Tìm hiểu những trở ngại trong hoạt động thuyết trình với tiếng Anh thương mại của sinh viên tiếng Anh không chuyên thuộc Khoa kế toán năm thứ nhất, trường Đại h

NguyÔn ThÞ Thu ThñyAn investigation on the difficulties in making business English oral presentation of the first year non – major English students at Faculty of Accounting at Dai Nam Un

NguyÔn ThÞ Thu Thñy

An investigation on the difficulties in making business English oral presentation of the first year non – major English students at Faculty of Accounting at Dai Nam University and some solutions

(Tìm hiểu những trở ngại trong hoạt động thuyết trình đối với tiếng Anh thương mại của sinh viên tiếng Anh không chuyên thuộc khoa Kế toán năm thứ nhất, trường Đại học Đại Nam và một vài giải pháp)

M.A Minor program thesis

Code : 60.14.10

Hµ néi – 2010

Vietnam national university-Hanoi University of languages and international studies

Faculty of post-graduate studies

NguyÔn ThÞ Thu Thñy

An investigation on the difficulties in making business English oral presentation of the first year non – major English students at Faculty of Accounting at Dai Nam University and some solutions

(Tìm hiểu những trở ngại trong hoạt động thuyết trình đối với tiếng Anh thương mại của sinh viên tiếng Anh không chuyên thuộc khoa Kế toán năm thứ nhất, trường Đại học Đại Nam và một vài giải pháp)

M.A Minor program thesis

Code : 60.14.10 Supervisor: NguyÔn Thu LÖ H»ng, M.A

Hµ néi – 2010

Abbreviations

CLT Communicative Language Teaching

ESP English for Specific Purposes

Table 1 Teachers‟ difficulties when teaching business English presentation skills… 22

Table 2 Students‟ difficulties when learning business English presentation skills… 23

Table 4 Teacher pedagogical practices in teaching oral presentation skill……….28

Table 5 Students‟ opinions on inappropriate teacher pedagogical practices in English

oral presentation lessons……… …29

Table of contents

Acknowledgements

Abstract

List of Abbreviations

List of Tables

Page

1 The background of the study……… 1

2 The method of the study ……… 2

3 The aims of the study ……… 2

4 Research questions ……… 2

5 Scope of the study ……… 2

6 The design of the study ……… 2

Part B: Development 4

Chapter I: Literature review ……… 4

I.1 Business English ……… 4

I.1.1 The overview of business English ……… 4

I.1.2 The characteristics of language of business ……… 5

I.1.2.1 Sense of purpose ……… 5

I.1.2.2 Social aspects ……… 5

I.1.2.3 Clear communication ……… 6

I.1.2.4 Business and General Courses ……… 6

I.2 Oral presentation ……… 6

I.2.1 What is oral presentation ……… 6

I.2.2 Procedure of oral presentation ……… 7

I.2.3 Advantages of oral presentation toward ESP students ……… 7

I.2.4 Some problems of presentation making ……… 8

I.3 Difficulties in learning business English oral presentation skills ……… 9

1.3.1 Difficulties about business knowledge ……… 9

I.3.2 Difficulties about language knowledge, culture and perceptions ……… 9

I.3.3 Difficulties from teachers ……… 11

I.3.3.1 Inappropriate teacher pedagogical practices ……… 11

I.3.3.1.1 The amount of teacher talk ………11

I.3.3.1.2 Teacher correction ……… 11

I.3.3.1.3 Input theory ………12

I.3.3.1.4 Teacher-learner relationship ………12

I.3.3.2 Teacher deficiency in English communicative competence ……… 12

I.3.3.3 Teacher deficiency in business English and teaching skills ……… 13

I.3.4 Difficulties from external factors ……… 14

Chapter II: Methodology 15

II 1 The research context ……… 15

II.1.1 Description of Dai Nam University, English course and its objectives …… 15

II.1.2 Description of the first year students of the Accounting faculty at DNU … 16

II.1.3 Description of the teachers at DNU ……….17

II.1.4 Description of Market Leader textbook and business related presentation topics

II.1.4.1 The coursebook Market Leader Elementary ……… 17

II.1.4.2 The objectives ……… 18

II.1.4.3 Strengths and weaknesses of the coursebook ……… 18

II.1.4.4 The topics for the oral presentation ……… 18

II.2 Methods of the study ……… 19

II.3 Research design ……… 20

II.3.1 Sample and sampling ……… 20

II.3.2 Research instruments ……… 20

II.3.3 Data collection ……… 21

II.3.4 Data analysis ……… 21

Chapter III: Findings and Discussion 22 III.1 Difficulties from students ……… 22

III.1.1 Past educational experience ……… 23

III.1.2 Lack of background, business, cultural and social knowledge …… 24

III.1.3 Low motivation for learning English ……… 24

III.1.4 Low level of general English proficiency ……… 26

III.1.5 Negative personal trait s ……… 26

III.1.6 Traditional cultural beliefs ……… 27

III.2 Difficulties from teachers ……… 27

III 2.1 Lack of knowledge about business English and oral presentation skills 27 III.2.2 Inappropriate teacher pedagogical practices ……… 28

III.2.2.1 Too much teacher talking time ……… 29

III.2.2.2 Unsuitable mistake correction ……… 30

III.2.2.3 Incomprehensible teacher input ……… 30

III.2.2.4 Too distant teacher-learner relationship ……… 31

III.2.3 Teachers‟ deficiency in English communicative competence …… 31

III.3 External factors ……… 32

III.3.1 Multilevel class ……… 32

III.3.2 Textbooks ……… 33

III.4 Suggestions from teachers and students in minimizing difficulties …… 34

Part C: conclusion 36 1 Suggestions for minimizing the difficulties in teaching presentation skills 36

