Sáng kiến kinh nghiệm: Developing 11th grade students’ oral presentation skill through project – based learning: A case at a mountainous high school

Moreover, the teachers of English find it difficult to encourage their students to make oral presentation in the process of teaching speaking skill.. With the aim to access the method on

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

English has become an international communicative language in the world It has been used widely in many different fields such as economics, politics, culture, science, technology, education and tourism It can’t be denied that English is one of the most important means of communication Therefore, teaching and learning English is more and more essensial

In Vietnam, English has become a compulsory subject in the syllabus of many schools, colleges and universities It has been taught and learnt throughout the country However, the fact is that the speaking English skill has not been effective yet, especially oral presentation Students graduating from high school or even from university are unable to “speak” English, because we have not given them enough practice in speaking English Most of the students do not find speaking a rewarding task We cannot learn speaking by observation Speaking is the most difficult in the four skills Reading, listening and writing can be learning with a teacher or on one’s own, with books However, speaking requires immediate comprehension and real time reaction I think that the way of teaching by oral presentation will motivate student and encourage them to practice English in the classroom

At Doluong 3 high school, many students are not interested in speaking lessons as well as they can not speak English well after leaving school even though they have learnt English for a long time Moreover, the teachers of English find it difficult to encourage their students to make oral presentation in the process of teaching speaking skill

To meet the demand of learners of English, teachers of English in Do luong 3 have been trying to find out the most suitable and effective method of teaching English They have always tried to catch up with the world’s latest frameworks of English Language Teaching As in other schools, teachers of English in Do luong 3 are now approaching project based learning to teach English to students They hope to provide students with a means of communication, namely English which is vital for them to be successful in their job and to fulfill their social demands in the time of globalization

Therefore, it is really essential to know whether the project based learning has the good effects on teaching oral presentation skill to the 11th graders of Do luong 3 High

school With the aim to access the method on teaching oral presentation through the

Project based learning, I would like to choose the topic “Developing 11th grade students’ oral presentation skill through project-based learning: A case at a mountainous high school” to find out the answer, and further, to help improve the

teaching of oral presentation at my school

In this study, I would like to speak about developing students’ oral presentation through Project based learning in English language classrooms and its impact in speaking skill I think that the use of oral presentations in EFL classroom is important because of its positive impact on students’ proficiency level Some students do not like to speak in the classroom In addition, they do not have the opportunity to speak this language outside So if student do not practice English in the classroom, may be they do speak it never I know that I cannot learn to speak any language with observation Therefore, I put forward that the use of students’ oral presentation may develop students’ speaking level When we have students give an oral presentation in front of class is one technique

to improve students’ oral proficiency Teachers can use oral presentation as a technical way to deal with students’ problems in speaking Oral presentation activities provide an excellent opportunity for the learners to develop this skill, speaking several minutes in a structured way, delivering into various aspects of a single topic

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

This study has been designed to investigate the use of oral presentation in English classes for the 11th students at Do luong 3 upper secondary school In general, it has two purposes

Firstly, it aims at finding students’ attitudes towards the use of oral presentations

in the classroom Secondly, it is to investigate the impacts of oral presentations through project based learning on the students’ performance in English lessons Finally, it is to provide the teachers with some suggestions to make best use of oral presentations in their

teaching with a view to better their students’ speaking skill

Our objective is to show how project based leaning can help students enough practice to develop oral presentation skill in speaking English language

1.3 Scope of the study

Although there are many different ways to motivate students to learn English, all these issues cannot be fully covered in this paper Due to the limited time and the length

of the thesis, I focus on exploiting students’ attitudes toward the use of PBL and its effectiveness in teaching the oral presentation skill The subjects of the study include forty 11th graders at Do Luong 3 high school

1.4 Significance of the study

The main goal of study is how to make student perform well in classroom, by preparing activities where they will speak as much as possible We will focus on the use and effectiveness of the project based learning during the courses, and how will facilitate the students’ oral presentation skill This study is important to give the teacher some ideas for how to deal with students who do not want to practice in classroom The use of oral presentation can help students of English language for being able to speak it, because in our universities we rarely learn how to speak Oral presentation in EFL classes give students a confidence to speak in public and help them in enhancing their proficiency Moreover, this study is important for both teachers and students’ Oral presentation can be an enjoyable activity for them It gives a break away from textbooks

1.5 Research Questions

This study attempts to answer the following questions:

1 What are the attitudes of 11th graders towards the use of Project-Based Learning?

2 Does Project-Based Learning help 11th graders to develop their oral presentation skill

? If so, to what extent?

