Using digital storytelling to improve english presentation skills for first year students of foreign language department at nghe an teacher training college

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE-STUDIES -*** - ĐẶNG THỊ NGUYÊN USING DIGITAL STORYTELLING TO IMPROVE ENGLISH PRESENTATION SKILLS FOR FIRST YEAR STUDENTS OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE NGHE AN TEACHER TRAINING COLLEGE (Ứng dụng cơng cụ Kể chuyện hình ảnh kỹ thuật số việc cải thiện kĩ trình bày tiếng Anh cho sinh viên năm chuyên ngữ trường Cao đẳng Sư phạm Nghệ An) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Hanoi - 2012 i VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE-STUDIES -*** - ĐẶNG THỊ NGUYÊN USING DIGITAL STORYTELLING TO IMPROVE ENGLISH PRESENTATION SKILLS FOR FIRST YEAR STUDENTS OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE NGHE AN TEACHER TRAINING COLLEGE (Ứng dụng công cụ Kể chuyện hình ảnh kỹ thuật số việc cải thiện kĩ trình bày tiếng Anh cho sinh viên năm chuyên ngữ trường Cao đẳng Sư phạm Nghệ An) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Supervisor: Dr Đỗ Tuấn Minh Hanoi - 2012 ii TABLE OF CONTENT Page DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENT vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES viii PART I: INTRODUCTION I.1 Rationale of the study I.2 Objectives of the study I.3 Scope of the study I.4 Methods of the study I.5 Significance of the study I.6 Overview of the study PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORITICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Oral presentation 1.1.1 Definition 1.1.2 Types of oral presentation 1.2 Presentation skills in language learning iv 1.2.1 Importance of presentation skills 1.2.2 Criteria for a good presentation 1.2.3 Visual aids in presentation 1.3 ICT in language learning 1.3.1 Definition 10 1.3.2 ICT in language learning 10 1.4 Digital Storytelling 11 1.4.1 Definition 11 1.4.2 Uses of DS in education 12 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 15 2.1 Methodology 15 2.1.1 Research questions 15 2.1.2 Participants 15 2.1.3 Conditions of teaching and learning English with ICT at Nghe An Teacher Training College 16 2.1.4 Instruments 16 2.2 Research procedure 19 CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 23 3.1 Results and discussions from the two mock presentations 23 3.2 Results and discussions from the questionnaire for students 27 3.3 Results and discussions from the students’ journals 32 v CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS 35 4.1 Findings 35 4.2 Pedagogical implications 36 PART III: CONCLUSION 38 III.1 Conclusion 38 III.2 Limitations of the study 39 III.3 Suggestions for further study 40 REFERENCES 41 APPENDICES I vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS DS: Digital Storytelling ICT: Information and Communication Technology EFL: English as a Foreign Language S: student vii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1: Dale’s cone of experience Figure 2: Reflective Capacity of ICT in learning process Table 1: Establishing new learning environment Table 2: Examiners’ assessment on the students’ presentation Table 3: The degree of the students’ agreement in presentation with DS Table 4: The degree of difficulties in using DS viii PART I: INTRODUCTION I.1 Rationale of the study Oral presentation is one of necessary skills in communication in general and English language learning in particular As Jing L (2009, p.iii) stated, “Oral presentation is an important skill to convey one’s ideas in communication” Its significant role is obviously confirmed in both theory and practice That is why presentation skills have been included in teaching curriculum of a variety of schools, colleges, universities and institutions in the world Students are required to be good at presenting after graduation so that they can communicate successfully in society in general and in their work in particular As a four-year teaching experience English teacher, the researcher finds that students at Nghe An Teacher Training College have difficulties in presentation skills during and after studying at the college Via classroom observation and discussion with colleagues, the author realizes it is a must to help students improve their presentation skills After having different small talks to three classes of first year English major students, the researcher find out some reasons why they are weak at presentation skills, namely shyness, lack of confidence, lack of vocabulary After studying different sources, the author decide to choose Digital Storytelling to support students’ presentations and would like to examine its effects on their presentations Digital Storytelling is an Information Communication Technology (ICT) tool which is widely used in education Obviously, ICT has been widely applied at many schools, colleges and universities in the world Similarly, the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam (MOET) has given different policies with the purpose of applying ICT in teaching and learning As requested by MOET, all teaching institutions have to integrate ICT in teaching and learning, especially teachers have to “reasonably use ICT in every subject, avoid ICT abuse” (MOET, 2008, p.3) In the line with ICT guidelines of the MOET, lecturers and students at Nghe An Teacher Training College are encouraged to use ICT