CAUSES OF THE FIRST –YEAR STUDENTS’ RETICENCE IN ENGLISH SPEAKING LESSONS AT NAMDINH UNIVERSITY OF NURSING

Abstract

Students are required to be active in English language learning, especially speaking skills. It is always considered to be challenging to most students at all levels, including university students since there are many factors which may prevent them from English speaking in the class. This problem is known as “Reticence” which is a complex phenomenon existing in foreign language classrooms causing a sense of passivity for the students and frustration for the teachers. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate whether the students are willing to speak English or not as well as the factors that cause the reticence in English speaking lessons. The participants were five teachers and 80 nursing students in the first year at Namdinh University of Nursing with two levels enrolled in English course. Questionnaire surveys, semi- structured interviews, and class observations were used for collecting data. The results show that the main reasons of students’ reticence were low English proficiency, Vietnamese cultural beliefs, personality, as well as their motivation and some others such as difficult tasks, students’ lack of vocabulary, preparation and their laziness.