Using communicative classroom activities to support EFL students’ oral presentation an action research project at nguyen trai ba dinh high school in hanoi

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Bùi Thị Thủy USING COMMUNICATIVE CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES TO SUPPORT EFL STUDENTS’ ORAL PRESENTATION: AN ACTION RES

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Bùi Thị Thủy

USING COMMUNICATIVE CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

TO SUPPORT EFL STUDENTS’ ORAL PRESENTATION:

AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT

AT NGUYEN TRAI-BA DINH HIGH SCHOOL IN HA NOI

MA THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Bùi Thị Thủy

USING COMMUNICATIVE CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

TO SUPPORT EFL STUDENTS’ ORAL PRESENTATION:

AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT

AT NGUYEN TRAI-BA DINH HIGH SCHOOL IN HANOI

Field: English Language

Code: 8220201

Supervisor: Nguyễn Thị Việt Nga, Ph.D

HA NOI, 2019

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DECLARATION BY AUTHOR

I, Bùi thị Thủy, certify that the thesis entitled “Using communicative classroom activities to support EFL students’ oral presentation: An action research project at Nguyen Trai-Ba Dinh High School in Hanoi” is the result

of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts in English language I confirm that this thesis has not been submitted for any other degrees

The research reported in this thesis was approved by Graduate Academy of Social Sciences

Author’s Signature

Bùi Thị Thủy

Approved by SUPERVISOR

Nguyễn Thị Việt Nga, Ph.D

Date: ………

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ACKNOWLEGDEMENTS

Although only one name appears as the author of this work, writing a thesis is indeed a collaborative effort I would like to express my sincere thanks to the many people who made it possible

First of all, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my M.A thesis’s supervisor, Dr Nguyễn Thị Việt Nga for her kind consultation, invaluable encouragement as well as thorough correction in the process of completion Without her helpful guidance, this study would not have been achieved

Next, I would like to convey my sincere appreciation and thanks to Mr Đặng Nguyên Giang and the staff of the Department of Foreign Languages, Graduate Academy of Social Sciences for granting me the honor of writing this thesis as well as their assistance and most valuable comments

Specially, millions of my special thanks go to the teachers and students

of Nguyen Trai- Ba Dinh High School who participated in this study for their kind and patient co-operation and encouragement They helped provide me with valuable data for the study so that I could have a better view of activities

in presentation task in English speaking classes at Nguyen Trai- Ba Dinh High School in Ha Noi

Finally, I am deeply indebted to my family for their sympathy and support during all the time I was studying for M.A degree at Graduate Academy of Social Sciences Without their unconditional love and sincere contribution, I could not have overcome my difficulties and concentrated on

my studies

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION BY AUTHOR i

ACKNOWLEGDEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT vi

LIST OF TABLES vii

LIST OF FIGURES & CHARTS viii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ix

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims and Objectives of the Study 2

1.3 Research Questions 3

1.4 Scope of the Study 3

1.5 Significance of the Study 3

1.6 Research Methods 3

1.7 Structure of the Study 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Communicative Competence 5

2.2 Communicative Language Teaching 7

2.3 Communicative Activities 8

2.3.1 Definition of Communicative Activities 8

2.3.2 Characteristics of Communicative Activities 9

2.4 Oral Presentation 10

2.4.1 General Understanding of Oral Presentation 10

2.4.2 Skills/ Sub-skills Involved in Oral Presentation 12

2.4.3 The Problems Faced by Students When Doing Oral Presentation 15

2.4.4.2 Organization of the Presentation 19

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2.4.4.3 Presentation Skills 20

2.4.4.4 Performing Self Reflections 21

2.4.5 Evaluating and Assessing an Oral Presentation 22

2.5 Classroom Communicative Activities to Support Oral Presentation 23 2.6 Previous Studies 27

2.7 Summary 29

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 30

3.1 Research Design 30

3.1.1 Definitions of Action Research 30

3.3.2 Action Research Procedures 33

3.2 The Context of the Study 35

3.3 Participants 36

3.3.1 The Researcher- Teacher 36

3.3.2 The Teachers 37

3.3.3 The Students 37

3.4 Procedures of the Current Study 38

3.4.1 Diagnosing (week 1-2) 39

3.4.2 Planning (before the beginning of week 3) 39

3.4.3 Acting and Observing (from Week 3 to Week 16) 40

3.4.4 Reflecting (Week 17- 18) 41

3.5 Data Collection Instruments 42

3.5.1 Diagnosing 42

3.5.2 Acting and Observing 45

3.6 Data Collection 49

3.7 Data Analysis 49

3.8 Summary 50

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 51

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4.1 Data Collection and Analysis from Survey Questionnaire 51

4.1.1 Survey Questionnaire for Teachers 51

4.1.2 Survey Questionnaire for Students 56

4.2 The Data from the Speaking Test and English-Speaking Observation 59 4.3 The Data from the Students’ Opinions through Communicative Activities 64

