An investigation into the factors that hinder the participation of the second year English major students in English speaking lessons at Thuong Mai University

v DISCUSSION

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE FACTORS
THAT HINDER THE PARTICIPATION
OF THE SECOND-YEAR ENGLISH-MAJOR
STUDENTS IN ENGLISH SPEAKING LESSONS
AT THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY
TRAN LAN HUONG*
*
Thuong Mai University, 
Received:15/11/2018; Revised: 10/4/2019; Accepted: 28/4/2019

ABSTRACT
This research is implemented to investigate the factors that hinder students’ participation in
speaking activities at Thuong Mai University. The research’s objects are the teachers and the
second-year English-major students of English from Thuong Mai University. To attain the aim
of the research, the questionnaires and interview were used as instruments to take data from 10
lecturers and 175 students. The revealed factors included affective-related problems, socially
related problems, instructor- related problems, educational system and facility-related problem
and linguistic-related problems. Of which, linguistic-related problems have the most effective
factor on students’ participation in speaking activities while instructor–related problems have the
smallest impact on students’ participation in speaking activities. In addition, some suggestions are
made with the hope for better methods to help the teachers reduce their students’ negative effect
of these factors during the process of learning speaking English.
Keywords: hinder, speaking, factors, English

1. INTRODUCTION
After Vietnam joined WTO, the need to enhance
English language teaching and learning has become
one of the most important aims of the universities
in Vietnam. With the Higher Education Reform

Agenda (HERA), formulating a strategy on
international integration, raising the cooperation
capacity and competitiveness of Vietnamese
tertiary education is the aim of Vietnam. In order to
do this, first and foremost, universities in the system
have to organize teaching and learning in foreign
languages, especially English for the immediate

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futures. University students are expected to be able
to understand and communicate well in English. 
However, there is also a popular claim among
researchers and employers about the weak English
speaking of the majority university graduates
(Nunan, 2003; Stephen 2005; Stevens, 2005;
Tran Ngoc Ca, 2006). The English proficiency of
the majority of university students and graduates
makes them not appear to be confident with their
English. Many of them cannot communicate in a
simple English interaction.


DISCUSSION v

In view of this argument, proper attention needs

to be given to factors affecting the acquisition of
speaking skills in English among learners at the
university level. The essence of this research was,
therefore, to investigate the various factors affecting
students’ participation in speaking activities in
the English class at the university in Vietnam

2. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Nature of speaking
The nature of speaking has been analyzed a lot by
many linguists. According to Byrne (1976, p.8),
“speaking is a two-way process between speakers
and listeners involving the productive skills of
understanding”. After that, he gave a diagram in
1995 of a speech situation:

language learning can be achieved in second
language classrooms in which there is negotiated
interaction between students and teachers, because
it produces the linguistic conditions for classroom
learners to access comprehensible input and
produce comprehensible output. According to
Ellis (1993, p.8) comprehensible input is one of the
most important ways in which learners obtain new
information about the language, and the teacher
may be the only really competent English speaker
available to provide comprehensible input. About
comprehensible output, Swain’s (1985) claimed
that in order to acquire a language successfully,
the learners must not only be given opportunities

to produce the language but they must also be
pushed into making their meaning clear.
Speaking activities in class can be considered
as successful can improve students’ speaking
skills a lot. Ur (1996, p.120) identified four factors
contributing to a successful speaking activity.
First, the quantity of students’ talk: Most of
time in the speaking lesson has to be dominated by
students, not teachers.

In 2003, in Language Teaching Methodology:
A text book for teachers, Nunan noted there are two
important factors in a speech situation including
fluency and accuracy. He showed that “accuracy
is the extent to which students’ speech matches
what people actually say when they use the target
language, fluency is the extent to which speakers
use the language quickly and confidently” (p.47).
2.2. Characteristics of a Successful Speaking
Activity
Students’ participation in speaking can be seen
in learners’ verbal responses to tasks, their
concentration, or through their contributions
to classroom discourse. It is thought that more

