A study on the use of oral presentation activities to motivate the second year students at hanoi university of business and technology in english speaking lessons

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES ---* * *--- NGUYỄN THỊ HÀ PHƯƠNG A STUDY ON THE USE OF ORAL PRE

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

-* * * -

NGUYỄN THỊ HÀ PHƯƠNG

A STUDY ON THE USE OF ORAL PRESENTATION ACTIVITIES

TO MOTIVATE SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY IN ENGLISH

SPEAKING LESSONS

(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG THUYẾT

TRÌNH ĐỂ TẠO HỨNG THÚ HỌC TẬP TRONG GIỜ HỌC KỸ NĂNG NÓI TIẾNG ANH CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI

HỌC KINH DOANH VÀ CÔNG NGHỆ HÀ NỘI)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 6014.0111

HA NOI, 2015

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

-* * * -

NGUYỄN THỊ HÀ PHƯƠNG

A STUDY ON THE USE OF ORAL PRESENTATION ACTIVITIES

TO MOTIVATE SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY IN ENGLISH

SPEAKING LESSONS

TRÌNH ĐỂ TẠO HỨNG THÚ HỌC TẬP TRONG GIỜ HỌC KỸ NĂNG NÓI TIẾNG ANH CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI

HỌC KINH DOANH VÀ CÔNG NGHỆ HÀ NỘI)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 6014.0111

Supervisor: Assoc.Prof.Dr Nguyễn Phương Nga

HA NOI, 2015

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the minor thesis entitled “A study on the use of oral presentation activities to motivate the second-year students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology in English speaking lessons” is my original work and based on my own research I have proved fully documented references to the others‟ work I also accept all the requirements of Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies relating to the retention and use of M.A Graduation Thesis deposited in the library

Hanoi, 2015

Nguyễn Thị Hà Phương

My sincere thanks also go to the second-year students and my colleagues at Hanoi University of Business and Technology for their willingness to take part in the research Without their help, this study could not be completed successfully

Last but not least, I would like to thank my family especially my husband and my son for their love, special care and support during the process of writing this thesis

ABSTRACT

Teaching and learning English effectively depends on many factors among which motivation is considered as an important one The question how to keep English learners motivated especially in English speaking lessons is not easy to answer This study was conducted to investigate the situation of using oral presentation activities to motivate second-year students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology in English speaking lessons Survey questionnaires for teachers and students were employed to find out the answers for the research questions Based on the findings of the research it was revealed that oral presentation acitivites were applied in English speaking lessons at different level of frequency and the use of oral presentation activities were beneficial to students when students to some extents were motivated and they became more interested in English speaking activities However, during the application of oral presentation activities, there were still some obstacles for teachers and difficulties for students which should be taken in consideration to find out the solutions From the findings

of the study, some suggestions for improving oral presentation activities have given out to help make English lessons more interesting to students

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

2 Aims and Objectives of the Study 2

3 Research Methodology 3

4 Scope of the Study 3

5 Design of the Study 3

6 Significance of the Study 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5

Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

I Theoretical Background 5

1 Oral Presentation 5

1.1 Definitions of Oral Presentation 5

1.2 Types of Oral Presentation 6

1.3 The Advantages and Disadvantages of Oral Presentations 8

1.4 Oral Presentation Activities 11

2 Speaking Skills 17

2.1 Conceptions of Speaking 17

2.3 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity 19

3 Motivation 20

3.1 Definitions of Motivation 20

3.2 Motivation and English speaking learning 21

II Review of Previous Relevant Studies 21

Chapter 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 28

1 Context of the study 28

2 Methodology 29

2.2.1 Participants 29

2.2.1.1 The students 29

2.2.1.2 The teachers 29

2.2.2 Instruments 30

Survey questionnaire for teachers 30

Survey questionnaire for students 30

2.2.3 Procedures of collecting data 31

2.2.4 Procedures of analyzing data 31

Chapter 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 32

1 Research question 1: How are OPAs Used in English Speaking Lessons to Motivate Students? 32

2 Research question 2: To what extent are the students motivated when OPAs are applied in English speaking lessons? 36

3 Teachers‟ recommendations and students‟ expectations for improving OPAs in English speaking lessons 41

4 Summary 44

PART 3: CONCLUSION 45

1 Summary and Conclusion of the Study 45

2 Implications of the study 45

3 Limitations of the study 46

4 Suggestions for further study 46

REFERENCES 47 APPENDICES I Appendix 1: Survey questionnaire for students I Appendix 2: Survey questionnaire for teachers VI

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

HUBT: Hanoi University of Business and Technology

OPAs: Oral Presentation Activities

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

EFL: English as Foreign Language

ESL: English as Second Language

EGAP: English for General Academic Purposes

Table 3.6 Teachers‟ perceptions of students‟ motivation of OPAs in English speaking lessons

