3316 COMMON FACTORS AFFECT THE SPEAKING COMPETENCE OF ENGLISH MAJORED STUDENTS IN VIETNAM Phạm Nguyễn Hưng Phú và Nguyễn Đỗ Yến Nhi Khoa Tiếng Anh, Trường Đại học Công Nghệ TP Hồ Chí Minh GVHD ThS Tr.
COMMON FACTORS AFFECT THE SPEAKING COMPETENCE OF ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS IN VIETNAM Phạm Nguyễn Hưng Phú Nguyễn Đỗ Yến Nhi* Khoa Tiếng Anh, Trường Đại học Công Nghệ TP Hồ Chí Minh GVHD: ThS Trần Kim Hồng TĨM TẮT Speaking competence is emphasized as one of the most desirable outcomes of any English training program, which enables Vietnamese students to obtain further academic success Nevertheless, there are certain numbers of factors hindering students from speaking English well which are not fully examined This study, therefore, aims to outline the difficulties confronted by students while getting involved in the English learning process by looking closely into four articles The results indicate that students are frequently affected by affective factors, instructional elements, social and linguistic components, limited speaking environment, students' dissatisfaction with teaching methods, and limited knowledge of vocabulary as well as grammar Keywords: speaking competence, speaking difficulties, English-majored students, university, Vietnam INTRODUCTION Speaking skills is one of the essential skills in English Generally, it can help speakers convey a message, express ideas, and opinions about some the matters with the opposite Liao (2009) says that speaking plays a pivotal role in everyday interaction and most of the impression and evaluation of an individual is based on the ability to speak fluently and understandably However, Fauzan (2014) claims that in fact, students have problems speaking English due to reluctance, hesitation, fear of making mistakes, or lack of adequate vocabulary Students are not confident enough to speak spontaneously, afraid of laughing, and are confused about ordering sentences (Fauzan, 2014) Linguistic and non-linguistic problems are prevalent among Englishmajored learners and require certain observation and study (Thao & Nguyet, 2019) Therefore, this study aims to explore the common sources of difficulties in speaking English that hinder learners' speaking competence LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Definition of speaking Speaking is one of four macro skills that most learners, especially majored – English students wish to be proficient in There has long been a number of definitions related to this skill According to Bryne (1976) (as cited in Tram, 2020), “speaking is a two-way process between the speaker(s) and the listener(s) involving the productive skill of speaking and the receptive skill of understanding” Both speakers and listeners are factors 3316 that maintain the conversation in which speakers encode information into the appropriate language and communicate the message to listeners, which the listeners synthesize and decode (Bryne, 1976 as cited in Tram, 2020) 2.2 Speaking competence Speaking competence is regarded as the ability to be competent in the language, master the knowledge of communication strategies to overcome difficulties, and react to language with appropriate emotion (Bachman & Palmer, 1990, as cited in Vo, Pham & Ho, 2018) Similarly, Nunan (1990) depicts speaking competence as the capacity to utilize their speaking language lexis and syntax and the association of master of linguistics, sociolinguistic, and the ability to carry on the conversation Sharing another angle of speaking competence Speaking competence, in fact, is divided into three categories: grammatical, sociolinguistic, and strategic (Canale & Swain,1980) 2.3 Factors that affect speaking competence Regarding affective difficulties, students encounter psychological or affective issues such as fear of being wrong, timidity, nervousness, unconfidence, and lack of passion (Juhana, 2012 as cited in Thao & Nguyet, 2020) In particular, Asian students are found not to be self-assured enough to successfully convey a message in public speaking This is due to the fact that Asia cultures expect teachers and students to follow strict speaking manners (Juhana, 2012 as cited in Thao & Nguyet, 2020) Besides, teachers' instructional practices also contribute to learners' speaking difficulties such as teacher’s talking time, the use of native language in the classroom, and teachers’ low proficiency of English (Nawshin, 2009 as cited in Thao & Nguyet, 2020) As far as linguistic difficulty is concerned, learners frequently have limited linguistic knowledge related to their unsuitable association, structural comprehension, shortage of grammar knowledge because they not have clear basic English knowledge or they are not taught about it (Thao & Nguyet, 2019) Moreover, a great number of studies regarding the difficulties of ESL/EFL have pointed out that lexical insufficiency, insisting stubbornly on grammar syntax, lacking opportunities to speak in-class, the shortages of English speaking environment are hindrance to learners' speaking competency (Gan, (2012) as cited Vo, Pham & Ho, 2018) In the Vietnamese classroom setting, some common issues that affect the students’s abilty to speak English fluently namely learning strategies, anxiety, and mastery language; the lecturers’ problems: teaching methodology, and educational aptitude (Le, 2011, as cited in Vo, Pham & Ho, 2018) Another study conducted by (Ngo 2011, as cited in Vo, Pham & Ho, 2018) claimed that language barriers confronted by Vietnamese students include their mindset, semantic knowledge, and social anthropology RESEARCH METHODS 3317 The paper summarizes the