Developing speaking skills for first year students of faculty of english hanoi open university

Developing Speaking Skills for first – year students of Faculty of English – Hanoi Open University HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ENGLISH ---* *---GRADUATION THESIS B.A DEGREE IN

Developing Speaking Skills for first – year students of Faculty of English – Hanoi Open University

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF ENGLISH

-*

* -GRADUATION THESIS B.A DEGREE IN

ENGLISH STUDIES

DEVELOPING SPEAKING SKILLS FOR

FIRST - YEAR STUDENTS

OF FACULTY OF ENGLISH – HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

Developing Speaking Skills for first – year students of Faculty of English – Hanoi Open University

DECLARATION

DEVELOPING SPEAKING SKILLS FOR FIRST - YEAR STUDENTS

OF FACULTY OF ENGLISH – HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

I certify that no part of the above reports has been copied or reproduced by

me from any person’s work without acknowledgement and that report is originally written by under strict guidance of my supervisor

Student Supervisor

Vũ Thùy Dung Nguyễn Thị Hồng Minh, M.A

Developing Speaking Skills for first – year students of Faculty of English – Hanoi Open University

ACKNOWLEDMENTS

During the time I implement to research and complete this paper, I

would like to express my deep gratitude to Ms Nguyễn Thị Hồng Minh, M.A,

my supervisor for her sincere advice and patient guidance as her

encouragement to my study Without her help, my graduation paper would

have been impossible to be fulfilled

I also would like to give my great thanks to the Management Board of

the Faculty for providing favorable conditions for my study to be carried out

I also owe to Faculty of English Hanoi Open University, all my

teachers and the librarians for their help, encouragement and supports

Besides, I would like to express my deep thanks to my friends who

encourage me to choose the subject and supply me a lot of materials in the

writing of this paper

Finally, I am debited to my beloved parents who give me the best

materials and intellectual condition to study

Student

Vũ Thùy Dung

Developing Speaking Skills for first – year students of Faculty of English – Hanoi Open University

TABLE OF CONTENT

PART A: INTRODUCTION 2

1 Rationale 2

2 Aims and objectives of the study 3

3 Scope of the study 3

4 Research questions 3

5 Methods of the study 4

6 Design of the study 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5

Chapter 1: Literature review 5

1.1 The definition of the English speaking skills 6

1.2 The importance of the English speaking skills 8

1.3 Common components making Speaking skills difficult 9

1.3.1 Clustering 10

1.3.2 Redundancy 10

1.3.3 Reduced forms 10

1.3.4 Performance variables 10

1.3.5 Colloquial language 11

1.3.6 Rate of delivery 11

1.3.7 Interaction 11

1.4 Summary of this chapter 11

Developing Speaking Skills for first – year students of Faculty of English – Hanoi Open University

Chapter 2: Analyses, Findings & Interpretations 12

2.1Design and methodology 12

2.1.1 The setting of the study 12

2.1.2 Data collection instrument 12

2.2 Preliminary results 13

2.2.1 Student’s opinions on speaking skills 14

2.2.2 Student’s opinions on learning speaking skills in group work 15

2.2.3 Students appreciation of the use of group work in the speaking class at Faculty of English 16

2.2.4 The best group size and difficulties the students had when working in group work 19

2.2.5 Student’s desire for the better group work 21

2.3 General remarks 22

2.4 The findings 24

2.4.1 The lack of self-confidence 24

2.4.2 The limitation of vocabulary 26

2.4.3 The mispronunciation and misunderstanding in using grammar 28

2.4.4 The lack of general knowledge. 30

2.4.5 Unfamiliar partner 31

2.4.6 The lack of motivation and flexibility in speaking English 32

2.5 Summary 32

Chapter 3: Suggestions to deal with the problems 33

Developing Speaking Skills for first – year students of Faculty of English – Hanoi Open University

3.1 Develop speaking skills through Pronunciation 33

3.2 Develop speaking skills through Grammar 34

3.2 Develop speaking skills through reflective listening 36

3.4 Develop speaking skills through reading 37

3.5 Enrich general knowledge 38

3.6 Build self-confidence 40

3.6.1 Overcome fear of making mistakes 40

3.6.3 Pay attention to physical appearance 44

3.6.4 Prepare the topic carefully 44

3.6.5 Improve English self-study skills 44

3.7 Improve group speaking 46

3.7.1 Working in pairs 46

3.7.2 Working in small groups 47

3.8 Join activities outside class 49

3.8.1 Join the English speaking clubs 49

3.8.2 Communicate with native speakers 50

3.9 Summary 50

PART C: CONCLUSION 51

Developing Speaking Skills for first – year students of Faculty of English – Hanoi Open University

