Difficulties facing vnuas first year english majored students in speaking 2 lessons

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES BA THESIS DIFFICULTIES FACING VNUA'S FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS IN SPEAKING LESSONS NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM NHẤT CHUYÊN NGÀNH NGÔN NGỮ ANH TẠI VNUA TRONG CÁC GIỜ HỌC NÓI Student : TRINH THI DIU Student code : 621213 Major : ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Supervisor : NGUYEN THI LAN ANH, M.A Hanoi - 2021 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES BA THESIS DIFFICULTIES FACING VNUA'S FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS IN SPEAKING LESSONS NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM NHẤT CHUYÊN NGÀNH NGÔN NGỮ ANH TẠI VNUA TRONG CÁC GIỜ HỌC NÓI Student : TRINH THI DIU Student code : 621213 Major : ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Supervisor : NGUYEN THI LAN ANH, M.A Hanoi - 2021 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled “ Difficulties facing VNUA’s first-year English-majored students in speaking lessons” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis Hanoi, July 2021 Trinh Thi Diu Approved by SUPERVISOR (Signature and full name) Date:…………………… i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT In the process of completing this graduation paper, I have received many necessary assistances, precious ideas and timely encouragements from my teachers, family and friends I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor Nguyen Thi Lan Anh, M.A for her precious advice, practical suggestions and constant encouragement in the preparation and completion of this graduation paper Without her help this graduation paper would not have possibly been completed I would also like to express my great gratitude to all the teachers at Vietnam National University of Agriculture for their devoted teaching and for giving me gain valuable knowledge during the four years at this university I would be also grateful to the teachers and K65 first-year students at the Faculty of Education and Foreign Languages, Department of Professional English was helpful and happy to answer my interview and fill out my questionnaire Finally, I wish to extend my special thanks to my family and my friends for their assistance and encouragement in the making of this graduation paper Due to the limited scope and time, errors are inevitable in this BA thesis Therefore, I look forward to receiving your comments and suggestions to further improve the graduation paper Sincerely thanks! ii TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii ABSTRACT v LIST OF ABBREVIATION vi LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES vii PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1 RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY RESEARCH QUESTIONS SCOPE OF THE STUDY SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY DESIGN OF THE STUDY PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 REVIEW OF THE PREVIOUS STUDIES (AT HOME & ABROAD) 1.1.1 At home research 1.1.2 Abroad research 1.2 REVIEW OF THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.2.1 Definition of English speaking skill 1.2.2 The importance of speaking skill 1.2.3 Characteristics of speaking skill 11 1.2.4 What a good speaker does 14 1.2.5 Factors affecting speaking skill 15 1.2.6 Conclusion 16 1.3 SUMMARY 17 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 18 2.1 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 18 iii 2.2 RESEARCH SETTING 19 2.3 DATA COLLECTION 20 2.3.1 Data collecting instruments 20 2.3.2 Data collecting procedures 20 2.4 DATA ANALYSIS 21 2.5 SUMMARY 22 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 23 3.1 FINDING & DISCUSSION ON RESULTS FROM QUESTIONNAIRE 23 3.1.1 Finding 23 3.1.2 Discussion 29 3.2 FINDING & DISCUSSION ON RESULTS FROM THE INTERVIEW 31 3.2.1 Finding 31 3.2.2 Discussion 34 3.3 SUGGESTIONS ON IMPROVING THE STUDENTS’ ENGLISH SPEAKING PERFORMANCE 35 3.4 SUMMARY 39 PART 3: CONCLUSION 40 RECAPITULATION 40 CONCLUDING REMARKS 41 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 42 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES 42 REFERENCES 43 APPENDICES 45 iv ABSTRACT Speaking skills are often identified as an important, essential skill of the process of learning a foreign language in general and English in particular It is used largely as the medium of communication in many different fields such as science, technology, aviation, international sport and diplomacy, etc English helps people to communicate with each other although they are from different countries and speak different languages Most language learners find it difficult to express themselves in spoken language They are generally facing problems using a foreign language to express their thoughts effectively This study aims to find out the difficulties of the first-year English-majored at the Vietnam National University of Agriculture in speaking lessons, then find out the causes and give suggestions to improve the performance of their speaking English This study will analyze the characteristics of speaking skills; the difficulties facing English learners in Speaking at VNUA, the causes and suggestions on improving English students’ speaking performance An online survey questionnaire was conducted to answer the research question: “What are the difficulties met by the first-year English-majored students when they learn speaking skills at VNUA? “60 students completed the online survey questionnaire Then an interview with students to find out specific difficulties and causes in speaking skills Preliminary results show that the main cause is linguistic and non-verbal problems Based on the research results, the researcher has given some suggestions to faculty and students