Factors affecting the students’ English oral presentation skills at Hanoi Tourism College = Những yếu tố ảnh đến kỹ năng thuyết trình tiếng Anh của sinh viên tr20150227

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DECLARATION
I, Hoang Thi Mai Hoa, hereby state that this work is original and completed by
myself. It has not been submitted for other purposes except for the fulfillment of the
requirements of the University for the degree of Master in English Teaching Methodology.
In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my thesis deposited in the
library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the
normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the
paper.
Signature Hanoi, September 2011.


Hoang Thi Mai Hoa










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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my gratitude to all those who have given me great

assistance in the completion of my research work.
First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Le
Van Canh for his precious advice, guidance, criticism and encouragement throughout the
research.
My special thanks go to all my lecturers who have been engaged in teaching K18
MA course for their precious lectures.
I also wish to acknowledge the cooperation of my colleagues, my friends and the
third-year tour guide students at Hanoi Tourism College in contributing to the data
collection presented in this study.
Last but not least, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my family,
especially my husband for their whole-hearted encouragement and great support during my
time of fulfilling this thesis.









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ABSTRACT

The research is concerned with factors affecting students’ oral presentation skills in
English at Hanoi Tourism College. Specifically, a survey is conducted on 106 third year
tour guide students. Main purposes of the research are to find out: (1) the difficulties the
students might have when giving oral presentations, (2) factors causing the difficulties and
their suggested solutions.

It is expected that the study will make a contribution to the improvement of the teaching
and learning of presentation skills at Hanoi Tourism College

The study consists of three parts. Part A introduces the information on the background, the
rationale, the aims, scope, method and design of the study. Part B providing the
development includes three chapters. Chapter 1 provides the relevant theories related to
oral presentation skills and factors may affect the students’ presentation skill. Chapter 2
introduces the context of the study and describes the methods employed in the study.
Chapter 3 presents and discusses the findings that arise from the data collected. Part C
provides summary of study, recommendations, limitations and suggestions for further
research.












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TABLE OF CONTENTS Page
Declaration i
Acknowledgements ii
Abstract iii

Table of contents iv
List of abbreviations vii
List of tables vii
INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study 1
2. Aims and objectives of the study 1
3. Scope and significance of the study 2
4. The method of the study 2
5. Design of the study 3
DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1 Definition of terminology 4
1.1.1 Oral presentation 4
1.1.2 Tour guiding oral presentation 4
1.2 Oral presentation as a component of oral communication 5
1.3 The role of oral presentation skill to tour guides 6
1.4 The structure of an oral presentation 7
1.4.1 The structure of an oral presentation 7
1.4.2 The structure of a tour guiding oral presentation 8
1.5 Factors affecting students’ oral presentation 9
1.5.1 Students’ language proficiency 9


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1.5.2. Teachers’ roles 10
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
2.1 The setting of the study 11
2.1.1 The description of Hanoi Tourism College 11
2.1.2 Tourism Foreign Language Department 11

2.1.3. Tour guide students 12
2.2 The study 13
2.2.1 Research questions 13
2.2.2 Participants 14
2.2.3 The instrument 14
CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 The students’ perceptions of the importance of oral presentation skill and their self -
assessment of their presentations 16
3.1.1 The students’ perceptions of the importance of oral presentation skill 16
3.1.2 The students’ self-assessment of their presentation skill 17
3.2 Students’ difficulties in making oral presentations 17
3.2.1 Students’ difficulties in preparation 17
3.2.2 Students’ difficulties in organization 19
3.2.3 Students’ difficulties in delivery 20
3.2.3.1 Students’ difficulties in attracting and maintaining the attentions of audiences 20
3.2.3.2 Students’ difficulties concerning body language 23
3.2.3.3 Students’ difficulties concerning language use 24
3.2.3.4 Students’ difficulties in time management 25
3.2.3.5 Students’ difficulties in anxiety management 26
3.2.3.6 Students’ difficulties in handling the audiences’ questions 27


