Difficulties faced by first year students of Tour guides at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts in English oral presentations. = Những khó khăn đối với sinh viê20150227

iii
ABSTRACT

The importance of English oral presentation is undeniable in the Tour guiding
work. Therefore, understanding the students of Tour guides’ difficulties in learning English
oral presentation skill is apparently necessary to gain effective ESP teaching and learning.

This minor thesis was carried out with an attempt to investigate the areas of
difficulties and obstacles that first years students of Tour guides have encountered when
learning English oral presentation skill at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts (THCCA).

The minor thesis is organized in 3 parts:

Part I presents the rationale, aims and significance of the study, research questions, scope,
method and design of the study.

Part II consists of 4 chapters
The first chapter concentrates on the background of the study and the related
literature reviews, on which the contents of the study are based.
The second chapter focuses on developing the research methodology, in which the
two questionnaires for first year students of Tour guides and ESP teachers are chosen as
main instruments.
The third chapter is to present the data collected from the two questionnaires and to
analyze the data.
The fourth chapter aims at discussing the findings of the difficulties as well as some
solutions in the hope to develop students of Tour guides’ English oral presentation skill at
Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts.

Part III summaries the study and offers some suggestions for further study.

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS


THCCA: Thanh Hoa College of Culture and Arts.
ESP: English for specific purpose.
BA: Basic English.

v
LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: The students’ time of learning English before entering the College
Table 2: The students’ difficulties in making English oral presentations in the class
Table 3: Students’ causes of difficulties
Table 4: Students’ suggestions
Table 5: The teachers’ experience of teaching ESP
Table 6: The teachers’ opinions of students’ attitudes
Table 7: Teachers’ teaching methods
Table 8: Teachers’ opinions of the topics and of the ESP syllabus
Table 9: Teachers’ opinions of the factors causing students’ problems
Table 10: Teachers’ suggested solutions to students’ problems
Figure 1: The students’ living conditions before entering the College
Figure 2: The students’ awareness of the importance of English oral presentation
Figure 3: The students’ evaluations of the topics in the textbook
Figure 4: The students’ evaluations of their ability of making English oral presentations
Figure 5: Teachers’ perceptions of the importance of English oral presentations
Figure 6: Teachers’ difficulties in teaching English oral presentations

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TABLE OF CONTENTS


Page
CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT
i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ii
ABSTRACT
iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
iv
LIST OF TABLES
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
vi
PART I: INTRODUCTION
1
1. Rationale

1
2. Aims of the study
2
3. Scope of the study
2
4. Methodology
2
5. Design of the study
3
PART II: DEVELOPMENT
4
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
4
1.1. Current overview on oral presentations
4
1.1.1. A general view of oral presentation
4
1.1.2. Types of oral presentations
5
1.1.3. Structure of an oral presentation
7
1.1.4. The importance of English Oral presentations to students of Tour guides
8
1.2. Problems with English oral presentation of Tour guides
9
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
12
2.1. The context of the study
12
2.1.1. ESP teaching and learning situation at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts

12
2.1.2. Teaching staff
12
2.1.3. Students of Tour guides
12
2.1.4. Materials used for first year students of Tour guide at THCCA
13
2.1.4.1. The objectives of the course
13
2.1.4.2. The syllabus
14

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2.1.4.3. Materials
14
2.2. The research methodology
15
2.2.1. Research questions
15
2.2.2. The participants
15
2.2.3. The instruments of the study
15
2.2.3.1. The questionnaire for students
15
2.2.3.2. The questionnaire for teachers
16
2.2.4. Data collection procedures
16
2.2.5. Summary

16
CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
17
3.1. The questionnaires for students
17
3.1.1. Methodology
17
3.1.2. Results
17
3.1.2.1. Student’s living condition and background of learning English
17
3.1.2.2. Student’s awareness of the importance of English oral presentations in
their future career.
19
3.1.2.3. Students’ evaluations of the topics and their oral presentation of Tour
guides in the class
19
3.1.2.4. Students’ difficulties in learning English oral presentation skill
21
3.1.2.5. Factors causing the students’ difficulties
22
3.1.2.6. Students’ suggestions
23
3.2. The questionnaires for teachers
25
3.2.1. Methodology
25
3.2.2. Results
25
3.2.2.1. Teachers’ teaching experiences

