4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents Pages Acknowledgement i Abstract ii Table of contents iii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 The background of the study 1.2 Aims of the study and research questions 1.3 The scope of the study 1.4 The significance of the study 1.5 The method of the study 1.6 The organization of the thesis CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Definition of speaking 2.2 Speaking competences 2.3 Approaches in teaching and learning speaking skill 2.4 Speaking difficulties of language learners 2.5 Summary CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 10 3.1 The setting of the study 10 3.2 Participants 11 3.3 The instruments 12 3.4 Data collection procedure 13 3.5 Data analysis procedure 13 3.6 Summary 14 CHAPTER 4: PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA 15 4.1 Students‟ English language background 15 4.2 The connection of speaking to reading, listening and writing skills 17 4.3 Students‟ difficulties in speaking English 19 4.4 Students‟ opinions on methods of overcoming their difficulties in 28 speaking English 4.5 Summary CHAPTER 5: SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSION 30 31 5.1 Pedagogical Implications 31 5.2 Conclusion 38 5.3 Limitation of the study and suggestions for further research 38 References Appendices 40 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study Since Vietnam started open the door to the world and to foreign investment, English has gained significance as it seems to play a crucial role on the country‟s path of modernization and industrialization English has rapidly become the most popular first foreign language in Vietnam, especially at schools, colleges and universities Foreign language schools and centers have mushroomed and provided English classes with morning, afternoon and evening shifts in a day, catering for different levels of learners at different ages, with different learning purposes Generally observed, English plays an important role in the integrating context especially in labor market Most learners of English agree that the ability to express themselves in English is of great importance for their future career, especially in modern society where working with foreigners often occurs For example, a candidate will be impressive to employers if he or she obtains good English proficiency However, the sad fact is that students‟ English proficiency especially their ability to communicate in English orally does not really meet employers‟ demand Vietnamese people may be mostly good at reading, writing skills and doing grammatical exercises, whereas they meet difficulties in listening and especially in speaking English Thus, the research on the difficulties in learning speaking of students and some suggestions for those problems was necessary 1.2 Aims of the study and research questions The study was conducted to investigate the current learning of speaking skill of the second year part-time students at A2 campus at University of Languages and International Studies - Vietnam National University Basing on the current learning English of students at the university, the difficulties of students when practicing English speaking skill were discovered and some recommendations to minimize those difficulties were suggested The above aims can be realized through the research questions: What difficulties in improving English-speaking skill the second year part time students, A2 campus at University of Languages and International Studies Vietnam National University meet? What should be done to minimize these difficulties and help to improve Englishspeaking skill of the second year part-time students at University of Languages and International Studies - Vietnam National University? 1.3 The scope of the study The study of difficulties, recommendations of other language skills such as reading, writing and listening to ameliorate the quality of learning English skills would be beyond the scope of this study In addition, due to the time constraints and the narrow-scale study, the study only involves in the number of the 2nd year part time students at A2 campus at University of Languages and International Studies - Vietnam National University 1.4 Significance of the study The study is significant for the following reasons Firstly, it studies the difficulties the 2nd year part time students at A2 campus, University of Languages and International Studies Vietnam National University met in speaking English Secondly, it suggests some solutions for both the teachers and learners in teaching and learning speaking English Moreover, it expresses the factors affecting the improvement in the classroom settings, among which teachers‟ characteristics and methodology play important roles Furthermore, it gives some suggestions for the teachers to adapt the textbook and provides some techniques to help motivate learners 1.5 The methods of the study The method of this study is survey study because it was conducted by using questionnaires and classroom observation to collect data It was a qualitative and quantitative study Bouma has stated that “both qualitative and quantitative approaches are essential to the research process in social science” (1996, p.173) Furthermore, each methodology has its strengths and weaknesses Thus, employing both approaches, it is hoped to achieve the reliable results for the study 1.6 Organization of the thesis The thesis consists of five chapters Chapter 1: Introduction deals with the background, the aims and the research questions, the scope, the significance, the methods of the