A study on the use of English in business negotiations of JDL VN Company staff and some suggestions for improving English communication

A study on the use of English in business negotiations of JDL VN Company staff and some suggestions for improving English communication A study on the use of English in business negotiations of JDL VN Company staff and some suggestions for improving English communication A study on the use of English in business negotiations of JDL VN Company staff and some suggestions for improving English communication A study on the use of English in business negotiations of JDL VN Company staff and some suggestions for improving English communication A study on the use of English in business negotiations of JDL VN Company staff and some suggestions for improving English communication A study on the use of English in business negotiations of JDL VN Company staff and some suggestions for improving English communication A study on the use of English in business negotiations of JDL VN Company staff and some suggestions for improving English communication A study on the use of English in business negotiations of JDL VN Company staff and some suggestions for improving English communication A study on the use of English in business negotiations of JDL VN Company staff and some suggestions for improving English communication A study on the use of English in business negotiations of JDL VN Company staff and some suggestions for improving English communication A study on the use of English in business negotiations of JDL VN Company staff and some suggestions for improving English communication A study on the use of English in business negotiations of JDL VN Company staff and some suggestions for improving English communication A study on the use of English in business negotiations of JDL VN Company staff and some suggestions for improving English communication A study on the use of English in business negotiations of JDL VN Company staff and some suggestions for improving English communication

1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Firstly, with the deepest affection, I would like to express my gratitude to Mrs Luong Thi Minh Phuong, my both teacher and supervisor, who has given me valuable guidance and advice, experienced correction, and a great help with this graduation paper Without her enthusiastically direct instruction and consultancy, my research would be very far from finished Secondly, sincerely thank Mr Seo Eun Kyung, General Manager and all members from three teams in the Business Department of JDL VN Company for their zealous support in completing my survey questionnaires as well as their willingness to share their knowledge and ideas on the accomplish of the study I also take this opportunity to send my heartfelt gratefulness to English Department, Thuong Mai University, which gives me the fortune to study and work in a perfect environment under the enthusiastic guidance of a professional instructor team Last but not least, being filled with gratitude, my thanks are given to my friends and family members, who have always brought me enthusiastic and sincere encouragement throughout the process of carrying out this thesis Ha Noi, April 16th, 2021 Nguyen Thi Cuc 2 ABSTRACT This study was carried out at Jet Delivery Logistics Viet Nam Company Limited (JDL VN Co Ltd) with all of staff from its different departments The purpose of the research is to investigate the English level of JDL VN staff and the status of using their English skill in business negotiation The research uses quantitative methods, its data was mainly collected from observation sheets, questionnaires and interviews Survey questionnaires were set up to distribute 60 employees in the Business Department of the company The interviews were conducted randomly among three team leaders in this department Raw data was converted to numbers and percentages Findings from instruments reveals that the staff in the Business Department of JDL use English as one of the principal skills in completing their tasks English plays a vital role not only in staff’s negotiating but also in their many different works Moreover, according to research results, the researcher found out the major obstacles of the staff when they make use of their English communication The researcher hopes this study can help staff in the Business Department realize the importance of English towards their current career and find their appropriate ways to improve their English communication Through this research, researcher also would like to support the further studies avoid shortcomings and limitations 3 Table of Contents 4 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS No Abbreviations English meaning Vietnamese meaning JDL VN Jet Delivery Logistics Viet Nam Company Limited Công Ty TNHH Jet Delivery Logistics Việt Nam ESP English for Specific Purposes Tiếng Anh chuyên ngành etc etcetera vân vân 5 LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES No Name Content Table 3.1 Educational background Table 3.2 Period of English usage in work Chart 3.1 Participant’s English proficiency self-evaluation Table 3.3 Participant’s awareness of the importance to use English for work Table 3.4 Staff’s usage of four English skills in work Chart 3.2 Frequency of the staff’s willingness to practice and improve English Table 3.5 Staff’s usage of English for negotiation Chart 3.3 The objects with whom staff mostly negotiate Table 3.6 The main goals of negotiations 10 Table 3.7 Staff’s