Secondly, even participation: All students have
to speak out and give ideas on discussion, not just
a minority of talkative participants.
Thirdly, high motivation: The lesson has to
be interesting enough to attract students to join

speaking activities. Students are eager or excited
to speak and really want to express their feelings as
well as opinions in order to contribute to achieving
a task objective.
Finally,
accuracy:
Students
express
themselves in utterances that are relevant, easily
comprehensible to each other, and an acceptable
level of language accuracy.
In short, if we want to have a successful
speaking activity or if we want to get students
talking, we need to meet all the above criteria.
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v DISCUSSION
2.3. Factors hinder students’ confidence of
participation in speaking activities
Bearing the above-mentioned factors affecting
speaking skills in mind, some studies have been
conducted to find out the main factors thwarting
EFL students’ speaking participation in classes.
The findings of the bulk of studies investigated
on the topic (e.g. Bardovi-Harlig & Griffin, 2005;

Derwing & Rossiter, 2002; Gregersen & Horwitz,
2009; Liu, 2006) resulted that EFL students might
encounter psychologically- related, linguisticallyrelated, or socio-pragmatically-related problems
lying in the way of the development of their speaking
participation. Regarding linguistic problems that
students might encounter, Derwing and Rossiter
(2002) demonstrated that EFL learners were not
confident in their pronunciation. Concerning
language learners’ pragmatic knowledge, BardoviHarlig and Griffin’s (2005) research on 43 highintermediate students identified that although
students acquired some pragmatic knowledge,
their speech acts were different a lot from the
native speakers. With respect to psychologicallyrelated speaking problems, Liu (2006) found that
anxiety is a definitely popular among Chinese
students at all levels of language proficiency while
speaking in English, but the more proficient they
were, the less anxiety they experienced. 
Senel (2012) conducted a study on 32 Turkish
students to investigate why they hesitated to take
part in speaking activities in class. The results of the
study revealed that there were some factors such
as instructors’ interruption and error correction,
lack of native instructors, instructors’ methods
and techniques of teaching, insufficient number of
English courses and their inadequate content, and
insufficient use of English outside the classroom
hindered their progress in oral communication
skills. A study on speaking skills problems of 566
Jordanian EFL students by Aljamal and Aljamal
(2014) also corroborated Senel’s (2012) findings
to a great extent. The findings of their study

indicated that the principal problems Jordanian

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EFL students encountered in the way of developing
their speaking skills were excessive use of the
first language, overcrowded classes and lack of
sufficient time to practice speaking. 
As the literature illustrates, a multitude of
factors in EFL contexts can imped students’
participation in speaking activities. Thentic videos ...
were used much in the class room. The teacher also
combined the course book with relevant materials,
guided students to learn well. During the lesson
teachers tried to create a learning atmosphere to
promote students. Especially, the teachers often
attracted students’ attention and promoted them
in learning, and provided students with a lot of
chances to practice speaking.
However, there was one point which
demotivated students from speaking. 56% students
reported that instructors often corrected their

students’ errors, which means that teachers placed
great importance on error correction. Surprisingly,
according to questionnaires and interview,

all instructors reported using Communicative
Language Teaching in their class, which means that
they shouldn’t have focused on error correction
unless errors interfere with communication, as
the approach favors fluency over accuracy. When
error correction occurs, it generally happens
through modeling, or unobtrusively in a nonthreatening manner. It is the traditional teachercentered approaches which commonly feature
error correction. In the questionnaire, 87% of the
instructors agreed that they often corrected their
students’ errors in class. This result indicates the
persistence of an element of the repertoire of a
traditional approach although most of students
and instructors claimed that instructors applied
Communicative Language Teaching in their classes.
 Question: The instructors do not present
interesting topics for discussion.