1.1 Pedagogical practices ……… 36

1.2 Training students to become efficient learners ……… 37

2 Some suggestions for learning presentation skills ……… 38

2.1 Personal development and non-verbal communication ……… 38

2.2 Choosing and Using Visual Aids ……… 39

2.3 Preparing and delivering forms of spoken exercise ……… 40

2.3.1 Seminar papers ……… 40

2.3.1.1 Tutor-led seminar ……… 40 2.3.1.2 Student-led seminar ……… 41

2.3.1.3 Guest speakers ……… 41

2.3.1.4 Tutorials ……… 42

2.4 Formal presentation ……… 42

3 Conclusion ……… 43

Summary of the study ……… 43

Limitations and suggestions for further studies ……… 44

References

Appendices

Appendix 1: Questionnaire for teachers

Appendix 2: Questionnaire for students

Appendix 3: Interview questions for teachers

Appendix 4: Interview questions for students

Part A: Introduction

English is obviously very important, and it has long been considered the international language in many different fields of the modern life: science and technology, business and commerce, international relations and diplomacy and so on As a result, English is now the foreign language that are most widely used and taught in all over the world and in Vietnam, with the national policy of renovation and expansion of international relations, learning English has been a remarkably increasing need However, how to understand students‟ difficulties and how to teach the language effectively to enable students to use the language successfully in international communication are really a big question facing all teachers of English

Most of the learners of English agree that the ability to express themselves freely in communication is of great importance for their future career, especially in modern societies where contacting with foreigners often occur However, there still exist many difficulties in learning and teaching English in Vietnam in general and at Dai Nam University (DNU) in particular Many Vietnamese learners can write and read English quite well but they cannot speak it correctly and fluently in real-life communication as well as in specific situations Surely, there are many reasons for this reality After teaching the non-major English at the Accounting Department for the first year students at DNU for three courses, I recognized some big obstacles that prevent English language teachers and learners from achieving their aims These obstacles are teachers‟ teaching method, heterogeneous classes, lack of background, business, cultural and social knowledge, students‟ low level of English language proficiency, students‟ low motivation and some others Unfortunately, this is not only the situation in our university but also the case for many other non-language colleges and universities in Vietnam

That is the circumstance that has inspired me with a research entitled “An investigation on the

difficulties in making business English oral presentation of the first year non – major English students at Faculty of Accounting at Dai Nam University and some solutions.” I

conduct the research with the hope that it will contribute to the improvement of teaching and learning business English presentation skills at the Accounting department as well as at my university

II Method of the study

The methods used in this research are mainly two survey questionnaires and interviews They aim at finding out the difficulties which the teachers and students at the Accounting Department at DNU facing in the teaching and learning of business English presentation skill All comments, remarks, recommendations and conclusion in the study are based on the data analysis

III Aims of the study

The study aims at:

1 Investigating the difficulties for the first-year non-major English students at the Accounting Faculty at Dai Nam University in learning business English oral presentation skills

2 Giving suggestions on how to improve oral presentation teaching and learning at Dai Nam University

The above aims can be realized through the following research questions:

1 What difficulties do the learners at DNU encounter in learning business English presentation skills?

2 What should be done to minimize the difficulties in teaching business English presentation skills to non-English major first years students of the Accounting Department at DNU?

To improve business English presentation skills for the first-year students of the Accounting department, many different aspects of teaching and learning must be taken into consideration However, within the scope of this study, the author would only like to take into account some difficulties of the business English oral presentation, on that basis, suggest some techniques and skills which may better business English oral presentation skills at DNU

VI Design of the study

The thesis consists of three main parts:

The first part is Introduction, which provides a brief introduction of the reasons for

choosing the topic, the method, the aims, research questions, the scope of the study, and the design of the study

The second part, Development, is divided into three chapters:

Chapter I, Literature Review, surveys the literature on the basis concepts that underlie

the whole study such as Business English, Oral presentation and difficulties from learners

Chapter II, Methodology, is the presentation of the subjects and factual data collected

from the questionnaires and interviews The principal purpose of this chapter is to study about the presentation in use and difficulties facing teachers and students in teaching and learning presentation skill

Chapter III, Findings and Discussion, on the basis of the data collected in the previous

parts, will present and discuss findings of the difficulties in teaching and learning oral presentation skills of non-major students and objective factors

The third part, Conclusion, gives some suggestions for both teachers of English and

students comprising some coping strategies and classroom techniques and presentation skills in decreasing those difficulties What follows is the conclusion of the study, which presents the overview of the study Besides, the limitations of the thesis are pointed out and the areas for further study are proposed

Part B: Development Chapter I: LITERATURE REVIEW

I.1 Business English

I.1.1 The overview of business English

In the last two decades, Business English (BE) has attracted increasing interest and awareness BE courses are offered by many language schools worldwide Yet despite this enormous interest, BE is an area often neglected by linguistics researchers, who prefer to work

on other – more easily defined – areas of special English

Mark Ellis and Christine Johnson (1994:3) states that BE must be seen in the overall context of English for Specific Purposes (ESP), as it shares the important elements of needs analysis, syllabus design, course design, and materials selection and development which are common to all fields of work in ESP As with other varieties of ESP, BE implies the definition

of a specific language corpus and emphasis on particular kinds of communication in a specific context However, BE differs from other varieties of ESP in that it is often a mix of specific content (relating to a particular job area or industry), and general content (relating to general ability to communicate more effectively, albeit in business situations)