25
3.2.2.2. Teachers’ perception of the importance of English oral presentations to
students of Tour guides
26
3.2.2.3. Teachers’ opinions of Tourism major students’ attitudes to English oral
presentations
26
3.2.2.4. Teachers’ methods in teaching English oral presentations to first year
students of Tour guides
27

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3.2.2.5. Teachers’ opinions of the contents in the course book and of ESP syllabus
28
3.2.2.6. Teachers’ difficulties in teaching English oral presentations
29
3.2.2.7. Teachers’ opinions of the factors causing students’ problems and teachers’
suggested solutions
29
3.3. Conclusion
31
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS
32
4.1. Findings
32
4.1.1. Students’ difficulties in learning English oral presentation
32
4.1.1.1. Students lack specialized knowledge of Tourism
32
4.1.1.2. Students have low English proficiency

33
4.1.1.3. Students lack body language performance
33
4.1.1.4. Students lack confidence
33
4.1.1.5. Students lack an ESP practice environment
34
4.1.2. Teachers’ difficulties in teaching English oral presentation
34
4.1.3. Other problems
35
4.1.3.1. Lack of a suitable training program
35
4.1.3.2. Lack of necessary facilities
35
4.2. Suggested solutions
35
4.2.1. For teachers
36
4.2.1.1. Improve sociolinguistic competence and specialized knowledge
36
4.2.1.2. Improve students’ performance skill in oral presentations
36
4.2.1.3. Build up students’ confidence
37
4.2.2. For students
37
4.2.2.1. Improve their knowledge of ESP
37
4.2.2.2. Improve their performance ability of English oral presentations of Tour

guides
38
4.2.3. For the administrators
38
4.2.3.1. Change the ESP teaching syllabus and equip conductive facilities
38
4.2.3.2. Provide ESP teachers with chances to take part in Tourism training
courses
39
4.2.3.3. Create an ESP practice environment for students of Tour guides
39

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PART III: CONCLUSION
41
1. Conclusion
41
2. Limitations of the study
41
3. Suggestions for further research
42
REFERENCES
43
APPENDIX
I

1
PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale

Nowadays, English has become the language of international communication. It is
not possible to see that not only English language has been a major concern and but also
oral communication skills also become very necessary to all the learners. Communication
among nations has rapidly improved with the development of international programs.
There is, therefore, an over – growing need for foreign languages with English being the
“most wanted”. So, people really need good English communication skills in all the areas.
One of these areas is tourism.
Tourism is an important and comprehensive economic branch with profound
cultural contents of an inter-branch, inter-regional and highly socialized character. Being a
growing industry, tourism in Vietnam provides interesting opportunities for Vietnamese
students to work with people. This industry certainly need tourism graduates develop
strong oral communication skills. And we can recognize the main language skill in tourism
is English communication skill which is considered as universal language in all the fields

of the tourist sector at an international level. Mastery of this language proves essential for a
correct bibliographic research in any of the subjects included in the training course of Tour
guides.
To students of Tour guides, English oral communication skill is very essential since
the industry is really in need of the graduates who have the skills. For first year
Vietnamese students of Tour guides at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts, English oral
presentation is extremely important because they expect to use it frequently for their tour
guiding work. However, for nearly seven years of teaching ESP at THCCA, the researcher
of the study have realized the fact that many learners of Tour guides course after a long
time of learning English for Tourism find themselves unable to deliver an oral presentation
successfully. Among of them, there are a large number of first year students who always
find it difficult to make English oral presentations in the class.
For this reason, the researcher decided to choose the theme “Difficulties faced by
first-year students of Tour Guides at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts in English
oral presentations” as the topic of this thesis. The aim of the study is to identify the


2
problems of students’ poor English oral competence so that appropriate solutions could be
proposed to the question under investigation.

