A study on oral presentation difficulties of second year english majors of phuong dong university in the speaking lessons and solutions

The study is aimed at oral presentation difficulties encountered by the second-year majorstudents of English, English Department, Phuong Dong University And then some possiblesolutions a

Part 1: Introduction

1 Rationale

Nowadays, English is considered as an international language, which is spoken by millions ofpeople all over the world In reality, large international companies often use English tocommunicate between offices and subsidiaries As for those people who are working, apartfrom using the language as a tool for oral communications, they have the desire to use it fortheir jobs One of the desires is to present in English As a matter of fact, giving an effectivepresentation requires a mastery of a broad range of skills and techniques To achieve theobjective of the presentation, the presenter is supposed to master techniques of identifying thepurpose, topic, theme, organization so that the audience can easily follow the talk In addition

to that, the speaker’s use of intonation, articulation, stress, pacing, emphasis, etc., to get theaudience’s attention and concentration is considered essential to contribute to his/her success

As for the intermediate and advanced Vietnamese students of English, spoken English ingeneral and presenting in English in particular is extremely important because they expect touse it frequently for their future work Unfortunately, for many years, they have been good atrecognizing the correct use of grammar and they can speak English but can hardly present inEnglish When many make oral presentations, they seem to pay more attention to lexis andgrammatical structures than presentation style and presentation skills This leads to the fact thatnot few learners of English after a long time learning English find themselves unable to deliver

a presentation successfully

Being a teacher who has taught English for more than seven years, I realize that my students,especially the second-year English-major ones, who as part of their studies have to make oralpresentations, also share the same mandate Many students seem to lack the skills andconfidence to make effective presentations They know the topics and the ideas are writtendown, but their presentations do not go well This time their fellow students appearuninterested Another time they might lose interest before the speakers have made half of thepresentations or sometimes the speakers seem to be confused and embarrassed with thelisteners’ questions

The above-mentioned problems is the researcher’s primary concern and also the motivation for

doing the thesis The choice of “A Study on Oral Presentation Difficulties of Second-Year English-Majors of Phuong Dong University in the Speaking Lessons and Solutions” as the

topic of this thesis, therefore, is not accidental

2 Aims and objectives of the study

The study is aimed at oral presentation difficulties encountered by the second-year majorstudents of English, English Department, Phuong Dong University And then some possiblesolutions are given to help my students overcome those difficulties so as to make animprovement in our teaching and learning oral presentations in general and speaking inparticular The specific objectives of the study are:

 To investigate the students' perceptions about the importance of oral presentation skills intheir future work

 To get to know their evaluations of their success

 To identify their major difficulties when presenting in English

 To examine the causes of their difficulties

 To give possible suggestions to improve their presentation skills

3 Scope and significance of the study

This study mainly focuses on presentation skills in English in the classroom setting It involves

the participation of 62 second-year English majors who are in their fourth semester at PhuongDong University The findings and suggested solutions most appropriately applied to theteachers of English as well as the second-year English majors of Phuong Dong University That

is, the teachers and students will be able to find ways to improve their process of teaching andlearning oral presentation skills Specifically, the students will be able to attain better oral

presentation skills and have quite a good preparation for the course of “Oral Presentation” in

their fifth term

4 Methods of the study

The study has been conducted in the form of survey research with its technique ofquestionnaire with informants of two classes of 62 second-year majors of English at PhuongDong University In addition to the questionnaire, informal discussions with the informants andtheir teachers and personal observation were also employed

5 Organization of the thesis

The thesis is organized as follows:

Part 1, introduction, presents the rationale for the study, the aims, scope, methods and

organization of the thesis

Part 2, development, consists of the following chapters:

Chapter 1, Literature Review, presents the theoretical background: the theories andconcepts related to speaking skills and oral presentations in English

Chapter 2, namely “The study” describes the current situation of teaching speaking atEnglish Department, Phuong Dong University and reports the survey research whichwas carried out at the beginning of the fourth term of the 2006-2007 academic year atPhuong Dong University The report includes the following information:

• Research questions

• Informants

• Questionnaire and procedure

• Data analysis and findings

• Suggested solutionsChapter 3, implications and suggestions, offers pedagogical suggestions for teachers ofEnglish at Phuong Dong University

Part 3, conclusion and recommendations, summarize the study and suggest some

ideas for further study

development Chapter I: Literature review

In the investigation into ways to develop students’ speaking ability in general and oralpresentation skills in particular, it is believed that the study needs to present the previous andcurrent literature on oral presentations Besides, it should show the relation between knowledgeand skills and then define and explore the nature of speaking, types of classroom speaking, andsome aspects of oral presentations These issues are the focus of the chapter

1.1 Introductory Remarks

In language teaching, a great importance has been attached to strategies of improving anddeveloping students' oral communication skills and enhancing their oral competence That iswhy a growing number of linguists and institutions like the University of Canberra, Ball StateUniversity are working on this field and they have, in fact, made a substantial contribution to

the development of language learners’ presentation skills Such titles as “Presenting in English”

by Powell (2000), “Effective Presentations” by Comfort (1995), “The Business Communication

