VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
*&* NGÔ PHƯƠNG THÙY A STUDY ON THE DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING SPEAKING
ENGLISH OF THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS
AT THE FACULTY OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY,
THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

(TÌM HIỂU NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN TRONG VIỆC HỌC NÓI TIẾNG ANH CỦA
SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT KHOA CÔNG NGHỆ THÔNG TIN,
ĐẠI HỌC THÁI NGUYÊN)
M.A. MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY
CODE: 60 14 10
HA NOI - 2010



HA NOI - 2010 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I: INTRODUCTION 3
1.1 Rationales of the study 3
1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 4
1.3 Scope of the study 4
1.4 Methods of the study 4
1.5 Significance of the Study 4
1.6 Structure of the study 5
PART 2: DEVELOPMENT 6
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 6
1.1 Introduction 6
1.2 Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) 6
1.2.1 Definition of CLT 6
1.2.2 Characteristics of CLT 7
1.3 Nature of speaking and Development of speaking Skills 8
1.3.1 Definition of speaking 8
1.3.2 Characteristics of speaking 8
1.3.4 The development Approach of Speaking Skills 10
1.4 Difficulties in learning to speak English 12
1.4.1 Psychological factors 12
1.4.2 Cultural factors 15

REFERENCES 49
APPENDIXES 51

iii
LIST OF TABLES AND PIE CHARTS
Tables
Table 1: Students’ judgments in speaking materials 30
Pie charts
Pie chart 1: Students' competence in speaking skills 23
Pie chart 2: Student's perception towards speaking skills 24
Pie chart 3: Students' actual activities in speaking class 25
Pie chart 4: Students' perception towards difficulties in learning to speak English 26
Pie chart 5: Students' perception towards the psychological barriers to learning to speak
English 26
Pie chart 6: Students' perception towards the effect of cultural factor to learning to
speak English 27
Pie chart 7: Students' perception towards the effect of grammar knowledge to learning
to speak English 28
Pie chart 8: Students' perception towards the effect of vocabulary to learning to speak
English 29
Pie chart 9: Students' perception towards the effect of pronunciation to learning to
speak English 29
Pie chart 10: Students' expectation towards the teachers' instruction 30
Pie chart 11: Students’ thought of class size 31
Pie chart 12: Students’ thought of mixed ability class 32
Pie chart 13: Teachers' perception of students' thought over speaking skills 32
Pie chart 14: Teachers' perception of students experience over speaking skills 33
Pie chart 15: Teacher's perception of students' actual activities in speaking class 34
Pie chart 16: Teacher's perception of their students' speaking difficulties 35


attention to develop speaking skill. Despite that, the desired effect is not high.
With the hope of helping students to learn to speak English effectively, the difficulties in
learning to speak English have been chosen as the topic of the present research. Realizing the
current difficulties that the first year students in FIT encounter will attribute to the
improvement and enhancement of the learning and teaching English speaking quality in the
FIT.
The research will first shed a light on how learners think and study to speak English in FIT;
second, it will reinterpret the recent difficulties in learning to speak English that learners meet
in terms of revised relevant theories. Third, it will recommend some solutions to upgrade the
learning to speak English quality in FIT. Forth, it will make the teachers become more aware
of the problems may occur in speaking class, from which they can have better and reasonable
solutions to their classes.

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1.2 Aims and objectives of the study
The study is carried out to find out the answers for the following questions:
1. “What difficulties do students in FIT meet when they learn to speak English?”
2. “What are possible causes leading to difficulties in learning speaking skills of the first
year students in FIT?”
3. “What are possible solutions to the problems?”
The study is aimed to
- Investigate the current situation of learning and teaching speaking in the FIT
- Find out what difficulties the first year students in FIT meet when they learn to speak
English
- Suggest some realistic and appropriate techniques to help improve the teaching and
learning to speak English in FIT
1.3 Scope of the study
In this study, the researcher tends to overview the difficulties the students in FIT face when
learning speaking English and to suggest some possible solutions to the problems in order to
help students learning speaking English better. This is also the limitation of the study.

