INTRODUCTION
Rationale
Today, it is internationally acknowledged that English has become the world’s most important language that is used as a medium for international communication, especially in trade and business Therefore, the demand for studying English is great Many students choose to study this language as their major at university in the hope that they will be able to find a good job after graduation because employers always seek applicants who have excellent oral communication skills Capability to speak English fluently in general and presenting effectively in particular may be advantages for students in their future jobs
Making oral presentations brings students a lot of benefits which are bridging the gap between language study and language use, using the four language skills in a naturally integrated way, helping students to collect, inquire, organize and construct information, enhancing team work, and helping students become active and autonomous learners As a matter of fact, a language learner's ability to present in the target language is dependent on a number of factors which are not solely related to their knowledge of the language systems (grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation) but personality factors such as timidity or self-confidence also play an important part To get the best result for the presentations, students need to master a wide range of skills and techniques such as the use of language, the way to organize all ideas, the use of gestures, posture and eye-contact, and the ability to speak clearly and confidently
Being a teacher of English, the researcher realizes that many second-year English majors at Hanoi University of Industry fail to deliver a presentation successfully and making effective presentations is always their desire Some serious students who invest time and effort into an oral presentation do not always get the intended outcomes Other students try to get through the ordeal as quickly as possible, but do not improve their speaking skills under such stressful situations They have a lot of ideas for their presentations, but they do not perform well in the class to attract the audience’s attention These problems are the motivation for the researcher to carry out a study on factors affecting oral presentations of the Second-Year English major students at Hanoi University of Industry
Aims of the study
The main aim of the study is to investigate the factors affecting oral presentations of the Second-Year English Major Students at Hanoi University of Industry The specific objectives of the study are:
- To identify the students’ attitudes towards oral presentation skills
- To get to know their evaluations of their presentations
- To investigate the factors affecting their oral presentations
- To give some suggestions to improve their presentation skills
Scope and significance of the study
The study focuses on oral presentation skills in English in the classroom context of 82 second-year English majors at Hanoi University of Industry Hopefully, the findings and recommendations of this study will be of some help for both teachers and students of English in the process of teaching and learning oral presentation skills The results of this study may also be useful for those who are interested in this field.
Methods of the study
To fulfill the above aims, the study was carried out with different methods of data collection:
- A questionnaire was delivered to 82 second-year majors
- Informal interviews with students were also employed
- Class observation was carried out to have deeper look at students’ presentations in the classroom.
Design of the study
The study is divided into three parts
Part one, INTRODUCTION, presents reasons for choosing the topic, the aims, scope, significance, methods as well as design of the study
Part two, DEVELOPMENT, has four following chapters:
Chapter one is the Literature Review which deals with theories and concepts related to speaking skills and oral presentations in English
Chapter two is Methodology in which the current situation of teaching and learning English in general and speaking in particular at Hanoi University of Industry is described
The research methods which cover research questions, the participants, and data collection instruments are also mentioned in this chapter
Chapter three presents some major findings and discussions based on the results of the questionnaire, interviews, and class observation
Chapter four, namely recommendations, offers some suggestions for students and teachers at Hanoi University of Industry to improve students’ oral presentation skills
Part three, CONCLUSION, summarizes what are addressed in the study The limitations of the study and suggestions for further study are also included in this part
LITERATURE REVIEW
Knowledge and skills
It is not easy for foreign language teachers to help learners become proficient in using the language Being a proficient user of a language means having both good knowledge and skills of using the language From that point of view, Bygate (1987) indicates that foreign language teachers must understand the interrelation between knowledge and skills.
Right from the start, he points out that one of the basic problems in foreign language teaching is to prepare learners to be able to use the language For instance, in order to speak a foreign language, it is necessary to know a certain amount of grammar and vocabulary However, the knowledge of the language is never sufficient He emphasizes the importance of skill; it is skill that is “the most realizable” in a speaking class and in an oral exam: “To test whether learners can speak, it is necessary to get them to actually say something To do this they must act on knowledge of grammar and vocabulary By giving learners “speaking practice” and “oral exams” we recognize there is a difference between knowledge about a language and skill in using it” To illustrate his viewpoint, he gives an example of a car driver as follows:
“An analogy with the driver of a car may be helpful What knowledge a car driver needs?
Clearly he or she needs to know the names of the controls; where they are; what they do and how they are operated … 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 it is not enough to drive in a straight line; the driver also has to be able to manage the variations in road conditions safely.”
He also gives another example in language: when a learner of English leaves “s” sound at the end of English words in his flow of talk In this situation we are not convinced that he does not know the rule In fact, he knows it but as he speaks, he fails to follow that rule
Knowledge is defined by Bygate as “what they conceive and memorize” But what make the above student exclude “s” sound? Bygate points out that the answer to this question is a skill, which is a special ability to do something well This is acquired only when much imitation and practice are offered It seems that Bygate’s opinion of knowledge and skill is true with students’ oral presentations Many of them have knowledge of grammar, knowledge of the topic and content but they still can not produce a good presentation
In conclusion, “knowledge itself is not enough; knowledge has to be used in action” That is the reason why we need skills, which can be gained with practice But what skills does a learner of a foreign language need in order to obtain good oral communication? To answer this question, it is necessary to have a look at speaking skills.
