Dang Van Huynh ABSTRACT Nowadays, English is considered as a lingua franca which is the common and international language that any global citizens speak daily However, there contains many difficulties that obstacle many people from having a good English speaking skill The main focus of the study was to investigate the current barriers of Eden Garden English centers RD employees in speaking English, as well as some potential solutions for improving their English speaking skills The study was.
ABSTRACT Nowadays, English is considered as a "lingua franca" which is the common and international language that any global citizens speak daily However, there contains many difficulties that obstacle many people from having a good English speaking skill The main focus of the study was to investigate the current barriers of Eden Garden English center's R&D employees in speaking English, as well as some potential solutions for improving their English speaking skills The study was descriptive in nature The questionnaire was designed by myself in the concerned field It was tabulated in the form of counting frequencies and then analyzed through percentages The main findings of the study were: by speaking English as a routine not as a subject given in a publicschool curriculum, employees can better their speaking performance Enough time is not given to various exercises and opportunities for the improvement of speaking ability Employees also complained of scolding, and discouraging by their fixed and tedious environment for not speaking too often Despite working in the R&D Department of an English academy, staffs seem not to apply English very often in their daily conversations or work but leaning on their mother tongue (Vietnamese) To improve the speaking ability, more stress on the quality of books at the basic level, enough time given to speaking and phonetic drills of employees, no scolding but provision of friendly environment, making practical and applicable strategies by R&D Director for his/her juniors while speaking most of the time in English, develop boldness and confidence in employees for asking questions from their seniors, awards and motivation for them, the role of media such as listening to CNN and BBC, inclusion of viva-voce in the working system at various levels for checking the competence of the candidates, up to-date and constant training of academic staff, arranging various activities and balance in the training sessions with respect to literature and language should be there to provide opportunities to improve the language proficiency of R&D employees 1|Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deep gratitude to Mr Phong, founder & academic director at Eden Garden English for his valuable assistance during the time that I conduct this research First and foremost, I'd like to express my gratitude to all of the teachers who supported me with this study I'd like to express my gratitude in particular to MA Pham Thi Xuan Ha, who provided me with step-by-step instructions and supportive guidelines while I was writing this paper My heartfelt gratitude goes to the Faculty of English teaching staff at Thuongmai University In addition, I must acknowledge the engagement of final-year students majoring in English at Thuongmai University who have avidly participated in the research No word can express my deep gratitude to all study partners getting along with me in every lesson taught at Thuongmai University Thank you for all your support and cooperation that lead to my background today Last but not least, I'd like to express my gratitude to our parents, who have been emotionally and financially supportive of our decision to study English at Thuongmai University I might not be here to finish this study if it weren't for their assistance I sincerely thank you! Hanoi, March 24th, 2022 Student Dang Van Huynh 2|Page TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract Acknowledgements Chapter 1: Overview of the study 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Previous studies 1.3 Aims of the study 1.4 Research subjects 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 Methodology 1.7 Organization of the study Chapter 2: Literature Review 2.1 Overview of speaking skill 2.2 Difficulties in speaking skill 2.3 Overview of speaking English skills at the workplace Chapter 3: Research Findings 3.1 Questionnaire 3.2 Result Findings Chapter 4: Recommendations and suggestions 4.1 Recommendations 4.2 Research limitations Conclusions Page 01 02 04 04 05 06 06 06 06 08 09 10 11 13 17 30 35 37 3|Page CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY Rationale English is a pivotal key in general and speaking skills in particular Besides, English is 1.1 the language of international communication Although English is not the most used language in the world, it is the official language in 53 countries and is spoken as a first language by around 400 million people worldwide But that’s not all, it is also the most common second language in the world According to the British Council, by 2020 about two billion people in the world will be studying English Hence, it is likely that if you meet up with someone from another country, it's possible to use English It gives you a chance to the world and helps you communicate with global citizens Today, many films, TV shows, books and music are produced in English By understanding English, people won’t need to rely on translations and subtitles anymore By accessing these media, people will also