Difficulties in english speaking skill of thuongmai university’s majored english freshmen and solutions

ABSTRACT The study “Difficulties in English Speaking Skill of Thuongmai University’s Majored English Freshmen and Solutions” would provide background about English and English speaking The paper also indicates some problems and difficulties that English learners have to encounter when speaking English Based on given theories and previously relate studies, the paper conducts a survey and makes a questionnaire to interview English major freshmen After data collection process, the study analyzes and indicates the importance of English speaking to major freshmen Besides, the actual English speaking level of freshmen is shown in this paper as well The study shows the frequency of learning English speaking of freshmen and the main way that most of freshmen apply when they practice speaking English Afterwards, the study shows the advantages and disadvantages in their learning ways and finds out some main difficulties and problems they face to Then, to each difficulty and problem, the paper provides some solutions to deal with, solutions for students and for TMU as well The study hopes that these solutions would help major freshmen in particular and English learners in general aware of the suitable ways to master English speaking 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the process of completing this research paper, I have received a great deal of help, guidance and encouragement from many teachers, friends and my family First of all, I would like to express my deepest thanks to Ms.Hoang Tho, my supervisor for her constant and tireless support through this study My sincere thanks also go to other teachers in English Faculty for their lectures and instructions during the four years which helps me much in completing this study Especially, I am profoundly grateful to all the members in my family and friends, who always beside me, supporting time to complete this study Finally, I wish to thank all those who have kindly given their advice and helped me with source material during the writing of this study Ha Noi, December 1st 2019 Trinh Thi Tuyet 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS TMU THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES 5 CHAPTER OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale Nowadays, English language becomes gradually more important while the integration process is developing The exchanges in technology, science, economy… are frequently promoted, especially in education The using of different languages becomes a major barrier in exchanging process The ability to communicate in another language is the target of many people who want to learn new languages in common and English in particular Therefore, speaking skill plays an essential role in learning English process If they can master this skill, it means they master that language However, English learners have to face with many difficulties in learning process, especially in speaking skill Some students who focus on learning grammar and their grammar is good but they cannot speak English frequently Some students have an abundant vocabulary range but they still have trouble when communicating with foreigners In other hand, some students master listening, reading and writing and some of them get some English certificates such as Toeic However, they cannot speak English well and cannot communicate with foreign people English is very important so it is one of significant subjects and one of the common languages being taught at universities, including Thuongmai University Thuongmai university attaches great importance to English education However, many Thuongmai students still have difficulty in speaking English Many students have trouble with English, especially when they have presentation in English Their studying result cannot improve because of English Some of them cannot compel their studying because of English Some of them, after graduating, cannot have any opportunities of working with foreigners, working for a foreign company because they cannot communicate in English frequently There are quite many researchers on learning English speaking skill and difficulties in learning this skill However, there are still few researchers about difficulties in learning speaking skill by students at TMU, especially by English major students although it is a quite big university in Vietnam I used to be a English major student at this university, I would like to carry out a research to find out the common 6 difficulties in learning this skill by those students in order to help them to improve the situation in next semesters For these above reasons, the researcher decided to choose the study “Difficulties in English Speaking Skill of Thuongmai University’s Majored English Freshmen and Solutions” with the aim of finding out difficulties that Thuongmai, majored English freshmen have to face with and providing some solutions to deal with them The study hopes that this research paper will be a useful reference helping improve speaking English skill not only for the first-year- students at Thuong mai but also all Vietnamese people who want to master English 1.2 Previous studies In fact, there are many studies about speaking English skill topics Boonkit (2010) carried out a study on the factors increasing the development of learners’ speaking skill The results represented that the use of appropriate activities for speaking skill can be a good strategy to decrease speakers’ anxiety The results also revealed that the freedom of topic choice urged the participants to feel comfortable, persuaded to speak English, and increased the speaking confidence among EFL learners Ali Dincer and Savas Yesilyurt (2013) carried out a study towards teachers’ beliefs on speaking skills based on motivational orientations The results of their study indicated that the teachers had negative opinions about speaking instruction though they believed that it was of great significance in speaking skill The results also revealed that the teachers felt unskilled in oral communication though they had various motivational orientations towards speaking English The researchers indicated that that learners have different opinions about the significance of speaking skill in English language and this difference is related with the learners’ motivational