Attitudes and perceptions of binh minh (vinh long) high school students about presenting english grammar lessons via powerpoint

CANTHO UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

Attitudes and Perceptions of Binh Minh (Vinh
Long) High School Students about Presenting
English Grammar Lessons via PowerPoint
B.A Thesis
Field of study: English Language Teaching

Supervisor:
Ngo Thi Trang Thao

Researcher: Lim Ngoc Han
Code: 7062941
Class: NN0652A2

Can Tho, April 2010

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Acknowledgements
This paper could not have been completed without the help, encouragement
and support from a number of people who all deserve my sincerest gratitude and
appreciation.
At first, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Ms. Ngo Thi Trang
Thao, my supervisor. I’m indebted to her inspiration, scholarly supervision and
intellectual support throughout the course of writing this graduation paper. Her
continual encouragement, careful reading, critical comments and patient guidance
made my work more enjoyable and easier. I would also give my thanks to the two

second readers, Mr. Do Xuan Hai and Ms. Luu Hoang Anh for their advices that
perfect the thesis.
Special words of thank also go to all my informants, the students at Bui Huu
Nghia and Binh Minh high schools for their willing participation in the study. I greatly
appreciate their generosity with their time and efforts in filling in the questionnaire.
Finally, my deepest gratitude and appreciation go to my family, my friends and
my classmates, especially Mr. Nguyen Thanh Qui, Miss Nguyen Thi Truc Linh, Miss
Ho Xuan Mai, Miss Nguyen Thi Nhuyen, and Miss Vu Thi Hong. Their love, support
and constant encouragement gave me a great deal of strength and determination that
help me during the stressful time of writing this paper.

Lim Ngoc Han

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Tóm tắt
Học sinh ngày nay quen thuộc với việc thuyết trình sử dụng các chương trình trên máy
vi tính. PowerPoint là một trong những phương pháp thuyết trình sử dụng máy vi tính
thường được vận dụng trong dạy và học. Thơng qua sử dụng thuyết trình bằng
PowerPoint, giáo viên đã tạo ra được những bài thuyết trình đẹp và chuyên nghiệp để
giúp cải thiện việc học của học sinh cũng như đạt được những mục tiêu của khóa học.
Nghiên cứu này nhằm khảo sát quan điểm và thái độ của học sinh khi được học ngữ
pháp tiếng Anh bằng PowerPoint. Để thu thập số liệu , bảng câu hỏi gồm hai mươi ba
câu ý kiến về ý thích, thuận lợi và bất lợi của việc thuyết trình bằng PowerPoint trong
bài dạy ngữ pháp tiếng Anh đã phát cho một trăm ba mươi lăm học sinh trường trung
học phổ thơng Bình Minh hồn thành. Những dữ liệu sau đó được phân tích bằng
phần mềm SPSS. Kết quả thu được cho thấy rằng: (1) đa số học sinh thích việc thuyết
trình PowerPoint trong bài ngữ pháp tiếng Anh, (2) học sinh nghĩ là phần mềm
PowerPoint rất hiệu quả và hữu ích khi được áp dụng để giảng dạy ngữ pháp tiếng

Anh, đặc biệt là học sinh có thể nhớ lại nội dung bài học, (3) học sinh cũng nhận ra
một vài bất lợi khi sử dụng PowerPoint trong việc giảng dạy ngữ pháp tiếng Anh,
chẳng hạn như là việc sử dụng quá nhiều hình ảnh và hiệu ứng làm phân tán sự chú ý
của học sinh. Những kết quả từ nghiên cứu này rất hữu ích trong việc dạy và học ngữ
pháp tiếng Anh.

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Abstract
Students of today have grown up with and become accustomed to the use of computer
presentation programs. PowerPoint is one of the most popular presentation programs
used as a part of learning and teaching. Through the thoughtful use of PowerPoint
presentations, teachers can create professional-good looking presentations to enhance
students’ learning and achieve course goals. The aim of this study is to investigate the
students’ attitudes and perceptions towards presenting English grammar lessons via
PowerPoint. One hundred thirty three students at Binh Minh high school completed a
23-item five-point scale survey questionnaire regarding the preference, attitudes and
perceptions to the benefits and drawbacks of presenting PowerPoint in English
grammar lessons. The data from the questionnaire, after collecting, were computed
with Descriptive Statistics Test of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences
(SPSS) software. The results showed that (1) the majority of students liked
PowerPoint presentations in English grammar lessons, (2) PowerPoint presentations in
English grammar lessons were thought to be very effective and helpful, especially in
helping remind the content, (3) there arose some drawbacks such as the overuse
pictures or animation that distract students’ concentration. These findings are believed
to have contribution to the teaching and learning method of English grammar in ESL
classes.

