The difficulties of elementary students when doing oral presentation in a speaking lesson a case of an english center in hanoi

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THU THẢO THE DIFFICULTIES OF ELEMENTARY STUDENTS WHEN DOIN

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THU THẢO

THE DIFFICULTIES OF ELEMENTARY STUDENTS WHEN DOING ORAL PRESENTATION IN A SPEAKING LESSON: A

CASE OF AN ENGLISH CENTER IN HANOI

(Những khó khăn của học sinh tiểu học khi làm bài thuyết trình trong giờ học nói: Một nghiên cứu tại một trung tâm tiếng Anh ở Hà Nội)

M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS

Major: Teaching English Methodology Code: 8140231.01

HANOI – 2019

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THU THẢO

THE DIFFICULTIES OF ELEMENTARY STUDENTS WHEN DOING ORAL PRESENTATION IN A SPEAKING LESSON: A

CASE OF AN ENGLISH CENTER IN HANOI

(Những khó khăn của học sinh tiểu học khi làm bài thuyết trình trong giờ học nói: Một nghiên cứu tại một trung tâm tiếng Anh ở Hà Nội)

M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS

Major: Teaching English Methodology Code: 8140231.01

Supervisor: Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa, Ph.D

HANOI – 2019

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This M.A thesis could not have been accomplished without the invaluable help, encouragement and support form a number of people who I would like to

show my sincerest gratitude and appreciation

To begin with, I would like to express my greatest and deepest thankfulness

to Doctor Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa, my supervisor, for her enthusiastic and precious guideline and advice throughout the duration of my thesis Without her instruction

and supervision, this thesis could not have reached the fulfillment

Moreover, my honest thanks also come to teachers and students in an English

center in Hanoi, especially teachers and students who participated in my research

Last but not least, I owe a great debt of gratitude to my family and relatives who have

always supported me and supplied the best conditions for me to complete this thesis

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ABSTRACT

Among four skills of English language, speaking has been claimed to be an important skill to communicate Oral presentation takes an important role in teaching and learning English, especially in teaching and learning English speaking skill However, many students find it difficult to do a presentation This study was conducted to explore the difficulties of elementary students when doing oral presentation in a speaking lesson in an English center in Hanoi This study also collects students‟ expectation of their teachers to solve the problem 100 elementary students in an English center in Hanoi, who have to do oral presentation in speaking lessons as one task in their course, participated in this research Questionnaire, observation, and interview were employed to collect data for the research The findings of this study revealed that there are many difficulties faced by elementary students in doing presentation Among these difficulties, “Language”, "Personal trait" and “External factor” constitute the most serious difficulties encountering students in the process of delivering oral presentation On the basis of the findings

of this study and in the light of the difficulties encountering students in giving the oral presentation, the students expect some supports from their teachers to overcome these difficulties and to improve the learning process generally in oral proficiency and speaking skill in particular

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF TABLES vi

LIST OF FIGURES vii

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Research aims 2

3 Research questions 2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Methods of the study 3

6 Significance of the study 3

7 Design of the thesis 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 Oral presentation 5

1.1.1 Definition of oral presentation 5

1.1.2 Types of oral presentation 6

1.1.3 Significance of oral presentation 7

1.2 Learning difficulty 8

1.2.1 Definition of learning difficulty 8

1.2.2 Classification of learning difficulties 9

1.2.3 Students‟ difficulties in oral presentation 10

1.3 Young learners 11

1.3.1 Characteristics of young learners 11

1.3.2 Factors causing young learners‟ difficulties when presenting 13

1.4 Related studies 14

1.5 Summary 16

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CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 17

2.1 Research design 17

2.2 Research subjects 18

2.3 Data collection instruments 18

2.3.1 Questionnaire 19

2.3.2 Observation 20

2.3.3 Interview 21

2.4 Data collection procedure 22

2.5 Data analysis procedure 22

2.6 Summary 23

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 24

3.1 Data collected from the questionnaire 24

3.1.1 Students‟ difficulties in doing presentation 24

3.1.2 Students‟ expectation of their teachers to help them overcome the difficulties 31

3.2 Data collected from observation 36

3.3 Data collected from interview 38

3.4 Summary 41

CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION 42

4.1 A summary of the major findings 42

4.2 Implications of the study 43

4.3 Limitations of the study 43

4.4 Recommendations for further study 44

REFERENCES 45 APPENDIX I APPENDIX 1 I APPENDIX 2 IV APPENDIX 3 VII APPENDIX 4 IX APPENDIX 5 X

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1: The sum of responses, means, std deviation and the rank of each item from of the first domain from the questionnaire 24 Table 3.2: The sum of responses, means, std deviation and the rank of each item from of the second domain from the questionnaire 25 Table 3.3: The sum of responses, means, std deviation and the rank of each item from of the third domain from the questionnaire 26 Table 3.4: The sum of responses, means, std deviation and the rank of each item from of the fourth domain from the questionnaire 27 Table 3.5: The sum of responses, means, std deviation and rank of each domain from and all questionnaire 28 Table 3.6: The sum of responses, means, std deviation and rank of each item from of the second part from the questionnaire 31

