Skkn developing 11th grade students’ oral presentation skill through project based learning a case at a mountainous high school

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

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

English has become an international communicative language in the world

It has been used widely in many different fields such as economics, politics,culture, science, technology, education and tourism It can’t be denied that English

is one of the most important means of communication Therefore, teaching andlearning English is more and more essensial

In Vietnam, English has become a compulsory subject in the syllabus ofmany schools, colleges and universities It has been taught and learnt throughoutthe country However, the fact is that the speaking English skill has not beeneffective yet, especially oral presentation Students graduating from high school oreven from university are unable to “speak” English, because we have not giventhem enough practice in speaking English Most of the students do not findspeaking a rewarding task We cannot learn speaking by observation Speaking isthe most difficult in the four skills Reading, listening and writing can be learningwith a teacher or on one’s own, with books However, speaking requiresimmediate comprehension and real time reaction I think that the way of teaching

by oral presentation will motivate student and encourage them to practice English

in the classroom

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

To meet the demand of learners of English, teachers of English in Do luong 3have been trying to find out the most suitable and effective method of teachingEnglish They have always tried to catch up with the world’s latest frameworks ofEnglish Language Teaching As in other schools, teachers of English in Do luong 3are now approaching project based learning to teach English to students Theyhope to provide students with a means of communication, namely English which is

vital for them to be successful in their job and to fulfill their social demands in thetime of globalization.

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

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

Project based learning, I would like to choose the topic “Developing 11th

grade students’ oral presentation skill through project-based learning: A case at

a mountainous high school” to find out the answer, and further, to help improve the teaching of oral presentation at my school.

In this study, I would like to speak about developing students’ oralpresentation through Project based learning in English language classrooms and itsimpact in speaking skill I think that the use of oral presentations in EFL classroom

is important because of its positive impact on students’ proficiency level Somestudents do not like to speak in the classroom In addition, they do not have theopportunity to speak this language outside So if student do not practice English inthe classroom, may be they do speak it never I know that I cannot learn to speakany language with observation Therefore, I put forward that the use of students’oral presentation may develop students’ speaking level

When we have students give an oral presentation in front of class is onetechnique to improve students’ oral proficiency Teachers can use oral presentation

as a technical way to deal with students’ problems in speaking Oral presentationactivities provide an excellent opportunity for the learners to develop this skill,speaking several minutes in a structured way, delivering into various aspects of asingle topic

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

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

Firstly, it aims at finding students’ attitudes towards the use of oralpresentations in the classroom Secondly, it is to investigate the impacts of oralpresentations through project based learning on the students’ performance inEnglish lessons Finally, it is to provide the teachers with some suggestions tomake best use of oral presentations in their teaching with a view to better their

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

1.3 Scope of the study

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

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

1.4 Significance of the study

The main goal of study is how to make student perform well in classroom,

by preparing activities where they will speak as much as possible We will focus

on the use and effectiveness of the project based learning during the courses, andhow will facilitate the students’ oral presentation skill

This study is important to give the teacher some ideas for how to deal withstudents who do not want to practice in classroom The use of oral presentation canhelp students of English language for being able to speak it, because in ouruniversities we rarely learn how to speak Oral presentation in EFL classes givestudents a confidence to speak in public and help them in enhancing theirproficiency Moreover, this study is important for both teachers and students’ Oralpresentation can be an enjoyable activity for them It gives a break away fromtextbooks

1.5 Research Questions

This study attempts to answer the following questions:

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

Learning?

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

presentation skill ? If so, to what extent?

