Tran Q. Thao, Dang T. N. Nguyet.

Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of Science, 9(2), 53-64 53

Four aspects of English speaking difficulties encountered

by tertiary English-majored students
Tran Quoc Thao1*, Dang Thi Nhu Nguyet1
1
Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HUTECH), Vietnam
*
Corresponding author: [email protected]

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

DOI:10.46223/HCMCOUJS. Being able to speak English well is one of the outcomes for
soci.en.9.2.261.2019 English training programs in different teaching and learning
contexts. Nevertheless, there are many factors affecting the
achievement of a high level of English speaking skills. One of
rd
Received: November 3 , 2019 these factors is derived from English speaking difficulties that
th
Revised: December 6 , 2019 ESL/EFL learners have to endure. This study, therefore, attempts
Accepted: December 13th, 2019 to investigate the four aspects of speaking difficulties, namely
affective, social, instructional and linguistic difficulties
encountered by English-majored students at one university in Ho
Chi Minh City, Vietnam. One hundred and fifty participants were
involved in answering the questionnaire. The results showed that
Keywords:
English-majored students’ speaking abilities were often affected
affective difficulties, by speaking difficulties. The aspect they experienced most was
English-majored students,
instructional difficulties, affective difficulties while the least was instructional difficulties.
linguistic difficulties, social The findings also revealed that the number of years spent learning
difficulties English also affected English-majored students’ speaking skills.

1. Introduction
Speaking is obviously one of the most challenging but important skills for ESL/EFL
learners (Brown, 1994; Tran & Tham, 2015; Ur, 1999). Therefore, the communicative
competence in most English training programs is emphasized as one of the learning outcomes.
However, EFL learners in many countries including Vietnam cannot communicate in English
well due to various reasons, both internally and externally. Most popular reasons hindering EFL
learners from speaking English well are the difficulties encountered by learners during their
English speaking process.
With respect to the speaking difficulties, different researchers (Aleksandrzak, 2011;
Hojat & Afghari, 2013; Shumin, 1997; Tran & Dang, 2014) have confirmed that ESL/EFL
learners of different levels face a variety of difficulties in their speaking English. They may
face both linguistic and non-linguistic problems in grammar, vocabulary, affective factors, and
so on. As stated by Shumin (1997) and Tran and Nguyen (2019), speaking is a stressful skill
for learners because not only do they need grammar and philological knowledge but they also
need knowledge of the socially appropriate language.
English-majored students of the current research also confront a number of difficulties
54 Tran Q. Thao, Dang T. N. Nguyet. Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of Science, 9(2), 53-64

in speaking English. However, such English speaking difficulties are only observed and not yet
confirmed by any research. Accordingly, this study aims at investigating the difficulties in
speaking English faced by English-majored students at one university in Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam. The research questions are formed as follows:
1. What are English speaking difficulties encountered by tertiary English-majored
students in Vietnam?
2. Does the number of years spent learning English affect the English-majored students’
ability to speak English? If yes, how?
2. Literature review
Many researchers (Aleksandrzak, 2011; A-Hosni, 2014; Juhana, 2012; Nguyen & Tran,
2015; Ur, 1999) have addressed different aspects of English speaking difficulties, namely
affective difficulties, social difficulties, instructional difficulties, and linguistic difficulties.
Affective difficulties
One of the most essential difficulties of language learning achievement is the affective
side of the learner. Learners’ affective difficulties include fear of making mistakes, shyness,
loss of self-confidence, and anxiety. According to Juhana (2012, p. 101), psychological or
affective factors often discourage students from speaking English such as being afraid of
mistakes, shyness, lowering anxiety, lack of confidence and lack of enthusiasm. Nguyen and
Tran (2015) list many factors related to affective issues, which result in speaking difficulties.
Firstly, inhibition is the concept related to or incorporated under the conception of self-esteem.
Secondly, anxiety plays a main role in the verbal communication of English-majored students.
Anxiety is defined as “feeling of uneasiness, frustration, self-doubt, apprehension or worry”
(Brown, 1994, p. 141). It is associated with unlike kinds of nervousness such as anxiety of
looking ludicrous, the anxiety of the anticipation coming from an auditor’s empty look viewing
that they are unsuccessful to converse (Beebe, 1983). Shumin (1997) deduces that speaking a
foreign language in a community, exceptionally in the presence of natural speakers, is often
anxiety-provoking. Intense anxiety sometimes arises when students become tongue-tied for
words in an unanticipated state which frequently leads to disappointment and an overall
intelligence failure. She also adds that students are afraid of the fact that other people would
like to know how expert they are when they speak English. They are very careful about not
making mistakes in what they say, for making mistakes would be a community presentation of
unawareness, which would make them “lose face” in some cultures. Obviously, the compassion
of ESL/EFL learners to making errors, or anxiety of ‘face losing” has meant their incapability
to speak English well. Finally, ESL/EFL learners have no reasons to direct themselves because
they lack the enthusiasm to speak English. They have no idea about the message they want to
convey when speaking English. Furthermore, students’ enthusiasm is impacted by both inside
and outside issues. Interior enthusiasm is students’ self-motivation whereas exterior motivation
comes from other parties excluding self-regulation strategies.
Social difficulties
Ethnic physical characteristics of a language also involve second or foreign language
learning, especially English. Carrasquillo (1994, p. 55) states that “shared values and beliefs
create the traditions and social structures that bind a community together and are expressed in
their language”. Therefore, to speak a language, one must know how the language is used in a
 Tran Q. Thao, Dang T. N. Nguyet. Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of Science, 9(2), 53-64 55

