A study on students’ attitudes towards doing english presentations at department of accounting at quang ninh university of industry

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF
LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF
POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

******

VŨ THỊ THANH HUYỀN

A STUDY ON STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS DOING
ENGLISH PRESENTATIONS AT DEPARTMENT OF ACCOUNTING
AT QUANG NINH UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY
(Nghiên cứu thái độ của sinh viên khoa Kế toán trường Đại học
Công nghiệp Quảng Ninh với hoạt động thuyết trình tiếng Anh)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111

Hanoi - 2016


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF
LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF
POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

******

VŨ THỊ THANH HUYỀN

A STUDY ON STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS DOING

ENGLISH PRESENTATIONS AT DEPARTMENT OF ACCOUNTING
AT QUANG NINH UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

(Nghiên cứu thái độ của sinh viên khoa Kế toán trường Đại học
Công nghiệp Quảng Ninh với hoạt động thuyết trình tiếng Anh)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Hoàng Văn Vân

Hanoi - 2016


DECLARATION
I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report
entitled: “A study on students’ attitudes towards doing English presentations at
Department of Accounting at Quang Ninh University of Industry” submitted in
partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at Faculty of
Post-Graduate Studies - University of Languages and International Studies, VNU,
Hanoi, and that this thesis has not been submitted anywhere for any degree. Except
where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due
acknowledgement in the text of the thesis.
Hanoi, 2016

Vũ Thị Thanh Huyền
Approved by
SUPERVISOR
(Signature and full name)

Prof. Dr. Hoàng Văn Vân

Date:……………………

i


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 and foremost, I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to my
supervisor, Prof. Dr. Hoàng Văn Vân, for his invaluable guidance, critical feedback,
and especially, his enormous encouragement, without which my thesis would be far
from completion.
My special thanks also go to all the lecturers and the staffs of the Faculty of
Post-Graduate Studies for their useful lessons and precious helps throughout my
study.
I am greatly appreciative of all my colleagues and students at Quang Ninh
University of Industry for their contribution to the data collection and their
constructive suggestions for this research.
I also wish to acknowledge all the authors whose materials have been used in
the study. Thanks to them, I could accomplish my study.
Last but not least, the whole-hearted thanks and debt gratitude are reserved
for my dear family and friends who have supported and helped me to overcome the
difficulties during my study.

ii

ABSTRACT
Learners’ attitude is one of the most effective factors which has great influence
on language acquisition and helps explain linguistic behavior. Positive attitudes may
bring benefits while negative attitudes may lead to decreased motivation and
unsuccessful attainment of proficiency. This study was conducted to explore the
attitudes towards doing English presentations of the students at Department of
Accounting at Quang Ninh University of Industry. The survey aproach was
employed. Two research instruments, survey questionnaire and interview, were used
to collect data from 96 first year accounting students at Quang Ninh University of
Industry (QUI). Overall, the findings indicated that the participants kept negative
attitudes towards doing English presentations. Both internal and external factors
accounted for their unfavorable attitudes. From the findings obtained, some
pedagogical implications were proposed to both teachers and students with the hope
that they will make a contribution to the improvement of the teaching and learning
of English presentation skills at QUI.

iii


TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION.......................................................................................................i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...................................................................................... ii
ABSTRACT............................................................................................................iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS......................................................................................... iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATION....................................................................................vii
LISTS OF TABLES............................................................................................... viii
PART A: INTRODUCTION...................................................................................... 1
1. Rationale for the study....................................................................................... 1
2. Aims of the study.............................................................................................. 2
3. Research questions............................................................................................ 2

4. Significance of the study................................................................................... 3
5. Methods of the study......................................................................................... 3
6. Scope of the study............................................................................................. 4
7. Design of the study............................................................................................ 4
PART B: DEVELOPMENT...................................................................................... 6
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................... 6
1.1. Oral presentations............................................................................................ 6
1.1.1. Definition of oral presentation.................................................................... 6
1.1.2. The advantages of student presentations.................................................... 6
1.1.3. Characteristics of effective presentations................................................... 8
1.1.4. Oral presentation skills in the language classroom..................................... 8
1.1.5. Factors affecting students’ oral presentation............................................. 10
1.2. Individual factors affecting on students’ success in language learning..........11
1.3. Attitudes........................................................................................................ 12
1.3.1. Definition of attitude................................................................................ 12
1.3.2. Language attitude..................................................................................... 13
1.3.3. Roles of learners’ attitudes in language learning......................................14
1.3.4. Factors affecting learners’ attitudes towards language learning...............14

iv


1.4.

