Khảo sát kỹ năng giao tiếp của sinh viên năm cuối khoa Ngoại ngữ - Trường ĐH Lạc Hồng

Khảo sát kỹ năng giao tiếp của sinh viên năm cuối khoa Ngoại ngữ - Trường ĐH Lạc Hồng

- 1 - Investigation on Communication Skills of English Seniors at Lac Hong University By Tra Thi Kim Ngan * ABSTRACT In the situation of economic open-door policy, especially with the remarkable event of Vietnam joining WTO in 2006, communication skills are highly valued in multinational companies. This demand is more serious for those who work in jobs like interpretation, marketing, public relations, international relations, personnel, reception, etc. These are potential jobs for English majors. Unfortunately, employers express their disappointment in students for their low level of communication. This paper investigates how well English seniors at Lac Hong University self-assess and perform their communication. For some reasons like: lack of support from university, lack of self-practice from students, it is revealed that English seniors’ ability fall short of the demand for competent communication of future employers. Suggestions are then made in hopes of enhancing students’ level of communication. Communication is a need, an indispensable activity of human life. Communication involves interpersonal interaction between people. Whoever you are: a head of state, a talented diplomat, an outstanding scientist or a worker working in a factory, a farmer on the field, a soldier at national island boundary, a diligent housewife in a house, a hardworking student in university, etc; you continuously communicate with the world around in order to fulfill your responsibilities. As seniors majoring in English at Lac Hong University, students need to be good communicators to work effectively after their graduation. Especially, as the country integrates into the world economy, the market has been more and more expanded, competition has become fiercer and fiercer. To make a positive impression in recruiter’s eyes, students cannot lack this skill. Moreover, after leaving university, they _ English majors _ may do the jobs relating to their major such as teaching, PR, marketing, personnel, interpretation, reception, diplomacy, etc. There is no doubt that to do those kinds of job, communication skills are extremely highly important. Although most English seniors at Lac Hong University are aware of the importance of soft skills in general and communication skills in particular based on the survey of the writer, only 13% of them evaluated their communication level as above average while they did understand the significance of communication skills. A number of them also said that they do not feel equipped to match the future employers’ demand. In addition, the writer herself after three months of intern at Department of International Relations (Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh city) has recognized that - 2 - to get a work well done, it requires many skills, especially communication skills. However, she finds herself not very good at communication. Besides, there is a number of study on students’ communication capacity but no research on communication competence of English seniors at Lac Hong University. Therefore, the researcher decided on this project with the purpose of attempting to find out: 1. Students’ perception and understanding about communication skills 2. Students’ self-assessment of their own communication ability 3. Students’ real competence on communication This project also aims to use the data which were collected from the survey on students to make recommendations to students in training themselves and spending time on activities helping upgrade communication capacity as well. Furthermore, the researcher also makes recommendations to the Faculty of Foreign Languages on curriculum adjustment. The researcher wants to answer the question whether it is necessary for the Faculty of Foreign Languages to design communication subjects for the curriculum and add other useful activities so that students are well prepared to meet requirements from employers. Literature Review “Communication is building a message, sending it in hopes of receiver will understand its content.”[1] Effective communication requires many skills like: • Making first impression • Verbal communication • Non-verbal communication • Empathy • Questioning skill • Active listening skill • Cultural awareness • Team working • Writing skill • Conflict-solving skill • Public speaking and presentation skill • Negotiation skill • Providing leadership [2] Because of limited time, the researcher cannot cover all those kinds of skills. This project focuses on the first few in the list above: making first impression, verbal communication, non-verbal communication, empathy, questioning skills, and active listening skill. In other words, the primary focus on the research is students’ interpersonal skills or conversational skills. They are the most fundamental and basic skills in real life and in any kind of job. The communication abilities of students have become a very big concern of many people including employers, parents, teachers, students and so on, which is why a number of investigations, surveys, and research on the issue have been - 2 - done worldwide in order to upgrade students’ competence of communication. “Overall the skills in which the new graduates employed appear to be most deficient are problem solving skills, oral business communication skills and interpersonal skills with other staff” [3]. Moreover, most of practitioners throughout North American stated that “new graduates are well prepared with technical skills, but frequently are deficient in communication and interpersonal skills" [4] when they were asked whether they satisfy with new graduates. Sheila reported that Hindi Medium students’ inadequate communication is consequent from many causes. Shukla indicated that “lack of proper guidance, lack of exposure to formal environments, adequate interaction in family, poor family educational background, lack of educational facilities, difficult finance, lack of confidence, and ongoing struggle of these students to translate their thoughts from Hindi into English ” [5] result in to their deficiency of communication ability. He suggested solutions in terms of the roots of problem. In another research, it was said that “majority of the students have high communication apprehension (fear) and around 60 