Factors affecting the students’ English oral presentation skills at Hanoi Tourism College = Những yếu tố ảnh đến kỹ năng thuyết trình tiếng Anh của sinh viên tr20150227

HTC: Hanoi Tourism College LIST OF TABLES Table 3.2: Students’ self assessment of their oral presentations 17 Table 3.5: Students’ difficulties in attracting and maintaining the attent

I, Hoang Thi Mai Hoa, hereby state that this work is original and completed by myself It has not been submitted for other purposes except for the fulfillment of the requirements of the University for the degree of Master in English Teaching Methodology

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my thesis deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper

Signature Hanoi, September 2011

Hoang Thi Mai Hoa

I would like to express my gratitude to all those who have given me great assistance in the completion of my research work

First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Le Van Canh for his precious advice, guidance, criticism and encouragement throughout the research

My special thanks go to all my lecturers who have been engaged in teaching K18

MA course for their precious lectures

I also wish to acknowledge the cooperation of my colleagues, my friends and the third-year tour guide students at Hanoi Tourism College in contributing to the data collection presented in this study

Last but not least, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my family, especially my husband for their whole-hearted encouragement and great support during my time of fulfilling this thesis

The research is concerned with factors affecting students’ oral presentation skills in English at Hanoi Tourism College Specifically, a survey is conducted on 106 third year tour guide students Main purposes of the research are to find out: (1) the difficulties the students might have when giving oral presentations, (2) factors causing the difficulties and their suggested solutions

It is expected that the study will make a contribution to the improvement of the teaching and learning of presentation skills at Hanoi Tourism College

The study consists of three parts Part A introduces the information on the background, the rationale, the aims, scope, method and design of the study Part B providing the development includes three chapters Chapter 1 provides the relevant theories related to oral presentation skills and factors may affect the students’ presentation skill Chapter 2 introduces the context of the study and describes the methods employed in the study Chapter 3 presents and discusses the findings that arise from the data collected Part C provides summary of study, recommendations, limitations and suggestions for further

research

Declaration i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

Table of contents iv

List of abbreviations vii

List of tables vii

INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aims and objectives of the study 1

3 Scope and significance of the study 2

4 The method of the study 2

5 Design of the study 3

DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Definition of terminology 4

1.1.1 Oral presentation 4

1.1.2 Tour guiding oral presentation 4

1.2 Oral presentation as a component of oral communication 5

1.3 The role of oral presentation skill to tour guides 6

1.4 The structure of an oral presentation 7

1.4.1 The structure of an oral presentation 7

1.4.2 The structure of a tour guiding oral presentation 8

1.5 Factors affecting students’ oral presentation 9

1.5.1 Students’ language proficiency 9

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

2.1 The setting of the study 11

2.1.1 The description of Hanoi Tourism College 11

2.1.2 Tourism Foreign Language Department 11

2.1.3 Tour guide students 12

2.2 The study 13

2.2.1 Research questions 13

2.2.2 Participants 14

2.2.3 The instrument 14

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 The students’ perceptions of the importance of oral presentation skill and their self - assessment of their presentations 16

3.1.1 The students’ perceptions of the importance of oral presentation skill 16

3.1.2 The students’ self-assessment of their presentation skill 17

3.2 Students’ difficulties in making oral presentations 17

3.2.1 Students’ difficulties in preparation 17

3.2.2 Students’ difficulties in organization 19

3.2.3 Students’ difficulties in delivery 20

3.2.3.1 Students’ difficulties in attracting and maintaining the attentions of audiences 20 3.2.3.2 Students’ difficulties concerning body language 23

3.2.3.3 Students’ difficulties concerning language use 24

3.2.3.4 Students’ difficulties in time management 25

3.2.3.5 Students’ difficulties in anxiety management 26

3.2.3.6 Students’ difficulties in handling the audiences’ questions 27

3.3 Factors affecting the students’ oral presentation skill 29

3.4 The students’ suggested solutions 32

3.4.1 For students 32

3.4.1.1 Improving their knowledge of English 32

3.4.1.2 Practising carefully for the presentation 32

3.4.2 For teachers 33

3.4.2.1 Equipping students with linguistic knowledge 33

3.4.2.2 Creating a pleasant and supportive classroom atmosphere 33

3.4.3 For Institutions 34

3.4.3.1 Providing modern technology equipments and a good library 34

3.4.3.2 Organizing study trips to tourist destinations 34

CONCLUSION 1 Summary of the study 36

2 Recommendations 37

3 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies 39

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

HTC: Hanoi Tourism College

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.2: Students’ self assessment of their oral presentations 17

