Difficulties faced by first year students of Tour guides at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts in English oral presentations. = Những khó khăn đối với sinh viê20150227

This minor thesis was carried out with an attempt to investigate the areas of difficulties and obstacles that first years students of Tour guides have encountered when learning English o

ABSTRACT

The importance of English oral presentation is undeniable in the Tour guiding work Therefore, understanding the students of Tour guides’ difficulties in learning English oral presentation skill is apparently necessary to gain effective ESP teaching and learning

This minor thesis was carried out with an attempt to investigate the areas of difficulties and obstacles that first years students of Tour guides have encountered when learning English oral presentation skill at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts (THCCA)

The minor thesis is organized in 3 parts:

Part I presents the rationale, aims and significance of the study, research questions, scope, method and design of the study

Part II consists of 4 chapters

The first chapter concentrates on the background of the study and the related literature reviews, on which the contents of the study are based

The second chapter focuses on developing the research methodology, in which the two questionnaires for first year students of Tour guides and ESP teachers are chosen as main instruments

The third chapter is to present the data collected from the two questionnaires and to analyze the data

The fourth chapter aims at discussing the findings of the difficulties as well as some solutions in the hope to develop students of Tour guides’ English oral presentation skill at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts

Part III summaries the study and offers some suggestions for further study

LIST OF TABLES Table 1: The students’ time of learning English before entering the College

Table 2: The students’ difficulties in making English oral presentations in the class

Table 3: Students’ causes of difficulties

Table 4: Students’ suggestions

Table 5: The teachers’ experience of teaching ESP

Table 6: The teachers’ opinions of students’ attitudes

Table 7: Teachers’ teaching methods

Table 8: Teachers’ opinions of the topics and of the ESP syllabus

Table 9: Teachers’ opinions of the factors causing students’ problems

Table 10: Teachers’ suggested solutions to students’ problems

Figure 1: The students’ living conditions before entering the College

Figure 2: The students’ awareness of the importance of English oral presentation

Figure 3: The students’ evaluations of the topics in the textbook

Figure 4: The students’ evaluations of their ability of making English oral presentations

Figure 5: Teachers’ perceptions of the importance of English oral presentations

Figure 6: Teachers’ difficulties in teaching English oral presentations

1.1.4 The importance of English Oral presentations to students of Tour guides 8

1.2 Problems with English oral presentation of Tour guides 9

2.1.1 ESP teaching and learning situation at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts 12

2.1.4 Materials used for first year students of Tour guide at THCCA 13

2.1.4.3 Materials 14

3.1.2.3 Students’ evaluations of the topics and their oral presentation of Tour

guides in the class

19

3.1.2.4 Students’ difficulties in learning English oral presentation skill 21

3.2.2.2 Teachers’ perception of the importance of English oral presentations to

students of Tour guides

26

3.2.2.3 Teachers’ opinions of Tourism major students’ attitudes to English oral

presentations

26

3.2.2.4 Teachers’ methods in teaching English oral presentations to first year

students of Tour guides

27

3.2.2.5 Teachers’ opinions of the contents in the course book and of ESP syllabus 28 3.2.2.6 Teachers’ difficulties in teaching English oral presentations 29 3.2.2.7 Teachers’ opinions of the factors causing students’ problems and teachers’

4.1.2 Teachers’ difficulties in teaching English oral presentation 34

4.2.2.2 Improve their performance ability of English oral presentations of Tour

guides

38

4.2.3.1 Change the ESP teaching syllabus and equip conductive facilities 38 4.2.3.2 Provide ESP teachers with chances to take part in Tourism training

courses

39

4.2.3.3 Create an ESP practice environment for students of Tour guides 39

PART III: CONCLUSION 41

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Nowadays, English has become the language of international communication It is not possible to see that not only English language has been a major concern and but also oral communication skills also become very necessary to all the learners Communication among nations has rapidly improved with the development of international programs There is, therefore, an over – growing need for foreign languages with English being the