1.6 Design of the study

The study contains four chapters:

Chapter 1: Introduction

This chapter presents the rationale, objectives, research questions, scope and organization of the study

Chapter 2: Literature review

This chapter introduces a historical overview of the literature The first is about oral presentation The next is about project based learning The final is the application of PBL

in teaching oral presentation

Chapter 3: Methodology

The subjects of the study were 40 eleventh grade students who were chosen randomly from Do Luong 3 upper secondary school during the school year 2017-2018

Three instruments were used to collect data for the study: An oral performance test (debate), an oral attitudes survey and a rating scale

Additionally, this chapter will present the author’s suggestions on mentioned problems and summarize all the main points raised in the paper, the limitations of the study and some suggestions for further studies

Chapter 4 : Findings and discussions

This part shows major findings and discussions and offers recommendations for motivating students to do oral presentation through project based learning

Chapter 5: Conclusion

That is a summary of the study in which limitations of the study and suggestions for further research are presented

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Oral presentation

2.1.1 Definition of oral presentation

Oral presentation is an extension of oral communication skill It is where the presenter shows their knowledge on a particular subject The participant might choose the title or the teachers give it to them In order to talk about it to their classmate after this the participant makes a small research to get more information about this topic The presenter

is giving the most important information first, leaving the details for last According to Baker (2000, p 115) oral presentation is like a formal conversation, speaking to group as

a natural activity Most of people spending hours of their daytime, speaking to others, however making an oral presentation that is a formal conversation, it is difficult task for them Oral presentation is part of spoken language The purpose of this practice is to communicate It is design to inform or persuade Oral presentation occurs in organizational setting and with limitation in time The audience is likely to be more specialized than those attending a typical speech event.” There are different between normal speech and oral presentation The later is a type of speech, but the former is more nature than oral presentation

2.1.2 Types of oral presentation

2.1.2.1 Informative oral presentation

This type of presentation has a primary goal, which is to make the audience learning something new The speakers use in this type of presentation an informative speech The aim of informative presentation is to be communicating with the audiences and giving them much information in a limited time (Chivers, Shoolbred, 2007, p 5)

Moreover, in this type of presentation the speakers use an informative speech to explain a concept, instruct the audience, demonstrate a process, or describe an event in an academic setting In addition, speakers may be choosing the topic by themselves (Chivers and Shoolbred (2007, p 5)

In sum, the speaker’s aim of this presentation is to give the result of their research

in informative way

2.1.2.2 Persuasive oral presentation

Persuasive speech is to influence the audience in their thinking about a topic,

which may be given or chosen According to Chivers and Shoolbred (2007, p 3) in this type of presentation, speakers need to have a strong content and present it in a clear way

Baker (2000, p 76) states that persuasive has three elements, which are:

* Logos

In persuasive presentation, the topic needs to be logical Tacy (2008, p 9) claims that when speakers want to talk about their topic, they should organize the ideas from the more important point to less one Logos mean the speakers organize what they are going

to say from the beginning to the end in a logic way

2.1.3 The benefits of using oral presentations in the language classroom

Oral presentations have been shown to be extremely successful with respect to improving learners’ second language skills, and increasing their autonomy For example, Girard, Pinar and Trapp (2011) found that using oral presentations in their classroom lead

to greater class interaction and participation, an increased interest in learning, and noticeable improvements in their students’ communication and presentation skills

For most language teachers the five major benefits to use oral presentations in the classroom are:

 They are student-centered

 They require the use of all four language skills

 They provide students with realistic language tasks

 They have value outside the language classroom

 They improve students’ motivation

One of the main benefits of using presentations in the classroom is that oral presentations are student-centered When students are asked to give an oral presentation it

is one of the few times in the language classroom that the students themselves have direct

control of both the content and the flow of the classroom (Apple & Kikuchi, 2007) A properly scaffolded presentation can result in multiple opportunities for students to improve their English in a context in which the students themselves are acting as both teachers and learners Interactions between the presenters and the audience provide both sets of participants with numerous opportunities to practice their English abilities with other students in an authentic manner

Oral presentations also provide students with a process-driven activity that requires them to use English, not just while they are giving the presentation itself, but also while they are preparing to present

Another benefit of oral presentations is that they require students to use all four language skills; writing, reading, speaking, and listening Most teachers recognize the spoken component of presenting, as students are required to speak when giving their presentations If these students are given a simple task to do during the presentation, or are expected to use the knowledge disseminated through the presentation for a specific purpose, this will allow practicing their listening skills and confirm their understanding

by asking questions and interacting with the presenters (Thornbury, 2005, p 91)

The final benefit of using oral presentations in the language classroom is that they can provide students with additional motivation to study English One of the joys of teaching a presentation class is seeing students gain confidence, self-esteem, and autonomy while they are working independently, or as a small group, to produce and give

an effective presentation

2.1.4 Students’ common oral presentation problems

Oral presentation is considered to be one of important skills of speaking, regarded

as one of the most difficult skill to master for the majority of EFL students who are still incompetent to communicate orally in English As Loama (2004, p 1) states: “Speaking

in a foreign language is very difficult and competence on speaking takes a long time to develop ˮ So, during the oral classes, learners encounter many obstacles that hinder their learning process of such a difficult skill