in teaching and learning effectively Several workshops and teaching competition are organized at the college The above situation urges the researcher to conduct the study “Using Digital Photo Storytelling to improve English presentation skills for first year students of Foreign Language Department at Nghe An Teacher Training College” I.2 The objectives of the study The study examines to what extent DS improves the presentation skills of first year EFL students at Nghe An Teacher Training College, Vietnam The objectives of the study are: - Examine how DS improve the presentation skills of students - Investigate students’ opinions about using DS in presenting To fulfill the above objectives, the research questions are: 1- To what extent does DS help improve presentation skills of 1st year EFL students at Nghe An Teacher Training College? 2- What are students’ opinions about using DS in presenting? I.3 Scope of the study Due to the limited time and school schedule, the target group of study is fourteen first year EFL students at Nghe An Teacher Training College I.4 Methods of the study The study employs action research Action research is proved to be an effective approach because the study aims at improving students’ presentations within a certain context Two mock presentations, journals of students and questionnaire are conducted I.5 Significance of the study The research hopes to be valuable to both teachers and students who are interested in applying ICT in active teaching and learning Firstly, this study contributes experiences in active teaching and learning process in the college Secondly, it provides a particular finding to indicate whether the use of ICT, especially DS improves foreign language learning Last but not least, it is a good opportunity for the researcher to gain knowledge in conducting research I.6 Overview of the study The study is divided into three parts, which are presented as follows Part I is the introduction, which states the rationale, aims and objectives, scope, methods, significance and the overview of the study Part II is the development of the study which consists of four chapters Chapter is theoretical background, which presents necessary literature related to the study Chapter is research methodology, which describes how the study was carried out at Nghe An Teacher Training College Chapter is data analysis and discussion researcher saw that students were very motivated in using DS because they phoned her whenever they had difficulties in preparing presentation with DS It was assured when the researcher read the students’ journal Students said that they felt very happy when they had an opportunity to be the participants of the research Moreover, they saw that DS is not only a useful tool in learning but also an effective tool in real life They not only used DS to design different activities in class but also used it to make video clips as birthday gifts for their siblings and close friends In addition, they stated that DS were interesting and suitable to their learning It also made them more motivated in learning After knowing one tool to support for English learning, that is DS, they saw themselves that their knowledge was not good enough and they should try more to get the best result in study Another point which was mentioned in the students’ journals was that they felt unconfident when standing in front of the crowd but then they felt better with the support of DS and the encouragement of the teacher Moreover, they stated that they were more creative and had more ideas for their presentation Because the researcher grouped students to work together in the first four weeks, they had an opportunity to help each other in making ideas for the presentation and designing DS The advantage of working in group in the study reflected by the students was that they could learn from each other and from other groups However, the drawback was that sometimes they did not make an agreement about the ideas Nevertheless, as the students stated, the agreement was reached in the end One another advantage was that students could help each other to correct grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation when they designed DS The students also mentioned the difficulties they met after each week of the research program First, some students faced the problem of installing the software Photo Story The students then were immediately supported by the researcher Second, there were 33 still four students who did not have their own computers so they sometimes saw difficult to practise using DS In terms of the most interesting thing in using DS, most of students said that recording their voice made them more exciting and desired to use DS more They recorded their speaking whenever they liked and sent it to the researcher via email to get comments 34 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS 4.1 Findings In this part, the research questions which are proposed at the first chapter of the thesis are going to be dealed with Research question 1: To what extent does DS help improve presentation skills of 1st year EFL students at Nghe An Teacher Training College? According to the results of the two mock presentations, the questionnaire distributes to the students and their journal writing, the researcher can clarify the effects of DS in the students’ presentation as follows First of