4.4 Discussions of the Findings 66

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 69

5.1 Recapitulation 69

5.2 Concluding Remarks 70

5.3 Implications 71

5.3.1 Application of Communicative activities 71

5.3.2 Practical Tips for Teachers 72

5.4.1 Limitations 74

5.4.2 Suggestions for Further Studies 74

REFERENCES 75 APPENDIX 1 I APPENDIX 2 III APPENDIX 3 V APPENDIX 4 VI APPENDIX 5 VIII APPENDIX 6 IX APPENDIX 7 XI APPENDIX 8: XII APPENDIX 9: XIV APPENDIX 10: XX

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ABSTRACT

This thesis has made attempts to examine: (1) the attitudes of the 10th

graders and the teachers at Nguyen Trai- Ba Dinh High School towards communicative activities in speaking lessons, (2) if the use of communicative activities could support the students in doing oral presentation tasks Specially, an action research project was carried out with the participation of

40 students in Grade 10A8 at Nguyen Trai- Ba Dinh High School in Hanoi The study lasted 18 weeks and involved some data instruments namely questionnaire, pre-test, observation, post-test The data collected in the initial stage showed that the obstacles of doing oral presentation tasks mainly came from the teaching methods and the differences of students’ English abilities, which resulted in differences in their attitude to speaking lessons An action plan of applying communicative classroom activities was implemented The data collected in the action stage pointed out that the students’ oral presentation was improved and the positive changes in their attitude toward speaking classes were also witnessed after the intervention.

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LIST OF TABLES

Page Table 1: A distinction between non- communicative activities

and communicative ones

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Table 2: Assessing Speaking Performance- Level B1 (CEFR) 23

Table 6: A comparison of Mean Score on Pre-Test and

Post-Test by Three Raters

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LIST OF FIGURES & CHARTS

Page

Chart 1: Category 1 of the Questionnaire for Teachers 52 Chart 2: Category 2 of the Questionnaire for Teachers 53 Chart 3: Category 3 of the Questionnaire for Teachers 54 Chart 4: Category 4 of the Questionnaire for Teachers 55 Chart 5: Category 1 of the Questionnaire for Students 56 Chart 6: Category 2 of the Questionnaire for Students 57 Chart 7: Category 3 of the Questionnaire for Students 58 Chart 8: Category 4 of the Questionnaire for Students 59

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AR: Action Research

CEFR: Common European Framework for Reference CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

EFL: English as Foreign Language

ESL: English as Second Language

L2: Second Language

RQ: Research Question

Furthermore, students’ oral presentation accounts for a major part of many lessons at secondary schools as well as in universities because they are one of the communicative goals The potential benefits of developing student oral presentations include greater class interaction and participation, increased interest in learning, new perspectives, and improvement in communication and presentation skills Students can gain knowledge not only from the work they and other students perform, but also by observing other presenters’ strengths and weaknesses to develop better communication and presentation skills Despite the positive aspects of using student presentations in the classroom, some students may show resistance to do extra work, having fear

in public speaking, or displaying boredom while sitting through others’ oral presentations Therefore, such students may have generally negative beliefs

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about giving classroom presentations

As a teacher of English at Nguyen Trai- Ba Dinh High School, a secondary school, for more than ten years, the researcher feels rather concerned about her students’ English learning, especially their ability in speaking English and making oral presentations Although her students have learnt English since they were in grade 3, under the new syllabus and new methods based on the communicative approach, their foreign language knowledge is thought not to be sufficient to meet the demands of using English as an international language Of course, they can hardly use English

to communicate and do presentation tasks Wondering if applying communicative classroom activities can help to motivate the students to solve their incompetence as mentioned above, the researcher has decided to conduct

the study on “Using communicative classroom activities to support EFL students’ oral presentation: An action research project at Nguyen Trai-Ba Dinh High school in Hanoi” to find out the solutions, and, to help improve

the teaching and learning of English at her school

1.2 Aims and Objectives of the Study

The aim of the study is to improve the EFL students’ oral presentation

at Nguyen Trai-Ba Dinh high school in Hanoi

In order to achieve the aim, the study is expected to reach the following objectives:

- Investigating the attitudes of the EFL students and the teachers towards communicative classroom activities in speaking lessons;

- Evaluating the effectiveness of communicative classroom activities in

supporting EFL students’ oral presentation

1.4 Scope of the Study

Due to time constraints, the study cannot cover all the techniques to stimulate students’ speaking ability in a language class Therefore, it mainly focuses on some typical communicative classroom activities which may produce a stimulus for the 10th grade Nguyen Trai - Ba Dinh High school students’ oral presentation

1.5 Significance of the Study

Hopefully, the study will make a small contribution to the application

of communicative language teaching approaches in developing the students’ ability in doing oral presentation task at secondary school level in general and

at Nguyen Trai- Ba Dinh High School in Hanoi in particular

1.6 Research Methods

In order to achieve the aim, action research procedures are used in the study The data will be collected via survey questionnaires, class observations and tests

1.7 Structure of the Study

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The study consists of five chapters:

