A Study on Oral Presentation Difficulties of Second-Year English-Majors of Phuong Dong University in the Speaking Lessons and Solutions

Part 1: Introduction 1. Rationale Nowadays, English is considered as an international language, which is spoken by millions of people all over the world. In reality, large international companies often use English to communicate between offices and subsidiaries. As for those people who are working, apart from using the language as a tool for oral communications, they have 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, the speaker’s use of intonation, articulation, stress, pacing, emphasis, etc., to get the audience’s attention and concentration is considered essential to contribute to his/her success. As for the intermediate and advanced Vietnamese students of English, spoken English in general and presenting in English in particular is extremely important because they expect to use it frequently for their future work. Unfortunately, for many years, they have been good at recognizing the correct use of grammar and they can speak English but can hardly present in English. When many make oral presentations, they seem to pay more attention to lexis and grammatical structures than presentation style and presentation skills. This leads to the fact that not few learners of English after a long time learning English find themselves unable to deliver a presentation successfully. Being a teacher who has taught English for more than seven years, I realize that my students, especially the second-year English-major ones, who as part of their studies have to make oral presentations, also share the same mandate. Many students seem to lack the skills and confidence to make effective presentations. They know the topics and the ideas are written down, but their presentations do not go well. This time their fellow students appear uninterested. Another time they might lose interest before the speakers have made half of the presentations or sometimes the speakers seem to be confused and embarrassed with the listeners’ questions. The above-mentioned problems is the researcher’s primary concern and also the motivation for doing the thesis. The choice of “A Study on Oral Presentation Difficulties of Second-Year English-Majors of Phuong Dong University in the Speaking Lessons and Solutions” as the topic of this thesis, therefore, is not accidental. 2. Aims and objectives of the study The study is aimed at oral presentation difficulties encountered by the second-year major students of English, English Department, Phuong Dong University And then some possible solutions are given to help my students overcome those difficulties so as to make an improvement in our teaching and learning oral presentations in general and speaking in particular. The specific objectives of the study are: To investigate the students' perceptions about the importance of oral presentation skills in their future work To get to know their evaluations of their success To identify their major difficulties when presenting in English To examine the causes of their difficulties To give possible suggestions to improve their presentation skills 3. Scope and significance of the study This study mainly focuses on presentation skills in English in the classroom setting. It involves the participation of 62 second-year English majors who are in their fourth semester at Phuong Dong University. The findings and suggested solutions most appropriately applied to the teachers of English as well as the second-year English majors of Phuong Dong University. That is, the teachers and students will be able to find ways to improve their process of teaching and learning oral presentation skills. Specifically, the students will be able to attain better oral presentation skills and have quite a good preparation for the course of “Oral Presentation” in their fifth term. 4. Methods of the study The study has been conducted in the form of survey research with its technique of questionnaire with informants of two classes of 62 second-year majors of English at Phuong Dong University. In addition to the questionnaire, informal discussions with the informants and their teachers and personal observation were also employed 5. Organization of the thesis The thesis is organized as follows: Part 1, introduction, presents the rationale for the study, the aims, scope, methods and organization of the thesis. Part 2, development, consists of the following chapters: Chapter 1, Literature Review, presents the theoretical background: the theories and concepts related to speaking skills and oral presentations in English. Chapter 2, namely “The study” describes the current situation of teaching speaking at English Department, Phuong Dong University and reports the survey research which was carried out at the beginning of the fourth term of the 2006-2007 academic year at Phuong Dong University. The report includes the following information: • Research questions • Informants • Questionnaire and procedure • Data analysis and findings • Suggested solutions Chapter 3, implications and suggestions, offers pedagogical suggestions for teachers of English at Phuong Dong University. Part 3, conclusion and recommendations, summarize the study and suggest some ideas for further study. development Chapter I: Literature review In the investigation into ways to develop students’ speaking ability in general and oral presentation skills in particular, it is believed that the study needs to present the previous and current literature on oral presentations. Besides, it should show the relation between knowledge and skills and then define and explore the nature of speaking, types of classroom speaking, and some aspects of oral presentations. These issues are the focus of the chapter. 