1.6 Design of the study

The study contains four chapters:

Chapter 1: Introduction

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

Chapter 2: Literature review

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

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

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

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

Chapter 4 : Findings and discussions

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

Chapter 5: Conclusion

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

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Oral presentation

2.1.1 Definition of oral presentation

Oral presentation is an extension of oral communication skill It is where thepresenter shows their knowledge on a particular subject The participant mightchoose the title or the teachers give it to them In order to talk about it to theirclassmate after this the participant makes a small research to get more informationabout this topic The presenter is giving the most important information first,leaving the details for last According to Baker (2000, p 115) oral presentation islike a formal conversation, speaking to group as a natural activity Most of peoplespending hours of their daytime, speaking to others, however making an oralpresentation that is a formal conversation, it is difficult task for them Oralpresentation is part of spoken language The purpose of this practice is tocommunicate It is design to inform or persuade Oral presentation occurs inorganizational setting and with limitation in time The audience is likely to be morespecialized than those attending a typical speech event.” There are differentbetween normal speech and oral presentation The later is a type of speech, but theformer is more nature than oral presentation

2.1.2 Types of oral presentation

2.1.2.1 Informative oral presentation

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

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

In sum, the speaker’s aim of this presentation is to give the result of theirresearch in informative way

2.1.2.2 Persuasive oral presentation

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

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

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

* Logos

In persuasive presentation, the topic needs to be logical Tacy (2008, p 9)claims that when speakers want to talk about their topic, they should organize theideas from the more important point to less one Logos mean the speakers organizewhat they are going to say from the beginning to the end in a logic way

2.1.3 The benefits of using oral presentations in the language classroom

Oral presentations have been shown to be extremely successful with respect

to improving learners’ second language skills, and increasing their autonomy Forexample, Girard, Pinar and Trapp (2011) found that using oral presentations intheir classroom lead to greater class interaction and participation, an increasedinterest in learning, and noticeable improvements in their students’ communicationand presentation skills

For most language teachers the five major benefits to use oral presentations

in the classroom are:

 They are student-centered

 They require the use of all four language skills

 They provide students with realistic language tasks

 They have value outside the language classroom

 They improve students’ motivation

One of the main benefits of using presentations in the classroom is that oralpresentations are student-centered When students are asked to give an oralpresentation it is one of the few times in the language classroom that the studentsthemselves have direct

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control of both the content and the flow of the classroom (Apple & Kikuchi, 2007).

A properly scaffolded presentation can result in multiple opportunities for students

to improve their English in a context in which the students themselves are acting asboth teachers and learners Interactions between the presenters and the audienceprovide both sets of participants with numerous opportunities to practice theirEnglish abilities with other students in an authentic manner

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

Another benefit of oral presentations is that they require students to use allfour language skills; writing, reading, speaking, and listening Most teachersrecognize the spoken component of presenting, as students are required to speakwhen giving their presentations If these students are given a simple task to doduring the presentation, or are expected to use the knowledge disseminated throughthe presentation for a specific purpose, this will allow practicing their listeningskills and confirm their understanding by asking questions and interacting with thepresenters (Thornbury, 2005, p 91)

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

to produce and give an effective presentation

2.1.4 Students’ common oral presentation problems

Oral presentation is considered to be one of important skills of speaking,regarded as one of the most difficult skill to master for the majority of EFLstudents who are still incompetent to communicate orally in English As Loama(2004, p 1) states: “Speaking in a foreign language is very difficult andcompetence on speaking takes a long time to develop ˮ So, during the oral classes,learners encounter many obstacles that hinder their learning process of such adifficult skill

Beside these linguistic factors such as: lack of vocabulary,mispronunciation, grammatical mistakes, the use of the mother tongue, students

may face with psychological factors These problems are speech anxiety and groupboredom

Students often meet these factors as follows:

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2.1.4.1 Linguistic factors

2.1.4.1.1 Lack of vocabulary

The knowledge of vocabulary is the prior requirement that the studentsshould have about the language they want to speak However, they face difficultybecause their vocabulary is limited, so they are unable to communicate effectively

in the target language Students find themselves uncomfortable when they intend

to express their ideas in a clear manner It is due to the lack of vocabulary andlimited knowledge

