Luận văn thạc sĩ Luật học: Nhận thức của sinh viên chuyên ngành tiếng Anh về những trở ngại khi thuyết trình trong giờ học tiếng Anh pháp luật tại Đại học Luật Hà Nội

Inacknowledgment of the situation, legal English classes have been designedand integrated into the syllabus for English majors in Faculty of Foreign LegalLanguages, Hanoi Law University,

MINISTRY OF JUSTICE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI LAW UNIVERSITY

CONG THI HAI YEN

MINISTRY OF JUSTICE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI LAW UNIVERSITY

CONG THI HAI YEN

TRƯỜNG DAI HỌC LUẬT HÀ NOL.

Major: Legal English

GRADUATION THESIS

Supervisor

Nhac Thanh Huong, M.A

Hanoi — 2023

STUDENT DECLARATION

I hereby state that I: CONG THI HAI YEN — 442951, being a candidate for

the degree of Bachelor of Arts accept the requirements of the University

relating to the retention and use of bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in

the library Z LUA

~

In terms of the iti : in r deposited in

the library sible fe 2 research, inaccordance

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to mysupervisor, Ms Nhac Thanh Huong for her invaluable guidance of mygraduation thesis, for her patience, enthusiasm, immense knowledge andunderstanding She has always been dedicated, devoted, and thoroughlyinstructed me through all the stages of completing my thesis Frankly, wordsare not sufficient to depict how great her inspiration is to me, not only duringthis period of carrying out my graduation thesis but since the first lesson ofLegal English that I attended at Hanoi Law University, as well

My sincere thanks also go to all staff and lecturers in Faculty of LegalForeign Language at Hanoi Law University where it has been my honor andpleasure to be educated for the past four years On top of that, with all theEnglish lessons and the department’s extra-curriculum activities, I have theopportunity not only to widen my language knowledge but also better mypersonality and become the person I am today

Last but not least, I owe special thanks to my family and the valuableassistance of my classmates in class 4429, as well as other peers of mine inthe Faculty of Legal Foreign Language during the implementation of thestudy They are so supportive to my work, without which this paper could nothave been fulfilled

il

In the International markets and global agreement world, legal English

is regarded as a crucial factor in modern working environment, which leads tohigher requirement for the legal presentation ability of students Inacknowledgment of the situation, legal English classes have been designedand integrated into the syllabus for English majors in Faculty of Foreign LegalLanguages, Hanoi Law University, in concern to provide students withfundamental knowledge and enhance their oral presentation skills However,

in reality, most students have encountered certain obstacles when making oralpresentations On that account, the study aims to discover English-majoredstudents’ perception towards their difficulties when presenting orally in front

of legal English classes so as to offer sensible suggestions to better thepresentation quality in legal English modules at HLU

The research was implemented with the cooperation of 129 participantsfrom English majors at HLU, including K45 and K44 The study wasconducted by taking a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods with asurvey questionnaire and an in-depth interview The data analysis reveals thatthe majority of students fully perceived the importance of oral presentation totheir legal English proficiency as well as certain difficulties in this field.Particularly, psychological matters, lack of academic skills and the influence

of objective factors constituted the main obstacles Thus, a number of practicalrecommendations were drawn up based on the findings

1H

TABLE OF CONTENT

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1.2 Oral presentation skill in legal English classes 7

1.2.1 Concept of oral presentation skill in legal English classes 8

1.2.2 Principles for oral presentation effectiveness in legal Englishs7/zxY TP 9

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123 The importance of oral presentation skill in legal EnglishCLASSES TRE 10

1.3 Common obstacles of oral presentation performance in legalEnglish Classes TQ nh II

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CHAPTER 4 RECOMMENDA TIONS SH 111 45

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4.2 Suggestions for Legal English — majored lecturers ccccccccceeees 47

4.3 Suggestions for the Faculty of Legal Foreign Languages 48

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

HLU Hanoi Law UniversityESP English for Specific PurposesEFL English as a Foreign LanguageU.K United Kingdom

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Table 5 The students’ perceptions on the obstacles related to the

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1X

PART I INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

These days, despite a technology-driven society, the ability tocommunicate orally continues to be a significant part of people’s development.Accompanied with the era of integration and globalization, learning has evolvedwith an increasing requirement for students’ communicative skills Students need

to experience a variety of assessment methods, which take account of differentlearning styles and allow them to demonstrate their abilities in multiple ways.Particularly, the ability to present orally is an essential skill taught and assessed

at the tertiary level of education

In general, oral presentation competence comprises knowledge, skills, andattitudes that are required in order to speak in public, where the goals mayinclude informing, or persuading the audience, or self-expressing In the scope ofclassrooms, teachers usually provide the topics discussed and delivered in apresentation It is primarily content-based, and students are to present the content

or topic provided by the teachers

Concerning Legal English, this is the version of the English language thatlawyers and others who are involved in the legal profession, such as judges andlegislators, use when discussing the law and law-related issues The importance

of acquiring oral presentation skills is gradually noticeable in the practice ofteaching and learning in the legal English classrooms, in which students areregularly assigned to present their legal research results, arguments and opinionsboth collaboratively and individually All these activities aim at improvingstudents’ oral presentation skills, which will be advantageous when theygraduate and start working as professionals in a legal environment