1.1. Introductory Remarks In language teaching, a great importance has been attached to strategies of improving and developing students' oral communication skills and enhancing their oral competence. That is why a growing number of linguists and institutions like the University of Canberra, Ball State University are working on this field and they have, in fact, made 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 a great attention from a significant number of readers. Undeniably, it is clear that these scholars and institutions in their books and course descriptions, present guidelines to promote learners’ skills in giving oral presentations both in theory and in practice but those experts just mainly focus on business contexts and other professional situations (see O’Driscoll & Pilbeam (1987), Dwyer (2000), Reinhart (2002)). Also, they do not touch upon the problems that language learners have when giving oral presentations in the classroom setting and the reasons why they experience such problems. In addition, the solutions/suggestions given from those books are not drawn from their own research or in other words, they were not research-based. They are somehow based on the writers’ own observations and perceptions, so the solutions tend to be applicable for some subjects. In Vietnam, there have been a lot of studies on oral communication skills and many of them are presented in M.A theses. However, oral presentations have not been extensively investigated. For example, there has been so far no study on the oral presentation problems that learners of English might encounter For that reason, I decided to have my own research in which I tried to have an investigation of the second-year majors' difficulties when giving oral presentations and give possible suggestions on how to teach and learn oral presentation skills efficiently. I do hope that what comes out of this study might contribute to the learning and teaching speaking at our institution in general and those who share the same mandate in particular. 1.2. Knowledge and Skills One of the basic challenges in foreign language teaching is to make learners competent in using the language. Being a competent user of a language means having both good knowledge and skills of using the language. The relationship between knowledge and skills is clearly and vividly illustrated in the book entitled “Speaking” by Bygate (1997). He gives lots of examples and explanations as follows: Bygate begins by pointing out the fact that in order to speak a language, it is necessary for learners to know a certain amount of grammar and vocabulary and how to assemble sentences. However, he emphasizes, the knowledge of the language is never sufficient. It is skill that is “the most realisable” in a speaking class and in an oral exam: “...to test whether learners can speak, it is necessary to get them to actually say something. To do this they must act on the knowledge of grammar and vocabulary. By giving learners “speaking practice” and “oral exams” we recognize that there is a difference between knowledge about a foreign language, and skill in using it”. (1987: 3). He then points out that the language teachers are supposed to understand the difference and the interrelation among knowledge and skill. To illustrate his point of view, he presents the example of a car driver, which I find the most convincing: What knowledge does a car driver need? Clearly he or she needs to know the names of the controls; where they are; what they do and how they are operated (you move the pedals with your feet, not with your hands). However, the driver also needs the skill to be able to use the controls to guide the car along a road without hitting the various objects that tend to get in the way; you have to be able to do this at a normal speed...; you have to drive smoothly and without getting too close to any dangerous obstacles. And is not enough to drive in a straight line: the driver also has to be able to manage the variations in road conditions safely. Bygate gives further examples. The first one is a one-week course of cooking is conducted to a group of five learners. On the sixth day, only two cooking apprentices are graded to be good cooks. We do not think that the other three do not know many recipes. The second example is that when a learner of English omits the “s” sound at the end of English words in his flow of speech, we are not convinced that he/she does not master the rule. In fact, he knows it but as he speaks, he fails to do something about that. Knowledge is then defined by Bygate (1991: 4) as “what they conceive and memorize”. But what makes the three cooks in the example above “not good” at cooking and the learner leaves the “s” sound? The answer to this question, as Bygate argues, is a skill, that is a special ability to do something well. This is acquired only when a lot of imitation and practice are done. For example, in the case of the learner who does not pronounce the third person-s on the verbs, the best solution is practice. It is good to practice because this phenomenon does not reveal that he is not rendered with that aspect of grammar. To conclude, the knowledge of the language is only a part of the affair. We also need skill. And skill can be gained with practice. But what skills does a learner of a foreign language need so as to obtain good oral communication? To answer this question, it is important to take a deeper look at speaking skills, namely the nature of speaking. 1.3. Speaking Skills 1.3.1. Nature of Speaking Of the four skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing), speaking plays a vital role since it is the step to identify who knows or does not know a language. Pattison (1992) confirms that when people know or learn a language, they mean being able to speak the language. Speaking, according to Donough and Shaw (1993), is a skill which enables people to produce utterances when communicating to achieve a particular end. This may involve expressing wishes, ideas or opinions, negotiating or solving problems, or establishing and maintaining social relationships. To reach these speaking purposes, a wide range of appropriate expressions is needed to fulfill particular purposes. The nature of speaking has been discussed by many scholars. Brown and Yule (1983) propose a useful distinction between two basic language functions. These are the transactional function, which is primarily concerned with the transfer of information, and the interactional function, in which the primary purpose of speech is the maintenance of social relationships. They also highlight another basic distinction when considering the development of speaking skills. They are monologue and dialogue. The two authors state that the ability to give an uninterrupted oral presentation (monologue) is rather different from interacting with one or more other native speakers for transactional and interactional purposes. While all native speakers can and use language interactionally, not all native speakers have ability to present a given subject to a group of listeners. This explains