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

2.1.4.1.2 Pronunciation mistakes

They are defined by Kelly (2000, p 11) as: “A consideration of learners’pronunciation errors and of how these can inhibit successful communication is auseful basis on which to assess why it is important to deal with pronunciation inthe classroom.” Besides the learners’ problems in vocabulary, there is a noticeableproblem which is mispronunciation of words, which leads to problems in reception

or comprehension of

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

Pronunciation is the most significant skill in foreign language learning since

it helps EFL learner to be more competent in communication Furthermore, thelevel of pronunciation proficiency represents the main criteria that EFL studentscan be judged on and assessed Hence, they must practice the correct pronunciationforms and be aware of the various rules of sounds as stress, intonation …etc.Morley (1991, p 488) emphasizes the importance of pronunciation in speakingproficiency: “intelligible pronunciation is an essential component ofcommunication competence ˮ

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

non-2.1.4.1.3 Grammar mistakes:

Grammar is an essential element of a language, According to Harmer (2001,

p 12) grammar is defined as: The grammar of a language is the description of theways in which words can change their forms and can be combined into sentences

in that language if grammar rules are too carelessly violated, communication maysuffer […,] creating a

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good grammar rule is extremely difficult Linguists investigating Native-speakerspeech …, over the years, devised various different systems to describe how thelanguage works.

One of the most important aspects of being skillful in oral production ispossessing grammar knowledge; Therefore, inappropriate grammar leads tomisunderstanding in communication

Moreover, EFL learners often prefer to keep silent rather than producingungrammatical structures because they are afraid of being ridiculed in front theirteachers and classmates

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

2.1.4.1.4 The use of the mother tongue

It is obvious that EFL learners often use the mother tongue inside andoutside classrooms because they are less exposed to the target language and feeldemotivated to communicate Students tend to borrow words from their nativelanguage when they fail in expressing their thoughts in the foreign language due tothe lack of vocabulary in this language According to Baker and Westrup (2003, p.12): “Barriers to learning can occur if students knowingly or unknowingly transferthe cultural rules from their mother tongue to a foreign languageˮ Therefore, theuse of mother tongue lessens the students’ speaking capacity and leads tobreakdown of communication in the classroom In addition, they will find itdifficult to use the target language accurately if they keep on borrowing wordsfrom their native language which is caused by the lack of foreign languagevocabulary

2.1.4.2 Psychological factors

2.1.4.2.1 Speech anxiety

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

Impact of speech anxiety makes language learners frightened and shakestheir confidence which results in avoidance and withdrawal from speaking

activities especially oral presentation in EFL classes One of the high apprehensivesubjects of this study revealed in response to the question of influence on anxiety

on his language, “Due to fear

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

I know the answer” “I am teaching tuition to my brother, I speak better English, Ifeel very confident at that time But in front of teacher and the classmate I forgotevery thing”

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

2.1.4.2.2 Group boredom

Some EFL presenters have problem with memorizing information withEnglish so they try to get it by heart By this way, the audience will feel boredwhen they have to listen to what the speaker said it is look like that they arereading their information “word for- word” from what the memorizing (King,

2002, p 405)

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

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

2.1.5 Strategies for teaching oral presentation

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

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

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

Oral presentations are become more important part of language teaching,especially at high school nowadays English learners need to be aware of thistechnique because, it is been considered as an opportunity to improve theirEnglish In the past, teachers had been focused on giving the learner grammaticalrules, vocabulary…etc the communicative approach aim to teach students howorganize the main idea about a given topic in a logical coherent and also it aim todevelop the students ability to produce in English with the correct way (King,

2.1.5.2 Students’role

A student is ready to learn in a real world project format if he or she isqualified to participate in a team project, and has realistic expectations about theprocess Students are not fully formed people, much less fully functioningmanagers One cannot expect students to be qualified to complete a project Butsome students are more qualified, or ready to participate in project learning, thanothers Students should be relatively mature, use good judgment, be willing tonegotiate, and be willing to “go the extra mile” to get the job done (Papamarcos,

2002) Students should also have a desire to gain experience or to serve a client assufficient reward for their extra effort.

