INTRODUCTION
Rationale
English has played an important role in dealing with international relations and in such fields as science and technology, business, commerce, and diplomacy This is the reason why there has always been a big need for learning English in Vietnam And these learners of English have various purposes of learning: some learn English for their future jobs; some learn it just for entertainment The English major learners also have serious attitudes towards learning English for their communications as well as oral presentations at work In reality, most students leaving college today lack the basic skills necessary for presenting information to a group Additionally, many college classes require presentations, but the students are often told to do it without being shown how to do it A history professor does not feel it is their job to show their students the basic skills of presenting a subject Furthermore, the students aren‟t given the right feedback to improve As a matter of fact, learning how to make presentations effective becomes one of the key institutional parts
In Hung Yen University of Technology and Education, there are not any separate subjects on which the English majors‟ presenting skills are trained It is the teachers of English who teach them oral presentations skills For the teachers in the foreign language department there are some certain advantages of asking students to give presentations on the subject of their concern Firstly, it gives students a good opportunity to practice their speaking skill It also increases the students‟ confidence in using English Furthermore, it can be a good practice for those students who will actually need the skill in their future professional lives And lastly, it is an excellent generator of spontaneous discussion Being well aware of these advantages, all the teachers who teach English speaking skills regard presentation skills as their main focus in teaching English However, it cannot be denied that there exist a lot of problems concerning our students‟ presentation skills, the most typical of which is the fact that it is quite difficult to give successful presentations Having been teaching them for nearly four terms, I have recognized the main reasons for such difficulties Firstly, in comparison with other students of the same major, the students here have much lower level of English proficiency especially in poor pronunciation and poor vocabulary Secondly, due to their inexperience, the teaching staff also sees that they lack the basic techniques for teaching students how to give successful presentations Lastly, the teaching of English as a major has come into use not for long as a focus to supply the students with an appropriate syllabus which includes oral presentation In fact, to the English majors in here in general and the second- year English majors in particular, presentation skills are quite new and difficult This is the reason why I chose to conduct a research entitled: “Investigating How to Improve Oral Presentation Skills for the Second-
Year English Majors of the Foreign Language Department at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education” and aimed at clarifying the problems the second- year students have encountered in the process of preparing and making oral presentations and suggesting some techniques for the teachers to get better improvements in both teaching and learning of presentations.
Aims and objectives of the study
The study is aimed at studying oral presentation difficulties encountered by both the second- year major students of English and their teachers in the foreign language Department, Hung Yen University of Technology and Education, at finding some possible techniques for teaching oral presentations To help the students overcome such difficulties, the research will try to
- investigate the students‟ as well as teachers‟ perceptions of what a good oral presentation is
- identify students‟ and teachers‟ difficulties in their learning and teaching of oral presentations
- investigate current methods the teachers use to teach presentation skills
- give suggestions for both the teachers and the students on how to deal with their difficulties in their teaching and learning of oral presentations.
Scope of the study
Speaking activities are various However, this study only focuses on oral presentation skills for the second- year English majors at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education
This study is said to be an overview of current situations of the second- year English majors when making oral presentations and an identification of the teachers‟ methods currently used for the second- year English majors in the foreign language department, and a suggestion for techniques for both the students and the teachers to improve their learning and teaching of speaking skills in general and presentation skills in particular.
Methods of the study
The study will be conducted using quantitative and qualitative methods with questionnaires for informants of 56 second- year majors of English randomly chosen from four classes and 8 teachers at the University of Technology and education in Hung Yen and informal interviews with the informants and their teachers and personal observation will also be employed
The study consists of three parts:
Part 1, introduction, presents the rationale, the aims, the scope, the methods and the design of the study
Part 2, development, consists of 3 chapters
+ Chapter I - Literature Review – deals with the concepts relevant to the study: oral communication, presentation skills and prior studies related to presentation skills
+ Chapter II - Practical Research – provides an analysis on the current situation of teaching and learning oral presentation skill and reports the results of the survey research which was carried out at the beginning of the fourth term of the 2008- 2009 academic year at the foreign language department, UTEHY The report includes the followings:
+ Chapter III – Findings and recommendation – focuses on difficulties students and teachers faced in learning and teaching speaking skills in general and presentation skills in particular Additionally, it offers pedagogical suggestions for the students, the department and the teachers to improve their learning and teaching of oral presentation skills
Part 3, conclusion, summarizes all the key issues as well as the limitations of the study and suggestions for further study
KEY WORDS & ABBREVIATIONS Pair work; Group work; Preparation, Feedback The HYUTE: Hung Yen University of Technology and Education
LITERATURE REVIEW
Oral Communication
Oral communication is a two- way process between the speaker and the listener( or listeners) and involves the productive skill of speaking and the receptive skill of understanding( or listening with understanding) ( Byrne, 1986) It is important to remember that “receptive” does not mean “passive” when both listening and reading, language users are actively involved in the process of interpreting and negotiating meanings To clarify what involves in an oral communication, it is necessary to discuss the differences in written and spoken language
According to P Santry (1999), there are important differences between spoken and written language In speech we have a much greater freedom and informality of usage than it is accepted in writing We do not speak in limited grammatical sentence structures or follow formal syntax as the way we do when writing Moreover, in speech the colloquial forms are acceptable while they are not in writing We do not write in the same way we speak because the two channels are not exactly interchangeable Byrne (1986) shares the same opinion by mentioning that “in contrast to the written language where sentences are usually carefully structured and linked together, speech is often characterized by incomplete and sometimes ungrammatical utterances and by frequent false starts and repetitions”
Nunan (1989) provides a list of characteristics of successful oral communication As for him, successful oral communication should involve:
(2) Good use of stress, rhythm, intonation patterns
(4) Good transactional and interpersonal skills
(5) Skills in taking short and long speaking in turns
(6) Skills in the management of interactions
(9) Skills in knowing about and negotiating purposes for the conversation
(10) Using appropriate conversational formulae and filters.