study, and the organization of the thesis Chapter 2: Literature Review presents definition of speaking, speaking competences, approaches in teaching and learning speaking skill, speaking difficulties of language learners and summary Chapter 3: Research Methodology mentions the setting of the study, the participants, the instruments, the data collection procedure, the data analysis procedure and a brief summary Chapter 4: presentation and analysis of data presents and discusses the difficulties of students in speaking English and some student‟s suggestions to reduce their difficulties Chapter 5: Suggestions and Conclusion presents the pedagogical implications in teaching and learning speaking English and the conclusion of the study Besides, limitations of the study are pointed out and suggestions for further research are also proposed CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Definition of speaking Speaking is “an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information” (Florez, 1999, p.1) It is “often spontaneous, openended, and evolving” (ibid, p.1), but it is not completely unpredictable In language teaching, we often talk about the four language skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing in terms of their direction and modality Language generated by the learners in either speech or writing is considered productive, and language directed at the learners in reading or listening is known as receptive language (Savignon, 1991) Modality refers to the medium of the language (whether it is aural/ oral or written) Thus, speaking is the productive, oral skill 2.2 Speaking competence Speaking competences consist of four elements: (1) grammatical competence (linguistic competence), (2) sociolinguistic competence (pragmatic competence), (3) discourse competence, and (4) strategies competence (Scarcella & Rebecca, 1992) Grammatical or linguistic competence enables speakers to use and understand grammatical structures, sentence structures accurately and unhesitatingly, and thus, it contributes to the speaker‟s fluency (Scarcella & Rebecca, 1992) It is also concerned with knowledge of the language itself, its form and meaning and involves knowledge in spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary, word formation, and linguistic semantics (Hedge, 2000) Sociolinguistic or pragmatic competence is generally considered to involve two kinds of ability First, it is the ability of knowing how to use language in order to achieve certain communicative goals or intentions (Hedge, 2000) Second, the ability to use language appropriate in social context Thus, learners need to know the appropriate social conventions It can be seen, then, that social knowledge is necessary to select the language forms to use in different settings, and with people in different roles and with different status In other words, as Hymes explained speakers should know “when to speak, when not, what to talk about with whom, when, where and in what manner” (1972) 10 Discourse competence refers to the ability to manage turn-taking in conversation such as taking a turn of talk, holding a turn and relinquishing a turn, open into or closing a conversation, keeping a conversation going or clearing up communication breakdowns and comprehension problems (Scarcella & Rebecca, 1992) Effective speakers and listeners have also acquired a large repertoire of discourse markers, expressions that speakers use to express ideas, show relationships of time, and indicate course, contrast and emphasis Strategies competence allows effective speakers to stretch their ability to communicate effectively in the target language Canale and Swain defines strategic competence as “how to scope in an authentic communicative situation and how to keep the communicative channel open” (1980, p.25) Strategic competence consists of using communication strategies which come into play when the learners are unable to express what they want to say because they lack the resourses to so successfully They compensate for this either by changing their original intention or by searching for other means of expression The learners can use achievement strategies to explain what they are trying to say and find the ways of compensating for their insecure or inadequate knowledge of English; as a result, they keep the conversation going and may encourage the listener to provide the necessary language Moreover, learners can use reduction strategies to avoid the forms of which they are uncertain and select the perhaps structure which they know The question arising is whether strategic competence can be trained Certainly teachers can help students early in a language program by teaching them appropriate questions for requesting help (eg: what does it mean? How you say?), and the language to ask for vocabulary items (eg: what you call the person who…? What you call the thing that…?) The teacher can also act as listener in classroom interaction and respond to students‟ appeals for help, providing language at the point of need However, Faerch, Haastrup and Phillipson (1985) referred to fluency as a component of communicative competence and distinguish it from strategic: whereas strategic competence presupposes a lack of knowledge, fluency covers speakers‟ ability to make use of whatever 11 linguistic and pragmatic competence they have (Faerch, Haastrup and Phillipson 1984, p.168) Thus, fluency relates to language production and it is normally reserved for speech It is the ability to link units of speech together with facility and without strain or inappropriate slowness or undue hesitation According