Nevertheless, regarding the present application, when oral presentation isperformed in legal English class, it has given more challenges as the presentersare not only required to master the technical skills on the delivery but also need

to have a good command of legal English to cater themselves At Hanoi LawUniversity, Vietnam, although oral presentation has become a core part ofassessment recently, the oral presentation ability of English — majored students

in Legal English classes is still of concern with numerous obstacles In theliterature, the majority of the studies have been conducted either to investigatethe students’ attitudes on their hindrances in making oral presentation from otherdisciplines, such as engineering, medicine, and business (Preub, Schoofs, Schlotz

& Wolf, 2010); (Radzuan & Kaur, 2011); (Alwi & Sidhu,, 2013); or to focus onhow students and teachers assess the oral presentation performance (Miles R ,2009; Salehi, M., & Daryabar, B, 2014) Hence, research providing moredetailed insight into how English-majored students perceive the challenges inmaking oral presentations in legal English settings as a form of assessment isstill limited

Understanding the undeniable role of legal English presentation skill aswell as the existed gap in both academic reality and previous studies, this papertook a dive into the perception of English-majored students towards theirdifficulties in oral presentation performance in legal English classes, with a hope

to strengthen the motivation of students in making legal English presentation andimprove the quality of oral presentation performance in legal English classes atHanoi Law University

2 Aims of the study

The study has three main aims as follows:

e Seeking the perceptions of English — majored students towards theobstacles of oral presentation performance in legal English classes atHLU.

e Investigating the challenges English-majored students have faced whenmaking oral presentation in legal English classes at HLU

e Clarifying methods to enhance the oral presentation effectiveness ofEnglish — majored students in legal English classes at HLU

3 Research questions

The research will be implemented to resolve the following questions:

e How do English-majored students perceive the obstacles of oralpresentation performance in legal English classes at HLU?

e What are the obstacles English — majored students encounter when making

an oral presentation in legal English courses at HLU?

e What are the strategies to better the oral presentation quality of English —majored students in legal English classes at HLU?

4 Scope of the study

The main purpose of this research is to figure out the students’ perceptiontowards the obstacles of oral presentation performance in legal English classes,

as well as the strategies for English majors to deal with legal Englishpresentation challenges at HLU Therefore, participants chosen are 129 randomstudents from the Legal English Department of Hanoi Law University from K44and K45, whereas the teachers' view on the obstacles of students in making oralpresentation in legal English classes is beyond the scope of this study

5 Significance of the study

In comparison with these preceding research papers, this study deeplyconcentrated on the importance of oral presentation in legal English classes

3

based on the perceptions of English-majored students Moreover, attention ispaid to clarify the obstacles these students encounter when presenting orally suchlegal topics so as to propose valuable suggestions for both educators and learners

to enhance students’ legal language proficiency Besides, this study is aqualitative and quantitative research, which aims to investigate and provide in-depth analysis on the subject matter

6 Organization of the study

The study comprises three major parts: Introduction, Development andConclusion

The Introduction includes the Rationale, Aims, Research questions,Scope, Significance and Organization of the study

The Development is segmented into four chapters as follows:

Chapter 1: Literature Review lays out the theoretical background knowledgerelated to the explanation of oral presentation in legal English class as well as theEnglish — majored students’ obstacles on making legal presentation

Chapter 2: Methodology sets out three main parts: participants, researchinstruments and research procedure

Chapter 3: Findings and Discussion indicates the analytical findings of thesurvey and meticulous interpretation of the data gathered

Chapter 4: Recommendations offers several suggestions based on the keyfindings of the study

The Conclusion provides a summary of the study, implications of the study,limitations and suggestions for further research

PART H DEVELOPMENTCHAPTER 1 LITURATURE REVIEW

1.1 Oral Presentation Skill

1.1.1 Definition of Oral Presentation Skill

There are various ways that the term “presentation” is defined According

to (Oxford, 2006, p 560), presentation means “a meeting at which something isshown or explained to a group of people’ Likewise, (Macmillan, 2006) statesthat presentation is a formal talk in which something is explained or described to

a group of people The definition of this term is shown in more details by(Bereczky, 2007) Presentation is defined as a planned, prepared, and organizedtalk which is formally or informally given with a goal of informing orpersuading to a group of people