Table 3.5: Students’ difficulties in attracting and maintaining the attentions of

audiences

20

Table 3.6: Students’ difficulties concerning body language 23

Table 3.7: Students’ difficulties concerning language use 24

Table 3.9: Students’ difficulties in anxiety management 26

Table 3.10: Students’ difficulties in handling the audiences’ questions 27

Table 3.12: Factors affecting the students’ oral presentation 29

PART A – INTRODUCTION

This part presents rationale, aims and objectives, scope and significance, research methodology, design of the study

1 Rationale of the study

As an occupational requirement, oral presentation skill is believed to be very important for tour guides Tour guides’ presentation determines the success of a tour Besides, tour guides may have to guide a group of foreign tourists, which requires them to use a foreign language Clearly, growing tourism increases the need for staff of international standards One of those standards is the tour guide’s oral presentation skill in a foreign language

This motivates me to explore the factors affecting the tour guide students’ oral presentation

in English at Hanoi Tourism College with a view to finding practical solutions to deal with those factors, thereby helping the prospective tour guides to improve their oral presentation skills

2 Aims and objectives of the study

The research aims specifically at exploring the factors affecting tour guide students’ oral

presentation skill at HTC Possible solutions are recommended to help the teachers and students to improve the teaching and learning of oral presentation skill

The specific objectives of the study include:

 identifying the students’ perceptions about the importance of oral presentation skills in their future job

 understanding students’ self assessments of their oral presentation skill

 identifying the difficulties in making oral presentations encountered by the students

at HTC

 examining the factors affecting their oral presentations at HTC

 providing some recommendations on how to improve students’ oral presentation

3 Scope and significance of the study

The study focuses on oral presentation skills in English in the classroom context of 106 third – year non-English major tour guide students at HTC I hope that the findings and recommendations of the study will be of some help for both teachers and students of English in the process of teaching and learning oral presentation skills so that students will have better oral presentation skill for their future job

4 The method of the study

The methodology chosen for the study is quantitative This methodology fits well the purpose of the study, which is a survey in nature Johnson (1991:104) states, “[T]he purpose of a survey is to learn about characteristics of an entire group of interest by examining a subset of their group (a sample)”, which is also the purpose of the study, i.e

to find out students’ perceptions of aspects related to oral presentation

Johnson (1991) goes on to point out the advantages of a survey:

Survey methods have been used by second language, bilingual education, and foreign researchers to study wide variety of issues that impinge on language learning These include the changing demographic contexts, the institutional settings in which L2 professionals function, the policies that affect learning and teaching, program administration, teacher preparation, attitudes of teachers and professors toward language varieties., classroom practice, target language norms, and students language use and growth (p.105)

One more advantage of survey research is to respect the rule of anonymity in order to help participants give their opinions freely, gives the researcher time for analyzing the data and ideas to bring out the judgments

5 Design of the study

The thesis consists of three parts

Part A: Introduction: introduces the rationale, aims, significance, scope and methodology

of the study

Part B: Development: is the main part of the study, which consists of three chapters

Chapter 1: Literature Review: is a brief description of the study including definition of oral

presentation, tour guides’ oral presentation, oral presentations as part of oral communication, the role of presentation in tour guiding job, the structure of an oral presentation, and the factors affecting the students’ oral presentation skill

Chapter 2: Methodology: provides the current situation of the teaching and learning of oral

presentation skill at HTC, research questions, informants, instrument and process of the study

Chapter 3: Findings and Discussion presents the findings and discussion of the study based

on the result of questionnaire

Part C: Conclusion consists of the summary of the study, recommendations, and limitations

of the study and gives suggestion for further study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter consists of five parts: definition of oral presentation, tour guides’ oral presentation, oral presentation as part of oral communication, the role of oral presentation skill in tour guiding job, the structure of common oral presentation and tour guides’ oral presentation, and the factors affecting oral presentation