“most wanted” So, people really need good English communication skills in all the areas One of these areas is tourism

Tourism is an important and comprehensive economic branch with profound cultural contents of an inter-branch, inter-regional and highly socialized character Being a growing industry, tourism in Vietnam provides interesting opportunities for Vietnamese students to work with people This industry certainly need tourism graduates develop strong oral communication skills And we can recognize the main language skill in tourism

is English communication skill which is considered as universal language in all the fields

of the tourist sector at an international level Mastery of this language proves essential for a correct bibliographic research in any of the subjects included in the training course of Tour guides

To students of Tour guides, English oral communication skill is very essential since the industry is really in need of the graduates who have the skills For first year Vietnamese students of Tour guides at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts, English oral presentation is extremely important because they expect to use it frequently for their tour guiding work However, for nearly seven years of teaching ESP at THCCA, the researcher

of the study have realized the fact that many learners of Tour guides course after a long time of learning English for Tourism find themselves unable to deliver an oral presentation successfully Among of them, there are a large number of first year students who always find it difficult to make English oral presentations in the class

For this reason, the researcher decided to choose the theme “Difficulties faced by

first-year students of Tour Guides at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts in English oral presentations” as the topic of this thesis The aim of the study is to identify the

problems of students’ poor English oral competence so that appropriate solutions could be proposed to the question under investigation

2 Aims of the study

The study is aimed at:

- investigating first year students of tour guides’ difficulties in English oral presentation skill

- giving some suggestions and solutions to reduce difficulties and improve the teaching and learning of English oral presentations in Tour guides training course

In other words, the aims of the study are to answer the following questions:

1 What are the difficulties faced by first year students of Tour guides at Thanh Hoa College of Culture and Arts in English oral presentations?

2 What are the solutions to overcome the identified difficulties?

3 Scope of the study

With the above aims, the research is limited to the exploration of difficulties encountered by first year students of Tour guides at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts

in English Oral presentations It involves the participation of 80 first-year Tourism majors who are in their second semester at THCCA The findings and suggested solutions most appropriately applied to the teachers of ESP as well as first year Tourism majors of THCCA That is, students of Tour guides will be able to find ways to improve their process

of learning English oral presentation skill

Also, various sources of data were used, involving first year students of Tour guides and teachers of English at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts in order to address the aims of the study:

 Conducting a survey questionnaire to investigate first year students’ difficulties

in English oral presentation skill

 Conducting a survey questionnaire to examine teachers’ view on first year students’ difficulties in English oral presentation, their teaching techniques and suggested solutions to the identified problems

 Resorting to personal experience

All these questionnaires were carried out at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts

5 Design of the study

The study consists of three parts:

Part I (Introduction) presents the rationale, the aims, the scope, the methodology and the

design of the study

Part II (Development) consists of following chapters

Chapter 1: Literature review aims at the theoretical background, which is relevant

to the aims of the study

Chapter 2: Methodology describes the research methodology, which focuses on the

context of the study, participants, instruments and data collection procedure

Chapter 3: Data analysis and discussion gains results from the questionnaires for

students and teachers

Chapter 4: Finding and Suggested solutions give the findings and some suggested

solutions to the problems of the study

Part III (Conclusion) summaries the study and offers some suggestions for further

research

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Current view on oral presentations

1.1.1 A general view of oral presentations

In “Guidelines for Oral Presentations” (Ohio Wesleyan University), 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 They are similar to short papers with an introduction, main body and conclusion The ability to give brief presentations is a learned skill and the one that is called on frequently

in the workplace”

There exist a number of reasons why oral presentation skills should be developed in the literature on oral presentations According to Emden & Becker (2004), they hold the

idea that the “ability to speak well enough to interest, influence or persuade other people is

a major asset for whatever they want to do in the future and it may change them in ways that they did not expect” That idea is true as the learners can get benefits from oral

presentation skills

First of all, oral presentations often provide practice in speaking for the presenter and they develop the ability to speak to an audience When we make a presentation, we may seem to be a more limited activity than other tasks, such as role play, information-gap activity; it can in fact involve all the language skills We will have to develop and use this skill in all our life

