TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iii
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES iv
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1
1.Rationale of the study 1
2.Scope of the study 1
3.Aim and objectives of the study 2
4.Research questions of the study 2
5.Methods of the study 2
6.Organization of the study 2
PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT 4
CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 4
I.1 The nature of language skills 4
I.1.1 The nature of language skills 4
I.1.2 The nature of speaking skill 4
I.1.2.1 What is speaking? 4
I.1.2.2 What are components of speaking? 5
I.1.2.3 What skills and knowledge does a good speaker need? 7
I.2 Teaching adults 8
I.3 How speaking skill has been taught to adult ESOL learners 9
CHAPTER II: THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH
SPEAKING SKILL AT VNUH 13
II.1 Overview of the subjects of the study 13
II.2 Data analysis 14
II.2.1 Discussion of the survey questionnaires 14
II.2.2 Presentation of statistical results 15
II.2.2.1 Teaching and learning speaking skill at SGS as seen from students’
perspective 15
II.2.2.2 Teaching and learning speaking skill at SGS as seen from teachers’
perspective 17

AOL Age Of Learning
C Consonant
CLT Communicative Language Teaching
ESOL English for Speakers of Other Languages
MA Master of Arts
SGS School of Graduate Studies
TEFL Teaching English as a Foreign Language
TESOL Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
VNUH Vietnam National University, Hanoi
V Vowel
iii
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES
Figure 1: Units of spoken language.
Table 1: Speaking activities and topics/drills in the course book ‘English for Graduate
Students’.
Table 2: What make students interested in speaking in English class.
Table3: What make students unwilling to speak in English class.
Table 4: Students’ assessment of classroom speaking activities given by teachers.
Table 5: Teachers’ difficulties in teaching speaking for MA students at SGS.
Table 6: What teachers do to motivate students to speak in class.
Table 7: Suggested ideas for discussion.
Table 8: Activities suitable for each unit in the course book ‘English for Graduate
Students’.
iv
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study
Today, English is the language of globalization, international communication, commerce,
the media and pop culture, and thus, affects motivations for learning English. English is no
longer seen as the property of the English-speaking world but as an international
commodity sometimes referred to as World English or An International Language.

activities with the hope that they would be helpful, in one way or another, for teachers in
their teaching English speaking skill to non-major MA students of English at VNUH.
To achieve this aim, the objectives are to investigate the current situations of learning and
teaching of speaking skill to non-major MA students of English at VNUH in order to find
out the reasons for students’ unwillingness to speak English as well as teachers’ problems
in teaching speaking skill.
4. Research questions of the study
The researcher wish to raise the questions as follows:
- What are the factors affecting willingness of non-major MA students of
English to speak in class?
- What difficulties do teachers encounter in teaching English speaking skill
for these students?
5. Methods of the study
To complete the study, quantitative method was used. Two survey questionnaires and some
short interviews were given to non-major MA students of English at SGS – VNUH and
their teachers to collect information for the study. All comments, remarks, suggestions and
conclusion provided in the study based on the analysis of the data collected from these
surveys.
6. Organization of the study
The study consists of three parts.
Part one, INTRODUCTION, presents the rationale and the scope of the thesis, defines the
aim and objectives of the study. The research questions, methods and organization are also
mentioned in this part.
Part two, DEVELOPMENT, includes the following three chapters:
- Chapter one, Literature Review, covers the concepts relevant to the study: the
nature of language skills and communication, the nature of speaking skill, in
which answers to the questions: What is speaking? What are components of
speaking? What skills and knowledge does a good speaker need? are found.
Then the author discusses what skills and knowledge a good speaker needs.
2

