ELEMENTARY ENGLISH LEVEL STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION ON SPEAKING SKILLS AND SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILLS

Abstract

Speaking is one of the most important skills to communicate, to study and to work, but it is also the most difficult skill to non-English major students at the level of A2 at Nha Trang University. They cannot speak the whole sentences and their listening comprehension skills are limited. Consequently, the purpose of this paper is to find out the difficulties including internal and external factors that non-English major students at elementary level (equivalent to A2 level of CEFR) encounter while speaking English and suggest some solutions to improve their speaking skills. The subjects were 389 students of level A2. Both qualitative methods (interviews, and class observation) and quantitative methods (online surveys) were utilized in this paper. The internal factors are motivation, anxiety of making mistakes or of being criticized, taking risks and influence of mother tongue. The external factors include teachers’ usage of the mother tongue in class, the non-communication curricula and limited English environment. Finally, solutions to improve speaking skills of elementary English level students, and lecturers’ teaching speaking skills and solutions for the university were proposed.