Factors affecting the students’ English oral presentation skills at Hanoi Tourism College = Những yếu tố ảnh đến kỹ năng thuyết trình tiếng Anh của sinh viên tr

HOÀNG THỊ MAI HOA FACTORS AFFECTING ENGLISH ORAL PRESENTATION SKILLS OF THE STUDENTS AT HANOI TOURISM COLLEGE Những yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến kỹ năng thuyết trình tiếng Anh của sinh viên Tr

HOÀNG THỊ MAI HOA

FACTORS AFFECTING ENGLISH ORAL PRESENTATION SKILLS

OF THE STUDENTS AT HANOI TOURISM COLLEGE (Những yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến kỹ năng thuyết trình tiếng Anh của sinh viên

Trường Cao đẳng Du lịch Hà Nội)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

HANOI – 2011

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

HOÀNG THỊ MAI HOA

FACTORS AFFECTING ENGLISH ORAL PRESENTATION SKILLS

OF THE STUDENTS AT HANOI TOURISM COLLEGE (Những yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến kỹ năng thuyết trình tiếng Anh của sinh viên

Trường Cao đẳng Du lịch Hà Nội)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Supervisor: Dr Lê Văn Canh

Code: 60.14.10

HANOI – 2011

DECLARATION

I, Hoang Thi Mai Hoa, hereby state that this work is original and completed by myself It has not been submitted for other purposes except for the fulfillment of the requirements of the University for the degree of Master in English Teaching Methodology

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my thesis deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper

Signature Hanoi, September 2011

Hoang Thi Mai Hoa

My special thanks go to all my lecturers who have been engaged in teaching K18

MA course for their precious lectures

I also wish to acknowledge the cooperation of my colleagues, my friends and the third-year tour guide students at Hanoi Tourism College in contributing to the data collection presented in this study

Last but not least, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my family, especially my husband for their whole-hearted encouragement and great support during my time of fulfilling this thesis

ABSTRACT

The research is concerned with factors affecting students’ oral presentation skills in English at Hanoi Tourism College Specifically, a survey is conducted on 106 third year tour guide students Main purposes of the research are to find out: (1) the difficulties the students might have when giving oral presentations, (2) factors causing the difficulties and their suggested solutions

It is expected that the study will make a contribution to the improvement of the teaching and learning of presentation skills at Hanoi Tourism College

The study consists of three parts Part A introduces the information on the background, the rationale, the aims, scope, method and design of the study Part B providing the development includes three chapters Chapter 1 provides the relevant theories related to oral presentation skills and factors may affect the students’ presentation skill Chapter 2 introduces the context of the study and describes the methods employed in the study Chapter 3 presents and discusses the findings that arise from the data collected Part C provides summary of study, recommendations, limitations and suggestions for further

research

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS Page

Declaration i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

Table of contents iv

List of abbreviations vii

List of tables vii

INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aims and objectives of the study 1

3 Scope and significance of the study 2

4 The method of the study 2

5 Design of the study 3

DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Definition of terminology 4

1.1.1 Oral presentation 4

1.1.2 Tour guiding oral presentation 4

1.2 Oral presentation as a component of oral communication 5

1.3 The role of oral presentation skill to tour guides 6

1.4 The structure of an oral presentation 7

1.4.1 The structure of an oral presentation 7

1.4.2 The structure of a tour guiding oral presentation 8

1.5 Factors affecting students’ oral presentation 9

1.5.1 Students’ language proficiency 9

1.5.2 Teachers’ roles 10

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1 The setting of the study 11

2.1.1 The description of Hanoi Tourism College 11

2.1.2 Tourism Foreign Language Department 11

2.1.3 Tour guide students 12

2.2 The study 13

2.2.1 Research questions 13

2.2.2 Participants 14

2.2.3 The instrument 14

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 The students’ perceptions of the importance of oral presentation skill and their self - assessment of their presentations 16

