ABTRACT

In the four skills of English, speaking skills are considered the most important.
When you learn any language, what you aim to do is how to communicate naturally,
fluently with indigenous people. Maybe you have good writing skills because you
have a strong grasp of grammar and vocabulary, but your reflection is poor. Some
common causes for Vietnamese people who have difficulty in speaking English are
afraid of communication, lack of training environment, lack of vocabulary, poor
grammar etc.
Nowadays, English is included in the curriculum from primary school. The
reality, you are always taught by passive methods under the guidance of teachers.
Therefore, you learn English from grade 1 to grade 12 with the aim of passing a
written test in school and college exams. Students learn grammar and vocabulary,
practice reading texts in books. So they have less chance to practice speaking.
Currently, a number of secondary and high schools switch the test method from
writing to oral exam some subjects, including English. However, students deal most
with rote learning without understanding anything. The situation lasted up to
university make poor English speaking skills.
Because of the lack of thorough training in speaking skills, most first-year
students have problems communicating in English. For the above reasons, a study
of the difficulties that first-year international students encounter in the process of
practicing English speaking skills at TMU University is implemented. This study
aims to find some difficulties and solutions to overcome to improve speaking skills
for students, to help students confidently communicate in class as well as in daily
life and further work.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS


1.3. Aims of the study.....................................................................................................4
1.4. Research subjects....................................................................................................4
1.5. Scope of the study...................................................................................................4
1.6. Research methodology..........................................................................................5
1.7. Organization of the study.....................................................................................7
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW...........................................................................8
2.1. Definition of speaking skills................................................................................8
2.2. The importance of speaking skills....................................................................9
2.3. Types of speaking skills....................................................................................10
2.3.1. Imitative...............................................................................................................10
2.3.2. Intensive...............................................................................................................10
2.3.3. Responsive...........................................................................................................10
2.3.4. Interactive...........................................................................................................11
2.3.5. Extensive..............................................................................................................11
2.4. The characteristics of speaking skills...........................................................11
2.5. Factors Affecting Speaking Skills....................................................................12
2.5.1. Psychological factors.......................................................................................12
2.5.2. Linguistics factors.............................................................................................15
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS..........................................................................19
3.1. Discussion of findings.........................................................................................19
3.1.1. Students’ evaluation on the importance of English.................................19
3.1.2. Students’ evaluation on the obstructing factor in practicing English
speaking skills................................................................................................................20
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3.1.3. Students’ evaluation on the impact of psychological factors on
learning English speaking skills...............................................................................21
3.1.4. Students’ evaluation on the impact of linguistics factors on learning
English speaking skills.................................................................................................23

speaking, reading, writing. This will make you stand out in your work and life.
Opportunity to come to you more, you have the opportunity to access more sources
of knowledge. 55% of websites in the world write in English, 95% of the articles
are collected at the US Science Information Institute written in English. Many great
works of the world such as the works of George Orwell or Jane Eyre, Emily Bronte
will give you the feeling that translation texts do not bring.
Today English is used in commerce more and more widely. As TMU, it is even
an international training department, a faculty affiliated with many major
universities abroad. The use of English by international education students is not as
good as expected. Communication skills are seen as essential skills when you learn
any language, which is used daily in your life, study and future work.
The most difficult is for freshmen when they are not familiar with the
university curriculum as well as the teaching method. Mostly in high school,
students have almost no chance to practice speaking English, but only focus on
grammar and vocabulary for the final exam. The reason why make students afraid
to speak, afraid to say wrong or fewer reflexes etc. All of these factors make it
difficult for students to speak English when they go to college. This makes it