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 3.1: Teachers give more interesting and useful topics 32 Figure 3.2: Teachers give detailed guide about how to make a good presentation 33 Figure 3.3 Teachers give better score or a reward for the best presentation 33 Figure 3.4: Teachers help brainstorming some ideas that can appear in the presentation 34 Figure 3.5: Teachers provide some activities to make students able to use language without fear to make mistakes 35

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PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

Since English was first taught in Vietnam, learners had focused more on studying grammar and translation because they were the best ways to communicate with foreigners and set foot to the English-speaking world However, nowadays, as the society is developing faster, it is required that education should attach special importance to communicative language teaching Therefore, speaking plays an important role in learning English There are many ways for English learners to improve their speaking ability, one of which is oral presentation

Applying oral presentations nowadays in teaching is not uncommon The use

of oral presentations in teaching, especially in teaching English, has created a new trend in the field of English language teaching methodology, which has drawn a lot

of researchers‟ attention all over the world (Miles, 2003) It is believed that the opportunity to speak in front of the audience is one of the greatest benefits that students are offered when spending time at school (Miles, 2003) Zhu (2005) shared her same opinionabout the need of using presentation in developing student skills She claimed in her study that oral presentation is a multi-task activity requiring learners to speak and illustrate their speech at the same time It has two clear purposes which are to provide information and/ or to persuade listeners to do a desired task Nowadays, as presentation becomes more popular, it takes an important role in teaching and learning

Numerous studies have examined the factors contributing to the success of oral presentations (Cheung, 2008; Taylor, 2012; Wilson and Brooks, 2014), the general benefits of using presentation in EFL classrooms, and the teachers‟ and students perceptions of the effects of this technique on the development of the language skills and language elements (i.e pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary) (Nguyen, 2012; Masmaliyev, 2014) However, very few studies have been carried out to measure the difficulties of elementary students when doing oral presentation in a speaking lesson In fact, a thorough search in the literature results

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in no study carried out to investigate the difficulties of elementary students when doing oral presentation in a speaking lesson in the context of Vietnam This is the first reason why the researcher wanted to do research on this topic

Realizing the effects of using oral presentations in EFL lessons on the students‟ language development, all learners including elementary students in an English center in Hanoi have to do oral presentation as one task in their courses, which showed that the center really emphasizes on the importance of presentation in class In fact, not only elementary students find it difficult to do a presentation, even intermediate learners find it difficult to improve their presentation skill although they have practiced regularly Being a teacher in this center, the researcher considered this a very good chance for her to carry out a study on the difficulties of elementary students when doing oral presentation in a speaking lesson

The above reasons are the main ones for the birth of the study entitled “The difficulties of elementary students when doing oral presentation in a speaking lesson: A case of an English center in Hanoi”, which is hopefully useful for all levels of students in general and elementary students in particularly

2 Research aims

This research‟s main aim is to explore the difficulties of elementary students when doing oral presentation in a speaking lesson in an English center in Hanoi This study also collects students‟ expectation of their teachers to solve the problem

4 Scope of the study

The subjects of this study are elementary students in this center All the students have experienced oral presentation in class The study focuses on finding out the difficulties of these students when doing oral presentation in a speaking lesson

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5 Methods of the study

In this study, the data was collected by multiple methods which are observation, face-to-face questionnaire and interview Questionnaire and interview were used to achieve a reliable and comprehensive picture In addition, observation was used for being objective After analyzing the data, some conclusions were drawn

6 Significance of the study

This study mainly focuses on the difficulties of elementary students when doing oral presentation in a speaking lesson Findings of the study are hoped to help students, especially elementary students in this center in developing the oral presentation Firstly, it could be a guide for students, especially elementary students

in this center in developing the oral presentation Secondly, the research helps students understand clearly about the difficulties when doing oral presentations Therefore, it can change students‟ attitude and behaviors toward studying Finally, the study increases students' interest in presentation since they can find suitable ways to overcome these difficulties The study is also hoped to fill the gap in the literature on the level of the difficulties of elementary students when doing oral presentation in a speaking lesson in the context of Vietnam Other researchers who are interested in doing research in the topic can use this study as a reference to carry out their investigation