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Lists of tables
Table 1. The items of the three clusters in the second part of the questionnaire ......... 12
Table 2. Descriptive statistics of the frequency of the use of PowerPoint in English
grammar class............................................................................................... 14
Table 3. Descriptive Statistics of the students’ preference for presenting PowerPoint
presentations in English grammar lessons..................................................... 15
Table 4. Descriptive statistics of students’ perception of the benefits of presenting
PowerPoint in English grammar lesson ........................................................ 15
Table 5. Descriptive statistics of students’ perception of the drawbacks of presenting
PowerPoint in English grammar lesson ........................................................ 16
Table 6. Correlation between the students’ preference and students’ perception of the
benefits and drawbacks of presenting PowerPoint presentation in English
grammar lessons ........................................................................................... 17

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Table of contents
Chapter 1. Introduction................................................................................................ 1
1. Rationale .............................................................................................................. 1
2. Hypothesis ........................................................................................................... 2
3. Research aims ......................................................................................................2
4. General organization of the study ......................................................................... 3
Chapter 2. Literature review ........................................................................................ 4
1. Related literature: Microsoft PowerPoint program in teaching and learning ......... 4
1.1. The definition of PowerPoint........................................................................ 4
1.2. The main practical benefits of the use of Microsoft PowerPoint program in
teaching and learning. ......................................................................................... 4

1.3. Drawbacks involving the use of Microsoft PowerPoint program .................. 6
2. Related studies on the benefits and drawbacks of using PowerPoint presentations
............................................................................................................................ 7
2.1. Summary ......................................................................................................7
2.2. Critique ........................................................................................................ 9
3. Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 9
Chapter 3. Research Methodology............................................................................. 11
1. Research questions ............................................................................................. 11
2. Research design ................................................................................................. 11
3. Participants ........................................................................................................ 11
4. Instruments ........................................................................................................ 12
5. Procedure ........................................................................................................... 12
Chapter 4. Results ..................................................................................................... 14
1. Overview of statistical procedures...................................................................... 14
2. Descriptive of findings ....................................................................................... 14
2.1. Frequency of the use of PowerPoint in English grammar classes ................. 14
2.2. Students’ preference of presenting PowerPoint presentation in English
grammar lessons ................................................................................................. 15
2.3. Students’ perception of the benefits of presenting PowerPoint presentation in
English grammar lessons .................................................................................... 15
2.4. Students’ perception of the drawbacks of presenting PowerPoint presentation
in English grammar lessons ................................................................................ 16
2.5. Correlation between the students’ preference and students’ perception of the
benefits and the drawbacks of presenting PowerPoint presentation in English
grammar lessons ................................................................................................. 17
2.6. Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 18
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Chapter 5. Discussions and Conclusion ..................................................................... 20

1. Discussion.......................................................................................................... 20
2. Implications ....................................................................................................... 22
3. Suggestions to use PowerPoint more efficiently ................................................. 23
4. Limitations and recommendations for further research ....................................... 24
5. Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 25
References................................................................................................................. 26
Appendices ............................................................................................................... 28

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Chapter 1
Introduction
This chapter introduces the important role of English as well as English grammar, the
necessity of applying PowerPoint in learning and teaching English as rationale of the research, the
research aims, the hypothesis and thesis organization as well.

1. Rationale
In the current trend of global integration, English has become a common means
of communication of human being all over the world. Vietnam, like many other
countries, has become more and more active to integrate into the line of that common
development. Therefore, the first and foremost demand is given that Vietnamese
people have to know and use foreign languages, especially English, beside their
mother tongue. Also, teaching and learning English has really become important and
necessary in Vietnam.
These days, English has been introduced as one of the compulsory subjects in
most of different forms of schools in Vietnam. New English textbooks are born with
the aims to improve foreign language-English for learners focusing on the five main
parts: reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus (pronunciation and
grammar). However, grammar is a necessary subject in taking exams. Indeed, the

students need to gain the knowledge of English grammar such as parts of speech,
prepositions, form of verbs or the structures to do gap-filling in reading
comprehension. Moreover, grammar points often take a major percentage of the whole
mark in the exams such as the entrance exams to university. For instances, the English
test in the entrance exam to university in 2009, apart from twenty sentences on
reading comprehension, five sentences on stress, and about ten sentences on cultural
tips and vocabulary, the rest of the-eighty-sentence-English test are the sentences
containing grammar points. Even the English test in the entrance exam to university in
2008 contains more than forty sentences on grammar per eighty sentences in the test.
Moreover, in most high schools in Vietnam, the shift in teaching English
methodology which equips institution with modern teaching facilities is essential in
universities and schools. The object and crucial need of all disciplines in general, and
of English including grammar in particular to active learning activities, and to enhance
learners’ activeness, initiative, independence and autonomy in learning is computer
software applications. Of all, Microsoft PowerPoint program seems to be prominent
and meets the requirement of new English teaching methodology to further language
learning.
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To respond to this demand, the idea of applying Microsoft PowerPoint program
in teaching in general and in English, especially grammar, is being carried out more
and more in most of the schools. It is considered a useful aid to pedagogy and to
English grammar in particular. Actually, PowerPoint presentation helps enhance
students’ learning in several ways. For example, students can recall the lessons from
PowerPoint presentations that combine attractive pictures and text (Szabo & Hasting,
2000). Moreover, it can transform a routine lesson into a lively and memorable
session (Bostock, 2005). In fact, PowerPoint can be used for initial teaching, for
practice and drilling, for games, for review, and for tests (Fisher, 2006). Despite
benefits of PowerPoint presentations, they have been in existence in recent years in

