Giảm thiểu yếu tố tâm lý cản trở học viên quân sự thực hành nói tiếng Anh

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In the teaching of English, speaking is a productive skill considered to be challenging both for students to learn and for teachers to teach. This is because learning to speak remains to be the greatest 
challenge for language learners (Pinter, 2006) whereas 
most students deem their speaking proficiency as the 
success outcome of their learning process and the 
effectiveness of their English course (Richard, 2008). 
Even in the ideal case of equal training and exposure 
to speaking opportunities, students have different 
levels of readiness and ability to speak, and there is a 
high chance that any teachers of English must at least 
face “unresponsive students” (Paul, 2016), or even 
unresponsive groups in their class. 
Vietnamese students, especially army students at the 
Military Technical Academy, are found to be generally 
quiet and shy. This might be a result of the education 
system in Vietnam, which was deeply affected by the 
ThS. BÙI THỊ HỒNG NHUNG1
1 Học viện Kỹ thuật Quân sự ✉ anhbkhn@gmail.com
Ngày nhận: 10/01/2017; Ngày hoàn thiện: 25/01/2017; Ngày duyệt đăng: 26/01/2017
Phản biện khoa học: ThS. TRẦN LÊ DUYẾN
GIẢM THIỂU YẾU TỐ TÂM LÝ
CẢN TRỞ HỌC VIÊN QUÂN SỰ
THỰC HÀNH NÓI TIẾNG ANH
TÓM TẮT 
Kỹ năng nói tiếng Anh là một trong những kỹ năng ngôn ngữ quan trọng vì nó thể hiện trực tiếp 
và rõ ràng trình độ của người học. Tuy nhiên, kỹ năng nói của người học, đặc biệt là học viên quân 
sự khối các ngành kỹ thuật, còn hạn chế. Để tìm hiểu nguyên nhân và đưa ra giải pháp cho vấn 
đề này cần có một nghiên cứu quy mô trên diện rộng. Trong khuôn khổ bài báo này, người viết sẽ 
tổng hợp lại các yếu tố tâm lý cản trở người học nói chung trong việc thực hành nói tiếng Anh. Từ 
đó, người viết đưa ra đề xuất nhằm giảm thiểu các trở ngại tâm lý đó cho học viên khối quân sự 
đang học tập tại Học viện Kỹ thuật Quân sự thông qua việc xây dựng môi trường thực hành ngôn 
ngữ tự nhiên, thiết kế bài giảng với các chủ đề và các hoạt động thực hành nói phù hợp với trình 
độ của người học.
Từ khóa: chủ đề, công cụ, hoạt động, môi trường thực hành tiếng, rào cản tâm lý
Confucian teachings. In addition, they are often afraid 
of making mistakes and being embarrassed in front 
of class. Research also finds that lack of confidence 
and motivation prevents students from speaking 
(Boonkit, 2010 and Juhana, 2012). The aim of this 
article is to summarize the causes of these inhibiting 
psychological factors and suggest possible solutions 
to improving army students’ speaking skills.
1. LITERATURE REVIEW
Besides writing, speaking is a very important 
productive skill needed for effective communication 
and might be the most important required skill 
(Zaremba, 2006). It is crucial for the development of 
communicative skills which are sometimes prioritized 
over work experience and/or academic records in 
the recruitment process. However, English learners 
generally have limited opportunities to practice 
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speaking both in and outside class (Zhang, 2009). 
Besides, learners from Asian countries are often shy, 
afraid of “losing face” and making mistakes (Lihua, 
1990; Juhana, 2012 and Zhao, 2016). Also, anxiety, 
lack of confidence and motivation were common 
factors identified by Schwartz and Thornbury (cited 
in Juhana, 2012) as undermining learners’ speaking 
competence. These psychological factors are 
categorized into five main types as follows: 
Shyness
As teachers and researchers from Asia, (Lihua, 1990; 
Juhana, 2012 and Zhao, 2016) all state shyness as 
a source of problem that limits learners’ speaking 
ability. Learners, especially those with quiet nature 
(Bowen, 2006 and Kukurs, 2010) are intimidated 
when they have to speak in front of people and 
this phobia makes their mind go blank. Aside from 
personality, shyness is also resulted from learners’ 
fears of being laughed at by their peers and corrected 
by their teachers. This insecure feeling makes learners 
who are aware of their low ability become even more 
unresponsive in class. 
