Khóa luận tốt nghiệp: A study on the effects of learning English speaking skills for non English major students by joining English club at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education

During the process of doing this graduation paper, I have received lots of necessary assistance, precious ideas and timely encouragement from my teachers, family and friends. This paper could not have been completed without the help, encouragement and support from a number of people who all deserve my sincerest gratitude and appreciation.

DECLARATION

I certify my authorship of the study report entitled “A study on the effects of learning English speaking skills for non-English major students by joining English club at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education”.

This graduation paper is the result of my own research and the substance of thisdissertation has not been submitted for a degree to any other university or institutionand that if this declaration is found to be false, disciplinary measures and penaltiescan be taken and imposed in accordance with university policies ad rules

Hung Yen, May 2019

Nguyen Thi Thuy Duong

During the process of doing this graduation paper, I have received lots ofnecessary assistance, precious ideas and timely encouragement from my teachers,family and friends This paper could not have been completed without the help,encouragement and support from a number of people who all deserve my sincerestgratitude and appreciation

First of all, I would like to express my deepest attitude to my supervisor, Dr DoPhuc Huong, who is the English lecturer of Foreign Languages Faculty, for hervaluable guidance, critical feedback, and enormous encouragement Without herincessant support, this research cannot come to this successful closing stage

In addition, I would like to thank all the members of English club at UTEHY forhelping me to complete this research and especially for their cooperation during datacollection process

My sincere thanks go to all the authors of the books, magazines, and othermaterials listed in the reference part for their ideas that have been reflected anddeveloped in the study

Last but not least, I am extremely grateful to my family and friends for their love,great encouragement and unconditional support in the process of writing this thesis

ABSTRACT

The research aims at investigating the learning English speaking skills for English major students by joining English club at Hung Yen University of Technologyand Education, the situation of learning speaking skills, as well as techniques forimproving speaking skills for the non-English majors, at UTEHY

non-The study gives a systematic presentation the key theories related to speakingskills and English clubs The aspects of speaking skills and some difficulties inlearning English speaking skills are also thoroughly discussed

In order to achieve the above objectives, the researcher carried out surveyquestionnaires among 37 non-English major students, and randomly interview 5 non-English major students who are the members of English club (UTEC 3) at UTEHY fortheir perspectives Based on the analysis from above sources of data, the researcherdrew some significant conclusions The results of such research showed that studentsrealized the importance of English and they want to improve their English skillsespecially speaking skills when they join English club

Finally, the findings were discussed, and some suggestions and implications forlearning speaking skills for the non-English majors at Hung Yen University ofTechnology and Education were proposed for both teachers and students

TABLE OF CONTENT

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENT iv

ABBREVIATIONS vii

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES viii

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale of the study 1

1.2 Aims of the study 2

1.3 Research questions 2

1.4 Scope of the study 2

1.5 Methods of the study 2

1.6 Design of the study 2

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 Definition of speaking skills 4