With reference to how “oral presentation skill” is understood in practice,(Underhill, 1987) suggests that oral presentation is one of the oral test techniquesthat can be used for both professional and academic purposes In an oral report,the oral presentation can last from 5 to 10 minutes using notes but not readingaloud Besides, thanks to modern technologies, the speaker can utilize visual aidssuch as a projector, an overhead, flipchart diagrams, a blackboard, or any otherkind of essential tools to make his presentation more creative At the end of thepresentation, the speaker is supposed to handle questions from the audience.Similarly, (Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998) argue that oral presentation workusually consists of the stand-up, prepared talk accompanied by visuals; besides,what makes an effective oral presentation is language, skills and confidence

In the scope of education, one of the most common tasks to students is

oral presentation, which is considered as a short talk on a topic given to class orgroup (Willis, 1996) In an oral classroom presentation, one or more participants

present their views on a topic based on their reading or research A discussiongenerally follows, prompted by questions from the instructor and students inclass Oral classroom presentation is a unique and learned oratorical skill forstudents that requires understanding what to say and how to say it (Bygate,1987) This skill raises the confidence of the students as well as gives them theopportunity to understand, criticize and analyze information efficiently andcommunicate clearly.

In light of the aforementioned notions, the author has drawn a conclusionthat oral presentation skill can be viewed as a method of communicatinginformation verbally supported by images, visual aids and/or technology toeducate, inform, entertain or persuade in organizational settings

1.2.2 Types of Oral Presentation

There are numerous ideas around how oral presentations can be classified.Commonly, different groups of oral presentations are divided based on theirpurposes and forms of delivery, including informative, instructional, arousing,persuasive, and decision-making presentations

The first type of presentation, informative presentations, providesawareness and understanding They are basically descriptive The presenter,firstly, must keep an informative presentation brief and relevant; secondly, stick

to the facts and avoid complicated information; finally, choose one of thefollowing organizational structures for this kind of presentation: time, place,

cause and effect, and logical order For example, an informative presentation

explains when, where and how things should happen

Secondly, an instructional presentation gives specific directions or orders.The presentation will probably be a bit longer because it has to cover the topic

thoroughly In an instructional presentation, the listeners should come away withnew knowledge or a new skill.

The third type, arousing presentations, focuses on making people thinkabout a certain problem or situation The presenter wants to arouse the audience'semotions and intellect so that they will be receptive to his/her point of view To

be effective, he/she must use vivid language, visual aids, music, etc in anarousing presentation

In addition, a persuasive presentation is to motivate a belief, anevaluation, or a specific course of action It is basically evaluative andprescriptive A convincing persuasive presentation offers a solution to acontroversy, dispute, or problem To succeed with a persuasive presentation, thepresenter must present sufficient logic, evidence, and emotion to sway theaudience to his/her viewpoint

Finally, a decision-making presentation aims to the audience to take thepresenter’s suggested action A decision-making presentation presents ideas,suggestions, and arguments strongly enough to persuade the audience to carryout the presenter’s requests In a decision-making presentation, a presenter musttell the audience what to do and how to do it He/she should also let them knowwhat will happen if they do not do what he/she asks

With reference to classroom presentations, (Lucas, 2004) mentions thatoral presentations offer students opportunities to develop their communicationskills before applying them outside the classroom Moreover, students are given

an enormous chance to inform or persuade other people In other words, it can besaid that the common types of presentation in classroom are both informativeand persuasive

1.2 Oral presentation skill in legal English classes

7

1.2.1 Concept of oral presentation skill in legal English classes

Legal English has traditionally been the preserve of lawyers from speaking countries, especially the U.S., the UK, Ireland, etc., which have sharedcommon law traditions However, due to the dominant development of legalEnglish in international business, this legal language is now a globalphenomenon Legal English has changed and adapted with various conqueringcountries in the past Every and each factor has had an enormous impact on theinternational language called Legal English today (Boldea, I., Sigmirean, C.,2019) Furthermore, legal English has been referred to as a "sublanguage", as itdiffers remarkably from ordinary English, especially in the use of certainspecialized terms and the use of certain linguistic patterns (Mellinkoff, 1963)also agrees that legal English includes "distinctive words, meanings, phrases,and modes of expression" Generally, legal English can be understood as thespecialized variety of the English language used by lawyers and others who areinvolved in the legal profession, such as judges and legislators, in legalenvironment

English-Accompanied with the development in reality, legal English has become acrucial subject in the curriculum of students, especially for whom studying inlaw universities Legal English classes focus on the specialized knowledge andskills required for working in an international legal environment In this type ofclass, students can develop their legal vocabulary and experience practical skillsthat help them discuss legal matters, participate in meetings, negotiate, and makepresentations more effectively

Oral presentation has played a role as a tool for assessment It 1s also an

efficient way for students to improve their academic proficiency in legal Englishclasses Researching and presenting orally a legal topic in front of class is an

obvious task for students in these specialized classes Besides, the ability to

8

combine visual aids and interact with audiences and instructors is highly required

in the legal presentation of students Some studies find that English — majoredstudents felt oral presentations have improved their language mastery or have, atsome point, achieved some linguistic improvements (Rodgers, 2015) such as ingrammar knowledge, professional vocabulary, and specialized phases