In addition, through the mastery of speech, individuals come to be fully effective in organization, in the management and expression of ideas and arguments, especially when they write a report or even write an essay (Powell, 2003)

After all, when we can present clearly, concisely, and convincingly, we will gain

enormous confidence, which as Emden and Becker (2004) put it “will result in an even

better presentation next time” and “the newfound confidence may affect other areas of

your work” We are more ready to ask and answer the questions, respond to a challenge and organize their work more effectively

As a result, with the above - mentioned reasons, giving oral presentations is one of the necessary skills that students have to acquire in learning a foreign language In the context of Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts, it seems to be the most important skill to majors of Tour guides as it helps the students improve their own academic performance, communicate, exchange information with their tourists and thereby develop personal confidence

1.1.2 Types of oral presentations

Oral presentations are classified based on their purposes and forms or manners of delivery According to Randall P Whatley, there are following common types of

presentations: informative, instructional, arousing, persuasive,

//www.cs.wisc.edu/%7Emarkhill/conference-talk.html)

An informative presentation is the first type of presentation that provides awareness

and understanding They are basically descriptive The presenter, firstly, must keep an informative presentation brief and relevant; secondly, stick to the facts and avoid complicated information; finally, he/she should choose one of the following organizational structures for this kind of presentation: time, place, cause and effect, and logical order For example, an informative presentation explains when, where and how things should happen

An Instructional presentation is the second type which gives specific directions or

orders The presentation will probably be a bit longer, because it has to cover the topic thoroughly In an instructional presentation, the listeners should come away with new knowledge or a new skill

An arousing presentation aims to make people think about a certain problem or

situation The presenter wants to arouse the audience's emotions and knowledge so that they will be receptive to his/her point of view To be effective, he/she must use vivid language, visual aids, music, etc in an arousing presentation

A persuasive presentation is to motivate a belief, an evaluation, or a specific course

of action It is basically evaluative and prescriptive A convincing persuasive presentation offers a solution to a controversy, dispute, or problem To succeed with a persuasive presentation, the presenter must present sufficient logic, evidence, and emotion to sway the audience to his/her viewpoint

Finally, a decision-making presentation aims to move the audience to take the

presenter’s suggested action A decision-making presentation presents ideas, suggestions, and arguments strongly enough to persuade the audience to carry out the presenter’s requests In a decision-making presentation, he must tell the audience what to do and how

to do it He/she should also let them know what will happen if they do not do what he/she asks

However, Dwyer (2000) offers a thorough description of four presentational forms

or speeches, as he calls them:

by the speaker The flash cards or paper may have quotes, comments and statistics

This method is also generally preferred by people as it allows more eye-contact with audience The people can concentrate on the speech and the speaker gets a chance to connect with the audience without boring them A speaker can be helped by letting them practice their genius and ensures they don’t fumble at the same time

Manuscript Method:

For long speeches which may have technical data, complex figures and quotations from authorities the manuscript method is a better option In this method the speaker reads from an already prepared speech Government officials, politicians and executives prefer this method as it helps them read important details verbatim

Although, this method is good for speeches where data is to be quoted, or the speech is too long to memorize, however reading the entire speech word for word should

be avoided Direct eye contact is hardly possible in this method therefore, the audiences get bored quickly To use this method to its fullest aids like large font, double-space and wide margins should be used When it becomes easy to read, it becomes possible to pass glances

on audience from time to time

Speaking on the spur of moment is called Impromptu Speaking This type of speech

is expected from people to give comments and remarks or a rebuttal in a debate

Though this method of presentation is most interesting, particularly if the speaker is very witty, however it has many threats to it The speaker might not be able to convince his audience, or may get confused; his ideas might appear to be incoherent