The above authors also show many developments in the ways in which teachers and course designers look at BE First, in the 1960s and 1970s, there was a focus on specialist vocabulary They were often put in the context of a written or dialogue that dealt with a particular topic Exercises consisted mainly of comprehension questions on the text, vocabulary exercises, and the drilling of randomly selected structures

The following second approach placed a greater emphasis on training „the skills of communication in English speaking, writing, listening and reading within a business context‟

In the mid-1970s and 1980s, following the trends in General English, BE teaching began to focus more and more on functional areas – formulaic language for recommending, giving opinions, showing agreement, and so on And since the late 1980s, BE teaching has drawn on aspects of all the previous approaches, but also places much more emphasis on the need to develop the skills for using the language learned

Embleton, D and S Hagen (1992) states that the development of company training programmes during the 1980s began to provide employees with opportunities to attend courses

in presentation techniques, negotiating, and other effective skills The recognition of the need

for businesspeople to be proficient in business communication skills has had a major impact on

BE teaching Although it is not the designated brief of the BE teacher to train businesspeople in behavioral techniques (for example, presentation or negotiation), it is hard to ignore the influence that good behavioral skills have on successful communication Many job-experienced learners now come to the language course to learn to perform in English, tasks that they can already perform in their mother tongue In other cases, however, pre-experience language learners may need training in behavioral skills, and in colleges and business schools there is now a wide acceptance of the need to start training learners in, for example, basic presentation techniques

I.1.2 Characteristics of the language of business

I.1.2.1 Sense of purpose

Mark and Johnson (2003) deal with the most important characteristic of exchanges in the context of business is sense of purpose Language is used to achieve an end, and its successful use is seen in terms of a successful outcome to the business transaction or event Users of BE need to speak English primarily so that they can achieve more in their jobs Business is competitive: competition exists between companies and within companies, between employees striving to better their careers: It follows that performance objectives take priority over education objectives or language learning for its own sake Much of the language needed by businesspeople (apart from social language) will be transactional: getting what we want and persuading others to agree with the course of action we propose

I.1.2.2 Social aspects

Rasanen A (1991) claims that international businesspeople have a need to make contact with others whom they have never met before, or know only slightly Meetings or discursion is often short because businesspeople are always pressed for time There is a need for an internationally accepted way of doing things so that people from different cultures, and with different tongues, can quickly feel more comfortable with one another

Social contacts are often highly ritualized Formulaic language is used (in greetings and introductions, for example) in the context of a routine pattern of exchanges A certain style is generally adopted which is polite but also short and direct Although some situations may require more than this, the style and content of social interactions will be typified by a desire to build a good relationship while avoiding over-familiarity

I.1.2.3 Clear communication

Information has to be conveyed with minimum risk of misunderstanding and the time for processing (both by the speaker and by the listener) needs to be short Therefore, there is a preference for clear, logical, thought emphasized by the kinds of words that indicate the logical process and there is often a need to be concise (Rasanen-1991)

People around the world conduct business meetings in English even though English may be

a foreign language to all those present The language that they use will be neither as rich in vocabulary and expression, nor as culture-bound, as that used by native speakers, but will be based on a core of the most useful and basic structures and vocabulary Business people do not always need to know the full complexities of English grammar and idiom Fine distinctions in meaning (as are conveyed by some of the compound tenses, for example) may not be important

in a business context On the other hand, in a BE course some structural areas may require more attention than in a conventional course: for example, conditionals in negotiating, or modality for expressing possibility or politeness There is consequently a need for syllabus designers to be selective when addressing the needs of BE learners

I.1.2.4 Business and General English courses

Not all courses run by a company or a business college necessarily merit the title of

„Business English‟ Some companies and colleges provide language courses where needs have not been analysed and the course content is drawn from a GE coursebook It may be that a choice has been made to improve the general command of English of the participants, and that this then constitutes the course objectives On the other hand, such a course may be the result of

a lack of informed strategy on the part of the company or institution, or a lack of expertise on the part of available trainers

BE is not a neatly defined category of special English The term is used to cover a variety

of Englishes, some of which are very specific, and some very general In Teaching Business

English, the author makes some general statements about key differences between BE and GE

They include need analysis, assessment of level, syllabus, course objectives, time, learner expectations, material, methodology and evaluation However, we acknowledge that there are many situations where the distinctions are not so clear

I.2 Oral presentation

I.2.1 What is oral presentation?

According to Comfort, J (1995), presentation is a popular kind of activity where a student (or students) give(s) a presentation on a topic of their own choice or given by the teacher Such

talks are not designed for informal spontaneous conversation but they are subject matter oriented; because they are prepared, they are more „writing like‟ Presentation is a defined and useful speaking genre, and if properly organized, can be extremely interesting for both speakers and listeners

I.2.2 Procedures of oral presentation

Comfort suggests four stages a presenter should follow through his or her presentation including:

 Introduction part: In this part the presenter tells the audience some brief information about his/her name, the title of the presentation, the purpose(s) of the presentation, the length of time he/she will take, the main parts or points he/she will cover, the visual aids he/she will use, the time the audience can ask questions

 Body part: The presenter goes on in details what have been introduced in the introduction part In each part the presenter can use the visual aids to supplement his/her presentation (if available) and the body languages to attract the audience‟s attention He/she should signal the audience when moving from one part to another by using key words and phrases for liking ideas

 Finishing off: The presenter summarizes what have been mentioned and invites questions from the audience

 Question time: In this part the audience including both the teacher and other students ask the presenter to know more about the presentation This part is very important as it helps the teacher to know whether other students pay attention to his/her presentation or not