Table 3.7 The level of students‟ motivation by the use of OPAs in their English speaking lessons

Table 3.8 Teachers‟ and students‟ opinions on the motivation level by OPAs Table 3.9 Teachers‟ perception of students‟ benefits from participating OPAs in English speaking lessons

Table 3.10 The level of benefit from the use of OPAs in students English speaking lessons

Table 3.11 Teachers‟ recommendation to make OPAs more effective in English speaking lessons

Table 3.12 Students‟ expectation from OPAs in English speaking lessons

Table 3.13 Students‟ preference in giving oral presentations

PART A: INTRODUCTION

This part introduces briefly about the study including rationale, aims and objectives, research methodology, scope, design and significance of the study

1 Rationale of the Study

There is now a growing demand for mastering English since it is not only a useful means people need for their future career but also gives them the access to the modern world in the era of informatics and technology Therefore, teaching and learning English nowadays are paid much more attention than ever before and play

a significant role in developing policies of many countries in the world

In Vietnam, thanks to the open-door and integration policy, English has been widely used and becomes the most popular foreign language in the country among many foreign languages Moreover, English now is also a compulsory subjects at schools and universities As known that “The aims of foreign language instruction, especially English language instruction, is commonly defined in terms of four essential skills, reading, writing, listening, and speaking, of which speaking is becoming the most important aspect in developing one‟s communicative competence” (Moore, 1992: 9) In the recognition of the importance of speaking skill, there has been a dramatic change in the methodology of teaching English in recent years when the methods of English teaching have changed from traditional grammar translation approach to communicative approach which is now applied in many universities in Vietnam in general and in Hanoi University of Business and Technology in particular where the author has been teaching English for five years

As a teacher of English, the author would really like to help her students to master English so that they are able to communicate confidently in English not only inside the class but also in daily life However, like many students at other universities, students at HUBT have low level of participation in English speaking activities Generally speaking, the students do not pay much attention to their speaking skills;

they usually keep quiet in speaking lessons because they feel shy or afraid of making mistakes and revealing their weaknesses Among a variety of reasons for students‟ poor participations students‟ lack of motivation is one reason that teachers should pay special attention and seek for solutions to motivate students to speak English Students once motivated will be likely to be involved more in English speaking activities in the classroom as well as practice it more outside in the daily life Among all the methods used to motivate students‟ participation in speaking lessons, “presentation activity is a great way to have students practice all language system areas (vocabulary, grammar, discourse and phonology) and skills (speaking, reading, writing and listening)” (Hayton, 2005)

In brief, all of the reasons mentioned above have inspired the author to conduct “A

study on the use of oral presentation activities to motivate the second-year students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology in English speaking lessons”

2 Aims and Objectives of the Study

The study aims to explore the situation of using oral presentation activities (hereafter OPAs) to motivate second-year students at Hanoi Unversity of Business and Technology (HUBT) in English speaking lessons to find out whether students are motivated to join and to speak English With the aim above, there are three specific objectives below:

- to study how OPAs are used in English speaking lessons

- to study whether the students are motivated to speak English

- to give suggestions to motivate students in English speaking lessons

Two research questions will be addressed as follows:

1 How are OPAs used in English speaking lessons to motivate students?

2 To what extent are the students motivated by OPAs?

3 Research Methodology

In order to answer the two research questions, this study involves qualitative methodology Specifically, it conducts survey questionnaires for students and teachers The detail of the methodology applied in the study is discussed in Chapter

2 of Part II

4 Scope of the Study

There are a variety of activities to motivate students in English speaking lessons; however, the author‟s intention is investigating the current situation of using oral presentation activities as a motivator in English speaking lessons Moreover, the study is only limited to the second-year students of Accounting Faculty at HUBT where the author has been working as a teacher of English for nearly five years Therefore, the study limits itself to the teaching and learning speaking English for second-year students at Faculty of Accounting only, not for all second-year students

of HUBT

5 Design of the Study

The study consists of three parts: Introduction, Development, and Conclusion Part

1, Introduction, presents the rationale, the aims and objectives, the methodology, the scope, the design and the significance of the study The second part is Development which includes three chapters: Chapter 1, Literature Review, deals with the theoretical background of the study and critical review of previous relevant studies Chapter 2, Methodology, presents methodology of the study including data collection procedure and data analysis Chapter 3, Results and Discussion, states the findings from the study and discusses some recommendations The third part is Conclusion presenting the summary of the major findings, the conclusions and limitations of the study; implications as well as suggestions for further studies are included in this part References are the last part of the study, followed by Appendices

6 Significance of the Study

The findings of the study prove that OPAs have really contributed to motivating students to speak English OPAs encourage students to participate more in speaking lessons as well as make them speak English confidently Additionally, the study also gives suggestions on some different kinds of oral presentation activities which should be applied in English speaking lessons

PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter deals with the theoretical background of the study and critical review

of the previous researches related to the study

I Theoretical Background

1 Oral Presentation

1.1 Definitions of Oral Presentation

There are different definitions about oral presentation depending on each linguist‟s point of view According to Essberger (1998) oral presentation is defined as “a short talk by one person to a group of people introducing and describing a particular subject” This is a narrow definition which is suitable and understandable for Vietnamese students and the context of teaching and learning in Vietnam Therefore, it is the one which the author would like to refer to

According to the definition of oral presentation in “Guidelines for Oral Presentations”, (2001), “Oral presentations are defined as brief discussions of a focused topic delivered to a group of listeners in order to impact knowledge or to stimulate discussion” It is understandable from the above definition that when somebody is speaking about a specific topic in front of a group of people that means the person is giving a presentation

Besides, “Oral presentation” in the 7th edition of Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary (2005:1190) is defined as “an act of showing something or of giving something to somebody” or “a meeting at which something, especially a new product or idea, or piece of work is shown to a group of people” As can be found that oral presentations are the means for daily communication in workplace and in classrooms In other words, oral presentations mean giving opinions and expressing oneself in a situation that needs explanations in clear and accurate speech

According to Jing (2009: iii), “Oral presentation is an important skill to convey one‟s ideas in communication” As can be realized that this kind of activity is related to expressing ideas Sharing the same viewpoint, Kaul (2005:41) also stated that “Presentations are ideas, concepts or issues that are talked about or shared with

a group of people or an audience”

Generally speaking, there are different definitions of oral presentation with the same common thing that this kind of activity is a formal talk to one or a group of people

to present ideas in a structured way

1.2 Types of Oral Presentation

Oral presentations are classified based on their purposes and forms or manners of delivery

In terms of the manners of delivery, the following is an overview of five common types of presentations and their purposes given by Dwyer (2000, 198-199):

The impromptu speech is unexpected and delivered without preparation As the

occasion for this kind of speech usually takes the speaker by surprise, it is important for him/her to think clearly and speak briefly and to the point

The manuscript speech is structured and read It is suited to longer, more difficult

presentations An example could be presenting a paper at a technical meeting for a colleague who might be ill It is also suitable for legal presentation, a press release

or a speech that will be reported In spite of reading the manuscript, it is still important to keep and maintain eye contact with the audience by using wide margins, large type and double spacing

The memorized speech is learned and recalled It is suited to short talk To sound

relaxed and confident, the speaker should try to memorize the introduction carefully If he/she tries to memorize a long talk, he/she may lose his/her place and panic

The briefing is a short oral summary or report of a plan, event or operation Its aim

might be to inform, propose or justify solutions, or persuade the audience

Team briefings, are most often used for staff meetings, reports to supervisors and

managers on progress, results or problems As the name suggests, team briefings refer to team members working together for their presentation First, the team considers the purpose of the presentation and the nature of the audience Then they design the structure of the presentation and organize it into sections A particular section is then allocated to each speaker So it is important to decide which team member will be responsible for presenting the introduction; developing the main body of the presentation; reinforcing the ideas outlined in the main body and presenting the conclusion

In terms of the speakers‟ purposes, there are five different types of oral presentations claimed by Whatley (2001) as follows:

Informative presentations provides awareness and understanding They are basically

descriptive They bring the audience update to projects or events, telling how things are going, or provide information about products and procedures, rules and regulations, and operations The presenter, firstly, must keep an informative presentation brief and relevant; secondly, stick to the facts and avoid complicated information; finally, choose one of the following organizational structures for this kind of presentation: time, place, cause and effect, and logical order For example,

an informative presentation explains when, where and how things should happen

An instructional presentation gives specific directions or orders The presentation

will probably be a bit longer, because it has to cover the topic thoroughly In an instructional presentation, the listeners should come away with new knowledge or a new skill

Arousing presentations aim to make people think about a certain problem or

situation The presenter wants to arouse the audience's emotions and intellect so that they will be receptive to his/her point of view Therefore, using vivid language, visual aids, music and so on in an arousing presentation is a great way to make it effective

A persuasive presentation is to motivate a belief, an evaluation, or a specific course

of action It is basically evaluative and prescriptive A convincing persuasive presentation offers a solution to a controversy, dispute, or problem In order to succeed with a persuasive presentation, the presenter must present sufficient logic, evidence, and emotion to sway the audience to his/her viewpoint

A decision-making presentation aims to move the audience to take the presenter‟s

suggested action A decision-making presentation presents ideas, suggestions, and arguments strongly enough to persuade the audience to carry out the presenter‟s requests In a decision-making presentation, he must tell the audience what to do and how to do it

In short, there are different types of oral presentations among which informative presentation is the most suitable for the purpose of the research; therefore it is chosen to be applied in the current study by the author

