VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDI! DEPARTMENT OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES — `. NGUYÊN THỊ PHƯƠNG NHUNG FACTORS AFFECTING ORAL PRESENTATIONS OF THE SECOND- YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY NHUNG YEU T6 ANH Hil ONG KY NANG THUYET TRINH CUA SINH VIEN CHUYEN ANH NAM THU HAI TRO ONG DAI HOC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI MA MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 1410 HANOI, 2009 ¥LET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY TIANOI LNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES Department of Postgraduate Studics NGUYEN THỊ PHUONG NHUNG FACTORS AFFECTING ORAL PRESENTATIONS OF TIE SECOND-YEAR ENGLISH MA.IOR STUDENTS AT HANOT UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY NHỮNG YẾU TỔ ANH HO ONG KY NANG THUY ET TRINH CUA SINH VIEN CHUYEN ANH NAM THU HAITRIONG DAI HOC CONG NGHIEP HÀ NỘI MA MLNOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 19 SUPERVISOR: NGUYEN THI VUONG, MA Hanoi, 2009 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Declaration, - - - 1 Acknowledgements ii AbSAGL. chien 'Tabla of contfeTils. con List of tables vn PART l: INTRODUCTION - - - 1 1.
Aims of the study. Scape and significance of the study 4. Methods of the study 2 5. Design of the study 2 PART B: DEVELOPMERT.
wed CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1. Knowledge and skills StBo 1. Nature of Speaking - 1.2, Types of Classroom Speaking Performance 1. Definition and Structure 7 1.
Types of Oral Presentations 8 1. Characteristics ofa good presentation. Tenoting Oral Presentation skills in the language classroom 1. Factors affecting oral presentation skills.
Students” language proficiency - - 14 1. Tencher”s role l6 CHAPLER II: RESEARCH MELHODOLOCY. Context of the study 7 2. tre with students’ oral presentations.
Many of them have knowledge of grammar, knowledge of the topic and content bul they still can nol produce 4 good presentation. In conelusion, “knowledge itself is not enough; knowledge has to be used in action”. That is the reason why we need skills, which can be gained with practice. But what skills does a learner ofa forcign language need in order Io obtain good oral communication? To answer this question, i118 nec sary lo have a look al speaking skills 1.
Nature of speaking Language skills involve four-macro skills, namely listening, speaking, reading and writing, which are inter-related. According to Byme (1986), the supportive relationship among these skills is clearly revealed when we look af oral communication which is a two-way process between speaker and listener (or listeners) and involves the productive skill of speaking and the receptive skill of listening. He states that “the speaker has to encode the message he wishes lo conv in appropriais lmguage, while the listencr has te devo: interpret) the message”. Of the four skills, speaking plays a very important role since it is the first step to identify who knows and doss not know a language.
rom Ur’s point of view (1996), speaking seems intuitively the most important: “people who know a language arc referred to as “speakers” of that language as if spcaking included all other kinds of knowing; and most foreign language leamers are primarily interested in leaning to speak”. The nature of speaking has attracted many scholars’ attention so far. According to Bygate (1987), there are two basic ways in which we do can be scon as a skill. Thoy ar motor- perception skills and interaction skills.
Motcr-perception skills involve perceiving, recalling and articulating in the correct order sounds and structures of language. Tleraction skills involve making decisions about communication, such as what to say, how to say it and whether to develop it in accordance with one’s intentions, while maintaining the desired relations with others. ‘To be more specific, Bygate discusses another term in speaking called “Toutir which are conventional ways of presenting information. He provides two kinds of routines: iformation routines and interactional routines.
Information routines may be described to involve two sub-routines: expository and evaluation. The former includes description, comparison, and instruction. The latter consists of explanation, prediction, justification, preference and decision. Interactional routines are telephone conversations, interview conversations, conversations at parties, lessons, radio or television interviews, which are structured in characteristic ways.
Learning and teaching facilitiss. Research Methods lọ 2. Data collection insiraments lọ CHAPTER III: MAJOR FINDINGS AND DICUSSIONS. Results of the survey questionnaire and interviews - - 2L 3.
Stuđpnls" nUiluẩos Iowards oral prescntation skills 2I 3.2, Students’ evaluations of their wn presentation skills. Factors affcting the students’ oral presentations - 22 3. Students" language proficiency - - 22 3. Studenls’ personality characteristics 25 3.2 Results from Class Observation - - - 29 3.32 CHAPTER LV: HECOMMIENDATIONS.
Recommendations for students 3 4.1, Having thorough preparation -.2, Taking partin self-evaluation and peer evaluation activities -. Recommendations for teachers - - - 35 4.1 Improving students’ onil profieicney 35 4.2, Irmproving stuđents° nonverbal sklls. Building tp studenfs" eonfiđenee. - - 36 PART II: CONCLUSION 1.
Summary of the study - - - 38 2. Limitations and suggestions for further study 38 REFERENCES APPENDIXES ‘The main aim of the study is to investigate the factors affecting oral presentations of the Sccond-Ycar English Major Studenls al Hanoi University of Industry. The specific objectives of the study are - ‘To identity the students” attitudes towards aral presentation skills + To get Lo know their valuations of their presentations + Toinvestigate the factors affecting thoir oral presentations - Togive some suggestions to improve their presentation skills 3. Scope and significance of the study ‘The study focuses on oral presentation skills in English in the classroom context of 82 second-ysar English majors al Hanoi Universily of Industry.