By practicing a few things people present their ideas through this method It is possible to speak impromptu from time to time The key is good listening If possible, notes should be jotted down to avoid confusions With the help of good listening, impromptu thinking becomes not only possible but also enjoyable

1.1.3 Structure of an oral presentation

According to the literature on oral presentations (Comfort: 1995; Dwyer: 2000; Emden & Becker: 2004, etc.) an oral presentation consists of three main parts: the introduction, body and conclusion

The introduction aims to state the topic and get the audience’s attention It gives the audience a preview of the presentation, so it is important to stimulate their interest at this stage Although a well-crafted introduction should be succinct, it should provide the audience with several pieces of information such as who you are and an accurate pronunciation of your name; background information as needed; the purpose or goal of the presentation; a preview of the main points or major ideas to be covered in the body

The body is the central part of the presentation in which the presenter informs, persuades or entertains the audience So the presenter can make the presentation lively and interesting by including information, such as personal experiences, examples and illustrations, facts, and statistics A relevant personal story or example can make all the difference between a dry presentation and a memorable one Graphic illustrations and other visual aids not only help to clarify the message, but also add color and credibility

In order to let the audience know you are about to end the talk in the conclusion, the presenter should use signal phrases such as “in conclusion”, “to summarize”, “in closing” It reinforces and summaries the information presented in the body So, a clear summary of the purpose and main points will help the audience get the big picture and increase listeners’ understanding

In short, an oral presentation has three main parts Part one is Introduction It “sets the scene” and engages the audience by motivating them to listen by relating the topic to

their interests Part two is the body or the development It must explain, support, and

defend the theme in the introduction All main points must be covered The last one, the

conclusion is a brief overview of the presentation The presenter may also conclude by

inviting the audience to take some action, or by challenging them, or by asking for their cooperation or support and thanking them for attending

1.1.4 The importance of English Oral presentations to students of Tour guides

Most of students realize that tour guide is a very interesting job In many cases, the tour guide is a traveler’s first impression of a foreign country In other cases a tour guide may be responsible for teaching tourists about the culture and sites in a city or town In addition, many tour guides hold the responsibility of teaching tourists about safety Even if

a tour guide is only responsible for taking a tourist from the airport to his or her hotel, it is his/ her responsibility to make the short trip interesting, informative, and safe During the tour, therefore, English oral presentation is very important to tour guides in Vietnam because it is considered as a bridge linking foreigners to various destinations of tourism When working with international visitors, English is the first choice to use in oral presentations Through a tour guiding, a presentation would be introducing the place or the country in terms of its importance and history, politics, culture and fauna and flora to the participants of the tour According to Virtual University for Small States of the Commonwealth (2010), for an on-site tour guide, the vocal delivery is necessary Presentation in this aspect is also called a tour commentary, which is referred to as “guide

speaks” A presentation enables the tour guide to show himself as the leader and the one

responsible for the group A presentation helps the tour guide to ascertain control over his group, and enables the presenter to identify who is following and who is not A presentation standardizes the information passed to all

Guide speak may be considered a form of public speaking The characteristics of a good presentation are fundamental to the job of the tour guide

Therefore, the characteristics of a presentation can be clarified as follows:

 Use of short, simple, clear words

 Simple phrases not convoluted meandering The commentary should be succinct and clear

 Focus is on the topic or sight It must be authentic and stay on track

1.2 Problems with oral presentations of tour guides

A great majority of the students of Tour guides are well aware of the importance of English oral presentation for their future careers However, presentations are always the

challenges to most of them, especially for first-year students who had little previous experience on making presentations Their main problems can be identified as follows:

A bad layout before making an oral presentation

A layout can be seen as key notes for the speech It helps the speakers have clear and enough information before starting the speech However, the students of tour guides often encounter the problems in the first step of an English oral presentation and as a result, giving a layout is the foremost difficulty in the process Students seriously underestimate the amount of preparation it takes to give a good presentation The suggested main ideas are not listed in order or necessary information is not provided enough The list is usually quite long, ranging from lack of substance or poor organization

to speaking in a monotone or using verbal fillers like "um" and "you know”