Figure 2: Students’ evaluation on the topics of
speaking in class
When answering this question, surprisingly
about more than half of the respondents stated
that the topics of speaking in class were boring.
Most of students in the interview thought that the
speaking topics in class were difficult for them
and most of them did not have any idea about the
topics, which resulted in the hesitation to share
their ideas with others. Only 30% claimed that the
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v DISCUSSION

topics were interesting but they had to be definitely
well-prepared in advance to understand.
5.4. Educational system and facility-related
problems
It is commonly shared by 87% students was “there
is no problem with efficient and sufficient facilities
in classrooms”. In the interview, the participants
mentioned that “the audio-visual facilities are
sufficient, updated and efficient”. A large body
of research indicates that there is a positive
relationship between students’ achievement and
the quality of university facilities.
The second factor affecting students’
participation in English speaking lesson was class
size and limited teaching time. 92% students
agreed that “the classes were overcrowded and
students are not given enough time for speaking
practice”. This is due to limited time for a speaking
lesson that last for only 90 minutes, and big classes
which often have about 40 students. Students,
therefore, are not provided with sufficient time for
preparation, rehearsal, and presentation. As a result,
teachers tend to invite those who are voluntary
to perform their speaking task to save time.

The third factor affecting 68% students
was the inefficient program of the university
where there is an overemphasis on the results of
examinations. The balance between skill-oriented
and test-oriented teaching, therefore, is difficult
to keep in EFL classes, especially where 4 skills
are only required in mid-term tests but not lastterm tests. One of the common complaints raised
by 96% teachers was that “the content of the tests
and examinations did not cover all macro skills”.
There was a paradox within the management and
direction of the leaders of the university. Although
their purpose was to equip students with English
communication skills for future employment
after graduation, they did not agree to include a
speaking section in the tests and examinations. The
main reason was that the speaking tests cost time
and money. However, it was believed that, without

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speaking tests, the teachers and students did not
have motivation for teaching and learning these
skills. Instead, they focus on the knowledge areas
and skills that would be tested so that the students
could pass the exams. Teacher 4 explained further:
“The final examinations focus on grammar

and writing. So, if the teacher teaches students
speaking skills, students may think that the teacher
is not good because what he or she teaches is not
applied in the examinations. So, we should change
the curriculum so that the final examinations
should test not only grammar and writing but also
speaking skill.”
Teacher 9 expressed other opinions in relation
to this point: “If we want to teach students
speaking, there should be more time for English
subject, and the speaking tests must be included in
the exams. When the speaking tests are included
in the exams, the students will have to try hard
to improve speaking and communication skill to
pass the exams, and hence, their speaking and
communication skill will be better.”
5.5. Linguistically- related problems
The linguistic factor is one of the speaking skills
problems reported by the majority of the EFL
instructors as well as the majority of the EFL
seniors. The 89% of the EFL instructors believed
that psychological and linguistic factors were also
among the most troublemaking factors which
prevented students from making progress in
speaking. The majority of the EFL students agreed
so. 66% of the students could not find words,
collocations or structures to express their opinions.
They admitted that their poor general English
knowledge results in their having difficulty making
questions and directing them to their instructor or

their classmates. In fact, the difficulties for most
students were the lack of vocabulary, grammatical
knowledge and ideas to speak for learning.
Students using Vietnamese during group
work and pair work has been a big obstacle for
the teaching of speaking skills. The fact that


DISCUSSION v

the students prefer to speak Vietnamese in pair
work and group work is a result of low English
proficiency. Their limited English vocabulary and
sentence structures have prevented them from
communicating with each other efficiently. As a
matter of fact, they often use Vietnamese instead of
English for communication. They found speaking
in Vietnamese easier than in English. Gradually,
using Vietnamese become a habit even when many
students are quite capable of expressing themselves
in English and that is why many of them do not
have the habit of speaking English in class. This
will not only constrain students’ ability to think
in English but also prevent them from improving
their speaking skill.
In addition, most of the students’ speaking
performance sounded unnatural because they did
not remember the structures and vocabulary when
they spoke. They just looked at their book and
read. 90% the EFL students reported the linguistic

factor as their most-impeding psychological
problem in speaking classes. It seems that the EFL
students were aware of their poor pronunciation
and the EFL instructors also believed their EFL
students did not possess a good command of
English pronunciation. The instructors might
not thus need to raise their EFL students’
awareness of their pronunciation problems any
more. Moreover, the EFL instructors believed
that their EFL students thought in Vietnamese
when they spoke in English, a problem which
becomes readily evident if one teaches English
as a foreign language in Vietnam, even for just a
short period, due to mother tongue interference.