2. Aims of the study

The study is aimed at:
- investigating first year students of tour guides’ difficulties in English oral presentation
skill
- giving some suggestions and solutions to reduce difficulties and improve the teaching and
learning of English oral presentations in Tour guides training course.
In other words, the aims of the study are to answer the following questions:
1. What are the difficulties faced by first year students of Tour guides at Thanh Hoa

College of Culture and Arts in English oral presentations?
2. What are the solutions to overcome the identified difficulties?

3. Scope of the study

With the above aims, the research is limited to the exploration of difficulties
encountered by first year students of Tour guides at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts
in English Oral presentations. It involves the participation of 80 first-year Tourism majors
who are in their second semester at THCCA. The findings and suggested solutions most
appropriately applied to the teachers of ESP as well as first year Tourism majors of
THCCA. That is, students of Tour guides will be able to find ways to improve their process
of learning English oral presentation skill.

4. Methodology

The study was designed to use a combination of various methods to achieve its
aims and objectives.
Firstly, an intensive review of the literature was done to explore the relevant
theoretical issues concerning first year students’ difficulties in English oral presentations of
Tour guides.


3
Also, various sources of data were used, involving first year students of Tour
guides and teachers of English at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts in order to address
the aims of the study:
 Conducting a survey questionnaire to investigate first year students’ difficulties
in English oral presentation skill.
 Conducting a survey questionnaire to examine teachers’ view on first year
students’ difficulties in English oral presentation, their teaching techniques and

suggested solutions to the identified problems.
 Resorting to personal experience.
All these questionnaires were carried out at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts.

5. Design of the study

The study consists of three parts:
Part I (Introduction) presents the rationale, the aims, the scope, the methodology and the
design of the study.
Part II (Development) consists of following chapters
Chapter 1: Literature review aims at the theoretical background, which is relevant
to the aims of the study.
Chapter 2: Methodology describes the research methodology, which focuses on the
context of the study, participants, instruments and data collection procedure.
Chapter 3: Data analysis and discussion gains results from the questionnaires for
students and teachers
Chapter 4: Finding and Suggested solutions give the findings and some suggested
solutions to the problems of the study.
Part III (Conclusion) summaries the study and offers some suggestions for further
research.





4
PART II: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1. Current view on oral presentations

1.1.1. A general view of oral presentations
In “Guidelines for Oral Presentations” (Ohio Wesleyan
University), oral 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.
They are similar to short papers with an introduction, main body and conclusion. The
ability to give brief presentations is a learned skill and the one that is called on frequently
in the workplace”.
There exist a number of reasons why oral presentation skills should be developed in
the literature on oral presentations. According to Emden & Becker (2004), they hold the
idea that the “ability to speak well enough to interest, influence or persuade other people is
a major asset for whatever they want to do in the future and it may change them in ways
that they did not expect”. That idea is true as the learners can get benefits from oral
presentation skills.
First of all, oral presentations often provide practice in speaking for the presenter
and they develop the ability to speak to an audience. When we make a presentation, we
may seem to be a more limited activity than other tasks, such as role play, information-gap
activity; it can in fact involve all the language skills. We will have to develop and use this
skill in all our life.
In addition, through the mastery of speech, individuals come to be fully effective in
organization, in the management and expression of ideas and arguments, especially when
they write a report or even write an essay. (Powell, 2003)


5
After all, when we can present clearly, concisely, and convincingly, we will gain
enormous confidence, which as Emden and Becker (2004) put it “will result in an even
better presentation next time” and “the newfound confidence may affect other areas of
your work”. We are more ready to ask and answer the questions, respond to a challenge

and organize their work more effectively.
As a result, with the above - mentioned reasons, giving oral presentations is one of
the necessary skills that students have to acquire in learning a foreign language. In the
context of Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts, it seems to be the most important skill to
majors of Tour guides as it helps the students improve their own academic performance,
communicate, exchange information with their tourists and thereby develop personal
confidence.
1.1.2. Types of oral presentations

