BANKING UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

RESEARCH REPORT

Difficulties in learning English of second-year

English major students at Banking University

Student:
Student ID:
Group:
Supervisor: Dao Nguyen Anh Duc
May 5th, 2021    
RESEARCH REPORT

Topic: Difficulties in learning English of second-years English major students at

Banking University.

Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Background : 

In the globalization process, international communication has become a trend,

and speaking English proficiency is a key to access this process. English speaking skill

is considered as a means of effective communication in a  variety of fields such as

tourism,  education,  industry, business, trade, sport, game, entertainment, and so on

many fields. Therefore, to catch up with the trend, in VietNam, the attainment of English

speaking proficiency has been more and more noticed by most English learners,

particularly English-majored students. Understanding the importance of learning

English, lots of Vietnamese universities organize teaching English language majors.

However, it is still challenging for several English language undergraduates to entirely

achieve speaking skills, especially for second-year students in the tertiary context of

Banking  University (BUH) in Vietnam.

According to the reason mentioned above, the writer want to research

“ Difficulties in learning English of second-years English major students at Banking

University” 

 Based on the background  of the research the writer listed four questions relate

to the research:

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1. What are the problems that occur when second-year English major students

when they speak in class?

2. What are the problems second-year English major students have when they

speak in daily life?

  3. Why do second- year English majors students have such problems ?

            4. What have second-year English major students done to deal with  the

problem ?

1.2 Research Objective

The purpose of this research is to determine the difficulties  second-year English major

students face while speaking in class and  daily life. Additionally, discover the reasons

that lead to these problems and give information about possible solutions  to deal with

these problems.

 1.3 Significance

This research is created to identify what challenges and difficulties can impact

communication skills. Consequently, students can compare themselves and know

whether they have the same problems or not. Then, they can find appropriate study

techniques or plans for themselves to progress their level of speaking. Theoretically, the

results of this study are expected to provide knowledge, especially in speaking skills,

and can be used as reference material for further research.

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They will face courses related to speaking practice such as presentations,

microteaching, Teaching practicum, etc. so that students need to pay attention to this

problem.

Chapter 2 Literature review

This chapter includes two parts. The first part provides some common difficulties in

speaking English and the second is about the causes leading to such difficulties. 

2.1 Some common difficulties in speaking English

Obviously, making mistakes while learning a new language is inescapable and it is

more challenging to be a good learner in four basic skills, especially speaking skill.

There are plenty of difficulties in learning speaking English that students may face both

in class and daily life. As the information mentioned before,  second-year English 

majors at  Banking University have already copped with  some  mistakes.  Through 

this  study  the  writer would  like  to discuss some particular problems that most

students face while learning speaking skills .

 As mentioned by Taiqin (1995), the  students  are  afraid  of  making mistakes 

and  losing  their self-respect. In addition, according to Nadzirotunnuha, A. (2017), the

problem with speaking is mother tongue, especially on the aspect of students feeling

that mother tongue is less difficult. The other speaking problems can be made such as

inhibitions, nothing to say, find hard to express thoughts, and lower or uneven

participation as a result of these problems. Hence, a lot of research as well as ideas

indicate that speaking English is challenging due to its problems occurring. 

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2.2 Causes leading to such difficulties 

Rababa’h (2005) pointed out that there are many factors that cause difficulties in

speaking English among EFL learners. Some of these factors are related to the learners

themselves, the teaching strategies, the curriculum, and the environment. According to

Ur (1996), many factors cause difficulty in speaking, and they are as follows:

1.Inhibition. Students are worried about making mistakes, fear criticism, or simply shy.

2.Nothing to say. Students have no motive to express themselves. 3.Low or uneven

participation. Only one participant can talk at a time because of large classes and the

tendency of some learners to dominate, while others speak very little or not at all.

Chapter 3: Research Methodology

3.1 Populations

The population of the study is second-year English students who study the English

Language at Banking University for the academic year 2020/2021.

3.2 Sample of Study

The researcher selected a random sample from a study population of (50)

students learning English.

3.3 Research design

The current study was designed to collect quantitative data using a questionnaire

to find out the challenges that second-year English major students may have as well as

provide the solutions for each.

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3.4 Instrument of the Study

A  questionnaire that was used in this study has divided into 3 sections: the first

section was designed to investigate the difficulties that second-year English major

students may have while speaking  English. The second section will identify the main

cause that prevented students from improving speaking English. The last section will

analyze these data in order to present appropriate solutions.

3.5 Procedure 

The questionnaires were handed to second-year English major students on google

form randomly. The survey was started from 29th March to 11th April 2021. The

students were asked to choose what category they felt like they belonged in regarding

the difficulties when speaking English, the causes, and the solutions that they think is

appropriate.

Chapter 4 Finding and discussion

4.1 Answering the first question: What are the problems that occur when second-year

English major students when they speak in class? To answer the question the

researcher has listed some common difficulties when speaking English in class shown 

in the table.

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Table 1 

Difficulties when speaking in class Percentages

Lack of vocabulary to express ideas 76,9%

Lack of English speaking strategies 34,6%

Having limited chances to involve speaking activities 40,1%

Lack of motivation in speaking English with classmates 30,8%

Feeling afraid of making mistakes and being criticised by 73,8%

classmates

Feeling shy 78,4%

The data collected in table 1 shows that the study sample participants have a high

relative percent including lack of vocabulary to express ideas (76.9%), feeling afraid of

making mistakes and being criticized by classmates (53.8%), and feeling shy (48.4%).

