1 Vietnam national university-Hanoi University of languages and international studies Faculty of post-graduate studies ------------------------------------------------- NguyÔn ThÞ Thu Thñy An investigation on the difficulties in making business English oral presentation of the first year non – major English students at Faculty of Accounting at Dai Nam University and some solutions. Minor program thesis Field : Methodology Code : 60.10 Hµ néi – 2010 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 2 Vietnam national university-Hanoi University of languages and international studies Faculty of post-graduate studies ------------------------------------------------- NguyÔn ThÞ Thu Thñy An investigation on the difficulties in making business English oral presentation of the first year non – major English students at Faculty of Accounting at Dai Nam University and some solutions. Minor program thesis Field : Methodology Code : 60.10 Supervisor: NguyÔn Thu LÖ H»ng, M.A Hµ néi – 2010 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 6 Abbreviations BE Business English CLT Communicative Language Teaching DNU Dai Nam University ELT English Language Teaching ESP English for Specific Purposes GE General English L2 Second Language/foreign language IT Information Technology ML(E) Market Leader (Elementary) List of tables Page Table 1 Teachers‟ difficulties when teaching business English presentation skills…. 22 Table 2 Students‟ difficulties when learning business English presentation skills….
23 Table 3 Students‟ reasons for learning English…………………………………….25 Table 4 Teacher pedagogical practices in teaching oral presentation skill…………….28 Table 5 Students‟ opinions on inappropriate teacher pedagogical practices in English oral presentation lessons…………………………………………………… …29 Table 6 Teachers‟ English communicative competence……………………………….31 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 7 Table of contents Acknowledgements Abstract List of Abbreviations List of Tables Page Part A: Introduction 1 1. The background of the study……………………………………………………… 1 2. The method of the study …………………………………………………………. The aims of the study.
Scope of the study ………………………………………………………………… 2 6. The design of the study ……………………………………………………………. 2 Part B: Development 4 Chapter I: Literature review ……………………………………………….1 The overview of business English ………………………………………….2 The characteristics of language of business ………………………………….1 Sense of purpose ………………………………………………….4 Business and General Courses …………………………………….1 What is oral presentation …………………………………………………….2 Procedure of oral presentation ……………………………………………….3 Advantages of oral presentation toward ESP students ……………………… 7 I.4 Some problems of presentation making ……………………………………. 8 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.3 Difficulties in learning business English oral presentation skills …………….1 Difficulties about business knowledge …………………………………….2 Difficulties about language knowledge, culture and perceptions …………… 9 I.3 Difficulties from teachers …………………………………………………… 11 I.1 Inappropriate teacher pedagogical practices ……………………….1 The amount of teacher talk ………………………………11 I.4 Teacher-learner relationship ………………………………12 I.2 Teacher deficiency in English communicative competence ……….3 Teacher deficiency in business English and teaching skills ……….4 Difficulties from external factors …………………………………………….
14 Chapter II: Methodology 15 II. 1 The research context …………………………………………………………… 15 II.1 Description of Dai Nam University, English course and its objectives …….2 Description of the first year students of the Accounting faculty at DNU ….3 Description of the teachers at DNU ………………………………………….4 Description of Market Leader textbook and business related presentation topics II.1 The coursebook Market Leader Elementary ……………………… 17 II.2 The objectives …………………………………………………… 18 II.3 Strengths and weaknesses of the coursebook …………………….4 The topics for the oral presentation ……………………………….2 Methods of the study …………………………………………………………….1 Sample and sampling ………………………………………………. 21 Chapter III: Findings and Discussion 22 III.1 Difficulties from students …………………………………………………. 22 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.1 Past educational experience ……………………………………….2 Lack of background, business, cultural and social knowledge …… 24 III.3 Low motivation for learning English ……………………………… 24 III.4 Low level of general English proficiency ………………………… 26 III.5 Negative personal trait s ………………………………………….6 Traditional cultural beliefs ……………………………………….2 Difficulties from teachers ………………………………………………….1 Lack of knowledge about business English and oral presentation skills 27 III.2 Inappropriate teacher pedagogical practices ……………………….1 Too much teacher talking time ………………………….2 Unsuitable mistake correction …………………………… 30 III.3 Incomprehensible teacher input ………………………….4 Too distant teacher-learner relationship ………………… 31 III.3 Teachers‟ deficiency in English communicative competence …….3 External factors …………………………………………………………… 32 III.1 Multilevel class …………………………………………………… 32 III.4 Suggestions from teachers and students in minimizing difficulties …… 34 Part C: conclusion 36 1.
Suggestions for minimizing the difficulties in teaching presentation skills .2 Training students to become efficient learners ……………………… 37 2. Some suggestions for learning presentation skills ………………………….1 Personal development and non-verbal communication ……………… 38 2.2 Choosing and Using Visual Aids …………………………………….3 Preparing and delivering forms of spoken exercise ………………….1 Tutor-led seminar ………………………………….2 Student-led seminar ……………………………….3 Guest speakers …………………………………… 41 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. 43 Summary of the study …………………………………………………. 43 Limitations and suggestions for further studies ……………………….