Oral presentations are classified based on their purposes and forms or manners of
delivery. According to Randall P. Whatley, there are following common types of
presentations: informative, instructional, arousing, persuasive,
and decision-making presentations. (See http:
//www.cs.wisc.edu/%7Emarkhill/conference-talk.html).
An informative presentation is the first type of presentation that provides awareness
and understanding. They are basically descriptive. The presenter, firstly, must keep an
informative presentation brief and relevant; secondly, stick to the facts and avoid
complicated information; finally, he/she should choose one of the following organizational
structures for this kind of presentation: time, place, cause and effect, and logical order. For
example, an informative presentation explains when, where and how things should happen.
An Instructional presentation is the second type which gives specific directions or
orders. The presentation will probably be a bit longer, because it has to cover the topic
thoroughly. In an instructional presentation, the listeners should come away with new
knowledge or a new skill.
An arousing presentation aims to make people think about a certain problem or


6
situation. The presenter wants to arouse the audience's emotions and knowledge so that
they will be receptive to his/her point of view. To be effective, he/she must use vivid

language, visual aids, music, etc in an arousing presentation.
A persuasive presentation is to motivate a belief, an evaluation, or a specific course
of action. It is basically evaluative and prescriptive. A convincing persuasive presentation
offers a solution to a controversy, dispute, or problem. To succeed with a persuasive
presentation, the presenter must present sufficient logic, evidence, and emotion to sway the
audience to his/her viewpoint.
Finally, a decision-making presentation aims to move the audience to take the
presenter’s suggested action. A decision-making presentation presents ideas, suggestions,
and arguments strongly enough to persuade the audience to carry out the presenter’s
requests. In a decision-making presentation, he must tell the audience what to do and how
to do it. He/she should also let them know what will happen if they do not do what he/she
asks.
However, Dwyer (2000) offers a thorough description of four presentational forms
or speeches, as he calls them:
* Extemporaneous Method
* Manuscript Method
* Memorization Method
* Impromptu Method
Extemporaneous Method:
In this method the speaker speaks from previously prepared outline or notes. The
main points are written on flash cards or on a piece of paper and these points are elaborated
by the speaker. The flash cards or paper may have quotes, comments and statistics.
This method is also generally preferred by people as it allows more eye-contact with
audience. The people can concentrate on the speech and the speaker gets a chance to
connect with the audience without boring them. A speaker can be helped by letting them
practice their genius and ensures they don’t fumble at the same time.
Manuscript Method:


7

For long speeches which may have technical data, complex figures and quotations
from authorities the manuscript method is a better option. In this method the speaker reads
from an already prepared speech. Government officials, politicians and executives prefer
this method as it helps them read important details verbatim.
Although, this method is good for speeches where data is to be quoted, or the
speech is too long to memorize, however reading the entire speech word for word should
be avoided. Direct eye contact is hardly possible in this method therefore, the audiences get
bored quickly. To use this method to its fullest aids like large font, double-space and wide
margins should be used. When it becomes easy to read, it becomes possible to pass glances
on audience from time to time.
Memorization Method:
This method is generally used in declamations and speeches where paper-reading is
not allowed. In this method, the speaker memorizes and rehearses a pre-written speech. It
is also useful for people who want to present an oral presentation of three to four minutes
and want to finish it in time.
To utilize this method, the speaker should memorize only the beginning and end of
the speech. Or main ideas and short quotations should be memorized.
Impromptu Method:
Speaking on the spur of moment is called Impromptu Speaking. This type of speech
is expected from people to give comments and remarks or a rebuttal in a debate.
Though this method of presentation is most interesting, particularly if the speaker is
very witty, however it has many threats to it. The speaker might not be able to convince his
audience, or may get confused; his ideas might appear to be incoherent.
By practicing a few things people present their ideas through this method. It is
possible to speak impromptu from time to time. The key is good listening. If possible,
notes should be jotted down to avoid confusions. With the help of good listening,
impromptu thinking becomes not only possible but also enjoyable.

