A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES IN PRESENTATION SKILLS OF FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT ENGLISH FACULTY, THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY, AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS

THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH DEPARTMENT ------ GRADUATION PAPER A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES IN PRESENTATION SKILLS OF FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS AT ENGLISH FACULTY, THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY,

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

Supervisor : Mrs Pham Minh Hong, MA

Student’s code : 18D170159

Hanoi, 2022

ABSTRACT

The study is concerned with factors affecting the oral presentation skills of the 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

first-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

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT i

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES vii

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Previous studies 2

1.3 Aims of the study 3

1.4 Research Subjects 4

1.5 Scope of the study 4

1.6 Research methodology 4

1.7 Organization of the study 5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Theoretical overview 6

2.1.1 Speaking skills 6

2.1.2 Communication skills 6

2.1.3 The definition of oral presentation and oral presentation skills 7

2.1.4 Types of oral presentation 8

2.1.5 The important role of oral presentation in learning English 8

2.2 Factors affecting English learners’ presentation skills 9

2.2.1 Student’s language proficiency 9

2.2.2 Mental elements 10

2.2.3 Teacher’s role 11

2.2.4 Performance condition 11

2.3 Characteristics of a good presentation 11

2.4 Difficulties in presentation skills 12

2.4.1 Difficulties in language skilsl 12

2.4.2 Lack of presentation skills 13

2.4.3 Computer literacy 13

CHAPTER 3: MAJOR RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 15

3.1 Research methods 15

3.1.1 Participants 15

3.1.2 Research instruments 15

3.1.3 Data collection process 16

3.2 Data analysis 16

3.3 Research Findings 17

3.3.1 Current status of presentation skills of first-year students at English Faculty, Thuongmai University 17

3.3.2 The result of the survey questionnaire 17

3.3.2.1 General information 17

3.3.2.2 English and presentation skills usage of first-year English-majored students 18

3.3.2.3 First-year English-majored students’ attitude towards presentation skills 20

3.3.2.4 First-year English-majored students’ perceptions of the necessity of oral presentation skills 22

3.3.2.5 First-year English-majored students’ evaluations of their own presentation skills 23

3.3.2.6 Factors affecting students’ oral presentation skills 24 3.3.2.7 Difficulties in presentation skills encountered by first-year

English-3.3.3 Students’ suggested solutions 30

CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 33

4.1 Summary of the study 33

4.2 General recommendations 33

4.2.1 For Thuongmai University 33

4.2.2 For teachers 34

4.3 Some possible solutions to enhance presentation skills of first-year English majors 35

4.3.1 Practicing speaking and presenting more and more 35

4.3.2 Having thorough preparation 36

4.3.3 Developing both verbal and non-verbal language 36

4.3.4 Joining extra activities 37

4.3.5 Videoing for the trial performance 37

4.4 Limitations and suggestions for further study 38

4.4.1 Limitations of the study 38

4.4.2 Suggestions for further study 38

CONCLUSION 39

REFERENCES viii

APPENDIX x

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Chart 3.1 First-year English-majored students’ English usage 18 Chart 3.2 First-year English-majored students’ presentation skills usage 20 Chart 3.3 First-year English-majored students’ level of interest in giving an oral presentation 21 Chart 3.4 First-year English-majored students’ perception of the necessity of oral presentation skills 22 Chart 3.5 Students’ evaluations of their own presentation skills 23 Chart 3.6 Factors affecting first-year English-majored students’ oral presentations 24 Chart 3.7 First-year English-majored students’ feelings when making a presentation 25 Chart 3.8 Difficulties in presentation skills encountered by first-year English-majored students 26 Chart 3.9 Student’s suggested solutions to improve presentation skills 31

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 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

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”

1.2 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

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

1.3 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:

● Identifying the main difficulties in oral presentation skills encountered by year students at English Faculty, Thuongmai University

first-● 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?

