Graduation course in English: Difficulties facing first-year English majors in English speaking skill at Haiphong private University

Speaking skill is one of the most necessary skills to communicate in the real life. In learning a foreign language, it is more and more important to learn this skill. This study aims to enhance the oral communication skills (conversations) of HPU (Hải Phòng Private University) first-year English majors. The sample of the study consists of 25 students (20 female students and 5 male students from NA2101); all of them are juniors students at English department (ED) at HPU. I have used random sample method. To achieve the objectives of the present study, I have used semi structured interview as an instrument for data collection. Regarding the difficulties in speaking English, this study has revealed four difficulties: difficulty in pronouncing English words, lack of lexical resources, lack of self-confidence, and confusion of grammar use. Second, the factors that have affected the difficulties in speaking English are lack of knowledge and practice, the audience attention, English speaking environment…