1.1.3. Structure of an oral presentation

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According to the literature on oral presentations (Comfort: 1995; Dwyer: 2000;
Emden & Becker: 2004, etc.) an oral presentation consists of three main parts: the
introduction, body and conclusion.
The introduction aims to state the topic and get the audience’s attention. It gives the
audience a preview of the presentation, so it is important to stimulate their interest at this
stage. Although a well-crafted introduction should be succinct, it should provide the
audience with several pieces of information such as who you are and an accurate
pronunciation of your name; background information as needed; the purpose or goal of the
presentation; a preview of the main points or major ideas to be covered in the body.
The body is the central part of the presentation in which the presenter informs,
persuades or entertains the audience. So the presenter can make the presentation lively and
interesting by including information, such as personal experiences, examples and
illustrations, facts, and statistics. A relevant personal story or example can make all the
difference between a dry presentation and a memorable one. Graphic illustrations and other
visual aids not only help to clarify the message, but also add color and credibility.
In order to let the audience know you are about to end the talk in the conclusion,
the presenter should use signal phrases such as “in conclusion”, “to summarize”, “in
closing”. It reinforces and summaries the information presented in the body. So, a clear
summary of the purpose and main points will help the audience get the big picture and
increase listeners’ understanding.
In short, an oral presentation has three main parts. Part one is Introduction. It “sets
the scene” and engages the audience by motivating them to listen by relating the topic to
their interests. Part two is the body or the development. It must explain, support, and
defend the theme in the introduction. All main points must be covered. The last one, the
conclusion is a brief overview of the presentation. The presenter may also conclude by
inviting the audience to take some action, or by challenging them, or by asking for their
cooperation or support and thanking them for attending.
1.1.4. The importance of English Oral presentations to students of Tour guides

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Most of students realize that tour guide is a very interesting job. In many cases, the
tour guide is a traveler’s first impression of a foreign country. In other cases a tour guide
may be responsible for teaching tourists about the culture and sites in a city or town. In
addition, many tour guides hold the responsibility of teaching tourists about safety. Even if
a tour guide is only responsible for taking a tourist from the airport to his or her hotel, it is
his/ her responsibility to make the short trip interesting, informative, and safe. During the
tour, therefore, English oral presentation is very important to tour guides in Vietnam
because it is considered as a bridge linking foreigners to various destinations of tourism.
When working with international visitors, English is the first choice to use in oral
presentations. Through a tour guiding, a presentation would be introducing the place or the
country in terms of its importance and history, politics, culture and fauna and flora to the
participants of the tour. According to Virtual University for Small States of the
Commonwealth (2010), for an on-site tour guide, the vocal delivery is necessary.
Presentation in this aspect is also called a tour commentary, which is referred to as “guide
speaks”. A presentation enables the tour guide to show himself as the leader and the one
responsible for the group. A presentation helps the tour guide to ascertain control over his
group, and enables the presenter to identify who is following and who is not. A
presentation standardizes the information passed to all.
Guide speak may be considered a form of public speaking. The characteristics of a
good presentation are fundamental to the job of the tour guide.
Therefore, the characteristics of a presentation can be clarified as follows:
 Use of short, simple, clear words
 Simple phrases not convoluted meandering. The commentary should be succinct
and clear.
 Focus is on the topic or sight. It must be authentic and stay on track.

1.2. Problems with oral presentations of tour guides

A great majority of the students of Tour guides are well aware of the importance of
English oral presentation for their future careers. However, presentations are always the


10
challenges to most of them, especially for first-year students who had little previous
experience on making presentations. Their main problems can be identified as follows:



A bad layout before making an oral presentation

A layout can be seen as key notes for the speech. It helps the speakers have clear
and enough information before starting the speech. However, the students of tour guides
often encounter the problems in the first step of an English oral presentation and as a
result, giving a layout is the foremost difficulty in the process. Students seriously
underestimate the amount of preparation it takes to give a good presentation. The
suggested main ideas are not listed in order or necessary information is not provided
enough. The list is usually quite long, ranging from lack of substance or poor organization
to speaking in a monotone or using verbal fillers like "um" and "you know”.