1.3 The Advantages and Disadvantages of Oral Presentations

Oral presentations bring about both advantages and disadvantages to language learners Firstly, according to Ali Said Al-Issa (2010) there are a number of benefits

of oral presentations as follows:

Integrating language skill: Oral presentations help integrate the language skills,

which are all equally essential and important in the global village The literature on teaching English has emphasized integrating the four skills and giving them equal weight (Al-Issa, 2006a, 2006b) Oral presentations facilitate this While the presenter is presenting his or her work using an overhead projector (OHP), for instance, everybody else is reading the notes appearing on the slides, listening to the talk, and taking notes in preparation for asking the presenter questions about the

topic

Practicing speaking: Oral presentations are an efficient way to encourage the

presenting students to practice meaningful oral English and the rest of the class to

practice listening Using oral presentations in the EFL classroom is bound to help students see that language is a living and complex entity with multiple sources

facilitating its acquisition

Making decisions: Oral presentations help facilitate the decision-making process for

students When students are given the freedom to choose a topic to present, for instance, in an intermediate-level EFL classroom, they are indirectly asked to make

a decision and take initiative This is something that is missing from many classrooms teaching subjects other than English or teaching English but through the

chalk-and-talk method and transmission-based approach (Al-Issa, 2006b)

Preparing for real life: Taking the floor and standing in front of other people, such

as one‟s classmates, to present one‟s work is challenging because it requires confidence and courage Yet it is a marketable skill that is much needed in various jobs round the world Hence, presenting in the EFL classroom prepares students for

the job market that they will enter when they leave school

Acquiring knowledge through English: Languages in general, and English in

particular, are powerful tools for acquiring infinite knowledge and information Issa, 2005) When students are asked to reach a topic and search for particular information or data in English, they are using the language meaningfully and purposefully and are varying their exposure to sources of knowledge via the genuine use of the target language, which has its implications for their language improvement (Al-Issa, 2006b) One of the important sources of language acquisition is authentic materials (Al-Issa, 2005, 2006a, 2007b), and presentations

(Al-help activate reference to this source

Promoting learner-centeredness: Giving oral presentations helps students replace

memory- and transmission-based learning, which are still in vogue in many education systems in the developing world (Al-Issa, 2007a, 2007b), with interactive, dynamic, reflective, and independent learning and critical thinking

Presentations also promote and encourage learning through discovery and research Students are placed at the heart of the learning process by taking responsibility for their own learning It is important that such positive behaviors are instilled in

students from an early age to scaffold their development as they grow older

Expanding the teachers’ roles: In an oral presentation class, teachers delegate

autonomy and leadership to students and facilitate cooperative learning In other words, they facilitate, support, organize, and guide students‟ learning These are significant teacher roles that are emphasized by the communicative language

teaching approach (Larsen-Freeman, 1986)

Learning how to use technology: Oral presentations are ideal tools for introducing

students to advanced and sophisticated technology and training and encouraging them to use it for two significant purposes First, to bring change into the classroom, which in turn breaks monotony and adds new flavor to foreign language education Second, as Murphy-Judy (1997) writes, „„literacy, today, is increasingly electronic and telecommunicational‟‟ (cited in Schcolnik & Kol, 1999), which necessitates that EFL learners be knowledgeable in using advanced technology to help them convey their messages

It cannot be denied that oral presentations bring about a variety of advantages; howerver, every coin has two sides Marmiene (2006) stated some disadvantges of presentations The first difficulty is “the choice of material” because not all of the sources of information are accurate and authentic Therefore, one of the most important skills to develop is that of effective searching Second, students often use too many pictures and inllustrations or show too many words on the screen during oral presentations As a result, all they have to do is just to read everything on the screen It makes their presentation less interesting, even boring to the audience Thirdly, making presentation is time-consuming Another disadvantage of applying presentation in classroom is that the effect of it maybe not as expected because the presenter has nothing to say and the audience does not listen to the presenter

It can be concluded that oral presentations bring about both advantages and disadvantages However, as seen from above there are more advantages than disadvantages Therefore, it is suggested that both teachers and students should raise the awareness of those advantages to apply OPAs in English classroom

1.4 Oral Presentation Activities

There are a wide range of activities for oral presentation according to some viewpoints of some authors According to Al-lssa (2010), oral presentation activities can be arranged in different ways: individually, in pairs, or in groups of three or more students Therefore it can be seen that oral presentation activities can

be individual oral presentation, pair oral presentation and group oral presentation This is up to the size of the class, the topic, and the aims and objectives that the teacher want to achieve It can be noted that working individually provides learners with autonomy and privacy, and trains them to work independently; whereas, working in pairs or groups is highly productive and build up the learners‟ collaboration and teamwork Pair and group work positively influences “social integration” and “negotiation of meaning” (Schcolnik &Kol, 1999, “Methodological Tips and Conclusion”) which can directly and positively impact the process of language and knowledge acquisition and the quality of language output Perhaps teachers can start with pair or group presentation first and then move on to those that are presented orally by individual students, because the former two types help students gain experience and confidence