results from four articles of Thao and Nguyet (2019); Vo, Pham and Ho (2018); Loan (2019) and Tram (2020) FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION The study by Thao and Nguyet (2020) figured out that English - majored students commonly have difficulty associated with affective components, instructional elements as well as social and linguistic issues In regard to the affective factors, the participants reported feeling "nervous" and "lack of self-confidence in speaking English" Specially, they typically encounter "anxiety of being wrong." In other words, English-majored students seem to experience a variety of negative emotions when speaking English on a regular basis.The study revealed that the instructors’ teaching methods not have influence on the ability to communicate including their "instructors' harsh error correction," "instructors' overuse of L1 in speaking class," "instructors' low command of English speaking abilities," and "instructors' low encouraging me to speak English".The results reveal that English-major students lack "English vocabulary" and "English grammatical competence" in English in public speaking To put it differently, linguistic difficulties limit participants' development in speaking English to a certain degree Vo, Pham and Ho’s (2018) findings proved that 65 %of students have problems speaking tactics, followed by the lack of speaking environment More than 50% of participants stated that they lacked the presence of foreign lecturers in the speaking classes and outstanding peers to motivate them to speak English Some teachers revealed a limited number of English speaking clubs or English programs also diminish students' opportunity to improve their English communication Furthermore, some students show their dissatisfaction with the teaching methods in-class activities, in-class performance of the lecturers when teachers keep using Vietnamese while delivering lessons and teach lexicon and grammar abundantly Students' frequent use of Vietnamese in English speaking class while brainstorming or discussing also reduce their English speaking competency Interestingly, students not contemplate that shyness is the factor that hinders their speaking competence A research by Loan (2019) indicated that More than half of students are afraid to respond to the teacher's questions in English According to the research, many students were fairly quiet in their English conversation exchange with teachers From that perspective, the responses of the inattentive learners reflected that they had little or no engagement in the communicative skill As a result, the ‘willing to communicate' (WTC) of learners to learn is particularly low The findings demonstrated that a number of individual-related factors influenced the students' WTC such as their low English language ability and inconfidence Nearly half of the students stated that they are apprehensive because they not make sure of their answers, indicating that roughly half of the students were scared of making problems and showing weakness In speaking lessons, approximately the same number of students were anxious and ashamed 3318 The study by Tram (2020) found out the problems that students deal with during their speaking performance, relate to linguistics and non-linguistic factors From the linguistics perspective, the majority of students have a habit of thinking in Vietnamese and then translating into English while preparing for an oral work The finding mentions that insufficient lexis, mispronouncing the words and shortage of collocation restrict students' speaking ability Besides, low grammar comprehension such as making sentences to express their opinion, in fact, impacts the accuracy and fluency of English speaking Eventually, vocabulary retention, especially words with multiple meanings, is also a problem that hinder speaking competency of nearly 50% of interviewees CONCLUSION To sum up, students have difficulties in speaking English fluently due to a number of linguistics and nonlinguistic factors Regarding linguistic elements, insufficient knowledge of grammar and vocabulary contribute considerably to student's speaking competence whereas non-linguistic factors such as lack of speaking environment, teaching methods, and shyness act as a hindrance to students' speaking progress REFERENCES [1] Canale, M., & Swain, M., 1980 Theoretical Bases of Communicative Approaches to Second Language Teaching and Testing Applied Linguistics 1(1): 1-47 [2] Fauzan, Umar (2014) The Use of Improvisation technique to improve the Speaking ability of EFL students DINAMIKA ILMU Vol 14 No 2, 50 [3] Liao, G (2009) Improvement of Speaking Ability through Interrelated Skills English Language Teaching, 2(3), 11-14 http://dx.doi.org/10/5539/elt.v2n3p11 [4] Loan, T T T (2019) Factors Affecting EFL Students’ Willingness to Communicate in Speaking Classes at the Vietnamese Tertiary Level International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences, 4(2) [5] Nunan, D (1999) Second Language Teaching & Learning USA Heinle & Heinle Publisher [6] Thao, T Q., & Nguyet, D T N (2019) Four aspects of English speaking difficulties encountered by tertiary English-majored students SOCIAL SCIENCES, 9(2), 53-64 [7] Tram, H T A (2020) Problems Of Learning Speaking Skills Encountered By English Major Students At Ba Ria-Vung Tau University, Vietnam European Journal of English Language Teaching, 5(4) [8] Vo, P Q., Pham, T M N., & Ho, T N (2018) Challenges to speaking skills encountered by Englishmajored students: A story of one Vietnamese university in the Mekong Delta Can Tho University Journal of Science, 54(5), 38-44 3319