Speaking skills
Language skills involve four-macro skills, namely listening, speaking, reading and writing, which are inter-related According to Byrne (1986), the supportive relationship among these skills is clearly revealed when we look at oral communication which is a two-way process between speaker and listener (or listeners) and involves the productive skill of speaking and the receptive skill of listening He states that “the speaker has to encode the message he wishes to convey in appropriate language, while the listener has to decode (or interpret) the message” Of the four skills, speaking plays a very important role since it is the first step to identify who knows and does not know a language From Ur’s point of view (1996), speaking seems intuitively the most important: “people who know a language are referred to as “speakers” of that language as if speaking included all other kinds of knowing; and most foreign language learners are primarily interested in learning to speak”
The nature of speaking has attracted many scholars’ attention so far According to Bygate
(1987), there are two basic ways in which we do can be seen as a skill They are motor- perception skills and interaction skills Motor-perception skills involve perceiving, recalling and articulating in the correct order sounds and structures of language Interaction skills involve making decisions about communication, such as what to say, how to say it and whether to develop it in accordance with one’s intentions, while maintaining the desired relations with others To be more specific, Bygate discusses another term in speaking called “routines” which are conventional ways of presenting information He provides two kinds of routines: information routines and interactional routines
Information routines may be described to involve two sub-routines: expository and evaluation The former includes description, comparison, and instruction The latter consists of explanation, prediction, justification, preference and decision Interactional routines are telephone conversations, interview conversations, conversations at parties, lessons, radio or television interviews, which are structured in characteristic ways
Other authors examining the nature of speaking are Brown and Yule (1983) In “Teaching the spoken language”, they propose the distinction between two basic language functions
These are the transactional function, which is primarily concerned with the transfer of information, and the interactional function, in which the primary purpose of speech is the maintenance of social relationships They also focus on another distinction when considering the development of speaking skills They are dialogue and monologue They state that the ability to give an uninterrupted oral presentation (monologue) is rather different from interacting with one or more other native speakers for transactional and interactional purposes Therefore, presentation skills have to be learned and practiced carefully
To sum up, speaking is a process of transferring information and maintaining relationship and learning to speak a foreign language is never an easy task
1.2.2 Types of classroom Speaking Performance
Brown (1994) gives 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)
The first type of speaking performance is imitative which is carried out in the form of drilling Imitation of this kind is not for the purpose of meaningful interaction, but for focusing on some particular element of language form As stated by Brown, drilling is a legitimate part of the communicative language classroom “Drills offer students an opportunity to listen and to orally repeat certain strings of language that may pose some linguistic difficulty – either phonological or grammatical… They allow one to focus on one element of language in a controlled activity They can help to establish certain psychomotor patterns … and to associate selected grammatical forms with their appropriate context.”
The second type is intensive which goes one step beyond imitative to include any speaking performance that is designed to practice some phonological or grammatical aspect of language It can form parts of some pair work activity, where learners are “going over” certain forms of language
The next type is responsive performance : short replies to teacher or student initiated questions or comments For example, the teacher’s questions: “How are you today?” is replied “Pretty good, thanks, and you?” by the students “These replies are usually sufficient and do not extend into dialogues.”
The fourth type is transactional (dialogue) which is carried out for the purpose of conveying or exchanging specific information, is an extended form of responsive language
Conversations may have more of a negotiative nature than merely responsive speech
The fifth type, interpersonal is carried out more for the purpose of maintaining social relationships than for the transmission of facts and information
The final speaking performance is extensive (monologue) Students at intermediate to advanced levels are called on to give extended monologues in the form of oral reports, summaries, or perhaps short speeches which can be planned or impromptu.
Oral Presentations
Oral presentations are defined 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 an introduction, main body and conclusion” (Ohio Wesleyan University)
In the classroom, presentation is a popular kind of activity where a student or a group of students give a speech on a topic of their own choice or given by the teacher Such talks are subject matter oriented, they are prepared and “writing like”
An oral presentation has three main parts : introduction, body, and conclusion The introduction aims to state the topic and get the audience’s attention It gives the audience the preview of the presentation The body must inform or persuade the audience including main points and sub-points The last main part is the conclusion which summaries the information presented in the body
Oral presentations are classified into different types due to their modes of delivery and purposes In terms of delivering modes, Dwyer (2000) gives five forms of presentations or speeches which are: impromptu speech, manuscript speech, memorized speech, briefing, and team briefing
The impromptu speech is unexpected and thus delivered with very little or no preparation
Some impromptu speeches are special occasion such as welcomes, introductions or acknowledgements As this occasion for a speech usually takes the speaker by surprise, it is important to think clearly, analyze the situation quickly and speak briefly and to the point A successful formula used by many speakers for an impromptu speech is 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; P stands for restating the main point
The manuscript speech , which is researched and structured, involves writing a presentation word-for-word and reading the presentation to the audience It is suited to longer, more technical and difficult business presentations at meeting or conferences It is also suitable for legal presentation, a parliamentary address, a press release or a speech that will be reported or quoted It is used when the speaker needs to be precise in what he/ she says Even though the speaker is reading the manuscript, it is important to look at the audience as often as possible to maintain eye contact and use facial expressions and gestures
The memorized speech is suited to short talks It involves writing a presentation word-for- word and reciting the presentation from memory To sound relax and confident, the presenter should try to memorize the introduction carefully – this applies to any speech
The briefing speech is a short oral summary or report of a plan Its aim might be to inform, propose or justify solutions, or persuade the audience An oral briefing that invites the audience to participate is usually more effective than a long speech For this type of speech, it is important for the presenter to:
- concentrate on its main purpose
- analyze their advantages and disadvantages
- encourage audience participation, questions and suggestions
- show interest in audience response
Team briefings are becoming more common All members in the team take part in the presentation First, they consider the purpose of their presentation and the audience nature
