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

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

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 MethodologyCode: 8140231.01

Supervisor: Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa, Ph.D

This M.A thesis could not have been accomplished without the invaluablehelp, encouragement and support form a number of people who I would like toshow 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 preciousguideline and advice throughout the duration of my thesis Without her instructionand supervision, this thesis could not have reached the fulfillment

Moreover, my honest thanks also come to teachers and students in an Englishcenter 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 havealways supported me and supplied the best conditions for me to complete this thesis

Among four skills of English language, speaking has been claimed to be animportant skill to communicate Oral presentation takes an important role inteaching and learning English, especially in teaching and learning English speakingskill However, many students find it difficult to do a presentation This study wasconducted to explore the difficulties of elementary students when doing oralpresentation in a speaking lesson in an English center in Hanoi This study alsocollects students’ expectation of their teachers to solve the problem 100 elementarystudents in an English center in Hanoi, who have to do oral presentation in speakinglessons as one task in their course, participated in this research Questionnaire,observation, and interview were employed to collect data for the research Thefindings of this study revealed that there are many difficulties faced by elementarystudents in doing presentation Among these difficulties, “Language”, "Personaltrait" and “External factor” constitute the most serious difficulties encounteringstudents 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 theoral presentation, the students expect some supports from their teachers toovercome these difficulties and to improve the learning process generally in oralproficiency and speaking skill in particular

TABLE OF CONTENT

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF TABLES vii

LIST OF FIGURES viii

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

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

Y

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1: The sum of responses, means, std deviation and the rank of each item from ofthe first domain from the questionnaire 21Table 3.2: The sum of responses, means, std deviation and the rank of each item from ofthe second domain from the questionnaire 22Table 3.3: The sum of responses, means, std deviation and the rank of each item from ofthe third domain from the questionnaire 23Table 3.4: The sum of responses, means, std deviation and the rank of each item from ofthe fourth domain from the questionnaire 24Table 3.5: The sum of responses, means, std deviation and rank of each domain fromand all questionnaire 26Table 3.6: The sum of responses, means, std deviation and rank of each item from of thesecond part from the questionnaire 28

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 3.1: Teachers give more interesting and useful topics 30Figure 3.2: Teachers give detailed guide about how to make a good presentation 30Figure 3.3 Teachers give better score or a reward for the best presentation 31Figure 3.4: Teachers help brainstorming some ideas that can appear in the presentation 32Figure 3.5: Teachers provide some activities to make students able to use languagewithout fear to make mistakes 32

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

Since English was first taught in Vietnam, learners had focused more onstudying grammar and translation because they were the best ways to communicatewith foreigners and set foot to the English-speaking world However, nowadays, asthe society is developing faster, it is required that education should attach specialimportance to communicative language teaching Therefore, speaking plays animportant role in learning English There are many ways for English learners toimprove 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 newtrend 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 theopportunity to speak in front of the audience is one of the greatest benefits thatstudents are offered when spending time at school (Miles, 2003) Zhu (2005) sharedher same opinion about the need of using presentation in developing student skills.She claimed in her study that oral presentation is a multi-task activity requiringlearners to speak and illustrate their speech at the same time It has two clearpurposes which are to provide information and/ or to persuade listeners to do adesired task Nowadays, as presentation becomes more popular, it takes animportant role in teaching and learning

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

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

Realizing the effects of using oral presentations in EFL lessons on thestudents’ language development, all learners including elementary students in anEnglish 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 inclass In fact, not only elementary students find it difficult to do a presentation, evenintermediate learners find it difficult to improve their presentation skill althoughthey have practiced regularly Being a teacher in this center, the researcherconsidered this a very good chance for her to carry out a study on the difficulties ofelementary students when doing oral presentation in a speaking lesson

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

2 Research aims

This research’s main aim is to explore the difficulties of elementary studentswhen 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 studentshave experienced oral presentation in class The study focuses on finding out thedifficulties of these students when doing oral presentation in a speaking lesson

