Difficulties in studying and acquiring English speaking skills for the firstyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University

DECLARATION I, Nguyen Ngoc Thien, hereby certify this thesis with the given name: “Difficulties in studying and acquiring English speaking skills for the first-year English-majored students at Thuongmai University” belongs to my own effort of researching under the requirement of the Graduation paper at English Faculty – Thuongmai University Any substance of this research has not been submitted for a degree to any other university or institution Signature Nguyen Ngoc Thien ABSTRACT Speaking is known as one of the most necessary abilities to communicate as well as interact with people in the real life Even though people are aware of its importance, a number of learners finds it difficult to acquire and master this particular ability As a result, this thesis will focus on the subjective and objective obstacles in trying to learn to speak fluently and properly After that, the reasons behind this problem as well as possible solutions will be mentioned based on the collected data from the students In order to accomplish those tasks, the author had to use qualitative method along with quantitative one to conduct the research In addition, methods of collecting data such as questionnaire survey and interviews are also implemented All of these factors mentioned above will contribute to the success of figuring out the difficulties in studying English speaking skills of firstyear English-majored students at Thuongmai University ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During the process of completing this graduation paper, I have received help from many people around me such as my friends, family members and teachers, who have actively provided me with supportive encouragement, as well as helpful assistance without any hesitation I would like to express my gratitude towards my supervisor – Mrs Pham Thi Phuong, the teacher of English Faculty for guiding and clarifying misunderstandings during researching Without her aid, this thesis in general could not have been completed in due time Moreover, I also would like to show my sincerest thanks to all of my teachers of the English Faculty at Thuongmai University, who have given me such academic documents containing background knowledge to finish this graduation paper Additionally, I am grateful because of the fact that a lot of K55N showed their enthusiastic participation in my study Last but not least, I would like to thank all the authors of the academic materials listed below for helping me with my study TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF CHARTS, TABLES AND FIGURES No Content Page Table 3.1 Personal information of the students 23 Table 3.2 The importance of English skills 23 Table 3.3 Frequency of using English speaking skills 25 Table 3.4 Time spent to practise English speaking skills 26 Table 3.5 Places to speak English regularly 27 Table 3.6 Practice partners 28 Table 3.7 Sources to learn English speaking skills 29 Table 3.8 Speed and plan of using English speaking skills in the future 30 Table 3.9 Students’ opinions of the most difficult parts when speaking English 31 10 Table 3.10 Explanations of considering them the most difficult 31 11 Table 3.11 Reasons why people pay little attention to English speaking skills 32 12 Table 3.12 Solutions 33 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS No Abbreviation English meaning Vietnamese meaning TMU Thuongmai University Trường đại học Thương Mại CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale As we all know, English has been known as a global language and plays an important role in both daily life and other aspects, such as work, foreign relation, translation & interpretation Therefore, English is widely used in many countries in the world, particularly, the number of nations using English as a second language, mother tongue or a language that is used for work is remarkably immense Also, English is a compulsory subject for Vietnamese students as it is being very crucial for the country’s economy growth, and Vietnam is co-operating with other countries in terms of economic and diplomatic aspects as well However, despite the popularity of English, there seems to be a problem related to the proficiency of English among Vietnamese students, due to the fact that they have to balance their studying between other subjects and English, along with the fact that they have to learn how to use skills of English language: Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking at the same time Of these skills, speaking has been recognized by far as the most difficult one to be competent and mastered by lots of students in general The problem is getting more complicated, as many students are incapable of speaking and talking in English to other Vietnamese peers, let alone foreigners In the context of the country developing, this in long-term may harm the nation one way or another As an English-majored student, the researcher wishes to investigate this situation and tries to solve it After observing multiple students in Thuongmai University encountered many problems with these specific skills, it is necessary for this study to be made in conjunction with the relevant survey, with