Then the team designs the structure of the presentation and organizes it into sections A particular section is then allocated to each speaker However, the team aims for a unified and coherent message rather than a series of individual presentations, so it is important to decide who will:
- develop the main body and provide supporting ideas
- reinforce the ideas outlined in the main body and present the conclusion
In business communication, briefings and oral reports are most often used for staff meetings, customer contacts, and reports to supervisors and managers on progress, results or problems
In terms of purposes, oral presentations in college courses generally fall into two categories: informative and persuasive presentation
Informative presentation has audience learning as its primary goal An informative speech may explain a concept, instruct the audience, demonstrate a process, or describe an event
In an academic setting, the informative speech may take many different forms such as individual or group report; oral briefing … The presenter must keep a presentation brief and relevant, stick to the acts and avoid complicated information
Persuasive presentation is used to influence what the audience thinks or does Four goals of persuasive speaking are:
- to reinforce the attitudes, beliefs, and values the audience already holds
- to inoculate the audience against counter persuasion
- to motivate the audience to act Persuasion is a very complex process that combines three essential elements: ethos, the credibility of the speaker; logos, the logical proof and reasoning presented in the word of speech; and pathos, the use of emotional appeals to influence the audience Therefore, to succeed with a persuasive presentation, the presenter must present sufficient logic, evidence, and emotion to sway the audience to his/ her viewpoint
In second language classroom, the teacher will assign the students a particular type of presentation and/ or a topic to investigate In other times, the students may be given freedom to choose both the topic and the type of presentation that they wish to give
In fact, many students are very good at English in terms of grammar or pronunciation or they can produce short utterances to exchange information rather well but they may fail to give an effective oral presentation This is due to characteristics of presentations; therefore, students need to be prepared some necessary presenting techniques besides the language factor for presentation Emden & Becker (2004) indicate that “The ability to speak well enough to interest, influence or persuade other people is a major asset, whatever you choose to do in the future” They place great weight on the importance of body language in oral presentations including eye contact, facial expression, hand movement, and posture because making enough interaction with the audience is very important for a good presenter Emden and Becker add that “most poor presenting is the result of bad habit such as not looking at the audience or muttering instead of speaking clearly” Body language is used to build essential rapport between the speaker and the audience that convinces the listeners of what he/ she is saying and encourages their response In turn, the listeners will reflect how they feel about the presenting skills (impressed, encouraged, or bored) and about the message (interested, agreeing or disagreeing) It is essential, therefore, that the presenter uses appropriate non-verbal communication at each stage while speaking and recognizes the signals the audience is sending out
In addition, voice quality during the presentation is also extremely important: “People’s voices have qualities that may be attractive or unattractive: a low voice is usually easier to listen to than a high-pitched voice, a harsh quality of voice can sound aggressive even when its owner feels at ease, a very soft voice may be pleasant at first, but becomes irritating if we, the listeners, have to concentrate hard to catch the words”
Besides, using good visual aids also has good effects on oral presentations According to Emden and Becker (2004), listening is not easy and “it helps a great deal if you have something to look at” Audiences are grateful for the reinforcement of a good visual aid because human beings tend to remember what they see more steadily than what they hear
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Context of the study
Hanoi University of Industry is one of the universities that has a long tradition of training qualified practical engineers in the fields of mechanical engineering, chemical technology, and electronics However, to meet the demand of the modern society with globalization trend, some new majors have recently been taken into the training programme, one of which is English The Faculty of Foreign Languages was established in 2006, it is responsible for teaching English to both English majors and non-English majors
In connection with the teaching staff, there are 50 teachers in the Faculty, among whom 11 teachers are regularly in charge of working in the English major Division Their ages range from 23 to 37, all of them graduated from the English Department - College of Foreign Languages or Hanoi University of Foreign Languages and have been teaching for the Division at least one year Six people have got an M.A degree, three are doing M.A course
One of their difficulties is that a teacher has to deal with different subjects related to English at the same time due to the lack of teachers However, all of them are energetic, inquisitive and always try to apply effective methods of teaching to increase teaching and learning quality
In respect of the English major students, about 80 students are enrolled each year, based on their results of the university entrance examinations Their levels of English proficiency are generally various and not very high Firstly, this can be seen from their English marks at the entrance examinations mainly ranging from 3 to 6 (the statistics provided by the Faculty’s assistants) Secondly, many of them still apply a passive way of learning, especially the first year students For a long time, they were familiar with doing exercises focusing on grammar and vocabulary at High School and hardly did they practice speaking and listening skills Moreover, most of them come from rural areas with no favorable chances for learning English; they are shy and not very self-confident During their university time, they are always encouraged to study actively and creatively to achieve better results
Concerning the teaching and learning facilities for English majors, it is obvious that teachers and learners are working in a rather good condition The Faculty’s library has a variety of English books, CD, VCD, cassettes, and computers with Internet connection
There are 10 rooms for studying English; all are equipped with head projectors, computers and cassettes Using modern technology effectively is highly encouraged in English lessons
Right from the first semester, students have four skills (reading, listening, speaking and writing) taught as isolated subjects using Interactions textbooks published by McGraw-Hill ESL/ELT (Interactions 1 and Interactions 2) During the third and fourth semester, students have Mosaic 1, 2 also by McGraw-Hill ESL/ELT For speaking skills, the target for second-years students is to achieve the intermediate level; students are supposed to describe and express their ideas, opinions, and points of view systematically Also, students are expected to have good expressions, structures in their certain favorite topics; therefore, they can improve their ability to express and support their points of view as well as give suitable examples The total time allowed for speaking of the second English majors – the fourth term – is 45 class hours, 3 hours a week The syllabus is as theme- based with reference to Interactions and Mosaic course books, as below:
At the beginning of the term, teachers inform students all the required themes and let them choose their subtopic for group oral presentations Each group performs their presentations twice during the third term.