7 Design of the thesis

This study consists of four chapters:

Introduction presents the rationale for conducting the study along with its aims,

research questions, significance and design

Chapter 1 - Literature Review conceptualizes the framework of the study including

the key concepts such as the definition of oral presentation, its types and significance in EFL classrooms, the definition of difficulty, its classification, students‟ difficulties in presentation, characteristics of young learners and factors hindering young learners‟ from presenting A brief overview of the related studies are also provided

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Chapter 2 - Research methodology presents the context, the methodology used in

this study including the objects, data collection instruments, data collection procedure and analysis

Chapter 3 – Findings and discussion presents a comprehensive analysis of the data

and gives discussion on the findings of this study

Chapter 4 – Conclusion offers the summary of findings, implications, limitations,

and recommendations for further study

in presentation, characteristics of young learners and factors hindering young

learners‟ from presenting A brief overview of the related studies are also provided 1.1 Oral presentation

1.1.1 Definition of oral presentation

According to Kaul (2005, p.2), “presentations are ideas, concepts or issues that are talked about or shared with a group of people or an audience” It can be stated that an oral presentation is not limited to those given to a large audience; it can be considered as a means by which people can communicate daily in a workplace, teach in the classroom, give opinions and express oneself in a situation that requires explanation in clear and precise speeches Studying this field, researchers have found that this kind of activity is associated with expressing ideas

Hyland (1991) claimed that the oral presentation is regularly a partly spoken, partly visual form of communication which is intended to inform or convince and occurs in organizational settings Time is typically constrained thus the successful presentation must be carefully arranged The speaker must make certain of her facts and objectives, have a carefully structured outline, support her presentation with visual aids, convey the talk clearly and confidently and afterward handle inquiries from the floor Obviously this is a fairly requesting exercise but it is achievable with

a consciousness of oral communication skills and the practical experience of how they might bc connected

Delivering oral presentations in English is not only a straightforward matter

of learning language and following guidelines but also a skill requiring complex sociolinguistic and in addition cognitive understandings, particularly for learners of

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English as an Additional or Foreign Language (EAL/EFL) (Morita, 2000; Adams, 2004) Melion and Thompson (1980, p.503) stated that if oral presentation is guided and organized, it will give the students a learning experience and teach them an important skill which will be beneficial to ESL/EFL in all their education subject and later in their work According to Chivers and Shoolbred (2007, p.5), “doing presentation is very good learning experience.” In addition, Mandal (2000, p.8) stated, “presentations are speech that is usually given in a business, technical, professional, or scientific environment The audience is likely to be more specialized than those attending a typical speech event.” There are differences between normal speech and oral presentation The latter is a type of speech, but the former is more nature than oral presentation

In general, a presentation is a formal talk to one or more people that

“presents” ideas or information in an obvious and logical way Oral presentation is considered a means to give information, knowledge, and lectures Normally, a presentation consists of four basic elements including the presenter, audience, message and tools (Kaul, 2005)

In this study, the concept of presentation will be narrowed down to a short talk by one person or a group of people introducing and describing a particular subject

1.1.2 Types of oral presentation

Chivers and Shoolbred (2007, p.2) stated that understanding the style of presentation will help you to explore the main goal of giving this presentation Therefore, according to the aim of the presentation the speakers can decide the type

of their presentation Presentations are classified into many categories

According to Whatley (2003), there are five types of presentation as follows:

(1) Informative presentation, (2) Instructional, (3) Arousing presentation, (4) Persuasive presentation and (5) Decision-making presentation

The first type provides information to the listeners For example, with

informative presentation, the speaker brings the audience up to date on the events,

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gives information about the plan, products and procedure, rules and regulations, etc

The next one named Instructional is the one that gives specific direction for the

listeners In an instructional presentation, the listeners are about to come away with

new knowledge or skills Meanwhile, the purpose of the third type Arousing

presentation is that people would raise ideas about a certain issue or topic It

arouses the audience‟s emotions and intellect so that they will be receptive to the

speaker‟s viewpoint Fourthly, Persuasive presentation focuses on convincing

listeners to accept a proposal A convincing persuasive presentation offers a solution to a controversy, dispute or problem Last but not least, the aim of the

presenter in a Decision-making presentation is to appeal the audience to take the

presenter‟s suggested action In a decision-making presentation, ideas, suggestions, and arguments are presented in a logical and persuasive way in order to make the audience carry out the presenter‟s requests A decision-making presentation is supposed to tell the audience the „what‟ and the „how‟