6. RECOMMENDATION
6.1. Helping students to improve their
knowledge of grammar and enrich their
vocabulary
The research findings point out that the majority of
the students found it hard to carry out their speaking
tasks because of their poor vocabulary, ideas and

knowledge relating to the speaking topics. Thus,
the teachers should find out the speaking topics
which suit for students’ language level. With such
a topic, it is quite easy for students to speak and
express their opinions. Moreover, teachers have to
create a competitive atmosphere for the students
to use new words and structures in speaking

activities. Last but not least, teachers must find
other materials relevant to students’ interest,
provide students with vocabulary, structures and
information students need.
6.2. Managing speaking turns suitably
Some students in class are often hesitant or anxious
about speaking the target language and some others
usually tend to dominate classroom activities.
These differences are caused by personality
traits. Teachers, therefore, should balance
students’ speaking turns. To balance students’
speaking turns, at first, we give simple and clear
instructions so that students understand what they
are supposed to do. Secondly, teachers should be
patient when listening to students’ speaking. They
also need to give students opportunities and time
to practice and raise their voices freely. Students
are encouraged to ask questions, give suggestions,
share ideas, and tell stories. Teachers, furthermore,
should ask students to prepare speaking tasks at
home carefully. By this way, teachers will help
the anxious students have more time to prepare
vocabulary, structures relating to the speaking
topics and make them more confident in their own
ability.
6.3. Helping students to be confident
The findings of the study show that students felt
reluctant to speak due to lack of confident. Most
of them felt shy to speak English in class. The
teachers, therefore, should try to understand their

shyness to help them have more confidence when
practising English in front of the class. Firstly, to
reduce students’ anxieties teachers must create
an atmosphere in which they feel comfortable
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v DISCUSSION
“thinking out-loud,” taking intellectual risks,
asking questions, and admit when students do not
know anything. Moreover, teachers should point
out students’ speaking ability, give encouragement
so that they will have no fear to speak. They, also,
let students choose topics and partner to discuss.
This would result in comfortable discussion and it
is easier for students to express their own opinions
confidently.
6.4. Being enthusiastic, friendly, helpful and
tolerant
Teachers’ characteristics are decisive factors
to increase students’ participation. Teachers’
enthusiasm, friendliness, helpfulness and
tolerance will create students’ interest in speaking
English. So, teachers must pay attention to the shy
and nervous students. The friendly, sympathetic
attitude of a teacher to a class brings out the

best effect on both teaching and learning. In the
classroom, the teacher is the source of information,
the adviser or sometimes the friend of the students.
Next, teachers had better have a tolerant attitude
towards students’ errors. In other words, we need
to consider mistakes as part of the natural process
of language learning so it is not necessary to
correct every single mistake. Through the results
of questionnaires and interviews, most students
did not want to speak because of making mistakes.
The teachers, therefore, have to be friendly, give a
smile instead of getting angry when students make
mistakes.
6.5. Forming a habit of speaking English in
the class
In order to increase the students’ time of speaking
English in the class, the teachers should form a
habit of using English. This habit should be built
from the beginning of the first lesson. Teachers
need to use English all the time but the English used
should not be too complicated so that the students
can understand what the teachers say. Besides, let

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the students have more chance to practice listening

to get acquainted to native speakers’ voice. Once
the students have developed a habit of speaking
English in class, they will participate more often
in classroom speaking activities.
Moreover, it is suggested that the university
should have clear purposes and objectives in
its English training program by providing a
systematic curriculum in which the training
content and testing content must be in accordance
to serve the common purposes and objectives. The
pedagogical focus on accuracy rather than fluency
is also a contributive to limited use of English in
EFL classrooms. Therefore, students tend to spend
more time practicing three other skills to be wellprepared for their tests rather than speaking.

7. CONCLUSION
Students’ participation plays an important role in
speaking activities. If we want to have a successful
speaking lesson, teachers should pay more attention
to the factors that hinder students’ participation
such as students’ personality, students’ anxiety or
students’ language level and try to improve our
teaching methods, our characteristics as well as
our roles. The researcher hopes that this study will
make an especial significant contribution to better
the current teaching and learning to speak English
at university today./.
References:
Aljamal, D., & Aljamal, G. (2014). An investigation of the
difficulties faced by EFL undergraduates in speaking skills.