Beside these linguistic factors such as: lack of vocabulary, mispronunciation, grammatical mistakes, the use of the mother tongue, students may face with psychological factors These problems are speech anxiety and group boredom

Students often meet these factors as follows:

2.1.4.1 Linguistic factors

2.1.4.1.1 Lack of vocabulary

The knowledge of vocabulary is the prior requirement that the students should have about the language they want to speak However, they face difficulty because their vocabulary is limited, so they are unable to communicate effectively in the target language Students find themselves uncomfortable when they intend to express their ideas in a clear manner It is due to the lack of vocabulary and limited knowledge

Hence, this inadequate vocabulary affects the rate of their participation in oral activities and make them unable to share their ideas with others in a comfortable manner

2.1.4.1.2 Pronunciation mistakes

They are defined by Kelly (2000, p 11) as: “A consideration of learners’ pronunciation errors and of how these can inhibit successful communication is a useful basis on which to assess why it is important to deal with pronunciation in the classroom.”

Besides the learners’ problems in vocabulary, there is a noticeable problem which

is mispronunciation of words, which leads to problems in reception or comprehension of

an utterance’s meaning; consequently, reduce their oral participation

Pronunciation is the most significant skill in foreign language learning since it helps EFL learner to be more competent in communication Furthermore, the level of pronunciation proficiency represents the main criteria that EFL students can be judged on and assessed Hence, they must practice the correct pronunciation forms and be aware of the various rules of sounds as stress, intonation …etc Morley (1991, p 488) emphasizes the importance of pronunciation in speaking proficiency: “intelligible pronunciation is an essential component of communication competence ˮ

Therefore, mispronunciation is a serious problem to overcome that non-native English speakers face when they try to reach a high level of fluency So, pronunciation mistakes are one of the main factors that hinder the students’ freedom in classroom interaction

2.1.4.1.3 Grammar mistakes:

Grammar is an essential element of a language, According to Harmer (2001, p 12) grammar is defined as: The grammar of a language is the description of the ways in which words can change their forms and can be combined into sentences in that language

if grammar rules are too carelessly violated, communication may suffer […,] creating a

good grammar rule is extremely difficult Linguists investigating Native-speaker speech

…, over the years, devised various different systems to describe how the language works

One of the most important aspects of being skillful in oral production is possessing grammar knowledge; Therefore, inappropriate grammar leads to misunderstanding in communication

Moreover, EFL learners often prefer to keep silent rather than producing ungrammatical structures because they are afraid of being ridiculed in front their teachers and classmates

Therefore, a grammatical mistake is one of the linguistic obstacles that prevent EFL learners’ participation

2.1.4.1.4 The use of the mother tongue

It is obvious that EFL learners often use the mother tongue inside and outside classrooms because they are less exposed to the target language and feel demotivated to communicate Students tend to borrow words from their native language when they fail

in expressing their thoughts in the foreign language due to the lack of vocabulary in this language According to Baker and Westrup (2003, p 12): “Barriers to learning can occur

if students knowingly or unknowingly transfer the cultural rules from their mother tongue

to a foreign languageˮ Therefore, the use of mother tongue lessens the students’ speaking capacity and leads to breakdown of communication in the classroom In addition, they will find it difficult to use the target language accurately if they keep on borrowing words from their native language which is caused by the lack of foreign language vocabulary

2.1.4.2 Psychological factors

2.1.4.2.1 Speech anxiety

During the oral presentation, psychological sources were also held responsible for language learners’ high as well as low levels of apprehension There are various psychological variables that make EFL learners anxious in setting where they are required to speak English, to do oral presentation

Impact of speech anxiety makes language learners frightened and shakes their confidence which results in avoidance and withdrawal from speaking activities especially oral presentation in EFL classes One of the high apprehensive subjects of this study revealed in response to the question of influence on anxiety on his language, “Due to fear

I cannot speak well, otherwise when I am alone, I really make good dialogues I think in English alone I think the main reason of my poor English is my confidence, my confidence level is very low I can’t speak in front of others even if I know the answer”

“I am teaching tuition to my brother, I speak better English, I feel very confident at that time But in front of teacher and the classmate I forgot every thing”

Both the statements of subjects who experience high anxiety clearly show that anxiety cast negative influence on learners’ productive skills and EFL teachers need to consider this multi-faced phenomenon

2.1.4.2.2 Group boredom

Some EFL presenters have problem with memorizing information with English so they try to get it by heart By this way, the audience will feel bored when they have to listen to what the speaker said it is look like that they are reading their information “word for- word” from what the memorizing (King, 2002, p 405)

Group boredom also results from listening to memorized speeches A total dependence on memorization is the pattern followed by most EFL presenters who usually have trouble adapting information to spoken English for the audience The audience feels bored when they have to listen to a tedious reading or word-for-word memorized speech from a presenter who reads rapidly and monotonously, losing command of their voice, tone, and pacing When the audience cannot follow the presentation, their attention drifts and they lose interest This makes the speaker feel less confident

One can say that, students’ problems with oral presentations should take in consideration Find a solution of this problem is the rule of booth teachers and students

2.1.5 Strategies for teaching oral presentation

Many students do not find oral presentation an enjoyable activity They are afraid when teachers ask them to prepare an oral presentation According to Chivers and Shoolbred (2007, p 31), “Many students feel highly nervous about undertaking class presentation.”