Chapter 1 – Introduction: The first chapter gives reasons for choosing

the thesis, scope and aims of the study as well as the research method and the structure of the study

Chapter 2 – Literature Review: This chapter focuses on an overview of

Communicative Competence, Communicative Language Teaching, Communicative Activities, Oral Presentation as well as previous studies on improving or developing students’ oral presentation

Chapter 3 - Methodology: This chapter reports the context settings,

research hypothesis, participants, instruments and the procedure of conducting Action Research for the study The detailed results of the surveys and a critical comprehensive analysis on the data collected are presented

Chapter 4- Findings and Discussion: This part deals with the data

analysis from the Action Research results to make the foundation for the activities recommended in Chapter 5

Chapter 5 – Conclusion: This chapter summarizes the study and

suggests some typical activities as well as practical tips for teachers to stimulate 10th -grade students’ oral presentation in an English speaking lesson Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study are also included in this chapter

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

The study investigates the effectiveness of using communicative classroom activities to support the Nguyen Trai- Ba Dinh High School students’ oral presentation This chapter reviews the theories and literature relevant to the study area It is divided into 6 parts, namely:

syntagm “communicative competence” is the word “competence”

“Competence” is one of the most controversial terms in the field of general and applied linguistics Its introduction to linguistic discourse has been generally associated with Chomsky (1965) who in his very influential book

“Aspects of the Theory of Syntax” drew what has been today viewed as a classic distinction between competence (the monolingual speaker-listener’s knowledge of language) and performance (the actual use of language in real situations)

Soon after Chomsky (1980) proposed and defined the concepts of competence and performance, advocates for a communicative view in applied

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linguistics (e.g Savignon, 1972) expressed their strong disapproval at the idea

of using the concept of idealized, purely linguistic competence as a theoretical ground of the methodology for learning, teaching and testing languages They found the alternative to Chomsky’s concept of competence in Hymes’s communicative competence which they believed to be a broader and more realistic notion of competence Namely, Hymes (1972) defined communicative competence not only as an inherent grammatical competence but also as the ability to use grammatical competence in a variety of communicative situations, thus bringing the sociolinguistic perspective into Chomsky’s linguistic view of competence

Recent theoretical and empirical research on communicative competence is largely based on the description of components of communicative language competence in the Common European Framework for Reference (CEFR, 2001), the model which is intended for assessment as well as for learning and teaching of languages In the CEF, communicative competence is conceived only in terms of knowledge It includes three basic components – language competence, sociolinguistic competence and pragmatic competence Thus, strategic competence is not its componential part It is interesting, however, that each component of language knowledge is explicitly defined as knowledge of its contents and ability to apply it For instance, language competence or linguistic competence refers to knowledge

of and ability to use language resources to form well-structured messages The subcomponents of language competence are lexical, grammatical, semantic, phonological, orthographic and orthopedic competences Sociolinguistic competence refers to possession of knowledge and skills for appropriate language use in a social context The following aspects of this competence are highlighted: language elements that mark social relationships,

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rules of appropriate behavior, and expressions of peoples’ wisdom, differences in register and dialects and stress The last component in this model - pragmatic competence - involves two subcomponents: discourse competence and functional competence A part of both of these competences

is the so-called planning competence which refers to sequencing of messages

in accordance with interactional and transactional schemata Strategic competence is mentioned in the part the CEFR dedicated to a discussion of communicative language use This competence is conceived as strategy use in the broadest sense Thus, the stress is put not only on the use of communication strategies which can help to overcome the lack in a particular area of language knowledge but on the use of all types of communication strategies As to the authors of the CEFR, the use of strategies can be compared with the application of meta-cognitive principles (planning, achieving, controlling and correcting) on different forms of language activity: reception, interaction, production and meditating

2.2 Communicative Language Teaching

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is an approach which proposes that language learning should be done in a meaningful setting with authentic language as the input It is an umbrella term which consists of an array of methods and techniques (Parrish, 2004) According to Lindsay and Knight (2006, p.20), this approach is based on the view that language is learnt

in order to communicate effectively “in the world outside the classroom.” It emphasizes on meaningful use of language for communication, rather than on the form and structure; hence the term “real-life” communication in the classroom (Brown, 2000) Savignon (2001, p.13) describes CLT as the “new”,

“innovative” way of teaching English as a second or foreign language as it

According to the principles of the CLT, the learners do not study only the linguistic structures and the rules of grammar, but it stressed the importance of using language for communication (Allwright, 1978; Cambell, 1972; Numan, 1991; Richards & Rodgers, 1995; Savignon, 1991) Besides, Johnson (1981) suggested while studying, students must try to communicate with their peers and try to make them understand what they have said Furthermore, teaching English for communication is to emphasize the language competence for learners and they must try to communicate in real situation (Murphy, 1991) As such, it could be conluded that in order to teach language for communicative purposes, the teacher must put the emphasis on the students’ communicative competence to use it in real communications

2.3 Communicative Activities

2.3.1 Definition of Communicative Activities

According to CEFR (2001, pp 73-93), communicative activities with one or more interlocutors are generally undertaken by a language user in pursuance of his or her needs in a given situation In the educational domain,