To remove shyness, Pesce (2011) points out that 
teacher should make classrooms an open and friendly 
environment and thus make students less stressed 
about making mistakes in their learning. Meanwhile, 
Chinmoy (2007) suggests teachers encourage 
learners to consider shyness as a thing to overcome 
and make them believe it is totally alright to make 
mistakes.
Fear of mistake/ “losing face”
Researchers have long argued that students are 
reluctant to speak in class because they are afraid of 
making mistakes and losing face and “this fear is linked 
to the issue of correction and negative evaluation” 
(Juhana, 2012). The main reason for this fear is that 
learners do not want to look or sound foolish in front 
of class (Juhana, 2012).
With regard to addressing the fear of mistake, Zua 
(2008) says that it is needed that teachers build 
“emotional bonds” with students. By doing this, they 
can make students feel comfortable and believe that 
the teacher can help them correct their mistakes 
and improve their English. Zua (2008) also calls for a 
supporting learning atmosphere to be built to reduce 
learners’ nervousness during class.
Anxiety
As stated in Juhana (2012), there are three causes 
of students’ anxiety in learning a foreign language: 
they do not understand the language (limited 
communication apprehension), they are scared of 
being tested and giving wrong answers (test anxiety) 
and they are afraid of getting negative comments 
from teachers (fear of negative evaluation). This 
suggests that teachers can lower students’ anxiety by 
motivating students, creating an ease environment 
and particularly accepting a variety of answers 
(Juhana, 2012).
Lack of confidence
Lack of confidence is believed to stem from students’ 
self-built perception that their English is not good. 
This opinion seems to be strengthened every time 
learners fail to make their conversation partners or 
teachers understand their message (Juhana, 2012). 
The students’ lack of confidence is due to the lack 
of encouragement from the teacher (Brown, 2001 
cited in Juhana, 2012). This urgently calls for teachers 
to make learning more of a motivating, rather than 
demotivating process.
Regarding ways to boost students’ confidence, 
teachers need to “maximize students’ exposure to 
English” (Ye Htwe, 2007 cited in Juhana, 2012) and 
create a “relaxed atmosphere” (Lihua, 1990).
Lack of motivation
Motivation is of all time an “inner energy” that makes 
a very good preparation for learners to communicate 
(Juhana, 2012). To keep learners active and responsive 
in speaking class, it is urgent to build their motivation. 
The lack of motivation usually results from the failure 
of teachers to inspire students, to make an effective 
use of teaching materials and to create an overall 
stimulating learning environment (Nunan, 1999).
To keep learners motivated, it is suggested that 
teachers provide “constant encouragement and 
support” (Aftat, 2008 cited in Juhana, 2012) and 
promote students’ awareness of the importance of 
English and thus enhance their interest in learning 
the language.
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2. RECOMMENDATIONS
Studies on psychological barriers facing students 
when they converse in English offer a departure point 
for me to think of practical ways to help students, 
particularly low-level army students, overcome these 
barriers. 
In this paper, I would like to suggest some key points 
for teachers to make their students speak. They are 
summarized from my experience and observations of 
what works in a speaking class. 
Recommendations would be focused on three areas: 
how to create a good language environment, how to 
plan a speaking lesson and how to deliver a speaking 
lesson. 
2.1. Good language environment
A good language environment is a relaxed learning 
atmosphere in which learners are exposed to English 
as much as possible, yet without fears of making 
mistakes and/ or negative evaluation. To make 
speaking classes less of an intimidating experience 
for learners, it is extremely needed to make speaking 
a routine/ a habit for learners. Teachers should act as 
follow:
– Speak English most of the time and only resort to L1 
after efforts to elicit/ clarify concepts have all failed.
