Using digital storytelling to improve english presentation skills for first year students of foreign language department at nghe an teacher training college

As a four-year teaching experience English teacher, the researcher finds that students atNghe An Teacher Training College have difficulties in presentation skills during andafter studyin

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST

COLLEGE

(Ứng dụng công cụ Kể chuyện bằng hình ảnh kỹ thuật số trong việc cải thiện kĩ năng trình bày tiếng Anh cho sinh viên năm nhất chuyên ngữ trường Cao đẳng Sư phạm Nghệ An)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

Hanoi - 2012

i

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST

COLLEGE

(Ứng dụng công cụ Kể chuyện bằng hình ảnh kỹ thuật số trong việc cải thiện kĩ năng trình bày tiếng Anh cho sinh viên năm nhất chuyên ngữ trường Cao đẳng Sư phạm Nghệ An)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

Supervisor: Dr Đỗ Tuấn Minh

TABLE OF CONTENT

Page

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES viii

I.1 Rationale of the study 1

I.2 Objectives of the study 2

I.3 Scope of the study 2

I.4 Methods of the study 3

I.5 Significance of the study 3

I.6 Overview of the study 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 5 CHAPTER 1: THEORITICAL BACKGROUND 5

1.1 Oral presentation 5

1.1.1 Definition 5

1.1.2 Types of oral presentation 5

1.2 Presentation skills in language learning 6

iv

1.2.1 Importance of presentation skills 7

1.2.2 Criteria for a good presentation 7

1.2.3 Visual aids in presentation 8

1.3 ICT in language learning 9

1.3.1 Definition 10

1.3.2 ICT in language learning 10

1.4 Digital Storytelling 11

1.4.1 Definition 11

1.4.2 Uses of DS in education 12

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 15

2.1 Methodology 15

2.1.1 Research questions 15

2.1.2 Participants 15

2.1.3 Conditions of teaching and learning English with ICT at Nghe An Teacher Training College 16

2.1.4 Instruments 16

2.2 Research procedure 19

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 23

3.1 Results and discussions from the two mock presentations 23

3.2 Results and discussions from the questionnaire for students 27

3.3 Results and discussions from the students’ journals 32

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS 354.1 Findings 354.2 Pedagogical implications 36

III.1 Conclusion 38III.2 Limitations of the study 39III.3 Suggestions for further study 40

vi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

DS: Digital Storytelling

ICT: Information and Communication Technology

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

S: student

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Figure 1: Dale’s cone of experience

Figure 2: Reflective Capacity of ICT in learning process

Table 1: Establishing new learning environment

Table 2: Examiners’ assessment on the students’ presentation

Table 3: The degree of the students’ agreement in presentation with DS Table 4: The degree of difficulties in using DS

viii

PART I: INTRODUCTIONI.1 Rationale of the study

Oral presentation is one of necessary skills in communication in general and English

language learning in particular As Jing L (2009, p.iii) stated, “Oral presentation is an

important skill to convey one’s ideas in communication” Its significant role is

obviously confirmed in both theory and practice That is why presentation skills havebeen included in teaching curriculum of a variety of schools, colleges, universities andinstitutions in the world Students are required to be good at presenting after graduation

so that they can communicate successfully in society in general and in their work inparticular

As a four-year teaching experience English teacher, the researcher finds that students atNghe An Teacher Training College have difficulties in presentation skills during andafter studying at the college Via classroom observation and discussion withcolleagues, the author realizes it is a must to help students improve their presentationskills After having different small talks to three classes of first year English majorstudents, the researcher find out some reasons why they are weak at presentation skills,namely shyness, lack of confidence, lack of vocabulary

After studying different sources, the author decide to choose Digital Storytelling tosupport students’ presentations and would like to examine its effects on theirpresentations

Digital Storytelling is an Information Communication Technology (ICT) tool which iswidely used in education Obviously, ICT has been widely applied at many schools,colleges and universities in the world Similarly, the Ministry of Education andTraining of Vietnam (MOET) has given different policies with the purpose of applying

ICT in teaching and learning As requested by MOET, all teaching institutions have to

integrate ICT in teaching and learning, especially teachers have to “reasonably use

ICT in every subject, avoid ICT abuse” (MOET, 2008, p.3).