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communicative tasks may be helpful to distinguish between the tasks which learners are required to tackle as language users and those in which they engage as part of the language learning process itself

According to Hammer (1991), communicative activities are those that give students the desire to communicate, involving them in a various use of the language Such activities are crucially important in a language classroom since the students can do their best to use the language individually, arriving

at a degree of language autonomy In other words, communicative activities are those that can stimulate communicative competence in the learners Therefore, it is the teacher’s responsibility to find out appropriate activities to encourage students to use the language In order to design these activities effectively, the teacher needs further understanding of them Accordingly, the following section will discuss the characteristics and types of communicative activities

2.3.2 Characteristics of Communicative Activities

According to Harmer (1991), Communicative Activities are those that give students involved desire and a purpose to communicate Such activities are very beneficial for students because they can do their best to use the target language and arrive at the degree of proficiency in the end

Nolasco & Athur (1993) characterized communicative activities with some following characteristics Firstly, they involve using language for a purpose Secondly, they create a desire to communicate This means there must be some kind of “gap” which may be information, opinion, or reason that students seek to bridge Thirdly, they encourage students to be creative and contribute their ideas Fourthly, they focus on the message and students concentrate on “what” they are saying rather than “how” they are saying it

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Fifthly, the students work independently off the teacher Lastly, the students determine what they want to write and say The activity is not designed to control what the students will

In other words, communicative activities try to create authentic communication This is seen as contrary to monotonous drills which the traditional method heavily relies on and which carry little communicative functions Harmer (2001), who holds the same view, makes a distinction between non-communicative activities and communicative ones in the following table:

Non-communicative Activities Communicative Activities

(Table 1: A distinction between non-communicative activities and

communicative ones)

2.4 Oral Presentation

2.4.1 General Understanding of Oral Presentation

The communicative approach to English teaching has been very popular in many EFL college conversation classes Having students give oral presentations in front of the class is one of learner-centered activities that have been widely included in teachers’ lesson plans to improve students’ oral proficiency According to CEFR (2001, pp 58- 65), oral production is one of the productive activities in which the language user produces an oral text received by an audience of one or more listeners Spoken production is a

No communicative desire

No communicative purpose

Form not content

One language item only

Teacher intervention

Materials control

A communicative desire

A communicative purpose Content not form

Variety of language

No teacher intervention

No materials control

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‘long turn,’ which may involve a short description or anecdote, or may imply

a longer, more formal presentation Productive spoken activities have an important function in many academic and professional fields (oral presentations and reports) and particular social value is attached to them Judgments are made of what has been submitted in the fluency and articulateness in speaking, especially when addressing an audience Ability in this more formal production is not acquired naturally; it is a product of literacy learnt through education and experience It involves learning the expectations and conventions of the genre concerned Production strategies are employed to improve the quality of both informal and formal production Planning is obviously more associated with formal genres, but Monitoring and Compensating for gaps in vocabulary or terminology are also a quasi-automated process in natural speech

The categories for spoken production are organized in terms of three macro-functions (interpersonal, transactional, evaluative), with two more specialized genres, namely: addressing audiences and public announcements under the term sustained monologue created by transferring certain descriptors from the scale for information exchange that implied monologue rather than dialogue

In any ESL classroom, especially speaking lesson, learners should prepare and give oral presentation lasting for 5-10 minutes The learners can have notes with them They can use simple visual aids such as an overhead projector, blackboard, charts or diagrams if necessary At the end of the presentation, the speaker will have to deal with any questions from the listeners Making an oral presentation is an authentic purpose and communicative activity both for academic and professional purpose The learners can make the presentations directly to the interviewer for a formal

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test procedure They can do a whole activity for a final summery without a teacher or assessor The learner, in consultation with his teacher, chooses the appropriate topics

Advantages of oral presentations are: bridging the gap between language study and language use; using the four language skills in a naturally integrated way; helping students to collect, inquire, organize and construct information; enhancing team work and helping students become active and autonomous learners

The communicative approach to English teaching has been very popular in many EFL conversation classes Having students give oral presentations in front of the class is one of learner-centered activities that have been widely included in teachers’ lesson plans to improve students’ oral proficiency

2.4.2 Skills/ Sub-skills Involved in Oral Presentation

From what mentioned above, oral presentation, the kind of sustained monologue is one of the illustrative scales provided in the oral production activities

Describing experience concerns narration and description It has a

relatively direct link between communicative functions and the language used

to express them

Giving information is a new scale concerned with explaining

information to a recipient in a long turn Although the recipient may well interrupt to ask for repetition and clarification, the information is clearly

unidirectional; it is not an exchange

Putting a case (e.g in debate) describes the ability to sustain an

argument

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Public announcements are a very specialized way of passing important

information to a group of people, perhaps in a private capacity (e.g at a wedding), perhaps whilst organizing an event or outing or in the manner of air cabin staff

