Difficulties in English presentation skills of first year English major students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions

Difficulties in English presentation skills of first year English major students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions Difficulties in English presentation skills of first year English major students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions Difficulties in English presentation skills of first year English major students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions Difficulties in English presentation skills of first year English major students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions Difficulties in English presentation skills of first year English major students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions Difficulties in English presentation skills of first year English major students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions Difficulties in English presentation skills of first year English major students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions Difficulties in English presentation skills of first year English major students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions Difficulties in English presentation skills of first year English major students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions Difficulties in English presentation skills of first year English major students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions Difficulties in English presentation skills of first year English major students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions Difficulties in English presentation skills of first year English major students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions Difficulties in English presentation skills of first year English major students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions Difficulties in English presentation skills of first year English major students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions Difficulties in English presentation skills of first year English major students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions Difficulties in English presentation skills of first year English major students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions Difficulties in English presentation skills of first year English major students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions Difficulties in English presentation skills of first year English major students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions Difficulties in English presentation skills of first year English major students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions Difficulties in English presentation skills of first year English major students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions Difficulties in English presentation skills of first year English major students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions Difficulties in English presentation skills of first year English major students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions

ABSTRACT Nowadays, with the development of the world economy, English is not only the language used solely in English speaking countries but also the international language used throughout the world This language is also currently playing more important role in this global integration in which most of international business deals using English as the mean of communication among enterprises or business men Along with the demand of global integration, learning foreign languages for international communication has become more and more vital to Vietnamese students Apart from the importance of English, many Vietnamese learners still face a lot of difficulties when making presentation in English It is not easy for learners in this context to achieve their fluency and proficiency in English presentation activities Data used for analysis in this graduation paper were gathered through survey questionnaires and analyzed by both qualitative and quantitative methods 100 first year students of English Faculty were chosen to be research participants This study was conducted with the aims of figuring out the difficulties in the English presentation activities and also proposing some useful solutions to improving effectively presentation skills In addition, on the basis of the findings, the researcher hopes that this study would be a meaningful material and offer useful suggestions for further studies ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During the process of completing this graduation paper, I have encountered with many problems in English, as well as the way to express my idea However, with the great help, assistance and encouragement from teachers, family and friends; I have overcome these difficulties and completed this graduation paper successfully First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Mrs Le Thi Tuyet Nga, M.A who is my supervisor from English Faculty at Thuongmai University who has not only given me many invaluable suggestions and comments but also provided me with valuable materials In addition, I would like to thank all teachers of English Faculty at Thuongmai University for their precious and useful lessons during my four-year study which have been then the foundation of this study Last but not least, my sincere thanks are delivered to my parents and friends for their encouragement and assistance during this time Because of limited time, knowledge and practical experience, the study’s errors are unavoidable Therefore, I honestly look forward to receiving comments and suggestions to make it be perfect Ha Noi, December 4th 2020 Bui Thi Oanh TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS vi CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Previous studies 1.2.1 Studies abroad 1.2.2 Studies in Vietnam 1.3 Aims of the study 1.4 Research and objective subjects 1.5 Scope of the study .4 1.6 Research methodology 1.6.1 Data collection instruments 1.6.2 Data collection procedures 1.7 Organization of the study CHAPTER 2: THE THEORETICAL BASIS 2.1 The definition of presentation and presentation skills .7 2.1.1 The definition of presentation 2.1.2 The definition of presentation skills 2.1.3 Components of English presentation skills 2.1.4 The important roles of English presentation skills 2.2 The definition of limitation .10 2.3 The definition of limitation in English presentation skills .10 2.3.1 Objective factors 10 2.3.2 Subjective factors .10 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS 12 3.1 Data Analysis .12 3.1.1 General information .12 3.1.2 English usage and general evaluation 12 3.2.1 Difficulties and solutions to improving English speaking skills 16 3.2.2 Difficulties and solutions to improving English listening skills .22 3.2.3 Difficulties and solutions to improving public presentation skills (Soft-skills) 26 3.2.4 Difficulties and solutions to improving physical settings .29 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 32 4.1 Recommendations for university and teachers .32 4.1.1 Recommendations for the university 32 4.1.2 Recommendations for teachers .32 4.2 Recommendations for students 33 4.3 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies 35 CONCLUSION 36 REFERENCES APPENDIX LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviations TMU DNU Q&A English meaning Thuongmai University Da Nang University Question and Answer LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Chart 3.1 Students’ evaluation of English presentation activities 12 Chart 3.2 Students’ time spent on English self-learning each day .13 Chart 3.3 Students’ participation in activities of using English at university 14 Chart 3.4 The general evaluation of difficulties in presentation activities 15 Chart 3.5 Students’ willingness to talk to foreign partners 16 Chart 3.6: Difficulties faced when speaking in English .17 Chart 3.7 Learning methods used to improve English speaking skills 19 Chart 3.8 Listening difficulties encountered .22 Chart 3.9: Learning methods used to improve English listening skills 24 Chart 3.10 Public presentation problems 26 Chart 3.11 Solutions to improving public presentation skills (Soft-Skills) .28 Chart 3.12 Physical setting problems in using English presentation skills 29 Chart 3.13 Conversational group practice method 30 CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale With the development of the market economy, English nowadays is considered as an international language which is spoken by millions of people around the world People use English for working, learning, researching and anything In other words, English is known as one of important tools or links for our lives However, in many countries which English is not their mother tounge, it is rather difficult to learn English and understand this language They must take many times to practice English so that they can communicate fluently with foreigners For Vietnam, we see the importance of learning English also Large international companies and universities in Vietnam often use English to communicate each other Learning English becomes much more necessary than ever to catch up with the globalization trend and to bring the image of the country world-wide As for those people who are working, apart from using the language as a tool for communication, they have desire to use it for their jobs and studies In reality, one of the desires is to present in English As a matter of fact, giving an effective presentation requires a mastery of broad range of skills and techniques You need effective presentation skills to present your ideas, projects, plans, strategies, and products in front of audience, group Presentation skills help you to communicate more and more effectively and professionally with your audience, boss, team members, students and teachers In addition, presentation also becomes a teaching and learning method implemented in almost universities around the world That implementation makes students can develop the skills of exploration, creation, the ability to work in group and the ability to think critically Most of students impressed by this method, however, they find it difficult to make it fluently To achieve the objectives of the presentation, the presenter is supposed to master techniques of identifying the purpose, topic, theme, organization and so on In addition to that, the usage of intonation, stress, emphasis, articulation, pacing, etc., to get the audience’s attention and concentration is considered essential to contribute to his/her success Vietnamese students in general and first year students of English Faculty at Thuongmai University in particular, still meet many difficulties in the process of learning English, especially when making presentation in English English Faculty students are the ones who will use English in the real work environment later However, English at classes is a big difference from English for presentation used in practice The above- mentioned problems is the researcher’s primary concern and also the motivation for doing the thesis Therefore, I chose “Difficulties in English presentation skills of first year English major students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions” for my graduation paper 1.2 Previous studies The research related to the issue “English presentation skills” has been studied by many different researchers around the world in general and in Vietnam in particular 1.2.1 Studies abroad The study “English Presentation Skills of Thai Graduate Students” by Thitibhada Sukithanaporn, the Language Institute