A study on how to improve english speaking skills for first year students in faculty of english at thuongmai university

THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY
ENGLISH FACULTY
------

GRADUATION PAPER
TOPIC:
A STUDY ON HOW TO IMPROVE ENGLISH
SPEAKING SKILLS FOR FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS IN
ENGLISH FACULTY AT THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY

Supervisor: Pham Thi Xuan Ha (M.A)
Student: Man Thi Phuong Nam
Class: K52N3
Student Code: 16D170171

Hanoi, 2019


ABSTRACTS
Speaking skills are considered to be one of the most important skills by
language learners. Learners often measure their success in language learning by the
extent to which they can use their spoken English. However, speaking skills are
regarded as one of the most difficult aspects of language learning. Many students
struggle to talk and express themselves in English. They are generally facing
problems in using the foreign language to express their thoughts effectively, even
students at that faculty. Derived from the urgency of the problem, the researcher has
chosen the topic “A study on how to improve English speaking skills for first-year
students in English Faculty at Thuongmai University ”. Therefore, the study’s
purposes are to explore the reality of speaking English of first year students at
English Faculty, Thuongmai University, to identify the obstacles in speaking
English, to learn more about factors that affect the students’ speaking skills and

through findings collected to recommend some feasible solutions to improve
English speaking skills for students.
The study was carried out in Thuongmai University in the first semester of
the school year 2019-2020. The participants consisted of 50 students studying at
English Faculty.
The result of the study showed causes of students’ difficulties in speaking
English related to vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, learning environment,
teaching methods and laziness. Based on those, the researcher proposed some
feasible solutions for students to enhance their English speaking skills.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In the process of completing this research paper, I have received great deal
of help and encouragenent from many teachers, friends and my family.
First of all, i would like to express the deepest gratetitude to the lecturers of
Thuongmai University, especially the teachers of the faculty of Business English
since i came to the university. I am grateful for your supporting and creating the
best conditions to study in an effective environment.
Especially, i would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Ms. Pham
Xuan Ha for her wholehearted guidance, invaluable advice, constructive criticism
and encouragement in the completion of my graduation paper.
My sincere thanks also go to 50 first-year students in Faculty of English at
Thuongmai University, who helped me complete the survey questionnaire with the
research data.
Last but not least, I am profoundly grateful to my family and friends, who
gave me their supports and constant encouragements to complete this paper.
To everyone, thank you so much!

Hanoi, 01 December 2019.

Man Thi Phuong Nam

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACTS.............................................................................................................i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......................................................................................ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS.........................................................................................iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS....................................................................................v
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES.........................................................................vi
CHAPTER1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY...........................................................1
1.1.Rationale of the study.......................................................................................1
1.2. Previous studies...............................................................................................2
1.3. Aims of the study.............................................................................................4
1.4. Research subjects............................................................................................4
1.5. Scope of the study...........................................................................................5
1.6. Research methodology....................................................................................5
1.6.1.Participants and Sample of the Study.........................................................6
1.6.2.Research Instrument...................................................................................6
1.6.3.Data Collection and Data analysis.............................................................6
1.7. Organization of the study................................................................................7
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW...................................................................8
2.1. Definition of speaking.....................................................................................8
2.2. The importance of speaking............................................................................9
2.3. Characteristics of speaking skills..................................................................10
2.4. Speaking problems........................................................................................11

2.5. Factors affecting speaking skills....................................................................13
2.5.1.Language problems..................................................................................13
2.5.2. Psychological problems..........................................................................14
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS..................................................................16
3.1. General introduction......................................................................................16
3.2. Data analysis.................................................................................................16
3.2.1. Students’ background information..........................................................16
3.2.2. The attitude of students toward learning English speaking at the
university..........................................................................................................19
3.2.3. Students’frequency of speaking English at home....................................20
3


3.2.4. Frequency of making mistakes when speaking English..........................21
3.2.5.Students’ difficulties in speaking English skills.......................................22
3.2.6. Causes of students’ problems in speaking English..................................23
3.2.7. Students’ methods of studying English speaking skills...........................24
3.2.8. Reactions of tutors when students makes mistakes.................................24
3.2.9. Students’expectations.............................................................................26
3.3. Discussion.....................................................................................................28
3.3.1. Current situation of first-year English major students’ English speaking
skills in Faculty of English at Thuongmai University.......................................28
3.3.2.Difficulties and problems in speaking of the first-year students in English
faculty...............................................................................................................29
CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS.............................31
4.1. Recommendations and suggestions...............................................................31
CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................37
5.2. Limitations....................................................................................................38
5.3. Suggestions for further studies......................................................................38
REFERENCES........................................................................................................vii