1.4 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

1.5 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

1.6 Research methodology

The researcher chose a quantitative research method and data therefore were collected via an online questionnaire survey The quantitative data derived from the questionnaires were analyzed and explained through the data analysis and research findings sections

1.7 Organization of the study

The construction of this study consists of four parts as follow:

Chapter 1: Overview of the study

The introduction presents the rationale, the aims, the research subjects, the scope, the research methods and the organization of the study

Chapter 2: Literature review

This chapter deals with the background literature relevant to the study: speaking skills, communication skills, oral presentation skills, the role of presentation skills

in learning English and some factors affecting English learners’ presentation skills

Chapter 3: Data analysis and research findings

This part presents the research method and studies on the findings and discussion of the findings The chapter also shows the results of the survey questionnaires

Chapter 4: Recommendations and suggestions

The research gives the recommendations and suggested solutions for improving English presentation skills of first-year English majors at Thuongmai university Limitations and suggestions for further study are also presented in this part

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Theoretical overview

2.1.1 Speaking skills

In Vietnam, English is taught as a compulsory subject for students at all levels, and

it has been considered an essential foreign language Learning English requires four skills, namely: speaking, writing, listening, and reading According to Ur (1996), speaking seems to be the most crucial skill of the four skills as people who know a language are usually referred to as speakers of that language It is not the same as speaking in a classroom that students need to learn in repetition as real-life speaking means “we do not repeat what others say, we make our own sentences and dialogues” (Joanna Baker & Heather Westrup (2003)

In the speaking process, many elements need to be understood, such as vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and intonation Each element has a connection to one others Vocabulary is an essential matter in speaking because speakers can express their ideas and deliver information without any problems with vocabulary Grammar becomes the structure of how the speaker can deliver the message because, through an exemplary structure of language, the listener may understand the information well Another element is pronunciation, where English sounds and voices are produced If any mistake happens in pronouncing English words, misunderstanding will happen to the listener Then, the communication will not occur The last element is intonation Through this element, the speaker may successfully deliver the message to others In addition, all of those elements support students to master English skills, especially speaking If students develop good

speaking skills, their presentation skills and proficiency will be improved

2.1.2 Communication skills

Communication and presentation skills are intertwined as successful communication necessitates presenting skills Presentation skills enable the presenter to interact with the audience, including their boss, colleagues at work, or friends and teachers at the university, in a more effective and professional manner

Communication is necessary for our daily lives because it allows us to exchange information, ideas, and thoughts between individuals or groups of people Individuals with strong communication abilities have a better competitive advantage

in their social lives, relationships, and careers English communication skills have become one of the most highly appreciated skills in the workplace Individuals with strong communication and presentation skills have a greater chance of getting a job and promotion in their career path

2.1.3 The definition of oral presentation and oral presentation skills

Oral presentations are defined as brief discussions about a specific topic presented

to a group of listeners to transfer knowledge or stimulate discussion They are comparable to short papers with the introduction, main body, and conclusion The oral presentation is also known as "a planned and rehearsed talk or speech that is not committed to memory or read directly from the script, given by a presenter (sometimes more than one) to an audience or two or more people" (Levin & Topping in Irvine, 2009: 10)

During the language learning process, presentation is a popular kind of activity where a student or a group of students give a speech on a topic of their own choice

or given by the teacher An oral presentation often consists of three main parts: introduction, body, and conclusion The introduction's primary purpose is to state the topic and capture the audience's attention It is the most essential part of the presentation as it sets the tone for the entire presentation The body must inform or persuade the audience, consisting of main points and sub-points The body is the main part of the presentation where all the information is presented The last part is the conclusion which is aimed to summarize the information presented in the body Presentation skills are the skills required to deliver successful and compelling presentations to a wide range of audiences Presentation skills are the ability to combine relevant information and knowledge with other supporting tools to make the content more attractive and easily engaging These skills cover a variety of areas such as the structure of the presentation, both verbal and non-verbal

communication, the presentation's content, necessary knowledge, and some helpful technology tools to attract the audience's attention