the title “Difficulties in studying and acquiring English speaking skills for the first-year English-majored students at Thuongmai University” in order to figure out what could be possibly hindering them, the reasons behind this cause as wells as certain solutions to overcome 1.2 Previous studies This issue is very common amongst not only students but also other groups of people as well, such as employees Therefore, it is obvious to mention that there has been a lot of studies conducted by many previous researchers It is also a fact that even though the methods and conclusions might vary, the aims are still similar to each other To complete such studies, they had to acquire a great deal of useful information from books and other materials before researching and making surveys However, in general, they always provided the readers what they needed to know about the researches before reading them, such as the definition, the figures, etc… There are a few studies from both domestic and foreign researchers that the writer would like to present 1.2.1 From domestic researcher(s) The research of a group of female linguists whose names are Vo Phuong Quyen, Pham Thi My Nga and Ho Thao Nguyen on “Challenges to speaking skills encountered by English-majored students: A story of one Vietnamese university in the Mekong Delta” concerned the proficiency and fluency of EFL English-majored freshmen regarding English speaking skills in Can Tho university, and also discussed some internal and external factors affecting their learning They proposed some suggestions to help the students improve their overall English speaking skills 1.2.2 From foreign researcher(s) The research on “Improving English Language Speaking Skills of Ajloun National University Students” by a linguist whose name is Abdel-Rahman AlEiadeh (2016) concluded that many students faced many problems that were related to speaking skills, which were confusion and embarrassment, as well as the fact that they studied incorrectly at university and encountered difficulties when pronouncing words That’s why he aimed to present some practical solutions for the students at ANU As we can see, there are a lot of researches and surveys targeting at one realistic problem: “Speaking is not a priority to focus on” and one goal: “How to improve this ability” That is the primary reason why the writer of this study also wants to make contribution towards this existing problem 1.3 Aims of the study As mentioned previously, the targets of this study are the students of Englishmajored at Thuongmai university, who are currently first-year The reason why the researcher chose this group to conduct a research is that they are not acquainted with being introduced to new methods of learning English at university, consequently, they must have certain hardships in learning English, especially speaking – the skills that in high school were not paid enough attention to Secondly, the researcher would like to know their proficiency of English speaking skills in order to categorize them from being incompetent or able to speak fluently and give them suggestions or improvements accordingly In order to achieve the outcomes, the specific objects should be defined as: • Evaluating the students’ English proficiency through surveys and interviews • Acknowledging what the difficulties are based on the results of the survey and the reasons why such obstacles exist • Suggesting some solutions to improve their speaking skills 1.4 Research subjects Of all skills in the English language, speaking is known as one of the most, if not, the most important skills, and it could be the most difficult ability to attain because there are many people who are not capable of using it to communicate properly with others at work or on a daily basis That’s why the subject focuses on the difficulties in speaking English faced by st-year students at Thuongmai university to help them improve for future career 1.5 Scope of the study This study focuses on the first-year students at Thuongmai university who are being members of English faculty As the time and knowledge are insufficient, as well as the materials for referencing are inadequate, this study is unfortunately unable to solve every issue of speaking skills In addition, the study only aims at one specific group of students, not everyone at Thuongmai university Nevertheless, the writer will try his best to deliver the finest content on the speaking skills 1.6 Research methodology In order to complete the study, it was carried out with the help of both quantitative and qualitative methods at the same time On top of that, the writer chose the questionnaire to conduct the research First and foremost, questionnaire on English speaking skills was created and provided to approximately 50 first-year English-majored students at Thuongmai University Upon doing that, the overall information would be collected based on the frequency of students using English to speak, and some difficulties as well The second method that was implemented was interviewing, as it was used to get direct answers and personal opinions from many students that might not be appeared in the questionnaire, and the attitude could be observed as well, thus helping the researcher have a deeper understanding about their problems Particularly, 