Problems in making english presentations of first year english majors in faculty of english, thuongmai university

THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
------

GRADUATION PAPER
PROBLEMS IN MAKING ENGLISH PRESENTATIONS
OF FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS IN FACULTY OF
ENGLISH, THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY

Supervisor :
Student : Nguyen Thi Thu Phuong
Class
: K52N5
Student’number : 16D170107

Hanoi, 2020

HÀ NỘI - 2015


ABSTRACT
The trend towards internationalization and globalization has become a great
popularity for many years; hence, improving communication skills in general and
presentation skills in particular has been vital for many learners and students these
days. It is undeniable that making a good presentation is not easy for many people
in Vietnam; especially, first-year English majors at Thuongmai University.
Therefore, this study aimed to identify their main difficulties that they encountered
while giving presentations. To achieve the aim of the study, I applied two tools, a
questionnaire and observation.
This study has been done on first-year English-majored students at Thuongmai
University. Therefore, all data and information collected from them can help me

realize that most problems are came from two primary elements including
subjective difficulties and objective difficulties. The subjective difficulties are that
students do not have a good preparation, they do not feel confident with their
performance or they do not interact with audiences. And the objective difficulties
include time allowed performing the presentation, pressure from teacher and
listener's support. Therefore, students are dissatisfied with their presentation.
Besides, through my observations, I found that most presenters do not know how to
attract the audiences, their voice sometimes are not loud enough or they do not use
body language effectively. As a result, presenter and listeners do not have any
connection. While the speaker was presenting, listeners were sleeping, talking
together or even playing with their phone.
Additionally, from all the results and analyses of the real situation, some
suggestions and recommendations can be drawn out to help them to have better
presentations.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
During the process of doing this Graduation Paper, I have received a lot of
support, assistance, guidance, motivation from many individuals.

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First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Ms.
Pham Thuy Giang for her valuable time, insightful comments, suggestions and
dedicated guidance throughout my study. Without her inspiration, encouragement
and instructions, the study would have been impossible to be done effectively.
I also wish to express my sincere thanks to all the lecturers of English Faculty
at Thuongmai University for their very useful lectures during four years that have
provided me with good background to do my Graduation Paper effectively.
In addition, I would like to express my profound thanks to my loving family
and special friends who went along the line with me and gave me great support and

concern to fulfil this study.
Finally, I also want to express my appreciation to the first-year Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University who participated in completing the
survey questionnaire. Without them, this study cannot be fully accomplished.
Hanoi, 24th April, 2020
Student
Nguyen Thi Thu Phuong

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT..............................................................................................................i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS....................................................................................ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS.......................................................................................iii
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES.......................................................................v
CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY......................................................1
1.1. Rationale...........................................................................................................1
1.2. Previous studies................................................................................................1
1.3. Aims of the study..............................................................................................2
1.4. Research subjects..............................................................................................2
1.5. Research methodology......................................................................................2
1.6. Scope of the study.............................................................................................3
1.7. Organization of the study.................................................................................3
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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW...............................................................4
2.1. The definitions of presentation........................................................................4
2.2. The importance of presentation.......................................................................5
2.3. Purposes of students’ presentations.................................................................8
2.3.1. Advocacy/persuasion.....................................................................................8
2.3.2. Teaching and learning...................................................................................8
2.2.3. Informing.......................................................................................................9

2.3.4. Inspiration or motivation..............................................................................9
2.2.5. Assessment......................................................................................................9
2.4. What makes a good presentation?.................................................................10
2.5. Steps in making a presentation......................................................................12
2.6.1. Preparation...................................................................................................13
2.6.2. Linguistic knowledge..................................................................................14
2.6.3. Presentation skills.........................................................................................15
2.6.4. Psychological factors....................................................................................16
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS..............................................................18
3.1. Students’ opinions of making presentations.................................................18
3.1.1. Students' frequency of making presentations in class.................................18
3.1.2. Students’ attitudes towards making presentations.......................................19
3.1.3. Student s’ views on the importance of presentations....................................20
3.2. Students’ performance before, during and after making a presentation.. .20
3.2.1. Students’ performance before making a presentation.................................20
3.2.2. Students’ performance during a presentation..............................................21
3.3. Students’ problems in making English presentations..................................22
3.3. Observation results.........................................................................................26
4.1. Recommendations and suggestions for first-year English-majored to make
a good presentation................................................................................................27
4.1.1. Preparing the presentation..........................................................................27
4.1.2. Giving the presentation...............................................................................29
4.1.3. Finishing the presentation...........................................................................30
4.2. Things needed to avoid when making a presentation..................................31
CONCLUSION......................................................................................................32
REFERENCES.......................................................................................................vi

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APPENDIX............................................................................................................vii

