Problems in making english presentations of first year english majors in faculty of english, thuongmai university

THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH DEPARTMENT ---GRADUATION PAPER PROBLEMS IN MAKING ENGLISH PRESENTATIONS OF FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS IN FACULTY OF ENGLISH, THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY... It is u

THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

-GRADUATION PAPER

PROBLEMS IN MAKING ENGLISH PRESENTATIONS

OF FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS IN FACULTY OF

ENGLISH, THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY

The trend towards internationalization and globalization has become a greatpopularity for many years; hence, improving communication skills in general andpresentation skills in particular has been vital for many learners and students thesedays It is undeniable that making a good presentation is not easy for many people

in Vietnam; especially, first-year English majors at Thuongmai University.Therefore, this study aimed to identify their main difficulties that they encounteredwhile giving presentations To achieve the aim of the study, I applied two tools, aquestionnaire and observation

This study has been done on first-year English-majored students at ThuongmaiUniversity Therefore, all data and information collected from them can help merealize that most problems are came from two primary elements includingsubjective difficulties and objective difficulties The subjective difficulties are thatstudents do not have a good preparation, they do not feel confident with theirperformance or they do not interact with audiences And the objective difficultiesinclude time allowed performing the presentation, pressure from teacher andlistener's support Therefore, students are dissatisfied with their presentation.Besides, through my observations, I found that most presenters do not know how toattract the audiences, their voice sometimes are not loud enough or they do not usebody language effectively As a result, presenter and listeners do not have anyconnection While the speaker was presenting, listeners were sleeping, talkingtogether or even playing with their phone

Additionally, from all the results and analyses of the real situation, somesuggestions and recommendations can be drawn out to help them to have betterpresentations

I also wish to express my sincere thanks to all the lecturers of English Faculty

at Thuongmai University for their very useful lectures during four years that haveprovided me with good background to do my Graduation Paper effectively

In addition, I would like to express my profound thanks to my loving familyand special friends who went along the line with me and gave me great support andconcern to fulfil this study

Finally, I also want to express my appreciation to the first-year majored students at Thuongmai University who participated in completing thesurvey questionnaire Without them, this study cannot be fully accomplished

English-Hanoi, 24th April, 2020

StudentNguyen Thi Thu Phuong

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES v

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Previous studies 1

1.3 Aims of the study 2

1.4 Research subjects 2

1.5 Research methodology 2

1.6 Scope of the study 3

1.7 Organization of the study 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 The definitions of presentation 4

2.2 The importance of presentation 5

2.3 Purposes of students’ presentations 8

2.3.1 Advocacy/persuasion 8

2.3.2 Teaching and learning 8

2.2.3 Informing 9

2.3.4 Inspiration or motivation 9

2.2.5 Assessment 9

2.4 What makes a good presentation? 10

2.5 Steps in making a presentation 12

2.6.1 Preparation 13

2.6.2 Linguistic knowledge 14

2.6.3 Presentation skills 15

2.6.4 Psychological factors 16

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS 18

3.1 Students’ opinions of making presentations 18

3.1.1 Students' frequency of making presentations in class 18

3.1.2 Students’ attitudes towards making presentations 19

3.1.3 Student s’ views on the importance of presentations 20

3.2 Students’ performance before, during and after making a presentation 20

3.2.1 Students’ performance before making a presentation 20

3.2.2 Students’ performance during a presentation 21

3.3 Students’ problems in making English presentations 22

3.3 Observation results 26

4.1 Recommendations and suggestions for first-year English-majored to make a good presentation 27

4.1.1 Preparing the presentation 27

4.1.2 Giving the presentation 29

4.1.3 Finishing the presentation 30

4.2 Things needed to avoid when making a presentation 31

CONCLUSION 32

REFERENCES vi

APPENDIX vii

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Chart 3.1: Students’ frequency of making presentations 18