Oral Presentation
In his article on http://www.englishclub.com 2002, Jane King stated that oral presentation is “a short talk by one person to a group of people introducing and describing a particular subject (for example: a new product, company figures or a proposed advertising campaign)” while Ohio Wesleyan University, in their “Guidelines for Oral Presentations” defined 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 an introduction, main body and conclusion The ability to give brief presentation is a learned skill and 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 While reports have appendices and footnotes to guide the reader, the speaker must be careful not to lose 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
According to P Santry (1999) and Comfort (1995), an oral presentation consists of three main parts: the introduction, body and conclusion, in which the introduction aims to “attract the listeners‟ interest and focus their attention on the topic” When you give a presentation at work, listeners usually have an immediate need for the information presented Therefore, they have a clear reason to pay attention to the presentation
Once you have a clear statement of your central idea, you can start developing the body, or main section, of your presentation “The body consists of main points that develop your central idea in detail These main points need to be arranged in a way that is clear both to you and to your audience The organization of your presentation should make it easy for the audience to understand and to remember the information you present” (Santry, 1999: 40)
Also in the body, it is the presenter‟s duty to inform, persuade, or entertain the audience To succeed in doing this, the presenter has to make the presentation lively and interesting by including information such as personal experience, examples and illustrations, facts, and statistics A relevant personal story or example can make all the differences between a dry presentation and memorable one
After the body comes the conclusion “The conclusion of a presentation is important because you want to leave a strong impression on your listeners You should be brief and to the point in concluding your presentation This is definitely not the time to introduce any new points
You want to remind listeners of what you have presented” (Santry, 1999: 52) The author also suggested some possible ways to conclude a presentation According to her, you can:
Summarize or review the main points you have presented
Remind listeners of the importance of what you have said
Recommend further study of the subject
Ask the listeners to take appropriate action
There has been a number of discussions on why, what, and how to teach oral presentation skills Different scholars, researchers, and educators have contributed so much to the literature on teaching presenting skills The most highly appreciated authors should be Underhill (1987), Jane King (2002), and so on
Underhill (1987: 47) suggests that in a less formal situation, mini presentations may be routine part of the daily teaching schedule Each day a learner takes turns to make an oral presentation to the rest of the class He/ she is expected to refer to notes, but reading aloud is strongly discouraged The use of simple aids such as chalk board and chalk, lined paper and pens, pictures or handouts 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 learners‟ job to conduct the whole activity without the intervention of the teacher The presentation may be taped either for marking or for subsequent classroom analysis He also adds that choosing topics is very important The topics chosen by the learner should be interesting, appropriate to their age and level to arouse learners‟ interests and create an enjoyable classroom atmosphere In fact, topics are not difficult to find The important thing is their appropriateness He suggests that topics should be consulted with the teacher who will help assess the level of the difficulty of the given topics in relation to the learners‟ ability
The procedures for oral presentation have also been discussed by Vo (1994) According to him the following procedure should be taken into considerations when teachers want to assign oral presentation 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, compliments should come before criticism so as to encourage the student)
Jane King (2002) focuses much on the teacher‟s role when he/she works with students on oral presentations According to him this “is a challenging job for teachers because it not only involves training in other disciplines such as speech communication and public speaking, but also demands more of teachers in terms of time and effort in lesson planning and teaching strategies” He also adds that “on the student's part, the student-centered activity asks students to be responsible for their own learning When a teacher moves from the traditional role of teacher as an authoritative expert to the new role of facilitator of learning, students feel a drastic change With such a student-led activity as oral presentation, teachers need to have some psychological preparation for meeting the resistance from students, since some of them are not receptive to project learning and are uncomfortable when given autonomy
Furthermore, the importance of creating a supportive learning atmosphere, acquiring interaction skills, incorporating project work, developing cooperative learning skills and applying computer/technology in enhancing teachers' facilitative skills should be emphasized
The teacher is the guide, organizer, consultant, resource person, and supporter” Jane King (2002: 407)
To sum up, it cannot be denied that with structured planning and organization, oral presentations can be a beneficial and enjoyable activity with learners Both teachers and students are expecting a break away from textbooks Each week, students come to class with great anticipation and excitement It is a rewarding experience for low achieving students who had either given up on English or were intimated by past English learning experiences.
Prior Studies Related to Oral Presentations
Any mention to language learners‟ presentation skills will be of no significance without a substantial contribution of a number of linguists and institutions who have been working very hard for the development of strategies of students‟ oral communication skills and oral competence Some institutions which are worth being mentioned to are Victoria University of Technology, the University of Canberra, and Ball State University Such Titles as “Oral Presentation” by P Santry (1999), “Effective Presentation” by Comfort (1995), “Giving Presentations” by Ellis and O‟ Driscoll (1992), “Giving Academic Presentation” by Susan M
Reinhart, etc have so far caught a great attention from a significant number of readers
However, these scholars and institutions in their books and course descriptions, present guidelines to promote learners‟ skills in giving oral presentations both in theory and in practice but those experts just mainly focus on business contexts and other professional situations For example, in the part of rationale and learning outcome, Santry (1999) states: “Professionals in science and engineering are often asked to provide people with information because they have specialized knowledge experience Technical professionals may be called on to give progress reports, explain research, discuss company policies, analyze problems, offer recommendations, or give on- the- job instructions In addition, they may give oral presentations to company more formal written reports such as project proposals, budget proposals, or feasibility studies” Moreover, they do not touch upon the problems that language learners have when giving oral presentations in the classroom setting and the reasons why they experience such problems Also, the solutions/ suggestions given from those books are not drawn from their own research or in other words, they were not research- based They are somehow based on the writers‟ own observations and perceptions so the solutions tend to be applicable for some subjects
In Vietnam, there have been a lot of studies on oral communication skills and many of them are presented in M.A theses However, oral presentations have not been extensively investigated The M.A thesis “A Study on Oral Presentation Difficulties of Second- Year English Majors of Phuong Dong University in the Speaking Lessons” by Nguyen Thi Van Ha
(2007) is known to be the only one ever which mostly focuses on second- year English majors‟ difficulties in giving oral presentations The researcher also gives some suggested solutions to such problems but this is quite general For that reason, I decided to have my own research in which I try to have an investigation of the second- year major students‟ difficulties when giving oral presentations and of the difficulties the teachers of English in the Department of Foreign Language, HYUTE have been encountering and I would like to give some suggestions as well as solutions helping both the teachers and the students teach and learn oral presentation skills efficiently.