1.2.2 Principles for oral presentation effectiveness in legal English classes

Delivering an effective oral presentation can help the audience understandwhat the presenter wants to deliver Legal English is a type of ESP, therefore,understanding and following a logical process is highly required for students tohave an effective oral presentation in legal English classes

(1) First of all, as presenting a legal topic requires advanced understandingand deep research, students need to make careful preparation for it

About topic, in legal English classes, the topic can be included in the legaltextbook, or be provided by the lecturer for students Also, students can choose atopic by themselves, provided that the topic is related to the legal field in thecurriculum, and the students, including the speaker and the audience in class,have enough competence to understand and discuss about it

In terms of purpose, students need to define the goals of theirpresentations; for instance, to show their research result on a legal topic, topropose new solutions for a legal matter, or to argue with another group related

to a legal field The clear objectives of presentations can convince the audiences

to agree with the speaker rather than just listening to what is being proposed,introduced or reported

After selecting the topic and purpose of the performance, the student has

to find materials for the legal topic reference According to (Lucas, 2004),

students can gather materials by different ways: Getting information in the

library, searching the Internet, carrying out personal interviews with someone in

9

campus or in the community Also, knowledge and experience are used assources to gather the materials for students in this ESP class.

Then, when the student can determine and meet all the requirementsabove, he can organize the speech in a logical way in both the content and thevisual aids supporting for the oral presentation Normally, students in legalEnglish classes use PowerPoint slides, short videos and paper notes to make theiroral presentation clearer to audiences

(11) Secondly, to ensure the effectiveness of an oral speech, (Holiday,2007) suggests that the presenter should rehearse the presentation several times.Repetition can help develop students confidence and fluency, especially whendelivering such a complicated topic in a legal setting

(11) The last stage is delivery In legal English classes, students mostlyadopt different methods when delivering their presentations, such as recitingfrom memory the entire speech and delivering it without a script,extemporaneously speaking with the use notes with some key words, etc Aconfident voice and suitable intonation are the key factors in this stage

1.2.3 The importance of oral presentation skill in legal English classes

In general, oral presentation skill can bring great benefits to both studentsand lecturers in legal English classes

With reference to students, oral presentations in the classroom are theopportunities for them to apply their legal language to communicate with others

in a natural way Particularly, oral presentations, especially group presentations,allow students to engage in a cooperative task that requires them to use their ownlegal knowledge to explain their ideas, adopt their language skills to explain,

answer, discuss and even argue with the questions or opinion prompted by the

audiences in the legal English class Simultaneously, oral presentations

providing chances for student-centered participation in their legal English

10

classes With little or no intervention from the lecturers, a properly scaffoldedpresentation can result in multiple opportunities for students to improve theirlegal knowledge as well as other soft skills in such a context that the studentsthemselves are acting as both teachers and learners.

Besides, oral presentations provide numerous benefits for teachers Aslegal language has updated constantly with the changes of law and thedevelopment of the society, teachers can be more open-minded with thestudents’ perspectives when observing the students’ oral presentation toward aspecific legal topic Also, oral presentation is a useful method for lecturers tocreate a jovial atmosphere in legal sessions Students will be more active andbraver to present a legal topic instead of focusing only on reading textbooks andwriting answers Teachers, thus, play the role of the facilitators helping studentshow to give oral presentation effectively (Thornbury & Meddings, 2009)

1.3 Common obstacles of oral presentation performance in legal English

classes

Conducting an oral presentation bring considerable benefits in legalEnglish classes However, students may have to encounter a wide range ofobstacles, which fall into 3 main categories: Psychological matters, lack ofacademic skills and the influence of objective factors Though divided into threetypes, these barriers are still interrelated to each other For instance, fear of oralpresentation can stem from objective factors such as low mark evaluated bylecturers; or the lack of presentation skills may originate from the anxiety of astudent This supportive relationship is also mentioned in the analysis below

1.3.1 Obstacles related to psychology

One of the most common issues that students face when making a legal

presentation is the anxiety or nervousness of performing in front of audience

II

This feeling of nervousness is something that the students might feel at themoment they know they would have to perform in front of the public (AI-Darwish & Taqi, 2015) because they believe that doing an oral presentation 1sdifficult (Whai & Mei, 2016) or simply because they naturally fear of publicspeaking Additionally, (Turk, 1996) points out that nervousness is considered

to be the biggest problem that most students encounter in the oral performance,even if prepared in advance, for several reasons, such as they fear that they maymake mistakes or errors in front of class, they worry about the evaluation of theothers, etc

Likewise, the lack of self-confidence remarkably affects the students’overall performance Specifically, (Al-Hebaish, 2012) shows that there is apositive, significant correlation between self-confidence and achievement in oralpresentation tests in ESP class Self-confident students were willing to speak outand take the risks, while the ones with low self-confidence try less