Chart 3.2: Students' attitudes towards making presentations 19

Chart 3.3: Students’ views on the importance of presentations 20

Chart 3.4: Students’ preparation before presentations 20

Chart 3.5: Presenters’ interaction with listeners 21

Chart 3.6: Things presenter looked at when presenting 22

Chart 3.7: Do you often have difficulties in making a presentation? 23

Chart 3.8: Students' difficulties in making presentations 24

Chart 3.9: Audience’s activities during presentations 25

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY

1.1 Rationale

In recent years, there has been a growing recognition that English is well on itsway to become a dominant global language With the trend of globalization andinternationalization, an increasing number of people have chosen to use English as asecond language for communication and discussion in various aspects of life such

as business, politics, culture, news and so on Therefore, for many people,improving four English skills is a good way to remove communication barriers andexchange essential information Generally, among English skills, speaking is not themost but very crucial skills showing the users’ English capability Particularly inspeaking skills, making a presentation is considered as one of the most important However, most Vietnamese people find it so difficult to gain success inpresenting English majors, who are regarded as active and gritty ones stillencounter this difficulty, particularly when they use English as a second language toexpress their ideas

As a senior student of English Faculty at Thuongmai University, I realized thatmany students still have difficulties in making presentation, especially thefreshmen In order to help them overcome the problem, I am pleased to carry out

study: “Problems in making English presentations of first-year English majors in

Faculty of English, Thuongmai University” and propose some suggested solutions.

1.2 Previous studies

There have been many research studies carried out relating to the problems inmaking an English presentation in the world and also in Vietnam Some noticeableones are described as follows:

Firstly, the research “Kỹ năng thuyết trình bằng Tiếng Anh của sinh viên nămthứ 3 khoa Tiếng Anh, Trường Đại học ngoại ngữ, Đại học Đà Nẵng - Thực trạng

và giải pháp” was carried out by Nguyen Thi Phuong Huyen, was published in

2008 This study aims to understand the difficulties of students when making apresentation so that they can find out the solutions to further improve presentationskills for students to meet needs in studying and job According to the author, in

fact, most students make mistakes in structure, design and use of slide; have lack ofbody language and vocabulary when making presentations Besides, students arenot confident enough when presenting in public.

Secondly, the research “The essential ingredients of a presentation” done bySiddons, was published in 2008 This research aims to study three essentialingredients of a presentation: the audience, the presenter and the presentation itself.The result of this research showed that it is important to prepare the presentation inadvance to get the best results There are a lot of presentations failed because theyare not rehearsed properly, or they are never rehearsed at all The author claimedthat the presenter should not only prepare the materials well but also be wellprepared to practice in order to master the presentation in the most effective way.Finally, the research “Improving presentation skills among business students”done by Michael, was published on January 2007 The author said that use ofappropriate activities for presentation skills can be a good strategy to helppresenters release from stress Furthermore, the freedom of topic choice makes themcomfortable, confident to speak as well as give opinion

1.3 Aims of the study

It is undeniable that presentation skills is one of the extremely important skillsthat help students advance further in study and work Therefore, the study aims toinvestigate problems that freshmen of English Faculty at Thuongmai Universityhave when they make presentations and find out appropriate techniques forstudents to enhance their presentation skills and give them some suggested solutions

to better communication as well

After analyzing the information and data collected, the difficulties andobstacles which prevent these students from giving a good English presentation will

be discovered

In this study, the following questions will be investigated:

- How often do students make an English presentation?

- What causes obstacles for students when presenting in English?

- How can they overcome those difficulties and improve English presentationskills?

1.6 Scope of the study

This study focuses on researching and analyzing the problems in makingEnglish presentations of first-year English-majored students at the ThuongmaiUniversity by using data collected through survey questionnaire and directobservation The questionnaire is designed with 11 multiple choice questions,relating to several aspects in making English presentations of students and it wassent to a hundred of freshmen of English Faculty at Thuongmai University to collectdata and information from their learning and practicing process The results of thisstudy may be limited to students participated in the research and informationfinding process However, it can be used as a resource for students who areinterested in presentation and improving their English presentation skills

1.7 Organization of the study

- Chapter 1: Overview of the study This chapter consists of rationale,previous studies, aims of the study, research subjects, scope of the study, researchmethodology and organization of the study

- Chapter 2: Literature review This chapter presents an overview of theories,concepts related to the study It consists of definitions of presentation, importance

of presentation, purposes of students’ presentation, what makes a good presentation,steps in making a presentation and difficulties in presentation

- Chapter 3: Research findings This chapter consists of collected results fromthe questionaire and observation leading to detailed analysis

Chapter 4: Recommendations and suggestions This chapter consists ofrecommendations and suggesstions to make more effective presentations

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 The definitions of presentation

To make an effective presentation, the first thing we should understand is what

a presentation is The definition of presentation has been debated for decades bymany experts and scholars; therefore, some theories of the definition of presentationare presented in this part of the study

