A study on developing presentation skills to improve the third year english students speaking ability at hue university college of foreign languages

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES PHAM NGOC HA LINH A STUDY ON DEVELOPING PRESENTATION SKILLS TO IMPROVE THE THIRD YEAR ENGLISH STUDENT’S SPEAKING ABILITY AT HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES MA THESIS IN EDUCATION HUE, 2012 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES PHAM NGOC HA LINH A STUDY ON DEVELOPING PRESENTATION SKILLS TO IMPROVE THE THIRD YEAR ENGLISH STUDENT’S SPEAKING ABILITY AT HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES FIELD OF STUDY: THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60.14.10 MA THESIS IN EDUCATION SUPERVISOR: Assoc Prof Dr TRUONG VIEN HUE, 2012 BỘ GIÁO DỤC ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ PHẠM NGỌC HÀ LINH VIỆC PHÁT TRIỂN KĨ NĂNG THUYẾT TRÌNH NHẰM CẢI THIỆN KĨ NĂNG NÓI CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ BA KHOA TIẾNG ANH TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ HUẾ CHUYÊN NGÀNH: LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60.14.10 LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ GIÁO DỤC HỌC NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: PGS TS TRƯƠNG VIÊN HUẾ, 2012 Statement of Authorship I hereby acknowledge that this study is mine The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission from associates and have not been published elsewhere Author Phạm Ngọc Hà Linh Acknowledgement Above all, I am deeply indebted to my supervisor, Assoc Prop Dr Truong Vien for the invaluable knowledge and experience, the enthusiastic and helpful guidance, the responsible care as well as the sympathetic encouragement he has given to me at every stage of the development of this research paper Sincerely speaking, without him, the research paper cannot be completed Also, my special thanks go to the teachers and the students at Hue College of Foreign Languages who generously and enthusiastically spent their time for my interviews and questionnaire to be conducted conveniently Finally, from the bottom of my heart, I am deeply grateful to my beloved family, and my close friends who provided me with vital love, support and encouragement to help me overcome all the difficulties while I conducted this study ABSTRACT This thesis studied issues related to developing Presentation skills (PSs) in order to improve the third year English student‟s speaking ability at Hue University College of Foreign Languages In that process, it attempted to demonstrate teachers‟ and students‟ perceptions on teaching and learning PSs in English classrooms, and included the problems that English students often faced in making presentation Besides, the study tried to give some factors that are useful for students to improve their PSs and be able to enhance their speaking skill The data collection tools consisted of questionnaire and interview The data were collected and analyzed by using the reliability analysis of SPSS Data analysis involved interpretative, qualitative and quantitative methods The participants for this study included 18 EFL teachers at HUCFL and the data was collected mainly through questionnaire In addition, I delivered the interviews to 50 third-year English students who are currently studying at HUCFL in order to confirm the results collected through tape-recording and note-taking The results from the study showed that teachers and students were aware of the importance of developing PSs to their students In addition, showing the student‟s problem often faced in presenting will motivate teacher to find out the best teaching methods in order to help student enhance their study Based on the findings, suggestions were given toward teachers and learners so that teaching and learning PSs can be enhanced in order to improve one of the four important skills- speaking skill TABLE OF CONTENTS SUB COVER PAGE STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ABSTRACT TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES LIST OF CHARTS .3 LIST OF ABBREVIATION .5 CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study 1.2 Reasons for the study 1.3 Objectives of the study .8 1.4 Research Questions 1.5 Significance of the study 1.6 Scope of the study 1.7 Structure of the study CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW .10 2.1 Overview 10 2.2 Review of previous studies .10 2.3 Theoretical background 13 2.3.1 Communicative Language Teaching and speaking skills 14 2.3.1 The importance of developing presentation skills 15 2.3.2 The problems students often encounter in presenting 16 2.3.3 Factors that help to develop presentation skills .17 2.4 Chapter summary 29 CHAPTER RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 30 3.1 Introduction 30 3.2 Research approach 30 3.3 Research scope .30 3.3.1 Research site 30 3.3.2 Participants .31 3.4 Research methods 31 3.4.1 The questionnaire 31 3.4.2 The interviews 32 3.5 Data analysis 33 3.6 Chapter summary .33 CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 34 4.1 Introduction 34 4.2 Results from the questionnaires .34 4.2.1 Teacher‟s perception toward the importance of developing presentation skills 35 4.2.2 The current problems students often encounter when making presentations .36 4.2.3 Factors that help develop presentation skills 40 4.2.4 Developing presentation skills to improve the student‟s speaking performance .47 4.3 Results from the interviews 51 4.3.1 The student‟s perceptions toward presentation skills 51 4.3.2 The ways that students access to PSs 52 4.3.3 The difficulties that the students often encounter in presenting 52 4.3.4 Improving student‟s speaking skill through PSs .54 4.4 Chapter summary 54 CHAPTER CONCLUSION, IMPLICATIONS, AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH .56 5.1 Introduction 56 5.2 Summary of the Key Findings 56 5.3 Implications 59 5.3.1 Implications for teachers 59 5.3.2 Implications for administrators at HUCFL 60 5.3.3 Implication for learners 60 5.4 Contribution of the study 60 5.5 Limitations of the study 61 5.6 Recommendations for future research 61 REFERENCES 61 APPENDICES 65 LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Summary of participant 31 Table 3.2: Summary of the questionnaire 32 Table 4.1: The reliability of the piloted questionnaires reliability statistics .34 Table 4.2: The reliability of the total questionnaires reliability statistics 35 Table 4.3: Mean scores of teacher‟s perceptions of developing PSs (cluster 1) 35 Table 4.4: Mean scores of items in cluster 36 Table 4.5: The mean scores of cluster 37 Table 4.7: Mean score of factors that help to develop PSs .40 Table 4.8: Mean score of items in teaching macro organization 41 Table 4.9: The frequencies and percentages of items 10, 11, 14, 17, 18 cluster 3) 42 Table 4.10: the frequencies and percentage of item8, 9, 13 in cluster 42 Table 4.11: Mean score of items and in cluster .44 Table 4.12: Mean score of items 16 and 21 in cluster 44 Table 4.13: Mean score, the frequencies and percentage of teaching non-verbal skills 45 Table 4.14: Mean score of using visual materials .46 Table 4.15: Mean score of items in cluster 47 Table 4.16: The frequencies and percentage of item 26, 27, and 28 in cluster 49 LIST OF CHARTS this problem, they should take time to develop a good outline and practice your speech several times aloud These are two of the most effective strategies for ensuring that you will remember what you want to that is way may be helping students overcome their third mistake In addition, confidence plays an important role to students If they want to reduce their anxiety, they first should be self-confident Actions often change before attitudes The students are simply acting as if they are confident standing in front of the class To improve the confidence, student should know their subject clearly They will be a better presenter if they choose a subject that they know about Besides, student also should practice pronunciation by studying from the teachers, friends, the nonnative-speakers The internet is good tool for them to enhance their pronunciation ability Of course, it helps them to heighten their speaking skill To answer the third research question, the results of this study shows almost all teachers chose “agree value” and “strongly agree value” for employing these factors in teaching PSs The research confirms that there was a high percentage proving teachers‟ positive perspectives of these factors Therefore, it was believed that teachers should try their best to apply these factors better in their teaching because these techniques seem to be useful and easy for student to assess This proves that thanks to PSs techniques, they would have many advantages to instruct their student discovering the useful ways of learning PSs easily The more they apply these techniques in teaching, the more effective they are in obtaining their teaching results With reference to the importance of developing PSs, a high percentage of teachers and students regarded PSs as a vital tool in teaching and learning Also, a meaningful part of teachers and students admitted that these techniques were very important in increasing PSs in classroom Moreover, the findings indicate that when posing the questionnaires for teachers and interviews for students, both of them realized that these factors could help students to enhance their knowledge and motivate them practice PSs The findings also illustrate teachers and students thought about PSS techniques‟ advantages The data showed that teachers supposed that PSs techniques were useful and able to help students 58 have capacities of understanding the process of a presentation and improving the students speaking skill With respect to the final research question, this study found that (89% teachers and 96% students) considering the importance and emphasis of speaking skills by students, it is recommended that schools should review their curriculum and incorporate more presentation (in terms of quantity and duration) into the core courses and