In terms of individual oral presentations, there is a wide range of activities which are acceptable for the Individual Oral Presentation (IB Language A1: 38, 39) as follow:

Structured Discussions: Class discussions where a candidate has been given special

responsibilities (advance preparation, particular topics, a short report, a provocative position) The whole class may participate, but only the presenter will be assessed The presentation of material lending itself to discussion within the class, such as the

offering of two opposing readings of a work (the presenter will take questions from the class) Interview of a candidate by the teacher on an agreed topic or work(s)

Oral Exposés

 An introduction to a writer, a work or a particular text

 An explanation of a particular aspect of an author.s work

 The examination of a particular interpretation of a work

 The setting of a particular writer‟s work against another body of material, such as details on social background or political views

 A commentary on the use of a particular image, idea or symbol in one text or

in a writer‟s work

 An imitation of a poem being studied This activity should be followed by some explanation of what the candidate had attempted to do

 A comparison of two passages, two characters or two works

 A commentary on an extract from a work studied in class which has been prepared at home

 An account of the candidate‟s developing response to a work

Role-play: A monologue by a character at an important point in the work

Reminiscences by a character from a point in later life An author‟s reaction to a

particular interpretation of elements of his/her work in a given context For example, a critical defence of the work against a charge of subversion, or

immorality, before a censorship board

According to Hayriye Kayi from Nevada, USA (2006) there are some speaking activities considered as oral presentation activities which can be used to develop speaking skill as follow:

Role-play: One other way of getting students to speak is role-playing Students

pretend they are in various social contexts and have a variety of social roles In

role-play activities, the teacher gives information to the learners such as who they are and what they think or feel

Simulations: Simulations are very similar to role-plays but what makes simulations

different than role plays is that they are more elaborate In simulations, students can bring items to the class to create a realistic environment For instance, if a student is acting as a singer, she brings a microphone to sing and so on

Story-telling: Students can briefly summarize a tale or story they heard from

somebody beforehand, or they may create their own stories to tell their classmates Story telling fosters creative thinking It also helps students express ideas in the format of beginning, development, and ending, including the characters and setting

a story has to have

Reporting: Before coming to class, students are asked to read a newspaper or

magazine and, in class, they report to their friends what they find as the most interesting news Students can also talk about whether they have experienced anything worth telling their friends in their daily lives before class

Narrating pictures: This activity is based on several sequential pictures Students

are asked to tell the story taking place in the sequential pictures by paying attention

to the criteria provided by the teacher as a rubric Rubrics can include the vocabulary or structures they need to use while narrating

Describing pictures: Another way to make use of pictures in a speaking activity is

to give students just one picture and having them describe what it is in the picture For this activity students can form groups and each group is given a different picture Students discuss the picture with their groups, then a spokesperson for each group describes the picture to the whole class This activity fosters the creativity and imagination of the learners as well as their public speaking skills

According to Boyce, Janet S Alber-Morgan, Sheila R and Riley, Jeanetta G (2007) there are several oral presentation activities for elementary as follow:

Cooperative games: Cooperative learning groups provide excellent opportunities

for students to practice interacting in a supportive manner “We are a team, and win

or lose, we‟re in this together!” When students cooperate to pursue a common goal, the experience a sense of belonging and camaraderie an atmosphere conductive to safe oral expression Cooperative games at the beginning of the school year should

be fun and easy, allowing students to become comfortable with the group

Sharing personal stories: Shortly after the school year begins, students are provided

opportunities to share personal experiences and get to know each other Any reluctant students can be encouraged with private coaching Reluctance usually stems from being undecided about what story to tell Each students must think of a true story to share with the class The instructions are that the story must have a beginning, middle, and end, and conclude with a question-answer period In preparation for this activity, the teacher use modeling and role-playing to help students learn how to field questions from the audience After students have had practice fielding questions, they choose when they want to share their stories The accomplishment of storytelling and fielding questions from the audience will help

prepare students for the next more challenging activity

Readers Theater: Readers Theater is a play in which there are no props or actions

and the message is delivered entirely by the students‟ use of voice in oral reading Although costumes are sometimes includes, they are not needed, is used, should be kept simple

Five-Minute Skits Just for Fun: First, the teacher makes an announcement in the

parent newsletter, requesting that on a designated day, each student will bring an unusual item of clothing from home The teacher may need to bring several items in case a student forgets to bring something Old hats, ties, prom dresses, and suits work well To begin, the teacher puts the students into groups of four or five and provides them with an assortment of apparel items and the following directions:

