(LUẬN văn THẠC sĩ) an action research on developing speaking skill throught oral presentations with reference to the coursebook talk time for the second year non major students at hanoi university of industry

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ TÂM AN ACTION RESEARCH ON DEVELOPING SPEAKING SKILL TH

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ TÂM

AN ACTION RESEARCH ON DEVELOPING SPEAKING SKILL THROUGH ORAL PRESENTATIONS WITH REFERENCE TO THE COURSEBOOK “TALK TIME” FOR THE SECOND YEAR NON-MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ PHÁT TRIỂN KỸ NĂNG NÓI THÔNG QUA THUYẾT TRÌNH THEO CUỐN SÁCH “TALK TIME” CHO SINH VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN NĂM THỨ 2 ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI)

MINOR PROGRAM THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY

CODE: 60 14 10

HANOI – 2012

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ TÂM

AN ACTION RESEARCH ON DEVELOPING SPEAKING SKILL THROUGH ORAL PRESENTATIONS WITH REFERENCE TO THE COURSEBOOK “TALK TIME” FOR THE SECOND YEAR NON-MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ PHÁT TRIỂN KỸ NĂNG NÓI THÔNG QUA THUYẾT TRÌNH THEO CUỐN SÁCH “TALK TIME” CHO SINH VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN NĂM THỨ 2 ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI)

MINOR PROGRAM THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY

CODE: 60 14 10 SUPERVISOR: ĐINH HẢI YẾN, M.A

HANOI – 2012

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration i

Acknowledgement ii

Abstract iii

Table of Contents iv

List of Abbreviations vii

List of Tables, Charts and Figure viii

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 The rationales of the study 1

2 The scope and significance of the study 2

3 The aims of the study 2

4 Methods of the study 2

5 The design of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Speaking skill 4

1.1.1 Definitions of speaking 4

1.1.2 Approaches to speaking 5

1.1.3 Differences between spoken and written language 6

1.1.4 The importance of teaching speaking skill 7

1.1.5 Types of classroom speaking performance 7

1.2 Oral presentations 8

1.2.1 Definitions and characteristics of oral presentations 8

1.2.2 The importance of oral presentation skills 9

1.2.3 Types of oral presentations 10

1.2.4 Procedure for using oral presentations as a class activity 11

1.3 Sub-conclusion 12

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 13

2.1 Action research 13

2.1.1 Definitions and characteristics of action research 13

2.1.2 Why action research? 13

2.1.3 Phases in action research 14

2.2 The current situation of teaching and learning English at HaUI 16

2.3 The coursebook “Talk time” and the syllabus 18

2.4 Participants 19

2.5 Data collection instruments 19

2.6 Data collection procedures 20

2.7 Data analysis 20

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 21

3.1 Results from the questionnaire 21

3.1.1 Students’ attitudes toward the use of oral presentations in English lessons 21

3.1.2 Students’ suggestions to increase the effectiveness of oral presentations in English lessons 24

3.2 Results from the students’ journals 27

3.2.1 Students’ overall performance during oral presentations 27

3.2.2 Students’ suggestions to make a better presentation 29

3.3 Results from the observation sheet 31

CHAPTER 4: IMPLICATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 35

4.1 For students 35

4.1.1 Planning, preparing, rehearsing and presenting 35

4.1.2 Setting up a good mood for the presentation 37

4.2 For the teacher (s) 38

4.2.1 Establishing a supportive and low-threat learning environment 38

4.2.2 Improving students’ non-verbal skills 38

4.2.3 Improving students’ verbal skills 39

PART C: CONCLUSION 41

1 Summary of the findings 41

2 Limitations and suggestions for further study 42

REFERENCES 43 APPENDIXES I

Appendix 1 I Appendix 2 V Appendix 3 VII Appendix 4 VIII

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

HaUI: Hanoi University of Industry

ESL: English as a Second Language

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

LIST OF TABLES, CHARTS AND FIGURE

Tables:

2 Syllabus for teaching the course book “Talk time” 18

3 Students’ general beliefs in the usefulness of oral presentation 21

4 Students’ general belief about their own ability to do oral

presentation

23

5 Students’ general attitudes towards oral presentations 24

6 Result of the first observation of students’ presentations 31

7 Result of the second observation of students’ presentations 32

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 The rationales of the study

Obviously, English is one of the most important and powerful languages in the world No language, ancient or modern, can be compared with English in respect of its international status It is interesting to note that about half of mankind has chosen it as a means of communication with those who do not share the same language as them It is means of international communication in the sense that it helps in interlinking the people living in other countries of the world