5 Methods of the study

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

6 Significance of the study

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

in this center in developing the oral presentation Secondly, the research helpsstudents 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 suitableways to overcome these difficulties The study is also hoped to fill the gap in theliterature on the level of the difficulties of elementary students when doing oralpresentation in a speaking lesson in the context of Vietnam Other researchers whoare interested in doing research in the topic can use this study as a reference to carryout 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 andsignificance in EFL classrooms, the definition of difficulty, its classification,students’ difficulties in presentation, characteristics of young learners and factorshindering young learners’ from presenting A brief overview of the related studiesare also provided

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

this study including the objects, data collection instruments, data collectionprocedure 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

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter conceptualizes the framework of the study including the keyconcepts such as the definition of oral presentation, its types and significance inEFL classrooms, the definition and classification of difficulty, students’ difficulties

in presentation, characteristics of young learners and factors hindering younglearners’ 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 issuesthat are talked about or shared with a group of people or an audience” It can bestated that an oral presentation is not limited to those given to a large audience; itcan be considered as a means by which people can communicate daily in aworkplace, teach in the classroom, give opinions and express oneself in a situationthat 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 andoccurs in organizational settings Time is typically constrained thus the successfulpresentation must be carefully arranged The speaker must make certain of her factsand objectives, have a carefully structured outline, support her presentation withvisual aids, convey the talk clearly and confidently and afterward handle inquiriesfrom 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 howthey 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 complexsociolinguistic and in addition cognitive understandings, particularly for learners of

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 guidedand organized, it will give the students a learning experience and teach them animportant skill which will be beneficial to ESL/EFL in all their education subjectand later in their work According to Chivers and Shoolbred (2007, p.5), “doingpresentation 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 morespecialized than those attending a typical speech event.” There are differencesbetween normal speech and oral presentation The latter is a type of speech, but theformer 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 isconsidered a means to give information, knowledge, and lectures Normally, apresentation 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 ashort talk by one person or a group of people introducing and describing aparticular subject

1.1.2 Types of oral presentation

Chivers and Shoolbred (2007, p.2) stated that understanding the style ofpresentation 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,

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, andarguments are presented in a logical and persuasive way in order to make theaudience carry out the presenter’s requests A decision-making presentation issupposed to tell the audience the ‘what’ and the ‘how’

Basing on the learner proficiency level, purposes, classroom context, thereare specific kinds of presentation that should be applied Due to the classroomcondition, students’ proficiency level and the emphasis on oral output, theInformative presentation is considered as the most suitable to be applied in thecontext of an EFL classroom in particular

1.1.3 Significance of oral presentation

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

The enormous significance is to enhance students’ speaking skill In otherwords, presentation helps student speak fluently in public Discussing this effect,Miles (2010) claimed that the majority of students studying oral presentationwanted to enhance their ability to communicate orally in English and theircompetence to speak in public Zhu (2005) supposed oral presentation is a goodchance for students to discuss a topic thoroughly

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

also brings student a multi-faceted effect For example, in research of Issa & Qubtan(2010), results shown that oral presentation also helped learners usetechnology effectively in study Especially, King (2002) mentioned that learners canpresent 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 ingroup to prepare their oral presentation, they have chances to discuss to choose thetopic, make the presentation’s outline and develop their details To achieve goodresults, they must find a way to understand each other and cooperate to have a deepsympathy and unification in all group works Because group oral presentationincludes a lot of group works, it is always useful for students

group-King (2002) pointed out another precious advantage of oral presentationwhich is putting the natural setting for developing four language skills in anintegrated way In addition, making a presentation outline is an essential step toprepare presentation (Zhu, 2005) Students have to do several readings, synthesizeand order the collected information to create an outline Moreover, Al-Issa & Al-Qubtan (2010) suggested that classmates also improve their listening skill throughlistening 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 studentsfrom achieving the right and true answer of the activities He also believed that thedifficulty can be estimated through regular mistakes which are repeated by thestudent at 25% and more Sharing the same opinion with Maximos, Othman (1990)mentioned the difficulties as those which may prevent the student from achieving

the right answer, remembering that the normal mistakes at 25% are a marker oferror existence

Al Qassim (2000) described learning difficulties as a case which prompts apersistent falling and diminishing in student learning, despite his normal oruncommon mental capacity, and that is not because of visual perception orhearing or physical movement or social conditions