Moreover, students have a fear from give an oral presentation because they have not experience In addition, some of them do not have a confidence in their abilities (King, 2002, p 406) When students have been asked about what a good presentation is, they have related it to a clear speech, correct language and when the audience get the main idea Therefore, it is important to teach students how to make an oral presentation

because most of them have not clear ideas about how to do it

Oral presentations are become more important part of language teaching, especially at high school nowadays English learners need to be aware of this technique because, it is been considered as an opportunity to improve their English In the past, teachers had been focused on giving the learner grammatical rules, vocabulary…etc the communicative approach aim to teach students how organize the main idea about a given topic in a logical coherent and also it aim to develop the students ability to produce in English with the correct way (King, 2002, p 406)

To conclude, the main purpose of teaching students oral presentation is to help them rejecting the fear of making pronunciation or grammatical errors

2.1.5.1 Teachers’ Role

The teacher’s role is not an easy one because oral presentation is challenging job for teachers like in lesson planning according to King (2002, p 207) “teacher move from the traditional role of teacher as an authorities expert to the new role of facilitator of learning” In addition, teacher need to prepare their students for this work In addition, develop their interaction skill According to Xinaming (2005, p 120), “teachers…still play a key role in the background, as a facilitator, research guides, ultimate references, and source of encouragement” The teacher’s role in oral presentation is an a guide, organizer consultant resource person, and supporter this role involve also organizing into groups, preparing details, more information about the topic, helping them to learn how to use visual aids in their presentation and finally evaluation the students performance (King

2002, p 407-408)

2.1.5.2 Students’role

A student is ready to learn in a real world project format if he or she is qualified to participate in a team project, and has realistic expectations about the process Students are not fully formed people, much less fully functioning managers One cannot expect students to be qualified to complete a project But some students are more qualified, or ready to participate in project learning, than others Students should be relatively mature, use good judgment, be willing to negotiate, and be willing to “go the extra mile” to get the job done (Papamarcos, 2002) Students should also have a desire to gain experience

or to serve a client as sufficient reward for their extra effort

Students should bring some technical, interpersonal, communication and creative

thinking skills to the project They should be willing to subordinate their personal preferences to the decisions of the team, and be willing to compromise in order to achieve a group consensus Students should be trustworthy in terms of their ability to represent the university to their client, and to keep client information confidential as needed

Students also need to begin a project with realistic expectations about the process Students must replace their “traditional” course expectations with an awareness of the characteristics of a project Real world problems that are inherently ambiguous have no obvious action plan and no right or wrong answer Indeed, the opportunity to learn about the ambiguity of real world projects, and how to deal with it, is a benefit to students of doing projects

The author has found that student satisfaction ratings of courses that feature real world projects are a bimodal distribution Many students have rated a course with real world projects highly while many any other students rated it very low: “You either love it

or you hate it” Dissatisfied students cite a number of factors, including bad experiences with their team, a bad client, and unhappiness with the project process

Each student should know in advance that his or her initiative will determine the success of the project, that one’s performance (and grade) is linked with one’s teammates, that the project process will be ambiguous, that the project outcome has no right or wrong answer, and that the project will involve a client who is a potential “wild card” in the process Despite the warning, some students will not thrive in a real world project environment and will give the course a low rating Students find it difficult to have realistic expectations about something that they have never experienced, such as a real world project Another reason for low ratings is that students knew what to expect, and didn’t like it, but took the course because it was their only option to earn credit

In summary, students should have the opportunity to self select, or be selected, to participate in a real world project based on their aptitudes and preferences And students should be told up-front about the challenging features of a project

2.1.5.3 Evaluation of oral presentation

The first evaluation of an oral presentation is on the speaker itself The teacher needs to evaluate the performance of these students by looking for their pronunciation, then teacher move to the kind of information that is included in the presentation

(Xinaming, 2005, p 120) However, in this practice the true evaluation is the speakers’ ability to answer the questions, which the audience have been asked

During the research, to collect the data, the two instruments were employed: the questionnaires about using PBL for the students, the teacher’s observation sheet based on

an oral presentation rubric of NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) The questionnaires findings showed that the attitudes of 11th graders towards the use of project-based learning and PBL helps to develop their oral presentation skills