about classroom activities and extracurricular to develop their English speaking skills The study hopes that these suggestions will help first-year English-majored in particular and English learners in general become aware of the right ways to speak English fluently v LIST OF ABBREVIATION VNUA: Vietnam National University of Agriculture TMU: Thuongmai University EFL: English as a Foreign Language vi LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 3.1.1 Difficulties facing the first-year English-majored students in learning English speaking from their own perspective ( Page 23 ) Table 3.1.2 An assessment of the language difficulties of first-year Englishmajored students at VNUA ( Page 24 ) Table 3.1.3 An assessment of the psychological difficulties of first-year English- majored students at VNUA ( Page 25 ) Table 3.1.4 An assessment of learning methods difficulties of first-year English- majored students at VNUA ( Page 26 ) Chart 3.1.1 Difficulties facing the first-year English-majored students in learning English speaking ( Page 28 ) vii PART 1: INTRODUCTION RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY Nowadays, speaking is one of the most important skills to be developed and enhanced in daily lives Speaking skill is the ability to express verbally Speaking skill is different from other skills such as Reading, Writing, Listening in that it is a combination of many factors to make a speech Speaking skill is a special form of human skill; it is not what’s genetic and not congenital It is regarded as one of the most difficult aspects of language learning Most language learners find it difficult to express themselves in spoken language They are generally facing problems using a foreign language to express their thoughts effectively Speaking skill is formed and developed in the process of communication, there are many ways to express the language to be expressed For ordinary people, the speaker uses words to express their ideas and aspirations; for people with language impairments, they will use body language such as limbs, eyes… to express their ideas After studying at the Faculty of Education and Foreign Languages, Viet Nam National University of Agriculture for nearly four years, I realize that the first-year students of English major still have many difficulties in their speaking skills In the hope of finding out the difficulties of speaking that they normally get, a study entitled: “ Difficulties facing VNUA’s first-year English-majored students in speaking lessons” has been conducted because of all the abovementioned reasons AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The study is aimed to survey and research the difficulties faced by firstyear English-majored at VNUA From there, find out the causes and suggestions to help students overcome their English speaking skills Within my reach of understanding, I would only like to go through the Literature Review of due to “afraid of making mistakes” “Fear of making mistakes” is due to “not used to communicating in class.” The data above shows that between problems and causes there is a cause-effect cycle 3.2.2 Discussion From the above findings, the majority of the interviewees rated the teacher's teaching method as the most useful method for them to actively participate in the speaking lessons, indicating that they are very much looking forward to it I want to practice my English speaking skills Therefore, what can be done to improve students' speaking practice is to encourage and carefully guide them so that they can become more confident when participating in speaking practice in class On the other hand, other suggestions such as providing students with familiar topics, revision of grammar, vocabulary, and creating more opportunities for them to practice the listening skills with more comfortable performance conditions, ie, creating the language environment with real-life situations and contexts to inspire them to actively to participate in English speaking both in and outside classroom activities It should be concluded that in order to enhance students’ English speaking skills, it is essential for them to improve their knowledge of English and utilize various means of practice Once the students’ knowledge of English is improved and opportunities of practicing are available for them to speak English in class, they can gain confidence and get rid of fear of making errors, enabling them to develop their English speaking skill 34 3.3 SUGGESTIONS ON IMPROVING THE STUDENTS’ ENGLISH SPEAKING PERFORMANCE Speaking skill is one of the four important skills when learning a language, which the learner cannot ignore or underestimate So, how English language teaching teachers focus on developing speaking skills for students, while promoting students to invest time and effort in these skills The lecturers of the Speaking class also tried to solve the students' problems by encouraging the students to speak English, giving them many opportunities to speak and use English in class, asking them to speak English and must use English with the lecturer at all times Therefore, the lecturers of these subjects need to improve the proficiency of the students Lecturers need to pay attention to weak students like in this study Corrective action must be taken if necessary so that underperforming students are not left behind other students who already have better oral performance Regarding the lack of vocabulary, according to the respondents' perception, it is possible to consider the suggestions of Brown (2001), that is, teachers allocate specific time in class to learn vocabulary, help students learn contextual vocabulary, play the role of a bilingual dictionary, which encourages the development of strategies for determining word meanings and engaging in “unplanned activities” Second, instructors