frequency of using English communication in negotiation 11 Chart 3.4 Staff’s frequency of English communication utilization in negotiating 12 Table 3.8 13 Table 3.9 Staff’s obstacles in English verbal communication 14 Table 3.10 Suggested solutions to improve English communication Staff’s obstacles in English verbal communication 6 Page CHAPTER1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale Nowadays, English, like oxygen, plays an important role in our everyday life It is not only considered the official language in 53 countries but also spoken as a first language by around 400 million people worldwide Throughout the world, when people from different nationalities want to communicate, they commonly use English language Then, this second popular language of the world gives us an opening door to the world, in which we easily travel, communicate and make friends with global citizens Moreover, contributing to bring us new career opportunities with better and stable salaries These days, the job market is global—many companies need employees who can communicate with partners and clients all over the world Multinational business organizations and many international corporations always prefer people who have fluency in English Even job advertisements in the local market also require knowing people Very often, that means they are obviously finding employees who speak English No matter what career path you decide to pursue, learning English is a valuable skill to help you become a better, more sought-after employee as well as a more well-rounded person Moreover, English gives access to a large wealth of entertainment because it is currently the language of the internet and the main published language of many films, TV shows, books and music Having given us opportunities to enter the world media, English knowledge allows us to have a greater cultural understanding as well as access to an incredible amount of information In the current global economy, English is considered the dominant business language, which is used widely by the international business community To communicate across national borders and maintain correspondence with overseas business parties or professionals, English is extremely essential However, for doing business, only excellent English staff is not enough to keep the sustainable operation of the company In the context of the increasing global 7 integration, each business now becomes a combatant in the economic battle, which includes their both domestic and international rivals When the competition on the market is increasingly acrimonious, instead of constantly competing, many businesses will choose to negotiate with each other to resolve conflicts, reduce competitors, gain benefits, and even build long-term partnerships In other words, negotiation is a really significant factor, which supports the company’s position in the market Negotiating is both an important and sensitive issue A successful negotiation brings good relationships and interests, when its failure leaves the companies many serious consequences Then, it is extremely essential to know how to use English and communicate effectively to obtain success in not only negotiation but also many other factors of business Therefore, I decided to choose “A study on the use of English in business negotiations of JDL VN Company staff and some suggestions for improving English communication” as the topic for my research with the hope that we will find out the tips when using English in business negotiation, especially English communication, to get good results in our work 1.2 Previous studies Workplace English communication needs and ESP curriculum: An analysis of misalignment (Ho Thi Quynh Nhu - Hue Industrial College, 2019) The study aimed to examine English communication needs at workplace contexts in comparison with the current English for Specific Purposes (ESP) curriculum at Hue Industrial College The questionnaire survey and interviews were administered with the employees from eleven corporations Then, the research findings revealed workplace communication of English as required by the employees majoring in business administration (BuAdmin) and yielding some mismatches between the current ESP curriculum and the current needs Sales communication skills at Hanoi Fahasa bookstore (Do Thi Thanh – Hanoi University of Culture, 2014) The topic went into research into sales communication skills of bookstore employees Fahasa, Hanoi Its goal was to make a general 8 assessment of the important role of sales communication in customer acquisition and business success After that, thanks to the research findings, the researchers suggested some possible recommendations to improve communication skills and achieve the expected results for business English for Business Communication (Vijay Bhatia, and Stephen Bremner, Department of English, City University of Hong Kong, 2012) The main purpose of this article was to attempt to review as much as possible of the research published in the last few years to offer an evidence-based account of the recent theory and practice in English for Business Communication After that, it also aimed to indicate which way this field is likely to go in the coming years Therefore, the article took as its start point an overview of English for Business Purposes, looking at the developments in its areas such as variation in functional language description, needs analysis, curriculum design, methods and materials development, assessment and evaluation, and