44 References Appendices Appendix 1: Questionnaire for teachers Appendix 2: Questionnaire for students Appendix 3: Interview questions for teachers Appendix 4: Interview questions for students TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.solutions 11 Part A: Introduction I. The background of the study English is obviously very important, and it has long been considered the international language in many different fields of the modern life: science and technology, business and commerce, international relations and diplomacy and so on. As a result, English is now the foreign language that are most widely used and taught in all over the world and in Vietnam, with the national policy of renovation and expansion of international relations, learning English has been a remarkably increasing need. However, how to understand students‟ difficulties and how to teach the language effectively to enable students to use the language successfully in international communication are really a big question facing all teachers of English.
Most of the learners of English agree that the ability to express themselves freely in communication is of great importance for their future career, especially in modern societies where contacting with foreigners often occur. However, there still exist many difficulties in learning and teaching English in Vietnam in general and at Dai Nam University (DNU) in particular. Many Vietnamese learners can write and read English quite well but they cannot speak it correctly and fluently in real-life communication as well as in specific situations. Surely, there are many reasons for this reality.
After teaching the non-major English at the Accounting Department for the first year students at DNU for three courses, I recognized some big obstacles that prevent English language teachers and learners from achieving their aims. These obstacles are teachers‟ teaching method, heterogeneous classes, lack of background, business, cultural and social knowledge, students‟ low level of English language proficiency, students‟ low motivation and some others. Unfortunately, this is not only the situation in our university but also the case for many other non-language colleges and universities in Vietnam. That is the circumstance that has inspired me with a research entitled “An investigation on the difficulties in making business English oral presentation of the first year non – major English students at Faculty of Accounting at Dai Nam University and some solutions.” I conduct the research with the hope that it will contribute to the improvement of teaching and learning business English presentation skills at the Accounting department as well as at my university.
TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Method of the study The methods used in this research are mainly two survey questionnaires and interviews. They aim at finding out the difficulties which the teachers and students at the Accounting Department at DNU facing in the teaching and learning of business English presentation skill. All comments, remarks, recommendations and conclusion in the study are based on the data analysis.
Aims of the study The study aims at: 1. Investigating the difficulties for the first-year non-major English students at the Accounting Faculty at Dai Nam University in learning business English oral presentation skills. Giving suggestions on how to improve oral presentation teaching and learning at Dai Nam University. Research questions The above aims can be realized through the following research questions: 1.
What difficulties do the learners at DNU encounter in learning business English presentation skills? 2. What should be done to minimize the difficulties in teaching business English presentation skills to non-English major first years students of the Accounting Department at DNU? V. Scope of the study To improve business English presentation skills for the first-year students of the Accounting department, many different aspects of teaching and learning must be taken into consideration. However, within the scope of this study, the author would only like to take into account some difficulties of the business English oral presentation, on that basis, suggest some techniques and skills which may better business English oral presentation skills at DNU.
Design of the study The thesis consists of three main parts: The first part is Introduction, which provides a brief introduction of the reasons for choosing the topic, the method, the aims, research questions, the scope of the study, and the design of the study. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.solutions 13 The second part, Development, is divided into three chapters: Chapter I, Literature Review, surveys the literature on the basis concepts that underlie the whole study such as Business English, Oral presentation and difficulties from learners. Chapter II, Methodology, is the presentation of the subjects and factual data collected from the questionnaires and interviews. The principal purpose of this chapter is to study about the presentation in use and difficulties facing teachers and students in teaching and learning presentation skill.
Chapter III, Findings and Discussion, on the basis of the data collected in the previous parts, will present and discuss findings of the difficulties in teaching and learning oral presentation skills of non-major students and objective factors. The third part, Conclusion, gives some suggestions for both teachers of English and students comprising some coping strategies and classroom techniques and presentation skills in decreasing those difficulties. What follows is the conclusion of the study, which presents the overview of the study. Besides, the limitations of the thesis are pointed out and the areas for further study are proposed.
TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.solutions 14 Part B: Development Chapter I: LITERATURE REVIEW I.1 The overview of business English In the last two decades, Business English (BE) has attracted increasing interest and awareness. BE courses are offered by many language schools worldwide. Yet despite this enormous interest, BE is an area often neglected by linguistics researchers, who prefer to work on other – more easily defined – areas of special English. Mark Ellis and Christine Johnson (1994:3) states that BE must be seen in the overall context of English for Specific Purposes (ESP), as it shares the important elements of needs analysis, syllabus design, course design, and materials selection and development which are common to all fields of work in ESP.
As with other varieties of ESP, BE implies the definition of a specific language corpus and emphasis on particular kinds of communication in a specific context. However, BE differs from other varieties of ESP in that it is often a mix of specific content (relating to a particular job area or industry), and general content (relating to general ability to communicate more effectively, albeit in business situations). The above authors also show many developments in the ways in which teachers and course designers look at BE. First, in the 1960s and 1970s, there was a focus on specialist vocabulary.
They were often put in the context of a written or dialogue that dealt with a particular topic. Exercises consisted mainly of comprehension questions on the text, vocabulary exercises, and the drilling of randomly selected structures. The following second approach placed a greater emphasis on training „the skills of communication in English speaking, writing, listening and reading within a business context‟. In the mid-1970s and 1980s, following the trends in General English, BE teaching began to focus more and more on functional areas – formulaic language for recommending, giving opinions, showing agreement, and so on.
And since the late 1980s, BE teaching has drawn on aspects of all the previous approaches, but also places much more emphasis on the need to develop the skills for using the language learned. Hagen (1992) states that the development of company training programmes during the 1980s began to provide employees with opportunities to attend courses in presentation techniques, negotiating, and other effective skills.