Handbook” by Dwyer (2000), “Giving Presentations” by Ellis & O’Driscoll (1992), etc have

so far caught a great attention from a significant number of readers

Undeniably, it is clear that these scholars and institutions in their books and coursedescriptions, present guidelines to promote learners’ skills in giving oral presentations both intheory and in practice but those experts just mainly focus on business contexts and otherprofessional situations (see O’Driscoll & Pilbeam (1987), Dwyer (2000), Reinhart (2002)).Also, they do not touch upon the problems that language learners have when giving oralpresentations in the classroom setting and the reasons why they experience such problems Inaddition, the solutions/suggestions given from those books are not drawn from their ownresearch or in other words, they were not research-based They are somehow based on thewriters’ own observations and perceptions, so the solutions tend to be applicable for somesubjects

In Vietnam, there have been a lot of studies on oral communication skills and many of them arepresented in M.A theses However, oral presentations have not been extensively investigated.For example, there has been so far no study on the oral presentation problems that learners ofEnglish might encounter For that reason, I decided to have my own research in which I tried tohave an investigation of the second-year majors' difficulties when giving oral presentations andgive possible suggestions on how to teach and learn oral presentation skills efficiently I dohope that what comes out of this study might contribute to the learning and teaching speaking

at our institution in general and those who share the same mandate in particular.

1.2 Knowledge and Skills

One of the basic challenges in foreign language teaching is to make learners competent inusing the language Being a competent user of a language means having both good knowledgeand skills of using the language The relationship between knowledge and skills is clearly andvividly illustrated in the book entitled “Speaking” by Bygate (1997) He gives lots of examplesand explanations as follows:

Bygate begins by pointing out the fact that in order to speak a language, it is necessary forlearners to know a certain amount of grammar and vocabulary and how to assemble sentences

However, he emphasizes, the knowledge of the language is never sufficient It is skill that is

“the most realisable” in a speaking class and in an oral exam: “ to test whether learners canspeak, it is necessary to get them to actually say something To do this they must act on theknowledge of grammar and vocabulary By giving learners “speaking practice” and “oral

exams” we recognize that there is a difference between knowledge about a foreign language, and skill in using it” (1987: 3) He then points out that the language teachers are supposed to

understand the difference and the interrelation among knowledge and skill To illustrate hispoint of view, he presents the example of a car driver, which I find the most convincing:

What knowledge does a car driver need? Clearly he or she needs to know the names of the controls; where they are; what they do and how they are operated (you move the pedals with your feet, not with your hands) However, the driver also needs the skill to be able to use the

controls to guide the car along a road without hitting the various objects that tend to get in the way; you have to be able to do this at a normal speed ; you have to drive smoothly and without getting too close to any dangerous obstacles And is not enough to drive in a straight line: the driver also has to be able to manage the variations in road conditions safely.

Bygate gives further examples The first one is a one-week course of cooking is conducted to agroup of five learners On the sixth day, only two cooking apprentices are graded to be goodcooks We do not think that the other three do not know many recipes The second example isthat when a learner of English omits the “s” sound at the end of English words in his flow ofspeech, we are not convinced that he/she does not master the rule In fact, he knows it but as hespeaks, he fails to do something about that Knowledge is then defined by Bygate (1991: 4) as

“what they conceive and memorize” But what makes the three cooks in the example above

“not good” at cooking and the learner leaves the “s” sound? The answer to this question, asBygate argues, is a skill, that is a special ability to do something well This is acquired onlywhen a lot of imitation and practice are done For example, in the case of the learner who doesnot pronounce the third person-s on the verbs, the best solution is practice It is good to practicebecause this phenomenon does not reveal that he is not rendered with that aspect of grammar

To conclude, the knowledge of the language is only a part of the affair We also need skill Andskill can be gained with practice But what skills does a learner of a foreign language need so as

to obtain good oral communication? To answer this question, it is important to take a deeperlook at speaking skills, namely the nature of speaking

1.3 Speaking Skills

1.3.1 Nature of Speaking

Of the four skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing), speaking plays a vital role since it isthe step to identify who knows or does not know a language Pattison (1992) confirms thatwhen people know or learn a language, they mean being able to speak the language Speaking,according to Donough and Shaw (1993), is a skill which enables people to produce utteranceswhen communicating to achieve a particular end This may involve expressing wishes, ideas oropinions, negotiating or solving problems, or establishing and maintaining social relationships

To reach these speaking purposes, a wide range of appropriate expressions is needed to fulfillparticular purposes

The nature of speaking has been discussed by many scholars Brown and Yule (1983) propose auseful distinction between two basic language functions These are the transactional function,which is primarily concerned with the transfer of information, and the interactional function, inwhich the primary purpose of speech is the maintenance of social relationships They alsohighlight another basic distinction when considering the development of speaking skills Theyare monologue and dialogue The two authors state that the ability to give an uninterrupted oralpresentation (monologue) is rather different from interacting with one or more other nativespeakers for transactional and interactional purposes While all native speakers can and uselanguage interactionally, not all native speakers have ability to present a given subject to agroup of listeners This explains why presentation skills generally have to be learned andpracticed carefully They suggest that most language teaching is concerned developing skills inshort, interactional exchanges in which the learner is required to make one or two utterances at

a time They further state that:

The teacher should realize that simply training the students to produce short turns will not automatically yield a student who can perform satisfactorily in long turns It is currently fashionable in language teaching to pay a particular attention to the forms and functions of short turns It must surely be clear that students who are only capable of producing short turns are going to experience a lot of frustration when try to speak a foreign language