to these authors, there are three types of fluency: (1) Semantic fluency: linking together propositions and speech acts; (2)Lexical- syntactic fluency: linking together syntactic constituencies and words; (3) Articulator fluency: linking together speech segments; (ibid: 143, 65) 2.3 Approaches in teaching and learning speaking skill In the recent decades, the communicative approach to language teaching mostly employed on the belief that it helps to develop the learners‟ communicative language ability Thus, the goal of language learning classroom is to provide students with communicative practice with the aim for learners to acquire language Therefore, providing students with communicative activities gives students chances to form and practice communication strategies or string lexical phrases together to express ideas Moreover, in teaching practice, it is generally observed that negotiation of meaning in communicative tasks may provide opportunities for learners to develop their strategic competence and fluency but may not necessarily lead to more comprehensible output and the development of greater accuracy As teachers, we need then to ask a question “what will help learners to become more accurate?” when communicating with others One solution might be we need to take away the time pressure in a communicative task and give learners the chance to prepare the content of what they are going to say It is hoped that they may focus more on correct expression Alternatively, an opportunity to focus on forms may be provided after the communicative task especially with speaking practice activities if students are recorded and then try to compare their own language for justifying the criteria with forms the teacher gives them, their speaking ability maybe improved In this case, learners have chance to notice differences between their own use of language forms and those of the teachers, and can pay attention to the correct forms This provides the opportunities for intake and the further development of the learner‟s interlingual systems It is therefore possible, in the case of using 12 a cycle of preparatory and follow-up task to create a balance between accuracy and fluency activity An understanding of how learners use tasks can inform our decision-making about how to incorporate them into language teaching program (Brumfit, 1984) As communicative approaches have developed, teachers have been concerned to ensure that students not only practice speaking in a controlled way in order to produce features of pronunciation, vocabulary and structures accurately; but also practice using these features more freely in purposeful communication It has therefore become usual to include both accuracy – and fluency – based activities from the beginning of the course The challenge for the communicative classroom is to find activities and procedures for speaking which will prepare students for spontaneous interaction and which will aid the acquisition process, though of course the two aims may usefully coincide Since a particular type of activity may provide for some of these things but not others, there is then the question of how to create a varied program of activities which gives a range of opportunities for speaking practice 2.4 Speaking difficulties of language learners Burn and Joyce (1997, p.134) identify three sets of factors that may cause reluctance on the parts of students to take part in classroom tasks involving speaking They suggest that this reluctance may be due to cultural factors, linguistic factors, and psychological factors Cultural factors derive from learners‟ prior learning experiences and the expectations created by these experiences Students meet difficulties in communication when they are not familiar with the cultural or social knowledge of the target language which required to process meaning in communication According to Burn and Joyce, the linguistic factors that inhibit the use of the spoken language include difficulties in transferring from the learners‟ first language to the target language in term of the sounds, rhythms, and stress patterns Difficulties in understanding the English grammatical patterns which are different from that of their mother tongue Psychological factors include cultural shock, previous negative social or political experiences, lack of motivation, anxiety or shyness in class, especially if their previous learning experiences were negative 13 In language teaching and learning which mostly occurred in classroom setting motivation is seen as a key consideration in determining the preparation of learners to the communication to achieve the goal of learning the language plus favorable attitude towards learning the language That is, motivation to learn a second language is seen as referring to the extent to which the individual works or strikes to learn the language because of a desire to so and the satisfaction experienced in this activity Thus, raising motivation inside the classroom is necessary in a language class However, many learners are still unmotivated The reasons for this negative attitude may be they were lack of success over time or lack of perception of progress They may perceive in relevance of materials or lack of knowledge about the goals of the instructional program or receive inappropriate feedbacks Sometimes, they might be bored with the lecture or classroom setting Moreover, students are perhaps unmotivated because of their teachers‟ uninspired teaching According to Tsui (1996), after implementing the case study in secondary school classroom in Hong Kong, identified five principle factors