Factors affecting presentation skills of english majored sophomores at tay do university

TAY DO UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE B.A THESIS FACTORS AFFECTING PRESENTATION SKILLS OF ENGLISHMAJORED SOPHOMORES AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY Supervisor: Ly Thi Tra My, M.A Student’s name: Vo Tran Thanh Loc Student’s code: 14D220201023 Class: English 9A May 2018 DECLARATION The research “Factors affecting presentation skills of English-majored sophomores at Tay Do University” is conducted under the supervision of M.A Ly Thi Tra My, an instructor of English at Faculty of Linguistics and Literature, Tay Do University I declare that the current paper is the result of my own work and this study has not been submitted by any organizations or individuals, all of the sources and materials used or quoted, which are mentioned in the references Can Tho, May 2018 Supervisor Signature Ly Thi Tra My (M.A) Vo Tran Thanh Loc i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT In the process of making this thesis, I deeply appreciated to many individuals who supported me in the completion of the research during three months First of all, I want to express my profound gratefulness towards my supervisor, Ms Ly Thi Tra My, M Ed at Tay Do University This research could not have been completed without her enthusiasm, informativeness, and thoughtfulness I also would like to thank her so much for spending her time to read every part of my study and gave me a lot of useful advice and worthy materials for my research She also facilitated the data collection process by arranging the time for me to meet the research participants Without her support, it would be difficult for me to complete this study Next, I am grateful for the assistance of the students from two classes English 11A and English 11B at Tay Do University for spending their time finishing the questionnaire, the interview questions Without their participation, the present thesis would have been impossible I also thanked all my friends and seniors of the previous course so much for giving me support and advice in finishing this research Finally, I would express a deep sense of gratitude to my family, especially my parents who always gave me encouragements so that I could complete my research The completion and success of the research would not be achieved without their help ii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES v ABSTRACT vi Chapter INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Research aims and research questions 1.3 Significance of the study 1.4 Organization of the thesis Chapter LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Definition of presentation 2.2 The structure of a presentation 2.2.1 Opening 2.2.2 Body 2.2.3 Closing 2.3 Skills and Presentation skills 2.4 Factors affecting presentation skills 2.4.1 Students’ language proficiency 2.4.2 Background knowledge 2.4.3 Personal experience 2.4.4 Personal experience 2.4.5 Preparation and practice 10 2.4.6 Teachers’ role 11 iii Chapter RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research design 13 3.2 Research participants 13 3.3 Instruments 14 3.3.1 Questionnaire 14 3.3.2 Interview questions 15 3.3.3 Observation 15 3.4 Data analysis 15 3.5 Procedures 16 Chapter RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Results from questionnaires 17 4.2 Results from interviews 28 4.2.1 Students 28 4.2.2 Teachers 30 4.3 Results from class observation 31 4.4 Discussion 31 Chapter CONCLUSION, LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 5.1 Conclusion 34 5.2 Limitations 35 5.3 Recommendations 36 REFERENCES vii APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE ix APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW FOR STUDENTS xiii APPENDIX 3: INTERVIEW FOR TEACHERS xv iv LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES LIST OF FIGURES Figure Students' awareness of presentation skills 17 Figure The students’ self-evaluation on their presentation skills 18 Figure The success of students' presentation 19 LIST OF TABLES Table Students’ attitude towards self-practicing presentation skills 20 Table Students’ language proficiency 20 Table Students’ background knowledge 22 Table Students’ personal experience 23 Table Presenters’ characteristics 24 Table Students’ preparation and practice 26 Table The effects of teachers’ roles 27 v ABSTRACT Presentation skills are a very important soft skill because presentation skills are crucial to almost every aspect of academic or business life, from meetings, interviews, conferences, to job fairs and having a good ability to present can bring us a lot of advantage in our life Studying presentation skills provides us some basic skills of communication However, it is not easy to have good presentation skills and there are many factors affecting presentation skills The research “Factors affecting presentation skills of English-majored sophomores at Tay Do University” was conducted with the purpose of finding out factors that affect presentation skills of English-majored sophomores at Tay Do University The participants in this study were 59 sophomores majoring in English, studying in the class English 11A and 11B, and two teachers who teach technical English at Tay Do University In the study process, questionnaire, interview and class observations were used as instruments to collect the data The results have shown that six factors (English language proficiency, background knowledge, personal experience, presenters' characteristic, preparation and practice, and teachers' roles) had some certain influences on the presentation skills of second-year students at Tay Do University The results of this research would help students recognized the factors affecting presentation skills, as a result, they could choose and applied appropriate ways to make their presentation better vi CHAPTER INTRODUCTION This chapter presents the rationale, research aims, research questions, the significance of the study and the organization of the thesis 1.1 Rationale English plays an important role in our everyday life, it may not be the most spoken language in the world, but it is the official language in a large number of countries It is estimated that the number of people in the world that use in English to communicate on a regular basis is two billion (Sahbi Hidri, Christine Coombe, 2017) And the importance of English in education and student’s life cannot be denied According to Nhung (2009), the capability to speak English fluently in general and presenting effectively in particular may be benefical for students in their future jobs Moreover, having good English presentation skills will help students have more opportunities to study abroad and have a good job after graduation Making presentations brings students a lot of benefits e.g bridging the gap between language study and language use, using the four language skills in a naturally integrated way, helping students to collect, inquire, organize and construct information, enhancing teamwork, and helping students become active and autonomous learners (Bahman Gorjian, 2017) As a matter of fact, a language learner's ability to present in the target language is dependent on a number of factors which are not solely related to their knowledge of the language systems (grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation) but personality factors such as timidity or selfconfidence also play an important part To get the best result for the presentations, students need to master a wide range of skills and techniques such as the use of language, the way to organize all ideas, the use of gestures, posture, and eyecontact, and the ability to speak clearly and confidently As an English majored student, the researcher realizes that many Englishmajored sophomores at Tay Do University meet difficulties to deliver a presentation successfully and making effective presentations is always their desire Some students who invest time and effort into an oral presentation not always get the intended outcomes Other students try to get through the ordeal as quickly as possible but not improve their speaking skills under such stressful situations They have a lot of ideas for their presentations, but they not perform well in the class to attract the audience's attention For those reasons, the study “Factors affecting presentation skills of English-majored sophomores at Tay Do University” is conducted to explore these issues deeply and find out ways to help both students and teachers improve students’ presentation skills 1.2 Research aims and research questions The main aims of the study are to investigate the factors affecting presentation skills of the English-majored sophomores at Tay Do University and answer the following questions  What factors affect students’ oral presentations?  To what extent those factors affect students’ oral presentations? 1.3 Significance of the study The results of the research can be beneficial for students and teachers The results of this study can help students to recognize which factors affect their presentation and find solutions to solve their problems in making a presentation Moreover, it also helps them to improve their presentation skills Last but not least, teachers can base on the results of this study to find out teaching methods which are appropriate for their students 1.4 Organization of the thesis This research includes five chapters: Chapter 1: Introduction This chapter presents the rationale, the research aims, the significance of the research and the organization of the research Chapter 2: Literature review This chapter states the definition of presenting, the definition and structure of a presentation, and some factors affecting presentation skills Chapter 3: Research Methodology This chapter indicates the design, the methods, the participants, the instruments and the procedure Chapter 4: Results and Discussion This chapter synthesizes, calculates, and analyzes the results Chapter 5: Conclusion, Limitation and Recommendation This chapter summarizes what is addressed in the study The limitations of the study and suggestions for further study are also included in this chapter the experience, improve how to develop and select the appropriate ideas for the talk, and lastly, practice well before present so that they could cope with many unexpected situations 4.3 Results from class observation The class observation lasted 100 minutes equally divided into two classes (English 11A, and English 11B) After having observations, the researcher realized that the student with well English proficiency was easy to attract audiences' attention Aside from that, having a wide background knowledge helped them build a presentation with full information Moreover, lacked of confidence made them delivered their talk unsuccessfully because they could