10 students were interviewed to obtain the valuable information 1.7 Organization of the study This study consists of chapters, namely (1): Overview of the study, (2) Literature review, (3) Research Methodology and Findings and (4) Recommendations and Suggestions In chapter (1), the researcher introduces general overview of this study, starting with “Rationale”, which gives a brief background of the existing problem Then “Previous Studies” which are relevant to the present research and the “Aims of the study” are discussed as well Moreover, “Research subjects”, “Scope of the study” and “Research methodology” are also to be mentioned Finally, “Organization of the study” is included at the end of first chapter The second chapter provides the overview of speaking skills, discovers some drawbacks when speaking English along with the causes, and the summary of the writer In the third chapter called “Research Methodology and Findings”, this study shows the results and the information collected from questionnaire surveys and interviewing, has the results commented and give conclusions In the last chapter - “Recommendations and Suggestions”, the writer mentions some tips in order to help the students improve or have them as references for prospective studies 10 3.4.2.4 Places to speak English regularly Table 3.5 Places to speak English regularly From this chart, the tendency is obviously shown that it heavily varied in terms of the location As expected from K55N students, they are basically freshmen of the university, as a result, 82% of the participants spoke English within the campus of the university more frequently, such as in classrooms, during presentation, or chatting with each other in English to prepare for the verbal tests However, a few students had different choices of choosing places to speak English, as 2% of them might have a part-time job, where they were able to speak English more often than university; or 6% of the students might want to enhance their English speaking proficiency efficiently, so they gathered in certain areas of Hanoi having multiple foreigners of native speakers to talk to them 3.4.2.5 Practice partners Table 3.6 Practice partners From the information illustrated in the chart above, the tendency of choosing partners to practise English speaking skills is also distinctive amongst these categories As a common fact, the students tend to be more open when they speak to their friends, because of the convenience and comfort, which is why “friends” accounted 33 for 51% of the selection Moreover, it seems that they also tried to seek their teacher’s help to improve their speaking skills, leading to the figure of 22% Noticeably, there are 11% of the students who preferred to speak to themselves, which means that they wanted to self-study, and 16% of them found speaking with foreigners much more effective compared to regular methods 3.4.2.6 Sources to learn English speaking skills Table 3.7 Sources to learn English speaking skills As shown in the chart, these media have received the attention of the students to help them improve their English speaking skills Youtube is the best option, because it provides students many useful videos, such as online courses, recreational videos or vlogs that are English-central, which is why 44% of the students browsed it daily Traditional materials such as books, journals or articles are also used frequently to enhance their ability to speak, which resulted in having a 32% figure Though being less popular compared the other two sources, TED talk - a website full of informative presentations as well as deep knowledge was also recommended at 14%, whereas movies and TV shows were thought to be more appealing to the students, but the figure was at 10% only 34 3.4.2.7 Speed and plan of using English speaking skills in the future Categories Fast Mediocre Slow Sluggish Yes No Speed Plan Percentag e 6% 72% 12% 10% 78% 22% Table 3.8 Speed and plan of using English speaking skills in the future Generally speaking, the plan to use English speaking skills as a means to get a job showed a positive result, as 78% of the students affirmed that they wanted to so In terms of the speed specifically, the majority of students who has mediocre speed of speaking was the largest, at 72% On the other hand, there are 12 and 10% of participants claiming that their pace of speaking was “slow” as well as “sluggish” respectively, whereas only 6% answered that their speaking was faster compared to other categories 3.4.2.8 Students’ opinions of the most difficult parts when speaking in English Table 3.9 Students’ opinions of the most difficult parts when speaking English Regarding the student’s opinions about what troubles them the most when they speak English, there are 78% of whom claiming that “expression” was the most difficult Moreover, it is either English accent or American accent that they found hard to implement, thus yielding the figure of 48%, and the similar results applied to “lexical resources” as they could not find correct as well as appropriate words to speak Finally, 36% of the participants believed that “grammatical structures” were 35 also one of the issues that prevented them from succeeding in English speaking skills 3.4.2.9 Explanations of considering them the most difficult Reasons Actual