ESL classrooms because using it well requires teachers the technology skills or
knowledge. The teachers may encounter technical difficulties (Ho, 2003). There are
often temptations to overuse background, transitions or frills which distract students’
concentration. The frequency of using PowerPoint presentations in English classes,
therefore, is not frequent.
Stimulated by the above studies, a study on students’ attitudes and perceptions
of their preference, advantages and disadvantages of presenting PowerPoint
presentations in English grammar lessons for the students at Binh Minh high school
was conducted.
2. Hypothesis
It is hypothesized that PowerPoint presentations are usually used in English
grammar lessons. Besides, the students like PowerPoint presentations in English
grammar lessons as well as they agree with the benefits and the drawbacks of
presenting English grammar lessons via PowerPoint. Hopefully, the thesis would
partly help teachers of English as well as students realize the effects, the benefits and
the drawbacks of PowerPoint presentations in English grammar lessons.
3. Research aims
The study aims at studying attitudes and perceptions of Binh Minh high school
students about presenting English grammar lessons via PowerPoint. In order to
achieve the aims, there are four objectives as follow:
 Examining the frequency of presenting PowerPoint presentations in English
grammar lessons.
 Recognizing whether students like or dislike the use of PowerPoint
presentations in English grammar lessons.
 Investigating students’ attitudes and perceptions towards the benefits of
PowerPoint presentations in English grammar lessons.
 Investigating students’ attitudes and perceptions towards the drawbacks of
PowerPoint presentations in English grammar lessons.
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4. General organization of the study
The thesis is organized into five chapters. They are chapter one: Introduction,
Chapter two: Literature Review, Chapter three: Methodology, Chapter four: Results
and Chapter five: Discussion and Conclusion.
Chapter one, Introduction, is an overview of the rationale of the study, research
hypothesis, the research aims and the thesis organization.
Chapter two, Literature review, is the theoretical background of the research
including the review of literature and some studies related to the benefits and
drawbacks of using PowerPoint presentation in pedagogy.
Chapter three, Research methodology, is the description of research questions,
research design, participants of the study, research instruments and the procedure.
Chapter four, Results, shows the results from the collected data which were
analyzed using the SPSS software.
Chapter five, Discussion and conclusion, is the discussions, limitations,
implications, recommendations for further research and conclusion of the study.

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Chapter 2
Literature Review
This chapter will present the review of literature consisting of the definition of
PowerPoint, the main benefits and the drawbacks of PowerPoint presentations in teaching
and learning. Besides, the related studies of several researchers were shown in this chapter.

1. Related literature: Microsoft PowerPoint program in teaching and learning
1.1. The definition of PowerPoint
In term of PowerPoint, many researchers have had numerous definition of
PowerPoint. Nevertheless, Fisher’s seems to be the appropriate one in teaching

situation. According to Fisher (2003), PowerPoint is a presentation program
developed by Microsoft. The software allows users to create anything from basic
slides shows to complex presentations. PowerPoint is comprised of slides, which may
contain text, images, and other media such as audio clips and movies, sound effects
and animated transitions to add extra appeal to the presentation.
1.2. The main practical benefits of the use of Microsoft PowerPoint program in
teaching and learning.
The evidence that PowerPoint presentations influence learning and teaching is
largely anecdotal.
1.2.1. In teaching
According to Mason & Hlynka (1998), PowerPoint helps structure the content
and processing of a lesson or lecture. Besides, PowerPoint allows the teacher easily to
modify slides and notes. For example, teachers can add animations, texts, audio and
even omit a slide on the-spot-lectures. In addition, PowerPoint presentations allow
presenters to face their audience and present outlines of information (Jones, 2003). It
is, thus, a helpful aid for oral or speech presentation since it will enable presenters to
demonstrate such skills as pace, eye contact, body language, which are very crucial to
effective speech presentation (Mason & Hlynka, 1998; Jones, 2003).
In the same way, Ho (2003) agreed that PowerPoint presentations can be easily
refined and reused in the years later. In addition, they are easy to modify and can
present complex computer graphics and animation. Therefore, the presenter has
accessed to visually stimulating tools such as animations and simulations. They are
useful in demonstrating difficult concepts that words and static diagrams cannot easily
convey.
Furthermore, Power Point presentations can be used as a productive teaching
activity. Teachers may design a presentation where PowerPoint does all the work,
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which leaves very little time left to present their content. Apparently, there are all