I.1.2 The nature of speaking skill
I.1.2.1 What is speaking?
Speaking is “an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and
receiving and processing information” (Brown, 1994; Burns & Joyce, 1997). Its form and
meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants
themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes for
speaking. It is often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving. Speaking requires that
learners not only know how to produce specific points of language such as grammar,
pronunciation, or vocabulary ("linguistic competence"), but also that they understand
when, why, and in what ways to produce language ("sociolinguistic competence"). It has
its own skills, structures, and conventions different from written language (Burns & Joyce,
1997; Carter & McCarthy, 1995; Cohen, 1996). A good speaker synthesizes these skills
and knowledge to succeed in a given speech act.
4
I.1.2.2 What are components of speaking?
This section examines the components of spoken English, drawing on a model proposed by
van Lier (1995). It is necessary for teachers to understand fully these interrelated
components in order to help adult learners improve their speaking skill.
The figure depicts the many elements involved in teaching speaking to adult ESOL
learners. The left column lists four traditional areas of linguistic analysis (which teachers
must understand), and the center column labels the units of spoken language (which
learners must master).
Beginning at the pyramid’s base, text refers to stretches of language of an undetermined
length. Texts can be either written or spoken, but here the focus is exclusively on spoken
discourse. Spoken texts are composed of utterances: what someone says. A clause is two
or more words that contain a verb marked for tense and a grammatical subject.
5
distinctive
feature
phoneme

Consonants (like /p/ or /b/ in the words pat and bat) or Vowels (like /I/ and /æ/ in bit and
bat). Phonemes differ from English to Vietnamese and are therefore difficult for learners to
pronounce. For example, the “th” sounds in think and the are pervasive in English but do
not exit in Vietnamese language. Learners of English, especially adult ones, often
approximate or replace the “th” sounds with “s” or “z” or “d”.
In the top levels of the figure, the word syllable overlaps the levels of morphemes and
phonemes because a syllable can consist of a morpheme or simply one or more phonemes.
The structure of syllables is referred to as being either open (ending with a V) or closed
(ending with a C). Vietnamese languages use the open syllable structure, in which a
syllable consists of just a V, or of a C followed by a V. Spoken English, in contrast, allows
both open syllables (C-V, or just V) and closed syllables (C-V-C, or simply V-C), as well
as C clusters, where two or more Consonants occur in sequence (as in the words stretched
or jumped). For this reason, Vietnamese learners of English may omit word-final
Consonants, thereby eliminating the sounds that convey important linguistic information,
such as plurality, possession, or tense.
Consonants and vowels are called segmental phonemes. Sometimes a spoken syllable
consists of one phoneme (/o/ in okay). Syllables also consist of combined sounds (the
second syllable of okay), and of both free and bound morphemes. For instance, the free
6
morpheme hat consists of three phonemes but only one syllable. The word disheartened
has three syllables, four morphemes (dis + heart + en + ed), and nine phonemes.
A smaller unit, the distinctive feature, relates to how and where in the mouth a sound is
produced when we speak. These minute contrasts contribute to ESOL learners’ accents.
The three other labels in The figure—stress, rhythm, and intonation represent the
suprasegmental phonemes. When we speak, these phonemes carry meaning differences
“above” the segmental phonemes. For instance, the sentence “I am going now” can convey
at least four different meanings, depending on where the stress is placed. The differences
are related to the context where the utterances occur. Consider these interpretations:
I am going now. (You may be staying here, but I choose to leave.)
I am going now. (You may assert that I’m staying, but I insist that I am leaving.)

speech.
I.2 Teaching adults
Adults bring life experiences and a level of maturity into the classroom that children and
adolescents do not. Their expectations and motivations reflect this. Here are several keys to
keep in mind when teaching adults:
- Adult classrooms may present great diversity
Be prepared for diversity of cultural background, age, previous formal education,
previous exposure to English, life experiences, and current life situations.
- Adults respond well to knowledgeable, enthusiastic teachers
You must be comfortable with the subject matter you are teaching and
communicate enthusiasm for the subject matter and your role as a teacher. This will
help you gain respect and is especially important if you are younger than your
students. If you must teach material which is challenging for you, try not to
communicate a negative attitude about the material to your students. If a student
asks a question which you can't answer, don't be afraid to say, "I don't know, but I'll
find out for you."
- Adults are not too old to learn a second language well
Although native language learning and literacy are best accomplished in childhood,
when it comes to learning a second language, research has shown that adolescents
and adults outperform children. Adolescents even surpassed children in
pronunciation skills. One of the reasons children appear to acquire a second
8
language faster than adults is simply that they get a lot more practice with other
children and have lower inhibitions, but many adults have attained a high level of
fluency in a foreign language.
- Adults need a comfortable and safe learning atmosphere
Trial and error should be encouraged in language learning. Adults will take more
risks in an environment where it's safe to make mistakes without embarrassment.
You may want to minimize public reading and writing until your learners gain
confidence, especially if literacy skills are deficient. The same goes for standing in