community setting. It is well known that each language has its own guidelines of control as to
when and how. Berns (1990) ascertains that a speaker may execute a given oral way with his
or her exchange collaborator. Because of the inspiration of their own national averages, it is
hard for nonnative speakers to select the forms suitable to certain conditions.
Reluctance to speak can also be derived from expectations about the roles that teachers
and students should play during classroom instruction. Tsui (1996) realizes that Asian students
may be nervous not to show verbal success in front of their peers, expected to a scheduled
feature of diffidence. In Asian cultures, teachers and students play very stringent roles that are
seldom infringed. Scollon and Scollon (1990) state that the norms of classroom contribution
require students to receive an appreciation of what is taught and keep silent even when explicitly
asked to speak by the teacher. The non-Western classrooms are described by the teacher
assuming an oration style of teaching and the student listening and taking notes in quietness.
Few class discussions are conducted, and learners are not supposed to interpose the teacher to
ask a question because that is regarded as offensive.
Instructional difficulties
In teaching speaking to ESL/EFL learners, it is necessary for the instructor and learners
to interrelate with each other to portion knowledge and to sequence practicing speaking as one
of the original skills to develop proficiency in collaborating with English. Nawshin (2009) states
a number of reasons about teachers’ instructional methods that can lead to English speaking
difficulties, for example, teacher’s speaking time, use of the mother tongue in the classroom
and teachers’ low command in speaking English.
Linguistic difficulties
ESL/EFL learners frequently have difficulties in language development because of the
gaps in their language collection. One of the most problems that learners face is associated to
their linguistic knowledge which refers to their incongruous association and structural
acquaintance. They lack grammatical knowledge because they do not have enough basic
English consciousness or they have not learned about it.
To sum up, aspects of English speaking difficulties may be varied but the current
research focuses on four big aspects, namely affective difficulties, social difficulties,
instructional difficulties, and linguistic difficulties, which form the theoretical framework of
this study. These aspects of English speaking difficulties are chosen for this study because they
can be found in the literature review. Additionally, they are seen to cover all areas of English
speaking difficulties by English-majored students in the research context.
3. Research methodology
3.1. Research setting and sample
This quantitative research was conducted at a university in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
The faculty of the English language has over 1,500 students, and each class has about 35 to 40
students. The students study the four English skills throughout the four years at university. For
the Bachelor training program for English-Majored students, all students are required to
complete eight semesters of English skills including listening, speaking, reading and writing.
The English-majored students have already learned Listening and Speaking 1, 2, 3 in the first
year and listening and Speaking 4, and Public speaking in the second year. These subjects are
taught by Vietnamese and foreign lecturers during 45 periods. At the end of the course, English-
56 Tran Q. Thao, Dang T. N. Nguyet. Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of Science, 9(2), 53-64