texts, pictures or audio which are designed in advance in PowerPoint presentations.
While presenting with purely oral presentations, the teacher may forget some steps or
something in the content. In contrast, with PowerPoint presentations, the slides show
the content and remind what the teacher will do. And the presenter can reveal points
one by one on a single slide without having to cover up points with a piece of paper in
using transparencies (Mason & Hlynka, 1998; Bostock, 2005 and Evans, 1998).
In addition, Bostock (2005) had agreement that using Microsoft PowerPoint
program helps the teacher transform a routine lesson into lively one as well as save
her or his time and energy when teaching in class. The teacher uses PowerPoint not
only to teach English skills but also to teach vocabulary, present grammar structures,
exercises, even design interesting games such as cross-word, lucky number, so on
(Bartsch & Cobern , 2003). Donald (2004) also highlighted the frequent use of
PowerPoint Presentations because they can be run over and over again. Once the
teachers organize their lecture notes into PowerPoint presentations they can save the
instructional material. They can easily update it later. They can repeat it for review
purposes. Teachers can use sounds and motions to emphasize important points (Evans,
1998).
1.2.2. In learning
Alternatively, embedding text, graphics and video and images can make a
presentation flashy and exciting for the learners. Slide templates allow for variations
of text and graphic integration that aim to display the desired content in a varied and
meaningful manner (Peek, 1987). PowerPoint can be used for initial teaching, for
practice and drilling, for games, for reviews, and for tests (Fisher, 2006). Actually,
PowerPoint Presentations aid students in note-taking and thus facilitate study (Cook,
1998). Moreover, PowerPoint presentations are often enclosed with handouts to the
students. PowerPoint enhances instructions and motivates students to learn because
the attractive images, animations, audio and even video which obtain students’
attention. Furthermore, PowerPoint is the tool that allows students to experience a
world of real language opportunity (Perry & Perry, 1998). Students are motivated to
invest time and energy into the quality of their English tasks as they know that there is

something attractive for them and to show others (Nouri & Shahid, 2005). The
students usually derive great satisfaction from this task and take pride in their creation
(Harrison, 1999). In fact, PowerPoint presentations benefit in organizing and
reorganizing information efficiently, so students can easily see the structure of the
presentation (Bartsch & Cobern, 2003). PowerPoint gives more time for listening and
comprehending so that audience time is used effectively. It provides students
enhanced legibility and readability (Jones, 2003).
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In short, PowerPoint is an excellent aid to presentations. They provide more
effects, interactions, flexibility and power to learning and teaching. In addition, the
teacher and the students can get benefits from PowerPoint presentations (Jones, 2003;
Fray & Birnbaum, 2002).
1.3. Drawbacks involving the use of Microsoft PowerPoint program
Despite the great benefits of Microsoft Power Point in teaching in common and
in teaching English in particular, there are some problems involving the use of it.
1.3.1. In teaching
Ho (2003) stated that the presenter may encounter technical difficulties,
typically in getting the presentation started. Especially, when combining computer
with projectors to show the PowerPoint presentations, the problem of no signal may
occur. It also means that a computer does not work as usual, the mistakes of
presentation such as font, effects, and sounds even the power runs out when teachers
present the lesson. The teachers designed the texts in black and red; however, these
colors all may change into black with projectors’ problem (Ho, 2003; Coursey, 2003).
Furthermore, a successful presentation can take teachers several hours to develop. In
addition, PowerPoint presentations have problems in dealing with much detail in
slides that make the students illegible to read (Cook, 1998; Park, 1999). Therefore, the
teachers find it difficult to impart all the information. Passive interaction is another
disadvantage of PowerPoint (Harrison, 2006). More teachers are just clicking the

mouse all the time when they are giving the lectures. Instead of interacting with
students during the EFL class, they just sit in front of the computers without leaving
their chairs (Kaminski, 2003).
1.3.2. In learning
According to Ho (2003) and Butler & Maultz (1996), PowerPoint presentations
foster learning that is more passive when the teacher just read the texts on the
PowerPoint slides without interacting with the students. PowerPoint presentations
have more rigid format and are less open to incorporating ideas which are not on the
presenter’s outline. There are often temptations to overuse background, transitions and
other frills which distract the audience (Harknett & Cobane, 1997). Students may
become focused on the technology used to make the presentation instead of the point
of presentation. Moreover, the overuse of PowerPoint presentations can bore learners
and diminish PowerPoint's effectiveness. What’s more, the learners can find
PowerPoint presentations containing much detail in slides difficult in reading the text
on the slides and then less concentrate to the presentations (Parks, 1999).
In addition, teachers do not need to write information on the blackboard, but
just click the mouse. Therefore, it is very easy for teachers to give too much
information in one class, which can difficult for students to comprehend (Bartsch &
6


Cobern, 2003). Furthermore, students are easily overwhelmed with a large amount of
information given in the PowerPoint presentation. PowerPoint slides that contained
only text, contained text and a relevant picture, and contained text with a picture that
was not relevant made students performed worse on recall and recognition tasks and
had greater dislike for slides with pictures that were not relevant (Susskind, 1999).
There are several gaps in using PowerPoint presentations which are relevant to
technique, interaction between teacher and students and the use of PowerPoint
presentations. However, showing these drawbacks is to realize them and have
solutions to overcome these abuse aspects (Cook, 1998).

