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Investigation on Communication Skills
of English Seniors at Lac Hong University
By Tra Thi Kim Ngan *
ABSTRACT

In the situation of economic open-door policy, especially with the remarkable
event of Vietnam joining WTO in 2006, communication skills are highly valued
in multinational companies. This demand is more serious for those who work in
jobs like interpretation, marketing, public relations, international relations,
personnel, reception, etc. These are potential jobs for English majors.
Unfortunately, employers express their disappointment in students for their low
level of communication. This paper investigates how well English seniors at
Lac Hong University self-assess and perform their communication. For some
reasons like: lack of support from university, lack of self-practice from
students, it is revealed that English seniors’ ability fall short of the demand for
competent communication of future employers. Suggestions are then made in
hopes of enhancing students’ level of communication.
Communication is a need, an indispensable activity of human life.
Communication involves interpersonal interaction between people. Whoever
you are: a head of state, a talented diplomat, an outstanding scientist or a
worker working in a factory, a farmer on the field, a soldier at national island
boundary, a diligent housewife in a house, a hardworking student in university,
etc; you continuously communicate with the world around in order to fulfill
your responsibilities. As seniors majoring in English at Lac Hong University,
students need to be good communicators to work effectively after their
graduation. Especially, as the country integrates into the world economy, the
market has been more and more expanded, competition has become fiercer and
fiercer. To make a positive impression in recruiter’s eyes, students cannot lack
this skill. Moreover, after leaving university, they _ English majors _ may do
the jobs relating to their major such as teaching, PR, marketing, personnel,

“Communication is building a message, sending it in hopes of receiver will
understand its content.”[1]
Effective communication requires many skills like:
• Making first impression
• Verbal communication
• Non-verbal communication
• Empathy
• Questioning skill
• Active listening skill • Cultural awareness
• Team working
• Writing skill
• Conflict-solving skill
• Public speaking and presentation
skill
• Negotiation skill
• Providing leadership [2]
Because of limited time, the researcher cannot cover all those kinds of skills.
This project focuses on the first few in the list above: making first impression,
verbal communication, non-verbal communication, empathy, questioning
skills, and active listening skill. In other words, the primary focus on the
research is students’ interpersonal skills or conversational skills. They are the
most fundamental and basic skills in real life and in any kind of job.
The communication abilities of students have become a very big concern of
many people including employers, parents, teachers, students and so on, which
is why a number of investigations, surveys, and research on the issue have been
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done worldwide in order to upgrade students’ competence of communication.

only one aspect separately of communication skills like public speaking,
making presentation, intercultural communication, etc. In the present research,
the writer tried to answer three questions. The first one is how students
perceive the importance of communication skills in current recruitment setting;
second, how do students assess their own communication ability, and, finally,
how well students perform their communication via a communication skills
assessment test.
Methodology
To carry out this project, 10-item questionnaires and 16-item tests were
distributed to 90 senior students of Faculty of Foreign Languages. The
questionnaire included personal information and rating part and an assessment
of communication ability part. In the question part consisting of 10 questions,
the writer used different kinds of question like ranking, rating, frequency, open-
ended. Its design was very friendly user with attempts made to avoid academic
terms so that students have no confusion. In order to assess students’ level of
communication, the writer also included 16-item tests on conversational
communication designed by Robin Jacobs, Portland Community College. The
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test mainly focuses on interpersonal or conversational skills_ most fundamental
skills. After all, quantitative method was employed to analyze the collected
data.
Findings from the questionnaire

Students’ Self-assessment towards their Communication Skills
Surprisingly, nearly 2/3 of students rated their communication level as only
average. In addition, 1/4 of students stated that they were weak and very weak
on communication skills, and very few evaluate themselves as above average.
Chart 5: Students' Self-assessment towards their Communication Ability
6
17

6.2
6.0
6.0
5.8
5.7
5.7
5.6
5.5
5.4
5.1
5.1
5.0
0
2
4
6
8
10
Skills
Mark
Empathy
Teamwork
Verbal communication
Active listening skill
Questioning skill
Making first impression
Cultural awareness
Writing skill
Public speaking and
presentaion

100
Very usually Usually sometimes Rarely Never
Percent

Because of lack of communication training program in the university, many
students expressed their dissatisfaction. Only 17% of them indicated
satisfaction with the communication training program.
Chart 8: Students' Satisfaction from Communication Skills Training Program
3
14
45
20
8
0
20
40
60
80
100
Completely agree Partially agree Normal Partially disagree Completely
disagree
percent