VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDY DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ BÍCH VÂN INVESTIGATING HOW TO IMPROVE ORAL PRESENTATION SKILLS FOR THE SECOND - YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AT HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION (TÌM HIỂU CÁCH CẢI THIỆN KĨ NĂNG THUYẾT TRÌNH CHO SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN ANH NĂM THỨ HAI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM KĨ THUẬT HƯNG YÊN) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: Methodology Code: 601410 HANOI – 2009 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDY DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ BÍCH VÂN INVESTIGATING HOW TO IMPROVE ORAL PRESENTATION SKILLS FOR THE SECOND - YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AT HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION (TÌM HIỂU CÁCH CẢI THIỆN KĨ NĂNG THUYẾT TRÌNH CHO SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN ANH NĂM THỨ HAI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM KĨ THUẬT HƯNG YÊN) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Methodology Code: 601410 Supervisor: TRẦN HIỀN LAN, MA HANOI – 2009 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………i Declaration……………………………………………………………………………….iii Table of Contents……………………………………………………………………….iv PART 1: INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………1 1. Aims and objectives of the study: ………………………………………………………. Scope of the study:………………………………………………………………… …… 2 4. Methods of the study: …………………………………………………………………….Design of the study: …………………………………………………………………………3 PART 2: DEVELOPMENT…………………………………………………… 5 CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………………5 1.
Definitions and Characteristics………………………………………………………. Oral Presentation Organization……………………………………………. Teaching Oral Presentation Skills…………………………………. Prior Studies Related to Oral Presentations………………………………………….10 CHAPTER II: PRACTICAL RESEARCH………………………………….
Background of the study………………………………………………………………. Description of the English course and its objectives in the department of foreign languages, HYUTE………………………………………………………………………….13 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. The Research Questions………………………………………………………………14 2. Presentation of Statistical Results……………………………………………….
Questionnaire for the Students………………………………………………………. The students’ perceptions of the necessity of oral presentation skills……………15 2. The second- year students’ difficulties in learning presentation skills……. Current methods used in teaching oral presentation skills to the second- year English majors……………………………………………………………………………….
The students’ evaluation of the teachers’ current methods………………………24 2. The students’ suggested solutions to improve the situations………………………. Questionnaire for the teachers………………………………………………………. The teachers’ perceptions of the necessity of oral presentation skill…………….
The teachers’ opinion of presentation skills………………………………………29 2. The teachers’ difficulties in teaching presentation skills…………………………30 2. Current teaching methods applied for oral presentation skills…………….32 CHAPTER THREE: FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATION…………. The students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the necessity of oral presentation skills…………………………………………………………………………………….
What the teachers know about presentation skills……………………………………. The teachers and the students’ difficulties in their teaching and learning of oral presentations………………………………………………………………………………….36 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. The methods the teachers are currently using in teaching presentation skills………. The students’ evaluations of those methods………………………………………….
What the students think should be done for them to improve their oral presentation skills…………………………………………………………………………………………. Suggested techniques for improving oral presentation skills…………………. Suggestions for the teachers……………………………………………………………………38 2. Suggestions for the students…………………………………………………………….
Suggestions for the department……………………………………………………………….45 REFERENCES APPENDICES Appendix 1: The questionnaire for the students Appendix 2: The questionnaire for the teachers Appendix 3: The topics/sub-topics for the fourth term for HYUTE majors of English Appendix 4: Oral presentations- Teacher evaluation sheet Appendix 5: Oral presentations- Student evaluation sheet Appendix 6: Model language for oral presentations Appendix 7: Sample of model presentations LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 1 PART1: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale: English has played an important role in dealing with international relations and in such fields as science and technology, business, commerce, and diplomacy. This is the reason why there has always been a big need for learning English in Vietnam. And these learners of English have various purposes of learning: some learn English for their future jobs; some learn it just for entertainment.
The English major learners also have serious attitudes towards learning English for their communications as well as oral presentations at work. In reality, most students leaving college today lack the basic skills necessary for presenting information to a group. Additionally, many college classes require presentations, but the students are often told to do it without being shown how to do it. A history professor does not feel it is their job to show their students the basic skills of presenting a subject.
Furthermore, the students aren‟t given the right feedback to improve. As a matter of fact, learning how to make presentations effective becomes one of the key institutional parts. In Hung Yen University of Technology and Education, there are not any separate subjects on which the English majors‟ presenting skills are trained. It is the teachers of English who teach them oral presentations skills.
For the teachers in the foreign language department there are some certain advantages of asking students to give presentations on the subject of their concern. Firstly, it gives students a good opportunity to practice their speaking skill. It also increases the students‟ confidence in using English. Furthermore, it can be a good practice for those students who will actually need the skill in their future professional lives.
And lastly, it is an excellent generator of spontaneous discussion. Being well aware of these advantages, all the teachers who teach English speaking skills regard presentation skills as their main focus in teaching English. However, it cannot be denied that there exist a lot of problems concerning our students‟ presentation skills, the most typical of which is the fact that it is quite difficult to give successful presentations. Having been teaching them for nearly four terms, I have recognized the main reasons for such difficulties.