2.1.4 Types of oral presentation

According to the University of Adelaide, “oral presentations are a common feature

of many courses at university They may take the form of a short or longer presentation at a tutorial or seminar, delivered either individually or in groups” In

the classroom setting, there are commonly two kinds of oral presentation:

Individual Presentation

In this kind of presentation, only one person creates the presentation and then delivers it to a group of listeners or audience Individual presentations could enable students to gain confidence during public speaking, or it can help students accept personal responsibility for critically analyzing and responding to questions Therefore, students can have a deeper understanding of the topic

Group Presentation

There are substantial benefits to assigning presentations in groups Group presentations require teamwork between students to organize and prepare for their presentations Groups encourage cooperation and help students get mutual feedback while developing the presentation Groups can prepare presentations during or outside of class Through this kind of presentation, students could realize the importance of teamwork and work together with very little intervention from the teacher

2.1.5 The important role of oral presentation in learning English

Firstly, making presentations is an important and popular kind of activity held by the lecturer in the language classroom setting If adequately guided and organized, oral presentations provide learners a learning experience and lifelong skills that would be beneficial to students in every subject as well as their future career paths Making presentations effectively in a proper way would improve not only students'

English-speaking abilities but also other skills like outlining a talk, organizing ideas, dealing with questions, etc

The second thing to consider is that oral presentation actually develops students' ability to practice public speaking in their educational environment, which is also helpful for their future career paths When it comes to presentations in the university, students have the opportunity to deliver the information and message in words This process not only involves speaking without reading in a fluent, accurate, polite way but also other presentation skills to make the presentation more effective While presentation skills are required as a part of the learning process at university, students who have good presentation skills could be more confident and score some points with the lecturer The same is true in the working environment; having good presentation skills may open more career doors, particularly when individuals attend a job interview or deliver a speech at a corporate meeting

Another point worth noting is that equipping presentation skills may be considered

a confidence booster Al Harun, Mohammad Osman Farhan, K M Amirul Islam, and Mohammad Aminur Rahman (2016) point out that when being asked to say something in English, most Japanese and Bangladeshi students in higher studies feel shy and embarrassed due to the lack of familiarity with oral presentations and its techniques There is no denying that when students stand up in front of an audience and speak clearly and convincingly, they will gain buckets of confidence, and "the newfound confidence may affect other areas of your works" (Emden & Becker 2004) What is more, in the present job market, if the students want to achieve a high position in their ideal company or simply want a good job with high pay after graduation, presentation skills could be one of the must-have essential soft skills

2.2 Factors affecting English learners’ presentation skills

2.2.1 Student’s language proficiency

It is evident that students' language proficiency is one of the factors contributing to the success or causing the failure of an oral presentation Language proficiency is

defines: "Proficiency consists of the learner's knowledge of the target language; it can be considered synonymous with "competence" Proficiency can be viewed as linguistic competence or communicative competence Second Language proficiency

is usually measured in relation to native speaker proficiency." According to Stern (1992), Proficiency can be looked at as a goal and thus be defined in terms of objectives or standards These can then serve as criteria by which to assess Proficiency as an empirical fact, that is, the actual performance of given individual learners or groups of learners Language proficiency is defined as the language ability or ability in language use The grading criteria for assessing English speaking proficiency are pronunciation, fluency, and accuracy Firstly, pronunciation plays a vital role in English speaking to express our ideas It will be easier for listeners to understand and catch the message if the presenter pays attention to intonation, word stress, and sentence stress The capacity to construct proper sentences with correct grammar and vocabulary is called accuracy English fluency refers to the ability to utilize the language with ease The capacity to read, talk, or write quickly, smoothly, and expressively is known as fluency To explain it more clearly, the speaker can read, understand, and react effectively and concisely

in a language while relating meaning and context

2.2.2 Mental elements

Another factor is related to students' mental elements In the classroom, students with different levels of anxiety and confidence may result in different levels of success Many researchers have the same point that feelings of anxiety, apprehension, and nervousness are commonly expressed by learners when they have

to make an oral presentation in a foreign language King (2002) considers speech anxiety one of the main factors that hinder learners from giving effective presentations and therefore cause oral presentation failures This fear comes in part from a lack of confidence in general linguistic competence as well as the embarrassment of disclosing language errors in public Besides, learners' personality traits such as shyness, reticence, and introversion are frequently the main reason leading to limited communication It goes without saying that such

feelings may prevent the learners from achieving the desired goal, and they will be running around in circles

