Abstract

English is a compulsory subject for technical students at Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST), and they are required to achieve a four-skill TOEIC score upon graduation, equivalent to Level 3 of Vietnam’s Six-Level Foreign Language Proficiency Framework. During their studies, students take five foundational English courses designed to build the essential knowledge base to meet the four-skill TOEIC output requirement. Speaking practice begins in English 1, and by the time students progress to English 3, many of them encounter considerable difficulties in this course, as the topics and language input become much more challenging than those at their initial proficiency level. This paper identifies the difficulties students face when learning speaking skills using the English 3 coursebook and proposes suggestions to help both teachers and students overcome these challenges in the teaching and learning of speaking skills in the textbook at HUST.

Keywords: Difficulties, English speaking skills, General English 3, technical students.