major English Faculties at HaUI. All the statistical data will be shown in
the form of percentages. Among 17 questions for the teachers, as to questions 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13,
14, 15, 16, 17 and for the students, as to questions 1, 5, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 more
than one choice is acceptable. Therefore, the results for the questions are presented in the

percentage of the options chosen.
In which, questions 1 and 4 in the students’ survey questionnaires are designed to ask about
the students’ purposes of learning English.
Questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 (in appendix 1) and 2, 3, 6, 7, 8 (in appendix 2) are about the
teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards English subject, the speaking skill, the materials and the
students’ speaking competence as well as the teaching time for English speaking.
Question 6 in the teachers’ survey questionnaires and 9 in the students’ ask about the
difficulties the teachers and students at HaUI face during the teaching and learning process.
The speaking activities are mentioned in questions 10, 11, 12, 13 in the teachers’ survey and
questions 12, 13, 14, 15 in the students’ one.
The last four questions in the teachers’ survey as well as in the students’ talk about the
teachers’ techniques during the teaching time and their students’ responses.
Table 1: Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards speaking skill and the role of teaching and
learning speaking skill
(Please refer to questions 1&2 in appendix 1 and questions 2&3 in appendix 2)
Options N of Ts % N of Ss % Options N of Ts % N of Ss %
Listening 12 57 75 69 Very essential 7 47 70 63
Speaking 6 29 25 23 Essential 7 47 35 31
Reading 1 5 5 4 Not very essential 1 6 6 6
Writing 2 9 5 4 Not essential at all 0 0 0 0
As can be seen from the table, the teachers share the same opinion with their students that
listening is the most difficult skill among four skills. 57% of the teachers and 69% of the students
20
put listening skill ahead of speaking skill. Surprisingly, only 29% of the teachers and 23% of the
students think that speaking skill is the most difficult skill. The reasons for this choice may
depend on the recent materials include lots of difficult listening lessons. Being aware of this, the
teachers as well as the students may spend more time and energy on listening, which certainly
affects their speaking competence and therefore prevents the improvement of their speaking
ability. Only a small number of teachers (14%) and 8% of the students find it less difficult to
teach or learn reading and writing skills.

Moreover, when being asked about the importance of speaking skill nearly 70% students
and half of the teachers (47%) find learning and teaching English speaking skill very essential to
2
nd
year non-major English students and the same number of teachers with 31% of the students
believes it is essential. The same number of teachers and students (6%) state that teaching and
learning speaking is not very essential. None of the teachers and students says speaking skills is
not essential at all. The reasons for these positive attitudes toward teaching and learning speaking
skills derive from their understanding that their country is on the way of the integration so that
they need to use English to communicate both in the students’ future jobs and in their everyday
life. Thus, the teachers wish to help the students enrich their background knowledge, increase
their vocabulary and grammatical structures, improve their speaking skill and gain their
confidence when communicating in English.
Table 2: Students’ purposes of learning English and their participation in learning to
speak English (Please refer to questions 1&4 in appendix 2)
Options N of Ss % Options N of Ss %
Pass the exams 22 14 Like speaking very much 34 30
Communicate 38 25 Sometimes 58 53
Entertain 2 1 Never willing to speak 18 17
Study aboard 1 0.6
Get a good job in the future 89 57
Table 2 presents the students’ purposes of learning English and their participation in
learning to speak English. Most of students at HaUI learn English with different purposes: to get
a good job in the future (57%), to communicate (25%), to pass the exams (14%), to entertain
(1%) and to study aboard (0.6%). The others (2.4%) show their own opinions that they learn
English in order to have more knowledge about the English language and the cultures and
21
customs of the English speaking countries. Depending on their own specific purposes, they will
spend how much of their time learning English as well as participating in an English speaking
lesson.

Furthermore, among 110 students, only 30% of them state that they like speaking English
and are willing to speak in an English lesson. More than a half of the students (53%) feel
unfamiliar with speaking English in class, so they sometimes join class speaking activities.
Nearly 20% of the students say they are never willing to speak in class. There are some reasons
for their unwillingness to speak. First, they are afraid of losing face in front of their friends. Also,
they are not accustomed to speaking foreign languages in class. Besides, their English learning
goal isn’t to communicate but to pass the exams or to get good jobs in the future. Another reason
for this is their teachers’ poor teaching methods which are not interesting enough to encourage
them willingly take part in the class activities.
To sum up, most students have realized the role of learning to speak English. Therefore,
they mostly learn English for a long-term purpose. In spite of knowing that speaking English
fluently is very difficult, all students hope to improve their speaking skill, which is really an
advantage.
Chart 1: Teachers’ attitudes towards Communicative Language Teaching
(Please refer to question 8 in appendix 1)
As we can see from chart 1 most of the teachers at HaUI have quite good knowledge of
CLT and its features. The teachers (24%, 20% and 19% respectively) believe CLT is student-
centered, improves students’ communicative competence and provides students opportunities to
22
communicate. The percentage of those who agree that CLT emphasizes fluency over accuracy
accounts for 9%. Besides, 11% of the teachers claim that CLT focuses on meaningful tasks rather
than on the language itself. This leads to the fact that when applying the CLT in teaching
speaking the teachers (10%) do not usually teach grammar and 7% do not use CLT for others
skills but speaking skill. Having realized the benefits that CLT can bring to English Language
Teaching, 14 teachers out of 15 have applied CLT into their own teaching and only one of them
still thinks that traditional method is a good way to teach English skills including speaking skill.
In short, though most of the teachers know the great advantages of the CLT, some of them also
assert that they sometimes find it hard to apply this approach into their teaching and the others
say that CLT is sometimes not really effective when teaching speaking. In other words, the
teachers at HaUI encounter many difficulties when teaching speaking skill in the light of CLT.