orientations and their competent/incompetent feelings in speaking skill The results demonstrated that learners’ self-assessment about their speaking skill was negative and they expressed themselves as incapable speakers of English Just some of them expressed that they had a good position in taking part in speaking tasks Tanveer (2007) examined the factors caused anxiety for learners in learning speaking ability and the impact of anxiety on target language communication The 7 obtained results indicated that learners’ feeling of stress and anxiety stop their language learning and performance abilities The researcher emphasized that the high anxiety lowers the learners’ speaking performance Eissa, Misbah, and Najat (1988) performed a study towards the difficulties of using English as a means of instruction and communication The results of this study displayed that learners had many difficulties in using English language as a means of instruction A lot of participants stated that their learners have low English proficiency The results also indicated that a lot of learners faced serious difficulties in understanding the lectures’ content without translating or applying L1 to deliver the content of the lectures Urrutia and Vega (2010) demonstrated that learners’ oral performance was influenced by their lack of vocabulary, diffidence, and fear of being despised It was also indicated that learners’ cooperation, self-confidence, vocabulary knowledge, and the class environment encouraged them to improve their speaking skills Zhengdong Gan 2012, this paper reports the result of a study that aimed to identify the problems with oral English skills of ESL (English as a second language) students at a tertiary teacher training institution in Hong Kong The study, by way of semi-structured interview, addresses the gap in our understanding of the difficulties ESL students encountered in their oral English development in the context of a Bachelor of Education (English Language) program Insufficient opportunities to speak English in lectures and tutorials, lack of a focus on language improvement in the curriculum, and the input-poor environment for spoken communication in English outside class apparently contributed to a range of problems that closely related to the sociocultural, institutional and interpersonal contexts in which individual ESL students found themselves The results of the study lead us to question the effectiveness of the knowledge- and pedagogy-based ESL teacher training curriculum They also point to a need to incorporate a sufficiently intensive language improvement component in the current teacher preparation program Bozorgian (2012) investigated the relationship between listening skill and the other language skills The results revealed that there is a close correlation between 8 listening comprehension and language proficiency That is, the higher the listening score, the better the speaking score Lukitasari (2003) carried out a study towards learners’ strategies in overcoming their speaking problems The results obtained from this study show that learners face a lot of speaking difficulties such as inhibition, nothing to say, low participation, and mother tongue use in their speaking classes The other result of this study demonstrate that learners did not better their speaking skill because they had not learnt three components of speaking called vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation The study “How to improve student’s speaking English skill” of Ho Minh Thu gave some common difficulties that students have to face with However, the study doesn’t provide any detail solutions for that And this paper just focused on students who are major in economics and technical engineering so the reasons in this study are not particular for every students 1.3 Aims of the study The study analyzes difficulties in English speaking skills of Thuongmai university’s English major freshmen to find out the answers for the following questions: “What difficulties students in TMU encounter when they learn to speak English?” “What are possible causes leading to difficulties in learning speaking skills of the first year students in TMU?” “What are possible solutions to the problems?” The study is carried out with the following purposes: Firstly, the study provides the background theories of speaking skill that helps the readers wrap up the basic knowledge of speaking Based on the given theories, the readers would understand deeply the context of the study Secondly, the study provides the results and the limitations of the previous study related to the topic From that the paper shows the importance of researching this topic and find out other difficulties and solutions to help freshmen improve their English speaking skill Thirdly, the study conducts a survey to all first year students at Thuongmai university Afterwards, summarizes the main difficulties that most students face with The paper will evaluate each factor and give solutions for each difficulty 9 Then, the study brings and draws students to a level of practical proficiency that will enable them to be linguistically and analytically equipped to complete extended speaking skills and increasing their confidence in practicing speaking skills Finally, it should be noted that this paper shouldn’t be considered exclusive to majored English freshmen at Thuongmai University In fact, the fundamental concepts and results of this paper can be applied to most English learners 1.4 Research Subjects Research subject: 350 English major freshmen at TMU Freshmen who are finished high school just enrolled in a university after an important examination They are from many different places and Thuongmai freshmen as well The –first – year students at Thuongmai University come from a lot of different provinces in the country, from differently previous high school with different studying conditions However, they have the similarity in learning English At high school, they focus on learning grammar to overcome the examinations But, when they come to the university- the totally different studying environment, they have to deal with many troubles In the university, they have to talk, they have to make presentations in English that they never experience when they are at high school Therefore, many students suffer a crisis named English, speaking English in fact Therefore, I analyze this topic