2. Related studies on the benefits and drawbacks of using PowerPoint
presentations
2.1. Summary
Literature evaluating the use of PowerPoint in education is somewhat limited.
The followings studies support more information to the literature mentioned in part
one.
Szabo & Hastings (2000) performed three studies to investigate the efficacy of
PowerPoint presentations in lectures in undergraduate classrooms. One hundred and
fifty-five male and female students participated in the first study. Students' opinion
about PowerPoint lectures was surveyed after receiving all their lectures in one
module in PowerPoint. Grades of one cohort were then compared with the grades of
another taking the same test one year earlier. In another study, fifty-two second year
students took part in. The students received a mock test one week following: (1) an
overhead lecture, (2) a PowerPoint lecture and (3) a PowerPoint lecture with lecture
notes. In the third study, one hundred students were divided into two groups. Two
cohorts had two identical lectures, in a counterbalanced order, presented either with
PowerPoint or by using overheads. The results showed that PowerPoint presentations
should not be used as a replacement for the blackboard, but, rather, as an efficient
auxiliary medium. The difficulty of the lectures, rather than the efficacy of
PowerPoint lecture, contributed to the grade differences among the three groups.
However, it did appear that PowerPoint lectures might benefit learner recall the
content of the lectures.
The next one is an experimental study from the United Kingdom reported by
Lowry (1999). This study conveyed to compare exam scores for three cohorts of 130
first year students who have a wide range of in terms both of academic subject studied
and of the type of course taken. The study was surveyed in the first semester which
was allocated 12 contact hours (normally lectures) and a further 12 hours of private
study. The series of lectures comprised one-twelfth of the workload of the students in
the first semester. At the end of the course, the students took a 45 minute multiple
7

choice test containing 30 questions. Results revealed that the two PowerPoint lecture
groups achieved better grade than the traditional lecture cohort did. In addition, the
students exposed to the PowerPoint lecturing had a positive attitude towards the
teaching method.
One more study was conducted by Harknett & Cobane (1997). They surveyed
participants who were general psychology students regarding the efficacy of
PowerPoint in lecturing. All participants were enrolled in one of the two Introduction
to Psychology sections. The classes met three times a week for 50 minutes each
session. The first section was composed of 33 students (14 males and 19 females) who
were taught with traditional lecture method and the second section was composed of
18 students (10 males and eight females) were taught with PowerPoint presentations.
As the students chose which section they attended, the participants were not randomly
assigned to conditions. After the first five weeks, the two sections were taken their
first exam and the first section was transformed from traditional lectures to
PowerPoint presentations. At the end of the course, eighty percent of the students felt
that PowerPoint lectures benefited their learning because of their better grade in the
final exam. Some also felt that the visual emphasis in PowerPoint helped them recall
the lecture material during exams.
In another study of students’ perceptions on the value of PowerPoint in
lectures, Fray & Birnbaum (2002) surveyed 160 students. They found the following
results: (1) students preferred PowerPoint presentations over the traditional
blackboards; (2) 85 percent of the students reported that PowerPoint presentations
hold their attention; (3) students agreed that PowerPoint had a positive effect on
lectures, especially in helping them to take notes and to study for exam.
Even Ho (2003) also investigated the effect of using PowerPoint presentations
and overhead transparencies. In this study, the teacher-researcher taught the same
course to two classes for 14 weeks. In one class, the teacher used transparencies as
visual aids only. In the second classroom, both transparencies and PowerPoint slides

were used. The teacher-researcher kept diaries of what happened and how she felt in
each lesson throughout the 14 weeks. The students in the two classes were given a
questionnaire to complete at the end of the course to seek their opinions on the
effectiveness of the use of the transparencies and PowerPoint slides. The questionnaire
asked them whether they preferred the use of transparencies or PowerPoint slides and
they were asked to give answers to open-ended questions asking them about the
reasons for their choice. The survey led to the results that PowerPoint presentation is
no doubt a visually more attractive aid than a transparency. It would seem likely that
PowerPoint will soon replace transparencies as a visual aid for presentation and
teaching.
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To sum up, the results from these studies exposed that the use of PowerPoint
for teaching and learning has considerable benefits. In addition, PowerPoint
Presentations bring about more pedagogical benefits to students that their grades are
better than those who learned with transparency lectures. Moreover, PowerPoint
presentations are easy to obtain, modify, and create. They are versatile and a great
asset to any classroom. Good presentations may take time to produce or adapt, but
they can be shared and used year after year. Furthermore, they can be used for whole
class presentations and reviews, for drills, or for individual work. From then,
PowerPoint Presentations are more prominent than purely oral presentations and
presentations using transparencies.
2.2. Critique
The researchers used various study including descriptive and experimental
study in these above studies. The main points in these studies are to expose the
efficacy of PowerPoint Presentations. The main instruments they worked with were
questionnaire, tests and teaching periods. Besides, the numbers of participants in these
studies are appropriate and can represent for the rests. One more thing is that the
results apparently leaned to the benefits of PowerPoint presentations. Most studies

