A study on common English communication skill errors made by Faculty of English freshmen of TMU and how to improve their communication skills

A study on common English communication skill errors made by Faculty of English freshmen of TMU and how to improve their communication skills A study on common English communication skill errors made by Faculty of English freshmen of TMU and how to improve their communication skills A study on common English communication skill errors made by Faculty of English freshmen of TMU and how to improve their communication skills A study on common English communication skill errors made by Faculty of English freshmen of TMU and how to improve their communication skills A study on common English communication skill errors made by Faculty of English freshmen of TMU and how to improve their communication skills A study on common English communication skill errors made by Faculty of English freshmen of TMU and how to improve their communication skills A study on common English communication skill errors made by Faculty of English freshmen of TMU and how to improve their communication skills A study on common English communication skill errors made by Faculty of English freshmen of TMU and how to improve their communication skills A study on common English communication skill errors made by Faculty of English freshmen of TMU and how to improve their communication skills A study on common English communication skill errors made by Faculty of English freshmen of TMU and how to improve their communication skills A study on common English communication skill errors made by Faculty of English freshmen of TMU and how to improve their communication skills A study on common English communication skill errors made by Faculty of English freshmen of TMU and how to improve their communication skills A study on common English communication skill errors made by Faculty of English freshmen of TMU and how to improve their communication skills

English as well as native speaker English as an important medium of

international communication is every part of the world It is undeniable thatEnglish is a global language especially in this internationalization AmongstEnglish skills, communication skills can be considered the most importantones However, during the learning and communication process, learners alsomake some mistakes that they need to overcome to improve and master thisskills

Therefore, I would like to discuss the common English communicationskill errors made by Faculty of English freshmen of TMU and how to improvetheir communication skills And this is also the topic of my graduation thesis.Data used for analysis in this thesis were gathered through surveyquestionnaires, interviews and analyzed by both qualitative and quantitativemethods Sixty freshmen in the English department were selected to becomestudy participants.The survey is conducted with the first-year students of theEnglish Faculty to collect survey data

I hope that this study will bring students awareness of the common errors

in learning communication skills and refer to some useful solutions that willhelp them improve their communication skills

Although doing study in a limited time, I received a lot of enthusiastic helpfrom so many people to complete this graduation paper I greatly appreciatethese enthusiastic supports

First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude and profoundthanks to Mrs Luong Thi Minh Phuong M.A, one of the enthusiastic lectures ofthe English Faculty at TMU and my supervisor Thanks to the thoughtfulguidance, I finished the graduation thesis in the most complete way Withoutany help from her, I can hardly finish this graduation thesis

Secondly, I am sincerely thankful to all the first-year students in theEnglish Faculty who helped me a lot in this study They helped me complete thesurvey and provided me with important data from the questionnaire so that Icould analyze and provide the best suggestions for my research

Last but not least, I want to thank my family and my close friends forsupporting me They helped me to be more spiritual and create goodconditions for me to complete my graduation paper well I wish to thank allwho have kindly given their advice with source materials during writing

I know my graduation paper still has mistakes due to my shortcomings Iwould like to receive your comments, suggestions and corrections for theperfect of my own graduation paper

