A study on oral presentation difficulties encountered by firstyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions

A study on oral presentation difficulties encountered by firstyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions. A study on oral presentation difficulties encountered by firstyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions. A study on oral presentation difficulties encountered by firstyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions. A study on oral presentation difficulties encountered by firstyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions. A study on oral presentation difficulties encountered by firstyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions. A study on oral presentation difficulties encountered by firstyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions. A study on oral presentation difficulties encountered by firstyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions. A study on oral presentation difficulties encountered by firstyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions. A study on oral presentation difficulties encountered by firstyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions. A study on oral presentation difficulties encountered by firstyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions. A study on oral presentation difficulties encountered by firstyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions. A study on oral presentation difficulties encountered by firstyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions. A study on oral presentation difficulties encountered by firstyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions.

THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH FACULTY

-GRADUATION PAPER

TOPIC:

A STUDY ON ORAL PRESENTATION DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED

BY FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS AT

THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS

HANOI - 2021

Oral presentation has become an important part of language teaching toincrease student’s awareness of communication skills, especially in the universityenvironment The effective oral presentation will enable students to functionsuccessfully in the future professional surrounding, and prepare them for their possiblefurther academic career Because of this reason, designing an effective oralpresentation has become more and more critical to Vietnamese students

Therefore, students’ presentations become an important element in deliveringpositive learning experiences They are an integral part of almost every professionalenvironment, as professionals need to communicate with other professionals atmeetings, seminars, conferences However, it is not easy for first-year English-majored students to make an effective oral presentation This descriptive study aimed

to explore the difficulties that first-year English-majored students at ThuongmaiUniversity might encounter when giving presentations in the classroom setting andsome suggested solutions The study has been conducted in the form of surveyresearch, with the informants of ninety three first-year English-majored students atThuongmai University

The study reveals that the students’ low language proficiency including unclearpronunciation, their bad voice quality, lack of confidence all made it difficult forthem to be understood For those reasons, the study recommends some solutions toimprove the students’ presentation skills

This Graduation Paper would not have been accomplished without theguidance and help of some people, who in one way or another, contributed andextended their valuable assistance in the preparation and completion of this study.During the process of completing this graduation paper, I have faced many problems.However, with the great help, assistance and encouragement from these people whoare teachers, family and friends; I have overcome these difficulties and completed thisgraduation paper successfully

First and foremost, I would like to extend my sincere and heartfelt obligation to

my supervisor, MA Pham Thi To Loan, one of the lecturers at the Faculty of BusinessEnglish in Thuongmai university, whose supervision and encouragement help me a lotwith managing this Graduation Paper Without her invaluable suggestions andinstruction, I could not have completed the Graduation Paper Thanks to Mrs Loan’srecommendations and feedback, I was encouraged and motivated to resolve obstaclesand difficulties during the process

Besides, I would like to send my greatest thankfulness to all of the lecturers inthe Faculty of English at Thuongmai University for their useful and invaluable lessonsduring my four-year study, which has been then the foundation of this study Inaddition, my sincere thanks are also sent to first-year English-majored students, whoenthusiastically helped me complete the survey questionnaires at ThuongmaiUniversity

Last but not least, I owe a debt of gratitude to my family and friends for theirdedicated assistance and encouragement during the process

In spite of my hardest attempt, this Graduation Paper certainly contains somemistakes due to the limitation of information resources, time, knowledge and practicalexperience Therefore, I look forward to receiving feedback and recommendationsfrom readers It would be valuable luggage to help me improve my knowledge laterand make the Graduation Paper more perfect

Hanoi, April 15th, 2021

Do Thi Hong Ly

TABLE OF CONTENT

ABSTRACT i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

TABLE OF CONTENT i

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iii

LIST OF TABLE AND CHART iv

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Previous studies 2

1.2.1 Studies abroad 2

1.2.2 Studies in Vietnam 3

1.3 Aim of the study 4

1.4 Research subjects 4

1.5 Scope of the study 5

1.6 Research methodology 5

1.6.1 Research design 5

1.6.2 Research questions 5

1.6.3 Participants 5

1.6.4 Research instruments: 6

1.6.5 Procedures 7

1.7 Organization of the study 8

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 9

2.1 Presentation 9

2.1.1 Definition of presentation 9

2.1.2 The importance of oral presentation 9

2.1.3 Types of presentation 11

2.1.4 Stages of presentation 14

2.2 Difficulties when making presentations 16

2.2.1 Linguistic knowledge 17

2.2.2 Presentation skills 17

2.2.3 Psychological factors 18

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS 20

3.1 Results of the questionnaire 20

3.1.1 General information 20

3.1.2 English usage and English level 20

3.1.3 Difficulties in preparing the presentation 24

3.1.4 Difficulties in rehearsing the presentation 26

3.1.5 Difficulties in delivering the presentation 27

3.1.6 Difficulties in using visual aids in the presentation 31

3.1.7 Causes of the difficulties in making individual presentations 32

3.1.8 Proposals for solving difficulties in making oral presentation 34

3.2 Results of the interviews 36

3.2.1 Difficulties in preparing the presentation 36

3.2.2 Difficulties in rehearsing the presentation 37

3.2.3 Difficulties in delivering the presentation 38

3.2.4 Difficulties in using visual aids 39

3.3 Conclusion 39

CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVING PRESENTATION SKILLS 41