APPENDIX..............................................................................................................ix

4


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

No.
1
2
3
4
5
6

Abbreviations
TMU
ESL
VOA
BBC
SALL
etc

English meaning
Thuongmai University
English as a Second Language
Voice of America
British Broadcasting Corporation
Self-Access Language Learning
et cetera

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
No.
1
2

Tables and charts
Figure 3.1: The number of years learning English
Figure 3.2: The importance of English
5

Page
16
17


3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

Figure 3.3: The levels of difficulty of speaking English
Figure 3.4: Students' levels of English speaking skills

Figure 3.5: Frequency of practising English speaking skills

18
19
20

at university
Figure 3.6: Frequency of practicing English speaking skills

21

at home
Figure 3.7: Frequency of making mistakes when speaking

21

English
Figure 3.8: The barriers in English speaking skills
Figure 3.9: Causes of students’ problems in speaking

22
23

English
Figure 4.0: methods of studying English speaking skills
Figure 4.1: Reactions of tutors when students makes

24
25

mistakes
Figure 4.2: Students’expectations

26

in class
Figure 4.3: Suggested solutions to improve English

27

speaking skills for student

6


CHAPTER1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY
1.1.Rationale of the study.
English is a global language which most people use to interact with other
from all over the world. With the view to globalization, English has become an
optional subject and been taught in some levels of education in many countries
included Vietnam such as elementary school, secondary school, and high school.
This will create the favorite conditions to make young generations exchange the
values and access to the modern things in overseas. As a global language, English is
used a lots we find in many fields of daily life, such as many kinds of modern
technology, computers, social media, electronic machines, banking, even used in
many labels of products such as medicine, cosmetics, foods and beverage. Other
impact of English as a global language is that several companies in Vietnam recruit
and require their employees who can communicate in English. A competence of
English will access to the information easily and widely.
English language consists of four skills, namely: listening, speaking, reading,

and writing. Listening and reading are input materials while speaking and writing
are output competence. Listening and speaking are considered as the two most
important skills which serve in human communication daily life. One of them
which are elaborated more is speaking. Speaking is a crucial part of the language
learning process and it is a key of active communication. However, speaking as the
importance of language skills get less proportion in the English teaching and
learning. People usually spend most of time learning writing and reading skills
which students assumed that they will make them more settled and quiet and seems
to get a better and more effective condition of teaching-learning process. In
addition, the English examination in formal education focus on reading and writing
tests which require students focus more on these skills. There is rarely speaking test
or oral production test. Consequently, speaking is not the priority to study and
becomes the most difficulty in the process of learning. Speaking is productive skill
which involves communicative performance, and other important elements, such as
pronunciation, intonation, grammar, vocabulary. Speaking is the skill that the


learners will be judged upon most in real-life situation. It is an important part of
everyday interaction and most often the first impression of a person is based on
his/her ability to speak fluently and comprehensibly (Liao, 2009).
However, Vietnamese learners, especially the first year students in English
Faculty have faced with a flood of obstacles in learning and practicing English
speaking skills. They often fall into confusion when speaking English because of
lacking of knowledge, confidence, and the appropriate method as well. Besides,
students also do not have the good learning environment which restricts them to
practise and gain English knowledge. That is the reason why they usually get the
bad marks and find hard to achieve the best performance in learning English,
especially with speaking skills. Based on the things mentioned above, the researcher
try to make English speaking activities more effective for students in learning by
figuring out students’ problems and determining the techniques which are

appropriate and effective to learn speaking with the hope to help the first-year
students in Faculty of English at Thuongmai University better their English
performance. This is the reason why the researcher decided to choose the research
with the title “A study on how to improve English speaking skills for first year
students in Faculty of English at Thuongmai University ”.
1.2. Previous studies.
The problem of learning English to students, especially the problem of oral
communication is a debateable issue which has not been solved yet and grabbed a
lot of attention from hundred researchers. These following studies are outstanding
and helpful which mentioned some materials related to English speaking skills.
In 1985, Jen Allwood has listed some problems of communication such as
lacking of understanding, meaning the failure in interpreting parts or all of what a
person has said to another person; communication on the conditions of only one
party, meaning that there is a power difference between both communicating
individuals; interruption and breakdown. One among the many reasons to take into
considerations might be the lack of confidence and anxiety about making errors as
stated by Trent (2009) and in other related studies.