not have any interaction with the audiences Lacked preparation and practice also gave them difficult when they give a presentation, sometimes they could not remember the lines and that made the presentation interrupted Lastly, after students gave their presentation, the teacher gave some comments on the talk and explained their mistakes so that they could learn some experience for the next presentation 4.4 Discussion The aims of this study were to investigate the factors that affected secondyear majored students' presentation skills Besides, the correction and possible ways to improve their presentation skills also be presented Basing on the data collected from the questionnaire, the interviews, and the class observation, it was showed that the factors that affected mostly on students' presentations skills were the English language proficiency, background knowledge, personal experience, presenters' characteristic, preparation and practice, and teachers' roles The first factor was the English language proficiency The data results based on the questionnaire and interview have shown that the student with a good ability to use English would give a better talk than the one who did not have a good English language proficiency The researcher also noticed the same when doing the 31 class observation.This happened because the fluency and accuracy played an important role in communicating as well as presenting and so the English language proficiency factor was one of the most important factors of presentation skills The second factor was students' background knowledge which determined if the presentation was convincing or not A lot of participants have agreed that they could build a very good talk with wide knowledge Moreover, having knowledge helped the presenter to extend the topic of the talk and easily linked the information in many fields together It can be concluded that background knowledge had a certain influence on participants' presentation skills The next factor was students' personal experience This factor had a great influence on the ability to present as well as to deal with unexpected situations The participants also stated that if they had experience, they would feel much more confident when presenting in front of people Moreover, based on the observation results, lacking experience usually caused anxiety as well as nervousness which made the presentation ineffective That is the reason why it was announced that the personal experience was a factor affecting students' presentation skills Moreover, presenters' characteristic factor was also one of the factors that had a great influence on the participants' presentation skills Basing on the result collected from the research materials, it could be seen that student who had good psychology were always better presenters Indeed, when the researcher observed the participant's presentations, the researcher has discovered that students with anxiety or nervousness were very hard to deliver their talk effectively while students with confidence could present in an effective and easy way Additionally, the research materials have shown that preparation and practice factor was the most important factor in students' presentation skills To repeat, there were always more than three fourth research participants agreed that preparation and practice affected on their presentation, and all the teachers were asked answered 32 that preparation and practice was the most important factor that affected strongly to their students' presentations On the whole, the preparation and practice factor had the most influence on the presentation skills Finally, the teachers' roles were said to be a very helpful factor for students' presentation In fact, the researcher noticed that comments and suggestions from teachers helped the participants make a better presentation and they could also learn some experience from them, and this was confirmed again by most of the participants and teachers It could be seen that besides the other factors, teachers' roles also had a stable influence on students' presentation skills 33 CHAPTER CONCLUSION, LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS This chapter describes the conclusion, limitations, and recommendations for further research 5.1 Conclusion After carrying out this research by analyzing the important data collected from the participants, the researcher finally figured out the most influential factors in presentation Those factors were English language proficiency, background knowledge, personal experience, presenters' characteristic, preparation and practice, and teachers' roles It could be seen that preparation and practice were the two factors that affected students presentation skills the most Students who well prepared and practiced always have a better presentation than students who did not To improve the preparation and practice skills English-majored students should spend a lot of time to prepare and practice their own talks so that they could master the topic and have abilities to cope with many situations that might occur The next four factors that had an equivalent effect were the English language proficiency, background knowledge, presenters' experiences, and presenters' characteristics In terms of English language proficiency, this factors would help students a lot when they used the language to deliver their messages to the audiences Having a good English language