4.1 Limitations 41

4.2 Recommendations for students 41

4.2.1 Making good speaking habits 41

4.2.2 Participating in using English activities 43

4.3 Recommendations for teachers and university 43

4.3.1 Recommendations for teachers 43

4.3.2 Recommendations for university 44

4.4 Conclusion 45

CONCLUSION 46

REFERENCES 48 APPENDIX 1 I APPENDIX 2 VI APPENDIX 3 VII

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ESP English for Academic Purposes

MCSER Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences

TOEIC Test of English for International

Communication

LIST OF TABLE AND CHART

Chart 1: The period of time the students have been studying English 20

Chart 2: Student's evaluation about presentation skills 21

Chart 3: The activities of speaking English students joined at TMU 22

Chart 4: Student’s evaluation about their English presentation level 23

Table 1: Descriptive statistics for the answers to questions about difficulties in preparing the presentation 25

Table 2: Reliability Statistics 26

Table 3: Item-Total Statistics 26

Table 4: Difficulties in rehearsing the presentation 27

Table 5: Difficulties in delivering the presentation 29

Table 6: Reliability Statistics 30

Table 7: Item-Total Statistics 31

Table 8: Difficulties in using visual aids in the presentation 32

Table 9: Difficulties in making individual presentations 33

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY

1.1 Rationale

Today’s challenging economic situation means that it is no longer sufficientfor a new graduate to have knowledge of an academic subject; increasingly it isnecessary for students to gain those skills which will enhance their prospects ofemployment” (Fallows & Steven, 2000) Employability skills include the followingabilities: the retrieval and handling of information; communication andpresentation; planning and problem solving; and social development andinteraction, creative thinking, problem solving critical thinking, active and reflectiveapplication of knowledge (Fallows & Steven, 2000; Driscoll, 2000) To meet thedemand of internationalization, students need to improve their English skills toachieve success in their future workplace

Among English skills, speaking is not the most but very vital skills showingthe users’ ability in English Speaking is the most popular way of communicationbecause we use it every day In reality, large international companies often useEnglish to communicate between offices and subsidiaries As for those people whoare working, apart from using the language as a tool for oral communications, theyhave the desire to use it for their jobs One of the desires is to present in English As

a matter of fact, giving an effective presentation requires a mastery of a broad range

of skills and techniques To achieve the objective of the presentation, the presenter

is supposed to master techniques of identifying the purpose, topic, theme,organization so that the audience can easily follow the talk In addition to that, thespeaker’s use of intonation, articulation, stress, pacing, emphasis, etc., to get theaudience’s attention and concentration is considered essential to contribute tohis/her success

However, for many years, the Vietnamese first-year students in general, andthe first-year English-majored students at TMU in particular, have been good atusing grammar correctly and fluently as well as they can speak English but canhardly present in English Especially, all students at TMU from first-year students

to seniors have to make presentations at the end of subjects, many of them have

never made an English oral presentation since they were in high school Therefore,when they have to give oral presentations at TMU, they seem to pay more attention

to lexis and grammatical structures than presentation style and presentation skills.This leads to the fact that not many first-year students after a long time learningEnglish find themselves able to deliver a presentation successfully

This study will indicate obstacles, difficulties for first-year students of theEnglish Faculty who have just entered the university Many of them seem to lackthe skills and confidence to make effective presentations They know the topics andthe ideas are written down, but their presentations do not go well Sometimes theiraudiences appear uninterested Another time their audiences might lose interestbefore the students have made half of the presentations or seem to be confused andembarrassed with the listeners’ questions

The above-mentioned problems are the researcher’s primary concern andalso the motivation for doing the thesis I would like to conduct the study in order tohelp first-year students of English Faculty improve their presentation skills anddeliver a presentation successfully and meet the demand of society

1.2 Previous studies

In language learning, the great importance has been attached to strategies ofimproving and developing students' oral communication skills and enhancing theiroral competence That is why a growing number of linguists and institutions in theworld and Vietnam do the researches Before getting up to study, I will indicate

some reviews about the related study “A study on oral presentation difficulties

encountered by first-year English-majored students at Thuongmai University and some suggested solutions.”