In the line with ICT guidelines of the MOET, lecturers and students at Nghe AnTeacher Training College are encouraged to use ICT in teaching and learningeffectively Several workshops and teaching competition are organized at the college

The above situation urges the researcher to conduct the study “Using Digital Photo

Storytelling to improve English presentation skills for first year students of Foreign Language Department at Nghe An Teacher Training College”.

I.2 The objectives of the study

The study examines to what extent DS improves the presentation skills of first yearEFL students at Nghe An Teacher Training College, Vietnam

The objectives of the study are:

- Examine how DS improve the presentation skills of students

- Investigate students’ opinions about using DS in presenting To fulfill the above objectives, the research questions are:

1- To what extent does DS help improve presentation skills of 1st year EFL students at Nghe An Teacher Training College?

2- What are students’ opinions about using DS in presenting?

I.3 Scope of the study

Due to the limited time and school schedule, the target group of study is fourteen first year EFL students at Nghe An Teacher Training College

2

I.4 Methods of the study

The study employs action research Action research is proved to be an effectiveapproach because the study aims at improving students’ presentations within a certaincontext

Two mock presentations, journals of students and questionnaire are conducted

I.5 Significance of the study

The research hopes to be valuable to both teachers and students who are interested inapplying ICT in active teaching and learning Firstly, this study contributes experiences

in active teaching and learning process in the college Secondly, it provides a particularfinding to indicate whether the use of ICT, especially DS improves foreign languagelearning Last but not least, it is a good opportunity for the researcher to gainknowledge in conducting research

I.6 Overview of the study

The study is divided into three parts, which are presented as follows

Part I is the introduction, which states the rationale, aims and objectives, scope,

methods, significance and the overview of the study

Part II is the development of the study which consists of four chapters.

Chapter 1 is theoretical background, which presents necessary literature

related to the study

Chapter 2 is research methodology, which describes how the study was

carried out at Nghe An Teacher Training College

Chapter 3 is data analysis and discussion.

Chapter 4 is findings and some suggestions for better application of digital

storytelling in education

Part III is the conclusion which summarizes the study and gives some

recommendations for further study

4

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORITICAL BACKGROUND

This chapter is concerned with some of the most important issues relating to theapplication of DS in students’ presentation, namely oral presentation, presentationskills in language learning, the role of ICT in language learning and DS – notion anduses

1.1 Oral presentation

1.1.1 Definition

Presentation is the act of showing something or of giving something to somebody(Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 2005, p.1190)

According to Scott (cited in Jing L 2009, p.4-5), “oral presentation tends to present

ideas and information in an interactive way” He also said that oral presentation can be

“a particularly effective way to communicate your concept and complex ideas because the presenter can use overhead projector and other visual aid and the audience can ask for further clarification.” In other words, Scott addressed the importance of oral

presentation in communication

Generally speaking, oral presentation is a way to express the presenter’s ideas toformally communicate with other people

1.1.2 Types of oral presentation

According to Whatley R P., there are five types of oral presentation namelyinformative, instructional, arousing, persuasive and decision-making

 Informative presentation: the purpose of the presenter is to give

information to the audience about things or facts

 Instructional presentation: it might last longer than informativepresentation because it addresses to specific directions or orders New knowledge or a newskill is presented in this type of presentation

 Arousing presentation: as its name, this type of presentation is to arousethe audience’s interests or feelings to solve an issue or a problem which the presentermentions

 Persuasive presentation: the presenter presents an issue with evidence and sufficient logic to convince the audience

 Decision-making presentation: the audience is persuaded to take anaction in the presentation They will know what and how to carry out the presenter’srequests