2.2 Aspects of speaking skills 5

2.2.1 Fluency 5

2.2.2 Accuracy 5

2.2.3 Pronunciation 6

2.2.4 Vocabulary 6

2.3 Difficulties in learning English speaking skills 7

2.3.1 Psychological factors 7

2.3.2 Linguistic factors 8

2.3.3 Other factors 10

2.4 English Club 11

2.4.1 The definition of English club 11

2.4.2 The purpose of English club 12

2.4.3 The English club at UTEHY 12

2.5 Summary 13

CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY 14

3.1 The research context 14

3.1.1 The English learning situation at the UTEHY 14

3.1.2 The non- English major students at UTEHY 14

3.2 The participants 15

3.3 Research methods 15

3.4 Data collection instruments 15

3.4.1 The questionnaires 15

3.4.2 The interviews 16

3.5 Data collection procedure 16

3.6 Data analysis 16

3.6.1 The behavior of the students to English speaking skills 17

Chart 1: Students’ frequency of practice English speaking skills in class 17

Table 1: The frequency of students in practice English speaking skills 18

Chart 2: The speaking patterns 18

Chart 3: Students’ response to English speaking lesson 19

Chart 4: The frequency of self-study English speaking skills at home 20

3.6.2 The causes affecting the English speaking skills 20

Table 2: The problems that students often face 21

Chart 5: The most influential element in the interest of students in class 21

3.6.3 The students’ behavior and improvement to English speaking skills after joining English club 22

3.6.3.1 The students’ behavior to English speaking skills after joining English club .22

Chart 6: The reasons that make students want to join English club 22

Table 3: The frequency of students’ joining English club 23

Chart 7: The frequency of using English 23

Chart 8: The levels of speaking topics difficulties in English club 24

3.6.3.2 The students’ improvement to English speaking skills after joining English club 24

Table 4: The improvement of the members in club 25

3.6.4 The suggestions for improving English speaking skills 26

Chart 9: The most interesting activities in the club 26

Table 5: Students’ opinions on the best way to improve English skills 27

3.7 Findings 27

3.7.1 The behavior of the students to English speaking skills 27

3.7.2 The causes affecting the English speaking skills 28

3.7.3 The students’ behavior and improvement to English speaking skills after joining English club 28

3.8 Recommendations 28

3.8.1 Suggestions for teachers 29

3.8.2 Suggestions for students 30

3.9 Summary 32

CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION 33

4.1 The summary of the study 33

4.1.1 The first research question: How do the non-English major students learn English speaking skills? 33

4.1.2 The second research question: What difficulties that non-English major students have faced with before joining the English club? 34

4.1.3 The third research question: What should be done to improve the speaking skill for non-English major students when they join the English club? 34

4.2 The limitations of the study 34

4.3 Suggestions for the further study 35

REFERENCES 36 APPENDIX 1: I APPENDIX 2 IX

ABBREVIATIONS

ESL: English as a Second Language

UTEHY: Hung Yen University of Technology and Education

UTEC 3: Hung Yen University of Technology and Education English Club

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES

1 List of charts

2 List of tables

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

This chapter introduces the rationale, the aims, research questions, the scope, themethodology and the design of the study

Nowadays, it is easy to witness that English is recognized as an internationallanguage and its role has become more and more important in every aspect of lifebecause it is considered as an effective means of international communication invarious fields such as education and training, business and commerce, etc For thisreason, learning English has become more and more urgent towards individuals withthe aim of meeting the requirement of both study and work It is important tool in themodern life

English has been learning widely for a long time in Vietnam However, most of thelearners cannot use English naturally and frequently and they have not achieved thehigh effect in using English to communicate In the high school, English has beenteaching as the compulsory subject, but learners can be aware of the importance oflearning English, they do not put the suitable environment to communicate in English.Most teachers followed all the activities in the course book without adapting anddesigning to be suitable for students’ abilities, levels and needs Although the learnersspend a lot of time learning English, their linguistic competence, especially thespeaking skills, have not been effective As a result, the appropriate choice ofmaterials as well as the language activities is very important for learners to improvelanguage skill

The major purpose of learning English is focusing on the development ofcommunicative approach All the speaking activities are designed with the aim ofhelping students find out the easy way to practice speaking English effectively It isthe fact that students felt bored with the current materials and have no learned how

to speak at time of high school, so their speaking ability is mostly poor Therefore, itshould be having a new environment where student can communicate by English orpractice in order to help students develop the English speaking skills better in dailylife

Thus, it gives the author great motivation to choose the study “A study on theeffects of learning English speaking skills for non-English major students by joiningEnglish club at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education”

The aims of the study are as the following:

- To investigate the situation of the non-English major students in learningspeaking skills

- To find out the difficulties in learning English speaking skills from the studentsbefore joining the English club

- To suggest and recommend some techniques through joining English club fornon-English major students

- How do the non-English major students learn English speaking skills?

- What difficulties that non-English major students have faced with beforejoining the English club?

- What should be done to improve the speaking skill for non-English majorstudents when they join the English club?