- reading and writing are the major focus;
- the vocabulary studied is determined by the reading texts;
- the sentence is the basic unit of teaching and language practice”;
- the primary emphasis is on accuracy;
- teaching is deductive (i.e., grammar rules are presented and then practiced through
translating); and
- the medium of instruction is typically the students’ native language.
The grammar-translation method does not prepare students to speak English, so it is not
appropriate for nonacademic adult ESOL students who want to improve their speaking
skill. The method is not consistent with the goals of increasing fluency, oral production, or
communicative competence of adult ESOL learners. In grammar-translation lessons,
speaking consists largely of reading translations aloud or doing grammar exercises orally.
There are few opportunities for expressing original thoughts or personal needs and feelings
in English.
The Audio-lingual Method
The audio-lingual method dominated English-language instruction for many years. In this
method, speaking skill is taught by having students repeat sentences and recite memorized
textbook dialogues. The theory behind the audio-lingual method is that students learn to
speak by practicing grammatical structures until producing those structures become
automatic. Then, it is thought, the learners would be able to engage in conversation. As a
result, “teaching oral language was thought to require no more than engineering the
repeated oral production of structures . . . concentrating on the development of
grammatical and phonological accuracy combined with fluency” (Bygate, 2001, p. 15).
10
The theoretical basis of the audio-lingual method behaviorist is the concept of good habit
formation. This theory proposes that for learners to form good habits, language lessons
must involve frequent repetition and correction. Teachers address spoken errors quickly, in
hopes of preventing students from forming bad habits. If errors are left untreated, both the
speaker and the other students in class might internalize those erroneous forms. There is
little or no explanation of vocabulary or grammar rules in audio-lingual lessons. Instead,

focus only on accuracy, but should use both form-focused and fluency building activities in
adult ESOL classes.
In some language teaching methods, such as Total Physical Response, the focus is on
input-based activities. In contrast, communicative language teaching methods feature more
interaction-based activities, such as role plays and information gap tasks. Curricular
choices, such as task-based and project-based activities also promote interaction. Pair work
and group work are typical organizational features of interaction-based lessons in
communicative language teaching.
Recent critiques of CLT include an article by Stephen Bax entitled: "The end of CLT: a
Context Approach to language teaching" in which he argues that the dominance of CLT
has led to the neglect of one crucial aspect of language pedagogy, namely the context in
which that pedagogy takes place. Bax argues that it is time to replace CLT as the central
paradigm in language teaching with a Context Approach which places context at the heart
of the profession. The article argues that such a shift is taking place already and will
eventually change our practice radically.
Concluding remark
It can be drawn out that of all the approaches stated above, which have dominated
language teaching in the past 60 years throughout the world, the first two, i.e., the
Grammar-Translation method and the Audio-lingual method, have proved to be of less use
in the current teaching of speaking skill, especially that to adult learners, whose
characteristics regarding psychology, mindset and ability in learning to speak English
require productive methods rather than inactive ones.
12
CHAPTER II: THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH
SPEAKING SKILL AT VNUH
II.1 Overview of the subjects of the study
II.1.1 Students
The thesis studies MA students of laws, economy, technology, education and business
administration at VNUH. The students’ age varies from 22 to about 50. Almost those under
30, who account for more than 50 percent of all students, finished 420 class contacts