Furthermore, stress is also a psychological problem of students whenmaking a legal presentation orally (Woodrow & Chapman, 2002) reveal thatamong the stressors influencing on students’ peaking in ESP classes, making oralpresentations was ranked at the second position, preceded by performing in front

of others Another researcher, (Barker, 2000), who also explored factors causinglanguage anxiety for ESP/EFL learners, indicated that making a presentation infront of the class was also stressful for students, which is similar to the finding of

(Woodrow & Chapman, 2002)

1.3.2 Obstacles related to academic skills

speaking and writing skills, requires ESP learners great effort and practice.Especially in the context of legal English classes, English specialized terms andstructural phases are adopted in both teaching and learning strategies As a result,

it is unavoidable that students tend to have problems related to language masterywhen delivering a legal presentation Lack of language mastery, in education,can be understood as the difficulties in grammar application, the lack ofpronunciation competence (Chen, 2015), vocabulary (Benraghda et al., 2018),and oral proficiency (Tian & Mahmud, 2018) In particular, students can makesome grammatical mistakes, such as ambiguous word order and inappropriatestructures, while they perform the presentation In addition to grammar,pronunciation is problematic to students in ESP classes The differences betweensound systems of English and the students’ national language result in theirdifficulty in pronouncing English words in the oral speech, even when theyequip for themselves a large vocabulary Consequently, students are unable toeffectively convey their presentation in legal English

Presentation Skills

Having adequate preparation and practice can also be challenging forstudents Studies have found that some students believed they lacked practice orpreparation prior to oral presentations (Benraghda et al., 2018) In other words,inadequate presentation skills result in poor performance According to a study

on students’ perceptions on oral language activities by (Chuang, 2011), studentsreported a preference for reading from notes, a lack of audience or lecturerfeedback to guide them in their presentations, the inability to choose their owntopics as they have little opportunities for presentation performance in classes

Likewise, (Lewkowicz & Cooley, 1998) show that many students,especially who study in ESP courses, lacked some important presentation skills

such as:

13

(1) Organizational skills, which means they do not know how to organize apresentation and arrange the outline for the legal topic in a logical way.

(H) Poor use of visual aids: Using effectively visual aids, especialtechnological tools such as PowerPoint design, a projector, etc , can makecomplicated legal topics closer to audiences, but the ability to adopt visual aids

in oral presentation of students is still limited

(111) Body language: In research of (Tong, 2009) on students’ difficulties

in making presentations in ESP classes, students could not make eye contactwith the audience during their presentation Furthermore, those students couldnot use their body language like postures or hand gestures effectively; they justact as statues in front of the audience

(iv) Voice: Within legal English sessions, lacking skills of using voicecauses students several problems Normally, when students have not been able toremember what they are going to say next, many of them use vocalized pauses,such as “um”, “er” to fill in the silence; while others spoke in such a low voicethat others cannot hear These habits may impede the knowledge that thespeaker aims to convey because the listeners will be distracted

1.3.3 Obstacles related to objective factors

Audience and Instructor

Likewise, fear of facing the audience and the instructor was reported by

most studies as the worst fear of all in oral presentations (Wolfe, 2008) findsstudents reporting audience reactions as an unpleasant experience in oral

presentations as well as group presentations in a class Also, it has been generallyknown that presenting in front of the public might face threatening because of

the audience's presence The audience's existence could make students feelnervous (Chen, 2015) Many presenters also believe that when other students

observe them directly, they feel like the audiences are trying to find their

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mistakes or to judge their performance in a negative way Others get distractedwhen the late students enter the classroom during a presentation or when otherstudents talk and laugh while they are presenting (Al-Nouh et al., 2015).

On the other hand, an obstacle in making classroom oral presentation isthe inability to interact with the professor, which causes students to be panic andforget their material Although (Whai & Mei, 2016) finds that lecturers were thelast reason for students' difficulties in performing an oral presentation, teachers'decisions will influence the challenges that students might face For example,one group of students in (Whai & Mei, 2016)’s study felt that their challenge inthe oral presentation was due to a teacher's lack of interaction and guidance.Meanwhile, others reported that they tend to find it hard to make eye contactwith their teachers and cannot keep calm when noticing the lecturer’s reactionduring the performance

Characteristics of legal English

Legal English contains a number of unusual features related toterminology, linguistic structure and punctuation In essence, the characteristics

of legal English also pose a great obstacle for students to conduct an oralpresentation, including:

(1) Complex and compound sentences: Legal English often has apparentlypeculiar structures, for example, “the provisions for termination hereinafterappearing or will at the cost of the borrower forthwith comply with the same.”Specifically, sentences in legal documents include a great deal of information,repetitiveness, noun phrases with plenty of modification as well as coordinate

and subordinate clauses (Veretina-Chiriac, 2012)