disciplinary variation Then, it moved to study the proposed concept of English for Business Communication (EBC) and considered how this was an outcome of the gradual convergence of concerns in both EBP and Business Communication studies Building on this, the article looked at the critical issues and challenges posed by Business Communication studies Finally, suggestions were made as to possible opportunities for replication studies Problems and need for English communication improvement of employees at a private university (Miss Phasitapha Boonyachokanan – 2018) This research investigated the problems in using English for communication and explored the skills that the employees need to improve the most Its participants are the employees from eight departments because they have the opportunity to communicate with foreigners at work The results of this study show that the mean scores of problems in the use of speaking, listening, writing, and reading skills were high In terms of speaking problems, the majority of the respondents thought that the cause of their speaking problem was that they lack vocabulary knowledge The major problem in listening as rated by the respondents was that they could not catch words because the speaker speaks too fast Moreover, the research’s results also revealed that a lack of technique 9 knowledge, a lack of vocabulary knowledge and English grammar knowledge were rated as the least significant problems of the respondents In addition, the findings indicate that the skill that they need to improve the most was speaking as it was rated as the most necessary skill for the respondents at work Therefore, the researcher gave some recommendations for further research All these studies not only helped me to accomplish my research with precious knowledge but also inspired me to conduct “A study on the use of English in business negotiations of JDL VN Company staff and some suggestions for improving English communication” which aims at finding out difficulties and suggesting some solutions for human resource in every company to improve English communication ability, successfully negotiate and get high business results 1.3 Aims of the study The primary of this study is to investigate the English level of JDL VN staff and the status of using their English skill in business negotiation Then by using these obtained results to find out subjective and objective factors which involve in causing this reality, as well as propose the solutions for both manager and staff in gaining experience, improving English communication skills, and achieve expected outcome The study used quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection Its aim is to answer the following research questions: How JDL VN Company staff use English in their work, especially in the negotiating process? What are the difficulties that JDL VN Company staff face when applying English communication skills to deal with troubles from company’s customers and partners? What are the possible solutions to solve those problems? 1.4 Research subjects The study focuses on the status of using English for business negotiation of JDL VN staff It included the frequency, objects, and goals of English using, level, and the attitude towards the role of English skills in their work 10 10 tasks Besides, thanks to these results, we could explore that English reading skills are mostly used by 23.3% of respondents (approximating to 14 selections), and the remaining 6.7% apply English listening skills in almost parts of their work Answering question in the interview, Mrs Dang Thi Thuy Linh, leader of Sales team, said “ As far as I think, English is extremely necessary for employees in all parts of the JDL, not just staff in any department As an employee of a logistics company operating in such current global economy, the communication foreigners for transations or collaboration is inevitable As for Sales team, I more prioritize my employees' English writing skills The main reason is that we mainly contact customers, partners, or agents via email and fax, except when they actively contact by phone or special cases It also depends on each object for whom we write As a result, how to write an appropriate message to obtain the most business outcome is always a dominant issue that I pay attention to.” With another viewpoint of a Customer Support team manager, Mr Nguyen Duy Khanh stated “I never ask for prominence in any particular skill in my employees According to the experience that I have from years working in the service industry, the staff need to be able to see, read, and listen to understand as well as capture the customer psychology Only then can we rapidly assist customers to solve their problems or give them clear and accurate answers for their questions.” Therefore, we can see that most of the staff participating in the study realize the necessity of English for their work What about their attitudes towards practicing and overcoming difficulties to improve their English Skills? Let’s come to the next following chart Chart 3.2 Frequency of the staff’s willingness to practice and improve English (A = Suddenly communicating in English with foreigners, B = Practicing English communication in leisure time, C = Catching any chances of English improvement) Statistics in Chart 3.2 illustrate the results after investigating the willingness of staff in practicing and improving their English skills 26 26  Willingness of suddenly communicating in English with foreigners Through the chart