Developing 11th grade students’ oral presentation skill through project based learning a case at a mountainous high school

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN QUỐC SƠN DEVELOPING 11TH GRADE STUDENTS’ ORAL PRESENTATION SKILL THROUGH PROJECT-BASED LEARNING: A CASE AT A MOUNTAINOUS HIGH SCHOOL MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION Nghệ An, 2017 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN QUỐC SƠN DEVELOPING 11TH GRADE STUDENTS’ ORAL PRESENTATION SKILL THROUGH PROJECT-BASED LEARNING: A CASE AT A MOUNTAINOUS HIGH SCHOOL Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Code : 60140111 MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION SUPERVISOR Trần Bá Tiến, Ph.D Nghệ An, 2017 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Tran Ba Tien, who has helped me with his precious knowledge, assistance, and support during the process of writing the thesis Secondly, I truly wish to thank the teachers at Do Luong High School where my investigation was carried out for their useful materials, valuable advices and great cooperation In addition, I also like to send my special thanks to all students at Do luong for their willingness to answer my questionnaires Last but not least, my sincere thanks are due to my dear family and my friends who always stand by me with their consideration and encouragements ABSTRACT The aim of this thesis is to explore the role of Project Based Learning in improving students’ oral presentations This study focuses particularly on students’ oral presentation as one of the activities that are used in oral expression to improve students’ oral proficiency I hypothesize that if students so much presentation in oral expression with in the classroom, then their speaking skill will improve To collect data for this study, three instruments were used: An oral performance test (debate), an oral attitudes survey, and a rating scale Research findings showed that students were actually highly positive in their beliefs about benefits and usefulness of making oral presentations as a learning activity It has revealed that oral presentations were beneficial to help students enhance their performance in oral expression and other courses However, students need more practice on how to structure, plan and organize their presentations Based on the findings, some implications would give for both teachers and students We hope that this study will be useful to both teachers and students of other levels in teaching oral presentation skill Keywords: Oral Presentation, Speaking Skill, Oral Proficiency TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Acknowledgments Abstract Table of contents List of acronyms List of table List of figures Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 1.3 Scope of the study 1.4 Significance of the study 1.5 Research questions 1.6 Design of the study Chapter : LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Oral presentation 2.1.1 Definition of oral presentation 2.1.2 Types of oral presentation 2.1.2.1 Informative oral presentation 2.1.2.2 Persuasive oral presentation 2.1.3 The benefits of using oral presentations in the language classroom 2.1.4 Students’ common oral presentation problems 10 2.1.4.1 Linguistic factors 11 2.1.4.1.1 Lack of vocabulary 11 2.1.4.1.2 Pronunciation mistakes 12 2.1.4.1.3 Grammar mistakes 13 2.1.4.1.4 The use of the mother tongue 14 2.1.4.2 Psychological factors 15 2.1.4.2.1 Speech anxiety 15 2.I.4.2.2 Group boredom 16 2.1.5 Strategies for teaching oral presentation 17 2.1.5.1 Teachers’ role 18 2.1.5.2 Students’ role 18 2.1.5.3 Evaluation of oral presentation 20 2.2 Project based learning 21 2.2 Definition of the project based learning 21 2.2 Advantages of the PBL 24 2.2 The application of PBL in teaching oral presentation 27 Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY Introduction 30 3.1 Research setting 30 3.1.1 An overview of Do luong upper secondary school 30 3.1.2 The teachers 31 3.1.3 The students 31 3.1.4 The English syllabus 32 3.1.5 The current situation of teaching and learning oral presentation skill at Do luong 33 3.2 Research design 33 3.2.1 Research methods 33 3.2.2 Sample of the study 33 3.2.2.1 The students 34 3.2.2.2 Procedures 34 Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Analysis of the students’ responses 37 4.1.1 Students’attitude towards PBL and PBL strategy for oral presentation 37 4.1.2 Suggestions to make project based learning effective 46 4.2 The results of the oral presentation rubric 53 A Nonverbal skills 54 54 Eye contact: Body language: 55 Poise: 56 B Verbal skills 57 Enthusiasm: 57 Elocution: 58 C Content 59 Subject knowledge: 59 Organization: 60 Mechanics: 61 Chapter 5: CONCLUSION 5.1 Summary of major findings 65 5.2 Limitations of the study 67 5.3 Suggestions for further studies 68 REFERENCES 69 APPENDICES 72 Appendix A: Students’ Questionnaire 72 Appendix B: Oral Presentation Rubric 73 LIST OF ACRONYMS ACTFL: American Conical of Teachers of Foreign Language DVD: Digital Video Disk EAP: English for