(1) The use of foreign terms: In some situations, foreign phrases, typically

Latin and French, are used instead of English phrases in legal references (e.g.,

inter alia instead of among others) Besides, the influence of French is shown

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not only in the words of French origin (e.g., appeal, claim, complaint), but also

in the position of adjectives behind the modified nouns in phrases such asattorney general, fee simple absolute, state auditor general, etc

(111) The use of archaic terms: Older words like hereinafter; aforesaid;therein; thereto; thereof (and further derivatives, including -at, -in, -after, -before,-with, etc.) are used in legal English primarily to avoid repeating names orphrases Although legal practitioners have a tendency to use archaic words lessfrequently than other terms, many of them can still be found in many legaldocuments (Veretina-Chiriac, 2012)

(iv) Phrasal verbs are often used in a quasi-technical sense For example,put down deposits, serve [documents] upon other parties, write off debts, and so

on Legal language is sometimes difficult to understand, because of the usage of

a large number of difficult words and phrases

(v) Legal jargons: People normally use jargon to refer to words andexpressions that are used in special or technical ways by particular groups ofpeople In the scope of legal fields, the use of jargons helps to bringpredictability and consistency to the law It also makes it easier for lawyers touse specific and highly technical language to talk about different aspects of lawand legal procedures However, due to its complex, legal jargons can sometimes

be regarded as a different language Especially with students, one of the mostdaunting aspects of researching and legal presentation is the weight of jargon.Trying to find the true meaning of legal jargon by consulting various textbooks

is such a time - consuming and frustrating process for them while preparing for

an oral presentation in front of class

Likewise, because legal English has varied dependently on the legal

framework of each country, the legal references for students for legal researchare still limited Consequently, students have fewer chances to widen their

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perspectives on a legal topic, which may lead to passive participation in the oralpresentation sessions.

1.4 Related studies on oral presentation in English language teaching and

learning

As presentation is considered as a crucial method for English-majoredstudents to enhance the language proficiency, it has recently captured theattention of scholars to investigate the perceptions of students on their oralpresentation skills

A study by (Tuan and Mai, 2015) reveals students’ problems mostly occurredwhile making presentation including the inability of speaking, the lack oflanguage competence and demotivation in expressing ideas, etc Meanwhile,(Brooks and Wilson, 2015) add lack of familiarity with oral presentations causedstudents to feel uncomfortable and shy when they were asked to use English tospeak

In the context of ESP teaching and learning, studies on the use of oralpresentation within higher education institutions have been conducted in theliterature The study of (Al-Nouh et al., 2015) proved that oral presentation isessential for students in their studies and future The researcher used thequantitative method to find out that all of them are not good at presentation skillsbecause they cannot face the fears that make them uncomfortable when givingpresentations Furthermore, this study showed that the Ministry of Education andTraining should have some enhancements to improve presentation skills,especially for ESP students Therefore, traditional teaching methods should be

abandoned and the curriculum should focus more on developing communication

skills and motivating students to speak a language fluently

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Furthermore, attitudes of ESP students on their hindrances in givingpresentations were deeper explored A common problem figured out (Al-Nouh etal., 2015) was being anxious during English oral presentations in EngineeringEducation classes Their studies showed that students still experienced a number

of difficulties that were mostly related to personal traits including the fear offailure, causing them to forget something important Also, in a study of (Tong,2009), the participants consisted of 100 second-year students from the College ofTechnology, Vietnam National University and 2 teachers of ESP subject of theseclasses The results revealed students’ mixed attitudes towards makingpresentations in ESP lessons and their strong awareness of gains through makingESP presentations The findings of her study also indicated that there were awide range of difficulties when the participants prepared, rehearsed anddelivered the presentations, such as grammar, lack of time to rehearse andpronunciation The most prominent hindrances were searching for relevantmaterials, selecting presentation form, which troubled over half of therespondents; memorizing the content of the presentation and lack presentationskills

Apparently, it can be seen that the majority of studies investigated thechallenges students encountered during the process of making oral presentation.However, there were only a few research aiming at oral presentation difficulties

of third year and fourth — year ESP students, who may have to adopt this skill intheir near-future internship and professional workplace In addition, while someresearchers focus on the perception of students on making oral presentations at

ESP schools/ universities, others carried out in particular ESP fields of highereducation, such as technology and engineering, yet in legal contexts

Accordingly, this current research 1s conducted to identify legal English-majored

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students’ perceptions on certain obstacles in making oral English presentation in

at Hanoi Law University so as to fill the gaps of the aforementioned studies

1.5 Summary

To sum up, this chapter has provided a brief overview of key terms related

to the topic of the study, including oral presentation skills in general and in legalEnglish classes, as well as previous studies on the obstacles of makingpresentation in EFL/ESP classes Such knowledge has laid the foundation forinvestigating the crucial insights into the common problems in legal Englishpresentation of English majors in the context of Hanoi Law Universities,Vietnam in the next chapters

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CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGY2.1 Participants