Addressing audiences involves giving a presentation or making a

speech at a public event, in a meeting, seminar or class Whilst the talk is clearly prepared it is not usually read word for word After a presentation, it is customary to take questions spontaneously, answering in a short monologue

Besides, most authors (e.g Rungapadiachy, 1999; Hargie and Dickson, 2004; Hargie, 1997; Hayes, 2002; Ellis, 2003) tend to agree on a number of core areas in which competency is essential for effective oral production These include the following:

Self-awareness: Self-awareness is considered to be a pre-requisite for

the type of “other-awareness” or empathy assumed to underlie effective communication (Hayes, 2002)

Oral communication: Some of the processes involved in effective oral

presentations The topic of oral communication is addressed in greater depth

by the corresponding learning area

Reflecting: Another skill that is closely related to the psychological

sciences or counseling more specifically is the ability to reflect or present reflections Hargie and Dickson (2004, p.148) define reflections as

“statements in the interviewer’s own words that encapsulate and re-present the essence of the interviewee’s own words” Presenting reflections during interactions can serve a similar information gathering function to that seen in questioning

Non-verbal communications: A number of communicative activities

also involve non-verbal behavior and an ability to detect and portray

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messages through this medium is also seen as a central interpersonal skill (Harrigan, Rosenthal and Scherer, 2005) Messages can be communicated through the following non-verbal channels

Facial expressions: Elman’s work in the area of facial expressions

(e.g Ekman, 1992) provides solid evidence that information about an individual’s emotional state can be transmitted via their facial expression In addition, facial expressions can be used to regulate interactions, for example the synchronization of conversations (Hayes, 2002)

Gaze: Emotion information can also be communicated through gaze

For example, long stares are often seen as signals of hostility or aggression Looking can also be used to initiate and regulate interpersonal interactions and can be used to assess the reactions of others during oral presentations and conversations (Hayes, 2002)

Gestures: Gestures can be used to replace words, in addition to words

to place emphasis on an element of a verbal message, or to regulate or signal the beginning or end of an interaction (Ekman and Friesen, 1969, cited in Hayes, 2002)

Posture: An individual’s posture can reveal how they feel and their

attitude towards others involved in the interaction (Argyle, 1994) Posture also tends to vary as a function of how formal an interpersonal situation is with more relaxed postures indicating less formal situations (Hayes, 2002)

Paralinguistic cues: Non-verbal vocal cues such as the pitch, tone and

speed of speech can also reveal information about emotional states and can be used to regulate interactions For example, people experiencing anxiety tend

to speak very quickly and in a high pitch (Scherer, 1981) Paralinguistic cues can also regulate turn-taking in interactions and pitch changes also indicate when questions have been asked

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2.4.3 The Problems Faced by Students When Doing Oral Presentation

Despite the numerous benefits associated with using oral presentations

in the language classroom there can also be some negative consequences, especially if the presentations are not properly implemented in the class The main reason for this is that presentations that are not set up correctly can be too difficult for the students to do effectively and this creates a learning environment that is not conducive to L2 acquisition Meloni and Thompson (1980) provide an example of the worst-case scenario of not setting up a presentation class correctly In their example the students in the class end up choosing inappropriate or uninteresting topics, which, in turn, leads to listeners who are inattentive or disrespectful It also causes the students to give a poorly thought out presentation leaving the instructor unsure as to which errors they should be correcting during the presentation According to these researchers, the end result of this process will be a group of students who dislike oral presentations, and an instructor who believes that students gain nothing from giving oral presentations

The reason for many of the problems associated with using oral presentations in the L2 classroom is that many students “lack the core fluency” (Jordan, 1997, p 203) required to give an effective oral presentation This means that if students are not taught the skills that they lack, they will not be able to present effectively If the difficulty of the presentations being assigned is beyond the students’ current English language abilities, or if the steps required in giving a presentation are not properly scaffolded, students will not be successful in their presentations This will cause students to feel unprepared or uncomfortable when asked to present Speaking in public in this type of situation can actually undermined students’ confidence and is

“ineffective in developing students’ oral proficiency because students (are)

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put on the spot.” (King, 2002, p 403)

One of the issues facing students today is that very few students are given the opportunity to use spoken English in the classroom before entering university, and even few have the opportunity to talk about academic topics in English (Apple, 2011) While high school teachers seem to recognize the benefits of having their students engage in communicative activities (Browne

& Wada, 1998) they are under extreme pressure to prepare high school students for entrance university exams, which often results in them focusing

on vocabulary and grammar drills as English communication gets left by the wayside

Other constraints, such as large class sizes and a lack of training in communicative language teaching are also given as reasons why high school teachers feel they are not able to use communicative activities in their classroom Even in oral communication classes most of the class time is taken

up by “teacher-fronted, drill-oriented activities” (Browne & Wada, 1998, p 108) leaving little time for students to actually use English to communicate with other students What little spoken English students are asked to produce

in the classroom usually consists of more traditional methods such as choral repetition rather than tasks that require students to speak to one another, or to present their ideas to a group Students' inexperience using spoken English also extends to oral presentations