Basing on the learner proficiency level, purposes, classroom context, there are specific kinds of presentation that should be applied Due to the classroom condition, students‟ proficiency level and the emphasis on oral output, the Informative presentation is considered as the most suitable to be applied in the context of an EFL classroom in particular

1.1.3 Significance of oral presentation

Although oral presentation is widely used, few students have fully understanding about its significance

The enormous significance is to enhance students‟ speaking skill In other words, presentation helps student speak fluently in public Discussing this effect, Miles (2010) claimed that the majority of students studying oral presentation wanted to enhance their ability to communicate orally in English and their competence to speak in public Zhu (2005) supposed oral presentation is a good chance for students to discuss a topic thoroughly

However, not only oral presentation enhances students‟ speaking skill, but it

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also brings student a multi-faceted effect For example, in research of Issa & Qubtan(2010), results shown that oral presentation also helped learners use technology effectively in study Especially, King (2002) mentioned that learners can present their talk in a visual and vivid way by using PowerPoint

Al-Besides, an extremely important advantage is improving students‟ work skills (King, 2002, Al-Issa & Al-Qubtan, 2010) When students must work in group to prepare their oral presentation, they have chances to discuss to choose the topic, make the presentation‟s outline and develop their details To achieve good results, they must find a way to understand each other and cooperate to have a deep sympathy and unification in all group works Because group oral presentation includes a lot of group works, it is always useful for students

group-King (2002) pointed out another precious advantage of oral presentation which is putting the natural setting for developing four language skills in an integrated way In addition, making a presentation outline is an essential step to prepare presentation (Zhu, 2005) Students have to do several readings, synthesize and order the collected information to create an outline Moreover, Al-Issa & Al-Qubtan (2010) suggested that classmates also improve their listening skill through listening to the presenting group

Finally, oral presentation makes students more active (Al-Issa & Al-Qubtan, 2010) Students do not have to learn by heart, instead, they are required to be

“interactive, dynamic, reflective, and independent learning and critical thinking.”

(Al-Issa & Al-Qubtan, 2010) King (2002) also has the same point of view She

affirmed in her research paper that oral presentation is “a learner- centered activity”

1.2 Learning difficulty

1.2.1 Definition of learning difficulty

Maximos (1968) believed that difficulties are those which obstruct students from achieving the right and true answer of the activities He also believed that the difficulty can be estimated through regular mistakes which are repeated by the student at 25% and more Sharing the same opinion with Maximos, Othman (1990) mentioned the difficulties as those which may prevent the student from achieving

Learning difficulties are experienced by the student from the issues in the capacity of utilizing, understanding and realizing the language It is resulted from challenges in perception and realization of students due to brain and encephalon infection or deformity in brain function or reading and talking incapacity (Jerjawi, 2002)

1.2.2 Classification of learning difficulties

Many experts find learning difficulties confusing and ambiguous, they

divided learning difficulties into two following types:

a Developmental learning difficulties

Al Zarad (1991) divided difficulties into two categories which are primary difficulties and secondary difficulties Primary difficulties are related to attention, memory and perception while secondary difficulties are usually about thinking, understanding and verbal language Primary developmental learning difficulties are basic mental processes They are overlapping, and they influence each other Secondary developmental learning difficulties deal with thinking and verbal language Thinking and verbal language are influenced directly by primary

difficulties (Al Qassim, 2000)

b Academic learning difficulties

Academic learning difficulties are difficulties that students have got in learning basic subjects such as reading, writing, speaking and spelling difficulties According to Al Zarad (1991), academic learning difficulties are related to developmental learning difficulties These difficulties appear when student fails to satisfy the skills of achievement in more than one subject

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Academic learning difficulties allude to the students who get difficulties in one of academic subjects, while they have ordinary mental abilities in other subjects (Al Sarttawi 1995, p.492)

1.2.3 Students’ difficulties in oral presentation

In an EFL classroom, oral presentations in English can bring different benefits to the learners Besides, there are several factors that affect students‟ performance in oral presentation and make the presentation become less effective According to Baker (2000, p.113), “speaking to group is a notoriously stressful activity”, therefore oral presentation is not an essay task for most of students

Rajoo (2010) categorized the students‟ difficulties during oral presentation into four groups First is language (grammatical problems and lack of vocabulary) Second is content (difficult in giving examples and problems in attracting the audience‟ interests) Third is personal trait (nervousness, memorizing problem, too fast speed) Last is external factor (lack of preparation and time)

In terms of language, Thornbury and Slade (2006) pointed out that one of the students' issues in speaking was transferring L1 into L2 physically The presenters will have problem in building a sentence with correct grammar/ vocabulary since they have to consider twice about the grammar rules

