luận văn difficulties in speaking english encountered by adult students a case study at thu dau mot university

THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES KHAU HOANG KIM THU DIFFICULTIES IN SPEAKING ENGLISH ENCOUNTERED BY ADULT STUDENTS: A CASE STUDY AT THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY MAJOR: ENGLI

INTRODUCTION

Background to the study

Globalization has connected people worldwide in all domains of contemporary life these days Due to globalization, it is necessary to improve communication among countries to strengthen these interconnections In order to take the role as a language of international communication, a pervasive language will grow dominant over other languages and reach global status Crystal (2003) argues that “to achieve a global status, a language has to be taken up by other countries around the world either as an official language or as a priority in a country's foreign language teaching” Evidently, the fast spread of English across the world has given it this status According to data compiled by The World Factbook (2021), English is the official language of 58 nations and territories throughout the world, and there are around 1.35 billion people who speak English either natively or as a second language It is the official language used by the United Nations and other International Organizations such as World Health Organization, World Trade Organization, United Nations Children's Fund, World Bank, and so on English is the preeminent language of business, science, diplomacy, technologies and entertainment It is also the medium of instruction at many universities and colleges worldwide and is the most-used language in scientific studies

Acknowledging that English is the language of globalization, most countries encourage citizens to be conversant with the English language, particularly in business, educational, and day-to-day interactions Neeley (2012) argues that English is even being accepted today as a global corporate language In this sense, corporate leaders are shifting to a phenomenon whereby English proficiency is a requirement for all employees When it comes to hiring, most companies place a high value on candidates who are fluent in English This advantage provides English language learners with a plethora of appealing work prospects in a variety of areas

English provides opportunities to broaden knowledge, form relationships, create cooperative and collaborative work partnerships, and develop a variety of lifestyles

The importance of this language is also highly visualized in the education context, where most countries encourage the use of English in instructions and teaching strategies Vietnam is not exceptional in this aspect as English is taught as foreign language from primary until university level and as one of compulsory subjects Many universities and colleges now teach a large amount of content in English and require graduates to meet English output criteria Furthermore, knowing English allows students to readily pursue further education, like master's and doctoral degrees Chew (1999) puts it that a “lack of a command in English would mean the continued marginalization of their children in a world that would continue to use the language to a greater degree It would also deny them access to the extensive resources available in English - resources which have developed as a consequence of globalization” With cultural diversity as an attribute of the global society, English has become inevitable in almost every context In other words, people around the world use English not only to communicate but also as a passport to new career prospects and new opportunities to expand their knowledge and abilities to become global citizens

Based on the above arguments, it can be said that the dominance of the English language in the current period of extensive integration and connection is undeniable Everyone strives to be fluent in this language, especially adults who make up the majority of the workforce in any society and economy However, it is not easy for adult learners to truly grasp all of the skills required when using English (including listening, speaking, reading, and writing) In this instance, the mastery of speaking skills is a priority for all intents and purposes of most foreign language learners This can be simply explained because people have to speak before learning to read and write, and we spend far more time interacting orally with language rather than using it in its written form Rivers (1981) researched the use of language outside the classroom situation and concluded that speaking is used twice as much as reading and writing combined Therefore, speaking is the skill that the learners will be judged upon most in real-life situations It is an important part of everyday

3 communication, and most people's initial impressions are based on their ability to speak fluently and comprehensibly Besides, the significance of speaking is also indicated in the interaction relationship with other skills; for example, speaking helps learners develop their vocabulary and grammar skills and then improve their writing ability In a word, a person who can speak English well will quickly find that mastering the language is quite simple Nunan (1995) concluded that learning the speaking skills is the most important aspect of learning a second or foreign language, and success is measured based on the ability to perform a conversation in the language

Speaking English well creates several evident advantages for working people High-quality jobs in businesses demand that employees are able to communicate in English in order to extend operations abroad In other words, people fluent in English will have more opportunities to get high-paying employment and advancement prospects at foreign companies or domestic companies that engage with international partners and clients Good at speaking gives employees the upper hand in sending and receiving information, thereby making work more accurate and fluent Likewise, officials at state agencies are now required to satisfy civil servants’ foreign language competence criteria, particularly in dealing with international partners These arguments have been supported by Baker and Westrup (2003) who said that learners who speak English very well can have greater chances for better education, finding good jobs, and getting promotion.

Statement of the problem

Although English speaking skills is an important attribute of coexistence in the contemporary global context, English is not a native language for the people of Vietnam English is considered a foreign language for such people and there are difficulties in using it in oral aspects Many learners claim that they have spent years studying English yet are still unable to speak it properly and understandably (Bueno, Madrid, and Mclaren, 2006) For example, learners have to spend much time thinking and preparing what they would like to speak when they answer the questions, give their opinions or express their feelings Therefore, speaking seems

4 to be difficult for speakers to speak and communicate without having adequate vocabulary and understanding grammatical rules

Indeed, speaking English is not an easy task because speakers should know many important components like pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension Adults, on the other hand, find learning a foreign language more challenging than children due to their lower memory and flexibility Krashen, Long, and Scarcella (1982) argue that acquirers who begin learning a second language in early childhood through natural exposure achieve higher proficiency than those beginning as adults Indeed, adults’ tendency to over-analyze hinders their ability to pick up a foreign language’s subtle nuances, and straining harder and harder will not result in better outcomes Richard and Rerandya (2008) concluded “Adult learners do not seem to have the same innate language-specific endowment or propensity as children for acquiring fluency and naturalness in spoken language” In reality, because the previous learning process mainly was focused on specialized training, it can be noted that the English level of Vietnamese adults is still rather low Adults’ English speaking skills are primarily developed through practical jobs or other supplemental education programs Despite their efforts, many adults still have difficulty speaking English, which is mostly due to issues with expressiveness, pronunciation, and confidence

For individuals whose native language is not English, Kieu (2010) argues that such people have to consider bilingualism as a way of interacting effectively with others in their environment Accordingly, English becomes mandatory as a principle for success in coexisting with others Kieu (2010) adds that fluency and other attributes that English native speakers possess are attainable through training People who are not native speakers, however, associate English learning with aspects that depict perceived difficulties They can pass English exams easily but they find it difficult to use English to communicate In this light, the author chooses to conduct a study in the form of a thesis entitled “Difficulties in Speaking English encountered by Adult students: A case study at Thu Dau Mot University”

Aims of the study

From the above-mentioned reasons, the study is conducted for the purposes of (1) identifying difficulties in speaking English encountered by adult English- majored students at Thu Dau Mot University; and (2) suggesting solutions to develop English speaking skills for these students These purposes then serve to fulfill the broader and more general objective that is to improve the teaching and learning of English speaking skills in alignment with how adult students view the language’s use at Thu Dau Mot University.

Research questions

In accordance with the purposes of the study, the study has been specifically designed to look for answers to the following guiding questions:

1) What are difficulties in speaking English encountered by adult English- majored students at Thu Dau Mot University?

2) What solutions should be taken to develop English speaking skills for these students?

Significance of the study

Studies are useful in a variety of ways because they provide vital information that can aid in the achievement of various objectives The significance of the current study is based on the generation of knowledge about difficulties in English speaking skills as a means of shedding light on the topics of concern and allowing the development of methods to address the obstacles

In detail, the study presents an overview in this area by highlighting the difficulties encountered by adult English-majored students at Thu Dau Mot University in speaking English and arguing the reasons for those Furthermore, the study can give recommendations for enhancing the English teaching and learning process, particularly in speaking skills, to help adult students overcome their current obstacles The study's findings will be transmitted to Thu Dau Mot University to be used as reference material.

Scope of the study

The study took place at Thu Dau Mot University, Vietnam, during the academic year 2020-2021 Within the scope of the study, the author only

6 concentrates on identifying difficulties that the adult students who are participating in the second bachelor’s degree program in English language at Thu Dau Mot University face in speaking English, thereby giving some solutions to help them in developing their English speaking skills.

Organization of the study

The main contents of the thesis will be dealt with in five separate chapters:

Chapter 1, Introduction, provides a preliminary review of the information related to the topic Besides, the purpose, research questions, significance, scope and outline of the study have been stated

Chapter 2, Literature Review, provides the definition of key terms in this study This chapter also reviews some previous studies on difficulties in speaking English, and identifies the gaps in those studies that motivate the current study

Chapter 3, Research Methodology, explains the methodology employed in the research This chapter clarifies the research participants, subjects, instruments, and describes how data are collected and analyzed

Chapter 4, Analysis and Discussion, presents the description and interpretation of the collected data in light of research questions

Chapter 5, Conclusion and Recommendations, presents the summary of results then offers some suggestions Besides, the author also clarifies the limitations of this research and gives recommendations for further studies in the future

English is becoming increasingly crucial in this era of globalization and worldwide integration Fluency in this language helps people obtain better employment and develop themselves in a variety of ways However, acquiring English is difficult for Vietnamese people who use it as a foreign language, and speaking is one of the most challenging skills to acquire during language learning Numerous language learners find it difficult to express themselves in spoken language in the target language This is particularly true for adult students Many scholars from all around the globe have been working on this subject for decades However, until now, there is no official research conducted at Thu Dau Mot University about these areas Therefore, this research was carried out to shed light

7 on some difficulties in speaking English encountered by the adult English-majored students at Thu Dau Mot University, then reveal the factors causing these problems The study also proposes strategies to enhance adult students' English speaking skills from the findings

LITERATURE REVIEW

Theoretical background

Commonly, the transmission of language through the mouth is referred to as speaking It contributes to the development of interpersonal communication To speak, humans use a variety of physical organs, including the lungs, vocal tract, vocal cords, tongue, teeth, and lips Speaking is one of the English language’s four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and Writing Typically, this vocalized form of language necessitates the presence of at least one listener When two or more people talk to each other, the conversation is called a “dialogue” Additionally, it may be planned and rehearsed, as in delivering a speech or presentation Numerous linguists have discussed the concept of “speaking” with different perspectives It resulted in many definitions describing the term, some of which were mentioned below