with the hope that this study can show the English speaking reality of freshmen at Thuongmai University and providing some practical solutions to them Freshmen are just enrolled in a university, they just access to a new studying environment which enquires them to speak and improve their English skill They are young and have more time to change so I hope with this paper I can help them change the way they learn English, deal with difficulties they have to opposite 1.5 Scope of the study The study is about speaking English skill of the first-year- student in English faculty at TMU Because of the limitations of time and knowledge, the storage of reference materials, the study cannot cover the whole issue of speaking skill It only focuses on exploring common difficulties students get in speaking skill Moreover, the study could not touch upon all the students at TMU It is confined to the first year students in English faculty at TMU only 10 10 difficulty in communicating due to poor pronunciation Up to 83.33% lacks of confidence in dealing with foreign people Thus, we can see that the number of students who speak English fluently, read and write professionally of TMU is quite limited Most of the students in the university respond slowly to the question asked by teachers and foreigners, and when they grasp the message successfully, it takes them much time to express their answers A majority of them seem to lack of confidence They are quite stressed and have difficulty in choosing words and not know how to use body language to communicate In short, the majority of students in the company encountered little or much difficulty in expressing; meanwhile, those who are really confident, speak English fluently and accurately take up very little 3.2.1 The main causes of difficulties in speaking English with foreigners of major freshmen at TMU Chart 3.6 Major causes of difficulties in speaking English with foreigners of major freshmen (Source: Generalization of Multiple Choice Questionnaire) Through result of the survey, it can be seen that the causes of difficulties and limitations in English capacity are mainly due to lack of learning motivation (83.33%) The remaining causes are psychological barriers, not-often English learning and lack of English communication environment take up 56,67%, 70% and 63,33% respectively From the fact of English speaking skills at the university, it is shown that the success in English speaking skills of amateurs depends on a number of different factors, but the most important is the motivation to learn, learning attitudes and learning strategies In spite of the economic and cultural exchanges, the increase in cooperation expansion between the university and foreign partners in recent years, the opportunity for students to be able to speak or meet with foreigners are still limited Such factors are closely related and logical to each other They have a great impact on the learning and practice of English speaking skills of the students at TMU 27 27 The lack of confidence as well as the not-interesting-enough speaking activities makes learners feel discouraged during the study In addition, there are many other problems such as limited vocabulary ability, lack of concentration and excitement in the study course also influence much the English speaking of students at the university 3.3 Some conclusions about English speaking skills of major freshmen at TMU 3.3.1 The success that the university achieved English speaking skills are one of the most important contents that the company has consistently strengthened and developed in its students training program After a few training courses organized by the university, most of the students are somewhat less timid in front of the crowd, boldly communicated in English with foreigners and especially knowledgeable in profession to apply into the reality situation Students not only improve their fluency in English but also master the skills of personality development, public speaking, interviewing skills, behavior and communication and dress code in the studying environment by intensive and highly interactive training methods that make these people become a priority group which is outstanding in the eyes of teachers and friends 3.3.2 Limitations and causes As analyzed above, the results of English language level survey on freshmen at TMU show that in general, English speaking skills of the students are still limited such as: Their English speaking ability is just enough to be able to answer questions and provide basic information in most common situations Few students can confidently connect and communicate in a typical situation such as in presentation When expressing opinions or responding to complex requirements, it is difficult for the students to express fluently, understandably The university lacks of people owning excellent English language level In general, the students have poor skills and knowledge in both basic English communication and related materials The English pronunciation of students has many mistakes This causes some disadvantages in the studying process such as some students only have the ability to read and understand specialized English but not really 28 28 good in communication The university’s English speaking skills curriculum is still subjective and based on the experience of the designers Actual situations used in the lesson are not plenty and not entirely related to the functions of specific major of the university Training methods are still intuitive, not based on the results of any research No training program suitable for each departmental students exists Training programs are also general Through the research on English speaking skills of students, it was found that the following factors influence the English speaking ability of students First, the need to learn English for communication is not high, not attached to the reality, so it has not yet become a learning motivation Most of students are not aware of the importance of English to study and improve their ability to meet current and future needs In addition, many students just study English for the purpose of finishing the professional title but not for the purpose of improving the level and serving research and communication Secondly, the English study of the students to develop speaking skills is still not regular or continuous Implementing the Project of standardization