1.1.2 Tour guides’ oral presentation

A tour guides’ presentation is to introduce the place or the country in terms of its importance, history, politics, cultures, fauna and flora to the participants of the tours

According to Đoàn (2007), a tour guides’ oral presentation consists of the general information about the local sites and tourist sites chosen from reliable sources In the presentation, tour guides will clarify and analyze the information to help tourists

understand and realize the values of the tourist sites Generally, the information in the presentation must be arranged logically based on time and space

1.2 Oral presentation as a component of oral communication

Ang (1991:2) reveals the root of the word “communication”: Communication comes from Latin term “communis” which means “share and inform ideas and feeling etc” and communication is the transmission of messages via verbal and non verbal

Revell (1979:1) defines communication as “an exchange between people, of language, of information, of ideas, of opinions, of feeling” Communication is, therefore, an essential need of human beings in their development This involves verbal and non-verbal communication Verbal communication includes written and oral communication whereas the non-verbal communication includes body language, facial expressions and visuals diagrams or pictures used for communication

Oral communication is information spoken by mouth; the use of speech Oral communication is a two – way process between speaker and listener (or listeners) and involves the productive skill of speaking and the receptive skill of understanding (or listening with understanding) (Byrne, 1986)

Therefore, communication is an activity of conveying meaningful information Oral communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient Communication requires that the communicating parties share an area of communicative commonality The communication process is complete once the receiver has understood the sender

According to Ang (2009:6), the process of communication involves

 speaker (sender) - transmitter of the verbal and non verbal messages

 message: this is the content which is organized and encoded in a language understood by speakers and transmitted verbally and non verbally through channels

 channel: medium used by speakers in encoding and decoding the messages

 receiver: decoder of the messages sent by speakers (and transmit the his/her respond back to the senders

 feedback: receiver’s response to the message sent by speakers

Oral communication includes discussions, speeches, presentations, interpersonal communication and many other varieties In face-to-face communication, the body language (non-verbal communication) and voice tonality play a significant role and may have a greater impact on the listener than the intended content of the spoken words A great presenter must capture the attention of the audience and connect with them

Apparently, oral presentation belongs to oral communication In oral presentation, speakers use spoken speech to deliver the information to audience Moreover, speakers also use nonverbal communication (body language, gestures, eye contact …) to express themselves and make the speech more effective

In short, oral presentation skill requires various sub skills such as choosing words, organizing ideas, using effective gestures, eye contact, pacing speech for emphasis to captivate audiences’ attentions

1.3 The role of oral presentation skill to tour guides

Oral presentation plays more and more important role in working environment Gufta (2008) confirms that: “You need this skill in your academic career, when you attend job interviews, and especially when you start working Presentation is the first managerial skill which a working executive must acquire” (p.258)

Oral presentation skill is the most important skill for tour guides based on their duty The formal definition of a tour guide as set out by the European Committee for Standardization

is as follows: Tourist guide is the person who guides visitors in the language of their choice and interprets the cultural and natural heritage of an area

Đoàn (2007:25) also clarifies the main responsibility of tour guides “tour guides provide information on destinations for tourists by means of oral presentations”

In short, oral presentation skill is the main tool of tour guides and the most decisive successful factor in their job If tour guides want to impress tourists, they have to prepare

an interesting and informative presentation Making a good oral presentation is an art that involves attention to the needs of audience, careful planning, and attention to delivery

1.4 The structure of an oral presentation

1.4.1 The structure of an oral presentation

According to Comfort (1995), an oral presentation consists of three main parts: the introduction, body and conclusion

Most presentations will consist of an introduction, the body of the talk and a conclusion The introduction prepares the audience for what you will say in the body of the talk and the conclusion reminds them of your key points

Introduction

A good introduction involves four things:

 attracting and focusing the attention of the audience

 putting the speaker and audience at ease

 explaining the purpose of the talk and what the speaker would like to achieve

 giving an overview of the key points of the talk

Body

The body of a presentation must be presented in a logical order that is easy for the audiences to follow the topic

