PSYCHOLOGICAL BARRIERS TO LEARNING EFL SPEAKING

AT HIGH SCHOOL.
PART 1: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
In this era of globalization, knowledge of a foreign language
serves students well in the interconnected world, it opens the door
to job opportunities in the global economy and makes more media
accessible, enriching public discussion of current issues. At present,
English is the main international language in the world today and
the most widely used language in the world. English is a language of
science, aviation, computers, diplomacy, and tourism. You have a
better chance of getting good jobs at multinational companies in
your home country or finding work abroad by knowing English. It is
also the language of worldwide communication, media, and the
internet. It's important to learn English for both social and
professional reasons. It is not just about being able to speak English,
it's about being able to communicate with native English speakers,
it's the most common second language in the world. If you want to
speak to someone from another country then the chances are that
you will both be speaking English to do this. We can understand that
studying English is important. At every level of education, English
has become a mandatory subject in the majority of schools.
Speaking is one of the essential skills that students should master.
According to Huebner, “Speaking is a skill used by someone in daily
life communication by many repetitions; it primarily a
neuromuscular and not an intellectual process. It consists of
competence in sending and receiving messages”. Speaking is very
important because when people master speaking skills, they can
carry out conversations with others, come up with ideas, and
exchange information with others. Up to now, the development of
techniques and methods for teaching English as a second language
to improve learners' motivation to learn English has received a lot of
research attention from experts. Many students understand the
importance of spoken English. Speaking English is a more direct way
for us to express emotions and communicate, and is a necessary
skill for us to survive abroad.
 In every situation or learning environment, human psychology
plays an important role. Speaking English is a language skill that is
greatly influenced by human psychology. Ariyanti pointed out that
one of the big problems that affect EFL learners' speaking practices
is without any doubt the psychological barrier (Ariyanti, 2016). So
they are an important factor that cannot be ignored when
mentioning psychological factors affecting FFLs' ability to learn to
speak. Al Hosni (2014, p. 28) said that students were unable to
speak in English because they lacked of necessary vocabulary items,
lack of grammar, lack of sentence formation skills which resulted in
using their mother tongue. But Why do researchers focus on
psychology? Because they believe that psychology is the number
one key to success for most EFL students in their English-speaking
performance (Nijat et al., 2019). Most students who have studied
English for many years have difficulty learning to speak although
they have a good level of grammar and vocabulary.
Currently, the situation of teaching spoken English at colleges and
universities in my country is: under the control of the university
admission period, English teaching at the lower secondary level
revolves around teaching grammar. boring and cultivating basic
skills such as listening and speaking are almost pushed aside,
teaching methods are stagnant, cramming, in teaching, teachers are
in a dominant position and students are in a dominant position.
subordinate position. After more than ten years of diligent study,
students have only mastered a few discrete grammar points and can
only do a few grammar questions to prepare for the university
entrance exam. Although some students have met certain
requirements in the written English test of the university entrance
exam, they cannot apply practical language, especially the ability to
speak, a phenomenon " English is very popular.
Therefore, in teaching English at school, especially teaching spoken
English, we often hear teachers complain: "This student does well on
homework and exams but doesn't like to talk in class." The
phenomenon of some students having good written test scores but
very poor spoken English. In spoken English class, some students
have good ideas in their heads but when they want to express them
verbally, they scratch their heads and act out. not fully achieved;
Some students speak fluently and think clearly when speaking
comfortably and quickly, but when speaking formally, they hesitate,
stutter, etc. This phenomenon occurs everywhere, through
analysis. , in addition to the "college entrance exam factor" is
largely due to students' "psychological barriers" in learning spoken
language.
Some psychological factors including anxiety, fear of making
mistakes, inhibition, lack of motivation to work also barriers to
learning to speak. If students are weak psychologically such as lack
of motivation, they they never develop confidence in themselves.
When they are afraid of making mistakes some people are shy just
because they feel unsafe when using the target language to
communicate. Therefore, research on the effects of psychological
barriers on students is an urgent issue and has practical
significance. This study will help evaluate their impact of on the
development of speaking skills in students, identify psychological
barriers that hinder behavioral learning, and propose solutions.
2. The aims of study
a. To identify the types of psychological barriers that affect EFL
students’ learning EFL speaking .
b. A study about the effect of psychology on learning EFL speaking
at Thieu Hoa High School.
c. The study also provided some solutions for overcoming
psychological barriers to improve speaking skills.
3. Research questions
a. What major psychological barriers do students face when learning
speaking skills?
b. How do psychological barriers affect students' learning to speak?
[Link] solutions can help students overcome psychological barriers
and improve their speaking skills?
4. The method of the study
The study will investigate what barriers psychologically affect to
learning and speaking skills of students. To find answers to the
above research questions, the researcher used the research
method.
 The quantitative method was used as the research requires quite
many participants to collect data and the result was analyzed using
descriptive quantitative method. Data collected from questionnaires
were analyzed quantitatively through Excel software and used
tables and charts for presenting the collected data. Questionnaires
included closed questions.
5. The scope of the study
The study about barriers psychological in learning speaking skills for
grade 11 students at Thieu Hoa High School. Because of the
limitations of time and knowledge, and the shortage of materials,
this study can not cover the whole issue of speaking skills.
6. The organization of the study