PRACTICAL RESEARCH
Background of the study
2.1.1 Description of the English course and its objectives in the department of foreign languages, HYUTE
The very first thing that reminds people of HYUTE is its goal in technology and technology instructions This explains why the foreign language department is not very popular at the university in particular and among other public universities in general Two years ago, there did not exist a department of foreign languages as there was only English: English for communication and English for specific purposes (ESP), which had been teaching for a long time But thanks to the opening of a course for students of English major, the section of English was developed into the department of foreign languages
The English course for those students, therefore, lasts eight terms with different subjects in English Right from the first semester onwards the four English skills are taught as isolated subjects The course books used here are Inside- out series for speaking (Inside- out Pre- intermediate, Inside- out Intermediate, Inside- out advanced), IELTs series for reading, listening and writing The second- year students are required to achieve the intermediate level in speaking ability, which is the ability to “communicate successfully in many social situations and to express themselves persuasively with a number of strategies appropriate to a range of circumstances and topics” (HYUTE‟ speaking syllabus for 2 nd English majors- 2007) The total time allowed for speaking skills for the fourth term for HYUTE majors is 60 class hours
The syllabus is theme- based, as briefed below: (Refer to appendix 3 for the list of topics that we worked on in the fourth term)
Age ( 9 class hours) For that reason the speaking classes often focus on common sub-skills like debating, arguing, discussing, and presenting Right at the beginning of the fourth term, teachers and students are given a list of topics To prepare for the class activities, the students are asked to search for as many relevant reading passages as they could from available sources like the internet, newspapers and magazines More importantly, basing on the materials they have found, the second- year students are asked to review them in the light of the week‟s topic By doing so, students‟ presentation skill is often practiced and is considered the main activity during the speaking classes
The research was undertaken with the participation of 56 students who were randomly chosen from 115 students of the four classes, in which 52 were female and 4 were male and 8 teachers in the group of English practical skills
Six of the 8 teachers were doing an M.A course Although their ages were various, most of them were quite young (only one teacher was aged 46) Most of them had experienced teaching English for non- English majors but have had only two- year experience in teaching English to English majors However, the main concern is shown in their professional ways of working, their enthusiasm, and their love for teaching English
Majority of the students were aged twenty (only two students are aged twenty one, two are aged twenty two and one is aged twenty three as they failed in the previous university entrance examinations) Most of the informants come from the countryside (33 students) and from towns (23 students) The number of years they spent on studying English ranges from three to eight years Only 11 students (20%) had been learning English for three years or more, but fewer than 5 years About more than half of them- 37 students (66%) had spent five years or more but fewer than ten years And the rest- 8 students (14%) 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 In short, their different places of domicile and learning experiences somehow lead to slightly various experiences in their language learning
The second- year students‟ English proficiency is equivalent to the intermediate level They had studied English for at least three years at high schools, where vocabulary and grammatical structures were mainly focused They used Vietnamese, their mother tongue in pair/group work activities Rarely did they have chance to use English as a means of communication, let alone making oral presentations in English
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 with effective presentation skills will be a useful and valuable part in the process of teaching and learning.
The Study
In order to uncover the difficulties of the second- year English majors at HYUTE and to investigate ways to improve their presentation skills, the researcher carries out this research and aim at answering the following questions:
1) What are the students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the necessity of oral presentation skills?
2) How much do the teachers know about presentation skills?
3) What are the teachers and the students’ difficulties in their teaching and learning of oral presentations?
4) What methods are the teachers currently using in teaching presentation skills?
5) What are the students’ evaluations of those methods?
6) What do the students think should be done for them to improve their oral presentation skills?
To have a good understanding of the issues under discussion, it is essential to refer to an important source of data collection associated with the literature review The researcher hopes to give some suggestions and suggested teaching techniques that can be worked out to improve current presentation skill teaching and learning at HYUTE by means of literature comparison and by cross- checking with the information obtained from the responded questionnaires
Data analysis is not a single description of the data collected but a process by which the researcher interprets the data The scheme and coding table in this research emerged from an examination of the data rather than being determined beforehand and imposed on the data.
Presentation of Statistical Results
The first questionnaire with 15 questions written in English expected the answers in either English or Vietnamese with the hope to strengthen the reliability and validity of the data collection was designed for the learners to collect information concerning to 5 strategies in the proceeding tables:
Table 1: The students‟ perceptions of the necessity of oral presentation skills Table 2: The second- year students‟ difficulties in learning presentation skills Table 3: Current methods used in teaching oral presentation skills to the second- year English majors
Table 4: The students‟ evaluation of the teachers‟ current methods
Table 5: The students‟ suggested solutions to improve the situations
Each question expects the optional responses (A, B, C, D) at the same time
The 56 copies of the first type of questionnaire delivered to the second- year students have been responded The data is analyzed in this part of the study in the below tables which show frequencies of the responses for the questions in the questionnaire
2.3.1.2.1 The students’ perceptions of the necessity of oral presentation skills
To all of the second- year English majors, presentation skills are something important and necessary to learn because of the following reasons First, it is a good way to practice speaking skill Second, it helps to evaluate one‟s ability in speaking, and most important of all, it is to prepare for their professional ways of working in the future
How necessary do you think it is to learn oral presentation skills in your speaking class?
What do you think is the reason for that necessity? (You can tick more than one)
A Making oral presentations is one of the requirements in the university‟s syllabus for speaking
B Speaking skill is well- practiced through doing oral presentations
C It‟s a good way to evaluate one‟s ability in speaking
D It is for us to prepare for our professional ways of working in the future
Others (Please give other reasons of your own choice here)………
Table 1: The students’ perceptions of the necessity of oral presentation skills
It can be calculated from the table 1 that most of the respondents (85%) supposed presentation skills were necessary for them to learn while 13% of them thought they were rather necessary and the rest (2%) stated that oral presentation skills were of little necessity It is true that there was no one who thought of the presentation skills as of no necessity at all
When asked about the reasons for that necessity, 41 students (73%) said that learning oral presentation helped them prepare well for their professional work in the future, 25 of them (44%) supported for the fact that doing oral presentations was a good way for them to know how good they were at speaking, which means to evaluate their abilities in speaking Only 11 students (20%) kept the thinking that by doing oral presentations, students had chance to practice their speaking skill, and none of them considered making oral presentations as a duty in the speaking classes However, beside the reasons given to them from the researcher, some of them stated that making oral presentations more often in classes helped them more confident, active and flexible in any situations They explained: “I think it is a good skill to learn because beside the advantage of improving speaking skill, the ability to present well also means having confidence, courage, and good knowledge” or “the very good thing the learning of oral presentations brings to me is the experience of standing in front of a crowd speaking, proving, explaining, or persuading and that is also what I’ll have to do in my future jobs”
2.3.1.2.2 The second- year students’ difficulties in learning presentation skills
Presentation skills are new among the second- year students in the department of foreign languages so it is not surprised when all the students (100%) choose option A for question 3 which shows the fact that all the students thought presentation skills were difficult but interesting The table below will help to prove this:
How do you find presentation skills?