Learning difficulties are experienced by the student from the issues in thecapacity of utilizing, understanding and realizing the language It is resulted fromchallenges in perception and realization of students due to brain andencephalon infection or deformity in brain function or reading and talkingincapacity (Jerjawi, 2002)

1.2.2 Classification of learning difficulties

Many experts find learning difficulties confusing and ambiguous, theydivided learning difficulties into two following types:

a Developmental learning difficulties

Al Zarad (1991) divided difficulties into two categories which are primarydifficulties 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 arebasic mental processes They are overlapping, and they influence each other.Secondary developmental learning difficulties deal with thinking and verballanguage Thinking and verbal language are influenced directly by primarydifficulties (Al Qassim, 2000)

b Academic learning difficulties

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

Academic learning difficulties allude to the students who get difficulties inone 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 differentbenefits 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 stressfulactivity”, therefore oral presentation is not an essay task for most of students

Rajoo (2010) categorized the students’ difficulties during oral presentationinto four groups First is language (grammatical problems and lack of vocabulary).Second is content (difficult in giving examples and problems in attracting theaudience’ interests) Third is personal trait (nervousness, memorizing problem, toofast speed) Last is external factor (lack of preparation and time)

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

The second group of student’s difficulties relates to content Many studentshave difficulty in understanding the topic If the teacher gives an unfamiliar topic tostudents, the students will be confused because they do not have enoughinformation 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' oralpresentation failures Everybody can have speech anxiety when speaking in publicbecause it is an ordinary and normal behaviour Speech anxiety can be seen in thevoice of the speaker Teacher can solve the problem by letting their studentunderstand that anxiety is a natural reaction, so they are able to do their oralpresentation without any fear If the teacher settles on an open mind about speech

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

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

Last but not least, many external factors make student’s presentation lesseffective For example, students are unfamiliar with the criteria of effective oralpresentation According to Chivers and Shoolbred (2007, p.31), “Many students feelhighly nervous about undertaking class presentation.” Students have a dread fromdelivering an oral presentation because they have limited presentation skills Inaddition, 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 betaught this technique because it is considered as an opportunity to improve theirEnglish

Students’ problems with oral presentations should be considered Findingsolutions 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 forexample a language Some researchers gave their ideas about characteristics ofyoung learners The characteristics cover their ways of thinking, their attitude, theiraptitude, 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 majoropportunity to mould their expectations of life in school As a group they arepotentially more differentiated than secondary or adult learners, for they are closer

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

Halliwel (1992) clarified the characteristics of children that they are alreadyvery good in interpreting meaning without necessarily understanding the individualword Children already have great skill in using limited language creativity and aready imagination, children words are full of imagination and fantasy, and it is morethan simply matter of enjoyment They frequently learn indirectly rather thandirectly 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 theconcrete to the abstract thing They have no real linguistics, different from the adultlearners that already have certain purpose in learning language, for instances, tohave a better job, children rarely have such needs in learning a foreign language.They learn subjects that school provide for them Young learners are stilldeveloping; they are developing common skill such as turn taking and the use ofbody language Young children are very egocentric; they tend to resolve aroundthemselves 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 andexciting as possible by setting up the interesting activities

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

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 theyknow 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 whenpresenting

a Inhibition

This difficulty usually happens when young learners present in theclassroom 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 tocreate inhibition and anxiety." Young students are not ready to speak with use ofEnglish because of the dread of committing mistakes This fear increases when theyhave to speak to a critical audience Ur (2000, p 111) stated that students inhibitedabout speaking a foreign language in the classroom worried about committingmistakes, fear of criticism or loosing face, or just shy of the consideration that theirspeech attracts When teaching speaking skill, teachers ask students to present infront of their classmates This leads them to show their worry in speaking Stresscan stop them to speak confidently

b Nothing to say

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

c Low uneven participation

This difficult identified with the large classes While some learners want tospeak constantly, others prefer to talk when they are sure of the right answer Somestudents 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 somelearners 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 lessexposed to the foreign language Baker and Westrup (2003, p 12) say, "barriers tolearning can occur if student knowingly or unknowingly transfer the cultural rulesfrom their mother tongue to a foreign language” Students utilize their mothertongues 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 overcomethe stress by having a positive self-image and confidence