of Thammasat University, Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand (2013) show that there are some statistically significant differences between English presentation skills of the students who studied Effective Presentations and those who did not The study also explore the ways to improve graduate students’ English presentation skills The research “Developing Presentation Skills in the English Language Courses for the Engineering Students of the 21st Century Knowledge Society: A Methodological Approach” by Canata Elisabeta Simona (2015) is the second thesis that I would like to mention The reasearch shows six prerequisites for English successful presentations:  Planning the aprroach of the topic so that the audience finds it interesting amd challenging  Planning the number of points to be focused on, the structures ,the ways to finish the presentation  Planning strategies to arouse the audience’s interest in the topic: rhetorical questions, introducing amazing facts, making polite, humorous remarks  Giving explanations in short, clear sentences , speaking slowly, clearly, fluently, convincingly and keeping eye-contact with the audience  Rehearsing the presentation well in advance, relying more on the presenter’skills than on the Powerpoint support that should display only keywords and not the whole presentations content to be read  Answering the audience’ questions at the end of the presentation 1.2.2 Studies in Vietnam The study “ English Presentation Skills of Fashion Design Major at National University Of Art Education” by Le Thi Hien (2018) pointed out some important notes when making presentation including manners, eye-contact, adjustment of voice.etc, This study also gives some suggestion for students to improve English presentation skills Students should practice some soft-skills such as listening skills, communication skills, team work skills and so on Another study on English presentation skills was completed by Nguyen Thi Phuong Huyen(2008): English Presentation Skills of Third-Year Students of English Department at the College of Foreign Languages, Danang University- Statement and Suggestions” This research find out the roles of English presentation skills at Danang University in general and at English Department at the College of Foreign Languages in particular This research also pointed out some errors when making English Presentation Overall, these studies have mentioned quite clearly and cleared many problems and difficulties when making presentation in English of students in different fields, but there have been no studies on presentation difficulties of TMU students Therefore, I conduct research on the difficulties of Thuongmai University first year students in presentation and propose suitable solutions to improve their English presentation skills 1.3 Aims of the study When choosing and carrying out this study, I expect to clarify main issues:  To identify some difficuties in English presentation skills which first-year English major students at TMU face  To suggest some possible solutions to these probblems in order to help students improve presentation skills in English In order to achieve the aims, this study is seeking answers for the following questions:  What are the main difficulties in presentation skills in English of first-year English major students at TMU?  What are some solutions to improve their presentation skills? 1.4 Research and objective subjects Research subjects: This study researches difficulties in English presentation activities faced by first year English major students at Thuongmai Univesity Therefore, I determined that the research subject of study is the difficulties of first year English major students when making presentation in English Objective subjects: first-year English major students at Thuongmai University 1.5 Scope of the study Within the scope of this study, I only conduct research on difficuties in English presentation skills for first-year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University Other skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing are not within the scope of the research Besides, because of the large number of students at TMU as well as the limitation of time, resources and my knowledge, this study also does not explore the difficulties in presentation skills of second year, third year or final year student of English Faculty or non-English major student of Thuongmai University This study is conducted for 100 first year students of the English Faculty at Thuongmai University 1.6 Research methodology 1.6.1 Data collection instruments This study is carried out in both qualitative and quantiative methods Therefore, I conduct the research to some following steps: ● Secondary data: (data collected from books, documents and previous studies) Firstly, I search some necessary documents in web sites and library at Thuongmai University Besides, I read some previous studies related to presentation skills In addition, I borrow books from book stores to orient for my study Therefore, I gain the basic knowledge and useful information to complete my research better ● Primary data: (data collected by the researcher through surveys, interviews or observations) Secondly, the study includes survey questionnaires for students who are first year students of English Faculty at Thuongmai University The survey investigates 100 students at TMU Survey questionnaire is a method of data collection that has been implemented for the surveyed students The questionnaires are designed for in the way that the films or TV shows will definitely motivate learners than listening to an audio file and motivation is considered as one of the most important factors in determining successful method Films and TV shows appearing as a motivator also makes the language learning process more interesting