Generally, the anticipated participants of the research were 150 English —majored seniors and juniors randomly selected from the Faculty of Legal ForeignLanguage of Hanoi Law University, from course 44 and course 45 Yet, 129 ofthem actually engaged in the survey with their highly positive responses bymeans of Google Forms The first language of all participants is Vietnamese, andtheir foreign language is English

Particularly, an explanation for selecting the target group is due to theappropriateness of their academic levels As third — year and fourth — yearstudents have completed or are to complete all modules of Legal English, namelyBasic Legal English 1, Basic Legal English 2, Advanced Legal English 1,Advanced Legal English 2, their responses on the experiences and quality ofmaking oral presentation in Legal English classes would be a reliable source ofinformation for conducting this research Besides, by conducting the survey,these types of participants are assumed to gain their awareness and knowledge toimprove their oral presentation skills not only in legal English classes but also intheir practically legal environment

2.2 Research Instruments

A research-made survey questionnaire and an in-depth interview were employed

as the major data-gathering instruments of the study

2.2.1 Questionnaire

In terms of survey questionnaire, an online survey questionnaire viaGoogle Form was employed for data collection, including 48 different statements

plus assessment scales segmented into two primary parts, to clarify the

participants’ views on the Legal English oral presentation (see Appendices) In

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detail, a five-criteria Likert scale was used in the research, consisting of fivedescription categories, namely (1) Strongly disagree, (2) Disagree, (3) Neutral,(4) Agree, and (5) Strongly agree After that, the researcher executed a pilotstudy with the cooperation of 25 volunteers to test the validity of the surveyquestionnaire The results of the dummy run were unacceptable, and thus, theresearcher had to revise the questionnaire to reach the acceptable Cronbach’sAlpha value (0.8 > a > 0.7).

This data collecting method was chosen based on its several benefits First

of all, it is easier for researchers to clarify and analyze the collected data throughthe survey logically, as the conclusion for every respondent would be drawn up

on the basis of average answers Additionally, the process of gathering answersfrom students can be more timesaving and convenient via a survey questionnaire.Last but not least, through this method, the online questionnaire answers areautomatically inserted into spreadsheets, databases, or other software packages,which can reduce the risk of human error and enable automatic validation of thedata

On the other hand, this data collection instrument also has certainweaknesses The limitation in the accuracy of the answers is one of the greatestdrawbacks of a questionnaire method The fact that respondents are presentedwith a worded question, instead of being fully explained face-to-face or over thephone the questions, can lead to different interpretations, or even skewed results

of the same question Therefore, the answers, to some extent, cannot be

concluded in a complete way

2.2.2 Interview

Qualitative methods, such as interviews, are believed to provide a deeperunderstanding of social phenomena than would be obtained from purely

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quantitative methods, such as questionnaires (Gill, P., Stewart, K., Treasure, E.,Chadwick, B., 2008) Interviews are, therefore, most appropriate where little isalready known about the study phenomenon or where detailed insights arerequired from individual participants Understanding the drawbacks of a surveyquestionnaire method, a semi - structured interview was conducted In this kind

of interview, specific core questions are determined in advance so that theinterviewer can explore in-depth information

The purpose of the interviews, firstly, is to confirm the data; in particular,

if the results from the interviews match with those from the questionnaire, thereliability of the results will be ensured Secondly, via the interviews, perception

of the students towards their obstacles in making legal oral presentations weredeeply analyzed as they could directly share their feelings, beliefs andexperiences in this specific matter

In this study, five questions related to students’ opinions towards thenecessity and difficulties of making oral presentation in legal English classeswere posed to five interviewees (for detailed interview questions, see appendix2)

2.3 Procedures of data collection

2.3.1 Data from questionnaires

Having prepared the questionnaires properly, the researcher contacted therepresentatives of 4 classes of Faculty of Legal Foreign Language (K44 andK45) to ask for their agreement in taking part in the survey and ensure the clarityand authority of the research Students in such classes expressed their consent toparticipate in the study The survey was carried out from 11th February 2023 to25th February 2023, by sending out a Google Form link via Messenger messages

to participants from the Faculty of Legal Foreign Language of Hanoi Law

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University The respondents were requested to fill and return the questionnaire in

a two-week period, which is appropriate for them to consider carefully beforereplying In the survey form, there was contact information of the researcher thatparticipants are welcome to contact if they have any questions The data wasthen collected and coded for the data treatment

2.3.2 Data from interview

First of all, the list of interview questions was sent to the researchsupervisor to ensure that all the questions are concise, rational, critical, andeffective Then, the researcher contacted 10 students with noticeable answers toconfirm their agreement to take part in the interviews However, only 05 of themagreed to participate