LISTS OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Table 6: The best group size and difficulties the students had when working in

PART A: INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, with the development of economy and society, demands of communication of human are increasing constantly In the past, when mass media was not developed yet, we could only communicated with the people who spoke the same language with you, mother tongue for example, but now the tide has turned Communicative demands, associating new relationships are essential for the youth today In the aim of associating with the foreigners, learning English is also a very important task However, not everyone can be confident in their speaking competence and their communicating competence even students who study in faculties of English Furthermore, non-native speakers will have to face with many difficulties when learning speaking English It will take time, practice and perseverance Mastering speaking

skills is an advantage which leads to the success in communication

Speaking skills is one of the necessary skills for the present students but some students have not yet been really interested in this problem Many students have not yet clearly presented a problem, his view in front of the class Some students think that they only focus on the specialized knowledge without speaking skills So, concentration on both the specialized knowledge

and the development of the speaking skills are necessary for the students

Being a senior student, I found the difficulties in speaking of the year students of the Faculty of English at Hanoi Open University Thus, I decide to write about the strategies to develop speaking skills for first-year students and some effective ways in order to help them develop their speaking skills

first-2 Aims and objectives of the study

The study focuses on the review of the Speaking skills definition and types

On the other hand, this study also mentions some strategies which relate to develop speaking skills for students These aim are giving some basic knowledge about speaking skills and suggesting some effective strategies to enhance Speaking competence Hopefully, this study will help the first-year students in developing their own skills

Due to time limitation, the focused area of the research will only be among the first-year students of the Faculty of English at Hanoi Open University This study mainly relates to the difficulties of first-year student in speaking skills and focuses on some strategies to help them speak better

With the aims mentioned earlier are to find out some strategies which help students develop their speaking skill and speaking competence The research questions were addressed as following and this thesis was hoped to answer them:

• To investigate the theories of English Speaking Skills, importance

of Speaking skills and common components making Speaking skills difficult

• What do the first-year students of the Faculty of English at HOU find the most difficult when using verbal English?

• What are some suggestions for the students to develop their speaking abilities?

5 Methods of the study

To achieve the aims stated above, I read some referenced books in the library

as well as books from my teacher Moreover, I found some useful information

on Internet which relate to my study I also discussed with my supervisor, teachers and classmates who are learning English To complete this study, I carried out surveys and interviews to gain better insight into the real situation then I bring them into this paper

The study is divided into three parts:

Part A: Introductionis the introduction of the study including the rationale,

aims and purposes, scope, research questions, methods and design of study

Part B: Development

This part consist of three chapters:

Chapter 1: Literature review

This chapter provides and introduces some definitions and theories relatedto speaking skills

Chapter 2:Analyses, Findings & Interpretations

It is the main part of study, which discloses the real situation of first-year English-majored students at Hanoi Open University in using verbal English, the difficulties which the students had when they study speaking skills

Chapter 3: Suggestions to deal with the problems

In this chapter, I want to inform some suggestions to deal with the problem

Part C: Conclusion

This chapter is the concluding part where the author gives the conclusion and sum up main ideas of the graduation paper

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

1.1 The definition of the English speaking skills

As far as the researcher is concerned, there has been a myriad

of definitions of speaking According to the Oxford Dictionary of Current English(2009, p.414), speaking is “the action of conveying information or expressing ones’thoughts and feelings in spoken languages

Merriand – Webster online dictionary gave a general definition of speaking:

“Speaking is uttering words or articulating in sounds with the ordinary voice Speaking is the way to covey thoughts, opinions, exchange orally, or to express oneself.”

We can simply understand this definition that if we propose our opinions, share ideas of express something, we have to use our voice, our words to make other people what we mean By this way we can communicate Chaney (1998, p.13), however, considered speaking a process:

“speaking isthe process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal or non-verbal symbols in a variety of contexts” Sharing the same viewpoint,Florez (1999, p.1) added that speaking is an “interactive” process, which consists of three main stages “producing, receiving and processing information.”