Backlund (1990) assigns three areas of knowledge that influence oral
communication effectiveness: social knowledge, self-knowledge, and content
knowledge. If any one of these is weak oral communication will be somewhat
impaired. Other problems that hinder oral communication are: dominating the
conversation, using inappropriate volume and pitch, using excessive small talk
ignoring someone and constantly interrupting people.
In the study “Improving Adult English Language Learners’Speaking Skills”
by Mary Ann Cunningham Florez, National Center for ESL Literacy Education
(June 1999) showed that communicative and whole language instructional
approaches promoted intergration of speaking, listening, reading and writing in
ways that reflected natural language use. But opportunities for speaking and

listening requires structure and planning if they were to support language
development. This study focused on what speaking involved and what good
speakers did in the process of expressing themselves. It presented an outline for
creating an effective speaking lesson and for assessing learners’ speaking skills.
Bashiruddin (2003) conducted a study to improve student's Oral
Communication Skills in lower secondary public school in Karachi, Pakistan. The
sample of the study consisted of two schools systems work side by side. One is the
private English medium school and second is government Urdu-medium school.
English is learnt as a second language in both cases. Both students and teachers use
the regional language to communicate inside the class, and practice traditional
methods which focus on reading and writing skills, but productive skills such as:
speaking is given on important. The results of the study discussed the reasons of
weakness of students in communication were the English language teachers are not
proficient in speaking English and this is the main obstacle in the way to teaching
English in Pakistan.
Many researchers like Baily (2005) and Goh (2007) have proposed methods
to enhance speaking skills by mean of syllabus design, teaching principles, and
speaking assessment.


Cotter (2007) argues that as students learn to use English in the classroom
setting, they should also be involved in learning about how language works.They
should be asked to reflect on various aspects of language, to develop a common
language for talking about language, and to use this knowledge to evaluate texts
critically in terms of effectiveness, meaning and accuracy. He said “ Someone who
speaks well would similarly understand when to use different grammar points’’.
Moreover, (Alimi, 2015) claims that spoken product as the major
consideration that had better be developed gradually. On the other hand, speaking
skill is considered as humans’ necessary to show their ability to have a great
interpersonal toward persons’ answers and questions. So, speaking ought to be

learned for every single pupil in the classroom since it was the concert identity for
English speakers. Here, the supportive study, in case of enhancing students’
speaking skill, was conducted by (Sari & Syarfi, 2014) had already succeeded to
solve a basic problem in the classroom. The study highlighted the improvement of
speaking skill through Community Language Learning, it obviously helps students
to be more active and aware; the result showed through a speaking test, observation
sheet, and field note could improve the students’ behavior and its’competence in
speaking skill.
1.3. Aims of the study.
The aim of this thesis is to research how to improve English speaking skills
for first year students in Faculty of English at Thuongmai University(TMU).
Therefore, the following points are expected to be achieved:
What are the factors affecting such performance concerning English
speaking in students?
How do first-year students in English Faculty become master of English
speaking skills?
1.4. Research subjects.
The subjects of this study were first-year English major students at English
faculty of Thuongmai University. The reason that the researcher has chosen the


first-year undergraduate students, who study English to be the participants in this
study, is that English is the first compulsory English course in the university, should
be trained to acquire certain speaking skills after they finish the course and this is
suitable for the present study.
The sampling population was 50 English major students from K55N1 to
K55N5 who were selected randomly as the research participants in first -year
students of English Faculty.
1.5. Scope of the study.
This study will concentrate on the reality of using English of the students in