(Brown and Yule, 1983: 19-20)Another author examining the nature of speaking is Bygate (1987) He shows that in order to be

able to speak a foreign language, learners not only need to have micro-linguistic skills, that is,

to understand some grammar, vocabulary and the rules governing how words are put together

to form sentences but also interaction skills, which involve using knowledge and basic

micro-linguistic skills or motor-perception skills in deciding what to say and how to say it Thereason, as he puts it, is that the motor-perception skills are not sufficient since while producingsentences, people often have to adapt to circumstances to maintain the intended relations withothers He then discusses the two interactional sub-skills that the speaker uses when he/she

speaks: the routine skills and negotiation skills Routine skills are “conventional ways of presenting information” (1987: 23) There are two kinds of routines: “information routines” and “interactional routines” Information routines frequently recur types of information

structures such as descriptions of people and places, comparisons, instructions, telling stories.Interaction routines are “routines based not so much on sequences of kinds of terms occurring

in typical kinds of interactions Routines thus can be characterized in broad terms to include thekinds of turns typically occurring in given situations, and the order in which the componentsare likely to occur” (1987: 25) So interactional routines can be found in interactions indifferent specific situations like telephone conversations, or television interviews, discussions

Another issue concerning the ability to speak is that of fluency and accuracy “Accuracy is theextent to which students’ speech matches what people actually say when they use the targetlanguage Fluency is the extent to which speakers use the language quickly and confidently,with few hesitations or unnatural pauses, false starts, word searches, etc.” (Nunan, D, 2003:55) Scarcella and Oxford (1992: 156) have seen many educators who believe that in acommunicative class, “it is not necessary to teach conversational features or push students tocommunicate accurately” and that “fluency can be developed by simply providing studentswith lots of conversational practice” However, Richards (1990) points out that accuracy isimportant for the mastery of English (quoted in Scarcella & Oxford, 1992: 156) As for Ur(1996), both fluency and accuracy are taken into consideration, apart from other factors This is

a good balance Although it is obvious that fluency and meaning should be considered the focalpoint of the speaking lesson, as communicative initiators believed, for example, Canale &Swain (1980), Brumfit & Robert (1983), this does not mean that accuracy could be ignored.The reason is without appropriate correction and adequate attention to accuracy, the mistakesmade by the students may fossilize Brown (1994: 254) also shares the same idea that “bothfluency and accuracy are important goals to pursue in CLT” While communicative classesplace emphasis on fluency, he suggests that “accuracy is achieved to some extent by allowingstudents to focus on the elements of phonology, grammar, and discourse in their spokenoutput” This is a very good point to make In our own situation, most of the second-yearmajors seem to lack confidence in presenting in English Nonetheless, what they talk about ismore important than what they achieve Thus, the teacher’s norm of tolerance andencouragement may help students feel safe and heighten their motivation

In a review of theories on spoken language, Brown (1994: 257-258) comes up with thefollowing list of skills and knowledge that a good speaker possesses:

- Producing the sounds, stress patterns, rhythmic structures, and intonation of the language

- Producing reduced forms of words and phrases

- Producing fluent speech at different rates of delivery

-Applying strategies to enhance comprehensibility, such as emphasizing key words, rephrasing,

or checking for listening comprehension

- Using grammar structures accurately

- Using cohesive devices in spoken discourse

- Selecting vocabulary that is understandable and appropriate for the audience, the topic beingdiscussed, and the setting in which the speech acts occurs

- Using nonverbal language, such as facial expressions, hand gestures or body language andverbal language to convey meanings

- Paying attention to the success of the interaction and adjusting components of speech, such asvocabulary, rate of speech, and complexity of grammar structures to maximize listener’scomprehension and involvement.

1.3.2 Types of Classroom Speaking Performance

According to Brown (1994: 266-268) there are six categories of oral production that students

are expected to carry out in the classroom They are imitative, intensive, responsive,

transactional (dialogue), interpersonal (dialogue) and extensive (monologue)

To begin with, the imitative speaking performance is carried out in the form of imitation

drills when learners listen to the teacher, or a tape and repeat what is heard The authorconfirms that “drilling is a legitimate part of the communicative language classroom” (Brown,1994: 266) The reasons, as he believes, are that “drills offer limited practice through repetition.They allow one to focus on one element of language in a controlled activity They can help toestablish certain psychomotor pattern and to associate selected grammatical forms with theirappropriate context” (Brown, 1994: 266)

The second type of speaking performance, intensive speaking is one step beyond imitative

speaking It includes any speaking performance that is designed to practise some phonological

or grammatical aspect of language

Next, responsive performance is understood as short replies to the teacher’s or students’

questions or comments For example, students’ responses “Pretty good, thanks, and you?” tothe teacher’s question “How are you today?” According to Brown (1994: 267) these replies areusually sufficient and do not extend to dialogues, so they can be meaningful and authentic

The fourth type, transactional (dialogue), is an extended form of responsive language It is

carried out for the purpose of conveying or exchanging information or message Conversationsare considered to have more of a negotiative nature than merely responsive speech

The next type, interpersonal speaking performance, is the other form of conversation It is

carried out more for the purpose of maintaining social relationships than for the transmission offacts and information These conversations are a bit challenging for learners because they caninvolve some or all of the factors, namely, colloquial language, slang, ellipsis, sarcasm

The final speaking performance, extensive (monologue) is for learners at intermediate to

advanced levels They are required to give extended monologues in the form of oral reports,summaries or short speeches, which can be planned or delivered without preparation

1.4 Oral Presentations

1.4.1 Definition and Characteristics

Ohio Wesleyan University, in their “Guidelines for Oral Presentations” define oral

presentations as “brief discussions of a focused topic delivered to a group of listeners in order

to impart knowledge or to stimulate discussion They are similar to short papers with anintroduction, main body and conclusion The ability to give brief presentations is a learned skilland the one that is called on frequently in the workplace”

