Presentation performance influential factors and practices for improvement among english major students an giang university

AN GIANG UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES HUỲNH THỊ NHƯ NGÂN DTA151091 ‖ DH16TA UNDERGRADUATE THESIS PRESENTATION PERFORMANCE: INFLUENTIAL FACTORS AND PRACTICES FOR IMPROVEMENT AMONG ENGLISH-MAJOR STUDENTS AT AN GIANG UNIVERSITY SUPERVISOR LE DO THAI, M.A MAY 2, 2019 Contents LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv DECLARATION v ACKNOWLEDGEMENT vi ABSTRACT vii TÓM LƯỢC viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study 1.1.1 Theoretical background 1.1.2 Contextual background 1.2 Research aims 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Significance of the study 1.5 Limitation of the study 1.6 Organization of the study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Presentation 2.1.1 Definition 2.1.2 The components of a presentation 2.1.3 Types of oral presentations 10 2.2 Purposes of academic presentation 12 2.2.1 Advocacy/persuasion 12 2.2.2 Training 12 2.2.3 Teaching and learning 13 2.2.4 Informing 13 2.2.5 Assessment 14 2.3 Benefits of presentations 14 2.3.1 Student-centered participation in their learning 14 2.3.2 Develop new knowledge and perspectives on a topic 15 i 2.3.3 Practice in a known environment/situation 15 2.3.4 Increasing confidence to speak and present in front of an audience 15 2.3.5 Improving marks earned for a module assessment 15 2.3.6 Developing a wide range of communication and presentation skills 15 2.3.7 Preparation for skills needed in the workplace 16 2.4 Factors affecting the presentation performance 16 2.4.1 Linguistic factors 16 2.4.2 Psychological factors 16 2.4.3 Cognitive factors 17 2.4.4 Role of teacherss 18 2.5 Pressures and problems of giving presentations 19 2.6 Ten steps for preparing your successful presentation 19 2.7 Overview of previous studies 20 2.8 Summary of the literature review and justification of the study 21 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 23 3.1 Research design 23 3.2 Participants and sampling methods 23 3.2.1 Participants 23 3.2.2 The pilot study 26 3.3 Instrumentation 26 3.3.1 The questionnaire 26 3.3.2 Interview 28 3.4 Procedure of data collection 28 3.4.1 Administering the questionnaires 28 3.4.2 Administering the interviews 29 3.5 Procedure of data analysis 30 3.5.1 Analysis of the questionnaires 30 3.5.2 Analysis of the interviews 30 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 31 4.1 Students’ perceptions of factors influencing their presentation performance 31 4.1.1 Cognitive factors 31 4.1.2 Linguistic factors 33 ii 4.1.3 Psychological factors 35 4.1.4 Role of teachers 37 4.2 Students’ activities to improve their presentation performance 39 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 42 5.1 Summary of the findings and discussions 42 5.2 Conclusions 43 5.3 Implications 45 5.3.1 For students 46 5.3.2 For teachers 49 5.3.3 For the university 51 5.4 Recommendations 52 REFERENCES 55 APPENDICES 60 APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS 60 APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW 64 APPENDIX 3: PROTOCOL OF RESPONSES TO THE INTERVIEW 65 iii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 3.1 The participants of the study according to class 24 Table 3.2 The distribution of the population of the study according to gender……………….…24 Figure 3.1 Distribution of students by gender……………………………………………………25 Figure 3.2 Distribution of students by class…………………………………………………… 25 Figure 3.3 Distribution of students by their GPA…………………………………………… …25 Table 3.3 Number of items according to the domains………………………………………… 29 Table 3.4 Realiability Statistics of the questionnaire…………………………………………… 31 Table 4.1 Descriptive Statistics of Cognitive Factors……………………………………………32 Table 4.2 One-Sample Test of Cognitive Factors 32 Table 4.3 Students’ perceptions of cognitive factors in their presentation performance 32 Table 4.4 Descriptive Statistics of Linguistic Factors 33 Table 4.5 One-Sample Test of Linguistic Factors 33 Table 4.6 Students’ perceptions of linguistic factors in their presentation performance 34 Table 4.7 Descriptive Statistics of Psychological Factors 35 Table 4.8 Students’ perceptions of psychological factors in their presentation performance 35 Table 4.9 Descriptive statistics of Role of teachers 37 Table 4.10 One-Sample Test of Role of teachers 37 Table 4.11 Students’ perceptions of role of teachers in their presentation performance 38 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AGU: An Giang University EFL: English as a Foreign Language GPA: Grade Point Average iv DECLARATION I hereby declare that the thesis titled “Presentation performance: influential factors and practices for improvement among English-major students at An Giang University” represents my own work and that it has not been previously submitted to any other university or institute in application for admission to degrees or other qualifications _ May 2019 Huynh Thi Nhu Ngan v ACKNOWLEDGEMENT After completing my study, I learnt many language skills and specialized knowledge that are very important to develop my English competence Apart from the efforts of myself, the success of this study largely depends on the encouragement and guidelines of many my beloved people I would like to send my gratitude to people who have contributions to help me in completion this study First of all, I would like to thank the Foreign Language Department of An Giang University for allowing me to the study for my graduation and providing me with regulations and necessary information for the