3.1.1 The students’ perceptions of the importance of oral presentation skill 16

3.1.2 The students’ self-assessment of their presentation skill 17

3.2 Students’ difficulties in making oral presentations 17

3.2.1 Students’ difficulties in preparation 17

3.2.2 Students’ difficulties in organization 19

3.2.3 Students’ difficulties in delivery 20

3.2.3.1 Students’ difficulties in attracting and maintaining the attentions of audiences 20 3.2.3.2 Students’ difficulties concerning body language 23

3.2.3.3 Students’ difficulties concerning language use 24

3.2.3.4 Students’ difficulties in time management 25

3.2.3.5 Students’ difficulties in anxiety management 26

3.2.3.6 Students’ difficulties in handling the audiences’ questions 27

vi

3.2.4 Students’ difficulties in evaluation 28

3.3 Factors affecting the students’ oral presentation skill 29

3.4 The students’ suggested solutions 32

3.4.1 For students 32

3.4.1.1 Improving their knowledge of English 32

3.4.1.2 Practising carefully for the presentation 32

3.4.2 For teachers 33

3.4.2.1 Equipping students with linguistic knowledge 33

3.4.2.2 Creating a pleasant and supportive classroom atmosphere 33

3.4.3 For Institutions 34

3.4.3.1 Providing modern technology equipments and a good library 34

3.4.3.2 Organizing study trips to tourist destinations 34

CONCLUSION 1 Summary of the study 36

2 Recommendations 37

3 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies 39

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

HTC: Hanoi Tourism College

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.2: Students’ self assessment of their oral presentations 17

Table 3.5: Students’ difficulties in attracting and maintaining the attentions of

audiences

20

Table 3.6: Students’ difficulties concerning body language 23

Table 3.7: Students’ difficulties concerning language use 24

Table 3.10: Students’ difficulties in handling the audiences’ questions 27

Table 3.12: Factors affecting the students’ oral presentation 29

third-Last but not least, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my family, especially

my husband for their whole-hearted encouragement and great support during my time of fulfilling this thesis

The research is concerned with factors affecting students’ oral presentation skills in English at Hanoi Tourism College Specifically, a survey is conducted on 106 third year tour guide students Main purposes of the research are to find out: (1) the difficulties the students might have when giving oral presentations, (2) factors causing the difficulties and their suggested solutions

It is expected that the study will make a contribution to the improvement of the teaching and learning of presentation skills at Hanoi Tourism College

The study consists of three parts Part A introduces the information on the background, the rationale, the aims, scope, method and design of the study Part B providing the development includes three chapters Chapter 1 provides the relevant theories related to oral presentation skills and factors may affect the students’ presentation skill Chapter 2 introduces the context

of the study and describes the methods employed in the study Chapter 3 presents and discusses the findings that arise from the data collected Part C provides summary of study,

recommendations, limitations and suggestions for further research

PART A – INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

As an occupational requirement, oral presentation skill is believed to be very important for tour guides Tour guides’ presentation determines the success of a tour Besides, tour guides may have

to guide a group of foreign tourists, which requires them to use a foreign language Clearly, growing tourism increases the need for staff of international standards One of those standards is the tour guide’s oral presentation skill in a foreign language

This motivates me to explore the factors affecting the tour guide students’ oral presentation in English at Hanoi Tourism College with a view to finding practical solutions to deal with those factors, thereby helping the prospective tour guides to improve their oral presentation skills

2 Aims and objectives of the study

The research aims specifically at exploring the factors affecting tour guide students’ oral

presentation skill at HTC Possible solutions are recommended to help the teachers and students to improve the teaching and learning of oral presentation skill

The specific objectives of the study include:

 identifying the students’ perceptions about the importance of oral presentation skills in their future job

 understanding students’ self assessments of their oral presentation skill

 identifying the difficulties in making oral presentations encountered by the students at HTC

 examining the factors affecting their oral presentations at HTC

 providing some recommendations on how to improve students’ oral presentation

3 Scope and significance of the study

4 The method of the study

The methodology chosen for the study is quantitative This methodology fits well the purpose of the study, which is a survey in nature Johnson (1991:104) states, “[T]he purpose of a survey is to learn about characteristics of an entire group of interest by examining a subset of their group (a sample)”, which is also the purpose of the study, i.e to find out students’ perceptions of aspects related to oral presentation