How do you find preparation stage difficult?
A It‟s not easy to search for ideas (Not every given topic is of easy understanding)
B How to make a detailed outline with satisfactory explanation and examples to support the main point is quite difficult
C Rehearsing the speech is sometimes boring
D Memorizing your speech word for word is difficult
In what way (s) do you find delivering a presentation difficult? (You can tick more than one)
A I cannot make a good voice variation (with stress and intonation)
B I am quite clumsy in using body language such as eye contact, facial expression, body movements, or hand gestures
C I feel nervous (lack of confidence) in front of the audience
D I never feel relaxed when handing with the audience‟s questions
Others (Please list other reasons here)………
What aspect(s) do you find difficult for giving a good content of a presentation? (You can tick more than one)
B How to give supporting ideas for the main points
What do you think are the causes of such difficulties? (You can tick more than one)
A Our English proficiency is quite low
B Giving oral presentations is new to us
D It‟s our teacher that fails to teach us what a good oral presentation should be
Others (Please list other reasons here)………
Table 2: The second- year students’ difficulties in learning presentation skills
When asked about their difficulties in preparation stage, most of them found these two items difficult: making a detailed outline for the topic (32%) and memorizing the speech word for word (34%) There were only 10 students (18%) who thought that the step of searching for ideas for the topic was difficult as not every given topic was of easy understandings; and 9 of them (16%) thought rehearsing the speech was sometimes boring
Not only does the preparation stage become such hard work for the students, but the stage of delivering a presentation (question 5) is difficult as well Overall, the majority of them (64%) considered their lack of confidence in front of the audience a big challenge because, as they explained, their feelings of nervous, uncomfortable, and embarrassed often made them forget nearly all what had been prepared Moreover, there were 29 students (52%) who shared the idea that they were quite clumsy in using body language such as eye contact, facial expression, body movements, or hand gestures Only 13 of them (23%) thought that how to make a good voice variation was difficult It could be good news as only 7 students (12%) find it difficult to handle with the audience‟s questions and so was the job of presenting the speech fluently The reason, as they stated, was that the feelings of self- confident and relaxed were the key factors to help them overcome all other difficulties which were minor ones only Beside, some of them claimed that their difficulties in delivering a presentation could also be seen in their lack of vocabulary and incorrect pronunciation “Sometimes my lack of vocabulary put myself in an embarrassing situation where I could think of no appropriate words or phases to express my points” or “I am sure that my presentation could have gone better if I had not made so much incorrect pronunciation, which made the audience confused sometimes”
Difficulties in giving a good content of a presentation (question 6) were believed to be worth discussing by the students According to most of them – 46 students (82%), a presentation only has its good content when one knows how to support for the main points, that is, giving supporting ideas for the main points is the most difficult of all Beside, nearly half of them –
27 students (48%) thought they have difficulty in presenting with good accuracy of word uses, expressions, and pronunciation, without which they could not be successful in giving the clarity of ideas Other aspects were also difficult, but for them they were not much For example, 12 of them (21%) blamed for the unsuitability of topics, 8 students (14%) thought that if they could have more time, the content they gave could be much better, and for the last factor, just a few of them – 3 students (5%) saw the probability of their affecting the content of a presentation
Question 7 was made to ask the students about the causes of such difficulties The findings from the survey show the fact that the students have to try hard so as to be good at English first, and then to have better attitude towards doing oral presentations in the classes When looking at individual cases, all of them (100%) admitted that their low English proficiency was one cause and their low motivation was the other one There were also 31 students who agreed that as this was a new subject, they could not be successful in presenting, and 25 of them blamed their teachers for not being successful in teaching them what a good oral presentation should be And it is the last cause about the staff‟s teaching quality that makes the researcher worry about and try her best to find out ways to improve the current situations
2.3.1.2.3 Current methods used in teaching oral presentation skills to the second- year English majors
After giving you topics for presentation, your teachers often …
A Helps with the main ideas for the topic
B Helps you with words or structures related to the topics
C Encourages you to discuss the topic in groups
D Asks you to discuss the topic individually
Others (Please list other activities here)
What does your teacher do to encourage you to do oral presentations?
A Suggests interesting topics for discussion
B Gives you a model video presentation
C Helps to brainstorm main points for an outline
D Uses group work or pair work
Others (Please list other actions here)
If you make mistakes while presenting your topic, your teacher often …
A gets angry and interrupts you by correcting them
B Not angry but interrupt you to correct
C Waits until you finish your presentations, points out your mistakes, then corrects them for you
D Lets you and your classmates correct them
Others (Please list other actions here)………
When you finish your presentation, your teacher often …
A Asks for feedback on it from the rest of the students
B Gives her/ his own feedback on it
Table 3: Current methods used in teaching oral presentation skills to the second- year
The figures collected from Question 8 points out that most of the students (62%) commented that their teachers almost did nothing after giving them a topic for presentation, whereas only a small number of them (9%) stated that their teacher gave them chance to discuss the topic in groups 10 of them (18%) responded that their teacher helped them discuss the topic by giving them main ideas for the topic, and only a small number of them- 6 students (11%) answered that their teacher sometimes provided them with some words or structures related to the topic
Some students added that sometimes they did nothing but let the students discuss in their own groups at home in order to get ready preparation for the class oral presentation the following week “It becomes our class’s habit that before finishing a week’s work our teacher gives us a topic for group discussion at home, and then next week she will call randomly a group to make oral presentation for the topic”
The responses to Question 9 indicate that the majority of teachers- 30 (54%) did nothing to encourage their students to do presentations Furthermore, when a list of activities to encourage the students was suggested, none of them (0%) answered their teacher used a model video presentation, 12 students (21%) said their teachers sometimes suggested interesting topics for discussion, 8 of them (14%) answered that pair work and group work was also used for topic discussion, and only 6 students (11%) chose C which shows that the teachers helped their students brainstorm the main points for the topic One of them added sometimes her teacher managed to relax the students by avoiding commenting their mistakes, which they thought was good way to increase their motivation “I like it when my teacher ignored to correct our mistakes as she thought that if the mistakes we made were not so serious, no correction from her should be needed In this way, I think, she was quite successful in motivating us to give oral presentation”
Findings
The findings from the questionnaires distributed to 56 second- year English majors and 8 teachers at HYUTE are the answers to the six research questions Follows are the detailed answers to those questions:
2.1.1 The students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the necessity of oral presentation skills
Research question 1: What are the students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the necessity of oral presentation skills?