Conclusion

A good conclusion does two things:

 reminding the audience of the key points

 reinforcing the message

1.4.2 The structure of a tour guides’ oral presentation

Đoàn (2007) states that there are three main parts in tour guides’ presentations like any other kinds of oral presentation: introduction, body, and conclusion

Introduction

In the introduction, tour guides introduce themselves, the driver, general information about the trips or the tourist spots as well as the schedule The introduction should not be too long It should be interesting to attract the initial attention of tourists

Body

The content of the oral presentation consists of the information concerning the tourist destination such as the construction time, the origin, architecture, the cultural and spiritual values or other important information The presentations can be divided into sub parts that are for each tourist site in the tour The presentation for particular site has the same structures as for the tourist destination The presentation must be sequentially logical based

on tour procedures, time, and historic events The presentation starts with events or the time from the past to present Tour guides should tell funny stories, legends that are related

to tourist destinations to make the presentation more interesting

In brief, a tour guides’ oral presentation also includes three parts like other kinds of oral presentations Moreover, the contents of the talk are arranged logically However, the main purpose of a tour guides’ presentation is to provide tourists with information about tourist destinations

1.5 Factors affecting students’ oral presentation

1.5.1 Students’ language proficiency

Language is a system of great complexity (Delahunty & Garvey, 1994) Therefore, it is difficult to achieve the high proficiency in a foreign language Language proficiency is the ability of an individual to speak or to perform in an acquired language

Ur (1996) defines language proficiency in terms of accuracy and fluency; if a learner has mastered a language successfully, that means that he or she can understand and produce it both accurately (correctly) and fluently (receiving and conveying messages with ease)

Two of many dimensions of oral proficiency speaking are viewed as accuracy and fluency Accuracy involves correct use of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation whereas fluency can be thought of as the ability to keep going when speaking spontaneously

While fluency may be achieved in many communicative language courses, be an initial goal in language teaching, accuracy is achieved in some extent by allowing students to focus on the elements of phonology, grammar and discourse in their spoken output

In reality, accuracy and fluency are closely related, which leads us to the notion that accuracy as well as fluency is necessary for successful communication It may not be too much to say one speaks fluently without accuracy or vice versa

Đoàn (2007:36) confirms that the success of a tour bases mainly on the ability and communicative skills, behavior of tour guides It is clear that, in order to communicate with foreign tourists, tour guides must acquire a rather high level of language proficiency

1.5.2 Teachers’ roles

Teachers have to play various roles in a speaking class These include managing classroom, organizing classroom activities, assessing students’ performance, giving support, co-participating on the classroom activities, providing needed linguistic resources, providing tutorials, and observing the students (Hammer, 1991)

All the above roles of teachers are important to ensure the success of teaching and learning process It is important that a good teacher can make sure that students know what constitutes successful performance so that they know when they are achieving success and given assess to information about how to achieve success (Paulston, 1985)

In summary, this chapter has reviewed theoretical issues relevant to the thesis It starts with the definition of the terminology, especially the definition of tour guides’ oral presentation The relationship between oral communication and oral presentation is also clarified It is apparently proved that oral presentation plays an important part in students’ future job The structures of oral presentation are clearly described in the chapter Finally, the factors may affect the students’ oral presentations are identified: students’ language proficiency, and teachers’ roles

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter gives a thorough description of how the study was carried out, including an overview of research questions, research design, participants, instruments and procedures

2.1 The setting of the study

2.1.1 The description of Hanoi Tourism College

Hanoi Tourism College, which was formerly known as the school for training employers in tourism and hospitality, was established in 1972 The college has been known as one of the best tourism-training center The College continues to provide its students with solid industrial knowledge, strong professional skills, foreign language competence and industrial manners in Vietnam’s growing tourism industry

The college provides multi – level training to meet the demands of labors in tourism

 3-year associate degree courses include Hospitality Management, Restaurant Management, Food Production Management, Travel Operation Management, Tour guide, Finance & Accounting for Tourism, Tour Guide, and English for Tourism Management

 2–year diploma courses concentrate on Food & Beverage Service, Front Office, Accommodation Service, and Travel & Tour Guide, Accounting for Tourism and

Hospitality, Cookery

 Vocational associate degree and two – year diploma courses

Due to the fast growth of tourism, the need for professional tourist labors is increasing; the college has created the significant changes to improve the quality of training