Nunan (1995) stated that speaking was the ability to use oral language to explore ideas, intentions, thoughts, and feelings to other people to make the message clearly delivered and well understood by the hearer More generally, Burns and Joyce (1997) cited in Nuraini (2016) defined speaking as “the reciprocally active process of building up meaning that involves producing, receiving, and processing information” Cameron (2001) concludes that speaking is the active use of language to express meaning so that other people can make sense of them These arguments imply that speaking can be understood as the act of creating sound that enables speakers to transmit their thoughts, feelings, and intents, which is a necessary component of communication

Secondly, speaking is the process of combining the background and linguistic knowledge to create an oral message (Chastain, 1988) It indicates that the process

9 of speaking is influenced by cognitive factors as well as linguistic expertise Speaking, on the other hand, is concerned not just with oral output but also with how the sub-skills are linked and assist the speaking action Vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar are the sub-skills necessary for speaking Moreover, according to Bygate (1998), speaking is a high complex mental activity which varies from other activities because it requires much higher effort from the part of the central nervous system

Furthermore, speaking is context- or situation-dependent The context includes the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking Speaking demands learners to comprehend not just how to construct certain language elements such as syntax, pronunciation, or vocabulary, but also when and how to talk in accordance with each context Chaney and Burk (2001) emphasized that speaking is “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts” Besides, Harmer (2007) stated that “speaking is the ability to speak fluently and presupposes not only knowledge of language features, but also the ability to process information and language on the spot.”

These theories lead to the concept that speaking is the skill to communicate effectively to provide or receive information and knowledge from others Indeed, according to (Siahaan, 2008), speaking is a productive language skill More specifically, as for Bygate M (2001), listening and reading are passive skills or receptive skills, whereas, speaking and writing are active skills or productive ones

It implies the definition that speaking is a person's ability to generate sounds that have meaning and can be understood by other people, in order to facilitate effective communication Of the four skills, speaking is the most critical since it identifies someone is skilled or bad at utilizing a language Bueno, Madrid, and Mclaren (2006) point out that “Speaking is one of the most difficult skills language learners have to face Speaking is considered the most important of the four language skills of English Even the learners learn the language for so many years; they find it difficult to speak in real time situations when it is demanded” Agreeing with this view, Iqbal (2012) said that speaking is more difficult and complex than other

10 language skills He emphasized that speaking is not merely producing sounds of the words but combining them to make meaningful messages

To sum up, there are numerous definitions by many researchers, but they share opinions that speaking is the process of verbally transmitting information and ideas from one individual or group to another, and it is one of the most important aspects of language learning Speaking is a process of producing, receiving, processing, and exchanging information with listeners that requires a variety of subskills to transmit the message effectively It transforms speaking into a challenging skill to master

Brown (2004) describes five categories of speaking skill area Those categories are as follows: a) Imitative

In this imitative, the speaker tries to repeat (imitate) a word, phrase, or maybe a sentence they hear in an easy-to-understand way Because this type of speaking performance focuses only on pronunciation, it does not address the capacity to comprehend, transmit meaning, or participate in a conversation b) Intensive

This is the creation of brief spoken language segments intended to demonstrate competence in a restricted range of grammatical, phrasal, lexical, or phonological relationships The purpose of this assignment is to teach students how to create accurate grammatical output c) Responsive

Responsive speaking is an interaction but at a somewhat limited level This is a kind of very short conversation, greetings and small talk, simple requests, giving instructions, directions or comments These responses are usually short, meaningful with simple content so the speaker can adapt to interaction speaking d) Interactive

Interactive and responsive speaking are closely the same as each other The differences between them are just in the interaction's length and complexity This type is classified into two subtypes: transactional language and interpersonal

11 exchanges Transactional language is carried out to convey or exchange specific information Interpersonal exchanges, on the other hand, are used to maintain social relationships rather than for the transmission of facts and information e) Extensive

Extensive speaking often points to a monologue, in which the opportunity for oral interaction from listeners is highly limited This way of speaking requires the speaker to have more preparation, select professional words Deeply expresses a thorough understanding of what the speaker will say, from which the listener feels trust and certain with the information heard Extensive speaking tasks include speeches, oral representations, and storytelling

On the basis of the above theory, it can be inferred that there are several levels of speaking, ranging from basic to complicated, which affect the assessment of students' speaking skills Even so, it is obvious that students need to know at least the pronunciation, vocabulary, and language functions they will be using when speaking a foreign language When students are better equipped linguistically, they may engage in greater levels of communication with much more information exchange

There are numerous factors that influence speaking skills Based on the theory pointed out by Mahripah (2014), Nguyen and Tran (2015), the author summarizes and divides these factors into two categories: internal factors and external factors

Previous studies

Previously, many researchers had some related studies in English-speaking problems as well as difficulties that hindered English-majored students in speaking However, the topics are not completely the same and the participants may be from

25 different levels The related studies below may give the supporting shreds of evidence for this research

In 2014, Al-Jamal D.A and Al-Jamal G.A conducted the research “An investigation of the difficulties faced by EFL undergraduates in speaking skills” to describe difficulties that EFL undergraduates may be encountered in an EFL setting

In this research, both qualitative and quantitative methods were adopted to analyze the data obtained The participants were 566 EFL students (247 males and 319 females) who were given questionnaires to collect the data 64 students were interviewed out of 566 students who responded to a survey questionnaire The results of the study showed a “low” speaking proficiency level among EFL undergraduates along with negligible instruction of the speaking skill at the university courses' level More highlighted difficulties by this study were as these of communication in L1, large classes, and lack of time

Similarly, the research of Feni (2014) on “The difficulties of learning speaking faced by The second semester students of the English Department at University of Muhammadiyah Malang” was intended to investigate the students’ difficulties in learning speaking The research design of this study was descriptive qualitative research because the writer only explained the current conditions that happened The instruments used were questionnaires and interview papers Moreover, the population in this study was the second-semester students of the English Department at the University of Muhammadiyah Malang consisting of 10 classes The total of number population was 252 students The researcher took 25% of 252 students so there were 63 students as the respondents The findings of this study showed that the students faced some difficulties The first was the difficulty to speak with the correct structure or grammar Then, they had difficulties in vocabulary Besides, they had difficulties in the students’ habit of using the mother tongue that gave effects to the students’ pronunciation, intonation, and accuracy in learning speaking English

Likewise, the research “Speaking difficulties encountered by Young EFL learners” by Al Hosni (2014) was carried out to investigate some strategies for

26 dealing with difficulties that students in basic education schools in Oman encountered in speaking The present study was a case study Only one cycle 2 basic education school was chosen as the sample of the study The population consisted of teachers and students in basic education schools in Oman Four English teachers and three classes from one school were involved Three instruments used in this study were lesson observations, interviews, and curriculum analysis The result showed that the main speaking difficulties encountered by students are linguistic difficulties, mother tongue use, and inhibition

Natalia (2015) made research “An analysis of students’ problems in speaking English daily language program at Husnul Khotimah Islamic Boarding School” The goals of the paper are to find the students’ difficulties, the reasons, and the strategies to deal with the problems in speaking English The study's result showed that students of Husnul Khotimah Islamic Boarding School faced many problems in learning to speak English because of both their internal and external factors The students also have psychological problems such as lacking motivation The external factors related to the environment do not support them to implement English in classroom communication

Another research was done by Al Nakhalah (2016) with the topic “Problems and difficulties of speaking that encounter English language students at Al Quds Open University” This study aimed at exploring the speaking difficulties encountered by English language students at Al Quds Open University This study consisted of 14 students randomly, male and female The researcher used the experimental method to show and measure the speaking difficulties encountered by English language students at Al Quds Open University The study employed two techniques of collecting data namely observations and interviews The results showed and indicated some difficulties in the speaking of the students due to some reasons such as fear of mistake, shyness, anxiety, and lack of confidence

The study was carried out by Kurniawati (2017) namely “A study of speaking class anxiety of the second semester students in English Education Department at Univeritas Islam Negeri Aladdin Makasar” In the study, the researcher applied a quantitative method to describe the level of students’ speaking anxiety in speaking

27 class According to the result, the majority of students had a medium level of nervousness in their speaking process In addition, these students tended to have indecisive perception regarding their feelings when they are asked to express their ideas in English language Moreover, another finding indicated that 40% of students feel low anxiety and only 2% of students feel high anxiety

Mufidah (2017) conducted the study entitled “Factors affecting the speaking difficulties of the tenth grade Hotel Accommodation students at Vocational High School” The researcher used a qualitative method in order to know the factors that influenced the students’ difficulties in speaking English The result of the study indicated that there were some factors that contributed to students' difficulty in speaking process such as affective factor, social factor, instructor factor, facilities factor, linguistic factor

Vo, Pham, and Ho (2018) deal with the topic “Challenges to speaking skills encountered by English-majored students: A story of one Vietnamese university in the Mekong Delta” This study investigated challenges of speaking skills faced by English-majored freshmen in Can Tho University The findings of the study indicated that English first-year students faced both internal and external challenges, particularly the latter ones related to the limitation of the English practicing environment and extracurricular activities The researchers recommend students joining English speaking clubs on campus and off-campus to raise speaking skills

The other study was carried out by Trinh (2019) entitled “A study on difficulties in English speaking skills of the non-major students at Hai Phong Private University” The study was a descriptive qualitative and quantitative research which aimed to find out the obstacles that students encountered during the speaking process As a result, the findings of the study showed that quite a number of students (45%) thought that they had difficulty with time to practice In addition, there were two other difficulties faced in their speaking abilities, namely grammar and pronunciation Moreover, in addition to three obstacles mentioned, a small percentage of students also had other obstacles when they speak (7%) Some