percent of them lack communication skills” [6]. They highly evaluated the active role of teachers as a diagnostician, counselor, communication specialist, soft skills trainer in help students overcome their fear and thus develop their communication ability. In addition, lack of knowledge of intercultural communication, cultural shock and differences in nonverbal communication and politeness strategies result in many difficulties for students to interact with students from other countries. Most of these above researchers looked at the communication level of students, reasons of their poor communication and solutions. Some of them were interested in communication skills in general. Some others focused on only one aspect separately of communication skills like public speaking, making presentation, intercultural communication, etc. In the present research, the writer tried to answer three questions. The first one is how students perceive the importance of communication skills in current recruitment setting; second, how do students assess their own communication ability, and, finally, how well students perform their communication via a communication skills assessment test. Methodology To carry out this project, 10-item questionnaires and 16-item tests were distributed to 90 senior students of Faculty of Foreign Languages. The questionnaire included personal information and rating part and an assessment of communication ability part. In the question part consisting of 10 questions, the writer used different kinds of question like ranking, rating, frequency, open- ended. Its design was very friendly user with attempts made to avoid academic terms so that students have no confusion. In order to assess students’ level of communication, the writer also included 16-item tests on conversational communication designed by Robin Jacobs, Portland Community College. The - 3 - test mainly focuses on interpersonal or conversational skills_ most fundamental skills. After all, quantitative method was employed to analyze the collected data. Findings from the questionnaire Students’ Self-assessment towards their Communication Skills Surprisingly, nearly 2/3 of students rated their communication level as only average. In addition, 1/4 of students stated that they were weak and very weak on communication skills, and very few evaluate themselves as above average. Chart 5: Students' Self-assessment towards their Communication Ability 6 17 64 11 2 0 20 40 60 80 100 Very poor Poor Average Fair Good Percent Students’ Self-assessment towards their Communication Skills in Detail Students were asked to rate their specific communication skills, using a scale of Chart 6: Students' Rating their Communication Skills in Details 6.4 6.2 6.0 6.0 5.8 5.7 5.7 5.6 5.5 5.4 5.1 5.1 5.0 0 2 4 6 8 10 Skills Mark Empathy Teamwork Verbal communication Active listening skill Questioning skill Making first impression Cultural awareness Writing skill Public speaking and presentaion Conflict-solving skill Providing leadership Non verbal communication Negotiation skill - 4 - 1 to 10 with 1 equal very weak skills and 10 equal their best skills. None if the items received high average rankings, with conversational skills like empathy, verbal communication, active listening, questioning, making first impression rated slightly higher than more advanced skills like cultural awareness, public speaking and presentation, conflict-solving skill, or providing leadership, etc. In general, their skills ratings vacillated from 5 to 6 on a scale of 10. Students’ Perception towards Communication Skills Training Program In this question, the writer asked students whether they are frequently trained in communication skills with classes or activities. No one said that the university holds classes and activities very usually. Chart 6 indicates the inattention of the university to communication training. Chart 7: Frequency of Holding Classes as well as Activities Relating to Communication Improvement at Lac hong University 0 13 52 29 6 0 20 40 60 80 100 Very usually Usually sometimes Rarely Never Percent Because of lack of communication training program in the university, many students expressed their dissatisfaction. Only 17% of them indicated satisfaction with the communication training program. Chart 8: Students' Satisfaction from Communication Skills Training Program 3 14 45 20 8 0 20 40 60 80 100 Completely agree Partially agree Normal Partially disagree Completely disagree percent - 5 - On the other hand, nearly a half of them evaluated the program as average whereas other 28% of them denied that they are satisfied with the current curriculum. Students’ Perception towards their Self-practice Although there is no doubt that university plays an important part in enhancing students’ communication skills, to become a good communicator, students’ practice is also a must, as a saying goes “Practice makes perfect”. However, only slightly less than half of the students said that that usually take part in activities relating to communication. This indicates that despite of students’ high perception towards the issue; they do not invest much in it. Chart 9: Students' Communicating Self-practice 22 27 40 8 3 0 20 40 60 80 100 Completely agree Partially agree Normal Partially disagree Completely disagree Percent Findings from the Communication Tests For the purpose of evaluating students’ actual level of communication skills, the writer asked them to do a small test on conversational communication. Chart 10: Students' Communication Performance 72 67 66 62 52 44 0 20 40 60 80 100 Fi r s t i m p r e s s i o n N o n - v e r b a l C o m m u n i c a t i o n V e r b a l C o m m n i c a t i o n A c t i v e L i s t e n i n g Q u e s t i o n i n g E m p a t h y - 6 - There are 16 questions on most familiar and basic skills such as making first impression, listening, questioning, eye-contact, feedback, group, etc. and students were asked to choose the best among a set of four options for appropriate communication behavior. Students on average correctly identified only 60% of the best answers. This number reflects students’ descriptions of their actual communication habits. The data do not show that the students are confident in themselves or able to answer correctly a significant proportion of a communication behavior test. Some of the individual item responses are interesting. Students were particularly likely to get wrong in the question asking