– Develop a “bank” of functional language for 
students from the start. This language bank is to be 
used frequently and authentically in class, and thus 
forms the basis for learners to start interacting. The 
language bank might include various groups of 
expressions, for example: (1) needs (I’ve not finished. 
I need more time, etc.); (2) permissions (May I go out? 
May I come in?, etc.); (3) requests (Can I have more time? 
Can you repeat that? Can you help me with this? Could 
you please speak more slowly/ turn up the volume?, 
etc.); (4) apology (Excuse me!, I’m sorry for coming late, 
etc.); (5) agreeing/ disagreeing (I agree/ disagree, I 
want/ don’t want to, That’s correct/ incorrect, etc.); 6) 
asking for interruption (Excuse me, but, I’m sorry 
to interrupt but, Could I stop you for a second? etc.). 
When students constantly repeat these phrases, they 
do not have to hesitate and automatically form a 
habit of speaking in English.
– Establish simple routines that make students to 
speak English in class (greetings, ask or say similar 
things every day before class, i.e. How are you today? 
– Great, and you; How was your weekend? What did you 
see on TV yesterday? etc.; writing the date, etc.) 
– Let students have five minutes free talk in pairs 
at the beginning of the class. They can talk about 
anything, from what they did the night before to fun 
news/ stories they read today. 
All these tips build an encouraging atmosphere in 
which students deem speaking part of their everyday 
doings and feel less shy. 
2.2. Lesson plan
In order to make students speak, teachers should pay 
close attention to the lesson plan. A good preparation 
of teaching/ learning activities should meet two 
criteria: intriguing topics and varied activities.
2.2.1. Interesting and familiarized topics 
Since textbooks are mostly developed by the 
Westerns, it is quite common for teachers to come 
across materials (a text, a quiz, a recording, etc.) that 
require not only language but also socio-cultural 
knowledge. 
An example of this is File 6C, English File Elementary 
3rd edition by Oxford, page 48. The lesson takes 
a music quiz as a context to a grammar point of 
distinguishing between be and do. Teachers then can 
hardly expect students, especially army students who 
have little knowledge of different music genres, to 
discuss anything or even do the quiz as they listen. 
Since the built-in speaking activity is also a music 
questionnaire, teachers should “work their way 
around” the topic.
First, teachers should relate discussion topics to 
students’ lives and make them speak from their 
own experience. In this situation, a speaking activity 
around the music topic can help. Teachers should 
ask students to name their favourite singer, and then 
write some guiding questions on board:
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Who is your favourite singer? - My favourite singer 
is 
What is the person like? - He/she is very hand-
some/beautiful/kind/cool, etc. 
Why do you like the person? - I like this person 
because 
After letting students ask and answer those questions 
in pairs for some minutes, teachers can screen 
pictures of some singers and ask questions, write 
students’ feedback on board and underline the verbs 
is and like. This can be a smooth way to introduce 
the grammar point (distinguishing between be and 
do) and finally a freer, less-controlled practice of 
speaking about the singers.
Second, teachers should sometimes give students 
different topics and allow them to choose their 
favourite ones. After the allotted time for pair 
discussions, students will work in a bigger group, 
practicing ask and answer questions to and from 
other groups.
Teachers can ask students to select some of the 
topics they like to talk about from the following list: 
Animals, Body and health, Classroom items and rules, 
Clothes, Colors, Daily activities, Dreams, Hobbies, 
Holidays, House and home, Family and relationship, 
Food, Transportation, Work and jobs, Pets, Sports, 
Travel, Festivals, etc. The tasks for students vary, 
from recovery dialogues, role plays to monologues 
or debates on a certain statement relating to the 
suggested topics.