According to Clark, D (see http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadpres.html) a good

presentation, firstly, has content, that is it contains information that people need But unlike

reports, which are read at the reader’s own pace, presentations must account for how much

information the audience can absorb Secondly, it has structure with a logical beginning,

middle, and end It must be sequenced and paced so that the audience can understand it Whilereports have appendices and footnotes to guide the reader, the speaker must be careful not tolose the audience when wandering from the main point of the presentation Thirdly, a

presentation is characterized by packaging: It must be well-prepared A report can be reread

and portions skipped over, but with a presentation, the audience has to depend on the presenter

Finally, a good presentation has human element in it It will be remembered much more than a

good report because it has a person attached to it

1.4.2 The Importance of Oral Presentations

In the literature on oral presentations, there are a number of reasons why oral presentation skillsshould be developed Emden & Becker (2004: 1) hold the idea that the “ability to speak wellenough to interest, influence or persuade other people is a major asset for whatever they want to

do in the future and it may change them in ways that they did not expect” That idea is true asoral presentation skills can bring many benefits for the learners

The very first reason is that oral presentations often provide practice in speaking for thepresenter and they develop the ability to speak to an audience While making a presentationmay seem to be a more limited activity than other tasks, such as role play, information-gapactivity, it can in fact involve all the language skills People will need to develop and use thisskill throughout their life, for example, when they attend job interviews, or present a paper to agroup of colleagues in a meeting

What is more, through the mastery of speech, individuals come to be fully effective inorganization, in the management and expression of ideas and arguments, especially whentheywrite a report or even write an essay (Powell, 2003)

Finally, when people can speak clearly, concisely, and convincingly, they will gain enormousconfidence, which as Emden and Becker (2004: 2) put it “will result in an even betterpresentation next time” and “the newfound confidence may affect other areas of your work”.People are more ready to ask questions, respond to a challenge and organize themselves andtheir work more effectively

For all reasons, giving oral presentations is one of the necessary skills that students have toacquire in learning a foreign language In the context of Phuong Dong University, it seems to

be the most important skill to majors of English as it helps the students improve their ownacademic performance, communicate, exchange information with their peers and therebydevelop personal confidence

1.4.3 Oral Presentation Composition

According to the literature on oral presentations (see Comfort: 1995; Dwyer: 2000; Emden &

Becker: 2004, Paulson: 2000; etc.) an oral presentation consists of three main parts: theintroduction, body and conclusion

The introduction aims to state the topic and get the audience’s attention It gives the audience apreview of the presentation, so it is important to stimulate their interest at this stage Although awell-crafted introduction should be succinct, it should provide the audience with several pieces

of information such as who you are and an accurate pronunciation of your name; backgroundinformation as needed; the purpose or goal of the presentation; a preview of the main points ormajor ideas to be covered in the body Next, comes the body of the presentation The body isthe central part of the presentation in which the presenter informs, persuades or entertains theaudience So the presenter can make the presentation lively and interesting by includinginformation, such as personal experiences, examples and illustrations, facts, and statistics Arelevant personal story or example can make all the difference between a dry presentation and amemorable one Graphic illustrations and other visual aids not only help to clarify the message,but also add color and credibility After the body, comes the closing To let the audience knowyou are about to end the talk, use signal phrases such as “in conclusion”, “to summarize”, “inclosing” The conclusion reinforces and summaries the information presented in the body So, aclear summary of the purpose and main points will help the audience get the big picture andincrease listeners’ understanding

To conclude, an oral presentation has three main parts The introduction “sets the scene” andengages the audience by motivating them to listen by relating the topic to their interests Thebody must explain, support, and defend the theme in the introduction All main points must becovered The conclusion is a brief overview of the presentation The presenter may alsoconclude by inviting the audience to take some action, or by challenging them, or by asking fortheir cooperation or support and thanking them for attending.

1.4.4 Types of Oral Presentations

Oral presentations are classified based on their purposes and forms or manners of delivery Thefollowing is an overview of several common types of presentations and their purposes given byRandall P Whatley (see http: // www.cs.wisc.edu/%7Emarkhill/conference-talk.html) They are

informative, instructional, arousing, persuasive, and decision-making presentations.

The first type of presentation, informative presentations, provides awareness and

understanding They are basically descriptive The presenter, firstly, must keep an informativepresentation brief and relevant; secondly, stick to the facts and avoid complicated information;finally, choose one of the following organizational structures for this kind of presentation: time,place, cause and effect, and logical order For example, an informative presentation explainswhen, where and how things should happen

The second type, an instructional presentation, gives specific directions or orders The

presentation will probably be a bit longer, because it has to cover the topic thoroughly In aninstructional presentation, the listeners should come away with new knowledge or a new skill

The next one, arousing presentations, aim to make people think about a certain problem or

situation The presenter wants to arouse the audience's emotions and intellect so that they will

be receptive to his/her point of view To be effective, he/she must use vivid language, visualaids, music, etc in an arousing presentation

Next, a persuasive presentation is to motivate a belief, an evaluation, or a specific course of

action It is basically evaluative and prescriptive A convincing persuasive presentation offers asolution to a controversy, dispute, or problem To succeed with a persuasive presentation, thepresenter must present sufficient logic, evidence, and emotion to sway the audience to his/herviewpoint

Finally, a decision-making presentation aims to move the audience to take the presenter’s

suggested action A decision-making presentation presents ideas, suggestions, and argumentsstrongly enough to persuade the audience to carry out the presenter’s requests In a decision-

making presentation, he must tell the audience what to do and how to do it He/she should alsolet them know what will happen if they do not do what he/she asks.