continuously improve their English listening and reading skills English is currently considered as the language of the internet An estimated of 565 million people use the internet daily and about 52% of the world’s most visited websites are displayed in English Therefore, learning this language gives access to over half the content of the internet, which might not be available otherwise Whether it is for fun or for work, if you understand English, you will be able to exchange information with more people online and use many more materials As highlighted before, since English is spoken as a first language in 53 countries and as a second language in over 118 countries, learning the language makes it much easier to travel anywhere Indeed, airport announcements, train timetables, emergency information and street signs are often available in English, including in countries where the native language uses a different type of alphabet It goes without saying that, when travelling to a country where you don’t speak the language, you are practically guaranteed to find someone who understands at least some English 1.2 Previous studies In order to speak English fluently and naturally, I examined it when writing this dissertation and selected some good concepts from: "The Utilization of Technology to Improve English Speaking Skills" (by Andi Herlina, student at Maritime Academy of Veteran Republic of Indonesia (AMI) Makassar) The paper leaves out many innovative 4|Page methods and techniques about technology-based assessment utilized to assess language proficiency improvement The paper aims at illustrating some activities and approaches to be performed by utilizing technology to assess and to monitor achievement of English language learners In addition, "The Use of Monologue Speaking Tasks to Improve First-Year Students’ English-Speaking Skills" by the group authors from Institute of Humanities, Department of Foreign Languages is also a valuable research worth discussing and exploring The paper contained the qualitative content analysis of monologue speaking tasks Results of the study make it possible to conclude that the use of monologue speaking tasks paired with peer interaction and peer assessment can improve first-year students’ English-speaking skills Knowing how to approach the speaking skills is a crucial point that any teachers are in need of comprehending Learning how to encourage language learners also made up the large proportion in the students' outcomes The need of interacting and communicating with foreign countries is increasing considerably Many efforts are conducted to better English speaking performances and presentation of L2 learners Thinking of bringing an interact activities might be a good pathway to improve English speaking ability of students In the research " An analysis of students’ barriers in speaking English fluently" by Tansa Harina, a student at ArRaniry State Islamic University The result shows that individual barrier is the main barriers faced by the students, and then language barrier, environment also interpersonal barriers are followed In a word, there have some past researches on barriers and how to approach English speaking skill more effectively, both for teachers and students All of the studies suggest that different perspectives of the matter brought readers a more general view of the situation and help them appreciate the need of developing speaking skills for everyone, including employees Some past researches relevant to this study will be evaluated in this section of the study to discover barriers leading to lack of confidence in speaking and provide some methods to improve the speaking skill of R&D staff at Eden Garden English Center 1.3 Aims of the study 5|Page The aim of study is finding out what the staff's most prevalent problems are when it comes to speaking in English in the working environment of Eden Garden English Center in R&D Department when communicating with co-workers and students, depending on the major findings of former researches regarding speaking skill Finding out the barriers, I would like to recommend some ways to better their English speaking 1.4 Research subjects This study was done with the assistance of ten R&D employees and R&D director from Eden Garden English Center All of the employees have varying levels of English writing ability and are eager to fill out questionnaires Furthermore, the director is at liberty to participate in the interview questions This research is carried out in order to attain the objectives by addressing the following two research questions: - What are the personnel at of Eden Garden English center’s difficulties in speaking English? - What are some options for helping them improve their speaking skills? 