explored that PowerPoint presentations had great preference, advantages as well as the
effects on students.
However, researching students’ attitudes and perceptions towards using
PowerPoint Presentations in teaching and learning English grammar is rare. The study
about PowerPoint presentations has never mentioned or conveyed in the context of
Vietnam. Therefore, this study focuses on students’ attitudes and perceptions about
presenting English grammar lessons via PowerPoint Presentations in Binh Minh high
school (Vinh Long, Vietnam).
3. Conclusion
The related literature and studies above have uncovered both the benefits and
the drawbacks of using PowerPoint presentations.
In terms of benefits, it is clear that PowerPoint presentations help structure the
content, present outline of information demonstrate difficult concept and emphasize
important points. Moreover, embedded with text, video, audio and images,
PowerPoint presentations are interesting in making the presentations flashy and
exciting for the students as their motivation is at a higher level. In addition,
PowerPoint presentations help student recall the lessons, hold their attention and take
notes. And it cannot be denied that the related studies explored that PowerPoint
presentations were superior to purely oral presentations and presentations with
transparencies.
9


In terms of drawbacks, PowerPoint presentations uncovered that overusing
background, transition, pictures may distract and make the learners feel bored and
even diminish PowerPoint presentations’ effectiveness. Furthermore, the students
performed worse when being presented much relevant pictures or a lot of information
at once.
Nevertheless, these benefits and drawbacks are withdrawn from the use of
PowerPoint presentations in teaching and learning in general, not in English teaching,

especially English grammar. This is the reason why the study to explore students’
attitudes and perceptions on presenting in English grammar lessons via PowerPoint
was investigated.

10


Chapter 3
Research Methodology
In previous chapter, a review of related literature is presented. In this chapter, the research
methodology of the study will be described including (1) the research questions, (2) the research
design, (3) the participants, (4) the research instrument and (5) the procedure.

1. Research questions
From the related literature and studies, the present research aims to study more
about the attitudes and perceptions of Binh Minh high school students on presenting
English grammar lessons via PowerPoint presentations. The aims and objectives of
this study is to answer the following questions:
1. How often is PowerPoint presentations used in English grammar lessons at
Binh Minh high school?
2. To which extent do Binh Minh high school students like the use of PowerPoint
presentation in English grammar lessons?
3. In Binh Minh high school’s point of view, what are the main benefits of
PowerPoint presentation in English grammar lessons?
4. In Binh Minh high school students’ point of view, what are the main drawbacks
of PowerPoint presentation in English grammar lessons?
These research questions will be examined by using descriptive statistics tests
for the mean score of questionnaire responses.
2. Research design
The research is based on the descriptive approach which is to describe the

natural phenomena without any treatment. Following the approach, that the degree to
which the PowerPoint presentation are used in English grammar lessons at Binh Minh
high school will be analyzed as well as the degree of students’ preferences and
perceives the benefits and the drawbacks of PowerPoint presentation in English
grammar lessons via students’ point of view.
3. Participants
There were 135 students, 50 males and 85 females, participating in the study.
The participants consisted of 46 tenth-grade students, 47 eleventh-grade students and
42 twelfth- grade students that were randomly chosen among forty-two classes at Binh
Minh high school. All the participants are learning seven-year English program. These
students were recruited to be the subjects of the study for the two reasons. Firstly, the
most important reason is that these students have more chances of learning English
grammar with new teaching method, especially with PowerPoint presentations. On
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average, they were taught English grammar lessons three to four periods over eight
English grammar period a semester. As a result, their attitudes and perceptions
towards PowerPoint presentations in English grammar lessons might be more stable.
Secondly, it is convenient to work with these students since the research has done
teaching practice with them. In short, these students may be good representatives for
all students at Binh Minh high school.
4. Instruments
A questionnaire to students is employed as the main instrument of the study.
The questionnaire was designed based on the ideas from related literature and related
studies. It was original in English (see appendix 1); however, the Vietnamese
translation was carried on later so that students with different English proficiency
levels could adequately understand the questions in the new version (see appendix 2).
The questionnaire consists of two parts. The first part includes background
information and a question about the degree to which PowerPoint presentations were

used in English grammar lessons. The second part including 23 five-scale Likert items
which fall into three clusters is about the preference, the perception and attitude of
students about presenting English grammar lessons via PowerPoint (see table 1).
Table 1
The items of the three clusters in the second part of the questionnaire
Cluster
1

Content
Students’ preference of PowerPoint
presentations in English grammar lessons

Items

2

Students’ attitudes and perceptions of the
benefits of PowerPoint presentations in
English grammar lessons

2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 14, 16, 18,
20, 22

3

Students’ attitudes and perceptions of the
drawbacks of PowerPoint presentations in
English grammar lessons