It can be concluded that by introducing the procedures in advance will help students feel more confident when making presentation, as they know how to carry out the task We, however, should encourage them to do it creatively as individual creativeness can attract the audience We can also see that by encouraging or even forcing the other students to give comments or ask questions during the question time, they will pay more attention to the presentation

I.2.3 Advantages of oral presentation towards ESP students

According to Comfort (1995), presentation exerts considerable demands on the learners‟ communicative ability, requiring them to perform to a very high standard under very stressful

conditions Presenters are under the pressure of achieving their own objectives, meeting expectations from the audience, dealing with difficult questions from the teacher and the classmates, having to stand and speak in English in front of the audience, using visual aids, etc

In order to meet those demands, presenters must have certain knowledge about ESP including knowledge of language and knowledge of content, knowledge of how to make presentation

We use oral presentation as a technique to increase the students‟ participation in classroom speaking activities because this kind of activity is often carried out after discussion activities Students, therefore, will have to participate more in these activities as they want to be well-prepared , before performing in front of the class Moreover, the topics are closely related to their expertise, and as pointed out by Huchinson and Waters (1987) the language in ESP is usually used in real communication, which helps increase their interest in their learning In other words, their learning has concrete purposes which are future work-oriented

I.2.4 Some problems of presentation making

Although this kind of activity has salient advantages towards developing learners‟ communicative competence, both students and the teacher may have some difficulties carrying out it

First, this kind of activity is quite difficult with high demands, that is, students have to perform their work under high pressure: speaking English in front of the crowd, attracting attention and dealing with questions from the audience, etc Thus, in order to perform the work well, learners must have knowledge of language, knowledge of content and basic skills of making presentation In a mixed-level class, it is likely that some good students will dominate the activity

Second, students often lose their confidence when giving their presentation It is the result

of the fact that they do not often have chance to speak English in front of the crowd and they are lack of their above mentioned knowledge In addition, some students may give a boring presentation and cannot attract attention from the audience, which can also make them feel confidence to deliver their talk

Finally, this kind of activity takes time so not all students have chance to speak English in one lesson

It can be inferred from the analysis that students should be allowed time to prepare for this kind of activity In other words, it is advisable that the teacher should give them the topic(s) in advance so that they can prepare well in term of both language and content

As for the teacher, he has to plan the lesson carefully to have as many interesting topics as possible as well the procedures to carry out the activity Moreover, the teacher has to master the level of each student to assign him/her a suitable topic based on their level of English proficiency as well as help them him/her accomplish their work Additionally, he has to provide students with basic skills of giving presentation Thus, we can see that the teacher has to work harder with this kind of activity

In conclusion, though presentation has certain drawbacks it is a good technique to improve students‟ communicative ability and a „push‟ to force students to participate in-group activities

I.3 Difficulties for learning Business English oral presentation skills

I.3.1 Difficulties about real business knowledge

According to Mark and Christine (2003), today there are many varieties of BE The most important distinction to be made is that between pre-experienced (or low-experience) learners and job-experienced learners Students in universities will have gained their knowledge of business largely from books and, as a result, such knowledge will be incomplete and theoretical rather than practical They will be less aware of their language need in terms of communicating

in real-life business situations, and their expectations of language learning will be moulded by their experiences from schools, and thus by the educational policies of the country in which they grew up

For job-experienced learners, their educational backgrounds will also be influenced, but they, in most cases, have gained some practical experience of having to communicate on the job This experience has the effect of focusing their attention on what they perceive as their own shortcomings in terms of fluency, getting the message across, and being able to understand the people from other countries that they have to deal with

On the contrary, pre-experienced learners often read textbooks in English or follow lectures

in English in order to gain the qualifications they are seeking In addition, (depending on where they are studying), they may have to attend seminars or write papers in English However, they are hard to have a deep understanding of the objectives without real-life situations

I.3.2 Difficulties about language knowledge, culture and perceptions

There exist many student-related problems in teaching presentation skills in English classes Many learners, as reported by studies into speaking (e.g Tsui: “Reticence and anxiety in second language learning”, 1996), are unprepared or unwilling to speak Their reluctance and reticence in English oral classes pose a big challenge for teaching presentation skills

Primarily, many factors for learners‟ unwillingness to speak can be enumerated Burns and Joyce identified three groups of factors that are likely to cause reluctance with learners These encompass cultural, linguistic, and affective factors (Burns and Joyce, 1997) Cultural factors follow from students‟ prior learning experiences and consequently from the expectations that are formed on their basis Examples of linguistic factors limiting speaking may be, according to Burns and Joyce, difficulties in the phonetics and phonology of the target language, poor knowledge of grammatical patterns or low awareness of cultural background and social conventions that are necessary for processing meaning in the target language A low motivation level, timidity or anxiety in class, negative social experiences, and culture shock are ranked among possible affective factors In discussing the methodology of speaking, Ur (1997) is also preoccupied with learner‟s problems with speaking activities The difficulties she has encountered in getting her learners to speak in the class correspond to some of the items such as mother tongue, inhibition, no ideas to share and problems of participation Tsui with “the classroom action research project reports of thirty-eight ESL teachers” reveals a considerable similarity to those identified by Burns and Joyce, and Ur She mentions five factors determining learners‟ hesitance to present in class: students‟ fear of making mistakes and losing face in front of their peers, students‟ low opinion of their own proficiency level, teachers‟ intolerance of silence, uneven participation and incomprehensible input

With the interviews of Japanese students at the University of Edinburgh, Dwyer and Murphy (1996) concluded that the students were reticent in EFL classrooms due to fear of public failure, fear of making mistakes, lack of confidence, low English proficiency, and inability to keep up with native speakers, incompetence in the rules and norms of English conversation, disorientation, etc On the basis of the analysis of interviews with some lectures