1.2.1 Studies abroad

The thesis with the topic “The Importance of Oral Presentations forUniversity Students” by Sladana Zivkovic, PhD for Mediterranean Journal of SocialSciences MCSER (2014) should be mentioned the importance of designingeffective oral presentations in the university environment as well as somerecommendations to support students to develop better communication andpresentation skills

Other institutions like the University of Canberra, Ball State University areworking on this field and make a substantial contribution to the development of

language learners’ presentation skills Such titles as “Presenting in English” by Powell (2000), “Effective Presentations” by Comfort (1995), “The Business

Communication Handbook” by Dwyer (2000), “Giving Presentations” by Ellis &

O’Driscoll (1992), etc have so far caught the great attention from a significantnumber of readers Unquestionably, in their books and course descriptions, theygive instructions to stimulate learners’ skills in making oral presentations both intheory and in practice but those experts just mainly focus on business contexts andother professional situations (see O’Driscoll & Pilbeam (1987), Dwyer (2000),Reinhart (2002)) In addition, they do not touch upon the difficulties that languagelearners encounter when giving oral presentations in the classroom setting and thereasons why they experience such problems Furthermore, the solutions andrecommendations given from those books are just drawn from a group of researchsubjects They are somehow based on the writers’ own observations andperceptions, so the solutions tend to be applicable for some subjects

1.2.2 Studies in Vietnam

The research “Difficulties in English communication reflex of fourth-year

students of English Faculty, Thuongmai University.” (2020) by Nguyen Thi Anh of

English Faculty, TMU mentioned the factors and difficulties faced by the year English majors at TMU when improving communication reflex The findingspointed out that the difficulties related to the speaking and listening process as well

fourth-as the lack of physical setting After that, the author suggested some main solutions

to enhance their communication skills such as expanding vocabulary, participating

in extracurricular activities

Another thesis I would like to refer to is “Challenges to speaking skills

encountered by English-majored students: A story of one Vietnamese university in the Mekong Delta” (2017) by Vo Phuong Quyen, Pham Thi My Nga and Ho Thao

Nguyen School of Foreign Languages, Can Tho University The thesis focuses onthe difficulties encountered by university EFL students while participating in oralclassroom activities: Speaking skills The findings show that students faced both

internal and external challenges, especially the latter ones regarding the limitation

of English speaking environment and extracurricular activities By the way, theauthors expect through the study, English-majored freshmen at Can Tho Universitycan overcome these challenges improve their English speaking in order to get abrighter future

By and large, there have been a lot of studies on communication skills andspeaking skills These studies have indicated quite clearly and specifically manyobstacles and difficulties when communicating in English of students in differentfields but oral presentations have not been extensively investigated In particular,there has been so far no study on the oral presentation difficulties that English-majored freshmen might encounter For this reason, I have decided to conduct myown study in which I have tried to have an investigation of English-majoredfreshmen’s difficulties when giving oral presentations and give possible suggestions

on how to teach and learn oral presentation skills efficiently

1.3 Aim of the study

The study is done with the following aims:

Firstly, the study would like to investigate the obstacles and difficultiesencountered by English-majored freshmen when making an oral presentation in theclassroom setting

Secondly, the study is also aimed to figure out possible causes of thosedifficulties

Last but not least, the study will give some possible solutions to helpEnglish-majored freshmen overcome those difficulties in order to deliverpresentations successfully in general and improve their speaking skills in particular

1.4 Research subjects

Based on the rationale and the aims of the problems, the subject of this

research is “A study on oral presentation difficulties encountered by first-year

English-majored students at Thuongmai University” It is obvious that there is one

main subject here: Presentation skill Therefore, there is one main subject of “A

study on oral presentation difficulties encountered by first-year English-majored

students at Thuongmai University”:

 To figure out the difficulties that English-majored freshman experiencewhen making their oral presentations

 To give some suggestions to improve their presentation skill

1.5 Scope of the study

This study mainly focuses on presentation skills in English in the classroomsetting, then explore the difficulties encountered by English-majored freshmanwhen giving an oral presentation This study is conducted questionnaire surveys inthe second semester of the 2020-2021 school year over the internet with theparticipation of 93 first-year students of the English Faculty, TMU I hope that thisstudy will help freshmen find the best ways to improve their process of enriching oralpresentation skills Specifically, the students will be able to improve their speakingskills to get a better opportunity for their possible further academic careers andfuture jobs

 What do they perceive as the causes of their difficulties?

 What should they do to improve their oral presentations?

1.6.3 Participants

93 English Faculty's freshmen were the participants in this study Thesestudents have learned the course of Speaking, Listening, Basic Communication andhave given some oral presentations in the courses such as Basic English Grammar,Speaking etc These students were chosen as participants on the basis of threecriteria

Firstly, they have learned a little about how to produce English sounds (i.e.,consonants, vowels, diphthongs, clusters), as well as English intonation Theirknowledge of English pronunciation is not enough to practice in the universityenvironment where they meet native teachers or where they have to use Englishentirely

Secondly, they have not been trained in presentation skills and deliveredindividual presentations in front of the audience since they were in high school.Thus, the students have many difficulties preparing and delivering a presentation,especially an individual presentation

Lastly, all of these participants are English-majored students so their futurejobs require good public speaking skills Therefore, the solutions andrecommendations in this study can help them improve their presentation skills to getmore job chances

in making individual presentations The items of the questionnaire were groupedinto 4 clusters:

Difficulties in preparing a presentation

Difficulties in rehearsing a presentation

Difficulties in delivering a presentation

Difficulties in using visual aids.