In language teaching and learning, speaking is considered a skill topractice and master In this light, Nunan (2003, p.48) put it that “speaking isthe productive oral skill It consists of producing systematic verbal utterance toconvey meaning.” Also considering speaking as a skill, Bygate (1987,

p.3)investigated the distinction between knowledge and skill in speaking lesson,which he considered as crucial in the teaching of speaking Indeed, to

be agood learner of speaking, studying knowledge of grammar, vocabulary,pronunciation, intonation, etc is not enough but the skill to use this knowledgeto communicate successfully is indispensable

In brief, there are different concepts of speaking, i.e speaking as anaction, a process and a skill In this study, the term “speaking” will be used torefer to a skill related to language teaching or learning

Another point of view on speaking is:

“Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involved producing and receiving and processing information Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experience, the physical environment and the purposes for speaking” (Brown(1994); Burns and Joyce(1997))

From this point of view we can simply say that in certain situations we use certain type of language to say For example in a conference we often use formal language and in daily life we often use informal language

On the other hand, this speaking definition regards speaking as an activity taken place between the speakers and the listeners The speakers and the listeners interaction take place the real time, thereby allowing very little time for the speaker to respond to the listener if the rules of a conversation are

to be maintained In the interaction, the speaker gives out message to the listener The listener gets the message from the speaker and gives the speaker

just said or asked for more information This process will be repeated for many times to get clear meaning of communicative interaction (McDonough and Shaw, 1993; Harmer, 1994)

The definition of speaking skills is much diversified In Cambridge Dictionary, speaking skills are defined quite simply They are skills “to say words, to use the voice, or to have a conversation with someone” Another famous dictionary, Oxford Advanced Dictionary defined speaking skills as skills “to press or communicate opinions, feelings, idea, etc; by or as talking and it involves the activities in the part of the speaker as psychological, physiological (articulator) and physical (acoustic) states.”

In conclusion, the definitions of speaking are numerable because of the complexity of this process Speaking is a productive skill and the main purpose this process is to transfer information and communicate or to express the speaker’s opinions and thoughts It helps learners express their ideas clearly and smoothly A good speaking skill plays an important role to help learners make a successful conversation Therefore, learners should make all their efforts to be effective speakers by becoming involved active in speaking

Among the four skills in learning English, speaking and writing are the productive skills However, speaking is regarded as very important for language teaching and learning Speaking is a bridge to reach other skills Speaking helps learners to read better, to listen more effectively and write more accurately Speaking is surely the most effective means of communication (Ur, 1996)

There are two most important reasons why speaking should be taught in the classroom The first reason is speaking is a good source of motivation for students Nunan (1991) points out, “success is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the (target) language” For the students who have ability to speak English eligibly, they want to speak English; they know to express themselves in English Thus, they always speak when possible But for those who cannot speak English well, they do not want to speak in group As a result, they may soon get de-motivated and lose interest

in learning English In addition to this, in the English speaking class, if the speaking activities are organized in the suitable way, speaking can have a lot

of fun and therefore can raise motivation in the learners If the speaking is practiced successfully, the other skills can also be improved through speaking For the second reason, nowadays, the demand for communication among people is really important Without it, the life does not exist For this, speaking always plays an important role in people’s lives Speaking is considered as a survival skill in real life (Ur, 1996; p 134)

For the ideas above, speaking skills also play the key role in foreign language learning and teaching

Becoming the first-year students of Faculty of English, Hanoi Open University, most of them do not accustomed to speak English in class They feel worried about speaking in class They feel worried about speaking in class time and oral tests Specially, the students who come from the other regions, they do not have a standard in pronunciation Moreover, in speaking,

possible that is depended on the certain contexts etc Thus, it is really hard for them in practicing not only speaking skills but also the other skills

Here are some popular difficulties that may make students confused during practicing speaking Of course, there are many other phenomena in language they may meet However, in this scope of this study, I only mention

to some difficulties that are easy to recognize in speaking

1.3.1 Clustering

Fluent speech is phrasal, not word by word Learners can organize their output both cognitively and physically (in breath groups) through such clustering

1.3.2 Redundancy

The speaker has an opportunity to make his/her meaning clearer through the redundancy of language Learners can capitalize on this feature of spoken language

1.3.3 Reduced forms

Contractions, elisions, reduced vowels, etc all form special problems in teaching spoken English Students who don’t learn colloquial contractions can sometimes develop a stilted, bookish quality of speaking that in turn stigmatize them

