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

Chapter INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale English has become an international communicative language in the world It has been used widely in many different fields such as economics, politics, culture, science, technology, education and tourism It can’t be denied that English is one of the most important means of communication Therefore, teaching and learning English is more and more essensial In Vietnam, English has become a compulsory subject in the syllabus of many schools, colleges and universities It has been taught and learnt throughout the country However, the fact is that the speaking English skill has not been effective yet, especially oral presentation Students graduating from high school or even from university are unable to “speak” English, because we have not given them enough practice in speaking English Most of the students not find speaking a rewarding task We cannot learn speaking by observation Speaking is the most difficult in the four skills Reading, listening and writing can be learning with a teacher or on one’s own, with books However, speaking requires immediate comprehension and real time reaction I think that the way of teaching by oral presentation will motivate student and encourage them to practice English in the classroom At Doluong high school, many students are not interested in speaking lessons as well as they can not speak English well after leaving school even though they have learnt English for a long time Moreover, the teachers of English find it difficult to encourage their students to make oral presentation in the process of teaching speaking skill To meet the demand of learners of English, teachers of English in Do luong have been trying to find out the most suitable and effective method of teaching English They have always tried to catch up with the world’s latest frameworks of English Language Teaching As in other schools, teachers of English in Do luong are now approaching project based learning to teach English to students They hope to provide students with a means of communication, namely English which is vital for them to be successful in their job and to fulfill their social demands in the time of globalization Therefore, it is really essential to know whether the project based learning has the good effects on teaching oral presentation skill to the 11 th graders of Do luong High school With the aim to access the method on teaching oral presentation through the Project based learning, I would like to choose the topic “Developing 11th grade students’ oral presentation skill through project-based learning: A case at a mountainous high school” to find out the answer, and further, to help improve the teaching of oral presentation at my school In this study, I would like to speak about developing students’ oral presentation through Project based learning in English language classrooms and its impact in speaking skill I think that the use of oral presentations in EFL classroom is important because of its positive impact on students’ proficiency level Some students not like to speak in the classroom In addition, they not have the opportunity to speak this language outside So if student not practice English in the classroom, may be they speak it never I know that I cannot learn to speak any language with observation Therefore, I put forward that the use of students’ oral presentation may develop students’ speaking level When we have students give an oral presentation in front of class is one technique to improve students’ oral proficiency Teachers can use oral presentation as a technical way to deal with students’ problems in speaking Oral presentation activities provide an excellent opportunity for the learners to develop this skill, speaking several minutes in a structured way, delivering into various aspects of a single topic 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study This study has been designed to investigate the use of oral presentation in English classes for the 11th students at Do luong upper secondary school In general, it has two purposes Firstly, it aims at finding students’ attitudes towards the use of oral presentations in the classroom Secondly, it is to investigate the impacts of oral presentations through project based learning on the students’ performance in English lessons Finally, it is to provide the teachers with some suggestions to make best use of oral presentations in their teaching with a view to better their students’ speaking skill Our objective is to show how project based leaning can help students enough practice to develop oral presentation skill in speaking English language 1.3 Scope of the study Although there are many different ways to motivate students to learn English, all these issues cannot be fully covered in this paper Due to the limited time and the length of the thesis, I focus on exploiting students’ attitudes toward the use of PBL and its effectiveness in teaching the oral presentation skill The subjects of the study include forty 11th graders at Do Luong high school 1.4 Significance of the study The main goal of study is how to make student perform well in classroom, by preparing activities where they will speak as much as possible We will focus on the use and effectiveness of the project based learning during the courses, and how will facilitate the students’ oral presentation skill This study is important to give the teacher some ideas for how to deal with students who not want to practice in classroom The use of oral presentation can help students of English language for being able to speak it, because in our universities we rarely learn how to speak Oral presentation in EFL classes give students a confidence to speak in public and help them in enhancing their proficiency Moreover, this study is important for both teachers and students’ Oral presentation can be an enjoyable activity for them It gives a break away from textbooks 1.5 Research Questions This study attempts to answer the following questions: What are the attitudes of 11th graders towards the use of Project-Based Learning? Does Project-Based Learning help 11th graders to develop their oral presentation skill ? If so, to what extent? 1.6 Design of the study The study contains four chapters: Chapter 1: Introduction This chapter presents the rationale, objectives, research questions, scope and organization of the study Chapter 2: Literature review This chapter introduces a historical overview of the literature The first is about oral presentation The next is about project based learning The final is the application of PBL in teaching oral presentation Chapter 3: Methodology The subjects of the study were 40 eleventh grade students who were chosen randomly from Do Luong upper secondary school during the school year 20172018 Three instruments were used to collect data for the study: An oral performance test (debate), an oral attitudes survey and a rating scale Additionally, this chapter will present the author’s suggestions on mentioned problems and summarize all the main points raised in the paper, the limitations of the study and some suggestions for further studies Chapter : Findings and discussions This part shows major findings and discussions and offers recommendations for motivating students to oral presentation through project based learning Chapter 5: Conclusion That is a summary of the study in which limitations of the study and suggestions for further research are presented Chapter LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Oral presentation 2.1.1 Definition of oral presentation Oral presentation is an extension of oral communication skill It is where the presenter shows their knowledge on a particular subject The participant might choose the title or the teachers give it to them In order to talk about it to their classmate after this the participant makes a small research to