figures Percentage Because it is too complicated 13 26% Because people are not acquainted to using English compared to Vietnamese 38 76% Because people are not confident enough 20 40% Because they are mistakenly guided 24 48% Table 3.10 Explanations of considering them the most difficult There are several reasons for this cause Thirteen students believed that speaking in English was a lot more difficult because of the grammar and vocabulary being too complicated for them to follow Additionally, there are at least 38 students expressing that people were not acquainted to English owing to the fact that it’s not their mother tongue, so problems would arise when speaking Another 48% of the opinions collected mentioned that they were guided in a wrong way, which also affected them in long-term and resulted in making people incapable of speaking English properly Last but not least, 40% of the students noted that they were not confident about their abilities 3.4.2.10 Reasons why people pay little attention to English speaking skills Reasons Actual figures Percentage Their jobs don’t require them to have fluent speaking skills 31 62% People think that they only need to work with Vietnamese colleagues 27 54% People think that speaking in English is similar 26 52% 36 to Vietnamese Their time doesn’t allow them to study 13 26% Table 3.11 Reasons why people pay little attention to English speaking skills Thanks to the information provided from the chart, we can see that some answers might affect the students directly or indirectly Since many people weren’t interested in English speaking skills, 62% of the them believed that in the future, they would find a job which wouldn’t require them to have proper English speaking ability, such as translators or content creators In order to that, they should be spending time and efforts enriching their vocabulary and reading skills instead of speaking Another 54% of the students’ opinions confirmed that Vietnamese workers would only co-operate with their domestic colleagues instead of foreigners, as a result, they needn’t focus too much on English speaking skills Twenty six students claimed that the reason of people being ignorant towards speaking was mainly because they thought speaking could be easily achieved if grammar and vocabulary were adequate, which leads to many failures in real life as people cannot flexibly or correctly speak in complex situations Last but not least, 13 students affirmed that some people were too busy with their life, their work or study, consequently, they didn’t have time to study speaking at all 3.4.2.11 Solutions Solutions Actual figures Percentage Learning at English teaching centres 25 50% Gathering in places with many foreigners 20 40% Imitating how actors/actresses say in movies 33 66% Practising with teachers and friends 31 62% Taking part in English speaking contests 15 30% 37 Practising using English in daily life 39 78% Table 3.12 Solutions Thanks to the data collected, there are some solutions regarding these problems Learning at English centres is considered as a common method to many Vietnamese students, which accounted for 50% of the student’s opinions Gathering in many places with many foreigners is also a suitable way as the students will become more confident and flexible with their choice of words, thus achieving a 40% figure Watching movies, and copying exactly what the actors/actresses say is also considered as a good way to self-study, as it is cheap and effective to improve the accent and intonation, and easier to study about cultures (66%) Sixty two percent is the figure which stated that people ought to practise with their teachers and friends at school, because teachers can correct mistakes, and it’s convenient to practise with friends whenever available There are only 30% of all the participants who thought by participating in English speaking contests, both confidence as well as versatility when speaking would be achieved Last but not least, over 70% strongly believed that our brain would be more acquainted to the appearance of English if we managed to practise using English everyday frequently, which is similar to what we in Vietnamese, leading to the fact that we will speak better CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 4.1 Recommended suggestions 4.1.1 For students • Being more active when learning speaking As stated previously, Vietnamese students are generally inactive when it comes to learning, leading to the fact that they only study when they want to or they 38 are told to In order to succeed, their minds and thoughts have to become more active for long-term benefits There are a lot of ways to be more active: Firstly, they can try to imitate what foreigners say to get used to the intonation and the accent Secondly, students can have their teachers clarify if there is something that confuses them, for example, word stress or slangs Lastly, they can self-study anytime they would like to, it doesn’t have to be when they are taught at school, consequently, they will become more flexible with English in general and speak more accurately • Referring to any learning materials (books, movies ) There are multiple sources to learn English speaking skills on the Internet nowadays, and the fact that they are free can provide the students with lots