1.5 Scope of the study To initiate, the researcher would like to investigate the elements that inhibit English speaking skills; therefore, the study only focused on employees' attitudes and the causes that result in English speaking skills hurdles, as well as feasible solution for them The report would not examine or explain the relationship between employees' speaking skills and all skills In addition, due to time and the lack of experience, the researcher did not dig into other areas such as the benefits of good speaking skills, the obstacles that R &D employees encounter with English speaking skill when they work in the teaching context and their office Second, due to time, funding, facility, and experience constraints, the study merely focused on the current staff at Eden Garden English Center 1.6 Methodology 1.6.1 Context of the study 6|Page Eden Garden English Center specializes in providing the high-quality English training programs certified by Cambridge to customer Students at the center are usually at the age between and 14 years old The company's employees are required to communicate with a large number of students and students' parents in Bac Ninh province in order to fulfill their goals and objectives It is an ESL learning environment so teachers and R&D staff might have to speak English for the entire time It implies that their work is heavily influenced by English When communicating with students, their parents and even their own co-workers at the same company, opting for speaking English is an ideal choice 1.6.2 Participants The research included 16 R&D and academic employees from R&D Department who were chosen at random Most of them are teaching English and working with a large number of students, lesson plans, and slides, and putting their English abilities to use There were four men and eleven women in the department given The pie chart compares the proportions between the number of male employees and female employees in R&D Department at Eden Garden English center 1.6.3 Research methods To complete this study, the following approaches were evaluated and chosen: - Reference materials, such as reference books and prior studies, were carefully selected, investigated, and assessed - To gather information for this thesis, final-year students at the Faculty of English completed a survey questionnaire and a personal question interview 7|Page 1.7 Organization of the study This research was organized into four main chapters: Chapter 1: Overview of the study: This chapter illustrates an overview of the research It comprises the reason for the investigation, the objectives of the study, and some past studies connected to the current research Following that are research topics, the scope of the study, and the research technique The final step is to organize the research Chapter 2: Literature review, this part lays the foundation for the research This chapter reviews the terms and concepts related to speaking skill, the importance of speaking skill, problems in learning English speaking as well as some factors influencing employees’ speaking skill And the last is some ways to improve English speaking skill Chapter 3: Research findings, it presents the results of the study, discussion of the results and summary of major findings Chapter 4: Recommendations and suggestions, in this chapter, some recommendations are suggested to help R&D employees improve their English speaking skill along with some recommendations for further study 8|Page Dang Van Huynh CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Overview of speaking skill 2.1.1 Definition of speaking and Speaking skills Speaking is the action of conveying information or expressing one's thoughts and feelings in spoken language Additionally, speaking skills are defined as the skills which allow us to communicate effectively They give us the ability to convey information verbally and in a way that the listener can understand Speaking is one of the four language skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) It is the means through which learners can communicate with others to achieve certain goals or to express their opinions, intentions, hopes and viewpoints In addition, people who know a language are referred to as "speakers" of that language Furthermore, in almost any setting, speaking is the most frequently used language skill Speaking is expressing thought, ideas, and feeling which use the ability to pronounce the words to organize the words into phrases or sentence to choose the words related to the topic In methodology of teaching, speaking is the output of listening, thus, a productive skill that everyone need to know 2.1.2 Importance of speaking skills Speaking is a productive or expressive skill in oral mode and a crucial part of learning Speech is normally produced by manipulating the air-stream coming out of the lungs, speaking is an act of conversing or expressing one's thoughts and feelings in spoken language Speaking often implies conveying information For the demand of communication, speaking skill plays an important role in delivering the massages included feelings, statuses, opinion, information… to the audience/listener 2.1.3 Characteristics of speaking skills 9|Page Dang Van Huynh Speaking skill is determined by three factors: phonation, articulation and correct pronunciation Pronunciation includes the characteristics of pitch (high, low voice), duration (long, short) and intensity (powerful, weak) Pronunciation is the way in which a word or a language is spoken This may refer to generally agreed-upon sequences of sounds used in speaking a given word or language in a specific dialect ("correct pronunciation") or simply the way a particular individual speaks a word or language Articulation is the formation of clear and distinct sounds in speech Phonation is the production or utterance of speech sounds 2.2 Difficulties in speaking in English Communicating and transferring messages in daily conversations are two key issues that any person is in need of doing to survive in a modern society There, however, contains many barriers that obstacles students and English learners from speaking English naturally and fluently It has been observed that most of Vietnamese students are not competent in speaking skills