ABSTRACT
This thesis is concerned with stimulating 10-form students’ presentation in English speaking
classroom. Specifically, a survey will be taken on teachers of English and 10-form students
at Marie Curie High school in Hai Phong city to consider how English speaking lessons are
conducted and how students respond to English speaking lessons. The thesis also study
students’ difficulties when participating in English speaking lessons. This thesis also
recommends some practical tips and typical classroom activities which were applied by the
author and suggested by teachers of English at Marie Curie High school to improve quality
of teaching and learning presentation in English.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Mr. Le The Nghiep for his guidance
and inspiration while I was working on this study.
Research for this paper was supported by the Post-graduate Department - College of
Foreign Languages – Hanoi National University with encouragements and permissions.
I would also like to acknowledge the advice, comments I have received from my colleagues
at Marie Curie High school in Haiphong.
My thanks also go to 10 teachers and 100 students at Marie Curie High school in Haiphong
who provided me with valuable data for the study so that I can have a better view of
activities in presentation task in English speaking classes at Marie Curie High school in
Haiphong.
Finally, I would like to thank my family for their special care and support.
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ABBREVIATIONS
CA: Communication Apprehension
CLT: Communicative Language Teaching
EFL: English as Foreign Language
ELT: English Language Teaching
ESL: English as Second Language
FL: Foreign Language
L1: First Language
L2: Second Language
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PART I
INTRODUCTION
1. RATIONALE
As English has been an international language, the ability to present a topic is clearly
valuable at every stage of students’ lives. Whatever the subjects they study, presentation will
bring them success in English speaking classes, academic work, job interviews and their
future work life – it is the most transferable of all their skills, and a critical part of their
professional development. Presentation is also an important part in an English speaking class
at high school, in which students are required to present their ideas in a short and simple
way.
This research is motivated by both subjective and objective reasons. Subjectively, doing a
research on Methodology, especially on teaching speaking is very useful for a teacher of
English. Objectively, the importance of English in communication is increasingly
emphasized, while the present English teaching at Vietnam’s high schools seems to face with
an obstacle in improving learners’ communicative competence. According to
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), the purpose of language teaching and learning is
to develop communicative competence in the target language. Littlewood also states: “One
of the most characteristic features of Communicative Language Teaching is that it pays
systematic attention to functional as well as structural aspects of language”. However, the
traditional method applied at Vietnamese secondary schools does not comply with the
textbook at all. Most teachers focus on teaching vocabulary, grammar, reading and writing
skills. They do not pay adequate attention to speaking and listening skills. As a result, this
leads to some problems. Learners can be good at written English but they have difficulty in
using it in oral communication. Besides, their English is not good enough to use in real
communicating situations. Moreover, teaching and learning conditions at Vietnamese
secondary schools are face with some drawbacks. A class of 45 to 50 learners is not
appropriate for language teaching and learning. Therefore, a suggested solution is that
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teachers should apply suitable classroom activities to stimulate learners’ speaking ability
right from the beginning.
Hopefully, this study will make a small contribution to the application of communicative
language teaching approach in developing the 10
th
form learners’ ability in presentation at
Vietnamese secondary schools in general and at Marie Curie high school in Haiphong in
particular.
2. OBJECTS OF STUDY
Due to actual English teaching and learning conditions, so far the most widely used English
textbooks at Vietnamese high schools have been applied to 7-year English course. Thus, the
subjects of the study will be the high school students who use 7-year English textbooks. For
the limitation of the study, it can only focus on the 10
th
form Marie Curie high school
students.
3. AIMS OF STUDY
Fist of all, this study is conducted to emphasize the importance of presentation skill in
learning English.
Secondly, this study will suggest some classroom activities to stimulate the 10
th
form Marie
Curie High school students in presentation tasks in an English speaking class.
Finally, it provides suggestions for teachers of English to prepare English lessons at Marie
Curie High school.
4. SCOPE OF STUDY
Due to the limit of the thesis, the study can not cover all techniques to stimulate students’
speaking ability in a language class. Therefore, it will focus on some typical classroom
activities which may produce a stimulus for the 10
th
form Marie Curie High school students’
presentation.
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5. METHODOLOGY OF STUDY
The theoretical background of the study is mainly based on the books and documents written
by a number of scholars on foreign language teaching.
This study is conducted based on qualitative and quantitative methods. Comments, remarks,
suggestions and conclusions are based on actual researches, experience, and discussions.
Besides, books are used as reference.
Situational survey will be conducted on the students’ learning style and motivation, their
problems in English presentation tasks. The study will also be conducted on teachers’
techniques to raise students’ ability of presentation.
Questionnaires will be given to analyze learners’ attitude towards presentation tasks as well
as teachers’ techniques in speaking classes and needs in foreign language teaching and
learning.
6. RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
Perhaps one of the obvious problems is the lack of students’ interest and active participation
in learning activities. Traditional methods of teaching in English classrooms have focused on
passive learning. This problem is probably caused by less exciting and practical activities of
teachers. The questions to be dealt with are:
How important is presentation to foreign language learning?
What should be done to stimulate the 10
th
form Marie Curie High school students in
presentation tasks in an English speaking class?
7. DESIGN OF THE STUDY
The study is intended to consist of three parts:
1. Part 1 – Introduction: give reasons for choosing the thesis, objects, aims and scope of
the study as well as the methodology of the study.