4, 7, 11, 15, 17, 19, 21 23

1, 9, 12 13

5. Procedure
In order to collect data for the survey, a questionnaire was designed on the
background information from literature review. The first draft of the questionnaire
was advised and given comments on both the form and content. After that, the second
draft was later asked to translate into Vietnamese. Then the Vietnamese version was
12


translated into English again by the researcher’s classmates who are good at English
without seeing the English version. No significant differences were found between the
English version and the Vietnamese version indicating that there was equivalence
between the questionnaire in English and the one in Vietnamese. The questionnaires
in English and Vietnamese were finally given to the supervisor to get some more
comments. At last, the final version of the questionnaire was given to the students.
The questionnaire was administered twice. Both times, the students who were
chosen randomly were carefully guided before fulfilling the questionnaire without
discussing with their classmates so that the responses could be their own options. The
time the students fulfilled the questionnaire was ten minutes on average. The
questionnaires were immediately collected after that, and then each of returned
questionnaire version was carefully checked to avoid missed items. First, to test
reliability, the questionnaire was piloted at Bui Huu Nghia high school which has
relatively similar background with Binh Minh high school to ensure the reliability of
the questionnaire. The pilot questionnaire was conducted with 104 students of tenthgrade, eleventh-grade and twelfth-grade classes. The researchers’ classmates who
were doing her teaching practice at the school became the administrators of the
questionnaire. The researcher’s classmates were guided the aims of the study, the way
the students fulfill the questionnaire and the explanation to each item in the
questionnaire. The pilot data analyzed using the Descriptive Statistics Test of the

Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software showed a quite high
reliability ( = .80). Then the questionnaires were distributed to the main participants
of the study, the students at Binh Minh high school. Finally, the data were analyzed
and reported.

13


Chapter 4
Results
In this chapter, the overview of statistical procedures as well as description of
findings or the result of the data analysis will be shown.

1. Overview of statistical procedures
The data collected from the questionnaire was analyzed by using the Statistical
Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. There was five-point Likert scale in
the questionnaire: “Strongly agree”, “Agree”, “Neutral”, “Disagree” and “Strongly
disagree” which were transformed into numeric scale. They were 5 for “Strongly
agree”, 4 for “Agree”, 3 for “Neutral”, 2 for “Disagree” and 1 for “Strongly
Disagree”. Firstly, reliability test was run with the result of  = .80. Next, the
Descriptive Statistics Test for the mean score was computed with the question about
the frequency of the use of PowerPoint in English grammar classes in the background
information and three clusters. After that, the correlation between the students’
preference and students’ perception of the benefits and the drawbacks of presenting
PowerPoint presentation in English grammar lessons were tested by using Pearson
Correlation Test.
2. Descriptions of results
2.1. Frequency of the use of PowerPoint in English grammar classes (Research
question 1)
This part presents the answer for the question one in the research questions, “How

often is PowerPoint presentation used in English grammar classes at Binh Minh high
school?” The mean score for the question in the background information of the
questionnaire which shows the frequency of the PowerPoint presentations in English
grammar lessons was run with Descriptive Statistics Tests.
Table 2
Descriptive statistics of the frequency of the use of PowerPoint in English grammar class
Number of cases Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation
(N)
(Min)
(Max)
(SD)
135
3
4
3.66
.48

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The result from the Descriptive Statistics Test shows a quite high mean (M= 3.66,
SD= .48). This indicates that students were usually presented PowerPoint
presentations in English grammar classes at Binh Minh high school.
2.2. Students’ preference of presenting PowerPoint presentation in English
grammar lessons (Research question 2)
The part presents the results of the research question two “To which extent do
Binh Minh high school students like the use of PowerPoint presentation in English
grammar lessons?” For this part, cluster one of the second part of the questionnaire
and each item in this cluster were run with SPSS software using the Descriptive
statistics test for the mean score. The results were shown in table 3.

Table 3
Descriptive Statistics of the students’ preference for presenting PowerPoint presentations in
English grammar lessons

PREFERENCE
Item 1
Item 9
Item 12
Item 13

N
135
135
135
135
135

Minimum
3
3
3
2
2

Maximum
5
5
5
5
5

Mean
4.06
4.00
4.05
4.08
4.12

Std. Deviation
.38
.72
.54
.69
.60

Table 3 indicates that the students agreed they like the PowerPoint presentations in
English grammar lessons (M = 4.06, SD = .38). Besides, the results of items 12 and
13 showed that most students prefer English grammar lessons with PowerPoint
presentation to the one with blackboard and it is clear that the students did not feel
bored when studying English grammar lessons with PowerPoint presentations.
Therefore, PowerPoint in English grammar lessons was enjoyed much by the students.
2.3. Students’ perception of the benefits of presenting PowerPoint
presentation in English grammar lessons (Research question 3)
This part has to do with cluster two-the benefits of presenting English grammar
lessons via PowerPoint presentations in the second part of the questionnaire (the
benefits) containing eleven items. Table 4 introduces the degree to which the students
thought about the benefits of PowerPoint presentation in English grammar lessons.