chapter. The conclusion will show a brief summary of the study and the limitation. 6
PART 2: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1 Introduction
This chapter revised relevant theories and studies that can be the base for the research being
carried out. The nature of speaking, the development of speaking as well as the main factors
that affect learning to speak English of the ESL learners will be presented.
1.2 Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)
1.2.1 Definition of CLT
So far, CLT has been viewed and studied by different authors such as Wilkins (1972), Nunan
(1989). Each author has his own point of view about CLT. However, they all considered CLT
as an approach that is more prominent than those appeared before them like Grammar –
Translation method, Direct method, The Audio-lingual method.
CLT can be understood as a set of principles about the goals of language teaching, how
learners learn a language, the kinds of classroom activities that best facilitate learning, and the
roles of teachers and learners in the classroom (Richards, 2006).
Nunan (1989 p.194) considered “CLT views language as a system for the expressions of
meaning. Activities involve oral communication, carrying out meaning tasks and using
language, which is meaningful to the learners. Objectives reflect the needs of the learner
including functional skill as well as linguistic objectives. The learner‟s role is as a negotiator
and integrator. The teacher‟s role is as a facilitator of the communication process.”
According to Sandra J. Savignon‟s perspective (2000, pp. 124 – 129): “The essence of CLT is
the engagement of learners in communication to allow them to develop their communicative
competence.” (p. 128)
“The focus of CLT is to promote the development of functional language ability through
learner participation in communicative events.” (p. 126)
CLT is associated with a focus on learners‟ communicative needs, on learner autonomy, and

used at the proper time to arouse learners‟ interest.

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1.3 Nature of speaking and Development of speaking Skills
1.3.1 Definition of speaking
Joji Miyauchi (2001:5) assumes that speaking is an action to produce words. Speaking is "the
process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in
a variety of contexts" (Chaney, 1998, p. 13). As for Bygate M (1987), “speaking is a skill
which deserves attention every bit as much as literacy skills, in both first and second
language”. Florez (1999, p.1) gave another definition on speaking. He considered speaking is
“an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and meaning and
processing information, it is often spontaneous open-end, and evolving”. There have been
many different kinds of definitions on speaking; however, speaking can be understood as the
process of forming utterance which carries a certain meaning to express one‟s idea to the
others for a certain purpose.
Truly speaking, speaking is one of the most necessary skills that the foreign language learners
have to master. Murphy (1991) stated “the ability to speak coherently and intelligently on a
focused topic is generally recognized as a necessary goal for ESL students”. Understanding
adequately about speaking and the nature of it, ESL learners will achieve communicative
competence more easily.
1.3.2 Characteristics of speaking
Many language learners regard speaking ability as the measure of knowing about a language.
These learners define fluency as the ability to converse with others, much more than the ability
to read, write, or comprehend oral language. They regard speaking as the most important skill
they can acquire, and they assess their progress in terms of their accomplishments in spoken
communication. On talking about the nature of speaking, David Nunan mentioned the
communicative competence. In which, he stated to be able to speak another language “one
needs to know how to articulate sounds in a comprehensible manner, one needs an adequate
vocabulary and one needs to have mastery of syntax.” (David Nunan, p.226). A few years ago,
Dell Hymes (1974) considered the communicative competence included three factors:

interactional routines are routines based not so much on information content as on sequences
of kinds of terms occurring in typical kinds of interactions. These routines can be
characterized in board terms to include the kinds of turns typically occurring in given
situations, and the order in which the components are likely to occur. (Bygate, 1987 p.24:25).
David Nunan then based on the concepts that Bygate mentioned further discussed the routines.
He neither asserted Bygate‟s theory nor disclaimed. He brought forward his point of view and
affirmed “Bygate‟s routines facilitate communication for first language speakers because they
make the interactions more predictable”. However, he stated “if language were totally

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predictable, then the communication would be unnecessary.” He added “for second language
speakers, routines can be crucial in facilitating comprehension”. Hence, when teaching and
learning to speak the teachers and the learners have to enable themselves to communicate in
the challenging situations, the unpredictable situation, which force the learners more actively
to take part in and to comprehend the communication. Teachers and learners have to build up
themselves the knowledge about grammar, vocabulary, and socio-culture to be confident when
speaking. Besides, they should take chances to communicate in class as well as outside
classroom. Though, communication outside classroom is not similar to that inside class.
Teachers should understand the importance of communicative competence and the differences
between the two kinds of situations to help learners speak English naturally and make their
speeches sound “native”.
1.3.4 The development Approach of Speaking Skills
According to Byrne (1991 p.22:23) there are three phrases to develop learners‟ oral ability.
Phrase 1: The presentation phrase
In this phrase, teachers play the dominant role while learners passively listen and take notes.
With their English knowledge, teachers select materials and present it in such a way that
learners can absorb knowledge easiest. The oral materials introduced to learners are often in
two forms: dialogue and prose. Each form needs a different way to present. To present a
dialogue, Byrne (1991 p.22), suggested 10 following different steps.
1. Establish setting by using pictures. At this phrase, English should be used as much as

Phrase 3: The production phrase
Learners can practice speaking freely. They can speak what they want for the sake of
themselves not for the teachers. Working in group can help learners a lot. Since, it reduces
shyness or anxiety in public speaking. Learners feel safe and confident to express their ideas.
Byrne (1988) asserted to help learners to improve their speaking ability. These three phrases
should be followed orderly. However, in real class it is not easy to do that because it depends
on many factors: time, learners‟ ability, materials used… A good teacher should find herself a
suitable teaching method with the class.