In terms of manners of delivery, presentations can be impromptu, extemporaneous, written ormemorized Dwyer (2000: 198-199) offers a thorough description of five presentational forms

or speeches, as he calls them They are the impromptu speech, the manuscript speech, the

memorized speech, the briefing and team briefings

The impromptu speech, firstly, is unexpected and delivered without preparation As the

occasion for this kind of speech usually takes the speaker by surprise, it is important forhim/her to think clearly and speak briefly and to the point The speaker is advised to follow the

PREP formula, in which P stands for the main point; R stands for the reason for the speech; E stands for the example to illustrate the main point and P stands for restating the main point.

Secondly, the manuscript speech is structured and read It is suited to longer, more difficult

presentations An example could be presenting a paper at a technical meeting for a colleaguewho might be ill It is also suitable for legal presentation, a press release or a speech that will bereported In spite of reading the manuscript, it is still important to keep and maintain eyecontact with the audience by using wide margins, large type and double spacing

Thirdly, the memorised speech is learned and recalled It is suited to short talk To sound

relaxed and confident, the speaker should try to memorize the introduction carefully If he/shetries to memorize a long talk, he/she may lose his/her place and panic

The next type of speech, the briefing, is a short oral summary or report of a plan, event or

operation Its aim might be to inform, propose or justify solutions, or persuade the audience.For this type of speech, the speaker is expected to:

• prepare the briefing

• concentrate on its main purpose

• present background information; discuss alternatives

• analyze their advantages and disadvantages

• encourage audience participation, questions and suggestions

• show interest in audience response

At last, team briefings, are most often used for staff meetings, reports to supervisors and

managers on progress, results or problems As the name suggests, team briefings refer to teammembers working together for their presentation First, the team considers the purpose of the

presentation and the nature of the audience Then they design the structure of the presentationand organize it into sections A particular section is then allocated to each speaker So it isimportant to decide which team member will be responsible for presenting the introduction;developing the main body of the presentation; reinforcing the ideas outlined in the main bodyand presenting the conclusion.

In second language classrooms, oral presentations are usually in the form of oral reports,summaries or short speeches, which can be planned or delivered without preparation (Brown,1994)

1.4.5 Teaching Oral Presentation Skills

The issue of teaching oral presentations has recently been discussed by scholars, researchersand educators As a matter of fact, the purposes of oral presentations are to help languagelearners develop their fluency and increase their confidence when speaking (Underhill, 1987,

Vo, 1994, Miller, 1994) Oral presentations can be done in the form of either home assignment

or class activity Here, a brief description of teaching oral presentation skills will be presented.Underhill (1987: 47) suggests that in a less formal situation, mini presentations may be aroutine part of the daily teaching schedule Each day a learner takes turns to make an oralpresentation to the rest of the class He/she is expected to refer to notes, but reading aloud isstrongly discouraged The use of simple aids such as chalkboard and chalk, lined paper andpens, pictures or handout and overhead projectors is encouraged if appropriate At the end of

the presentation, he/she is supposed to deal with any questions raised by their friends It is the

learner’s job to conduct the whole activity without the intervention of the teacher Thepresentation may be taped either for marking or for subsequent classroom analysis

Underhill adds that choosing topics is very important The topics chosen by the learners should

be interesting, appropriate to their age and level to arouse learners’ interest and create anenjoyable classroom atmosphere In fact, topics are not difficult to find The important thing istheir appropriateness He suggests that topics should be consulted with the teacher who willhelp assess the level of the difficulty of the given topics in relation to the learners’ ability.Brown (2005: 42) also shares the view that students can be asked to choose a topic to talkabout The idea is that they should choose topics which interest them on the assumption thatthis criterion of choice will maximize their involvement and motivation

Concerning teaching oral presentations, Vo (1994: 276-277) offers the following procedure forteachers to assign oral presentations as homework:

1 At the beginning of the term, announce to the students that they all will have an opportunity

to speak in front of the group.

2 Put up a large calendar so that students can pick up the date they prefer

3 After the break of every class session, have one student come forward and speak about the topic he or she chose.

4 During the speech, the teacher should sit in the audience.

5 Have each student speak for about five minutes.

6 Have the other class members hold their questions and comments until the speaker has finished (The teacher and other students can help the speaker answer very difficult questions.)

7 After each speech, give the speaker(s) some feedback (Psychologically, complimentsshould come before criticism so as to encourage the students)

Miller (1994: 280-281) shows the procedure for oral presentations carried out as class activity

as follows:

1 At the beginning of the semester, have students organize themselves into small groups

2 Generate topics for discussion in one of three ways:

 Have the students suggest topics.

 Prepare and suggest topics to the class.

 Have students (or yourself) research and suggest topics related to their field of study.

3 Make sure each group has a different topic, which can vary depending on the level of the class and the interests of the students.

4 Discuss strategies for presenting topics in English and encourage group members to agree or disagree with the ideas of other members during the upcoming discussion Let students know that after each group discussion, one member will be chosen to present the groups’ ideas to the class (It is important not to tell the group in advance who is going to speak in front of the class

so that all students take part in the group discussion.