of new words to use correctly in certain cases, or improve their own listening skills, which will allow them to come up with a suitable answer based on what they hear Other examples are online articles or academic documents, which will broaden their general knowledge about their surroundings, thus helping them reply faster and more accurate in manifold situations • Seeking seniors’ advice and help who have more experience As always, people who have more experience definitely know the shortest and the most efficient ways to succeed Therefore, it would be effective to ask them for advice if there exists any problems, because they will provide the students with a solution that is suitable to their learning styles and they can follow it Additionally, academic documents are also able to be shared if possible What is even more better is that those people may guide you how to it correctly and properly • Practise immensely Though this might be simple to understand, not many people are able to accomplish it It’s best to practise English speaking skills whenever possible, because the effort and time that are used will present a promising fruition in the future The fact that many people in the world can succeed by practising with all their might indicates that students can also achieve the similar results 39 What they can now is to start speaking with other people since it is easier to realize the mistakes made by taking others’ critiques; or students can speak in front of a mirror to enhance intonation, stress as well as confidence and expression; finally, students should spend at least hour a day speaking English to ensure consistency, so that in long-terms, their effort will be rewarded 4.1.2 For teachers • Clarifying misunderstanding Because there are many things that students may not understand the intrinsic aspects of the problems that they might face, it is important for teachers to offer assistance in order to give them a proper answer which is comprehensible and logical By doing that, students will be able to remember for a longer period of time • Applying innovative teaching methods Instead of telling the students to read text books or scripted conversations, and have them learn by heart then present it in front of the whole class, teachers can set up a competition, which includes certain rewards between different groups to see who’s able to give their fastest and most accurate answers by asking them specific questions relevant to the subject that their teachers are trying to aim at Teachers can also use technology to assist them, by showing new words along with pictures on the screen, or letting them watch a short animated video containing a number of new words, which can help them remember longer Students can be provided with specific topics to discuss as well, then teachers shall call a few students to listen to how the students present their opinions, and provide some comments for the students to take note • Asking more questions related to the topics Speaking is a process of two people exchanging information, so after the students finish with their talking, instead of allowing them to sit down immediately, teachers should ask something that is related to their previous response, so as to see 40 the potentials and the limits of their students, therefore, they can suggest a few methods of studying efficiently and how to avoid mistakes 4.2 Recommendations for further studies Due to the limitation, this thesis is unfortunately unable to cover every aspect of the existing problems, since it only aims at the difficulties of first-year students only to help them improve their speaking skills In order to get a better result, the data collected as well as the participants should be more diverse to contribute to the success of the study, along with using different methods, such as interviews and questionnaires to get more information To conclude, this research has been completed under the guidance of the teachers and the effort of the writer, even though drawbacks are unavoidable Comments and critiques can be made to be recommended for prospective studies CONCLUSION Overall, English is definitely an integral part of this modern society as it has a lot of practical uses Students who are capable of learning and mastering English shall have a larger advantage over their peers who are not good at English Consequently, it is common for Vietnamese parents to invest into their children’s studying However, there are many students who are not able to speak English properly, mainly because they are mistakenly guided and they are being heavily reliant on their teachers It is going to negatively impact them in long-term What they should 41 to get better results at speaking is to be more active by becoming more creative and flexible with the way they learn or study, practise with friends whenever available and ask teachers for clarification if they don’t understand More importantly, they should take part in any speaking contests taken placed by headmasters or local authorities to test their own speaking skills as well as observe how others it, so that they can withdraw the lessons learned for themselves Finally, it’s essential for teachers to pay more attention to their students and provide some comments for improvement as well The author of this study