The second group of student‟s difficulties relates to content Many students have difficulty in understanding the topic If the teacher gives an unfamiliar topic to students, the students will be confused because they do not have enough information and ideas about the topic (Rivers, 1968)

Several researchers wrote about personal trait difficulties King (2002) pointed out that speech anxiety is the major problem that leads to learners' oral presentation failures Everybody can have speech anxiety when speaking in public because it is an ordinary and normal behaviour Speech anxiety can be seen in the voice of the speaker Teacher can solve the problem by letting their student understand that anxiety is a natural reaction, so they are able to do their oral presentation without any fear If the teacher settles on an open mind about speech

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anxiety, students will feel more confident because their teacher is sympathetic to them (King 2002, p 404- 405) In addition, some students attempt to learn by heart and read from their memorizing what written before because they cannot remember information By this way, the audience will feel bored (King 2002, p.405) Besides,

if students do not use communication English in their oral presentation, the audience will lose their attention According to King (2002, p.405) “teacher should constantly remind students of the importance of using communicative English in their presentations and keeping the audience in mind when they prepare.”

Last but not least, many external factors make student‟s presentation less effective For example, students are unfamiliar with the criteria of effective oral presentation According to Chivers and Shoolbred (2007, p.31), “Many students feel highly nervous about undertaking class presentation.” Students have a dread from delivering an oral presentation because they have limited presentation skills In addition, some of them do not have confidence in their abilities (King 2002, p.406) Most of them do not understand clearly how to do it English learners should be taught this technique because it is considered as an opportunity to improve their English

Students‟ problems with oral presentations should be considered Finding solutions for these problems is the responsibilities of both teachers and students

1.3 Young learners

1.3.1 Characteristics of young learners

Children are unique learners and they can easily imitate something for example a language Some researchers gave their ideas about characteristics of young learners The characteristics cover their ways of thinking, their attitude, their aptitude, learning language …

Brumfit (1997) gave a list of the characteristics which young learners share Young learners are only just beginning their schooling, so that teachers have a major opportunity to mould their expectations of life in school As a group they are potentially more differentiated than secondary or adult learners, for they are closer

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to their varied home cultures, and new to the conformity increasingly imposed across cultural grouping by the school They tend to be keen and enthusiastic learners Their learning can be closely linked with their development of ideas and concepts, because it is so close to their initial experiences of formal schooling They need physical movement and activity as much as stimulation for their thinking, and the closer together these can be the better

Halliwel (1992) clarified the characteristics of children that they are already very good in interpreting meaning without necessarily understanding the individual word Children already have great skill in using limited language creativity and a ready imagination, children words are full of imagination and fantasy, and it is more than simply matter of enjoyment They frequently learn indirectly rather than directly and take good pleasure in finding and creating fun in what they do

The characteristic of young learners were mentioned by Clark (1990) Children are developing conceptually: they develop their way of thinking from the concrete to the abstract thing They have no real linguistics, different from the adult learners that already have certain purpose in learning language, for instances, to have a better job, children rarely have such needs in learning a foreign language They learn subjects that school provide for them Young learners are still developing; they are developing common skill such as turn taking and the use of body language Young children are very egocentric; they tend to resolve around themselves They get bored easily Children have no choice but to attend school The lack of choices means that class activities need to be as fun, interesting and exciting as possible by setting up the interesting activities

We can conclude that the young learners have short attention span They enjoy imitating and are skillful in listening accurately and mimicking what they have heard Children are very active and enjoy learning through playing They learn best when they learn through games Young learners differ in their experience of language They are imaginative but may have some difficulties distinguishing between imagination and real world Children are less shy than older learners and respond well to rewards from the teacher

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1.3.2 Factors causing young learners’ difficulties when presenting

The fundamental objective to learn a language is to use it in a fluent way Many young learners experience issues when they use this language; although they know the rules of this language, they cannot apply this knowledge to practical use Therefore, they have difficulties when presenting in class Ur (2000, p.212) presented four principal factors causing young learners‟ difficulties when presenting

a Inhibition

This difficulty usually happens when young learners present in the classroom There are numerous factors counteracting them to do this in a good way Littewood (1981, p.93) said, "It is too easy for a foreign language classroom to create inhibition and anxiety." Young students are not ready to speak with use of English because of the dread of committing mistakes This fear increases when they have to speak to a critical audience Ur (2000, p 111) stated that students inhibited about speaking a foreign language in the classroom worried about committing mistakes, fear of criticism or loosing face, or just shy of the consideration that their speech attracts When teaching speaking skill, teachers ask students to present in front of their classmates This leads them to show their worry in speaking Stress can stop them to speak confidently

b Nothing to say

Many young learners keep quiet when they are requested to present a given subject because they lack motivation in expressing themselves or they do not have any information about the chosen topic According to River (1968, p.192), "The teacher may have chosen a topic which uncongenial to him or about which he knows very little and as a result he has nothing to express, whether in the native language or foreign language." Students have nothing to talk about a chosen topic since they have little information or do not know how to utilize correct words or forms of sentences Also, a few students are not interested in talking about the topic