5 Have one member of each group present the ideas to the others for a group discussion lasting about 12-15 minutes, while you listens and circulate among groups to help with language problems (Try to intervene as little as possible so students are encouraged to speak freely.)

6 Once the time has expired, choose one person from each group to stand up and present the group’s ideas to the whole class for 2-3 minutes.

7 Encourage students in the class to ask the presenter/group questions.

Besides, other researchers (Widdowson, 1996, Dwyer, 2000) suggest that before focusingstudents on language for oral presentations, the teacher will need to help students to understandwhat makes a presentation good The teacher will then need to help students to refine their non-linguistic skills as well as their linguistic skills; body language, planning and the effective use

of visual aids are all as important as language The teacher will also need to help students toavoid being “bad audience” through inattention or poor or offensive body language because

attending presentations might provide excellent opportunities for making contacts or buildingrapport.

To sum up, when teaching oral presentations, the teacher has to prepare for topics, functionallexical items, grammatical structures and teaching techniques As speaking well requires morethan careful planning and preparing, the teacher should pay attention to his/her students’ verbaland nonverbal messages

Chapter II: The study 2.1 An Overview of the Current Situation of Learning and Teaching Speaking at English Department, Phuong Dong University (PDU)

2.1.1 Introduction of English Department, Phuong Dong University

PDU, a multi-disciplinary institution, receives about 1,500 students annually, of whom 200major in foreign languages The English Department is the biggest section in the Faculty ofForeign Languages, with an average of about 70 newly enrolled students each year

With regard to the teaching staff, there are 15 teachers of English whose ages range from 22 to

56 working in the Department of English All of them graduated from the English Department

of CFL, VNU or University of Foreign Language Studies Five of them have got an M.A degreeand three are doing M.A In general, the teaching staff is always eager for knowledge, energeticand willing to apply better ways to upgrade their teaching quality

Concerning the student population, the levels of English proficiency of the students of EnglishDepartment at PDU are generally various and not as high as those of their counterparts fromVietnamese public universities of foreign languages The problem results from several causes.The first one is that their academic results at entrance examinations are lower The secondcause is many students display a quite passive attitude in learning: they do not realize theexpectations for their learning behaviors as university students are different from those forschool pupils Therefore, they go on adopting the pupil’s teacher-dependent learning style Inaddition, PDU majors of English are not very self-confident This, firstly, results from theirstatus as being private university students with lower marks at entrance examinations;secondly, their lack of confidence might be attributed to their place of domicile as most of themcome from rural areas with no favorable chances for learning English For a long time they hadonly focused on grammar exercises and vocabulary and they had hardly spoken English As aresult, when they entered university, their learning strategies were not good enough to becomesuccessful learners The last problem here, as I believe, is the teacher-centered approach that

we have been adopting at PDU As a matter of fact, we teachers have been confining ourselves

to the burden of pushing the students ahead merely with our own efforts In so doing, we have

forgotten the decisive role of our students in their learning process and, consequently, created ateacher-dependent learning environment for the students This partly explains why at ouruniversity, speaking lessons are not very effective A variety of PDU students and teachers havevoiced their worries about the slow improvements in the learning and teaching speaking skills

In a nutshell, the teaching and learning atmosphere at our institution are not as adequate as weexpected Therefore, PDU is putting the focus on enhancing the effectiveness of speakinglessons That requires a lot of patience, guidelines and efforts from both PDU practitioners andlearners to make remarkable progress in teaching and learning English in general and speaking

in particular

2.1.2 The Syllabus for Speaking

For the first three semesters at university, English is taught in the integrated approach Thatmeans, the students learn the target language with four-skill textbooks The course books arethe Reward series (Reward Elementary, Pre-Intermediate and Intermediate) From the fourthsemester onwards, each skill (speaking, listening, reading and writing) is taught as an isolatedsubject For speaking skill, the target for second-year students is to achieve the intermediatelevel, which is the ability “to handle successfully most uncomplicated communicative tasks andsocial situations, and to initiate, sustain and close a general conversation with a number of

strategies appropriate to a range of circumstances and topics” (Phuong Dong University s’

Speaking Syllabus for Second-Year English Majors-2005) The total time allowed for

speaking for the fourth term for PDU majors is 45 class hours The syllabus is theme-based, asbriefed below: (Refer to appendix 2 for the list of the topics that we worked on in the fourthterm)

 Student life (9 class hours)

 Environment (9 class hours)

 Diet and Food (9 class hours)

 Home (9 class hours)

 Cultures of the world (9 class hours)

At the beginning of the fourth term, teachers and students are handed in a list of those topics

To prepare for the class activities, the students are encouraged to refer to the relevant based reading passages in the reading textbook entitled “Interaction-Reading’ published byMcGraw-Hill Education This textbook is used as the material for teaching reading to thesegroups of students

theme-2.2 The Study

2.2.1 The Research Questions

In order to uncover the difficulties of the second-year English majors at PDU when making oralpresentations, it is necessary to answer the following questions:

1) What are the second-year English majors perceptions of the importance of oral’

presentation skills in their future work?

2) What are students evaluations of their own presentation skills?’

3) What are the second-year English majors perceived difficulties when giving oral’

presentations in the speaking lessons?

4) What do they perceive as the causes of their difficulties?

5) What do the students think should be done so that they can improve their oral presentations?