why presentation skills generally have to be learned and practiced carefully. They suggest that most language teaching is concerned developing skills in short, interactional exchanges in which the learner is required to make one or two utterances at a time. They further state that: The teacher should realize that simply training the students to produce short turns will not automatically yield a student who can perform satisfactorily in long turns. It is currently fashionable in language teaching to pay a particular attention to the forms and functions of short turns ... It must surely be clear that students who are only capable of producing short turns are going to experience a lot of frustration when try to speak a foreign language. (Brown and Yule, 1983: 19-20) Another author examining the nature of speaking is Bygate (1987). He shows that in order to be able to speak a foreign language, learners not only need to have micro-linguistic skills, that is, to understand some grammar, vocabulary and the rules governing how words are put together to form sentences but also interaction skills, which involve using knowledge and basic micro-linguistic skills or motor-perception skills in deciding what to say and how to say it. The reason, as he puts it, is that the motor-perception skills are not sufficient since while producing sentences, people often have to adapt to circumstances to maintain the intended relations with others. He then discusses the two interactional sub-skills that the speaker uses when he/she speaks: the routine skills and negotiation skills. Routine skills are “conventional ways of presenting information” (1987: 23). There are two kinds of routines: “information routines” and “interactional routines”. Information routines frequently recur types of information structures such as descriptions of people and places, comparisons, instructions, telling stories. Interaction routines are “routines based not so much on sequences of kinds of terms occurring in typical kinds of interactions. Routines thus can be characterized in broad terms to include the kinds of turns typically occurring in given situations, and the order in which the components are likely to occur” (1987: 25). So interactional routines can be found in interactions in different specific situations like telephone conversations, or television interviews, discussions. Another issue concerning the ability to speak is that of fluency and accuracy. “Accuracy is the extent to which students’ speech matches what people actually say when they use the target language. Fluency is the extent to which speakers use the language quickly and confidently, with few hesitations or unnatural pauses, false starts, word searches, etc.” (Nunan, D, 2003: 55). Scarcella and Oxford (1992: 156) have seen many educators who believe that in a communicative class, “it is not necessary to teach conversational features or push students to communicate accurately” and that “fluency can be developed by simply providing students with lots of conversational practice”. However, Richards (1990) points out that accuracy is important for the mastery of English. (quoted in Scarcella & Oxford, 1992: 156). As for Ur (1996), both fluency and accuracy are taken into consideration, apart from other factors. This is a good balance. Although it is obvious that fluency and meaning should be considered the focal point of the speaking lesson, as communicative initiators believed, for example, Canale & Swain (1980), Brumfit & Robert (1983), this does not mean that accuracy could be ignored. The reason is without appropriate correction and adequate attention to accuracy, the mistakes made by the students may fossilize. Brown (1994: 254) also shares the same idea that “both fluency and accuracy are important goals to pursue in CLT”. While communicative classes place emphasis on fluency, he suggests that “accuracy is achieved to some extent by allowing students to focus on the elements of phonology, grammar, and discourse in their spoken output”. This is a very good point to make. In our own situation, most of the second-year majors seem to lack confidence in presenting in English. Nonetheless, what they talk about is more important than what they achieve. Thus, the teacher’s norm of tolerance and encouragement may help students feel safe and heighten their motivation. In a review of theories on spoken language, Brown (1994: 257-258) comes up with the following list of skills and knowledge that a good speaker possesses: - Producing the sounds, stress patterns, rhythmic structures, and intonation of the language. - Producing reduced forms of words and phrases. - Producing fluent speech at different rates of delivery. -Applying strategies to enhance comprehensibility, such as emphasizing key words, rephrasing, or checking for listening comprehension. - Using grammar structures accurately. - Using cohesive devices in spoken discourse. - Selecting vocabulary that is understandable and appropriate for the audience, the topic being discussed, and the setting in which the speech acts occurs. - Using nonverbal language, such as facial expressions, hand gestures or body language and verbal language to convey meanings. - Paying attention to the success of the interaction and adjusting components of speech, such as vocabulary, rate of speech, and complexity of grammar structures to maximize listener’s comprehension and involvement. 1.3.2. Types of Classroom Speaking Performance According to Brown (1994: 266-268) there are six categories of oral production that students are expected to carry out in the classroom. They are imitative, intensive, responsive, transactional (dialogue), interpersonal (dialogue) and extensive (monologue). To begin with, the imitative speaking performance is carried out in the form of imitation drills when learners listen to the teacher, or a tape and repeat what is heard. The author confirms that “drilling is a legitimate part of the communicative language classroom” (Brown, 1994: 266). The reasons, as he believes, are that “drills offer limited practice through repetition. They allow one to focus on one element of language in a controlled activity. They can help to establish certain psychomotor pattern ... and to associate selected grammatical forms with their appropriate context” (Brown, 1994: 266). The second type of speaking performance, intensive speaking. is one step beyond imitative speaking. It includes any speaking