above, it can be seen that the most of respondents (45%) feeling never willing to use English for communication without advance notice However, there is only 8.3% - 18.3% of selections in total, representing - 11 participants, imported that they always or often willing to talk with foreigners but not preparing As a result, this unwilling attitude in terms of using English to communicate does cause a lot of disadvantages to the effectiveness of business operation Hence, there are possibly some obstacles preventing these staff from the willingness of immediately using English to communicate with foreign  Practicing English communication in leisure time In this question, the collected result shows that there is no big difference in the number of choices between answers 21 selection times, equivalent to 35% of the participants who sometimes spend their leisure time practicing English communication 30% of the total remaining say “Never” meanwhile 23.5% of them often try to communicate in English when they are not busy with anything In particular, only 11.5% of the respondents said to always make use of free time to practice their English communication Then, the staff realized the meaning of English towards their tasks, in contrary, they are unwilling to use it to communicate when incidentally face a foreigner Even the majority of them not often try to practice English communication According to Mrs Nguyen Thi Thai, “Not only I have a good grasp of my staff’s English level but also understand many other things about them As purchasing employees in a logistics company, we have to work under a lot of pressure Making use of my English skills to get the maximum effect required by the boss is one of our stresses Some of my team members told me that they used English throughout the whole working day, it could be considered as a way to practice their English communication I relatively agree with them, to work with something under pressure in hours per day, from Monday to Friday, is enough to make a person bored Although it depends on each person, we could not ask all of our staff to love English and apply it anytime.” 27 27 Then, what is the reason for this reality? Whether they get bored with using English or they not have free time?  Catching any chances of English improvement Despite the unwillingness to practice English, the number of participants who often hold opportunities to boost their English abilities still occupy the highest rate We obviously can see that there are 25 respondents (41.5% of selections) selected “often” The rest, 17 participants (approximately 28.5%) sometimes would seize the opportunities to enhance English, 12 participants (approximately 20%) are always ready to take advantage of English improving opportunities Ranked final, respondents picked “never” option for their chances of English improvement 3.1.3 Staff’s usage of English for negotiation In order to dive deep in studying on the status of using English in business negotiations of JDL staff, the researcher continued giving participants some multiplechoices questions to figure out the frequency of using their English communication in negotiations Have you ever begun negotiations for the company? Do you have to use English in your negotiations? Yes No 100% 0% 100% 0% Table 3.5 Staff’s usage of English for negotiation 28 28 As it can be seen in table 3.5, all participants of the research have had to entered negotiations Moreover, none of them have not to use English for negotiating An extract from Mrs Thai’s answer in the interview disclosed “The primary assignment of my team is to find source and purchase goods throughout the region To accomplishing task, we need to survey and explore the market, inspect origin and quality of the items, make agreement of prices, then decide on the purchase As a result, we obviously have to open negotiations, most of which are mainly negotiations with foreigners.” Chart 3.3 allows us to be aware of the objects with whom the participants mostly join in the negotiations 60% of answers told us that more than a half of participants often open negotiations with the agents supplying items for their company This rate is followed by 25% of them, who mainly meet partners so as to compromise The rest includes 10% of selections for often negotiating with their customers, and only 5% owned by “Others” option Chart 3.3 The objects with whom staff As having mentioned in chapter 2, every negotiation always has its specific purpose mostly negotiate Then, the researcher also made a brief investigation on the major goals of Business department staff in their negotiations What is the main goal of your negotiations? Percentage (%) Quoting or informing prices and incurred costs to clients 27 Bargaining input prices of the items with agents or suppliers and percentage of commissions with partners 35 Signing a contract or an agreement 30 Others Table 3.6 The main goals of negotiations According to the results displayed in chart 3.6, the staff aim to inform the prices and incurred costs in most of their negotiations (35%) Besides, 30% of participants 29 29 negotiate to bargain, 27% of them said that they usually enter negotiations to sign a contract or an agreement The last is 8% of the remaining have to complete some of their unexpected tasks in each particular negotiation 3.2 Staff’s frequency of using English communication in negotiation Excellent communication skills eternally contribute to the success of negotiations Hence, the researcher would like to gain the