2.2.2 The Informants

The research was undertaken with the participation of 62 students of two classes, of which 57were female and 5 were male The majority were aged twenty (Only two students were agedtwenty two as they had failed in the previous university entrance examinations) Most of theinformants came from the countryside (32 students) and from towns (19 students) while 11were from big cities like Haiphong, Thanh Hoa, Nam Dinh or Hanoi Their different places ofdomicile somehow led to greatly various experience in their language learning

The number of years they spent on English study ranged from three to eight years 17 students(28%) had been learning English for two years or more, but fewer than five years About half

of them-41 students (66%)-had spent five years or more, but fewer than ten years studying thislanguage Only 4 students (7%) had experienced ten years or more learning English and none

of them had studied English for one year or more, but fewer than two years

The learners had been studying three semesters at university Their average marks in speaking

in the third semester varied from 5 to 9, but just centred on between marks 6 and 7 4 students(6%) had marks 5 26 of them (42%) had got mark 6, and 23 students (37%) got mark 7.Meanwhile, 8 students (13%) got mark 8 And only one student (2%) had mark 9

In terms of language proficiency in the second year, they are supposed to be at intermediatelevel These students had studied English for at least three years at high schools, wherevocabulary and grammatical structures were the main focus They used Vietnamese, theirmother tongue, to communicate in everyday conversations Rarely did they have the chance touse English as a means of communication, let alone making oral presentations in English

The notable things about the two groups are, firstly, they were mixed-ability groups of English

learners with diverse personalities The majority of the students coming from northernprovinces other than Hanoi were generally shy, introvert and hardworking The others who

were Hanoians can be said to be more outgoing and confident Secondly, in spite of their low

English proficiency, they showed enthusiasm in speaking, especially presenting in English.However, many students complained to me about their presentations being met by yawningfrom their fellow students They followed the instructions by their teachers, for example, theychose interesting topics, but their poor pronunciation, lack of confidence, monotonous voiceetc so far failed to help them make substantial progress in giving oral presentations

All these facts explicitly indicate the necessity of greater attention to presenting in English,which is a very important skill for our students Giving them the chance to get familiar witheffective presentation skills will be a useful and valuable part in the process of teaching andlearning

2.2.3 The Questionnaire and Procedure

2.2.3.1 The Questionnaire

Basing on certain knowledge about the students’ problems gained through seven years ofexperience as a teacher of English at Phuong Dong University, the investigator designed thissurvey questionnaire to find out the difficulties the second-year English majors mightencounter when making oral presentations Specifically, she studied the issues: the students’perceptions about the importance of oral presentation skills in their future work, theirevaluations of success, difficulties they encountered and what they would like to be done toimprove the situation

The questionnaire was written in English However, the students were advised to use eitherVietnamese or English to give their answers to the open-ended questions (Refer to appendix1).With the mixture of closed and opened questions, the questionnaire was organized as follows:Part one was about the students’ demographic information which included the students’ age,gender, place of domicile, the number of years they had been learning English and theiraverage speaking marks in the third semester

Part two was designed to elicit the students’ evaluations of the importance of oral presentationskills in their future work and their evaluations of their presentation skills It comprised threequestions, one of which was opened, and the other two were closed

Part three focused on the students’ difficulties when giving presentations, the causes of theirdifficulties and their suggested solutions.

The author was aware that the survey questionnaire could not cover the specific problems thatthe students might encounter in different university periods, different courses, etc Also, withinthe scope of the study, the questionnaire did not address the question whether students fromother institutions would share the same mandate Thus, the result is believed to be tentative andsuggestive In addition, as the questionnaire is designed for students only, the evaluations of thestudents’ performance might be limited and incomplete Further research in whichquestionnaires are designed to investigate both the teachers’ and students’ problems in learningand teaching oral presentations seem to be of great usefulness

2.2.3.2 The Procedure

The draft questionnaire was an adaptation of a variety of sources drawn from literature on thefield of problems of learning English as a second language (see Chandrasegaran, 1981; Bock,2000; Thuy, 2000) First, the questionnaire was given to some teachers, who have expertise inthe area for judgment and comments After getting their feedback, the questionnaire wasadapted: some examples were added because the students might find it hard to understandthem Then the final version was established and it was piloted on some students Finally, thefinal questionnaire was delivered to 62 students by the researcher and they were asked toreturn the questionnaire within one week Before that, the researcher had asked the otherteacher for permission to have a personal contact with the study population in order to explainthe purpose, relevance and importance of the study, as well as to clarify any questions that thelearners had

2.3 Data Analysis and Discussion of the Findings

2.3.1 Data Analysis

In order to interprete the second-year majors’ scorings on the questionnaire items, theresearcher first calculated a total score (TS) for each item (see column 5) by using a four-pointscale with

 4 points for Very Difficult (VD)

 3 points for Difficult (D)

 2 points for Easy (E)

 1 point for Very Easy (VE)

Then she worked out the average scores (AS) for each item by having the total score gained by

the whole group of respondents divided by 62 (the total number of respondents) The average

score will indicate the level of difficulty to each item in the list and it is interpreted as follows:

 3.6 - 4: Very Difficult

 2.6 – 3.5: Difficult 3.5: Difficult

 1.6 – 3.5: Difficult 2.5: Easy

 1 – 3.5: Difficult 1.5: Very Easy

2.3.2 Discussion of the Findings

2.3.2.1 The Students Assessment of the Importance of Oral Presentation Skills in their’

Future Work

Research question 1: What are the second-year English majors perceptions of the importance’

of oral presentation skills in their future work?