The questionnaire was designed using a five-point Likert scale Therespondents had to rate the item on a scale from 1 to 5 corresponding to the degreethat they agree or disagree with each statement (1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree,3= undecided, 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree) After collecting the answers, theresearcher analyzed the data with SPSS software to verify the reliability andevaluate what was the most serious problem encountered by English Faculty’sfreshmen in making an oral presentation

1.6.4.2 Interview

The interviews helped the researcher explore in-depth information aboutdifficulties encountered by English Faculty’s freshmen in making individualpresentations The aim of interviews is to confirm the data collected from thequestionnaire Particularly, if the findings from interviews match with those fromthe questionnaire, the reliability of the results will be ensured In the interviews, theinterviewees were asked about what difficulties they often face in giving oralpresentations such as in the preparation, rehearsal, and delivery stage and the use ofvisual aids The interviews which were conducted in Vietnamese included questions

to find out the causes of the interviewees’ difficulties The number of participantstaking part in the interviews was 10; they answered 2 detailed interview questions.(see appendix 2)

1.6.5 Procedures

1.6.5.1 Questionnaire procedures

Amid the complicated development of COVID-19 pandemic, thequestionnaires were delivered on the internet with the participation of 93 EnglishFaculty’s freshmen, TMU The respondents had about ten minutes to complete the

29 questions

1.6.5.2 Interview procedures

The two questions used to interview were prepared, and the answers wererecorded carefully on the phone The researcher contacts 10 students and carries outVietnamese online interview to create comfortable and friendly atmosphere as well

as avoid mistakes After summarizing the interviewees’ answers, the researchertranslated these answers into English Another reason to conduct online interview isthat all students of TMU have applied the online learning method via Trans due tothe development of COVID-19, which seems difficult to have a face-to-faceinterview with them

1.7 Organization of the study

This thesis is organized into 4 chapters as follows:

Chapter 1: The introduction gives the rationale, the aim of the study, theresearch subjects, scope of the study, methodology and the organization of the study

Chapter 2: The literature review shows the background literature directlyrelevant to the study being discussed

Chapter 3: Research finding includes the result from the study, evaluationand analysis from the survey questionnaire

Chapter 4: Recommendations and suggested solutions for improving

presentation skills of English Faculty’s freshmen at Thuongmai University.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Presentation

2.1.1 Definition of presentation

There are various ways that the term presentation is defined According toOxford (2006, p 560), presentation means “a meeting at which something is shown

or explained to a group of people” The definition of this term is shown in more

detail by Ohio Wesleyan University, in their “Guidelines for Oral Presentations”

(2001), presentations are defined as “brief discussions of a focused topic delivered

to a group of listeners in order to impart knowledge or to stimulate discussion Theyare similar to short papers with an introduction, main body and conclusion Theability to give brief presentations is a learned skill and the one that is called onfrequently in the workplace”

There are many different definitions of oral presentations The University of

Adelaide, in their “Oral Presentations” (2014), defined that “oral presentations are

a common feature of many courses at university They may take the form of a short

or longer presentation at a tutorial or seminar, delivered either individually or aspart of a group You may have to use visual aids such as PowerPoint slides.Researching, planning and structuring an oral presentation is similar to the process

of writing an essay, except you use spoken language instead of written language andyou need to be mindful of a live audience.” Dudley-Evans and St John (1998)suggest that oral presentation work usually consists of the stand-up, prepared talkaccompanied by visuals; besides, what makes an effective oral presentation islanguage, skills and confidence

Overall, despite the variety of definitions, a presentation is a talk in whichthe message and information of the speaker are conveyed to audiences in eitherformal or informal situations In reality, presentation skill is one of the mostimportant skills for students to get a better opportunity for their possible furtheracademic career

2.1.2 The importance of oral presentation

Oral presentation has become a helpful and effective tool in educational,social and professional life Emden & Becker (2004: 1) stated that the “ability tospeak well enough to interest, influence or persuade other people is a major asset forwhatever they want to do in the future and it may change them in ways that they didnot expect” Another idea held by Morley (2006) “oral presentation skills isessential for employability and true academic study as they lead students to enterinto debate and sustained reasoning” That is true as oral presentation skill is a key

to get more opportunities in the development of careers Therefore, improving andpracticing the oral presentation skill gradually become more and more crucial inmany universities including TMU To gain an effective presentation skill and keep

up with the changing world outside of school, students are stimulated toparticipating in extracurricular activities and English contests organized by theEnglish Faculty, English clubs such as Olympic, The Speaking Contest, etc.Through the contests, students’ presentation skills have improved quickly andeffectively