Each interview took about 10 to 12 minutes via either Microsoft team orface-to-face meeting It should be noted that, each interview was conducted inthe students’ mother tongue (Vietnamese) to ensure the accuracy in each answer

as well as create favorable conditions for these students to show their opinions.All the interviews were audio-recorded to ensure the authenticity of the answers.The researcher started every interview by briefly informing the student of thepurpose of this research and generally requested the interviewee to be sincere,truthful, and forthcoming throughout the whole process in order for optimalachievement To create an open atmosphere from the external context, theresearcher kept the degree of formality to the least to help the interviewees feel

comfortable throughout the interview

2.4 Data analysis

In the first place, the quantitative data of the survey questionnaire wastreated through the assistance of IBM SPSS software version 28.0.0 Inparticular, frequency and descriptive statistics were employed to discover theEnglish-majored third — year and fourth — year students’ perceptions towards the

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obstacles in making oral presentation in legal English classes at HƯU The itemwith the highest frequency and percentage shows the most important andmandatory responses to the research questions To ensure the data from thequestionnaire survey be analyzed accurately, the proportion of received -responses was calculated through Microsoft Office Excel to demonstrate therespondents' viewpoints on this research matter in form of bar charts and tables.Moreover, the author adopted three main measures in this research, includingmean, range, and standard deviation (SD) The mean value of each item can beinterpreted as follows: (1.0 - 1.79) very low, (1.8 - 2.59) low, (2.6 - 3.39)medium, (3.4 - 4.19) high, and (4.2 - 5.0) very high.

In the second place, the qualitative data of the in-depth interview wasexamined to support the researcher in interpreting and explaining the resultobtained from the questionnaire Before commencing the analysis process, theaudio files of each interviewee were numbered from one to five so as to ensuretheir anonymity and then transcribed in writing Based on the interviewtranscription, the researcher carried out an analysis of the results to investigatethe common tendency amongst participants’ answers to each question

2.5 Summary

Throughout the chapter, the researcher has provided a completeexplanation of the research design, the data-gathering instruments, the samples

of the study, and the procedures for data collection and analysis, which helps

clarify the research methods and effortlessly find out the answers to thequestions of the study, contributing to the greater awareness of English-majored

students to the difficulties in oral presentation performance in legal Englishclasses Besides, the results from the analysis of both datasets from

questionnaires and interview were compared and interpreted to check whether

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the results supported or contradicted each other The quantitative and qualitativeresults were described in the discussion.

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CHAPTER 3 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

In this chapter, the data collected from the survey questionnaire and theinformation gathered from the in-depth interviews will be taken intocomprehensive account with pie charts and tables

3.1 The English-majored students’ frequency on making oral presentations

in legal English classes

The first question aims at seeking the frequency of English-majoredseniors and juniors in making legal oral presentations at classes, which isillustrated in the pie chart below

Figure 1 Frequency of students in making oral presentations in legal English

recorded percentage was 0.40% All points considered, it can be seen that thefrequency of students making oral presentations in classrooms at HLU wassignificantly high.

On being interviewed, two interviewees specifically stated that:

"We are often in charge of giving oral presentations in front of legalEnglish classes This is considered to be our efficient study method, and also thelecturer's assessment way towards students in the final week of the course."(Student 4)

Or "Presenting orally in group is a task we frequently do at HLU,especially in the legal English class All group members are required to present

in turn to fully convey the research results the group has prepared." (Student 5)

3.2 Students’ attitudes towards the necessity and benefits of oralpresentation skills in legal English classes

Table 1 The students’ perceptions towards the necessity of oral presentations

skill in legal English classes

Statement N | Mean | SD

1 I believe my legal English proficiency is measured on | 129 | 4.5 | 621

my oral presentation performance in classes

2 I do not care about whether the way I deliver my | 129 | 2.37 | 596presentation towards audiences is effective or not

3 Good oral presentation skill in legal English classes is | 129 | 2.58 | 651not as important as legal translating — interpreting and

writing skills

4 I find oral presentation unnecessary to improve my | 129 | 2.21 | 745legal English proficiency

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5 It will be difficult for listeners to gain knowledge in| 129 | 4.19 | 596legal English classes if my presentation is bad.

6 Oral presentation allows me to develop my flexibility | 129 | 3.72 | 739and creativity in different legal contexts

7 Legal English oral presentation is a chance for me to | 129 | 4.41 | 681gain specialized knowledge related to various legal

Otherwise, the next three items were ranked in a low score, with a meanfluctuated at 2.37 2.58 and 2.21 correspondingly Thus, it can be seen thatEnglish — majored students have gradually cared about the quality of their oralpresentation in legal English classes, which can be seen from the students'perception towards the importance of presentation skills, compared with otherspecialized English skills, typically writing and legal translation ones Inaddition, that item 4 reached the lowest mean score out of the total 7 statementsindicates that students are well aware of the presentation role in improving theirlegal English competency This was also supported by a huge number ofresearchers and linguists such as (Yong, 2004), (Gilakjani, 2012)

It is evident from the Table I that there was a such a great number of

students who concurred with the statement 5 “Jt will be difficult for listeners togain knowledge in legal English classes if my presentation is bad.”, with an

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