Poor specialized knowledge of Tourism destinations

Students must have enough background knowledge of Tourism before making oral presentation That means they must have profound information related to Tourism field to take foreigners to tourism destinations However, the specialized knowledge of Tourism remains a problem in making oral presentations Students often have poor information about their destinations That leads to boring or bad presentations because information is not provided enough or exactly

Bad English speaking skill

Speaking skill is one of the major elements which deciding a successful presentation In the process of speaking, speakers need master pronunciation, intonation, stress, rhythm… because English pronunciation, stress- timed rhythm of spoken English and its intonation patterns convey important massages But the fact that learners of English often find it difficult to pronounce English words, especially the words related to Tourism

fields, to stress the right syllables, to follow the stress- timed rhythm and intonation patterns of spoken English

Nervousness

Arnold (2003) discusses anxiety as a hindrance to effective communication The main reasons for anxiety in public speaking appear to be a lack of confidence Besides, speakers are concerned with various difficulties in grammar, lexis, and pronunciation Therefore, getting nervousness in English presentation is a big problem of a large number

of learners That is the fact of many students when they endorse the item “I get nervous and confused when I am speaking in my language class” and some other agree that “I feel very self-conscious about speaking the foreign language in front of other students” Almost half of the students reported that they started to panic when they had to speak without preparation in the target language When students cannot control their anxiety, they tend to think about negative evaluations from other people and the situation becomes worse In fact, oral presentations always cause high anxiety level to students So, learners will show poor English speaking performance because they are not competent in using the target language

Bad communicative competence

Having a bad communicative competence comes from the main causes of having bad performance & response skill Good performance is considered an important element

in the presentation process because it attracts the audience’s attention An oral presentation

of a Tourism destination will be very boring if the speaker does not know how to perform his/her skill Response skill is also required as speakers have to deal with the response from the listeners And the speaker can be seen as an intelligent presenter or a good tourist guides through his/her response ability

As a result, students often complain that they cannot think of anything to say, or that they have no intention to express themselves beyond the guilty feeling It means that they have

many pauses during the speech because of having nothing to present That leads to an

interrupted presentation or disjointed speech

To sum up, as making English oral presentations, most of first year students of Tour

guides encounter many problems Basing on these views, the researcher intends to investigate those difficulties in the hope of giving solutions to the identified problems and

improving the students’ English oral presentation skill

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

2.1 The context of the study

2.1.1 ESP teaching and learning situation at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts

Thanh Hoa College of Culture and Arts has been in operation for 20 years At the

beginning, its duty was to train only teachers of Art and Music, so English serves as a means that provides students with basic knowledge about grammar and vocabulary Since 2004, Tour Guide has been as a new branch which was trained in the Faculty of

Culture and Tourism with the tasks of training Tourist guides Accordingly, English has become a major subject for students of this field

2.1.2 Teaching staff

THCCA has 8 teachers of English aged between 25 and 55 They are working at the

Faculty of Culture and Tourism Two of them have got a M.A degree of English from Hanoi University of languages & international studies and the rest hold a B.A degree in

English language teaching There are only two young teachers who take charge of only teaching Basic English, the others are responsible for both Basic English and ESP None of them have been completed the short – term English for Tourism course They enjoy

teaching and spend all of their enthusiasm and effort making their teaching lessons

interesting and attractive to the students However, during the ESP teaching process, teachers have to face with many difficulties in terms of knowledge of the specific field

they have to teach and the teaching methodologies appropriate to ESP

2.1.3 Students of Tour guides

Every year in the past, 30- 60 students were selected to be trained as Tourist guides But in the school year of 2010 – 2011, 100 students are trained in the Faculty of Tourism The intended subjects of this study are drawn from the first year students of Tour guides Their age ranges from 19 to 22 years old Each ESP class consists of about 25 - 35 students They have 5 periods of ESP per week