Heller-in the university Heller-in Hong Kong, Flowerdew et al (2000) also found that the students were rated

as passive and reticence learners in the classroom by their lectures who attributed student reticence to such factors as low English proficiency, fear of being embarrassed in front of other peers, their inability to understand concepts, incomprehensible input, lack of preparation, and the passive learning style acquired during their secondary schooling

All these findings reveal that reticence is a widely-observed phenomenon in L2 classrooms and that various factors contribute to student reticence However, since wide differences exists

in L2 learning situations, to better understand the issue of reticence the oral proficiency of the target language by promoting students‟ actual participation in classroom activities, more

research is needed with different groups of learners in various second language learning situations

I.3.3 Difficulties from teachers

Besides the elements originating from students, teachers‟ teaching method or their language competence and knowledge in specific fields are also considered when talking about the difficulties in students‟ presentation learning process

I.3.3.1 Inappropriate teacher pedagogical practices

I.3.3.1.1 The amount of teacher talk

According to L2 acquisition theories from (Cook, 2000; Legarreta, 1977), both teachers and students should participate in language classes actively Teachers have to face two tasks in language classrooms: 1 offer enough high-quality English language input; 2 offer more opportunities for students to use the target language So the distribution of teacher talk time, as

an important factor that affect language learning, has been concerned by many scholars An important issue is whether the amount of teacher talk influences learners‟ L2 acquisition or foreign language learning Many researchers have testified this Researchers in L2 classrooms have established that teachers tend to do most of the classroom talk (about 70 percent of the total talk) It is evident that if teachers devote large amounts of time to explanations or management instructions, student talk will be indeed severely restricted Teacher-initiated talk will dominate the classroom, allowing little opportunity for extended student talk In such an environment, students have little opportunity to develop their language proficiency In order to avoid the over-use of teacher talk, many scholars tend to maximize students talk time and minimize teacher talk time (Harmer, 2000)

I.3.3.1.2 Teacher’s correction

Inevitably, learners will make mistakes in the process of learning (Brown, 2002:205) It is

a vital part of the teacher‟s role to point out students‟ mistakes and provide correction In correction, some specific information is provided on aspects of the learner‟s performance, through explanation, or provision of better or other alternatives, or though elicitation of these from the learner Correction helps students to clarify understanding of meaning and construction of the language

One of the crucial issues is how correction is expressed: gently or assertively supportively

or as a condemnation, tactfully or rudely Ur (2000) points out we should go for encouraging, tactful correction The learner has reliable intuitive knowledge about what kind of correction

helps most, that is, learner preferences are on the whole reliable guide So teachers have to be careful when correcting, if teachers do it in an insensitive way, the students will feel upset and lose their confidence

I.3.3.1.3 Input theory

Input plays a critical role in language learning There is no learning without input The language used by the teacher affects the language produced by the learners, the interaction generated, and hence the kind of learning that takes place The problem is what type and how much of input is appropriate and useful for language learners in classrooms

Krashen‟s (1985:2) states that acquisition takes place by means of a learner‟s access to comprehensible input Human acquire language in only one way-by understanding messages or

by receiving comprehensible input Learning will occur when unknown items are only just beyond the learners‟ level He comments that the input, which is totally incomprehensible to learners, is not likely to cause learning to take place Teacher talk, actually serves as main sources of input of language exposure in classroom learning, is more important for foreign language learning, so teachers should make their input comprehensible and in right quantities

I.3.3.1.4 Teacher-learner relationship

The relationship between the teacher and students plays a part in evoking problems in teaching oral communication skill A prerequisite for creating a favorable learning atmosphere

in the class is to establish a good relationship between the teacher and his students One of the possible ways of pursuing this aim is to talk with students about their feelings and help them rationalize their anxiety about presentation, which results in difficulties learning presentation skills (Tsui, 1996) The teacher may decide to talk to individual students outside the classroom,

as students may feel inhibited about discussing their feelings in front of their classmates This step may contribute to the creation of trust and partnership between the student and the teacher

I.3.3.2 Teacher’s deficiency in English communicative competence

This can another constraint in teaching presentation skills which is related to teachers‟ deficiency in English communicative competence For many years, language teaching was seen

as helping learners to develop linguistic competence-that is, helping students master English The idea was that by studying bits and pieces of a language, students could eventually put them all together and communicate

There are several important models of communicative competence (Littlewood, 1994, Hedge, 2000), all of which include some forms of sociolinguistic competence, or the ability to

use language appropriately in various contexts In detail, Hedge (2000:261) lists a range of implications that the notion of communicative competence has for teaching and learning They are linguistic competence, pragmatic competence, discourse competence, strategic competence and fluency According to her, learners who want to communicative adequately have to master them However, in English oral classes, teachers only spend teaching time in providing the knowledge of linguistic competence (syntactic structures, vocabulary, and pronunciation), which causes students‟ failure to unsuccessfully communicate because this kind of competence

is not the only requirement of teaching presentation skills

I.3.3.3 Teacher’s deficiency in business English knowledge and teaching skills

Many language teachers come to the profession from a background in general TEFL teaching, and have a TEFL qualification They may come to BE by chance because they work

in language institutions which have decided to broaden the kinds of courses they offer to include BE courses On the other hand, they may be attracted to BE and choose to make the change

Some situations enable BE teaching to get easy Firstly, if BE teachers come from a business background, for example, they have worked in companies themselves and have useful knowledge of the way in which companies are organized and run Secondly, students are job-experienced learners, that is, they have specific content knowledge and they are able to bring that knowledge to the classroom Lastly, it is a perfect case when both teachers and learners have background in business Nevertheless, in many contexts, these don‟t often take place