Findings from the two questionnaires indicate that both the students and the teachers agreed upon the necessity of oral presentation skills As for them, the application of these skills for the second- year English majors in their speaking classes in particular and in all other English classes in general was really advantageous The very first important reason, as they stated, was that they could have a quite good preparation for their future ways of working in which they would often have to give academic presentations on their own fields of business Furthermore, to the teachers who teach speaking skill, the skills of giving presentations help their students a lot in practicing speaking in English through sub- skills like giving opinions, persuading, arguing, discussing, handling with the audience‟s questions, etc
2.1.2 What the teachers know about presentation skills
Research question 2: How much do the teachers know about presentation skills?
Generally, the majority of the teachers have attended in training courses on presentation skills so the researcher was not surprised to recognize that their knowledge of presentation skills is quite good They all know for sure that the skills of presentation are to practice the students‟ speaking and listening abilities and that to be successful in giving presentations it is teachers‟ job to be aware of all particular characteristics of presentation skills such as learner- dependent (student- led activities), challenging ( create fears and nervousness to the learners), and technical (cannot be successful without the help of visual aids like overhead projectors, computers, blackboards, and illustrations, etc.)
2.1.3 The teachers and the students’ difficulties in their teaching and learning of oral presentations
Research question 3: What are the teachers and the students’ difficulties in their teaching and learning of oral presentations?
In general the students appeared shy and self conscious to speak English and often averted back to their mother tongue at a point of difficulty rather than perhaps seeking the help of a peer near them or requesting a brief moment to look up a word The latter two options would be more beneficial in terms of grasping a handle on English and learning new words Findings from the survey also show that the majority of students boasted a range of English that was limited only to the common phrases provided to them by their teachers or used in their text book The ability to express themselves more articulately was lacking greatly Students would often rely upon the over used and cliché statements rather than attempting to describe themselves using new words
The teachers shared many of their difficulties in teaching presentation skills and to their own points of view, the students‟ low proficiency of English resulted in their reluctance to practice presentation skills such as semi- formal group discussion within the classroom, which created a barrier between receiving the “theory” and application Moreover, the difficulties were attributed to a lack of resources like a well- equipped library where reference books, magazines and newspapers, etc could be available
2.1.4 The methods the teachers are currently using in teaching presentation skills
Research question 4: What methods are the teachers currently using in teaching presentation skills?
Both the students‟ and the teachers‟ responses reflect that improvements in teaching presentation skills in particular and speaking skills in general should be taken into considerations by the teachers as their methods remain problematic First of all, it seems to the researcher that the teachers participated too much in the presentation doings by helping their students with the main ideas for the topic, with words or structures related to the topic without paying much attention to encourage the students‟ creativeness by letting them work in their own groups for the main ideas or structures This happened to most of the teachers who, in giving responses to the questions, explained that if they did not do so their students might think that they were not supportive and even lazy Secondly, all of the teachers seemed not to know one important thing that giving a model video presentation is quite effective because it creates chances for the students to learn via examples Instead of that, they sometimes encouraged their students to speak by helping them brainstorm main points for an outline or suggesting topics of their preference for discussion Furthermore, the teachers were too serious when their students made mistakes Although they did not get angry, they could not stand waiting until the students finish their presentations to correct their mistakes so stopped them while they were presenting to correct In addition to that, they kept warning the students of their mistakes by pointing out the mistakes and correcting them in front of the class The last stage in their methods was when the students finished their presentations At this stage, all what most of the teachers did was giving their own feedback on the students‟ presentation giving
2.1.5 The students’ evaluations of those methods
Research question 5: What are the students’ evaluations of those methods?
What the students evaluated on their teachers‟ methods was not very positive Only a few of them thought those methods were quite effective or little effective; the rest thought they were not effective at all This problem seems hard to be solved as most of the teachers kept thinking that it was their students‟ poor English proficiency, not the teachers‟ fault that made them low- motivated in the lessons
2.1.6 What the students think should be done for them to improve their oral presentation skills
Research question 6: What do the students think should be done for them to improve their oral presentation skills?
Students‟ expectations are various To help them improve their oral presentation skills it is necessary that not only the students themselves, but the teachers and the department of foreign languages as well, think of how to learn, how to teach, and how to support for the teaching and learning of English in general and of oral presentation skills in particular Results from the survey show that the teachers were expected to, firstly, give their students more text- based readings so that they can get some background knowledge about the topic they are going to present and secondly, give them model video presentations to learn from, and thirdly pay more attention to their pronunciation and fluency in speaking And they themselves should recognize how poor their English proficiency is so that they should start thinking of improving it immediately Moreover, they all agreed that preparation for presentations is very important as it helps them be more confident about what have been prepared so being well- prepared is always what the students should be aware of About the institution, the students expected that they could have more chances to take part in English clubs or English Olympic contests, etc to practice speaking English and to increase their confidence in any kinds of English performance Furthermore, they hoped that the department as well as the institution should invest more in learning facilities or equipping the library with variety kinds of reference books, or the laboratory with more cassettes, computers, or internet.
Suggested techniques for improving oral presentation skills
According to the result of respond questionnaires, it is unedited that the teaching methods of oral presentation skills in the speaking lessons for the second- year English majors currently applied at the department of foreign languages are problematic This completely affects learners‟ study The researcher supposes that it is high time the teachers in the department did something to improve their teaching methods Followings are some suggestions for the teacher activities to the class presentations:
Most of the teachers who have trained in presentation skills show that they have good understanding of it However, the majority of them have not applied the skills to their teaching due to a number of difficulties indentified in the survey result Therefore, in order to improve the situation of teaching English speaking in general and presentation skills in particular, firstly, the teachers ought to be encouraged to give their students a choice of topics for discussion Discussion, according to Byrne (1987: 59), is “any exchange of opinions or ideas” This means that topic discussion is any exchange of opinions or ideas about some topic Following is an example of how the teacher had a discussion with the class about a topic: whether young people spend too much money on clothes:
T: Well, I sometimes get the impression…I sometimes think…that a lot of people today…especially young people, I mean…spend too much money on clothes What do you think?