majored students have an individual verbal test with their lecturers. They would talk directly
with the instructor on a certain topic.
Taking part in the present research are 150 English-majored students (26 males and 124
females). The students have already learned the public speaking course in the second year. This
would be an advantage to investigate their speaking difficulties. Table 1 shows the background
information of participants.
Table 1
Background information about participants
N=150
No. Information
F %
Male 26 17.3
1 Gender
Female 124 82.7
Under 5 0 0
5–7 57 38.0
2 Number of English learning years
8 – 10 51 34.0
Over 10 42 28.0
Excellent 0 0
Good 11 7.3
3 Self-rated overall English proficiency Fair 60 40.0
Average 63 42.0
Poor 16 10.7
Less than 1 78 52.0
4
Number of hours per day spent on 1-3 64 42.7
practicing speaking English More than 3-5 5 3.3
More than 5 3 2.0
Note: F: frequency; %: percentage
Source: The researcher’s data analysis
Table 1 shows an unequal number in the gender of participants including 17.3% males
and 82.7% females. Obviously, none of them had learnt English less than 5 years with 57
participants (38%) learning English for more than 5 years, 51 (34.0%) from 8 to 10 years, and
42 (28.0%) for over 10 years. Regarding overall English proficiency, respondents self-rated
their English proficiency as average level (42%), fair (40%), poor (10.7%), good (7.3%), and
none at an excellent level. In respect of time allocated to practice speaking English, it is noticed
that 78 participants (52.0%) spent less than 1 hour per day; 64 (42.7%) from 1 to 3 hours; 5
(3.3%) from 3 to 5 hours; and only 3 out of 150 (2.0%) practiced speaking English more than
5 hours a day.
3.2. Research instrument
A closed-ended questionnaire was designed based on the theoretical framework in the
literature review and consists of two main parts: Part A and Part B. The former includes
questions about the background information of respondents. The latter of 12 questions about
English speaking difficulties are divided into four groups including affective difficulties (items
1-3), social difficulties (items 4-6), instructional difficulties (items 7-10) and linguistic
difficulties (items 11-12). All the items in Part B are designed in a 5-point Likert-scale of 1=
 Tran Q. Thao, Dang T. N. Nguyet. Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of Science, 9(2), 53-64 57

Never; 2= Rarely; 3= Sometimes; 4= Often; 5= Always. The Cronbach's Alpha of the

questionnaire is .77, and the elements of the questionnaire are affective difficulties (.83), social
difficulties (.76), instructional difficulties (.70), and linguistic difficulties (.65). This means that
the questionnaire was highly reliable to be used for collecting data.
3.3. Data collection and analysis
Before being administered to respondents, all questions in the questionnaire were
translated into Vietnamese. It was then piloted to a group of 10 students who had similar
characteristics to those in the main study. This is to ensure the validity of the questionnaire in
terms of layout and content. The official questionnaire was administered in person to 168
students, but only 150 respondents returned the questionnaire. It took respondents from10 to12
minutes to finish answering the questionnaire.
As far as the data analysis is concerned, the five-point Likert-scale from strongly
disagree to strongly agree was interpreted in relation to mean (M) score as follows: Never (M=
1.00 - 1.80); Rarely (M= 1.81 - 2.60); Sometimes (M= 2.61 - 3.40); Often (M= 3.41 - 4.20);
Always (M= 4.21 - 5.00). The data attained from the questionnaire were analyzed using SPSS
19.0 in which descriptive statistics in terms of mean and standard deviation were produced to
examine how regularly the students encountered the given speaking difficulties. In addition, the
ANOVA was employed to find out the differences in English speaking difficulties in terms of
English-majored students’ number of English learning years.
4. Results and discussion
4.1. Results
4.1.1. English-majored students’ English speaking difficulties
As seen in Table 2, the overall mean of difficulties in speaking English encountered by
English-majored students was 2.91 out of 5. This can be interpreted that participants often faced
difficulties when speaking English.
Table 2
English speaking difficulties