In fact, in many occasions, neither teachers nor learners have any ideas of fields that they are orienting Like Mark and Christine (2003:25) states that many language teachers have started teaching out professional skills without business experience This hinders them from gaining the educational aims in an effective way Therefore, the authors suggest some solutions

to these problems when dealing with improving both skills and content knowledge

Firstly, about personal skills development, they mention three useful things to mention to teachers when teaching learners: it is essential for learners to have an outgoing personality, to like contact and interaction with a wide variety of people; a second skill is to be a good negotiator, that means it will require tact and diplomacy; and vitally important skill is to be curious and interested in all aspects of business One of the best ways for the trainer to unlock the learners‟ motivation and learning potential is to show that he or she can relate to the subjects that most concern the learners

Secondly, about specific knowledge, the author stress that it is a misconception that in the field of ESP the trainers needs to be an expert in the subject matter He or she is not teaching business strategies, nor good management practice, nor economic theory If the learners need to know about these things, they will learn them from other sources The language trainer‟s task is

to train learners to communicate in English about the subjects they are specialized For materials, trainers should read printed and video materials They extend trainers‟ general knowledge and understanding of business topics Finally, one important way to learn about business is through working with knowledgeable BE learners The teacher can often gain more insight into the workings of companies through asking questions and listening to the answers, than through books Accessing these human resources is one of the skills that is vital in becoming a good BE trainers

I.3.4 Difficulties from external factors

The objective factor like multilevel classes and textbook also result in the difficulties in learning and teaching presentation skills

Julies Mathews-Aydinli and Reginal Van Home (2006) have pointed out that multilevel classes can present challenges to teachers, as it is very difficult to design or organize activities for many learners with different levels and interests These often derive teachers from energy and time The suggested solutions are also presented in their study As for them, there are some things that teachers should follow in order to promote success of multilevel classes not only in presentation periods but also in other ones

For textbooks, they are always new problems about whether they have suitability with learners‟ ability or not In the majority of the cases, the matching rarely happens because the materials are usually more difficult for learners‟ awareness Therefore, the adaptation is always necessary in different contexts

To conclude, this chapter has reviewed a theoretical framework of BE, oral presentation related issues and difficulties in learning and teaching BE oral presentation In the following chapter, the methodology used in the study will be dealt with

Chapter 2: Methodology

II.1 The research context

II.1.1 Description of Dai Nam University, English course and its objectives

Dai Nam University has been in operation for nearly 3 years At present, it consists of eight faculties: Finance and Banking, Accounting, Construction Engineering, Business Management, Information Technology (IT), Foreign Relations Studies, English and Chinese It is also planning to expand some new branches: tourism, fashion industry Its duty is to train students at the levels of university in the said fields and those of college in the two areas, IT and Finance and Banking It is proceeding to open master programs with international co-operations from many foreign organizations Every year, the University admits about 2000 students for all the faculties After graduating, learners can meet standard requirements from vacancy organizations such as banks, joint-venture companies, office representatives and so on Although DNU has just been established for a short time, it has concentrated in advanced education approaches and new teaching methodology What is more, it has had remarkable investment in learning and teaching facilities with all the classrooms equipped with overhead projectors, computers, amplifiers and some modern tools and facilities

At present, DNU has two temporary working bases to train three first courses with nearly

3000 students at the level of both university and college As planned, in 2011 DNU will start all learning and teaching activities at a new location officially with the total area of over 10 hectare that is under construction

Foreign language is now a compulsory subject in all the faculties Like in other language major universities, the English course in the DNU is divided into two stages: one for GE; the other for ESP

non-In the first semester, the University categorizes the students‟ level by TOEIC entrance test The students who do not gain 300 marks have to join English classes (including 90 periods) This course is free and non-compulsory

What follow is two stages The first stage is for GE-lasts 270 periods Aiming at providing students with general knowledge of English grammar, vocabulary, phonology as well as developing students‟ four-language skill, at this very first stage, the textbooks Cutting Edge (for technology branches) and ML (Market Leader, for economic ones) are used With these

textbooks, we can develop our students‟ communicative competence and our students can learn the real things from daily life and real working environments (in ML and some extra materials) Students are required to work in pairs, in groups to practice English in daily and business situations Additionally, students also have chances to listen to both native and non-native speakers from the tapes used with the textbooks or sometimes with real foreign speakers At this stage, four forms of tests are used for the semesters: a writing test, an oral test (considered progress tests), a mid-test and a TOEIC test at the end of each term

The second stage-the stage for ESP - lasts 60 periods At this stage, our students are provided with the knowledge of terms and structures related to their profession The materials used at this stage vary at every faculty and are compiled by teachers at the DNU ourselves They mainly focus on developing students‟ reading, speaking and a little on writing skill At the end of this stage students have a writing test and an oral test

Since 2008 the University has applied TOEIC teaching programs for all the students right from the beginning of the course appalling with normal English course This syllabus enables students to make acquaintance with real situations in business working environments At the final semester, students will specialize in learning 90 periods for TOEIC only and they will have to complete two tests: mid-term and final test

The objectives of the English course are clear At the end of the course, students are required to obtain:

- General knowledge of English with active vocabulary of 2000 words

- The ability to communicate with foreigners in English in common and specific situations