Students should bring some technical, interpersonal, communication and creative

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thinking skills to the project They should be willing to subordinate their personalpreferences to the decisions of the team, and be willing to compromise in order toachieve a group consensus Students should be trustworthy in terms of their ability

to represent the university to their client, and to keep client informationconfidential as needed

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

The author has found that student satisfaction ratings of courses that featurereal world projects are a bimodal distribution Many students have rated a coursewith real world projects highly while many any other students rated it very low:

“You either love it or you hate it” Dissatisfied students cite a number of factors,including bad experiences with their team, a bad client, and unhappiness with theproject process

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

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

a project

2.1.5.3 Evaluation of oral presentation

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

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

During the research, to collect the data, the two instruments were employed:the questionnaires about using PBL for the students, the teacher’s observationsheet based on an oral presentation rubric of NCTE (National Council of Teachers

of English) The questionnaires findings showed that the attitudes of 11th graderstowards the use of project-based learning and PBL helps to develop their oralpresentation skills

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

do it by experience

Conclusion

To conclude, oral presentation is another way for communication skills If it

is well prepared, structured, and organized, it will be beneficial and enjoyableactivity for learners This practice is one of speaking activities that aims to developthe students’ proficiency level in English and to help them to build self-confidence

in their ability to speak in public

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

2.2 Project based learning

Project-based learning has been investigated in a great number of studies onthe global scale over the last decade, but the application of this approach toteaching English as a foreign language in Vietnam is still not popular Project-based learning is a learning method which focuses on the learner; the teacher actsmainly as a facilitator and motivator PBL emphasizes learning activities that arelearner-centered and usually integrated with real world concerns With a view toachieving great successes in teaching and learning under the credit-hour system,training workers of the twenty-first century standard, PBL is also a beneficial

approach to be applied at high school in Vietnam Aware of the importance ofPBL, I make the best efforts to discuss the definitions and

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benefits of PBL in general and for 11th grade students of English in particular Ialso deal with the application of PBL in teaching oral presentation and suggestseveral language learning projects.

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

study

2.2.1 Definitions of the project based learning.

Many definitions of project-based learning have been proposed by variousauthors Van Duzer (1995) and Moss (1998) define it as an instructional approachthat contextualizes learning by presenting learners with problems to solve orproducts to develop As discussed, project-based learning (PBL) is a model thatorganizes learning around projects which are complex tasks, based on challengingquestions or problems, involving students in design, problem-solving, decisionmaking, or investigative activities; giving students the opportunity to workrelatively autonomously over extended periods of time; and culminating in realisticproducts or presentations In addition, the students develop confidence and self-direction as they move through both team-based and independent work

Project-based learning (PBL) is a student-centered pedagogy in whichstudents learn about a subject through the experience of problem solving A projectmay be connected to real professions through the use of authentic methods,practices, and audiences Multiple presentation modes gives learners opportunities

to effectively use various technologies as tools in the planning, development, orpresentation of their projects

PBL requires varied and frequent assessment including teacher assessment,peer assessment, self-assessment, and reflection Assessment practices should also

be inclusive and well understood by learners, allowing them opportunities toparticipate in the assessment process in ways not typically supported by moretraditional teacher-centered lessons

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

1 PBL projects are central, not peripheral to the curriculum.

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

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

3 Projects involve students in a constructive investigation.

4 Projects are student-driven to some significant degree.

5 Projects are realistic, not school-like.

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

2.2.2 Advantages of the project based learning.

English has been taught as a foreign languages in Vietnam for a very longtime However, there has been little application of the project-based learning inteaching In fact, project-based learning offers many advantages and challengeswhen implemented in the classroom

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

project-Another advantage discussed is that the students have enhanced motivation,engagement and enjoyment because project work progresses according to thespecific context and students’ interests PBL thus enriches the lives andexperiences of a learner as he is required to establish contacts with individualsoutside his regular links of contacts

In addition, PBL can develop many helpful skills for the students Colemandiscusses an advantage relating to students’ increased social, cooperative skills,and group cohesiveness Adopting PBL projects in the classroom also helpsreinforce social relationships among team members Thus, PBL provides learnerswith opportunities to learn collaborative skills, stimulate cooperation andknowledge exchange amongst students and it encourages individual students totalk more