In Vietnam, Ministry of Education and Training has put more emphasis on teaching and learning foreign languages, especially English than ever before It is explicitly stated in the project entitled “Teaching and Learning Foreign Language in national education system, period 2008-2020” that “by the year 2020 most Vietnamese youths whoever graduate from vocational schools, colleges and universities are capable of using a foreign language independently and confidently in communicating, studying and working in an environment

of integration, multi-lingualism and multi-culturalism, making foreign languages the strength of Vietnamese people to serve the cause of industrialization and modernization of the country” (Ministry of Education and Training, 2008, Decision No 1400/QD-TTg) To this aim, speaking as a communicative skill deserves more attention in teaching a foreign language With the recognition of the importance of developing speaking skill for students, Hanoi University of Industry has implemented a new program which lasts four semesters and focuses on teaching English extensively for communication The coursebook “Talk time” has been used for the fourth semester to help students master their speaking and listening skills Experiencing one term teaching this book last year, the researcher encountered quite a few problems in terms of the syllabus and the low English proficiency

of the students In addition, after making reference to the other teacherswho also teach this coursebook, the author found out that all of classes still applied teacher-centred approach

to the teaching and learning of English As a result, teacher talking time was much greater than student talking time in class Consequently, students’ speaking ability is not good enough To solve her own problems and give the students a chance to work independently and practise their English speaking skill, the author would like to do a small research on

“An action research on developing speaking skill through oral presentations with

reference to the coursebook “Talk time” for the second-year non-major students at Hanoi University of Industry”

2 The scope and significance of the study

This study mainly focuses on the impacts of oral presentations on the second year students’ performance in English lessons Besides, their attitudes towards making oral presentations

in class are also one of the concerns of the study After that, some suggestions to help students improve the effectiveness of their presentations and speaking skills are offered The study involves the participation of 42 second year non English-majored students of Faculty of Accounting at Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI) They have experienced four semesters studying English at this university

Conducting this study in a very specific context, I hope that, to some extent, the effective integration of oral presentations will make my students’ speaking and presentation skills much better and the current situation of teaching and learning English with the coursebook

“Talk time” at HaUI will be generally improved

3 The aims of the study

This study is designed to bring a new air into English classes for the second-year students

at HaUI In general, it has three purposes Firstly, it is to investigate the impacts of oral presentations on the students’ performance in English lessons Secondly, it aims at finding students’ attitudes towards the use of oral presentations in the classroom Finally, it is to provide the teachers with some suggestions to make best use of oral presentations in their teaching with a view to better their students’ speaking skill

4 Methods of the study

The theoretical background of the study is based on the theories and ideas presented in many books and articles published by various writers on language teaching in general and oral presentations in particular

This study employs three data collection instruments including questionnaire, students’ journals and observation sheet By administering a questionnaire to a group of people, a huge amount of information can be collected in a limited amount of time It is also proved

to be cost-effective and time-saving In addition, students’ journals provide extensive data

for the study Furthermore, teacher’s observation sheet is used to reflect students’ improvement in speaking and presentation skills

5 The design of the study

The study consists of 3 parts:

Part A, introduction, briefly states the rationales, the aims, the scope and significance, methods and design of the study

Part B, development, includes 4 chapters:

 Chapter 1, literature review, presents the theoretical background related to speaking skills and oral presentations in English

 Chapter 2, methodology, presents an overview on current situation of teaching and learning English in general and the coursebook “talk time” in particular Furthermore, a description of syllabus and the coursebook is clearly presented The justification of the use of data collection instruments is also included in this chapter

 Chapter 3, results and discussion, is devoted to the data analysis and discussion of the findings

 Chapter 4, implications and suggestions, offers some pedagogical suggestions for the students and teachers of English at HaUI

Part C, conclusion, summarizes the key points and the limitations of the study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter briefly presents the previous and current literature on speaking skill and oral presentations Besides, it also describes how oral presentations help improve students’ speaking skill in an ESL classroom

1.1 Speaking skill

1.1.1 Definitions of speaking

In terms of the direction and modality, speaking is a productive oral skill which is generated by learners in language teaching Speaking consists of producing systematic verbal utterances to convey meaning According to Florez (1999, p.1), speaking is “an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information” It is often “spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving” (1999, p.1) but it is not completely unpredictable

Scott (1990, p.70) adds that “speaking emphasizes the use of language above the level of the sentence” and that “the learner is now concerned with using language, not English usages” The ultimate goal of learning a language is actually to be able to communicate, not to know language grammar rules or language usages Therefore, learning to speak involves developing a number of skills and different types of knowledge about how and when to communicate