1 None
2 None
3 None
4 Discussion Tourism
6 Discussion Retirement
7 Dialogue completion Second conditional
Discussion Money, life, work
Doing charity
8 Text completion Modals of probability
Pair work Personality
Discussion Children and family size
9 Answering questions Different views of smoking
Collecting things
10 Information gap Famous people
Table 1: Speaking activities and topics/drills in the course book ‘English for Graduate Students’
It can be learned from the table that the variety of speaking activities is very limited, with
discussion as the most common. It therefore depends very much on teachers’ experience
and enthusiasm to design speaking activities that motivate students and improve their
speaking ability.
II.2 Data analysis
II.2.1 Discussion of the survey questionnaires
To collect information concerning the current situation of teaching and learning speaking
skill at SGS – VNUH, the author conducted two survey questionnaires; one was delivered
to 100 students and the other to 12 teachers of English at SGS. To answer the question in
the survey questionnaires, informants may have more than one choice, so the total
percentage of the answers to a certain question may not equal 100 percent.
The first questionnaire was designed for the students with three questions:
14
Question 1: What make you interested in speaking in English class?
Question 2: What make you unwilling to speak in English class?

familiar to speak about (8% and 7% respectively).
Students also specified other factors affecting their interest in speaking in class such as
their wishes to improve speaking skill and be able to communicate with foreigners.
15
Option %
I. I’m tired after a working day. 72
A. Topics are boring/unfamiliar. 56
D. I can’t find exact words to express my ideas. 53
G. I’m not accustomed to speaking English in class (It’s my habit to sit in class and
listen quietly to teachers until I’m asked to speak).
52
C. I’m afraid that my classmates will laugh at me if I make mistakes. 39
B. My teacher often corrects my mistakes when I’m speaking. 29
H. It’s ok if I don’t speak. The teacher never complains about that. 28
E. My teacher hardly ever pays attention to me. 25
F. My teacher and other students speak almost all the time. 23
Table3: What make students unwilling to speak in English class
Statistics provided in table 3 prove to be well-matched with those in table 2. It seems that
many students share the same reasons for their being uninterested in classroom speaking
activities.
Circumstance makes up the largest proportion of the reasons for students’ unwillingness to
speak. 72% of them state that they are too tired to go to class. This is because almost all
MA students at VNUH go to work during day time and attend their classes in the evening.
It is very common that they enter the class with “an exhausted body and an empty
stomach”, as one student noted in the questionnaire.
Many students (56%) blame boring/unfamiliar topics for discouraging them to speak in
class and a similar number (53%) state that they are not interested in speaking as they
cannot find exact words to express their ideas.
Students who are not active in class make up the rate of 52%. They are passive and only
speak when they are asked to, especially 28% of them who are never complained by the

Option %
B. Students’ levels of proficiency are varied. 100
A. Students are unwilling to speak. 75
E. Teaching speaking takes time when I have to cover all other contents of the
course book.
58.3
C. I don’t have enough time to prepare speaking activities. 41.7
D. I can’t find suitable and interesting speaking activities. 25
Table 5: Teachers’ difficulties in teaching speaking for MA students at SGS
It can be seen from table 1 that students’ varied level of proficiency is an obstacle to all of
the teachers. The second obstacle that identified by many of them (75%) is students’
unwillingness to speak. 58.3% is the proportion of the teachers who have difficulty
because teaching speaking is time consuming when they must cover all other contents of
the course book.
Regarding subjective factors, 41.7% of the teachers lack time to prepare activities and to
25% of them, finding suitable and interesting speaking activities is impossible. May be the
reason why so many teachers do not have enough time for the preparation of their teaching
at VNUH is that, as mentioned in the first part of this chapter, only 20% of them work full
time here. It is very likely that they spend more time and effort for the classes at colleges
where they work as full time teachers.
17
Option %
H. I ask the better students to speak first. 66.7
D. I give them many questions. 41.7
A. I create interesting games and activities. 33.3
E. I always listen attentively to and appreciate students’ answers. 33.3
F. I never forget to praise them before pointing out their mistakes in speaking. 25
J. I encourage students to learn by reminding them of the proportion of speaking
skill in their end of course test.
25