In the literature on oral presentations, there are a number of reasons why oralpresentation skills should be developed First of all, oral presentation skills canbring more opportunities for students even if they are learning at university In somecases, for students, who lack presentation skills and other English language skills,are finding a part-time job to earn extra income to help their family, they just findmanual jobs such as a server in restaurants, and shops On the other hand, if thestudents have good English language skills as well as presentation skills, they canapply for potential positions such as English teaching assistants, translators,interpreters, freelance guider, salesmen at tourist shops It is both a greatopportunity for students to earn extra money and give them a wonderfulenvironment to practice and develop their English skills

Besides, through the process of preparing and rehearsing a presentation,students can learn the ability to collect and search information, narrow down thetopic, memorize the content, present naturally and pay attention to audiences

Finally, when students gain a good oral presentation skill, they definitely canspeak clearly, convincingly, confidently as which as Emden and Becker (2004: 2)put it “will result in an even better presentation next time” and “the newfoundconfidence may affect other areas of your work” Especially, during the process ofdelivering of presentation, audiences can ask some difficult questions, with goodpresentation skills, presenter can give brief and reasonable answers In addition,they can advance their reflex and develop their time management skill

In short, giving an effective oral presentation is one of the vital skills thatstudents need to acquire to develop their competencies and benefit their futurework In the context of English Faculty, TMU, presentation skill is one of the mostessential skills for students to improve their own academic knowledge,communicate, exchange information with their peers and thereby develop personalconfidence

2.1.3 Types of presentation

Oral presentations are classified based on their purposes and forms ormanners of delivery The following is an overview of several common types ofpresentations and their purposes given by Jim Aspinall (2017) There are 5 types:informative, instructional, arousing, persuasive, and decision-making

To begin with, the informative presentations are brief and to the point Theyare basically descriptive, generally stick to the facts and avoid complicatedinformation and usually used to describe facts to avoid complicated information.They are organized from the most important topic and become the best way forbreaking big information down into small The presenter, firstly, must keep aninformative presentation brief and relevant; secondly, stick to the facts and avoidcomplicated information; finally, choose one of the following organizationalstructures for this kind of presentation: time, place, cause and effect, and logicalorder University lectures, school classes, and research results are typical examples

of the presentation

The second type of presentation is instructional presentation The purpose of

an instructional presentation is to give specific directions or orders Thesepresentations will probably be a bit longer, because they have to cover the topic

thoroughly In an instructional presentation, listeners should come away with newknowledge or a new skill, explain why the information or skill is valuable to theaudience and the learning objectives of the instructional program as well asdemonstrate the process if it involves something in which the audience will laterparticipate such as tutorial classes, safety demonstrations

Another type of presentation, arousing presentation, is designed to makepeople consider a certain problem or situation Presenters want to arouse theaudience’s emotions and intellect so that they will be receptive to your point ofview They use vivid language in an arousing presentation– project sincerity andenthusiasm They usually use stories or real-life examples of the topic to arouseinterest They can describe a situation and show the need to solve the problem andillustrate it with an example and call the audience to action to help solve theproblem For example, these presentations consist of a debate, a motivationalspeech or a church sermon

The fourth type, persuasive presentation such as debate or business proposal,

is to convince audiences to accept and agree with the presenter’s proposal Aconvincing persuasive presentation offers a solution to a controversy, dispute, orproblem To succeed with a persuasive presentation, presenter should showsufficient logic, evidence, advantage and emotion to the audience Thesepresentations are often highly emotional to help gather support and approval

The final type of presentation, decision-making presentation, is designed toconvince listeners to act on the presenter’s proposal A decision-makingpresentation presents ideas, suggestions, and arguments to persuade an audience tocarry out presenter’s requests In a decision-making presentation, the presentershould tell the audience what to do and how to do it and let them know what willhappen if they don’t do what you ask

In terms of manners of delivery, presentations can be impromptu,extemporaneous, written or memorized Dwyer (2000: 198-199) offers a thoroughdescription of five presentational forms or speeches, as he calls them They areimpromptu, manuscript, memorized presentation, the briefing and the teambriefings

The impromptu presentation, firstly, is unexpected and delivered withoutpreparation As the occasion for this kind of presentation usually takes the speaker

by surprise, the speaker is quite knowledgeable about the subject For example, ifcalled on to speak in class, a student might give a short impromptu speech about atopic that was in the assigned readings The speaker is advised to follow the PREPformula, in which P stands for the main point; R stands for the reason for thespeech; E stands for the example to illustrate the main point and P stands forrestating the main point

Secondly, manuscript presentation is a written text read to an audience from

a paper script or teleprompter Manuscript speaking is generally employed duringofficial meetings, conferences, and in instances where the subject matter of thespeech needs to be recorded The purpose of this speech is to convey precise andsuccinct messages Public officials speaking at conferences, and their speech beingtelecast, is a pertinent example

Thirdly, a memorized presentation is a speech that is recited from memoryrather than read from cue cards or using the assistance of notes When giving apresentation from memory, speakers tend to have a very robotic tone to their voice,

so it is important to remember to add voice inflection For more effectivememorization, it is recommended to keep the speech relatively short