28 students said that they could not converse because the speech of the speakers was too fast

Nguyen (2017) conducted such a study with third-year students in their second semester of learning As a tutor at Thu Dau Mot University, Nguyen (2017) interacted with students who took courses on British culture British culture was a compulsory unit for students who majored in English Nguyen (2017) argues that language is an important aspect of culture and is necessary for one to understand the norms and values inherent in a specific context The findings of Nguyen’s study showed that difficulties in oral and written English are aspects of the learning environment The participants reported difficulties in vocabulary and a lack of general knowledge about the culture under consideration 69.4% of the participants articulated a lack of knowledge about basic vocabularies (Nguyen, 2017) This made it difficult for them to read lengthy texts as new words reinforced their confusion A lack of general knowledge about British culture worsened the situation as the learners could not understand various readings even when the texts were presented to them in Vietnamese

In conclusion, speaking is not an easy process, students will have to meet some difficulties that come from subjective as well as objective factors Despite the growing amount of research supporting the exploration of difficulties in speaking English for improving the foreign language competence, there are still doubts and differences about its effectiveness in distinguished research subjects Therefore, in this study, the researcher investigates the factors causing difficulties in speaking faced by adult English-majored students at Thu Dau Mot University Thanks to this, these students cannot only realize their obstacles but can also overcome and develop their communication skills

This chapter has given an overview of the literature related to the thesis’s topic as well as the definitions and the discussions of speaking and difficulties in speaking in particular This literature review also presents some theories related to communicative language teaching and speaking activities in language classrooms

29 The chapter also included a review of previous studies on the topic The research methodology of this study will be discussed in the following chapter, Chapter 3

METHODOLOGY

Research setting

The research was conducted at Thu Dau Mot University, which is a public university of Binh Duong province, Vietnam In June 2009, Thu Dau Mot University was officially established on the upgrading of Binh Duong College of Pedagogy Through years of establishment and development, the university was formed as an institution of multi-major and multi-field education, focusing on application- oriented development and current advanced international standards Currently, TDMU has about over 20,000 students studying in 50 undergraduate programs, 11 master's programs, and 1 PhD program There are twenty programs that have been accredited in accordance with MOET and AUN requirements (including the English language program) The university is a member of a number of important scientific and educational organizations, including CDIO World (2015), AUN (2017), and is a partner of over 20 Asian universities

TDMU's Faculty of Foreign Languages was founded in 2010 with two majors: English language and Chinese language (full-time mode or second-degree mode) With an educational philosophy centered on effective teaching and learning through communication and experiential activities, the English Language program prepares bachelors with the necessary knowledge, professional skills, political characteristics, ethics, professional behavior, and good health to work effectively in their fields of study, meeting the requirements of society in the process of international integration

The second-degree bachelor's program in English language of TDMU includes approximately 2 years of training The majority of students are government

31 officers from government agencies and employees of companies in Binh Duong province and the surrounding regions In Appendix 1, the curriculum of the TDMU second-degree English language program are described in detail, with some application-oriented modifications in course K203 over course K202 The curriculum shows that teaching English speaking skills is not limited to subjects that specialize in speaking skills but is also integrated into a variety of other subjects The objective of the program is to increase learners' capacity to use English in social communication in general and in their profession in particular, in which speaking skills is an important content.

Research subjects

The subjects of this research include adult students who are participating in the second bachelor’s degree program in English language at Thu Dau Mot University.

Research participants

The participants of this study are second-degree English-majored students at Thu Dau Mot University and lecturers who are teaching in the Faculty of Foreign Languages at this University

First, students participating are also the subject of this research They include

152 people who are studying the second degree in English language at Thu Dau Mot University in the academic year 2020-2021 The participants are homogeneous in terms of their learning conditions and share the same cultural background According to data from the University's Training Department, these adult students have an average age of 34.8 (range from 23-55 years of age) which is much older than the average age of full-time students They all have a bachelor's degree or higher in their field and consider English as their foreign language

These students are enrolled in the academic year 2020-2021 including two courses: Course K202 started from the 2020-2021 school year's first semester, and Course K203 started from the 2020-2021 school year's second semester This information confirms that students have completed at least two semesters of the curriculum so far, thus having the basis and ability to self-assess their speaking proficiency After admission, students in Course K202 are divided into four classes

(with 22, 30, 42, 16 people, respectively), while Course K203 students are in the same class with 42 people

The second research participants include 5 full-time lecturers who are working at TDMU's Faculty of Foreign Languages These lecturers have taught at least one subject in above second-degree classes, hence they have a scientific and objective basis for evaluating these students' speaking abilities.

Research design

In order to find out the answers for the research questions, the quantitative and qualitative research methodologies are used in combination in this study To begin, questionnaires were used to obtain numerical data Then interviews and observations were employed to obtain qualitative data By doing that, the researcher can get the reliable participants’ information to answer the questions of the research.

Data collection

Data for this research were collected through questionnaires, interviews, and classroom observations

The first technique of collecting the data in this research was a questionnaire

It is defined as a data collection tool in which a list of questions is presented to gather information from respondents about their attitudes, experiences, or opinions In the current research, the questionnaire was used because of its advantages, such as: (1) Collecting information from a large group of respondents takes less time; (2) Responses obtained from respondents are not biased because respondents are not influenced by each other's responses; (3) Questionnaires are the best way to get responses from people who are hesitant to reveal their identity The respondent is free to express his views and ideas without fear of losing face in front of others

The subjects of the survey are students The content of the questionnaire focused on the participants’ difficulties in speaking English which were fully developed through the theoretical background and previous studies (see Appendix 2) All the items were designed by using multiple choice questions and Likert scale questions This questionnaire consisted of four sub-sections The following table provides an overview of the questionnaire structure

Table 3.1 Design of the questionnaire

Part Name Aims Questions number

- Introduction Before getting started with the questionnaire, participants were introduced to the research topic and the survey's purpose, as well as instructions on how to do the questionnaire and the privacy commitments from the author

Participants were requested to provide some background information in order to help the author identify some characteristics of adult English- majored students at TDMU and the current level of their speaking skills as well

This section found out the adult students' perspectives on the most challenging problems they faced in speaking English

These difficulties were divided into three categories: linguistic difficulties, psychological difficulties, and background knowledge

III Personal solutions to develop speaking skills

The final section will cover various activities that adult students might engage in to improve their English speaking skills

After the instructor double-checked the content of the survey questions, the questionnaire was transformed from printed version to online version using the Google Forms tool It is a survey administration software included as part of the

34 free, web-based Google Docs Editors suite offered by Google The app allows users to create and edit surveys online in real-time The link 1 of the questionnaire was distributed via email of students and social media, such as Messenger, Zalo in order to reach all the research participants Participants access the link and answer the question with their computer or phone without providing email or any other personal information The collected information is automatically entered into a spreadsheet

As a result, the author collected 152 sheets of answers from 152 participants to be surveyed (100%) This result is obtained because: (1) The size of second-degree students is not excessive, making it easy to monitor the survey's implementation status; (2) The author is currently employed at Thu Dau Mot University, so maintaining a close relationship with students and receives their enthusiastic support; and (3) The author provided comprehensive and detailed instructions on the survey's content, and how to answer the questions for participants Furthermore, the Google Forms tool's data control measures were used, so all answers from participants are valid, no questions are left blank

However, there are some disadvantages to using a questionnaire tool that must be addressed Due to the fixed format of the questionnaire, respondents find it difficult to convey their own ideas regarding the offered issues To address this issue, the researcher will provide participants the option of writing unanticipated responses in the “others” option Another disadvantage is that the author may not always grasp and determine the participants' feelings through questionnaires For that reason, these should be addressed by other tools in the study

The data may be invalid if the researcher collects data using only one technique In order that, the need of using others is accepted So the researcher used an interview to respondent According to Sugiyono (2012), an interview is used as a technique for collecting the data as the early study to find the problem that should be studied, and the interview can be used if the researcher wants to know small respondent information deeply

1 https://forms.gle/BkGRf7NSxvfEYvGP6

In this study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with both students and lecturers A total of 10 students were randomly selected from 5 second-degree English-majored classes for the interview Besides, 5 lecturers who have many years of experience in teaching English and have directly taught these students were also interviewed by the author The open-ended questions in the interview were designed by the authors based on research objectives and were double-checked by the instructor, in order to identify adult students’ difficulties in speaking English deeply The interview consists of two questions for students and three questions for instructors (see Appendix 3, 4)

The participants responded to all the same questions prepared by the author Their responses and opinions were completely recorded with their agreement using an audio recorder

Observation is also an outstanding qualitative research tool The most distinctive feature of observation is that observation provides the researchers the

“live” data from naturally occurring social situations (Cohen, et al., 2007) The author uses this tool because it might be able to explore things that the participants did not express in questionnaires and interviews However, a common disadvantage of observation is that the observer's bias and viewpoint may influence the outcome of the observation Therefore, the author used the checklist as the guideline in observing the students avoid behavior omission The following table outlines the structure of the checklist of observation

No Observed behaviors Class Not at all

1 Students come to the classroom on time

2 Students are in good status when they come to class

3 Textbooks and materials are prepared

4 Students have high enthusiasm to practice speaking

5 Students always speak English in their tasks

6 Students change partners when speaking

7 Level of speaking ability among students is even

8 Students often hesitate and think about what to say

9 Students use a variety of vocabulary

10 Students use appropriate vocabulary for context

11 Students use a variety of sentence structures

12 Students correctly pronounce most English words they use

13 Students are nervous when being called to speak

Lecturers use different tasks to promote students to speak more in class

15 The tasks in the classroom are sufficient instructed

The given speaking tasks are interesting and suitable with students’ speaking levels

17 Lecturers use a variety of media when teaching

18 Lecturers keeps trying to give attention to all students

Lecturers correct mistakes after the student had finished speaking

20 Lecturers speak in English in class

21 Lecturers are friendly and cooperative with students

In order to conduct observation, firstly, the author contacted the executive board of the Faculty of Foreign Languages to present the objective of this research and asked for permission to observe second-degree English-majored classes The author also commits not to use the information obtained from this process for any other than research Secondly, the author conducted the observation for three sessions at three different second-degree classes

Several categories were being observed, including (1) Students’ activity before lesson, (2) Students’ participation during the lesson, (3) students’ speaking ability, and (4) Lecturers' teaching method These categories were carefully

37 observed and noted during the observation by the author The author are obliged to maintain silence throughout the observations, refrain from interfering with the subject's participation in the observed scenarios, and refrain from asking any inquiries The objective of observation is to recognize the current strengths and weaknesses of teaching and learning English speaking, thereby making recommendations for this study.