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

inaccurate pronunciation, lack of vocabulary, structures, discourse markers,grammar accuracy, fluency, oral proficiency, communicative competence andoral speaking activities Moreover, interaction with audience, body language, eye-contact techniques, visual aids, time management, psychological factors, socialfactors and interruption from other students are also serious issues The researcher isthoroughly 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 effectivestrategies in developing the academic oral presentations of English students

role-The above literature review has shown some noticeable gaps in the researcharea on the use of oral presentations, especially in the context of EFL classrooms

Firstly, oral presentations have been introduced and applied for students atdifferent ages, stages and levels of language proficiency (Nguyen, 2012) There aremany studies carried out to study the use of oral presentations in teaching English.However, these studies mostly investigate the impacts of oral presentation on themature learners, not the younger ones, especially in Vietnam It is worth noticingthat 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 rarelytaken into the researchers’ consideration For example, a thorough survey of thestudies put in the ULIS library has shown that among more than 700 studies in thefield 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 (juniorsecondary school or primary school)

Another reason is that in the context of Vietnam, despite the fact that thestudents nowadays have more and more chances to access English, there are notmany investigations into the new teaching method such as the use of oralpresentations in general, and the difficulties of elementary students when doing oralpresentation in particular The researcher believes that due to the distinguished

presentations in their English class

In short, this study used the similar methodology to the research of AymanHassan Abu El Enein (2011); however, it provides an insight into the difficulties ofelementary students and it is conducted in the context of Vietnam Ayman HassanAbu El Enein used questionnaire for collecting, describing and analyzing data toidentify difficulties encountered by students in giving academic oral presentation.Moreover, he used another instrument that is the interview card in order to achievethe aims of the study

1.5 Summary

After reviewing previous studies, the researcher considers oral presentation

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

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter includes the procedures followed throughout the study Itclarifies the reason for implementing the study with descriptive approach Theparticipants, instruments, procedure, data collection and data analysis are alsopresented

2.1 Research design

The researcher used the descriptive approach of research to carry out thestudy Brown and Rodgers (2002, p.117) define the descriptive research as "Aresearch that describes group characteristics or behaviours in numerical terms".They maintain that "the descriptive statistics are those statistics used to analysedescriptive research data, usually in terms of central tendency and dispersion" Thishelps 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 teachesEnglish for kindergarten, primary, secondary and high school students Each course inthis center includes twenty 90-minute lessons Students in each course after twenty 90-minute lessons can understand, remember and apply some vocabulary related to theirdaily life, such as school, family, animals, sports, food, clothes Besides, they are able

to understand, remember and apply some structures fluently Students participate intwo lessons per week Both English written and oral skill are taught The speakingpractice usually included the items like reading simple passages aloud, answeringquestions, role playing the story, telling the story and oral presentation In the 11th and17th lesson of the course, students give one presentation on topics suggested byteachers 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 youngchildren’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

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 forlife through participating in a variety of tasks and projects in a positive learningenvironment From primary level, elementary students start to do oral presentation

in speaking lessons as one task in their course Giving presentation helps studentsimprove their English speaking skill; however, they face many difficulties duringthe activity

2.2 Research subjects

In this study, the population is 225 elementary students in the center Theyare from six to ten years old and have a little experience delivering an oralpresentation at school After school, these students take part in English courses inthe center The students study English because they want to develop English skillsand learn basic knowledge of English They will use English to communicate withtheir English teachers and their friends at school Besides, English can be a toolwhich can help them learn other subjects like Maths and Science In the center, theyhave 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 fromStarters 1 to Flyers 2, one or two classes in each level were chosen randomly Eachclass 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, andinterview The researcher chose to use these instruments because when using them,the researcher was able to get the needed information easily and also answer thequestions of the respondents directly

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

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

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

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

questionnaire short and the questions uncomplicated to avoid skipping, improveconsummation rates and get the most accurate responses