It can be seen clearly from the above that Whatley categorized oral presentation based

on the purpose of the presenter In spite of basing on the same criterion, oralpresentation has been categorized into two types on the website of Hampden-SydneyCollege namely informative and persuasive presentation

Although oral presentation has been categorized differently, each type of oralpresentation has its own specific purpose and requires a clear, structured organization

to deliver the message to the listeners

1.2 Presentation skills in language learning

6

Achieving different skills to work effectively and live peacefully is a must in society It

is necessary for people to absorb a variety of skills such as communication skills, management skills, and critical thinking skills and so on

self-In this part, the author would like to clarify the notion of presentation skills, theimportance of presentation skills in classroom Next, criteria for a good presentationhave been adapted to suit the college’s curriculum Although different criteria havebeen given, visual aids have been focused on to see how important it is in apresentation

1.2.1 Importance of presentation skills

At universities, institutions or colleges, it is obvious that EFL students must haveexcellent communication after graduation In other words, their written, oral andlistening skills must be good enough to be able to work in society Thus, it is necessary

to be good at presentation skills which help students to deliver positive learningexperiences

Regarding the importance of presentation skills in the classroom, Alshare and Hindi’s

study (2004) shows that “students are required to present in two classes per semester

for an average of ten minutes” and “students and instructors agreed that critical objectives of presentations were to improve communication skills and to train students

to talk to a group of people.”

To sum up, presentation skills play a significant role in teaching and learning a foreignlanguage It not only helps students know how to read, to write and to listen but alsoknow how to communicate with English speaking people

1.2.2 Criteria for a good presentation

There are different views on “What is a good presentation?” As Powell (2002) stated:

Many things contribute to the success of a presentation - new and unusualcontent, a clear structure, a good sense of timing, imaginative use of visual aids,the ability to make people laugh and think But above and beyond all ofthese is enthusiasm (p.6)

In other words, according to Powell’s view, enthusiasm is the most important element

of a successful presentation It can be seen via languages and some techniques such asvoice and delivery, content language, rhetorical technique and question handling

Meanwhile, D’Arcy (1998) do not emphasize on any criteria to evaluate a presentation.Five criteria are given in his set of evaluation that is commonly used: organization anddevelopment of content, delivery, visuals, voice and comments

Although Powell (2002) and D’Arcy (1998) use different terms for the evaluationcriteria, both of them consider content, delivery and voice to be the important criteria

of presentation evaluation Powell, however, does not include visual aids as a criterion

to evaluation a presentation Differently, it is one of five criteria in D’Arcy’s set ofevaluation Similar to D’Arcy’s point of view, the College of Adult and ProfessionalPrograms (2011) rate visual aids 15% out of 100% of a successful presentation

In this study, the presentation evaluation criteria used to evaluate the students’presentation are mainly adapted from the criteria designed by the College of Adult andProfessional Programs and Hong Kong Examination and Assessment Authority

1.2.3 Visual aids in presentation

In terms of definition of visual aids, it can be understood as “a variety of forms from

physical objects, photographs and maps to slides, overheads and computer generated presentations” (Stoner, 2009, p.1).

8

It is obvious that visual aids play an important role in presentation They can make apresentation more interesting and effective Moreover, research showed that people cangenerally remember deeply when they use more senses at the same time It has beensummarized as follows:

(from http://teacherworld.com/potdale.html)

As stated by Powell (2002, p.20), “visuals are important in any professional

presentation”, especially they are more important when people present in a foreign

language because “visual information is highly memorable and reduces the amount of

1.3.1 Definition

According to Education Testing Service, Information and Communication Technology

(ICT) refers to “the set of activities technologies that fall into the union and

communication technologies.” In other words, ICT is the connection between IT and

communication technologies In fact, ICT and IT can be used interchangeably

ICT includes “all forms of computer and communications equipment and software

used to create, design, store, transmit, interpret and manipulate information in its various formats.” (The University of Queensland, http://www.uq.edu.au/ict/what-is-

ict)