Data analysis

The data in this study were synthesized and analyzed with the help of the Microsoft Excel 2013 application Excel is a spreadsheet program from Microsoft and a component of its Office product group for business applications It enables users to format, organize and calculate data in a spreadsheet Additionally, it can create many types of graphs or conduct statistical methods on data The author chose this tool for data analysis in this study, firstly because of its popularity Most computers today come with the Excel application pre-installed Second, importing data into Excel for statistical analysis is more straightforward than other specialized statistical software Finally, Excel now has a comprehensive set of statistical analysis tools, ranging from basic to advanced, to suit all of the requirements of this research

Firstly, for most qualitative data, the author classifies, counts, calculates and presents them in the form of tables or charts to describe and discuss Some other qualitative data need to use Descriptive statistics, ANOVA: Single Factor Test and Likert scale method for analysis The Excel application helps the author conduct descriptive statistics and ANOVA test, while Likert scale method is performed according to the formula:

Number of the groupThe meanings of the values are shown in the following 2 tables:

Table 3.3 Gap widths of 5-points likert scale

Item Item description Score range

Table 3.4 Gap widths of 6-points likert scale

Item Item description Score range

After the data has been analyzed, it will be interpreted and discussed in light of the research objectives

Secondly, to analyze the qualitative data gathered during the interview, the researcher would listen to the recording and transcribe all of the interviewee's words After transcribing all data, interview data were organized according to the research objectives The author also identified and coded pertinent themes The interview's findings would be presented in narrative form

Finally, data from class observations were also qualitatively analyzed in detail using descriptive analysis, including every students' speaking activities that occurred in the class The observation's findings and explanations were also presented in narrative form

This chapter represents an in-depth description of the overall design of the current study, which includes the context, subject, participants, and methodologies

The data collection as well as data analysis procedure have been also shown clearly The analyzed data as well as some discussion in terms of adult students' speaking skills is shown in Chapter 4

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

The results from survey

Question 1 What English course(s)/program(s) have you taken before taking B.A program at TDMU?

Chart 4.1 English learning process of adult students

In this question, the author is curious about what English classes or programs the survey participants have taken This data is essential because the learner's level is directly affected by their learning process According to survey findings, approximately half of students previously just attended compulsory English learning programs 47% of respondents (nq) acquired English only via subjects in high

41 school and university programs The students who have taken English classes at centers or through tutoring classes account for 37% (nV) and 9% (n) of the response rate, respectively The number of students who really make an effort to improve their English level is relatively small; only 11 respondents chose all of the above options, accounting for 7% of the survey These figures show that there are differences in English speaking competence of students because they had a different English background before starting majoring in English at TDMU The past learning experiences may help them continue to develop English speaking skills, which is the stepping stone for students to become proficient in university Besides, learning languages in English centers is still a quite popular choice for students (taking second position in the survey) thanks to the effectiveness in developing English skills However, some English courses in centers might focus exclusively on exam preparation and neglect to equip learners with a fundamental basis for foreign language study Although the survey allowed participants to give their own answers, no other viewpoints were noted

Question 2 Why do you study English?

Chart 4.2 Purposes of learning English

In this question, respondents may select one or more responses that best describe their motivation for studying English Among the 419 obtained responses, the most chosen answer for the purpose of learning English is “to support current job”, which accounts for 28% (n7) Besides, 17% (nr) of students expressed a desire to obtain a better job following the training This demonstrates that for adults, learning English is inextricably linked to their work Indeed, English is

42 critical in the profession, regardless of whether you are a business owner or an employee; because it is a worldwide language for almost every field: science, technology, business, trade, medicine, education, military, etc Fluency in English improves one's chances of getting a better job in multinational companies within their home country or finding work abroad

Additionally, the figure in the chart demonstrates another key motivation for learning a foreign language, which is “to communicate with foreigners” There are

106 responses for this reason (making up 25%), just one less than the most chosen answer This proves that adult students have significant communication demands, with speaking ability being one of the highest priority

Another characteristic of adult students is their desire to continue their education at a higher level, such as a master's or doctoral degree, for which English proficiency is one of the required input and output standards In postgraduate degree, most academic research is published in English as well as students' dissertations and papers Thus, if students wish to continue their education beyond, it makes sense for them to study English In fact, according to current Ministry of Education and Training requirements, master's degree students must achieve a foreign language competency level of 3 (according to the six-level Foreign Language Proficiency Framework of Vietnam, equivalent to IELTS 4.0 - 5.0) 2 PhD students must have a foreign language proficiency level of 4 (equivalent to IELTS 5.5 or higher) 3 This entry requirement is challenging for most adult students who have previously concentrated only on their major Therefore, a second degree in English major becomes a “permit” preferred for many people when pursuing a master's or doctoral degree In the survey, 58 respondents selected this option for their goal of English learning, accounting for 14%

Other learning English purposes that attracted less attention are “to go abroad for vacation/business”, “to take international courses”, and “to apply scholarships”, which accounted for 10% (nB), 3% (n), and 3% (n) of total responses,

2 Pursuant to Circular No 23/2021/TT-BGDDT dated August 30, 2021 of the Ministry of Education and Training on Enrolment and training for Master degree

3 Pursuant to Circular No 18/2021/TT-BGDDT dated June 28, 2021 of the Ministry of Education and Training on Promulgating regulation on Doctoral program admission and Doctoral education

43 respectively This demonstrates that these reasons have little effect on the decision of many adults to study English for a second degree

Although the survey allowed participants to give their own answers, no alternative viewpoints were noted

Question 3 Where are you currently working?

Chart 4.3 The workplace of adult students

One of the unique characteristics of second-degree students is that the vast majority of them have worked As seen in the chart 97% of students have worked, while the remaining 3% are freelancers No one is unemployed Question 4 is used to determine the learner's place of employment According to the survey data, the vast majority of respondents, 77% (n7), work for government agencies Foreign enterprises are in second place, accounting for 14% (n!) of the total A small fraction of students are currently employed in domestic companies or are self- employed These two answers take up 6% (n=9) and 3% (n=5) of the response

The most noticeable aspect of this result is the overwhelming number of public officials On the one hand, this result illustrates the growing importance of English in government organizations This indicates that the Vietnamese government is becoming increasingly interested in boosting the English proficiency of the public sector personnel On the other hand, it explains why there are quite a lot of answers “To attend postgraduate programs” for the question 2; because most public officials are more motivated than company employees or freelancers in pursue master's or doctoral degrees Indeed, Table 4.1 reveals that 44% of officials

44 learn English in order to pursue higher degrees, whereas only 20% of company employees or freelancers select this purpose

Table 4.1 Percentage of people who want to attend postgraduate programs

Total Learning English to attend postgraduate programs %

Question 4 How often do you use English at work?

Chart 4.4 Frequency of using English

The figure reveals most of the respondents agreed that they rarely use English at the workplace This answer makes up 55% (n) of the total Even 6% (n) of respondents said that they never use English at work That is to say, students have very little opportunity to interact and practice English outside of the classroom This result could be due to the fact that only 14% of survey respondents worked for international companies (refer to question 3), proving that the survey table is not biased (no data corruption)

There are 34 people who said they sometimes use English in their work, accounting for 22% There is not much difference between the number of answers

“often” and “usually”, when their proportions are 9% (n), 8% (n) respectively Despite the fact that English is becoming more prevalent in companies and government organizations, no one responded that they always use English in their work

Question 5 How do you feel about your English speaking ability?

Belief in one’s ability plays a role in boosting the level of success in an endeavor of one’s interest Question 5 is designed to measure the participants’ beliefs in their ability to speak English in each particular hypothetical situation While these responses are subjective and speculative, they do provide some insight into the students' English communication level from their perspective

Table 4.2 shows the survey findings, which were compiled using descriptive statistics (confidence level = 95%)

Table 4.2 Students’ English speaking ability (1= Very bad; 2d; 3=Normal; 4=Good; 5=Excellent)

Level of students’ ability Mean Standard

5.1 Speaking with foreigners in workplace 2.60 0.78

5.2 Speaking with foreigners in daily life 2.43 0.99

5.3 Speaking English with Vietnamese people 2.68 0.76

First, the descriptive statistical test shown in Table 4.2 reveals that the overall mean score of the level of students’ ability in speaking is rather low (M = 2.53) This proves that the participants self-assess their English speaking skills at “bad” level (asymptote to “normal”) The small standard deviation (SD = 0.83) shows that the values in a statistical data set are close to the average of the data set, which means most of the respondents had the same opinion

In particular, the data indicates that most participants believe that they speak English best when giving academic presentations, with the highest mean score (M

= 2.97, SD = 0.78) In fact, students always spend a great deal of time preparing for their presentation before practicing in class Furthermore, academic vocabulary is frequently topic-specific, which allows students to memorize and pronounce it correctly As a result, participants have faith in their capacity to speak English in this situation In contrast, public speaking is clearly a difficult experience for adult students They ranked this ability at “bad” level, which is the lowest level of the investigation's result (M = 1.95, SD = 0.86) This can be explained that many people