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1.4 Difficulties in learning to speak English
According to Hymes (1974), (Richards & Rogers, 1986; and Hedge, 2000), to learn to speak a
language, one needs to have communicative competence. Communicative competence
includes linguistics competence, socio-linguistics competence, and discourse competence.
These factors determine the success of learning to speak a language. These factors are affected
by the subjective factors such as: psychology, linguistics, culture and the objective factors like
class size, materials used and learning environment. Therefore, they are also the factors that
affect learning to speak English.
1.4.1 Psychological factors
English speaking is a complicated psychological process. In terms of spoken English teaching,
it‟s quite essential for teachers and learners to take some important psychological factors into
accounts in order to achieve better results in spoken English teaching and learning.
Obviously, psychological factors play a significant role in language learning. Positive
emotions can facilitate the language learning process and improve learners‟ language
performance, while negative emotions will bring barriers to language learning and reduce
learners‟ learning capacity. There have been many research on the impact of the psychological
factors on learning to speak English such as the research of Wu Guang, Liang Jia-xia . In their
research, they focused on analyzing the psychological barriers in oral English teaching. They
stated four types of difficulties like self-abasement, pride, fear of difficulty, anxiety. From that,
they found out the causes and analyzed deeply those causes. The causes that they found out

everywhere. In English class, they are active, and cooperate with teachers‟ activities positively.
Out of class, they take any opportunity for imitating, practicing and speaking English. They
are of strong volition and will, of clear learning purpose. Thereby, they easily and more
proficiently achieve success in spoken English .In their turn, the success encourages higher
motivation.
Anxiety:
Language anxiety is the fear or apprehension occurring when a learner is expected to perform
in the second or foreign language (Gardner, 1972).According to Horwirtz et al (1986), anxiety
is the subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated with an
arousal of the autonomic nervous systems. From the former research, Horwitz (1986) found
that “anxiety can affect the communication strategies students employ in language class”, and
that “difficulty in speaking in class are probably frequently cited concern of the anxious
foreign language students seeking help at the LSC.” (p.126). He also stated that students
seemed to be fairy comfortable responding to a drill or delivering prepared speeches in foreign

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language class but they tended to “freeze” in a role-play situation. Most of anxious students
are afraid of being evaluated negatively and to be less competent than the other students. They
also are afraid of making mistakes. (Horwitz, 1986) Therefore, anxiety is bad for the
improvement of students‟ spoken English. With the role of the educators, teachers should help
students reduce anxiety by paying much attention to teaching attitude and creating a free
learning environment without stress. Teachers should use effective language when evaluate
students and encourage them to study.
Self-esteem:
Self-esteem refers to the individual‟s evaluation on himself, and attitude towards his or her
ability, value, and achievement (Coopersmith (1967 p. 4-5). It is originated from individual‟s
experience and the judge of the outside world. Comparatively speaking, learners with high
self-esteem are full of the sense of self-confidence and self-affirmation. In English learning,
they can evaluate reasonably and objectively their own English level as well as the other
learning skills: listening, reading, writing, speaking and translating. Self-esteem was

1.4.2 Cultural factors
According to Trudgill (1983) language usually portrays in meaningful ways the speaker‟s
innate and inherent national culture. The American linguist Sapir (1921 p. 60:90) maintains
that language and culture are dual entities: Culture representing what a society thinks and does,
while its language expresses and embodies the ideas of that society. Thus, language and
culture may be said to exist in a symbiotic relationship: language serving both as a conveyor
of culture and the capsule containing the mode of intellectualizing.
Cultural characteristics impact foreign language learning. From a practical standpoint,
language serves as a kind of social action because oral and written communications take place
within expected interpersonal exchanges, and meaning is derived from previously accepted
social parameters. (Dimitracopoulou,1990). In other words, commonly shared traditions,
values systems and cultural beliefs create those traditions and social structures that bring and
hold a community together and are thus inherently expressed in their language" (Carrasquillo
1994:55).
Thus, it is a given: If one wishes to speak a language well, one must appreciate how that
language is used in social contexts. It is commonly accepted that each language has its own
rules of application as to when, how, and to what degree a speaker may impart a given verbal
behavior to one‟s conversational partner (Berns,1990). It is often taxing for non-native