They cannot speak English fluently and effectively They feel shy and are afraid of making mistake when they are required speak Here we discuss the barriers to English speaking skill: 2.2.1 Text Oriented System In our traditional classes we have generally text-oriented system The teacher spends most of the time on teaching textbooks She does not have enough time to teach spoken skills to the students That is why students are often lack in speaking skills 2.2.2 Stress on Reading and Writing There is no place for speaking skill in our curriculum of English Some educational departments put main focus on reading and writing skills The other two skills i.e listening and speaking are entirely overlooked or sometimes ignored Therefore, the students not have chance to gain proficiency in spoken skill 10 | P a g e Dang Van Huynh them more interested in the lesson and help they understand the lesson with fun and excitement In addition, the figures are 18,8 % for "strongly agree" employees, which prove that they are in need of the new methods and approaches in teaching to better their acquisition Question 10: Learning English through funny extra- activities is a good way for students to work in group? The given pie chart compares the percentage of employees presenting their ideas about how much they agree with the fact that engaging in learning English by funny extra-activities is a good way for their students and even them to work in a team It is noticeable that "extremely agree" was the most favored opinions about this question, followed by "agree", "strongly agree" and "undecided" opinions with 18,8% each However, there have a minor share accounted by "disagree" ideas about the benefits of extra activities in teamwork Question 11: How often your teachers hold the extra- activities in teaching speaking? 23 | P a g e Dang Van Huynh The chart compares the percentage of employees who show their viewpoint about the frequency of teachers holding extra activities in speaking training sessions for them It is noticeable that they mostly agree that the teachers usually organized games and other activities to better their speaking performance There is just a minor complaint about some of their former teachers didn't use any activities in teaching speaking Understandably, the common education system in Vietnam pay more attention on training students on grammatical rules by using the "task-based" and "grammar translation" approaches, which put pressures on students to cram for structures to complete their homework Students and teachers in Vietnam are even better in English grammar than native speakers This drives students to the thoughts that English at school is just a subject, obstacle them from using their knowledge in real speaking practice Question 12: Do you practice speaking in your free time? Surprisingly, the number of employees who themselves practice their speaking in their free time account for quarters of the chart, which illustrates their determination, big self24 | P a g e Dang Van Huynh regulation in comprehending the speaking skills Self-study is a push that helps them sharpen their English presentation skill Question 13: Which of the following topics is the most difficult one for you? (You can choose more than one answer) The bar chart illustrates the topics probably challenging to employees at Eden Garden English It can be referred from the chart that "Pollution and Environment" is two topics that they find most difficult to present, while "Economic" and "Health care and Welfare" are lesser in the level of difficulty according to the figures at 31,3% and 37,5% respectively Education is might be a normal topic that makes up 43,8% in the opinions of 16 employees Question 14: How often you encounter these problem when speaking? 25 | P a g e Dang Van Huynh The graph illustrates the levels of impacts that some of problems can be encountered during the time students and employees speak or deliver speeches, which might lead to unsuccessful conversations Sometimes, they might feel embarrassed and unconfident when standing in front of the crowd or public, the rates examined are high at "always, sometimes, often" The "always" figures saw the peak at "Slang and Dialects" with votes from the R&D staff at Eden Garden English center The "often" data shows a considerable part in the chart when staff speed of speech from others is the point that are concerned to happen frequently when they speak the language This can be explained by the weak listening skill that leads to the low response in the speech and conversations Unfamiliar topics can be a big issue needed to be resolved as an ESL teacher needs to be comprehensive and competent in speaking skill to teach and train students this output skill Question 15: What will you when you don't understand a phrase or a piece of speech that your co-workers say? 26 | P a g e Dang Van Huynh It can be clearly seen from the chart that most of employees would ask their co-workers to rephrase or say it again to clarify their ideas and messages There is a minor share at 12,5 % employees ignoring the misunderstood phrases or sentences Question 16: What you to improve your speaking skill? It The chart illustrates the ways that employees use to improve their speaking skills including four ways given It is clear that most of the employees practice their pronunciation, intonation and linking sounds to enhance their speaking It can be said that most of them focus on the basis to develop their verbal performance in English because