46 fear speaking to audiences because they are judged on their speech, unable to present their ideas coherently and entertainingly, or insufficient knowledge about the topic of speaking The next challenge is speaking with foreigners in everyday situations (M = 2.43, SD = 0.99), requiring speakers to have an extensive vocabulary, know about slang words, and have a good listening ability to keep up with the native's speaking speed throughout a conversation When it moved to a workplace context, the level of speaking ability was rated higher by the students themselves (M = 2.60,

The results from interview

For the student interviews, 10 of 152 second-degree English-majors students are randomly selected to answer the two questions of interview The first section was held on October 15 th , 2021 with 7 students from Course K202, and the second section was held on October 17 th , 2021 with 3 students from Course K203 The

70 participants were coded as ‘S1’ for the first participant, ‘S2’ for the second participant, ‘S3’ for the third participant, and this code went up to 10 participants

For the teacher interview, the author has requested permission to consult with

5 lecturers from TDMU's Foreign language Department They are English lecturers with more than ten years of experience The oldest of them has worked for 28 years and the youngest for 11 years Lecturers regard teaching English as their primary responsibility They enjoy teaching and are always looking for methods to assist their students in developing their speaking skills Therefore, the obtained data from teacher interviews is really valuable The interview was conducted on November

20 th , 2021 The participants were also coded, as ‘L1’ for the first participant, ‘L2’ for the second participant, ‘L3’ for the third participant, and this code went up to 5 participants

The content of the interview revolved around the situation of using English speaking skills of adult students Interviews were conducted in Vietnamese to ensure that participants could fully express their opinions The interview content is then translated into English by the author on the principle of accuracy, objectivity and respect for the truth in order to create research data

The results of the interview are aggregated in two matters: (1) Difficulties in speaking English encountered by TDMU adult English-majored students; and (2) Solutions to develop English speaking skills for these students

The two tables in Appendix 5 briefly present the results of the interviews about difficulties in speaking English faced by adult students The first comes from students interviews and the second comes from lecturers’ interviews The frequency of these difficulties appearing in the participants' opinions are summarized in the following table:

Table 4.10 The frequency of various types of difficulties

4 Thinking in Vietnamese and then translate into English 3

13 Fear of being laughed at by others 1

20 Being unable to keep up with the speed of conversation 1

Table 4.10 shows that the majority of the difficulties cited by the author in the survey were repeated in the interviewees' statements, with the difficulty of lack of vocabulary and improper pronunciation being the most commonly mentioned problems This result supports the arguments made in section 4.1.2

However, there are also some other difficulties in speaking English that were discovered through the interview They are primarily related to psychological obstacles such as shyness, stress, feeling ashamed or panicked, fear of being judged or laughed at by others Another point worth noting is that the interview results also show two more general difficulties, which are “poor reflexes” and “unable to keep up with the pace of the conversation” The author classifies these difficulties as composite difficulty because these two problems can be caused by many factors, including linguistic factors, psychological factors, background knowledge, as well as listening skills and response abilities

The statements of students and lecturers in the interviews also imply some possible explanations of students' problems speaking English The objective causes for this include a lack of an environment to speak English, poor memory due to age, and occasionally uninteresting topics in class Subjective causes include lack of a suitable and proper learning method, unaware of their strengths and weaknesses, a lack of time to practice due to work and family responsibilities, incorrect pronunciation from high school, local accent influences, and so on

4.2.2 Solutions to develop English speaking skills

The results of the student interviews showed that, in addition to the solutions mentioned in the questionnaires, there are no other ideas on ways to develop speaking skills mentioned by them, which demonstrates that TDMU adult students have not really paid attention to this matter However, the students have some ideas for the University to improve the efficacy of English language study, including the following: (1) The training program's time of teaching English listening and speaking reflexes should be increased; (2) The Faculty should organize extracurricular activities to create an environment for students to practice English communication; (3) The University should invite more native lecturers to teach in order to pique students' interest and help them enhance their English communication skills and pronunciation

From the lecturers' perspective, some workable solutions mentioned are as follows:

For students, it is important to build an effective and appropriate learning method to speak English The most effective way to learn to speak is to practice constantly, so they should practice speaking English outside of class more frequently News, TV shows, magazines, English movies, and songs are all excellent resources for expanding vocabulary, phrases, and expressions depending on daily routine Observation and imitation of native-speaker speech will help students improve several aspects of pronunciation, grammar, sentence structure and build confidence and reflex When speaking English with friends or foreigners in daily life or workplace, students should practice thinking in English Avoiding worrying about making mistakes when speaking will help communication more smoothly

For lecturers, they should provide clear instructions and sufficient assistance for their students to build an effective way of learning English speaking In-class time, they should help students get over their inhibitions and nervousness by acting friendly and cooperative, so making their students feel comfortable when they speak Besides, lecturers should provide their students with more opportunities to speak English in class by engaging them in a variety of activities that demand them to speak Lecturers also should know when and how to correct students’ mistakes so that the students do not become afraid of making mistakes and the conversation is not interrupted Encouraging students to switch speaking partners is an excellent strategy for training students' listening and speaking reflexes

For the University, lecturers suggest that there should be a reasonable limit on the number of students in a class to ensure that they can adequately care for all students Improve facilities and modernize equipment to give students a sense of comfort and enthusiasm when they come to class.

The results from class observation

Classroom activities influenced students’ speaking fluency Therefore, class observations were conducted in May, 2021 to see how students actually performed and what difficulties they encountered throughout speaking sessions The data obtained from observations are detailed in Appendix 6 The following section describes the most common problems that the author noticed after observing 3 lessons of second-degree English-majored classes at Thu Dau Mot University a) The students’ activities before lessons

When students studying on the evening shift 4 entered the classroom, they appeared more exhausted than students on the morning shift 5 This can be surmised because adult students must work and study concurrently, and hence may feel stressed and tired when forced to study for more than three hours in class after a working day There have been a few instances of being late to school, but not significant Only 8 students were late to class and 5 students were absent during the three observed sessions, demonstrating that despite time and work, students made

74 significant efforts to attend class Textbooks and materials were fully prepared by students b) Students’ participation during the lessons

Most students started the class with a lack of enthusiasm However, after the warm-up activities from lecturers, the students seemed more excited and paid more attention to the lesson Discussion and presentation, combined with responding questions from the teacher, were the three types of speaking activities seen in the three sessions In the activities requesting to work in pairs or groups, not all students were excited to speak English Some enthusiastically participated, while others talked little or not at all Besides, they preferred to use Vietnamese to discuss if there was no teacher's observation In the presentation activities, while a group of students was giving a presentation, the other students in the class did not listen attentively They often chat with their classmates or prepare their own presentations Students who speak well tend to express their thoughts and interact with lecturers This causes the students who have difficulties speaking to feel more pressured and anxious to talk

Adult students have a strong tendency to work in groups with their close classmates Despite having quite good diplomatic skills, they rarely engage in in- class activities with people they do not have a close relationship with c) Students’ speaking abilities

It is easy to observe that the English speaking level among students is uneven This difference is independent of gender There were both good and bad speakers among the male and female students However, younger students frequently react more quickly than older ones in communication

Students can not speak English fluently in most of their tasks They often hesitate and think about what to say Regarding linguistic-related difficulties, students often use elementary vocabulary when speaking They tended to use the words they already knew over and over again The present simple tense with simple sentence structures is used in most contexts Some students like to write in detail what they want to say on paper and read it This is especially true during presentations, when most students read the sentences shown on the slides Besides,

75 many errors in students' pronunciation were noted by the author A few students mispronounce due to the influence of the local accent Regarding psychology- related difficulties, students looked quite nervous when they spoke in front of the class Sometimes, they did not know what to say and needed the teacher's suggestion to continue their talks d) Lecturers' teaching methods

In all three observed classrooms, lecturers put out a lot of effort to create speaking tasks in an attempt to attract students to participate in, and in general, they were quite engaging and suitable for the students' speaking level and interests

Lessons content were mainly introduced through Powerpoint slideshows with supplemental pictures, audio, and video The author finds that lecturers also tried to give attention to all students in the class, encouraging the poor speaking students to speak and engage in group activities Furthermore, instead of interrupting when students were speaking; lecturers corrected mistakes after the student had finished speaking Although Vietnamese is still used quite a lot in class, it is in fact an approach to reduce the pressure on the slower students and build up the connection

Most lecturers succeeded in creating a good classroom atmosphere because he/she had a close relationship with their students

In conclusion, it is clear from the above observations that, despite lecturers' great effort, students still have significant difficulties speaking English The difficulties that have been noted are in line with the results of the survey and interviews

To sum up, this chapter consists of two main sections including results and discussion The data are analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively in order to answer the two research questions During the process of analyzing, three types of difficulties in speaking English faced by TDMU adult students and their reasons caused them were explored Certain detailed explanations and discussion were also represented thoroughly The findings also pave the way for the recommendations towards developing the speaking skills of adult students at Thu Dau Mot University

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

Conclusion

This study was conducted to identify difficulties in speaking English encountered by adult English-majored students at Thu Dau Mot University In general, through the qualitative and quantitative data analysis, the study shows that students faced a significant number of difficulties speaking English, which could be due to a variety of factors

According to theories, there are various factors that influence speaking performance On the side of the students themselves, these factors include linguistic components, affective factors, or background knowledge Unable to meet these factors to some extent will result in difficulties speaking English The results of the study reveal that the most common type of difficulty in speaking English faced by TDMU adult students is linguistic difficulties In detail, these language barriers include (1) “insufficient vocabulary”, (2) “mispronouncing words”, (3) “habit of thinking in Vietnamese and then translate into English”, (4) “using wrong words”, and (5) “using wrong tenses” In addition, the study shows that students encounter psychological-related difficulties, which are: (5) “nervousness”, (6) “fear of making mistakes”, (7) “fear of losing face”, and (8) “being overpowered by better students” The study also revealed why students encountered these difficulties from the data analysis process Firstly, the differences between the two language systems English and Vietnamese, cause students difficulties when communicating These differences can be found in various aspects, including word choice, grammar, and pronunciation The second reason has to do with learning methods Students have been influenced by the “old” learning style from high school, which focuses on learning grammar and writing essays without providing opportunities for students

77 to practice their listening and speaking reflexes As a result, in order to improve their speaking skills, students must develop more relevant learning approaches The third cause comes from limitations in the learning environment, such as a lack of opportunity to interact with people who speak English, insufficient time to practice outside of school hours, and so on

These findings resulted in recommendations that may be beneficial to both lecturers and students in learning and teaching speaking English, which are discussed in greater detail in the next section.