2.1.2 Tourism Foreign Language Department

Tourism Foreign Language Department now has 33 teachers in which 20 teachers are teaching English aged between 23 and 45 8 of them are holding MA degree in English

Methodology, four teachers completed MA courses in Tourism, and six of them are working toward M.A degree in English The rest hold a B.A in English language teaching

A small number of the teachers have had opportunities to take short term training abroad

In general, all the teachers are well – qualified, enthusiastic and devoted

2.1.3 Tour guide students

Tour guide students study at the college for 3 years They come from many provinces in the North English is one of the subjects of graduation examination for many students Before entering the College, they may have experienced at least 3 years studying English

at high school However, a small number of students did not study English at high school because the college accepts students who take Group C (including 3 subjects: Literature, History, Geography) and Group D (including 3 subjects Mathematics, Literature, English)

in National University Entrance Examination into tour guide classes

In the first two semesters, they study general English with the textbook “Lifeline Pre Intermediate” written by Tom Hutchinson and Ann Ward The book is designed with four skills, especially various speaking activities, controlled and free, personalized and impersonal so that students have equal opportunities to practice all four skills in each lesson However, not all students are capable of doing well in the course due to their low proficiency and other unfavorable factors such as large and mixed level class …

In the third semester, students study English with the textbook First Class by Trish Stott and Roger Holt (1991) The book provides general knowledge of tourism such as flight reservation, flight enquiries, tourist information, hotel facilities, local tours, foreign tours, itineraries… The book includes reading, listening, writing, and speaking which help students develop four skills Importantly, students have to take oral examination instead of written examinations in this term

In the fourth and fifth semester, students study the course book English for Tour Guides (2000) written by Tran Van Long and the teachers of Foreign Language Department The

course book aims to equip students with fundamental knowledge of traditions, customs, heritages, famous tourist attractions of Vietnam The aim of the textbook is in accordance with the aim of the syllabus objectives for tour guide students The book includes 43 units covering a wide variety of fundamental and interesting topics such as Vietnamese culture, geography, history, gastronomy, cuisines, heritages, museums, folklores and beauty spots The topics were relevant to students’ needs, realistic, interesting, challenging and motivating Moreover, the authors also focus on developing language skills for students; reading, listening, writing, and speaking Speaking skill, especially presentation skill, is the priority of the book

Although four skills are focused, the third year tour guide students at HTC still have low language proficiency, which causes many difficulties when they study oral presentation skill Their marks in the oral examination of the fourth term were not good Most of them (59.4%) had mark 5 and 6 16 students (15.1%) got mark 7 Only three students (2.8%) achieved mark 8 Sadly, 24 students (22.7%) got marks under mark 5 In details, 18 students (17%) got mark 4 6 students (5.7%) got mark 3

2 How do they self assess their presentations?

3 What are their difficulties when giving oral presentations?

4 What do they perceive as factors affecting their oral presentations?

5 What are their suggestions to improve their oral presentations?

2.2.2 Participants

The third year tour guide students at HTC are arranged into 4 classes: C6G1,2,3,4 Two classes C6G1,3 studies English, the other two classes take Chinese as a major Tour guide students focus on the oral presentation in English in the fourth semester in the second year The fifth semester is the last semester when the students study at the college They spend the whole sixth semester for apprenticeship

The survey was conducted on 106 prospective tour guide students of class C6G1,3 who were in the fifth semester at HTC Each class had 53 students aged from 20 to 23 Female outnumbered the male There were 96 girls and 10 boys in the classes

The number of participants is an important factor affecting the reality of the data collected Johnson (1991:128) points out that when survey involves large samples they can be very useful for providing a broad view of issues Brown (2005) affirms that “large sample is generally is more representative of the population than a small one” (p.73)

2.2.3 The instrument

In order to achieve the aims of the survey, a 45-item questionnaire was used in the study Questionnaire is the best choice for a survey because it is relatively popular means of collecting data (Nunan, 1992) A good questionnaire has many advantages such as: time, research efforts and financial resources

In the study, I adapted the questionnaire by Nguyen Thi Van Ha (2007) because the questionnaire was well designed with adequate required information for the study’s objectives (see Appendix A)