1.3.4 Performance variables

One of the advantages of spoken language is that the process of thinking as you speak allows you to manifest a certain number of performance hesitations, pauses, backtracking, and corrections You can actually teach learners how to pause and hesitate For example, in English our “thinking time” is not silent, but rather we insert certain “fillers”: uh, um, well, you

know, I mean, like, etc One of the most salient differences between native and nonnative speakers of a language is in their hesitation phenomena

1.3.5 Colloquial language

Making sure your students are reasonably well acquainted with the words and idioms and phrases of colloquial language and that they get practice in producing these forms

1.3.6 Rate of delivery

Another salient characteristic of fluency is rate of delivery One of your tasks in teaching spoken English is to help learners to achieve an acceptable speed along with other attributes of fluency

This is the most important characteristic of English pronunciation The stress-timed rhythm of spoken English and its intonation patterns convey important messages

1.3.7 Interaction

As noted in the previous section, learning to produce waves of language

in a vacuum – without interlocutors – would rob speaking skills of its richest component: the creative of conversational negotiation

This chapter focuses on presenting theory and some definitions of specific terms to help students understand more about speaking skills and problems students can have during the process of practicing speaking skills Also it highlights them… In short, this chapter shows an overview of speaking skills and some popular problems for students to have basic knowledge about them

Chapter 2: Analyses, Findings & Interpretations

2.1Design and methodology

2.1.1 The setting of the study

My survey questionnaire was hand out to 60 first-year students at Faculty of English, Hanoi Open University They are both males and females

at the age of 18 to 20 They are in the pre-intermediate level and are very interested in English The study is carried out with a main aim of improving the speaking skills for the first-year students major at Hanoi Open University There are many good reasons for choosing the freshmen as the subject of the study First of all, these students have just left high school where they never

do acquainted with speaking skills so when they began their study at a university, speaking is really strange to them On the contrary, at the university they have to cope with many problems such as: listening, writing, reading and speaking Besides the freshmen always lack self-confidence when being engaged in speaking practice They also lack speaking environment and have problems of using their mother tongue For instance, when they join in speaking activities they usually get troubles with expressing their mind in English Finally, to help those who have tried much but still not become good speakers These are reasons why I decided to do the study on using games for the first-year students to improve speaking skills

2.1.2 Data collection instrument

Some aspect of teaching and learning can be investigated through administering a questionnaire Questionnaires are useful for gathering information about effective dimensions of teaching and learning and enable a teacher to collect a large amount of information quickly Advantages of using questionnaire which Gillham (2000) highlights are: less pressure on respondents, not under pressure of interview bias and analysis of answer is straightforward The researcher used the survey questionnaire as the main sources to fulfill its aims Two collections of questionnaires were created to the opinion of both teacher and student about the use of teamwork in the

speaking classes of the 1st year students at Faculty of English Clear instructions were given when the questionnaire was administered

14 English questionnaires are designed for 60 students (2-3 classes of the same level in the first-year) The questionnaire was divided into 5 main parts:

Part 1: Students opinions on speaking skill (Question 1, 2, 3)

Part 2: Students opinions on learning in group work (4)

Part 3: Students appreciation of the use of group work in the speaking class at Faculty of English (5, 6, 7)

Part 4: The difficulties of the students when working in groups for speaking skill (8, 9, 10 and 11)

Part 5: The students wishes in working in groups (12, 13, 14)

2.2Preliminary results

Before giving the concrete result of the survey, the researcher will show the preliminary result

2.2.1 Student’s opinions on speaking skills

Table 1 Student’s opinions on speaking skills

b You just want to pass the oral exam

c Speaking is necessary for your future job

d You are interested in the speaking skills

This table reveals opinions of Faculty of English’s students on speaking skills It can obviously be seen that all the students asked (100%) said that Speaking was necessary for their future job and 90% of them were interested

in speaking skills while a small amount of them (26%) said they learned speaking skills because English was compulsory at their university They found English really interesting while there were only a few student (17%) who wanted to learn speaking skills just to pass the oral test 90% of them stated that English was so important for them

2.2.2 Student’s opinions on learning speaking skills in group work

Table 2 Student’s opinions on learning speaking skills in group work

Not at all

Little Rather Very

The table 2 dedicates that students had very little favor for working individually, 38% of them rather like working in a small group, and 60% (more than half of students asked) really like working in group in the speaking skills And no student reported that they did not like working on their own From this, it can be understood that most of the students saw the importance of working in group for the better speaking skills In addition to that, group work is surely the most suitable activity for speaking skills