accounting for the reluctance of students to speak up in class: (1) Students‟ perceived low proficiency in English (2) Students‟ fear of mistakes and derision (3) Teachers‟ intolerance (4) Uneven allocation of turns (5) Incomprehensible Nevertheless, teaching and learning English in non – English speaking environment such as Vietnam, the learners not have many chances to practice English outside the classroom This picture can be described as almost every student only speaks English, discuss the English topics when they come to class After the lesson, they come back to their real life with their family and their work The learners never speak English to their relatives or their family members because all of them are Vietnamese and they only use Vietnamese in communication Therefore, when the learners use English in communicating to Vietnamese, they may be laughed at and be thought that they are self-important 35 In addition, speaking English as much as possible was also a solution made up about 23% of the total participants Students should practice speaking by themselves or in pairs/ groups At class, they can take advantages of speaking English with their classmates in speaking activities such as role-play, topics discussion They maybe talk to their friends about everything they like in English Besides, students should listen a lot and speak English everywhere and speak everything they like This is also a good way for learners to practice speaking English Maybe there are more suggestions students can refer to solve their problems in speaking English Certainly, each individual will have their own suitable methodology to master 4.5 Summary This chapter the findings from the survey questionnaires as well as the researcher‟s observation have been reported to answer fully the first question “What difficulties in improving English-speaking skill the second year part time students, A2 campus at University of Languages and International Studies - Vietnam National University meet?” The second question “What should be done to minimize these difficulties and help to improve English-speaking skill of the second year part-time students at University of Languages and International Studies - Vietnam National University?” partly raised in this chapter In the following chapter, the conclusion of the study will be made and some implications for both teachers and students to minimize the difficulties in learning speaking English Simultaneously, the limitation of the study together with further studies will be pointed out in the final chapter 36 CHAPTER 5: SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSIONS 5.1.Pedagogical Implications 5.1.1 Pedagogical implications for teachers According to the findings in the study, it is clear that the difficulties in learning speaking English were resulted from both teachers and students Therefore, teachers have responsibility of reducing the problem happening in English speaking lessons Teachers should improve their own knowledge and manners such as pronunciation, mistake correction or friendliness to their learners When being asked what teacher of English should to help their students overcome reticence in English oral classes or motivate them to speak English willingly and actively, all students wish to have a better English learning environment Teachers may introduce students more effective ways such as watching films, listening to CDs to practice speaking skill Teachers should lengthen the amount of time between asking a question and nominating someone to respond as well as improve questioning techniques Teachers should accept a variety of answers and give learners opportunities to rehearse their responses in small groups or pairs before being asked to speak up in front of the whole class Besides that, they also focus on the content rather than form, and establish good relationships with the students In addition, to develop their students‟ fluency, teachers should provide their students with opportunities to communicate their ideas in unstructured conversational situation Teachers can use strategy training to help students develop speaking skills Teachers can teach students strategies for taking turns talking and interrupting They can teach students how to hold back their more vocal classmates and draw out the more timid or self-conscious ones They can also teach students how to ask for clarification, to ask others to repeat, to slow down, and to explain Also, they can teach students how to gain time to think and how to change the topic Teachers can also teach students how to look interests to keep the conversation going As a result, such tools of conversation enable students to manage their own input and output Moreover, teachers can also teach effective group management strategies by asking students to evaluate group participation by raising more questions 37 Some preconditions for effective motivation were shown as follows (Tsui, 1996 p.145) Factors Characteristics Supportive Orderly classroom, teacher is skilled in classroom management, Environment students no anxious, and feel comfortable taking risk, feedback is positive Appropriate of Tasks are neither too easy nor too difficult, students know what they difficulty have to do, criteria for success are clear Meaningful Students know what they are expected to learn and why, activities learning are meaningful and worldwide, relationship between objective and activities is clear, tasks are sequenced so that new task build on and extent ones that come before, students are given a reason to be in class Strategies Motivational strategy is matched to