Research Methods
The final purpose of the study is to find out factors affecting oral presentations of the second-year English majors at Hanoi University of Industry To achieve this aim, it is necessary to answer the following questions:
1 What are the students’ attitudes towards oral presentations in English?
2 What are the students’ evaluations of their presentation performances?
3 What are the factors affecting their oral presentations?
4 What are the students’ suggestions to help them make better presentations?
This research was carried out with the participation of 82 students of three classes, DHTA1, DHTA2 and DHTA3 (27, 27, and 28 students respectively) This is also the total number of the second-year English majors at Hanoi University of Industry Most of them are female (8 students are male) at the age ranging from 18 to 20 There are 69 students coming from rural areas and small towns, 11 are from big cities like Hanoi, Hai Phong, Nam Dinh in which there are favorable English studying conditions The amount of time they have learnt English is various, ranging from 4 to 8 years More than half of them (60 students – 73%) have spent 4 years studying English All students have been studying three terms at the University and during this time, few students had excellent results of the English final – term tests Especially, their marks of speaking in the third term were not very high, varying from 5 to 9 11 students (13%) got mark 5, 21 students (26%) got mark
6, 42 students (51%) got mark 7, 7 students (9%) got mark 8 and only 1 student (1%) got mark 9 (according to the marking system of 1 – 10)
The survey questionnaire (see appendix 1) was delivered to 82 second-year English majors after being given to some teachers being in charge of working with those students for their comments This method helps the researcher to collect data in quantitative form for analyzing, summarizing and reporting
The questionnaire consisted of three parts The first part was about students’ personal information with their gender, place of domicile, the number of years they had learnt English, their final speaking mark in the third semester In addition, their attitudes toward the importance of oral presentation skills and their evaluations of their presentation performances were also included in this part
The second part was designed to find out the factors affecting their oral presentations in the classroom All questions were adapted from various sources (Emden & Becker, 2004;
Reinhart, 2002; Comfort, 1997…) and based on the researcher’s experience
The last part included one question asking students for their suggestions to help them make better presentations
The questionnaire was written in English; however, students were advised to use either English or Vietnamese to answer the open-ended questions Some questions were with examples so that the students did not get confused
In order to have more data for persuasive conclusions, the researcher interviewed 12 students of whom 4 students came from each class They were chosen randomly and with their agreement, the researcher asked them 10 questions (see appendix 2) Those questions covered such aspects as their attitudes, evaluations, problems and suggestions related to their oral presentations During the interview, the researcher modified the questions and took notes of their answers
The researcher observed two presentations in class DHTA1 and DHTA3 to check the reliability of the data collected The reason that the researcher did not choose DHTA2 was that class 1 and 2 were working with the same teacher The observation form (see appendix
This chapter has presented the methodology used in the research The next chapter will present the results of the study.
MAJOR FINDINGS AND DICUSSIONS
Results of the survey questionnaire and interviews
According to the survey, 100% of students agreed on the importance of oral presentation skills They wrote “very important” or “important” to answer the question “How important are oral presentation skills?” To explain for their answers, they said that oral presentation skills were very important for them to help them improve their speaking skills, develop their reading skills for getting main ideas and organize those ideas logically; especially they would need these skills in their future job In the interview, all students said “Yes” to answer the question whether they thought oral presentation skills were important The reasons they gave were various such as: “When I have to make an oral presentation, I have to stand in front of a group of people and this helps me to build up my confidence, even my courage”, “If I have to make a presentation about a topic, I have to read a lot to find out as much information related as possible, so I can widen my knowledge of both the topic and the language” Being aware of the importance of oral presentation skills, students really wanted to have as many chances to practice these skills in the class as possible since it was their teachers and friends who would listen to their presentations and had some comments to help them improve their presentation skills
To conclude, all participants were aware of the importance of oral presentation skills, had positive attitudes to these skills and wanted to be more skillful through practicing
3.1.2 Students’ evaluations of their own presentation skills
Results of the survey showed that 100% of the students had made oral presentations in English in the class; however, they seemed to have a negative evaluation of their oral presentation skills They considered their success and satisfaction so limited as follows:
- 2 students (2%) admitted that they were very unsuccessful
- 31 students (37%) claimed that their presentations were unsuccessful
- Nearly half of them – 40 students (49%) admitted their limited success
- Only 9 out of 82 participants (11%) thought they were successful
- No one thought that they had given oral presentations very successfully
Moreover, 8 out of 12 students interviewed expressed their lack of satisfaction with their presentations One student said: “Honestly, I have never been satisfied with my presentation, my best mark is 7 and I wish I could make it better in the future” When asked to evaluate the students’ presentations in the class, some teachers said that most of their students did not make effective presentations
To sum up, all students had made oral presentations and majority of them did not have positive evaluations of their performance The next part will present the factors affecting their presentations in the classroom
3.1.3 Factors affecting the students’ oral presentations
All participants passed the university entrance examination including 3 subjects which were mathematics, literature and English However, as mentioned in the previous chapter, their English marks were not high (from 3 to 6) Their speaking marks in the third semester were not satisfactory as well (only 1 student got mark 9, 7 students got mark 8, and the others got lower marks) They had a lot of difficulties in terms of language which is presented below and which was one of the factors that led to their unsuccessful presentations in English
1 Having appropriate usage of vocabulary and structures 5% 45% 50% 0%
2 Using signposting language to organize your presentation (for example, saying “I’ll begin by…/ My next point is …/
3 Having almost no grammatical errors in your presentation 23% 60% 17% 0%
4 Delivering the presentation clearly with correct pronunciation
6 Having proper pausing while delivering the presentation (Pausing is defined as slowing down or coming to a complete stop at a particular point Example: John is studying business // at the University of Michigan //// His area of interest // is managing nonprofit corporations.)