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3.2.4. Students’ difficulties in evaluation 28
3.3. Factors affecting the students’ oral presentation skill 29
3.4. The students’ suggested solutions 32
3.4.1. For students 32
3.4.1.1 Improving their knowledge of English 32
3.4.1.2 Practising carefully for the presentation 32

3.4.2. For teachers 33
3.4.2.1 Equipping students with linguistic knowledge 33
3.4.2.2 Creating a pleasant and supportive classroom atmosphere 33
3.4.3. For Institutions 34
3.4.3.1 Providing modern technology equipments and a good library 34
3.4.3.2 Organizing study trips to tourist destinations 34
CONCLUSION
1. Summary of the study 36
2. Recommendations 37
3. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies 39
REFERENCES
APPENDICES









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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
HTC: Hanoi Tourism College


LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1: The importance of the oral presentations

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Table 3.2: Students’ self assessment of their oral presentations
17
Table 3.3: Students’ difficulties in preparation
18
Table 3.4: Students’ difficulties in organization
19
Table 3.5: Students’ difficulties in attracting and maintaining the attentions of
audiences
20
Table 3.6: Students’ difficulties concerning body language
23
Table 3.7: Students’ difficulties concerning language use
24
Table 3.8: Students’ difficulties in time management
25
Table 3.9: Students’ difficulties in anxiety management
26
Table 3.10: Students’ difficulties in handling the audiences’ questions
27
Table 3.11: The students’ difficulties in evaluation
28
Table 3.12: Factors affecting the students’ oral presentation
29

1
PART A – INTRODUCTION

This part presents rationale, aims and objectives, scope and significance, research
methodology, design of the study.

1. Rationale of the study

As an occupational requirement, oral presentation skill is believed to be very important for
tour guides. Tour guides’ presentation determines the success of a tour. Besides, tour
guides may have to guide a group of foreign tourists, which requires them to use a foreign
language. Clearly, growing tourism increases the need for staff of international standards.
One of those standards is the tour guide’s oral presentation skill in a foreign language.

This motivates me to explore the factors affecting the tour guide students’ oral presentation
in English at Hanoi Tourism College with a view to finding practical solutions to deal with
those factors, thereby helping the prospective tour guides to improve their oral presentation
skills.

2. Aims and objectives of the study

The research aims specifically at exploring the factors affecting tour guide students’ oral
presentation skill at HTC. Possible solutions are recommended to help the teachers and
students to improve the teaching and learning of oral presentation skill.

The specific objectives of the study include:
 identifying the students’ perceptions about the importance of oral presentation
skills in their future job.
 understanding students’ self assessments of their oral presentation skill
 identifying the difficulties in making oral presentations encountered by the students
at HTC.
 examining the factors affecting their oral presentations at HTC.





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 providing some recommendations on how to improve students’ oral presentation.

3. Scope and significance of the study

The study focuses on oral presentation skills in English in the classroom context of 106
third – year non-English major tour guide students at HTC. I hope that the findings and
recommendations of the study will be of some help for both teachers and students of
English in the process of teaching and learning oral presentation skills so that students will
have better oral presentation skill for their future job.

4. The method of the study

The methodology chosen for the study is quantitative. This methodology fits well the
purpose of the study, which is a survey in nature. Johnson (1991:104) states, “[T]he
purpose of a survey is to learn about characteristics of an entire group of interest by
examining a subset of their group (a sample)”, which is also the purpose of the study, i.e.

to find out students’ perceptions of aspects related to oral presentation.

Johnson (1991) goes on to point out the advantages of a survey:
Survey methods have been used by second language, bilingual education, and
foreign researchers to study wide variety of issues that impinge on language
learning. These include the changing demographic contexts, the institutional
settings in which L2 professionals function, the policies that affect learning
and teaching, program administration, teacher preparation, attitudes of
teachers and professors toward language varieties., classroom practice, target
language norms, and students language use and growth. (p.105)

One more advantage of survey research is to respect the rule of anonymity in order to
help participants give their opinions freely, gives the researcher time for analyzing the
data and ideas to bring out the judgments.






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5. Design of the study

The thesis consists of three parts

Part A: Introduction: introduces the rationale, aims, significance, scope and methodology
of the study.