1.3.2 ICT in language learning

With the application of ICT, students have an opportunity to experience with newenvironments in which they discover and develop themselves

As summarized by International Society for Technology in Education (2000, cited inThomas, 2000, p.7), the perspectives of education might be changed by ICT as follows:

Table 1 Establishing new learning environment (International Society

for Technology in Education, 2000)

Teacher-centered instruction Learner-centered

Single sense stimulation Multisensory stimulation

Singpath progression Multipath progression

Single media Multimedia

Isolated work Collaborative work

Information delivery Information exchange

Passive learning Active/ exploratory/ inquiry-based

10

learningFactual/ literal thinking Critical thinking, informed decision-

makingReactive response Proactive/ planned action

Isolated, artificial context Authentic, real world

Learners take part in classroom activities more actively with the support of ICT The effects of ICT has been reflected by Montieth M (2004, p.23) as below:

Teachers

ICT allows objectification of learning situation and process, can encourage discussion on procedures and results

Teachers Pupils/ studentsFigure 2: Reflective Capacity of ICT in learning process

As can be seen from Figure 2, ICT has an impact on the interaction between teachersand teachers, between teachers and students

1.4 Digital storytelling

1.4.1 Definition

Storytelling, as its name, is an action of telling a story about different issues of dailylife This notion is familiar to most people in the world However, thanks to the moderntechnical development, stories have been designed with the support of computer andshared to everyone in the world via the Internet, i.e digital storytelling

Actually, there are a lot of definitions of DS Ohler (2008) (cited in Yuksel et al., 2010)

describes DS as a creative process in which a traditional story is combined withpersonal digital technology, such as a computer, video camera, and sound recorder

Having the same point of view with Ohler, Meadows (2003) (cited in Yuksel et al.,

2010) stated that DS is a personal story which makes use of digital cameras, computers,and non-linear authoring tools to form short, multimedia narratives According to Rule(cited by Belgium Project – ICT for active teaching and learning – 2005, p.56), DS is

“the modern expression of the ancient art of storytelling Digital stories derive their power by weaving images, music, narrative and voice together, thereby giving deep dimension and vivid color to characters, situations, experiences, and insights.”

From the above points of view, it can be defined that DS is a tool used to design storieswith the aids of digital technology DS can be created with productivity software such

as MS PowerPoint or similar presentation tools as well as with more specializedsoftware solutions In this study, the students are instructed to use the software PhotoStory 3 to design DS for their presentation

1.4.2 Uses of DS in education

DS has attracted many educators, college instructors, college students, school teachers,researchers as well as instructional technologists Therefore, a great number ofresearches have been carried out to explore the uses of DS in the area of education

Yuksel P et al.’s study (2010) about the educational uses of DS from twenty-six countries in the world shows that “DS supports student understanding of subject area

knowledge, overall academic performance, as well as writing, technical, presentation, and research skills.” The research also indicates that the use of DS in classroom by

teachers affected positively to students’ higher order of thinking, social, language,

reflection and artistic skills Especially, the result of the survey shows that DS “allows

students to construct their own understanding or experience in a content area, facilitates collaborative activities in which students work together in a small group and

12

promotes in-class discussion” In addition, findings of the research suggest that

teachers can use DS in multiple subject areas

Meanwhile, Signes’s paper (2008) summarizes some uses of DS, namely providinginstruction in different literacy skills, elaborating an ePortfolio, integrating the old andthe new, developing new teaching and learning material, increasing learner’smotivation and deep learning and developing self-assessment and team-work In term

of literacy skills, it is noticeable that “DS is associated with the development of

multiple skills”, and Robin (cited in Signes, 2008, p.24) summarized those skills as

follows:

 Research skills: Documenting the story, finding and analyzing pertinent information;

 Writing skills: Formulating a point of view and developing a script;