7 Stressing words correctly and properly 40% 59% 1% 0%
8 Delivering the presentation with proper intonation pattern (Intonation is the rise or fall of the pitch of your voices as we speak)
Table 1: Students’ difficulties in terms of language
It can be easily seen from the table that a large percentage of students considered items 1-8 difficult or very difficult
To begin with, students thought that delivering the presentations fluently was the most challenging task (82% claimed it very difficult) The following answer can clarify the finding:
I find it extremely difficult to present fluently I say “ahh” or “uuhmm” many times because I forget what I want to say, and so do other students in my class Sometimes I speak slowly because I am afraid of making mistakes Even I make the pronunciation of certain words indistinguishable because I am not sure how these words should be pronounced
In addition, students often made too many unnecessary pauses as they lacked confidence or as they could not remember the right words which would be suitable to their sentences (Only 3% found having proper pauses while delivering the presentation easy) This can be explained by their lack of practice As mentioned earlier, when they were at high school, they paid much attention to doing grammatical exercises and had very little time for speaking English During the first year at university, they spent much more time practicing short utterances to maintain a conversation with their friends than producing long ones or a speech
The next most difficult items were pronunciation, words stress and intonation 99% of the students considered delivering the presentation with appropriate stress and intonation very difficult or difficult and only 1% considered this easy The reason, as they reported, came from their weak and monotonous voice or mispronunciation Many students had problems with varying their voice and speaking with stress Some could not speak loudly enough for all of the audience to hear because they were familiar with discussing with the people sitting next to or near them
Having almost no grammatical errors in the presentation was also difficult for the students (83%) It is understandable that non-native speakers can not speak English with total accuracy In this case, it is acceptable as long as the mistakes do not lead to misunderstandings of the listeners Students tended to be tolerant of grammatical errors during oral presentations
We often make mistakes while presenting, for example, wrong usage of verb tenses or prepositions It is very difficult to be totally accurate… However, I do not feel uncomfortable if my friends produce sentences incorrectly in terms of grammar because I still understand her/ his ideas
Item 1 and 2, having appropriate usage of vocabulary and structures and using signposting language to organize the presentations, were the least difficult for the second-year majors
50% of them thought they were easy The reason for this was that almost students copied the language from the reading materials Moreover, they had much time to prepare and to work in group so they could help each other to adapt written language to spoken style
I try to use short sentences, simple vocabulary, and simple arguments so that my audience can follow more easily
However, half of the students still found it difficult to use vocabulary and structures suitably due to their limited knowledge of these aspects
In general, the second-year English majors’ language proficiency was low Presenting fluently with clear pronunciation, good voice to attract listeners’ attention was really difficult for them It is obvious that this factor limits their success in making oral presentations
In terms of characteristics, as stated in the literature, students’ self-confidence level has great contribution to the level of success of a presentation
9 I always feel nervous when speaking in front of a group 91% 9%
10 I can deliver the presentation confidently 9% 91%
11 I feel my heart pounding when speaking in front of a group 91% 9%
12 I don’t worry at all that my presentation is worse than others’ 25% 75%
13 I’m worried that other students won’t understand me because of my pronunciation
14 I am afraid that I will not be able to express myself clearly 70% 30%
15 I worry that the other students will be bored because of my presenting manner
16 I am not confident when presenting because I do not have enough practice at home
Results shown in the table present that most students lacked self-confidence which is defined as “having no doubts about your ability or knowledge to do something” 91% of the students (75 out of 82 participants) agreed that they always felt nervous when speaking in front of a group and their hearts pounded in this case Only a small number of students,
(7 out of 82 - 9%), could deliver the presentation confidently Many students also expressed their anxiety when presenting in English during the interview:
I am a shy person I always tremble whenever I stand in front of the class to present something Sometimes I can feel my hands and my mouths shaking slightly As the result, I forget everything in my mind
Results from Class Observation
As mentioned above, two groups’ presentations (DHTA1 and DHTA3) were observed The researcher wanted to have a clearer look at the students’ language proficiency and the teachers’ feedback
The first observation was taken from class DHTA1 with a presentation of two students on
“Advantages and Disadvantages of Trial Marriages” After introducing themselves, the two presenters asked the audience some questions related to marriage customs in Vietnam The audience gave the answers with great enthusiasm Then, the presenters asked the listeners’ opinions about living together without wedding ceremony After getting some short responses, they showed their first slide on which there was their topic for presenting By doing this, they get the audience involved in their presentation and had good interaction with them Each student was responsible for presenting a part Some advantages were listed such as Better adjustments, No wedding expenses, and No legal problems The disadvantages, according to them, were No legal right, Illegitimate children, and Insecurities The two presenters were very good at giving arguments and a lot of supporting examples However, they made so many long sentences and complex vocabulary that listeners had to try very hard to understand their explanations The first presenter could speak a little more fluently than the second one who also had problems with pronunciation She mispronounced some words, for example, illegitimate, legal … Both of them had monotonous voice and they had problems with “speaking with emphasis” and “varying their voice” which were important to attract listeners’ attention
Moreover, some grammatical mistakes occurred on the slides which were not well- designed and overcrowded with words The presenters chose colorful background which made it difficult to see all words clearly In fact, these could be avoided if the teacher made some notes on slide designing While presenting, the presenters had some pictures to illustrate their ideas, which should have been very useful But their ability to refer to visual aids was not good enough; they just showed pictures to the audience without any comments At the end of the presentation, the audience gave the two presenters a lot of questions as this was an interesting topic for all, but they did not deal with those questions effectively It seemed that their lack of vocabulary prevented them from expressing clearly what they had in their mind While students were presenting, the teacher sat at the back of the class and asked other students to listen to the presenter As the researcher observed, hardly did she show any encouragement towards the presenters Before giving them marks, the teacher gave some feedback in which she praised them for choosing a “hot topic” to attract other students’ attention She also focused on the words that both pronounced inaccurately Notably, she had no advice on their slide designing which needed modifying to have a better presentation Two presenters got marks 7 and 6