proficiency meant that the presenters having fluency and accuracy which made their presentation become very attractive and effective The students could improve the factor by focusing on fluency, and practice grammar frequently Additionally, background knowledge has confirmed its influence on the students' presentation skills, students with wide range of background knowledge 34 could give a lot of necessary information for their audiences.In particular, the filled presentation should have enough information in the field, so that the presenter could easily convince their audiences The students should learn a lot of knowledge in many different fields, as a consequence, they could widen their background knowledge About presenters' experiences, it could easily be seen that the experienced presenter always deliver the presentation better than the inexperienced presenter With experience, students would smoothly make a presentation and they could deal with many unexpected problems that occurred during the presentation The way to improve this skills was giving or watching presentations as much as possible because the presenter could learn many experiences from their own or the others faults Regarding presenters' characteristics, such as anxiety, confidence, etc had an undeniable role in students' presentation skills, it affected greatly to the success of the presentation Students should be prepared mentally to be not affected negatively by psychological factors For example, the presenters should practice the talk carefully so that they could gain their confidence when presenting Last but not least, the teachers' roles also had a certain influence on the participants' presentation skills In fact, teachers have given a lot of advice and guidance which helped students carry out a presentation as well as improve their presentation skills Before given a talk, students should ask their teachers for help so that they could learn something from the teachers' suggestions 5.2 Limitations Despite receiving enthusiastic support and assistance from the supervisor, family, and friends, there are still some limitations in the study that may affect the final results This was the first time the researcher conducted such a real study as well as the researchers’ limited time and knowledge about presentation studies so 35 mistakes in the course were unavoidable Moreover, because of the limited time, the researcher could not explore more about other factors, as a result, the research just focused on the most important and prominent elements However, the researcher strongly hoped that the study, in its field, was able to contribute its usefulness to the English majored sophomores at Tay Do University in their process of improving presentation skills as well as the learners who were interested in presenting 5.3 Recommendations Based on the limitations mentioned above, it is better if the further research will focus on the diversity of the factors so that the results could be more reliable and more practical values Furthermore, as the researcher already completed the work of investigating the factors affecting English-majored sophomores presentation skills, hopefully in the near future, the other researchers are going to figure out better about the difficulties as well as the solutions to minimize as much as possible the students’ obstacles when they presenting 36 References Bachman & Palmer (1996) Model of Language Ability Oxford: Oxford University Press Bachman, L (1990) Fundamental Considerations in Language Testing Oxford: Oxford University Press Campbell (2001) Peer versus Self-Assessment of Oral Business Presentation Performance Business Communication Quarterly Carl Storz et al (2002) Oral Presentation Skills Institut National De Télécommunications, France Clanchy, M.T (1993) From Memory to Written Record England Oxford: Oxford University Press Comfort, J (1995) Effective Presentations Oxford: Oxford University Press Emden, J & Becker, L (2004) Presentation Skills for Students New York: Palgrave Macmillan Grognet, A.G (1997) Definition of Speaking skills Providence: Jamastown publisher Hedge, T (2000) Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom Oxford: Oxford University Press Jessica Cook (2016) Definition of an "Oral Presentation" Leaf Group Education Joalex Casili Nillo (2014) Factors Affecting Speaking Skills Professional Regulation Commission of Philippines King, J (2002) The Internet TESL Journal, Vol VIII, No3, March 2002 vii Klippel, F (1985) Communicative Fluency Activities for Language Teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Klippel, F (1985) Communicative Fluency Activities for Language Teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Nunan, D (2003) Deigning Tasks for the Communicative Classroom Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Pattison, P (1987) Developing Communication Skills Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Rod, E (1985) Understanding Second Language Acquisition Oxford: Oxford University Press Ryu, Cheong-san (2017) Educational Significance of Soft Skills and Hard Skills The Journal of Korean Practical Arts Education Sahbi Hidri (2016) Evaluation in Foreign Language Education in the Middle East and North Africa Springer Sarah Ewen (2017) The Three Stages to Public Speaking Mastery: a step by step guide for your public speaking journey Amazon Digital Services LLC Nguyễn Minh Quang (2016) Bài Tiểu Luận