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
Chart 3.1: Students’ frequency of making presentations...................................18
Chart 3.2: Students' attitudes towards making presentations...........................19
Chart 3.3: Students’ views on the importance of presentations.........................20
Chart 3.4: Students’ preparation before presentations......................................20
Chart 3.5: Presenters’ interaction with listeners.................................................21
Chart 3.6: Things presenter looked at when presenting.....................................22
Chart 3.7: Do you often have difficulties in making a presentation?................23
Chart 3.8: Students' difficulties in making presentations..................................24
Chart 3.9: Audience’s activities during presentations........................................25

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CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY
1.1. Rationale
In recent years, there has been a growing recognition that English is well on its
way to become a dominant global language. With the trend of globalization and
internationalization, an increasing number of people have chosen to use English as a
second language for communication and discussion in various aspects of life such
as business, politics, culture, news and so on. Therefore, for many people,
improving four English skills is a good way to remove communication barriers and
exchange essential information. Generally, among English skills, speaking is not the
most but very crucial skills showing the users’ English capability. Particularly in
speaking skills, making a presentation is considered as one of the most important.

However, most Vietnamese people find it so difficult to gain success in
presenting. English majors, who are regarded as active and gritty ones still
encounter this difficulty, particularly when they use English as a second language to
express their ideas.
As a senior student of English Faculty at Thuongmai University, I realized that
many students still have difficulties in making presentation, especially the
freshmen. In order to help them overcome the problem, I am pleased to carry out
study: “Problems in making English presentations of first-year English majors in
Faculty of English, Thuongmai University” and propose some suggested solutions.
1.2. Previous studies
There have been many research studies carried out relating to the problems in
making an English presentation in the world and also in Vietnam. Some noticeable
ones are described as follows:
Firstly, the research “Kỹ năng thuyết trình bằng Tiếng Anh của sinh viên năm
thứ 3 khoa Tiếng Anh, Trường Đại học ngoại ngữ, Đại học Đà Nẵng - Thực trạng và
giải pháp” was carried out by Nguyen Thi Phuong Huyen, was published in 2008.
This study aims to understand the difficulties of students when making a
presentation so that they can find out the solutions to further improve presentation
skills for students to meet needs in studying and job. According to the author, in

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fact, most students make mistakes in structure, design and use of slide; have lack of
body language and vocabulary when making presentations. Besides, students are
not confident enough when presenting in public.
Secondly, the research “The essential ingredients of a presentation” done by
Siddons, was published in 2008.

This research aims to study three essential

ingredients of a presentation: the audience, the presenter and the presentation itself.
The result of this research showed that it is important to prepare the presentation in
advance to get the best results. There are a lot of presentations failed because they
are not rehearsed properly, or they are never rehearsed at all. The author claimed
that the presenter should not only prepare the materials well but also be well
prepared to practice in order to master the presentation in the most effective way.
Finally, the research “Improving presentation skills among business students”
done by Michael, was published on January 2007. The author said that use of
appropriate activities for presentation skills can be a good strategy to help
presenters release from stress. Furthermore, the freedom of topic choice makes them
comfortable, confident to speak as well as give opinion.
1.3. Aims of the study
It is undeniable that presentation skills is one of the extremely important skills
that help students advance further in study and work. Therefore, the study aims to
investigate problems that freshmen of English Faculty at Thuongmai University
have when they make presentations and find out appropriate techniques for
students to enhance their presentation skills and give them some suggested solutions
to better communication as well.
1.4. Research subjects
Based on the rationale and the aims of the issue, the research subjects of this
study is the problems in making English presentations of first-year English majors
at Thuongmai University. And then, from these difficulties, some recommendations
will be brought out to help them in English presentation improvement process.
1.5. Research methodology
This study is carried out based on the combination between qualitative
research methods and questionnaire survey, including observation. Through the
results of these research methods, the problems in making English presentations of
the freshmen of English Faculty at Thuongmai University can be found out.

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After analyzing the information and data collected, the difficulties and
obstacles which prevent these students from giving a good English presentation will
be discovered.
In this study, the following questions will be investigated:
- How often do students make an English presentation?
- What causes obstacles for students when presenting in English?
- How can they overcome those difficulties and improve English presentation
skills?
1.6. Scope of the study
This study focuses on researching and analyzing the problems in making
English presentations of first-year English-majored students at the Thuongmai
University by using data collected through survey questionnaire and direct
observation. The questionnaire is designed with 11 multiple choice questions,
relating to several aspects in making English presentations of students and it was
sent to a hundred of freshmen of English Faculty at Thuongmai University to collect
data and information from their learning and practicing process. The results of this
study may be limited to students participated in the research and information
finding process. However, it can be used as a resource for students who are
interested in presentation and improving their English presentation skills.
1.7. Organization of the study
- Chapter 1: Overview of the study. This chapter consists of rationale,
previous studies, aims of the study, research subjects, scope of the study, research
methodology and organization of the study.
- Chapter 2: Literature review. This chapter presents an overview of theories,
concepts related to the study. It consists of definitions of presentation, importance of
presentation, purposes of students’ presentation, what makes a good presentation,
steps in making a presentation and difficulties in presentation.