The study is about improving speaking skills for non – English major students atHung Yen University of Technology and Education Because of the limitations of timeand knowledge, the shortage of reference materials, this study cannot cover thewhole issue of speaking skills It only focuses on exploring common difficultiesstudents get in speaking skills Moreover, the study could not cover all the non –English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education It isconfined to the non – English major students in UTEC 3 at Hung Yen University ofTechnology and Education

The study will be conducted using quantitative, qualitative methods The studyincludes survey questionnaires and interview questions for non-English majorstudents in UTEC 3 at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education After getting

the data, the researcher will produce the tables and charts for presenting andanalyzing the collected data

The study includes four main chapters, organize as follows:

Chapter 1: Introduction

- Rationale of the study

- Aims of the study

- Research questions

- Scope of the study

- Research methodology

- Design of the study

Chapter 2: Literature review

Theories related to study

- Theoretical background related to English speaking

- Difficulties in English speaking

- Strategies of English speaking skills

- The background of English club

Chapter 3: The study

- Result of the study

- Discussion about the result of study

- Suggestion for teaching and learning

Chapter 4: Conclusion

- Summary of the study

- The limitations of the study

- Suggestions for further studies

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter presents the summarization what conclusions have been reached inliterature and findings closely related to the issue of the paper and providebackground knowledge for better understanding of the rest of the paper such asaspects of speaking skills Then, the author also mention about the background ofEnglish club

2.1 Definition of speaking skills

Speaking is one of the skills that have to be master by students in learning English.There are some definitions of speaking skills below, such as according to Jones(1996;12) states that: “In speaking we tend to be getting something done, exploringideas, working out some aspects of the world, or simply being together” If thestudents speak English fluently that can help them easily to communicate and alsoexplore their idea Speaking English well also helps students to access up-to-dateinformation in fields including science, technology and health and so on

According to Cameron (2001:40) “Speaking is the active use of language toexpress meaning so that other people can make sense of them, therefore, the label ofproductive use of language can be applied to speaking” Brown (2004: 140), defines

“Speaking (skill) as a productive skill that can be directly and empirically observed,those observations are invariably colored by the accuracy and effectiveness of a testtaker’s listening skill, which necessarily compromises the reliability and validity of anoral production test.” It means that speaking is a productive skill, speaking is not justsaying something through speech organs, speaking is thinking how to articulate ourideas through words There are three important points within this definition ofspeaking skills

Firstly, by productive skill means the ability of a person to actively produce thelanguage by coordinating the organs of speech such as the lips, tongue, teeth, vocalcords, larynx, pharynx, etc

Secondly, to express meaning means that the purpose of producing language in verbal communication is to deliver ideas and experiences so that the speaker canconvey meaning to the listener and others

Thirdly, being able to be directly and empirically observe means that theimplementation of speaking can directly heard or see and empirically measured inthe speaking process by looking at the correctness and effectiveness of the speaker

2.2 Aspects of speaking skills

There are various aspects of speaking skills Based on the Brown (2001:268)proposed four aspects of speaking skills namely fluency, accuracy, pronunciation, andvocabulary

2.2.1 Fluency

Fluency is defined as the ability to speak communicatively, fluently andaccurately Fluency usually refers to express oral language freely withoutinterruption In teaching and learning process, if the teacher wants to check students’fluency, the teacher allows students to express themselves freely withoutinterruption Then, the aim of it is to help all students speak fluently and with easily.The teacher does not correct immediately whereas the idea being that too muchcorrection interferes with the flow of conversation (Pollard, 2008:16)

2.2.2 Accuracy

The second aspect is accuracy “Accuracy is the ability to produce correctsentences using correct grammar and vocabulary in natural interaction” (Brown,2001:268) It means that accuracy is gained by allowing the speaker to focus on theelements of grammar, phonology The aspect of accuracy in the speaking class is set

by providing opportunities for the learners to be engaged in the context of daily life.The teacher should give the students communicative tasks and activities such asconversation, role play, games, debates, etc Those kinds of activities can be engagewith the learners in the natural interaction process whenever possible