they weren't trained or taught about pronunciation in the past The training materials should contain the lessons in IPA and also intonations, accents to help improve students in their daily conversation Nearly 45 percent of employees opted for learning new words and phrases to better their communication This is the traditional approach to the language examined, at school, they were taught a lot with lexical resources and then apply new words in the tasks and assignments given by the teachers and lecturers at university Several academic employees take up learning speaking though mimicking the commercials and breaks at BBC, CNN and some videos with applied shadowing techniques to improve their 27 | P a g e Dang Van Huynh fluency Some of the employees chose to learn in a team to better their speaking Working in a team can be an effective way to maintain the self-regulation and external regulation Question 17: Are you male of female? In this English center, it is obvious that the number of female employees outweighs the number of male employees It’s 68,8 percent which women account for in the workforce of the R&D Department, followed by the share of men at 31,3% 3.2.2 Results from interview questions The survey is responded by 16 R&D employees including managers, academic specialists and teachers, which can partially useful to give some suggestions on using some techniques in studying English speaking skill Most of the participants agree that they like learning English and have been learning English for many years It means that teachers will have many advantages in teaching Moreover, they have a basic background to study English for specific purposes Most of them admitted that studying English speaking skill through the extra- activities help them obtain the knowledge more rapidly and exciting Furthermore, demanding about studying English speaking skill through extra- activities creates a pleasant atmosphere in class most pupils agreed or strongly agreed with this statement It is also a good opportunity for them to work in group Just only small of employees feel excited about the current English teaching method so that nearly of participants want to have a new creative English teaching method 28 | P a g e Dang Van Huynh After clearly analyzing the survey results and taking in-person interviews with employees in the R&D department at Eden Garden English center, there are some findings that can be resolved to improve all of the employees The R&D departments are on demand to change their mode of learning and teaching to come up with and get the ideal teaching and communicating techniques Giving extra activities and updated methodology should be immediately conducted by the head of the department Most of the employees considers speaking as an interesting skill but hard to better and they take notice a lot to pronunciation, intonation and linking sounds Moreover, they usually follow the conventional methods that they learn speaking by cramming for new words and phrases when learning Conversely, to reflex and answer questions given by students, parents or coworkers better, they need to practice in real conversations, so that teamwork is possible to better their speaking One barrier that needs to be removed is that they have difficulties in listening skills (input), so it leads to the misunderstanding in some situations when the speech pace is too rapid to follow Employees' viewpoints of speaking are quite positive and they are eager to employ better techniques when learning speaking skill 3.3 Main findings and discussion 3.3.1 Difficulties in speaking English of staff at R&D Department, Eden Garden English center One issue that leads to the low speaking skill (output) is that the listening comprehension (input) is quite low Therefore, they are in need of bettering their listening first to decode the message from others before giving the responses to the message delivered The second issue is that they don't really have a good approach to speaking Consequently, employees' speaking skill is just sharpened by themselves through self-study Sometimes as they not understand what their senior and co-workers, they cannot respond to the message given and it's hard for a B1-B2 level teachers to rephrase a sentence 29 | P a g e Dang Van Huynh Unfamiliar topics could be a big problem when employees tend to ignore those and become unconfident and not well-prepared when being asked the never-asked-before questions CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 4.1 Recommendations Obviously, current situations of learning and studying English speaking skill at Eden Garden English Center has been unfolded Through the study, it is discovered that techniques in employees' favor are not frequently used by teachers such as using pictures, games, mime and gesture, hues words, role play In fact, there are a number of useful techniques for learning and enhancing English speaking skill; for example: studying on online education based websites on the internet, listening to the news/podcast on TV, reading newspaper, conversing with the foreigners, which are really simple and good ways to learn English speaking for a better outcome Each of them can be applied many small techniques For the limitation of this research, I only present the capability of some techniques in studying English speaking skill The capability will concentrate on some suggested techniques to help the employees at Eden Garden English center have more applications and effectiveness in learning speaking