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

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

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

1 PBL provides contextual and meaningful learning for students

2 PBL can create an optimal environment for practicing speaking English

3 PBL makes students actively engage in project learning

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

enjoyment

5 PBL promotes social learning that can enhance collaborative skills

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

To put in a nutshell, PBL is very beneficial to students in general and those

of English in particular The question here is what the teacher and students do tomaximize the advantages of PBL, especially in oral presentation

2.2.3 The application of PBL in teaching oral presentation

There are some stages of the PBL technique implementation according toBell (2010) The first is speculation in which teachers provide the choice of projecttopics initially based on the curriculum and discuss them with students At thisstage, teachers and students speculate possibilities that will lead smoothly to theprojects However, for beginner or lower level students, teachers can choose theprojects themselves but still consider the problems of the students It was assumed

by Gaer (1998, p 22) that students at the beginner or lower level do not have thelanguage or confidence to develop project themes Thus, he assumes, teachers need

to lead them first before they can decide for themselves The second stage isdesigning the project activities, referring to organizing the structure of a projectactivity that includes group formation, assigning roles, and methodology decision.The third is conducting the project activities in which the students work out whatwas planned and designed in the previous stage At this stage, the students gatherinformation, discuss it with the members of their group, consult with the teacherabout problems encountered in their work and exhibit their final products thatmight be in the form of a presentation, a performance, a product, a publication, etc

to the class or even to the wider community such as other classes, teachers,outsiders The last stage is when the students perform in front of the class

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

(1) focus on content learning rather than on specific language patterns.(2) student-centered with the teacher as a facilitator or coach.

(3) encourages collaboration amongst students

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(4) leads to the authentic integration of language skills and processing

information from multiple sources

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

(6) bridges the use of English in class and the use of English in a real lifecontext More importantly, PBL is both process- and product-oriented (Stoller,1997) The implementation of project work differs greatly from one instructionalsetting to another In some settings, fairly non elaborate tasks, confined to a singleclass session, are labeled as projects In other settings, elaborate sets of tasks fillthe process for completing the project and span an entire instructional unit; insettings like these, the benefits of project work are maximized because studentsactively engage in information gathering, processing, and reporting over a period

of time, and the outcome increases content knowledge and language mastery Inapplying the PBL technique in the classroom, Marx

(1997) set out problems teachers may have with enactment during the class as below:

(1) Time: projects often take longer than anticipated

(2) Classroom management

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

(4) Support of student learning

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

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

Based on the above, the teacher can discuss the end product with herstudents and explain what exactly they have to do and how, what they have topractice or learn, what they can expect and what is expected from them, thechoices they have to make and the rules they have to follow It is very useful from

the start to draw a timetable, a plan and a check list of objectives for the projectwork so that the students can follow the stages of the project

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Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY Introduction

In this second part of our research, I will move to something that is morepractical The present chapter aim to collect data about the use of the PBL indeveloping 11th grade students’ oral presentation To achieve that, I have tried toinvestigate how students of a mountainous high school consider the effectiveness

of using project based learning on achieving better result in their oral presentation

We have also investigated how teacher judge the use of PBL as a particular means

to develop their students’ oral presentation skill In order to conduct ourinvestigation, answer the research questions, and confirm our hypothesis, wecollected data from students’ questionnaire and classroom observation

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

3.1 Research setting

3.1.1 An overview of Do luong 3 upper secondary school

Do luong 3 upper secondary school is situated in Do luong district, Nghe Anprovince Founded in 1978, Do luong 3 has an enthusiastic and experiencedteachers staff This is a school that has a length of good tradition of teaching andlearning in Nghe An province At present, there are 36 classes with about 1400students divided into three different grades: 10th, 11th and 12th grades

English has been considered as an important subject in the program because

it is a compulsory subject in GCSE examination as well as the chance of gettingbetter jobs in the future Therfore, the leaders has always created the best possibleconditions for English teaching and learning to help students to improve speakingability effectively

However, there have been many problems that should be solved Thefacilities at school are still poor, for example, the library is too small and lack

books especially English books as a reference Furthermore, the students have fewopportunities to

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practise English with native speakers to improve their communication, especiallyoral presentation They often feel shy, nervous … to express their attitides towardsany problem.

