A study on the difficulties in giving english oral presentations faced by second year students of english teacher education major at danang university of foreign language studies

ĐẠI HỌC ĐÀ NẴNG TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ - - BÁO CÁO TỔNG KẾT NGHIÊN CỨU KHOA HỌC SINH VIÊN Đề tài: A STUDY ON THE DIFFICULTIES IN GIVING ENGLISH ORAL PRESENTATIONS FACED BY SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH TEACHER EDUCATION MAJOR AT DANANG UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES Sinh viên thực hiện: Phạm Hoàng Minh Tâm Lớp: 19SPA01 Khoa: Sư Phạm Ngoại Ngữ Đà Nẵng, tháng năm 2021 ĐẠI HỌC ĐÀ NẴNG TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ BÁO CÁO TỔNG KẾT NGHIÊN CỨU KHOA HỌC CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM HỌC 2020 - 2021 A STUDY ON THE DIFFICULTIES IN GIVING ENGLISH ORAL PRESENTATIONS FACED BY SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH TEACHER EDUCATION MAJOR AT DANANG UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES Thuộc nhóm ngành khoa học: Giáo học pháp Sinh viên thực hiện: Phạm Hoàng Minh Tâm Lớp: 19SPA01 Khoa: Sư phạm Ngoại ngữ Ngành học: Sư phạm tiếng Anh Đà Nẵng, tháng năm 2021 ĐẠI HỌC ĐÀ NẴNG TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ THÔNG TIN KẾT QUẢ NGHIÊN CỨU CỦA ĐỀ TÀI Thông tin chung: - Tên đề tài: A study on the difficulties in giving English oral presentations faced by second-year students of English Teacher Education major at Danang University of Foreign Language Studies - Sinh viên thực hiện: Phạm Hoàng Minh Tâm - Lớp: 19SPA01 Khoa: Sư phạm Ngoại ngữ Năm thứ: 2 Mục tiêu đề tài: This research aims to explore the difficulties of English academic oral presentation faced by second-year students of English Teacher Education major at Danang University of Foreign Language Studies and possible causes of these difficulties Tính và sáng tạo: This research was conducted to have a closer look into some of the common difficulties the second-year students of English Teacher Education major at Danang University of Foreign Language Studies face in giving English oral presentations and their causes Kết nghiên cứu: The main difficulties faced by the students were grammatical usage, controlling their nerves and handling difficult questions from the audience The findings showed that there were three causes which contribute to their difficulties: low level of English proficiency, lack of confidence and bad voice quality Đóng góp mặt kinh tế - xã hội, giáo dục và đào tạo, an ninh, quốc phòng và khả áp dụng đề tài: - The findings of this research will help students to find suitable solutions to improve their oral presentation skills - The results may assist teachers in their teaching and assessing process as they have gained more insight into the challenges their students face - The research would be a reliable source of information for other studies in the future Công bố khoa học sinh viên từ kết nghiên cứu đề tài (ghi rõ tên tạp chí có) nhận xét, đánh giá sở áp dụng các kết nghiên cứu (nếu có): Xác nhận Giáo viên hướng dẫn Đà Nẵng, ngày 26 tháng năm 2021 Sinh viên chịu trách nhiệm thực đề tài (ký, họ tên) ĐẠI HỌC ĐÀ NẴNG TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ THƠNG TIN VỀ SINH VIÊN CHỊU TRÁCH NHIỆM CHÍNH THỰC HIỆN ĐỀ TÀI I SƠ LƯỢC VỀ SINH VIÊN: Họ tên: Phạm Hoàng Minh Tâm Ảnh 4x6 Sinh ngày: 21 tháng 10 năm 2001 Nơi sinh: Đà Nẵng Lớp: 19SPA01 Khóa: 2019 Khoa: Sư phạm Ngoại ngữ Địa liên hệ: H1/17K32 Phan Đăng Lưu, Hòa Cường Bắc, Hải Châu, Đà Nẵng Điện thoại: 0394755241 Email: phamhoangminhtam21@gmail.com II QUÁ TRÌNH HỌC TẬP (kê khai thành tích sinh viên từ năm thứ đến năm học): * Năm thứ 1: Ngành học: Sư phạm Tiếng Anh Khoa: Sư phạm Ngoại ngữ Kết xếp loại học tập: Giỏi Sơ lược thành tích: * Năm thứ 2: Ngành học: Sư phạm Tiếng Anh Khoa: Sư phạm Ngoại ngữ Kết xếp loại học tập: Giỏi Sơ lược thành tích: Ngày 26 tháng năm 2021 Xác nhận Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Sinh viên chịu trách nhiệm (ký tên đóng dấu) thực đề tài (ký, họ tên) ABSTRACT As doing presentations in English is one of the most important skills for an English teacher, this research was conducted on 42 second-year students of English Teacher Education major at Danang university of Foreign Language Studies to identify their difficulties in making English oral presentations and look for some common causes of the problems they were facing The questionnaire was adapted from Nguyen Thi Van Ha’s research, the results were coded and analyzed using Excel 2016 Based on the results, the main difficulties faced by these pre-service teachers were grammatical usage, controlling their nerves and handling difficult questions from the audience According to the students’ opinions, there were three causes which contributed to their difficulties: low level of English proficiency, lack of confidence and bad voice quality Hopefully, the findings of this research will assist teachers as well as pre-service teachers in their career by enabling them to have better understanding of how to give a successful English oral presentation Key words: English oral presentation, pre-service teachers, difficulties, causes TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Scope of the study Aims Objectives Research question Significance CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND LITERATURE REVIEW I - THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK The definition of oral presentation: The importance of oral presentation: The components of an oral presentation: The fear of presenting among students: II - LITERATURE REVIEW CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 11 Research design 11 Participants and sampling 11 Instruments 11 Validity and reliability 12 Data collection 12 Data analysis 12 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 14 I - RESULTS 14 II - DISCUSSION 22 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION, RECOMMENDATIONS AND LIMITATIONS 24 I - CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 24 II - LIMITATIONS 24 TABLE OF FIGURES Table 1: students' difficulties in preparation 14 Table 2: Students' difficulties in Organization 15 Table 3: Students' difficulties in Delivery: Getting and maintaining audience's attention 16 Table 4: Students' difficulties in Delivery: Body Language 17 Table 5: Students' difficulties in Delivery: Language Use 17 Table 6: Students' difficulties in Delivery: Time Management 18 Table 7: Students' difficulties in Delivery: Anxiety Management 18 Table 8: Students' difficulties in Delivery: Handling the audience's question 19 Table 9: Students' difficulties in Evaluation 20 Table 10: Students' causes of difficulties 21 TABLE OF ABBREVIATION No Abbreviation AS D E TS VD VE Full form Average score Difficult Easy Total Score Very Difficult Very Easy CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Rationale Despite the rise of technology and how it has made communication easier, human contact still plays an essential role in our society Especially, how to express your idea fluently in the international language, English How to study and teach English effectively is always a big question to both teachers and students To become successful in learning English, a learner has to make an effort to perfect four main skills: reading, listening, speaking and writing Beside that, oral presentation skill is one of the most important proficiencies needed for higher education and future career One of the core competencies for higher educated professionals relates to the ability to present (Ginkel et al., 2015) Students learning at colleges and universties need, in addition to academic growth, to be equipped for the world of work through the ability to give a successful oral presentation (Nowreyah et al., 2015) Oral presentation, according to Levin and Topping (2006), is planned and practiced speech that is not memorized or read from notes but is introduced by a presenter to the audience As a matter of fact, giving an effective presentation requires a mastery of broad range of skills and techniques To achieve the objective of the presentation, the presenter is supposed to master the abilities to identify the purpose, topic, theme, organization so that the audience can easily follow the talk (Nguyen, 2010) In addition to that, the speaker’s use of intonation, articulation, stress, pacing, emphasis, etc., to get the listeners’ attention and concentration is considered essential to contribute to his or her success In the context of Vietnamese education, English is taught as a compulsory subject for 12 years in general curriculum Most of the students learn the language in the classroom or some extra classes and from language teachers who are native speakers of Vietnamese The students spend most of their time doing grammar and vocabulary exercises instead of practicing oral presentations (Nguyen, 2010) Promoting oral communication skills, which requires students to practice in real-life situations, is therefore completely overlooked As a result, many highschool graduates are unable to express their ideas or engage in real conversation In spite of having been extensively researched, most of the earlier researchs were done on undergraduate students from other majors, such as engineering, medicine and bussiness (Preub et al., 2010; Radzuan & Kaur, 2011; Alwi & Sidhu, 2013) Although there was one research conducted by Nowreyah, Muneera and Hanan in 2015 in which the participants were students who enrolled in a four-year pre-service teacher education, the importance of this skill in the teaching career was not emphasized As an educator, it is imperative that every element should contribute to the students’ learning experience Giving lectures is a form of oral presentation During the lecture, a teacher as well need to incorporate a variety of skills including intonation, eye-contact, speech preparation and engaging the audience (Cook, 2018) As one of the biggest centre of English teacher training in Vietnam, the students whose major is English Teacher Education at Danang University of Foreign Language Studies are going to be, in the foreseeable future, English teachers and lecturers For these students, obtaining the ability to express and explain ideas successfully through oral presentations is no longer an individual matter but a responsibility However, as learners, many are still experiencing difficulties in giving English oral presentations As a second-year student of English Teacher Education major at Danang University of Foreign Language Studies myself, I realise that even after almost years of constant effort to improve this skills, many of my peers still struggle to give good oral presentations in English Many students seem to lack the skills and confidence to make effective presentations They know the topics and ideas, but their presentations not go well (Nguyen, 2010) Therefore, it is motivated to conduct this research to have a closer look into some of the common difficulties that the second-year students of English Teacher Education major at Danang University of Foreign Language Studies face in giving English oral presentations and their causes Hopefully, knowing the problems will push these learners to work out some solutions to enhance their performance in class as well as in their future career Scope of the study This research was confined to studying into the difficulties second-year students whose major is English Teacher Education of Danang University of Foreign Language Studies encounter in giving English oral presentations in the classroom setting The information collected for this study is from the students’ viewpoint Furthermore, this research was conducted only on 42 sophomores (academic year 2019 - 2023) of English Teacher Education major, Foreign Language Teacher faculty, University of Foreign Language Studies, the University of Danang Aims This research aims to explore the difficulties of English academic oral presentation face by second-year students of English Teacher Education major at Danang University of Foreign Language Studies and possible causes of these difficulties Objectives This paper is carried out: - To find out the difficulties second-year students of English Teacher Education major at Danang University of Foreign Language Studies have in giving English oral presentations during classes - To explain why second-year students of English Teacher Education major at Danang University of Foreign Language Studies have these difficulties in giving English oral presentations during classes Research question To obtain this objective, we need to gather information as to find answers for these following questions: (1) What are the difficulties faced by second-year students of English Teacher Education major in giving English oral presentations? (2) What are the causes of their difficulties? Significance This study was conducted with the hope that its findings will be beneficial for the students and lecturers at English Teacher Education faculty, Danang University of Foreign Language Studies, as well as learners and teachers of English in general It focuses on oral presentation since relatively few studies were devoted to examining this facet, not to