A: Oh, I don’t think that’s right May be people buy more clothes, but they are quite cheap, really
B… and not very good, so…
C: It depends Anyway, clothes are important!
E: I don’t agree Most people buy something because, well, they see it in a shop… or someone’s wearing it, so they want it too… (etc.)
T: Well, I suppose one good thing is… making clothes provides work for people, doesn’t it? (etc.)
Furthermore, the teachers should change their ways of correcting the students‟ mistakes or giving feedback because their criticism and bad comments on their students‟ presentation doings sometimes create low motivation on the students So it is suggested that teachers give students more praise, compliments, encouragements than criticism The survey shows that feedback is often given by the teachers (teacher feedback) but peer feedback (given by the students) is also necessary as it makes the students get involved and become attentive audience Follows are some advice for the teachers on how to give teacher feedback and how to ask the student to give peer feedback:
Teacher feedback : When teaching presentations, you will probably want to give feedback on each presentation Try using a prepared observation feedback form (see Appendix 4), divided into sections such as body language, signposting and audience rapport After the presentation, you can give your comments verbally and/or in writing
A feedback form is particularly valuable in giving the presenting student something tangible to take away, both as a mark of achievement and as a tool for improvement
Peer feedback : Depending on group, level and culture, you may wish to invite feedback from other students on the presenting student's performance You can give the audience a prepared feedback form (see Appendix 5), listing the points to watch out for and comment on The audience should be looking for positive points at least as much as for negative ones This can be a useful activity as it sensitizes all students to the do's and don'ts of presentation giving
What is more? The reality of the students‟ doings of presentation is that sometimes the students find it quite hard work to prepare for a presentation as there is often so much work to do: searching for the main points; making the outline and rehearsing the speech If students are asked to make an individual presentation, such workload cannot be shared and so much stress will be sure to arise According to Emden and Becker (2004: 79), “sharing burden is a great advantage, as long as everyone takes his or her role seriously” That is why the researcher suggests that the teachers should assign oral presentation in groups rather than individually
When organizing the group work for a presentation, it is essential that the teachers consider the following important point:
Forming a group : According to Emden and Becker (2004), there‟s no ideal size to a presentation group Two people can work well together and the potential problem of coordinating the work is minimized If there are more than four in the group, the presentation must allow them all to have the experience of speaking, which requires quite a lot of time Another point is whether the teachers should form groups of mixed or the same ability Byrne (1987) explains that mixed ability groups- with fast and slow students together- are better for fluency work He adds that students do help one another because the kind of work they have to do involves co-operation and collaboration And teachers only have to listen in to group work to hear students correcting one another‟s mistakes
„Learning via examples‟ is often said to be one of the most positive ways of acquiring new techniques Thus materials such as a short film/ footage of both students and professional presentations in English on ranging topics would be most beneficial for students to take notes from Furthermore, presentations as varied as government Project announcements to TV advertisements presenting new products will help provide students with a deeper understanding of what the criteria of an engaging and effective presentation is Therefore, if only teachers could collect such kinds of materials to the class presentations, students could have more things to learn from and this will increase their confidence in presentation doings
In addition to that, it is teachers who know for sure what the students need to be aware of delivering a presentation Follows are some of the tips Josef Essberger (2003) advises teachers to remind their students of:
Learning the introduction by heart and trying to speak slowly and calmly to establish a rapport with the audience and to relax and gain confidence
Building a warm and friendly relationship with the audience by establishing eye contact with each member of the audience There is an advice on the necessity of making eye contact by Emden & Becker (2004:25) that “However nervous you feel, or reluctant to meet the eyes of the people in front of you, you absolutely make eye contact” The authors also add that a terrible distraction of embarrassment of the laughter between the audience and the presenter in a presentation will be likely to happen if the presenter holds eye contact for too long That is eye contact has to be brief
Making good first impression through body language, some examples of which are the presenters‟ clothes, walk, glasses, haircut, or expression Therefore, it is advisable that appearance and the way a presenter moves or stand be aware of before he/she opens his/her mouth
Varying their voice to attract the audience‟s attention and interest The students should also be reminded of varying their voice in at least three ways: speed, intonation, and volume The important point is not to speak in the same, flat, monotonous voice throughout the presentation
Knowing how to signpost the presentation by telling the audience where they are, what the structure of the presentation is, or what is coming next For the model language for signposting, refer to appendix 6
Focusing on the simplicity and clarity of the language for presentation by using short words and short sentences, active verbs instead of passive verbs, etc
Using visual aids like charts, graphs, slides, OHPs, etc As for Josef Essberger (2003:9),
“80% of what your audience learn during your presentation is learned visually (what they see) and only 20% is learned aurally (what they hear)”
With such a low level of English proficiency, the second- year students in the department are, firstly, suggested to improve their knowledge of English There are a number of things they should be aware of: reading more to enrich their vocabulary and structures, practicing doing grammar exercises on awareness- raising, such as verb forms, word building, error correction, sentence transformation, translation, etc
In addition, nervousness is said to be one of the students‟ big obstacles while delivering oral presentations so how to overcome it is worth paying attention to by the students Basing on the literature on oral presentations by Dwyer (2000), Reinhart (2002), and Emden & Becker
(2004), to be able to overcome shyness, nervousness as well as to gain confidence, students have to make sure to:
CONCLUSION
The learning and teaching of oral presentation skills have been a challenge for both the teachers and the students of the foreign language department, HYUTE so far That is also the reason why the researcher conducted this thesis with the hope to find out the oral presentation difficulties perceived by the teachers and the second- year majors Basing on the findings, the study has offered some suggestion to help improve the oral presentation skills for the students and the effective oral presentation teaching methods for the teachers
To achieve this aim, the researcher employed survey research with the participation of 56 second- year English majors and 8 teachers who have experienced teaching oral presentation skills at the department of foreign languages, UTEHY Specifically, she studied the issues: (1) the students‟ and teachers‟ perceptions of the necessity of oral presentation skills, (2) how much the teachers know about the skills, (3) difficulties they encountered, (4) the teaching methods the teachers used, (5) the students‟ evaluations of those methods and (6) what the students think should be done to improve their oral presentation giving The major findings of the study are as follows:
Firstly, both the teachers and the students agreed upon the fact that the skills of making effective oral presentations are really essential not only for them to improve their speaking abilities but also for them to practice their future work challenges which require them to give presentations on particular working field