Academic Purposes EFL: English as Foreign Language ESL: English as a Second Language ESP: English for Specific Purposes GCSE: General Certificate of Secondary Education NCTE: National Council of Teachers of English PBL: Project based learning Sts: Students TEFL: Teaching of English as a Foreign Language TL: Target Language VCD: Volunteer Defense Corps List of tables Page Table 01: Satisfaction with PBL 37 Table 02: Ability to use PBL insideclassroom 38 Table 03: Motivation after using PBL insideclassroom 39 Table 04: Collecting information 40 Table 05: Using information 42 Table 06: Making mistakes 43 Table 07: Monthly evaluation 44 Table 08: Learning other subjects 45 Table 1.1: Eye contact in oral presentation 55 Table 1.2: Body language in oral presentation 55 Table 1.3: Poise in oral presentation 56 Table 1.4: Enthusiasm in oral presentation 57 Table 1.5: Elocution in oral presentation 59 Table 1.6: Subject knowledge in oral presentation 60 Table 1.7: Organization in oral presentation 61 Table 1.8: Mechanics in oral presentation 62 List of Figures Figure 01: Satisfaction with PBL 37 Figure 02: Ability to use PBL inside classroom 38 Figure 03: Motivation after using PBL inside classroom 40 Figure 04: Collecting information 41 Figure 05: Using information 42 Figure 06: Making mistakes 43 Figure 07: Monthly evaluation 44 Figure 08: Learning other subjects 45 Figure 1.1: Eye contact in oral presentation 55 Figure 1.2: Body language in oral presentation 56 Figure 1.3: Poise in oral presentation 57 Figure 1.4: Enthusiasm in oral presentation 58 Figure 1.5: Elocution in oral presentation 59 Figure 1.6: Subject knowledge in oral presentation 60 Figure 1.7: Organization in oral presentation 61 Figure 1.8: Mechanics in oral presentation 62 subject will mean questions will be easier to answer Level Number of Sts First presentation 20 13 Second presentation 13 24 Table 1.6: Subject knowledge in oral presentation Figure 1.6: Subject knowledge in oral presentation Organization: Organization is the most essential aspect of oral presentation It clarifies your argument and helps the audience remember what you say It also helps you, the speaker, easily manage the delivery of your presentation so that you can gracefully adjust to unforeseen developments The data below of the group showed clear development of students’ organization Four students improved from level to level Thirdteen students improved from level to level Nine students improved from level to level Eight students improved from level to level The structure is not intended as a template, but rather is an explanation of how each element of one thoughtful design helps a speaker communicate ideas to an audience There is an infinite number of ways to arrange ideas, and students are 60 encouraged to experiment with structures until they find a clear and compelling way to organize your presentation Level First presentation 25 Second presentation 17 19 Number of Sts Table 1.7: Organization in oral presentation ■ Level ■ Level ■ Level ■ Level Figure 1.7: Organization in oral presentation Mechanics: Language mechanics incorporate the proper use of spelling, capitalization, punctuation, grammar, and other factors deemed necessary for high-quality captioned media Rules included in these guidelines are primarily those which are unique to captioning and speech-to-text For conventional words, dictionaries and style guides must be followed Proper names, technical terms, and specialized language must be verified though specialty references or directly from an authoritative source And in this research, mechanics of the whole group showed clear development Twelve students improved from level to level Ten students improved from level to level Eight students improved from level to level 61 Level First presentation 15 14 Second presentation 22 11 Number of Sts Table 1.8: Mechanics in oral presentation ■ Level ■ Level ■ Level ■ Level Figure 1.8: Mechanics in oral presentation Although the results showed great development of oral presentation skills, some factors hindered more development The first factor was limited time allowed to carry out our project and achieving our goals Students have to study nine units, three preview units and four chapters They need 16 weeks to finish their main school course books Surprisingly, the available time to finish this is nearly 15 weeks only The lessons of the units are full of exercises which leave no more time to activities For example, unit ten lesson one there seven different exercises in addition to warm up in only 50 minutes It means minutes to explain each exercise, giving students time to answer and discuss, check in pairs and check answers with the whole group Both teachers and students are too overloaded to anything more except doing the book exercises Students would better if they had a checklist to evaluate themselves and to decide what they need to improve to 62 have better evaluation Finally, analysis of the oral communication skills rubric asserts the fact that students achieved great development