According to Richards (1992:31), accuracy concerns “the ability to producegrammatically correct sentence.” In other words, accuracy speaking in languagemeans grammatical accuracy only Nevertheless, in Thornbury (2000), the terms

“accuracy” seems to cover more than that Specifically, speaking English accuratelymeans doing without or with few errors on not only grammar but vocabulary andpronunciation, as well He also sets the clear scale for assessment of accuracy:

a) Grammar: Students use correct words order, tenses, tense agreement, etc Students

do not leave out articles, prepositions or difficult tenses

b) Vocabulary: Students have a range of vocabulary that corresponds to the syllabusyear list and uses words you have taught

c) Pronunciation: Students speak and most people understand

2.2.3 Pronunciation

Moreover, the third aspect is related to pronunciation Derwing and Munro (2005)stated that “Having a good pronunciation the language can be helpful in a normalcommunication, particularly for intelligibility” Pronunciation is the way for students

to produce clearer language when they are speaking It means that the student cancommunicate effectively when they have good pronunciation and intonation eventhough they have limited vocabulary and grammar Pronunciation refers to thetraditional or customary utterance of words From that statement can be concludedthat pronunciation is the way for students to produce the utterance words clearlywhen they are speaking (Kline, 2001:69) English pronunciation does not amount tomastery of a list of sounds or isolated words Instead, it amounts to learning andpracticing the specifically English way of making a speaker‘s thoughts easy to follow(Gilbert, 2008:1)

Moreover, pronunciation includes all those aspects of speech which make for aneasily intelligible flow of speech, including segmental articulation, rhythm, intonationand phrasing, and more peripherally even gesture, body language and eye contact(Fraser, 2001:6) Based on the statement above can be concluded that: Pronunciationincludes many aspects that include articulation, rhythm, intonation and phrasing, andmore peripherally even gesture, body language and eye contact

2.2.4 Vocabulary

The fourth aspect is vocabulary It is one of the important aspects in learning aforeign language With limited vocabulary, people will also have a limitedunderstanding in terms of speaking, reading, listening, and writing According to the

Willis (1990: 42) stated that without grammar very little can be conveyed, withoutvocabulary nothing can be conveyed Vocabulary has to do with the appropriatediction which is used in conversation Without having a sufficient vocabulary,someone cannot communicate effectively to express ideas in both oral and writtenforms Vocabulary is essential for successful second language use because without anextensive vocabulary, we will be unable to use the structure and function wemay have learnt for comprehensible communicative It can be said that one key thesuccess in communicative, which is the power of words Vocabulary means theappropriate diction or the most important thing in a language especially in speaking;furthermore, knowing many vocabularies we will be easier to express our ideas,feeling and thoughts both in oral or written form In spoken language, the vocabularytends to be familiar and everyday (Turk, 2003:87) The other words, it means that inspoken language or speaking, the vocabulary used must be very familiar and it is used

in everyday conversation in order to understand the spoken discourse and thewriter believe that vocabulary is foundation of language

2.3 Difficulties in learning English speaking skills

There are many reasons why learning English is difficult, many researchers thinkthat the reason for the psychological problem, cultural barriers, communicationenvironment…makes it difficult for students to improve your speaking skills.Difficulties in language teaching in general and difficulties learning English speakingskills in particular may stem from teachers and students, together with objectivefactors affecting the teaching process

2.3.1 Psychological factors

a Fear of mistakes

As argued by many theorists, fear of mistake becomes one of the main factors ofstudents’ reluctance to speak in English in the classroom (Tsui in Nunan, 1999; Yi Htwe,2007; Robby, 2010) With respect to the fear of making mistake issue, Aftat, (2008) addsthat this fear is linked to the issue of correction and negative evaluation In addition, this isalso much influenced by the students’ fear of being laughed at by other students or beingcriticized by the teacher As a result, students commonly stop participating in the speakingactivity (Hieu, 2011) Therefore, it is important for teachers to convince their students that

making mistakes is not a wrong or bad thing because students can learn from theirmistakes.