2.2.3 Teacher’s role

King (2002) emphasizes that working with students on oral presentations is a challenging job for teachers because it not only involves training students' speech communication and public speaking but also demands more of teachers in terms of time and effort in lesson planning and teaching strategies In other words, the teacher's role is to guide and advise rather than to direct and manage Furthermore, the teacher must attach much importance to creating a supportive learning atmosphere, acquiring interaction skills, and applying technology To conclude, the teacher's role in supporting students when making oral presentations not only includes providing detailed guidelines, helping students to select topics, guiding their research, and helping them learn the use of various visual aids, but also holding Question & Answer sessions, providing constructive feedback, and evaluating their performance

2.2.4 Performance condition

In a classroom, students have to conduct an oral presentation under various conditions Performance conditions can affect speaking performance, including time limits, preparation, performance standard and the amount of support

2.3 Characteristics of a good presentation

According to Comfort (1995), things that create an effective presentation are identified below:

- organization – have clear connections between the different parts or ideas

- information – make sure that it is interesting and relevant to the audience

- impact – make sure to have a strong introduction and conclusions

Delivery:

- clear, simple, and fluent

- use of natural spoken language

- use of pauses for emphasis

Body language:

- use of strong, clear gestures for emphasis

- good eye contact with the audience

- positive, confident, and relaxed manner

- no distracting gestures

Visual aids:

- clear and simple messages

- efficient, professional use of equipment

2.4 Difficulties in presentation skills

2.4.1 Difficulties in language skilsl

English language proficiency:

According to Wikipedia, “language proficiency is the ability of an individual to use

language with a level of accuracy that transfers meaning in production and comprehension” The capacity to comprehend and create English, including reading and writing if relevant, is referred to as English proficiency Knowing a lot of vocabulary and grammar does not necessarily imply that one has English proficiency Students who have not reached the level of English language proficiency may find it difficult to deliver their presentation as they cannot express

their ideas or thoughts in words due to limited language ability This problem has not been discovered recently, and each student’s hard learning process might solve

it

2.4.2 Lack of presentation skills

Time management:

When conducting a presentation, students may find it hard to manage time and tend

to speak more than the time allowed It is true that time management is an essential skill for any public speaker It is important that the presentation starts and finishes

on time as it is a matter of respect for the audience Not being able to manage time for a presentation does negatively influence the presenters' mental attitude, and they could fall into a state of worry and anxiety

Teamwork:

It cannot be denied that teamwork plays an important role in group presentations Inability to do teamwork makes it hard to prepare and decreases the effectiveness of the presentation Team members may not always work well together, and that individuals put their efforts into shared goals creates challenges to completing tasks efficiently

Body language:

Body language is the skill needed when giving a presentation However, some individuals may find using body language in front of the public ridiculous and weird Lack of body language would make the presentation more boring and unattractive as the presenter could not be able to engage the audience

2.4.3 Computer literacy

Visual aid:

As a matter of fact, visual aids nowadays contribute significantly to the presentation's success One of the standard visual aids is Microsoft Powerpoint,

which is widely used in almost every university in our country and all around the world It is low technology ability that makes the presentation performance more ineffective Moreover, first-year students are newcomers, and they therefore cannot gain proficiency in making PowerPoint slides

CHAPTER 3: MAJOR RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Research methods