Entering the College, they have to pass the entrance exam of English, Math, and Literature They are supposed to have the intermediate level of English Most of the students have good proficiency of English; however, their speaking ability is still limited The course book used for teaching English oral presentations is designed by the teachers of English Division The course book is task-based designed All the topics in this book are selected from different materials related to tourism atractions in Vietnam and in Thanh Hoa province The objective of the course book is to provide students with necessary information about Tourism destinations, and help them be able to make oral presentations

2.1.4 Materials used for students of Tour guides at THCCA

2.1.4.1 The objectives of the course

Students will have chances to get a college degree specialized in Tour guides after having a 3 year training course at THCCA After graduation, they can have a choice to apply for the job as tourist guides in Thanh Hoa province

In the first stage of the course, students are provided with general knowledge of English In the second stage, their professional knowledge of English is improved to meet the essential requirements of Tour guiding work

Before graduation, students are helped to improve their English oral presentation skill and enrich their useful ESP knowledge relating to Tourism field In addition, they will

be supplied with intensive knowledge of Tourist guides and related terms in Tourism industry so that they can use ESP well as a useful tool in their future job

2.1.4.2 The syllabus

To students of Tour guides At THCCA, the teaching of English is divided into two stages During the first stage (consisting only of the first term), students study Basic English with four micro skills namely: speaking, listening, reading and writing (Pre - intermediate Lifelines textbook is chosen with the time devoted to it is 75 periods/15 credits The second stage lasts five terms in which students learn ESP related to their field and the subject is English oral presentation of Tour guides That means English oral presentation skill is introduced only after the students have studied BE for one term The ESP syllabus is meant for five semesters with the length of 180 periods, thus students will have 5 periods per week Each unit lasts for 5 to 10 periods depending on the length and difficulty of its content

2.1.4.3 Materials

The 2nd stage is time for students to study ESP for their professional field At this

stage, students will study the course book “English for Tourism” designed by teachers

working in English group at THCCA The ESP course book for oral presentations covers

18 units for 5 semesters dealing with interesting topics:

Traditional festivals in Vietnam (including Lunar New Year in Vietnam; Huong Pagoda

Festival; Hung Temple Festival; Lim festival, Lam Kinh festival);

Traditional working villages in Vietnam (including Bat Trang pottery village; Dong Ho

folk painting village; Van Phuc silk village; Nga Son sedge mat village; Stone Craft of Nhoi mountain);

Beauty spots (including Halong Bay; Phong Nha - Ke Bang grottoes, Nha Trang beach,

Sam Son resort; Cam Luong Fish Spring)

Historical cultural vestige sites (including Hanoi flag Tower, Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum,

Ba Trieu Temple; Ham Rong historical vestige site; Ho Dynasty Citadel)

Eco – Tourism (including Cat Ba island; Ao Vua eco-tourism site; Cuc Phuong National

Park, Ben En National Park, Cat Tien National Park)

The purpose of teaching English for Tourism is to develop the students’ presentation competence so that they can make fluent and successful English oral presentations of Tour guides for their future career Therefore, oral presentation skill is

paid attention to from the second semester and “English for Tourism" course is chosen to

conduct the study

2.2 The research methodology

2.2.1 Research questions

The study is seeking the answers to three questions below:

1 What are some difficulties faced by first year students of Tour guides at THCCA?

2 What are feasible solutions to overcome the identified difficulties?

2.2.2 The participants

The participants of the study are 06 teachers of English who teach ESP to major students of Tour guides at THCCA They range from 28 to 50 years of age All of them have taught ESP major students for at least one year 80 students were chosen from 100 first year students of Tour guides Most of them are female (80%) aged between 19 and 22 These first year students specialized in Tour guides who have finished one semester of BA

at THCCA, they are now learning ESP for their field

2.2.3 The instruments of the study

2.2.3.1 The questionnaire for the students

Based on certain knowledge about the students’ problems gained through seven years of experience as a teacher of English at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts, the

survey questionnaire was designed to find out the difficulties first-year majors of Tour guides might encounter when making ESP oral presentations 80 copies of a questionnaire were given to 80 first year students of Tour guides at THCCA who agreed to answer the questionnaire The questionnaire for students is in English so as to make sure that there is

no misunderstanding (see Appendix 1)