dominates their speaking performance in class. As one student said, “my poor vocabulary
of English caused a lot of troubles in talking to others, so we seldom speak in English”
(Tan, student of law). Lack of vocabulary is another source of students’ reticence in
speaking lessons. “I always found my vocabulary so small that I didn’t know how to
communicate my ideas. I was very anxious and felt bad. So I have to keep quiet. And this
is very common among students in the university” (Ha, student of education).
To help students develop their vocabulary, teacher could try the followings.
- Maintaining classroom charts (to be changed regularly) on which students may
record a growing list of synonyms for certain words.
- Having students keep individual word lists to extend their speaking vocabularies
(e.g., ghost: phantom, spook, spirit, apparition; purple: mauve, lilac, violet). They
may gather these from their listening, writing, reading, and viewing activities as well
as from experience outside of the classroom.
Besides, passive habit of learning is also considered one of the main causes for students’
silence in oral English classes. More than half of the informants own the habit of listening
passively without speaking until they are asked to speak. “We are reticent maybe because
we were taught to be so since primary school. We were hardly encouraged to speak out
loud in front of others” (Hang, student of education).
What is more, students’ confidence also accounts for their unwillingness to speak in
English class. It is found that students are reticent to speak English also because they are
worried about making mistakes. Thus, they keep quiet and wait until they are asked to
speak. “I am not so active because I don’t want to lose face when I make mistakes (Linh,
student of law). “I have self respect and I don’t want to be laughed at” (Sinh, student of
19
law). Moreover, they are also afraid of having their mistakes being pointed out. “I’m very
embarrassed when teachers point out and correct my mistakes when I am speaking and
sometimes I don’t want to or don’t know what to say next” (Hao, student of education).
To motivate students to speak in class without fear of making mistakes, teachers should try
to employ the following strategies.
- When students make mistakes, point out what they said right in addition to what they

teachers themselves.
According to all of the teachers, the most dominant characteristic of English classes at
SGS- VNUH is the varied level of proficiency, which is very challenging for them to
manage classes. Many teachers complain that their teaching can hardly make all students in
the class involved as there is always knowledge that is “a piece of cake for these students
but a hard job for others” (Ms. Thuy). This gap is partly resulted from the difference in age
among the students. “The younger seem to be more advanced … some of the older even
knows almost nothing” (Mr. Thuong). Teachers suggested some common concerns like
“advanced students dominate” (Ms. Huong) or “higher level students seem bored or the
lower seem lost” (Mr. Tuan). The next obstacle to the teachers is students’ unwillingness to
speak. As found in the previous part, whether students are motivated in oral English classes
depends quite a lot on their teachers. It can be seen that there exists a reciprocal influence
between teachers and students in teaching and learning speaking skill, which requires
bilateral efforts in improving the situation.
Besides, teachers also complain that teaching speaking skill is difficult as it takes time
whereas they are not allowed to leave out or make light of other skills and knowledge of
the course book.
The study has also found out that teachers’ difficulties in motivating their students to speak
in English classes result from the teachers themselves. Many of them do not prepare
activities for their speaking classes as they lack time, which is too much a subjective
reason. Similarly, which again can hardly be regarded as a reasonable excuse as at this
time and in this capital city, various types of supplementary materials for teaching English
skills is so available that a complaint may be referred to as that of a lazy or else a not-
enthusiastic-enough teacher.
III.2 Recommendations
Below are general recommendations and also specific ones for each of the findings
presented above, all of which are for teachers to improve the gloomy situation of their
English speaking classes and motivate their students to speak. Teachers needs first and
foremost identify all causes of the situation so as to employ suitable measures to solve each
single problem at a time or some or all of them.