Poor specialized knowledge of Tourism destinations

Students must have enough background knowledge of Tourism before making oral
presentation. That means they must have profound information related to Tourism field to
take foreigners to tourism destinations. However, the specialized knowledge of Tourism
remains a problem in making oral presentations. Students often have poor information
about their destinations. That leads to boring or bad presentations because information is
not provided enough or exactly.

Bad English speaking skill

Speaking skill is one of the major elements which deciding a successful
presentation. In the process of speaking, speakers need master pronunciation, intonation,
stress, rhythm… because English pronunciation, stress- timed rhythm of spoken English
and its intonation patterns convey important massages. But the fact that learners of English
often find it difficult to pronounce English words, especially the words related to Tourism


11
fields, to stress the right syllables, to follow the stress- timed rhythm and intonation
patterns of spoken English.



Nervousness

Arnold (2003) discusses anxiety as a hindrance to effective communication. The
main reasons for anxiety in public speaking appear to be a lack of confidence. Besides,
speakers are concerned with various difficulties in grammar, lexis, and pronunciation.
Therefore, getting nervousness in English presentation is a big problem of a large number
of learners. That is the fact of many students when they endorse the item “I get nervous
and confused when I am speaking in my language class” and some other agree that “I feel
very self-conscious about speaking the foreign language in front of other students”. Almost
half of the students reported that they started to panic when they had to speak without
preparation in the target language. When students cannot control their anxiety, they tend to
think about negative evaluations from other people and the situation becomes worse. In
fact, oral presentations always cause high anxiety level to students. So, learners will show
poor English speaking performance because they are not competent in using the target

language.

Bad communicative competence

Having a bad communicative competence comes from the main causes of having
bad performance & response skill. Good performance is considered an important element
in the presentation process because it attracts the audience’s attention. An oral presentation
of a Tourism destination will be very boring if the speaker does not know how to perform
his/her skill. Response skill is also required as speakers have to deal with the response
from the listeners. And the speaker can be seen as an intelligent presenter or a good tourist
guides through his/her response ability.
As a result, students often complain that they cannot think of anything to say, or that they
have no intention to express themselves beyond the guilty feeling. It means that they have


12
many pauses during the speech because of having nothing to present. That leads to an
interrupted presentation or disjointed speech.
To sum up, as making English oral presentations, most of first year students of Tour
guides encounter many problems. Basing on these views, the researcher intends to
investigate those difficulties in the hope of giving solutions to the identified problems and
improving the students’ English oral presentation skill.
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

2.1. The context of the study

2.1.1. ESP teaching and learning situation at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts

Thanh Hoa College of Culture and Arts has been in operation for 20 years. At the
beginning, its duty was to train only teachers of Art and Music, so English serves as a

means that provides students with basic knowledge about grammar and vocabulary.
Since 2004, Tour Guide has been as a new branch which was trained in the Faculty of
Culture and Tourism with the tasks of training Tourist guides. Accordingly, English has
become a major subject for students of this field.

2.1.2. Teaching staff

THCCA has 8 teachers of English aged between 25 and 55. They are working at the
Faculty of Culture and Tourism. Two of them have got a M.A degree of English from
Hanoi University of languages & international studies and the rest hold a B.A degree in
English language teaching. There are only two young teachers who take charge of only
teaching Basic English, the others are responsible for both Basic English and ESP. None of
them have been completed the short – term English for Tourism course. They enjoy
teaching and spend all of their enthusiasm and effort making their teaching lessons
interesting and attractive to the students. However, during the ESP teaching process,
teachers have to face with many difficulties in terms of knowledge of the specific field
they have to teach and the teaching methodologies appropriate to ESP.