study I am deeply indebted to my kind supervisor, Mr Le Do Thai, who supported and helped me to lighten my study up His amazing support has been a blessing to me His encouragement and professional insights have inspired both my personal and professional development Moreover, he is a great role model for all educators, scholars, and educational administrators I am extremely thankful to all the participants who spent time to provide me rich and detailed data for the study to value the research findings Finally, I wish to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to my family and friends whose love and best wishes have always been a source of inspiration, encouragement and motivation for me to successfully complete this study An Giang, April 30th , 2019 Huynh Thi Nhu Ngan vi ABSTRACT This study aimed to investigate the influential factors affecting in doing academic presentation performance for English majors at An Giang University and the activities they have been doing to improve it The participants of the study included two hundred EFL students and eight EFL students for interview were randomly selected to participate in the study The data, both qualitative and quantitative, were collected through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews The results of the study show that four clusters of factors (cognitive, linguistic, psychological factors and role of teachers) influence the presentation performance of English majors at AGU at certain levels as perceived by the students The study also find out certain activities that English majors frequently to improve their academic performance The research has drawn some important conclusions and provided recommendations for students, teachers and further research Key terms: academic presentation, presentation performance, influential factors vii TĨM LƯỢC Nghiên cứu nhằm mục đích điều tra nhân tố có sức ảnh hưởng đến việc làm thuyết trình sinh viên chuyên ngành Ngôn ngữ Anh trường Đại học An Giang phương pháp sinh viên làm để cải thiện phần thuyết trình Tham gia ngiên cứu bao gồm hai trăm sinh viên ngành Ngôn ngữ Anh trả lời bảng câu hỏi tám sinh viên khác trả lời vấn chọn lựa ngẫu nhiên theo khóa học Cả liệu định tính định lượng thu thập thơng qua bảng câu hỏi vấn Các kết nghiên cứu bốn nhóm nhân tố (nhận thức, ngơn ngữ, tâm lý vai trị giáo viên) có ảnh hưởng đến thuyết trình sinh viên chuyên ngành Ngôn ngữ Anh trường Đại học An Giang mức độ định theo cách đánh giá sinh viên Nghiên cứu tìm phương pháp hoạt động mà sinh viên chuyên ngành Ngôn ngữ anh thường thực để cải thiện phần trình bày báo cáo họ Nghiên cứu rút kết luận quan trọng đưa kiến nghị hữu ích cho sinh viên, giáo viên nghiên cứu viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study 1.1.1 Theoretical background Whai and Mei (2015) claim that “mastering good communication skills is essential because it serves as the key to success in one’s life, career and relationships” (p.133) Therefore, Al-Hebaish (2012) highlights that promoting learners’ oral communication abilities is a major challenge of foreign English instruction since the fundamental goal of language teaching is the production of competent speakers of the target language Almost both English majors and non-English majors mainly focus on communication in English as effectively as possible when learning English Idrus and Salleh (2008) point out that an effective communication is identified as a manner which is clear, fluent and which holds the audience’s attention both in group and individual (p.62) Upon realizing the importance of mastering good English communication skills, oral presentation will be one of the most essential academic courses to strengthen their speaking abilities (AlHebaish, 2012) It is suggested that good presentation and communication skills are important for all English and non-English majors to be successful in their future career (Girard, Pinar & Trapp, 2011) Therefore, in the introduction of Soureshjani (2013), he notes that “making a good oral presentation is an art that involves attention to the needs of your audience, careful planning, and attention to delivery” (p 166) A study conducted by Girard, Pinar and Trapp (2011) states that student presentations bring many potential benefits in learning English to both presenters and non-presenters (p.77) Presentations contribute to a positive and active classroom atmosphere that gives students the opportunity to establish an identity with interesting background and special knowledge (Masmaliyeva, 2014, p.146), and increases greater class interaction and participation More importantly, students can improve in listening and public speaking skill, even critical thinking skills so that presenters enhance flexibility and proficiency in speaking English All presenters and non-presenters gain professional knowledge from the research they perform as well as different perspectives about the course material by observing the other presenters’ strengths and weaknesses to develop better communication and presentation skills Getting non-presenters pay verbal skills, teachers should take time to demonstrate how and when to use body language including eye contact, gestures, posture, and facial expression 4) As students appear to be acutely sensitive to fear of making grammatical errors that may restrict speaking English fluently although they have good vocabulary, teachers should encourage students to have confidence to make mistakes, especially grammar, in order to acquire communication skills 5) In order to allay students’ fear that feeling nervous and anxious in front of class will influence their