HCMC UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

THE EFFECTS OF LEARNING

VOCABULARY ON ENGLISH SPEAKING
ANXIETY AMONG HCMUTE NON-
ENGLISH MAJORED STUDENTS

Student: Nguyen Vu Minh Hai

Student ID: 15950005
Instructor: Nguyen Dinh Thu, Ph.D
Course: Research Writing

HO CHI MINH CITY - 2019

 HCMC UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION
FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

THE EFFECTS OF LEARNING

VOCABULARY ON ENGLISH SPEAKING
ANXIETY AMONG HCMUTE NON-
ENGLISH MAJORED STUDENTS

Summited by
Nguyen Vu Minh Hai

Supervised by
Nguyen Dinh Thu, Ph.D

HO CHI MINH CITY – 12/2019

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would love to express my greatest appreciation to all people who have helped
me have this research completed. First of all, I would love to send the grand attitude to
teacher, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Thu, Ph.D at Ho Chi Minh University of Technology and
Education, who gave me numerous valuable instructions, knowledgeable guidance,
comments during the course and learning process. I would also send great thanks to all
the participants in my research online survey. And lastly, to all my friends who gave
me stimulating encouragements throughout the time I was researching and writing this
paper. I’ve learned a lot during doing this research.

My best regards,
Nguyen Vu Minh Hai
 Contents
1. INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................................1
1.1. Contexts, problems, objective and research questions.........................................................1
1.2. Significance of the study.........................................................................................................2
2. LITERATURE REVIEW..................................................................................................................3
2.1. Students’ background knowledge.............................................................................................3
2.3. Learning vocabulary..............................................................................................................3
2.4. The importance of speaking skill...........................................................................................3
2.5. Speaking-in-class anxiety among students............................................................................4
3. METHODOLOGY.........................................................................................................................5
3.1. Research design......................................................................................................................5
3.2. Participants and sampling:....................................................................................................5
3.3. Instrument:.............................................................................................................................5
3.4. Procedure................................................................................................................................5
4. FINDING AND DISCUSSION......................................................................................................7
4.1. Description of sample.............................................................................................................7
4.2. Finding for the research question..........................................................................................7
5. CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................................13
APPENDICES...........................................................................................................................................13
 1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Contexts, problems, objective and research questions

Public speaking is a major skill in university as well as in working environment.

However, when people find themselves in situations where the become the centre of
attention, most of them experience emotions such as fear and anxiety.

Language anxiety had often been reported to affect language learners negatively.
The influence of language anxiety could interfere students’ progress in mastering
importance language skills leading to affecting their motivation in taking the class
(Hidayati, 2018). Anxiety is defined as distress or uneasiness of mind caused by fear of
danger or misfortune. General anxiety is the excessive and exaggerated worry about
everyday things. Today, the professional interested in the development of students’
speaking proficiency is considerable. This concerns with oral competence, however,
may be intensifying high levels of foreign language anxiety experienced by some
learners

Learning vocabulary also plays an important role in learning English and a

significant part in teaching and learning English process. Besides, English-majored and
non-English-majored students still find the necessary and enriching vocabulary for the
purposes of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Especially, speaking skill also
requires students to have good reflexes and good behaviors to perform in front of
people

. The purpose of this study is to identify and investigate the role of learning
vocabulary towards public speaking-in-class anxiety among non-English majored
students in HCMUTE. Based on those objectives, the research questions were
formulated:

1. What are the students’ attitudes towards speaking in English classrooms?

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 2. How important is vocabulary repertoire when making a public speaking-
in-class?
1.2. Significance of the study

Generally, Ho Chi Minh University of Technology and Education is expert in

technical education. However, most of the students are not majored in English which
makes speaking anxiety is the most common problem among students. The findings of
this research could be advantageous in understanding how learning vocabulary could
affect their speaking skills and somehow reduce the feeling of anxiety in order to
contribute to the process of seeking remedies for enhance students’ ability of speaking
English.