Firstly, in comparison with other students of the same major, the students here have much lower level of English proficiency especially in LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2 poor pronunciation and poor vocabulary. Secondly, due to their inexperience, the teaching staff also sees that they lack the basic techniques for teaching students how to give successful presentations. Lastly, the teaching of English as a major has come into use not for long as a focus to supply the students with an appropriate syllabus which includes oral presentation. In fact, to the English majors in here in general and the second- year English majors in particular, presentation skills are quite new and difficult.
This is the reason why I chose to conduct a research entitled: “Investigating How to Improve Oral Presentation Skills for the Second- Year English Majors of the Foreign Language Department at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education” and aimed at clarifying the problems the second- year students have encountered in the process of preparing and making oral presentations and suggesting some techniques for the teachers to get better improvements in both teaching and learning of presentations. Aims and objectives of the study: The study is aimed at studying oral presentation difficulties encountered by both the second- year major students of English and their teachers in the foreign language Department, Hung Yen University of Technology and Education, at finding some possible techniques for teaching oral presentations. To help the students overcome such difficulties, the research will try to - investigate the students‟ as well as teachers‟ perceptions of what a good oral presentation is. - identify students‟ and teachers‟ difficulties in their learning and teaching of oral presentations.
- investigate current methods the teachers use to teach presentation skills. - give suggestions for both the teachers and the students on how to deal with their difficulties in their teaching and learning of oral presentations. Scope of the study: Speaking activities are various. However, this study only focuses on oral presentation skills for the second- year English majors at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education.
This study is said to be an overview of current situations of the second- year English majors LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 3 when making oral presentations and an identification of the teachers‟ methods currently used for the second- year English majors in the foreign language department, and a suggestion for techniques for both the students and the teachers to improve their learning and teaching of speaking skills in general and presentation skills in particular. Methods of the study: The study will be conducted using quantitative and qualitative methods with questionnaires for informants of 56 second- year majors of English randomly chosen from four classes and 8 teachers at the University of Technology and education in Hung Yen and informal interviews with the informants and their teachers and personal observation will also be employed. Design of the study: The study consists of three parts: Part 1, introduction, presents the rationale, the aims, the scope, the methods and the design of the study. Part 2, development, consists of 3 chapters.
+ Chapter I - Literature Review – deals with the concepts relevant to the study: oral communication, presentation skills and prior studies related to presentation skills. + Chapter II - Practical Research – provides an analysis on the current situation of teaching and learning oral presentation skill and reports the results of the survey research which was carried out at the beginning of the fourth term of the 2008- 2009 academic year at the foreign language department, UTEHY. The report includes the followings: research questions informants measurement instruments data analysis presentation of statistical results LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 4 + Chapter III – Findings and recommendation – focuses on difficulties students and teachers faced in learning and teaching speaking skills in general and presentation skills in particular. Additionally, it offers pedagogical suggestions for the students, the department and the teachers to improve their learning and teaching of oral presentation skills.
Part 3, conclusion, summarizes all the key issues as well as the limitations of the study and suggestions for further study. KEY WORDS & ABBREVIATIONS Pair work; Group work; Preparation, Feedback The HYUTE: Hung Yen University of Technology and Education LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 5 PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW In the investigation into ways to develop students‟ speaking ability in general and oral presentation skill in particular, the researcher needs to present the previous and current literature on oral presentations with the characteristics of oral presentation and then define oral communication and some aspects of oral presentations. These issues are the focus of the chapter. Oral Communication Oral communication is a two- way process between the speaker and the listener( or listeners) and involves the productive skill of speaking and the receptive skill of understanding( or listening with understanding) ( Byrne, 1986).
It is important to remember that “receptive” does not mean “passive” when both listening and reading, language users are actively involved in the process of interpreting and negotiating meanings. To clarify what involves in an oral communication, it is necessary to discuss the differences in written and spoken language. Santry (1999), there are important differences between spoken and written language. In speech we have a much greater freedom and informality of usage than it is accepted in writing.
We do not speak in limited grammatical sentence structures or follow formal syntax as the way we do when writing. Moreover, in speech the colloquial forms are acceptable while they are not in writing. We do not write in the same way we speak because the two channels are not exactly interchangeable. Byrne (1986) shares the same opinion by mentioning that “in contrast to the written language where sentences are usually carefully structured and linked together, speech is often characterized by incomplete and sometimes ungrammatical utterances and by frequent false starts and repetitions”.
Nunan (1989) provides a list of characteristics of successful oral communication. As for him, successful oral communication should involve: (1) Comprehensible pronunciation of the target language. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 6 (2) Good use of stress, rhythm, intonation patterns. (3) Fluency (4) Good transactional and interpersonal skills.
(5) Skills in taking short and long speaking in turns. (6) Skills in the management of interactions. (7) Skills in negotiating meaning. (8) Conversational listening skills.
(9) Skills in knowing about and negotiating purposes for the conversation.