end of course grades, sometimes it makes students out of control from the content and communication The teachers should initiate discussion in the class about the feelings of anxiety and should take measures to mitigate the sense of competition among them The evaluation form should be given to students when teachers assign the task It can be used as a guideline for students to prepare their presentations 6) In order to become effective presenters, it is necessary for students to set up good speaking habits by practicing Careful preparation and practice can help students improve their oral proficiency and gain confidence to have a successful presentation 7) For encouraging students to feel successful in using English, teachers should give positive attitude and encouragement to create motivation for students in speaking English and expressing their own ideas For example, teachers should correct mistakes students made instead of subtracting score of presentation 8) Finally, there should be some specific teachers training courses on influential factors as well as difficulties in doing presentation performance in order to make teachers aware of complex issues and combine many effective teaching methods and enhance progress of students Recommendations based on the finding of this study offers a number of strategies to cope with the potentially detrimental factors of academic presentation and can potentially increase students’ confidence to learn and particularly to speak the target language Thus, during all this process, the role of individual cognition is deemed highly crucial that impact on particular beliefs, perceptions and attitudes towards language learning and teaching process Future researchers on influential factors in doing 53 presentation should attempt to explore students’ beliefs and perceptions about academic presentation Moreover, psychological factors are still a debatable issue through the findings of questionnaire and interview report Hence, influence of psychological factors should be discovered more about manifestations and causes in giving presentation performance in the later researches in addition to those of learners as a mean to effectively address the multi-dimensional construct of influential factors It is hoped that further research in academic presentations on a wider scale can be conducted to inform pedagogy leading to improved performance of the students 54 REFERENCES Al-Hebaish, S.M (2012) The correlation between general self-confidence and academic achievement in the oral presentation course Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2(1), 60-65 http://dx.doi.org/10.4304/tpls.2.1.60-65 AL‐ISSA, A S., & Al‐Qubtan, R E D H A (2010) Taking the floor: Oral presentations in EFL classrooms TESOL Journal, 1(2), 227-246 Al-Nouh, N A., Abdul-Kareem, M M., & Taqi, H A (2015) EFL College Students' Perceptions of the Difficulties in Oral Presentation as a Form of Assessment International Journal of Higher Education, 4(1), 136-150 Brown, H.D (2001) Teaching by principles: An interactive 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speakers Canadian Modern Language Review, 63(4), 455-485 Zhang, Y L., & Jia, G Z (2006) Anxiety in foreign language classroom CELEA Journal, 29(6), 96-103 59 APPENDICES APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS My name is Huynh Thi Nhu Ngan I am carrying out a study titled “Presentation Performance: Influential Factors and Practices for Improvement among English-major Students at An Giang University” This questionnaire is designed to collect the data for this research The questionnaire does not require a name and all personal information will be canceled after finishing the thesis Your contribution to this research is extremely important To help me complete it, please read carefully statements related to your perceptions and practices of the presentation performance, then you click on the option that most fits your opinion Thank you very much Please put a tick the box that apply to you: ☐Nam Your gender: Your class: ☐16TA ☐17TA ☐18TA ☐Nữ ☐19TA1 ☐19TA2 Your GPA (Grade Point Average) of the latest semester: ☐ week ☐Others Do you think that presentation is the optimal method to study English? ☐Yes ☐ No ☐Not sure ☐ Others 60 Please put a tick on the option that best suits your opinion Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree Presentation develops listening skills for key points Presentation improves public speaking skills Presentation contributes to learning about course materials better Presentation brings different perspectives for learning in class Presentation contributes to an active classroom atmosphere Presentation increases my confidence and motivation in learning Presentation enhances oral flexibility and proficiency I become more involved in classroom activities when I am evaluated through presentations Commenting on presentations from my teachers or peers helps develop my presentation skills 10 I widen more my professional knowledge from researching presentation topics 11 I use vocabulary appropriately in my presentations 12 I have almost no grammatical errors in my presentations 13 I give my presentations clearly with correct pronunciation 14 I deliver my presentations 61 fluently 15 I stress words correctly and properly 16 I deliver my presentation with proper intonation patterns 17 I use well signposting languages to organize my presentations 18 I can express accurately my meaning in free oral questions 19 I have proper pauses while delivering my presentations 20 I have a good voice quality 21 I can control well my nerves when speaking in front of the