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

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.
In Vietnam, foreign languages, with English as the most studied, have become a compulsory
subject at schools and colleges. Many students begin their learning English when they are

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. Methods
2
and approaches most frequently applied so far in the teaching of speaking skill
are also reviewed in this part.
- Chapter two, namely Teaching and Learning English Speaking skill at SGS –

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. Independent
5
distinctive
feature
phoneme
syllable
morpheme
word

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 morpheme
6
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.)
I am going now. (I insist that I am leaving, rather than staying.)
I am going now. (I am not waiting any longer.)
It is critical to know how these levels of spoken language relate to the speaking skill of
Vietnamese learners. Two key points derive from a substantial review of the research on

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 language
faster than adults is simply that they get a lot more practice with other children and
8
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
front of the group to speak.
- Adult learning is transformative
Learning in childhood is said to be formative, when skills and concepts are
developed for the first time. Adults, on the other hand, are extending and refining
their knowledge based on existing knowledge and beliefs. They are changed or

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).
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
10
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, intense
repetition and practice are used to establish good speaking habits to the point that they are
fluent and automatic - that is, adult ESOL learners would not have to stop and think about
how to form an utterance before speaking.
Audiolingualism “rapidly lost popularity, partly as a result of the strong theoretical
arguments that were advanced against it, but also because the results obtained from

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
(equivalent to 315 hours) of English at university. Some even had a longer time of learning
English at schools. The rest do not have so much time learning English and many of them
have not used English for a long time. Despite the difference in age and the time of acquiring
English, to become an MA student at VNUH, almost all of them must pass the English
entrance exam at pre-intermediate level. Those who already have a certificate of English at
the equivalent or higher level are exempted from that exam. At SGS – VNUH they have to

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.2.1Discussion 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?
Question 3: Does your teacher often introduce classroom speaking activities?
The second questionnaire is designed for the teachers and consists of two questions.
Question 1: What are your difficulties in teaching speaking for MA students at SGS?
Question 2: What do you do to motivate students to speak in class?
100 copies of the questionnaire delivered to the students and 12 copies of the questionnaire
delivered to the teachers have been all responded.

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
teachers for their not speaking in class.
Another factor that should be taken into consideration is students’ wish to save face.
Although they are adult learners, 39% of them are afraid of making mistakes and do not
want to be laughed at. For this reason, 29% do not like it when teachers interrupt them to
correct their mistakes. This discourages them a lot.
Psychological factors also play a role in getting students speak English. 25% of the students
get discouraged when they receive little or no attention from teachers or when teachers and

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.
Option %
17
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
B. I introduce interesting and familiar topics. 16.7
C. I let them talk about whatever topic they like. 16.7
I. I ask the better students to speak after other students. 16.7
G. I set funny classroom rules/punishment for those who keep quiet or speak
Vietnamese in class.
8.3
Table 6: What teachers do to motivate students to speak in class
The table shows that asking better students to speak first is the dominant way with the rate of

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 law). Moreover, they
19
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
said incorrectly.
- Listen attentively to the students’ response – not to the structure (grammar), but to the
meaning.
- Create a classroom environment where making mistakes is ok.
- Design activities like that drive students to the concentration on meaning and content
rather than structural/grammatical accuracy.
As for objective factors, circumstance appears to be the most de-motivating to students’
willingness to speak in class. More than three quarters of the students go to work when

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.
21