Brown and Yule (1983) propose a useful distinction between two basic language functions These are the transactional function, which is primarily concerned with the transfer of information, and the interactional function, in which the primary purpose of speech is the maintenance of social relationships They also highlight another basic distinction between monologue and dialogue when considering the development of speaking skill The two authors state that the ability to give an uninterrupted oral presentation (monologue) is rather different from interacting with one or more other native speakers for transactional and interactional purposes Therefore, presentation skills should be learned and practiced carefully

To conclude, it is totally wrong that knowing the grammar rules of a language means that one can speak that language The speaker has to possess a variety of knowledge about

language use and culture to convey the right meaning and about when to speak appropriately

1.1.2 Approaches to speaking

Traditionally, language teaching aimed at helping learners develop linguistic competence – that is, helping students master the sounds, words, and grammar patterns of English It was thought that they could eventually put them all together and communicate

In the mid-1970s, the notion of linguistic competence came to be viewed as a component

of the broader idea of communicative competence That is “the ability of language learners

to interact with others speakers, to make meaning, as distinct from their ability to perform

on discrete-point tests of grammatical knowledge” (Savignon, 1991, p.264) There are some important and prominent models of communicative competence but all of them include sociocultural competence, or the ability to use language appropriately in various contexts, strategic competence, or the ability to use language strategies to compensate for gaps in skills and knowledge Another important element of communicative competence is discourse competence, that is, how language is tied together, which includes both cohesion and coherence

These four components - linguistic competence, sociocultural competence, strategic competence and discourse competence - have several practical implications for EFL and ESL teachers Since communicative competence is a multi-faceted construct, it is important to understand the complexities learners face when they are speaking English One of those is balancing fluency and accuracy Accuracy refers to “the ability to speak properly- that is, selecting the correct words and expressions to convey the intended meaning, as well as using the grammatical patterns of English” (Bailey K.M, 2005, p.5) Meanwhile, fluency is “the capacity to speak fluidly, confidently, and at the rate consistent with the norms of the relevant native speech community” (Bailey K.M, 2005, p.5) Discussing this issue, Scarcella and Oxford (1992, p.156) have seen many educators who believe that in a communicative class, “it is not necessary to teach conversational features

or push students to communicate accurately” and that “fluency can be developed by simply providing students with lots of conversational practice” On the contrary, Ur (1996) believes that both fluency and accuracy are taken into consideration, apart from other factors This is a good balance Brown (1994, p.254) also shares the same idea that “both

fluency and accuracy are important goals to pursue in CLT” Nonetheless, the balance between fluency and accuracy is also dependable on the purpose of the course, the English level of students and the context of learning and teaching In fact, while students are at the beginning and pre-intermediate level of language learning, that is, they are learning to master grammar rules, acquire essential vocabulary items and search for the right words in their mental processes, accuracy and fluency often work against each other

1.1.3 Differences between spoken and written language

Recognizing the differences between spoken and written language are of great importance

to the language learners Sometimes speaking in a way that things would normally be written, or writing in a way that people speak can lead to strangeness, unnaturalness or inappropriateness because there are many differences between written and spoken language

One of the first things is that “when speech is written down it appears far more disorganised and chaotic than written language yet in real spoken interactions speakers are readily able to understand and respond to each other” (Burns A & Joyce, H 1997, p.7) That indicates that speech has its own systematic patterns and structures – they are somewhat different from those in written language Formulaic phrases or set expressions such as “I don’t know”, “you know”, “I mean” are often used in spoken language to help the speakers put forward their opinions There are also many slang words that are popped into spoken language, that depending on the context are not strictly correct in written language

There is far less repetition when referring to the main topic, so a written version of a speech will be much shorter Furthermore, “writing also tends to stick more to consistent grammatical structures” (p.8) Since written texts can be revised and thought out more thoroughly than spoken language, they can present communicative ideas in a precise, well-ordered and presented in a more sophisticated way engaging higher level vocabulary and ideas than is often presented in spoken language Conversely, spoken language can sometimes be more communicative than written language Speakers can use tone or body language to add a significant amount of information to the listeners

In short, spoken language is generally less formal and less precise than written language However, it can transfer more information than written language due to extra cues such as body language and tone

1.1.4 The importance of teaching speaking skill

For most people, the ability to speak a language is synonymous with knowing that language since speech is the most basic means of human communication Ur (1996) also points out that “of all four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), speaking seems intuitively the most important, people who know a language are referred to as “speakers”

of that language, as if speaking includes all other skills of knowing” (p.120) As aforementioned, with the emergence of communicative competence, the focus of language teaching is spoken language “The term “communicative” has often been interpreted as relating to speaking only, and in some cases, this has meant that the teaching of speaking has taken precedence over the teaching of reading and writing” (Hammond et al, 1992, cited in Burns, A (2002, p.54))