The questionnaire for students is composed of a combination of open – ended questions, providing balance between depth and authenticity of information and fixed – option data, which were more easily quantifiable

The questionnaire is composed of four parts:

Part one: was designed to explore the students’ attitudes towards the importance of the oral presentation skill and their evaluation of their own oral presentation skill It included two questions that were ranking questions

Part two was about the students’ difficulties when giving the presentation This part included subparts concerning different sub skills of oral presentation skill Students were allowed to supplement their own difficulties in each sub part

Part four allowed students to propose their suggested solutions for students themselves, teachers and institutions to improve their oral presentation skill The students’ responses to open-ended questionnaire were translated into English by myself

The questionnaire was written in Vietnamese to make sure that the students understood exactly what each question asked them about After the questionnaire was returned (with 100% returned rate), all the responses were categorized and analyzed quantitatively by means of descriptive statistics

In summary, in this chapter, I made a study on the current situation of teaching and learning oral presentation at HTC, and a description of the instrument for the data collection of the study The next part, which is the most important in this study, presents the findings of the study as well as the discussions of the results of the findings

CHAPTER 3 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter deals with the results of the study along with discussions related to the findings

3.1 The students’ perceptions of the importance of oral presentation skill and their self - assessment of their presentations

3.1.1 The students’ perceptions of the importance of oral presentation skill

In the questionnaire, students were asked about the importance of oral presentation skill in their future job The students’ responses are indicated in Table 3.1

Table 3.1: The importance of the oral presentation (N=106)

Levels of importance Frequency Percentage

of the importance and practicality of oral presentation skill might lead to, more importantly, motivation in learning

3.1.2 The students’ self-assessment of their presentation skill

In order to answer the research question 2 about the students’ self-assessment of their presentation, the students were asked to rate their presentation skill on 10 – point scale in the Table 3.2

Table 3.2: Students’ self assessment of their oral presentation skill (No=106)

(No = Number of students; %: Percentage)

Students were asked to rate their success of oral presentation skill on the ten point scale with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest Table 3.2 shows that most students were likely to consider their oral presentation to be on average level of success More than half

of the students (68 students) thought they achieved 50-60% of success Sadly, 14 students stated that their success was low Three students (2.8%) affirmed 30% successful and 11 students (10.4%) stated that they achieved 40% successful Just a small number of students were confident about their oral presentation performance 18 students admitted that they could achieve 70% of success and only six students stated that they could be 80% successful None of the students could reach 90% or 100% successful in oral presentation skill

To sum up, most of students appeared to think that they did not have good oral presentation skill

3.2 Students’ difficulties in making oral presentations

3.2.1 Students’ difficulties in preparation

Table 3.3 provides information about the students’ difficulties in preparation

Table 3.3: Students’ difficulties in preparation (No=106)

1 Choosing the right contents for the

2 Memorizing your speech word for word 22 20.8 70 66 14 13.2

4 Too many sources of information 23 21.7

(No = Number of students; %=Percentage)

(1= very difficult; 2= difficult; 3=easy; 4=very easy)

First of all, Most of respondents stated that “memorizing your speech word for word” was

the most difficult task in preparing for their presentation In details, 22 respondents rated

this task as very difficult 70 of them (66%) thought it was difficult 14 students shared the idea that the task was easy and none of students considered it very easy Secondly, another

item “rehearsing the speech” was also a challenge for students 16 of them stated this was

very difficult A large percentage of respondents (61.3%) thought that this task was difficult Meanwhile, 25 of them were reported to rate the task as easy None of the

students found it very easy They blamed their difficulties for too many new words in the

presentation and their bad pronunciation They explained that bad pronunciation made it more difficult to remember the new words as well as the contents and to practice their speech

However, a large percentage of the respondents (60.4%) found the task “choosing the right

contents for the presentation” easy Ten of them thought it was very easy 28 of them still considered it difficult Only three of them found the task very difficult Due to the booming

of information technology and tourist industry, it was not too hard for them to find the information about tourist destinations, products … from internet and tourist guidebooks written in English

Table 3.3 shows that 23 respondents (21.7%) affirmed that “too many sources of information” made them feel confused to find formal and appropriate information for their oral presentation