Nghiên Cứu Các Yếu Tố Ảnh Hưởng Đến Kỹ Năng Thuyết Trình Của Sinh Viên UEH University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City Nguyễn Phúc Lộc (2012) Phân tích kĩ thuyết trình Thế Giới Luật Nguyễn Thị Phương Nhung (2009) Factors Affecting Oral Presentations Of The Secondyear English Major Students At Hanoi University Of Industry Hanoi University Of Industry Phương Hoàng Yến (2016) Public Speaking Nhà Xuất Bản Đại Học Cần Thơ viii APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS -My name is Vo Tran Thanh Loc - an English majored senior of English at Tay Do University I am carrying out the research "Factors affecting presentation skills of English majored sophomores at Tay Do University" I would very much appreciate if you can take a few minutes to answer the following questions by circling the pertinent answers and ticking in the box below The data collected will be very important and useful to my research papers Your personal information will be kept confidential Thank you for your cooperation Personal Background Full name (optional):………………………………………………………………… Gender: Male Female Age: ………… How long have you studied English? years Content (Please circle the pertinent answers) What you think about Presentation skills? a Very important b Important c Normal d Slightly important e Not important How is your presentation skills? a Very good b Good c Normal d Bad e Very bad How successful would you evaluate the presentations you did in the past? a Very well ix b Well c Normal d Badly e Very badly How often you make a presentation in class? a Always b Usually c Sometimes d Seldom e Never How often you practice your presentation skills? a Everyday b Everyweek c When I have free time d Only when I have a presentation e Never (Please tick the box which suitable for your opinion) Scale Statements Strongly disagree Disagree Having a lot of vocabulary will help you express your ideas easier A grammatical presentation is convincible Speaking fluently makes a presentation more attractive You can convince the audience easier when you have a lot of knowledge x Neutral Agree Strongly agree 10 Lack of knowledge makes the presentation boring and unreliable 11 Having many reallife examples makes the presentations more effective 12 Lack of experience terrifies you when presenting 13 Being experienced helps you deal well with situations that may occur during your presentation 14 The more you make presentations, the more confident you feel 15 You can't present well when you are worried 16 Confidence creates the comfortable feeling when presenting 17 You feel worried when you present before lots of strange people 18 You can calculate the time of the presentaion when you are well prepared 19 Practicing before a talk gives you confidence xi 20 Lack of preparation makes you confused when problems occur 21 You can make a presentation easily with suggestion and advice from your teacher 22 Teacher's comment gives you a lot of experience for the next presentations 23 Teacher's praising for some good points when you finish the presentation gives you more motivations Thank you for your help! xii APPENDIX INTERVIEW FOR STUDENTS -Dear friends, My name is Vo Tran Thanh Loc - an English majored senior of English at Tay Do University This interview is one of my instruments for the study "Factors affecting presentation skills of English majored sophomores at Tay Do University" I will be very appreciated if you can take your precious time to answer these following questions The data collected will be very important and useful to my research papers Your personal information will be kept confidential Thank you for your cooperation Personal Background Full name (optional):………………………………………………………………… Gender: Male Female Age: ………… Content Do you think that presentation skills are important? Why? Are you satisfied with your presentation in the past? What factors you think will affect your presentation skills? (English level, background knowledge, experience, personalities(confidence, shyness, ), preparation and practice) xiii Which factor affects your presentation the most? Why? What you think you should to improve your presentation skills? In your opinion, what should teachers to help students have better presentation skills? Thank you for your help! xiv APPENDIX INTERVIEW FOR TEACHERS -Dear my teacher, My name is Vo Tran Thanh Loc - an English majored senior of English at Tay Do University This interview is one of my instruments for the study "Factors affecting presentation skills of English majored sophomores at Tay Do University" I will be very appreciated if you can take your precious time to answer these following questions The data collected will be very important and useful to my research papers Your personal information will be kept confidential Thank you for your cooperation Personal Background Teacher’s full name (optional): ……………………………………………… -1 Among those factors:  English language proficiency  Personal experience  Background knowledge  Presenters' personalities  Preparation and practice  Teacher's role Which factor you think would affect students' presentation skills the most? Why you think so? In your opinions, how would you evaluate a presentation if it is good or not? Before and after students make a presentation, what will you to help their presentations become better? What you think students should to improve their presentation skills? Thank you for your help! xv