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speakers to choose the forms appropriate to certain communicative situations due to mixed
signals emanating from their own cultural norms.
In addition, oral communication involves a very powerful nonverbal communicative system,
which may sometimes contradict messages received via listening. Due to the lack of
familiarity with the nonverbal communicative system of the target language, EFL learners
usually do not know how to be alert for and deduce nonverbal cues. Thus ignorance of the
nonverbal message often leads to misunderstanding the content of the message.
1.4.3 Linguistics factors
Language proficiency is never a single construct, but a multiple module, comprised of various
levels of abilities and domains (Carrasquillo1994, p.65). Hyme‟s theory of communicative

Sheldon (1988, p237) considers textbook is “the visible heart of any ELT (English Language
Teaching) program”. In English as a foreign language (EFL) context it may even constitute the
main and perhaps only source of language input that learners receive and the basis for
language practice that occurs both inside and outside the classroom (Richards, 2005).
Researchers have suggested several advantages of using textbooks. For example, textbooks
help to standardize instruction and assessment. That is, by giving students in different classes
the same textbook, teachers can teach and test them in the same way (Richards, 2005).
Textbooks also provide syllabus for a program, thus supporting novice teachers, training them
in methodology and saving their time and effort for more worthwhile pursuits than material
production (Cunningsworth, 1995). What is more, since textbooks are always carefully tested
before being brought into the market, students tend to give them more credibility than teacher-
generated or „inhouse‟ materials. Students also often expect to use a textbook in their learning
program (Sheldon, 1988). Without textbooks, they may think their learning is not taken
seriously; thus, textbooks are psychologically essential for students. Finally, textbooks may
constitute an effective resource for learning in the classroom and self directed learning
(Cunningsworth, 1995). A learner without a textbook might be out of focus and teacher-
dependent.
However, there still remain some limitations about the textbook. One of the most prominent
limitations is the textbooks are often implicitly prescriptive and thus might control the
methods, processes, and procedures of classroom practice and „deskill‟ teachers (Allwright
1982). The second problem is that since textbooks are often written for global markets, they
might not suit all classrooms and might require adaptation to better meet students‟ true needs

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(Richards 2005). As a result, teachers should upgrade and adapt the materials to suit with
students levels
Class size
The debate on class size has taken for a long time. There have been many different ideas about
that. The old researches claimed that class size has great impact on the student‟s achievement.
Whereas, the new researches show that it has little impact. (Sid Gilbert, 2005). There is

songs written or sang in English. As English language teachers, teachers should upgrade and
improve the teaching method to suit with the learners‟ levels and the ability.
1.5 Summary
This chapter has briefly discussed and revised the relevant theories that are the base of the
study. There is a short talk about CLT at the beginning. The writer wants to revise the concept
and the characteristics of the CLT since CLT has been the center approach in language
teaching since the years 1970s. After that, speaking and the nature of speaking are also
mentioned. The main theory is discussed carefully. The factors that hinder the process of
learning to speak English are clarified. 20
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
2.1 Introduction
In this chapter, the writer describes the current situation of learning and teaching to speak
English of the first year students in the FIT, Thai Nguyen University as the setting for the
study. The data gathering method using the questionnaires is also mentioned in terms of the
purposes as well as how they were developed and used in the study
2.2 The setting of the study
Faculty of Information Technology (FIT) is a small one belonging to Thai Nguyen University.
From the nascent days (2001), FIT defined its purpose that is training informatics for students
living in the Northern provinces. Beside the compulsory subjects like mathematics, physics,
informatics, programming and so on, FIT pays attention to teaching English. The subject can
be considered to be extremely necessary, which can enable students to self-study in future.
Thanks to the fact that many information technology documents are now written in English.
Once students master the English language or at least they can read the documents written in it,
they can easier approach the new technology than the other ones. Understanding the
importance of English, teachers of English in FIT have tried their best in order to improve and
enhance the quality of teaching and learning English. However, this is not an easy task. The
fact is that most of the students in FIT are from mountainous regions. They are not carefully

first year students in the Faculty of Information Technology. These students were between 18
and 20 years old, of whom males are majority and females are only 1/3 since males preferred
to specialize in Informatics than the females. They all have similar backgrounds, that is, they
all finished high school and pass the entrance examination before entering the FIT. Most of
them had studied English for at least three years. However, their competence of English was
very different.
2.4 Instruments for collecting data
Two questionnaires, one designed for students and one for teachers, were designed to collect
data for the investigation. The questionnaires were administered to 10 teachers and 100
students. The aim of the investigation is to collect information concerning:
- The difficulties that the first year students encountered when they learn to speak
English and the sources of their difficulties.
- The teachers‟ perception of the first year students‟ difficulties in learning to speak
English and their suggestions to upgrade and improve the teaching and learning to
speak English in the FIT.