skill 4.1.1 Ways to improve pronunciation, Stress and Intonation Jazz chants and rhythms Tongue Twisters The International Phonetic Alphabet Role play tasks focusing on pronunciation and expression Teach some rules of stress and emphasis Story book read by the teacher to model correct pronunciation Watching video clips and studying the use of stress and intonation R&D managers and employees can employ some of these techniques The basis of all the methods is that teachers and the keynote trainers need to apply the • • • • • • • • principle 80/20 (80% practicing - 20% training) to give students - employees times to make mistakes and then correct them 4.1.2 Approaches to teaching speaking skills Here are some practical principles that may help you in designing speaking techniques: Techniques should cover the spectrum of learner needs, from language-based focus on accuracy to message-based focus on interaction, meaning, and fluency • Techniques should be intrinsically motivating 30 | P a g e Dang Van Huynh Techniques should encourage the use of authentic language in meaningful contexts Provide appropriate feedback and correction Capitalize on the natural link between speaking and listening Give students opportunities to initiate oral communication Encourage the development of speaking strategies such as: • Asking for clarification • Asking someone to repeat something • Using fillers to gain time to process • Getting someone' s attention • Using paraphrases for structures one can't produce • Using formulaic expressions • Using mime and nonverbal expressions to convey meaning Interactive techniques such as: • Interviews • Guessing games • Ranking exercises • Discussions • Role-play • Individual practice: Oral dialogue journals (using tape recorders) 4.1.3 Some approaches to incorporate speaking Even though it’s a lesson related to reading, listening and writing skills, teachers can also • • • • incorporate speaking skill into the lesson plan by adapting communicative approach in the lesson Before starting to the main teaching points, the warm-up activities could be relevant to a speaking activities that encourage students to speak During the lesson, teachers or trainers can ask comprehension questions and or give students/employees time to discuss the outlines, reading texts and contents given in the texts Storytelling (Micrologue) Besides teaching students about vocabulary and grammar, teachers should put theories into real practice/acquisitions for students to achieve their best outcomes A micrologue is one of the Rassias features that actually provides understandable messages in the target language A micrologue requires a story that can be reduced to 4-6 sentences Each of those sentences has a picture drawn on the board or on a slide The teacher delivers the sentence that goes with the picture to an identified guinea pig while the rest of the class takes it down as dictation Picture by picture, the teacher repeats the sentence that goes with the picture three times before moving on to the next The sentences must be understandable via the pictures After the entire story has been told this way, the text of the 31 | P a g e Dang Van Huynh story (4-6 sentences) is shown on the board so that class members can check their dictation and make corrections Then, the teacher walks through the four pictures again and asks the guinea pig leading yes/no questions about each picture–requiring a complete sentence as answer The questions all evoke the sentences involved Finally, the guinea pig is asked to stand and re-tell the story using the pictures If the guinea pig falters, the class can help from their dictation notes E.g.: Teachers teach some following words and simple past tense: "goose, go swimming, workers, sleep, evening, students" This might be a good chance for students to practice memorizing and applying the new words into real contexts Mind map (Macrologue) 32 | P a g e Dang Van Huynh A mind map is a visual record of new vocabulary, or other content Vocabulary mind maps are also known as word maps or spider grams, and are organized in a way that shows groupings or relationships between the words Example The teacher writes a list of words based around the topic of food on the board Learners organize the words in a mind map and then compare ideas on how they have grouped words and related them In the classroom Mind maps are often used as a tool in the planning stage for writing exercises, as learners can structure ideas and discuss how they are related 4.1.4 Suggestions for self-study a Watch television and films in English Not only Britain and the USA produce some of the best TV shows and films in the world, but you can learn English whilst watching them If you’re still getting to grips with the language at any level (from beginner to upper intermediate) then it’s worth putting the English subtitles on so that you can read along and listen at the same time b Read English books/newspapers 33 | P a g e Dang Van Huynh Reading is a great way of practicing English in your own time You can take one word at a time at your own pace, without your teacher peering over your shoulder If you’re studying at a beginner to intermediate level, pick up a children’s book where the language will be easier than an adult book Newspapers are also worth reading Not only can you improve your English but you’ll learn about local and national goings on, which can be handy when communicating with native speakers Free newspapers and magazines, as well as tabloid-style newspapers