in oral communication skills as most of them reached levels and four at content skills Students present information in logical, interesting sequence which audience can follow Presentation has fewer grammatical errors As for nonverbal skills, students showed great development in using eye contact, body language and poise; many students reached level and They achieved this because of practice and training They liked and enjoyed learning them very much They felt more confident They said that they are more able to covey their message As for verbal skills, students improved their levels at showing enthusiasm for the subject they speak about Students did not achieve the same average of development with elocution The whole group did not show the same average of development Twelve students did not change their levels Six students were still at level and students were at level without evident development A student improved from level to level Three students improved from level to level Four students improved from level to level On the contrary, the presentation group showed quite change A student improved from level to level Two students improved from level to level Four students improved from level to level 4, but four students were still at level without change These results reflect the fact that we need to give more attention to pronunciation activities inside the classroom Some students still believe they are not important because they are not evaluated Both teachers and students should give more attention to pronunciation rules Students asked for more activities to improve their pronunciation It means that students now know their needs well They definitely realized that learning English is not only to learn reading and writing skills They experienced the necessity to integrate the English four skills They now seek for the way to improve their language as one unit not only reading and writing Based on the results and discussion, the following actions are suggested • Oral presentation should be considered in the final evaluation Students can be tested by three or four teachers according to a rubric Authentic or performance 63 assessment is highly recommended for assessing deep and real learning • Teachers should prepare their students for the exam by doing presentation projects throughout the school year • Teachers should be trained to use PBL • Although there are specified periods for both listening and speaking, they are neglected These periods should be taught in the light of the oral communication skills rubric the student will be tested according it later • Both teachers and students should use modern technology (computer, smart board, tablets and mobile phones) to listen to native English speakers and to improve oral communication skills especially pronunciation skills • Course books editors should afford some of the period's time for teachers to prepare some exercises related to his/her students' levels By this, a teacher can correct their errors and improve their weakness 64 Chapter CONCLUSION 5.1 Summary of major findings The investigation carried out thought this study has attempted to confirm the hypothesis: if students so much presentations in oral expression through Project based Learning within classroom then, their oral presentation skill will improve Our research mainly examined the 11th grade students’ attitudes towards The PBL and the use of the PBL to develop students’ oral presentations In the theoretical study, we had looked two different variables: oral presentations, and the PBL, we highlighted first the importance of students’ oral presentations in teaching English In addition, we focused on the PBL as essential for mastering any language To examine those theoretical beliefs, we have conducted three types of data gathering tools, questionnaires has been administrated to the 11th grade students at Do Luong upper secondary school, students’ oral performance and classroom observation Based on the data obtained from questionnaire, observation, we resulted the following: students and teachers were actually have a highly positive attitudes in their beliefs about benefits and usefulness of doing oral presentations In particular, they did agree that doing oral presentations through the PBL helps to learn English better and practice speaking skill Although, many students believed that making oral presentations was easy to them, some others found it difficult In addition, we notice that the majority of the 11th grade students have many problems that prevented them to give an oral presentation and improved their proficiency level First, students need to build a self-confidence and self-esteem in their abilities, they need to improve their pronunciation by learn how to pronounce the phonetic symbols correctly In addition, fear of making mistakes and fear of public speaking are observable Secondly, students did not know how to prepare an effective oral presentation, what steps are included in presenting topics, and how to use visual 65 aids Thirdly, students need to