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c Low uneven participation

This difficult identified with the large classes While some learners want to speak constantly, others prefer to talk when they are sure of the right answer Some students even keep silent all the time without any practice According to Bowman et

al (1989, p.40), "traditional classroom seating arrangements often work against you

in your interactive teaching." This issue might be related to motivation since some learners will not practice if their teachers to not motivate them

d Mother tongue use

Young learners use their mother tongue to feel more comfortable and less exposed to the foreign language Baker and Westrup (2003, p 12) say, "barriers to learning can occur if student knowingly or unknowingly transfer the cultural rules from their mother tongue to a foreign language” Students utilize their mother tongues since they do not have enough vocabulary of the target language Therefore, they are unable to use the target language correctly

Yang (2002) claimed in his research that language anxiety is able to restrain

the communication ability of students The teachers should help students overcome

the stress by having a positive self-image and confidence

Ayman Hassan Abu El Enein (2011) concluded in his research that difficulties which encounter Al Aqsa English majors in giving the academic oral presentation in class are clarity of speech, originality of the content, organization of the presentation, confidence of the presenter, signal and transitional words, voice quality, connection of the ideas and drawing a good conclusion Besides, they had difficulties in correctness of the language such as

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inaccurate pronunciation, lack of vocabulary, structures, discourse markers, grammar accuracy, fluency, oral proficiency, communicative competence and oral speaking activities Moreover, interaction with audience, body language, eye-contact techniques, visual aids, time management, psychological factors, social factors and interruption from other students are also serious issues The researcher is thoroughly convinced from his study that the role of instructor is not an easy job It

is his role to break down the psychological barriers between students and the ability

to give the academic oral presentations Free oral and speaking activities like play, simulation, oral participation and free dialogues were the most effective

role-strategies in developing the academic oral presentations of English students

The above literature review has shown some noticeable gaps in the research area on the use of oral presentations, especially in the context of EFL classrooms Firstly, oral presentations have been introduced and applied for students at different ages, stages and levels of language proficiency (Nguyen, 2012) There are many studies carried out to study the use of oral presentations in teaching English However, these studies mostly investigate the impacts of oral presentation on the mature learners, not the younger ones, especially in Vietnam It is worth noticing that in the field of ELT research, while many studies focus on the learners who are

at university or high school, the younger students tend to be ignored and are rarely taken into the researchers‟ consideration For example, a thorough survey of the studies put in the ULIS library has shown that among more than 700 studies in the field of ELT, most focus on the students at university and senior secondary school, and there is less than one percent studying those learners at lower levels (junior secondary school or primary school)

Another reason is that in the context of Vietnam, despite the fact that the students nowadays have more and more chances to access English, there are not many investigations into the new teaching method such as the use of oral presentations in general, and the difficulties of elementary students when doing oral presentation in particular The researcher believes that due to the distinguished

1.5 Summary

After reviewing previous studies, the researcher considers oral presentation

as a teaching technique in her own educational context Not only oral presentation enhances students‟ speaking skill, but it also brings students a multi-faceted effect Moreover, researcher learns from other linguists that students have ample difficulties which make their presentations become less effective

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CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter includes the procedures followed throughout the study It clarifies the reason for implementing the study with descriptive approach The participants, instruments, procedure, data collection and data analysis are also presented

2.1 Research design

The researcher used the descriptive approach of research to carry out the study Brown and Rodgers (2002, p.117) define the descriptive research as "A research that describes group characteristics or behaviours in numerical terms" They maintain that "the descriptive statistics are those statistics used to analyse descriptive research data, usually in terms of central tendency and dispersion" This helps obtain the difficulties of elementary students when doing oral presentation in

a speaking lesson

The study was conducted in an English center in Hanoi This center teaches English for kindergarten, primary, secondary and high school students Each course in this center includes twenty 90-minute lessons Students in each course after twenty 90-minute lessons can understand, remember and apply some vocabulary related to their daily life, such as school, family, animals, sports, food, clothes Besides, they are able

to understand, remember and apply some structures fluently Students participate in two lessons per week Both English written and oral skill are taught The speaking practice usually included the items like reading simple passages aloud, answering questions, role playing the story, telling the story and oral presentation In the 11th and 17th lesson of the course, students give one presentation on topics suggested by teachers They can present individually or in groups