15

Table 4
Descriptive statistics of students’ perception of the benefits of presenting PowerPoint in
English grammar lesson

BENEFITS
Item 2
Item 3
Item 5
Item 6
Item 8
Item 10
Item 14
Item 16
Item 18
Item 20
Item 22

N
135
135
135
135
135
135
135
135
135
135
135

135

Minimum
3.00
3
2
3
3
3
3
2
2
2
2
3

Maximum
4.82
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5

Mean
4.09
4.14
4.03
4.25
4.19
4.03
4.14
4.07
4.00
4.01
4.01
4.14

Std. Deviation
.31
.65
.65
.60
.67
.63
.56
.68
.73
.67
.72
.58

The results show that the average mean of the benefits is clearly above 4 of the
five-point scale (M = 4.09, SD = .31). This means that the students agreed with

benefits of presenting PowerPoint in English grammar lessons. A deep observation at
the mean scores of each individual item might confirm findings of student’s
agreement with benefits of PowerPoint presentations. As it can be seen from the table,
the mean scores of the eleven items fall into above 4 of the five-point scale. The
highest mean score is received by item 5 in the questionnaire. (M = 4.25, SD = .60). It
is undoubtedly that the illustrated images used in English grammar lessons with
PowerPoint presentation are thought to be useful in reminding the content if the
lessons. The second highest mean score falls into item 6 in the questionnaire (M=4.19,
SD=.67). This shows that students had positive attitudes towards presenting English
grammar lessons via PowerPoint. And the three items including item 2, item 10 and
item 22 which have the same third highest mean (M= 4.14). These mean scores
indicate that the students agreed with the benefits of using PowerPoint in English
grammar lessons. These benefits consisted of the attention to the English grammar
lessons via PowerPoint presentations and the use of images and pictures to add
interest to the material as well as the English grammar lessons.
2.4. Students’ perception of the drawbacks of presenting PowerPoint
presentation in English grammar lessons (Research question 4)
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The part presents the results for the research question three “In Binh Minh high
school students’ point of view, what are the main drawbacks of PowerPoint
presentation in English grammar lessons?” For this part, cluster three and each item in
this cluster were run with SPSS software using the Descriptive statistics test for the
mean score and the results are shown in table 5.
Table 5
Descriptive statistics of students’ perception of the drawbacks of presenting PowerPoint in
English grammar lesson
N
Minimum Maximum

Mean Std. Deviation
DRAWBACKS
135
3.00
4.88
4.08
.32
Item 4
135
2
5
4.01
.55
Item 7
135
3
5
4.00
.65
Item 11
135
2
5
4.09
.58
Item 15
135
2
5
4.11

.68
Item 17
135
3
5
4.03
.60
Item 19
135
3
5
4.11
.63
Item 21
135
3
5
4.16
.63
Item 23
135
3
5
4.09
.64

The table indicates that the cluster drawbacks fall into the means outscoring
scale 4 of the five-point scale, indicating that the students’ thought about the
drawbacks of presenting PowerPoint in English grammar lessons is relatively high (M
= 4.08, SD = .32). In other words, the students also assented to the drawbacks of

presenting PowerPoint in English grammar lessons.
A closer look at individual items of the cluster drawbacks yielded interesting
observation. The highest mean score (M= 4.16, SD= .63) indicates that the students
thought the PowerPoint presentation slides with much details make them lose
attention to the lessons. The second highest mean score falls into item 15 and item 19
which have the same mean (M= 4.11). The results revealed that the students agreed
they concentrated on pictures, images and animations rather than the English grammar
lessons when being presented too much pictures and animations in English grammar
lessons with PowerPoint. In addition, the students concurred that when the teacher
used irrelevant pictures in English grammar lessons with PowerPoint presentations,
they could not recall the content of the lessons. In other words, the students
recognized the drawbacks of using PowerPoint presentations in English grammar
lessons.

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2.5. Correlation between the students’ preference and students’ perception of
the benefits and the drawbacks of presenting PowerPoint presentation in English
grammar lessons
Although this is not the main purpose of the study, it might be a very useful
part of the research and trigger some implications. To measure the correlation between
the students’ preference and students’ perception of the benefits as well as the
correlation between the students’ preference and students’ perception of the
drawbacks of presenting PowerPoint presentation in English grammar lessons, the
Pearson Correlation Test was run. The results of the test are provided in the table
below.
Table 6
Correlation between the students’ preference and students’ perception of the benefits and
drawbacks of presenting PowerPoint presentation in English grammar lessons

Preference & Benefits
Preference & Drawbacks

Pearson Correlation
.54
.34

Sig. (2-tailed)
.00
.00

N
135
135

The table 6 revealed that correlation coefficient between the students’
preference and students’ perception of the benefits as well as the correlation between
the students’ preference and students’ perception of the drawbacks of presenting
PowerPoint presentation in English grammar lessons is positive and significantly
correlated (p = .00). The correlation between the students’ preference and the
students’ perception of the benefits of presenting PowerPoint presentation in English
grammar lessons is moderate (r=.54). This uncovered that students’ preference
affected their attitudes and perceptions towards the benefits of PowerPoint
presentations in English grammar lessons, but not very high. And the correlation
between the students’ preference and students’ perception of the drawbacks of
presenting PowerPoint presentation in English grammar lessons is slight (r = .34).
These correlations indicate that students’ preference slightly affected their attitudes
and perceptions towards the drawbacks of PowerPoint presentations in English
grammar lessons.

2.6. Conclusion
In the chapter, the results of the data analysis were presented for the four issues
(1) PowerPoint presentations were usually used in English grammar classes at Binh
18