and enjoyable Another useful method for the students is trying to make use of their time to listen to English they should make the most of their time such as time for relaxing at noon and being at home after all day studying other subjects to listen to English in both active and passive ways so that this method can definitely improve their listening skills As the result of the survey, there are not many students who listen to diversified English materials However, it is an effective method to get vocabulary of lots of fields and it does help students listen well when any topics come up with in the conservation In addition, learning about the culture of that language helps the students listen more efficiently since language is more than just a means of presentation Through learning a country’s history as well as culture, learners can get a broader and deeper view of the essence involved in a language, hence improve comprehensive understanding of it In addition, there are many kinds of dialects, nuances, idioms and slangs which learners only can learn and understand if people understand its context 3.2.3 Difficulties and solutions to improving public presentation skills (Softskills) 3.2.3.1 Public presentation problems 60% 40% 52% 50% 0% 40% 41% 30% 0% 15% 10% 10% 0% 21% 19% 0% 9% 8% 5% A B Always Often Sometimes C Never Chart 3.10 Public presentation problems Notes: (A= There is no connection between presenter and audience; B=There is no self-confidence when making presentation; C= There is no connection between presenter and presentation’s equipment.)  There is no connection between presenter and audience From chart 3.10, we can see that the importance of the connection between presenter and audience However, almost students dont know the way to achieve this success Approximately 41% of the respondents say thay they often face the difficulty when making connection to audicence They are almost afraid of audience’s eyes and have no eye-contact with them 40% of them always encounter this problems.10% of them say that they sometimes have no connection to audience when making presentation Meanwhile, only 9% students think thay they never lose audience’s attention  There is no self-confidence when making presentation There is no amazement from the chart that half of student(50%) say that they are always unconfident when making presentation before many people Inspite of careful preparation at home, they still dont stay out of troubles 30 % of them often lose their temper when happening any errors when presenting Only 5% say that they can keep their cool when analyzing information to audience Meanwhile 15% also blow their stacks and cant keep their self-controlled As the result, the fear of crowd is known as a huge trouble preventing them from presentation fluently  There is no connection between presenter and presentation’s equipment In a presentation, equipment is one of the most important factors creating the success, presenter use many equiments such as computer, projector, micro during a presentation Without the assistance of computer,projector or micro, they cant fully transform informations to their audience As we can see from the chart, 52% of respondents often have no connection to equipment They dont use them then learn information by heart Information can be transformed to audience but not interesting 19 % always lose the connection and 21% sometime forget the fitting together with equipment 8% of them never connect with the equipment when making a presentation 3.2.3.2 Solutions to improving public presentation skills (Soft-Skills) 90% 77% 80% 70% 70% 60% 48% 0% 40% 0% 20% 0% 28% 23% 18% 10% 10% 0% A 6% 0% 0% Always Often 0% B Sometimes C Never Chart 3.11 Solutions to improving public presentation skills (Soft-Skills) Notes: ( A= Practicing with friends; B= Attending class to improve presentation’s soft-skill; C= practicing by theirselves) When to be asked, respondents gave three suggestions to improve public presentation skills (soft-skills) They are practicing with friends, attending class to improve presentation’s skill and practicing by theirself  Practicing with friends As we can see from the chart, most of students are interested in practing with friends 20% of them always use this method to improve their ability After stressing schools time, they hang out a group of people who interested in presenting at school yard They make presentation each other, listeners will point out errors of presenter and they repaird them 70% of them often and 10% of them sometimes practicing presenting with their friends  Attending class to improve presentation’s soft-skill Inspite of expensive’s expenditure, many of them choose attending class to improve presentation’s soft-skills From the chart, we see 23% students sometimes take time to learn presentation from class with the assistane of professor 77% of them say that they never attend class to improve because they have no money enough or they dont interested in this method  Practicing by theirselves 40% of them often practice make presentation by theirself at home They often take 1-2 hours to practice before going to bed They find comfortable when practice by theirselves 18% of 100% students always this method, 28% of them choose sometimes just practicing this method and only 6% of them never this 3.2.4 Difficulties and solutions to improving physical settings 3.2.4.1 Physical setting problems 60% 52% 50% 46% 39% 40% 30% 27% 25% 24% 21% 20% 15% 12% 15% 12% 10% 2% 0% A B Always Often Sometimes C Never Chart 3.12 Physical setting problems in using English presentation skills Notes: (A= Abundant English material source; B= Lack of partners; C= Lack of practice environment) Physical settings such as environment and learning materials are also very important issues in practicing presentation activities The result from