"Make up a skit that has a moral ending Everyone in your group must play a part,

and all the items provided must be used No violence is allowed Your group has approximately 12 minutes to prepare and practice." As the students work in their groups, the teacher continuously monitors their progress Parent volunteers can help students get started and stay on task After participating in the skits, the next activity

is a little more serious, as the students learn to prepare a report that will later be used for their presentation

Preparing for the Biography Report: Choosing a Famous Person in History: The

students select a famous person in history from a recommended list by their teacher The recommended list should include a wide variety of significant people in history and ultimately provide background knowledge that the students will need when doing coursework or taking standardized tests The students are to find a biography, read the first chapter, and confirm their decision with the teacher about the book and the famous person they have chosen Students are encouraged to care enough about the project to select a book they really like If the students really enjoy their books, this whole experience will be more interesting and rewarding

Holiday Performances: Taking into consideration the various cultural populations

within the classroom, the teacher should seize the holiday season as an opportunity

to perform for parents and other groups Singing, choral poetry reading, or performing a traditional holiday play provides the students with more opportunities

to work as a group, and keeps the spotlight from shining on any one individual student

Creating a Famous Person in History Poster: After having read their biographical

novels, the students can make posters about the famous people they studied Providing students an opportunity to go online and find pictures to illustrate their poster will make it more meaningful and real for them The creation of a poster allows students an opportunity to synthesize the information about their famous person, identify the main points they want to talk about, and prepare for the presentation

Small Group Sharing About the Biographies: Prior to delivering the presentation to

the whole class, the students will first share their posters with a small group The nonthreatening nature of a small group allows the students the opportunity to begin verbalizing the information they have been gathering about their famous person Later, the posters will be displayed during the oral presentation, and then exhibited

in the hall for parents and visitors to enjoy

Biography Reports About a Famous Person: The teacher should explain the

following five-step process to assist the students in preparing and delivering their presentations These five points will help students simplify and organize their information The teacher models the five steps by using a famous person (someone

who was not chosen by one of the students, however)

 Get the audience's attention Start with an interesting anecdote about the famous person

 Explain what the world was like before this famous person‟s contribution

 Describe how that event helped of improved the world

 Close with a single sentence that sums up the massage

Students can prepare 3" x 5" cards with key words that trigger their memory about what they are going to talk about and in what sequence The teacher checks the students' notecards a day or two before the presentations begin

Learning To Do Research: Creating a Poster About Animals: Now that the students

have experienced storytelling using two different formats (a personal story and a biography), they are ready to work with expository material Several trips to both school and public libraries provide a good start for their research Animals, for example, make a great topic for this project, because many students are interested in animals and it is easy to find multiple resources at appropriate reading levels The

students initially work in cooperative groups to explore sources of information

Animal Fair: Once the posters are completed, the students arrange their desks with

the posters to make booth-like stations Other classes are invited to visit and learn

from the students Each presenter plans what he or she will tell each group of visitors The information should be based on the same points the students plan to make in their presentations In doing so, students will become well-versed in the main points about their topic As students from a visiting class rotate through the stations, the presenters will be repeating the information many times in their own words This repetition provides students with low-risk opportunities to practice

variations of their presentations

In conclusion, there are variety of oral presentation activities according to some authors‟ viewpoints, some of which the researcher considered suitable ones for the context of teaching and learning in Vietnam such as individual oral presentation, group oral presentation, role-playing, simulating, story-telling, debating, reporting, describing pictures, describing people, giving speech Therefore the researcher and some of her colleagues have been applying such oral presentation activities in

English speaking lessons to motivate students to speak English

is very reasonable when he claims definition about speaking that "speaking is a skill which deserves attention as much as the literary skills in both native and foreign languages" When students speak in a confident and comfortable way, they can interact better in real daily situations

In different way of definition, Brown and Yule (1989:14) stated in their book:

“Speaking is to express the needs request, information, service, etc.” The speakers say a word to the listener not only to express what in their mind but also to express what they need

According to Pattison (1992), of the four skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing), speaking plays a vital role since it is the step to identify who knows or does not know a language; therefore Pattison (1992) confirms that when people know or learn a language, they mean being able to speak the language

Quite similarly to the definition of Brown and Yule about speaking, according to Donough and Shaw (1993), speaking is a skill which enables people to produce utterances when communicating to achieve a particular end This may involve expressing wishes, ideas or opinions, negotiating or solving problems, or establishing and maintaining social relationships To reach these speaking purposes,

a wide range of appropriate expressions is needed to fulfill particular purposes From the above definitions of speaking, it cannot be denied that speaking is one of the basic skills that must be mastered by students since it is very important for them

to communicate in the class or outside the class Moreover, when students speak in

a confident and comfortable way, they can interact better in real daily situations Therefore, it seems that Bygate‟s definition is the most appropriate for the researcher‟s view point of speaking