Chart 2: Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards students’ speaking competence
(Please refer to question 3 in appendix 1 and question 6 in appendix 2)
As we can see from the above chart, although both the teachers and students realize
speaking is a necessary skill for a brighter future, they all do not seem to have optimistic attitudes
towards the students’ speaking competence. The statistics indicates that the majority of the
teachers (60%) recognize their students’ real ability still bad and even half of the students
themselves agree with their teachers’ ideas. Surprisingly, both the teachers (13%) and the
students (18%) admit that the students’ communicating competence is really bad. Meanwhile,
40% of the students think their speaking competence is quite good compared to 27% of their
teachers for that. Only 2% of the students are self-confident about their good English speaking
23
ability whereas no teachers support that idea because they think that none of their students are at
good or really good levels.
It can be concluded that the teachers and students at HaUI deeply understand the
importance of English speaking and it will take the teachers much time and great effort to
improve their students’ speaking skill because of the students’ low level of English proficiency.
Table 3: Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards speaking materials and appropriate
time for teaching and learning English speaking
(Please refer to questions 4&5 in appendix 1 and questions 7&8 in appendix 2)
Options
(period/W)
N of Ts % N of Ss % Options N of
Ts
% N of Ss %
1
1 7 4 4
Difficult & boring
7 47 37 34
1 – 2
5 33 15 13

Difficult but
interesting
3 20 54 49
3 – 4
5 33 53 48
Interesting &
stimulating
2 13 14 13
More than
4
4 27 38 35
Easy & boring
3 20 5 4
The data about the number of speaking lessons per week the students have at university
show that the time for teaching and learning English from 8 to 12 periods a week at HaUI at
present is too much. As can be seen from the table, nearly the same number of the teachers (66%)
and students (61%) think that 2 to 4 English periods for speaking in a week is enough. However,
4 out of 15 teachers and 38 out of 110 students asked claim that more than 4 periods of English
per week is suitable.
There are many reasons why the teachers and students at HaUI do not willingly spend much
time on speaking skills in classes but one of those reasons comes from the present materials used
in class. According to the data in the table above, nearly half of the teachers (47%) and 34% of
the students admit that the present materials are not only difficult but also boring. The topics of
some lessons such as introduction about yourself, family, food and drink are repeated in different
levels, which make both the students and teachers find it boring. In contrast, they find difficult to
deal with some complicated topics like cultures, environment, transportations or health problems.
On the other hand, 3 teachers and 54 students state that the current materials difficult but
24
interesting. 13% of the teachers and students consider these materials are interesting and
stimulating because they can discover new and useful things after each lesson so that they can

widen their knowledge. The teachers (20%) and students (4%) have the same opinion that their
materials are easy and boring. From the fact above, we can conclude both the teachers and the
students of HaUI have a negative opinion about the teaching and learning sources. Moreover,
nearly 100% of them say that the English Department offers only radios but not other modern
equipments like computers, projectors, T.V, video recorder, etc to make the speaking activities in
class more exciting.
In conclusion, along with poor teaching equipments the boring materials create a lot of
difficulties in teaching and learning speaking skill for not only the teachers but also students at
HaUI. That is why the students do not want to learn more than 4 periods in a week.
Chart 3: Teachers’ and students’ difficulties in teaching and learning English speaking
(Please refer to questions 6 in appendix 1 and questions 9 in appendix 2)
Chart 3.1 Chart 3.2
From the collected data above, we can come to conclusion that the teachers and students
face many difficulties during the process of teaching and learning speaking. For the students at
HaUI, the biggest factor that prevents them from expressing their ideas is their low level of
English proficiency (47%). Only 21% of the teachers share the same idea with those students.
The students (35%) and teachers (19%) blame that the students’ laziness is another factor that
deter the students to speak. As well, the low motivation of the students in participating class
speaking activities is believed one of the difficulties by 19% of the teachers and 13% of the
students. The number of teachers and students which accounts for 16% and 12% respectively
complains that it is so hard to express themselves in a large and heterogeneous class. The teachers
25