HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF BANKING

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

---------------

RESEARCH PAPER

DIFFICULTIES IN ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS

FOR BUSINESS ENGLISH-MAJORED FRESHMEN
AT HO CHI MINH UNIVERSITY OF BANKING

Student’s name: Huynh Thi Kim Ngan

Student’s code: 030436200110

Supervisor’s name: Huynh Thi Bich Phuong, PhD

HO CHI MINH CITY, July 2022

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
ABSTRACT

Being able to speak English well is one of the challenges for English learners. This
paper analyzes the difficulties in English speaking skills and the ways to cope with
them. The research design of this study is quantitative and the instrument used is a
questionnaire. We randomly selected 90 Business English-majored freshmen at Ho
Chi Minh City of Banking and collected results within 2 weeks. The findings of the
study reveal that most of the students are facing problems related to 4 aspects:
linguistic knowledge, listening problems, psychological and environmental factors.
Nevertheless, they are also improving their speaking ability by some following
main ways: 1) using more grammatical phrases and vocabulary, 2) listening English
conversation everyday, 3) practicing speaking with friends, family, foreigners or in
some small groups, 4) actively speaking more in class time and joining English
club, 5) monologizing.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................1
1. Background of the study....................................................................................................1
2. Statement of the problem..................................................................................................1
3. The aims and objectives of the study............................................................................1
4. Research questions..............................................................................................................2
5. Scope of the study.................................................................................................................2
6. Significance of the study....................................................................................................3
CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW.........................................................................4
2. Overview of English language and English speaking skills................................4
2.1. Definition of English language.................................................................................4
2.2. Definition of speaking skills......................................................................................4
3. Importance of speaking skills..........................................................................................5
4. Difficulties in speaking English.......................................................................................6
4.1. Linguistic knowledge...................................................................................................6
4.2. Listening ability.............................................................................................................7
4.3. Psychology........................................................................................................................7
4.4. Environmental factors................................................................................................7
5. Research gaps......................................................................................................................... 8
6. Previous study........................................................................................................................ 8
7. Conceptual framework.......................................................................................................9
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY.........................................................................10
1. Research design...................................................................................................................10
2. Research site.........................................................................................................................10
3. Sample and sampling procedures................................................................................10
4. Research instruments.......................................................................................................10
5. Data collection procedures.............................................................................................11
6. Data analysis procedures................................................................................................11
CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS...................................................13
 1. What difficulties have Faculty of Business English freshmen encountered
when learning speaking English skill?...........................................................................13
1.1.  Linguistic knowledge...............................................................................................13
1.2. Listening Problems....................................................................................................14
1.3. Psychological factors.................................................................................................15
1.4. Environmental factors..............................................................................................16
1.5. Other Factors...............................................................................................................17
2. What solutions have the Faculty of Business English freshmen use when
learning speaking English skill?.......................................................................................18
2.1. Linguistic knowledge................................................................................................18
2.2. Listening skill...............................................................................................................19
2.3. Psychological factors.................................................................................................20
2.4. Environmental factors..............................................................................................22
2.5 Other factors..................................................................................................................23
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION.............................................................................24
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................ 25
APPENDIX.................................................................................................................................... 28
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1: Problems related to Linguistic knowledge factors...............................13

Table 2: Problems related to Listening skills......................................................14
Table 3: Problem related to Psychological factors..............................................15
Table 4: Problem related to Environmental factors...........................................16
Table 5: Other factors...........................................................................................17

Figure 1: Solutions related to Linguistic knowledge...........................................18

Figure 2: Solutions related to Listening skill.......................................................19
Figure 3: Solutions related to Psychological factors...........................................20
Figure 4: Solutions related to Environmental factors.........................................22
Figure 5: Solutions related to other factors.........................................................23
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

1. Background of the study

English is the second most popular language in the world. Currently, in most
countries (142), English is compulsory in the national education system and
Vietnam is no exception. One of the greatest examples is Universities consider
candidates who possess IELTS or other English certifications such as TOEIC as
prior criteria. Speaking skill shows learner's the level of proficiency in the language,
which requires a long period of time to acquire. Therefore, a large number of
students face problems in learning this skill. This study aims to explore the
difficulties in learning speaking skills for first-year students in the English language
department of HUB and find reasonable solutions for these problems.

2. Statement of the problem

The capacity to talk is one of the abilities that English learners must develop. This is
critical since the majority of communication occurs through interpersonal
conversation. The difficulties in learning to speak English are faced by almost
everyone and freshmen of Banking University are no exception. Learning to speak
English entails not only speaking but also obtaining a wide range of information,
thus it will be extremely difficult for persons with little social understanding to learn
to talk. The problems stem from the lack of listening ability, linguistic knowledge,
psychology and environment.

3. The aims and objectives of the study

Aims

The aim of this research is to investigate the common difficulties in learning

English speaking skills that first-year students of HUB have to encounter. After
finding out the causes, this study will rely on the data collected from reality to find

1
solutions to the challenges mentioned above. This can be considered as a
recommended document for readers to improve their English speaking skills
according to quality educational standards.