- Understanding and using the professional terms and structures

- The ability to work in dynamically real working environments

II.1.2 Description of the first year students of the Accounting faculty at DNU

The first year students of the Accounting faculty are mainly females aging from 18 to 21 They do not have the same level of English language proficiency Some of them have learned English for 7 years at junior and senior high schools; some have only learned English for 3 years while a few have never learned English Although some of them study English rather well, they are only good at grammar, not speaking They are likely to do grammatical exercises very quickly at their level but they cannot speak fluently about many common topics as well as business related ones, and most of them do not feel self-confident or even a bit frightened in

communicating in English Moreover, motivation to learning English in these non-English language classes is generally low since English, for most of the students, is only understood as

an obligatory subject in the university curriculum Another important thing is that these students, in the first year, have to learn way how to present business English through the topics

in ML and the ones given by the teachers

Shortly, these students, as mentioned in the part “difficulties for learners”, belong to the

group Pre-experience learners or low experience learners They may lack confidence in their

ability to deal with business subject matters Most of them will need to improve their language skills in general and BE oral presentation skills in particular Hence, it is very important that the staff at the English session of DNU find out effective ways to help these students overcome their difficulties in BE presentation

II.1.3 Description of the teachers at DNU

In DNU, there are 10 full time and 15 part time teachers of English aged from 26 to 60 Two of them have been to English-speaking countries for their studies and work Most of them were trained at Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies-Vietnam National University (HULIS) and Hanoi University (HU) One-third of them took M.A degree already either domestically or internationally Most of the rest have been taking M.A courses in HULIS, Hanoi University and some foreign organizations of education and training in Hanoi Before working at DNU, some of the teachers have at least 7 or 8 teaching experience in English at other universities and colleges, and they have acquired considerable pedagogical competence As a result, they have some advantages of both their language teaching background and teaching conditions Nevertheless, the others have just graduated the university and so they lack of teaching experience A common obstacle for the whole teacher at DNU in their work as well as for teachers teaching ESP at other universities in general and BE in particular is the real knowledge of the branches that they are teaching Except for specific vocabulary and common definitions, it is quite hard for them to understand the business settings profoundly

II.1.4 Description of Market Leader Elementary coursebook and the business related presentation topics

II.1.4.1 The course book Market Leader Elementary

At Dai Nam University, the non-major English first year students of the Accounting faculty are required to study the Market Leader Elementary (MLE) for two first semesters with

120 periods The topics for the oral presentation are mainly used from this book Besides, there are also extra topics given by the teachers Before looking at the list of the presented oral topics for the students, I will review the objectives, strengths and weaknesses of MLE

II.1.4.2 The objectives

MLE is an extensive new BE course designed to bring the real world of international business into the language-teaching classroom It has been developed in association with the Financial Times to ensure the maximum range and authenticity of business content It is intended for use either by students preparing for a career in business or by those already working who want to improve their English communication skills

The book combines some of the most stimulating recent ideas from the world of business with a strong task-based approach Role- plays and case studies are regular features of each unit Throughout the course, students are encouraged to use their experience and opinions to maximize their involvement and learning

II.1.4.3 Strengths and weaknesses of the coursebook

The course book extends learners‟ specialist knowledge (product marketing, selling online, products launching ) and general knowledge (conflict, stress, careers ) This helps them to tap and enhance both social and business knowledge

Besides, the book gives various problems as well as situations for students to deal with and engage in As a result, they get used to problem-solving skills, which is considered an important skill for our students- future-to-be executives In fact, the book with its task-based approach has put forward many useful tasks for our students such as negotiating or presenting one‟s company

On the other hand, from my own view, the book has some problems that needs to be concerned As European authors edit the book, the materials‟ topics are not familiar with Vietnamese students in general and the students at our University where their English competence is not so good As in the first unit, the students can hardly decide which areas they want to work in, Sales, Production Teachers often have to explain or make suggestions Then the content does not serve as a window into learning about the target language culture That is because the topics are either general or business- related

II.1.4.4 The topics for the oral presentation

As said above, the topics which are used for oral presentation sessions are mainly taken from the Case Study of MLE Besides, some other options are added to vary speaking sessions These activities are compulsory periods for oral marking

 Introducing your company

 Launching a new product and how to sell a product

 Plan a sales trip

 Discuss changes in a bank

 Negotiate a solution to a problem with an employee

 How to choose a candidate for a job

II 2 Methods of study

This study is conducted as a qualitative and quantitative study, in which interview, information collection and analysis as well as questionnaire to collect data is used As Bourna has stated “both qualitative and quantitative approaches are essentials to the research process in social sciences” (1996:173); furthermore, each methodology has its strengths and weaknesses, thus could not alone help to find out satisfactory and sufficient information That is the reason why I choose to make full use of both approaches rather than employ one and dispose the other

to achieve the reliable results

One of the outstanding features of the quantitative methodology is its objectivity According to Burns (1999), the quantitative approach is employed when the researcher aims at attaining objectivity and control as it is held that it can “offer ways of testing hypothesis that are widely accepted or standardized” (1999:22) Hence, to obtain an overview of difficulties in teaching and learning presentation skill in English classes experienced by teachers and students

at DNU, a survey will be conducted among the teacher staff Moreover, to have a comprehensive picture, a similar questionnaire will be delivered to the first-year students of the Accounting faculty at 2nd term In doing so, I would like to cross-check the real problems of teaching and learning business English presentation skill in class at DNU

However, according to Burns (1999), qualitative research is the methodology of studying the participants‟ opinions, actions and experiences through interview, observation and published information Correspondingly, this method will be made use of in the phrase of collecting, analyzing and synthesizing basic knowledge for the literature review since, in this

part, I need to have a deep understanding about the setting of the study, the history of relating studies, ideas, facts and figures

