Factors affecting the students’ english oral presentation skills at hanoi tourism college

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 thuyết trình tiếng Anh 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 thuyết trình tiếng Anh 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 i 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 Hoang Thi Mai Hoa Hanoi, September 2011 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to all those who have given me great assistance in the completion of my research work First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Le Van Canh for his precious advice, guidance, criticism and encouragement throughout the research 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 iii 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 provides the relevant theories related to oral presentation skills and factors may affect the students’ presentation skill Chapter introduces the context of the study and describes the methods employed in the study Chapter 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 Rationale of the study Aims and objectives of the study Scope and significance of the study The method of the study Design of the study DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Definition of terminology 1.1.1 Oral presentation 1.1.2 Tour guiding oral presentation 1.2 Oral presentation as a component of oral communication 1.3 The role of oral presentation skill to tour guides 1.4 The structure of an oral presentation 1.4.1 The structure of an oral presentation 1.4.2 The structure of a tour guiding oral presentation 1.5 1.5.1 Factors affecting students’ oral presentation Students’ language proficiency v 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 Summary of the study 36 Recommendations 37 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies 39 REFERENCES APPENDICES vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS HTC: Hanoi Tourism College LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: The importance of the oral presentations Table 3.2: Students’ self assessment of their oral presentations Table 3.3: Students’ difficulties in preparation Table 3.4: Students’ difficulties in organization Table 3.5: Students’ difficulties in attracting and maintaining the attentions of audiences Table 3.6: Students’ difficulties concerning body language Table 3.7: Students’ difficulties concerning language use Table 3.8: Students’ difficulties in time management Table 3.9: Students’ difficulties in anxiety management Table 3.10: Students’ difficulties in handling the audiences’ questions Table 3.11: The students’ difficulties in evaluation Table 3.12: Factors affecting the students’ oral presentation ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to all those who have given me great assistance in the completion of my research work First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Le Van Canh for his precious advice, guidance, criticism and encouragement throughout the research 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 thirdyear 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 provides the relevant theories related to oral presentation skills and factors may affect the students’ presentation skill Chapter introduces the context of the study and describes the methods employed in the study Chapter 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 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 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 Scope and significance of the study The study focuses on oral presentation skills in English in the classroom context of 106 third – year non-English major tour guide students at HTC 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 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 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Definition of terminology 1.1.1 Oral presentation Gufta (2008) defines an oral presentation as a formal way to convey your message to your audience 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 1.4.1 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 1.5.2 Teachers’ roles Teachers have to play various roles in a speaking class These include managing classroom, organizing classroom activities, assessing students’ performance, giving support, co-participating on the classroom activities, providing needed linguistic resources, providing tutorials, and observing the students (Hammer, 1991) CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 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 2.1.2 Tourism Foreign Language Department 2.1.3 Tour guide students 2.2 The study 2.2.1 Research questions With the aim to find out the factors affecting the oral presentation skill of non - English major tour guide students at HTC, it is necessary to answer the following questions: What are the third year tour guide students’ perceptions of the importance of oral presentation skills in their future job? How they self assess their presentations? What are their difficulties when giving oral presentations? What they perceive as factors affecting their oral presentations? 