Objectives

To reach the aim of the study, the writers decided to:

- Identifying the difficulties by investigating knowledge records and previous

studies;
- Collect actual data from the research target group through surveys;
- Synthesize information and use it as a premise to find solutions.

4. Research questions

The purpose of this study is to provide responses to the two following questions:

(1) What difficulties have English learners encountered when learning

speaking English skill?

(2) What techniques have English learners used to enhance their speaking
abilities?

5. Scope of the study

There have been various studies on difficulties as well as finding solutions for
English learners in speaking skill. However, in reality, there is no perfect general
formula that can be applied to everyone. In terms of speaking ability, first-year
Business English-majored students at HUB have to face many problems related to
linguistic knowledge, listening ability, psychology and environment. Thus, we
decided to delve into the obstacles and discover clearer solutions for them. To
accomplish, within 2 weeks, we will select the responses of 150 random Business
English-majored freshmen at HUB for analysis.

2
6. Significance of the study

We can conclude from the statement of the problem section above that freshmen
have difficulty speaking due to factors such as linguistic knowledge, listening
ability, psychology, and environment. Therefore, the findings of this study research
will assist Business English-majored freshmen at HUB in overcoming these
challenges and improving their speaking skills by proposing the explored remedies.

3
CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW
1. Definition of key terms

- Speaking skills: defined as the skills which allow us to communicate

effectively. They give us the ability to convey information verbally and in a
way that the listener can understand.
- Freshmen: also known as the first-year students at the university.
- HUB: Ho Chi Minh University of Banking: a university located in Thu Duc
city, Ho Chi Minh city.

2. Overview of English language and English speaking skills

2.1. Definition of English language

English language, West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family

that is closely related to the Frisian, German, and Dutch (in Belgium called
Flemish) languages. English originated in England and is the dominant language of
the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand,
and various island nations in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. It is also an
official language of India, the Philippines, Singapore, and many countries in sub-
Saharan Africa, including South Africa. English is the first choice of foreign
language in most other countries of the world, and it is that status that has given it
the position of a global lingua franca. It is estimated that about a third of the world’s
population, some two billion people, now use English.

2.2. Definition of speaking skills

Speaking is a skill that is regarded as the most significant and fundamental aspect of
human communication; it is the first output of language since it allows people to
express their thoughts, feelings, and information to others. Although speaking is a

4
very focused element, it is stated in such a broad and ambiguous way that many
specialists have come up with their own definitions as follows:

Speaking is defined by Ladouse (1991) as the ability to articulate oneself in

a circumstance, or the ability to narrate acts or situations in precise terms,
or the ability to discourse or express a succession of thoughts smoothly.

Similarly, Clark and Clark (1997) stated when speaking, a speaker

expresses his or her thoughts and feelings through words, phrases, and
sentences that follow a specific structure that governs the meaningful units
and meaning of sentences.

Speaking, on the other hand, is defined by Harris (1974) as the encoding

process by which we express our ideas, thoughts, and feelings vocally. It
signifies that we send someone a spoken message. Thoughts, sentiments,
and ideas that we want to share, influence, or connect with others are
contained in the spoken message.

We can deduce from the above definitions that speaking is the process of two or
more individuals making contact through speech in order to receive, encode, and
interpret the message they want to send to each other. To put it another way,
speaking is a tool that can greatly facilitate communication between speakers and
listeners in any context.

3. Importance of speaking skills

When studying a local or foreign language, speaking skills are undoubtedly the
most significant of the four basic abilities. As Zaremba (2006) and Boonkit (2010)
said that speaking seems to be the most important skill required for communication
in all the four macro English skills. These statements are supported by the following
reasons: First, competition is becoming progressively tough in an increasingly
advanced and developed world. Professional expertise and enthusiasm are just the
basic requirements. Many more criteria are required to effortlessly advance and

5
attain great success. Speaking ability is one of the necessary criteria. Smart,
effective speaking skills can make it easier for us to succeed at job and in life. We
will be able to communicate our ideas and opinions while also creating our own ego
and standing out from the crowd by communicating and exchanging with others.
Following that, speaking is the bedrock of all human relationships. Strangers start
talking and getting to know each other at first, and then connections grow as they
interact and communicate more. Speaking allows people to communicate their
thoughts and feelings while also allowing us to understand others' feelings and
thoughts. As a result, we will acquire feelings of fondness or contempt towards
others, as well as positive or bad connections. Furthermore, these speaking abilities
are always one of the most important requirements to those who want to settle down
in their careers. It could be said that a gifted speaker already has a passport to get
better job opportunities. For example, in the modern world’s interviews, candidates
for jobs must engage in debates and group discussions in which their performance
and oral communication abilities are evaluated. Therefore, in order to get better
work possibilities, job seekers must have a solid speaking skill. Additionally,
speaking skills are vital even at work because persons with this competence can
express their ideas, thoughts, and initiatives to colleagues and superiors in a style
that is simple to comprehend, appealing, and convincing.