Hanoi, April 15, 2021 Student

Nguyen Thi Quynh Trang

TABLE OF CONTENT

ABSTRACT i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

TABLE OF CONTENT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS vi

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Previous of studies 1

1.2.1 International studies 1

1.2.2 Domestic studies 3

1.3 Aims of the study 3

1.4 Research question 4

1.5 Research subject 4

1.6 Scope of the study 4

1.7 Research methodology 4

1.8 Organization of the study 5

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 6

2.1 Definition of communication 6

2.2 Types of communication 6

2.2.1 Oral communication 6

2.2.2 Nonverbal communication 7

2.2.3 Written communication 7

2.2.4 Visual communication 8

2.3 Importance of English communication skills 9

2.4 English communication errors 10

2.4.1 Linguistics errors 11

2.4.2 Errors about communication culture 12

2.4.3 Errors about psychology 13

2.5 Factors affecting English communication errors of students 13

2.5.1 Limitation of vocabulary knowledge 13

2.5.2 Be afraid of making pronunciation and grammar mistakes 14

2.5.3 Lack of professional environment to speak 14

2.5.4 Worried about making mistakes and fearful of criticism 15

CHAPTER III: RESEARCH FINDINGS 15

3.1 Research methodology 15

3.1.1 Participants 15

3.1.2 Research instruments 15

3.2.3 Common English communication skill errors made by English Faculty freshmen 23

3.2.4 Solutions to improve oral communication skill in English 29

CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS 35

CONCLUSION 38

REFERENCES 41 APPENDIX I

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS N

o

2 TMU Thuongmai University Trường Đại Học Thươngng Đ i H c Thạc Sỹ Khoa học - Xã hội ọc - Xã hội ươngng

M iạc Sỹ Khoa học - Xã hội

Banking Corporation

Ngân hàng H ng Kông vàồng Kông và

Thượng Hảing H iải

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

Chart 3.1 Frequency of using English to communicate 19

Chart 3.2 Students’ perception of the important of communication skills 20

Chart 3.3 Feeling when communicating in English 21

Chart 3.4: Ending sound is not pronounced 24

Chart 3.5 Emphasize incorrect word stress 25

Chart 3.6 Do not have intonation 25

Chart 3.7: Vocabulary and grammar errors 26

Chart 3.8 Errors related to communication culture 27

Chart 3.9 Errors related to psychology 28

Chart 3.10 Solutions used to improve English communication skills 29

Table 3.1 Locations help students connecting with foreigners to practice communicating in English 22

Table 3.2 The effectiveness of solutions to improving communication skills 32

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale

English is now a global language Among hundreds of different languages,the world has chosen English as a means of communication so that everyone canunderstand each other Vietnam is also increasingly developing and popularizingthe English language as an inevitable need

It is the main language used on the Internet, business and many othersfields Learning English includes many skills, in which English communicationskills is an important part This study deals with fundamental errors in freshmanEnglish communication skills and a number of solutions for improvement

As a four-year student in English department, I understand the difficultiesthat freshman students face when communicating in English They have fewopportunities to practice communicating with foreigners and still have manydifficulties in English communication That is why I choose the subject of study

as: "A study on common English communication skill errors made by Faculty

of English freshmen of TMU and how to improve their communication skills".

The author hope that through this research topic, I will point out some commonerrors in communicating in English and offer some solutions to improve thisskill in the best way

1.2 Previous of studies

It is a fact that English has become an international language That is thereason why a lot of researchers and scholars conduct research and analyze aboutproblems and challenges encountered by English learners in terms of Englishcommunication skills There have been lots of international and local studieswhich have been done recently relating to English learning

English language students, particularly in terms of their conversational skillsand/or ability to achieve the desired standards of fluency in either the classroomenvironment or public sphere It aims to identify the inability of students to learnEnglish language conversation skills accurately, the factors behind thedifficulties faced by students seeking to communicate in English and thepractical solutions which enable students to master English communicationskills The results of the study demonstrate that the difficulties and challengesfaced by students when speaking in English such as the fear of making errors,imprecise understanding of English vocabulary and grammar, and incorrect wordand/or sentence articulation To fully investigate this issue, a quantitative surveyinstrument containing multiple questions was undertaken in addition to a number

of interviews with a random sample of students and teachers in order to elicit themain student challenge in speaking English To this end, the researcherelucidated the research problem, importance, objectives, hypotheses, andmethodologies, as well as drawing conclusions

Another study on communication skills was implemented by Panida

Karachedee, Faculty of Education, Burapha University: " Need analysis for English communication skills of employees at HSBC in Thailand" ( January 2017) The study analyzed aspects of communication skills, with the objective to

outline the needs and problems of English communication of the staff, and offerappropriate methods to improve communication skills in English By aquantitative survey instrument containing multiple questions was undertaken,the study demonstrates that listening skill was the English communication skillthat Thai employees at HSBC in Thailand thought was the most seriousproblem The unfamiliarity of the foreigners’ accent and pronunciation wasconsidered as the most serious problem of listening skills Besides, The inability

to use correct grammar in communication seemed to be a problem of Thaiemployees at HSBC in Thailand Finally, the research has clarified the problemand devised a strategy to improve communication skills including internal

Besides, another study “English communication skills of students with foreigners - proposing solutions to join NGOs” (2008), the author selected