Teachers should try to be positive in their evaluation and avoid criticism of students’ practice that improves by time In addition, students need to learn how to do it

by experience

Conclusion

To conclude, oral presentation is another way for communication skills If it is well prepared, structured, and organized, it will be beneficial and enjoyable activity for learners This practice is one of speaking activities that aims to develop the students’ proficiency level in English and to help them to build self-confidence in their ability to speak in public

Oral presentation is one type of communication which aims to develop the students’ ability to perform in English The aim of this activity is to enhance students’ proficiency in oral speaking skill At the end of their presentation, students should be aware how to communicate effectively of many methods of teaching oral presentation Project based learning is now becoming popular in teaching communicative skills The next section will discuss the PBL

2.2 Project based learning

Project-based learning has been investigated in a great number of studies on the global scale over the last decade, but the application of this approach to teaching English

as a foreign language in Vietnam is still not popular Project-based learning is a learning method which focuses on the learner; the teacher acts mainly as a facilitator and motivator PBL emphasizes learning activities that are learner-centered and usually integrated with real world concerns With a view to achieving great successes in teaching and learning under the credit-hour system, training workers of the twenty-first century standard, PBL is also a beneficial approach to be applied at high school in Vietnam Aware of the importance of PBL, I make the best efforts to discuss the definitions and

benefits of PBL in general and for 11th grade students of English in particular I also deal with the application of PBL in teaching oral presentation and suggest several language learning projects

This section discusses some of the theoretical basis for the research done in this study

2.2.1 Definitions of the project based learning

Many definitions of project-based learning have been proposed by various authors Van Duzer (1995) and Moss (1998) define it as an instructional approach that contextualizes learning by presenting learners with problems to solve or products to develop As discussed, project-based learning (PBL) is a model that organizes learning around projects which are complex tasks, based on challenging questions or problems, involving students in design, problem-solving, decision making, or investigative activities; giving students the opportunity to work relatively autonomously over extended periods of time; and culminating in realistic products or presentations In addition, the students develop confidence and self-direction as they move through both team-based and independent work

Project-based learning (PBL) is a student-centered pedagogy in which students learn about a subject through the experience of problem solving A project may be connected to real professions through the use of authentic methods, practices, and audiences Multiple presentation modes gives learners opportunities to effectively use various technologies as tools in the planning, development, or presentation of their projects

PBL requires varied and frequent assessment including teacher assessment, peer assessment, self-assessment, and reflection Assessment practices should also be inclusive and well understood by learners, allowing them opportunities to participate in the assessment process in ways not typically supported by more traditional teacher-centered lessons

The variety of definitions has provided the features of PBL Thomas proposes the five criteria of project-based learning: centrality, driving question, constructive investigations, autonomy, and realism

1 PBL projects are central, not peripheral to the curriculum

2 PBL projects are focused on questions or problems that "drive" students to encounter

(and struggle with) the central concepts and principles of a discipline

3 Projects involve students in a constructive investigation

4 Projects are student-driven to some significant degree

5 Projects are realistic, not school-like

With its distinctive features, PBL has drawn a lot of attention and support from educators, teachers and learners Research has provided evidence for more of its benefits than drawbacks I shall discuss the benefits in the following section

2.2.2 Advantages of the project based learning

English has been taught as a foreign languages in Vietnam for a very long time However, there has been little application of the project-based learning in teaching In fact, project-based learning offers many advantages and challenges when implemented in the classroom

Fried-Booth states that the process leading to the end-product of project-work provides opportunities for students to develop their confidence and independence As dealt with in Stoller PBL provides opportunities for the natural integration of all four skills, reading, writing, listening and speaking

Another advantage discussed is that the students have enhanced motivation, engagement and enjoyment because project work progresses according to the specific context and students’ interests PBL thus enriches the lives and experiences of a learner

as he is required to establish contacts with individuals outside his regular links of contacts

In addition, PBL can develop many helpful skills for the students Coleman discusses an advantage relating to students’ increased social, cooperative skills, and group cohesiveness Adopting PBL projects in the classroom also helps reinforce social relationships among team members Thus, PBL provides learners with opportunities to learn collaborative skills, stimulate cooperation and knowledge exchange amongst students and it encourages individual students to talk more

Given sufficient time to complete the PBL project, learners would be given enough time to plan, revise and reflect on their learning Assessment is seen as an ongoing, varied and frequent process involving teacher assessment, peer assessment, self-assessment, and reflection

According to Fragoulis (2009, p 92), there are many benefits of implementing the

project based learning (PBL) technique in teaching speaking, they include the following:

1 PBL provides contextual and meaningful learning for students

2 PBL can create an optimal environment for practicing speaking English

3 PBL makes students actively engage in project learning

4 PBL enhances students’ interests, motivation, engagement, and enjoyment

5 PBL promotes social learning that can enhance collaborative skills

6 PBL can give an optimal opportunity to improve students’ language skills

To put in a nutshell, PBL is very beneficial to students in general and those of English in particular The question here is what the teacher and students do to maximize the advantages of PBL, especially in oral presentation