beyond Additionally, assessment results (students, alumni, and employers) tend to support the need to improve students‟ communication skills as well This study showed the importance of presentations in the classroom from both students and instructors‟ perspectives Both groups agreed in many issues related to the creation and delivery of an effective presentation It should be noted that students did not like peer evaluations, while instructors preferred team presentations rather than individual presentation for a semester-long project Instructors should make sure their students are aware of the objectives of student‟s presentation, the evaluation process, the expectation from such presentations, and agree on the elements of effective presentation 5.3 Implications 5.3.1 Implications for teachers Developing PSs toward students in order to improve their speaking skill really need to be done in class Therefore, it is suggested that English teachers at HUCFL should work together to create useful teaching methods which are used for every class to better the teaching and learning process, and also to make appropriate level understanding and learning interest to the learners  It is necessary for teacher to employ a number of strategies to encourage students to speak in front of the whole class  Also, the English teachers in each English speaking class should design supplementary activities to support developing PSs By having the same additional activities and knowledge, the students can enhance their skills 59  There should be some additional classes for weak students in each class, the teacher should make efforts to offer necessary input, and give valuable feedback to encourage them to overcome their problems and get good results in their study 5.3.2 Implications for administrators at HUCFL As being mentioned in the interview and questionnaire results, the students really need for more instructions, lessons, also classes to develop their PSs  School administrators should organize some extra activities, and workshops for experience sharing on teaching PSs where students can gain some knowledge also have chance to practice PSs In addition, the administrators can consider cooperating with any other schools to exchange teachers and make class observations to each other‟s classes so that new methods involving presentation can be acquired and good practice can be shared 5.3.3 Implication for learners The data from interviews indicate that the students meet with a number of problems concerning preparation, materials and methodology  Students should access library resources and the internet resources related to PSs so that they can learn and find out useful methods for their study  Students should practice presentation more by themselves at school, also at home Besides, they should try to communicate with foreigners to increase confidence and speaking skill  Students can observe and take lesson from real life by attending other presentation of other speakers to store experience and knowledge 5.4 Contribution of the study Up to now, there have been a number of studies that focus on the teaching PSs This study, therefore, is supposed to gain some insights into this area of few footprints with the hope to confirm the worth of teaching PSs to students, and most importantly, to take the initiative to study the strengths and usefulness of PSs It is 60 expected that the study can partly contribute to the further success of teaching PSs at HUCFL 5.5 Limitations of the study First of all, the scale of the study was limited to 18 teachers at HUCFL Therefore, it is not possible to generalize the findings of the study to teachers in other situations This has contributed its part to shortcomings of the study In addition, the results from the interview were generalized from responses of only 50 students whose opinions may not stand for the opinions of the whole the third-year English students at HUCFL Therefore, the findings of the study were restricted in some ways Finally, some issues were not analyzed thoroughly and deeply enough due to the author‟s own constraints of knowledge and time Moreover, there might be some mistakes in this study because of technical problem  In spite of the above limitations the author hopes to have the reader‟s sympathy and look forward to receiving any constructive comments on this study 5.6 Recommendations for future research Based on the limitations of this study as mentioned above, some suggestions for future research can be as follows: a Researches on this issue in the future can be done with how to get over the psychological problem in presenting b Using humor to connect and keep attention the audience and make presentation become interesting need to be researched on the further studies 61 REFERENCES Andrew, B., Peter, B., & Peter, W (2004) Communication Studies: The Essential resource Routledqe Aziz, K (2003) Factors affect the Use of Computer-based-Technology in the Teaching-Learning Process: Evidence from Students and Instructors Academy of Educational Leadership Journal