Part B: Development: is the main part of the study, which consists of three chapters

Chapter 1: Literature Review: is a brief description of the study including definition of oral
presentation, tour guides’ oral presentation, oral presentations as part of oral
communication, the role of presentation in tour guiding job, the structure of an oral
presentation, and the factors affecting the students’ oral presentation skill.

Chapter 2: Methodology: provides the current situation of the teaching and learning of oral
presentation skill at HTC, research questions, informants, instrument and process of the
study.

Chapter 3: Findings and Discussion presents the findings and discussion of the study based
on the result of questionnaire.

Part C: Conclusion consists of the summary of the study, recommendations, and limitations
of the study and gives suggestion for further study.













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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter consists of five parts: definition of oral presentation, tour guides’ oral
presentation, oral presentation as part of oral communication, the role of oral presentation
skill in tour guiding job, the structure of common oral presentation and tour guides’ oral
presentation, and the factors affecting oral presentation.

1.1 Definition of terminology

1.1.1. Oral presentation

Gufta (2008) defines an oral presentation as a formal way to convey your message to your
audience

According to Comfort (1995), presentation is a popular kind of activity where a student
(students) give(s) a presentation on a topic of their own choice or given by the teacher.
Such talks are not designed for informal spontaneous conversation but they are subject
matter oriented; because they are prepared, they are more “writing like”. Presentation is a
defined and useful speaking genre, if properly organized, can be extremely interesting for
both speakers and listeners.

1.1.2. Tour guides’ oral presentation

A tour guides’ presentation is to introduce the place or the country in terms of its
importance, history, politics, cultures, fauna and flora to the participants of the tours

According to Đoàn (2007), a tour guides’ oral presentation consists of the general
information about the local sites and tourist sites chosen from reliable sources. In the
presentation, tour guides will clarify and analyze the information to help tourists

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understand and realize the values of the tourist sites. Generally, the information in the
presentation must be arranged logically based on time and space.

1.2. Oral presentation as a component of oral communication

Ang (1991:2) reveals the root of the word “communication”: Communication comes from
Latin term “communis” which means “share and inform ideas and feeling etc” and
communication is the transmission of messages via verbal and non verbal.

Revell (1979:1) defines communication as “an exchange between people, of language, of
information, of ideas, of opinions, of feeling”. Communication is, therefore, an essential
need of human beings in their development. This involves verbal and non-verbal
communication. Verbal communication includes written and oral communication whereas
the non-verbal communication includes body language, facial expressions and visuals
diagrams or pictures used for communication.

Oral communication is information spoken by mouth; the use of speech. Oral
communication is a two – way process between speaker and listener (or listeners) and
involves the productive skill of speaking and the receptive skill of understanding (or
listening with understanding) (Byrne, 1986)

Therefore, communication is an activity of conveying meaningful information. Oral
communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient. Communication
requires that the communicating parties share an area of communicative commonality. The
communication process is complete once the receiver has understood the sender.

According to Ang (2009:6), the process of communication involves
 speaker (sender) - transmitter of the verbal and non verbal messages
 message: this is the content which is organized and encoded in a language
understood by speakers and transmitted verbally and non verbally through
channels





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 channel: medium used by speakers in encoding and decoding the messages
 receiver: decoder of the messages sent by speakers (and transmit the his/her
respond back to the senders
 feedback: receiver’s response to the message sent by speakers

Oral communication includes discussions, speeches, presentations, interpersonal
communication and many other varieties. In face-to-face communication, the body
language (non-verbal communication) and voice tonality play a significant role and may
have a greater impact on the listener than the intended content of the spoken words. A
great presenter must capture the attention of the audience and connect with them.

Apparently, oral presentation belongs to oral communication. In oral presentation, speakers
use spoken speech to deliver the information to audience. Moreover, speakers also use
nonverbal communication (body language, gestures, eye contact …) to express themselves
and make the speech more effective.

In short, oral presentation skill requires various sub skills such as choosing words,
organizing ideas, using effective gestures, eye contact, pacing speech for emphasis to
captivate audiences’ attentions.