One strong point of the qualitative method is that the collected data is usually “extensive” and “detailed” (Burns, 1999:23) or as held by Larsen Freeman and Long, supplies researchers with “real”, “rich”, and “deep” data (1991:12) For these reasons, decide to have in-depth interviews with a few of teachers and students as I would like to gain profound understanding

of relevant difficulties in teaching business English presentation skill to non-English students at DNU Their insights are of great use for the process of analyzing data

II.3 Research design

II.3.1 Sample and sampling

In order to get information to fulfill the aims of the study, first, the survey will be conducted between two different groups of subjects The first questionnaire was administered

to 5 teachers who teach English to the first-year non-major English students of Accounting faculty at DNU The total English classes of the Accounting faculties are eight and each teacher

of English is responsible for teaching one class The researcher selected them as the subjects of the study with the hope to find out the difficulties they confront in teaching BE presentation skill to non-English major students of the Accounting faculty at DNU

The second questionnaire was randomly administered to 60 non-major students of the Accounting faculty at DNU They are the students who belong to eight classes from KT02-01A

to KT02-04B They occupy one-fourth of the total students of the Accounting faculty of the 2ndcourse at DNU (because DNU is newly established university, the number of students is not large and the average students in each English class of the Accounting faculty is from 25 to 30 students Most of them are from 18 to 20 years old and they are the first-year students Only first-year students of 2nd term were chosen because they were learning English at the time of delivering questionnaires

II.3.2 Research instruments

Data were gained through the employment of two research instruments, namely questionnaires and interviews For the former, in this study, the self-completion questionnaires with closed-questions will be employed As it name suggests, surveyees will complete the questionnaire by themselves without the assistance of the interviewer In using the self-completion type, I can seek better cooperation from the part of respondents as they may complete the questionnaire, given sufficient time to think over the answers In two survey

questionnaires above, the respondents were asked to answer and tick the closed-questions; however, some questions have more than one option To identify the participants for the follow-up interviews in phrase two, the researcher only applies one quite simple criterion based

on the biggest amount of assumed options of the difficulties in teaching and learning presentation skill experienced by informants and sometimes other potential difficulties

For the latter, the researcher employed the semi-structured interviews The questions had been prepared in advance to clarify and supplement the statistical results from the two survey questionnaires for teachers and students These questions were open enough to allow the interviewees to express their thoughts, feelings, or opinions freely

II.3.3 Data collection

In the first phase, questionnaires were administered to 60 DNU first-year non-English students at the end of the second semester of the academic year 2009 and 5 teachers of English

of Foreign Languages at DNU The participants were asked to complete the questionnaire at home and returned their responses one week later that they have as much time as they needed After the collected data were analyzed, in the second phase, some teachers and students informants with the most problems were contacted for semi-structured interviews with the researcher in locations where they felt at ease and at a time they suggested The interviews were all recorded in a natural way and help the researcher review in details later In addition, in order to capture the complexities of the student respondent‟s individual perceptions and experience, the student interviews were done in Vietnamese while the teacher interviews conducted in mainly English At the beginning of the interviews, the participants were explained clearly, explicitly about the nature of the study During the interview, the researcher modified the questions and procedures according to the subjects‟ responses

II.3.4 Data analysis

Data analysis is not simply a single description of the collected data In fact, it is the process by which the researcher interprets the data collected from the survey questionnaires and interviews The scheme and coding categories in this research emerged from an examination of data rather than being pre-determined and imposed on the data The information from the interviews were transcribed and major themes were identified with a view to clarifying and supporting the statistical results

In short, this chapter has looked at the setting of the study, research methods, instruments and procedures employed in this study What follows is the findings and discussion

Chapter III: Findings and discussion

III.1 Difficulties from students

As mentioned in the statistic results from the tables below, a great number of students (83%) had difficulties in learning how to present business English at English classes in consistent with DNU teachers‟ difficulties in teaching presentation skills originated from student-related problems When asked in the survey questionnaires and interviews to comment

on what caused teachers and students those constraints in oral English language classrooms, they identified a multitude of variables such as past educational experiences, lack of BE knowledge, lack of background, cultural and social knowledge, low motivation for learning English, low level of English proficiency, negative traits, traditional cultural beliefs and external factors

Table 1: Teachers’ difficulties when teaching business English presentation skills

Teacher‟s deficiency in English communicative

Students‟ negative personal traits (introverted,

Others: lack of teaching aids, Western cultural and

social factors in English textbooks alien to teachers

and students

Table 2: Students’ difficulties when learning business English presentation skills

Unfamiliarity with presenting English 48 80

Lack of cultural and social knowledge 34 56.6 Low level of English language proficiency 52 86.6

Others: Lack of practice, …

III.1.1 Past educational experiences

Secondary education in many different parts of Asia was strongly didactic and oriented (Li, 1998; Sato, 1990; Tsui, 1996) As a result, both teachers and learners focused on marks and written tests while neglecting oral English Students were possibly not encouraged to speak in their English language classes Speaking was not considered too important a skill In their lessons, the emphasis was presumably placed on accuracy of linguistic forms Their idea

exam-of language lesson, therefore, might comprise reading and doing written exercises that practise grammar Students had also formed the habit of sitting in class and listening quietly to teachers and they remained it until requested by teachers to speak As a student described, “sitting quietly and listening to teachers has a long history and was deeply rooted in our mind” (LA) Teachers in the interviews were completely inconsistent with students‟ opinions on past educational experiences, which were also considered one of the main causes for student reticence in oral English language classes According to the interviewed teachers, first-year students at DNU were quite dependent on their teachers In class, they preferred to work individually and quietly, which means that written work and private learning are preferable in many oral English classes This style is typical of Vietnamese learners, who look for structured