say language problems can be solved by instructors of language components (vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation) Instructors say attention should be paid to non-verbal issues The most common nonverbal problem most students face is “fear” Instructors should make them brave to speak up The teacher says not to criticize any mistakes that students make in class Specifically speaking problems such as vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation but give more praise for the student's progress Mistakes can be discussed privately with students after class In speaking activities, it is necessary to focus 35 on expressing ideas/content well, not on form Instructors should provide students with the necessary expressions for speaking (such as dialogues and ideas) before students practice speaking, and create speaking classes that are enjoyable and comfortable for students so that they are interested in learning to speak Besides, the lecturers who teach speaking should create communicative, fun activities as well as choosing appropriate topics in teaching to motivate students to speak because speaking is one of the difficult language skills for students Lecturers should also be student-friendly, and should be available to help students who have difficulty speaking Lecturers should give more speaking exercises while teaching speaking so that students can present and practice the language more Lecturers should also create opportunities for students to speak in class through small group discussions so that students are familiar with and not afraid to speak up Speaking instructors should also provide students with materials, as well as books, to improve their speaking skills The lecturers also try to persuade the students not to be worried or afraid if they make mistakes in speaking As proposed by Brown (2001), lecturers of Speaking should provide affective supports, such as: (a) showing a supportive to the students, (b) selecting challenging topics and activities, (c) consider students' language ego states , (d) showing patience and understanding to the students The students themselves are the most important factors leading to the successful process of learning speaking skills Ask students to speak up bravely, not afraid to make mistakes, they should be creative to find their own ways to develop their speaking ability Students should take advantage of every opportunity to practice English in and out of the classroom To increase vocabulary, students can a number of things including consulting a dictionary if they find it 36 difficult, watching TV, listening to radio or music, etc Students should also make a specific schedule to read the material data more every day because reading can add and increase their vocabulary Another way is to ask students to try or a certain amount of vocabulary each day and use them in sentences so that the memorized words are not easily forgotten This study focused on students' perceptions of their problems in the speaking class and the cause of their problems because of their fear Through the process of actual interviews and online surveys with students, the researcher also proposes some useful activities to help students practice outside the classroom to improve speaking skills:  Join English club: there is an English club at the Faculty of Education and Foreign languages This is a very friendly and open environment for students to come to exchange and discuss in English The selected topics are very close and suitable for all levels of students  English - speaking coffee shop: this is a very friendly, young and dynamic English-speaking space There are a lot of cafes Coffee is managed by many young people, with the desire create a fun place for young people to come to drink coffee, make friends, exchange and practice English Daily language, not fussy and few academic topics Come here, students like "lost" in the "land" where the main language is English, students will use English to make requests, talk, make friends, communicate with young people with the same passion Passionate about improving English communication skills  Actual communication in public: more and more students of universities in Hanoi often come tourist attractions, city centers (Sword Lake, West Lake) meet and talk with tourists from many English-speaking countries around the world Students will practice, talk with many travelers, with many different cultural styles and languages However, students need to have good 37 listening skills and vocabulary rich and appropriate usage structure to be able to communicate good, because the topics, practice content is random, there is no preparation like in-class practice Moreover, students need to equip themselves with cultural knowledge, the history of Vietnam, famous tourist attractions in Hanoi and many other provinces and cities to introduce to visitors  Discuss with friends on English-speaking Forums: In this way, students will overcome anxiety and lack of confidence such as direct practice At the same time, students of the same age, the same university learning environment will share learning experiences, learning materials, learning methods and the lives of young people Students can find English-speaking forums easily through Websites, Facebook, some learning forums of universities around the world which are also very useful for updating knowledge, skills, information learn and practice speaking English  Use English speaking practice software and websites: here is one of the most flexible and easy methods for students, they can practice at any time and any place where is convenient Practice topics are usually easy, moderate energetic and can be directed, providing vocabulary and structure appropriate sentence structure, useful for speaking topics Through these sites, not only