DIFFICULTIES IN SPEAKING ENGLISH ENCOUNTERED BY VIETNAMESE SECOND-DEGREE ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS: A CASE OF THOSE AT THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY

Abstract

English is becoming increasingly crucial in this era of globalization and worldwide integration. Fluency in this language helps people obtain better job opportunities and develop themselves in a variety of ways. However, acquiring English is difficult for Vietnamese people who use it as a foreign language, and speaking is one of the most challenging skills to acquire for many language learners, especially for those who are pursuing a second degree in English. For the purpose of discovering and analyzing the difficulties in learning speaking skills faced by second-degree English-majored students at Thu Dau Mot University (TDMU), a mixed-method study of both quantitative and qualitative designs was carried out. The sample included 152 students and 5 lecturers in charge of the speaking courses for these students. With the data collected through the questionnaire survey, the interview, and the observation, the result reveals dominant difficulties commonly encountered by these students with reference to the limitation of vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, students’ personal psychology, and the habit of thinking in Vietnamese while speaking English. The findings of the study are applicable to the process of teaching and learning English speaking skills among second-degree language learners in Vietnamese context.