English - major students from four typical universities in Hanoi: VNUUniversity of Languages and International Studies,Vietnam National University,Foreign Trade University and Hanoi University of Science and Technology.Foreigners mentioned in the study are good at English communication skills andqualifications, most of whom are from Europe, Australia and North Americausing English as their mother language Research methodology used in thearticle is investigation, interview and observation The research results show thatwhen students communicate with English speakers in different countries, themost common errors they encounter are intonation, accent and regional culture

1.3 Aims of the study

My research is to find out the frequently encountered mistakes thatfreshmen students of English Faculty at TMU encounter in their Englishcommunication, and find solutions to help them improve their Englishcommunication skills My research aims at the following basic goals:

● Analyze the situation of communication in English by first-year students

of English Faculty at TMU and the common errors encountered bythemselves

● Propose solutions to improve English communication skills for Faculty ofEnglish freshmen of TMU.

- How to improve the oral English communication skills of freshmen students

of English Faculty at TMU?

1.5 Research subject

The research subject is to find out the common errors faced by English major freshman at Thuong Mai university in communication in English and offersome solutions to improve this skill in the best way

-1.6 Scope of the study

Research topics are conducted on the scope of Thuong Mai University.The research focuses on the freshmen in the English Faculty at TMU to point outtheir common mistakes when communicating in English and offer somesolutions to improve this skill in the best way The study is conducted in thesecond semester of the academic year 2020-2021 Due to time constraints, thisstudy carries out about 60 randomly selected students

1.7 Research methodology

In this study, the author decided to use the quantitative and qualitativemethods The data and information has been collected from two sources: thequestionnaire and the interview

A questionnaire is set up including both open-ended and closed-endedquestions, allowing the respondents to give their opinions and views in the mostconvenient way Part one reveals of the student’s background and basic

information and part two of consists some questions relating to common errorsand the solution to improve the oral communication in English.

The interview includes three questions to dip deeper into the issue

1.8 Organization of the study

This study consists of four main parts:

• Chapter 1: Overview of the study

General research topics include the reason for selecting this study, provideprevious research topics, aims of the study, identify research subjects, scope ofthe study, research methodology and structure of this study

• Chapter 2: Theoretical background

This chapter gives an overview of what communication is, types ofcommunication, the importance of English communication skills and Englishcommunication errors Thereby, the author finds the common errors that Englishlearners encounter and find out the solutions to improve

• Chapter 3: Data analysis and research findings

This chapter focuses on analyzing research results and it is also the major part ofthe study Through the survey, the author learns the views of students about thecommon errors in communicating in English with foreigners and the solutions toimprove the oral communication in English The figures which were collectedfrom the study would be shown and analyzed in this chapter This is the crucialpart of all the studies

• Chapter 4: Recommendations and suggestions

This chapter proposes and suggests some solutions to overcome common errors

in oral communicating in English in general and the first-year students of theEnglish Faculty at Thuongmai University in particular

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 Definition of communication

There are many definitions of communication posed by different writers

According to Dwyer (2000), “Communication is the transfer of meaning Communication is any behavior, verbal or nonverbal, that is perceived by another Knowledge, feelings or thoughts are encoded and sent from at least one person and received and decoded by at least one other Meaning is given to this message as the receiver interprets the message A connection is made between the people communicating Communication lets us learn more about ourselves and the world around us, share experience with others, persuade and influence others, and relax and enjoy ourselves.”

Verderber, R.F., Verderber, K.S & Berryman- Fink, C (2008) define

“communication is the process of creating and sharing meaning in informal conversation, group interaction, or public speaking” Another definition is set

by Hybels, S & Weaver II, R.L (1992) According to them, “communication is any process in which people share information, ideas and feelings That process involves not only the spoken and written word, but also body, personal mannerisms and style, the surroundings- anything that adds meaning to a message.”

From the definition, it can be summarized that Communication is theprocess of sending and receiving information among people It is a way ofreaching others by transmitting ideas and thoughts, feelings and values

2.2 Types of communication

2.2.1 Oral communication

According to Bovee et al (2012): “Verbal communication is the expression of information through languag which is composed of words and grammar.” And another definition about verbal communication according to Penrose et al (2010): “Verbal communication consists of sharing thoughts thought the meaning of words.”