3.1.2.The teachers

In Doluong 3 upper secondary school, there are totally 9 teachers of Englishaged 34 to 50 All of them have got the University Bachelor’s Degree but theirtime lengths of teaching English are different The oldest teacher has nearly 20years of teaching experience, and the youngest just has nearly 10 years As ruralteachers, they have few opportunities to upgrade their teaching and do not have alot of teaching aids and materials to help their work Despite all thesedisadvantages, they are always eager for knowledge and willing to adjust to newthinking and apply better ways to improve their teaching quality Especially, some

of them have been applying project based learning method in teaching to givelearners more chances to practise speaking English, especially oral presentation.However, they often get into some troubles in the process of performing iteffectively

Secondly, most of the classroom activities concentrate on teaching andpracticing language structures Therefore, during the lesson, the learners do mostrepetition, substitution, memorizing activities, or answering questions based ontexts and so on They do not have only a little time to use English in oralcommunication As a result, when doing speaking activities, they often cope withsuch problems as “inhibition”, “nothing to say”, “mother-tongue language”, “bodylanguage ”, etc

Moreover, their parents, the actual farmers, who hardly know anything aboutEnglish, do not encourage them to learn it As a result, most of the students do not

know what they learn English for, except for the reason of passing the finalexamination They do not know its importance in the modern life as well as in theirfuture They become

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

is very difficult to be improved

3.1.4 The English syllabus

The textbook English 11 was pulished in 2006 The Englis syllabus is themain material used in the class It is structured with a priority towards theme-based

or topic-based approach, including 16 units, each unit includes 5 lessons with fourdifferent skills and a language focus There are 3 periods of english per week andeach semester deals with 8 of them with a total periods are 54 The text book aims

at providing students with a profound knowledge of numerous fields, a favorableattitude towards English and four skills proficiency in English (Listening,Speaking, Reading and Writing) In order to achieve these objectives, the content

of the book is designed based on topics related to social life, sports, work andleisure, which are familiar with students For each topic, related vocabulary andword study are presented communicatively In addition, new methods of languageteaching and learning such as learner-centered approach, communicative approachand task-based teaching are extensively employed The new syllabus with thecommunicative approach is considered interesting but rather challenging for theteachers It mainly focuses on equipping students with communicative ability andcompetence to perform basic language functions receptively and productively,using correct language forms and structures

3.1.5 The current situation of teaching and learning oral presentation skill at Do luong 3.

At Do luong 3 upper secondary school, both teachers and students are aware

of the importance of learning speaking English, especially oral presentation.However, its effectiveness is not high although many teachers have takenadvantages of using the benefits of project based learning This is due to subjectiveand objectives causes

The role of the teachers in class is a guide for the students to lead their ownstudy They also take great efforts to create good language environment forstudents to actively participate in classroom activities by organizing groups work

and pairs work in order to help students to have chance to exchange their ideaswith their friends and achieve the main target of developing not only speakingskills but also other ones However, there

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still appear problems which partly prevent students from actively taking part inthese activities for speaking Perhaps, the reason is that they are still affected bythe traditional teaching and learning methods Therefore, they appear not to havehigh interest and motivation to participate in the classroom activities, also showtheir attitudes in oral presentation.

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

3.2 Research design

3.2.1 Research method

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

The choice of the method has determined by the nature of the study because

it can determine the facts about the actual situation and thereby to clarify that theuse of project based Learning can develop their oral presentation skill In addition,oral presentation is one of the best and appropriate solutions to deal with students’problems in speaking English To collect the data for analysis, questionaires andteachers’ observation sheet based on NCTE were used

3.2.2 Sample of the study

3.2.2.1 The students

The sample of this study was 11th grade students, at Do Luong 3 uppersecondary school The reasons for choosing to work with these students are for anumber of reasons In the second year, normally students are able to take risks inspeaking the foreign language because they have started to develop their level fromtheir first year at upper secondary school More importantly, they are not like the

10th students who are not familiar with the high school atmosphere