b Unconfidence

One of the difficulties in learning speaking English is students’ lack of confidence

He and Chen (2010) state the main cause of students’ confidence is their low ability inspeaking English In this case, as they add, many students think that their English is badand feel that they cannot speak English well The other cause of students’ lack ofconfidence also deals with the lack of encouragement from the teacher (Brown, 2001) As aresult, as Brown adds, students find the learning demotivating rather thanmotivating This suggests that encouragement and showing that they will be able tocommunicate well in English plays a role in students’ success of learning

c Shyness

With regard to the cause of shyness, Bowen (2005) and Robby (2010) argue thatsome shy learners are caused by their nature that they are very quiet In this case, thestudents are not very confident and tend to be shy because most of them find it veryintimidating when speaking English in front of their friends and teachers In addition,Saurik (2011) identifies that most of English students feel shy when they speak thelanguage because they think they will make mistakes when they talk They are alsoafraid of being laughed at by their peers They are afraid of being laughed at by theirfriends due to their low ability in speaking English

d Anxiety

Regarding the cause of anxiety, Horwitz and Cope (1986, in Zhao Na, 2007) based

on the findings of their study, found out three main causes of students’ anxiety that is

to say communication apprehension, test anxiety and fear of negative evaluation Thecommunication apprehension refers to the students’ ability to communicate in thetarget language Their low ability in this aspect, in many cases, causes anxious fellingamong many students The second cause which is test anxiety deals which students’fear of being tested The last cause has to do which other students’ evaluation Inaddition, fear of being evaluated by their teachers is also another factor affectingstudents’ anxiety As suggested by Harmer (2007), to reduce this anxiety of feeling,

a Lack of vocabulary

Vocabulary has been increasingly recognized as necessary to language use Lack ofvocabulary knowledge could lead to students’ difficulties in language reception andproduction and becomes an obstacle for them to express their ideas in English.Vocabulary, as Smith further argues, is the basic for speaking or conversational skill

In this case, the more words students know, the more they can say and understandthings presented, both oral and written, in English

The importance of vocabularies for students has also been argued by sometheorists like Huyen and Nga, (2003) They say that in order to communicate well in aforeign language like English, students should acquire an adequate number of wordsand should also know how to use them accurately This means that teachingvocabulary to the students should also be accompanied by an explanation of each use

of the vocabularies given This kind of opinion is also proposed by Chen (2003, in Heand Chen, 2010) arguing that the knowledge of vocabulary is founded to be a causalaspect in oral communication All these show that mastering more and morevocabularies is important for students in order to speak more frequently in theEnglish class

b Lack of understanding of grammatical pattern

It is argued so far that learning grammar cannot be separated from learning aforeign language In fact, learning foreign language becomes difficult since the targetlanguage has different system from the native language Nunan (2003) says that it hasbeen assumed that the learners’ first language would have a strong influence on theorder in which grammatical items were required.

Due to the different grammar between the mother tongue and foreign language, it

is very often the students find this as an obstacle in their learning to speak English As

it is known, efficient communication cannot take place without correct grammar Thisidea is similar to Opole’s statement (2009) He says that grammar provides studentswith the structure they need in order to organize and put their messages and ideasacross In this sense, they will not be able to convey their ideas to their full extensionwithout a good command of the underlying grammar patterns and structures of thelanguage

c Incorrect pronunciation

It is state that correction and clear pronunciation are important in languagelearning because good pronunciation makes the communication easier to understand.Being unable to pronounce well can cause the students to be poorly perceived andunderstood by others This indicates that paying attention to this linguistic aspect isalso important because students’ low ability in pronunciation can also becomeobstacle for the students to speak

The incorrect pronunciation is often caused by the lack of sound similaritybetween English and the students’ native language In this situation, students wishthat they could speak English fluently but most of them think that English is toochallenging for them to master