N=150
12 items
M SD
English speaking difficulties 2.91 .61
Note: M: mean; SD: Standard deviation
Source: The researcher’s data analysis
With respect to four elements of English speaking difficulties, results in Table 3 indicate
that the mean score of element affective difficulties is 3.46 (SD=.96), followed by social
difficulties (M=3.05; SD=.84) and linguistic difficulties (M=2.80; SD=99). The element with
the lowest mean score is instructional difficulties (M=2.34; SD=.81). This means that English
- majored students often suffered affective difficulties when speaking English, and they
sometimes endured social difficulties and linguistic ones. Nonetheless, they rarely experienced
instructional difficulties in speaking English.
58 Tran Q. Thao, Dang T. N. Nguyet. Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of Science, 9(2), 53-64

Table 3
Elements of English speaking difficulties encountered by English-Majored students

N=150

M SD

Affective difficulties 3.46 .96

Social difficulties 3.05 .84

Instructional difficulties 2.34 .81

Linguistic difficulties 2.80 .99

Note: M: mean; SD: Standard deviation

Source: The researcher’s data analysis
Specifically, Table 3 reveals the similarity in mean scores of three items of affective
difficulties. The participants reported they were often “anxious” (item 3: M=3.49; SD=1.07)
and “of low self-confidence in speaking English” (item 2: M=3.45; SD=1.11). Furthermore,
they often “fear of making mistakes” (item 1: M=3.45; SD=1.13). In other words, English-
majored students seem to undergo many negative feelings when speaking English at relatively
high frequency.
Table 4
English-majored students’ English speaking difficulties in terms of affective difficulties

N=150
No. Items
M SD

1 I fear of making mistakes. 3.45 1.13

2 I am of low self-confidence in speaking English. 3.45 1.11

3 I am anxious when I am speaking English. 3.49 1.07

Note: M = mean; SD = standard deviation

Source: The researcher’s data analysis
Regarding social difficulties, Table 5 displayed that research participants often “have
difficulty in finding opportunities to practice speaking English outside the classroom” (item 4:
M=3.49; SD=1.12). Meanwhile, they sometimes “cannot cooperate with [their] classmates in
speaking class” (item 5: M=2.89; SD=1.17), and “the speaking English class [sometimes] is not
useful enough for [them] to communicate in English with others” (item 6: M=2.77; SD=1.09).
It may be understood that the opportunities for English-majored students to practice speaking
English outside the classroom are less than those inside classrooms.
 Tran Q. Thao, Dang T. N. Nguyet. Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of Science, 9(2), 53-64 59

Table 5
English-majored students’ English speaking difficulties in terms of social difficulties

N=150
No. Items
M SD

4 I have difficulty in finding opportunities to practice speaking English outside

3.49 1.12
classroom.

5 I cannot cooperate with my classmates in speaking class. 2.89 1.17

6 The speaking English class is not useful enough for me to communicate in

2.77 1.09
English with others.

Note: M = mean; SD = standard deviation

Source: The researcher’s data analysis
Table 6 indicated that research participants’ speaking difficulty was rarely affected by
their instructors’ teaching methods. Specifically, their speaking was rarely affected by their
“instructors’ harsh error correction” (item 8: M=2.66; SD=1.07), “instructors’ overuse of L1 in
speaking class” (item 7: M=2.49; SD=1.10), “instructors’ low command of English speaking
skills” (item 9: M=2.13; SD=1.07), and “instructors’ low encouraging me to speak English”
(item 10: M=2.08; SD=1.04).
Table 6
English-majored students’ English speaking difficulties in terms of instructional difficulties
N=150
No. Items
M SD

7 I cannot speak English much due to my instructors’ overuse of L1 in

2.49 1.10
speaking class.

8 I cannot speak English much due to my instructors’ harsh error correction. 2.66 1.07

9 I cannot speak English much due to my instructors’ low command of

2.13 1.07
English speaking skills.

10 I cannot speak English much due to my instructors’ low encouraging me to

2.08 1.04
speak English.