2.2 The importance of teaching and learning speaking skill

Among the four skills in English (speaking, listening, writing, and reading), speaking skill plays a crucial part in helping learners learn a language effectively Pattison (1992) points out that when people mention knowing or learning a language, they mean being able to speak the language And according to Flohr and Paesler (2006), speaking skill is the most important one in learning a foreign language Flohr and Paesler (2006) also emphasize that "the focus in learning a foreign language is on communication activities and expressive abilities and the

goal is to become a fluent speaker." It cannot be denied that teaching and learning speaking skill deserves as much attention as or even more attention that the others

2.3 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity

Obviously, success of teaching a language is that learners are motivated and interested in speaking activities to develop their ability to express themselves Therefore, in order to organize speaking activities successfully, it is essential to identify the characteristics of a good speaking activity Klippel (1985) thinks that an effective speaking lesson needs to have three features Firstly, message oriented communication which indicates the moments in foreign language when target language is used as a vehicle of communication Secondly, it has learner – centered activities in which students‟ feelings, purposes and ideas are the focus Finally, in speaking lesson, active learning, cooperation and empathy which emphasize the students‟ active participation in the speaking process

According to Ur (1996:120), a successful speaking activity needs to have four typical characteristics as follows:

Learners talk a lot: As much as possible of the period of time allocated to the

activity is in fact occupied by learners talk This may be obvious, but often most time is taken up with teacher talk or pauses

Participation is even: Classroom discussion is not dominated by a minority of talk

active participants All get a chance to speak and contributions are fairly evenly distributed

Motivation is high: Learners are eager to speak because they are interested in the

topic and have something new to say about it, or they want to contribute to achieve

a task objective

Language is of an acceptable level: Learners express themselves in utterances that

are relevant, easy comprehensible to teach other and of acceptable level of language accuracy

From their ideas above, we can see that the two authors share the same idea in some points of a successful speaking activity which prioritize the maximization of

learners‟ speaking time and equal chance for everybody to speak These characteristics are closely related to the theme of this study in hope that learners involve more actively and enthusiastically in speaking lessons

In short, in order to acquire speaking skill it is necessary for teachers and learners to understand the conceptions of speaking and the importance of teaching and learning speaking skill as well as to master characteristics of a successful activity

According to Gardner (1985) motivation is defined as a key factor in determining the preparation of learners to communicate Gardner's definition of motivation involves four aspects: a goal, an effort, a desire to attain the goal and a favorable attitude towards the activity

According to Crookes and Schmidt (1991), motivation is defined in terms of learner's interest in and enthusiasm for the teaching method used in class, their active participation or constancy with the learning task as indicated by levels of concentration and enjoyment Learning process can only make sense if students enjoy activities and work hard From the researcher's point of view, this definition is exactly right for the motivation in this study

Sharing the same viewpoint with Gardner (1985), motivation, according to Ellis, R (1997:75), is "the efforts which learners put into learning an L2 as a result of their own need or desire to learn" He also indicates that "Motivation involves the attitudes and affective states that influence the degree of effort that learners make to learn an L2" Then, motivation to learn a second language in Ellis' point of view

refers to the extent to which the individual works or strives to learn the language because of a desire to do so and the satisfaction experienced in the activity

It could be inferred from the definitions above that motivation is the effort, enjoyment, enthusiasm and constancy that learners devote to the learning tasks as well as the challenging activities conducted by the teachers to reach the setting -

goals in foreign language learning Thus, when attempting to enhance learners'

motivation in learning a foreign language, different aspects or stages of motivation and factors affecting it should be concerned

3.2 Motivation and English speaking learning

Nunan (1991) wrote “success is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the target language” Therefore, if students do not learn how to speak or do not take chances to speak in the language classroom they may soon become demotivated and loose interest in learning Moreover, if the right activities are taught in the right way, speaking can be very interesting, raising learners‟ motivation and making the class dynamic and exciting

Motivation, according to Ur (1996:120), is one of affecting factors to make sure the speaking lesson effective or not Learners have high motivation when they are eager

to speak because they are interested in the topics and have something new to say about it or because they want to contribute to achieving a task objective

Generally speaking, motivation can be seen as one of keys that affects learners‟ success or failure in speaking process

II Review of Previous Relevant Studies

There have been several studies on the use of oral presentation activity to motivate students in speaking lessons and how to motivate students to speak English which are going to be critically reviewed as below