13

2.1.3. Students of Tour guides

Every year in the past, 30- 60 students were selected to be trained as Tourist guides.
But in the school year of 2010 – 2011, 100 students are trained in the Faculty of Tourism.
The intended subjects of this study are drawn from the first year students of Tour guides.
Their age ranges from 19 to 22 years old. Each ESP class consists of about 25 - 35
students. They have 5 periods of ESP per week.
Entering the College, they have to pass the entrance exam of English, Math, and
Literature. They are supposed to have the intermediate level of English. Most of the

students have good proficiency of English; however, their speaking ability is still limited.
The course book used for teaching English oral presentations is designed by the teachers of
English Division. The course book is task-based designed. All the topics in this book are
selected from different materials related to tourism atractions in Vietnam and in Thanh
Hoa province. The objective of the course book is to provide students with necessary
information about Tourism destinations, and help them be able to make oral presentations
in English.
It is the fact that students find it hard to acquire and develop their English oral
presentation competence to meet the demand of their future employment. And it is possible
to see that there are many difficulties facing students of Tour guides, especially first years
ones, in English oral presentations.

2.1.4. Materials used for students of Tour guides at THCCA

2.1.4.1. The objectives of the course

Students will have chances to get a college degree specialized in Tour guides after
having a 3 year training course at THCCA. After graduation, they can have a choice to
apply for the job as tourist guides in Thanh Hoa province.
In the first stage of the course, students are provided with general knowledge of
English. In the second stage, their professional knowledge of English is improved to meet
the essential requirements of Tour guiding work.


14
Before graduation, students are helped to improve their English oral presentation
skill and enrich their useful ESP knowledge relating to Tourism field. In addition, they will
be supplied with intensive knowledge of Tourist guides and related terms in Tourism
industry so that they can use ESP well as a useful tool in their future job.

2.1.4.2. The syllabus

To students of Tour guides At THCCA, the teaching of English is divided into two
stages. During the first stage (consisting only of the first term), students study Basic
English with four micro skills namely: speaking, listening, reading and writing (Pre -
intermediate Lifelines textbook is chosen with the time devoted to it is 75 periods/15
credits. The second stage lasts five terms in which students learn ESP related to their field
and the subject is English oral presentation of Tour guides. That means English oral
presentation skill is introduced only after the students have studied BE for one term. The
ESP syllabus is meant for five semesters with the length of 180 periods, thus students will
have 5 periods per week. Each unit lasts for 5 to 10 periods depending on the length and
difficulty of its content.

2.1.4.3. Materials

The 2nd stage is time for students to study ESP for their professional field. At this
stage, students will study the course book “English for Tourism” designed by teachers
working in English group at THCCA. The ESP course book for oral presentations covers
18 units for 5 semesters dealing with interesting topics:
Traditional festivals in Vietnam
(
including Lunar New Year in Vietnam; Huong Pagoda
Festival; Hung Temple Festival; Lim festival, Lam Kinh festival
)
;
Traditional working villages in Vietnam
(
including Bat Trang pottery village; Dong Ho
folk painting village; Van Phuc silk village; Nga Son sedge mat village; Stone Craft of
Nhoi mountain

)
;
Beauty spots (including Halong Bay; Phong Nha - Ke Bang grottoes, Nha Trang beach,
Sam Son resort
;
Cam Luong Fish Spring)


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Historical cultural vestige sites (including Hanoi flag Tower, Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum,
Ba Trieu Temple
;
Ham Rong historical vestige site; Ho Dynasty Citadel)
Eco – Tourism (including Cat Ba island; Ao Vua eco-tourism site; Cuc Phuong National
Park, Ben En National Park, Cat Tien National Park)
The purpose of teaching English for Tourism is to develop the students’
presentation competence so that they can make fluent and successful English oral
presentations of Tour guides for their future career. Therefore, oral presentation skill is
paid attention to from the second semester and “English for Tourism" course is chosen to
conduct the study.

2.2. The research methodology

2.2.1. Research questions
The study is seeking the answers to three questions below:
1. What are some difficulties faced by first year students of Tour guides at THCCA?
2. What are feasible solutions to overcome the identified difficulties?

2.2.2. The participants

The participants of the study are 06 teachers of English who teach ESP to major
students of Tour guides at THCCA. They range from 28 to 50 years of age. All of them
have taught ESP major students for at least one year. 80 students were chosen from 100
first year students of Tour guides. Most of them are female (80%) aged between 19 and 22.
These first year students specialized in Tour guides who have finished one semester of BA
at THCCA, they are now learning ESP for their field.