3.1.1 Participants

This research was carried out with the participation of 52 freshman students of the English Faculty The survey questionnaires were answered by completely random students These questionnaires include some English questions in order to have a basic understanding of the current situation of studying English first, and then figure out some major challenges in presentation skills encountered by English-majored freshmen at Thuongmai University Participants were asked to select the most appropriate answers in a practical view The questionnaire contains not only single choice but also multiple-choice questions to ensure respondents have the full context as they are answering

3.1.2 Research instruments

The instrument that was used in this research was a questionnaire The researcher used closed questionnaires because the answer would be well organized The researcher believes that the best approach for achieving the study's purpose is to use

a questionnaire to collect, describe, and analyze data on the challenges that students have when making oral presentations

The survey questionnaire was delivered to 52 first-year English majors This method helps the researcher collect data quantitatively for analyzing, summarizing, and reporting The questionnaire consisted of three parts The first part was about students’ personal information with their email, classification, place of domicile before university, the number of years they had learned English, and the amount of time spent learning English per day In addition, English and presentation skills usage, level of interest in presentation activity, their attitudes toward the necessity

of oral presentation skills, and their evaluations of their presentation performances were also included in this part The second part was designed to determine the factors affecting their oral presentations in the classroom The third part was about

difficulties encountered by first-year English majors in presentation skills The last part included one question asking students for their suggestions to help them better their presentations All questions were adapted from the searching process and based on the researcher’s own experience The questionnaire was written in English; however, students were advised to use either English or Vietnamese to add their own opinion to “others” options Some questions were explained with examples so that the students did not get ambiguous

3.1.3 Data collection process

The questionnaires were designed after searching for documents and based on the researcher's own experience and ideas After careful consideration, the questionnaire contained several contradictory factors and it finally was revised to be more suitable for first-year English majors at Thuongmai University

Due to the pandemic situation, the survey questionnaire was planned to deliver to the students through an online form The researcher explained clearly the purposes

of the questionnaire which were to identify the first-year English major students’ difficulties in presentation skills and some possible solutions to improve their presentation skills After a few days, the results were collected from 52 participants All of the students were asked to provide truthful answers to contribute to the research results

descriptions, and the data were shown in charts or diagrams

in the class as they show no interest in conducting a presentation Through the questionnaire survey, although students had a good foundation in English and worked hard to learn and practice the language frequently, they could not perform well in front of the class due to many difficulties The researcher will present these difficulties encountered by first-year English-majored students and identify the

main factors affecting their presentation performance in the next part

3.3.2 The result of the survey questionnaire

3.3.2.1 General information

Based on the results, there were fully 52 first-year students of English faculty coming from urban areas and small towns The data showed that 35 of them were from big cities in which there were favorable English studying conditions while 17 ones were from rural areas where they had limited opportunity to learn a foreign language early Consequently, the English education background of the participants according to the given time duration was also different Based on their responses in the survey, 40 students affirmed that they had learned English for more than 7 years, 6 students were in the group of 5-7 years, and 4 students had spent 2-4 years studying English This fact revealed that they seemed to have a good foundation for English learning Only 2 students had recently focused on studying English as their answers showed that they had studied English for under 1 year This might be explained by their dissatisfaction with the selected major and learners therefore choose English as their new direction

The survey results showed that the importance of English was positively recognized

by most English Faculty freshmen at Thuongmai University as they were learning this second language quite hard The students spent at least 1 hour studying English per day Of 52 students joining the survey, only 19% of them spent more than three hours learning English, 16 % of the students studied English from two to three hours and 42% answered they learned this foreign language from one to two hours each day Early realizing the importance of English and being proficient in English would be one of the successful keys that help students have a better future once they graduate from universities These students could have more options to advance their careers and increase their competitiveness in modern society However, 23% of the

52 students seemed not to follow the active learning strategies as they spent just less than one hour per day on English studying

Obviously, spending time studying English for 3 hours or more surely makes the skills of most students much better than non-major students

3.3.2.2 English and presentation skills usage of first-year English-majored students Question 6 How can English be used in your daily life and study?

Chart 3.1 First-year English-majored students’ English usage