Suggestions

The role of lecturers is critical in improving the communicative competence of their students Therefore, it is vital to provide lecturers with guidance on how to assist their students in developing their speaking abilities The critical point is to strike a balance between the time of teaching speaking skills with other language skills When students have more opportunities to study and communicate English, their English will naturally improve Additionally, instructors should stay current on innovative instructional strategies in order to interest students in completing the learning tasks at school

Lecturers should be able to make the teaching and learning process enjoyable and not monotonous so that students may enjoy themselves while learning the English language Lecturers could investigate strategies in order to make some communicative activities, such as drills, information gaps, improvised conversation, problem-solving, debate, role-playing, and games, more successful Lecturers can organize speaking tasks in order of increasing complexity For instance, they may begin by describing pictures or items in the classroom From simple activities, students will progressively gain confidence in their ability to communicate in English, allowing them to attempt more complicated activities (presentation, debate, etc.) without feeling too difficult for their current level Lecturers have problems and obstacles while designing and organizing English speaking activities for courses with a large number of students However, if lecturers teach with a focus on communication and simultaneously develop an understanding of their students'

78 needs, interests, and traits, they may totally construct speaking activities that meet the students' requirements and accomplish the lesson objectives

Lecturers should help students who lack vocabulary and grammatical structures by providing critical new words and information throughout the pre- speaking stage This can be accomplished by the use of visual aids related to the topics, the posing of questions to further explore the topics, and the use of a variety of tasks including new vocabulary and grammatical structures

The teacher’s role is to foster an English environment in the classroom English lessons should be conducted entirely in English Thus, students may improve their listening abilities and expand their vocabulary, while also developing the habit of responding in English They should provide a comfortable learning environment to reduce students’ anxiety

Lecturers should strive to be an infinite source of learning for their students, which implies that they should frequently provide students with valuable ways or resources to aid in their learning, not just at school but also at home Furthermore, lecturers must supply information and assessment methods to ensure that students continue to study and that lecturers can make evaluations as interesting as possible

Lecturers should know when and how to correct their students’ errors so that they are not afraid to make them, but should postpone the error correction stage until the end of the task and praise students' work regardless of its quality in order to boost their self-esteem and improve their English speaking competency

Lecturers must be aware of their students’ interests and sentiments, build their students’ self-confidence, and use the most effective teaching approach to engage their students in the speaking activity Lecturers should praise students for their ability to communicate in English They should develop a good connection with their students, create a sense of joy in the classroom, and develop a sense of excitement and willingness to learn English in general and to speak English in particular Lecturers should move around the classroom, speaking with students to identify any weak individuals and helping them in overcoming their inferior complex Weak students gain confidence in talking with their peers in English as a

79 result of the teacher’s support The more students speak English, the more confident they feel The more confident they feel, the more English they will use

Base on the suggestions of lecturers and students from the interviews and the researcher’s recommendations towards the adult students’ speaking problems, there were plenty of useful ways to help the students to enhance their speaking skills

Students should not memorize English words without organizing them; instead, they should learn terms related to a specific topic in order to recall them readily and efficiently They might use mind-mapping methods to assist in their vocabulary development This approach acts as a universal key for unlocking the brain's potential It is a creative way of retaining knowledge

To reduce the influence of grammatical errors on their speaking performance, students should outline the sentence structures, tenses, and other components of grammar that their speech will require prior to speaking

Every day, students must actively listen to English via Internet-based channels such as VOA, watch movies or videos in English on YouTube, and read English articles which have familiar topics which they are interested in This helps students gain more scientific and social knowledge, while also automatically expanding their vocabulary and reinforcing their grammar rules When students are exposed to more English sources, such as English films, English music, or English news, they should attempt to repeat what they hear and imitate the way native speakers communicate in real life

In order to maintain confidence when speaking English in public, students should practice speaking English on their own at home beforehand They may do so by standing in front of a mirror and speaking to themselves Alternatively, if they have a video recorder, they should film themselves speaking so they can identify their strengths and weaknesses and work on them They need to understand that making mistakes when speaking English is a naturally occurring phenomenon for any non-native English speaker When students overcome their inhibitions and begin to speak English in front of people, they will gain confidence and use English more frequently

Students should cooperate with their peers and lecturers as much as possible and communicate with them in order to enhance their English oral competence In other words, it is critical for students to pay attention to the majority of the speaking and to practice regularly, as well as to complete any speaking responsibilities actively

5.2.3 For Faculty of Foreign Languages and English language Program

Faculty should create additional extracurricular events focused on English, such as English speaking contests, English debates, and English talented vocalists, in order to increase students' interest in the language

The class should not be concentrated on the teacher, since this will provide more opportunity for students to engage in active learning Numerous teaching techniques should be used to maximize the effect Maximizing the use of teaching and learning media is necessary, as is regular evaluation of the learning activity to determine whether or not the learning goals are accomplished

Faculty should foster a good and supportive learning environment that encourages students to improve their English competence They should have a language policy in order for certain places or periods of time If they are able to provide it, students will have additional opportunities to practice speaking English outside of the classroom.

Limitations of the study and recommendation for further research

The author has made efforts to do a thorough analysis of difficulties in English speaking encountered by adult students at Thu Dau Mot University However, due to the limited time and other reasons, there are some limitations of this study as follow:

Firstly, the research questions were answered by the data which were mostly conducted from the questionnaires and interviews It suggests that the research was mainly based on subjective perceptions of students and lecturers Therefore, it was hard to judge the trustworthiness and reliability of the participants’ responses

Secondly, the study was conducted by combining theories about factors affecting speaking performance proposed by Mahripah (2014) and Tuan and Mai (2015) These authors emphasized many subjective and objective factors However,

81 because of time and manpower limitations, the study just focuses on analyzing some difficulties coming from internal factors (like linguistic components, affective factors, or background knowledge); without considering external factors (like performance conditions or feedback) Furthermore, the study has not considered English speaking skills in the relationship with the other three skills (listening, speaking, and reading), especially listening skills since speaking is closely related to listening Doff (1998) confirmed that speaking skills could not be developed unless we developed listening skills Therefore, further studies can be conducted to explore the difficulties coming from other factors that the author has not analyzed in this study

Thirdly, the research was primarily conducted in 2021 Hence, most teaching and learning activities were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic During the second half of 2021, all Thu Dau Mot University students, including adults, had to study online As a result, some direct interactions between lecturers and students have been limited, affecting classroom English speaking activities, and then influencing students' judgments of teaching and learning English when surveys and interviews are conducted at the end of 2021

Despite the mentioned limitations, this study is still of significance in inspiring further research on difficulties in speaking English in various objects and scopes

In this chapter, there are three sections, namely the conclusions, suggestions, and limitations of the study and recommendations for further research The author provides the conclusions based on the results of the study Some implications are suggested to adult students, lecturers, Faculty of Foreign Languages and the English language Program at Thu Dau Mot University in teaching and learning speaking English Those concerned about this topic may also find recommendations for further research in this chapter

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The curriculum program

Table 1 The curriculum of English language program (Course K202)

No Subject name Credits Semester Year

7 Reading and writing strategies (0+2) 2 II 2020-2021

11 Listening and speaking for business communication (0+2) 2 III 2020-2021

12 Reading and Writing for Business

21 Essay writing in English (3+0) 3 II 2021-2022

25 Mini project: British - America work styles and communication (0+2) 2 III 2021-2022

27 Report writing in English (0+2) 2 III 2021-2022

No Subject name Credits Semester Year

Table 2 The curriculum of English language program (Course K203)

No Subject name Credits Semester Year

3 Essential Reading and Writing (3+0) 3 II 2020-2021

6 Reading and writing strategies (0+2) 2 III 2020-2021

15 Essay writing in English (3+0) 3 II 2021-2022

20 Listening and speaking for business communication (0+2) 2 III 2021-2022

21 Mini project: British - America work styles and communication (0+2) 2 III 2021-2022

23 Reading and Writing for Business

24 Report writing in English (0+2) 2 III 2021-2022

No Subject name Credits Semester Year

Questionnaire

The purpose of this survey is to gain insight into the difficulties in speaking English encountered by adult students and their experience in improving English speaking performance in the scope of the research entitled “Difficulties in Speaking English encountered by Adult students: A case study at Thu Dau Mot University” Your responses are going to be of significant contribution to this study Participation in this study is entirely voluntary, and it may take 5 to 10 minutes to complete the survey All the data collected will be treated confidentially and for research purposes only Thank you very much for your time

PART I DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION (from question 1 to question 6)

1 What English course(s)/program(s) have you taken before taking B.A program at TDMU? (You can choose more than one answer)

◻ English subject in High school

◻ English courses in Language Center

2 Why do you study English?

◻ To attend post graduate programs

◻ To go abroad for vacation/business

3 Where are you currently working?

4 How often do you use English at work?

5 How do you feel about your English speaking ability?

Very bad Bad Normal Good Excelle nt

5.1 Speaking with foreigners in workplace

5.2 Speaking with foreigners in daily life

5.3 Speaking English with Vietnamese people

6 How often do you take part in the following activities in this class?

Always Usually Often Someti- mes Rarely Never

PART II ENGLISH SPEAKING PROBLEMS (from question 7 to question 23) Please rate your level of agreement with each statement that describes your difficulty in speaking English:

Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

11 Thinking in Vietnamese and then translate into English

21 Being overpowered by better students

Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

PART III PERSONAL SOLUTIONS TO DEVELOP SPEAKING SKILLS

How often do you do the following to develop your English speaking skills?