4. Difficulties in speaking English

In this day and age, numerous current students still struggle to communicate
effectively in English despite having studied for a long period. According to several
prior studies, in general, the following challenges are the common reasons.

4.1. Linguistic knowledge

In terms of grammar, Tsui (1996) said that students may know the exact answer but
fail to formulate entirely grammatical phrases in some situations. Moreover, in the
survey of Wahyuningsih and Afandi (2020), for speaking English, a dearth of

6
vocabulary was a main obstacle encountered by some students in the English
Language Education Department at State Islamic Institute of Kudus. In addition,
being unable to pronounce the words in English is also a barrier (Shumin, 1997).

4.2. Listening ability

Listening is an important factor of speaking effectively, Atabek (2006) reported that

his students did not want to speak because they did not grasp what was being
spoken in the classroom. Speech rate is also considered a big issue for English
learners (Goh, 1999; Flowerdew and Miller, 1992). Furthermore, Van Engen and
Peelle (2014) suggest that a familiar accent or one that is similar to a familiar accent
can be well understood and require little to no additional effort from the listener.

4.3. Psychology

Ur (1991) discovered that one of the most crucial causes producing speaking
difficulties is their psychology. In a study on Korean English learning, Park (2000)
stated:"As a result of being hindered by peer pressure, Korean users were governed
by their own groups' norms and values, and thereby were deprived of their
opportunities of speaking English". This is also confirmed by Putri and Ahmad
(2020), the first issue that students encounter in class is inhibition. He thought that
they can be diffident when they want to say something. They are concerned about
making mistakes and are afraid of being judged. Similarly, Al Nakhalah (2016)
said: "There are some difficulties in the speaking of the English language students
at Al Quds Open University due to some reasons such as fear of mistake, shyness,
anxiety, and lack of confidence."

4.4. Environmental factors

Tuan and Mai (2015) indicated that teacher feedback during speaking exercises has
an influence on students' speaking performance. The peer factor was another major
component that influenced students' speaking abilities. This is in line with (Wentzel,

7
1994), who suggested that peer assistance for language learners should be regarded
as crucial.

5. Research gaps

Many studies have been conducted on methods for speaking English. However,
almost all of the studies concentrated on a single group and in reality, not all
methods are suitable for everyone. Thus, this research will focus on the methods
used by first-year language students at HUB for speaking.

6. Previous study
The first study was carried out by Al Nakhalah, A. M. M. (2016) with the aim of
exploring the speaking difficulties experienced by English students at Al Quds
Open University. Furthermore, the author wants to explore their causes. By
conducting experimental method, the researcher designed a personal interview to
apply on sample of the study. The results indicate some difficulties when students
speak due to a number of reasons such as fear of making mistakes, shyness, anxiety
and lack of confidence. Finally, the author also has some recommendations to
support students to improve their English speaking ability and proposes further
research in the future related to the speaking difficulties that English learners have
to encounter.
The second study is done by Bozorgian, H. (2012) with the goal of finding the
relationships between English listening skills and other skills, namely speaking,
reading and writing. To investigate the issue mentioned above, the author decided to
conduct a large-scale survey with the participation of 1800 Iranian participants in
Tehran. He used the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) as a
primary tool to collect data to find the close correlation between listening
comprehension and the overall language proficiency. Research results show that
listening skills have a significant positive correlation with other skills. In other

8
words, listening skills are important even in situations where English is not the
primary language.

7. Conceptual framework
Since the focus of the study is to identify difficulties in learning to speak English
and propose ways to improve the ability of business English-majored first-year
students at HUB, having a diagram depicting the theoretical framework as a guide
will enhance clarity and reduce confusion about the scope of this research paper.
The researcher will specify and layout how this theoretical framework supplies the
essential concepts as well as the validation procedure required for this study. In
addition, data from previous research sources were used by the researcher to
supplement and increase the accuracy of this study.

OUTPUT

9
 INPUT PROCESS

Difficulties in Find out solutions

learning and to overcome and
improving speaking support to
skills for English improve speaking
majored freshmen at skills
HUB

English-
majored first-
year students at
HUB in
learning
speaking skills.

10
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

1. Research design
This study used a quantitative questionnaire to investigate the difficulties of
learning Speaking English Skill faced by first-year English majors students at HUB.
Quantitative research is an effective method that mathematically collects essential
data from a broad group of participants. In addition, the procedure can be simple,
well-ordered, and less time-consuming. Therefore, the method is appropriate for our
study, which aims to understand a particular issue. The study was estimated to
achieve over a 90 percent rate of return.

2. Research site
In accordance with the member’s distance traveled and potential reach to
participants, the Dormitory A of Ho Chi Minh University of Banking was chosen as
the location to conduct the report.