which use more basic language, are perhaps better for low level speakers c Label things in your house This is a quick and cheap way of improving your knowledge of the vocabulary of everyday items in your home All you need to is buy a pack of labels and then write the name of items in your home on them, such as phone, window, mirror etc Every time you use these objects you’ll read the word and embed it into your memory This is great for low level learners d Make notes of new vocabulary Whenever you learn a new word, whether in the classroom or when you’re out and about, make sure you make a note of it Whenever you have some free time, you can practice what you’ve learned You could even this on your phone so you needn’t carry around a notebook with you It’s also worth making a note of the translation into your own language and any unusual phonological aspects of the word e Surround yourself with English speakers If you just spend your time outside of the classroom with people from your own country, you’ll miss out on a big chance to practice English If you try to befriend other English speakers, you’ll be forced into speaking the English language You’ll also pick up things like slang and conversational English that you’re unlikely to learn in the classroom 34 | P a g e Dang Van Huynh 4.2 Research limitations The size of the sample and the data collection method were limitations in the study 4.2.1 Sample The sample consisted of teachers, managers and R&D staff at Eden Garden English Center The participants were knowledgeable regarding English speaking performances but had insufficient knowledge of the training and teaching methods as well as psychology in teaching and approaching adults in their process to learn the language 4.2.2 Method of data collection Focus group interviews seem like an easy method of collecting data, but in practice they can be tricky Although the researcher explained the ground rules such as allowing one person to speak at a time, it was not easy and the researcher had to remind the participants of this on several occasions 35 | P a g e Dang Van Huynh CONCLUSION Speaking is an important skill due to communication by itself It is often the primary medium for presenting and selling products or ideas Therefore, people need to learn and practice English speaking skill whether they are a student or an adult However, most of their difficulties is they not have good and interesting methods to practice English speaking In this graduation paper, I have consulted a lot of English books and websites to explores what factors learners of English and employees at Eden Garden English Center consider important when speaking English An overview of speaking in chapter I gave the audience a general understanding about definition, purpose, and major types of speaking and extra-activities Next, 16 R&D staffs were surveyed at Eden Garden English A 17- item questionnaire was used to discover their attitudes about speaking lessons and their expectations about the new teaching method in speaking teaching plans Descriptive statistic and principal component analysis was done in the chapter II and the result indicated that the participants consider extra- activities is the interesting approach that help them a lots in learning and improving their output skill Based on the outcome of the study, this paper further delineates the pedagogical implications for studying speaking skill as well as some good techniques in order to improve speaking skill and teaching techniques applied in all of the lesson plans designed by R&D department However, because the limitation of time, of knowledge as well as of experience, mistakes in this paper might be possible to be made So, I desire receiving contribution feedbacks from my teachers and friends Once again, would like to express many of my thanks to my supervisor Mrs Pham Thi Xuan Ha for her whole hearted help in my study and also to all my teachers, my friends and my family members, who have encouraged me to accomplish this graduation paper 36 | P a g e Dang Van Huynh REFERENCES https://www.ewriter29.com/skills/communication-skills/barriers-to-speaking-english/ https://www.regent.org.uk/blog/post/6016/benefits-of-using-english-in-the-workplace Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D., & Goodwin, J (1986) Teaching pronunciation Reference for Teachers of English to Speakers of other languages Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Morley, J (1998) Trippingly on the tongue: Putting serious speech/pronunciation instruction back in the TESOL equation ESL Magazine, January/February, 20-23, Morley, J (1991) Pronunciation component in teaching English to speakers of other languages TESOL Quarterly, 25(3), 481-520 Pennington, M (1994) Recent research in L2 phonology: Implications for practice https://rassias.dartmouth.edu/workshops/ https://www.skola.co.uk/tips-improving-english 37 | P a g e ... employees at Eden Garden English center have more applications and effectiveness in learning speaking skill 4.1.1 Ways to improve pronunciation, Stress and Intonation Jazz chants and rhythms Tongue... international relationships, enhancing your skill- set and negotiating a higher salary level and enhancing international relationships through cultural understanding The ability to communicate in English. .. | P a g e Dang Van Huynh 2.2.3 Grammar Translation Method Grammar translation method is also a barrier in learning speaking skill The students are taught English through grammar translation method