Review of previous studies related to students’ langua

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY ............................................................................
2.1.

Setting of the study .....................................................

2.1.1. A brief overview of QUI and English Division at QUI .............................
2.1.2. The QUI students .......................................................................................
2.1.3. A brief description of the English course and material .............................
2.2.

Participants of the study .............................................

2.3.

Research instruments ..................................................

2.3.1. Questionnaire .............................................................................................
2.3.2. Interviews ...................................................................................................
2.4.

Data collection procedure ...........................................

2.5.

Methods of data analysis ............................................

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION .........................................
3.1.

Data analysis of students’ questionnaires ...................

3.1.1. General attitudes towards learning English ...............................................
3.1.2. Students’ attitudes towards English presentations .............................
3.1.3. Students’ feelings about doing English oral presentations ...............

3.1.4. Students’ activities in periods having presentations ..........................
3.1.5. Reasons affecting students’ attitudes towards oral presentations
in the classrooms ...............................................................................................
3.1.6. Summary from students’ questionnaire .....................................................
3.2.

Data analysis of students’ interview ...........................

3.3.

Discussion ...................................................................

PART C: CONCLUSION .........................................................................................
1.

Recapitulation ................................................................................

2.

Implications ...................................................................................

2.1.

For students .................................................................

2.1.1. Improving knowledge of English ..............................................................
2.1.2. Preparing thoroughly for presentations .....................................................

v

2.2. For teachers................................................................................................... 39
2.2.1. Providing students with linguistic knowledge.......................................... 39
2.2.2. Equipping students with presentation skills............................................. 40
REFERENCES........................................................................................................ 42
APPENDICES........................................................................................................... I
APPENDIX 1: PHIẾU KHẢO SÁT CHO SINH VIÊN.......................................... I
APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS.......................................IV
APPENDIX 3: CÂU HỎI PHỎNG VẤN CHO SINH VIÊN.............................VII
APPENDIX 4: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS.........................VII
APPENDIX 5: RESULTS FROM QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS.......VIII
APPENDIX 6: INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS................................................... XII
APPENDIX 7: CHECKLISTS...........................................................................XV
APPENDIX 8: A SAMPLE FINAL SPEECH EVALUATION FORM.............XVI

vi


LIST OF ABBREVIATION
VNU

: Vietnam National University, Hanoi

EFL

: English as a Foreign Language

ESL

: English as a Second Language

QUI

: Quang Ninh University of Industry

CLT

: Communicative Language Teaching

ESP

: English for Specific Purposes

vii


LISTS OF TABLES
Table 1: Summary of students’ attitudes towards learning English.........................23
Table 2: Summary of students’ awareness about the importance of English
presentations............................................................................................................ 24
Table 3: Summary of students’ feelings about doing English oral presentations.....26
Table 4: Summary of students’ activities in presentation periods............................26
Table 5: Summary of internal factors affecting students’ attitudes towards doing
English presentations.............................................................................................. 28
Table 6: Summary of external factors affecting students’ attitudes towards doing
English presentations.............................................................................................. 30