To sum up, the students had to cope with many difficulties in preparing for the oral presentation, especially memorizing the speech word for word and rehearsing the speech Bad pronunciation and large vocabulary were believed to be the excuse for their difficulties Choosing the right contents for the presentation was not difficult for students but too many sources of information hindered them from selecting the formal and reliable contents for their presentation

3.2.2 Students’ difficulties in organization

A good oral presentation is well structured; this makes it easier for listeners to follow A good way to make presentations effective, interesting and easy to follow is to highlight the

development of the presentations and to use signpost language For tour guides, it is very

important because: first of all, tour guide often give presentations outside at tourist spots, therefore, it is difficult to attract the attention of tourists Secondly, tour guides cannot avoid giving sub speeches relating to the different parts of the tourist sites To ensure the success of the tours, tour guides must clarify the development of their presentation and the tours and guide the tourists through the presentation Table 3.4 shows the students’ difficulties in organizing their oral presentation

Table 3.4: Students’ difficulties in organization (No=106)

1 Knowing how to highlight the

development of the presentation 9 8.5 58 54.7 39 36.8

2 Knowing how to use signpost language in

(No = Number of students; % = Percentage)

(1= very difficult; 2= difficult; 3=easy; 4=very easy)

None of the respondents thought two tasks were very easy For the first item “knowing

how to highlight the development of the presentation”, 9 respondents (8.5%) rated it as

very difficult A large percentage (54.7%) of them shared the same idea that it was difficult

36.8% of them found it easy Next, the item “knowing how to use signpost language in oral

presentations” caused more difficulties for students with greater number of students who

chose very difficult (N=11) and difficult (N=61) 34 respondents (32.1%) affirmed that it was easy to deal with signpost language in the presentation

Apparently, organizing the oral presentation was also difficult for the students The cause

of the difficulties, according to many students, was their written text they copied from books or internet for their presentation They did not organize the written text for their presentation so that they were not successful in their oral presentations

3.2.3 Students’ difficulties in delivery

3.2.3.1 Students’ difficulties in attracting and maintaining the attentions of audiences

In the questionnaire, there were questions asking about their difficulties in attracting and maintaining the attentions of audiences Students’ responses to the questions are presented

2 Keeping the speech flow 22 20.8 72 67.9 7 6.6 5 4.7

3 Knowing how to begin (tour guides

introduce themselves, the driver, general

information about the trips or the tourist

2 1.8 26 24.5 72 67.9 6 5.7

spots as well as the schedule… )

4 Knowing how to end (tour guides

summarize the main points in the

presentation to emphasize the topic of the

tours and the value of the tourist spots … )

8 7.6 56 52.7 34 32.1 8 7.6

5 Delivering the presentation with clear

pronunciation (in terms of sounds, words

and sentence stress and intonation)

41 38.7 59 55.6 6 5.7

6 Delivering the presentation confidently 8 7.6 61 57.5 37 34.9

7 Using presentation aids, for example,

overhead projectors, blackboard,

illustrations

5 4.7 31 29.2 56 52.8 14 13.3

8 Asking audience to involve them 6 5.7 47 44.3 44 41.5 9 8.5

9 Telling stories in the presentation 16 15.1

10 Delivering the presentation with good

voce quality

33 31.1

(No = Number of students; % = Percentage) (1= very difficult; 2= difficult; 3=easy; 4=very easy)

The task of “delivering presentation with clear pronunciation” was identified as the most

difficult for students More than one-third of students (38.7%) admitted that it was very

difficult, while 55.7% of them (N=59) rated it as difficult Only six students (5.7%) thought

this was easy None of them thought that this task was very easy The item “keeping the speech flow” was also a challenging task Most of respondents rated it as very difficult and

difficult In details, 22 of them reported that it was very difficult and 72 of them thought

that it was difficult Only 7 and 5 respondents rated the task as easy and very easy

respectively Similarly, high percentage of students rated that “delivering the presentation

confidently” as difficult 8 of them selected very difficult for the task A large number (N=61) thought it was difficult 37 of respondents stated that it was easy to be confident when giving oral presentation None of them believed that they were very confident