Further, Gilbert (2008) states that it is common for students to feel uneasy when theyhear themselves speak with the rhythm of a second language They find that they

“sound foreign” to themselves, and this is troubling for them Although the uneasiness

is usually unconscious, it can be a major barrier to improved clearness in the secondlanguage All these show that allowing students to practice pronouncing words more

in the class is also worth considering

2.3.3 Other factors

a Cultural factors

Cultural factors are those that emerge from students’ prior learning experiences

as well as from expectation that are formed on their basis The American linguistSapir (192, p.60) Maintain that language and culture are dual entities: Culturerepresenting what a society thinks and dose, while its language expresses andembodies the ideas of that society In other words, if a learner expects to speak alanguage well, he must appreciate the way it is used in social contexts Culturalfactors can create students’ learning style They can have effect on students’ learningstyle They can have effect on students’ learning results

b Teaching methods

Teachers have many teaching methods However, they sometimes find it hard toapply communicative language teaching into their teaching Although students(learners) are supposed to be centered in learning, teachers still talk a lot in theirlessons Sometimes, teachers speak the long sentences with some new words and donot explain again Which make students be interrupted by teachers’ words

Many teachers think that they should provide students with all the language theyneed to complete a task In fact, teachers cannot know exactly what language thestudents need to use The other factors, if students make mistakes, many teacherscriticize their errors and teachers rarely or never give any solution It is difficult forstudents to organize their ideas clearly

c Class size

Large classes are considered as a factor that hinder students’ participation inEnglish speaking lessons As Harmer’s opinion (1991) “classrooms that areovercrowded can be excessively demotivating”

Large classes are likely hard challenges for teachers In classes, teachers aredifficult to organize and control activities Moreover, students may get feweropportunities to practice speaking English Many students feel so shy or boredbecause of noisy atmosphere In addition, students’ level also may clarify clearly Ingeneral, in large classes, there are many factors that hinder student to speak English

2.4 English Club

2.4.1 The definition of English club.

An English club is a place for ESL language learners to use English beyond the ESLclassroom and in real life situations In the English club, the students have the chance

to use different skills and discuss a variety of topics English Club not only offered tothe students to learn and discuss a variety of topics in their learning process, but themost important is learning base on the their environment, they are learning English

by doing travel anywhere

Basically, it can say English club is a ―traveling learning, it is in accord with Mustyargument (2013;2) say that mastering a foreign language often involves overseastravel, which can be lengthy and expensive, disrupt schedules, and lead to unfamiliarand sometimes uncomfortable surroundings Furthermore, Musty argue that theEnglish Village (known as EC, ―E cube ) at Kinki‖) at Kinki University in Japan gives its usersopportunities to immerse themselves in an environment that is more authentic thanthat of most language classrooms

2.4.2 The purpose of English club

There are many reasons for creating an English club Students who lackinteraction, motivation in the classroom, because either they are introvert, shy orthey have a low language level, the English club might be a good solution to involvethem with their friends in doing various activities and to make weak student active.The good thing about creating an English club giving chance to students to studyEnglish with fun and it is also a place for students to improve their English Forinstance, students can be given stories and books to enhance their writing skills Theyalso watch films, listen to songs, documentaries, and engage in discussions with theirteacher; they can play games and sports to change the atmosphere and practice thelanguage in funny ways The English club paves the way to students to build up theirpersonality, discover, understand and become themselves and develop their culturalcompetences It makes them aware of the national and international issues andevents; so that they can be useful for themselves and for their community as well as

to develop their sense of citizenship and belonging

2.4.3 The English club at UTEHY (UTEC 3)

This club has built to help students, especially non- English major students, canimprove their English knowledge The club concentrates on developing the Englishspeaking skills to help them be more confident whenever they communicate withtheirs friends or foreigners The clubs also use many different activities while theylearn English, which make students can be more comfortable when they learn a newlanguage They meet once a week

English clubs is an excellent contribution to student life at university when theygive students a chance to practice English in a relaxed, informal environment, and tomeet new people setting