2. Part 2 – Development: will be divided into three chapters:
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Chapter 1: Literature Review focus on some definitions of presentation, types of
presentation. Some factors that prevent students from presenting a topic and communicative
classroom activities are also mentioned as the basis of the thesis. Finally, the thesis discuss
the important of integrating skills, the relation between presentation and other skills
including reading, writing and listening.
Chapter 2: The study gives the data analysis from the survey of 10 teachers of
English and 100 students at Marie Curie High school to make the foundation for the
activities in chapter 3.
Chapter 3: indicates some typical activities and practical tips for teacher to stimulate
10-form students’ presentation in an English speaking lesson and examples for illustration.
3. Part 3 – Conclusion: summarizes the study, limitations of the study and suggestions
for further study.
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PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. SOME DEFINITIONS
Presentation is generally defined in different dictionaries is to show and to explain the
content of a topic to an audience or to audiences. According to Wikipedia – The Free
Encyclopedia, presentation is the process of showing and explaining the content of a topic to
an audience. The same definition is also recognized by Longman Language Activator (1998:
1017) – To present is to be the person who tells the people watching or listening about the
different things what will happen or are happening.
For 10-form students, presentation is simplified and limited in a given topic. In a typical 10-
form English speaking lesson, students are asked to make small presentations based on a
given topic. The lesson is normally built up with three tasks:
- Task 1: Students practice sample dialogues to have a general understanding about the
topic;
- Task 2: Students participate in group discussion, in which students express their
ideas and get to know the others’ ideas on the given topic.
- Task 3: From the ideas collected from discussion task, students integrate the ideas to
make a presentation. This presentation will be presented by a student on behalf of
his/her group.
1.2. FACTORS PREVENT STUDENTS FROM PRESENTING A TOPIC
1.2.1. Factors of Foreign Language Anxiety
Anxiety has been found to interfere with many types of learning but when it is associated
with learning a second or foreign language, it is termed as ‘second/foreign language
anxiety’. It is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon (Young, 1991) and can be
defined as a subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated
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with an arousal of the automatic nervous system. Is has been found that the feeling of tension
and nervousness center on two basic task requirement of foreign language learning: listening
and speaking because both the skills can not be separated.
According to Horwitz et al. (1986: 127), there are three related performance anxieties: (1)
communication apprehension (CA); (2) test anxiety; (3) fear of negative evaluation. Due to
its emphasis on interaction, the construct of communication apprehension is also relevant to
the conceptualization of foreign language anxiety (McCroskey, 1977). The description of
these components will lay the foundations for the concept of second/foreign language
anxiety, providing an insight to comprehend the sources or causes it can originate from.
• Communicative Apprehension (CA)
The speaking skill is so central to our thinking about language learning that when we refer to
speaking a language we often mean knowing a language. MacIntyre and Garder (1991)
points out that the skill which produces most anxiety is speaking. This anxiety comes in part
from a lack of confidence in our general linguistic knowledge but if only this factor were
involved, all skills would be affected equally. What distinguishes speaking is the public
nature of the skill, the embarrassment suffered from exposing our language imperfections in
front of others.
One of the most studied topics in the field of speech communication is the tendency on the
part of some people to avoid, and even, fear, communicating orally. Horwitz et al. (1986:
128) define communication apprehension (CA) as “a type of shyness characterized by fear or
anxiety about communicating with people”.
Communication anxiety may be specific to just a few settings (e.g., public speaking) or may
exist in most everyday communication situations, or may even be part of a general anxiety
trait that arises in many facets of an individual’s life (Fiedman, 1980). Learners’ personality
traits such as shyness, quietness, and reticence are considered to frequently precipitate CA.
These feelings of shyness vary greatly from individual to individual, and from situation to
situation. McCroskey and Bond (1980) found seven factors that could result in a quiet child
(this can equally offer explanation of adult CA); (1) low intellectual skills, (2) speech skill
deficiencies, (3) voluntary social introversion, (4) social alienation, (5) communication
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anxiety, (6) low social self-esteem, (7) ethnic/cultural divergence in communication norms.
While communication apprehension is one of these factors, the others can lead to
communication apprehension.
Communication apprehension obviously plays a large role in second/foreign language
anxiety. People who are apprehensive speaking groups are likely to be ever in more trouble
when doing so in a second/foreign language class, where in addition to feeling less in control
of the communicative situation, they also may feel that their attempts at oral work are
constantly being monitored. This apprehension is explained in relation to the learner’s
negative self-perceptions caused by the inability to understand others and make himself
understood. McCroskey (in Apaibanditkul, 2006: 4) labels this kind of apprehension – which
Neer refers to as “apprehension about classroom participation” – as classroom
communication apprehension.
• Test anxiety
An understanding of test anxiety is also important to the discussion of foreign language
anxiety. Text anxiety, as explained by Horwitz et al. (1986), refers to a type of anxiety
stemming from a fear of failure. Test anxiety is quite common in language classroom at any
levels.
Unfortunately, for highly anxious students, second/foreign languages, more than any other
academic subject, require continual evaluation by the teacher – the only fluent speaker in the
class. It is also important to note that oral testing has the potential to provoke both test and
oral communication anxiety.
• Fear of Negative Evaluation
Fear of negative evaluation is an extension of the second component (test anxiety) of
second/foreign language anxiety because it is not limited to test-taking situations; rather, it
may occur in any social, evaluative situation, such as interviewing for a job or speaking in
second/foreign language class. It is also broader in the sense that it pertains not only to the
teacher’s evaluation of the students but also to the perceived reaction of other students as
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