about their reaction to others’ weight gain. Instead of responding that saying nothing about it would be the best option, around three fourths of students tended to tell their friends the sensitive truth. Likewise, when asked about habits of disagreement, most students tended to say nothing or quickly point out the person is wrong and why. Another item which students answered incorrectly is starting a conversation skill. It seems too difficult to most students to “warm-up” a conversation with a small talk. However, they did a better job responding to items about giving negative feedback, making first impression, showing agreement or concentration in listening. According to the findings from the questionnaire and from the communication test, it is revealed that English language students at Lac Hong University do perceive the role of communication skills in recruitment and in success of work as well as very important. However, despite this perception, many students self-assess their own communication ability as average or below. Students identified the roots of problem in deficiency of communication training program and activities in curriculum and students’ absence of self practice. Conclusion In brief, this study examined the perception and the self-assessment of English language seniors towards communication skills. Furthermore, it also aimed to assess whether their competence good or not. The findings suggest that most seniors at Faculty of foreign Languages do know the significance of communication skills in recruitment and progress in such a severe competitive setting. Nevertheless, in spite of this awareness, students revealed that they are deficient in ability to communicate well. The writer has also found out the reasons of the phenomenon. Deficiency of communication training program and activities in curriculum is a considerable mistake which leads to poor communication. Moreover, we cannot help denying the role of students themselves in training and stimulating their skills. They seem to neglect efforts to enhance their communication skills. In the researcher’s outlook, this is not a very positive sign for students as well as for the Faculty of Foreign Languages. Therefore, only if both the Faculty of Foreign Languages and students cooperate well and harmoniously is the communication level of students improved. - 7 - Recommendations Recommendation for the Teachers and the Faculty of Foreign Languages Students should be equipped well with communication skills to be ready for their future jobs. Therefore, it is an urgent need for the Faculty of Foreign Languages to put more emphasis on communication. The curriculum should include subjects of communication skills. Besides, it is very vital for the Faculty of Foreign Languages to coordinate with other Faculties from the same and different university, and organizations in holding exchange activities, events and competitions which help improve students’ confidence, communication skills and other skills. Many kinds of club like English Speaking Club, Dancing Club, Literature Club, Sport Club, etc should be stimulated and invested to work in order to help students be involved in active activities. It would be a great idea to let students design and prepare some of those activities on their own. Also, workshops and speeches on communication skills particularly and soft skills generally should be held with the attendance of specialists in order to equip and answer students’ questions towards communication. The writer believes that with such interesting activities, students would throw their apprehension away and gain many skills required. To the teachers of English language, the writer recommends that they should do best to involve their students into activities inside and outside classroom as well. The teachers not only play a role as a teacher but an active role as a communication specialist, active diagnostician, counselor, soft skills trainer and friend. Recommendation for the Students The writer did mention the important role of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and the English language teachers in enhancing students’ level of communication above. However, it does not work effectively without efforts from students. Only if there is a tight cooperation between both sides is improvement of students positive. Therefore, the writer has only one word to say to the students “PRACTICE” as the saying goes “Practice makes perfect”. Throw away your passivity and go out to join activities, make friends and find how interesting and wonderful it is. Nothing is better to make full use of the support from the Faculty and the teachers to join events and workshop. Never miss any chances to improve yourself. Finally, remember that you are young and dynamic people who can do many things well. Just prove it! Recommendation for further Study Because of limited time, knowledge, sources of data and skills, the writer cannot cover all aspects of communication skills. Therefore, she would like to recommend further research on other fields of the problem. - 8 - References [1] Phuong, V. T. & Huy, D. Q. (n.d.). Business Communication ( p.9). In Van, D. T. H. & Dat, K. N. (2006) Communication in Business and in Real Life. Hanoi: Statistics. (p. 3) [2]Albert, P. & Ramakrishna, T. S. (2008). Developing Engineering Students’ Communication Skills by Reducing their Communication Apprehension. English for Specific Purposes World, 4(20), Vol. 7. [3] ACNielsen Research Service (2000). Employer Satisfaction with Graduate Skills Commonwealth of Australia. (p. 22). [4] R., L. R. (1994). Preparing Veterinary Students with the Interactive Skills to Effectively Work with Clients and Staff. Journal of Veterinary Medical Education, 21(2). [5] Shukla, H. (2004). Communication in English: Problems Faced by Hindi Medium Students in Technical Institutions. Language in India: Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow, 4(6). [6] Luisa, C. & Danielle, C. (2005). Communication for IT, (2 nd Ed.). Australia: McGraw Hill. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Tra Thi Kim Ngan, a student of class 05AV3, graduated from Lac Hong University in 2009. . Australia: McGraw Hill. -- -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - * Tra Thi Kim Ngan, a student. writer also included 16-item tests on conversational communication designed by Robin Jacobs, Portland Community College. The - 3 - test mainly focuses