of foreign language skills stated, the company has organized English classes designed by the level, ensuring to provide 02 periods a week for students However, due to working conditions, students cannot attend regularly, the class is not maintained continuously In addition, the level of lectures also has a large difference between young students and old students, the study and practice of language skills, especially English speaking skill are limited Thirdly, psychological barriers, influences by native language and social culture have a significant impact on the development of English speaking skills of students These factors may have a direct impact on improving the speaking skills of students who are very anxious to participate in English communication activities or seminars or presentations performed by foreign experts Fourthly is the lack of communication environment They have less opportunity to perform interactive activities in English Due to the specific characteristics of the field, the English use of students is only in the class scope Time for exposure and 29 29 communication practice in English of students is only deployed at the meeting with customers In addition, the majority of students say that the use of English in the company is very little because it can be considered “abnormal” when communicating in English In addition, the English source of TMU is not very rich and diverse If so, the frequency of using these sources of language is very limited The communicative environment has a significant influence on the English language skills of the students, and considering two aspects of the communicative environment, the activities recognized from the standard language, and activities produced in communication environment is very limited 30 30 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 4.1 Orientation of English speaking skills of TMU Today, English is considered as a widely used language in the world English is also used mainly in most of the enterprise areas The partner countries of the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, France all use English as the main language For TMU, with the general goal, developing Thuongmai University into a multimajor training university in economics and trade which meets regional quality standards and strives to meet international quality standards to contribute to the fast and sustainable socio-economic development as well as the industrialization, modernization and international economic integration of the country To obtain this goal, improving speaking skills for student is one of the important parts English language proficiency students are becoming an essential and important need for the university In the next years, the university sets out some specific goals as follows: - Further developing the practicality of the content of the English learning program to help students communicate and develop comprehensively skills of Listening - - Speaking - Reading and Writing Build up and further complete the social skills program to help student to develop in terms of second language, especially English speaking skills The university always strives, improves, invests and upgrades in all aspects to bring up students who are good quality in English to meet the requirements of the English level of the society today 4.2 Proposing some solutions and suggestions to improve English speaking skills for students at TMU 4.2.1 Suggest with TMU’s management First and foremost, to raise the awareness of students of TMU about the position, role and importance of training English speaking skills in the period of industrialization and modernization, international integration and integration Each student should be aware of the importance of learning English as a foreign language during the period of accelerated industrialization, modernization and international integration In order to effectively implement the above solutions, it is 31 31 necessary to intensify propaganda activities on the mass media (corporate website, forums etc.), organize seminars, seminars, consultations, activities discussing, discussing the need, role and importance of practicing English speaking skills to raise awareness and the need to improve the English communication skills of students Secondly, organize regular activities outside the classroom to improve English speaking skills for students Establishing and strengthening English practice to help students have the opportunity to practice communication skills, to have more opportunities to expand relationships, to meet, to exchange and to learn from Other students through the exchange of ideas on a topic designed with flexible content and close to the reality in the university Establishment of English clubs gives officers and staff valuable experiences and share about good use of English in their studying and in their daily lives Organize extra-curricular activities for students to improve their English speaking skills and provide opportunities for students to meet and exchange with foreigners Through this, students not only have the opportunity to express themselves, to practice listening and speaking skills but also to understand the culture of other countries, learn how to behave, how quick and effective information exchange At the same time, this activity also helps students forging their ability to speak in front of the crowd, in front of strangers, forging their confidence and dynamism Organizing emulation movements, He gives the students, to give cadres, faculty motivation to learn English and forging English speaking skills This activity encourages students to show their talent, passion and interest in English They will be more exposed to English, easily gain momentum when striving to achieve the merits of the contest Third, implement innovative teaching techniques to improve English communication skills for students In order to help students overcome the psychological barrier and lack of confidence, the lecturer must be the person directly instructing the learners to participate in communication activities It is necessary to pay attention to and create favorable conditions for learners, especially those who are weak and lack of confidence in practice Trainers can use one of the following techniques: picture description, language game, question and answer, discussion, to help students practice 32 32 and develop speaking