Besides there are low relative percent options: Lack of English speaking strategies

(34,6%), having limited chances to involve speaking activities (40,1%), lack of

motivation in speaking English with classmates (30,8%). From these relations the

researcher comes to the following conclusion, on one side, there is a high relative

percent group as the difficulties come from themselves. These difficulties have been

grouped and called internal challenges by the researchers. On the other side, there is

the low relative percent group consisting of outside difficulties factors called external

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challenges. From the deviation between the two groups, It leads to the result that in

class the internal difficulties outweigh the external ones. 

4.2 Answering the second question: What are the problems that occur when second-

year English major students when they speak in daily life? To answer the questions the

researcher has listed some common difficulties when students speak English in daily life

shown in the table.

Table 2

Difficulties when speaking in daily life Percentages

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 Lack of vocabulary to express ideas 55,1%

Lack of English speaking strategies 78%

Having limited chances to involve speaking activities 80,8%

Lack of motivation in speaking English with classmates 70,8%

Feeling afraid of making mistakes and being criticised by 53,8%

people

Feeling shy 40,4%

The data collected in table 2 shows that external difficulties outweigh internal ones.

The external difficulties consist of having limited chances to involve speaking activities

( 80,8%), lacking English speaking strategies( 78%),  lacking motivation in speaking

English with classmates (70,8%). The internal difficulties include lack of vocabulary to

express ideas, feeling afraid of making mistakes and being criticized by

people( 53,8% ), and feeling shy (40,4%). It means that in daily life the percentage of

students who have external difficulties is higher than internal difficulties. 

According to the data from question 1 and question 2, the researchers noticed that

in class students are affected by internal difficulties, but when they speak in daily life

they are more affected by the external difficulties. The reason for this circumstance is in

class they have less motivation to speak and are afraid to be criticized by teachers and

classmates, in daily life, however, they are willing to speak but having fewer chances to

practice their English.

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4.3 Answering the third question: Why do they have such problems ?

On observing the interview the researcher noticed that there are some factors that

cause speaking difficulties, the students are still incompetent in communicating orally in

English. For the internal difficulty: Students are lazy to learn and use new vocabulary

(90%), so many learners lack the necessary vocabulary to get their meaning across,

and consequently, they cannot keep the interaction going. Students are worried about

making mistakes,fearful of criticism, or simply shy.(70%). For external difficulties: there

is a lack of the availability of the Internet access (70%) Indeed some learners have

financial problems not being able to pay for devices and the internet. Learners do not

find suitable strategies for themself (60%). Learning strategies also contribute to this

problem as they are inadequate, and they do not put emphasis on speaking, which

results in a meagre development of this skill. They have limited chances to involve

speaking activities (58%) because the lack of a target language environment can be

considered another problem, which of course results in a lack of involvement in real-life

situations. Lack of reliable learning speaking English resources (52%) as there are a

variety of invalidity resources that are easy to be found and downloaded by students. 

Table 3

Reason Percentages

Be lazy to learn and use new vocabulary 90%

Do not find out suitable strategies for yourself 60%

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Having limited chances to involve speaking 58%

activities

Lack of reliable learning speaking English resources 52%

Feeling afraid or shy 70%

4.4 Answering the last question: What have they done to deal with the problem ?

 To answer the fourth question the researcher has listed some feasible solutions in table

4. On observing the questionnaire the researcher noticed that using other useful

learning methods ( 70,7%) and finding opportunities to practice speaking (69,8%) are

two options chosen by most students. Consequently, they would be effective solutions

to help second-year English major students deal with difficulties in speaking English.

The researchers also suggest some solutions by the synthesis of many researches:1-

Making the scholars more competent in communicating orally in English by practicing

English speaking. 2-Students should avoid anxiety by encouraging them to talk fluently

whether or not they create errors or mistakes in their speaking and not criticize them

cruelly. Moreover, we must always let students avoid the fear of criticism, or simply be

shy by making them at home with the person with whom they're talking with. 3- Students

must have a motive to precise themselves. 4-Encouraging Learners to not use their

natural language. 5-Encouraging learners to read more and more to urge a high

quantity of vocabulary. 6-Raising the motivation of English speaking. 7-Providing the

environment which can help the scholars in English speaking. 8-Allowing learners to

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participate in the discourse which can help the scholars English speaking. 9-Raising the

element of self-worth within the students.

Table 4

Feasible solution Percentages

Asking your teacher for helps 53,7%

Using other useful learning methods 70,7%

Registering a speaking course from English 50,9%

central

Finding opportunities to practice speaking 69,8%

5. Conclusion and suggestion 

5.1 Conclusion

The current study with second-year English-majored students of Banking University

shows that the difficulties for these students’ speaking skills arise from both internal

factors which are related to learners and external factors regarding the English learning

environment.  From such inhibiting factors for second-year English-majored students'

speaking skills within the current study, various suggestions are proposed as follows.

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Concerning external factors, the subsequent concerns are recommended. The

university and the school administrators should reconsider improving the curriculum and

syllabus of textbook teaching, and provide students with regular speaking opportunities.

Meanwhile, there should be more consideration into supplying more well-equipped

facilities and organizing weekly or monthly English practice programs to encourage

students’ involvement. The researchers summary feasible solutions based on data from

other authors and some solutions are suggested by researchers.

5.2 Suggestion

After knowing that students have difficulties learning English speaking skills, the

researcher suggests some points. Firstly, students need support from their environment

which has friends and teachers to practice their English Inside and out of doors of the

classroom with enjoyable facilities and appropriate learning techniques. It'll be good if

they need English clubs handled by teachers or students who are good in English to

facilitate students to boost their English. English routine interaction inside and out of

doors the classroom, hopefully, students can use their English and that they finally

Speak English fluently. For future researchers, they will conduct identical research that

examines the identical variable, too. The difference may carry on the population and

also the sample of the research. And it'll be good if the longer-term researcher

researches numerous schools to enlarge the difficulties of learning English speaking

skills.

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