Primary student is the largest group in this center which includes 18 classes English for primary is a six level course series which aims to develop young children‟s four English skills (Starters 1, Starters 2, Movers 1, Movers 2, Flyers 1, Flyers 2) All courses are theme-based with age-appropriate themes and topics that

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match with child development stages All these classes are using Kid‟s box – Cambridge University Press (3rd edition) as their course book Kid‟s box has 6

levels from Kid‟s box 1 to Kid‟s box 6 Each level has 8 to 12 topics, such as my

school, my family, my town, at home, at the farm, our clothes, our hobbies, our holiday… Each topic is divided into 4 or 5 lessons and delivered in 2 or 3 weeks

(two 90-minute lessons per week) Children learn English language and skills for life through participating in a variety of tasks and projects in a positive learning environment From primary level, elementary students start to do oral presentation

in speaking lessons as one task in their course Giving presentation helps students improve their English speaking skill; however, they face many difficulties during the activity

2.2 Research subjects

In this study, the population is 225 elementary students in the center They are from six to ten years old and have a little experience delivering an oral presentation at school After school, these students take part in English courses in the center The students study English because they want to develop English skills and learn basic knowledge of English They will use English to communicate with their English teachers and their friends at school Besides, English can be a tool which can help them learn other subjects like Maths and Science In the center, they have to do oral presentation in speaking lessons as one task in their course

The researcher selected only ten classes as the sample With 6 levels from Starters 1 to Flyers 2, one or two classes in each level were chosen randomly Each class includes 10 students; thus, the total numbers of the students of the study are

100 students The sample included both male and female students

2.3 Data collection instruments

The instruments the researcher used are observation, questionnaire, and interview The researcher chose to use these instruments because when using them, the researcher was able to get the needed information easily and also answer the questions of the respondents directly

on the real situation when doing research to suit younger students The questionnaire created by Ayman Hassan Abu El Enein has three main criteria namely “Clarity of speech and voice quality”, “Correctness of language” and

“Interaction with audience” The questionnaire of this study consists four main criteria, which are “Language”, “Content”, “Personal trait” and “External factor” There are 35 statements in the questionnaire of Ayman Hassan Abu El Enein while the questionnaire of this study only has 20 statements in total

Dishonesty can be an issue of questionaire Respondents may not be 100 percent honest with their answers This can occur for a variety of reasons, including social allure bias and endeavouring to ensure privacy Therefore, before asking the respondents to complete the questionnaire, the researcher guaranteed with the respondents that their privacy is valued and the procedure prevents personal identification In the study context, many students tended to be shy when being asked for opinion However, each student received a questionnaire knowing that they do not need to provide their names, so they found it more comfortable and do the questionnaire much better

Moreover, questionnaire can lack conscientious responses because sometimes answers may be picked before the respondents completely read the questions or the potential answers Also, respondents may ignore some questions, which may influence the validity of data Hence, the researcher tried to make the

The research used a Likert scale, which frequently utilizes a rating scale from

“slightly agree” to “strongly disagree.” This allows for quality and assertion in responses rather than multiple choices When using questionnaire, the researcher was able to collect data from a larger number of people in short time

2.3.2 Observation

The observation checklist was created which focuses on the difficulties of students when presenting in class There are three main criteria in the observation checklist, namely “Language”, “Content”, “Personal trait” and “External factor” The checklist has got fifteen items so the data collected is coded to be numerical which allows for less time consuming data analysis Before observing, I explained

my research aims to the center manager, teachers and students in each class and ask for their permission to make the observations Fortunately, they accepted my proposal Ten classes were observed in the 11th or 17th lesson of their courses The researcher always arrived at the class early before the lesson so the obsservations were made without disturbing the circumstance Each class was observed in about

45 minutes so the researcher observed 50 presentations of students in total

There are three main types of observation based primarily on the extent to which the researcher controls or interacts with the environment They are naturalistic observation, participant observation and controlled observation In this study, the researcher used controlled observation This type is carried out under controlled, arranged conditions, frequently in a laboratory setting This type of

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method may have less validity because participants may behave differently when they realize that they are being observed Therefore, before observing each class, the researcher clarified the purpose of the observation that is used for the research, not for assessment Therefore, the students could present naturally

2.3.3 Interview

The interview really met the researcher‟s need which is to investigate teachers‟ opinions towards the difficulties of their elementary students when doing oral presentation in a speaking lesson More importantly, the researcher preferred to use structured interviews because the questions can be prepared in advance so that well-structured answers can be received from participants in order to construct research narratives This also leads to more effective data collection There are seven interview questions While five first questions are used to collect data for teachers‟ viewpoints on the difficulties faced by elementary students in doing presentation, two last questions give information for students‟ expectation from teachers to help them overcome the difficulties