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 C6G 1,3 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 2.2.3 The instrument In order to achieve the aims of the survey, a 45-item questionnaire was used in the study CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 The students’ perceptions of the importance of oral presentation skill and their self assessment of their presentations 3.1.1 The students’ perceptions of the importance of oral presentation skill 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 5060% 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 presentation in Vietnamese 3.2.3.3 Students’ difficulties concerning language use Both of the tasks in language use caused many difficulties for the students Students often made simple grammatical mistakes in their presentation such as the use of personal pronouns or tenses Moreover, they could not find the right word to express their ideas 3.2.3.4 Students’ difficulties in time management “Controlling the time for the presentation” was another difficulty for students The majority of students rated the task as very difficult and difficult 3.2.3.5 Students’ difficulties in anxiety management Students still faced the difficulties in managing the anxiety However, many of them could control their anxiety while giving their speech 3.2.3.6 Students’ difficulties in handling the audiences’ questions 3.2.4 Students’ difficulties in evaluation 3.3 Factors affecting the students’ oral presentation skill Factors concerning students’ oral presentation skill came from students themselves, teachers and institutions The major factor affecting students’ oral presentation was their low language proficiency that also made them lose confidence Next, students’ lack of rehearsal for presentation and chances of giving speech before class also led to their bad performance Teachers’ inadequate feedback, encouragements and mistake correcting manner caused difficulties for students For institutions, poorly equipped class hindered the teaching and learning of oral presentation skill 3.4 The students’ suggested solutions 3.4.1 For students 3.4.1.1 Improving their knowledge of English 3.4.1.2 Practising carefully for the presentation Many students suggested practicing before mirrors or with their friends “To be more confident, we need to practice the oral presentation before mirrors or with our classmates” 3.4.2 For teachers 3.4.2.1 Equipping students with linguistic knowledge 3.4.2.2 Creating a pleasant and supportive classroom atmosphere They suggested “Teachers should help us feel confident and comfortable when we try to give oral presentations” To be motivated to learn, students need both sufficient opportunities to learn and steady encouragement and support of their learning efforts A good teacher of English should encourage students to speak English with praises/ rewards 3.4.3 For Institutions 3.4.3.1 Providing modern teaching equipments and a good library 10 Students proposed the upgrade of teaching equipments, a library and a language lab to make the teaching and learning presentation skill better 3.4.3.2 Organizing study trips to tourist destinations Students thought that trips to tourist destinations would be very helpful for their future jobs PART C: CONCLUSION Summary of the study Recommendations The factor that determines the quality of a tour guide’s oral presentation is the information to be conveyed with accurate pronunciation, acceptable fluency and appropriate manner In the classroom, teachers should put greater emphasis on these aspects by using real-life tasks in the classroom Gufta (2008:258) shows that “Presentation is a skill which is developed through experience and training” This means that presentation skill needs a lot of practice It is unquestionable that good preparation and planning bring about success Thus the teacher needs to work with the students to develop the evaluation criteria in the form of a checklist to be used in the classroom More importantly, teachers in the department should work together on the corpus of lexical chunks that are commonly used in a tour guide’s oral presentation for the students to practice using them In addition, the teacher should also give the students more opportunities to practice and improve the students’ pronunciation in context The teacher should use more exercises on the use of discourse devices or linking words Limitations of the study and suggestions for further researches 11 The limitations of this study lies in the use of the questionnaire as the only instrument of data collection This instrument can at best capture the surface of the student participants’ perceptions and personal judgments related to aspects of oral presentation skills that are under investigation Another problem with the questionnaire is that respondents may not respond accurately what is in their mind They may answer the questionnaire items the way they think would expect the researcher’s expectations Therefore, in future studies different methods of data collection such as interview and observation should be used REFERENCES English Ang, J.G Oral communication, 2009, Katha Publishing Co.INC Brown, J.D (2005) Using surveys in language programs Cambridge University Press Byrne, D (1886) Teaching oral English London: Longman Collins (2003) English Collins dictionary Retrieved September 11, 2011 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com Comfort.J.(1995) Effective presentation Oxford: Oxford University Press Delahunty, G.P & Garvey J.J (1994) Language grammar and communication McGraw-Hill Ellis R (1994) Second language acquisition Oxford: Oxford University Press Emdem, J & Becker, L (2004) Presentation skills for students New York: Palgrave Macmillan Gupta, S (2008) Communication skills and functional grammar New Dehli: University Science Press 10 Harmer, J (1999) The Practice of English language teaching Malaysia: Longman 11 Johnson, D.M 1991 Approaches to research in second language learning Longman 12 12 MacIntyre, P D (1999) Language anxiety: A review of the research for language Teachers Boston, McGraw-Hill 13 Nunan, D 1992 Research methods in Language teaching Cambrigde: CUP 14 Paulston, C.B 1985 Communicative competence and Language teaching, in Das, K.B Communicative Language Teaching (p14-31) Singapore University Press 15 Reinhart, S.M (2002) Giving Academic Presentation The University of Michigan Press 16 Revell.J.1979 Teaching techniques for communicative English MacMillan Press LTD 17 Ur P 1996 A course in language teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Vietnamese Đoàn Hương Lan (2007) Nghiệp vụ hướng dẫn du lịch Nhà Xuất Bản Đại Học Kinh Tế Quốc Dân 13 Thank you for evaluating AnyBizSoft PDF 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