The second observation was taken from class DHTA3 Two presenters made an oral presentation on “Quan Ho folk Song In Viet Nam” At first, they played a Quan Ho song which gave the audience a moment of relaxation and let listeners guess the topic of their presentation Right from the start, they showed the listeners the organization of their talk to make it easier to follow However, their presentation was not successful because of their low voice quality, mispronunciation and unsuitable body language The first presenter spoke so softly that it was very difficult for people sitting at the back to catch her words
She read the transcript a lot, as the result, she did not have much interaction with the audience The second one also had some problems She spoke too slowly and had pauses in places where they were not helpful to the listeners While delivering the presentation, both of them did not have friendly facial expression, they seemed to be so anxious and strained
One of them did not have good eye-contact with all members of the audience but only a group of the students who always sat near her in the class The reason of this problem, as the researcher believed, was that looking at close friends could help the presenter feel more confident In the presentation, some difficult words about Quan Ho clothes, music instrument, performing customs were not explained or illustrated clearly During the time for dealing with the audience’s questions, two presenters were asked to give Vietnamese meanings of those words by some listeners who wanted to have better understanding of their peer’s presentation Being asked after the lesson, the presenters said that they had intended to give some illustrations but they were so worried that they forgot all When giving feedback, the teacher also focused on the importance of explaining new words to the listeners and corrected some words mispronounced However, she did not place great weight on voice volume and eye – contact which the two presented should pay much more attention to so that they could do better next time Both of them got mark 6.5 for their presentation
In conclusion, both presentations were unsuccessful because the presenters lacked ability to speak clearly and fluently They all looked anxious and inconfident Moreover, the teachers did not give them very detailed feedback on their presenting techniques which was very useful to improve their presentation skills.
Students’ suggestions
In the interview, the participants made some recommendations for improving their oral presentations and they were also asked to write down their suggestions in part III of the questionnaire
For the students, all participants suggested that firstly they needed to improve their knowledge of English They had to do exercises on grammar, read materials such as books, newspapers and listen to English a lot to improve their vocabulary and structures
Our major is English; therefore, I think the correctness of language is very important The listeners will not get bored if we use vocabulary and structures effectively
Secondly, they needed to prepare for their presentations carefully by spending more time practicing at home, rehearsing the speech, predicting the audience’ questions
I think practicing is the most important We can ask a friend to listen to our presentation and then she/he will have some ideas to improve it
Thirdly, they should be more self-confident Taking part in pair work, group work activities in English lessons as well as any social activities of department or university could help them to gain confidence
In my opinion, we should be more self-confident and optimistic If our first presentation is not successful, we should not be pessimistic We need to find out the weakness and learn from our failure, so that our next presentations will be better
In our class, there are some students who were very shy at the beginning of the first term but now they are much different They have participated in a lot of activities held by the department or university Gradually, they become more active and confident especially when they have to make a speech
For the teachers, participants suggested that the teachers help the students to improve their linguistics skills Firstly, the teachers could help them with their pronunciation which was one of their weaknesses
We do not have much regular pronunciation practice in the class The teachers might help us to improve our oral accuracy and fluency by using authentic recorded materials
Secondly, they thought the teachers should supply them with model presentations, presenting language and models of non-verbal language
Model presentations are very necessary for us because we can learn much of their ways of varying their tones, their gestures, posture,… The teachers can make some demonstrations, too
Finally, they believed that the teachers should also provide positive feedback and assessment to encourage their students and to make them more self-confident Criteria of a presentation must be given to them for self-evaluation
To sum up, participants gave a lot of suggestions to help students make better presentations Practicing appropriately with the help of the teachers would be the most useful to help them achieve success in presenting
RECOMMENDATIONS
Having thorough preparation
According to Emden & Becker (2004), in order to become effective presenters, it is necessary for students to set up good speaking habits by practising Moreover, careful preparation and practice can help students improve their oral proficiency and gain confidence to have a successful presentation
Dwyer (2000) suggests four steps for preparing the presentation which are writing the presentation, rewriting it for ear, practicing and revising it, and organizing the visual aids
The main aim of writing and rewriting the speech is to organize it in a logical sequence and suitable spoken language, for example, verbs in the active voice, words that are easy to hear and understand Then, it is necessary for the presenters to practice the speech Many second-year majors need to improve their voice quality which involves attention to volume, speed and fluency, clarity and pronunciation The quality of their voice in a presentation will improve dramatically if they are able to practise beforehand in a room similar to the one they will be presenting in
Moreover, they should practise three times or more orally, standing in front of a mirror is a good way Then, it is better if they can record the speech either on audio- or videotape and evaluate themselves By recording their performance, they can observe their non-verbal communication, they can decide how loudly or softly they want to speak, where they want to emphasize and how long the presentation will take Asking a friend to listen to them and give feedback is a good idea so that they make any changes if necessary because as listening, the other listeners may help them to pick up any errors in pronunciation In fact, practice will help students feel better prepared and thus more confident They will have fewer hesitations and will be able to remember the contents of the speech better so as to deliver the presentation fluently without notes If a presenter does it well, he seems to be natural, knowledgeable and confident He also finds it easier to establish rapport the audience because he can give them full attention For students, “Don’t wait until the last minute to write or practice your speech” is very useful advice and they can use checklists suggested by Emden & Becker (2004) to have better preparation for their presentation before class (see appendix 4).
