An Investigation into the Difficulties in English Speaking Skills encountered by English majored Sophomores at Tay Do University

Abstract

In the current era of strong foreign language development, English is present at all educational levels in our country, so surely everyone is no longer unfamiliar with Speaking. Speaking skills means speaking and expressing yourself verbally so that people around you can understand your thoughts. This is also an indispensable skill if learners want to be successful. Regretfully, students majoring in English — especially English majored sophomores — often struggle with speaking the language. Therefore, to identify some common factors that these English majors have encountered that are causing difficulties in speaking, the research project "An Investigation into the Difficulties in English Speaking Skills encountered by English majored Sophomores at Tay Do University." was conducted. 60 sophomores majoring in English from Tay Do University's English classes 17A and 17B are the participants in this study. The questionnaire and the interview were employed as two primary research instruments to analyze the data amassed. This is a combination of quantitative and qualitative research. The results of this study were analyzed to point out the factors affecting participants' difficulties in problems in terms of Linguistic factors (Vocabulary, Grammar, Pronunciation), Psychological factors (Anxiety, Lack of Self-Confidence, Lack of motivation, Practice environment) and Background knowledge.