Always Usually Often Someti- mes Rarely Never

25 Practicing speaking exercises in textbook

26 Practicing speaking via apps or websites

28 Chatting with foreigners via social networks

Hanging out with people who want to practice speaking

Joining specialized courses in English speaking and reflex

Thank you very much for taking the time to complete my survey

Interview questions for students

1 According to you, what are difficulties in speaking English? Do you know the causes of these problems?

2 Could you give some suggestions for the students / lecturers / the University to improve adult students’ English speaking skills?

Interview questions for lecturers

1) How long have you been teaching English? Are you passionate about your work?

2) According to you, what are difficulties in speaking English encountered by the second-degree English-majored students at Thu Dau Mot University? What are the causes of these problems?

3) Do you have any suggestions for the students / lecturers / the University in helping adult students develop their English speaking skills?

Interview results about difficulties in speaking english

Table 1 Difficulties in speaking English from adult students’ perspective

Code Students’ responses Type of difficulties

“I believe my biggest challenge is that I do not have enough vocabulary to express myself when speaking, even though I can write English quite well

Maybe it's because the speed of conversation is so fast that I can't remember the words I've learned, so

I have to ah um to have enough time to think of words I want to use The second issue is that my English pronunciation is bad I made a lot of mistakes with my pronunciation while focusing on grammar I frequently confuse word stress and completely miss the final pronunciation As you know, I am married and have to work full-time, so studying English is really tough for me due to a lack of time and environment to practice speaking

Furthermore, even though I grasped words, I forgot them after a while because I didn't use them So, I was really shy about speaking English with the lecturers through the class time.”

“I find myself lacking in ideas when it comes to speaking due to the topics speaking in class are quite bored and sometimes a bit scholarly Besides, because it takes me a long time to translate my thoughts from Vietnamese to English, I am concerned that the listeners may be waiting or, worse, misunderstand what I am saying if I make mistakes in translation In addtion, misunderstand can occur as a result of my mispronouncing I often confuse and mispronounce similar words like

“cloths” /klɔːðz/ 6 and “clothing”, /kloʊðz/ for example.”

“The most difficult aspect is that speaking English makes me nervous and stressed When I'm nervous, I tend to quiver and mispronounce words more frequently, especially while speaking a long paragraph In addition, due to my poor English listening skills, I am unable to respond quickly in

6 Phonetic script by the author

Code Students’ responses Type of difficulties dialogue It took me a long time after the other person finished speaking to think about what they had just said before deciding what to say next As a result, the dialogue is disrupted and boring.”

“The right usage of tenses is the most challenging thing for me every time I speak English

This, I believe, is related to the linguistic differences between the two languages To describe the time we want to mention in Vietnamese, we just add time phrases like “rồi” or “sẽ” However, English is different; I can't seem to recall which tense to use or how to form an accuracy sentence I also get a headache from irregular verbs since I can't remember which one to use when I'm speaking English.”

“To begin with, I'm having trouble since I do not have enough words to convey what I want to say, despite having a lot of ideas I had to alter my thoughts and expressions to match the amount of vocabulary I had So, my speech is far more boring than I anticipated I also tried very hard to study vocabulary and read more English news on the internet, but I am still in the condition of learning before forgetting later because I am fairly old

Second, I believe my hearing - comprehension - speaking reflexes are still very slow Perhaps since I work for a government agency and my job primarily involves word processing, I have minimal exposure to an English-speaking setting It was difficult for me to keep up with the speed of the teacher's conversation However, when lecturers ask me to talk to my friends in English, I notice that my reflexes have improved slightly as a result of the reduced pressure.”

“Throughout my school years, from elementary to university, I learnt a lot of English, but largely about grammar Besides, there is no opportunity for me to communicate in English with anyone, making it extremely difficult for me to pick up the language I learned more about speaking skills when I began studying for a second degree in English language, but my poor reflexes made it difficult for me to speak Composite

Code Students’ responses Type of difficulties naturally I have to translate my thoughts from Vietnamese to English before I can answer a question or say something When I get home from work, I don't practice English anymore since it's too exhausting.”

“Speaking English, in my perspective, presents numerous challenges My main problem is that my pronunciation is incorrect, so listeners are unable to grasp what I am trying to say This could be the result of the bad habit from high school Second, my vocabulary is extremely limited, thus I can't find the correct vocabulary even though I truly want to speak

The third reason is that I usually forget the English sentence structure, thus the word order is sometimes haphazard.”

“I believe that many English students, including myself, have experienced confusing situations while talking in English The main reason for this is because we always think in Vietnamese first, then translate our thoughts into English before speaking them out Because of this habit, the phrases we say do not sound like those spoken by native speakers We are merely word-for-word translating and not employing native language To eliminate this bad behavior, I believe we should read a lot of English books and watch English movies to familiarize with the sentences and phrases that foreigners frequently use However, it will take a long time to get on and master how to use this effectively.”

“When speaking English, I believe my biggest psychological barrier is my fear of being judged by others Whenever I speak English, I anxiously observe the listener's expression I was ashamed of my own weakness, and I was worried they would laugh at me Despite the fact that no one has time to evaluate my level, I can't help but feel panicked This anxiety had a significant impact on my mental health;

I couldn't think of any ideas to say.”

Psychology Psychology Psychology Psychology Psychology

“I took this course because my boss required me to have additional certifications I cannot claim that

I chose to study because I love English Therefore, I think I lack the necessary motivation to learn this Psychology

Code Students’ responses Type of difficulties language I'm not very young, so I prefer to learn in a passive manner Reading and writing English skills are more interesting to me than speaking and listening Because I enjoy learning without working with others while I practice reading and writing English Speaking skills, I believe, will fit a person who is energetic and extroverted.”

Table 2 Difficulties in speaking English from lecturers’ perspective

Code Lecturers’ responses Type of difficulties

“Adult students face numerous obstacles when learning English However, I believe there are two major problems To begin with, their English foundation is not well prepared Many of them have a restricted vocabulary and can't pronounce words correctly The second reason is that they are afraid that making a mistake while speaking English may harm their social image Therefore a huge responsibility lies on the lecturers’ shoulders to encourage the students to speak as much as possible.”

“In my experience, second-degree students at TDMU have a quite positive attitude toward learning The majority of them enrolled in this program with a specific goal in mind, so they are always working to improve their English skills

Observation checklist

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC THỦ DẦU MỘT

CỘNG HÒA XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM Độc lập – Tự do – Hạnh phúc

Bình Dương, ngày 27 tháng 03 năm 2022

BIÊN BẢN HỌP HỘI ĐỒNG ĐÁNH GIÁ LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ

Học viên: Khấu Hoàng Kim Thư

Chuyên ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh Đề tài: Difficulties in Speaking English encountered by Adult students: A case study at Thu Dau Mot University

Hội đồng đánh giá luận văn được thành lập theo Quyết định số: 172 /QĐ-ĐHTDM ngày

28 tháng 01 năm 2022 của Hiệu trưởng Trường Đại học Thủ Dầu Một đã họp tại Trường Đại học Thủ Dầu Một ngày 27/3/2022 để đánh giá luận văn thạc sĩ của học viên: Khấu Hoàng Kim Thư Hội đồng đã nghe học viên trình bày tóm tắt nội dung luận văn thạc sĩ cụ thể:

I Nhận xét, đặt câu hỏi của thành viên Hội đồng đánh giá luận văn

1/-TS Nguyễn Thị Châu Anh (Chủ tịch hội đồng)

2/-TS Lê Kinh Quốc (Phản biện 1)

In your opinion, what would be the most common difficulty in speaking English that makes adult students take a lot of time and effort to overcome? And your adequate solution(s) to this difficulty, if you were a lecturer?

3/-TS Nguyễn Thị Thanh Tâm (Phản biện 2)

4/-TS Lê Thị Thanh (ủy viên)

5/-TS Trần Ngọc Mai (thư ký)

- Can you describe your sampling methods and data collection procedure (how/when )?

II Sau khi nghe tác giả trả lời và người hướng dẫn khoa học nhận xét luận văn Hội đồng họp riêng và thông qua kết luận Khi thông qua kết luận

Hội đồng bầu Ban kiểm phiếu gồm 3 thành viên:

1) Nguyễn Thị Châu Anh Trưởng ban

2) Lê Kinh Quốc Ủy viên

3) Nguyễn Thị Thanh Tâm Ủy viên

Kết quả bỏ phiếu của Hội đồng đánh giá luận văn là:

- Số thành viên Hội đồng tham gia bỏ phiếu: 04

- Tổng số điểm đánh giá luận văn của Hội đồng: 30 điểm

1) Bản luận văn của học viên Khấu Hoàng Kim Thư đáp ứng yêu cầu của luận văn Thạc sĩ

2) Các nội dung đề nghị chỉnh sửa (nếu có)

1/-TS Nguyễn Thị Châu Anh (Chủ tịch hội đồng)

In my opinion, the thesis has a lot of good points However, there are a few mistakes and errors (spelling and grammar and the format) in the research which needs to be revised to improve the work quality

For the data collection and analysis, Tables 3.1 and 3.2 (the curriculum of English language program) should be put in the Appendix section

Table 4.10 illustrating the interview data should be put in the Appendix section as well

The author, if possible, should provide some more explanations in detail to make the findings in Table 4.8 which leads to the implications more effectively

2/-TS Lê Kinh Quốc (Phản biện 1)

Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 needs to be revised and added with some more reliable information to make the thesis more persuasive

The researcher should consider to remove or move some tables to the Appendices

The searchers should consider some minor mistakes (underlined words or phrases) that need to be corrected:

● Page 26: Although English speaking skills is an important attribute of coexistence in the contemporary global context (skill is)

● Page 31: in Binh Duong province and the surrounding region (regions)

● Page 34: line 15 The first technique of collecting the data in this research was questionnaire (Questionnaire is a countable noun.)

