THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH DEPARTMENT ------ GRADUATION PAPER A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES IN PRESENTATION SKILLS OF FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS AT ENGLISH FACULTY, THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY, AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS. Pham Minh Hong, MA Student : Do Thi Ngoc Ha Class : K54N4 Student’s code : 18D170159 Hanoi, 2022 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT The study is concerned with factors affecting the oral presentation skills of the first- year English majors at Thuongmai University in the classroom setting. The research aims at finding out difficulties in presentation skills and some possible solutions. A survey questionnaire was carried out to get data for analysis through the quantitative method.
A total of 52 English majors freshmen at Thuongmai University participated in this study. The research reveals that problems with mental pressure, language skills; a lack of presentation skills such as insufficient preparation, time management, visual aids, teamwork, voice, body language and memorization contributed to their unsuccessful presentations. Based on these findings, the study offers some recommendations for both students and teachers to improve the students’ presentation skills. i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My first and big appreciation goes to my first supervisor, Pham Minh Hong, for her noble guidance, support with full encouragement and enthusiasm.
I have benefited greatly from your wealth of knowledge and meticulous editing. Sincere gratitude is extended to her generous participation in guiding, constructive feedback, kind support, and advice during my study. Thank you very much Ms. Hong! Deepest thanks to my friends at Thuongmai University for their kind assistance during the time I collected data for the study.
This work would not have been possible without the participants of 52 first-year English-majored students who so generously took time to fulfil my survey questionnaire. Very special thanks to roommates Van Nguyen and Phuong Truong for their continuous encouragement and support. Last but not least, my warm and heartfelt thanks go to my family for their tremendous support and hope they had given to me. Without that hope, this thesis would not have been possible.
ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. vi LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES.
vii CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY. Aims of the study. Scope of the study. Organization of the study.
5 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. The definition of oral presentation and oral presentation skills. Types of oral presentation. The important role of oral presentation in learning English.
Factors affecting English learners’ presentation skills. Student’s language proficiency. 11 iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Characteristics of a good presentation.
Difficulties in presentation skills. Difficulties in language skilsl. Lack of presentation skills. 13 CHAPTER 3: MAJOR RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.
Data collection process. Current status of presentation skills of first-year students at English Faculty, Thuongmai University. The result of the survey questionnaire. English and presentation skills usage of first-year English-majored students.
First-year English-majored students’ attitude towards presentation skills. First-year English-majored students’ perceptions of the necessity of oral presentation skills. First-year English-majored students’ evaluations of their own presentation skills. Factors affecting students’ oral presentation skills.
Difficulties in presentation skills encountered by first-year English- majored students. 26 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Students’ suggested solutions. 30 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS.
Summary of the study. For Thuongmai University. Some possible solutions to enhance presentation skills of first-year English majors. Practicing speaking and presenting more and more.
Having thorough preparation. Developing both verbal and non-verbal language. Joining extra activities. Videoing for the trial performance.
Limitations and suggestions for further study. Limitations of the study. Suggestions for further study. x v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviation English meaning LCD Liquid crystal display vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Chart 3.
First-year English-majored students’ English usage. First-year English-majored students’ presentation skills usage. First-year English-majored students’ level of interest in giving an oral presentation. First-year English-majored students’ perception of the necessity of oral presentation skills.
Students’ evaluations of their own presentation skills. Factors affecting first-year English-majored students’ oral presentations. First-year English-majored students’ feelings when making a presentation. Difficulties in presentation skills encountered by first-year English- majored students.
Student’s suggested solutions to improve presentation skills. 31 vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1. Rationale The English language has played a vital role, especially in international communication contributing to the development of education, economy, and politics. This is the reason why there has always been an increased demand for learning English in Vietnam.
Presently, English proficiency is needed for all people including students and a large number of students choose to study this language as a major at the university with the expectation of finding a decent job after graduation. In this day and age, presentation skills in general and English presentation skills in particular play an essential part to perform effective communication activities. Presentation skill is believed to be one of the effective ways to express opinions and gain achievements in life, career and business. In reality, most students graduating from college today lack the basic skills necessary for presenting the information.
What is more, many college subjects require presentations, but the students are often told to do them without being shown how to do them. Actually, the students aren’t given the right feedback to improve their skills. As a matter of fact, learning how to make presentations effectively becomes one of the pressing issues. At Thuongmai University, an English Faculty was established in 2007 and has made some remarkable achievements during its development.