2.2.2. Varied activities (tasks)
Choosing a topic is important but another factor to 
stimulate students to speak is the desire to complete 
a task. Based on each class’s ability, teachers should 
try to modify a guided speaking activity and turn it 
into a communicative task. Here are a few things for 
setting up a speaking task:
2.2.2.1. Levels of controlledness 
Speaking tasks vary in forms but can be flexibly 
carried out through three phases, representing the 
controlledness of the task or the different levels of 
students’ independence in language use as follows 
(Becker and Roos, 2015, p.7):
With beginning classes, teachers should start with a 
closely guided speaking task where fixed expressions 
are provided beforehand with thorough drilling. 
Such a guided task allows low-level students to 
speak imitatively and participate from their low levels. 
Guided, controlled activities help motivate students 
and strengthen their confidence. 
With higher level classes, teachers should ask 
students to perform more creatively with phrases/
expressions provided. Finally, at the top level, learners 
are free to use their individual linguistic repertoire in 
a meaningful context. 
In conclusion, a speaking task should move gradually 
towards providing opportunities for the negotiations of 
meaning. This is to stimulate learners to make the most 
of the language available to them to convey meanings. 
By doing this frequently, students develop creativity 
in finding alternative ways of expressing themselves, 
thereby extend their communicative competence. 
Based on the model of communicative speaking 
developed by Becker and Roos (2015), I would like to 
suggest a few speaking activities which I have applied 
in different classes as follows:
Routine warm-up/wake-up speaking tasks: free talk 
(teachers ask a question and let students freely 
discuss with partners before the lesson); speaking 
and acting (teachers give orders and class act as 
soon as possible, i.e. shake your head, touch your 
ears, close your eyes, etc.); 
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Reproductive language use (controlled): dialogues, 
story retelling; guessing game or twenty questions 
game; picture description; find someone who  
game; interviews with a questionaire; 
Creative language use (semi-controlled): spot the 
difference between two pictures, talking about 
the picture (give students some pictures and let 
them describe, using the grammar point learnt in 
the lesson), gapped dialogues, partly scripted 
information gaps, story skeletons, role playing 
with some pre-given situations/expressions, etc.
Creative & productive language use (free): story telling 
(provide students with situation and characters/ 
cartoon pictures, etc. and let them invent improvised 
stories); short plays (give students some reading 
texts/pictures/situations and characters and ask 
them to make a short play), discussions and debates 
(choose a debatable topics, let students discuss in 
pairs before forming two oppositional groups for 
the debate); watch and speak (students watch parts 
of a cartoon/film/TV show, etc. without any sound, 
guess the meaning and talk about it; or student A 
tells what is on the screen for student B to answer 
questions given on a piece of paper, etc.); acting as 
an interpreter (one student acts as an interpreter 
and one as a foreigner and some as local people. They 
communicate through interpretation to do shopping, 
renting a bike, bargaining, etc.); etc.
2.2.2.2. Patterns of interaction 
To remove students’ nervousness and anxiety, 
teachers should remember to:
– Let students work in pairs first. After some time 
talking with their partners, students are prepared both 
mentally and linguistically to join in a larger group 
discussion or make a presentation. Different patterns 
of interaction give students a better chance to improve 
their language, in terms of both grammar and fluency.
– Avoid forcing presentations without students’ 
consent/content. This will scare away students with 
low speaking competence and make them even 
more unresponsive in class.
2.3. Lesson delivery
In addition to topics and activities, teachers have an 
important role in making the class lively and effective 
by their guide and the atmosphere they create both 
before, during and after speaking activities are done. 
2.3.1. Different techniques 
To make students speak, teachers have to draw their 
interest into the topic, provide them with useful 
language to communicate and make the language 
sink in their mind. In order to do so, teachers should 
conduct the scaffolding steps as follows:
– Personalize the story to draw attention. For 
example, to demonstrate a memorable night (English 
File Elementary, 3rd edition, Oxford, Unit 7C), teachers 
could tell the class about their special holiday night. 
Keep it short and slow. Use simple grammar and 
vocabulary so that students can understand. Other 
visual tools can be used to provide students with 
something to lean on for their speaking, such as 
flashcards, posters or graphic organizers.