viii

PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale for the study
Attitudes have been frequently reported as one of the most essential factors
affecting students’ achievements in EFL classrooms. Language attitude has great
influence not only on language learning and acquisition but also on learners’ choice
and use of language. A positive attitude toward learning the English language is one
of the leading predictors of success in gaining fluency. Besides, in the Vietnamese
educational system, since the shift from the teacher-centered to the learner-centered
approach in recent years, the role of learners has been put on more emphasis in
every aspect of education, such as teaching methods, material development,
learners’ proficiency assessment, etc. At every level of teaching English, the student
is at the center. Therefore, it can be said that understanding of learner’s attitudes is
one of the keys to the success of our English teaching process.
The Vietnamese Prime Minister’s Decision 1400/QĐ-TTg, promulgated on
September 30th, 2008, on the approval of the Project entitled “ Teaching and
Learning Foreign Languages in the National Education system, Period 2008-2020”
has emphasized the teaching and learning a foreign language, particularly English
with the goal that “by the year 2020 most Vietnamese youth whoever graduate from
vocational schools, colleges and universities gain the capacity to use a foreign
language independently. This will enable them to be more confident in
communication, further their chance to study and work in an integrated and multicultural environment with variety of languages”. Thus, the ability to communicate is
the most important goal that communicative language teaching aims to reach.
Having students give oral presentations in front of class is one typical example of
learner-centered, communicative activities that has been widely included in
teachers’ plans to satisfy the demand of English teaching in this stage. There is a
considerable amount of research which confirms that presentation skills are
essential skills not only because of their popularity in most working places but also
a lot of benefits they bring to learners, namely, bridging the gap between language

1

study and language use, using the four language skills in a naturally integrated way,
helping students to collect, inquire, organize and construct information, enhancing team
work, and helping students become active and autonomous learners (Nguyen, 2009).

At Quang Ninh University of Industry (QUI), English is a compulsory
subject. Within the credit-based system, especially in large classes, oral
presentations receive much attention from the management as well as the English
teaching staff. However, in reality, the ability to do English presentations of the
students in general, accounting students in particular, was still far from satisfaction.
With the experience of four-year teaching EFL at QUI, I can see that my
students showed different attitudes towards doing English presentations. Some
showed their favorable attitudes and wanted to improve their presenting abilities
while others felt uncomfortable and under pressure. Therefore, I would like to do a
research on this issue to clarify this problem.
For all that have been mentioned, I have decided to choose the topic “A study
on students’ attitudes towards doing English presentations at Department of
Accounting at Quang Ninh University of Industry” for my minor thesis. Hopefully,
my efforts in doing this research can contribute effectively to the teaching and
learning of presentation skills at QUI.
2. Aims of the study
This study is conducted to explore the accounting students’ attitudes towards
delivering presentations in English. Therefore, the aims of the research are:



to discover the students’ attitudes at Department of Accounting at QUI
towards doing English presentations.



3.

to find out the reasons why they had those attitudes.

Research questions
To translate the aims into reality, two research questions are raised for

exploration as follows:
(1) What are the attitudes of the students at Department of Accounting at
QUI towards doing English presentations?
(2) Why do they have such attitudes towards doing English
presentations?
2


4. Significance of the study
The study is conducted with the expectation that its results will be useful for
both students and teachers of the English division at QUI. Most importantly, it is
hoped to bring the detailed and full view on their students’ attitudes towards and
expectations for their English presentations as well as the reason why they had those
attitudes. Based on the findings, some suggestions are given in order to help
students develop interest and promote positive attitudes towards doing English
presentations. This will be effective for them to accomplish English language
proficiency.
5. Methods of the study
To fulfill the above aims, the survey approach was selected. It is worth noting
that survey methods have been strongly supported to study wide variety of issues
that impinge on language learning, including 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 (Johnson 1991:105).
The study used both qualitative and quantitative methods to collect and
analyze data. However, a questionnaire was developed as a primary research
instrument. Besides, interviews for students were used to obtain data to supplement
and cross-validate the students’ responses to the questionnaire.
The study was carried out in the following steps:
First, a questionnaire was designed and delivered to students to investigate
their attitudes towards doing English presentations and reasons for such attitudes.
Second, interviews with some students were designed to get supplementary
information and make the data collected more reliable.
Then, the data was collected, sorted and analyzed quantitatively and
qualitatively to obtain realistic results.
To end with, pedagogical implications for enhancing students’ positive
attitudes in giving English presentations will be proposed based on the results found
from all data collection instruments.