English Faculty, then identify the issues students face when speaking English to
propose some feasible solutions to improve their English speaking skills. However,
the study focused mainly on the solutions. The researcher hope that this study was a
good reference material for the students in English Faculty in particular and all
students at Thuongmai University in general to get the higher speaking level.
1.6. Research methodology.
Data of the study is collected by questionnaires which delivers to students.
The selected approach for this research project was both the qualitative and
quantitative research method. The qualitative method is used to analyze and
evaluate the characteristics of the skills when expressing opinions and exchanging
information in questionnaires. This type of the research is used to help the
researcher understand how people feel and why they feel as they do

and as

Merriam (1998) explains:" in qualitative studies the key concern understands
the phenomenon of interest from the participant’s perspective, not the researchers".
The quantitative method is used to count percentage of the factors
influencing the students’ English speaking skills which was designed and
distributed to the students in Faculty of English. This method is also helpful for
analyzing the information coming from a survey conducted by the researcher.


To implement this study, the method of assessing, comparing and
summarizing are also utilized which would provide reliable data, based on which
the conclusion and suggestions were made in the following parts.
1.6.1.Participants and Sample of the Study
The participants of the study were first-year students at Faculty of English,
Thuongmai University, Hanoi. To achieve the aim of the study correctly, there were
50 students opted

randomly from different classes of Faculty. The study was

conducted in the first semester of their first year (November 2019). Therefore, they
also could understand and know about the learning environment and teaching
methods in Thuongmai University.national Journal of English and Education
1.6.2.Research Instrument
To fulfill the aim of the study, questionnaire was written in English
consisting 14 questions were delivered to 50 students who were studying at Faculty
of English. The questionnaires were used to explore information about their
attitudes towards their degree of English speaking skills, their difficulties in
speaking English as well as the solutions they applied when speaking English.
The survey questionnaire was administered to 50 students including
questions with an aim to get information about students’ opinions on the importance
of English speaking skills, students’ desires in speaking English, the problems
which they encountered in speaking and their suggested solutions to improve
English speaking skills. All 50 participants were guided how to complete the
questionnaire carefully, and also required to complete all of the questions.
1.6.3.Data Collection and Data analysis
The researcher asked the students to fill in the questionnaires which related
to the subjects’information, their ability and their own thinking. After some
minutes, the researcher could get back these papers as the reference to conduct the
study.


After collecting data from students of English faculty, it was analysed and
evaluated through charts and pies which allow readers to comprehend significantly
about the problems.
1.7. Organization of the study
This research paper consists of four main chapters:

Chapter I: Overview of the study, this first chapter included the rationale for
choosing the topic of the study, previous studies, the aims of the study, the research
subjects, the scope of the study, and the research methods.
Chapter II: Literature review which dealt with the theoretical background
relevant to the research topic including basic concepts about English speaking
skills, difficulties in speaking English and causes of difficulties.
Chapter III: Research findings presented and analyzed findings and
discussion by means of data collection instruments. This chapter answered the
research questions raised during the research process.
Chapter IV: Discussion and Recommendations that provided some comments
and suggested solutions to reduce students’ difficulties in speaking English.


CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
In the international relationship, English speaking ability is very important to
be able to participate in the wider world of work when almost all the people from
several different countries use it as a tool to communicate. The speaking skill is
measured in terms of the ability to perform a conversation in the language.
However, to speak English is not easy because speakers should be able to follow a
lot of rules as well as have good emotions in speaking English. This chapter will
describe more information about the main causes of English speaking problems and
some solutions according to related theories. The key concepts reviewed in this
chapter included definition of speaking, the importance, features, speaking
problems, factors and solutions.
2.1. Definition of speaking.
In fact, several definition of the word “speaking” have been suggested by
researchers in language learning which may contain some possible approaches to
enhance English speaking. Each of researchers has their own ideas and deliveries
their messages differently.
In Oxford Advanced Dictionary, the definition of speaking is to express or

communicate opinions, feelings, ideas, or as talking and it involves the activities in
the part of the speaker as psychological, physiological (articulator) and physical
(acoustic) stages. Johnson and Morrow (1981: 70) said “ speaking is an activity to
produce utterance to oral communication”. It means that this is an activity
involving two or more people in which hearers and speakers have to react to what
they hear and make their contributions at a speed of a high level. According to
Chaney (1998), “Speaking is the process of making and sharing meaning by using
verbal and non-verbal symbols in different contexts”. Brown (1994) and Burns and
Joyce (1997) defined “Speaking as an interactive process of making meaning that
includes producing, receiving, and processing information”.
Furthermore, Finnochiaro and Brumfit (1983: 400) propose that speaking
means giving oral expression to thoughts, opinions and feelings in terms of talk or