concrete explorations of staff’s English communication usage, and then base on collected results to find out their barriers Questions Options Percentage Always 40% Often How often you have to use English to communicate in your negotiations? Sometimes 43.3% 11.7% Rarely 5% Table 3.7 Staff’s frequency of using English communication in negotiation Statistics in Table exposed the need of using English communication of the participants in their negotiations Following these results, we simply identify that “Always” and “Often” are the two options that account for the highest percentage In other words, 43.3% of the selections (representing 26 respondents) reveal that English is considered as the language of communication in most of their negotiations Another 40% of the participants need English in all negotiations, followed by 11.7% of them sometimes communicate in English when negotiating Besides that, English communication is also used by 5% of staff joining in the study Chart 3.4 Staff’s frequency of English communication utilization in negotiating (A1 = verbal communication, A2 = written communication) The frequency of using three main forms of communication in negotiating with foreigner was apparently shown in chart 3.4 30 30 3.2.1 Staff’s utilization of verbal communication in English for negotiating As can be seen from chart 3.4, the majority of staff feel that they often speak English directly in their negotiations Approximately 35% of respondents always negotiate with face-to-face conversation, and 18.4% of them sometimes directly talk to the other parties in negotiations 5% of the rest said that they never use verbal communication for negotiating Mrs Hoang stated “I always encourage my team members to call customers to directly discuss every issues In my opinion, this is the best way to rapidly approach our clients, easily understand their demands, as well as favorably persuade them to choose our services.” 3.2.2 Staff’s utilization of written communication in English for negotiating Also, according to above statistics, the rate of negotiating by receiving and sending written messages made up to 46.7% This is followed by 36.6% of the participants disclosed that they often use business correspondence to make discussion about their issues The remaining consists of 13.4% staff sometimes putting their negotiations in writing, and 3.3% of them, who never negotiate with written communication “I think that written communication in English would bring better performance than verbal communication does Writing will help staff have a little of extra time to review what they are about to send and correct their mistakes Directly talking to foreigners sometimes affects our staff by bringing them the feeling of nervous Once the emotion is unstable, they might not give the absolutely exact information This causes a serious misunderstanding which partly impacts business efficiency of the company.” stated by Mrs Thai 31 31 3.3 The obstacles of staff when communicating in English 3.3.1 Obstacles in English verbal communication It is absolutely essential to ask staff about the difficulties that they have encountered when speaking English The results collected after the investigation are summarized in the table below: Problems Number of staff Percentage (%) Lack of vocabulary and grammar knowledge 21 35 Lack of cultural and background knowledge 22 36.6 Unclear pronunciations 24 40 Unable to reply in English as intended and need of repetition 29 Unable to catch the main topic of the conversation Lack of the confidence to communicate in English 19 30 48.3 31.6 50 Table 3.8 Staff’s obstacles in English verbal communication Table 3.8 reports that the rate of the participants, who have problems in using verbal communication in English, is quite high According to this table, 50% of the respondents selected “Lack of the confidence to communicate in English.” The following is “unable to reply in English as intended and need of repetition” with a total of 48.3% of selections Furthermore, the respondents also disposed their two other obstacles, which were “Unclear pronunciations” (40%) and “Lack of cultural and background knowledge” (36.6%) Moreover, the results also revealed that the respondents lack of vocabulary and grammar knowledge, and difficulties in catching 32 32 the main topic of the conversation were the least problematic in verbal communication Mrs Thai stated “There are many different factors which directly affects the staff’s English communication skills They stem from both subjective and objective causes In my point of view, there are possibly three main difficulties: the poor vocabulary, unclear pronunciation, difficulties in listening both native and non-native speakers These obstacles bring employees the feeling of nervous due to being afraid of making mistakes during the conversations One of the largest examples is the unwillingness to talk to foreigners, which results in the limitation in their speaking practice.” In summary, through the result represented, we can discover four major obstacles to staff as Unclear pronunciations, Unable to reply in English as intended and need of repetition, and Lack of the confidence to communicate in English In the conversation, staff probably come up with many ideas and thoughts, however, they still refuse to share their opinions due to the lack of clear pronunciation and ability to express their opinions Furthermore, the fear of making mistakes lead to staff’s hesitance in speaking English They might be afraid