Verbal communication can be defined as communicating your thoughts

through words Such thoughts may be ideas, opinions, directions, dissatisfaction,objections, your emotions and pleasures

For example, when you conduct a meeting, have a conversation over thephone, talk to a friend, write letters, emails or any other forms of conversationthat you perform with others using words

2.2.2 Nonverbal communication

According to Levine and Adelman (1993) non-verbal communication isthe silent language, including the use of gestures, facial expressions, eye-contactand conversational đistance, etc

The phrase nonverbal communication refers to communication affected bymeans other than words to most people We need to understand that separatingverbal and nonverbal behavior into two separate and distinct categories isvirtually impossible For example, how do we categorize sign language intoverbal or nonverbal communication? Under some circumstances, sign languagecan be translated to verbal meaning word by word; On the other hand, itcommunicates without sounds and words and carries meaning through gestures.Generally, when people refer to nonverbal behavior, they are talking about thesignals, to which meaning will be attributed, not the process of attributingmeaning Nguyen Quang (2008) gives his own view on the definition whichseems to cover most important dimensions of nonverbal communication

Nonverbal communication, according to this author, refers to "all the components

of the message that, when taken together, constitute the communication which is not verbally coded but both vocally and non-vocally channeled”.

2.2.3 Written communication

According to the study about "Effective oral and written communication"

( 2018) of R Prabavathi and P C Nagasubramani, written communication is theoldest known form of communication Any form of communication which iswritten and documented from the sender to the receiver is known as written

communication Examples of written communication include letters, memos,research papers, reports, etc.

It is a very concrete form of documentary evidence and can also be usedfor future reference purposes As the information is written, it can be easilydistributed to many people thus making it a bulk communication method

As the information does not change from person to person, the accuracy

of the information conveyed is same across the entire audience

To ensure an effective written communication form, it is a must tofollow completeness, clarity and correctness in your writing As there is noimmediate feedback that can be received, it is important that writtencommunication is detailed and accurate to ensure that the write message iscommunicated

Also remember to keep the communication simple and without any errors.Written communication also has its limitations like lack of feedback, absence

of modulations to convey message effectively, etc These can be overcomeeffectively by mixing oral communication with written so as to combinethe advantages of both along with eliminating the disadvantages

2.2.4 Visual communication

According to Brian Nuckols (1998): "Visual communication is a way to communicate ideas graphically in ways that are efficient and help to convey more meaning It’s a critical element of any content marketing strategy "

Visual communication is the conveyance of ideas and information informs that can be seen Visual communication in part or whole relies oneyesight Visual communication is a broad spectrum that includes signs,typography, drawing, graphic design, illustration, industrial design, advertising,animation, color, and electronic resources

Visual communication refers to messages that can be seen In business,visual communication can be characterized as a helper Whenever a heavyamount of information is presented, a visual aid can help the message receiver

Indeed, clear communication is very essential Hence it is very necessary

to develop strong communication skills And in this study, the author focuses onverbal communication

2.3 Importance of English communication skills

According to Communication expert Harold Janis (2008) "The world of business is a world of action Products are designed, made, and sold People are hired Serviced are rendered Policies are devised and implemented Jobs are learned and performed Yet there is no practical way in which any of these events can take play without communication".

 Importance of English communication skills in daily life

Today, English has become an international language The developmenttrend of the countries in general and Vietnam in particular is the developmentaccording to the international model English communication in life is commonand necessary

Good English communication will give you more enjoyable experiences in life.Many different situations that you encounter in life may be related to English Inaddition, poor English communication skills can affect your personal intentions alot

Good English communication will help you in your foreign travel You can alsohelp foreigners when they get stuck, and having foreign friends will be a greatexperience for us In addition, you will have a lot of experience and goodopportunities when participating in activities organized by foreign countries

 Importance of English communication skills in workplace

At work, English communication brings a lot of great benefits, opening you

up to many new opportunities for better Today, the business of companies is nolonger limited to the country, but they also expand their scope to foreigncountries For this reason, if you have good English communication skills, youcan work with any partner from any country in the world Therefore, Englishcommunication skills at work are always required by businesses when recruiting.Many foreign business companies that have good salaries and professional

working environment are the dream goal of today's young people Therefore, ifyou do not have good English communication skills, you will definitely beeliminated from the interview round and leave that job opportunity for others