instructional need, particular strategies are not overused, teacher uses a range of strategies, there is a learning-how-to-learn dimension to instruction Content Students can relate content to own experience, topics are interesting A number of suggestions for teachers will be discussed below Firstly, there are some coping strategies for teachers such as improving teachers‟ English communicative competence They can attend the training courses on teaching English in light of the Communicative Approach on a regular basic In most cases, professional teachers of English can train themselves, learning as they go Sometimes, they maybe adjust their teaching time and pedagogical practices At present, most of the teachers of English are working under the pressure of time Since there is no way to change the allotted time for the English subjects, teachers must adapt themselves to this timeframe For example, it is advisable for them to reduce the amount of time spent on items that students find easy, and more time on the problematic areas that students face with Moreover, teachers should 38 always bear in mind that the utmost purpose in teaching English is to improve students‟ communicative competence, so the course should be designed to promote the active use of language, to encourage the students to participate, and to give confidence and a feel for communicative value of language Thus, the grammar-translation teaching approach seems unsuitable given the ELT context and the employment of the communicative approach is advisable for teachers of English The second is some suggested techniques in teaching speaking Teachers may use some of these teaching speaking strategies They can use minimal responses which are predictable, often idiomatic phrases that conversation participants use to indicate understanding, agreement, doubt, and others responses to what another speakers is saying Having minimal responses enables students to focus on what the other participants are saying since they not have to simultaneously plan responses Some communication situations are associated with a predictable set of spoken exchanges – a script Greetings, apologies, complements, invitations, and other functions which are influenced by social and cultural norms often follow certain patterns or scripts In these scripts, relationship between a speaker‟s turn and the one that follow it can often be anticipated Teachers can help students develop speaking ability by making them aware of the scripts for different situations so that they can predict what they will hear and what they will need to say in response Through interactive activities, teachers can give students practice in managing and changing the language that different scripts contain Moreover, using language to talk about language is an effective method Language learners are often too embarrassed or shy to say anything when they not understand another speaker or when they realize that a conversation partner has not understood them Teachers can help students overcome this reticence by assuring them that misunderstanding and the need for clarification can occur in any types of interaction, whatever the participants‟ language skill levels Teachers can also give students strategies and phrases to use for clarification and comprehension check By encouraging students to use clarification phrases in class when misunderstanding occurs and by responding positively when they do, teachers can create an authentic practice environment within the 39 classroom itself As they develop control of various clarification strategies, students will gain confidence in their ability to manage the carious communication situation that they may encounter outside classroom In addition, teachers ought to use language in authentic ways In learning speaking, it is the best if students have frequent chances to hear and read the language as native speakers use it Teachers can give students these chances through teachers‟ talk and materials As for teachers, they should try to use the language as naturally as possible It is advisable that teachers should speak at normal rate, use vocabulary and structures that students are familiar with, state the same idea in different ways to aid comprehension Authentic materials can be found in magazines, newspapers, TV and radio broadcasting … besides providing students with the chances to see how communication is carried out in the real life Authentic materials also help introduce social and cultural aspects of language use to students The last is some suggested activities in teaching speaking such as structured output activities/ guided activities and communicative output activities Structured output activities consists of tasks that students carry out using language items recently introduced, sometimes in combination with previously learned items In these activities, students can change to talk about themselves and to communicate their own needs and ideas Two common kinds of structured output activities are information gap and jigsaw activities, in both two types of activities, students complete a task by obtaining missing information, one feature the activities have in common with real communication However, information gap and jigsaw activities also set up practice on specific language items In this respect, they are more like drills than like communication Communicative output activities allow students to practice using the luggage they know in situations that resemble real setting In these activities, students must works together to develop a plan, resolve a problem or complete a task The most common types