Taking part in self-evaluation and peer evaluation activities
Firstly, students need to know how to evaluate their own presentations Reinhart (2002) suggests that students rehearse and time the speech in front of a mirror, then record the speech either on audio- or videotape before class and evaluate themselves The evaluation form includes such criteria as topic information, introduction, organization, linking words, eye contact, facial expressions, gestures, voice, pace, pronunciation In doing so, students know their strong and weak points and also set goals for the next speech
Secondly, students should be good audience to evaluate the others’ presentations as they can learn a lot by watching others speak (see appendix 5) According many educational experts, peer assessment highlights learner autonomy as each student takes responsibility for his or her own active learning By taking part in peer evaluation activities, learners gain a firm knowledge of the form and process of what makes an effective presentation.
Recommendations for teachers
In order to help students deliver the presentation successfully, teachers can provide them a wide range of oral activities regularly Moreover, pronunciation exercises will bring them a lot of benefits These exercises should focus on stress and intonation Teachers can ask students to listen to the tape and pay attention to the pauses, stress, the rise or fall of the speaker’s voice After that, students will practise these words, sentences even paragraphs as much as possible Their ability to speak with articulation, to have appropriate pauses and intonation will improve
The teachers need to help students improve their nonverbal skills which are very necessary for an effective oral presentation Teachers should take time to demonstrate how and when to use body language including eye contact, gestures, posture, and facial expression In addition, teachers can bring a videotape of a famous presenter to the class and ask students to watch and take notes the presenter’s nonverbal language Then, students are supplied with a copy of the speech and asked to make the same presentation having appropriate nonverbal communication By doing this, students have an opportunity to learn from the successful presentations
Another way to help students improve their nonverbal skills is to videotape their performances Videotaping is beneficial for both teachers and students These performances can be kept as evidence to support the teacher’s judgments during the term
If a number of their presentations are recorded over a period of weeks or months, the teachers can gain an impression of whether the students have improved or not Students themselves can take on the role of both the observer and the observed to see how they have presented
Speech anxiety is one of the major problems that lead to learners' oral presentation failures
In order to help students effectively cope with their fear of oral presentations, it is essential for teachers to acknowledge that speech anxiety is perfectly normal Having an open discussion on speech anxiety will assist students to feel that they are not alone Teachers should create a supportive learning atmosphere, encourage students to contact the teachers if they run into any problems; for example, students may have difficulties pronouncing words or organising their ideas
Students can gain more confidence if they have thorough preparation, therefore, teachers should let them have enough time for preparing In addition, the teacher evaluation form should be given to students while assigning the work It can be used as a guideline for students to prepare their presentations In this way, students are informed in advance of the criteria by which their presentations will be evaluated It is quite helpful for students to know the teacher's expectations and grading criteria
Moreover, teachers need to give encouragement Every opportunity should be taken to give encouragement to students who are making a real effort, not just to those who are the most successful This can be done simply by a nod of the head during students are making presentations Teachers should avoid comparing one student’s performance with that of other students Comparing a student’s work with his or her own previous performance is more constructive and gives the student a sense of how he or she is progressing Schaller
(2002) suggests the following to teachers for providing oral or written feedback of oral presentations:
Be descriptive Describe what you observed the speaker doing rather than passing judgment e.g Say "I did not hear a concluding statement" rather than "That was a stupid way to end your presentation."
Be specific Give the speaker enough information so that she/he can improve for the next presentation e.g Say "I would increase the font size on your PowerPoint slides because I had trouble reading the slides" rather than "Your visual aids were ineffective."
Be positive Begin with a positive comment, then offer suggestions for improvement, and end with a positive comment
Be constructive Give specific suggestions for improvement rather than simply telling the speaker what they did wrong
Be sensitive Use tactful language in giving feedback rather than offering blunt suggestions or comments e.g Say "Speak a bit louder so those in the back of the room can hear you" rather than "I couldn’t hear a word you said -speak up!"
Be realistic Give the speaker feedback about things that he/she can actually change Telling a speaker that she/he is too short is not helpful
In conclusion, making oral presentations in English is not an easy task for the second-year students Thus, teachers need to improve students’ linguistic and nonlinguistic skills as well as build up their confidence in order to help them become effective presenters.
CONCLUSION
Summary of the study
The study focuses on the second-year English majors at Hanoi University of Industry in order to find out factors which affect their oral presentations in the classroom The researcher did a survey questionnaire, interviewed, and observed class to achieve the aim
The major findings are as follows:
Firstly, all students had positive attitude towards learning oral presentation skills in their language classroom
Secondly, most of them thought they did not succeed in making oral presentations
Thirdly, factors such as their lack of oral proficiency, lack of confidence and lack of adequate feedback from the teacher affected their presentations
Lastly, students made some suggestions so as to help them improve their presentation skills
Based on the findings, some recommendations for both teachers and students in the process of teaching and learning oral presentation skills have been offered For teachers, it is necessary for them to help students improve both linguistic and nonlinguistic skills and build up their confidence For students, they need to improve their knowledge of the target language, have thorough preparation for each presentation and know how to learn from their previous presentations and their peer’s
In short, oral presentation skills are very important for students, especially in their future jobs Becoming effective presenters is not easy at all; therefore, the more students practice, the better their presentations are.