In addition, employees with high professional ability and good Englishskills will be more appreciated and trusted by the boss You will have theopportunity to attend major seminars, events or meet foreign partners It is agreat opportunity if you want to advance in your job and develop yourself

 Importance of English communication skills in study

Keeping up with the era of international integration, children today areoften exposed to English very early Especially, English communication skillsneed to be focused on from the very beginning of learning English For thestudents, accumulating and practicing communication skills while studying willopen up a brighter future

Good English communication skills bring many good opportunities for students,for example, they can apply to exchange students, or study abroad Meanwhile,students will be exposed to an international education, and helping them expandtheir knowledge Good English communication helps them stay confident whentalking, sharing with others With good English communication, students canabsorb more easily international learning materials

Good English communication will be the fundamental foundation forstudents' career opportunities in the future

2.4 English communication errors

Oral communication is quite different from other skills like reading,listening, and writing As it is unlike other skills, it requires a degree of real-timecommunication with others directly Learners often have a fear ofcommunication, lack of confidence in communication They worry whenspeaking a foreign language, they might pronounce it incorrectly and use thewrong grammatical structure, so native speakers cannot understand what they aretrying to say and they are also worried about losing face or being criticized

For the purpose of this study, the researcher has examined the fundamentalmistakes of freshman English faculty to find the fundamental error and proposeeffective solutions to improve their communication skills Here are some basicmistakes encountered when communicating in English:

2.4.1 Linguistics errors

* Mispronounce:

One characteristic that many of us English learners encounter is their lack

of emphasis on pronunciation In fact, learning English pronunciation is animportant part of learning how to communicate in English Listeners will not beable to understand if you pronounce incorrectly

According to Burns and Joyce (2005)identified a group of factors that theyare likely to make learners reluctant to speak and one of these factors is

“linguistic problem” Vietnamese learners often run into troubles when it comes

to some important characteristics in terms of pronunciation such as somedifficult sounds, stress, intonation and linking words which are totally strangecompared to Vietnamese Even though it is clearly noticed that sound, stress,intonation and linking words of spoken language convey crucial messages, manylearners find it difficult to pronounce words, stress the right syllables or applythe reasonable intonation and linking sound to spoken language

* Lack of vocabulary

Wilkins (in Thornbury, 2002) states that “without grammar very little can

be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” This statement

means that when somebody only knows about grammar, but he does not knowwords to say, his idea cannot be expressed In other words, one of the languageelements that has to be mastered by learners in learning a language isvocabulary

A rich vocabulary will increase learners' understanding, therebydeveloping communication skills, helping learners convey ideas and messages tolisteners On the contrary, the limited vocabulary will cause learners to makemistakes such as using too difficult vocabulary or using the wrong context of the

words, resulting in incorrect content transmission and affecting the quality ofconversation.

* Use difficult grammar

In the real communication, nobody paid much attention to the correctgrammar expression, but emphasized the content and how to reply Besides,there are a lot of grammatical rules in the English language, so it is difficult forthe students to correctly understand and use grammar The nervous of newgrammar is the serious error for students when communicating Grammaticalcompetence can help speakers apply and perceive the structure of Englishlanguage correctly that leads to their fluency (Latha, 2012) If learners do notknow the rules of grammar, they will never be able to communicate usingEnglish effectively

It is common among English language learners to overdo complexsentence structures when it is not needed Explaining this may be because thespeaker is afraid that the listener will not understand if it is not grammaticallycorrect However, that makes it even easier for you to make mistakes Thegrammar in English communication does not need to be too complicated Youcan see that when communicating in English, native speakers use very simplestructures This way, you can hear them and easily understand them

2.4.2 Errors about communication culture

Each country has its own communication culture, foreigners also havetheir own communication culture characteristics, so when communicating withsomeone who makes those mistakes, it will bring them a feeling of discomfort,

not really satisfied.Anderson and Lynch (1988) said that “when we learn a foreign language, we acquire some degree of familiarity with the foreign culture” It is so important, but learners often encounter basic mistakes such as:

Lack of calm when not understanding what foreigner says, do not look directlyinto foreigner's eyes while speaking,