Before it was delivered, the questionnaire was translated into Vietnamese.Choosing questionnaire, the questionnaire could be clarified completely andguarantee that everybody has a similar comprehension Therefore, respondents didnot have difficulty understanding the meaning of the questions Besides, theresearcher could catch emotional reactions or the feeling of the respondents byobserving their facial expression, reactions or body language

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

“slightly agree” to “strongly disagree.” This allows for quality and assertion inresponses rather than multiple choices When using questionnaire, the researcherwas 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 ofstudents when presenting in class There are three main criteria in the observationchecklist, namely “Language”, “Content”, “Personal trait” and “External factor”.The checklist has got fifteen items so the data collected is coded to be numericalwhich 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 askfor their permission to make the observations Fortunately, they accepted myproposal Ten classes were observed in the 11th or 17th lesson of their courses Theresearcher always arrived at the class early before the lesson so the obsservationswere 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 towhich the researcher controls or interacts with the environment They arenaturalistic observation, participant observation and controlled observation In thisstudy, the researcher used controlled observation This type is carried out undercontrolled, arranged conditions, frequently in a laboratory setting This type of

method may have less validity because participants may behave differently whenthey 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 investigateteachers’ opinions towards the difficulties of their elementary students when doingoral presentation in a speaking lesson More importantly, the researcher preferred touse structured interviews because the questions can be prepared in advance so thatwell-structured answers can be received from participants in order to constructresearch narratives This also leads to more effective data collection There areseven interview questions While five first questions are used to collect data forteachers’ viewpoints on the difficulties faced by elementary students in doingpresentation, two last questions give information for students’ expectation fromteachers to help them overcome the difficulties

Three teachers who are teaching in the center were chosen in order toinvestigate 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 studentswhen giving presentation Among three teachers, two teachers are teaching threeclasses and the last one is teaching two classes The first step in this interview is tointroduce the research to the interviewees to ensure that the participants are aware ofthe purpose of the research and has given informed consent During the interview, theresearcher focused on asking participants about their opinions towards the difficulties

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

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 thequestionnaire, the researcher chose a suitable time which the respondents were freeand willing to answer to ask them to do the questionnaire Besides, the researchertranslated the questionnaire into Vietnamese so the respondents could understandthe questionnaire easily and complete it quickly When the respondents were doingthe questionnaire, the researcher went around the class to see their progress and toanswer any question raised by the respondents Due to the positive attitude of therespondents, the researcher could be able to collect all the questionnaires delivered.The respondents had no difficulties in doing the questionnaire because their querieswere cleared up right after they were brought out Therefore, it would be easier forthe researchers to analyse the data The difficulties were the respondentsunmotivated to do the questionnaire To minimize theirs impacts, the researchergave the respondents general instruction at the beginning of the questionnaire andgave specific instructions introducing each new task Moreover, the researcher alsogave 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 ofthe course)

The third step is interview Three teachers of ten classes were invited toparticipate in a structured interview developed by the researcher The interview wasaudio recorded for descriptive analysis The results of the interviews were used toverify and supplement the data collected from students’ questionnaire andobservation

2.5 Data analysis procedure

The result collected from students’ questionnaire, observation and interviewwill be descriptively analyzed to find out students’ difficulties when doing oralpresentation in a speaking lesson

In order to analyze the statistical data from students’ questionnaire, theresearcher used the SPSS statistical packages as a statistical technique Means andpercentages were used to determine the main difficulties encountered by students ingiving the oral presentation and their expectations from teachers to help themovercome the difficulties

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

Finally, the results collected from audio recorded interviews are descriptivelyanalyzed; and compared with the results from students’ questionnaire andobservation

2.6 Summary

This chapter has presented the methodology employed in this research to gatherdata The instruments the researcher used are questionnaire, observation, andinterview 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

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter presents the findings and discussion of the study The collectedresults from student’s questionnaire, observation and interview are provided anddiscussed 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 researchquestions The researcher used sum of responses, means, std deviation, thepercentage 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 arethe 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

N

Std

Deviation

%weight

Rank

in thescope

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

from of the second domain from the questionnaire

N

Std

Deviation

%weight

Rank

in thescope

- Item no (3) "You stick to the objectives of the speech." occupied the last rank withpercent 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

N

Std

Deviation

%weight

Rank

in thescope