To begin with, Richards Miles from Nanzan University, Japan conducted a research

on “Oral Presentation for English Proficiency Purpose” A survey was done on

the first day of the oral presentation class, which asked students what their purpose for taking this course was Thirteen options were listed, and students gave a score of 1–5 (1 = not at all, and 5 = completely) about how strongly they agreed with the purpose listed Evidence from this case study suggests that students overwhelmingly view presentation classes as an opportunity to improve their English ability rather than actually learn how to give presentations An analysis also showed that some textbooks are often concerned with non-English skills such as organizing thoughts, visuals and body language The qualitative results showed that the students had very clear purposes for taking the course Essentially, students were focused on improving their oral communication and saw studying how to give presentations as a way to make such improvements This paper concludes that teachers need to be more aware of possible language purposes driving students to take presentation classes, and to choose more appropriate textbooks accordingly Related to oral presentation for English proficiency purpose, Li Jing (2009) also

conducted a seminar paper on “Application of Oral Presentation in ESL classroom

of China” Based on the literature review relating to research, studies and

introduction of oral presentation as well as the analysis on the current situation of English teaching in China, it was suggested in this paper that teachers and students should raise the awareness of importance of developing the skill and learn the presentation skill Moreover, in order to improve the quality of English teaching, teachers should try to find new way to change the dullness of traditional teaching by using Oral Presentation Instruction (OPI) in ESL classrooms because OPI can make the teaching much more effective

Another study related to the use of a specific activity of oral presentation to improve

oral fluency is “Improving Oral Fluency through Readers’ Theater in the EFL

Classroom – A GET Innovation in China” by Man Cao and Lan Huang (2009) from

School of Foreign Languages, Wuhan University, China The study was carried out with employing a quasi-experimental methodology for a semester of 12 weeks The experiment of Readers‟ Theater teaching lasted from week 2 to week 11 The

participants were graduated students who were measured by pre-test and post-test in oral fluency in week 1 and week 12 The results of the study shows that there is no doubt that students have a positive experience of using Readers‟ Theater to improve their oral fluency in GET Moreover, based on the collected data of the two oral tests, it is shown that most of the students made significant progress in oral fluency Also, students really liked Readers‟ Theater because it was interesting and it made learning English more fun than before However, it also stated that there might have difficulties to bring Readers‟ Theater into class, especially when students had no supra-segmental knowledge of English That should be under consideration of teachers of English

Besides Readers‟ Theater activity, Role-play is also used to arouse students‟ motivation in speaking English Xu Liu (2010) from Beijing City University, China

carried out a study on “Arousing the College Students’ Motivation in Speaking

English through Role-play” based on Richard E Mayer‟s theory of motivation and

the advantages of role-play on the aspect of arousing the motivation of learning The study employed observation notes, the questionnaires and the interviews as the official instruments The participants of the study were the fresmen of Beijing City University who were devided into two groups by the researcher Through four week research with two kinds of English teaching activities including oral English tests and role-play activities; and the data analysis, it is proved that the students in the Target group which use role-paly activity become more interested in speaking English than the students in the Control group which use oral English tests From the result of the research it is suggested in Chinese University, teachers should use role-play activity to arouse the students‟ motivation of English speaking It could be inferred that using the activity of role-play is more effective in arousing the college students‟ motivation in speaking English than using oral English tests

In terms of case study, a study on “Digital Storytelling: A Case Study on the

Teaching of Speaking to Indonesian EFL Students” (2011) by Afrilyasanti, Ria;

Basthomi, Yazid The study investigated the implementation of digital storytelling

in teaching speaking EFL students The results have shown that students could easily produce communicative and understandable stories using digital storytelling Furthermore, they could understand other friends‟ story easily, so that they could contribute actively and supportively in speaking class activities

In terms of developing speaking skills for learners, a study on “Developing

Speaking Skills through Reading Graded Readers” was conducted by Hermine

Hovhannisyan (2012) to investigate the role of graded readers in developing the students‟ speaking skills The study was carried out in an Experimental English class (EEC) in the Department of English Programs (DEP) at American University

of Armenia (AUA) The participants of the study included two groups: the experimental group which got the treatment by the textbooks and books of graded readers series; and the control group which used textbooks only The study comprise the quantitative data and the instruments are self-assessment checklist and pre-interviews and post-interviews, pre-and post-tests The results of the study have shown that Graded Readers are valid tools to develop students‟ speaking skills Moreover, students have positive attitude towards the graded readers as they supplied them with a lot of interactive activities which created an environment that was fun and effective for improving students‟ speaking skills

In terms of improving students‟ speaking skills, an action research “Improving

students’ speaking through CLT Method at Mts Ja-alhaq, Sentot Ali Basa Islamic Boarding School of Bengkulu, Indonesia” was carried out by Dedi Efrizal (2012) to

know the improvement of teaching English speaking by using CLT method The respondents of the research are VII A students of Mts Ja-alhaq, Sentot Ali Basa Islamic Boarding School of Bengkulu consisting of 25 students The method of the study is classroom action research The results of the study show that there are improvements on students speaking achievement and the use of CLT Method can improve students‟ speaking achievement at the first year students of Mts Ja-alhaq, Sentot Ali Basa Islamic Boarding School of Bengkulu