skills for the class, elementary and middle school In the process of teaching, it is necessary to integrate the cultural and social factors of indigenous people in the lectures to minimize misunderstandings or "cultural shock" Fourthly, examine and assess the practice of English communication in the framework of the CEF and promote the self-learning ability of the students To train the English speaking skills for students, the orientation of them learning how to practice alone is not enough It is important that we motivate them to the right thing, to better Therefore, checking and evaluating the training of English speaking skills is the shortest way to help students have a specific purpose in the learning process they will achieve Well done the assessment not only can promote the capacity of each individual but it is also the best tool to control the progress and difficulties they encounter This will be the basis for the most timely and feasible measures in the process of improving English communication skills for students 4.2.2 Recommend English major students at TMU - Plan and deconstruct the mind in one year: Plan and spend every day from 20 minutes to hours, divided into several times a day, regardless of the time you can arrange, even while driving 20 minutes is the time to focus on learning, as if the longer you will not focus and after a few days, no matter how high your motivation, you will also feel depressed to give up The remaining time is understood whenever you feel a few minutes, take advantage to practice the sentences you learned that day Remember, absolutely not to be impatient because your plan is year So, study a little bit every day, and one year later, you will be good - Standard pronunciation correction: There is a principle that, when your sounds are similar or close to native sounds, you will hear native accents easily When the voice is so different, even though people speak Vietnamese, it is difficult for you to recognize In English there are a total of 21 vowels (short vowels, long vowels and double vowels) and typical consonants when these vowels combine with the remaining consonants When you sing singular vowel sounds and typical chord combinations, you will be able to correct all the sounds in other words without any difficulty To begin the sound correction, you have to start 33 33 from the correct pronunciation of the vowels in a word Then, put that vowel with the consonants that precede and stand behind it independently and finally put all the words in the word together, from slow to normal The sound comes from the combination of a vowel with the consonant that can be found in different words called chord To learn all the sounds and combinations of chords, you only need to learn the first 100 words to be able to correct all your sounds From then onwards is the time you repeat the correct sound in new words to make your natural pronunciation sound - vocabulary words per day: Every day you only need to learn vocabularies, no more no less Learn about this new vocabulary For a word, regardless of whether you know the word before or not, start by identifying the exact vowel that forms the word and the vowel separately Know how to position the tongue, teeth, lips Listen to the teacher first, then try to read slowly until the exact same 100% Then continue to hear to know how to pair the vowel with the consonant in front Separate this chord several times Next, recognize the chord combination when the vowel is attached to the consonant behind it Separate this chord several times And then, slowly grafting the preceding consonant, vowel and consonant behind to form the sound of that word Since the pronunciation of a word, take spare time to repeat the sound of the word at least over 100 times until the mouth speaks naturally without thinking to say the word in new voice - Learn common sentences every day: Choose the five most common sentences to learn in one day Although you can read through many sentences, but choose the right sentences to learn smoothly Start learning each word of the word as you learn the vocabulary above until you correctly pronounce all the words in the sentence exactly the same as the native accent Then listen to the whole sentence and try to learn the whole language and the intonation of the sentence If two adjacent words cause you to trip, separate them and practice them as you would until they are no longer stumbling Remember, tripping is a sign that you have not melted the chord So repeat whenever possible to get out of this situation Studies show that learning a single vocabulary will be difficult to remember You need to learn vocabulary through conversations that contain the vocabulary you need to 34 34 learn to remember longer If every day you learn sentences and vocabularies, in one year 365 days you will learn 1825 sentences and 1825 vocabularies - Application of sentence structure to develop new sentence: The sentence usually contains one or more structures that you can use to combine the other single vocabulary to form new sentences The development of the sentence on the basis of the available structure creates the correct sentence style of the native language and avoid the state of the word by word as a way to develop the sentence before Learning from this method, from a hearty, easy-to-learn lesson, you can easily create many new sentences in a flexible and correct way that is easy to implement But everything can only happen when you're in the mood for words - grammar point each day: English grammar is not very much, but the way of teaching too heavy grammar has made the students too tame and gradually away from this very important subject But in English, grammar is an indispensable framework It helps us to speak with indigenous culture, from the most intimate to the formal one Many grammatical assigners are too formal, while simple, intimate sentences are not grammatical But in fact, grammar helps us to recognize everything and avoid the word-by-word assembly in Vietnamese In order to create this boring subject, you have to pick out a grammar topic that is short and easy to comprehend in minutes Take a look at many examples, doing some exercises and breaks You will go every day like that until the end of 365 days is the end of the grammar - Listening to the active listening method: Once you've learned the vocabulary, learned vocabulary and learned