báo cáo chuyên đề tốt nghiệp factors affecting the english majored graduates ability to use english at work

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HÀ NỘI TRUNG TAM DAO TAO TU XA BAO CAO CHUYEN DE TOT NGHIEP FACTORS AFFECTING THE ENGLISH-MAJORED GRADUATES’ ABILITY TO USE ENGLISH AT WORK GVH

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HÀ NỘI TRUNG TAM DAO TAO TU XA

BAO CAO CHUYEN DE TOT NGHIEP

FACTORS AFFECTING THE ENGLISH-MAJORED GRADUATES’ ABILITY TO USE ENGLISH AT WORK

GVHD: PHAM THANH BINH, MA

Ha Noi, thang 5 nim 2023

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY

This is to certify that to the best of my knowledge; the content of this internship report is my own work This report has not been submitted for any other purposes I certify that the content of this report is the product of my own work and that all the assistance received in preparing this report and sources used have been acknowledged

2.1 Background of the research nh 4

, sac ng gốc cốc 4

3.1 Data collection method cee eee iene Ho Ho Hà nh HT HH nh HH 5

4.2 The problems ofspeaking English in the workplace among participants 10

VY, ON-GOING CONSIDERATION AND CONCLUSION SG Hee nesee 15

ABSTRACT English is an indispensable skill required by numerous employers in companies around the world Hence, it is important for university graduates to equip themselves with this language in order to communicate better with international employers and complete various tasks require using English at work This is of high importance especially for English-majored graduates to perfect their skills learned at schools to communicate and use English fluently at work Despite the fact that English-majored graduates at Hanoi University have many years of English exposure, they are still struggling with mastering all the English skills at work This research focuses to investigate factors affecting the Hanoi University English-majored graduates’ ability to use English at work The first purpose is to discover the factors affecting English-majored graduates’ ability to use English at work, the second purpose is to investigate the contributing criteria for a good English communicator at work The research uses a survey- research method The findings of the study reveal that the main factors affecting the use of English at work among the university graduates are separated into three major groups including (1) personal factors, namely cross culture awareness, nervousness and anxiety, and

self-confidence; (2) social factors, namely fear of making mistakes and criticism from

colleagues and working environment; (3) linguistic factors, namely appropriate vocabulary in different situations and Stress, intonation and pronunciation, English grammar and Fluency In addition, the study showed that the criteria for a good English user at worker in English- majored graduates’ opinions are Wide range of vocabulary, Sociolinguistic Competence — the ability to use knowledge and skills for appropriate language use in a social Context, and Discourse competence — the ability to connect language structures into a cohesive and coherent oral or written text of different types The research then suggests useful ways to minimize the undesirable effects of negative factors

IL INTRODUCTION

1.1 Aim of the study

In the past decades research in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) has developed to better understand this real-world communication, with emphasis placed on the importance of context, the language user, and interactions that take place; however, there is still a great need for study in naturalistic settings outside the classroom (Firth, 2009) Using English at workplace is a natural process that every English learner will finally need to use after their path of studying English in school finish The purpose of this research is two-fold The first aim is to investigate into Factors affecting the English-majored graduates’ ability to use English at work The second purpose is to find out the criteria that make a good English communicator,

A vast number of students desire to learn the English language for their advancement and a better life because they believe, they will get a better job in their life if they have a good command of English (Harmer, 2001) Due to the power of the English language people want to travel and settle in English speaking countries and live a better life there; so the majority of the people, not only students but everyone in the world dream to settle in English speaking countries for their comfortable life, better and quality education (Crystal, 1997) Along with these positive consequences of learning English, there are so many difficulties of learning the English language experienced by the learners of English as a second or foreign language The majority of the students fail in English subject either at the school level or at university level due to difficult grammatical patterns of language and due to attitudinal or psychological problems of learners, they believe that English is a very difficult subject (Ahmed, 2015) This study was conducted with a purpose to reveal factors affecting the English-majored graduates’ ability to use English at work and help English-majored students acquire the language more effectively in school as well as those whose currents jobs requires using of English

This study aims to answer the following questions

Question 1: What are challenges in using English speaking skill at work among English- majored graduates?

Question 2: What are the criteria for a good English user at work?

The study was conducted to discover affecting factors in using English speaking skill at work among Hanoi University English-majored graduates Thanks to the findings, learners can overcome difficulties and improve their problems then find out effective ways to speak and use English at work

Il, OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH MATTER

2.1 Background of the research International trade and commerce have often been a driver for the development of lingua francas in the past (see Rogerson-Revell, 2007) and today, whether it be in an office, a hotel, or vendors on the street, English is the common currency Open-door policy in 1986 followed by the need for integrating into the world has been acting as a trigger for a high demand for English in Viet Nam (Anh, 2010) Anh (2010) also reported that the master of using English is an important factor for Vietnamese people in the time of modernization and industrialization English speaking is essential for employees in communicating including expressing their points of view and making their opinions be heard by more people Hence there is an urgent to find out difficulties in using this language at work among English-majored graduates However, admittedly, despite great efforts of educators and learners to be proficient in oral competent skills, up to now the results have been still far from satisfaction As a matter of fact, a large proportion of students still could not speak properly even simple communication sentences after a long period of learning English, let alone use English effectively (Mai & Iwashita, 2012) Hence, this study is endeavor to reveal elements that affect English-majored graduates’ ability to use English at work, and also to investigate criteria of a good English