3. Sample and sampling procedures

During one week, collecting data was conducted by using Google Form
questionnaire on the difficulties in English speaking skills for Business English-
majored freshmen at HUB by students which was designed and fixed by the writer.
The options of the response were divided into 5-point scales from strongly
disagreeing on the left to agreeing on the right and 5 closed questions at the
beginning. Ninety surveys were received after 1 week from sixty freshmen from the
Business English-majored at HUB which is randomly chosen from various students
in all classes.

4. Research instruments
In this research, to obtain the required data, the instrument used was an online
questionnaire designed with questions in a logical order, which were carefully

11
prepared to be answered by Business English-majored freshmen at HUB to collect
findings and information of difficulties in English speaking skills. The questionnaire
is divided into 3 sections.
 Section 1 will ask for the personal information of the respondents which
involves the gender, the length of English learning time, level of speaking
proficiency based on the performance of the previous semester, the
frequency of speaking English in daily life, and the interest level in English.
 Section 2 is used for determining the difficulties in English speaking skills of
Business English-majored freshmen at HUB. This section contains questions
related to such matters as linguistic, listening, psychological, environmental
factors, and other ones.
 Section 3 of this research seeks to investigate solutions to the problems
identified in Section 2. This section will provide actions to overcome each of
the aforementioned difficulties, allowing respondents to choose the best
solutions to offer.

5. Data collection procedures

In order to figure out the frequent issues that first-year students face in improving
their English speaking ability at HUB. We decided to have an online survey by
using the questionnaire. A table of questions that has been split into parts as specific
problems the study mentioned, add in questions for further answers. The table of
questions was designed to be suitable so that we can put them on the google form.
After setting up the questions carefully on the form, the final link would be shared
with a group of English-majored first-year students. The last step to completing the
survey is to collect and analyze the data that we had gained from it.

6. Data analysis procedures

 The main program that will be used as an effective support tool for this
research is Google form and Microsoft Excel 2016.

12
 In order to save costs and to suit the current situation, the writer decided to
use Google Form as a tool to conduct online surveys, collect the opinions
and views of the respondents on the issues mentioned in the study. Besides,
Microsoft Excel is a great tool for statistics and data processing, which also
supports users to create tables and charts with its outstanding features in the
most accurate way.

13
CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

1. What difficulties have Faculty of Business English freshmen encountered

when learning speaking English skill?

1.1.  Linguistic knowledge

Unit: percentage (%)
Statement Strongl Disagree Neutra Agree Strongly
y l agree
disagree
I have poor vocabulary. 3.3 13.3 31.1 40.0 12.2
I'm not sure about the 6.7 17.8 30.0 35.6 10.0
grammatical structures.
I don't know how to 3.3 13.3 41.1 28.9 13.3
collocate words to create the
ideas I want to express.
My pronunciation is quite 11.1 27.8 34.4 21.1 5.6
bad.
Table 1: Problems related to Linguistic knowledge factors
The information in table 1 illustrates the influence of linguistic knowledge problems
while speaking English. In particular, vocabulary and grammar are the two most
difficult factors with the percentage of total students agreeing and strongly agreeing
with this at 52.2% and 45.6% respectively. Meanwhile, pronunciation is a factor
that 38.9% of the total students choose to disagree with and strongly disagree with
the statement that it makes it difficult in their speaking learning process.
As mentioned in the figure above, it can be seen that it is very challenging for
learners to master speaking English without proficiency in linguistic knowledge.
Most freshmen (52.2% - 45.6%) are mainly facing inadequate vocabulary, issues
with grammar and word choices. This finding matches the result of a study of
Hamad (2013) on female Saudi EFL learners, a lack of vocabulary knowledge leads
to poor performance of speaking. This is also supported by Amelia (2021):

14
“Grammar competency will influence someone’s speaking ability because grammar
is one of components in speaking ability which means that when someone has a
good grammar competency he can express their opinion, idea and knowledge
clearly and freely.” It is noticeable that over a third of English-majored freshmen
(38.8%) at HUB assumed that the pronunciation is not a barrier in learning speaking
while there are some previous studies stating that learners are bad at speaking due to
this problem. For example, in a survey of Al Nakhalah, A. M. M. (2016), the
highest speaking skill error among the research samples of the participants is
pronunciation.

1.2. Listening Problems

Unit: percentage (%)

Statement Strongl Disagree Neutra Agree Strongly

y l agree
disagree
I can not identify the main 6.7 25.6 34.4 23.3 10.0
ideas of what others say.
I can not keep up with the 3.3 21.1 36.6 30.0 8.9
speed of the speakers.
I can not understand their 5.6 24.4 37.8 24.4 7.8
accents.
Table 2: Problems related to Listening skills
This chart shows the difficulties in speaking English in terms of listening. It is clear
that all three issues of listening to main ideas, speaking speed and accents have a
similar impact on freshmen’s speaking learning. Neutral option is chosen by the
majority of students (around 34.4% - 37.8%), which means that listening is just a
small factor affecting their learning to speak. It can be seen that the remaining
students were divided into two directions. On the one hand, 32.2% - 38.9% of the
students reckon that listening problems really interfered with their speaking ability.
On the other hand, others accounting for 24.4% - 32.3%, think that they do not have
challenges in listening comprehension. 