According to Wikipedia, a presentation is “the process of presenting a topic to

an audience” It is typically a demonstration, introduction, lecture, or speech meant

to inform, persuade, inspire, motivate, or to build good will or to present a new idea

or product The term can also be used for a formal or ritualized introduction oroffering, as with the presentation of a debutante Presentations in certain formats arealso known as keynote address

Another widely accepted definition of a presentation is “Presentation is theprocess of showing and explaining the content of a topic to an audience or a group

of audiences It is often used to assess student learning in individual or groupresearch projects In recent times, presentation is no longer just about oralpresentation but also visuals Paper, white board or PowerPoint presentation aresample tools to aid the visual part of the presentation Peer and tutor assessment can

be used as part of the grading process, this would allow open-mindednessparticularly if the topic or presentation style generates subjective opinions ordifferent views.”

(https://ar.cetl.hku.hk/am_presentations.htm)

Morrissey and Sechrest (1987:2) claimed that a presentation involves thepreparation and delivery of critical subject matter in a logical and condensed form,leading to effective communication

Besides, it can be understood that “A presentation is a means ofcommunication that can be adapted to various speaking situations, such as talking to

a group, addressing a meeting or briefing a team It can also be used as a broad termthat encompasses other ‘speaking engagements’ such as making a speech at awedding, or getting a point across in a video conference A presentation requires

you to get a message across to the listeners and will often contain a 'persuasive'element It may, for example, be a talk about the positive work of your organization,what you could offer an employer, or why you should receive additional funding for

a project.”

(https://www.skillsyouneed.com/present/what-is-a-presentation.html)

Furthermore, another definition of presentation is that: “Presentation is a shorttalk by one person to a group of people introducing and describing a particularsubject”

(Teaching Presentation Skill to ESL.Ss- www.englishclub.com)

In summary, according to the definitions above, we can see that a presentation

is interpreted in many different meanings, depending on certain circumstances.However, it can be clearly seen that the presentations are used by all peopleeveryday It can be a short talk, a formal talk or even a speaking, but in general, it iscreated for the purpose of communication among people

2.2 The importance of presentation

Presenting the information clearly and effectively is a key skill to get themessage or opinion across and, today, presentation skills are required in almostevery field Presentation skills and public speaking skills are very useful in manyaspects of work and life like business, selling, training, studying, teaching andlecturing that develops confidence and other social situations Presentations play avital role for the learning environment of universities in general and of ThuongmaiUniversity in particular Thanks to presentations, students have opportunities topresent what they have learned before as well as after the lessons Besides, it is thegood way that they can understand more deeply on the topic in their universities’education program

Barbara gave some main roles of presentation in chapter 1(2007: 08) of abook called “ A student’s guide to presentation” as follows:

- Forming self-learning habits for students

- Helping students become more active and confident

- Developing teamwork as well as leadership skills

- Enhancing four skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing

- Improving marks earned for a module assessment

- Preparation for skills needed in the workplace

- Helping students to have a high income as well as a successful career in thefuture

Presentation has become one of the main methods in education program inmost universities and also in Thuongmai University Therefore, it plays a crucialpart in forming self-learning habits and enhancing the confidence of students aswell Furthermore, it is a good chance for students to practice their speaking skills

in front of the public

Besides, the university learning environment is completely different from thehigh school one in the way that students have to learn more by themselves Making

a presentation, each student also has to study on a topic on their own Since then,their self-studying ability has gradually been formed and developed effectively overtime

In addition to forming self-study habits for students, presentations helpstudents become more active and confident To make a presentation students need

to be proactive, and passionate about research to produce new results Aftercompleting the content, students need to cultivate and practice to share with otherswhat they have learned in the clearest and most vivid way This is also anopportunity to expand their knowledge about the topic by actively asking others toask questions and answering audiences’ questions Besides, presentations are a greatway to have students practise not only language systems such as vocabulary,grammar, discourse and phonology but also four skills such as listening, speaking,reading, and writing Through presentations, they can become more confident andactive It can be not denied that presenting is a necessary skill that most people need

in the life of study and work According to my practical observation, I found thatstudents who are good presenters are usually better communicators all round,because they can structure and express their ideas clearly