The next type of speech, the briefing, is a short oral summary or report of aplan, event or operation Its aim might be to inform, propose or justify solutions, orpersuade the audience For this type of speech, the speaker is expected to:

• prepare the briefing

• concentrate on its main purpose

• present background information; discuss alternatives

• analyze their advantages and disadvantages

• encourage audience participation, questions and suggestions

• show interest in audience response

Finally, team briefings are most often used for staff meetings, reports tosupervisors and managers on progress, results or problems As the name suggests,team briefings refer to team members working together for their presentation First,

the team considers the purpose of the presentation and the nature of the audience.Then they design the structure of the presentation and organize it into sections Aparticular section is then allocated to each speaker So it is important to decidewhich team member will be responsible for presenting the introduction; developingthe main body of the presentation; reinforcing the ideas outlined in the main bodyand presenting the conclusion

Although there are various ways that the term presentation is defined,common types of presentations in the classroom are informative and persuasiveones With reference to classroom presentations, Lucas (2004) mentions thatpresentation classes offer students opportunities to develop their communicationskills before applying them outside the classroom; moreover, students are given agreat chance to inform or persuade other people In the present research, individualpresentations will be focused on

2.1.4 Stages of presentation

Making a presentation consists of a sequence of stages Before delivering thepresentation in front of the audience, the presenter has to prepare for thepresentation and rehearse it carefully Therefore, there are three stages to make aneffective presentation: preparation, rehearsal and delivery

2.1.4.1 Preparation

The first step of making a presentation is to prepare for it According toLucas (2004), and Gregory (2005), speech preparation consists of selecting a topicand purpose, analyzing the audience, gathering materials, and organizing thespeech

Analyzing the audience is the first step in preparing a presentation It's agood idea to obtain some information on the backgrounds, values, and interests ofthe audience so that the presenter can understand what the audience members mightexpect from the presentation Lucas (2004) suggests that when making a speech,either in class or in forum, the speaker should be audience-centered; that is, thespeaker should analyze the audience and should adapt the speech to their interestsand beliefs Therefore, the presentation will be clear and persuasive to the audience

In addition, the presenter has to choose a topic that is of interest to theaudience It will be much easier to deliver a presentation that the audience findsrelevant, and more enjoyable to research a topic In the classroom setting, most ofthe topics are based on the topic of every chapter in students’ textbooks, so students

do not have to find their own topic

After selecting the topic and purpose of the presentation, the presenter needs

to prepare the content of the presentation by finding materials According to Lucas(2004), speakers can gather materials in different ways: getting information in thelibrary, searching the Internet which is considered the world’s the biggest library,having personal interviews with someone on campus or in the community

Then, the presenter should organize the presentation The body of thepresentation is where the presenter expresses the ideas To present your ideasconvincingly, speaker will need to illustrate and support them by indicating data andfacts, citing quotes from experts, relating personal experiences, and providing vividdescriptions A well-organized presentation could not lack an introduction andconclusion as well The aim of the introduction is to capture the attention of theaudience and build interest by making the introduction relevant to the listeners'goals, values, and needs; asking questions to stimulate thinking or beginning with ajoke or humorous story If the presenter does not have a good introduction, listenerswill turn their attention elsewhere and the presenter has a difficult time getting itback The final section – conclusion- is also very important During the conclusion

of the presentation, presenter can reinforce the main ideas he or she communicated.Remember that listeners won't remember the entire presentation, only the mainideas By reinforcing and reviewing the main ideas, speaker will help the audienceremember them

2.1.4.2 Rehearsal

Most people spend hours preparing a presentation but very little timepracticing it When you practice your presentation, you can reduce the number oftimes you utter words and phrases like, "um," "well," and "you know." Rehearsingthe presentation will help develop confidence and fluency As a rule, rehearsal is auseful stage to help presenter have a successful oral presentation

2.1.4.3 Delivery

The delivery stage is when the presentation is delivered The speakers canemploy different methods to deliver the speech It is the most important stagedeciding whether the presentation is successful or not It relates the use of voice andnonverbal communication to convey messages to audiences

The way speakers use their voice is important when they speak in front of theaudience The speakers should speak loudly enough for all of the audience to hear.The way speakers use their voice is important when they speak in front of theaudience The speaker should speak loudly enough for all of the audience to hear

Besides, intonation plays a crucial part in the success of a presentationbecause it shows the speakers’ enthusiasm for their subject The audiences will bebored if the presenter speaks monotonously (Le, 2002) One more aspect of thespeakers’ voice is pauses – a momentary break in the vocal delivery of a speech Ifthe speaker fills in the silence with vocalizations such as “uh”, “er” or “um”, thelisteners may be distracted or feel annoyed