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 2. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Students’ background knowledge
A lot of students might not concentrate on learning English during middle school
and high school so they couldn't have chances of knowing English profoundly. In fact,
some students have even skipped English at school in the past. And now in the present,
English becomes a second language in every country that require students to have good
skills especially speaking skills, then it is quite hard for university students to improve
speaking skills immediately. Therefore, speaking becomes a fear for students in
universities who are not majored in English.

2.3. Learning vocabulary

Learning vocabulary is one in all most important issues of the foreign

learning. Researching vocabulary was neglected by the researchers up to 1960s;
but, recently it's gained the eye of lots of researchers (Muliawati & Ismail,
2017). Vocabulary learning demands the learners’ competency in each theory
and apply. Schmitt (2008) has explained that vocabulary learning is crucial as it
may be a very important indication of language proficiency. Similarly, learning
any foreign language is basically associated with vocabulary knowledge, the
shortage of vocabulary things obstructs the method of second learning. In EFL
learning while not having adequate vocabulary data, learners might not show the
desired results in learning method and its competency (Macis & Schmitt, 2017).
In the research of Adam (2016) lack of vocabulary knowledge hinders the
$64000 communication of EFL learners to a good extent. Hence, it is certain
that collegian EFL learners ought to have the applicable vocabulary
knowledge.

2.4. The importance of speaking skill

The intervening aspect and the example itself (perpetual and moderate output
flux) make the learning process a complicated comprehension of speaking ability.

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Good communication skills are now considered to be the most essential at all levels.
People usually evaluate someone’s speaking ability through their performance in front
of a crowd and whether that person can persuade them. Therefore, speaking skill
becomes a must-have skill for the one who wants to gain success.

“Speaking is considered the most important language skill to be mastered since

English is in a powerful position as a medium for international communication
(Crystal, 2003) and yet it is assumed to be the most stressful among four language
skills (Young,1992; Hauck and Hurd, 2005; Liu,2009; Ozturk and Gurbus, 2014)”.

2.5. Speaking-in-class anxiety among students

Most university students (non-English majored) are reluctant to perform in front

of class in English, and the situation apears to be worse when they are forced to
perform in an English-speaking class. “Learners may be under pressure and be
vulnerable to anxiety once they are required to communicate through English in the
classroom (Oxford, 2003)”. After a quick survey by asking some freshman and
sophomore, juniors and even seniors in HCMUTE, I got the problem that lots of
students do not have positive behavior towards English classes, especially English
speaking classes. They show that they feel really nervous whenever they have to
express their ideas about something in front of class, because they do not know how to
use the right words to illustrate their own ideas; in that situation they might feel
confused and embarrassed. As a result, feelings create a strong impact upon the
confidence of the individual and obviously drown them into the sensation of failure in
front of people and certainly student are afraid of speaking in class.

English-speaking anxiety is defined as “a distinct complex of self perceptions,

feelings and behaviors related to classroom language learning arising from the
uniqueness of the language learning process” (Horwitz et al.,1986)

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 3. METHODOLOGY
3.1. Research design

The design of this study is quantitative. An online questionnaire via Google form
as a measuring instrument is conducted for the study. The participants are required to
answer all the item in the questionnaire honestly, giving their own perception about
their attitude towards speaking in English class, respond the main source that makes
them feel nervous while speaking and making speech, and last but not least whether
having good vocabulary repertoire can help them improve their speaking skill in
English class.

3.2. Participants and sampling:

The participants of the research will be pick up randomly from other faculties in
HCMUTE that are not majored in English, totally 30 students are required to respond
the questionnaire via Google form sent by Facebook or link on Google Drive.

The participants were selected using availability Stratified Random Sampling.

3.3. Instrument:

This research was conducted by using the quantitative approach included a close-
ended and Likert-scale questionnaire that were distributed to thirty students who are
not studying in FFL (Faculty of Foreign Language) in HCMUTE via Facebook or
Google Drive link. The questionnaire included:

(1) The attitude of students towards public speaking in class.