Presentation can also form a natural part of task based learning By focusing

on a particular language point or skill, the presentation is a very practical way torevise and extend book, developing teamwork as well as leadership skills For

example: the audiences can also be tasked with answering the questions forpresentations, which is a helpful way of getting students to listen to each other.Additionally, presentation can help students have more opportunities toachieve higher scores It uses different intelligence in addition to the linguisticintelligence needed for essays and reports In reality, some students are oftenconfident for their presentations and work better in group situations than on theirown These students may earn a higher total mark for the module where there is acombined assessment of presentation and written report, especially when thepresentation earns up to 40 per cent of the module mark

In recent years, many employers seek the candidates who are confident anduse presentation skills as a part of their selection procedures Some organizationsuse staff presentations frequently for progress reports, staff appraisal anddevelopment Preparing and delivering presentations when was a student can helpthe first-year English majors to be a more competent and confident candidates forinterviews because in the future, the organization will offer opportunities to developteam working and project management skills In the future, the freshmen of Englishfaculty will have to complete the work before the deadlines and take responsibilityfor delivering an outcome of their work Therefore, presentations are considered as

a positive experience that helps students to prepare for the future employment.Finally, presentation brings students the chance to have a high income as well

as a successful career in the future A candidate for job interviews has goodknowledge, impressive academic achievement, creative business idea but withoutthe ability to lecture, unable to express the ideas, knowledge, strategies andorientations that he set out, he cannot convince employers to choose himself Nomatter how much knowledge and talent the freshmen of English faculty have but ifthey cannot convey to others what they want, it will be very difficult for them tosucceed Therefore, improving presentation skills every day will shorten their path

to success The important thing is, the more they present, the easier it is for them topersuade others

2.3 Purposes of students’ presentations

Every human has a certain purpose when deciding to do something and alsowhen diciding to make presentation When you are making a presentation youalways have a goal such as trying to give a message on your audience or trying tosell something So what is the purpose of presentation?

According to Barbara (2007), there are many reasons why students are asked

to give presentations and these will be influenced by your academic course andsituational and organizational factors The purpose and circumstances of yourpresentation will influence its style, content and structure Most presentations willinvolve a combination of purposes but it may be helpful to think about the differentfeatures of each of these presentations

She claimed that student presentations may be given for the purposes of:

on a topic In business, the goal of the presentation is to convince customers to buy

a product or service The political field is no exception because their goal may also

be to persuade listeners to vote when politicians call A convincing speech isworking towards a solution The first thing needed to do is point out the problem.Then provide the audience with a solution by presenting the views and methods Aconvincing speech often provides evidence, logic and emotion in it

2.3.2 Teaching and learning

According to Barbara (2007): This goal is for the audience to understand moreabout what they hear Wanting the audience to learn, the presenters have to payattention to this They need to teach or guide the group in front of them That means

they need to know a lot about the topic The greater the presenters understand of thetopic, the more they will convey and get closer to the audience

2.2.3 Informing

Barbara (2007) also affirmed that in some circumstances this type ofpresentation could be seen as similar to teaching, but the aim of this type ofpresentation could be to communicate as much information as possible in the timeavailable The purpose of the presentation may be to:

- Describe a new policy

- Outline a set of instructions

- Give a progress report on some research or development

This type of presentation is used in many organizations where students oremployees are expected to report progress at key stages of a project It providesevidence of ongoing work and can be used as a subtle measure of control whereindividuals work to meet deadlines set for dates of these progress reports

2.3.4 Inspiration or motivation

In essence, every speaker wants to inspire Inspiration is one of the mostpowerful emotions It is so great if presenters are able to inspire people to think,move or change their behavior Talks that are inspiring are often very personal.Stories of overcoming difficulties are often great and meaningful But it does nothave to be about something bad that has happened It can be about the future I haveseen a lot of Nick Vujicic's speeches and felt more motivated and positive thanbefore

2.2.5 Assessment

Student presentations are frequently assessed and may be awarded apercentage of the marks that contribute to the overall module mark and credits.However, some presentations may not be assessed but used as an opportunity forstudents to practise and further develop their presentation skills, without the anxiety

of earning marks for the quality of their performance

There is a tension here for students, as most presentations need quite a lot ofpreparation time This time may only be seen as worthwhile if it earns markstowards completion of a unit or module of study Equally, it can influence students

to withdraw from non-assessed presentations or use a minimum of effort for suchevents, seeing them as less important for their learning and achievement This focus

on marks earned, rather than experience gained, may influence some tutors to onlyuse assessed presentations

Use of assessment can have a positive advantage For some students,presentations offer opportunities to earn a higher proportion of marks than theymight achieve for the written part of their assessment They may be bettercommunicators and presenters in their use of speech, visuals or technology than in awritten mode