improve the use of body language including facial expressions, gestures, and eye contact Finally, yet importantly teachers need to give more feedback to some aspects of students’ oral presentations such as: grammatical mistakes, pronunciation mistakes and how to organize the content of presentation Moreover, the observation checklists show that students did not be willing to ask questions after presentations; they have just listened and avoiding asked questions or given comments Research results show that doing an oral presentation through the PBL is an effective activity and students have positive attitudes towards using it as a learning activity Therefore, based on the findings teachers’ and students’ responses, we hope that the suggestions and recommendations proposed in this work will be helpful and useful for raising teachers’ awareness about the importance of students’ oral presentation through the PBL as a speaking activity with their EFL classes - Students should make a clear outline of their presentation before delivering it They should practice a lot at home before coming to class - Students make a lot of grammatical mistakes and pronunciation ones; we suggest that teacher can give his/ her students activities to help them improve their linguistic skill - Students should check words’ phonetic spelling before deliver their presentation - Teacher should try to deal with students’ fear of making mistakes by encourage them to speak This will lead them build a self-confidence in their speaking In addition, when students have confidence in their abilities, they will not be afraid to speak in public - Students’ actually not know how to use body language (eyes contact, gestures, and facial expression) which is necessary for an effective talk Therefore, the teacher can help his/ her students to improving these aspects of performance by giving them more practice 66 - It is important for teacher to teach his/ her students how to be a good audience member, how to respond to the speaker by encourage them to ask questions and give comments - Assessment of oral presentation can be present a challenges in students’ production - Teacher should leave space for questions and comments - Teacher can encourage his/ her students to practice and motivate them to speak in order to avoid their fear of making mistakes - Teacher can try to establish a supportive environment for his/ her students To conclude, oral presentations through the PBL are very useful for students’ English learning; this approach can apply to the students of all levels to help them improve their presentation skills Students’ oral presentation if well prepared, organized, and delivered will give students’ confidence to speak in public and will be beneficial to them in their future work 5.2 Limitations of the study Although the research has offered some helpful findings, it has also shown some unavoidable mistakes due to the researcher’s limitation of experience and knowledge Firstly, the study aims to investigate the students’ attitudes toward PBL and the effectiveness of using PBL in teaching and learning oral presentation skill for 11th graders at Do Luong high school, but the participants of the survey were limited So the results may not reflect fully the whole situation of learning and teaching oral presentation skill Secondly, the questionnaires may not cover all used by teachers, which leads to less reliable results Then, the results of research only collected and analyzed from questionnaires, class observation and it is absent of discussion which might be incomplete 67 Finally, this study only focuses on the teaching of English oral presentation skill to the students at Do luong high school, the author does not have more chance to deal with other three skills in language teaching: Listening, Reading and Writing In spite of the unavoidable limitation, the author believes that this study will be beneficial to the teaching of English oral presentation skill to the students of the 11th grade in particular and all students at Do luong high school in general 5.3 Suggestions for further studies This study only focuses on problems encountered in teaching of English oral presentation skill to the students of the 11th grade at Do luong high School and suggests some communicative activities in order to motivate students to speak English The study only mentions a small theme related to the teaching and learning of oral presentation skill There are some suggestions for further researches at Do luong high school in particular as well as at other high schools in general: Firstly, there should be more researches into designing communicative activities that help both teachers and students have more advantages in applying and practising them more effectively Secondly, oral presentation is a technique of speaking Both speaking and listening are crucial skills that the learners need to marster well to take part in communication There should be a study on problems encountered and solutions in teaching listening skill at upper