Many English clubs are moderated by English teachers, but this does not

necessarily always have to be the case Students support workers or even students themselves can often make great moderators English club UTEC 3 at UTEHY is an example

The principles of a successful English club:

UTEC 3 also has strategies to achieve the purpose of all the members:

1 Encourage participants to bring in their own content

2 Ask participants questions about their lives

3 Divide participants into small groups to discuss questions or to do activities

4 Use some games or activities to help the members improve their Englishspeaking skills

5 Give participants opportunities to express themselves creatively in English, forexample, through drama, poetry or storytelling or a discussion in English

2.5 Summary

The chapter has presented the relevant literature, which has helped to formthe theoretical can conceptual framework for graduation paper It has talked aboutdifferent aspects relating to the speaking The following chapter will display themethodology and finding of the research under the light of all above

CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY

In this chapter, the researcher will give the full analysis of data collected throughthe survey, questionnaires for teachers, interviews students on the factors affectinglearning English speaking skills for non-English major students by joining Englishclub at UTEHY It shows attempt to answer the three research questions posed at thebeginning of the study

3.1 The research context

3.1.1 The English learning situation at the UTEHY

The required material for general English is the English Club The aim of this club

is to provide students with basic knowledge of grammar, to help them make simpleand daily communication in English However, the students face a great deal ofdifficulties When they are in the class, they do not practice English speaking skillsregularly, and often keep silent in speaking lessons Besides, most of the studentshave not been accustomed to self- study

The students do not have enough language input such as vocabulary,pronunciation, grammatical structures which are very necessary for speaking Thelack of background knowledge also is one of the main causes make them feelunconfident whenever they speak English Moreover, the abundance of games andactivities is the other reason that influences the interest of students in class.Therefore, the students want to join English club to have English environment topractice and they can share and use more activities to improve English speakingskills

3.1.2 The non- English major students at UTEHY

Generally, non- English major students in English club at UTEHY do not have thesame level of English proficiency Most of them have learned English for 10 years atgrade schools; they have started learning English speaking skills 2 years ago Studentsjust concentrate on learning grammar of English to pass the paper test of grammar.Thus, motivation to learning English in class is generally low

3.2 The participants

The English club members at UTEHY are chosen to carry out the research Thegroup includes from 37 non - English major students The students’ ages from 18-22years old, 78 % are male and 22% are female They are from all faculties in Campus 1

at UTEHY

3.3 Research methods

This thesis carried out using quantitative methods and qualitative methods whichhelp the author focus on the collection and analysis of numerical data and statisticsfrom survey questionnaires and interviews for students

3.4 Data collection instruments

Types of data collection instruments are questionnaires and interviews Theinstruments are used to collect data in this study were survey questionnaires andinterviews

Both survey questionnaire and interview questions were designed for students

Part 1: The student’s general information (from question 1 to 3)

Part 2: The behavior of the students to English speaking skills (from question 4 to 7).Part 3: The causes affecting the English speaking skills (from question 8, 9)

Part 4: The students’ behavior and improvement to English speaking skills afterjoining English club (from question 10 to 15)

Part 5: The suggestions for improving English speaking skills (question 16, 17)

3.4.2 The interviews

The questions for individual interviews participated by 5 students who arerandomly chosen among the participants All of them agree to help the researcherhelpfully and comfortably This aims to collect student’s ideas about the factorsaffecting the English speaking skills and suggestions to improve it There are openedquestions designed according to the aims of the study The data collection suppliesthe information about the fact learning in English speaking skills of non-English majorstudents who are members in English club at UTEHY

+ The behavior of students about English speaking skills

+ The difficulties in English speaking skills

+ The effects of mentioned techniques

+ The recommendation techniques from students

After the interview, the researcher based on the interview results to analyze the data.The interview results will be recorded carefully The interview data analysis will bepresented with the collected data from the questionnaire in each part

3.5 Data collection procedure

All the data collected from the survey questionnaires and interviews wereanalyzed They provided the basic elements to help the author design the mostsuitable extra speaking skills to the club