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difficult for students to learn in the classroom, especially when there are subjects to
speak English.
Therefore, in this study, I will study “ A study on the difficulties in learning
English speaking skills faced by the first-year international students at TMU and
possible solutions” to improve students' speaking skills.
1.2. Previous studies
According to my research, there are a few research topics about difficulties in
practicing English speaking. Some topics refer to non-English major students. I
have consulted some studies in Vietnam in particular and in the world in general on

process. The author studied a number of subjects who encountered this problem in
learning to participate in difficult to learn English and she realized that these
students could not speak English fluently.
According to the study of Nauli (2014), there are three factors that influence
the process of learning English. It's cultural difficulties (including social acceptance
and English status), English difficulties (including elements problem and personal
problem) and communication problems (self-confidence and speaking opponent).
These objective and subjective factors were studied by him at the national
university in Jambi.
In Mustafa Mubarak Pathan (2014) research studies about ” An Overview of
Major Difficulties Faced by the Libyan EFL Learners in Speaking Skill”, He
pointed out several causes of difficulty in practicing speaking skills, such as:
pronunciation, the use of adjective, the use of prepositions , the use of idioms,
grammatical errors , semantic errors, other problems ( lack of vocabulary, fear /
embarrassment while communicating, lack of interest and motivation, lack of
practice,lack of environment for practice, …), influenced by mother tongue. He
gave the reasons for the above reasons: “Their failure to recognize this is primarily
because of the failure on the part of their teachers to make them understand this
fact at the very early stage of their learning. And this failure on the part of the
teachers is because of the facts that most of the EFL school teachers in Libya are
neither trained properly for this reason nor are their skills upgraded.”
In Samira Al Hosni (2014), she lists three main difficulties when speaking
English, they are linguistic difficulties (students find it difficult when they lack
vocabulary, some students have said: “We want to speak, but we don’t know the
word” or “We do not know how to say it”. Although the teacher has been teaching
grammar for a long time, students still can’t say short sentences), mother tongue
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use, and inhibition (students are scared of making mistakes in front of the crowd,

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For the purpose of finding out the difficulties that students encounter when
learning to speak English, research will be done to find the purpose above. I hope
these studies can help them identify difficulties and implement solutions to
improve.
1.6. Research methodology
According to C.R.Kothari, research method is defined that the methodology
refers to a systematic method that includes problem making, hypothesis formation,
data collection, analysis and making conclusions to a certain generalization for a
number of the theory given. In the methodology, there are qualitative and
quantitative methods. However, with the study based on the number of such
students, I decided to choose a qualitative method to do this research. C.R.Kothri
wrote: "Qualitative research, on the other hand, is concerned with qualitative
phenomenon, i.e., phenomena related to or involving quality or kind". In this
method, we are interested in the reason and thinking of the object studied.
Qualitative methods are implemented in many different ways such as
questionnaires, interviews, observations etc. In order to bring the most objective
results, I have used two methods which are questionnaires and interview. With the
combination of these two methods, I hope to bring together results in many aspects.
1.6.1. Instruments
1.6.1.1. Questionnaires
The study was conducted at TMU. This research is based on questionnaires.
This is a great support tool for collecting qualitative information, which saves time
to collect and analyze data. In this method, the questionnaire will be given to
students with pre-existing questions and answers. Students will read and answer
questions according to the form. Using this questionnaire to find out the level of
some difficulties in speaking English. Also, that uses qualitative methods to
investigate the frequency and abilities of students. With this method, we will have

and authentic results to the research.
1.6.2. Data collection procedures
Study using the questionnaire and interview for first-year international
students at TMU to collect the difficulties that students encounter in the process of
learning English speaking skills. Questionnaires and interview are written in
English and Vietnamese. The Vietnamese questionnaire to survey students to
provide a clear understanding of the difficulties that the research is directed at.

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English questionnaire for collection of collected results and summarized for
analysis. Steps to collect data are conducted as follows:
Step1: Design questionnaires based on difficult theories in practicing speaking
skills according to the theory in chapter 2. The content of the questionnaire consists
of 10 sentences. In addition, the interview consists of 2 sentences. Questionnaires
written in both English and Vietnamese help students understand exactly what they
are doing.
Step2: Distribute questionnaires to 100 students and interview 50 students
specialized in Tourism and Service Administration Tour of International Training
Faculty. Survey period between second semester 2018-2019.
Step3: Collect the survey results from students, prepare for data analysis step.
1.6.3. Data analysis methods
The interviews were conducted with 100 first-year international students at
TM University. All questionnaires made in Vietnamese are then translated into
English. Each questionnaire focuses on the difficulties faced by first-year students
English speaking skills in the English language learning process. The popular
statistics program computer application is used to analyze data. Although following
a predetermined structure, interviewers can ask probing questions to get a better
understanding of the issues being discussed (Gillham, 2005).