Three teachers who are teaching in the center were chosen in order to investigate their opinion towards the difficulties faced by their elementary students

in doing presentation and the solutions for these difficulties They are the teachers

of 10 classes and 100 students who completed the questionnaire and were observed Therefore, they understood their students and the difficulties faced by their students when giving presentation Among three teachers, two teachers are teaching three classes and the last one is teaching two classes The first step in this interview is to introduce the research to the interviewees to ensure that the participants are aware of the purpose of the research and has given informed consent During the interview, the researcher focused on asking participants about their opinions towards the difficulties

of their elementary students when doing oral presentation in a speaking The researcher asked respondents same basic questions in same order, thus increasing comparability of responses Questions are worded in a completely open-ended format Finally, the researcher signalled the end of the interview with gratitude and informs participants what will happen next with their answers

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2.4 Data collection procedure

The researcher followed three main steps to collect data for the study

The first step is delivering the questionnaire After designing the questionnaire, the researcher chose a suitable time which the respondents were free and willing to answer to ask them to do the questionnaire Besides, the researcher translated the questionnaire into Vietnamese so the respondents could understand the questionnaire easily and complete it quickly When the respondents were doing the questionnaire, the researcher went around the class to see their progress and to answer any question raised by the respondents Due to the positive attitude of the respondents, the researcher could be able to collect all the questionnaires delivered The respondents had no difficulties in doing the questionnaire because their queries were cleared up right after they were brought out Therefore, it would be easier for the researchers to analyse the data The difficulties were the respondents unmotivated to do the questionnaire To minimize theirs impacts, the researcher gave the respondents general instruction at the beginning of the questionnaire and gave specific instructions introducing each new task Moreover, the researcher also gave them some small gifts to express the gratitude

The second step is observing ten classes, including 100 elementary students The researcher observed about 45 minutes for each class (the 11th and 17th lesson of the course)

The third step is interview Three teachers of ten classes were invited to participate in a structured interview developed by the researcher The interview was audio recorded for descriptive analysis The results of the interviews were used to verify and supplement the data collected from students‟ questionnaire and observation

2.5 Data analysis procedure

The result collected from students‟ questionnaire, observation and interview will be descriptively analyzed to find out students‟ difficulties when doing oral presentation in a speaking lesson

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In order to analyze the statistical data from students‟ questionnaire, the researcher used the SPSS statistical packages as a statistical technique Means and percentages were used to determine the main difficulties encountered by students in giving the oral presentation and their expectations from teachers to help them overcome the difficulties

With the content data form observation, the researcher gave a thick description of the data by describing and interpreting social action (or behaviour) within its particular context

Finally, the results collected from audio recorded interviews are descriptively analyzed; and compared with the results from students‟ questionnaire and observation

2.6 Summary

This chapter has presented the methodology employed in this research to gather data The instruments the researcher used are questionnaire, observation, and interview These instruments are targeted to investigate students and teachers‟ viewpoints on the difficulties faced by elementary students in doing presentation, and students‟ expectation from teachers to help them overcome the difficulties

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CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter presents the findings and discussion of the study The collected results from student‟s questionnaire, observation and interview are provided and discussed to answer the research questions in turn

3.1 Data collected from the questionnaire

The data collected from the questionnaire is used to answer two research questions The researcher used sum of responses, means, std deviation, the percentage weight and rank of each item of the questionnaire

3.1.1 Students’ difficulties in doing presentation

Tables 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5 shows the result of the first question: “What are the difficulties faced by elementary students in doing presentation?”

First: Language:

Table 3.1: The sum of responses, means, std deviation and the rank of each item

from of the first domain from the questionnaire

Deviation

% weight

Rank

in the scope

General rank

2 You use correct grammar 338 3.38 1.179 67.6 1 1

3 You have correct

Table 3.2: The sum of responses, means, std deviation and the rank of each item

from of the second domain from the questionnaire

No Content Sum Mean Deviation Std weight %

Rank

in the scope

General rank

- Item no (3) "You stick to the objectives of the speech." occupied the last rank with percent weight (42.4%)

Third: Personal trait:

Table 3.3: The sum of responses, means, std deviation and the rank of each item

from of the third domain from the questionnaire

No Personal trait Sum Mean Deviation Std weight %

Rank

in the scope

General rank

1 You speak confidently 328 3.28 1.356 65.6 2 3

2 You present fluently 329 3.29 1.351 65.8 1 2