Improving Non-Majored Freshmen's Speaking Fluency in the E-learning Environment through the MS-Teams

Abstract

Although online learning is a must in EFL teaching contexts nowadays, not all freshmen can make progress from it, especially in the English speaking skill. Therefore, this study aims to explore freshmen's online learning difficulties in English speaking skills and find out the solutions. The study involved about 120 non-English majors at some universities, including Nong Lam University, Banking University of Ho Chi Minh City, Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnamese National University - School of Medicine, International University, and Van Lang University in answering a questionnaire. The results showed that learning online does not bring more progress in English speaking skills than the offline learning mode. The results further indicated that although the students are familiar with the online learning mode, they still have problems during their learning, especially with their concentration and interaction. Findings are hoped to contribute to a better understanding of non-English majors' difficulties in the online environment. Then, a solution of adopting Miro integrated into Microsoft Teams is suggested to partly help enhance the students- students' interaction to increase the students' progress in speaking skills when learning online.