However, a lot of difficulties arose in their process of both learning and teaching the skills, the major causes of which were shown in the students‟ low English proficiency and shyness and the teachers‟ inappropriate methods of not making the students create something of their own like structures, ideas, or mistakes correction
Basing on the findings, the thesis is concluded with several suggestions for the learners, the teachers, and the institution to help the learners overcome their difficulties For the teachers, they need to apply techniques of topic discussion, giving adequate feedback, group work, and oral presentation- oriented testing and organizing speaking clubs and oratory contests in English are what they should start thinking about On the part of students, their main duty is to find all ways to gain confidence when delivering the presentations Therefore, the solutions suggested can be: be well- prepared, be relaxed, be interactive, and learn how to handle difficult situations
Overall, this research can be of usefulness for the following reasons:
It has identified the problems that the second- year majors and their teachers at the Department of Foreign Languages, HYUTE have encountered when they make and teach oral presentations It has also pointed the underlying causes of the difficulties and offered possible solutions
It has emphasized the importance of the students‟ awareness of being confident, relaxed and well- prepared; and the teachers‟ awareness of applying all necessary presentation skills to their teaching, of the benefits of giving adequate feedback, encouraging topic discussion and group work
Obviously, what has been discussed in the study might be beneficial to both teachers and students in teaching and learning speaking in general and oral presentations in particular as it helps them to learn about their weaknesses and strengths and thus identify room for improvement and further development
The study is not without limitations due to time constraints and scope of the study For example, the questionnaires did not touch upon the teachers and the students‟ difficulties in more details like how to use visual aids, verbal and non- verbal language In addition, it could not deal with the second- year majors‟ difficulties in different periods of their learning process It would be more interesting to examine the second- year majors‟ problems in the fifth term when they learn “Oral Presentation” These limitations, therefore, call for further research for the long- term benefits of the learners
THE QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE STUDENTS
This survey questionnaire is designed for our research into “Investigating How to Improve
Oral Presentation Skills for the Second- Year English Majors of the Foreign Language Department at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education”
Please tick the appropriate box(es) to respond to each statement or question and complete all of them as frankly and as accurately as you can Your answers will be of invaluable help in teaching and learning oral presentations in English at our university Would you kindly return the completed questionnaire to me by 25 th May, 2009?
Thank you for your cooperation!
Place where you spend most of your time:
How long have you been learning English?
Your average mark in speaking in the third semester: ………
How necessary do you think it is to learn oral presentation skills in your speaking class?
What do you think is the reason for that necessity?
(You can tick more than one)
A Making oral presentations is one of the requirements in the university’s syllabus for speaking
B Speaking skill is well- practiced through doing oral presentations
C It’s a good way to evaluate one’s ability in speaking
D It is for us to prepare for our professional ways of working in the future
Others (Please give other reasons of your own choice here)………
How do you find presentation skills?
How do you find preparation stage difficult?
A It’s not easy to search for ideas (Not every given topic is of easy understanding)
B How to make a detailed outline with satisfactory explanation and examples to support the main point is quite difficult
C Rehearsing the speech is sometimes boring
In what ways do you find delivering a presentation difficult? (You can tick more than one)
A I cannot make a good voice variation (with stress and intonation)
B I am quite clumsy in using body language such as eye contact, facial expression, body movements, or hand gestures
C I feel nervous (lack of confidence) in front of the audience
D I never feel relaxed when handing with the audience’s questions
Others (Please list other reasons here)………
What aspect(s) do you find most difficult for giving good content of a presentation? (You can tick more than one)
B How to give supporting ideas for the main points
What do you think are the reasons for such difficulties? (You can tick more than one)
A Our English proficiency is quite low
B Giving oral presentations is new to us
D It’s our teacher that fails to teach us what a good oral presentation should be
Others (Please list other reasons here)………
After giving you topics for presentation, your teachers often …
A Helps with the main ideas for the topic
B Helps you with words or structures related to the topics
C Encourages you to discuss the topic in groups
D Asks you to discuss the topic individually
Others (Please list other activities here)
What does you teacher do to encourage you to speak?
A Suggests interesting topics for discussion
B Gives you a model video presentation
C Helps to brainstorm main points for an outline
D Uses group work or pair work
Others (Please list other actions here)………
If you make mistakes while presenting your topic, your teacher often …
A gets angry and interrupts you by correcting them
B Waits until you finish your presentations, points out your mistakes, then corrects them for you
C Lets you and your classmates correct them Others (Please list other actions here)………
When you finish your presentation, your teacher often …
A Asks for feedback on it from the rest of the students
B Gives her/ his own feedback on it
What do you think about your teacher’s teaching strategies of presentation skills? They are:
What do you think the teacher should do to help you to give satisfactory presentations? (You can tick more than one)
A Give you more reading texts related to the topics
B Give you more time to prepare
C Give model language for your oral presentation
D Show you a film or video on a model presentation
Others (Please list other opinions here)………
What do you think you should do to help yourself give effective presentation?
(You can take more than one)
A Improve our own knowledge of English, for example vocabulary, structures, grammar, and pronunciation
B Be well- prepared for our oral presentations
Others (Please list other opinions here)………
What do you think the department of foreign languages should do to help you improve your presentation skill? (You can tick more than one)
A Invest in well- equipped learning and teaching facilities, for example specialized lecture rooms being equipped with overhead projector, language labs, etc
B Organize English speaking clubs and contests more often
C Pay for training courses on presentation skills
Others (Please list other opinions here)………
THIS IS THE END OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE
THE QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE TEACHERS
This survey questionnaire is designed for our research into “Investigating How to Improve
Oral Presentation Skills for the Second- Year English Majors of the Foreign Language Department at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education”
Please tick the appropriate box (es) to respond to each statement or question and complete all of them as frankly and as accurately as you can Your answers will be of invaluable help in teaching oral presentations in English at our university Would you kindly return the completed questionnaire to me by 25 th May, 2009?
Thank you for your cooperation!
Have you done an M.A course? And when?
How long have you been teaching English?
How necessary do you think it is to introduce oral presentation skills in the speaking class?
What do you think is the reason for that necessity?
A Making oral presentations is one of the requirements in the university’s syllabus for speaking
B Speaking skill is well- practiced through doing oral presentations
C It’s a good way to evaluate students’ ability in speaking
D It is for the students to prepare for their professional ways of working in the future
Others (Please give other reasons of your own choice here)………
Have you been trained in presentation skills?
