A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES IN PARTS THREE AND FOUR OF THE END OF COURSE ORAL TEST FACED BY FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AND SOME SOLUTIONS

Abstract

Nowadays, English is the most popular language in many countries all over the
 world. It is used as an official language in many fields such as economics,
 politics, science, technology, sports, entertainment and many others.
 Moreover, it has also become a compulsory subject in the curriculum of many
 worldwide schools, colleges and universities. However, it is not easy to study
 and employ a foreign language. Particularly, in all four basic language skills,
 Speaking skill can be considered to be a significant one which requires
 learners to spend very much time learning and practising and most students
 face difficulties when presenting their ideas as well as expressing opinions in
 English, especially in the End of Course Oral test. This research therefore aims
 at studying the first-year English-majored student‟s problems in taking part in
 Part three and Part four in the End of Course Oral test at University of Foreign
 Language Studies - The University of Danang. This study also tries to find out
 the useful strategies to help first-year students to overcome these issues. The
 sample of the study consisted of 100 students at Faculty of English, University
 of Foreign Language Studies - The University of Danang. The research uses
 questionnaires, interviews and documents related to the issue as the tools of
 data collection in order to analyse difficulties and problems encountered when
 students take part in Parts three and four in the End of Course Oral test of the
 first-year students, Faculty of English, University of Foreign Language Studies
 - The University of Danang. The results of this study revealed that the
 students at Faculty of English, UFL - UDN face many problems related to the
 End of Course Oral test of English Integrated Skills B1.2, particularly Part 3
 and Part 4 such as Lack of Vocabulary, Lack of Grammar, Lack of Coherence
 and Fluency, Poor Pronunciation, Insufficient knowledge or experience on
 some topics, Poor Communication skills in English, Poor analytical and problem
 solving skills and Lack of Confidence when Speaking. This study also
 presented some of appropriate solutions for students to overcome these
 difficulties in the End of Course Oral test and improve the weakness in
 Speaking skill such as practicing speaking English inside and outside the
 classroom effectively, using the modern social media to communicate in
 English.