semantics, pronunciation. The first thing when you learn another language is to
learn to speak, learn to speak through communication with people around you. After
that, you will learn about other skills such as writing and reading.
Speaking shows the interaction between the speaker and the listener. Through
the way you speak, the opposite person will know what you are like? How you
build speech, how to reason, guide or how to receive and process information.
Speaking is the use of maximum language to express meaning.
There are many definition of speaking. Hornby (1990, p.1227) defines
“Speaking is make use of words in an ordinary voice”. Widdowson (1984, p58)
adds that “Communication through speaking is performed face to face interaction
and occurs as part of a dialogue or other form of verbal exchange.”
According to Chaney (1998): “Speaking is the process of making and sharing
meaning by using verbal and non-verbal symbols in different contexts”. Brown
(1994) and Burns and Joyce (1997) defined speaking as the exchange process to
create meaningful sentences including production, reception and processing of
information. Bygate (1987) defined speaking as the reception of information from
the hearing to produce reactions from the listener. It is regarded as combining
sounds to create form meaningful sentences.
From the above definitions, we can give a general definition of speaking.
Speaking is a form of expressing information using sentences. Saying is using
language depending on the intention of the speaker, a means of communicating
between objects to express their thoughts, share ideas, feelings and intentions to
interact with each other.
In English, speaking skills are more important. Moreover, in the era of
economic integration and distribution like now, it is said to be a necessary skill in
this era. Government organizations and the Ministry of Education should recruit
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good English speakers. Companies and businesses want employees to speak English

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become more important, subtlety, sophistication, sharp arguments in your statement
determine success.
Speaking is the most important skill in the four skills of listening, speaking,
reading and writing. Speaking helps learners to develop vocabulary, grammar, even
complete sentences. Learners can express their ideas, feelings, talk, discussion to
express the function of language. Communicate not only in school but also in
society. Therefore, people who can speak many languages have the opportunity to
work in big companies, businesses and promotion and development. Therefore,
speaking skills are very important in life as well as deciding on success at work. It
exists around us every day. Through communication, they achieve specific goals
and objectives for themselves.
2.3. Types of speaking skills
Based on Brown's description (2004, p.271), I summarize in 5 groups as
follows:
2.3.1. Imitative
In this imitative, the speaker tries to repeat the words they hear in an easy-tounderstand way. This way makes the speaker passive in speaking. Maybe the
speaker repeats accidentally following the instructor but do not understand
anything. However, it will not matter if the speaker understands what they are
saying and can continue the conversation. When imitative speaking makes them
learn how to read words and accents correctly.
2.3.2. Intensive
Intensive speaking is a way of speaking that requires a higher degree of
imitation. In this parlance, the speaker will have a strong amount of vocabulary and
grammar to be able to understand correctly. For example, when you read an essay,
what you draw from it can be a lesson, a summary, or answering questions related to
the text. Intensive speaking compels you to speak according to your own intentions,
which cannot be imitated.

Moreover, communication also depends on grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation.
Thornbury (2005) points out that pronunciation is the most basic level for
learners. To be able to say exactly, learners should master the phonemic table and
practice the sounds so that they are the best. Besides, in the communication process,
learners sometimes apply proverb idioms to increase the vividness of the sentence.
However, sometimes abuse and misuse of idioms reduce the effectiveness of the
conversation. Therefore, learners need to consider using idioms to be reasonable.
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2.5. Factors Affecting Speaking Skills
Speaking is daily communication skill. However, speaking English has never
been easy. There are many factors that make it difficult for you to learn English.
These factors hinder your ability to speak English fluently and float away. There is
also an impact from the inside outside. Some factors affecting English speaking are
psychological factors, linguistics and other factors. According to Mahripah (2014),
Elhadi Nasr Elhadi Mustafa (2015) and I have noticed some influences in the
process of learning to speak English.
2.5.1. Psychological factors
According to Elhadi Nasr Elhadi Mustafa (2015), psychological factors are the
biggest factor in the learning process. To be able to confidently speak a language,
the first thing you must dare to say. However, there is a fact that the bigger we are,
the more afraid we are. The fear of being wrong here is not wrong, but I'm afraid to
laugh when I say it wrong. Similar to a child who is just starting to learn to speak, it
is the same for us to learn English. There are words they always say wrong and
adults have to fix many times. Have you ever thought: if the children do not speak,
how can adults correct them? But children have better things than adults, that is,
they are not afraid to be wrong, they are not afraid of being laughed, they want to be
communicated. That makes them motivated to speak. The English learners too, if
they dare not speak, they will only say it wrong forever. In fact, there are many