Apart from voice, nonverbal communication has a great effect on theaudiences Among many aspects of nonverbal communication, there are eye contactand gestures First of all, eye contact is defined as direct contact with the eyes ofanother person Students are encouraged to contact the audience while deliveringthe presentation Looking at the audience is not enough, the way that speakers look

at them is also important Speakers should try to make eye contact with everylistener so that listeners have the feeling of being involved in the presentation Inaddition to eye contact, nonverbal communication is closely connected withgestures – motions of a speaker’s hands and arms during a speech The gesturesshould be natural and spontaneous, strengthen speakers’ ideas, and be appropriate tothe audience and occasion In reality, if speakers use gestures and eye contactappropriately, their message will be enhanced

2.2 Difficulties when making presentations

When making presentations, students may have to encounter a variety ofdifficulties which fall into 3 main categories: lack of linguistic knowledge, lack ofpresentational skills and psychological

2.2.1 Linguistic knowledge

Based on the linguistic perspective, in linguistic problems, there are threefactors that contribute to students’ presentation problems including grammar,vocabulary and pronunciation (Meli Arya, 2017)

In terms of grammar, students often have difficulties with word order Theyusually make sentences that seem to be strange to the native speakers due to thewrong word order In fact, word order is more important in English than in otherlanguages Furthermore, verbs also cause difficulties to learners with complicatedtenses, voices, and moods Besides, learners have difficulties with prepositions andnouns

In addition to grammar, vocabulary is one of the main difficulties withstudents Without sufficient vocabulary, people cannot express their feeling both inthe form of spoken and written effectively The more people master vocabulary themore they can speak and express messages they want Wilkins in Thornbury (2004)states that without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothingcan be conveyed It means that even someone has good grammar but it will beuseless if they do not know the vocabulary

Besides, pronunciation is problematic to Vietnamese students The Englishlanguage has gone through a lot of transformations in its history, especially inrelation to phonology These changes have altered the pronunciation of the words.The discrepancy in English is bigger than in the other languages, in the caseVietnamese The English pronunciation is complicated and confusing for learners,because the system of vowels and consonants have a lot of different sounds withstress, rhythm and intonation This is the reason why it is so hard for non-nativespeakers to deal with English pronunciation

2.2.2 Presentation skills

Many students have difficulties in making presentations due to the lack ofpresentational skills, such as organizational skills, empathy for the audience andpoor use of visual aids, non-verbal communication and use of voice Lewkowiczand Cooley (1998) stated that many students lacked such presentation skills asorganizational skills, lack of empathy for the audience and poor use of visual aids

In other words, lack of knowledge of organizational skills causes difficulties inmaking an oral presentation Besides, presenters are expected to understand theiraudience They should know clearly the audiences’ interests, attitudes toward whatthey will inform, for example Furthermore, using visual aids (i.e posters, pictures)effectively helps enhances the speakers’ message

Additionally, to give a successful presentation, the speaker should improvenonverbal communication For example, if you’re faced with a presenter sendingmixed and he’s acting appears different from what he’s saying, so which would youlikely believe? Therefore presenter should use body language properly to conveymessages and information when speaking with the audience Nevertheless, speakersmeet various difficulties with nonverbal communication skills, such as gestures andeye contact For instance, students do not often make eye contact with theiraudiences as well as use their hand gestures, postures effectively during thepresentation

One further aspect that speakers need to deal with when speaking in front ofthe audience role of public speaking Consequently, lacking skills in using voicecauses speakers several problems The audience will be bored if the presenterspeaks monotonously (Le, 2002) One more aspect of the speakers’ voice is pauses– a momentary break in the vocal delivery of a speech If the speaker fills in thesilence with vocalizations such as “uh”, “er” or “um”, the listeners may bedistracted or feel annoyed

A variety of research has been conducted on students’ public speakinganxiety Woodrow and Chapman (2006) did research into second language speakinganxiety of learners of English for Academic Purposes (ESP) in Australia Thefindings of the study revealed that among the stressors influencing students, making

oral presentations in front of the public was ranked at the second position Anotherresearcher, Tanveer (2007), also investigated factors causing language anxiety forESL/EFL learners in learning speaking skills According to the results of this study,linguistic difficulties, pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary were linguisticfactors affecting learners’ speaking skills Especially, the finding indicated thatmaking a presentation in front of the class was also stressful for students, which issimilar to the finding of Woodrow and Chapman (2006).

Lack of confidence is a kind of feeling where the students attribute theirunwillingness to participate in every class presentation and discussion They tend tospeak the easiest word when speaking The interference of this feeling couldcontribute negatively to students speaking performance, or presentation Thisnegative thought adversely affects the students’ ability to take advantage of learningopportunities and their ability to see themselves as successful learners

Besides, fear of making mistakes is a feeling of tension, apprehension,nervousness, and worry associated with an arousal of the automatic nervous system.The factor can hinder students from gaining opportunity to improving speakingskills and improving their confidence in front of the public It has become one of thebiggest problems that most inexperienced speakers encounter during making oralpresentations

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS

3.1 Results of the questionnaire

3.1.1 General information

The survey was conducted on the internet with the participation of 93English Faculty’s freshmen, TMU The respondents had about ten minutes tocomplete the 29 questions The participants have a variety of the level and time oflearning English But most of them have the time of learning English over 5 yearsand there are 62 who have learned English more than 10 years Therefore, they areclearly aware of the importance of English language skills and their answers arequite transparent to this study

3.1.2 English usage and English level

This part is analyzed based on the data collected from question 1 to question

3 All the collected data is described as the following charts:

Chart 1: The period of time the students have been studying English.