(2) The role of vocabulary towards speaking skill.
(3) The attitude of students about self-study vocabulary.
3.4. Procedure

The questionnaire was made with the assistance of Google Forms platform, the
was delivered to 30 non-English majored students in HCMUTE from age 18 – 22 years

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old. Students are required to answer the questions honestly that the researcher can get
reliable responses for the results. Then it was analyzed and transformed into bar chart
and tables with assistance of Google Forms platform and Microsoft Excel. The last
step is to explain the result in Finding and Discussion part.

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 4. FINDING AND DISCUSSION
4.1. Description of sample
The data were collected from students who are not majored in English in
HCMUTE. Students are obliged to take General English course during academic years.
Therefore, speaking in class in a common activity that students have to take part in.
Generally, non-English majored do not have much positive attitudes about speaking
English in class and most of them do not have strategy for learning vocabulary
academically, That leads to limited vocabulary and lack of confident while speaking in
front of class.

4.2. Finding for the research question

The first five questions used to find out the attitudes of students towards speaking
in front of class. When being asked about volunteering to speak in class, most of
students’ responses are no, moreover, they even feel embarrassed and uncomfortable
whenever they speak in front of class, just a diminutive number of students feel free
while speaking English. Students also try to practice English with their friends who are
familiar; however, they are afraid of making mistakes when they speaking. The results
of these questions shows that commonly students have negative attitudes towards
speaking in front of class with the feeling of being uncomfortable.

Attitude of students towards speaking in front of class

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
Voluteer to speak Feel embarrassed Feel free to speak Practice in front of Afraid of making
and uncomfortable friends mistake

YES NO

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 Following the next five questions asking about the effect of learning vocabulary
on speaking skill, a frequencies statics table shows the numbers of students’ perception
about the relationship between learning vocabulary and speaking skill.

Unable to choose suitable words

10%

33%

57%

N A SA

56.7% on 100% students suppose that they cannot choose suitable words
to express their ideas while they are speaking, 33.3% have “strongly agree”
responses and the other (10%) choose “neutral”.

Need time to express idea

10% 10%

33%

47%

D N A SA

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 When asking about time to speak, the most answers show that it takes
time for students to think and speak what they want to, only 20% of the
participant doesn’t have difficulties in speaking time.

Feeling depressed

10%
17%

73%

N A SA

A large number of students assume that they all feel depressed when they
cannot express their idea due to having not enough words to speak, five (in total
30) students have neutral attitude although the rest of the students either choose
“Agree” or “Strongly agree”.

Limited vocabulary is the major factor of speaking anxiety

23%
27%

50%

N A SA

Most students assume that limited vocabulary is the major factor of fear
of speaking-in-class with total percentage of 76.7. None of the participants
disagree with the statement.

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 Fear of speaking can be improved by enriching vocabulary
repertoire.

17%

33%

50%

N A SA

The number of students who agree (or strongly agree) that enriching
vocabulary can have them improve speaking skill is nearly the same (76.7%).
To summarize five of the above questions, it is clear that vocabulary plays
an important role in speaking. Gaining enough vocabulary can make it easier for
students to express their ideas when they need to talk in front of the classroom
and can also minimize the feeling of anxiety during the period they speak. In
fact, students wouldn't have to spend too much time brainstorming a word they
can use, enriching vocabulary to have a wide vocabulary range would help the
understanding of students so they can speak with confidence in front of people.

Percentage of choice (%)

Items SD D N A SA
11. I think that learning vocabulary is the most important part that 0 0 26.7 50 23.3
helps I improve attitudes towards speaking in front of people.
12. I often self-study new words with an aim to enrich your 0 20 53.3 26.7 0
vocabulary repertoire.
13. I often looking into dictionary or ask your friends for the 0 10 23.3 43.4 23.3
meaning of vocabulary that you do not know?
14. I often read further materials with aim to learn more vocabulary. 10 20 63.3 6.7 0

15. I often pay attention to the meanings of words that you meet 10 16.7 26.7 36.6 10
somewhere (advertising poster, magazine, newspaper,
television, movies..).

