USING OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES FOR SELF-DIRECTED ENGLISH SPEAKING PRACTICE

Abstract

This study investigates the feedback of English-major students regarding the use of open educational resources (OER) for self-directed English speaking practice. The research involved 150 English-major students in Central Vietnam and used questionnaires and semi-structured interview as data collection tools. The results show that using OER helps students improve various aspects of their speaking skills, such as pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary, and overcome both linguistic and non-linguistic challenges in learning speaking skills. The study also identifies several challenges students face when using OER to practice speaking skills by themselves, including difficulties with self-regulation, confusion in selecting content suited to their proficiency level, and the lack of detailed feedback. These findings provide valuable insights for English speaking instructors, enabling them to provide better guidance, resources and encouragement for students to effectively utilize OER to practice English speaking skills.