Before entering university, most students are not given the chance to experience standing in front of their peers to give an oral presentation The Vietnamese educators nowadays have recognized the importance of speaking and listening skills for high school students when they revised the English curriculum in 10- year program This new curriculum places an emphasis on improving students’ ability to communicate and even includes an elective oral

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communications course that focuses on the skills of speech and debate Actually, it has still been supported the claim that most students at the high school level are not being taught how to give presentations This lack of familiarity with oral presentations causes most students to feel uncomfortable and shy when they are asked to use English to speak in front of their peers

On the other hand, not many students are given the opportunity to do oral presentations In fact, many students have not even had the experience of giving an oral presentation in front of their peers in their first language (L1) The lack of opportunities to practice oral presentations in their language classes means that most high school students do not get to experience the positive impact that these types of activities can have on their language ability This can have a negative effect on their language proficiency and their overall development as active participants in, and members of, the English language community

Another issue with using presentations in the classroom is that they are time-consuming, and during much of the time when the students are presenting the audience is passive, which can lead to boredom (Ross, 2007) For this reason, oral presentations are often not used in language classes, or are only used as one-time summative assessment at the end of the course, with very little class time spent on getting the students ready to present The result

of this is that students are not prepared to present and often do not find the presentations to be a positive learning experience While there are a number

of potential problems surrounding the use of presentations in the classroom, many of these issues can be avoided if the use of presentations is properly implemented

2.4.4 The Techniques to Overcome such Problems

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2.4.4.1 Setting up the Presentation Class

As most students have limited experience using English in meaningful and authentic situations, it is important to use a clear, step-by-step method for teaching presentations in English classes (Shimo, 2011) It is not enough to simply tell students o go and do a presentation Students have to be taught the skills involved in giving a presentation This can include such things as “when

to use eye contact, how to organize a presentation, connect with an audience, use body language and manage time, and construct an effective PowerPoint presentation.” (Otoshi & Heffernen, 2008, p 74) The next section of this paper looks at what teachers can do to ensure that they have setup the oral presentations in the classroom in a way that allows students to succeed In all

of the presentations students are asked to select a topic and then write and give a presentation based on that topic Each of the presentations was carefully broken down into stages, each of which consists of scaffolded tasks designed to introduce students to the skills needed to make a presentation During the weeks leading up to their presentation, students had to research, revise, and reshape their presentations both inside and outside the classroom Since oral presentations involve multiple communication and language skills, students were also give tasks that focused on teaching them the specific presentation skills that they needed to present in front of others These included things like voice projection, eye contact and the use of gestures Each of the presentations was then graded using a carefully planned and constructed rubric with the grading criteria of each presentation clearly laid out in the materials to allow students be successful in meeting the assessment goals set out for that presentation Finally, the presentations themselves were recorded and students were asked to watch their own presentations and engage in a self-reflection assignment that was designed to help them to

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improve in future presentations

2.4.4.2 Organization of the Presentation

Before students can begin to work on their presentation it is important that they understand the genre of the oral presentation Giving students example presentations, done by the teacher or other students, can help to introduce them to the genres that they are expected to present in (Hovane, 2009) It is important for teachers to realize that the features of oral presentation may be unfamiliar to most of the students in the class and that they need to provide sufficient scaffolding to help students understand the requirements of the presentation Part of this involves introducing students to the macro-structure of the genre that they are expected to present in This means providing examples of presentations and having students identify each stage in the presentation sequence For example, in their final presentation of the classes we observed students were expected to do problem solution presentations This was broken down for the students into various parts which included an introduction, an explanation of the problem, an explanation of one or two causes of the problem, details about a possible solution for at least one of those causes, and an explanation of some possible drawbacks of the proposed solution Separating the presentation into meaningful sections and teaching each section separately helps to reduce the cognitive work the students need to do to understand what is required of them in the presentation Since the genres are usually unfamiliar to the students each of these sections need to be carefully introduced and students should be provided with adequate scaffolding to allow them to be successful when they are researching and planning each of the sections One way the classes we looked at for this paper did this is that they broke the larger presentation down into steps where

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each of the steps consisted of a smaller presentation This allowed students to focus on a smaller, more manageable part of a much larger presentation It also allowed students to present multiple times on the same topic, which proved effective in reducing the cognitive load required to learn new topic specific knowledge and vocabulary for each presentation, thereby giving students more time to focus on presenting

2.4.4.3 Presentation Skills

It is important for the teacher of an oral presentation class to spend time introducing students to both the macro and micro skills that they need to give oral presentations If this is not done then the students will not have confidence in their ability to present and “will feel that the teacher has just dumped them into the sea to struggle for survival.” (King, 2002, p 406) These micro level skills include the genre specific language items, such as the vocabulary and grammar that students need to be successful in oral presentations These items are important to the students for two reasons First

of all, they allow students to be successful when they are presenting in the class Secondly, the language and grammar students learn in the course of giving a presentation will be useful for them in other situations that involve spoken English (Thornbury, 2005) Because of this, the teaching of these genre specific micro-skills is of particular importance to student motivation,

as most students believe that improving their English language speaking ability is the primary purpose of an oral communication class (Miles, 2009) Students who feel that the skills they are learning when they are doing their presentation will be useful in other situations will be more likely to spend time preparing and practicing for their presentation In the classes in question this was done by first identifying a number of speaking skills that were