● Page 34: line 18 the questionnaire was used since its advantages, parcurlally:

Chart 4.2 Purposes of learning English: intemational course (spelling)

To abroad for vacation/business (part of speech)

● Page 66: As a result, lecturers can pay attention to this and encourage pupils to (students)

● Page 74: line 8: They enjoy teaching and are always looking for methods to assist their students develop (assist sb to do sth / assist sb in doing sth)

● Page 83: d) Lecturers' teaching methods: (move to the next page)

● Page 81: for their students to build an efective way of learning English speaking (effective)

● Page 96: To abroad for vacation/business (to go abroad)

● Be consistent in writing References

3/-TS Nguyễn Thị Thanh Tâm (Phản biện 2)

There are some mistakes in English tenses, plural and singular, and structures

Some Vietnamese authors are mentioned in Literature Review, but their names and works are not presented in References

SPSS should have been used to analyze the data, instead of Excel

4/-TS Lê Thị Thanh (ủy viên)

From the reader’s perspective, I would like to make some suggestion for the improvement the quality of the thesis:

1.The Abstract needs to be more concise with the concrete findings and suggested solutions from the interviews and classroom observations to prove its own findings

2 Chapter One should start with section 1.1.2 about the importance of the

English speaking skill Therefore, section 1.1.1 with the subtitle “English in the context of globalization” should be omitted

And the paragraph about Summary of Chapter One (pp.6-7) is not necessary

3.Chapter Two needs modifications with relevant literature focusing on factors affecting speaking skills and difficulties learners encounter when speaking

4.Chapter Three should be shortened by moving Tables 3.1 and 3.2 (presenting the curriculum of English language program) to the Appendix section

5.In Chapter Four, many charts illustrating the students’ difficulties of the same categories such as linguistic and psychological ones should be combined for better demonstrations

Table 4.10 illustrating the interview data should be moved to the Appendix section

6.Sections 5.2.1, 5.2.2 and 3.2.3 of Chapter Five needs to be more concise and convincing for stronger suggestions to improve teaching and learning English speaking skill at TDMU

5/-TS Trần Ngọc Mai (thư ký)

In the “background to the study” section, the writer should focus on speaking skills without having to discuss “English in the context of globalization”

Chapter 2 is quite lengthy The author can choose to focus on relevant literature only (difficulties students encounter when speaking English and factors affecting speaking skills) Types of speaking performance should be briefly introduced The author shouldn’t talk too much about them The definition section should be concise

The author should read in-text citations again and adjust the wrong ones For example, when directly quoting from a text the author must include a page number in the citation; For in- text citation, the writer should mention authors’ last name + year of publication instead of authors’ full name; titles of research papers should be removed from “previous studies” section

The curriculum should be moved to the appendix section

- Instead of adding a lot of charts, the author can choose to use tables only For example, in table 4.5, readers can find everything about linguistics difficulties already, so it is not necessary for the author to add charts 4.7- 4.15

- Table 4.10 should be moved to the appendix section

- Some previous studies are not current (up-to-date)

3) Đề nghị công nhận học vị Thạc sĩ cho học viên Khấu Hoàng Kim Thư

THƯ KÝ HỘI ĐỒNG CHỦ TỊCH HỘI ĐỒNG

THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIET NAM Independence - Freedom - Happiness

Research title: Difficulties in Speaking English encountered by Adult students: A case study at Thu Dau Mot University

Supervisor(s): TS Trần Thanh Dũ

Examiner: TS Lê Kinh Quốc

Examiner’s institution: Trường Đại học Kỹ thuật – Công nghệ Cần Thơ

1 Study significance, scientific and practical implications

The study is conducted to identify difficulties in speaking English encountered by adult English-majored students at Thu Dau Mot University; and suggest solutions to develop English speaking skills for these students With its findings and recommendations, this thesis, to a certain extent, serves the academic purpose in the hope of improving adult students’ speaking skill and lecturers’ methodology as well The researcher has presented the values of study significance and practical implications

2 Appropriateness of the research topic

The thesis title and its content are relevant to the purpose of the author’s research However, this title does not seem to fully illustrate what the thesis content conveys in the study Students’ difficulties in speaking English and their solutions to develop speaking skill are mostly conducted through the questionnaire with number of questions 17 and 11, respectively whereas there is only the former (the students’ difficulties in speaking English) appears in the title In terms of the content, the title of the thesis could be reworded to reflect the content of the thesis However, it’s up to the author’s decision since the results of the students’ solutions are mainly based on their subjective perceptions This is the first limitation that the author has presented in the thesis

The research methodology presented in chapter 3 meets the requirements of a master thesis organization including research setting, research subjects, research participants, research design, data collection and analysis The researcher uses both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies in the study and suitably apply appropriate method to the data of the questionnaire, of the interviews or of the observation The research questions and the ways of how to collect and analyze the data are presented clearly in the thesis

4 Structure and format of the paper

The thesis is presented in 5 chapters:

Chapter 1 (p.1-7), Introduction, provides the background of the study, statement of the problem, the aims of the study, two research questions, the significance and the scope of the study Chapter 2 (p.8-29), Literature Review, provides the definition of key terms in this study, reviews some previous studies on difficulties in speaking English, and identifies the gaps in those studies that motivate the current study Chapter 3 (p.30-40), Methodology, explains the methodology employed in the research clarifies the research participants, subjects, instruments, and describes how data are collected and analyzed Chapter 4 (p.41- 84), Findings and Discussion, presents the findings of the study from survey, interview and class observation through quantitative and qualitative analysis; interpretations and discussions Chapter 5 (p.85-90), Conclusion and Suggestions, summarizes the main conclusions of the study, offers some pedagogical suggestions, clarifies the limitations of the thesis and gives recommendations for further studies

This structure is well-organized and thus accepted

The research findings are relevant and supportive to the research questions The contributions of the findings in terms of the difficulties in speaking English, to a certain extent, are clear and practical However, the author may consider some of the difficulties that may not be exactly correct or applicable to the majority of English learners especially in the area of linguistics since these difficulties are mainly based on students’ subjective perceptions analyzed from the questionnaires In order to evaluate the correctness and appropriateness of an English learner’s segmental and suprasegmental features we need a native speaker or an acoustic equipment for assessment For example, from the results of the questionnaire we cannot conclude that “Among them, lack of vocabulary is the most difficult problem; and lack of connected speech is the least one in speaking English from adult students’ perspective.” (p 52) Is the lack of connected speech the least difficulty in speaking English for adult students? The researcher should provide more cited information and explanation to make the thesis conclusion more persuasive

In terms of “solutions to develop speaking skills”, in discussing the results of the thesis leading to the conclusion, the researcher may need to supply this part with some other solutions cited from different reliable sources that are closely related to this thesis topic

Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 needs to be revised and added with some more reliable information to make the thesis more persuasive

The researcher should consider to remove or move some tables to the Appendices

The searchers should consider some minor mistakes (underlined words or phrases) that need to be corrected:

● Page 26: Although English speaking skills is an important attribute of coexistence in the contemporary global context (skill is)

● Page 31: in Binh Duong province and the surrounding region (regions)

● Page 34: line 15 The first technique of collecting the data in this research was questionnaire (Questionnaire is a countable noun.)

● Page 34: line 18 the questionnaire was used since its advantages, parcurlally:

Chart 4.2 Purposes of learning English: intemational course (spelling)

To abroad for vacation/business (part of speech)

● Page 66: As a result, lecturers can pay attention to this and encourage pupils to (students)

● Page 74: line 8: They enjoy teaching and are always looking for methods to assist their students develop (assist sb to do sth / assist sb in doing sth)

● Page 83: d) Lecturers' teaching methods: (move to the next page)

● Page 81: for their students to build an efective way of learning English speaking (effective)

● Page 96: To abroad for vacation/business (to go abroad)

● Be consistent in writing References

The thesis is well-structured, ideas are clear and the writing style is concise and easy to understand

For Chapter 4 and Chapter 5, the researcher needs to provide further arguments from previous studies to make the findings and conclusions of the study more comprehensive and convinced

The researcher has made a great deal of effort to have this well-organized thesis

The thesis meets the requirements of an MA thesis The researcher deserved an award of the Master’s Degree in English Language Study

In your opinion, what would be the most difficulty in speaking English that makes adult students take a lot of time and effort to overcome? And your adequate solution(s) to this difficulty, if you were a lecturer?

Thu Dau Mot City, 27 th March 2022

(Examiner’s signature and full name)

THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIET NAM Independence - Freedom - Happiness

Research title: Difficulties in Speaking English encountered by Adult students: A case study at Thu Dau Mot University

Supervisor(s): TS Trần Thanh Dũ

Examiner: TS Nguyễn Thị Thanh Tâm

Examiner’s institution: Trường THPT Chuyên Hùng Vương

1 Study significance, scientific and practical implications

The research is useful as it focuses on adult English-majoring students’ difficulties in English speaking skills, and points out the reasons for those difficulties Furthermore, the research also recommends enhancing the English teaching and learning process, particularly in speaking skills, to help adult students overcome their troubles

2 Appropriateness of the research topic

The research topic is “Difficulties in Speaking English encountered by Adult students:

A case study at Thu Dau Mot University”

It is appropriate to the candidate’s major

The quantitative and qualitative methods are cooperatively used in this study

As for quantitative method, questionnaires are used to obtain numerical data

As for qualitative method, interviews and observations are employed

4 Structure and format of the paper

The thesis has five separate chapters.