From the awareness of the role of speaking skill, it is easily recognized that teaching speaking skill is so important It creates motivation for students in the process of learning a foreign language because many of them view that learning a language is to use that language to communicate and express ideas The ability to communicate in a second language clearly and efficiently contributes to the learners’ success in schools and later in every phase of life Therefore, it is essential that language teachers pay great attention to teaching speaking

1.1.5 Types of classroom speaking performance

According to Brown (1994, pp.266-268), there are six categories of speaking performance that students are expected to carry out in the classroom They are imitative, intensive, responsive, transactional (dialogue), interpersonal (dialogue) and extensive (monologue)

 Imitative speaking performance is carried out in the form of imitation drills when learners listen to the teacher or a tape and repeat what is heard The author believes that “drills offer limited practice through repetition They allow one to focus on one element of language in a controlled activity” (p.266)

 Intensive speaking is one step beyond imitative speaking It includes any speaking performance that is designed to practise some phonological and grammatical aspect

of language

 Responsive performance is understood as short replies to the teacher’s or students’ questions or comments Brown (1994) supposes that these replies are usually sufficient and do not extend to dialogues, so they can be meaningful and authentic

 Transactional (dialogue) is an extended form of responsive language It is carried out for the purpose of conveying or exchanging information or messages Conversations are considered to have more of a negotiative nature than merely responsive speech

 Interpersonal speaking performance is carried out more for the purpose of maintaining social relationships than for the transmission of facts and information These conversations are a bit challenging for learners because they can involve some or all of the factors, namely, colloquial language, slang, ellipsis

 Extensive (monologue) is for learners at intermediate to advanced levels They are required to give extended monologues in the form of oral reports, summaries or short speeches, which can be planned or delivered without preparation

1.2 Oral presentations

1.2.1 Definitions and characteristics of oral presentations

Oral presentations are defined as “brief discussions of a focused topic delivered to a group

of listeners in order to impart knowledge or to stimulate discussion” (“Guidelines for Oral Presentations”, 2001) When somebody is speaking about some topic in front of a group of people, that means he or she is making a speech or giving a presentation It is often assumed that only VIPs have chance to make a speech However, the fact is that almost everyone may face the necessity of giving a presentation, regardless of his or her occupations In class, students can also make a speech or give a short presentation Their listeners or audience are their teacher and classmates This activity is then called classroom presentation

Iftimie, N.M and Chang A.N (n.d, p.83) give a more detailed definition on oral presentations They claim that “making an oral presentation means preparing and

delivering a speech on a specific topic in a clear, concise and logical form” From this definition, it is clearly seen that there are three four elements of oral presentations-that is, content, delivery, language and organization

According to Clark, D (2010), a good presentation firstly has content That is, it contains information that people need Secondly, it has structure with a logical beginning, middle and end It must be sequenced and paced so that the audience can understand it Thirdly, a presentation is characterized by packaging: it must be well prepared Finally, a good presentation has human element in it It will be remembered much more than a report because it has a person attached to it

1.2.2 The importance of oral presentation skills

In a broader perspective, presentation skills play an increasingly important role for students’ future job prospects They are not only a must for faster growth in the organization but also a necessity to be in the eyes of management to get responsible assignments When people can speak clearly, concisely, and convincingly, they will gain enormous confidence, which as Emden and Becker (2004, p.2) put it “will result in an even better presentation next time” and “the newfound confidence may affect other areas of work” Moreover, through mastery of speech, individuals come to fully effective in organization, in the management and expression of ideas and arguments (Powell, 2003)

In a narrow perspective, oral presentations help improve students’ vocabulary, grammar, speech delivering ability and strategic competence They also often provide practice in speaking for the presenter Firstly, while preparing a presentation, the presenter has to think twice before choosing which words, phrases or structures to use or what sentences to make Later on, when delivering the presentation, he also has to recall such knowledge in order to make an accurate speech Therefore, his vocabulary and grammatical knowledge is revised and improved all the time throughout his presentation Secondly, the speech delivering ability is much improved through making presentations because the speaker has

to look for the way to deliver his speech so that the audience would most likely to understand and enjoy it Lastly, presentations help improve strategic competence The presenter should find the most appealing ways of beginning, developing and closing his speech to draw his audience’s attention In other words, the presentation skills and the strategic ability are tightly linked to each other

In a word, presentations help improve communicative competence in particular and speaking skill in general, in a surprisingly effective way To a greater extent, presentations help develop learners’ command of English