According to the survey, most of the students have been studying English forover 5 years, accounting for 67% of students for over 10 years, 3% for from 5-7years and 22% for from 7-10 years The reason why the rate of the students whohave studied English for a long time account highly is that the survey wasconducted with English-majored students , so it is easy to understand why they

have spent more and more time learning English for a long time like this TheEnglish requirement of the English Faculty, TMU is not easy to satisfy; therefore; it

is reasonable to understand why they have spent more and more time learningEnglish for a long time like this

Chart 2: Student's evaluation about presentation skills

From the figures, it is apparent that improving presentation skills is the maingoal of the learners when learning English Most of the students surveyed havebelieved that English presentation skills as very important and it is also a key tohelp them have more chances to get better jobs in the future Of the 93 studentssurveyed, 75% of students think that presentation skills play an important role inlearning and using English Other students also quite highly appreciate the role ofcommunication reflex with 22% of students choosing “quite important” Taking intoaccount the statistical data, we can surmise that most students are aware of theimportance of improving their English skills To sum up, all the English-majoredfreshmen were totally aware of the importance of oral presentation skills in theirfuture work because these skills could develop their confidence, flexibility, logicalthinking, speaking skill and organization skill, which accordingly might bring bettercareer prospect

English workshop and seminar

Interview English contest English worshop Presentations

Activities using English at TMU

Chart 3: The activities of speaking English students joined at TMU.

Chart 3 presents the activities of using English at TMU such as presentations,attending a seminar or participating in an English club, etc

According to chart 3, all of the students surveyed have participated in theEnglish presentation in class Under the training programs of TMU, the studentsalways have a presentation discussion at the end of each course It is a required testthat all of the students have to complete before doing the semester exam.Presentation is an effective method for students to improve comprehensive Englishskills because the presentation demands many related skills such as academicknowledge about the topic, good voice, communication reflex skill, body language,etc Therefore, by improving presentation skills, students can enhance these skillswhich are essential for employability and true academic study

Other activities received less selection of the students than presentation.Excepting presentation, the students surveyed attend English workshop and seminaraccounted the most with 30 choosing and the least is English contest with 12choosing Although chart 2 indicated that students are aware of the importance ofpresentation skills and the effectiveness of the outdoor activities, they are not active

to take part in the extracurricular activities on the campus They explain that they

they usually look for a part-time job to get extra money and enrich their experience.Moreover, they think that participating in these activities can waste their time andaffect adversely their study result These reasons weak the presentation skills ofEnglish Faculty freshmen, TMU

The researcher also gives a question about the English presentation skillsability of the students The results are presented through the following chart:

Chart 4: Student’s evaluation about their English presentation level.

(Based their scores in National High School Graduation Exam)

As a result, due to a long time learning English, the student’s English level isquite good The data showed in chart 2 The survey is based on their scores ofEnglish tests in the National High School Graduation Exam The reason theresearcher decided to choose this is that at TMU, first-year students of Englishfaculty have just entered the university for months, almost all of them have neverparticipated in any international evaluation tests like TOEIC and IELTS As can beseen from chat 2, it shows that there are 60% of students who self-evaluate that their

English ability is at an average level It reveals that over half of them are not

confident to deliver a good presentation Besides, there are 13% of students evaluatethemselves with a bad level It demonstrates that they lack both confidence and

linguistic knowledge For freshmen, the average and bad level are not disquietingbecause they have just entered the university for months and experienced a fewpresentations, they still have enough time to learn and improve their presentationskills as well as join extracurricular activities

In addition, chart 6 also presents there are 27% of students at good and verygood level All of the students reveal that they join a lot of the activities that usingEnglish at TMU and actively take part in English contests and other outdoor-activities So they can practice English fluently and learn experience frompredecessors One of the most vital factors to give a successful presentation isconfidence Therefore, by practicing gradually and joining outdoor activities, theycan improve both knowledge and confidence It is the main key to determine whichthey have accepted the job or not

In conclusion, according to the students’ and teachers’ evaluations, themajority of the English-majored freshmen were somehow not really successful withpresenting in English Only a few of them did the job quite well The following partwill focus on the difficulties that they might encounter

3.1.3 Difficulties in preparing the presentation

In terms of preparing the presentation, the participants have to face a number

of difficulties Table 3.1 shows that the mean scores of all the answers to the

questions in this group are above the average (M > 3.0) It can be interpreted that

the participants have difficulties in all issues connected with preparing the

presentation The highest mean score (M = 3.78) belongs to difficulties in

explaining technical terms In simple words, explaining technical terms is the mostcommon difficulty among the participants