only because of anxiety, they tend to remain silent rather than continue to fail again.
This will be difficult to change because they consider themselves silent in class.
Anxiety creates unconfident that keeps them silent in every situation, even if
they can express themselves and knowledge. Lightbown and Spada (1999) also
discussed concerns about speaking that affect language learning. They think anxiety
depends on a number of situations that make the speaker feel uncomfortable or
stressed out as many people say. Anxiety interferes with the learning process and
affects most English speaking activities, not only related to oral presentations in
front of the class.
2.5.2. Linguistics factors
According to Mahripah (2014) learners are influenced by a number of
linguistic components such as phonology, syntax, vocabulary and semantics.
According to Thornbury (2005), learners use the correct grammatical structure of
the length and complexity of speech patterns and well-structured propositions. To
achieve vocabulary accuracy means choosing the right word in the right context.
2.5.2.1. Phonology
In that phonology is a difficult concept for learners to speak. Pronunciation of
English words is not the same as their writing. Words with similar pronunciation are
sometimes pronounced differently due to circumstances.
According to Thornbury (2005), it is defined that pronunciation is the ability
of each person to create an easy-to-understand way of speaking in response to
requirements. Actually based on pronunciation we can distinguish the languages of
different countries such as English, German or French. Pronunciation is a way to
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convey meaning as words in each context. Therefore, pronunciation seriously
affects speaking skills. Celce-Muria (1996) stated that mispronouncing can cause
misunderstandings or frustration. Cook (1996) stated that learning another language
is to develop a new pronunciation habit and ignore the familiar pronunciation of the

successfully. Nauli (2014) said that if there is not enough vocabulary, people cannot
communicate effectively and express their ideas.
Mahripah (2014) says that vocabulary is one of the factors that determines
your English language learning. The important thing when starting a language is
that you have to have a rich and diverse vocabulary. This will help you in the
process of avoiding being duplicated and enlivening your sentences. However, the
lack of vocabulary is one of the reasons why English learners become difficult. Do
not reinforce, supplement, apply new words to make your vocabulary poor.
Therefore, when communicating with foreigners, you will not know what to say and
express your ideas. Moreover, lack of vocabulary also makes us not understand
what the opposite person is saying, making listening skills worse, thus making the
conversation monotonous and impossible to continue. Lack of vocabulary not only
makes listening skills decrease but also makes speech skills not improve.
Vocabulary not only understands the superficial meaning but in vocabulary needs to
analyze phonetics, syllables and uses. Therefore vocabulary serves as a core
position to be able to communicate well in English.
2.5.2.3. Syntax
Bachman and Palmer (1996) define it as long-term knowledge. Knowledge
platform allows the speaker to apply to be able to speak English. He affirmed that
more specialized knowledge had a big impact on learners' performance. However,
this is also one of the difficulties in learning to speak English. If you are not sure
how to use grammar, you will not be able to speak English correctly.
According to Latha (2012), speaking fluently in English requires awareness
and proper application of the language structure. English learners should understand
word division. Native speakers can speak fluently because they are familiar with
this language. However, they can still make a small grammatical error while
communicating but these errors do not affect the meaning of the sentence. In fact,
indigenous people can express concepts in different ways. Mahripah (2014) says
that the mistakes that English learners make can change the meaning of words and
create problems in their sentences.