chart 3.10 demonstrates the considerable influence of physical settings in English presentation skills From the questionnaires, “Abundant English material source” shows that 24 students from the total of 100 students choose the answer “always” The proportion of the students who choose the answer “often” makes up 39% 12% answer “sometimes” and 25% answer “rarely” “Lack of partners” points out with 15% “always”, 46% “often”, 12% “sometimes” and 27% “rarely” Different from two first problems, the lack of practice environment problem shows that 52% of the student choosing “often” The physical settings play a very important role in practicing presentation skills These are the factors that motivate the students to learn and be more excited By combination of listening and speaking skills that create the appropriate environment to help students use English knowledge, the learners turn them into smooth and efficient conversations 3.2.4.2 Solutions to improving physical settings 60 56 50 43 40 40 39 33 32 30 22 21 20 12 10 A B Very uesful Quite useful C Useful Chart 3.13 Conversational group practice method Notes: (A= Finding group to speak English; B= Practicing Q&A conversations with partners; C=Practicing in teams) From data of chart 3.11, environment for the students to interact with speakers of English are very important Common activities are finding group to speak English, practicing Q&A conversations with partners, practicing in teams It can be seen from the chart, students’ assessment of this method is very good and useful, accounting for 56 students for finding group to speak English, 22 students for practicing Q&A conversations with partners, 40 students for working in groups in English Creating conversations in an English-speaking environment is the important factor for learning English As students of English Faculty, students have many ways to interact with English native environment such as English related part-time jobs, intern interpreters, tour guide All of them help students to fulfil their English skills In fact, we can see that students are always aware that choosing the suitable methodology affects their own progress in improving presentation skill In summary, this chapter provides some difficulties that the first year students have encountered in terms of speaking skills, listening skills, public presentation skill as well as physical settings It also gives some useful solutions to improving their presentation skills CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS Basing on the results of the findings, literature and the questionnaire, it can be concluded that the difficulties English major sttudents faced with include presenting difficuties, speaking difficulties and physical setting problems Therefore, besides some detail solutions in chapter 3, in this part, I will recommend some more possible solutions to help students to improve their presentation skills 4.1 Recommendations for university and teachers 4.1.1 Recommendations for the university In order to solve the difficulties that English students are facing, Thuongmai University should upgrade and improve the content of the education program more attractively They should equip more and more up-to-date equipment such us computers and projectors In addition, it is necessary to create more professional presentation environments for students such as organizing competitions related to English with more professional activities As the result, students can be promoted to participate in extracurricular activities The researcher looks forward to the renovation in university to training students who are good at foreign languages and good at specialized knowledge in business economics 4.1.2 Recommendations for teachers First and foremost, teachers should teach more grammar vocabulary, structure as well as sounds, stress, intonation and liking sounds for first-year students so that they can fullfil the background knowledge Once students have solid knowledge, presentation activities also becomes easier with them Teachers raise students’ awareness of the importance of presentation skills in learning English is also essential Specifically, teachers create motivation in learning English through activities in classrooms Teachers should also offer opportunities and atmosphere to praise learners for getting something right, doing something well, trying hard, and showing a positive attitude towards learning This could be when they produce an accurate sentence, an amusing role-play, make an interesting contribution to a discussion, or show that they can use a new item of vocabulary It will be a good environment for students to develop comprehensively in listening,speaking skills and presentation skills In addition, to reduce the negative impacts of psychological difficulties like afraid of making pronunciation and grammatical mistakes, teachers should arrange appropriate learning time allocation for the practice of presentation skills In addition, teachers should constantly looking for interesting topics to bring the lessons to help students access the latest social information as well as be more confident to express their own views Finally, English discussion activities are encouraged when practicing presentation skills Activities give learners opportunities to speak more freely and express themselves Some typical activities could be given by teachers as follows:  Surveys: Learners carry out a survey of their class on a topic they like Learners can then talk about the results of the surveys in the class and discuss them They are the best way to know likes and dislikes among classmates  Planning: They consist of planning activities for a special event or for a place and it is an enjoyable activity for students An example would be for instance, planning a programme for a day out  Discussing and solving problems: learners can talk about a topic (chosen by the teacher or by themselves) and then, they express possible solutions Teachers can run students in group so that they can find ideal partners  Debates: Learners can be given a statement and they have to decide whether they agree or disagree and why  Role-plays: Each learner acquires a personality or interprets a character and receives a card with some information about their role and the situation In these activities, the teacher gives the information to the learners (cards) such as who they are and what they think or feel With other learners or in a group, they then have to act out a situation as if they were people on their card The purpose of these activities is to create the most natural presentation situations to gain learning experiences as well as to solve physical setting problems 4.2 Recommendations for students Beside the detail solutions that the researcher mentioned in chapter 3, in this part, I will recommend some more possible solutions for students to help themselves improve their presentation skills Each students should be highly self-aware of the importance of English and learn from friends, teachers or books to choose the most appropriate method This is the first suggestions from the researcher Taking up using English presentation habits is very necessary for students to expose to English frequently Doing everything in English in order to create a habit of being exposed to the English environment Students can Imagine present situations and create responses, handle questions to create a habit of reacting quickly to all situations encountered in reality Moreover, it is often difficult for people to concentrate, get main points of a too long story and we if are only listeners Therefore, to make the story easier to be grasped, students can take the time to ask questions around the issue they are discussing with audiences Students should prepare a notebook and a pen, if there is anything unclear, you can write in the notebook to ask later Students also should catch any opportunities for exposure to the English language For example, participating in conferences, participating in English-speaking clubs, interacting with foreigners at tourist destinations, searching for part-time jobs that are suitable for English ability Currently, the creation of an environment for learning and presenting in English is being invested to provide English language learners with the most convenient and professional environment to improve presentation skills In addition, group study not only helps students feel more motivated, but also creates a dynamic presentation environment for students Last but not least, students actively practice and expand vocabulary because vocabulary is an indispensable element in any language, its role is even higher than grammar Large vocabulary will help bring confidence when presenting, avoid the embarrassment of not being able to express what they want to say or not understand what the opponent has just said To speed up presentation skills, learners need to have a rich source of vocabulary Using easy and common words to present will help learners quickly catch up with reaction speed of the native people Along with the addition of vocabulary, the pronunciation of new words, sounds, stress, intonation and liking sounds should be focused When words are pronounced correctly, learners will understand and memorize more easily In order to progress quickly in terms of vocabulary, students should create a habit of adding new words regularly and practice everyday to avoid encountering unfamiliar topics in the conversation They also learn how to present before audiences such as using eye contact, body language to gain a succesfull pesentation 4.3 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies In spite of the researcher’s effort and the enthusiastic support of the supervisor, this paper still has got some shortcomings Firstly, because of the limited time, some other books, documents, research which relate to this study can not be covered Secondly, the knowledge of the researcher is limited which somehow does not give the best advice Therefore, for further studies, the researcher suggests using a combination of research methods like interviewing more students with different background and achievements in order to get more interesting results CONCLUSION As stated earlier, the graduation paper is an attempt to present the common difficulties in English communication activities of English major students at Thuongmai University In addition, the study aims at investigating some factors causing these obstacles in order to find out some strategies to help students improve the problem To reach the aims of the researcher, the study is divided into fours chapters The first chapter has briefly described the general theories of the research Chapter two in this study concentrates on reviewing literature directly relevant to the topic being investigated It is the theoretical background about presentation skills as well as presentation activities The third chapter presents the research methodology and findings of the approach to English presentation of English major students at Thuongmai University through survey questionnaires This chapter also helps the researcher find out the answers for three questions as mentioned previous in chapter one Chapter four offers some recommendations and suggestions to improve English presentation skills at Thuongmai University in particular and all of the students in general Being aware of the importance of English presentation activities, especially in the later working environment, I made up my mind on ““ Difficulties in English presentation skills of first year English major students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions.” Hopefully, this study can bring