of communicative output activities are role-play and discussion In role-play, students are assigned roles and put into situations that they may eventually encounter outside the classroom Because role-play imitates life, the range of language function that may be used 40 expands considerably Also, the role relationships among the students as the play their parts call for them to practice and develop their sociolinguistic competence They have to use language that is appropriate to the situations and to the characters Discussion gives students chances to practice in negotiating meanings and to express themselves in the target language Like role-play, before using discussion, teachers should prepare the students carefully (e.g.: give them input – both topical information and language forms – so that they will have something to say and the language with which to say it), otherwise, they will get counter – effects from this activity The suggestions which help apply discussion successfully are almost the same as those of role-play In addition, teachers may let students suggest the topics or choose from several given topics for discussion Discussion does not always have to be about serious issues Students are likely to be more motivated and more interested in participating if they like the topics such as television programs, sports, students‟ lifestyle, and plans for a vacation, or news about mutual friends Weighty topics like how to combat pollution or apply technological inventions into education effectively are not as engaging and place heavy demands on students‟ linguistic competence Teachers are supposed to keep discussion short It is no more than – 10 minutes for discussion and allowed to stop sooner if they run out of idea 5.1.2 Pedagogical implications for students Speaking involves more than just pronunciation words and others language skills, so the learners should have some of the micro-skills in speaking The speakers ought to pronounce the distinctive sounds of language clearly enough so that people can distinguish them including making tonal distinctions They can use stress and rhythmic patterns, and intonation patterns of the language clearly enough so that people can understand what is said or use the correct forms of words, this may mean, for example, changes in the tense, case or gender Learners maybe master grammatical rules better such as putting words together in correct words orders, using vocabulary appropriately They can use the register of language variety that is appropriate to the situation and the relationship to the conversation partners They also make clear to the listeners then main sentence constituents such as subject, verbs, objects, by whatever means the language uses and 41 make the main ideas stand out from supporting ideas or information or make the discourse hang together so that people can flow the sayings In some case, they could talk to themselves and record their own voice Besides that, students should improve their formal speech when teachers provide insights on how to organize their ideas for presentation Students can give better speeches when they can organize their presentation in a variety of different ways, including sequentially, chronologically, and thematically For examples, they need practice in organizing their speech around problems and solutions, causes and results, and similarities and differences After deciding about the best means of organization, they can practice speeches with another student or with the whole class Students may enjoy speaking about their personal experiences When given this opportunity, they can benefit from instruction in the elements of good story-telling They can also learn speaking and social skills by suggesting possible improvements to one another‟s practice speeches Positive experiences in speaking can lead to greater skills and confidence in speaking in front of class Moreover, learners can practice presenting information, answering questions and holding group discussion Frequent classroom presentations and discussions enable teachers to diagnose and remedy problems They can benefit from learning by setting themselves presentation goals and assessing their own progress Observing proficient speakers can help students to set such goals Practicing oral presentation in these ways can lessen students‟ anxieties while, at the same time, helping them to learn the subjects matter of the 5.1.3 Further suggestions for improving speaking English Improving English speaking skills will help learners communicate more easily and effectively However, how to become a more confident English speaker is a more important question for all language learners Here are some suggestions for them to improve their English speech The first necessary thing is building people‟s confidence They should get over any fear of making mistakes and be more patient with themselves Overcome the shyness by taking an English speaking class or joining a speech club and giving presentations in English should be done 42 Secondly, language learners should read and repeat aloud They need to actually say English words aloud to improve their pronunciation Practice reading aloud in English, or repeating after instructional software or audio recordings are necessary every day They also record their pronunciation at home or in a school language lab, and compare themselves to native speakers or ask someone who speaks English well for additional correction Thirdly, people ought to spend at least a half hour each day reading material that they find interesting and a bit challenging such as newspapers, magazines, or