secondary school Finally, the researcher also hopes to have more chances to cooperate with other colleagues to combine and compile some more supplementary materials that are useful for students when dealing with projects in oral presentation In summary, the author hopes that the further studies will overcome all the existing limitations of this study and help to improve the quality of English teaching and learning at Do Luong high schools in particular and at other schools in Nghe An province in general 68 REFERENCES Abdulwahed, M., Nagy, Z., & Blanchard, R (2008) Constructivist project based learning design, a cybernetics approach In Malpica, F., et al (eds) Proceedings of the 2nd International Multi-Conference on Society, Cybernetics and Informatics, June 29th - July 2nd, Orlando, Florida, USA, pp 119-126 AL-Masadeh, A., & AL-Omari, H (2014) The effectiveness of a proposed 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A agree B partly agree C disagree 2- Do you feel that you are able to use PBL strategy to make oral presentation inside classroom ? A agree B partly agree C disagree 3- Do you feel motivated after using PBL inside your classroom ? A agree B partly agree C disagree 4- Did using PBL strategy help you to collect information in new and different ways rather than usual and traditional ones ? A agree B partly agree C disagree 5- Did using PBL strategy help you to use information in new and different ways rather than usual and traditional ones ? A agree B partly agree C disagree 6- Do you feel that using PBL helps you overcome the fear of making mistakes ? A agree B partly agree C disagree 7- Do you want to include your project in your monthly evaluation ? A agree B partly agree C disagree 8- Do you want to use PBL strategy to learn other subjects ? A agree B partly agree 71 C disagree Appendix B: Oral Presentation Rubric Oral Presentation Rubric LEVEL NONVERBAL SKILLS EYE CONTACT Holds attention of Consistent use of Displayed No eye contact entire audience direct eye contact minimal eye with audience, with the use of with audience, but contact with as entire report direct eye contact, still BODY LANGUAGE returns to audience, while is read from seldom looking at notes reading mostly notes notes from the notes Movements seem Made Very little No fluid and help the movements or movement or movement audience gestures that descriptive or visualize enhances gestures descriptive articulation POISE Student Makes displays mistakes, gestures minor Displays mild Tension and but tension; has nervousness relaxed, self- quickly trouble is obvious; confident nature recovers from recovering has trouble about self, with them; no mistakes little displays from or no mistakes tension recovering from mistakes VERBAL SKILLS Demonstrates ENTHUSIASM strong, a Occasionally positive shows positive feeling about feelings about 72 Shows some Shows negativity absolutely no toward topic interest topic during topic presented entire ELOCUTION in topic presented presentation Student uses a Student’s voice Student’s Student clear voice and is clear Student voice is low mumbles, correct, precise pronunciation pronounces most words Student incorrectly incorrectly pronounces of terms so that correctly Most pronounces terms, and all audience audience terms speaks too members can members can Audience quietly for a hear presentation hear presentation members have majority of students to difficulty hear hearing presentation CONTENT Student Student is at Student is Student does SUBJECT demonstrates ease with uncomfortabl not have KNOWLEDGE full knowledge by answering expected answers to all e with information grasp of information; all class questions, and is able to student questions with without answer only cannot explanations elaboration rudimentary answer questions questions about and elaboration subject ORGANIZATI ON Student Student Audience has Audience presents information in presents information in difficulty following cannot understand 73 MECHANICS logical, logical interesting sequence sequence which audience audience can follow presentation presentation which because student because there can jumps around is no sequence of information follow Presentation has Presentation has Presentation Student’s no misspellings or grammatical no more than two has three misspellings presentation has four or errors misspellings and/or more and/or grammatical grammatical errors spelling and/or errors grammatical errors 74 ... EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN QUỐC SƠN DEVELOPING 11TH GRADE STUDENTS’ ORAL PRESENTATION SKILL THROUGH PROJECT-BASED LEARNING: A CASE AT A MOUNTAINOUS HIGH SCHOOL Major: Teaching... 2.1.5 Strategies for teaching oral presentation Many students not find oral presentation an enjoyable activity They are afraid when teachers ask them to prepare an oral presentation According... bridge the gap between language study and language use; that presentations require students to use all four language skills in a naturally integrated way; and that presentations have been shown