1.2.3 Types of oral presentations

In terms of the manners of delivery, Dwyer (2000, pp.198-199) offers a thorough description of five presentational forms or speeches, as he calls them as the followings:

 The impromptu speech is unexpected and delivered without preparation Consequently, it is important for him or her to think clearly and speak briefly and straight to the point

 The manuscript speech is structured and read It is suited to longer, more difficult presentations such as technical and legal ones, a press release or a speech that will

be reported However, it is important to keep and maintain eye contact with the audience by using wide margins, large type and double spacing

 The memorized speech is learned and recalled It is suited to short talk The speaker should try to memorize the introduction carefully If he or she tries to memorize a long talk, he or she may get lost or lose confidence

 The briefing is a short oral summary or report of a plan, event or operation Its aim might be to inform, propose or justify solutions or persuade the audience

 Team briefings are most often used for staff meetings, reports to supervisors or managers on progress, results or problems As the name suggests, team briefings refer to team members working together for their presentation

In terms of the speaker’s intention, there are three types of presentations including entertaining, persuasive and informative

 An entertaining presentation simply tries to gain and keep the audience’s attention The speaker wants the listeners to have a good time and to be amused or interested

most commonly used type of presentation in classrooms and in scientific conferences at universities

To conclude, an oral presentation can be one of the above-mentioned types Each type of presentation has its own characteristics However, a presentation is sometimes mixed up by several types At universities, students can work individually or be grouped to present a new topic of the lesson in front of the class or share their ideas about an issue

1.2.4 Procedure for using oral presentations as a class activity

Oral presentations have been used in teaching to improve learners’ speaking ability for many years This issue has also been discussed by scholars, researchers and practitioners

As a matter of fact, the purposes of oral presentations, according to Underhill, 1987, Miller, 1994, are to help language learners develop their fluency and increase their confidence when speaking Underhill (1987, p.47) suggests that “in a less formal situation, mini presentations may be a routine part of the daily teaching schedule” Each day a learner takes turns to make an oral presentation to the rest of the class At the end of the

presentation, he/she is supposed to deal with any questions raised by their friends It is the

learner’s job to conduct the whole activity without the intervention of the teacher The presentation may be taped either for marking or for subsequent classroom analysis

Miller (1994, pp.280-281) shows the procedure for oral presentations carried out as a class activity as follows:

1) At the beginning of the semester, have students organize themselves into small groups

2) Generate topics for discussion in one of three ways:

 Have the students suggest topics

 Prepare and suggest topics to the class

 Have students (or yourself) research and suggest topics related to their field

of study

3) Make sure each group has a different topic, which can vary depending on the level

of the class and the interests of the students

4) Discuss strategies for presenting topics in English and encourage group members to agree or disagree with the ideas of other members during the upcoming discussion Let students know that after each group discussion, one member will be chosen to

present the groups’ ideas to the class It is important not to tell the group in advance who is going to speak in front of the class so that all students take part in the group discussion

5) Have one member of each group present the ideas to the others for a group discussion lasting about 12-15 minutes, while you listens and circulate among groups to help with language problems (Try to intervene as little as possible so students are encouraged to speak freely)

6) Once the time has expired, choose one person from each group to stand up and present the group’s ideas to the whole class for 2-3 minutes

7) Encourage students in the class to ask the presenter/group questions

In short, oral presentations, if properly guided and carefully planned, will provide a positive learning experience and long life skills in the students’ future careers Students need to be supplied with linguistic skills as well as non-linguistic ones to make a good presentation and master their speaking skill

1.3 Sub-conclusion

In summary, this chapter has presented some background theories related to speaking skills and oral presentations including the definitions, the characteristics, the importance and some types of speaking performance and oral presentations It gives the researcher the framework to follow throughout the thesis

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter provides background information about action research, the current situation

of teaching and learning English of non English-majored students with the coursebook

“Talk time” and a description of the methodology employed to collect data for the study

2.1 Action research

2.1.1 Definitions and characteristics of action research

For many years, action research has captured the attention of practitioners and administrators and is becoming increasingly significant in language education It is defined

in a number of different ways Frost (2002) claims that “action research is a process of systematic reflection, enquiry and action carried out by individuals about their own professional practice” (cited in Costello, 2003, p.3) Bassey (1998, p.93) shares the same view and defines it as “an inquiry which is carried out in order to understand, to evaluate and then to change, in order to improve some educational practice” In other words, it allows teachers to study their own classrooms – for example their own teaching methods, their own students, their own assessment – in order to better understand them and be able

to improve their quality or effectiveness According to Kemmis and McTaggart (1988), there are three major characteristics of action research Firstly, it is carried out by practitioners (classroom teachers) rather than outside researchers Secondly, it is collaborative Lastly, it is aimed at changing things (cited in Nunan, 1992, p.17)