2.2.3 Students appreciation of the use of group work in the speaking class at Faculty of English

Table 3 Students assessment for the teachers frequent use of group work

Table 4 Students appreciation of their participation in group work

Options/

Question

6 a Work with great interest

b Remain silent all the time

c Chat with other group members about other topics

d Speak in Vietnamese to discuss with other while other discuss in English

As can be seen from table 4, just only 30% of the students asked (18 out of 60) reported that they had taken part in the group work activities enthusiastically and the number of the students who did not participate in group worked by chatting with other group or speaking Vietnamese is rather high (29% and 32% irrespectively) that it must be looked into consideration about the group work among these students in these two classes In addition

to that, the number in the table also indicates that the students in these two classes may have very low proficiency of speaking skills or not enough English background knowledge to communicate with their partners or may be the topic is no interest to them

When being asked why some of them kept silent in the speaking lesson,

asked them to speak English in group means making them quiet But when the teacher asked them to contribute their ideas in Vietnamese, they said that they could not think of anything Another reason why they kept silent is that many students could not understand the English – speaking teachers’ instructions The researcher in this study thought that maybe they were the worst students in these two classes There would be very little chance for them to pass any oral tests

(Question 7)

Table 5: Student’s appreciation of group work for the benefit of speaking

Not at all Little Rather Very

c Give you more

opportunities for

exchanging ideas

60

It can be surely seen from the table that almost all the students (97%:

58 out of 60) found that the group was so beneficial for their speaking skills that they can speak more in English, they can be much more confident and they also have chance to exchange their ideas with their friends Regarding the benefit of learning from each other of group work, 68% (41 out of 60) the

students stated that it was rather beneficial but only 30% (18 out of 60) thought it is a little beneficial

2.2.4 The best group size and difficulties the students had when working in group work

Table 6: The best group size and difficulties the students had when working in group work

Options/

Question

8 a From three to five

b More than five

c The more the merrier

d It depends on the kind of activities

b The other partners talk over you

c The other partners talk less than you

d Other

16 18 26 0

11 a The teacher’s low proficiency and

experience in English and methodology

b The students’ low proficiency in English

c The students’ passive learning styles with overload work

d Topics are not interesting

20 45 56 6

Regarding the group size, 50% (30 out of 60) thought the number of the students in a group depends on the activities they take part in Only 25% (15 out of 60) agreed that from three to five were the best number and 20% (12 out of 60) like to have as many partners as possible in their group but just only 0,5% thought that the group should consist of more than five

According to the table 6, no students said that they had never had any difficulties in working in group work All of them had difficulties, among them, 67% (40 out of 60) of the students sometimes had that difficulties, 28% (17 out of 60) often had difficulties, and only 5% (3 out of 60) rarely had difficulties with group work It means that almost all of the students in these two classes have difficulties with group work and they also blamed their low proficiency and passive learning style with overload work 75% and 93% for their difficulties, just more than 33% thought it was because of the teacher’s low proficiency and only 10% blamed on the boring topics Besides, they also added more factors that had caused their difficulties They are: specially overloaded working every week, members in the group didn’t understand each other, laziness and the anxiety of making mistakes

Regarding this table, one underlying cause but easy to understand is their passive learning style This appears among the students of the first-year

of not only this university but also in many other universities even though in this university, administrator has applied the gradual assessment, that is they had 30% mark for A.P (Assignment and Participation), 30% for the midterm test and 40% for the final test This requires the students to learn in the whole time not just at the end of the semester

2.2.5 Student’s desire for the better group work

Table 7: Student’s desire for the better group work

e Students of the same age

f Students of the same sex

g Students of the opposite sex

h Others

6 26 52 46 2 2 15 54

c To give feedback, praise and encouragement

d Not to interrupt when you make mistakes

e To provide a promoting lead-in

f To give clear instruction

g To provide necessary vocabulary and functional language

asked for their favorite kind of partners, 87% (52 out of 60) of the students preferred to have the partners of the same interest Only 1% of them liked to work with the partners of the same proficiency, and 43% liked to work with partners of the mixed proficiency One thing which is very easy to understand