2.4 What makes a good presentation?

Wallwork (2010:4) clarifies: “A “professional” presentation is one where thelearner puts the audience first.” The learner thinks about how the audience wouldmost like to receive the information he is giving The key to an effectivepresentation is that the presenter has a few main points that he wants the audience toremember and that he highlights these points during the presentation in aninteresting way, and if possible, enthusiastic way The important thing is to berelaxed To become more relaxed, the key is to prepare well and concentrate on thecontent

From my perspective, a good presentation is the one that can attract theaudience’s attention and involvement as well as express completely the speaker’sideas to them However, to do this effectively we have the form of a presentationand so there are some criteria of a professional and effective presentation.According to Big Dog’s Leadership Page they are:

- Content: It contains information that people need

- Structure: It has a logical beginning, middle, and end It must be sequencedand paced so that the audience can understand it

- Packaging: It must be well prepared

- Human element: A good presentation will be remembered much more than areport because it has a person attached to it

According to Lenny (1996), an international professional speaker and theauthor of the book, “10 Days to More Confident Public Speaking” and several otherpublications, there are 6 elements of an effective speech as follow:

- Preparation - it is considered as the most important element As a generalrule, the presenter should spend about 30 hours of preparation and rehearsal time forevery hour they will be speaking Besides, they should use a tape recorder orvideotape themselves This will help them to get an accurate picture of how theyspeak

- Giving of yourself – presenters should try to use personal examples and stories

in the speech whenever possible They need to make sure that stories help to emphasize

or support the presenter's point and the stories must match their message Besides, theexamples from the presenter's personal and professional life are also suggestions tomake their point

- Staying relaxed - To stay relaxed, the presenter should be prepared Inaddition, they should focus on their message and not the audience Moreover, thepresenter should use gestures as walking patterns Practice the opening of theirspeech and plan exactly how the presenter will say it because the audience willjudge the presenter in the first 30 seconds they see them

- Using natural humor - In this element, the presenter should not try to be astand up comedian The presenter can use natural humor by poking fun atthemselves and something they said or did Besides, presenters should be sure not tomake fun of anyone in the audience People will laugh when the presenter poke fun

at themselves but do not overdo it

- Plan the body and hand positions - During the practice of the speech look foroccasions where the presenter can use a gesture The presenter should establishthree positions where they will stand and practice not only how to move to them butwhere in their speech do they move They should pick three positions, one on centerstage, one to their right, and one to their left

- Pay attention to all details - The presenters should make sure whether theyare in the right location or not Next, they should make sure that they bring all theirvisual aids and plenty of handouts Finally, the presenters have to arrive early in

order to check out where they will be speaking and make any last minuteadjustments

In short, a professional as well as effective presentation depends on a lot ofelements such as preparation, content, outline, body language, natural humor, visualaids, etc Each element provides a necessary criterion that helps the students carryout a better presentation

2.5 Steps in making a presentation

The important step of making a presentation is to prepare for it Emden andBecker (2004:67) show that "Good preparation and planning are essential forsuccessful presentations The quality of your presentation usually reflects theamount of preparation the student has done According to Lucas (2004) andGregory (2005), speech preparation consists of selecting a topic and purpose,analyzing the audience, gathering materials, and organizing the speech Choosing atopic is the first step in speechmaking but in presentation classes at ThuongmaiUniversity, most topics are based on the topic of every chapter in students’textbook, so students do not have to find their own topic In addition, studentshave to decide the purposes of the presentation After choosing a topic and apurpose, students must determine the specific purpose which is one aspect of thetopic (Lucas, 2004) Lucas (2004) suggested that when making a presentation,students should be audience-centered; that is, students should analyze theaudience and should adapt the presentation to their interests and beliefs Therefore,the presentation will be clear and persuasive to the audience Furthermore,students should make efforts to convey their knowledge to the audience regardlesswho the audience is After selecting the topic and purpose of the presentation,students have to seek more materials According to Lucas (2004), studentscan gather materials by different ways: getting information in the library orsearching the Internet which is considered the world’s biggest library, Students’knowledge and experience are also used as sources to gather the materials.Then, students will organize the speech Gregory (2005) points out that a well-organized speech contributes to enhancing the speaker’s credibility He mentionsthe results of studies showing that the listeners will find that the presenter is

less believable due to the presentation’ poor organization If it is well-organized, thespeech is easier for the audience to understand A well-organized speech consists ofthree basic parts The first one is the introduction whose main goals are to captureand hold the audience’s attention and interest, and to prepare the listeners forthe body of the presentation The second part is the body which includes mainpoints The final section is the conclusion which is to signal the end, summarize themain ideas of the talk and strengthen the central idea with a clincher.