15
From the figure, it is evident that the students' listening comprehension ability is not
the biggest difficulty in learning to speak. However, even though the number of
students agreeing and strongly agreeing about these difficulties is not the highest,
with about 32.2% - 38.9%, it is enough to see that not understanding what others are
saying also leads to speaking failure during the learning process. This result
matches with the research of Doff (1998), he said that learners cannot improve their
speaking ability without developing listening skill. Besides, it must be emphasized
that the figure also indicates the positive fact that some English-majored freshmen
(24.4% - 32.3%), at HUB do not have trouble with this issue.

1.3. Psychological factors

Unit: percentage (%)
Statement Strongl Disagree Neutra Agree Strongly
y l agree
disagree
I got peer pressure. 6.7 17.8 21.1 37.8 16.7
I feel shy to talk to others. 6.7 12.2 26.7 42.2 12.2
I'm afraid of speaking in 3.3 17.8 20.0 43.3 15.7
public.
I fear making mistakes. 6.7 12.2 23.3 45.6 12.2
Table 3: Problem related to Psychological factors
The figure indicates that psychological factors have a certain influence on students'
mastery of speaking skills. To illustrate, 54.5% of the total students agree that they
really have peer pressure and shame. In addition, the fear of public speaking and
making mistakes when speaking was also admitted by a very high percentage of
students with 59% and 57.8% respectively.
According to the above-mentioned proportion, it can be affirmed that psychology is
constantly one of the main obstacles preventing students from speaking English
well. Most of the English students at HUB have trouble when they have to speak in
front of others. They feel ashamed of speaking badly or getting something wrong
while speaking. Moreover, they are self-deprecating and then hesitate to speak when

16
seeing that other students speak really well. This is entirely in line with earlier
studies by Leong & Ahmadi from 2017 which also examined the impact of
psychology on the students' learning of speaking: “Inhibition is the first problem
that students encounter in class. When they want to say something in the classroom
they are sometimes inhibited. They are worried about making mistakes and fearful
of criticism.”

1.4. Environmental factors

Unit: percentage (%)
Statement Strongl Disagree Neutra Agree Strongly
y l agree
disagree
I have difficulty finding 1.1 11.1 24.4 45.6 17.8
opportunities to practice
speaking English with native
speakers.
I've never got learning 7.8 28.9 34.4 24.4 4.4
support in class.
I never practice speaking 13.3 34.4 22.2 23.3 6.7
English with classmates.
I couldn’t find any suitable 1.1 21.1 42.2 33.3 2.2
study material.
Table 4: Problem related to Environmental factors
The chart above addresses four situations related to the speaking environment that
have different effects on students. It is conspicuous that the inability to find
opportunities to practice speaking accounts for the highest proportion (63.4%). On
the contrary, the majority of students do not reckon that they have no support in
class (36.7%). In addition, it is remarkable that 47.7% of students disagree with the
idea that they never practice speaking with their classmates. The answer to the
situation that suitable material cannot be found is divided into three roughly equal
directions: 32.2% of them say they disagree, 42.2% choose neutral and the rest
agree.

17
Based on the aforementioned results, it can be shown that the English practice
environment is also a crucial factor in determining students' speaking ability. At
HUB, the above data indicates that first-year Business English students have many
opportunities to learn and practice speaking owing to the assistance of lectures and
classmates in class. However, outside the classroom, they find it very difficult to
find an environment to speak (63.4%). This finding is in line with the study of
Alharbi (2015) & Achmad and Yusuf (2014), they both discovered that classroom
activities also encourage learners to speak by interacting with peers in person and
working independently with little instructor participation, which will help them
develop speaking skills. Besides, it can be seen that finding suitable resources for
the speaking process is still not a simple matter for more than half of Business
English majors freshmen (64.4%).

1.5. Other Factors

Unit: percentage (%)
Statement Strongl Disagree Neutra Agree Strongly
y l agree
disagree
I don't have enough 12.2 14.4 23.3 42.2 7.8
motivation to maintain
regular exercise.
I have poor communication 7.8 11.1 40.0 33.3 7.8
reflexes.
It's hard to organize ideas 4.4 14.4 32.2 35.6 13.3
and sentences while
speaking.
I don’t have enough time to 11.1 33.3 30.0 30.0 5.6
study Speaking Skills.
I don't know much about the 5.6 16.7 34.4 30.0 13.3
field people are talking
about.
Table 5: Other factors