communicator

2.2 Previous studies In the light of previous study, Wu & Chin (2010) looked at the specific English language needs of Banking and Finance professionals in Taiwan where 4 general English courses were inadequate The study explored language skills and tasks as well as learner’s past experiences and learning modes Documents (e.g annual reports) were analyzed, a questionnaire was used to collect data from 241 domestic banking and finance employees, and interviews were conducted with 16 professionals from different financial institutions working across a range of departments (e.g risk management, human resources) with different levels of experience The interviewees, in almost all positions, felt that reading was both the most important and most used skill as many of their tasks included analyzing reports or financial and legal documents Speaking was the skill least used in general at the workplace, and the skill that employers said was weakest among their employees, but it was the area that respondents were most interested in practicing The purpose of this research was to gather information that would be useful in improving teaching English Many studies have been conducted in the same topic; however, in this study, we will give an insight into factors affecting speaking skills at work among English-majored graduates Understanding factors affecting English-majored graduates’ speaking skills at work will help students be better English speakers to some extent, and findings of this research would give teachers and educators practical perspectives to best serve

their learners’ needs Il METHODOLOGY

3.1 Data collection method In this research paper, the group conducted the research focusing merely on the English-major graduates from Hanoi Universities working in different fields relating to the use of English language such as Information Technology, Customer Service (of Viettel telecom), Hospitality

Sectors, Finances and Banking, and Translation and Interpreting The questionnaire was designed with the support of Google form Fifty participants were

terms of their presentation and communication skills with customers, To collect the data, this

study used a set of open-ended questionnaires The questionnaire was divided into 3 main

parts so that it was easier for the participants to answer In the beginning of the report, we collected demographic data from the participants Regarding the second part, we investigated the difficulties in using English at work, it includes 3 categories: personal factors, social factors, and Linguistic factors The final part, which is about the criteria for a good English

communicator 3.2 Data analysis method

The collected answers were quantified by means of excel Open ended questions from the

questionnaire, as well as the semi-structured interviews, were analyzed quantitatively by

categorizing responses into common groups and identifying themes IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Demographic Data of the Respondents

mMale mFemale m Other

Figure 1: Gender of the participants

From the pie chart, we can see that most of the respondents are female This is understandable since Hanoi University has long tradition for language training — a profession that often

supposed to be more suitable for women Out of 50 participants in the survey, about 34% of them are male In addition, a small number (10%) of them preferred not to respond clearly to this question

35%

30% 30%

20% 20%

16% 15%

10% 10%

With respect to fields of work that participants belong to, it is easily seen that Hospitality sectors are among the most-chosen field of work (30%) It can be explained by the fact that Hanoi has many tourist spots that attract various types of visitors from both domestic and other countries Hence, numerous English-majored graduates from Hanoi University are working in this field The second largest proportion belongs to Translation and Interpreting sector with the number of respondents belonging to it making up nearly one forth Jobs relating to Translation and Interpreting are the official profession for English-majored students

after they graduate form the university, and they have been directed by the board of directors

of Hanoi University Hence, it is not difficult to understand that many Hanoi University graduates chose it Following that, one fifth of the participants reported that they were working in Finances and Banking These numbers are easy to explain since Finances and Banking is one of the majors that Hanoi University are training and it also requires the frequent use of English Hence, many employers appreciate Hanoi University English-majored graduates Respondents that are currently working for Customer Service in Viettel Telecom makes up for 16% of the total participants The rest of them (10%) are now working in Information Technology

Figure 4: Participants’ years of experience

In respect of Participants’ years of experience, the highest proportion (nearly 35%) of the respondents reported that they had been working in the field for 6 -10 years The second highest proportion (30%) was those have about 1 - 5 years of experience The number of people who have been working in their filed for around 11 — 15 years makes up 18% One fifth of the respondents belongs to the group “more than 25 years” of experience Finally, the lowest proportion, 8% of the respondents was those who had been working in the filed for less than 1 year

50%

46%

45% 40% 35% 30%

26%

25% 24% 20%

15% 10%

9

10,

Figure 5: Participants’ frequency of using English at work

Regarding the respondents’ frequency of using English at work, based on the statistic, we can see that a vast majority (46%) of the respondents use English in a daily basis More that a quarter of the participants responded that they use English every other day Following that, those who use English just twice a week at their company occupy 24% The total proportion of people in the survey who use English just only once in a while and once a week at work makes

10

up for total 4% None of them responded that they never use English at work In general, the frequency of using English to communicate with foreign customers and for specific tasks at work is quite high

4.2 The problems of speaking English in the workplace among participants

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Figure 6: Tasks of work in which English is most used for

As can be seen from the table, English language is used in every field of the participants’ job, especially in communicating with foreign visitors with the number making up for more than one forth of the total proportion This figure comes mostly from those who are working in Hospitality sector The second largest proportion belongs to the task of translating and interpreting (22%) Communicating with foreign colleagues at work is also a necessary task that requires using English the most to nearly one fifth of the respondents 14% of them reported that they needed English to communicate with their customers 10% is the percentage

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