2.4.3 Errors about psychology

Psychology is very important in commnuncation,it directly affects thequality of the conversation Speakers often feel insecure, unwilling tocommunicate with foreigners because they are afraid of making mistakes whenspeaking, do not have a natural reflex when speaking, so they feel confusedbecause they do not know how to answer.They are not confident in their foreignlanguage skills and are afraid of others to criticize them

It is assumed that “when people speak in a second or foreign language, they become more apprehensive and tense and thus more unwilling to participate in the conversation” (Horwitz el al., 1986; MacIntyre & Gardner,

1989) Before the conversation occurs, learners may have many ideas in theirmind, but when they come to a real communication with foreigners, their mindjust goes blank and cannot produce words or sentences due to the tense andshyness

This is a common problem that language learners encounter, they are tooshy to speak out their opinions or look directly and communicate with nativespeakers Due to incorrect pronunciation, being afraid of making mistakes leads

to shyness and avoidance of speaking English

2.5 Factors affecting English communication errors of students

A rich vocabulary will increase learners' understanding, therebydeveloping communication skills, helping learners convey ideas and messages tolisteners "If a language could be considered as a house then its grammar could

be considered as cement and its vocabulary could be figuratively compared tobricks To build a complete house, no only cement but also bricks are neededWithout bricks, no house can be built, even when plenty of high quality cement

is available (Nguyen Huyen, 2004) The limitation of vocabulary knowledgeaffects learners' communication ability, creating basic mistakes, especiallymistakes using wrong vocabulary context

2.5.2 Be afraid of making pronunciation and grammar mistakes

Oral communication is quite different when comparing to other skills asreading, listening and writing Since it is unlike other skills, it requires somedegree of real time to communicate directly with other people Learners haveoften got the fearful feeling of making mistakes when trying to say or expressthings in a foreign language They are worried when they speak in a foreignlanguage they may pronounce incorrectly and use wrong grammar structures,hence, native speakers can not understand what they try to say and they alsohave anxiety over losing face or getting criticism

According to Burns and Joyce (1997) identified a groups of factors thatthey are likely to make learners reluctant to speak and one of these factors is

“linguistic problem” Vietnamese learners often run into troubles when

speaking, they are often afraid of making grammar mistakes Even though it isclearly noticed that sound, stress, intonation and linking words of spokenlanguage convey crucial messages, many learners find it difficult to pronouncewords, stress the right syllables or apply the reasonable intonation and linkingsound to spoken language leading to the grammatical and pronunciation errors

2.5.3 Lack of professional environment to speak

It is essential to have a professional environment to practice English

Hyland in the survey “Asian Journal of English Language Teaching” (January,

2007) investigated learners from eight disciplines at five Hong Kong institutions.The findings of his research indicated that proficiency in English was asignificant factor in the academic success of an English environment.Lack ofEnglish communication environment makes learners become passive,unconfident when communicating with foreigners Especially with theirpronunciation, swallowing, and speaking speed different from Vietnameseteachers, which will make learners lose their temper and misunderstand thecontent of the conversation

2.5.4 W orried about making mistakes and fearful of criticism

It is assumed that “When people speak in a second or foreign language,

they become more apprehensive and tense and thus more unwilling to participate in the conversation” (Horwitz el al., 1986; MacIntyre & Gardner,

1989) Before the conversation occurs, learners may have many ideas in theirmind, but when they come to a real communication with foreigners, their mindjust go blank and cannot produce words or sentences due to the tense andshyness

This is a common problem that language learners encounter, they are tooshy to speak out their opinions or look directly and communicate with nativespeakers Due to incorrect pronunciation, being afraid of making mistakes leads

to shyness and avoidance of speaking English

According to Brow (2001, citited in Markey & Gass, 2005),

“Questionnaires are any written instruments that present respondents with a series of questions or statements to which they are to react, either by writing out their answers or selecting from among existing answers”.