in English, but also students can learn any foreign language for free and make friends with native speakers to improve listening and speaking skills Some popular websites such as:easylanguageexchange.com, MyEnglishTeacher.eu, gospeaky.com, languageexchange.gregloby.com, Besides, downloading free software and practicing at home will help students master Active in terms of time and learning topics, gather with yourself, some popular software such as: Side By Side, EF Englishtown, 101 Languages Of The World, WordSmart, EyeSpeak English, Most the software is provided free of charge, moderate in size and very easy to use with students When learning on software this, students 38 not only practice speaking skills, but also improve listening skills, enrich vocabulary and practice reading and writing 3.4 SUMMARY In conclusion, Chapter has given readers an analysis of the study results and a critical discussion which were fully employed in the study to interpret and assess the collected data The findings as shown explicitly throughout the chapter indicate that the study has been done in a valid manner and has enabled the researcher to answer the research question Last, specific suggestions have been given from the research results to help students improve their speaking skills in the most effective way 39 PART 3: CONCLUSION RECAPITULATION Based on the research findings and discussions, it can be concluded that the students of English-majored at VNUA are faced with some problems in English speaking skills The problems that most students are faced with in speaking were "having a lack of vocabulary", "not being confident to speak", "not being used to talking in class", and "difficulty expressing words or sentences" The cause of problems most students faced was "being afraid of making errors" There were two kinds of problems facing the students in speaking that the researcher found in this study, namely, linguistic problems and non-linguistic problems Based on the discussion, some suggestions have been proposed The most important one, speaking skills not stand alone but they are supported by the mastery of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation; accordingly, the lecturers of these subjects need to increase student’s mastery Besides, there are activities in class of lecturers on speaking skills and other activities outside of class time to improve speaking skills for students This paper reviewed the factors that affect VNUA first-year Englishmajored students’ English speaking performance The factors presented in this article play an important role in improving and developing students' speaking skills The factors make learners less self-confident and less comfortable in their speaking classes Thus, students should have a friendly and cooperative environment that can help them overcome their difficulties in oral performance Based on the review of the literature of the study, lecturers should understand their students’ interests and feelings, improve their learners’ self-confidence, and choose the best teaching method to keep their learners’ involved in the speaking activity Lecturers should give learners more time to practice speaking skills in class and at home, help them overcome shyness through friendly 40 manners so that they feel more comfortable when communicating and speaking in English in class, reminding learners not to worry too much about making mistakes and to give appropriate instructions and methods Lecturers should give learners more time to practice speaking skills in class and at home, help them overcome shyness through friendly behaviors so that they feel more comfortable when communicating and speaking English in class, reminding learners not to worry too much about making mistakes and giving them the right instructions and methods Lecturers should give learners more opportunities to speak English through the use of a number of speaking tasks in class, which can be divided into groups for discussion, and by urging them to participate in speaking activities CONCLUDING REMARKS From the results of interviews and surveys, the researcher found the biggest difficulties in linguistics problems ang non-linguistics probem Specifically, "lack of vocabulary", "lack of grammar knowledge", "poor pronunciation", "lack of confidence in speaking" and "fear of getting caught" These are specific difficulties that lead to causes such as "less remembering vocabulary", "worrying about using the right words", "rarely reading grammar books", not confident when speaking "," unaccustomed to speaking English in class", "afraid of making mistakes when speaking", "not interested in learning grammar" Since then, the researcher has made suggestions for teachers about classroom activities as well as Extracurricular activities to improve English speaking skills of firstyear English-majored in particular and all English learners in general Research questions and research objectives have been clarified through difficulties, causes and discussions to give specific solutions to improve English speaking skills in this study 41 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY Although the researcher has made a considerable effort to complete the study, there are still some unavoidable limitations beyond expectation Due to the lack of time, limited resources and limited experience of the researcher, the study still has some shortcomings Firstly, initially the researcher tend to combine questionnaires with interviews or observations so that the results obtained are more diverse and convincing However, due to the lack of time and the situation of the Covid 19 epidemic, some problems when contacting and participating in online classes could not be realized in order to observe the class more realistically, so the survey was carried out in haste thus reducing