Difficulties faced by first year students of Tour guides at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts in English oral presentations. = Những khó khăn đối với sinh viê20150227

iii ABSTRACT The importance of English oral presentation is undeniable in the Tour guiding work Therefore, understanding the students of Tour guides’ difficulties in learning English oral presentation skill is apparently necessary to gain effective ESP teaching and learning This minor thesis was carried out with an attempt to investigate the areas of difficulties and obstacles that first years students of Tour guides have encountered when learning English oral presentation skill at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts (THCCA) The minor thesis is organized in parts: Part I presents the rationale, aims and significance of the study, research questions, scope, method and design of the study Part II consists of chapters The first chapter concentrates on the background of the study and the related literature reviews, on which the contents of the study are based The second chapter focuses on developing the research methodology, in which the two questionnaires for first year students of Tour guides and ESP teachers are chosen as main instruments The third chapter is to present the data collected from the two questionnaires and to analyze the data The fourth chapter aims at discussing the findings of the difficulties as well as some solutions in the hope to develop students of Tour guides’ English oral presentation skill at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts Part III summaries the study and offers some suggestions for further study iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS THCCA: Thanh Hoa College of Culture and Arts ESP: English for specific purpose BA: Basic English v LIST OF TABLES Table 1: The students’ time of learning English before entering the College Table 2: The students’ difficulties in making English oral presentations in the class Table 3: Students’ causes of difficulties Table 4: Students’ suggestions Table 5: The teachers’ experience of teaching ESP Table 6: The teachers’ opinions of students’ attitudes Table 7: Teachers’ teaching methods Table 8: Teachers’ opinions of the topics and of the ESP syllabus Table 9: Teachers’ opinions of the factors causing students’ problems Table 10: Teachers’ suggested solutions to students’ problems Figure 1: The students’ living conditions before entering the College Figure 2: The students’ awareness of the importance of English oral presentation Figure 3: The students’ evaluations of the topics in the textbook Figure 4: The students’ evaluations of their ability of making English oral presentations Figure 5: Teachers’ perceptions of the importance of English oral presentations Figure 6: Teachers’ difficulties in teaching English oral presentations vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv LIST OF TABLES v TABLE OF CONTENTS vi PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims of the study Scope of the study Methodology Design of the study PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Current overview on oral presentations 1.1.1 A general view of oral presentation 1.1.2 Types of oral presentations 1.1.3 Structure of an oral presentation 1.1.4 The importance of English Oral presentations to students of Tour guides 1.2 Problems with English oral presentation of Tour guides CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 12 2.1 The context of the study 12 2.1.1 ESP teaching and learning situation at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts 12 2.1.2 Teaching staff 12 2.1.3 Students of Tour guides 12 2.1.4 Materials used for first year students of Tour guide at THCCA 13 2.1.4.1 The objectives of the course 13 2.1.4.2 The syllabus 14 vii 2.1.4.3 Materials 14 2.2 The research methodology 15 2.2.1 Research questions 15 2.2.2 The participants 15 2.2.3 The instruments of the study 15 2.2.3.1 The questionnaire for students 15 2.2.3.2 The questionnaire for teachers 16 2.2.4 Data collection procedures 16 2.2.5 Summary 16 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 17 3.1 The questionnaires for students 17 3.1.1 Methodology 17 3.1.2 Results 17 3.1.2.1 Student’s living condition and background of learning English 17 3.1.2.2 Student’s awareness of the importance of English oral presentations in 19 their future career 3.1.2.3 Students’ evaluations of the topics and their oral presentation of Tour 19 guides in the class 3.1.2.4 Students’ difficulties in learning English oral presentation skill 21 3.1.2.5 Factors causing the students’ difficulties 22 3.1.2.6 Students’ suggestions 23 3.2 The questionnaires for teachers 25 3.2.1 Methodology 25 3.2.2 Results 25 3.2.2.1 Teachers’ teaching experiences 25 3.2.2.2 Teachers’ perception of the importance of English oral presentations to 26 students of Tour guides 3.2.2.3 Teachers’ opinions of Tourism major students’ attitudes to English oral 26 presentations 3.2.2.4 Teachers’ methods in teaching English oral presentations to first year students of Tour guides 27 viii 3.2.2.5 Teachers’ opinions of the contents in the course book and of ESP syllabus 28 3.2.2.6 Teachers’ difficulties in teaching English oral presentations 29 3.2.2.7 Teachers’ opinions of the factors causing students’ problems and teachers’ 29 suggested solutions 3.3 Conclusion 31 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS 32 4.1 Findings 32 4.1.1 Students’ difficulties in learning English oral presentation 32 4.1.1.1 Students lack specialized knowledge of Tourism 32 4.1.1.2 Students have low English proficiency 33 4.1.1.3 Students lack body language performance 33 4.1.1.4 Students lack confidence 33 4.1.1.5 Students lack an ESP practice environment 34 4.1.2 Teachers’ difficulties in teaching English oral presentation 34 4.1.3 Other problems 35 4.1.3.1 Lack of a suitable training program 35 4.1.3.2 Lack of necessary facilities 35 4.2 Suggested solutions 35 4.2.1 For teachers 36 4.2.1.1 Improve sociolinguistic competence and specialized knowledge 36 4.2.1.2 Improve students’ performance skill in oral presentations 36 4.2.1.3 Build up students’ confidence 37 4.2.2 For students 37 4.2.2.1 Improve their knowledge of ESP 37 4.2.2.2 Improve their performance ability of English oral presentations of Tour 38 guides 4.2.3 For the administrators 38 4.2.3.1 Change the ESP teaching syllabus and equip