Why MFU Students cannot speak English fluently?
Mae Fah Luang University is the international institute that located in the province of Chiangrai in northern Thailand. Being an international university, student must have the skill about listening, reading, writing and speaking. However, speaking seems to be difficult for Mae Fah Luang students. They cannot speak it fluently when they have to discuss or talk with the instructor. The first reason that why Mae Fah Luang students cannot speak English fluently is lacking an opportunity to speak in English with the native speaker. Although, they have to study in English but in the class they are just listening and writing what instructor says when it finished the class student returns to talking in their language. The second reason is they have negative beliefs about speaking English. As a matter of fact, they believe that speak in English is so pretentious and ridiculous. The last reason is lack of motivation to study English. Many students do not understand English well, so it makes them don't want to study and effect to their speaking skill.
Nowadays, we cannot deny that English is one of the most important languages in the world. Many countries use it for the official language. As you can see, Crystal (2000) suggest that around 1.5 billion people speak English (p.3). It means that a lot of people use English for communication. Now, we come back to Thailand, Thai students spend many years for studying in English but cannot use English successfully. To study English well, you should be good in reading, writing, listening and speaking. What is the problem for Thai students? A study by Wimolmas (n.d.), “ 30% of first-year students in SIIT have speaking problem as the second most difficult skill faced ” (p.913). Many students afraid to speak English because they are worried too much about the accent and grammar. According to Koichi (2003), “Students are afraid of making oral mistake, which cannot be erased once they are uttered. That is, learning anxiety in speaking is a real problem ” (p.1).
Thus, objectives of the research are to investigate why MFU students cannot speak English fluently and to suggest the solutions to solve the problem.