is that, 46 out of 60 (70%) were interested in talking with the students sitting next to or near them This can be easily explained that they did not want to stand up and move to a new place, maybe this could affect their working results and most of them just wanted to keep fixed and lazy in one place However, according to the statistics in the table 7, most of the students in these two classes also wanted to work with partners with different levels of English so that they could learn a lot from their friends even though they knew they were sorted into the class of the same level of English proficiency and they nearly all did not care for their friends ages In addition to that, only 25% of the students answered that working with partners of the opposite sex

is better maybe because they knew for sure that in these two classes, men outnumber women even in one class, for instance there are only 3 female students out of 33 students One more thing reveals in this table is 90% (54 out of 60) of the students gave more answers for their wishes in group work They nearly all had the same ideas with one another for the suitability of the partner with the partners They said that any partner was alright as long as he/she matched with them

For the types of group work activities, 100% of the students responded that they liked Games activities, more than 93% of them like to do discussion activities, 78% of them liked problem solving activities meanwhile none of them liked reading along story, and they did not like the conversation activities, debating activities, and cross-grouping and role playing very much

students in these two classes were at the low level of English proficiency so they could not do the debating activities (this is only suitable for the high level of proficiency) and they just wanted to do the practical activities that can help them a lot in the oral test The reason why all of them liked games activities is that they wanted to have an exciting game in their lesson not just

a lecture with only saying and writing as they were so stressed with other subjects such as Concrete Mathematics, High Mathematics, C program etc One very important thing which helps to improve group work activities

is to get the students ideas about what the teachers should do about that It is quite clear that all of them (100%) wanted their teacher to minimize his/her talking time, to create a competitive atmosphere, to give feedback, praise and encouragement and to give clear instruction But 75% (45 out of 60) wanted their teachers not to interrupt when they made mistakes 78% (47 out of 60) would like their teacher to give enough necessary vocabulary and functional language for their activities, 95% added more requirement for the teacher, that

is, the teacher should answer any questions during their group work, translate any words for them into English (not many ideas) and one more funny thing

is that nearly all of them said that the teachers should not give too much homework after the group work activities

2.4The findings

2.4.1 The lack of self-confidence

One obvious problem of first-year students at Hanoi Open University is that they make mistakes and become afraid of speaking and thus they hardly get any practice which would be able to correct their mistakes

Most first-yearstudents are often shy, and afraid that if they make a mistake, other will laugh at them, so they try to avoid speaking English in front of others

Many students confess that they struggle to speak in English, even though they have been studying the language for a long time They still find it hard to speak confidently in front of their classmates This is a result of the fact that students pay attention to learning English to pass examinations, when

in reality; they need to be able to communicate

Other say that they like learning English and their scores are high, but when joining an English club, they feel too shy to speak in front of other peoples In this case, their communication skills are very poor and they are not confident to strike up a conversation Moreover, some students avoid speaking in fronts of other since they are able not to understand fully what others saying then classmates will laugh at them They really want to improve this situation and their spoken English is pretty good but the fears and insecurities are holding them back

The reason for these above-mentioned situations is that first-year students often learn English following traditional methods, so they are very passive They always believe that it is important to study only grammar to pass examinations instead of learning how to develop rapid reactions when communicating

Besides, they have no environment for communication That’s why their listening and speaking skills are poor though in English course, there are lessons that use tapes and CDs to practice listening and speaking skills In

some case, they copy the way their teachers speak, but some teachers mispronounce the word themselves

After observed some first-yearlearners at Hanoi Open University, I found that in some cases, they could gladly say something when chatting in English with someone, but they hold it inside because they were not sure they would get it right In the most extreme cases, they might be avoiding communication because they fear of making mistakes when required

The lack of confidence seems to be one of the largest barriers to students progress in speaking They are always reluctant and passive to stand

up, raise their voice or present in front of other classmates Consequently, they cannot absorb the knowledge as well as develop their English speaking skills

2.4.2 The limitation of vocabulary

According to the definition in Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary (1990), vocabulary is defined as “all the words known and used by

a particular person” Vocabulary has been increasingly recognized as necessary to language use Lack of vocabulary knowledge could lead to student’s difficulties in language reception and production and becomes an obstacle for them to express their ideas in English Vocabulary is the basic for speaking or conversational skills Learning vocabulary is one of the first steps

of learning English

Lacking of vocabulary will make first-year students have difficulties in speaking English It is very important for them because it is the basic skill to speaking English They cannot speak anything when they do not have vocabulary to understand the meanings