all, DS affects students’ manner and body language, especially students’ confidence 78.6% of the students are evaluated to be more progressive in manner and body language They know how to keep an eye contact on the audience, show their interest and express their confidence in presenting That is confirmed when twelve students (78.6%) respond to the questionnaire that they are more confident in presenting with DS One problem happened with using DS is that some of the students overuse DS so they focus on the screen a lot and forget to make eyes contact to the audience Second, according to the result of two mock presentations, the students have more ideas for their presentation during the process of designing DS That makes the organization and the content of their presentation more interesting The result is assured when 92.9% of the students said that they feel they are more creative in presenting Moreover, 85.7% of them confirm they are more well-organized with DS Especially, via the researcher’ observation, the students design a variety of activities in class with DS 35 Last but not least, to some extent, the students’ grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation are improved When designing DS, the students type main ideas on the screen so the audience can see their writing and it is interesting that other students give comments afterwards Exploiting the function of recording voice in DS, the students use DS to record their presentation and send it to the researcher via email so the researcher can help them correct their pronunciation Research question 2: What are the students’ opinions about using DS in presenting? Most of the students stated that DS is an effective tool in presenting, in learning English and even in real life They also said that they are interested in presenting with the support of DS In terms of technical problems, they stated that DS is easy to use and they are confident in using it 71.4% of the students said that they not spend a lot of time making DS in their presentation Meanwhile, the rest said it is time-consuming because they not have computers so they have to go to computer shops or borrow their friends’ computers Students themselves realize that they are more creative, confident, interested in learning English and well-organized In other words, DS positively affects the students’ interest in learning and also their characters 4.2 Pedagogical implications The use of DS in presenting has proved to be effective in improving the students’ presentations The findings of the study implicate that: 36 (1) DS is an effective tool to use in presenting and it can be exploited in different ways Therefore, teachers and students will be motivated and more creative when applying DS in teaching and learning (2) Using DS in presenting still faces some obstacles, one of which is technical problem If students not have computers, they cannot design a DS Therefore, teachers need to pay attention to students’ conditions of technology before asking them to tasks relating to DS (3) It is a fact that DS is a supporting tool for students’ learning Therefore, teachers need to remind students not to overuse it 37 PART III: CONCLUSION III.1 Conclusion The study provides an insight into the application of DS in improving the first year EFL students’ presentation skills at Nghe An Teacher Training College It examines the effects of DS on the students’ presentation and the students’ opinions about using DS in presenting The results of the study indicate that the students’ presentations are more progressive with DS It has a significant influence on the students’ manner, body language and organization of ideas in presenting, especially their confidence They also organize their ideas better with the support of DS Nevertheless, some of students overuse DS so it negatively affects to their presentation In terms of students’ opinions, most of them see that DS is an effective tool in presenting, in learning English and even in real life They are also more interested in presenting with DS They are confident and have few difficulties in using it Timeconsuming process in designing DS is a problem with some students who not have computers The research actively helps the students be aware of the role of using visual aids in presenting Especially, they are more confident and optimistic about their learning Even though DS has a positive influence on the students’ presentation, it does not mean that it is always effective in teaching and learning To implement the tool effectively in language teaching and learning, teachers’ attitude is extremely important In the process of carrying out the research, the researcher recognizes that giving encouragement and feedback to students in the right time considerably affects to the 38 students’ thoughts and actions Moreover, the researcher – also the teacher herself experiences about her students and her own teaching Especially, the relationship between the students and the teacher are closer The students are more open and willing to share what they thought to the teacher Limitation of the study is unavoidable However, that is also a valuable experience to the researcher to improve her teaching and hopefully it will be much beneficial to teachers of English and even teachers of other subjects who are interested in implementing DS in teaching and learning III.2 Limitations