Note: M = mean; SD = standard deviation

Source: The researcher’s data analysis
The results in Table 7 show that English-majored students sometimes did not have
enough “English vocabulary” (item 11: M=2.85; SD=1.07) and “English grammar knowledge”
(item 12: M=2.74; SD=1.21) to communicate in English with others. In other words, linguistic
difficulties, to a certain extent, inhibit participants’ progress in speaking English.
60 Tran Q. Thao, Dang T. N. Nguyet. Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of Science, 9(2), 53-64

Table 7
English-majored students’ English speaking difficulties in terms of linguistic difficulties
N=150
No. Items
M SD
11 I do not have enough English vocabulary. 2.85 1.07
12 I do not have enough English grammar knowledge. 2.74 1.21
Note: M = mean; SD = standard deviation
Source: The researcher’s data analysis
4.1.2. Difference in English-majored students’ English speaking difficulties
In terms of years of learning English, the results presented in Table 8 indicate that there
was no significant difference in English speaking difficulties regardless of how many years
English-majored students have spent learning English (F=1.590; p=.207). Nevertheless, if
elements of English speaking difficulties are taken into account, there were significant
differences in affective difficulties (F=3.046; p=.036) and linguistic difficulties (F=3.565;
p=.031), but no significant differences in social difficulties (F=.245; p=.783) and instructional
difficulties (F=1.264; p=.286). At this point, the Post hoc Tukey test was run to clarify the
differences among the year groups.
Table 8
Difference in English-majored students’ English speaking difficulties in terms of years spent
learning English
M(SD)
Factors F Sig.
5-7 years 8-10 years Over 10 years
Affective difficulties 3.046 .036* 3.64 (.96) 3.52(.89) 3.15(.97)
Social difficulties .245 .783 3.10(.84) 3.05(.73) 2.98(.94)
Instructional difficulties 1.264 .286 2.25(.83) 2.30(.74) 2.51(.82
Linguistic difficulties 3.565 .031* 3.02(1.01) 2.79(1.05) 2.49(.78)
Overall 1.590 .207 3.00(.64) 2.92(.59) 2.78(.59)
*
The mean difference is significant at .05
Source: Data analysis result of research
As seen from Table 9 the results from the Post hoc Tukey test with significance at the
.05 level reveal that the participants who have learned English from 5 to 7 years (M=3.64;
SD=.96) suffered affective difficulties more than those learning English for over 10 years
(M=3.15; SD=.97) (p=.031). Similarly, the participants who have learned English from 5 to 7
years (M=3.02; SD=.1.01) also encountered linguistic difficulties more than those having
learned English for over 10 years (M=2.49; SD=.78) (p=.023). This can be referred that the
longer English-majored students have learned English, the less affective difficulties and
linguistic difficulties they had to endure when speaking English.
 Tran Q. Thao, Dang T. N. Nguyet. Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of Science, 9(2), 53-64 61

Table 9
Post hoc Tukey test

(I) years of (J) years of Mean

Std.
Dependent Variable Learning Learning Difference Sig.
Error
English English (I-J)

8-10 .122 .181 .779

5-7
over 10 .492 .192 .031*
5-7 -.122 .181 .779
Affective difficulties 8-10
over 10 .370 .197 .150
5-7 -.492 .192 .031*
over 10
8-10 -.370 .197 .150
8-10 .223 .187 .457
5-7
over 10 .529 .198 .023*
5-7 -.223 .187 .457
Linguistic difficulties 8-10
over 10 .306 .204 .293
5-7 -.529 .198 .023*
over 10
8-10 -.306 .204 .293
*
The mean difference is significant at the .05 level
Source: Data analysis result of research
4.2. Discussion
This study has yielded two significant results. Firstly, the overall findings have revealed
that English-majored students’ speaking abilities were often affected by difficulties. One of the
possible reasons may be that they often spend time practicing their speaking skills. Their
background information reveals that they allocate at least 1 hour per day to self-practice English
speaking skills (as seen in Table 1), and some of them even spend more than 3 hours per day
practicing speaking skills.
As for English speaking difficulties, English-majored students were most affected by
affective difficulties but least influenced by instructional difficulties when speaking English. It
may be agreed that personal affective traits such as anxiety, low self-confidence and mistake-
phobia are humane natural traits, and they are intrinsic personal traits. That may be why
English-majored students were most influenced by affective difficulties when speaking English.
This finding is partly similar to that of Juhana (2012) which considers affective difficulties as
factors often hindering students from speaking English. In line with this, Xiuqin (2006) also
confirmed that English-majored students face speaking difficulties such as being afraid of
making mistakes, fear of public speaking, and shyness of speaking. Meanwhile, instructional
difficulties such as instructors’ L1 overuse, harsh error correction, low command of English
speaking skills and low encouragement are extrinsic motivations. It may be obvious that such
difficulties do not hinder students from speaking English in class. Or it may be the fact that
research participants’ instructors may not overuse L1, correct students’ errors harshly, have low
command of English speaking skills and encourage students to speak English, so they do not
experience such difficulties while speaking English.
62 Tran Q. Thao, Dang T. N. Nguyet. Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of Science, 9(2), 53-64