that native speakers could not understand what they say and other Vietnamese colleagues could laugh at their mistakes That prevents staff from communicating with foreign partners In addition, Lack of the confidence to communicate in English is also known as the common obstacles to staff The majority of them frequently feel shy and worried to speak or express themselves 3.3.2 Obstacles in English written communication Problems Number of the selections Percentage (%) Lack of cultural and background knowledge 25 41.6 33 55 28 46.6 24 40 Lack of English vocabulary and grammar knowledge Unable to find appropriate words and word orders Unable to logically organize ideas 33 33 Unable to select and gather information 31 51.6 Unable to manage time for writing 22 36.6 Table 3.9 Staff’s obstacles in English verbal communication As can be seen in table 3.9, the top two problems were the Lack of English vocabulary and grammar knowledge (55%), and difficulties in selecting and gathering information (51.6%) Next, “Unable to find appropriate words and word orders” (46.6%) become the third biggest obstacle of participants towards their usage of English for written communication The percentage of the selections is almost equal between two problems: “Lack of cultural and background knowledge” (41.6%) and “ Unable to logically organize ideas” (40%) The lowest selected rate occurred with “Unable to manage time for writing” “Vocabulary and grammar problems are no longer too big barriers for employees in applying English to written communication A computer with internet connection is certainly the number one assistant, which makes it easy for them to improve these two factors.” Mrs Thai added Having the similar opinion, Mr Khanh said “So many different available reference sources make the amount of data that employees want to include in their messages is also dispersed It leads to the circumstance in which the information provided to receivers might be both redundancy and lack This has a particularly serious effect on choosing and using email types of the staff.” In conclusion, basing on the statistic in table 3.9, the biggest difficulty in writing for the staff is the lack of vocabulary and grammar knowledge Almost the participants admitted that they had too few vocabulary and collocations for writing They usually felt confused when choosing words to express their attitude as well as convey their message Moreover, the second biggest challenge of the staff is how to deal with collected information Having so many available references make it difficult for employees to identify which reliable sources are Thus, they are confused in searching and selecting reference information Additionally, 46.6% of the participants responded that they were unable to find appropriate words and word 34 34 orders This problem possibly came from the fact that they use google translate too much meanwhile this tool mainly uses word-by-word translation 35 35 3.4 Some possible solutions to improve English communication Number of staff Percentage (%) Learning and practicing English by yourself in your free time 36 60 Entering English for employees or online English courses 18 30 Having online dictionary by your side every time and place 42 70 Spending time studying foreign culture and background 27 45 Catching chances to talk to foreigners 33 55 Strategies Table 3.10 Suggested solutions to improve English communication Through the above results, it was found that most participants want to improve their English communication Table 3.10 reveals the participants’ agreement on some suggested solutions We could obviously see that “having online dictionary by your side every time and place” is the first and foremost choice of most of the respondents with 70% This is understandable that once you improve your vocabulary and pronunciation, other related problems are also solved “The company has been very fond of allowing employees to freely use their own phones and laptops to, as long as they still assure to meet the requirements of the job However, in my opinion, this method is not really work Training sessions held by leader board which aim to talk about the role of English communication for staff at all levels would probably be more effective.” Mr.Khanh’s suggestion 36 36 Besides, 60% of the respondents disclosed their agreement with “learning and practicing English by yourself in your free time”, and 55% of them approved the suggestion “catching chances to talk to foreigners” However, as findings collected in part 3.1.2, most of them are unwilling to communicate to foreigners It is possible that these staff not have encouragement or motivation to positively improve their English communication Mrs Thai revealed “Whenever I have a large client or partner in a foreign country, I always randomly assign my staff to directly participate in the negotiations along with me My main goal is to give them the opportunity to practically access and gain experience.” There are only 30% of the respondents agree with “Entering English for employees or online English courses” There is no surprising because this method is not very appropriate to them An officer rarely has so many free times to join English courses, whether they are offline or online Especially for married people, participating in English class even becomes a remote thing These findings also presented that taking time studying on the culture and background of other regions is a great tip that the staff needed for their effective communication Evidently, having culture knowledge of your client’s country helps you easily get good impression from him/her This strategy received the agreement of 27 selections, representing 45% of the participants Statement of Mrs Linh “In my own view, improving English is the demand of all staff in our company However, the motivation that can make employees use English actively and effectively is the core issue.” 