the common sentence, start listening But pay attention, there are many different tips on how to practice listening, but you pay attention to practice listening to the "active listening" Active listening is the process of thoroughly exploring new words, new structure in the listening For those who have as much vocabulary as those who the translation work, but hearing ability is weak, they can listen to the passive method, listen and try to guess But for beginners or those with less vocabulary, not try to guess because it only takes time and the result is not much better When listening to a 35 35 song with 100 words that have 50% new words, just practice listening to guess it is not known to ever be good So, every day, get a conversation or a short article about 10-15 sentences Then learn all the new words, look at the reading and semantics, learn the strange structure in the sentence to master and start listening practice While practicing listening, try until you hear the word clearly, try to speak for a native tone and listen to it until you are fine and speak in the correct pronunciation, Start training the next post Let's about 20 songs, you will see the level of progress But not stop that, your plan is year, go ahead - Speaking by indirect method: If you have not learned how much or not, there is no structure in the beginning or too little that the student insisted on finding the trainer, whether Vietnamese or native, that is the same Like going to martial arts school, not under any tactic that requires fighting so Such practices only "spoil the habit" and create speech patterns that are unlike any other and are so alien to native speech When you repeat the words that have been memorized, you have created a perfect English environment to practice the sentences you have already learned The purpose of finding a trainee is to repeat the words learned 36 36 CONCLUSION Speaking is one of the most important goals of teaching and learning English as a foreign language because learners are always interested in the ability to use language effectively and fluently However, in the process of learning the speaking skills, they encounter a number of difficulties that interfere with their fluency and accuracy Therefore, within the limits of this thesis I have introduced the difficulties faced by English major freshmen at TMU when learning the skills of speaking and the factors that affect this skill It offers a number of effective speaking strategies that help employees improve their speaking skills to become proficient in communicating In this paper, we focused on the difficulties that major students encounter when they learn speaking English Each difficulty was analyzed carefully by charts and examples with aims of showing clearly the difference, the strengths and weaknesses of the way they practice speaking English Through that, we hope that the students would understand more the ways of improving speaking English Finally, we summarized the results that we have reached in the analysis and we have presented these results in charts to explain them We have also made several suggestions how to improve speaking skill for freshmen Hopefully, this paper helps to illustrate the most problematic parts in learning speaking English process and based on that, the students would avoid these problems, overcome the difficulties and have the better speaking skill 37 37 REFERENCES Website: tmu.edu.vn Website: Tailieu.vnlk Richards, Jack C Developing Speaking Activities, from Theory to Practice http://professorjackrichards.com McCarthy, M (1998) Spoken Language and Applied Linguistics Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Klippel, F (1984) Keep Talking: Communicative Fluency Activities for Language Teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press APPENDIX INTERVIEW SOME TEACHERS AT TMU Question 1: How you rate the English speaking skills of major freshmen? Question 2: In your opinion, how does English speaking skill of students at TMU affect their studying results? Question What are the limitations of speaking skills that students face? Question 4: Do you have any requirements for English proficiency of freshmen and new students? Question 5: Does TMU take measures to help students improve English speaking skills with foreigners? If so, please specify the measure that the university is applying APPENDIX 02 QUESTIONNAIRE This survey is designed for my research into the use of stimulating activities to improve English speaking skill for major students at TMU All the data collected in this questionnaire are only for the purpose of survey The researcher assures that all the information collected will be confidential, with the hope that you will answer these questions accurately and honestly Please read the questions and give your opinion about the activities by circling the letter before the answer you want to choose Please circle the letter a, b, c or d to show your answer! Which skill you think is the most important for you in learning English? a Listening b Speaking c Reading d Grammar How often you learn English speaking? a Usually b Sometimes c Rarely How many hours a day you spend on learning English speaking? a 30 minutes b hour c > hour d < 30 minutes How you learn speaking English? a Internet (Youtube, skype…) b Television c Joining an English speaking club d Others Which factor has the most important influence on speaking English, in your opinion? a Lack of Vocabulary b Poor pronunciation c Not confidence d Lack of ideas Which ways you often practice speaking English? a With native teacher b Alone c With friends Do you feel confident when you speak English? a Yes b No What you think about schedules of English Faculty students at TMU? Do they provide chances for you to speak English? a Yes, but not enough b No ... study ? ?Difficulties in English Speaking Skill of Thuongmai University’s Majored English Freshmen and Solutions? ?? with the aim of finding out difficulties that Thuongmai, majored English freshmen. .. (1994) and Burns and Joyce (1997) defined speaking as an interactive process of making meaning that includes producing, receiving, and processing information Bygate (1987) defined speaking as... question and collect some following findings 3.1 Actual situation of English speaking of major students 3.1.1 Necessity of English speaking skills Chart 3.1: The most important skill when learning English