class 22 I am willing to listen to judgment from my teachers and peers about my proficiency or ability in English 23 I am very concerned about the mark or score I get 24 I always remember what I want to say when standing in front of the class 25 I use gestures or body language confidently when I present 26 I always hope for my perfect presentation performance 27 I usually volunteer to give my presentations first 28 I always keep eye contact with all members of the audience 29 I accept making mistakes such as pronouncing a word wrong 30 I feel interested in presentation topics and knowledge 31 Teachers always suggest 62 students presentation topics 32 Teachers help students to choose the suitable topics 33 Teachers provide students with necessary materials and references for a presentation 34 Teachers give students the clear evaluation form 35 Teachers always have serious facial expression when students are delivering the presentation 36 Teachers show some encouraging signs such as nodding or smiling 37 Teachers always appraise students for some good points when they finish the presentation 38 Teachers always give criticism on presenting manner, language usage, body language, slide display and timing 39 Teachers ask good questions related to the topic 40 Teachers give marks to the students fairly 63 APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW Questions: In your opinion, what is presentation performance? What factors you think can affect your presentation performance? In your opinion, which factors most affect your presentation performance How are your presentation performance often evaluated from lecturers and peers? What you usually to improve your presentation performance In terms of English language, what you usually to improve your presentation performance? In terms of presentation skills, what you usually to improve your presentation performance? In terms of psychological factors, what you usually to improve your presentation performance? 64 APPENDIX 3: PROTOCOL OF RESPONSES TO THE INTERVIEW Questions Similarity Difference In your Presentation - “Presentation performance opinion, what is performance is delivering consists of two parts: content and presentation and sharing knowledge presentation skills Appropriate performance? or information about a content and good presentation skills particular topic by verbal need to be in a close combination to and non-verbal language make successful presentation” (interviewees: 2,5,7,8) (interviewee 4) - Presentation Performance means a delivery of the content in presentation through PowerPoint (interviewee 3) - “Presentation Performance is considered as presenting about a particular topic that teachers or lecturers gave you before” (interviewee 6) - “Presentation Performance is a method to transmit information by language skills in combination with images and supportive tools, etc additionally, creativity in performance increases value of the content.” (interviewee 1) What Almost factors you interviewees think that think can affect factors are the content, - partners (interviewee 7) - lecturers and audience 65 your presentation body language, performance? confidence, preparation, psychology, language (interviewee 4) - interaction with audience (interviewee 1, 2) competence - questions and evaluation after presentation (interviewee 6) In your Psychology and opinion, which confidence are factors factors most affect most affecting your presentation presentation - Voice (interviewee 5, 6) - Pronunciation (interviewee 3) performance How are Almost - With students being concerned your presentation presentation performance about interaction and body language: performance often of interviewees is their presentation is evaluated “very evaluated from evaluated “fairly good” attractive” (interviewees 1, 6) lecturers and - With students being concerned peers? about confidence and psychology, their presentation usually makes some mistakes and anxiety (interviewees 3,4,5,8) What Having a good Watching English TV Show to you usually to preparation such as imitate body language, recording improve your practicing speaking voice and taking a reference many presentation English and rehearsing resources for designing PowerPoint performance the presentation carefully (interviewee 1) In terms of - Practicing English language, speaking English many what you times, pronouncing usually to improve correctly complicated your presentation words and using - Practicing speaking English with foreigners (interviewee 3) - Using variously new phrases, grammar and synonyms to present 66 performance? appropriate words (interviewee 4) - Watching English news, videos and the speech of English experts to practice voice, intonation and pronunciation In terms of - Designing presentation skills, beautiful images and what you effects to attract usually to audience improve your presentation - Practicing voice - Interacting closely with audience - Taking experience from international conference or meeting - Updating trending language clearly and loudly (interviewee 1) performance? - Using effectively gestures and eye-contact In terms of - Practicing and - Concentrating on mind and psychological learning content by heart review the content before starting factors, what carefully Making good presentation.(interviewees 3, 4) you usually to preparation improve your - getting self- presentation encouragement and performance? breathing deeply before starting presentation - Making funny and comfortable atmosphere in class to reduce pressure (interviewee 5) - Getting motivation during presentation from support of audience.(interviewee 1) 67