37 37 CHAPTER CONCLUSION 4.1 Conclusion This research was presented with the aims to investigate the status of English usage in negotiation, find out obstacles in as well as suggest possible solutions to improve English communication The research was based on the survey questionnaires and interviews The results of the research have made it possible to come to these following conclusions: From the English background data of the respondents, it was found that English is very necessary for their current career Many of them began learning English in primary school However, the majority of them self-evaluate their English proficiency in average level It is probably said that the staff’s frequency of using English for negotiation is quite high In addition, staff might have problems when they communicate in English at work First of all, according to collected research findings, writing was rated as the most important skill at work It’s understandable, because of the global economy, which brings us challenges in geographic distance, and also the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic, the writing skill become the most popular way to make contact with foreign clients, partners, agents or suppliers, of staff in JDL VN Company The respondents revealed that cause of the major writing skill problems was a lack of writing technique knowledge From the results of this study, a lack of English vocabulary and grammar knowledge were rated as the most significant problems of the respondents Moreover, their second biggest obstacle is the problem of searching and selecting information Some of the others could not find appropriate words for their text, or even be unable to correctly order their words Next, speaking was rated as the second important skill at work Mostly, they communicate with foreigners face-to-face, and also by the telephone to explain general information regarding the job or even answer questions However, it was also found that speaking posed a problem for employees at work In terms of speaking problems, the majority of the respondents thought that the cause of their speaking problem was that they lack of the confidence to communicate in English Some were 38 38 so worried about their concentration to catch speaker’s mean and expression to make listener understand Some others are nervous about unclear pronunciation when speaking English Based on all findings of the study, some solutions were suggested with the hope of tackling the problems In order to solve the problems, no one but staff themselves have to try Furthermore, the managers in company should pay more attention to their staff, help them find out the learners’ difficulties, as well as support them to overcome these problems and improve their English communication The researcher hopes that this study may partly contribute to improving the quality of staff in JDL VN company so as to help the company achieve better outcome in its business operation 4.2 Limitation of the study The study has certain strong points such as finding out the reality of English usage, suggesting some possible solutions, and recommendations for staff to improve their English communication, limitations are unavoidable Firstly, this research was conducted on staff of JDL VN Company, however, its limited number of participants partly made the result not to completely reflect the English usage reality Secondly, because of the limited of time and experience to some extents, each interview is not very long (7-10 minutes), the researcher could not investigate as much as information possible On the basis of the findings as well as the limitations of the study, the author hopes that this exploratory research will contribute to deal with the problems in practicing and improving English communication of JDL staff Because of the limitation, this research could not cover all aspects of the study Besides, the study merely concentrates on difficulties and real situations of JDL staff in using English so as to help them improve their English communication Additionally, for the further studies, to have better results, the researcher should conduct questionnaire surveys or interviews with more participants and the data collection methods Observation is also essential to get more persuasive results 39 39 Although the study cannot avoid the limitations, the researcher has completed the thesis under the guidance of the supervisor and self-effort Any comments and criticism will be highly appreciated for better further study REFERENCES 40 40 ... from the responses of staff and managers, data and information were analyzed to serve for answering the research questions The quantitative data gathered in the survey questionnaires were converted... VN staff The research is only carried out on a small scale, which includes the random staff from the Business Department of the company It focuses on understanding and investigating the level of. .. Scope of the study Because of the limitation in pages of the graduation paper along with the constraints of time and experience, it is impossible to study the status of using English in all JDL VN