1.3. The role of oral presentation skill to tour guides

Oral presentation plays more and more important role in working environment. Gufta
(2008) confirms that: “You need this skill in your academic career, when you attend job
interviews, and especially when you start working. Presentation is the first managerial skill
which a working executive must acquire”. (p.258)

Oral presentation skill is the most important skill for tour guides based on their duty. The
formal definition of a tour guide as set out by the European Committee for Standardization
is as follows: Tourist guide is the person who guides visitors in the language of their choice
and interprets the cultural and natural heritage of an area.





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Đoàn (2007:25) also clarifies the main responsibility of tour guides “tour guides provide
information on destinations for tourists by means of oral presentations”.

In short, oral presentation skill is the main tool of tour guides and the most decisive
successful factor in their job. If tour guides want to impress tourists, they have to prepare
an interesting and informative presentation. Making a good oral presentation is an art that
involves attention to the needs of audience, careful planning, and attention to delivery.

1.4. The structure of an oral presentation

1.4.1 The structure of an oral presentation

According to Comfort (1995), an oral presentation consists of three main parts: the
introduction, body and conclusion.

Most presentations will consist of an introduction, the body of the talk and a conclusion.
The introduction prepares the audience for what you will say in the body of the talk and the
conclusion reminds them of your key points.

Introduction
A good introduction involves four things:
 attracting and focusing the attention of the audience
 putting the speaker and audience at ease
 explaining the purpose of the talk and what the speaker would like to achieve
 giving an overview of the key points of the talk

Body
The body of a presentation must be presented in a logical order that is easy for the
audiences to follow the topic.





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Conclusion
A good conclusion does two things:
 reminding the audience of the key points
 reinforcing the message

1.4.2. The structure of a tour guides’ oral presentation

Đoàn (2007) states that there are three main parts in tour guides’ presentations like any
other kinds of oral presentation: introduction, body, and conclusion.

Introduction
In the introduction, tour guides introduce themselves, the driver, general information about
the trips or the tourist spots as well as the schedule. The introduction should not be too
long. It should be interesting to attract the initial attention of tourists.

Body
The content of the oral presentation consists of the information concerning the tourist
destination such as the construction time, the origin, architecture, the cultural and spiritual
values or other important information. The presentations can be divided into sub parts that
are for each tourist site in the tour. The presentation for particular site has the same
structures as for the tourist destination. The presentation must be sequentially logical based
on tour procedures, time, and historic events. The presentation starts with events or the
time from the past to present. Tour guides should tell funny stories, legends that are related
to tourist destinations to make the presentation more interesting.

Conclusion
Tour guides summarize the main points in the presentation to emphasize the topic of the
tours and the value of the tourist destinations. Tourists compare the destination with others
or the past with the present. Otherwise, tourists may talk about the preservation of the
destination, famous people as well as the number of tourists who visited the tourist
destinations.

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In brief, a tour guides’ oral presentation also includes three parts like other kinds of oral
presentations. Moreover, the contents of the talk are arranged logically. However, the main
purpose of a tour guides’ presentation is to provide tourists with information about tourist
destinations.

1.5. Factors affecting students’ oral presentation

1.5.1. Students’ language proficiency

Language is a system of great complexity (Delahunty & Garvey, 1994). Therefore, it is
difficult to achieve the high proficiency in a foreign language. Language proficiency is the
ability of an individual to speak or to perform in an acquired language.

Ur (1996) defines language proficiency in terms of accuracy and fluency; if a learner has
mastered a language successfully, that means that he or she can understand and produce it
both accurately (correctly) and fluently (receiving and conveying messages with ease).

Two of many dimensions of oral proficiency speaking are viewed as accuracy and fluency.
Accuracy involves correct use of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation whereas fluency
can be thought of as the ability to keep going when speaking spontaneously.

While fluency may be achieved in many communicative language courses, be an initial
goal in language teaching, accuracy is achieved in some extent by allowing students to
focus on the elements of phonology, grammar and discourse in their spoken output.

In reality, accuracy and fluency are closely related, which leads us to the notion that
accuracy as well as fluency is necessary for successful communication. It may not be too
much to say one speaks fluently without accuracy or vice versa.