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needed in the presentations and then integrating those into the class Parts of the course were set aside to explicitly teach and provide students with the opportunity to practice language and presentation skills specific to oral presentations These included such skills as the use of gestures or teaching students the vocabulary and phrases needed for signposting There was also time set aside for teaching grammar, language, and communication skills that were not necessarily specific to presentations This included providing students with exercises that focused on the grammatical forms that were important for the presentation they were giving, having students do pronunciation exercises, and looking at conversation strategies such as word stressing, repetition, chunking, paraphrasing (For examples of activities that can be used to teach these micro-skills see, Gershon, 2008; Grussendorf, 2007; Powell, 2011) All of these skills were first taught in a focused context that was separate from the students’ presentations After the students had been introduced to a specific skill and had a chance to practice it they were then given time to work individually, or in small groups, to integrate the skill into their presentation

2.4.4.4 Performing Self Reflections

The final stage of each oral presentation involved students writing a reflection of their own presentation Students’ presentations were recorded and students were then asked to watch the video of their presentation for homework They were also required to answer several questions about the video that were designed to focus their attention on specific aspects of their presentation This was found to be very successful as students were able to see issues in the video that they were not aware of while giving the presentation These included things such as lack of eye contact, insufficient volume and

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clarity in their voices and inappropriate posture or movements during their presentations Students were found to be surprisingly honest in these self-reflections and would often focus on the same issues that the teachers mentioned in the comments they wrote on the grading sheets Furthermore, because the content of the presentations were often recycled and built upon in subsequent presentations, students were able to use the self-reflection activity

as a way of seeing how they could improve in subsequent presentations This was particularly evident with skills such as eye contact and voice volume and clarity, which often showed marked improvement after students had watched the video of their previous presentation, especially among students who noted they needed to improve in these areas in their self-reflections

2.4.5 Evaluating and Assessing an Oral Presentation

For evaluating and assessing high school students’ oral presentation in EFL, it is appropriate to refer to the set of proposed Common Reference Levels in single holistic paragraphs, as shown below:

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(Table 2: Assessing Speaking Performance – Level B1, CEF)

Using the scales themselves during classroom speaking practice tasks will help them to analyze their students’ strengths and weaknesses when they

do Speaking tasks and form an impression of how ready their students are to take the Speaking test, especially the oral presentations

2.5 Classroom Communicative Activities to Support Oral Presentation

It is important to provide the students with a variety of speaking activities because it will enable students to cope with different situations in reality Variety helps keep motivation high because any kind of activity, if

Information- gap activities: One excellent way to make speaking tasks

communicative is to use information-gap activities Information gap activities are those where students have different pieces of information about the same subject and have to share this information (usually without looking at what their partner has got) in order for them both to get all the information they need to perform a task In an information gap activity, one person has certain information that must be shared with others in order to solve a problem, gather information or make decisions (Neu & Reeser, 1997) In this activity, students are supposed to be work in pair Information-gap activities serve many purposes such as solving a problem, or collecting information Also, each partner plays an important role because the task cannot be completed if the partner does not provide the information the other needs These activities are effective because everybody has chance to talk in the target language Information gap activities can also reinforce vocabulary and a variety of grammatical structures taught in class They allow students to use linguistic forms and functions in a communicative way These activities bring the language to life for students Grammar is no longer a concept they have difficulty applying to their speaking Students have the opportunity to use the building blocks of language we teach them to speak in the target language

Jig- saw activities: These are also based on the information- gap

principle Typically the class is divided into groups and each group has part of

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the information needed to complete an activity The class must fit the pieces together to complete the whole In so doing they must use their language resources to communicate meaningfully and so take part in meaning communication practice

Discussions succeed when the instructor prepares students first, and

then gets out of the way To succeed with discussions:

Prepare the students: Give them input (both topical information and

language forms) so that they will have something to say and the language with which to say it

Offer choices: Let students suggest the topic for discussion or choose

from several options Discussion does not always have to be about serious issues Students are likely to be more motivated to participate if the topic is television programs, plans for a vacation, or news about mutual friends Weighty topics like how to combat pollution are not as engaging and place heavy demands on students' linguistic competence

Set a goal or outcome: This can be a group product, such as a letter to

the editor, or individual reports on the views of others in the group

Use small groups instead of whole-class discussion: Large groups can

make participation difficult

Keep it short: Give students a defined period of time, not more than

8-10 minutes, for discussion Allow them to stop sooner if they run out of things

to say

Allow students to participate in their own way: Not every student will

feel comfortable talking about every topic Do not expect all of them to contribute equally to the conversation

Do topical follow-up: Have students report to the class on the results of

their discussion

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Do linguistic follow-up: After the discussion is over, give feedback on

grammar or pronunciation problems you have heard This can wait until another class period when you plan to review pronunciation or grammar anyway