valuable knowledge for the future works of readers and some improvements on the presentation skills Finally, I am always willing to receive the contributions, advice and sympathies from teachers and readers to make my graduation paper much better REFERENCES Thitibhada Sukithanaporn (2013) “English Presentation Skills of Thai Graduate Students” Canata Elisabeta Simona (2015) The thesis ““Developing Presentation Skills in the English Language Courses for the Engineering Students of the 21st Century Knowledge Society” Le Thi Hien (2018) The study “ English Presentation Skills of Fashion Design Major at National University Of Art Education” Nguyen Thi Phuong Huyen (2008) The thesis “English Presentation Skills of Third-Year Students of English Department at the College of Foreign Languages, Danang University- Statement and Suggestions” Baker, J & Westrup, H (2003) Essential Speaking Skills: A Handbook for English Language Teachers London: Continuum Hyland (January,2007) Asian Journal of English Language Teaching Hamer, J (1991) The practice of English language teaching by Longman Publisher, Serious Longman Language teacher Hincks, R presentations Proceedings (2004) of Processing the InSTIL/ICALL 2004 prosody – of NLP and oral Speech Technologies in Advanced Language Learning Systems, Venice, 63-69 Mennen, I., Schaeffler, F & Docherty, G (2012) Cross-language difference in fundamental frequency range: A comparison of English and German Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 131.3: 2249-2260 10 Antonakis, J., M Fenley, and S Liechti 2012 “Learning Charisma Transform Yourself into the Person Others Want to Follow.” 11 Beilock, S 2014 “Why Talking with Our Hands Helps Us Think Better.” Psychology Today, July WEBSITES https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presentation https://www.skillsyouneed.com/present/what-is-a-presentation.html https://wiki.ubc.ca/Presentation_Skills https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/limitation https://dictionary.cambridge.org/vi/dictionary/english/limitation APPENDIX SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE The questionnaire below is designed to understand the difficulties and solutions to effective English communication skills The information and answers you provide are important and necessary for this survey You are also assured that the data you provide is for research purposes only and not for any other purpose Thanks you very much for your cooperation! What is your name? ………………………… Class: ……………………… Where are you from? □ Urban areas □ Rural areas I Student’s English background information skills (listening and speaking skills) Put tick(s)(√) to choose the suitable answer(s) for the following questions: How long have you been learning English? □ – years □ – years □ – years □ More than years What time you spend in English self-learning each day? □ hour □ hours □ hours □ More than hours In your opinion, which is your level of English competence? □ Excellent □ Good □ Average □ Bad What you think about the importance of English communication skills? □ Extremely important □ Very important □ Fairly important □ A little important □ Not important What method and program have you used to learn English? (You can tick more than one answer) □ Self-learning □ English center learning □ School learning □ Tutor learning □ Your own method (Please specify): ……………………… ……………………… II: Student’s point of view focusing on difficulties they encounter in communicating in English 2.1 The difficulties of speaking skills Do you feel willing to speak English with your foreign partners? □ Yes, I always □ Yes, I often □ Yes, I sometimes □ I don’t speak willingly What problems you think often prevent you from communicating in English? (1 Always; Often; Sometimes; Never) Unable to find words and structures Unable to find ideas for the topic of the conversation Be afraid of making pronunciation and grammar mistakes Too shy and tense to speak with foreign partners Others (Please specify): ………………………… ……… Have you ever tried and applied any strategy to improve communication skills ? (1 Always; Often; Sometimes; Never) Imitating native speakers Practicing with your friends Attending an English course Recording and listening your voice Your own idea (Please specify): ………………………… 2.2 The difficulties of listening English What you think about your understanding when foreign partners speak? □ Completely understand □ Fairly understand □ Hard to understand □ Do not understand at all 10 In your opinion, what are your problems when listening to English? (1 Always; Often; Sometimes; Never) The listeners’ background knowledge The listeners not concentrate on the conversation The speakers speak too fast The speakers use complicated words and structures The topics used the conversation are unfamiliar The listeners not recognize sounds, stress, intonation and liking sounds Others (Please specify): …………………………… 11 Have you ever tried any strategy to improve communication skills (listening skill) Watching foreign movies or TV shows Making use of any free time listening to English Listening to many kinds of English materials Learning about the culture to listen more effectively Others (Please specify)…………………………… ... concern and also the motivation for doing the thesis Therefore, I chose ? ?Difficulties in English presentation skills of first year English major students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions? ??... difficulties of first year English major students when making presentation in English Objective subjects: first- year English major students at Thuongmai University 1.5 Scope of the study Within the... aware of the importance of English presentation activities, especially in the later working environment, I made up my mind on ““ Difficulties in English presentation skills of first year English major