A Yes, in English teaching- training courses
B Yes, in English teaching workshops
D No, I have never been trained in presentation skills
What do you think about presentation skills?
( Tick all the statements you think are true to presentation skills)
B are to practice speaking and listening skills
C can’t be effectively done without the help of visual aids like overhead projectors, blackboard, and illustrations
D create fears and nerves to the majority of students
How difficult do you find it to introduce presentation skills to speaking classes?
4) What do you think is the reason(s) for that difficulty? (You can tick more than one)
A I haven’t been trained in the skills before
C The students’ proficiency is low
D The speaking syllabus is not appropriate enough for applying presenting skills
E There is not appropriate classroom size for making presentation
Others (Please list other reasons here)………
After giving your students topics for presentation, you often …(You can tick more than one)
A Help with the main ideas for the topic
B Help with words or structures related to the topics
C Let them discuss the topics in small groups
Others (Please list other activities here)………
What do you do to encourage your students to speak?
A Suggest interesting topics for discussion
B Gives you a model video presentation
C Help them brainstorm main points for an outline
D Use group work or pair work
E Others (Please list other activities here
If your students make mistakes while presenting the topic, you often …( You can tick more than one)
A Get angry and interrupt them by correcting the mistakes
B Don’t get angry but interrupt them to correct
C Wait until they finish their presentations, point out their mistakes, and then correct the mistakes for them
D Wait until they finish their presentations, point out their mistakes, and then encourage them to correct the mistakes by themselves
Others (Please list other activities here)………
THIS IS THE END OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE
TOPICS/SUBTOPICS FOR THE FOURTH TERM FOR HYUTE MAJORS OF
Below is a list of the topics that we worked on in the fourth term for the second- year majors of English
1.“Time flies never comes back” Explain what the saying may teach people
2 A successful man never wastes his time
1 If you want to run away from a broken heart, traveling isn’t the right solution
2 Can we measure one’s knowledge by counting how many places he’s been to?
1.Changing your routines sometimes can make your life less boring
2 One of the disadvantages of modern life is that people have to suffer from a lot of stress
1.Information available on the internet should be controlled
2 Too many means of information are available today
1.Can your clothes tell others what sort of person you are?
2 Fashion is what the young should be seriously aware of if they want to become famous
1 There isn’t an age limit for love
2 Age difference is not important to love
3 People of the older generation are narrow-minded
Assess the speaker by awarding marks from 0 (Needs to improve) to 5 (Excellent) for each item in each category You may also add your own comments about any items you like
Questions to ask the speaker:
Preparation o _came to the class early to set up equipment o _made sure all equipments in working condition o _turned in assignment sheet
Organization o _clear introduction o _logical development o _strong conclusion o _typed and clear outline
Content o _variety of resources o _amount of research conducted o _originality
Presentation o _held audiences' attention o _spoke with note cards o _Eye contact o _time control o _volume of voice o _effectiveness of visual aids
Oral skills o _adapted the information for the audience (communicative English) o _clarity & fluency o _provided discussion questions or class activities o _involved the audience
SUGGESTED MODELS LANGUAGE FOR AN ORAL PRESENTATION
- In my presentation, I’ll be proposing…/In my presentation today I’ll going to…/This morning I’d like to review…/The subject/topic of this presentation is…
- I’ll be developing three main points…
- First, I’ll give you…Second,…Lastly…
- My presentation will be in two main part In the first part I’ll…and then I’ll…
- I’ll begin by…/ let’s start with…
- Now, what about…/ Let me now move on to…
- What is the explanation for this? / What can we do about this?/ how will this affect us?
- To show a different argument: however, on the other hand, although, in spite of this
- To show a consequence: therefore, so, consequently, because of this, not only…but also…
- We have considered/looked at three options
- One way to solve this problem is … Another is to…
- The first option is to…What about the second option?
- So, now let’s look at the third option, which is to…
- No, what about the advantages? But there are some problems too
- Now, I’d like to look at the benefits On the other hand…
- There are certain advantages for…, however, a major drawback is…
7 Emphasizing and highlighting key points
- What we are suggesting are …
- Therefore,…/ That comes to…/ Consequently,…/ Above all,…
- As you know…/ As I’m sure you are aware …
- Is that clear? No? Yes? / Is that okay?
- You understand?/ You understand that?
- Everybody understand? / Does everybody understand? / So did everybody understand that?
- You following? / Are you following here?
- I’ll say more about this later
- We’ll come back to this point later
12 Recommending and calling for action
- My suggestion/ our proposal/ the recommendation … is to …
- So, what I would recommend is that …
- To sum up/ summarize, …/ In conclusion/ summary, …/ Briefly, …
- That brings me to the end of my presentation/ that completes my presentation
- Thank you for your attention/ Thank you for listening/ Thank you for joining me/ us
- If there are any questions, I’ll do my best to answer them
- I would welcome any comment/ suggestions
- You can ask questions at any time
- Any questions before we move on?
- Any questions or comments so far?
- Lan, do you have a question?
+ Giving your message more impact
- We strongly recommend … / … is far too dangerous
- So what you are asking is …,
- If understand the question correctly, you would like to know …
- Could we talk about that later? / Could we talk about that on another occasion?
Q: - Could we see that slide again?
A: - Yes, of course This is the diagram we looked at earlier
Unit 6 Too Old to Learn ?
TEACHER: OK, everybody Let’s get started Today we’ve going to talk about the critical period in language learning But first, I’d like to ask you a question: How many of you have cried to learn a new language as a teenager or as an adult… Ah I see, quite a few of you Well, then I’m sure you agree that it’s much more difficult to learn a new language when we’re grown than it was to learn your first language as a child, right? But do you know why it’s so much harder? Well, linguists believe it’s because of the critical period of language development
The critical period is a theory that explains why it is easier for children to learn languages than for adults That’s I’d like to discuss today But first, I’d like to start by defining the critical period… and I’ll give you some examples of a critical period in animals in songbirds and cars Then, I’ll talk about evidence for a critical period for language learning in humans
So what exactly is a critical period? The idea of a critical period comes from the study of animals We say that there’s a critical period- the only time- when the animal can learn a new skill Now, the critical period starts in the first weeks or months of an animal life During this time its brain is ready to learn new things However, when the animal gets older, the critical period ends, it cannot learn any more So there are skills that must be learned when the animal is young; if not, they can’t learn them as adults