2.2.3.2 The questionnaires for teachers

To get teachers’ opinions on English oral presentation teaching methods, another set of questionnaires were distributed to 06 teachers who are teaching ESP to Tourism major students at THCCA to collect information about teacher’s difficulties they encounter

in their ESP teaching Teachers’ opinions of the course book used for their teaching and their techniques in dealing with students’ problems were also referred in this questionnaire.(see Appendix 2)

2.2.4 Data collection procedures

The time for data collection lasted during the fifth month of the second semester of the school year 2010 – 2011 Because it was the time students were going to complete the first term of learning English oral presentation skill of Tour guides.Students may have an overview on the difficulties of English oral presentation skill in their training course

In the first week, the questionnaires were delivered to 80 first year Tourism major students The students had 15 minutes to complete the questionnaire The purpose and importance of the study were explained While students were completing the questionnaires, any questions were clarified by the teacher

In the second week, 06 copies of another questionnaire were delivered to 06 teachers who are teaching English oral presentations skill of Tour guides for the first year Tourism major students The time for them to complete it was 05 days

2.2.5 Summary

This chapter presented the research questions, data collection instrument and analysis In the next chapter, the data analysis and discussion will be presented

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, the results of the study are presented The data has been collected from the questionnaires for teachers and students The results will be presented in forms of

tables

3.1 The questionnaires for students

3.1.1 Methodology

To make sure that the study has adequate reliability, a questionnaire is delivered to

80 first year students of Tour guides who are learning English oral presentations in three different classes These students are following the ESP syllabus conducted by the administrators at THCCA The questionnaire (Appendix 1) consists of 8 questions with different categories:

- Student’s living conditions and English learning background before entering the College

- Student’s awareness of the importance of English oral presentations in their future career

- Students’ evaluations of the topics and their oral presentation of Tour guides in the class

- Students’ difficulties in learning English oral presentation skill

- Factors causing the students’ difficulties

- Students’ suggestions

3.1.2 Results

3.1.2.1 Student’s living conditions and background of learning English

The background of the students will be discussed in Figure 1 and table 1

In the countryside

Over a half of students (57.5%) were from the countryside where the English learning condition was poor There were only 18.75% of the informants coming from the city/towns where they had better conditions for learning English More noticeably, 23.75%

of the students were from mountainous/remote areas where English seemed to be new for them

Table 1: The students’ time of learning English before entering the College

3 years (from grade 10 to grade

Table 1 pointed out the students’ time of learning English 54 students (67.5%) had learnt English for three years while 0% of the subjects had never learnt English The students learning English for 7 years was 26 (account for 32.5%)

In brief, a conclusion can be drawn out from the result of the two first questions that the first year students of Tour guides at THCCA are affected by English learning conditions and time of learning English before entering the College

entering the College

The students’ living

condition before entering the

College can be seen as an important

element that affects students’

ability of learning English in

general All the students are local

residents and they came from

different areas in the province

3.1.2.2 Student’s awareness of the importance of English oral presentations in their

strongly agree strongly disagree

Their responses could be explained by some reasons Some of the students thought

English oral presentation skill was not necessary in their job because they might work in

Thanh Hoa province only, even they would work in the remote areas or the countryside

where projects for Tourism development have not been carried out and tour guides almost

have never had chances to communicate with foreign visitors So, there was a certainty of

