Abstract
It has been commonly recognized that many Vietnamese students encounter difficulties in communicating and speaking the English language. This study aims to explore the problems influencing university students’ performance in learning English speaking skills. The author carried out this research by surveying 178 English-majored freshmen at Ho Chi Minh City University of Food Industry. The findings from the analyzed quantitative data revealed that the respondents’ difficulties mainly came from internal factors. The internal factors were categorized into five main aspects: overuse of L1, weak listening and pronunciation, lack of topical knowledge and ideas, shyness and nervousness, and fear of mistakes and criticism. Some other external factors having less impact on the students’ speaking performance involved practicing time, the content of the topics, IELTS-oriented speaking tests, and lecturers’ support. This study was expected to help students overcome their internal problems and suggest some recommendations to minimize the undesirable effects of negative factors.
Highlights
1 Vietnam is one of 10 countries belonging to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
According to the EF EPI (English Proficiency Index), which is researched by Education First (EF), Vietnam was ranked 65th among 100 countries and regions in the world (EF, 2021)
The English-majored students have to get an IELTS certificate with band 6.5 or above which is equivalent to B2 level according to CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference)
Summary
1 Vietnam is one of 10 countries belonging to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). According to the EF EPI (English Proficiency Index), which is researched by Education First (EF), Vietnam was ranked 65th among 100 countries and regions in the world (EF, 2021). This EF EPI is constructed on test data from more than two million test takers worldwide who took the EF Standard English Test or one of EF’s English placement tests in 2019 to rank countries and regions by English skills. Vietnam witnessed a gradually declining trend from 2015 to 2020 regarding national English proficiency
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