18
In addition to the reasons that have been classified into four groups mentioned
above, the survey also gives a number of other reasons that are also likely to worsen
learners' English speaking ability. Firstly, the total number of people who chose to
disagree and strongly disagree that they are in all five difficult situations except for
the time factor is low (18.8% - 22.3%). Secondly, it is worth noting that three
situations of insufficient motivation, poor communication reflexes, lack of
knowledge on the speaking topic accounted for a high portion of respondents,
respectively 50%, 41.1%, 48.9% and 33.3%. Lastly, the percentage of students who
think they are having problems with time for learning to speak is 35.6%.
According to the findings, it is evident that excluding the time factor, each of four
remaining situations have a significant impact. This result matches with some
previous studies in the same issue. To illustrate, students' low motivation has a
negative effect on their academic performance in speaking exams (AlKaabi, 2016).
The above data also shows that Business English majored - freshmen at HUB have
enough time to improve their English speaking skills. This is contrary to the
research of Kaprawi (2017) at Putra Batam school, which investigated that students
do not have enough time to learn and master English.

2. What solutions have the Faculty of Business English freshmen use when
learning speaking English skill?

2.1. Linguistic knowledge

Figure 1: Solutions related to Linguistic knowledge

19
The bar chart shows the data on the proportion of students’ selections toward
solutions to resolve their linguistically knowledgeable problems. 81.1% of students
said they'd like to increase their vocabulary. Whereas more than two-thirds (67.8%)
opt to study grammatical phrases. Over half of the students decided to practice
proper pronunciation. The least number of students (48,9%) opt to learn idioms and
phrasal verbs.
Most of the students consider augmenting vocabulary as a method that works
wonders for their linguistic barrier. Vocabulary is as Khan et. al (2018) explains the
importance of learning vocabulary “Grasping vocabulary knowledge is not merely
essential but it’s a central area in learning and developing foreign language.”

2.2. Listening skill

Figure 2: Solutions related to Listening skill

The bar chart shows the different ways that students (of HUB) have chosen to
improve their listening skills. As can be seen from the chart, more than 80 percent
(82,2%) of 90 students have the same method of practicing their listening skills by
listening to multi-topic conversations every day. Whereas slightly more than a third
(36,7%) preferred to ask the speaker to repeat what they had missed. Attempting to
guess the meaning of new terms and attending conferences are two approaches that
students have used to a comparable extent. Half of the students opt to attend
meetings to develop their listening skills, and a bit more than 4,4 percent of that,

20
students frequently depend on circumstances to estimate the meaning of words that
they do not know.
It is clear that practicing listening through the dialogue daily is a popular choice for
most students to improve their listening ability. Guessing or attending meetings
only accounts for half or can be said to be at a neutral level. However, at least those
two ways can be considered more common than the case where students will ask the
speaker again when they do not understand what the other person is saying or they
just miss it. Although accounting for just over a third of the total, the number of
students who chose to ask the speaker to repeat what they just told them showed a
very special feature that not everyone can do.

2.3. Psychological factors

Figure 3: Solutions related to Psychological factors

The chart shows the proportion of respondents’ answers to the question that asked
them which of the listed ways worked for them to improve their confidence in
speaking English. The majority of the respondents consider speaking face-to-face
with someone would likely be the most appropriate way for them to boost their
confidence, based on the highest proportion at 72.2%. In addition, a large number of
respondents said that practicing speaking in front of a small group helped them
improve their confidence, which is at the proportion of 63.3%. Furthermore, about
half of the students (51.1%) doing the questionnaire believe reading books or text
out loud also helps them in becoming more courageous when speaking English.

21
Meanwhile, trying to keep calm by speaking slowly and speaking every opportunity
in class was found to be the least effective for the students, both of which were
ranked last with the proportions approximately ranging from 42% to 44%.
According to the results, it seems that most students wanting to improve their
English speaking confidence tend to ask acquaintances or join a small group to
speak directly with them. As Bui et al. (2021) found that while some students find
collaborative blended learning beneficial for speaking skills development. The
reason for those figures may be that they always find their English speaking ability
still weak leading to feelings of embarrassment and lack of motivation when
realizing that other people don't understand what they are saying or vice versa (He
& Chen, 2010), which makes practicing alone still not enough to help them better.
Therefore, they always find for themselves a group of friends or classmates who
share the same goal of becoming more confident in using English in order that they
can meet and practice speaking English with others.
In addition, reading aloud and slowly in English, which is chosen by many
respondents, is also another way to help developing self-confidence in speaking in
English while practicing pronunciation as well as intonation of numerous words and
sentence lengths. This way, students can correct wrong pronunciation right away.
The more students practice this method, the more accustomed to pronouncing
English words they become. Their pronunciation would improve and become more
natural. As a result, they will feel more at ease and less stressed when
communicating. As Morley (1991) states that a learner’s ability became
significantly constrained if they lacked solid pronunciation skills.
In contrast, it is clear that actively speaking in class is the least used by students. It
is possible that the students feel nervous and are shy because they find speaking
English in front of their peers and teachers intimidating. According to Baldwin
(2011), one of the most common phobias among students is public speaking, and
the feeling of shyness causes their minds to go blank or they forget what needs to be

22
said. As a result, they frequently opt for alternatives such as the ones above, which
are both effective and less likely to encounter a large number of people.

