VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES HOÀNG THỊ MAI HOA FACTORS AFFECTING ENGLISH ORAL PRESENTATION SKILLS OF THE STUDENTS AT HANOI TOURISM COLLEGE (Những yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến kỹ năng thuyết trình tiếng Anh của sinh viên Trường Cao đẳng Du lịch Hà Nội) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.10 HANOI – 2011 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES HOÀNG THỊ MAI HOA FACTORS AFFECTING ENGLISH ORAL PRESENTATION SKILLS OF THE STUDENTS AT HANOI TOURISM COLLEGE (Những yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến kỹ năng thuyết trình tiếng Anh của sinh viên Trường Cao đẳng Du lịch Hà Nội) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Supervisor: Dr. Lê Văn Canh Code: 60.10 HANOI – 2011 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.college i DECLARATION I, Hoang Thi Mai Hoa, hereby state that this work is original and completed by myself. It has not been submitted for other purposes except for the fulfillment of the requirements of the University for the degree of Master in English Teaching Methodology. In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my thesis deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper.
Signature Hanoi, September 2011. Hoang Thi Mai Hoa TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.college ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to all those who have given me great assistance in the completion of my research work. First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Le Van Canh for his precious advice, guidance, criticism and encouragement throughout the research.
My special thanks go to all my lecturers who have been engaged in teaching K18 MA course for their precious lectures. I also wish to acknowledge the cooperation of my colleagues, my friends and the third-year tour guide students at Hanoi Tourism College in contributing to the data collection presented in this study. Last but not least, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my family, especially my husband for their whole-hearted encouragement and great support during my time of fulfilling this thesis. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.college iii ABSTRACT The research is concerned with factors affecting students’ oral presentation skills in English at Hanoi Tourism College.
Specifically, a survey is conducted on 106 third year tour guide students. Main purposes of the research are to find out: (1) the difficulties the students might have when giving oral presentations, (2) factors causing the difficulties and their suggested solutions. It is expected that the study will make a contribution to the improvement of the teaching and learning of presentation skills at Hanoi Tourism College The study consists of three parts. Part A introduces the information on the background, the rationale, the aims, scope, method and design of the study.
Part B providing the development includes three chapters. Chapter 1 provides the relevant theories related to oral presentation skills and factors may affect the students’ presentation skill. Chapter 2 introduces the context of the study and describes the methods employed in the study. Chapter 3 presents and discusses the findings that arise from the data collected.
Part C provides summary of study, recommendations, limitations and suggestions for further research. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.college iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Declaration. iii Table of contents. iv List of abbreviations.
vii List of tables. Rationale of the study. Aims and objectives of the study. Scope and significance of the study.
The method of the study. Design of the study. 3 DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Definition of terminology .2 Tour guiding oral presentation .2 Oral presentation as a component of oral communication .3 The role of oral presentation skill to tour guides .4 The structure of an oral presentation .1 The structure of an oral presentation .2 The structure of a tour guiding oral presentation .5 Factors affecting students’ oral presentation .1 Students’ language proficiency. 9 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.1 The setting of the study.1 The description of Hanoi Tourism College.2 Tourism Foreign Language Department.
Tour guide students. 14 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 The students’ perceptions of the importance of oral presentation skill and their self - assessment of their presentations .1 The students’ perceptions of the importance of oral presentation skill .2 The students’ self-assessment of their presentation skill .2 Students’ difficulties in making oral presentations .1 Students’ difficulties in preparation .2 Students’ difficulties in organization .3 Students’ difficulties in delivery .1 Students’ difficulties in attracting and maintaining the attentions of audiences 20 3.2 Students’ difficulties concerning body language .3 Students’ difficulties concerning language use .4 Students’ difficulties in time management.5 Students’ difficulties in anxiety management .6 Students’ difficulties in handling the audiences’ questions. 27 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Students’ difficulties in evaluation.
Factors affecting the students’ oral presentation skill. The students’ suggested solutions .1 Improving their knowledge of English .2 Practising carefully for the presentation .1 Equipping students with linguistic knowledge .2 Creating a pleasant and supportive classroom atmosphere .1 Providing modern technology equipments and a good library .2 Organizing study trips to tourist destinations. Summary of the study. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies.