2.2.3 The application of PBL in teaching oral presentation

There are some stages of the PBL technique implementation according to Bell (2010) The first is speculation in which teachers provide the choice of project topics initially based on the curriculum and discuss them with students At this stage, teachers and students speculate possibilities that will lead smoothly to the projects However, for beginner or lower level students, teachers can choose the projects themselves but still consider the problems of the students It was assumed by Gaer (1998, p 22) that students

at the beginner or lower level do not have the language or confidence to develop project themes Thus, he assumes, teachers need to lead them first before they can decide for themselves The second stage is designing the project activities, referring to organizing the structure of a project activity that includes group formation, assigning roles, and methodology decision The third is conducting the project activities in which the students work out what was planned and designed in the previous stage At this stage, the students gather information, discuss it with the members of their group, consult with the teacher about problems encountered in their work and exhibit their final products that might be in the form of a presentation, a performance, a product, a publication, etc to the class or even to the wider community such as other classes, teachers, outsiders The last stage is when the students perform in front of the class

According to Srikrai (2008), PBL technique activities can have characteristics as follows:

(1) focus on content learning rather than on specific language patterns

(2) student-centered with the teacher as a facilitator or coach

(3) encourages collaboration amongst students

(4) leads to the authentic integration of language skills and processing information from multiple sources

(5) allows learners to demonstrate their understanding of content knowledge through an end product such as an oral presentation, a poster session, a bulletin board display, or a stage performance

(6) bridges the use of English in class and the use of English in a real life context More importantly, PBL is both process- and product-oriented (Stoller, 1997) The implementation of project work differs greatly from one instructional setting to another

In some settings, fairly non elaborate tasks, confined to a single class session, are labeled

as projects In other settings, elaborate sets of tasks fill the process for completing the project and span an entire instructional unit; in settings like these, the benefits of project work are maximized because students actively engage in information gathering, processing, and reporting over a period of time, and the outcome increases content knowledge and language mastery In applying the PBL technique in the classroom, Marx (1997) set out problems teachers may have with enactment during the class as below:

(1) Time: projects often take longer than anticipated

(2) Classroom management

(3) Control: teachers often feel the need to control the flow of information while at the same time believing that students' understanding requires that they build their own understanding;

(4) Support of student learning

(5) Technology use: teachers may have difficulty incorporating technology into the classroom, especially as a cognitive tool

(6) Assessment: teachers may have difficulty designing assessments that require students to demonstrate their understanding

Based on the above, the teacher can discuss the end product with her students and explain what exactly they have to do and how, what they have to practice or learn, what they can expect and what is expected from them, the choices they have to make and the rules they have to follow It is very useful from the start to draw a timetable, a plan and a check list of objectives for the project work so that the students can follow the stages of the project

Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY Introduction

In this second part of our research, I will move to something that is more practical The present chapter aim to collect data about the use of the PBL in developing 11th grade students’ oral presentation To achieve that, I have tried to investigate how students of a mountainous high school consider the effectiveness of using project based learning on achieving better result in their oral presentation We have also investigated how teacher judge the use of PBL as a particular means to develop their students’ oral presentation skill In order to conduct our investigation, answer the research questions, and confirm our hypothesis, we collected data from students’ questionnaire and classroom observation

The major tool of collecting data was the questionnaire addressed to 11th grade students We have used teachers’ interview in order to see the teachers’ opinions about the use of oral presentation to improve their students speaking level In addition, we have used the classroom observation in order to collect more information and to confirm the questions and interview results During a period of four weeks, we have attended many sessions with different four teachers and different four groups

3.1 Research setting

3.1.1 An overview of Do luong 3 upper secondary school

Do luong 3 upper secondary school is situated in Do luong district, Nghe An province Founded in 1978, Do luong 3 has an enthusiastic and experienced teachers staff This is a school that has a length of good tradition of teaching and learning in Nghe

An province At present, there are 36 classes with about 1400 students divided into three different grades: 10th, 11th and 12th grades

English has been considered as an important subject in the program because it is a compulsory subject in GCSE examination as well as the chance of getting better jobs in the future Therfore, the leaders has always created the best possible conditions for English teaching and learning to help students to improve speaking ability effectively

However, there have been many problems that should be solved The facilities at school are still poor, for example, the library is too small and lack books especially English books as a reference Furthermore, the students have few opportunities to

practise English with native speakers to improve their communication, especially oral presentation They often feel shy, nervous … to express their attitides towards any problem

3.1.2.The teachers

In Doluong 3 upper secondary school, there are totally 9 teachers of English aged