conversation. To be able to do this, language learners should have sufficient
knowledge of the sound, structure, vocabulary and cultural system of English
language. The learners also have to think about the ideas they wish to express. They
have to be able to articulate English sound well by changing the positions of lips,
jaws, and tongue. Besides, the learners should be consciously aware of the
appropriate functional expression as well as grammatical, lexical and cultural
features needed to express the idea, be sensitive to the change of register or style
necessitated by the person to whom they speak and also the situation in which the
conversation takes place. Lastly, the learners must have the abilities to change their
direction of their thoughts on the basis of the persons’s responses.
From those definition, the researcher concludes that speaking is totally
essential to communicate with other people and it is considered as a vehicle to
delivery ideas, opinions and feeling to other.
2.2. The importance of speaking.
Language is a tool for communication. Through speaking, we communicate
with others to express our ideas and to know others’ ideas as well. Without the

ability to English speaking, we find it difficult to communicate with other people
and learn other skills related to a language. Therefore the importance of speaking
skills is enormous for the learners of any language. If there is any misunderstanding
of English speaking, it will cause many problems seriously.
According to Efrizal (2012) and Pourhosein Gilakjani (2016), “speaking is
one of great significance for the people interaction where they speak everywhere
and everyday. Speaking is the way of communicating ideas and messages orally”.
Richards and Rodgers (2001) stated that “in the traditional methods, the
speaking skills were ignored in the classrooms where the emphasis was on reading
and writing skills. For example, in The Grammar-Translation method, reading and
writing were the important skills and speaking and listening skills were not of great
significance”. According to Ur (2000), of all the four language skills called


listening, speaking, reading and writing, “speaking is the most important one that is
very necessary for the effective communication”.
Additionally, the importance of English speaking is shown by the integration
of the other language skills such as listening, writing and reading. In term of
writing, speaking requires a lot of rules which comply with structure, correct words
according to context which allow learners to develop their vocabulary and grammar
skills and then better their writing skill. Through listening, leaners also can improve
vocabulary and grammar when they have to listen what people say and learn new
things. Reading skills also are strenthen significantly because learners have a good
knowledge of structures, vocabulary and pronunciation. Thanks to communicating,
students can express their emotions, ideas, tell stories, request, talk, discuss and
show the various functions of language. Moreover, speaking is of vital importance
outside the classroom when a flood of companies require their employees to have at
least the ability of communicating and provide proofs by certification such as Toeic,
Ielts. Therefore, it is true that language speakers have more chance to seek jobs in
different organizations and companies. These statements were supported by Baker

and Westrup (2003) who said that “learners who speak English very well can have
greater chance for better education, finding good jobs, and getting promotion”.
In brief, English is extremely significant in the modern world these days as
English is considered as a common language which allows all parts of the world to
do businesses and exchange cultures easily. Due to English, many countries can
coorporate and expand their relationship with other nations dramatically and then
boost their countries’ growth.
2.3. Characteristics of speaking skills
According to Mazouzi (2013), learners’ activities should be designed based
on an equivalence between fluency and accuracy achievement. Both fluency and
accuracy are important elements of communication. The practice can help learners
develop their communicative competence. Therefore, they should know how the
language system works appropriately.


The first characteristic of speaking performance is fluency and it is the main
aim of students in learning speaking skill. According to Hughes (2002), fluency is
the learners’ ability to speak in understandable way in order not to break down
communication because listeners may lose their interest. Hedge (2000) expressed
that fluency is the ability to answer coherently by connecting the words and phrases,
pronouncing the sounds clearly, and using stress and intonation.
The second characteristic of speaking performance is accuracy. Learners
should be fluent in speaking a foreign language. Learners should pay enough
attention to the exactness and the completeness of language form when speaking
such as focusing on grammatical structures, vocabulary, and pronunciation
(Mazouzi, 2013).
According to Thornbury (2005), learners’ correct use of grammatical
structures requires the length and complexity of the utterances and the wellstructured clauses. To gain accuracy in terms of vocabulary means to select suitable
words in the suitable contexts. Learners sometimes apply similar words or
expressions in various contexts which do not mean similar things. So learners

should be able to use words and expressions correctly. Thornbury (2005) declared
that pronunciation is the lowest level of knowledge learners typically pay attention
to it. In order to speak English language accurately, learners should master
phonological rules and they should be aware of the various sounds and their
pronunciations. Learners should also know the stress, intonation, and pitch. All of
these elements help learners speak the English language easily and effectively.
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.
2.4. Speaking problems
There are a lot of problems hindering learners’ speaking performance which
have been discussed and found the effective methods. The researcher divided them
into two aspects: internal and external factors.