Mopefilly, the findings and recommendations of this study will be of some help for both teachers and students of English in the process of teaching and learning oral presentation skills. ‘Ihe results of this study may also be useful for those who are interested in this field 4. Methods of the study ‘To fulfill the above aims, the study was cared out with different methods of data collection: - A questionnaire was delivered to $2 second-year majors - Informal interviews with students were also employed - Class observation was carticd out to have deeper look at students’ presentations in the classroom. Design of the sludy The study is divided into three parts Part one, INTRODUCTION, presents reasons for choosing the topic, the aims, seope, significance, methods as well as design of the study.
Pat two, DEVELOPMENT, has four following chapters: Chapter one is the Literature Review which deals with theories and concepts related to speaking skills and oral presentations in English. Chapter two is Methodology in which the current situation of teaching and learning English in general and speaking in particular at Hanoi University of Industry is described. Rationale ‘Today, it is intemationally acknowledged that English has become the world’s most imporlanl language thal is used as a modium for international communication, especially in trade and business. Therefore, the demand for studying English is great, Many students choose to study this language as their major at university in the hope that they will be able lo find a good job aller graduation boca employers alway applicants who have excellent oral commmunication skills.
Capability to speak English fluently in general and presenting effectively in particular may be advantages for students in their future jobs. Making oral presentations brings students a lot of benefits which are bridging the gap between language study and Janguage use, using the four language skills in a naturally integrated way, helping students to collect, inquire, organize and construct information, enhancing team work, and helping sludents beoome active and aulonomous leamers, As a matter of thet, a language learner's ability to present in the target language is dependent on a number of factors which are not solely related to their knowledge of the language systems (grarmuar, vocabulary and pronunciation) bul. personality factors such as timnidity or self-contidence also play an important part. To get the best result for the presentations, students need to master a wide range of skills and techniques such as the use of language, the way to organize all ideas, the use of gestures, posture and eye-contact, and the ability to speak clearly and confidently Being a teacher of English, the researcher realizes that many second-year English majors at Ianoi University of Industry fail to deliver a presentation successfiilly and making cfective presentations is always their desire, Some sctious students who invest time and effort into an oral presentation do not always get the intended outcomes.
Other students try lo gel through the ordeat as quickly as possible, bul do not imprave their speaking skills undor such stross{ut situations. They have a lol of ideas for their presentations, but they do not perform well in the class to attract the audience's attention. These problems are the motivation for the researcher to carry out a study on factors affecting oral presentations of the Secomd-Year English major students at Hanoi University of Industry. 2, Aims of the study ‘The research methods which cover research questions, the participants, and data collection instruments are also mentionedin this chapter Chapter three presents some major findings and discussions based on the results of the questionnaire, interviews, and class observation.
Chaplor four, namely ommendations, offer ne suggestions for students and teachers al Hanoi University of Industry to improve students’ oral presentation skills Part three, CONCLUSION, summarizes what are addressed in the study. The limitations of the study and suggestions for further stady are also included in this part PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW, In the attempt to investigate factors affecting students’ oral presemations in English Forcign Language classrooms, il is thought thal the study nesds to point out the retation tre with students’ oral presentations. Many of them have knowledge of grammar, knowledge of the topic and content bul they still can nol produce 4 good presentation. In conelusion, “knowledge itself is not enough; knowledge has to be used in action”.
That is the reason why we need skills, which can be gained with practice. But what skills does a learner ofa forcign language need in order Io obtain good oral communication? To answer this question, i118 nec sary lo have a look al speaking skills 1. Nature of speaking Language skills involve four-macro skills, namely listening, speaking, reading and writing, which are inter-related. According to Byme (1986), the supportive relationship among these skills is clearly revealed when we look af oral communication which is a two-way process between speaker and listener (or listeners) and involves the productive skill of speaking and the receptive skill of listening.
He states that “the speaker has to encode the message he wishes lo conv in appropriais lmguage, while the listencr has te devo: interpret) the message”. Of the four skills, speaking plays a very important role since it is the first step to identify who knows and doss not know a language. rom Ur’s point of view (1996), speaking seems intuitively the most important: “people who know a language arc referred to as “speakers” of that language as if spcaking included all other kinds of knowing; and most foreign language leamers are primarily interested in leaning to speak”. The nature of speaking has attracted many scholars’ attention so far.
According to Bygate (1987), there are two basic ways in which we do can be scon as a skill. Thoy ar motor- perception skills and interaction skills. Motcr-perception skills involve perceiving, recalling and articulating in the correct order sounds and structures of language. Tleraction skills involve making decisions about communication, such as what to say, how to say it and whether to develop it in accordance with one’s intentions, while maintaining the desired relations with others.
‘To be more specific, Bygate discusses another term in speaking called “Toutir which are conventional ways of presenting information. He provides two kinds of routines: iformation routines and interactional routines. Information routines may be described to involve two sub-routines: expository and evaluation. The former includes description, comparison, and instruction.