Tour guide students’ negative attitudes towards their ESP learning course

3.1.2.3 Students’ evaluations of the topics and their oral presentations of Tour guides

in the class

Figure 2 showed that not all students

had good awareness of the importance of

English oral presentation skill Indeed, 17.5%

of the students disagreed and only 2.5 strongly

disagreed with question 3 However, fairly

high percentage of informants (80% including

60% strongly agreed and 20% agreed)

considered English oral presentation skill as a

necessity in their future Tour guiding work

Figure 3: The students’ evaluations of the topics in the textbook

The topics in “English for Tourism” course

book were selected and designed into

different subjects relating to Tourism

destinations in Vietnam such as famous

working traditional villages, interesting

beauty spots in many areas… Teachers of

English at THCCA had tried their best to

collect ESP knowledge for this course

book

Figure 2: The students’ awareness of the importance of English oral presentation

The content in the book was divided into 5 sections of Tourism destinations in Viet Nam and in Thanh Hoa province: traditional festivals, traditional working villages, beauty spots, historical vestige sites and ecotourism However, as the results of figure 1, only 26 students (32.5%) thought that these topics were interesting Whereas, over a half of informants, 46 students (53.75%) found the topics difficult, 5 of them (6.25%) claimed that the book was boring and only 3 of students (3.75% ) believed it was easy to learn

presentations only reached average level And 42 students (52.5%) claimed that their skill was at low level No students affirmed that they totally succeeded in giving English oral presentations

The students, to some extent, seemed to have a negative evaluation of their oral presentation skills In fact, according to the record of the students’ weekly oral presentation performance and marks given to them, it could be said that many of them did not make effective presentations

Figure 4: The students’ evaluations of their ability of making English oral presentations

According to figure 4, it could be

said that presenting in English was new to

the first-year majors of Tour guides so they

tended to consider their success low and

limited Figure 2 showed the details of the

responses to question 5 as follows: 18

students (22.5%) thought they were

successful while 20 students (25%) stated

that their own ability of making oral

In conclusion, according to the students’ evaluations, the majority of the first-year majors of Tour guides were not successful with presenting in English and they complained the course book was difficult for them to learn Some students found the topics interesting but making English oral presentations about them were not in a good procedure Only about one third of them did the job quite well The following part will focus on the difficulties that they might encounter

3.1.2.4 Students’ difficulties in learning English oral presentation skill

Table 2: The students’ difficulties in making English oral presentations in the class

Incompetence in grammar, vocabulary and structures 61 76.25%

Incompetence in using body language: eye contact, facial

Incompetence in using visual aids: overhead projectors,

Lack of time management skill in oral presentation 27 33.75%

Unfavorable environment to practice oral presentation 38 47.5%

Outlining the main points of an oral presentation is the most difficult activity to 69 students It is easy to understand that prepare an outline is the first important step before presentation, especially to the first year students so 86.25% of them saw this activity as the most difficult Besides, there was also a high percentage of students (82.5%) who blamed they could not control their anxiety This was a common problem which required students, particularly students in the fist stage of learning English oral presentation of Tour guides,

to make their efforts to overcome

Problems in grammar, vocabularies and structures were also believed as a great obstacle to 61 students (76.25%) although all of them had learnt English for at least few years at high school It could be explained that during that time of learning English, students were not provided with fully basic knowledge of English grammar, vocabulary and structures

Table 2 revealed that there were students who get problems in body language which was chosen as the difficulty to 58 students (72.5%) In fact, for the first year students, it was easy to perform their body language because body language was one of minor skills in oral presentation which they needed to have a long time of learning and practicing 38 students (47.5%) complained they did not have oral presentation environment to practice after class and they choose this thing as one of their big problems

27 students (made up 33.75%) claimed that they could not control the time of the presentation and nervousness was made up by 26 students (32.5%) The other difficulties relating to using visual aids and teacher’s methods were also paid attentions to by 16.25% and 2.5% respectively

In short, many first year students of Tour guides at THCCA face the difficulties in preparation before presentation such as lack of general knowledge of English (grammar, vocabulary and structure), anxiety and incompetence of using body language A practice environment and time control were conveyed as the problems which need feasible solutions

3.1.2.5 Factors causing the students’ difficulties

Table 3: Students’ causes of difficulties

Lack of feedback and assessment from the