39 REFERENCES APPENDICES TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.college vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS HTC: Hanoi Tourism College LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: The importance of the oral presentations 16 Table 3.2: Students’ self assessment of their oral presentations 17 Table 3.3: Students’ difficulties in preparation 18 Table 3.4: Students’ difficulties in organization 19 Table 3.5: Students’ difficulties in attracting and maintaining the attentions of 20 audiences Table 3.6: Students’ difficulties concerning body language 23 Table 3.7: Students’ difficulties concerning language use 24 Table 3.8: Students’ difficulties in time management 25 Table 3.9: Students’ difficulties in anxiety management 26 Table 3.10: Students’ difficulties in handling the audiences’ questions 27 Table 3.11: The students’ difficulties in evaluation 28 Table 3.12: Factors affecting the students’ oral presentation 29 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.college ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to all those who have given me great assistance in the completion of my research work. First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Le Van Canh for his precious advice, guidance, criticism and encouragement throughout the research. My special thanks go to all my lecturers who have been engaged in teaching K18 MA course for their precious lectures.
I also wish to acknowledge the cooperation of my colleagues, my friends and the third- year tour guide students at Hanoi Tourism College in contributing to the data collection presented in this study. Last but not least, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my family, especially my husband for their whole-hearted encouragement and great support during my time of fulfilling this thesis. 1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.college ABSTRACT The research is concerned with factors affecting students’ oral presentation skills in English at Hanoi Tourism College. Specifically, a survey is conducted on 106 third year tour guide students.
Main purposes of the research are to find out: (1) the difficulties the students might have when giving oral presentations, (2) factors causing the difficulties and their suggested solutions. It is expected that the study will make a contribution to the improvement of the teaching and learning of presentation skills at Hanoi Tourism College The study consists of three parts. Part A introduces the information on the background, the rationale, the aims, scope, method and design of the study. Part B providing the development includes three chapters.
Chapter 1 provides the relevant theories related to oral presentation skills and factors may affect the students’ presentation skill. Chapter 2 introduces the context of the study and describes the methods employed in the study. Chapter 3 presents and discusses the findings that arise from the data collected. Part C provides summary of study, recommendations, limitations and suggestions for further research.
2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.college PART A – INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study As an occupational requirement, oral presentation skill is believed to be very important for tour guides. Tour guides’ presentation determines the success of a tour. Besides, tour guides may have to guide a group of foreign tourists, which requires them to use a foreign language.
Clearly, growing tourism increases the need for staff of international standards. One of those standards is the tour guide’s oral presentation skill in a foreign language. This motivates me to explore the factors affecting the tour guide students’ oral presentation in English at Hanoi Tourism College with a view to finding practical solutions to deal with those factors, thereby helping the prospective tour guides to improve their oral presentation skills. Aims and objectives of the study The research aims specifically at exploring the factors affecting tour guide students’ oral presentation skill at HTC.
Possible solutions are recommended to help the teachers and students to improve the teaching and learning of oral presentation skill. The specific objectives of the study include: identifying the students’ perceptions about the importance of oral presentation skills in their future job. understanding students’ self assessments of their oral presentation skill identifying the difficulties in making oral presentations encountered by the students at HTC. examining the factors affecting their oral presentations at HTC.
providing some recommendations on how to improve students’ oral presentation. Scope and significance of the study 3 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.college The study focuses on oral presentation skills in English in the classroom context of 106 third – year non-English major tour guide students at HTC 4. The method of the study The methodology chosen for the study is quantitative. This methodology fits well the purpose of the study, which is a survey in nature.
Johnson (1991:104) states, “[T]he purpose of a survey is to learn about characteristics of an entire group of interest by examining a subset of their group (a sample)”, which is also the purpose of the study, i. to find out students’ perceptions of aspects related to oral presentation. Design of the study The thesis consists of three parts Part A: Introduction: introduces the rationale, aims, significance, scope and methodology of the study. Part B: Development: is the main part of the study, which consists of three chapters Chapter 1: Literature Review: is a brief description of the study including definition of oral presentation, tour guides’ oral presentation, oral presentations as part of oral communication, the role of presentation in tour guiding job, the structure of an oral presentation, and the factors affecting the students’ oral presentation skill.
Chapter 2: Methodology: provides the current situation of the teaching and learning of oral presentation skill at HTC, research questions, informants, instrument and process of the study. Chapter 3: Findings and Discussion presents the findings and discussion of the study based on the result of questionnaire. 4 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.college Part C: Conclusion consists of the summary of the study, recommendations, and limitations of the study and gives suggestion for further study. PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Definition of terminology 1.
Oral presentation Gufta (2008) defines an oral presentation as a formal way to convey your message to your audience 1. Tour guides’ oral presentation A tour guides’ presentation is to introduce the place or the country in terms of its importance, history, politics, cultures, fauna and flora to the participants of the tours 1. Oral presentation as a component of oral communication Oral presentation belongs to oral communication. In oral presentation, speakers use spoken speech to deliver the information to audience.