Thanks to well-qualified teachers, English major students are comprehensively trained through a system of specialized knowledge, especially presentation skills. It is the teachers of English who teach their students oral presentation skills. Making oral presentations brings students a lot of benefits which are reducing the gap between language study and language use in practice. Firstly, it gives students a good opportunity to practice their speaking.
It also increases the student's 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. To get the best presentation result, students need to master a variety of skills and techniques such as the use of language, the way to organize all ideas, the ability to speak clearly and confidently, and the use of body language.
1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com However, it cannot be denied that there exist some problems concerning students’ presentation skills. Making effective presentations is quite challenging for many first-year English-majored at Thuongmai university. In fact, to the English majors here in general and the English majors freshers in particular, presentation skills seem to be new and difficult. Although some students spend much time and put great effort into their oral presentations, they do not get the intended outcomes.
They have a lot of ideas, but they do not perform well in the class to attract the audience’s attention. This is the reason why I chose to conduct a research entitled: “A study on difficulties in presentation skills of first-year students at English Faculty, Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions”. Previous studies In this part, some previous studies relating to this study will be reviewed. These studies were carried out to identify the difficulties in oral presentation and therefore suggested some possible solutions.
Nurwahyuni (2019) in her study “Students Difficulties on Oral Presentation in Classroom Interaction at the Fifth Semester Students of English Department in Makassar Muhammadiyah University” found out that difficulties faced by the students were anxiety, unconfidence, blankness, problems in understanding the topic, organizing the ideas, teachers’ expectation, and time management. Furthermore, anxiety and lack of confidence became the students' greatest fear, particularly when giving oral presentations. Ayman Hassan Abu El Enein (2011) studied “Difficulties Encountering English Majors in Giving Academic Oral Presentations during Class at Al-Aqsa University”. The results of the study pointed out that more than 58% of the students were in consensus that "Speakers don’t act cheerfully and smile when speaking", "Presenter is unable to use tools such as LCD and powerpoint effectively", "Speakers don't keep eye-contact with audience", "Speakers don’t stick to the objectives of the speech" and "Speakers don’t use appropriate 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com transitional words and clear signals”.
These were serious challenges encountered by English majors in giving academic oral presentations. The study “A study on the extra- activities on improving the first year English majored students’ oral presentation skill at Hai Phong Management and Technology University” by Nguyễn Thị Thúy (2021) indicated the poor oral presentation skills of the first-year English majors and also emphasized the importance of improving their oral presentation skills. Through the study, the author suggested some extra-activities to improve oral presentation skills for students such as practicing in front of a mirror, practicing with audiovisual content (if any), or giving your listeners an opportunity to interact with you before leaving the podium at the end of the presentation. Aims of the study English is a worldwide language, and an increasing number of individuals are concerned about the purposes of learning English.
Especially as Vietnam develops and integrates with other nations across the world, the English language is viewed as a bridge that allows learners to communicate with international partners, engage with friends, and exchange experience and knowledge with other countries. As a result, English has become a subject, an important task in the education and training of each country, including Vietnam. However, in Vietnam, teaching English to students is ineffective since the curriculum is inappropriate and overly focused on the language. Many students, particularly first-year English majors at Thuongmai University, were unable to make a fluent presentation due to a lack of confidence and soft skills in presentation.
Recognizing the significance of effective oral presentations in academic life in particular and future career paths in general, the purpose of my research is to investigate difficulties in oral presentation skills and also the main factors affecting their presentation performance, and therefore suggest some possible solutions. The study was aimed at: 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ● Identifying the main difficulties in oral presentation skills encountered by first- year students at English Faculty, Thuongmai University ● Suggesting some possible solutions for English-majored freshmen to improve their presentation skills In order to have a realistic view of difficulties encountered by first-year English majors at Thuongmai University, the researcher concerns three questions: 1. What factors affect the first-year English major student’s oral presentations? 2. What are the major difficulties in presentation skills faced by the first-year English major students at Thuongmai University? 3.
What are possible solutions to improve presentation skills for the first-year English major students at Thuongmai University? 1. Research Subjects Recognizing that although English-majored students at Thuongmai University possess a good foundation of English, they experienced several difficulties in delivering the presentation during the studying process. For this reason, the researcher determined that “Difficulties in presentation skills of first-year students at English Faculty, Thuongmai University '' was the research subject of the study. Scope of the study Within the scope of this study, because of the limitation of time, personal experience and knowledge, the research only concentrated on the challenges of making oral presentations for only first-year students at English Faculty, Thuongmai University.
Research methodology The researcher chose a quantitative research method and data therefore were collected via an online questionnaire survey.