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 The final group of five questions is to find out students' attitude towards
self-study vocabulary. A high percentage of students assume that vocabulary
contributes significantly to their point of view of speaking in front of the
classroom (50%). A medium number of students, however, have a neutral view
when they ask for time to study vocabulary to enrich their repertoire (53.3%) and
even 20% of students do not learn vocabulary by themselves. Additionally, to
develop their own vocabulary range, students do not spend time identifying and
reading additional sources relevant to their lessons. It looks like students don't
build incentives and don't have a strong analytical research plan so they're afraid
to talk to people, their speaking skills are still at the average range.

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 5. CONCLUSION

We can see that vocabulary plays the most vital role in speaking-in-class anxiety
on the basis of the aforementioned statistical facts from non-English high school
students obtained from HCMUTE. Students can strengthen their oral skills by having a
good vocabulary range and also enhance their attitude and behavior towards talking in
front of people. When students can speak fluently and express the ideas smoothly, they
would feel better, reduce pressure when they become the focus of attentions ad they
have to speak in front of people.
Students do understand the causes of the experience of fear and anxiety emotions
as they have to suffer from the feeling at least once when they engage in the
university's General English class; however, they do not have a technique or approach
to boost certain emotions of anxiety. Students are required to aware that learning for
expand vocabulary repertoire is not only support to enhance oral proficiencies, but also
help them enhance four skills that needed to master a second language as English. As a
result, teachers need to inspire and motivate students to pursue vocabulary
development and improve the four skills needed to learn a second language.

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 REFERENCES
Adam, M. A. A. (2016). Role of Vocabulary Learning Strategies in Promoting EFL Learners Performance.
Sudan University of Science and Technology.
Crystal, D. (2003). English as a global language (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hauck, M., & Hurd, S. (2005). Exploring the link between language anxiety and learner self-management in
open language learning contexts. European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning
Hidayati, T. (2018). Student Language Anxiety in Learning English:Examining non-English Major
Students in RuralArea.
Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz, M.B. & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign language classroom anxiety. The Modern
Language Journal, 70(2): 125-132.
Liu, M. (2009). Reticence and anxiety in oral English lessons.

Muliawati, I., & Ismail, N. M. (2017). Intricacies in Vocabulary Intake For EFL Adult
Learners.

N. Schmitt & M. McCarthy, eds. Vocabulary: Description, acquisition, and pedagogy. New
York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 84-102.

ÖztÜrk, G., & GÜrbÜz, N. (2014). Speaking anxiety among Turkish EFL learners: The case at
a state university. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 10(1), 1–17.

Oxford, R. L. (2003). Language learning styles and strategies: Mouton de Gruyter.

Young, D. J. (1992). Language anxiety from the foreign language specialist’s perspective: Interviews with
Krashen, Omaggio Hadley, Terrell and Rardin. Foreign Language Annals, 25(2), 157–172.

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 APPENDICES
Questions
Attitude towards speaking in front class Yes No

1. Do you often volunteer to speak in front of English class?

2. Do you feel embarrassing or uncomfortable whenever you speak

English in front of class?
3. Do you feel freely whenever you speak in front of class?

4. Do you often try to speak English in front of friends (who are familiar
with you) ?
5. Are you afraid of making mistakes while speaking English?

Effects of learning vocabulary SD D N A SA

6. I cannot choose a suitable word to express my idea immediately.

7. It takes me a long time to speak out what I have just thought in mind.
8. I feel depressed when I cannot express an idea since I do not have
enough vocabulary repertoire.
9. I suppose that limited vocabulary is the major factor of fear of
speaking-in-class.
10. I think that fear of speaking can be improved by enriching vocabulary
repertoire.

The attitude of students about self-study vocabulary SD SA

11. I think that learning vocabulary is the most important part that
helps I improve attitudes towards speaking in front of people.
12. I often self-study new words with an aim to enrich your
vocabulary repertoire.
13. I often looking into dictionary or ask your friends for the
meaning of vocabulary that you do not know.
14. I often read further materials with aim to learn more
vocabulary.
15. I often pay attention to the meanings of words that you meet

14
somewhere (advertising poster, magazine, newspaper,
television, movies..).

15