Some suggestions to help non-language major students speak English better

MSc. Nguyen Thi Nhien - Faculty of Foreign Languages, Dai Nam University

From teaching practice, the author has found that many students, despite having studied English for a long time, still have difficulty speaking, their utterance is still very limited, they are confused about how to start their response or do not know how to ask questions to keep the conversation more successful. Referring to books and articles on topics that the author is interested in and combining with the teaching experience of colleagues and good teachers, the author of the article wants to point out some of the causes of difficulties for non-major students when speaking English, thereby suggesting solutions to improve speaking skills.

There are many reasons that limit learners' ability to speak English, including the following 6 main reasons:

1. Focusing too much on grammar

This is the biggest and most common mistake of English learners. Studies have shown that trying to learn grammar too much only damages speaking skills. Real conversations happen quickly, and the success of those conversations depends on whether you can convey all the messages you want to convey and whether the recipient really understands the messages you want to convey, not on whether you use standard English structures because while speaking, you will not have enough time to think about the hundreds of necessary grammar rules. Your left brain is not capable of doing this. As a result, you cannot speak fluently and confidently.

In order to not be too influenced by the correctness or incorrectness of the grammar structure used when speaking, you should learn grammar unconsciously through intuition like a child. You will do this by listening or seeing many sentences containing correct grammar; and from there, your brain will automatically learn how to use grammar correctly.

Studying with native teachers is one of many ways to help Dai Nam students learn English better.

2. Force learning to speak first

Many English learners and teachers have made this mistake, forcing speaking skills on learners before they are ready. The result is slow speaking, lack of confidence and lack of fluency.

The fact is that young children learn to speak first, become fluent, and then start reading and writing . So the natural order is listening , speaking , reading, and then writing . However, do you find it strange that schools around the world teach reading first, then writing , listening , and finally speaking ? The main reason for this order is because when you learn a second language, you need to read material to understand and learn the language elements from the reading material. So, although the natural order is listening , speaking , reading, and then writing , the best order for students learning English as a second or foreign language would be reading , listening , speaking, and then writing .

In fact, to speak English well, you must develop all four language skills because they are interrelated. For example, reading skills help you get information, increase your vocabulary and consolidate grammar, listening skills help you pronounce single words as well as words in a series of sounds correctly. When listening, you should listen to the entire short passage to understand the content of the passage, then listen and repeat each sentence to practice listening skills and is very good for speaking skills. Speaking each single sentence fluently will help you speak the whole passage fluently.

3. Learn single vocabulary

Many students learn vocabulary individually and try to combine many words together to form a meaningful sentence. The fact is that even though their vocabulary is rich, they are not good English speakers. The reason is that this combination does not create meaningful sentences. English has more than 150,000 words, but no one can learn and know all of them. According to research, even native speakers who have completed university level only know about 30,000 words. And foreigners who learn English have about 3,000 words. However, to use that number of words fluently is not a simple matter.

The solution to this situation is to learn Phrases. Don’t waste your time learning lots of different single words. Instead, use your time to learn Phrases that go with it, put the phrases in everyday context, and when you review, review the whole phrase. This will help you speak English fluently quickly because once you have mastered the phrases, you won’t have to think about the words when you speak. They will come out automatically in the form of phrases.

Students can learn English vocabulary anytime, anywhere.

4. Always think of what you want to say in your native language first.

Many students have the habit of always thinking of questions and answers in their mother tongue, then translating them into the target language. This is a very bad habit for foreign language learners because the word order between two languages can be completely different and the use of language is also affected by cultural differences - considered as language barriers. For example, when we want to cancel an appointment, we will think in our head: “I want to cancel that appointment”. Then we translate that sentence into English. We will have problems because we may not remember or know the words “cancel” and “appointment” to form the sentence “I would like to cancel the appointment”. If we think in English, we will not have this problem and there are many ways to express this situation in English, for example: “I'm sorry. I'm not free tomorrow” or “I am afraid I can't come tomorrow”, etc.

The solution to this problem is to think in English. This habit will be difficult to form at first but is extremely effective when you want to improve your speaking skills.

5. Only study formal English teaching materials

Most students of English start with a standard English textbook or course book at school. The problem is that the spoken English of native speakers can be very different from the standard sentences taught in books. When speaking to friends, family, and colleagues, native speakers use informal sentences filled with idioms, set phrases, phrasal verbs, and slang.

Therefore, to communicate with native speakers, you should not only rely on textbooks but also learn through media such as movies, books and newspapers about the lives of native speakers in English to use this language in a real way. Currently, there are many sources that we can exploit to learn English well such as movies on channels such as HBO, Movie Stars, English websites such as BBC.com, CNN.com, youtube, attending field trips to places with many foreigners to talk directly, English reference books available on the market, etc.

6. Lack of self-directed learning

Many of our students, especially first-year English students, rely entirely on school as their only source of knowledge to learn a language other than their mother tongue. They think that teachers and schools are responsible for their success. This is never true. In fact, only you can help yourself, teachers can help you, but you are the key to your success. You have to find your own lessons and learning materials that are suitable for you. You have to listen and read in that language every day. You have to control negative emotions, always stay positive, optimistic, eager to learn and always full of energy to absorb new knowledge. Only then will you truly succeed. No teacher will help you with that but yourself.

In lieu of a conclusion

Speaking skills are one of the most essential skills for everyday communication. Through speaking skills, we can convey and comprehend information in the fastest and most effective way. However, many people have difficulty learning to speak English. These difficulties can come from bad habits such as focusing too much on grammar when speaking, always thinking in your mother tongue and then translating to the target language, or learning single vocabulary, etc. Let's find out the reasons for the difficulty in learning to speak English to find the most effective methods possible.

Just try it, I'm sure you will succeed!