3


6. Scope of the study
The study focuses on attitudes towards oral presentations in English in the
classroom context of 96 first-year non-English major accounting students at QUI.
Because of limited time, the study was not carried out on a large scale. However, I
do hope that the findings and recommendations of the study will be of some help to
both teachers and students of English in the process of teaching and learning oral
presentation skills so that students will have better oral presentation skills.
7. Design of the study

The study is organized into three main parts: Introduction, Development and
Conclusion.
Part A - Introduction - presents the rationale, aims, research questions,
significance, methods, scope and design of the study.
Part B - Development - consists of three chapters:
Chapter I - Literature Review - provides the theoretical background for the
field of the study. It focuses on two main points: attitudes and presentations. To
begin with, issues related to oral presentations such as definitions, advantages,
characteristics, etc., are explored. Next, learners’ factors influencing on students’
success in language learning as well as doing presentation skills are taken into
consideration. Then, it is concerned with some major issues regarding attitudes,
language attitude, the roles of attitudes and factors affecting attitudes in language
learning. Finally, previous studies related to the topic are summarized.
Chapter II - Methodology - presents the overall picture of how the research
was carried out. The first part describes the context where the study was conducted.
The second one mentions the selection of research instruments. Then, the overview
of data collection procedures and method of data analysis is given.
Chapter III - Data analysis and discussion - provides analysis of the data
collected through the research procedure described in chapter II. The analysis of the
data is presented in two parts: the first part is the results from the questionnaire for
students and the second one is from the students’ interviews.

4


Part C - Conclusion - summarizes the main points presented in the study,
makes some recommendations to effectively promote the students’ attitudes in doing
English presentations, points out some limitations of the study and makes some
suggestions for further study.

5


PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Oral presentations
1.1.1. Definition of oral presentation
Oral presentation is an extension of oral communication skill. There are
many ways to propose its definition. According to Josef (1998), presentation means
“a short talk by one person to a group of people introducing and describing a
particular subject”. Barker (2000: 113) maintains that oral presentation is like a
formal conversation. Brian (2002: 5) also asserts, “A presentation is a transmission
of a message”. In the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2010: 1190), a
presentation is defined as “an act of showing something or of giving something to
somebody”. Peter and Graham (2006: 4) agree with the idea stating that “By
presentation we mean a talk or speech given by a presenter (sometimes more than
one) to an audience of two or more people”. Generally, it can be said that oral
presentation or public speaking is a form of communication which is intended to
convey certain ideas, messages and information in a clear, structured way.
The term presentation in the above definitions is shown in general
understanding, but in my study, presentations done in English lessons by accounting
students are focused. According to Comfort (1995), presentation in this case is
considered as 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”.
1.1.2. The advantages of student presentations
Effective oral presentation skill is essential in education, social and
professional life. If properly guided and organized, oral presentations provide a
learning experience and teach lifelong skills that will be beneficial to ESL/EFL

students in all school subjects, and later in their careers (Meloni &Thompson,
1980). Doing presentation is really a very good learning experience as students need

6


more practice in English before they graduate. Chivers and Shoolbred (2007: 2)
claim, “There are many reasons why students are asked to give presentations and
these will be influenced by your academic course and situational and organizational
factors”.
Oral presentation is a way of developing the students’ ability to practice.
King (2002: 402) affirms many advantages of student presentations. It’s oral
presentation that can help bridge the gap between language study and language use.
In oral presentations, students use all the four skills in natural integrated way.
Besides, presentations help them to collect, inquire, organize, and construct
information. Thanks to doing presentations, team work will be enhanced and
students will learn both actively and autonomously. King (2002: 402) also
concludes that, “ Having students give oral presentation in a front of their class in
one of the learner-centered activities that has been widely include in teachers’ lesson
plans to improve students’ oral proficiency”.
To be more specific, Chivers and Shoolbred (2007: 8) provide advantages
gained from student presentations as below:











Student-centred participation in their learning
Developing new knowledge and different perspectives on a topic
Practice in a known environment/situation
Increasing confidence to speak and present in front of an audience
Improving marks earned for a module assessment
Developing a wide range of communication and presentation skills
Preparation for skills needed in the workplace
An exchange of roles and perspectives from audience to presenter

In short, making an effective oral presentation has great contribution to
students’ ability to communicate with others. As a result, their learning English will
become easier and more effective. According to Emden and Becker (2004: 1),
“developing the abilities to speak to an audience is one of the greatest benefits
you’ll ever get from your time in further or higher education.” Then oral

7


presentation is one of the important parts of teaching a foreign language, especially
in the university environment.
1.1.3. Characteristics of effective presentations
A presentation is effective when the speaker(s) make(s) all the people
involved achieve their research objective. Moreover, effective oral presentation
must make the audiences get interesting and useful information and they will enjoy
their times while listening to the speakers. Sometimes, students may remember
more of the content of their peers’ presentations than the content delivered by the
lecturers. They may also remember the content of their own presentations more than
the content of lectures they have attended.