books to widen vocabulary They maybe write new words on note cards or in a notebook, study them and then make an effort to use them correctly the next time speaking English Moreover, students can practice correct grammar by studying a grammar book or taking a grammar class to avoid making many grammatical mistakes in English and then pay attention to grammar as they speak even if they have to slow down at first Please remember that don't keep on repeating the same mistakes and please ask friends who speak English well to correct the mistakes Students can keep a grammar text nearby at all times For some of them, a laptop, desktop or phone may be more accessible than a book in hard copy, but it's advisable to own one that they keep on hand for reference purposes An online program may have glitches that a hard copy would most likely be free of In additions, practicing for fluency should be done Using English frequently in informal and formal situations will improve people‟s fluency and confidence They can find native and other English speakers at school or in the hometown, and practice speaking with them often or help English-speaking travelers with translation or instruction They also can find an English conversation partner on the Internet to practice speaking even more Besides that, language learners can improve their pronunciation by choosing one standard accent (American, British or Australian) and attempting to imitate the pronunciation Each dialect has slightly different pronunciation of vowels, diphthongs and some consonants For example, the "r" is pronounced at the end of words in American English but is dropped in British English Once they choose a dialect, immerse them in it 43 In some cases, they maybe watch movies and listen to music in that dialect and try to imitate the sounds or they can also hire a professional accent and pronunciation coach or take pronunciation classes at a local language school The next is that students should learn and practice transitional phrases Phrases that connect thoughts and ideas can improve the flow of their speech They can use words that add, generalize, exemplify, restate, contrast and or summarize If they have a wide knowledge of transitional phrases, they will make their speech more attractive The important rule language learners ought to is that they should practice wherever and whenever they can, when you can Any practice is good – whether they speak to someone who is a native English speaker or not 5.2 Conclusions The study aims at finding the difficulties in learning speaking English of the second year students at A2 campus in In-service Department at University of Languages and International Studies - Vietnam National University as well as making some suggestions for students to improve this language skill The population in this study covers all parttime students A random sample procedure was applied for the sample for questionnaires for students In order to have a further understanding of the subject‟s difficulties in learning speaking English, the researcher attended into the English classes and observed all activities between students and teachers to find difficulties of speaking English In this study, questionnaires and observation were used as research instruments From students‟ responses to the questionnaires, it is apparent that the difficulties in learning speaking English in evening classes surveyed in this study were evident Based on the findings of this study, a number of suggestions for alleviating the difficulties in learning speaking English to all the second year part-time students at A2 campus at this university were given 5.3 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research 5.3.1 Limitations of the study Though research has made efforts towards carrying out this study, due to the shortage of time, lack of resources and the required scale of the study, drawbacks are unavoidable 44 First and foremost, not all the second year students at A2 campus in In-service Training Department at University of Languages and International Studies - Vietnam National University are involved in the survey questionnaires, to some extent; the result may not be generalized for all students Next, although the researcher utilized both survey questionnaires and observation as the research instruments for data collection, different tools for data collection like interviews should be combined to make the results more reliable and valid In spite of the unavoidable limitations, the researcher believes this study will be beneficial to learn speaking English to students at this university and this may lead to students‟ speaking progress 5.3.2 Suggestions for further research This study only concentrates on relevant students‟ difficulties in learning speaking English and makes some suggestions for students to improve these difficulties It is likely to affirm that the study has merely mentioned a very small part of learning English speaking skill at a concrete research context There are some suggestions for further researches concerning the learning speaking English at this university in particular and at other educational and training institutes in general  An action research on the effectiveness of the suggested techniques and activities mentioned in this study  A study on designing supplementary speaking tasks and activities based on English course books for second year students at A2 campus in In-service Training Department at University of Languages and International Studies - Vietnam National University 45 REFERENCES Bailey, KM & Nunan, D 2005 “Practice English Language