2.6 The difficulties in making English presentation

When making presentations, students may have to encounter a wide range

of difficulties which fall into four main categories: preparation, linguisticknowledge, presentation skills and psychological factors

2.6.1 Preparation

- Lack of preparation

Excellent speakers have carefully prepared before the presentation Inparticular, they understand the topic to talk about, how to organize the content,make the impressive slide and understand thoroughly the key issues to be presented

In order to have a good presentation, we first need to be well prepared about thosefactors However, many students ignore this

Each presentation has different topics When we have a good preparation, adeep understanding of the subject will helps the students to determine a rightdirection That will help the presentation become more logical, increase theorymore

- Confusing content

When too many content types are used, the presentation of student become toolong; there are too many slides that are unnecessary and in reality, the freshmen ofEnglish faculty often take time to read everything on the slide but ignore that theirmost important part is focusing on the audience

The reputation will start to be judged when we get up and start talking.Therefore, do not let confusing content ruin the quality of presentation Let focusentirely on one thing, not collect too many information from many differentsources

- Not clarifying the topic

Students in English Faculty should know clearly what they are expected tospeak about Second, they should not assume the audience knows what they aregoing to speak about To avoid confusion, students should put main informationabout the topic of presentation in introduction They can get into the habit of saying,

“Today, I’ll be explaining…” or “My presentation today will show…” and do thiswithout exception Some members of audience may also be global learners, whoneed to know the destination before listener can follow along the detailed path ofpresentation

- Overcrowding text in slides

The best rule for text is to keep the slides simple However, freshmen ofEnglish Faculty often cram too much information into their slides

2.6.2 Linguistic knowledge

Regarding linguistic knowledge, students have difficulties withgrammar, vocabulary and pronunciation when making English presentations

- Mispronunciation

The differences between sound systems of English and Vietnamese result

in students’ difficulty in pronouncing English words According to Avery andEhrlich (1998), there are a number of difficulties that students have to face inpronouncing English words First of all, they have difficulties with consonants,namely voiceless stop consonants in final position, voiced stops at the end ofwords, fricatives in word-final position, and consonant clusters (both in initial andfinal position) Second, they have difficulties with English vowels Third, somespecific English sounds may cause them difficulties Lastly, stress, rhythm andintonation seem to be troublesome to students For example, they find itdifficult to produce multi-syllable words with appropriate stress patterns Infact, word stress, sentence stress and intonation play important roles incomprehension (Buck, 2001) Additionally, students do not link words due to thehabit of omitting the consonants at the final position of the word

- Grammar

According to Graham and Walsh (n.d), there are some major problems thatstudents have with grammar First, students often have difficulties with wordorder They usually make sentences that seem to be strange to the nativespeakers due to wrong word order Second, verbs also cause difficulties tolearners Besides, learners have difficulties with prepositions and nouns.

- Vocabulary

In English there are a large number of phrasal verbs which are commonlyused In other languages including Vietnamese; however, a single specificword is used in place of the English phrasal verb (Le, 2006) Accordingly,this difference might cause Vietnamese learners problems in using English

2.6.3 Presentation skills

- Lack of body language

A good presentation is the combination of three elements including speech,tone and body language, in which the body language occupies a very importantposition in the presentation However, students often ignore this important factor.When presenting, the freshmen of English Faculty rarely use body language or ifhave, it is used inappropriately

Besides, the freshmen of English Faculty often have poor use of eye contact

At the presentation, they often feel anxious They cannot focus on the listener butinstead of looking at the ceiling, or just looking at the slide Eye contact is the key

to build the trust Thus, the freshmen of English Faculty should make sure to lookpeople in their eyes and smile when appropriate and use facial expressions toconvey messages

- Reading texts in slides

Slide is a useful tool to remind us what is the next content needed to be saidfor the presentation However, the freshmen of English Faculty abuse the slides toomuch They seem to just look at the slide and read

- Using slang or idioms

Some freshmen of English Faculty believe that using multiple idioms or slangwill make their presentation more professional But in reality, using idioms or slangmake the audience difficult to understand and capture the content of the