Markey & Gass (2005) using questionnaires as an instrument whichallows researchers to gather information in such a short time with comparableinformation For that reason, the researcher decided to apply the questionnaire toaccess nformation Because the subjects of the survey are the first-year students

of English Faculty, the survey questionnaire will be designed as multiple-choicequestions with answers to gather more objective answers that measure the leveland senses of the person being surveyed

b Questionnaire design

The survey has been conducted with the aim of investigating somecommon mistakes in oral English communication of first-year students ofEnglish Faculty at Thuongmai University as well as suggest some solutions toimprove their communication skills

As the main purpose of completing the study well, the researcher appliedboth semi-structured interviews known as an informal conversation in whichsomeone is asked their opinions about a product or issue and structuredquestionnaires considered as closed and direct questions in order to ensure thegathered results are as reliable as possible

Hence, the questionnaire is carefully designed with nine questions It hasbeen separated into two parts: part one consists of some background information

of students to identify what they think about the importance of listening andspeaking skills

Part two consists of common errors of oral communication skills that the year students have faced and solutions they have applied The first two questionsintended to see the common mistakes they encountered in Englishcommunication The next question was about the solutions that students have

first-solution is effective or is not will be used in suggesting first-solutions to improvingtheir communication skills.

3.1.2.2 Interview

a Aims of the interview

An interview is formal meetings between two people (the interviewer andthe interviewee) where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtaininformation, qualities, attitudes, wishes etc, It is also known as a flexible andadaptable way so that this method is usually used for many researches to digdeep into the study and explore more about the personal ideas which can notshow clearly in the questionnaire

b Interview design

To accomplish the survey, face-to-face interviews have been conducted inthe form of conversation between the researcher and three first-year students Ittook place during recess in class , hence the participants felt free and comfortable

to answer the questions as well as express themselves

The interview consists of three questions to dive more into the study andget deeper point of view The first question was about to identify their ideas interms of the importance of English communication skills The second questionaimed to get the information about the common mistakes that students haveencountered when communicating with foreigners From the present situation,the last question was asked to see what solutions they often use to improve theircommunication skills Each interview lasted for five to seven minutes

3.1.3 Data collection process

To increase the reliability and value of the study, a random samplingprocedure was applied in the survey questionnaire, and data collection was donethrough face-to-face interviews All questions used are reasonable andappropriate to the aims of the study The data collection process is described asbelow:

Questionnaire:

Designing the questionnaire: The questionnaire will be set up and surveyfor 60 students over the internet It was divided into two parts and consists of tenquestions to collect the data including general information of the participants,attitude with communication english, common mistakes and the last is aboutsolution

Collecting data: the researcher uses google form to conduct the survey.The questionnaire will be set up by google form The researcher gets a link fromthis app then sends a link of the survey to groups of first-year students of EnglishFaculty and messages to the ones who are the researcher’s friends For the mostobjective results, the researcher asks them to pay attention and seriously answerthe questions in their own views The collected data will be checked andanalyzed by the researcher according to the system of tables and data

Interview: Three freshmen were randomly selected to gather clearer data

on the subject of study This is a one-to-one chat, performed in 5 to 7 minutes.During questioning, the researcher recorded the participants' responses and made

a note to make the collected information more reliable

3.2 Findings

Of the 60 students surveyed, there are 50 valid survey samples, below are the results of the 50 students surveyed:

3.2.1 Students’ background information

The questions in part 1 are designed to learn about information related toEnglish communication skill including: the number of years of English learning,chances as well as locations to communicate in English with foreigners,feelingwhen communication in English, perception of the importance of communicationskills

When asked about the number of years studying English, as a result, 100%

of the surveyed students studied English for more than seven years Thenceforth,

we can see that students have learned and become familiar with English for along time, probably from secondary or even primary school

30.00%

8.00%

1st QtrSometimesOftenRarely

Chart 3.1 Frequency of using English to communicate

The frequency of using English to communicate significantlyaffects students' progress in English communication skills The use ofEnglish in communication is not uncommon for a student of BusinessEnglish Not to mention the use of English to communicate in society, butonly in learning, they certainly have to use English to communicate a lotfrom their early years of learning However, it can be seen from the chart 3.1that only 30% of the respondents often use English to communicate.Meanwhile, 62% are people who only use English occasionally tocommunicate The number of students who rarely use English tocommunicate is 8%

The results obtained from direct interviews with freshmen about how

often they use English to communicate are: Nga replied: "I only use English

to communicate occasionally because I am afraid of speaking English, not only that, I am not confident in my pronunciation so I only use it occasionally when studying in class "

Linh said: "I rarely use English to communicate, because my speaking and listening skills are very weak, I am afraid of making mistakes in pronunciation when speaking and I cannot catch up with the content that the speaker conveyed I think I will find a suitable communication environment so that I can practice more.”