In term of internal factors, Littlewood (1984) believe lack of motivation in
speaking English is one of the top problems affecting students’performance. With
the same opinion, Ur (1996) also shows some issues related to learners’ speaking
skills such as learners’ worries of making mistakes, which lead to their fearful of
criticism, learners’ low or uneven participation, or learners’ fear of other good
learners’performances. These internal challenges have also been found in the
studies by Rabab’ah (2005), Dil (2009), Le (2011), Ngo (2011) and Izadi (2015) as
the most considerable obstacles of learners. In addion to, Le (2011), Ngo (2011) and
Izadi (2015) further place a great focus on other internal factors, namely lack of
vocabulary, grammatical structures, sentence formation which make them tend to
use their domestic language instead of imaging and speaking English.
Besides the challenges related to internal factors, some difficulties for
speaking skills also come from a wide range of external factors. The teachers’ use of
mother tongue in speaking class is one of the factors impacts negatively learners’

speaking motivation. Harmer (1991) states that teachers’ feedback is given while
their students are performing can be considered to reduce the learners’confidence.
As a result, it is necessary to have positive ways to correct learners’ speaking
mistakes combined with appropriate stimulation to learners (Baker & Westrup,
2003). Another external factor to speaking skills of English learners is the content of
teaching syllabus and English teaching curriculum. In other words, learners’
performance can be limited if the content of English teaching curriculum is too
boring or too focus on theory instead of practising. Ambu and Saidi (1997) also
share this concern by indicating inappropriate distribution of time for teaching
speaking skills and teaching syllabus without satisfying English learners’
communicative needs. Izadi (2015) examined the views of lecturers and students of
English speaking difficulties in the context with Iranian as their native language.
The study particularly analysed the difficulties with regard to linguistic problems,
negative emotions, and opportunities to speak English. The main factor emerged
from the finding was linguistic problems, and the study proposed several solutions
to tackle them with the focus on lecturer’s and students’ efforts which were also
justified and reconfirmed as feasible measures in Kabir (2014) in Bangladesh


tertiary context along with more supports from administrators for the same vein. In
Vietnam, Le (2011) also examined the same research concern in the context of Ba
Ria - Vung Tau University where students faced challenges in English speaking
skills. The findings emphasised the challenges with regard to learners’ issues such
as learning styles, worries and language proficiency; lecturers’ issues, namely
teaching methodology; and teaching facilities. Another study related to difficulties
for students’ speaking skills was Ngo (2011) at Thai Nguyen University. The study
mainly focuses on three possible challenging aspects: psychology, linguistic, and
social-culture. From then, the same suggestions as Kabir (2014) and Izadi (2015)
were recommended for both lecturers’ and administrators’ assistance to improve
students’ speaking performance. Additionally, although Nguyen and Tran’s (2015)

study was slightly different from previous studies with respect to high school
students’ English speaking barriers, the findings similarly analysed challenges
stemmed from learners’ weaknesses in speaking English and proposed the necessity
of teachers’ ready supports by diversifying their teaching activities.
2.5. Factors affecting speaking skills.
Speaking skill in second or foreign language is a challenge for the learners,
because to speak a foreign language such as English requires more than knowing
grammar but also the use of English in a real context.
There are two main problems which actually serve as the important reasons
behind poor academic performance and may become barriers for the students to
become a good English speakers is the language and psychological problems.
2.5.1.Language problems.
Those problems are:
Vocabulary
The problems of vocabularies occur when someone is lack of vocabulary
needed to talk and does not know how combine the vocabularies into a good
sentence. Doris and Jessica (2007) also state that in the real communication, nobody
paid much attention to the correct grammar expression, but emphasized the content


and how to reply. Students are clearly know what they are going to say in the source
language, but when they have to switch the language itself into the target language
such as English, they often get confuse to combine and use the proper vocabularies
needed.
Grammar
Grammar is a study in which sentences are structured and formatted, so that
it may be considered a bit boring to study correct grammar since it really is worth
the time and effort. If learners do not know the rules of grammar, they will never be
able to communicate using English effectively. Several errors may appear when the
students speak since they have not mastered the English grammar.