of the study Despite the effectiveness of the use of DS in the students’ presentations, it should be admitted that a thorough understanding of it has not been achieved due to a number of reasons The first limitation of the research is that the scale of the study is rather small, consisting only fourteen participants Therefore, to some extent, this limits the generalization of the research to other contexts Second, it seems that a ten-week research program is not long enough for the students to make significant progress In addition, students had to be at school all day during research period so they did not have much time to practise using DS in class Moreover, the participants of the research were all female Therefore, the data collected is largely gender-based, which may be troublesome when coming up with the question: whether male students have the same positive significant change in presenting with DS as female students Another limitation of the research is that two examiners invited to assess the students’ presentations are the colleagues of the researchers They have not taught these students 39 before so their assessment would be more reliable It would be more objective if one or both examiners were foreigners who came from English speaking countries Last but not least, this action research is an incomplete one because of the fact that it has not been published on a paper or discussed in a workshop It would be better if the researcher received feedback from other colleagues and educators III.3 Suggestions for further study It is highly recommended that further study should be conducted to gain better understanding of the effects of DS in students’ presentation Teachers can use DS in different subjects which require students to present The teacher works as an instructor, listens and gives feedback to their presentation 40 REFERENCES Afrilyasanti, R., & Basthomi, Y (2011) Digital Storytelling: A case study on the teaching of speaking to Indonesian EFL students Language in India, 11, 81-91 Alshare, K., & Hindi, N M (2004) The important of presentation skills in the classroom: Students and instructors perspectives Journal of Computing Scienece in College, 19(4), 6-15 Retrieved 10 February 2012, from http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1050233&dl=ACM&coll=DL&CFID=107310 207&CFTOKEN=76917368 Belgium-Vietnam Project (2005) Tập huấn giảng viên trung ương dạy học tích cực Hanoi: Ministry of Education and Training College of Adult and Professional Programs (2011) Presentation evaluation criteria Retrieved 10 February 2012, from www.shorter.edu/capp/PDFs/Presentation Rubric.pdf Dale’s cone of experience Retrieved 10 March 2012, from http://teacherworld com/potdale.html D'Arcy, J (1998) Technically speaking: a guide for communicating complex information Columbus: Battelle Press Educational Testing Service (2007) Digital Transformation: A Framework for ICT literacy Retrieved 15 March 2012, from http://www.ets.org/Media/Tests/ Information_and_Communication_Technology_Literacy/ictreport.pdf Hampden-Sydney College Retrieved 12 March 2012, from http://www.hsc.edu/ Academics/Speaking-Center/For-Students/Types-of-Oral-Presentations.html Hong Kong examinations and assessment authority (n.d) Assessment criteria marking sheet (individual presentation Retrieved 10 February 2012, from www.oupchina.com.hk/elt/newhkcee/sba/marking_sheet2.pdf Hornby A S (2005) Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English (7 41 ed.) Oxford: Oxford University Press Jing, L (2009) Application of oral presentation in ESL classroom of China Retrieved 20 March 2012 from http://minds.wisconsin.edu/handle/1793/34475?show=full Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam (2008) Directive No 58 on enhancement of teaching, training and applying information technology in education in the period 2008 – 2012 Vietnam Monteith M (2004) ICT for curriculum enhancement Intellect Ltd Nunan, D (1992) Research methods in language learning Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Powell, M (2002) Presenting in English: How to give successful presentations USA: Thomson Heinle Signes, C G (2008) Practical uses of digital storytelling Retrieved 24 March, 2012, from http://www.google.com.vn/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web& cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CCcQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.uv.es% 2Fgregoric%2FDIGITALSTORYTELLING%2FDS_files%2FDST_15_ene_08 _final.pdf&ei=8xVoUOHuEcq3rAe8jIGQCg&usg=AFQjCNHcwRYYapeEfii MBWFUz4LNWkrzww Stoner G M (2009) Effectively communicating with visual aids Retrieved 20 March 2012, from mattstoner.net/presentations/effective_visuals.pdf Teaching Centre of Washington University in St Louis (2009) Improving presentation style Retrieved 10 March, 2012, from http://teachingcenter.wustl.edu/improving-presentation-style Thomas L (2000) Technology and assessment Retrieved 20 March 2012, from www.edvantia.org/products/pdf/thomas_AEL.pps Wallace, M J (1998) Action research for language teachers Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Whatley R P Retrieved 15 March 2012, from http://www.cypressmedia.net/ 42 articles/article /25/types_of_presentations Yuksel, P., Robin, B R., & McNeil, S (2010, n.d) Educational uses of Digital Storytelling around the world Retrieved 24 March, digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/survey/SITE_DigitalStorytelling.pdf 43 2012, from APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: RESEARCH QUESTIONNAIRE The following questionnaire aims to examine the effects of using Digital Storytelling in improving presentation skills for first year students of Foreign Language Department at Nghe An Teacher Training College Your answers are important to the research Data collected are only used for the study, not for any other purposes Thanks for your cooperation What extent you agree with the following statement: (Please circle on one most appropriate number) Totally disagree Disagree Neither agree nor disagree Agree Totally agree 1.1 I can organize my presentation better 5 5 with digital storytelling 1.2 Using digital storytelling helps me focus on the ideas of my presentation 1.3 I think my presentation with the support of digital storytelling is better than that without it 1.4 Using digital storytelling in my presentation helps me have more chance to keep eyes contact with audience 1.5 I am no more hesitant in doing my presentation with digital storytelling I Please circle the answer A or B 2.1 Digital storytelling is easy to use a Yes B No 2.2 I am confident in using digital storytelling a Yes B No 2.3 I am more interested in presenting when I use digital storytelling a Yes B No 2.4 I have to spend a lot of time making digital storytelling in my presentation a Yes B No 2.5 I can match each part of my presentation with the pictures in digital storytelling a Yes B No Digital storytelling helps me to become Click √ to your options Note: you can choose more than one  a More creative in presentation  b More interested in studying English  c More confident in presenting  d More well-organized  e Other (please specify) ………………………………………………………………… Some difficulties that I have met when I use digital storytelling are: II APPENDIX 2: PRESENTATION EVALUATION CRITERIA Student’ s name: Class: K8B Date: Topic: A System - Well-organized - Clear and concise introduction and ending - Smooth and coordinated connections between sections B Content - Convey relevant information and ideas clearly and fluently without the use of notes C Language - use a wide range of accurate vocabulary - use varied and highly accurate language patterns - use relevant pauses 15 - Often clear and well-organized - Easy to follow - Coordinated connections between sections - Convey relevant information and ideas clearly and well - use varied and almost always appropriate vocabulary - use almost entirely accurate and appropriate language patterns 10 - Not always clear and organized - Sometimes - Make an attempt to express simple relevant - use simple vocabulary and language patterns 20 III E Manner and Body language - Excellent audience contact - Show interest in presentation - Be confident in presenting - Keep frequent eyes contact on the audience - Facial expressions are natural and friendly - Be conscious of what you with your hands - Body movement indicated a change of focus - Stand straight but relaxed - Often have audience contact - Show interest in presentation - Be confident but sometimes hesitant - Often keep eyes contact on the audience - Friendly facial expressions - Sometimes unconsious of what you with your hands - Sometimes have audience contact - Be hesitant - Shows your attempt to keep eyes F Visual Aids - Simple, clear, easy to interpret, easy to read - Appropriate number of visual aids - Design relevant to the content of your presentation - Use effectively - Usually clear, easy to interpret, easy to read - Generally well coordinated with content - Design was okay, generally used effectively - Design relevant to the content of your presentation difficult to follow - Weak connections between sections information and ideas and sometimes successfully, and attemtp to expand on a few points - Unclear and - Express a main disorganized point or make a - Confusing and brief statement difficult to follow when prompted, in - Inconvenient a way that is connections between partially sections understandable - produce a narrow range of simple vocabulary and language patterns IV contact on the audience - Friendly facial expressions - Be often unconsious of what you with your hands - Some parts are not really support for your presentation - Hardly have audience contact - No interest in presenting - Nervous and always hesitant.Hardly keep eyes contact on the audience - Your back is turned to the audience almost the time of presenting - Looking at the board/ screen/ your notes all the time of presenting - Be totally unconscious of what you with your hands - Poor quality visual aids (or none) - Hard to read, technically inaccurate, poorly constructed - Poor coordination with content Used poorly ... aims to examine the effects of using Digital Storytelling in improving presentation skills for first year students of Foreign Language Department at Nghe An Teacher Training College Your answers... organized at the college The above situation urges the researcher to conduct the study ? ?Using Digital Photo Storytelling to improve English presentation skills for first year students of Foreign Language. .. improving presentation skills of the first year students of Foreign Language Department at Nghe An Teacher Training College The author decided to use a variety of research instruments: two mock presentations,