Limitations and suggestions for further study
Due to the time constraint, some limitations in the study are unavoidable Firstly, the investigator did not gain teachers’ reflections on students’ presentations Secondly, she spent time observing only two group presentations which is not enough to see how the second-year majors present in the class and how teachers give feedback Thirdly, some other factors such as presentation themes and presenting facilities were not dealt with
Therefore, future researches can further study on these factors Besides, difficulties students may encounter when presenting in English or using peer-evaluations to improve their oral presentation skills can be another direction for future study
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7 Dwyer, J (2000) The Business Communication Handbook New Jersey: Prentice Hall
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26 www.asian-efl-journal.com/March_07_am&ez.php
This survey questionnaire is designed for my M.A thesis: “Factors affecting oral presentations of Second-Year English Major Students at Hanoi University of Industry”
It is highly appreciated if you could spend your time competing truthfully the questionnaire
Data collected will remain confidential and be used for the research only Thank you for your cooperation
Please circle the most appropriate to you or answer the questions
2 Place where you lived before university:
3 How long have you learnt English? years
4 Your final mark in speaking in the third semester: ……
5 How important are oral presentation skills? (You can answer either in English or in Vietnamese)
6 Have you ever made an oral presentation in English in class?
7 If your answer to the question 5 is Yes, how successful would you rate your presentation(s)?
II Factors affecting your oral presentations
Here is the list of the most common aspects of difficulties in terms of language proficiency that students normally encounter when giving oral presentations Please tick (√) the appropriate box: Very Difficult (VD), Difficult (D), Easy (E), and Very Easy (VE)
1 Having appropriate usage of vocabulary and structures
2 Using signposting language to organize your presentation (for example, saying “I’ll begin by…/ My next point is …/ Now, turning to
3 Having almost no grammatical errors in your presentation
4 Delivering the presentation clearly with correct pronunciation
6 Grouping words to have proper pausing while delivering the presentation (Pausing is defined as slowing down or coming to a complete stop at a particular point Example: John is studying business // at the University of Michigan //// His area of interest // is managing nonprofit corporations.)
7 Deciding which word(s) to be stressed or unstressed
8 Delivering the presentation with proper intonation pattern (Intonation is the rise or fall of the pitch of your voices as we speak)
In the list that follows, tick (√) the columns that is the most appropriate to you
9 I always feel nervous when speaking in front of a group
10 I can deliver the presentation confidently
11 I feel my heart pounding when speaking in front of a group
12 I don’t worry at all that my presentation is worse than others
13 I’m worried that others students won’t understand me because of my pronunciation
14 I am afraid that I will not be able to express myself clearly
15 I think the other students will be bored because I speak slowly in English
Please tick (√) the appropriate box(es) to your case or give your answers where necessary Does you teacher do the following?
17 Helping students to choose the suitable topics
18 Providing students with language for a presentation
19 Providing students with model presentations
20 Giving you the evaluation form
21 Having serious facial expression when students are delivering the presentation
22 Showing some encouraging signs such as nodding, friendly – smiling
23 Praising students for some good points when they finish the presentation
24 Giving comments on presenting manner, language style, body language, slide display, and timing…
What do you think should be done on the part of teacher(s) and student(s) to help student(s) make better presentations? (You can write your answer either in Vietnamese or in English) a Teacher(s):
1 Bạn có nghĩ thuyết trình là một kỹ năng quan trọng không? Vì sao?
2 Bạn có muốn được rèn luyện kỹ năng thuyết trình nhiều trong các giờ ngoại ngữ không?
3 Bạn có hài lòng về những bài thuyết trình bạn đã thực hiện không?
4 Yếu tố khó nhất mà bạn gặp phải khi thuyết trình là gì? (phân chia bài thuyết trình thành các phần hợp lý, nói chính xác, chôi chảy, hay có những cử chỉ, điệu bộ thích hợp, …)
5 Khi thực hiện bài thuyết trình bạn cảm thấy như thế nào? Tự tin hay lo lắng? Nguyên nhân của sự lo lắng đó?
6 Bạn luyện tập như thế nào để tự tin hơn khi thuyết trình trên lớp?
7 Trước khi thuyết trình, bạn có hỏi ý kiến giáo viên về bài thuyết trình của bạn không? Giáo viên cung cấp cho bạn những gì liên quan đến kỹ năng thuyết trình?
8 Sau khi bạn trình bày giáo viên có đưa ra nhận xét không? Chung chung hay chi tiết? Mức độ khen, chê như thế nào?
9 Theo bạn, giáo viên nên làm gì để giúp sinh viên có khả năng thuyết trình tốt hơn?
10 Bạn nghĩ là bạn nên làm gì để cải thiện kỹ năng thuyết trình của mình?
Check the appropriate column Comments
Suitable rising or falling pitch?
Not too fast or too slow?
Contact with all members of the audience?
Gestures and other body movements
Body posture relaxed rather than stiff?
It is a good idea to think about your own voice Ask yourself some questions:
- Is my voice loud, perhaps too loud?
- Is my voice soft, perhaps too solt?
- Do I articulate clearly, or do I mutter?
- Will my accent cause my audience any particular difficulty?
- Do I run out of breath and gasp for air as I speak?
Before your give your presentations, check all your visual aids this way:
- If a colleague stands at the back of the room, can he/she see every detail on the screen?
- Is there material which is irrelevant and should be removed?
- Does the slide need to be corrected?
- Is there unnecessary punctuation on the slide?
- Has any essential punctuation been left out?
- Is the colour combination pleasing to look at?
- Has the message been distorted because of the background or layout of the slide?
- Is every diagram correctly and clearly labelled?
- Have you shown more detail than the audience can easily follow?
- Is all the lettering big enough to be easily read?
- Are there too many words on the screen?
- Have you shown long sentences or paragraphs which are difficult to read?
- Is this slide consistent in style and layout with any others that you will use?
- Overall, is your message clear and easy to understand?
EVALUATION Poor Satisfactory Good Excellent System
Ending Connections Relevance Length Level