Pronunciation
Phonology is a difficult aspect of language learning for English learners.
Pronunciation of English words is not similar to their spellings. Words with similar
spellings are sometimes pronounced differently because of their surrounding
contexts like tenses and phonemes that come after them. This can cause a lot of
problems for non-native speakers of English and they sometimes get confused in
producing the English words. Therefore, correct pronunciation is very necessary to
develop speaking skill. Pronunciation also has close connections to the other fields
such as listening and even grammar. Once a person can pronounce correctly the
endings of the words, he can, at the same time give grammatical information.
2.5.2. Psychological problems.
Lack of Self-Confidence
Lack of self-confidence may bring the students into a threat of believing that
they are not going to be a good English speaker. This lack of self-confidence also
becomes a great problem which affect students’ speaking performance. It is difficult
for the students to master English speaking if they are not confident with their own
speaking ability.


Anxiety
Anxiety refers to a transitory emotional state or condition characterized by
feeling of tension and apprehension and heightened automic nervous system
activity. They may confront certain feelings such as nervous, anxious, worry, shy,
feeling afraid or fear of something worse happen whether they are trying to speak
better.


CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS
3.1. General introduction
In this chapter, the researcher presented the results obtained with the aim of

finding out the difficulties in learning speaking comprehension skills for English
major students as well as identifying the causes of those problems. The participants
were 50 first-year English major students at Thuongmai University. To achieve the
most effective result, participants were randomly selected from a total of 250 firstyear students at Faculty of English.
Because the number of respondents was small, the data was manually
analyzed by using descriptive statistics (percentage) and interpretations. The
information was then displayed in forms of charts, pie, table and bar.
3.2. Data analysis
3.2.1. Students’ background information
The subjects in this study were 50 freshmen in Faculty of English which
ranged from K55N1 to K55N5. There are 10 males and 40 females which accounted
for 20% and 80% respectively. Data collected by the questionnaire to these student


participants. The data of the participants are summarised as follows:

Figure 3.1: The number of years learning English
14.00%

20.00%

66.00%
Less than 3 years

3-10 years

More than 10 years

It is clear from the chart that the majority of students have spent less than 10
years on learning English.

In detail, 66% had allocated to students who have learned English from 3 to
10 years. In other words, they had started learning process since the elementary.
Because English is one of the compulsory subjects at both the secondary and high
schools, most of them studied at least 7 years in schools ( in which four years at
secondary school and three years at high school). Besides, there was 20% of
students studying English for more than 10 years, which means that they started
learning the second language when they were still small. The lowest percentages
was of the participants who chose less than 3 years with 14%, which means they
had started learning English since high school. These students may come from the
remote areas, where there were no good opportunities for studying English or they
changed their orientation and pursued English in a short time before taking the
entrance exam.


Generally, these figures indicate that all of students also have spent a certain
time on learning English which provides them with the basic knowledge to be able
to continue conquer this kind of language in the university as a major.
Figure 3.2: The importance of English
Characteristics
Very important
Important
Normal
Less important
Not important

Number
41
9
0
0

0

Percentage
82%
18%
0%
0%
0%

It is undoubtedly about the importance of English. Table 3.1 shows English
was crucial. Most of the participants chose English is very important with 41
students ( 82%). 9 other students ( 18%) expressed English is important. It is no
surprising that noone said that English was normal, less important or not important
when it is their major.
These numbers indicate that English plays a very important role with the first
years at Faculty of English. English not only serves for studying at university but
also meets their requirements after graduation.
Figure 3.3: The levels of difficulty of speaking English
10.00%

20.00%

4.00%

16.00%

50.00%
Very Difficult

Difficult

Normal

Less Difficult

Easy

It is obvious that English included many skills such as listening, speaking,
reading and writing and each skill has a unique difficulty level. However, several