In short, action research is referred to as a process or an inquiry carried out by the educators to improve the current state of affairs within the educational context

2.1.2 Why action research?

It is necessary to do researches into classrooms to improve and develop teaching and learning Teachers need to know what is exactly happening in their classes, what students are thinking, why they are reacting in the way they do, what aspects they need to focus on and how they should change in these aspects and then they will know what is beneficial to their students

As a teacher, the author does not have an ambition to change and solve big problems of the university or the education system This study addresses her own problem in her teaching and this kind of research gives her opportunity to better understand, and therefore, improve

her own teaching practices It also provides her with alternative ways of viewing and approaching her teaching questions and problems and with new ways of examining her own teaching practices

2.1.3 Phases in action research

Gerald Susman (1983, p.102) identifies five phases in conducting in this kind of research

as in the following figure

Figure 1: Action research phases

2.1.3.1 Diagnosing

In English lessons, the author found that the students were quite passive in their learning They did not contribute actively to the lessons and they often kept quite It seemed to her that she spoke almost all the time in class It was clear that teacher-centred approach was still applied to the teaching and learning English in HaUI in general and in this class in particular As a result, the students’ speaking ability is not good

DIAGNOSING Identifying or defining

EVALUATING Studying the consequences of anaction

TAKING ACTION Selecting a course of actions

2.1.3.2 Action planning

To solve her own problems, the author worked out several alternative ways which could be applied in this context to improve her students’ speaking skill and give them opportunity to work independently and responsibly They are role-play activity, discussion activity, information-gap activity, oral presentations Finally, she decided to choose oral presentations as a learning activity to help her solve her problem

2.1.3.3 Taking action

Students were required to make presentations in class in groups of three on one of the topics in the coursebook

 They chose the group members at the first period of the course

 The teacher provided a list of topics for them to choose or they could choose their own topics which they were interested in but it had to be related to the lesson and agreed by her

 Each presentation was allowed to give in about 15 minutes In other words, each presenter had 5 minutes for their part of presentation

 Each representative of the groups drew the lots to decide which topics they would make their presentations on

 Students could use the computer and the projector equipped in the classroom It meant that they had to prepare PPT slides for their presentations

The teacher devoted the first period to give students detailed instructions on how to prepare for the presentation, how to entrust tasks for each member of the group to ensure that all of them had to raise their voice in their presentation, and how to make an effective presentation, in which presentation skills were discussed More importantly, she told them about the criteria for their performances (see Appendix 2) She had to make sure that all of the students understood exactly what they had to do by asking them some questions to check

A unit which consisted of two different topics (see table 2) would be learned in 6 periods:

3 on Monday morning and 3 on Wednesday morning The procedure of a presentation was carried out as follows A group made presentation on a topic relating to the lesson and then some minutes were spent on asking and answering questions and discussion Students were

also given a chance to make comments on their friends’ presentations During the presentations, they acted as audience, observers and assessors Finally, teacher’s constructive feedback on the presentation played a very important role so that students could improve presentation and speaking skills

The teacher gave a mark for each member of the groups because of the following reasons First, it forced all students especially lazy and passive ones to work and practice for the presentation Second, it encouraged their enthusiasm and creativity to achieve the best result Last but not least, it provided the teacher a tool to assess students’ speaking ability

2.1.3.4 Evaluating

When actions were taken, some instruments such as questionnaires, observations and students’ journals were employed to collect data to evaluate the consequences of these actions

2.1.3.5 Specifying learning

After data were collected, they would be analyzed to find out the results and the findings would be interpreted in light of how successful the action has been

2.2 The current situation of teaching and learning English at HaUI

In general, English is paid much more attention than other general subjects at HaUI The teaching of English is divided into two phases In the first phase (the first four semesters), students study general English with four skills: writing, listening, reading and speaking After the first phase, students are expected to understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e.g very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment), to communicate in simple tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar matters, to describe their background, their environment, their experiences and events, briefly give reasons and explanations for their opinions In other words, with reference to speaking skill in particularly, students can interact with an acceptable level of fluency and accuracy with the others on familiar and common topics One teacher is responsible for teaching English including four skills during the whole semester for one class In the second phase (the fifth semester), they study English for specific purposes matching with their majors (e.g., English for accounting, English for electricity, English for tourism…) After this phase, it

is expected that students can acquire some basic vocabulary related to their fields and understand technical terms which they might find or use in their future jobs The below table summarizes the English curriculum at HaUI

Semester Number of

credits

Coursebook

1st semester 6 New Headway (elementary)