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Đoàn (2007:36) confirms that the success of a tour bases mainly on the ability and
communicative skills, behavior of tour guides. It is clear that, in order to communicate
with foreign tourists, tour guides must acquire a rather high level of language proficiency.

1.5.2. Teachers’ roles

Teachers have to play various roles in a speaking class. These include managing
classroom, organizing classroom activities, assessing students’ performance, giving
support, co-participating on the classroom activities, providing needed linguistic resources,
providing tutorials, and observing the students. (Hammer, 1991)

All the above roles of teachers are important to ensure the success of teaching and learning
process. It is important that a good teacher can make sure that students know what
constitutes successful performance so that they know when they are achieving success and
given assess to information about how to achieve success. (Paulston, 1985)

In summary, this chapter has reviewed theoretical issues relevant to the thesis. It starts with
the definition of the terminology, especially the definition of tour guides’ oral presentation.
The relationship between oral communication and oral presentation is also clarified. It is
apparently proved that oral presentation plays an important part in students’ future job. The
structures of oral presentation are clearly described in the chapter. Finally, the factors may
affect the students’ oral presentations are identified: students’ language proficiency, and
teachers’ roles.

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CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter gives a thorough description of how the study was carried out, including an
overview of research questions, research design, participants, instruments and procedures.

2.1. The setting of the study

2.1.1. The description of Hanoi Tourism College

Hanoi Tourism College, which was formerly known as the school for training employers in
tourism and hospitality, was established in 1972. The college has been known as one of the
best tourism-training center. The College continues to provide its students with solid
industrial knowledge, strong professional skills, foreign language competence and
industrial manners in Vietnam’s growing tourism industry.

The college provides multi – level training to meet the demands of labors in tourism.
 3-year associate degree courses include Hospitality Management, Restaurant

Management, Food Production Management, Travel Operation Management, Tour guide,
Finance & Accounting for Tourism, Tour Guide, and English for Tourism Management.
 2–year diploma courses concentrate on Food & Beverage Service, Front Office,
Accommodation Service, and Travel & Tour Guide, Accounting for Tourism and
Hospitality, Cookery.
 Vocational associate degree and two – year diploma courses.

Due to the fast growth of tourism, the need for professional tourist labors is increasing; the
college has created the significant changes to improve the quality of training.

2.1.2. Tourism Foreign Language Department

Tourism Foreign Language Department now has 33 teachers in which 20 teachers are
teaching English aged between 23 and 45. 8 of them are holding MA degree in English





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Methodology, four teachers completed MA courses in Tourism, and six of them are
working toward M.A degree in English. The rest hold a B.A in English language teaching.
A small number of the teachers have had opportunities to take short term training abroad.
In general, all the teachers are well – qualified, enthusiastic and devoted.

2.1.3. Tour guide students

Tour guide students study at the college for 3 years. They come from many provinces in
the North. English is one of the subjects of graduation examination for many students.
Before entering the College, they may have experienced at least 3 years studying English

at high school. However, a small number of students did not study English at high school
because the college accepts students who take Group C (including 3 subjects: Literature,
History, Geography) and Group D (including 3 subjects Mathematics, Literature, English)
in National University Entrance Examination into tour guide classes.

In the first two semesters, they study general English with the textbook “Lifeline Pre
Intermediate” written by Tom Hutchinson and Ann Ward. The book is designed with four
skills, especially various speaking activities, controlled and free, personalized and
impersonal so that students have equal opportunities to practice all four skills in each
lesson. However, not all students are capable of doing well in the course due to their low
proficiency and other unfavorable factors such as large and mixed level class …

In the third semester, students study English with the textbook First Class by Trish Stott
and Roger Holt (1991). The book provides general knowledge of tourism such as flight
reservation, flight enquiries, tourist information, hotel facilities, local tours, foreign tours,
itineraries… The book includes reading, listening, writing, and speaking which help
students develop four skills. Importantly, students have to take oral examination instead of
written examinations in this term.