the accuracy Second, the time allowed to carry out this research is limited, so it is not possible to cover all aspects of the field and only focus on the most typical points In summary, the researcher hopes that future studies in the same field will consider those limitations to become more complete and more appreciated All the constructive comments and contributions for this study will be positively welcomed SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES It is hoped that there will be more research studies done to solve the students’ problems in learning and practicing English speaking Further studies can also be carried out in other universities or with non-major students since the different objects can give different results Moreover, future researchers can consider studying more effective methods for learning spoken English In particular, technology application is now a prominent trend, which can be put into research Hopefully, the finds for difficulties, causes and suggestions in this study can help other researchers 42 REFERENCES Baker, J., & Westrup, H (2003) Essential Speaking Skills: A Handbook for English Language Teachers London: Continuum Bashir, M., Azeem, M., & Dogar, A H (2011) on Amazon.com Brown, H.D (1994) Skill and speaking definitions (Skill development) on karlaflores08.blogspot.com/2015/04/skill-and-speaking definition.html Burns & Joyce, (1997) Focus speaking on https://í.municzth/329367/ffm/thesissolcova-textpdf Carter & McCarthy, (1995) The traditional methodology of teaching modern languages through speaking on wwwhummet.unipi.it/slifof2004vol1/pdf/Bocale2.1 Dincer, A., & Yesilyurt, S (2013) English Language Teaching, on http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/elt.v6n7p88 Eissa, A., Misbah, & Najat, A (1988) Problems of Using English as a Medium of Instruction and Communication at the College of Science, Kuwait University Educational Journal, 4(15), 47-94 Evans, S., & Green, C (2007) Why EAP Is Necessary: A Survey of Hong Kong Tertiary Students Hopkins, David (1993) A Teacher’s Guide to Classroom Research Philadelpia: Open University Press on Amazon.com Huong, P.T.H (2012) A study on technique to improve speaking skill for secondary student in Quang Ninh on http://luanvan.net.vn 10.Mazouzi, S (2013) Analysis of Some Factors Affecting Learners’ Oral Performance Mohamed Khider University of Biskra, People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria 43 11.Mustafa Mubarak Pathan (2014) An Overview of Major Difficulties Faced by the Libyan EFL Learners in Speaking Skill on https://www.researchgate.net 12.Platonov K.K (1963) Overview of knowledge, skills, techniques 13.Nunan, D (1991) Language Teaching Methodology A Textbook for Teachers New York: Prentice Hall International, Ltd on Amazon.com 14.Rubin J and Thompson L (1982) How to be a more successful speaker on https://wwwscirp.orp/ /reference/papersaspx 15.Thornbury, S (2005) How to Teach Speaking Harmer, J (Ed) London: Longman on https://academic.oup.com 16.Thu, M.T (2008) A study on the difficulties in learning English speaking skill on https://123doc.net/document.htm 17.Tuyet, T.T (2019) Difficulties in English Speaking Skill of Thuongmai University 's Majored English Freshmen and Solutions 18.Ur, Penny 1996 A Course in Language Teaching Practice: and Theory Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 44 APPENDICES Appendix 1: Survey questionnaire The original survey questionnaire by researcher Nguyen Thi Thanh Tam research titled: "Difficulties facing HUBT's second year english majored students in speaking lessons, causes and suggestions", written in 2019 Below is a questionnaire consisting of questions Strongly The difficulties in…… Strongly Disagree disagree Agree agree pronunciation lack of vocabulary lack of confidence and motivation being afraid of speaking not being good at grammar 45 Questionnaire adapted by the researcher in this ba thesis Hello everyone! I am conducting a study on the difficulties faced by first-year English-majored students - Vietnam National University of Agriculture in Speaking2 lessons Below is a questionnaire consisting of questions for the purpose of collecting information for research use Hope you spend a few minutes perfecting the following questions from your personal point of view The difficulties in…… Strongly disagree Disagree Agree Strongly agree lack of vocabulary lack of grammar knowledge poor pronunciation not being confident to speak being afraid of making errors 6.being afraid of speaking seldom reading grammar books difficulty expressing words or sentences Thank you for spending the time to take the survey! Your answers will be kept confidential and will not be used for any other purpose 46 Below is the attached online survey link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1t16C2u3MD1TemeQqqUP7q8S4qRgyNDlpWNkX9vfV_Y/edit 47 Appendix 2: Interview The interview aims to find out the difficulties facing VNUA first-year Englishmajored students in learning to speak English and the causes of those difficulties Hello, my name is Trinh Thi Diu, a fourth-year English-majored student Currently, I am doing BA thesis, so I can ask you for a few minutes to complete my BA thesis I would like to interview students some questions about speaking skills and the difficulties facing first-year English-majored students in speaking skills All of your information will be kept confidential Here are the interview questions: 1) What are the difficulties facing the first-year English-majored students when they learn speaking skills at VNUA? 2) What are the causes behind those difficulties? 3) What are some suggestions to improve their English speaking skill? Thank you very much for your precious time with me Your answers will be kept confidential and will not be used for any other purpose 48