2nd semester 6 New headway (Pre-Intermediate-the first half)

3rd semester 6 New headway (Pre-Intermediate-the second half)

4th semester 6 Talk time

5th semester 3 English for specific purposes

Table 1: English curriculum at HaUI Students at HaUI come from many provinces of the country, from rural villages to developed cities Therefore, the number of years of learning English is very different Some has had more than 10 years while others has had only one year studying English at HaUI Moreover, the levels of English proficiency of the students especially speaking skill are generally various and quite low The problem results from several causes The first one

is that their academic results from the entrance university exam are very low, so the consciousness, consciousness and self-study of most students may not be good The second cause is that they still adopt the teacher-dependent learning style which is not suitable for university students who are required to research and work much more independently at university than at high schools For a long time at high schools, they only focused on grammar exercises and vocabulary in order to pass the written exams, and they hardly spoke English As a result, although some of them have acquired a good knowledge of grammar and vocabulary, their English speaking ability seems to be quite bad The last problem, as I believe, is that the teacher-center approach has been applied for a very long time at HaUI The teacher seems to present all the things in the book and play the decisive role in their students’ learning process, and gradually creates a teacher-dependent learning style for them

self-In a nutshell, the teaching and learning situation at our university are not as good as we expect Therefore, enormous efforts should be made to help improve students’ English proficiency in general and speaking in particular

2.3 The coursebook “Talk time” and the syllabus

The coursebook “Talk time” adopted by HaUI for the second year non English–majored students is “Talk time 3” by Susan Stempleski published by Oxford University Press in

2007 It is a listening and speaking book based on a task approach Each unit has two lessons, and each lesson has five parts: speaking, listening, grammar, conversation, and communication There is a total of twelve thematic units in “Talk time” Listening and grammar presented in manageable chunks allows for plenty of speaking time

As for syllabus, the class meets twice a week on Monday and Wednesday, each time for 3 45-minute periods The term lasts 15 weeks of studying The following is the table which describes the syllabus for teaching the coursebook “Talk time”

Theory Practice Test

1 Unit 1: Describing characters – Free-time activities 02 04

3 Unit 3: Everyday activities-Life experiences 02 04

4 Unit 4: School subjects- At school 02 04

5 Unit 5: Phone messages-Favors and requests 02 04

7 Unit 7: Customs-Events and celebrations 02 04

9 Unit 9: Recent activities-Leisure activities 02 04

10 Unit 10: Describing people-Everyday habits 02 04

12 Unit 12: Before you travel-Travel experiences 02 04

It is worth noting here that there is not a clear time distribution among four skills in a lesson Nonetheless, the main aim of the course which focuses on students’ listening and speaking skills is shown clearly in the detailed syllabus of the subject

2.4 Participants

The participants of the study were 42 students of class KT5.1 at Department of Accounting and Auditing including 40 females and 2 males They were in second-year with the age range of 18 – 20 Almost of them come from rural areas (90.4%) and have learned English for more than 5 years They were assumed to be at the pre-intermediate level of English proficiency 95.2% of the students in this class reported that they had already made an oral presentation in English lessons before

2.5 Data collection instruments

Questionnaire: It was constructed to find out:

 two aspects of students’ attitudes towards the use of oral presentations including general beliefs in the usefulness of oral presentations and perceptions about their own ability to do oral presentations

 general attitudes towards oral presentations

 students’ suggestions to make the best use of oral presentations

The questions in the questionnaire were translated into Vietnamese so that students could fully understand them and consequently give the precise answers The questionnaire consisted of three sections:

 Section 1 was designed to get the information about the students: gender, age, the place where they have grown up, the time of learning English and whether they have made an oral presentation or not

 Section 2 was designed to collect data to answer the first research question on students’ attitudes toward the use of oral presentation in English lessons

 Section 3 was designed to gather students’ suggestions to increase the effectiveness

of oral presentations in English lessons

Students’ journal: The students were asked to write journals regularly every week after

speaking lessons to express their reflection on the oral presentations The journals were aimed to collect data for the research, thus, they were structured to focus on some main

ideas: students’ opinions about oral presentations in the lessons, what they learn from their classmates’ presentations and what they think needs improvement to make a better presentation The students were also informed that the journals were not marked but they were just means by which they felt totally free to reflect their feelings, opinions of the lessons

Teacher’s observation: The author observes class during the students’ presentations to

notice the improvement of their speaking and presentation skills

2.6 Data collection procedures

The questionnaire was distributed to all students of the class in the last lesson of the semester They were asked to complete the questionnaire during the break All the survey questionnaires were collected by the researcher right after the students finished all the questions

