An investigation into the factors that hinder the participation of the second-Year english-major students in english speaking lessons at thuong mai university

and 
read. 90% the EFL students reported the linguistic 
factor as their most-impeding psychological 
problem in speaking classes. It seems that the EFL 
students were aware of their poor pronunciation 
and the EFL instructors also believed their EFL 
students did not possess a good command of 
English pronunciation. The instructors might 
not thus need to raise their EFL students’ 
awareness of their pronunciation problems any 
more. Moreover, the EFL instructors believed 
that their EFL students thought in Vietnamese 
when they spoke in English, a problem which 
becomes readily evident if one teaches English 
as a foreign language in Vietnam, even for just a 
short period, due to mother tongue interference. 
6. RECOMMENDATION 
6.1. Helping students to improve their 
knowledge of grammar and enrich their 
vocabulary
The research findings point out that the majority of 
the students found it hard to carry out their speaking 
tasks because of their poor vocabulary, ideas and 
knowledge relating to the speaking topics. Thus, 
the teachers should find out the speaking topics 
which suit for students’ language level. With such 
a topic, it is quite easy for students to speak and 
express their opinions. Moreover, teachers have to 
create a competitive atmosphere for the students 
to use new words and structures in speaking 
activities. Last but not least, teachers must find 
other materials relevant to students’ interest, 
provide students with vocabulary, structures and 
information students need.
6.2. Managing speaking turns suitably 
Some students in class are often hesitant or anxious 
about speaking the target language and some others 
usually tend to dominate classroom activities. 
These differences are caused by personality 
traits. Teachers, therefore, should balance 
students’ speaking turns. To balance students’ 
speaking turns, at first, we give simple and clear 
instructions so that students understand what they 
are supposed to do. Secondly, teachers should be 
patient when listening to students’ speaking. They 
also need to give students opportunities and time 
to practice and raise their voices freely. Students 
are encouraged to ask questions, give suggestions, 
share ideas, and tell stories. Teachers, furthermore, 
should ask students to prepare speaking tasks at 
home carefully. By this way, teachers will help 
the anxious students have more time to prepare 
vocabulary, structures relating to the speaking 
topics and make them more confident in their own 
ability. 
6.3. Helping students to be confident
The findings of the study show that students felt 
reluctant to speak due to lack of confident. Most 
of them felt shy to speak English in class. The 
teachers, therefore, should try to understand their 
shyness to help them have more confidence when 
practising English in front of the class. Firstly, to 
reduce students’ anxieties teachers must create 
an atmosphere in which they feel comfortable 
96 KHOA HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ QUÂN SỰNo. 19 (5/2019)
v DISCUSSION
“thinking out-loud,” taking intellectual risks, 
asking questions, and admit when students do not 
know anything. Moreover, teachers should point 
out students’ speaking ability, give encouragement 
so that they will have no fear to speak. They, also, 
let students choose topics and partner to discuss. 
This would result in comfortable discussion and it 
is easier for students to express their own opinions 
confidently.
6.4. Being enthusiastic, friendly, helpful and 
tolerant
Teachers’ characteristics are decisive factors 
to increase students’ participation. Teachers’ 
enthusiasm, friendliness, helpfulness and 
tolerance will create students’ interest in speaking 
English. So, teachers must pay attention to the shy 
and nervous students. The friendly, sympathetic 
attitude of a teacher to a class brings out the 
best effect on both teaching and learning. In the 
classroom, the teacher is the source of information, 
the adviser or sometimes the friend of the students. 
Next, teachers had better have a tolerant attitude 
towards students’ errors. In other words, we need 
to consider mistakes as part of the natural process 
of language learning so it is not necessary to 
correct every single mistake. Through the results 
of questionnaires and interviews, most students 
did not want to speak because of making mistakes. 
The teachers, therefore, have to be friendly, give a 
smile instead of getting angry when students make 
mistakes. 
6.5. Forming a habit of speaking English in 
the class
In order to increase the students’ time of speaking 
English in the class, the teachers should form a 
habit of using English. This habit should be built 
from the beginning of the first lesson. Teachers 
need to use English all the time but the English used 
should not be too complicated so that the students 
can understand what the teachers say. Besides, let 
the students have more chance to practice listening 
to get acquainted to native speakers’ voice. Once 
the students have developed a habit of speaking 
English in class, they will participate more often 
in classroom speaking activities.
Moreover, it is suggested that the university 
should have clear purposes and objectives in 
its English training program by providing a 
systematic curriculum in which the training 
content and testing content must be in accordance 
to serve the common purposes and objectives. The 
pedagogical focus on accuracy rather than fluency 
is also a contributive to limited use of English in 
EFL classrooms. Therefore, students tend to spend 
more time practicing three other skills to be well-
prepared for their tests rather than speaking.
7. CONCLUSION 
Students’ participation plays an important role in 
speaking activities. If we want to have a successful 
speaking lesson, teachers should pay more attention 
to the factors that hinder students’ participation 
such as students’ personality, students’ anxiety or 
students’ language level and try to improve our 
teaching methods, our characteristics as well as 
our roles. The researcher hopes that this study will 
make an especial significant contribution to better 
the current teaching and learning to speak English 
at university today./.
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NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC YẾU TỐ HẠN CHẾ SỰ THAM GIA NÓI CỦA SINH VIÊN
 NĂM THỨ 2 KHOA TIẾNG ANH TRONG GIỜ HỌC NÓI TIẾNG ANH 
TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC THƯƠNG MẠI 
TRẦN LAN HƯƠNG
Tóm tắt: Nghiên cứu này được thực hiện để điều tra các yếu tố cản trở sự tham gia của sinh viên 
năm thứ 2 chuyên ngành tiếng Anh vào các hoạt động nói tại Đại học Thương Mại. Để đạt được mục 
đích nghiên cứu, các bảng câu hỏi và phỏng vấn được sử dụng làm công cụ để lấy dữ liệu từ 10 giảng 
viên và 175 sinh viên. Các yếu tố ảnh hưởng bao gồm các vấn đề liên quan đến tâm lí, xã hội, giảng 
viên, hệ thống giáo dục, cơ sở vật chất và các vấn đề liên quan đến ngôn ngữ. Kết quả nghiên cứu đã 
chỉ ra mức độ ảnh hưởng của các yếu tố này tới việc tham gia nói của sinh viên trong lớp học, trong 
đó các vấn đề liên quan đến hiểu biết về ngôn ngữ có ảnh hưởng tiêu cực lớn nhất đối với sinh viên, 
trong khi các vấn đề liên quan đến giảng viên chỉ gây ra cản trở không đáng kể đến sự tham gia của 
sinh viên vào các hoạt động nói. 
Từ khoá: cản trở, kỹ năng nói, nhân tố ảnh hưởng, tiếng Anh 
Ngày nhận bài: 15/11/2018; ngày sửa chữa: 10/4/2019; ngày duyệt đăng: 28/4/2019
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