2.4. Environmental factors

Figure 4: Solutions related to Environmental factors

From the data above, it is clear that major students want to speak more in English
class time than the others (approximately 63.3%). “Most schools do not have a
scope and sequence for speaking” (Erik Palmer,2016). In HUB, most activities for
speaking in class are little and there is limited time for everyone in class to practice
speaking, leading to the lack of the skill and the confidence in students. Studying at
the English center is only approximately 31.1% of about 28 students. The other
points include creating a group of friends to practice speaking together accounts for
58.9%, talking to native speaker accounts for 50%, and joining an English club is
about 52.2%.
Based on the data above, students tend to speak more in class and it can be seen that
students want to learn more and need to take more time to study speaking skills.
The limited time and interaction between students and the teacher in the university,
particularly in HUB, leads to not everyone acquiring much knowledge. "Or, if
students do not seem to be using many gestures, why not some specific lessons on
gestures, with practice activities?” (Erik Palmer, 2016).
Moreover, nowadays the wide choice of places to study English can be a little
overwhelming. An English center is sometimes the best way to learn English

23
speaking skills, but it has some drawbacks. High prices and poorly-qualified
English centers make it hard to choose a suitable one.

2.5 Other factors

Figure 5: Solutions related to other factors

This question is related to a student's learning attitude towards the importance of
finding the right solution suitable for learning speaking skills. According to the data
from the figure 5, all students choose to talk to themselves accounting for 74,4%.
Besides, there are some students who apply the solutions to speaking English but
the rate is very low, the results also show that about 50% of students imitate others
say and following along, 46,7% of students practice writing skill to speak better and
38,9% of students have a mentor to listen and correct you when practice.
From the chart, it is conspicuous that talking to yourself and imitating what others
say are the most used methods as effective ways to improve English speaking skills.
Besides, boosting writing skills is also an effective way to enhance one’s speaking
ability, since both speaking and writing are productive skills which involve
producing words, phrases, sentences and paragraphs; they could tremendously have
mutual influence on each other. In addition, having a mentor is a preferable choice
to some groups of people since they need someone to guide and point out their
mistakes during the process of learning speaking skills, which is much more time-
saving.

24
25
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION

In short, based on the results of the study using the quantitative research described
in detail previously, the researcher has demonstrated the difficulties that freshmen
of Faculty of Business English in HUB have to face throughout the process of
studying English speaking skill are related to 4 main aspects, which are linguistic
knowledge, listening problems, psychological and environmental factors. More
specifically, based on actual surveys in the form of questionnaires, it was found that
the causes include vocabulary deficiencies, lack of motivation as well as
psychological barriers in the learning process. In addition, the findings of this study
suggest some solutions to the above problems, typically improving vocabulary and
grammar, enhancing listening skills, practicing with others, participating in
organizations and groups that use English and monologues to build up language
reflection.
LIMITATIONS
Nevertheless, some certain restrictions still exist in this research. The research is
significantly impacted by the timing issue. Furthermore, the study's scope is still
relatively constrained. Target audience, which consists solely of first-year English
language majors at HUB, has a small number of participants. Finally, the research is
conducted online, which brings no direct interactions with the respondents.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Through the aforementioned limitations, it is kindly recommended that future
researchers can expand the scope of the study, including expanding the number of
survey participants and expanding the education segment so that participants would
be more varied in terms of majors. By undertaking these suggestions, the researcher
would be able to get more accurate, practical, and convincing results in further
studies in the future.

26
 REFERENCES
Achmad, D. & Yusuf, Y. Q. (2014). Observing Pair-work in an English Speaking
Class. International Journal of Instruction. January 2014, Vol.7 No.
1. 

Al Nakhalah, A. M. M. (2016). Problems and difficulties of speaking that encounter

English language students at Al Quds Open University. International
Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention, 5(12), 96-101.

Alharbi, A. Heba, (2015). Improving Students’ English Speaking Proficiency in

Saudi Public Schools. International Journal of Instruction Vol. 8, No.
1 Jan 2015.

AlKaabi, A. (2016). Saudi students' motivation and attitudes toward learning

English as a second language and their willingness to invest in
learning it. Unpublished Master's thesis, St. Cloud State University

Amelia, Y. (2021). The correlation between grammar competency and speaking

ability of the eighth grade students in smpn 1 palu. Datokarama
English Education Journal, 2(2), 113-137.

Atabek, I (2006), The Analysis of the Speaking Problems of the Students in the
English Language Teaching Department at Ahmed Yasawı
Internatıonal Kazakh- Turkısh Unıversıty, MA Thesis, Gazi University

Baker, J. and Westrup, H. (2003). Essential Speaking Skills: A Handbook for

English

Bozorgian, H. (2012). The relationship between listening and other language skills
in international English language testing system. Theory and Practice
in Language Studies, 2(4), 657-663.