Data collected from the questionnaires will be divided which match with theresearcher questions The qualitative data from closed questions will be presented ofcharts or tables and the qualitative data from open – ended will be showed in theform of list

Data from interviews will be presented by analyzing and discussing relevantresponses from the participants

3.6 Data analysis

This study, as indicated in Chapter I, was intended to find out the effects oflearning English speaking skills for non-English major students by joining Englishclub at UTEHY In this section, the data collected from the questionnaires andinterviews were presented and interpreted

3.6.1 The behavior of the students to English speaking skills

The 37 copies of the questionnaire delivered to the learners The data areanalyzed in this part of the study in the below tables and charts which show theresponses for the questions in the questionnaires

- Question 4 in the questionnaires bring a result that according to students’behavior, their frequency of practice English speaking skills in class just stopped at

sometimes and rarely.

Chart 1: Students’ frequency of practice English speaking skills in class

Statistics collected from Chart 1 shows that the most students polled (49%) that

they sometimes practice English speaking skills, besides 30% of them rarely use English and 5% of students never practise in English lessons But only 5% of the students always speak English and 10% often use English Basing on the collected

data from chart 1, most students in English club at UTEHY practise English inspeaking lessons irregularly

Question 1: How often do you practise English speaking skills in class?

Below is the result when the author interviewed five students the same question

in the interview:

Table 1: The frequency of students in practice English speaking skills

5 members in English club were interviewed about the frequency of practice

English speaking skills in class 80% of them said that they rarely practise in class, and the last percentage admit that they often using English in speaking lesson, but

individually In the addition, they also said that because the others members in class

do not want to practise, they do not have the partners and the motivation to practicespeaking English

When they were interviewed about the importance of speaking skills, 100%students agree that it is the most important skills that help them communicate insociety and find out a good career and they want to improve it seriously

- Question 5 provides the information about the partners that they oftenpractise English speaking skills in the class

Almost the students sometimes practise English in the speaking lesson, thereforethese activities are required by the teachers, but they only choose some activities that

has narrow range 38% of the students practise speaking English individually, and

41% of them using English to practise with their partners Meanwhile, the percentage

of small group work and whole class are smaller, which are corresponded with 16%

Chart 2: The speaking patterns

It can be certain that putting students to work in pair or group will increase thestudents’ participation in speaking lesson

- Question 6: the purpose of this question is finding the students’ responses toEnglish speaking lesson

Practise with interest Keep silent Ignore Sleep 0%

Chart 3: Students’ response to English speaking lesson

As illustrated in chart 3, more than half of students (57%) say that they only keep silent when the teacher provide the knowledge about English speaking lesson, and 11% choose ignore the lesson Only 32% respond that they are greatly interested in practice It means that only 32% of students who interact with the teachers when

they are teaching

- Question 7: To show the frequency of self-study at home about Englishspeaking skills, the fourth question in the questionnaire is designed to find out theirbehavior to the practice English

It can be seen clearly from the chart 4, the percentage of students who alwayspractise English at home is lowest (3%) In contrast, the proportion of the students

admit they sometimes or rarely practise English speaking skills at home which are corresponded with 35% and 30%, especially 5% of them never practise at home While only nearly one third of the participants say that they often practise at home

Often Sometimes

Rarely Never

Chart 4: The frequency of self-study English speaking skills at home

3.6.2 The causes affecting the English speaking skills

- Question 8 was designed to find out the difficulties that non-English majorstudents often face when they learn English speaking skills

The difficulty in learning speaking, which almost students make, is the lack of language input (81%) They do not have enough vocabulary as well as grammatical

structures when talking about any topics Three others reasons which cause

difficulties in speaking English are unconfident (59%), lack of expressing their idea (41%), spending time transfer new words from Vietnamese in to English (35%).

I do not know how to pronounce sounds: s, sh, f, k, p, t, ch, th, 24%

I can not express my idea and exchange information whenever I speak

The class atmosphere is not good, such as: too noisy, no one wants to