34 to 50 All of them have got the University Bachelor’s Degree but their time lengths of teaching English are different The oldest teacher has nearly 20 years of teaching experience, and the youngest just has nearly 10 years As rural teachers, they have few opportunities to upgrade their teaching and do not have a lot of teaching aids and materials to help their work Despite all these disadvantages, they are always eager for knowledge and willing to adjust to new thinking and apply better ways to improve their teaching quality Especially, some of them have been applying project based learning method in teaching to give learners more chances to practise speaking English, especially oral presentation However, they often get into some troubles in the process

Secondly, most of the classroom activities concentrate on teaching and practicing language structures Therefore, during the lesson, the learners do most repetition, substitution, memorizing activities, or answering questions based on texts and so on They do not have only a little time to use English in oral communication As a result, when doing speaking activities, they often cope with such problems as “inhibition”,

“nothing to say”, “mother-tongue language”, “body language ”, etc

Moreover, their parents, the actual farmers, who hardly know anything about English, do not encourage them to learn it As a result, most of the students do not know what they learn English for, except for the reason of passing the final examination They

do not know its importance in the modern life as well as in their future They become

bored with learning it In each class, there are only a few students really learning English and being interested in learning it The rest almost forget all the things they have learnt Once the learners have no motivation for learning, the learning quality is very difficult to

be improved

3.1.4 The English syllabus

The textbook English 11 was pulished in 2006 The Englis syllabus is the main

material used in the class It is structured with a priority towards theme-based or based approach, including 16 units, each unit includes 5 lessons with four different skills and a language focus There are 3 periods of english per week and each semester deals with 8 of them with a total periods are 54 The text book aims at providing students with

topic-a profound knowledge of numerous fields, topic-a ftopic-avortopic-able topic-attitude towtopic-ards English topic-and four skills proficiency in English (Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing) In order to achieve these objectives, the content of the book is designed based on topics related to social life, sports, work and leisure, which are familiar with students For each topic, related vocabulary and word study are presented communicatively In addition, new methods of language teaching and learning such as learner-centered approach, communicative approach and task-based teaching are extensively employed The new syllabus with the communicative approach is considered interesting but rather challenging for the teachers It mainly focuses on equipping students with communicative ability and competence to perform basic language functions receptively and productively, using correct language forms and structures

3.1.5 The current situation of teaching and learning oral presentation skill at

Do luong 3

At Do luong 3 upper secondary school, both teachers and students are aware of the importance of learning speaking English, especially oral presentation However, its effectiveness is not high although many teachers have taken advantages of using the benefits of project based learning This is due to subjective and objectives causes

The role of the teachers in class is a guide for the students to lead their own study They also take great efforts to create good language environment for students to actively participate in classroom activities by organizing groups work and pairs work in order to help students to have chance to exchange their ideas with their friends and achieve the main target of developing not only speaking skills but also other ones However, there

still appear problems which partly prevent students from actively taking part in these activities for speaking Perhaps, the reason is that they are still affected by the traditional teaching and learning methods Therefore, they appear not to have high interest and motivation to participate in the classroom activities, also show their attitudes in oral presentation

In summary, a brief overview of Do Luong 3 where the researcher collected the data for her research has been presented Some issues related to students, teachers, learning requirement, speaking teaching situation have been investigated, which provides the context for the research to be undertaken The next part will shed light on the methodology applied in the study

3.2 Research design

3.2.1 Research method

Action research was conducted involving five phases in each cycle namely, (i) the initial reflection phase, (ii) the planning phase, (iii) the implementation phase, (iv) the observation and analysis phase and (v) reflection and assessment phase

The choice of the method has determined by the nature of the study because it can determine the facts about the actual situation and thereby to clarify that the use of project based Learning can develop their oral presentation skill In addition, oral presentation is one of the best and appropriate solutions to deal with students’ problems in speaking English To collect the data for analysis, questionaires and teachers’ observation sheet based on NCTE were used

3.2.2 Sample of the study

From a population of about 480 students, we have been deal with forty 40 students selected randomly to be our sample None of them was ever involved with the use of PBL before

3.2.2.2 Procedures

At the initial reflection a plan of action for the second phase were developed and phase, the main objective was to identify issues, implemented It also involved the examinations of the problems and research situations and to define what proposed projects by the teachers and strategies on how changes need to be done to improve the practice During the initial observation phase it was noticed that there was an overall lack

of motivation to communicate in English during classroom activities Also, the lack of eye contact and low voice was a common occurrence among most of the students

The planning phase addresses problems identified in the first phase, measures to

be taken, ideas about projects to be implemented, techniques to encourage the students to

be involved in determining the projects, and types of data to be collected and data collection tools in the implementation phase

The implementation phase involved conducting the action plan, the documentation process as well as collecting relevant data including teacher's notes about the effectiveness of the actions, the reactions of students and also the students' work Consequently, a number of documentation processes were used such as photos of the activities, video recording of the activities and records of students' behavior, feelings and dialogue during the activities