Bourhis, J., & Allen, M (1992) Meta-analysis of the relationship between communication apprehension and cognitive performance: Communication Education New York: 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New York: Cambridge University Press 27 Richmond, V P., McCroskey, J C., & Payne, S K (1987) Nonverbal behavior in interpersonal relations Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice- Hall 63 28 Sammons, M (2001) Using Computer Slide Presentation in the College Classroom Retrieved from http://horizon.unc.edu/projects/monograph/CD/Language- Music/sammons.asp 29 Samovar, L A., & Porter, R E (2003) Communication between cultures (5th ed) Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co 30 Saundra, H., & Richard, L W (2007) Communicating effectively (8th ed) New York: McGram Hill Publisher 31 Shaw, V (2001) Training in presentation skills: an innovative method for college instruction Education, pp140-143 32 Smith, F C., & Bace, R G (2002) A Guide to Forensic Testimony: The Art and Practice of Presenting Testimony As An Expert Technical Witness Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley Professional 33 Stephen, E L (2004) The Art of Public Speaking (8.ed) USA: The McGrawHill Company Publishing 34 Sue, C C., & Marilyn, L S (2002) College English and Communication Mc.Gram-Hill Company 35 Tischer, S (2004, October) Presentation North Dakota State University 36 Tom A (1998) Ultimate Guide to Professional Speaking Why use Humor? Anchor Publishing 37 Yin, L C (2008) Teaching Effective Presentation Skills to ESL/ EFL Students ESL Journal 64 APPENDICES APPENDIX A: QUESTIONNAIRE (FOR TEACHERS) This questionnaire is done to collect information for my research paper on the topic: A STUDY ON DEVELOPING PRESENTATION SKILLS TO IMPROVE THE THIRD YEAR ENGLISH STUDENT’S SPEAKING ABILITY AT HUE COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES A PERSONAL INFORMATION: Teacher’s full name:…………………………………………………… (Optional) Sex: Age: ……… male □ female □ Qualification: BA Degree □ MA Degree □ Ph.D □ B: PLEASE READ AND ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS CAREFULLY Your responses are very important to the success of the research The data will be used for a study project and NO other purposes Your cooperation will be the most appreciated Note: Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree Number COMMENTS PSs help students enhance the audience‟s knowledge and understanding of the topic Due to presentation skills, teacher can evaluate the student‟s speaking level in order to give suitable instructions Making speech interesting by using colorful images illustrations, descriptive language is advisable PSs are necessary for student to look for jobs in the future Using examples, also questions are very important to illuminate the points and Strongly DisNeutral Agree disagree agree 65 Strongly agree 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 often tend to create pictures in the mind of the audiences PSs are as part of today world‟s business, very important to human life in the society PSs play an important role in developing speaking skill and communication It is important to find out an exciting topic and ensure people will be interested and know about that topic It is necessary for a presenter to have a well-prepared before presenting It makes sure to find credible sources of information for supporting material Good delivery does not call attention itself It should convey the speaker‟s ideas clearly, interestingly, and without distracting the audience through practice the speech aloud several times before delivering Students often use so much information in presenting that makes the audiences feel tired It is necessary to avoid information overload, and limit the number of main points in presenting Well- developed presentations accomplish with the clear introduction, body and conclusion Students often forget interacting with the audiences (for example: asking and motivating questions in class) Interaction between presenter and audience is very important, it help you get attention from your listeners ( for example: asking and motivating questions) 66 17 It is highly appreciated for students to discover new and unique angles from their topic 18 Anticipating the English proficiency of your audiences is necessary in order to use suitable language 19 Most students “read their speech” not “present the speech”, so these speeches become boring for the listeners 20 Maintain eye contact and be natural with nonverbal delivery (ex: gesture, movement¸ facial expression) are very important in a presentation 21 Teacher‟s and peer‟s feedback after a presentation help students recognize the weaknesses and good points 22 Power point handouts, videos, charts, photographs are useful tools of a presentation 23 Lack of the confidence, local accent and pronunciation limit student‟s presentations Some students forget using 24 non-verbal communication in presenting PRESENTATION SKILLS IMPROVE THE STUDENT’S SPEAKING PERFORMANCE 25 Presentation skills (PSs) are