Teaching” New York: McGraw – Hill ESL/ ELT Brown, H.D 2000 “Principles of Teaching and Learning” (3rd Edition) Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press Burns, A & Joyce, H 1997 “Focus on Speaking” Sydney: National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research Burkart, G.S, 1998 “Spoken language: What is it and how to teach it” Washington DC: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1998 Retrieved from http:/ www.nclrc.org/essentials/speaking.spndex.htm Bygate, M 1991 “Speaking” Oxford: Oxford University Press Chaudron, C 1988 “Second Language Classroom, Research on Teaching and Learning” Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Cook, V 2000 “Second Language Learning and Language Teaching” (2 nd Edition) Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press Dalle, T & Thrush, E 2003 “Practicing Oral Skills in Large Classes” Teacher‟s Edition 13 (November 2003): 4-8 Ellis, R 1991 “Understanding Second Language Acquisition” Oxford: Oxford Universit y Express Hedge.T 2000 “Teaching and learning in the language classroom” Hongkong: Oxford University Express Johnson, K 2002 “An Introduction to Foreign Language Learning and Teaching” Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press Krashen, SD 1985 “The inputs Hypothesis, Issues and Implications” New York: Longman Inc Liu, M 2005 “Reticence in Oral Language classrooms: A case study in China” TESL reporter 38, 1, pp – 16 46 Nunan, D, 1989 “Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom” Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Nunan, D 1991 “Language Teaching Methodology; A textbook for Teacher” Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Nunan, D 1999 “Second Language Teaching & Learning” Canada: Heinle & Heinle Publisher Nunan D 2005 “Practical English language teaching speaking” New York: The McGrawHill Companies, Inc Pattison, P 1987 “Developing Communicative Skills” Cambridge: Cambridge University Press River, W.M 1981 “Teaching Foreign Language Skills” (2 nd Edition) Chicago: University of Chicago press Robin C Scarcella/ Rebecca L 1992 “The Individual in the Communicative Classroom” Boston: Heinle & Heinle Tsui, A 1996 “Reticence and anxiety in second language learning” Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Widdowson, H.G 1990 “Teaching Language as Communication” Oxford: Oxford University Press 47 APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRES FOR STUDENTS This questionnaire is conducted with a view to finding out the difficulties from second year students at A2 campus in In-service Training Department at University of Languages and International Studies – Vietnam National University when learning English speaking skill Your completion of this questionnaire is highly appreciated The data collected is used in the research paper only, not for any other purposes Please circle the option(s) appropriate to you Which English language skill(s) are you best at? A Reading B Speaking C Writing D Listening Which English language skill(s) you need to improve most? A Reading B Speaking C Writing D Listening How is English speaking skill important to you? A Very important B Important C A little bit important D Not important How can you assess your English speaking skill? A Excellent B Good D Bad C Not very good E Very bad Do you meet any difficulties in speaking English?  No Yes If yes, which reasons cause your difficulties in speaking English? (Choose more than one option) A You are not used to speaking English B You lack cultural knowledge C You are ashamed when they make mistakes in speaking English D You are introvert E You lack motivation F You are at low English proficiency (vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation …) 48 G Teachers not appreciate importance on practicing students‟ English speaking H English speaking topics are not interesting I Others: …………………………………………………… In your opinion, does your English speaking teacher use appropriate methodology?  yes  no If no, what are appropriate? (Choose more than one option) A The teacher talks more than students B The teacher‟s attitude and methods of correcting mistakes are not appropriate C The teacher speaks so quickly that students cannot understand D The teacher is unfriendly E Others: ……………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………… In your opinion, which activities are effective to improve your English speaking skill? A Take part in more communicative activities in class B Speaking English as much as possible C Communicate to foreigners D Improve students‟ English proficiency (grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation …) E Others: ……………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………… Thank you very much for your cooperation! 49 APPENDIX 2: OBSERVATION SHEET NAME OF OBSERVER: DATE AND TIME OF OBSERVATION: LENGTH OF OBSERVATION: TEACHER: NUMBER OF STUDENTS: LESSON: CLASS ARRANGEMENT: OBJECTIVES OF THE OBSERVATION: Time Teacher's activities Students' activities ... there are multiple choices for them to choose in each however some questions required for more than one option 3.3 .2 Class observation According to Arthea & Verna (20 05, p .22 ), observation is... language skill(s) you need to improve most?” Figure 1: Students'' English language skills 16.7 20 .8 23 .3 12. 5 22 .5 50 Listening Writing Speaking Reading 37.5 16.7 Question Question According to the figure... appreciated Figure 5: Students'' diffculties in speaking English 53.5 60 50 37.7 34 .2 40 27 .2 30 19.3 16.7 13 .2 20 6.1 10 A B C D E F G H A Students are not used to speaking English B Students lack