2.2.3. The instruments of the study

2.2.3.1. The questionnaire for the students
Based on certain knowledge about the students’ problems gained through seven
years of experience as a teacher of English at Thanh Hoa College of Culture & Arts, the


16
survey questionnaire was designed to find out the difficulties first-year majors of Tour
guides might encounter when making ESP oral presentations. 80 copies of a questionnaire
were given to 80 first year students of Tour guides at THCCA who agreed to answer the
questionnaire. The questionnaire for students is in English so as to make sure that there is
no misunderstanding. (see Appendix 1).
2.2.3.2. The questionnaires for teachers
To get teachers’ opinions on English oral presentation teaching methods, another
set of questionnaires were distributed to 06 teachers who are teaching ESP to Tourism
major students at THCCA to collect information about teacher’s difficulties they encounter
in their ESP teaching. Teachers’ opinions of the course book used for their teaching and
their techniques in dealing with students’ problems were also referred in this
questionnaire.(see Appendix 2).
2.2.4. Data collection procedures

The time for data collection lasted during the fifth month of the second semester of

the school year 2010 – 2011. Because it was the time students were going to complete the
first term of learning English oral presentation skill of Tour guides.Students may have an
overview on the difficulties of English oral presentation skill in their training course.
In the first week, the questionnaires were delivered to 80 first year Tourism major
students. The students had 15 minutes to complete the questionnaire. The purpose and
importance of the study were explained. While students were completing the
questionnaires, any questions were clarified by the teacher.
In the second week, 06 copies of another questionnaire were delivered to 06
teachers who are teaching English oral presentations skill of Tour guides for the first year
Tourism major students. The time for them to complete it was 05 days.
2.2.5. Summary
This chapter presented the research questions, data collection instrument and
analysis. In the next chapter, the data analysis and discussion will be presented


17



CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, the results of the study are presented. The data has been collected
from the questionnaires for teachers and students. The results will be presented in forms of
tables.

3.1. The questionnaires for students

3.1.1. Methodology

To make sure that the study has adequate reliability, a questionnaire is delivered to

80 first year students of Tour guides who are learning English oral presentations in three
different classes. These students are following the ESP syllabus conducted by the
administrators at THCCA. The questionnaire (Appendix 1) consists of 8 questions with
different categories:
- Student’s living conditions and English learning background before entering the College.
- Student’s awareness of the importance of English oral presentations in their future career.
- Students’ evaluations of the topics and their oral presentation of Tour guides in the class
- Students’ difficulties in learning English oral presentation skill
- Factors causing the students’ difficulties
- Students’ suggestions

3.1.2. Results

3.1.2.1. Student’s living conditions and background of learning English

The background of the students will be discussed in Figure 1 and table 1.



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18.75%
23.75%
57.50%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%

100%
In
cities/towns
In
mountainous/
remote area
In the
countryside



Over a half of students (57.5%) were from the countryside where the English
learning condition was poor. There were only 18.75% of the informants coming from the
city/towns where they had better conditions for learning English. More noticeably, 23.75%
of the students were from mountainous/remote areas where English seemed to be new for
them.

Table 1: The students’ time of learning English before entering the College
Time
N
0
of students
Percentage
7 years (from grade 6 to grade 12)
26
32.5%
3 years (from grade 10 to grade
12)
54
67.5%

0 years (never learn English)
0
0%

Table 1 pointed out the students’ time of learning English. 54 students (67.5%) had
learnt English for three years while 0% of the subjects had never learnt English. The
students learning English for 7 years was 26 (account for 32.5%).
In brief, a conclusion can be drawn out from the result of the two first questions that the
first year students of Tour guides at THCCA are affected by English learning conditions
and time of learning English before entering the College.



Figure 1: The students’ living conditions before
entering the College

The students’ living
condition before entering the
College can be seen as an important
element that affects students’
ability of learning English in
general. All the students are local
residents and they came from
different areas in the province.