Study on factors affecting the speaking skills of freshmen in the faculty of foreign languages at banking academy

BANKING ACADEMY OF VIETNAM FOREIGN LANGUAGE FACULTY             GRADUATION THESIS A STUDY ON FACTORS AFFECTING THE SPEAKING SKILLS OF FRESHMEN IN THE FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AT BANKING ACADEMY Supervisor : MR NGO TUNG ANH Student name : NGUYEN THI QUE Class : K20 ATCB Faculty : Foreign Languages Student code : 20A7510146 Hanoi 2021 Tai ngay!!! Ban co the xoa dong chu nay!!! 17014128959661000000 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis is one of the things that makes me extremely proud and also one of the greatest achievements that I have got during my learning time at Banking Academy However, it also makes me feel worried about whether I can be able to complete it in a good way Fortunately, I have received plenty of supports, guidance, encouragement, helps from many people during the process of completing this paper thesis First and foremost, I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to Dr Ngo Tung Anh for his expert guidance during the journey of writing this thesis He has read, discussed, and gave critical feedback and suggestion for every aspect and section of this thesis with enthusiasm He even helped me to fix grammatical and spelling mistakes for the thesis His recommendations also helped to shape the form and contents of the final version I have to say that, without his guidance, I could not complete my graduation thesis Next, I would like to also thank my very dear mother who gives me unconditional love, encouragement, and support She plays an important role in my life because She is not only my lovely mother but also my best friend I would not have been who I am today without her Last but not least, extra special thanks go to all participants who take part in the survey Without their cooperation and assistance, my research would not have been finished Hopefully, that this thesis will be useful information for readers can get useful information from this thesis even this thesis is far from being perfect Moreover, any criticisms, ideas, and suggestions for the improvement of this thesis are greatly welcomed i CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I declare that this graduation thesis is my own research, under the guidance of Mr Ngo Tung Anh The research contents and results are accurate and have never been published in any study works before The references are properly cited as prescribed in the reference section Hanoi, 23th MAY, 2021 Signature Nguyen Thi Que ii ABSTRACT The title of the thesis: A Study on Factors Affecting the Speaking Skills of Freshmen in The Faculty of Foreign Languages at Banking Academy Author: Nguyen Thi Que Advisor: Mr Ngo Tung Anh Key words: Speaking, factors, freshmen Abstract: Nowadays, English is acknowledged as an international language all over the world If students are good at English, they can have opportunities to broaden their horizons and get lucrative jobs in the future However, out of the four language skills, speaking is considered the most important skill but also the most difficult one This study aims at exploring the learners’ speaking problems and finding out the main factors causing them then suggesting some useful and effective techniques to improve the freshmen’ oral skills In order to fulfill those purposes, questionnaires and documents were used as the main research instrument to collect data Findings proved that there were two main kinds of factors that affected the freshmen’s speaking skills called internal factors and external factors The internal ones related to the factors coming from the students themselves and language itself, such as lack of active vocabulary, mispronunciations, topical knowledge, listening ability, grammatical knowledge, anxiety, lack of motivation, lack of selfconfidence Meanwhile, the external factors were from the outside aspects such as the habit of using Vietnamese, time pressure, the standard of performance, teachers' feedback, lack of environment to practice Additionally, the study also suggested some recommendations to improve the students’ oral skills iii Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .i CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi LIST OF FIGURES vii LIST OF TABLE viii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Background of the Study 1.3 Objectives of the Study 1.4 Significance of the Study 1.5 Scope and Limitation of the Study CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Concept of Speaking Skills 2.1.1 Definition of Speaking 2.1.2 Aspects of Speaking 2.1.3 Function of Speaking .11 2.1.4 The Importance of Speaking Skills 13 2.2 Speaking Problems 15 2.2.1 Linguistic Problems 16 2.2.2 Non-linguistic Problems 17 2.3 Factors Affecting Speaking Skills of Freshmen in the Faculty of Foreign Languages at BA 17 2.3.1 Internal Factors 17 2.3.2 External Factors 27 CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 32 3.1 Locale of the Study 32 3.2 Research Design .32 3.3 Research Instrument 33 3.3.1 Questionnaires 34 3.3.2 Documents 35 3.4 Data Gathering Procedures 35 iv CHAPTER IV: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 37 4.1 Freshmen Attitude toward Speaking Skills .38 4.2 Common Problems of Speaking which First Year Students Face 40 4.3 Factors Affecting Speaking Skills of Freshmen in Faculty of Foreign Languages at BA 42 4.3.1 Internal Factors 42 4.3.2 External Factors 44 4.4 Effective Techniques and Solutions to Help Freshmen Improve Their Speaking Performance 45 CHAPTER V: SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 47 5.1 Summary of Findings .47 5.1.1 Common Problems 47 5.1.2 Factors Affecting Freshmen Speaking Skills 48 5.1.3 Appropriate Methods to Improve Speaking Skills 48 5.2 Conclusion .48 5.3 Recommendations 49 5.3.1 Recommendations for Students 49 5.3.2 Recommendations for School 50 5.3.3 Recommendations for Further Research 50 REFERENCES 52 APPENDIX 58 v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ACRONYMS WORD’S MEANING BA Banking Academy vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure Gender of respondents Figure Years of learning English Figure Respontdent’s attitude toward speaking skill Figure Linguistic problems that freshmen tend to make Figure Non-linguistic problems that freshmen tend to make Figure Linguistic factors Figure Psychology factors Figure External factors vii LIST OF TABLE Table Effective techniques to improve speaking skill viii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction This final thesis paper was conducted to figure out various factors which affect the speaking skill of freshmen in the Faculty of Foreign Languages at Banking Academy (BA) In this chapter, therefore, the researcher has provided information about the background, objectives, significance, scope and limitation of the study 1.2 Background of the Study In the last decades, English has been become more and more popular and therefore played an extremely critical role in communication It is undeniable that English is the most common spoken language for people all over the world In fact, around 400 million people use English as their mother-tongue and 54 countries which cover all five continents from Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia to Australia recognize English as an official language In addition, English is considered as the most popular second language choice of languages learners English as a foreign language is learned by more than billion people and it is also taught at primary schools, secondary schools and especially universities either public or private in hundreds of countries all over the world Therefore, being able to use English is not just about communicating with native speakers, but also being in communication with English learners Moreover, English is an international language in many fields such as business, science and technology, life and entertainment and English is also the language of the Internet because most of the information on the Internet is written in English Thus, if you want to access the treasure trove of human wisdom, you have to learn English Speaking is a vital skill for expressing thoughts, feelings, opinions as well as ideas and it is also the fastest way to convey knowledge directly Speaking is one of four skills (speaking, reading, listening, writing) in English and it is deemed to be the most important and necessary one Brown and Yuke (1983) say, “Speaking is the skill that students will be judged upon most in real life situations” We always assume that one person who knows a language is someone who has the ability to speak that language properly, accurately and fluently Therefore, all English