Following the implementation phase, the results of actions that have been implemented were analyzed and discussed Then a reflection on the implementation of the project and ways to improve the process and a review of the actions taken and the results of observations were conducted

The stages of learning projects presented by Fragoulis (2009) were implemented

as follows:

In the speculation stage, students were told to make presentations in class in

groups of four on one of the topics in the course book They chose the group members at the first period of the course The teacher provided a list of topics for them to choose as follows:

Project 1: Talk about someone daily routines

Project 2: The pollution

Project 3: People’s background

Project 4: Your schoollife

Project 5: Volunteer work on summer holiday

Project 6: Your personal experiences

Project 7: Talk about the celebration of Tet and other festivals’ activities

Project 8: Talk about measures for protecting endangered nature

Project 9: Talk about the advantages and disadvantages of energy sources

Project 10: Talk about collection

or they could choose their own topics which they were interested in but it had to

be related to the lesson and agreed by him Each representative of the groups drew the lots to decide which topics they would make their presentations on

In the designing the project activities, for example, students agreed to make a project about pollution including the following activities:

• A promo about our conference

• A short film about the causes of pollution (written – acted – directed by students)

• A presentation about thermal pollution

• A presentation about water pollution

• A presentation about air pollution

• Students sing two songs about pollution

• Introducing advertisements of the year 2050

• Writing a letter to UN secretary to ask him to hold an international conference about pollution

• Designing some posters to show the danger of pollution

In the stage of conducting the project activities, the groups implemented the

activities designed in the previous stage Students gathered information, processed and categorized it Students discussed issues related with cooperation among group members, problems of personal relations and possible changes in group composition Students also modified their products according to the result of the group discussion and feedback

As for the evaluation stage, a questionnaire for the students about using PBL was

used the responses will be discussed later Clearly, the course had certain pedagogical strengths; however, a number of factors may limit its applicability The shortage of time was effective We had only nine meetings and more time was needed We already held the conference on 25/3/2018 and it was a great success

Some oral activities performed indoor and outdoor applying Project based learning

Group works discussing in class before making oral presentations

Group oral presentations indoor applying Project based learning

Making oral presentation in front of the class

Ourdoor oral presentations in group works

Chapter 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Analysis of the Students’ Responses

4.1.1 Students’ attitude towards PBL and PBL strategy for oral presentation

1- Are you satisfied with using PBL to teach English?

Figure 01: Satisfaction with PBL

As it is clearly observed from the table that the results of the questionnaire show obviously how using PBL was successful and effective The students indicate clearly their attitude towards using PBL Students engage in this project-based learning process, they become active and self-directed learners, instead of simply listening to the teacher lecture They have enhanced self-determination, have higher intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy, feel responsible, and decide what they want to learn

In this item students were asked to express how satisfied they feel when using PBL to teach English in class Twenty eight (70%) students said “agree” that they very often feel satisfied, a majority of twelve (30%) students said “partly agree “that they sometimes feel satisfied when using PBL to teach English in class No one chose

“Disagree” They were happy to break the boredom of the traditional strategies They were happy to be independent, self organized, motivated and creative They enjoyed themselves

2- Do you feel that you are able to use PBL strategy to make oral presentation inside classroom?

Table 02: Ability to use PBL inside classroom

Figure 02: Ability to use PBL inside classroom

According to the results shown in table 02, as for students' answers to the second question, they assisted their previous result They showed their ability to use PBL obviously Most of students find it confident and comfortable to use PBL from the beginning to the end of their oral presentations Participation in PBL, projects help to maximize student decision-making and initiative as they would have to make many important decisions on their own throughout the project: from selecting from various options each team member has to the design, production, and presentation decisions As PBL usually involves projects done outside the classroom, these activities provide connections to life outside the classroom As a result, PBL addresses real world issues and develop skills which they would find useful in the real-world outside Many of the skills developed through PBL are those which employers usually seek: teamworking

spirit, the ability to work well and get along with others, make informed decisions, take initiative, and solve real-world problems

When the students were asked to describe their ability to use PBL to make oral presentation inside classroom, twenty eight (70%) students have answered “agree” as presenting orally the target language very well A majority of ten (25%) students answered “partly agree” although they may not use it as much, two (5%) students answered “ disagree” means that their ability is not so well and they are aware of that These students came clean and admitted having a bad oral presentation ability This really shows how our students are suffering when it comes to make oral presentation, it is really a shame for students to not be able to express him/her self in the target language, even in class with peers, this really calls for some drastic measures to turn this situation around, such as utilising many new teaching activities that will draw students attention and provide them with some genuine practice

3- Do you feel motivated after using PBL inside your classroom?

Figure 03: Motivation after using PBL inside classroom

As can be seen from the table above that for the third question the result was still quite high displaying strong motivation Sixty five percent of the students chose “agree”