5 Design of the study

The thesis consists of three parts

Part A: Introduction: introduces the rationale, aims, significance, scope and methodology of the

study

Part B: Development: is the main part of the study, which consists of three chapters

Chapter 1: Literature Review: is a brief description of the study including definition of oral

presentation, tour guides’ oral presentation, oral presentations as part of oral communication, the role of presentation in tour guiding job, the structure of an oral presentation, and the factors affecting the students’ oral presentation skill

Chapter 2: Methodology: provides the current situation of the teaching and learning of oral

presentation skill at HTC, research questions, informants, instrument and process of the study

Chapter 3: Findings and Discussion presents the findings and discussion of the study based on the

result of questionnaire

Part C: Conclusion consists of the summary of the study, recommendations, and limitations of the

study and gives suggestion for further study

1.1.2 Tour guides’ oral presentation

A tour guides’ presentation is to introduce the place or the country in terms of its importance, history, politics, cultures, fauna and flora to the participants of the tours

1.2 Oral presentation as a component of oral communication

Oral presentation belongs to oral communication In oral presentation, speakers use spoken speech to deliver the information to audience Moreover, speakers also use nonverbal communication (body language, gestures, eye contact …) to express themselves and make the speech more effective

1.3 The role of oral presentation skill to tour guides

Oral presentation skill is the main tool of tour guides and the most decisive successful factor in their job

1.4 The structure of an oral presentation

Đoàn (2007) states that there are three main parts in tour guides’ presentations like any other kinds of oral presentation: introduction, body, and conclusion

1.5 Factors affecting students’ oral presentation

1.5.1 Students’ language proficiency

Đoàn (2007:36) confirms that the success of a tour bases mainly on the ability and communicative skills, behavior of tour guides It is clear that, in order to communicate with foreign tourists, tour guides must acquire a rather high level of language proficiency

2.1 The setting of the study

2.1.1 The description of Hanoi Tourism College

Hanoi Tourism College, which was formerly known as the school for training employers in tourism and hospitality, was established in 1972 The college has been known as one of the best tourism-training center The College continues to provide its students with solid industrial knowledge, strong professional skills, foreign language competence and industrial manners in Vietnam’s growing tourism industry

2.1.3 Tour guide students

2 How do they self assess their presentations?

3 What are their difficulties when giving oral presentations?

4 What do they perceive as factors affecting their oral presentations?

5 What are their suggestions to improve their oral presentations?

2.2.2 Participants

The survey was conducted on 106 prospective tour guide students of class C6G1,3 who were in the fifth semester at HTC Each class had 53 students aged from 20 to 23 Female outnumbered the male There were 96 girls and 10 boys in the classes

As can be seen from Table 3.1, the majority of students (99.1 %) stated that oral presentation skill was very important in their future job None of them found oral presentation unimportant

3.1.2 The students’ self-assessment of their presentation skill

Table 3.2 shows that most students were likely to consider their oral presentation to be on average level of success More than half of the students (68 students) thought they achieved 50-60% of success

3.2 Students’ difficulties in making oral presentations

3.2.1 Students’ difficulties in preparation

The students had to cope with many difficulties in preparing for the oral presentation, especially memorizing the speech word for word and rehearsing the speech

3.2.2 Students’ difficulties in organization

Organizing the oral presentation was also difficult for the students

3.2.3 Students’ difficulties in delivery

3.2.3.1 Students’ difficulties in attracting and maintaining the attentions of audiences

Students also had many difficulties in delivering oral presentations

3.2.3.2 Students’ difficulties concerning body language

Body language was not a challenge for the students because they had been trained how to give