 Organization skills: managing the scope of the project, the materials used and the time it takes to complete the task;

 Technology skills: learning to use a variety of tools, such as digital

cameras, scanners Microphones and multimedia authoring software;

 Presentation skills: deciding how to best present the story to an audience;

 Interview skills: finding sources to interview and determining individual roles for group members;

 Problem-Solving skills: Learning to make decision and overcome

obstacles at all stages of the project, from inception to completion; and

 Assessment skills: gaining expertise critiquing their own and other’s work

Thus, it can be seen clearly that DS has significant uses in education in which teachers can exploit it or instruct their students to discover it themselves

13

In smaller scale, Afrilyasanti and Basthomi (2011) examine the uses of DS in teaching

EFL speaking The study indicates that “the activities involved in the DS production

potentially encourage students to actively speak up, improve their vocabulary, and train their pronunciation and fluency” (Afrilyasanti and Basthomi, 2011, p.90) In

other words, DS motivate students to take part in speaking activities and activelycontributed the lesson

Via observation and small talks to students, the researcher find that most of studentsare nervous and shy in presenting even though they are provided language items ofpresentation in class and practise presenting with their friends In addition, the waythey organize their presentation is difficult to follow Thus, it is necessary to helpstudents to overcome difficulties in presentation

According to the Teaching Center of Washington University in St Louis (2009),teachers can solve the above problem by using one, two or all of the followingmethods First, teachers can help students to improve their verbal and non-verbalcommunication Second, they can make them be aware of the effective use of thechalkboard and visual aids and instruct them to use those ones effectively Finally,effective and meaningful content will be emphasized and instructed to present byteachers

For the first and the third solutions, students are trained and practise in class In terms

of chalkboard and visual aids, although teachers at Nghe An Training College explainthe role of them and put it to be one of the criteria for presentation evaluation, there arefew students exploiting the uses of those ones Therefore, the researcher decides toprovide a tool which can support them in the process of presentation, i.e digitalstorytelling

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter gives a thorough description of how the research was carried out The firstpart is about the background of the participants and the description of the researchcontext The next part concerns the research instruments used in the study Theresearch procedure and research framework are in the last part

2.1 Methodology

2.1.1 Research questions

The study aims at answering the following questions:

1- To what extent does DS help improve presentation skills of 1st year EFL students at Nghe An Teacher Training College?

2- What are students’ opinions about using DS in presenting?

15

focus on a small number of students and examiner the effects of DS before applyingwidely That is why only fourteen of students are chosen to take part in the research.

2.1.3 Conditions of teaching and learning English with ICT at Nghe An Teacher Training College

In the line with ICT guidelines of the MOET, lecturers and students at Nghe AnTeacher Training College have been encouraged to use ICT in teaching and learningeffectively That is also the reason why the college has been equipped with wi-fisystem, computer rooms and audiovisual rooms Teachers can use audiovisual roomsprovided that they register to the administrative office in advance

In an audiovisual room, there were some facilities as below:

- A computer with useful software and programs such as Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, ), Window Media Player, Inspiration, etc

- Two speakers

- A projector and a screen connected with the computer

Most lecturers at Nghe An Teacher Training College have opportunities to participate

in different professional development programs of the Ministry of Education andTraining and of different organizations The programs focus on ICT basic skills, ICTfor active teaching and learning Most EFL teaching lecturers use ICT quite often.Students at the college also have to learn ICT as a compulsory subject in thecurriculum They have opportunities to take part in a variety of workshops and ICTlessons organized by different organizations

2.1.4 Instruments

The study has been conducted to examine the effects of Digital Photo Storytelling inimproving presentation skills of the first year students of Foreign LanguageDepartment at Nghe An Teacher Training College The author decided to use a variety

of research instruments: two mock presentations, students’ journals and questionnaire

2.1.4.1 Two mock presentations

With the purpose of examining students’ presentation before and after using DS, theparticipants were requested to present their own topics individually These topics weredifferent from those in their course books or assignments which were given by theirteachers The researcher listed ten suggested topics for students and they could chooseone of them or register another one which was not in their course books orassignments In the end, they chose the following topics for their presentations:

environment, my mother, my father, climate change, students and love, smoking, a trip

to Nha Trang, my family and media.