Overall, the students believed in the importance of oral presentation skills in their future work.They all considered these skills indispensable as they wanted to become interpreters, teachers

of English, personal assistants, tour guides, which involved a lot of presenting in English.According to the survey, all 62 students (100%) shared the same opinions that oral

presentation skills were important or very important for their jobs in the future “Presentation

skills are essential in my job No matter which company I am going to work [for], I am supposed to make plans and report [reports] to my seniors This is particularly true when I work for a foreign company” The reasons, as they believed, were that presentation skills, first

of all, could help improve some qualities such as confidence, courage and flexibility Theythought that being able to present well meant being confident, courageous, active, well-

adjusted and knowledgeable in their jobs Some explained: “I think they [presentation skills]

are very important They help me more confident, active and well-adjusted or As far as I” “

know, it is a challenge for most people to deliver an oral presentation in front of a crowd I think that being able to present well means having confidence, courage and good knowledge ”Secondly, presentation skills could help improve and develop their logical thinking, speaking

skill and organization skill, which would be essential for their jobs They wrote: “They [Presentation skills] are very important to me because they improve my speaking skill”, “ In

my opinion, presentation skills play a vital role in my future job They help me think logically and perfect in organizing and presenting my ideas”, etc Finally, presenting well could mean

increasing their employment options Some of them wrote: “In the future, when I m good at’

giving presentations, I ll be very self-confident in my job and I ll be able to become a manager’ ’

and persuade my colleagues to follow my arguments” or ”Maybe I and my competitor have the same qualifications and knowledge, but presentation skills give me competitive edge”, etc.

To sum up, all the second-year majors of English were totally aware of the importance of oralpresentation skills in their future work because these skills could develop their confidence,flexibility, logical thinking, speaking skill and organization skill, which accordingly mightbring better career prospect.

2.3.2.2 The Students Evaluations of their Own Presentation Skills’

Research question 2: What are students evaluations of their presentation performance?’

It can be said that presenting in English is not something new to the second-year majors as

100% of them said Yes to question 3: “Have you ever made an oral presentation in the

speaking lesson?” However, they tended to consider their success low and limited Firstly, the

students’ rating of their own success ranged between 5 to 6 on the ten point scale with 1 beingthe lowest and 10 being the highest Details of the responses to the ten point scale are asfollows:

- Almost half of the informants-29 students (46%) thought they were 50% successful

- 23 out of 62 informants (37%) stated that they were 60% successful

- 6 students (9%) believed they were 70% successful

- Only a small percentage of the informants-5 students (8%)-claimed that they were 80%successful

- No students affirmed that they totally succeeded in giving oral presentations

The students, to some extent, seemed to have a negative evaluation of their oral presentationskills When asked to evaluate the students’ presentation performance, 5 teachers commentedthat their English proficiency levels were low, which affected their presentation skills.However, 4 other teachers still believed in their ability They thought that the students’ Englishwas good enough but they did not give effective presentations because they were not confident

enough One of them said, “I believe it [students level’ ] is adequate, but I think our students

don t think so They can deliver simple presentations or much more but they aren t confident in’ ’

what they can do, so that stops them from presenting effectively” In fact, according to the

record of the students’ weekly oral presentation performance and marks given to them, it could

be said that many of them did not make effective presentations

In conclusion, according to the students’ and teachers’ evaluations, the majority of the year majors of English were somehow not really successful with presenting in English Only afew of them did the job quite well The following part will focus on the difficulties that theymight encounter

second-2.3.2.3 The Students Perceived Difficulties in making Oral Presentations’

Research question 3: What are the second-year English majors oral presentation difficulties’

in the speaking lessons?

Generally speaking, among four aspects (preparation, organization, delivery and evaluation)

students seemed to have most problems with delivery For example, they rated “Delivering the

presentation clearly with good pronunciation” as the most difficult task with the average score

of 3.66 This difficulty mainly came from their low confidence and bad voice quality, such asmispronunciation, monotonous voice and poor pronunciation They also had problems with

“Delivering the presentation confidently”, “Handling difficult questions”, “Having almost no

grammatical errors”, “Having appropriate usage of vocabulary and structures”, “Controlling your nerves” and “Remembering what you want to say” The average scores for these aspects

were 3.48, 3.33, 3.24, 3.19, 3.11 and 3.04 respectively Evaluation is the second aspect of

difficulty Specifically, students found “learning from their presentations” difficult with the

average score of 3.16 This might be attributed to the students’ poor knowledge of English andlack of criteria for self-evaluation Preparation and organization, on the other hand, did notcause the students so many difficulties For instance, the average scores for items relating topreparation just ranged from 2.3 to 2.5 Perhaps when the students were at home, they couldtake the initiative, so preparing for the presentation was not a challenge to them However,when they had to deliver their presentation in front of the class, their anxiety and lack ofconfidence prevented them from presenting effectively Details of the ratings of the items ineach aspect are as follows:

2 Memorizing your speech word for word

3 Rehearsing your speech

4 Outlining the main points

5

312

22

2117

34

3844

1

00

155

151143

2.5

2.432.3

Notes: 3.6 - 4: Very Difficult, 2.6 – 3.5: Difficult 3.5: Difficult, 1.6 – 3.5: Difficult 2.5: Easy, 1 – 3.5: Difficult 1.5: Very

Easy

Generally, the students considered “Choosing the right topic for the presentation” a difficulty

task The average score for the whole group was 2.5 When looking at individual cases, only 5students (8%) rated this task as “very difficult” 22 of them (35%) considered it “difficult”, and