conductive facilities 38 4.2.3.2 Provide ESP teachers with chances to take part in Tourism training 39 courses 4.2.3.3 Create an ESP practice environment for students of Tour guides 39 ix PART III: CONCLUSION 41 Conclusion 41 Limitations of the study 41 Suggestions for further research 42 REFERENCES 43 APPENDIX I PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale Nowadays, English has become the language of international communication It is not possible to see that not only English language has been a major concern and but also oral communication skills also become very necessary to all the learners Communication among nations has rapidly improved with the development of international programs There is, therefore, an over – growing need for foreign languages with English being the “most wanted” So, people really need good English communication skills in all the areas One of these areas is tourism Tourism is an important and comprehensive economic branch with profound cultural contents of an inter-branch, inter-regional and highly socialized character Being a growing industry, tourism in Vietnam provides interesting opportunities for Vietnamese students to work with people This industry certainly need tourism graduates develop strong oral communication skills And we can recognize the main language skill in tourism is English communication skill which is considered as universal language in all the fields of the tourist sector at an international level Mastery of this language proves essential for a correct bibliographic research in any of the subjects included in the training course of Tour guides To students of Tour guides, English oral communication skill is very essential since the industry is really in need of the graduates who have the skills For first year Vietnamese students of Tour guides at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts, English oral presentation is extremely important because they expect to use it frequently for their tour guiding work However, for nearly seven years of teaching ESP at THCCA, the researcher of the study have realized the fact that many learners of Tour guides course after a long time of learning English for Tourism find themselves unable to deliver an oral presentation successfully Among of them, there are a large number of first year students who always find it difficult to make English oral presentations in the class For this reason, the researcher decided to choose the theme “Difficulties faced by first-year students of Tour Guides at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts in English oral presentations” as the topic of this thesis The aim of the study is to identify the problems of students’ poor English oral competence so that appropriate solutions could be proposed to the question under investigation Aims of the study The study is aimed at: - investigating first year students of tour guides’ difficulties in English oral presentation skill - giving some suggestions and solutions to reduce difficulties and improve the teaching and learning of English oral presentations in Tour guides training course In other words, the aims of the study are to answer the following questions: What are the difficulties faced by first year students of Tour guides at Thanh Hoa College of Culture and Arts in English oral presentations? What are the solutions to overcome the identified difficulties? Scope of the study With the above aims, the research is limited to the exploration of difficulties encountered by first year students of Tour guides at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts in English Oral presentations It involves the participation of 80 first-year Tourism majors who are in their second semester at THCCA The findings and suggested solutions most appropriately applied to the teachers of ESP as well as first year Tourism majors of THCCA That is, students of Tour guides will be able to find ways to improve their process of learning English oral presentation skill Methodology The study was designed to use a combination of various methods to achieve its aims and objectives Firstly, an intensive review of the literature was done to explore the relevant theoretical issues concerning first year students’ difficulties in English oral presentations of Tour guides Also, various sources of data were used, involving first year students of Tour guides and teachers of English at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts in order to address the aims of the study:  Conducting a survey questionnaire to investigate first year students’ difficulties in English oral presentation skill  Conducting a survey questionnaire to examine teachers’ view on first year students’ difficulties in English oral presentation, their teaching techniques and suggested solutions to the identified problems  Resorting to personal experience All these questionnaires were carried out at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts Design of the study The study consists of three parts: Part I (Introduction) presents the rationale, the aims, the scope, the methodology and the design of the study Part II (Development) consists of following chapters Chapter 1: Literature review aims at the theoretical background, which is relevant to the aims of the study Chapter 2: Methodology describes the research methodology, which focuses on the context of the study, participants, instruments and data collection procedure Chapter 3: Data analysis and discussion gains results from the questionnaires for students and teachers Chapter 4: Finding and Suggested solutions give the findings and some suggested solutions to the problems of the study Part III (Conclusion) summaries the study and offers some suggestions for further research ... exploration of difficulties encountered by first year students of Tour guides at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts in English Oral presentations It involves the participation of 80 first- year Tourism... choose the theme ? ?Difficulties faced by first- year students of Tour Guides at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts in English oral presentations” as the topic of this thesis The aim of the study is... sources of data were used, involving first year students of Tour guides and teachers of English at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts in order to address the aims of the study:  Conducting a