To be objective in assessing students’ presentations, two examiners were invited to thepresentation tests They are lecturers of Nghe An Teacher Training College and havetwelve years of teaching English In addition, they had never taught the participantsbefore

Especially, students’ presentations were captured by a camera Thus, the researchercould base on not only the examiners’ assessment but also the videos to analyze theprocess of presentation of students more specifically

The first mock presentation was made after one week preparation and also after oneweek starting studying at the college The second mock presentation was taken aftertwo-month study at the college and students also had one week to prepare for theirpresentations

17

Journal writing have certain advantages, one of the most important of which is that it

“provides access to the hidden affective variables that greatly influence the wayteachers teach and students learn” (Brock, Yu and Wong, 1992, cited in Wallace, 1998,p.63) These authors also presented the following advantages of journals:

1 They provide an effective means of variables that are important to individual teachers and learners

2 They serve as a means of generating questions and hypotheses about teaching and learning processes

3 They enhance awareness about the way a teacher teaches and a student learns

4 They are an excellent tool for reflection

5 They are simple to conduct

6 They provide a first-hand account of teaching and learning experiences

7 They are the most natural form of classroom research in that no formal

correlations are tested and no outside observer enters the classroom dynamic

8 They provide an on-going record of classroom events and teacher and learner reflections

9 They enable the researcher to relate classroom events and examine trends

emerging from the diaries

10 They promote the development of reflective teaching

(Brock, Yu and Wong, 1992, p 295, cited in Wallace, 1998, p.63)

In this study, journals were chosen to be used in order to probe students’ feelings oropinions on using DS in presenting There are five guided questions for students toexpress their viewpoints on reasons why they think the activity is good or not and thedifficulties or problems encountered in the activity

2.1.4.3 Students’ questionnaire

Although the researcher could analyze and assess students’ presentations via two mockpresentations, it is necessary to use one more instrument to assure the previous results.That is why students’ questionnaire is designed to survey students’ opinions aboutusing DS in their presentations

2.2 Research procedure

The steps of data collection and analysis could be outlined as follows:

(1) Studying previous research and materials relating to presentation skills and DS

(2) Choosing participants and asking them to prepare their presentations in one week with their favorite topics

(3) Capturing the students’ presentations at the first mock presentation Two

examiners were invited to assess students’ presentations

(4) Introducing DS to participants and instructed them how to use it in theirpresentations Suggesting some ways of using DS and encouraged students to exploit thetool themselves

(5) The participants use DS in and out of classroom for two months They reflect their thoughts and feelings about using DS in their journals

19

(6) The participants present their topics again with the support of DS The same examiners are invited to assess students’ presentation.

(7) Delivering questionnaire to survey students’ opinions about using DS

(8) Collecting and analyzing two mock presentations, students’ journals and

questionnaire

(9) Presenting the collected data, analyzing and discussing the findings

(10)Proposing some suggestions in order to apply the tool better

The research has been carried out in detail as below:

Week 1 - Explain the purpose of the study to students

- Choose participants

- Deliver presentation criteria

- Give suggested topics to students for presentation preparation

- Ask students to create email

Week 2 - First mock presentation (two guest examiners, two cameras)

- Instruct students to use DS

- Divide students into small groups

- Explain what journal is and how to write it

- Give tasks to students: prepare to present about a topic in theirtextbook for the next lesson Ask them to work in groups, supporteach other and contact the researcher when necessary

Week 3, 4, 5, 6 - Group presentation and reflection

- Prepare for another presentation with another topic Eachstudent can record her presentation and send it to the researcher