Chivers and Shoolbred (2007: 20-21) claim that in order to prepare and
delivery an effective presentation, these characteristics are very important:









Careful planning and preparation
Good time management
Relevant and interesting content
Good communication skills
Appropriate use of technologies
Clear supporting documentation
A suitable audience participation

In other words, making a presentation in English can be difficult and
demanding because it has content, structure and needs preparation. Thus, in oral
presentation, it is necessary for students to know how to prepare and structure their
presentation carefully. In addition, they need to know how to deliver it because this
will make its content much more effective.
1.1.4. Oral presentation skills in the language classroom
As a matter of facts, presentation skills are extremely useful in the language
classrooms. After completing a project, a presentation is a channel for students to
share with others what they have learned. It is also a chance to challenge and
expand on their understanding of the topic by having others ask questions.

8


Presentations can also form a natural part of task-based learning. By focusing on a
particular language point or skill, the presentation is a very practical way to revise
and extend lesson, pair and group work. The audience can also be given a task, for
example, a set of questions to answer on the presentation, which is a way of getting
students to listen to each other (Pham, 2011). In the class rooms, oral presentations
can also be carried out as class activity. Students work in a small group to discuss a
topic. After the discussion, each representative from each group will present his/ her
group’s ideas or each member will take turn to be responsible for each part of the
presentation.
Vo (1994, cited in Nguyen, 2009) gives suggestions for teachers when
assigning oral presentations, in which the procedure of oral presentation should
come as below:
1.

At the beginning, let students know that all of them will have chances to

speak in front of the class.
2. Put up a large calendar so that students can choose the date they
prefer.
3.

After the break of every class session, have one student come forward

and speak about his/ her topic.

6.

4.

The teacher sits in the audience during the speech.

5.

Time limit for each student should be about five minutes.

Let other members of the class raise their questions and comment until

the speaker has finished (if the presenter has difficulty in answering the audience
questions, the teacher and other students can help).
7.

After each speech, give the speaker some feedback (it is highly

recommended that compliments should come before criticism in order not to
discourage the speaker).
In brief, teaching oral presentations skills is not an easy task for teachers as
they are required to play a lot of different roles at the same time. They must have
structured plan and appropriate method of teaching and giving feedback in order to
make oral presentations can be beneficial and enjoyable activities for learners.

9


1.1.5. Factors affecting students’ oral presentation
Oral presentation is not an essay task. According to Barker (2000: 113)
“Speaking to groups is notoriously stressful activity”. In her study, Nguyen (2009)
investigated and concluded that students’ oral presentation can be affected by these

following reasons:
+/ Students’ language proficiency
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).
Regarding to speaking skill in general and presentation skills in particular,
accuracy and fluency are the two most concerning aspects. Accuracy involves the
correct use of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation whereas fluency means the
ability to use the language with ease.
In reality, the emphasis on accuracy and fluency has changed a lot. Once,
language teaching and learning was almost entirely about accuracy. Today, it can be
thought that the mastery of communication is the main objective, in other words,
grammar is the support system for communication, not an end in itself. However,
self-conscious learners often strike a careful balance between accuracy and fluency.
+/ Students’ personality
The presenter plays the most important role in making the success of his oral
presentation. According to many researchers, feelings of anxiety, apprehension and
nervousness are commonly expressed by foreign language learners in learning to
speak a foreign language, particularly when they have to make an oral presentation
in that language (Nguyen, 2009). Chivers and Shoolbred (2007: 31) say, “Many
students feel highly nervous about undertaking class presentation”.
King (2002: 406) considers speech anxiety as one of the major problem that
lead to learners' oral presentation failures. This anxiety comes in part from a lack of
confidence in the general linguistic knowledge, the embarrassment of exposing the