With regards to students’ journal, the teacher asked her students to write journals which were guided with some questions given by her after each lesson She collected some of their journals randomly in each lesson and all of them in week 2, 8, 15

The last data instrument - observation - was made by the teacher during the students’ presentation from the second meeting to the end

2.7 Data analysis

The answers for the questions in the questionnaire were used for analysis The information was quantified according to the pre-determined categories Descriptive statistics were mainly employed to examine the collected data In addition, raw data was transformed and illustrated in tables which made the data easy to understand and compare For the responses to open-ended questions or data obtained from the journals, the common themes were found out and analyzed after several times of reading through In analyzing the journals, the common themes arisen in the journals were identified and classified

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This part of the thesis presents and discusses the findings that arise from the data collected

in order to answer the research questions Results from the questionnaire, the students’ journals and observation sheet will be analyzed and discussed in turn

3.1 Results from the questionnaire

3.1.1 Students’ attitudes toward the use of oral presentations in English lessons

3.1.1.1 General beliefs in the usefulness of oral presentations

1 Making oral presentations helps

me learn English better

2 Oral presentation skills are

important in English learning

4 Making oral presentations in

class helps me practice my

speaking skill

5 Making oral presentations in

class helps me to be more aware

of my pronunciation

2.4% 2.4% 7.1% 61.9% 26.2%

6 Making oral presentations in

class helps me widen my

vocabulary

7 I acquire a lot of new

knowledge about the topics of

presentations

8 After doing presentations in 4.8% 4.8% 9.5% 76.2% 4.8%

English, I feel more confident in

speaking English in class

9 I am interested in searching for

information and preparing for my

presentations

10 Through searching and

reading many materials, my

reading skills are improved

Table 3: Students’ general beliefs in the usefulness of oral presentations Overall, the students believed that oral presentations are useful for their learning Almost all of them shared the same idea that making oral presentations helped them to improve their English including their pronunciation, speaking skill, vocabulary, knowledge, and reading skill As be shown in the table, 19% of the students strongly agreed and 73.8% agreed that “oral presentation skills are important in learning English” Nevertheless, while analyzing the data, the researcher realized that there were only two students who almost stated the negative opinions on the usefulness of presentations They chose “disagree” or sometimes “strongly disagree” for most of the statements from 1 to 10

As can be seen from the table, a quite large percentage of respondents strongly agreed that

“making oral presentations in class help[ed] [them] to be more aware of [their] pronunciation” (26.2%), “making oral presentations in class help[ed] [them] practise [their] speaking skill” (23.8%), “making oral presentations help[ed] [them] learn English better” (19%) It indicated that as students believed, pronunciation and speaking skill were two aspects that they gained a lot of benefits while practising delivering their oral presentations

in class Apart from these, 16.7% had no idea, 7.1% disagreed and 4.8% strongly disagreed with the idea that “listening to [their] classmates’ presentations [was] helpful for [them] in learning English” It did not mean that they paid no attention to their classmates’ presentations Perhaps they learnt or understood a little from the presentations One of reasons for this may result from their low English proficiency Besides, nearly one fourth

of the students disagreed or did not show their opinion on that “making oral presentations

in class helps widen [their] vocabulary” and “[their] reading skills [were] improved” It could be understood that some of them benefited a little from these aspects

To summarize, the results tabulated above revealed that overall students were actually highly positive in their beliefs about benefits and usefulness of doing oral presentations In particular, they did agree that doing oral presentations “helps [them] learn English better” and “practice [their] speaking skill”

3.1.1.2 Students’ general belief about their own ability to do oral presentations

11 Making English oral

presentations is easy to me

11.9% 11.9% 19.1% 57.1% 0%

12 I am confident in doing oral

presentations in English

4.8% 14.3% 26.2% 54.8% 0%

13 I’m afraid of making oral

presentations in English lessons

Table 4: Students’ general belief about their own ability to do oral presentations

As can be shown in the table, more than half of the students (57.1%) believed that making oral presentations was easy to them and nearly the same percentage reported that they were confident when making presentations in English Although almost all of the students had already done presentations in class before, many of them found it difficult or very difficult

to do an oral English presentation in class In addition, no student was totally confident in doing oral presentations in English However, 45.3% of them stated that they weren’t afraid of making oral presentations in English lessons

The cause of these ratings might come from both the teacher and the students The teacher might not have given the students enough guidance and clear instructions, so they were confused about what to do and how to do As for students, bad speaking ability, wrong pronunciation and poor vocabulary prevented them from doing a good presentation They were afraid of making mistakes and losing face in front of their classmates In fact, they were not experienced enough to make an effective presentation

To conclude, only half of the students believed in their own ability to do oral presentations

in English