3.2.2 Students’ attitudes toward oral English communication skills

62.00%

24.00%

14.00%

Extremely important Very important Fairly important

A little important Not important

Chart 3.2 Students’ perception of the important of communication skills

From the figures it is apparent that having perfect oral Englishcommunication skills is the goal of the learners when learning English Most

of the students surveyed have evaluated oral English communication skills

as very important and it is also a key to catch the eyes of recruiters in thefuture Of the 50 students surveyed, 62% of students recognized thatcommunication skill plays an extremely important role in learning andusing English Other students also quite highly appreciate the role of oralEnglish Communication skills with 14% of students choosing “neutral” and24% of students choosing “important” opinion and no one of respondentsdenied the role of this skills Taking into account the statistical data, we cansurmise that most students are aware of the importance of improving theirEnglish skills

In addition, in face-to-face interviews with freshman English Faculty,

gave reasons for their attitudes Linh replied: "For me, communication skills are very important, because I am a student of English Faculty, having good communication skills gives me a lot of benefits in studying, especially my subjects with foreigners." Nga shared: "With good English communication skills, I can find a good part-time job, and confidently make friends with friends from different countries"

Hence, after accumulating their points of views, the researcher foundout the most common idea as English is currently an international language

in the world It is the bridge to help students develop themselves instudying, working and relationships

58.00%

24.00%

18.00%

1st QtrShyExcitedFun

Chart 3.3 Feeling when communicating in English

Aware of the importance of such English communication skills, butwhen asked about feelings when communicating English with foreigners,

we received surprising data:

The pie chart shows that the number of students who are excited incommunicating with foreigners is 24%, 18% of students feel fun whencommunicating with foreigners However, 58% of students feel shy whencommunicating with foreigners Most students have a very long time tolearn English, but the number of students who feel shy whencommunicating with foreigners is huge

As first-year students in the English Faculty, you are starting to becomefamiliar with subjects taught in English, including foreign and native

teachers Most of students choose for themselves an environment toimprove your English communication skills The following table surveys thelocations to help students connect with foreigners to practicecommunication English.

Questions Options Number

of student

Percentag

e (%)

What locations help

you connect with

Do you think that

methods work well in

common reasons are given, such as, "I do not spend a lot of time practicing English", " I am not confident enough to be able to speak with many foreigners

at the Ho Guom, usually our conversation are very short”, " There are very few

subjects to communicate with foreigners in school, there are many students in the classroom so the chance for me to talk to native teachers is very little "

In short, when it comes to English background, all the first yearstudents in the English department participating in the survey are tryingvery hard to improve their English learning ability Besides, they allunderstand the importance of English communication skills and have usedmethods that help to approach foreigners to improve their communicationskills However, the results were not as good as expected.Besides, some ofthe reasons why those methods did not bring out the efficiency wereexposed as well as to help the researcher to suggest useful and helpfulsolutions to improving their English communication skills

3.2.3 Common English communication skill errors made by English Faculty freshmen.

3.2.3.1 Errors related to linguistics

One of the main reasons for this study is to find out the fundamental

errors that freshmen English faculty encounter when speaking Englishverbally It is absolutely essential to ask them about the common mistakes

as well as the degree of those errors that they have encountered whencommunicating English Results from the questionnaire aboutpronunciation, vocabulary, grammar errors are respectively displayed asfollows:

 Ending sound is not pronounced

Always Often Sometimes Rarely Never 0

Chart 3.4: Ending sound is not pronounced

Regarding ending sound errors, the chart shows that 42% of thestudents sometimes have this error, 30% students often have this error and28% of students have not got mistakes in the ending sound This is also one

of the basic mistakes of learners, because in Vietnamese, we do notpronounce the ending consonants, so when communicating in English, it isdifficult for learners to avoid this error When making a mistake about theending sound, it is very difficult for learners to convey the content of theconversation to others, because when you do not pronounce the endingsound, it will be easy to misunderstand the listener

 Emphasize incorrect word stress