10


language imperfections in front of others. Besides, learners’ personality traits such

as shyness, quietness, and reticence are considered as frequently precipitate
communication apprehension. It is obvious that such feelings in the learners may
prevent them from achieving the desired goal.
+/ Teachers’ roles
Working with students on oral presentations is a challenging job for teachers.
According to King (2002: 407), “a teacher moves from the traditional role of
teacher as an authority expert to the new role of facilitator of learning”. The teacher
is the guide, organizer, consultant, resource person, and supporter. He also
emphasizes that the teacher's role in oral presentations not only involves preparing
detailed guidelines, organizing groups, helping students to select topics, guiding
their research and helping them learn the use of various visual aids, but also holding
of Question & Answer sessions, providing feedback on the sequencing of ideas, and
evaluating their performance (King, 2002: 407-408).
1.2. Individual factors affecting on students’ success in language learning
The mastery of language varies greatly from learner to learner. Obviously,
each student is an independent individual with certain characteristics. Under the
same circumstance, some gain much higher proficiency in their English skills while
others do not make any progress. In recent years, some of the researchers have
established the significant role of factors affecting in second language learning. Ellis
(1985) explained for this issue: “The general factors that influence second language
learning are: age, aptitude and intelligence, cognitive style, attitudes, motivation and
personality”. Narayanan et al (2008: 485-512) states that if the learner wants to
foster linguistics skills effectively he/she needs to be highly motivated, positive
attitude towards the language, low language anxiety and suppose to have a good
amount of TL exposures”. Lightbown and Spada (2013: 75) claim that “many of us
believe that individual differences that are inherent in learner can predict success or
failure in language learning”. They believe that learners possess characteristics such
as personality, intelligence, aptitudes, ages, attitudes and motivation which can
determine more or less successful language learning.

11


Among the diverse and composite individual differences and learner
variables in learning a second language, the role of students’ attitudes have recently
been spent considerable attention by many scholars. They approved that the learners
benefit from the positive attitudes, and negative attitudes may lead to decreased
standard of proficiency in the language. Positive attitudes are related to learners’
success in language learning. The measurement of language attitudes provides
information which is useful in language teaching and language planning. This
motivates me to design a study on investigating students’ attitudes towards English
presentations.
1.3. Attitudes
1.3.1. Definition of attitude
There have been many definitions of attitude proposed to describe its
essence. Gardner (1985) maintains that “attitude is an evaluative reaction to some
referent or attitude object, inferred on the basis of the individual’s beliefs or
opinions about the referent”. It can be understood that people’s beliefs or
perceptions can lead their attitude favorably or unfavorably to an object.
In more details, Gardner (1985) states that attitudes have cognitive, affective
and conative components. The cognitive component refers to the individual's belief
structure, the affective to emotional reactions, and the conative to the tendency to
behave toward the attitude object.
This idea is shared by Wikipedia, in which attitudes are judgments and they
develop on the ABC model: Affect, Behavior and Cognition. It further explains that
the affective response is an emotional response that expresses an individual’s degree
of preference for an entity. The behavioral intention is a verbal indication or typical
behavioral tendency of an individual. The cognitive response is a cognitive
evaluation of the entity that constitutes an individual's beliefs about the object. More
interestingly, this source reveals that most attitudes result from either direct

experience or observational learning from the environment.

12


Looking from a different angle, Brown (2000: 180) also suggests that
“Attitudes, like all aspects of the development of cognition and affect in human beings,
develop early in childhood and are the result of parents’ and peer’s attitudes, contact
with people who are different in any number of ways and interacting affective factors in
the human experience”. Here it seems that attitude is formed through a long process
and it is affected by many factors in the daily lives of each person.