Many other activity types have been used in CLT, among which are the following:

Task- completion activities: puzzles, games, map-reading and other

kinds of class tasks in which the focus was on using one’s language resources

to complete a task

Information gathering activities: student conducted surveys, interviews

and searches in which students were required to use their linguistic resources

to collect information

Opinion-sharing activities: activities where students compare values,

opinions, beliefs, such as ranking task in which students list qualities in order

of importance which they might consider in choosing a date or spouse

Information-transfer activities: these require learners to take

information that is presented in one form, and represent it in different form For example, they may read instruction on how to get from A to B, and then draw a map showing the sequence, or they may read information about a subject and then represent it as a graph

Reasoning-gap activities: these involve deriving some new information

from given information through the process of inference, practical reasoning ect For example, working out a teacher’s timetable on the basic of given timetables

Most of the activities discussed above reflect an important aspect of classroom tasks in CLT, namely that they are designed to be carried out in pairs or small groups Through completing activities in this way, it is argued,

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learners will obtain several benefits: they can learn from hearing the language used by other members of the group; they will produce a greater amount of language than they would use in teacher-fronted activities; their motivational level is likely to increase; they will have the chance to develop fluency As a result of these benefits, teaching and classroom materials today make use of a wide variety of small group activities

2.6 Previous Studies

There is a large number of research studies, focusing on teaching speaking skill and motivating students’ participation that were conducted by both foreign and Vietnamese researchers From the experiences and what the researcher has searched, few important studies particularly concentrate on supporting the oral presentations for EFL students through the class communicative activities Following are some related articles and studies: Firstly, Gorska (1995) and Copur (2005) investigated problems of teaching speaking skill and suggested some techniques to help teachers involve students in classroom activities, including the teacher’s appeal to all senses, all learning styles, role-play activities, group work activities As a result, those techniques were effective for all students because they were all successful at the end as they finished their work

Secondly, the article “Using Oral Presentation To Improve Students’ English language Skills” by Garvin Brooks and John Wilson (2014) Its subject were Japanese university students This paper outlines some of the benefits of implementing oral presentations in the L2 classroom as well as some of the difficulties involved in using presentations in university language classes in Japan It then lays out a framework for implementing presentations

in the classroom in a way that is beneficial for both the participants and the

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practitioners It is hoped that the pedagogical ideas outlined in this paper, can help teachers in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classes effectively employ oral presentations as a means of improving their students’ English language abilities

Thirdly, the journal of Asia TEFL Vol 4, No4, pp.245-271, Winter

2007 with the title “Developing Learners’ Oral Communicative Language Abilities: A Collaborative Action research Project on Argentina” by Pedro Luchini and Analia Rosello This paper describes and evaluates the implementation of an English oral skills action research project carried out at Colegio Atlántico del Sur (henceforth, CADS), a private middle school in Argentina The participants of this study were 24 learners, their teacher and a teacher- researcher and evaluator Data were collected from the learners’ oral output, questionnaires, interviews and classroom observations The findings were analyzed against a set of given criteria based on the literature and our own experience as teachers of English The results revealed that after having worked with collaborative tasks, which combined a focus on form during a relatively short period of time, these learners were able to moderately improve their spoken English; they became more aware of how certain aspects of language work and they were able to develop their self-confidence and stimulate their motivation to continue learning in class Secondly, action research projects of this type, where teachers are made to work collaboratively and reflect on their practices, are also valuable in that these aspects contribute significantly to improve teacher development Finally, some avenues for future research in this area were highlighted

In Vietnam, Bùi Thị Ánh Tuyết (2009) had a similar study for her unpublished M.A thesis This study was concerned with stimulating 10-form students’ presentation in English speaking classroom Specifically, a survey

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was taken on teachers of English and 10-form students at Marie Curie High school in Hai Phong city to consider how English speaking lessons are conducted and how students respond to English speaking lessons The thesis also studied students’ difficulties when participating in English speaking lessons It also recommended some practical tips and typical classroom activities which were applied by the author and suggested by teachers of English at Marie Curie High school to improve quality of teaching and learning presentation in English

Finally, in Hanoi and Nguyen Trai- Ba Dinh High School where the researcher has been working for more than 10 years, there have not been any studies or articles related to the subject of improving oral presentation for high school students through classroom communicative activities Therefore, this thesis hopefully will make a small contribution to the application of communicative language teaching approaches in developing the students’ ability in doing oral presentation task at secondary school level in general and

at Nguyen Trai- Ba Dinh High School in Ha noi in particular

2.7 Summary

The studies revealed above have shown that the use of the communicative activities in the classroom was an important approach in supporting students’ doing oral presentation The researcher has presented some theoretical backgrounds relating to the study that helped her to modify the speaking activities in the textbook Among these literature reviews, the researcher chose CEFR as controlled cues and information to find out the most suitable techniques and assessment in term of CLT that encouraged EFL students to speak and improve their doing oral production