get more information about this topic The presenter is giving the most important information first, leaving the details for last According to Baker (2000, p 115) oral presentation is like a formal conversation, speaking to group as a natural activity Most of people spending hours of their daytime, speaking to others, however making an oral presentation that is a formal conversation, it is difficult task for them Oral presentation is part of spoken language The purpose of this practice is to communicate It is design to inform or persuade Oral presentation occurs in organizational setting and with limitation in time The audience is likely to be more specialized than those attending a typical speech event.” There are different between normal speech and oral presentation The later is a type of speech, but the former is more nature than oral presentation 2.1.2 Types of oral presentation 2.1.2.1 Informative oral presentation This type of presentation has a primary goal, which is to make the audience learning something new The speakers use in this type of presentation an informative speech The aim of informative presentation is to be communicating with the audiences and giving them much information in a limited time (Chivers, Shoolbred, 2007, p 5) Moreover, in this type of presentation the speakers use an informative speech to explain a concept, instruct the audience, demonstrate a process, or describe an event in an academic setting In addition, speakers may be choosing the topic by themselves (Chivers and Shoolbred (2007, p 5) In sum, the speaker’s aim of this presentation is to give the result of their research in informative way 2.1.2.2 Persuasive oral presentation Persuasive speech is to influence the audience in their thinking about a topic, which may be given or chosen According to Chivers and Shoolbred (2007, p 3) in this type of presentation, speakers need to have a strong content and present it in a clear way Baker (2000, p 76) states that persuasive has three elements, which are: * Logos In persuasive presentation, the topic needs to be logical Tacy (2008, p 9) claims that when speakers want to talk about their topic, they should organize the ideas from the more important point to less one Logos mean the speakers organize what they are going to say from the beginning to the end in a logic way * Character (ethos) Character or ethos is the speakers’ beliefs and personality Ethos means the one speak use their character to influence the audience * Passion (pathos) Pathos is the speaker’s use of their emotions It is the most important elements that speakers can use, to make the audience support their argument; also, pathos can make the audience change their opinions and take a positive action about the speakers’ topic They will have confidence in their performance and deal with any reaction 2.1.3 The benefits of using oral presentations in the language classroom Oral presentations have been shown to be extremely successful with respect to improving learners’ second language skills, and increasing their autonomy For example, Girard, Pinar and Trapp (2011) found that using oral presentations in their classroom lead to greater class interaction and participation, an increased interest in learning, and noticeable improvements in their students’ communication and presentation skills For most language teachers the five major benefits to use oral presentations in the classroom are:  They are student-centered  They require the use of all four language skills  They provide students with realistic language tasks  They have value outside the language classroom  They improve students’ motivation - 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, 51 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 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 11 th 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 52 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 53 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 projectbased program for 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Arlington, VA: Arlington Education and Employment Program (REEP) APPENDICES Appendix A: Students’ Questionnaire The purpose of this questionaire is to provide information for my research entitled “ Developing 11th grade students’ oral presentation skill through project based learning: a case at a mountainous high school” Your assistance in completing the items is greatly appreciated I guarantee that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data * Please tick (√) where appropriate or write briefly where necessary 1- Are you satisfied with using PBL to teach English ? 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 C disagree Appendix B: Oral Presentation Rubric Oral Presentation Rubric LEVEL NONVERBAL SKILLS Consisten Holds attention t EYE of CONTACT audience entire of direct with contact use Displayed No eye minima eye l eye contact with with contact with audience, as the use of direct audience, but audience, entire report return eye contact, still s to while reading is read from seldo m looking notes mostly from notes at notes BODY LANGUAGE POISE the notes Movement s Made Very little seem fluid and movements or movement or gesture help the s that descriptive gestures audience enhances articulation visualize Studen t Makes displays mistakes, relaxed, self- quickly confident nature recovers SKILLS movement or descriptive gestures minor Displays mild Tension and but tension; trouble from recovering about self, with them; displays from no littl mistakes e or no mistakes tension VERBAL No has nervousness is obvious; has trouble recovering from mistakes Demonstrates a Occasionally Shows some Shows ENTHUSIASM strong, positive shows positive negativity absolutely feeling feeling about s about toward topic no interest topic during topic presented entire in topic presented presentation ELOCUTION Student’ Student uses a s voice clea voic r e and is clear Student pronounce correct, precise s pronunciatio n most words correctly of terms so that Most all audience audience member members can s Student’ s Student voice is low mumbles, Student incorrectly incorrectly pronounces pronounces terms, speak s terms Audienc can e member s hear hear presentation presentation and too quietly for a have difficult y majority of students to hear hearing presentation CONTENT SUBJECT Student Student is demonstrates ease KNOWLEDGE full knowledge expected by answering answers to all class questions, questions with without elaboration explanations and elaboration at Student is Student does with uncomfortabl not e have with grasp all information of information; and is able to student canno answer only t rudimentary answer questions questions about subject Student ORGANIZATI presents ON information logical, Student presents informatio in n logical Audience has Audience difficult canno y t in following presentation understand presentation interesting sequence which because sequence which audience audience can follow because can student jumps there is sequenc around e no of follow information Presentation has Presentation has Presentation Student’s MECHANICS no misspellings no more than has three presentation or grammatical two misspellings has four or errors misspellings and/or more and/or grammatical spelling grammatical errors and/or errors grammatical errors ... more nature than oral presentation 2.1.2 Types of oral presentation 2.1.2.1 Informative oral presentation This type of presentation has a primary goal, which is to make the audience learning. .. questions: What are the attitudes of 11th graders towards the use of Project- Based Learning? Does Project- Based Learning help 11th graders to develop their oral presentation skill ? If so, to what extent?... not popular Projectbased learning is a learning method which focuses on the learner; the teacher acts mainly as a facilitator and motivator PBL emphasizes learning activities that are learner-centered