In the fourth and fifth semester, students study the course book English for Tour Guides
(2000) written by Tran Van Long and the teachers of Foreign Language Department. The





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course book aims to equip students with fundamental knowledge of traditions, customs,
heritages, famous tourist attractions of Vietnam. The aim of the textbook is in accordance
with the aim of the syllabus objectives for tour guide students. The book includes 43 units

covering a wide variety of fundamental and interesting topics such as Vietnamese culture,
geography, history, gastronomy, cuisines, heritages, museums, folklores and beauty spots.
The topics were relevant to students’ needs, realistic, interesting, challenging and
motivating. Moreover, the authors also focus on developing language skills for students;
reading, listening, writing, and speaking. Speaking skill, especially presentation skill, is the
priority of the book.

Although four skills are focused, the third year tour guide students at HTC still have low
language proficiency, which causes many difficulties when they study oral presentation
skill. Their marks in the oral examination of the fourth term were not good. Most of them
(59.4%) had mark 5 and 6. 16 students (15.1%) got mark 7. Only three students (2.8%)
achieved mark 8. Sadly, 24 students (22.7%) got marks under mark 5. In details, 18
students (17%) got mark 4. 6 students (5.7%) got mark 3.

2.2. The study

2.2.1. Research questions

With the aim to find out the factors affecting the oral presentation skill of non - English
major tour guide students at HTC, it is necessary to answer the following questions:

1. What are the third year tour guide students’ perceptions of the importance of oral
presentation skills in their future job?
2. How do they self assess their presentations?
3. What are their difficulties when giving oral presentations?
4. What do they perceive as factors affecting their oral presentations?
5. What are their suggestions to improve their oral presentations?

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2.2.2. Participants

The third year tour guide students at HTC are arranged into 4 classes: C6G
1,2,3,4.
Two
classes C6G
1,3
studies English, the other two classes take Chinese as a major. Tour guide
students focus on the oral presentation in English in the fourth semester in the second year.
The fifth semester is the last semester when the students study at the college. They spend
the whole sixth semester for apprenticeship.

The survey was conducted on 106 prospective tour guide students of class C6G
1,3
who
were in the fifth semester at HTC. Each class had 53 students aged from 20 to 23. Female
outnumbered the male. There were 96 girls and 10 boys in the classes.

The number of participants is an important factor affecting the reality of the data collected.
Johnson (1991:128) points out that when survey involves large samples they can be very
useful for providing a broad view of issues. Brown (2005) affirms that “large sample is
generally is more representative of the population than a small one”. (p.73)

2.2.3. The instrument

In order to achieve the aims of the survey, a 45-item questionnaire was used in the study.

Questionnaire is the best choice for a survey because it is relatively popular means of
collecting data (Nunan, 1992). A good questionnaire has many advantages such as: time,
research efforts and financial resources.

In the study, I adapted the questionnaire by Nguyen Thi Van Ha (2007) because the
questionnaire was well designed with adequate required information for the study’s
objectives. (see Appendix A)

The questionnaire for students is composed of a combination of open – ended questions,
providing balance between depth and authenticity of information and fixed – option data,
which were more easily quantifiable.





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The questionnaire is composed of four parts:

Part one: was designed to explore the students’ attitudes towards the importance of the oral
presentation skill and their evaluation of their own oral presentation skill. It included two
questions that were ranking questions.

Part two was about the students’ difficulties when giving the presentation. This part
included subparts concerning different sub skills of oral presentation skill. Students were
allowed to supplement their own difficulties in each sub part.
 Preparation: 3 items
 Organization: 2 items
 Delivery: 21 items
 Evaluation: 5 items

Part three focused on the factors which prevented the students from giving good oral
presentations. It included 8 items and students were allowed to supplement other factors
affecting their oral presentations skill.

Part four allowed students to propose their suggested solutions for students themselves,
teachers and institutions to improve their oral presentation skill. The students’ responses to
open-ended questionnaire were translated into English by myself.

The questionnaire was written in Vietnamese to make sure that the students understood
exactly what each question asked them about. After the questionnaire was returned (with
100% returned rate), all the responses were categorized and analyzed quantitatively by
means of descriptive statistics.