– Double check by asking questions to make sure 
students understand and make them better memorize 
the details/vocabulary/expressions. Teachers could 
check by asking concept checking (yes/no) questions 
and questions for details. For example: Was it in July 
or August? Did I go on holiday alone or with my family? 
Where did I go? How long did I stay? Was the weather 
good or bad? etc. By asking questions for details, 
teachers help students to memorize the details of the 
story.
– Give written record of the useful words and phrases 
students will need to tell the story themselves. 
– Ask for a reproduction of the story by asking a few 
students (whose language competence is better) to 
retell a story. They could do this with the help of the 
language input written on the board.
– From the students’ demonstration, remind the class 
of the tense and vocabulary they need to use.
– Give preparation time for students to think about 
and note down the words and phrases they will need 
for the speaking task.
– Monitor the class as they are speaking, note 
down both good uses of language and mistakes, be 
available for support at any time students need.
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2.3.2. Feedback 
In order to make students feel safe and motivated 
to speak, teachers should make the classroom an 
encouraging place where students feel free to try 
things out without fears of criticisms.
Teachers should ask students to focus on fluency 
over accuracy in speaking class. Explain to them 
that focusing too much on grammar will impede 
their fluency and create unnecessary fears of making 
mistakes, which are detrimental to speaking in general.
To mitigate students’ fear of mistakes, teachers should 
accept more than one answers and/ or create activities 
that promote students to diversify their expressions, 
make them try best with the available language 
to get the tasks done (for example: taboo word 
description, listen and guess, twenty questions, etc.) 
In terms of giving feedback, teachers should do as follows:
Avoid correcting students as they are talking. Make 
the necessary corrections after they finish. 
During the speaking time, teachers should walk 
around the pairs/ groups, take notes of what the class 
has done, give students praise for the good language 
use and corrections for mistakes. 
For on-the-spot feedback, teachers should avoid 
negative comments like no, you’re wrong, incorrect, etc. 
For good answers, teachers should give compliments 
such as well-done, very good, excellent, great, etc. For 
answers that need further work on, teachers might 
say: thank you but , good try, yes but it is more correct 
to say
For delayed feedback, start with a positive comment 
of the overall completion of the task. Then write 
common mistakes (around ten) on the board without 
saying who made them to avoid embarrassment. 
Give students some minutes to correct the sentences 
themselves. As they read their correct versions, 
teachers correct the sentences on the board. By doing 
this, the students can recall their mistakes and better 
memorize the things they have learned.
3. CONCLUSION
Learning a foreign language is difficult and learning 
to speak is even more challenging, given various 
psychological factors such as shyness, anxiety, lack of 
confidence and motivation. Speaking requires a lot of 
confidence and preparation from students. To firm up 
their sense of security and self-confidence and make 
them motivated to speak, teachers must create a 
relaxed, encouraging English speaking environment 
in which English is used chiefly to communicate in 
authentic situations, students are free to express their 
ideas without fears of being wrong and criticized. 
In addition, teachers should organize different 
activities to let students practise speaking in class. 
These activities must be conducted in a scaffolding 
fashion to make sure students not only apprehend 
but can efficiently use the phrases and expressions to 
communicate. 
Last but not least, teachers should develop a good 
rapport with students and act positively by keeping 
their smiles and pleasant facial expressions to create 
a positive atmosphere for the class./. 
References:
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REDUCING MILITARY STUDENTS’ PSYCHOLOGICAL BARRIERS TO SPEAKING ENGLISH
BUI THI HONG NHUNG
Abstract: Speaking is a crucial skill of the four macro skills because it clearly shows learners’ language 
ability. However, the speaking skill of learners, particularly military cadets of technical specialties at the 
Military Technical Academy, remains limited. It takes a macro study to find the reasons for and solutions 
to this problem. Within the limited scope, this article summarizes the psychological factors that prevent 
learners from speaking English in class. Then it suggests possible solutions that teachers should 
take to motivate low-level military cadets to speak and improve their overall speaking competence.
Keywords: topics, tools, activities, language environment, psychological barriers.