I myself find the following concept of attitude clear and convincing: An
attitude is a hypothetical construct that represents an individual's degree of like or
dislike for something. Attitudes are generally positive or negative views of a person,
place, thing, or event - this is often referred to as the attitude object (Wikipedia online dictionary).
In short, attitude can be understood as a mental state that plays a crucial role
in behaviors of human beings. Attitude has a considerable influence on the feelings,
thinking and beliefs of an individual towards everything around. Every reaction and
response toward certain things of people depends greatly on attitudes.
1.3.2. Language attitude
Learning a language has a close relation to the attitudes towards the
languages. In the Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics (2010: 314), language
attitudes are defined as the attitude which speakers of different languages or
language varieties have towards each others’ languages or to their own language.
Expressions of positive or negative feelings towards a language may reflect
impressions of linguistic difficulty or simplicity, ease or difficulty of learning,
degree of importance, elegance, social status, etc. Attitudes towards a language may
also show what people feel about the speakers of that language. Having the same
idea, Holmes (1992, cited in Pham, 2013), believes that attitudes in the context of

language learning are defined as the way people look at the language, the class and
the people, and the culture of language. Especially, language attitude is
distinguished from general attitudes by the fact that language attitudes are precisely
about language (Pham, 2014). In other words, language attitude refers to attitude
people hold towards language.

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This study concentrates on exploring students’ attitudes towards only one
respect of learning language - doing English presentations.
1.3.3. Roles of learners’ attitudes in language learning
Many researchers have proved that there is a reciprocal relationship between
learners’ attitudes and their language learning. Lightbrown and Spada (1999) state
that attitude is fundamental to the success or failure that we experience in learning.
Depending on the learners’ attitudes, language learning can be a source of
enrichment or a source of resentment. Agreeing with the role of attitudes, Brown
(2000: 181) believes that language learners benefit from positive attitudes while
negative attitudes may lead to decreased motivation and unsuccessful attainment of
proficiency. He continues that “positive attitudes towards the self, the native
language group, and the target language group enhanced proficiency”. Sahin (2005:
41) holds a view that there is a significant correlation between students’
attitudes
and their achievement in English lessons, which suggests that attitudes towards
target language may be taken as a predictor of achievement. In his study, Karahan
(2007: 84) finds out positive language attitudes let learners have positive orientation
towards learning English. He asserts when students hold the positive attitudes, they
become more active in their learning process, so their positive attitudes can help
them access to the target language easier.
It is clear that learners’ language attitudes are decisive factors in successful

language acquisition. I am of the same opinion that students having positive
attitudes may speed up their language learning and see themselves achieving higher
result. In this study, students’ attitudes towards doing English presentations are
explored. Its results are expected to suggest some strategies that encourage students’
positive attitudes and limit their negative ones.
1.3.4. Factors affecting learners’ attitudes towards language learning
Language attitude has recently received remarkable attention from many
language researchers. They share the opinions that attitudes are clearly influenced
by many factors in the students’ upbringing (Gardner, 1985: 43).

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According to social psychologists, “attitudes are individually driven”
(Kumaravadivelu, 2006: 38). Different individuals develop different shades of
attitudes. In the Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics (2010: 287), individual
learner factors that have been frequently identified as possible causes for differential
success include age, aptitude, motivation, cognitive style, the use of learning
strategies, and personality. However, the concept of individual differences is rather
loose, containing certain core variables and many optional ones. When addressing
individual differences, one needs to select personality, ability/aptitude, and
motivation to start with as these are invariably seen as principal learner variables
(Dörnyei, 2005: 7). It seems clear that the internal factors associated with students’
personal traits are the principal factors affecting students’ attitudes.
In addition to the individual’s personal dispositions, there are at least two
external forces that appear to shape the learner’s language-learning attitude:
environmental and pedagogic. The environmental factor includes social, cultural,
political and economic imperatives that shape the L2 educational milieu. The
pedagogic factor shapes how teachers, learners and the learning situation interact
with each other to trigger positive or negative attitudes in the learner (Malcolm,

2006: 39). Focusing on this issue, Pham (2014) inferred that students’ attitudes are
affected directly from factors associated with teachers (teachers’ behaviors and
teachers’ practices) and learning environment (learning conditions and materials). In
other words, external factors associated with teachers and learning environment
play a vital role in influencing students’ attitudes.
In the case of this study, internal factors related to students’ personal traits
and external factors related to teachers and learning environment are considered as
determinant factors directly influencing students’ attitudes.
1.4. Review of previous studies related to students’ language attitudes
The issues of students’ attitudes towards learning foreign language in general
and learning English in particular have widely aroused the interest of teachers and
researchers all over the world. Since the beginning of this century, there are
increasingly more researches done on different aspects of this field.

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