English Language Teaching, 7(1), 84–89. 
Bardovi-Harlig, K., & Griffin, R. (2005). L2 pragmatic
awareness: Evidence from the ESL classroom. System, 33,
401–415. 
Bygate, M. (1987). Speaking. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Byrne, D. (1976). Teaching Oral Speaking. London: Longman
Group. UK. Limited.
Byrne, D. (1987). Speaking. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Byrne, D. (1995). Teaching Oral Speaking. London: Longman
Group. UK. Limited.


DISCUSSION v

Derwing, T. M., & Rossiter, M. J. (2002). ESL learners’
perceptions of their pronunciation needs and strategies.
System, 30(2), 155–166. 
Ellis, R. (1994). The Study of Second Language Acquisition.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gregersen, T., & Horwitz, E. (2009). Language learning
and perfectionism: Anxious and non-anxious language
learners’ reactions to their own oral performance. The
Modern Language Journal, 86(5), 562–570. 
Liu, M. (2005). Reticent in oral English classroom: A case study
in China. TESL Reporter, 38(1), 1–16.
Liu, M. (2006). Anxiety in Chinese EFL students at different
proficiency level. System, 34, 301–316.
Nunan, D. (2003). Language Teaching Methodology: A text
book for teachers. New York: Prentice Hall.
Senel, M. (2012). Oral communication anxiety and problems

of Turkish EFL learners at Samsun 19 Mayis University,
ELT department. Frontiers of Language and Teaching, 3,
49–58.
Stephen, W., Doughty, P., Gray, p. J., Hopcroft, J. E., & Silvera,
I. F. (2006). Observations on Undergraduate Education

in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, and Physics
at Select Universities in Vietnam. Washington: Vietnam
Education Foundation. 
Stevens, B. (2005). What communication skills do employers
want? Silicon Valley recruiters respond. Journal of
Employment Counseling, 42(1), 2-9. 
Swain, M. (1985). Communicative Competence: Some Roles
of Comprehensible Input and Comprehensible Output
in Its Development. In S. Grass and C.Madden (eds.)
1982, Input in second language acquisition. Rowley, MA:
Newbury House.
Tran Ngoc Ca (2006). Universities as drivers of the urban
economies in Asia: The case of Vietnam. Policy Research
Working Paper: World Bank. 
Ur, P. (1996), A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.

NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC YẾU TỐ HẠN CHẾ SỰ THAM GIA NÓI CỦA SINH VIÊN
NĂM THỨ 2 KHOA TIẾNG ANH TRONG GIỜ HỌC NÓI TIẾNG ANH
TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC THƯƠNG MẠI
TRẦN LAN HƯƠNG
Tóm tắt: Nghiên cứu này được thực hiện để điều tra các yếu tố cản trở sự tham gia của sinh viên
năm thứ 2 chuyên ngành tiếng Anh vào các hoạt động nói tại Đại học Thương Mại. Để đạt được mục
đích nghiên cứu, các bảng câu hỏi và phỏng vấn được sử dụng làm công cụ để lấy dữ liệu từ 10 giảng

viên và 175 sinh viên. Các yếu tố ảnh hưởng bao gồm các vấn đề liên quan đến tâm lí, xã hội, giảng
viên, hệ thống giáo dục, cơ sở vật chất và các vấn đề liên quan đến ngôn ngữ. Kết quả nghiên cứu đã
chỉ ra mức độ ảnh hưởng của các yếu tố này tới việc tham gia nói của sinh viên trong lớp học, trong
đó các vấn đề liên quan đến hiểu biết về ngôn ngữ có ảnh hưởng tiêu cực lớn nhất đối với sinh viên,
trong khi các vấn đề liên quan đến giảng viên chỉ gây ra cản trở không đáng kể đến sự tham gia của
sinh viên vào các hoạt động nói.
Từ khoá: cản trở, kỹ năng nói, nhân tố ảnh hưởng, tiếng Anh
Ngày nhận bài: 15/11/2018; ngày sửa chữa: 10/4/2019; ngày duyệt đăng: 28/4/2019

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