27
Brown, D.H., & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by principles: An integrative approach to
language pedagogy (4th ed.). White Plains, NY: Pearson Education.

Doff, A. (1998). Teach English: A Training Course for Teacher. Cambridge

University Press.

Flowerdew, J., & Miller, L. (1992). Student perceptions, problems and strategies in
second language lecture comprehension. RELC journal, 23(2), 60-80.
[15]

Goh, C. C. M. (1999). How much do learners know about the factors that influence
their listening comprehension? Hong Kong Journal of Applied
Linguistics, 4(1), 17-41

Grabe, W. P., & Stoller, F. L. (2013). Teaching and researching: Reading.

Routledge.

Hamad, M. M. (2013). Factors negatively affect speaking skills at Saudi colleges

for girls in the south. English Language Teaching, 6(12), 87-97.

Kaprawi, N. (2017). Obstacles Facing Learners in Speaking English: Non-English

Teacher's Perspective, Putra Batam School. Pertanika Journal of
Social Sciences & Humanities.

Leong, L. M., & Ahmadi, S. M. (2017). An analysis of factors influencing learners’

english speaking skill.

Nadia Prokopchuk, Collection Editor (2019) Sharing Our Knowledge: Best

Practices for Supporting English Language Learners in Schools
retrieved from https://openpress.usask.ca/ealbestpractices/

Park, C. (2000). Peer pressure and learning to speak English: Voices from the
selected learners. English Teaching, 55(4), 231-268.

Putri, S. A., Amri, S., & Ahmad, A. (2020). The students’ difficulties factor in
speaking. J-shelves of indragiri(JSI), 1(2), 115-129.

28
Shumin Kang. (1997) Developing Adult EFL Students' Speaking Abilities. English
Teaching Forum, 35 (3), 8.

Tsui, A.B.M. (1996). Reticence and Anxiety in Second Language Learning. Voices
From the Language Classroom.

Tuan, N. H., & Mai, T. N. (2015). Factors Affecting Students’ Speaking

Performance at Le Thanh Hien High School. Asian Journal of
Educational Research.

Ur, P. (1996). A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni Press.

Van Engen, K. J., & Peelle, J. E. Listening effort and accented speech. Frontiers in
human neuroscience, 2014;8.

Wahyuningsih, S., & Afandi, M. (2020). Investigating English Speaking Problems:

Implications for Speaking Curriculum Development in Indonesia.
European Journal of Educational Research, 9(3), 967-977.

Wentzel, K. R. (1994). Relations of social goal pursuit to social acceptance,

classroom behavior, and perceived social support. Journal of
Educational Psychology, 86(2), 173–182.

Author removed at the request of the original publisher (2016) Stand up, speak out:
The Practice and Ethics of Public Speaking out by University of
Minnesota retrieved from https://open.lib.umn.edu/publicspeaking/

Open University. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention,

5(12), 96-101.

Simeon Potter, Britannica , (https://www.britannica.com/topic/English- language)

29
 APPENDIX
Questionnaire

PART A: PERSONAL INFORMATION

 Your gender?
 How long have you been learning English?
 How do you rate your SPEAKING proficiency in English based on the
previous semester's result?
 How often do you speak English in your daily life?
 How do you enjoy learning English?

PART B: DIFFICULTIES IN ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL

Strongly Disagree = SD
Disagree = D
Neutral = N
Agree = A
Strongly Agree = SA
Cluster NO Items SD D N A SA
1 I have poor vocabulary.
2 I'm not sure about the grammatical
structures.
Linguistic
3 I don't know how to collocate
knowledge
words to create the ideas I want to
express.
4 My pronunciation is quite bad.

30
 5 I cannot identify the main ideas of
what others say.
Listening
6 I cannot keep up with the speed of
Ability
the speakers.
7 I cannot understand their accents.
8 I got peer pressure.
9 I feel shy to talk to others.
Psychology
10 I'm afraid of speaking in public.
11 I fear making mistakes.
12 I have difficulty finding
opportunities to practice speaking
English with native speakers.
13 I've never got learning support in
Environment class.
14 I never practice speaking English
with classmates.
15 I couldn’t find any suitable study
material.
16 I don't have enough motivation to
maintain regular exercise.
17 I have poor communication
reflexes.
Other 18 It's hard to organize ideas and
factors sentences while speaking.
19 I don’t have enough time to study
Speaking Skills.
20 I don't know much about the field
people are talking about.

31
PART C: SOLUTIONS

 Which of the following factors would you choose to IMPROVE YOUR

ENGLISH LINGUISTIC KNOWLEDGE at the present?
 Which of the following actions would you take to BOOST YOUR
LISTENING SKILL?
 Which of the following ways would be suitable for you to BUILD UP
YOUR CONFIDENCE?
 Which of the following ways would be suitable for you to CREATE AN
ENVIRONMENT to learn speaking English?
 Apart from the common solutions mentioned above, have you used any of
the solution below?

32