hopes that his research will make contribution to the quality improvements of teaching and learning English speaking skills at Thuongmai university 42 REFERENCES Vo Phuong Quyen, Pham Thi My Nga and Ho Thao Nguyen (2018), Challenges to speaking skills encountered by English-majored students: A story of Vietnamese university in the Mekong Delta Abdel-Rahman Al- Eiadeh (2016), Improving English Language Speaking Skills of Ajloun National University Students Brown, H.D (1994), Teaching by principles: an interactive approach to language pedagogy Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents Burns, A., & Joyce, H (1997), Focus on speaking Sydney: National Center for English Language Teaching and Research Carter, R & McCarthy, M (1995), Grammar and spoken language Applied Linguistics, 16 (2), 141-158 Cohen, A (1996), Developing the ability to perform speech acts Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 18 (2), 253-267 Revell, J (1979), Teaching Techniques for Communicative English Widdowson, H G (1985), Teaching Language as Communication Oxford: Oxford University Press Jason S Wrench, Anne Goding, Danette Ifert Johnson, and Bernardo A Attias (2011), Chapter 14, Section 14.1, Stand up, Speak out: The Practice and Ethics of Public Speaking 43 APPRENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY Hello! I am Thien – 4th-year English-majored student at TMU This questionnaire is designed to collect data for my graduation paper, which is called: “Difficulties in studying and acquiring English speaking skills for the first-year English-majored students at Thuongmai University” I would be very grateful if you could help me fill in this questionnaire by ticking in certain checkboxes and answering some questions Rest assured that this will only be used for my study, not for any other commercial or relevant purposes Thank you! Part 1: General information May I know your name and class? ……………………………………………………………………………………           You are: Male Female How long have you been learning English? Over 10 years Over years Over years Under years Part 2: the reality of the students using speaking skills In your opinion, which skills are considered as the most important? Listening Speaking Reading Writing Why you think so? …………………………………………………………………………………… Are speaking skills important to you? (you can move on if you have already answered previously)  Yes  No Regarding the speaking skills, how long have you been learning it? 44  From 10 years onwards  From years onwards  From years onwards  Under years What is your frequency of speaking English?  Never  Seldom  Sometimes  Regularly  Always Where you mainly speak English?  At university  At workplace  In places where there are many foreigners 10 Who you usually talk in English to?  Teachers  Friends  Yourselves  Foreigners 11 Which of these is your main source of learning English speaking skills?  Youtube  Movies and TV shows  TED talk  Traditional materials 12 What you think about your speed when you speak English?  Fast  Mediocre  Slow  Sluggish 13 Do you plan to use English speaking skills in a future job?  Yes  No Part 3: Difficulties in studying English speaking skills 14 In your opinion, when practising speaking English, which of these you think the most difficult to attain? (you may select more than option)  Grammatical structures  Lexical resources  Expressions  Accent 15 Why you think so? (you may select more than option) 45  Because it is too complicated  Because people are not acquainted to using English compared to Vietnamese  Because people are not confident enough  Because people are mistakenly guided 16 Do you know what makes Vietnamese people in general pay little attention to English speaking skills? (you may select more than option)  Because their jobs don’t require them to have fluent speaking skills  Because people think that they only need to work with Vietnamese colleagues  Because people think that speaking in English is similar to Vietnamese  Because their time doesn’t allow them to study Part 4: Possible solutions 17 In your opinion, the suitable solutions for this cause are: (you may select more than       option) Learning at English teaching centres Gathering in places with many foreigners Imitating how actors/actresses say in movies Practising with teachers and friends Taking part in English speaking contests Practising using English in daily life Thank you for your co-operation! Have a good day! 46 APPRENDIX INTERVIEW QUESTION How you evaluate your English proficiency in general and English speaking skills in particular? Do you encounter any problems when you speak English? In your opinions, what you think will help improve your speaking skills? How can teachers help their students to improve speaking 47 ... Difficulties in studying and acquiring English speaking skills for the first-year English- majored students at Thuongmai University in order to figure out what could be possibly hindering them,... constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information Burns and Joyce also stated that “Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including... include the data and information collected from the questionnaire survey as well as direct interviews regarding the difficulties in studying English speaking skills of 1st-year students at Thuongmai