In summary, in this chapter, I made a study on the current situation of teaching and
learning oral presentation at HTC, and a description of the instrument for the data
collection of the study. The next part, which is the most important in this study, presents
the findings of the study as well as the discussions of the results of the findings.





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CHAPTER 3
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter deals with the results of the study along with discussions related to the
findings.

3.1. The students’ perceptions of the importance of oral presentation skill and their
self - assessment of their presentations.

3.1.1. The students’ perceptions of the importance of oral presentation skill.

In the questionnaire, students were asked about the importance of oral presentation skill in
their future job. The students’ responses are indicated in Table 3.1

Table 3.1: The importance of the oral presentation (N=106)
Levels of importance
Frequency
Percentage
(No=106)
1. Very important
105
99.1
2. Not very important
01
0.9
3. not important


4. I do not know



As can be seen from Table 3.1, the majority of students (99.1 %) stated that oral
presentation skill was very important in their future job. None of them found oral
presentation unimportant. They pointed out that oral presentation skill played an important
role in their future job because tour guides’ job was to deliver speech before tourists.

Therefore, oral presentation skill was the decisive factor of the success in the job.
Moreover, tour guides who were good at a foreign language were well paid. Being aware
of the importance and practicality of oral presentation skill might lead to, more
importantly, motivation in learning.






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3.1.2. The students’ self-assessment of their presentation skill

In order to answer the research question 2 about the students’ self-assessment of their
presentation, the students were asked to rate their presentation skill on 10 – point scale in
the Table 3.2

Table 3.2: Students’ self assessment of their oral presentation skill (No=106)
Marks
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
No

3
11
37
31
18
6


%


2.8
10.4
34.9
29.2
17
5.7


(No = Number of students; %: Percentage)

Students were asked to rate their success of oral presentation skill on the ten point scale
with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest. Table 3.2 shows that most students were
likely to consider their oral presentation to be on average level of success. More than half
of the students (68 students) thought they achieved 50-60% of success. Sadly, 14 students
stated that their success was low. Three students (2.8%) affirmed 30% successful and 11
students (10.4%) stated that they achieved 40% successful. Just a small number of students
were confident about their oral presentation performance. 18 students admitted that they

could achieve 70% of success and only six students stated that they could be 80%
successful. None of the students could reach 90% or 100% successful in oral presentation
skill.

To sum up, most of students appeared to think that they did not have good oral
presentation skill.

3.2. Students’ difficulties in making oral presentations

3.2.1. Students’ difficulties in preparation

Table 3.3 provides information about the students’ difficulties in preparation.





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Table 3.3: Students’ difficulties in preparation (No=106)
Areas of difficulties
1
2
3
4
Preparation
No
%
No
%
No

%
No
%
1. Choosing the right contents for the
presentation
4
3.8
28
26.4
64
60.4
10
9.4
2. Memorizing your speech word for word
22
20.8
70
66
14
13.2


3. Rehearsing your speech
16
15.1
65
61.3
25
23.6

4. Too many sources of information
23
21.7






(No = Number of students; %=Percentage)
(1= very difficult; 2= difficult; 3=easy; 4=very easy)

First of all, Most of respondents stated that “memorizing your speech word for word” was
the most difficult task in preparing for their presentation. In details, 22 respondents rated
this task as very difficult. 70 of them (66%) thought it was difficult. 14 students shared the
idea that the task was easy and none of students considered it very easy. Secondly, another
item “rehearsing the speech” was also a challenge for students. 16 of them stated this was
very difficult. A large percentage of respondents (61.3%) thought that this task was
difficult. Meanwhile, 25 of them were reported to rate the task as easy. None of the
students found it very easy. They blamed their difficulties for too many new words in the
presentation and their bad pronunciation. They explained that bad pronunciation made it
more difficult to remember the new words as well as the contents and to practice their
speech.

However, a large percentage of the respondents (60.4%) found the task “choosing the right
contents for the presentation” easy. Ten of them thought it was very easy. 28 of them still
considered it difficult. Only three of them found the task very difficult. Due to the booming
of information technology and tourist industry, it was not too hard for them to find the
information about tourist destinations, products … from internet and tourist guidebooks

written in English.