The task of “knowing how to begin” was clearly easier for students than “knowing how to

end” In details, 72 out of 106 respondents (67.9%) thought it was easy to begin their speech Some of the respondents (N=6) even found it was very easy 26 respondents (24.5%) found the task challenging when selecting difficult and two students thought it was

very difficult Meanwhile, how to make an impressive ending was much more challenging

52.8% of respondents considered the task difficult Eight students thought it was very

difficult However, 34 respondents knew the way to end their oral presentation when

choosing easy and very easy

“Using presentation aids” was not a too difficult task for students A large percentage of

respondents (52.8%) thought that it was easy to use presentation aids Moreover, 14 (13.2%) respondents rated it as very easy 31 respondents chose difficult for the task Five respondents thought it was very difficult Similarly, “knowing where to stand” was also an easy task Most of students (80.2%) shared the point of view that it was easy Only 12 students considered the task difficult None of the respondents thought the task was very

difficult

“Asking the audience to involve them” seemed to be both easy and difficult task for

students 53 students chose very difficult and difficult for the task Meanwhile, other 53 students thought it was easy and very easy

In tour guides’ oral presentation, tour guides should include stories to make the presentation more interesting and to engage the guests 16 respondents (15.1%) reported

that this task was very difficult

33 respondents (31.1%) complained about their quality of voice Voice quality was important when giving oral presentation

In brief, students also had many difficulties in delivering oral presentations The result was

in accordance with the difficulties in the preparation stage when the most difficult tasks were delivering the presentation with clear pronunciation, keeping the speech flow and

delivering the presentation confidently It was easier for the students to begin than to end oral presentations Using presentation aids and knowing where to stay were easy tasks for the students The students were divided equally for the task asking audiences to involve them Half of them thought that it was easy, the other half found it difficult A number of students revealed that telling stories or legends and having good voice quality in the presentation were difficult

3.2.3.2 Students’ difficulties concerning body language

Table (3.6) provides information about the students’ difficulties concerning body language

in giving oral presentations

Table 3.6: Students’ difficulties concerning body language

1 Keeping the eye contact with all members

2 Maintaining a friendly facial expression 6 5.7 14 13.2 69 65.1 17 16

3 Making appropriate body movement 18 17 20 18.9 57 53.8 11 10.4

4 Using appropriate hand gestures 9 8.5 10 9.4 71 66.7 16 15.1

No = Number of students; % = Percentage) (1= very difficult; 2= difficult; 3=easy; 4=very easy)

In general, body language was not a challenge for the students In details, the item

“keeping the eye contact with the audience” was the most challenging among 4 items 23

respondents (21.7%) thought that it was very difficult and 25 of them reported that it was

difficult 43.4% of them rated this task as easy 12 respondents thought it was very easy

The task of “maintaining a friendly facial expression” caused difficulties for a small

number of the students Only 20 students rated this task as very difficult and difficult 69 students (65.1%) shared the same idea that it was easy 17 students thought that it was very

easy to keep smiles on their face Similarly, 38 respondents rated the task of “making

appropriate body movement” as very difficult and difficult 57 out of 106 respondents (53.8%) affirmed that it was easy to make appropriate body movements 11 (10.4%) of them even thought it was very easy to perform this task More impressively, a large number of students (N=71) thought it was easy to “use appropriate hand gestures” 16 students (15.1%) rated it as very easy Only 19 of them found this task very difficult and

difficult

In brief, body language was not a challenge for the students because they had been trained how to give presentation in Vietnamese They had also experienced oral presentation examinations in Vietnamese Moreover, they also had apprenticeship period, which last about one, or two months in travel companies each year or some of them had part time jobs

as a tour guide This was the advantage of the students because according to experts 55%

of the message in presentations was non-verbal

3.2.3.3 Students’ difficulties concerning language use

Students’ stated difficulties concerning language use are presented in 3.7

Table 3.7: Students’ difficulties concerning language use

1 Having almost no grammatical errors 23 21.7 71 67 12 11.3

2 Having appropriate usage of vocabulary

No = Number of students; % = Percentage) (1= very difficult; 2= difficult; 3=easy; 4=very easy)

In terms of language use, most of the students chose very difficult and difficult for both of

the items None of them students thought that two tasks in language use were very easy