necessary for forming student‟s communicative competence 26 PSs help student improve their confidence on speaking 27 PSs enhance students to use correct grammar, appropriate vocabulary and pronounce words properly 28 PSs enhance student‟s flexibility in responding to peers and teacher‟s questions and comments 67 29 30 PSs helps students develop their own speaking style Good presentation skills create direct interaction with the listeners and involve the listeners in discussions C: In this part, please write down other difficulties on developing the third year student’s presentation skills D Please, write down your suggestions on developing their presentation skills Thank you for your time! 68 APPENDIX B QUESTION FOR INTERVIEWING THE THIRD YEAR ENGLISH STRUDENT Name Class What are your perceptions about Presentation skills? What difficulties you often encounter when making a presentation? Which ways you access to Presentation skills? How Presentation skills improve your speaking ability? Do you have any suggestion to your teacher or administrators at HUCFL about developing Presentation skills to enhance your speaking? 69 APPENDIX C THE TABLE OF PASW STATISTICS ID SEX AGE Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9 Q10Q11Q12Q13Q14Q15Q16Q17Q18Q19Q20Q21Q22Q23Q24Q25Q26Q27Q28Q29Q30 DEGREE 5 5 5 5 5 4 5 5 4 4 5 4 4 2 5 4 5 4 4 5 4 4 3 4 4 5 5 4 4 4 4 4 5 4 4 4 5 5 4 4 5 5 4 4 4 3 4 5 5 5 5 5 3 5 5 5 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 5 4 4 4 5 4 5 4 4 4 5 4 4 3 5 4 5 5 5 4 5 4 4 10 3 4 5 5 5 4 4 5 4 5 4 4 11 4 5 5 5 4 5 5 4 5 12 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 13 4 4 5 5 5 5 4 4 4 4 14 5 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 15 4 5 4 4 5 5 4 5 4 5 5 5 16 4 5 5 5 5 5 3 4 4 5 17 4 4 5 4 5 5 4 4 5 5 18 2 4 5 4 4 4 5 4 5 4 70 Item Statistics PSs help students enhance the audience‟s knowledge and understanding of the topic Due to presentation skills, teacher can evaluate the student‟s speaking level in order to give suitable instructions PSs are necessary for student to look for jobs in the future PSs are as part of today world‟s business, very important to human life in the society PSs play an important role in developing speaking skill and communication Making speech interesting by using colorful images illustrations, descriptive language is advisable Using examples, also question are very important to illuminate the points and often tends to create pictures in the mind of the audiences It is important to find out an exciting topic and ensure people will be interested and know about that topic It is necessary for a presenter to have a well-prepared before presenting It makes sure to find credible sources of information for supporting material Good delivery does not call attention itself It should convey the speaker‟s ideas clearly, interestingly, and without distracting the audience through practice the speech aloud several times before delivering It is necessary to avoid information overload, and limit the number of main points in presenting Well- developed presentations accomplish with the clear introduction, body and conclusion Humor and laughter can connect and keep attention with the audiences It is highly appreciated for students to discover new and unique angles from their topic Anticipating the English proficiency of your audiences is necessary in order to use suitable language 71 Mean Std Deviation N 3.94 639 18 4.22 548 18 4.50 618 18 4.56 616 18 4.44 511 18 4.28 669 18 4.28 669 18 4.50 618 18 4.50 618 18 4.61 502 18 4.56 511 18 4.11 583 18 4.50 514 18 4.00 767 18 4.56 511 18 4.33 485 18 Maintain eye contact and be natural with nonverbal delivery (ex: gesture, movement¸ facial expression) are very important in a presentation Teacher‟s and peer‟s feedback after a presentation help students recognize the weaknesses and good points Power point handouts, videos, charts, photographs are useful tools of a presentation Students often use so much information in presenting that makes the audiences feel tired Students often forget interacting with the audiences (for example: asking and motivating questions in class) Most students “read their speech” not “present the speech”, so these speeches become boring for the listeners Lack of the confidence, local accent and pronunciation limit student‟s presentations Some students forget using non-verbal communication in presenting Presentation skills (PSs) are necessary for forming student‟s communicative competence PSs help student improve their confidence on speaking PSs enhance students to use correct grammar, appropriate vocabulary and pronounce words properly PSs enhance student‟s flexibility in responding to peers and teacher‟s questions and comments PSs helps students develop their own speaking style Good presentation skills create direct interaction with the listeners and involve the listeners in discussions 72 4.61 502 18 4.72 575 18 4.33 594 18 3.94 639 18 4.00 686 18 4.00 767 18 4.50 618 18 3.94 539 18 4.61 608 18 4.28 575 18 3.83 618 18 4.28 575 18 4.28 575 18 4.39 698 18