Furthermore, social and linguistic difficulties affected students’ speaking skills

moderately. Regarding social difficulties, English-majored students often lacked opportunities
to practice speaking English outside the classroom, but they sometimes had difficulty in
cooperating with their class in speaking class. This is understandable because English is used
as a foreign language in Vietnam, so there are few opportunities for the students to practice
speaking English outside the classroom and the personal traits as discussed above entail their
cooperation with others in speaking class. With respect to linguistic difficulties, this type of
difficulty is obviously bearable as English-majored students can cope with such difficulties.
One reason is that many English-majored students seem to possess at least an average level of
English proficiency, so they do not suffer many difficulties in terms of linguistic difficulties.
This finding is contrary to Atas’ (2014) discovery that students often encountered English
speaking difficulties due to lack of vocabulary limited grammar.
The second major finding is that the extent to which English-majored students have
difficulty in speaking English depends on the length of English learning time. The more they
have learned English, the less English speaking difficulties they suffered. One of the possible
explanations for this may be that when learning English long enough, English-majored students
may find appropriate learning strategies to overcome such English speaking difficulties. They
may become more confident, less anxious and less afraid of making mistakes in speaking
English. In addition, they may have good linguistic knowledge to avoid mistakes and errors
while speaking English. It may be claimed that speaking difficulties do not hinder English-
majored students much from speaking English if they have learned English long enough.
5. Conclusion
This study has indicated that English-majored students often experience speaking
difficulties, and such speaking difficulties can vary in terms of the length of English learning time.
Therefore, it is imperative that English-majored students should seek out or create more
opportunities to practice speaking English more often as practice makes perfect. Furthermore,
students should be self-motivated to look for chances to speak English wherever and whenever
possible, for example taking part in classroom activities such as pair-work, group work, class
discussions, joining English clubs, making friends with better learners and native speakers,
traveling to the country where English is spoken natively, and so on. Besides, students should
take risks wisely to present a difficult topic in front of the class or bravely choose a difficult task.
They need to realize that making some mistakes in speaking English is the natural phenomenon
of any non-native speaker of English, especially learners of English at the early stage. When
students are brave enough to overcome their inhibitions to start speaking English once, they will
feel more confident and use English more often. As a result of that, they may improve their
speaking English competence remarkably. One more thing is that the computer is not strange to
students and many of them can own a PC or laptop nowadays, so they should use sound recorder
software to record their voice and evaluate it with the native speaker’s voice. Students should put
more effort into practicing English sounds. Consequently, some mistakes can be recognized,
corrected and their pronunciation will be improved significantly. Regarding recommendations to
teachers, they should allow students to talk about their English speaking difficulties, ask
questions, and share good-experience or effective ways of learning English that they have tried.
The teachers should make clear about their sympathetic behavior to weak students so that they
 Tran Q. Thao, Dang T. N. Nguyet. Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of Science, 9(2), 53-64 63

dare to confide to teachers about their problems. Teachers should move around the class, talk to
students to find out some weak students and help them overcome their inferior complex. Thanks
to the teacher’s encouragement, weak students can feel more confident in communicating with
their peers in English. The more English-majored students speak English, the more confident they
feel. The more confident they feel, the more English they will use.
This study still bears some limitations. Firstly, the research design is pure quantitative
research. Secondly, only one research instrument, a questionnaire, was employed to collect the
data. Last but not least, the number of research participants is, to some extent, small. Therefore,
further and duplicated research should take such limitations into account

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