- Chapter 3: Research findings. This chapter consists of collected results from
the questionaire and observation leading to detailed analysis.
Chapter 4: Recommendations and suggestions. This chapter consists of
recommendations and suggesstions to make more effective presentations.
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

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2.1. The definitions of presentation
To make an effective presentation, the first thing we should understand is what
a presentation is. The definition of presentation has been debated for decades by
many experts and scholars; therefore, some theories of the definition of presentation
are presented in this part of the study.
According to Wikipedia, a presentation is “the process of presenting a topic to
an audience”. It is typically a demonstration, introduction, lecture, or speech meant
to inform, persuade, inspire, motivate, or to build good will or to present a new idea
or product. The term can also be used for a formal or ritualized introduction or
offering, as with the presentation of a debutante. Presentations in certain formats are
also known as keynote address.
Another widely accepted definition of a presentation is “Presentation is the
process of showing and explaining the content of a topic to an audience or a group
of audiences. It is often used to assess student learning in individual or group
research projects. In recent times, presentation is no longer just about oral
presentation but also visuals. Paper, white board or PowerPoint presentation are
sample tools to aid the visual part of the presentation. Peer and tutor assessment can
be used as part of the grading process, this would allow open-mindedness
particularly if the topic or presentation style generates subjective opinions or
different views.”
( />Morrissey and Sechrest (1987:2) claimed that a presentation involves the

preparation and delivery of critical subject matter in a logical and condensed form,
leading to effective communication.
Besides, it can be understood that “A presentation is a means of
communication that can be adapted to various speaking situations, such as talking to
a group, addressing a meeting or briefing a team. It can also be used as a broad term
that encompasses other ‘speaking engagements’ such as making a speech at a
wedding, or getting a point across in a video conference. A presentation requires
you to get a message across to the listeners and will often contain a 'persuasive'

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element. It may, for example, be a talk about the positive work of your organization,
what you could offer an employer, or why you should receive additional funding for
a project.”
( />Furthermore, another definition of presentation is that: “Presentation is a short
talk by one person to a group of people introducing and describing a particular
subject”.
(Teaching Presentation Skill to ESL.Ss- www.englishclub.com)
In summary, according to the definitions above, we can see that a presentation
is interpreted in many different meanings, depending on certain circumstances.
However, it can be clearly seen that the presentations are used by all people
everyday. It can be a short talk, a formal talk or even a speaking, but in general, it is
created for the purpose of communication among people.
2.2. The importance of presentation
Presenting the information clearly and effectively is a key skill to get the
message or opinion across and, today, presentation skills are required in almost
every field. Presentation skills and public speaking skills are very useful in many
aspects of work and life like business, selling, training, studying, teaching and
lecturing that develops confidence and other social situations. Presentations play a

vital role for the learning environment of universities in general and of Thuongmai
University in particular. Thanks to presentations, students have opportunities to
present what they have learned before as well as after the lessons. Besides, it is the
good way that they can understand more deeply on the topic in their universities’
education program.
Barbara gave some main roles of presentation in chapter 1(2007: 08) of a
book called “ A student’s guide to presentation” as follows:
- Forming self-learning habits for students.
- Helping students become more active and confident.
- Developing teamwork as well as leadership skills.
- Enhancing four skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing.
- Improving marks earned for a module assessment

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- Preparation for skills needed in the workplace
- Helping students to have a high income as well as a successful career in the
future.
Presentation has become one of the main methods in education program in
most universities and also in Thuongmai University. Therefore, it plays a crucial
part in forming self-learning habits and enhancing the confidence of students as
well. Furthermore, it is a good chance for students to practice their speaking skills
in front of the public.
Besides, the university learning environment is completely different from the
high school one in the way that students have to learn more by themselves. Making
a presentation, each student also has to study on a topic on their own. Since then,
their self-studying ability has gradually been formed and developed effectively over
time.
In addition to forming self-study habits for students, presentations help

students become more active and confident. To make a presentation students need to
be proactive, and passionate about research to produce new results. After
completing the content, students need to cultivate and practice to share with others
what they have learned in the clearest and most vivid way. This is also an
opportunity to expand their knowledge about the topic by actively asking others to
ask questions and answering audiences’ questions. Besides, presentations are a great
way to have students practise not only language systems such as vocabulary,
grammar, discourse and phonology but also four skills such as listening, speaking,
reading, and writing. Through presentations, they can become more confident and
active. It can be not denied that presenting is a necessary skill that most people need
in the life of study and work. According to my practical observation, I found that
students who are good presenters are usually better communicators all round,
because they can structure and express their ideas clearly.
Presentation 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 book, developing teamwork as well as leadership skills. For

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example: the audiences can also be tasked with answering the questions for
presentations, which is a helpful way of getting students to listen to each other.
Additionally, presentation can help students have more opportunities to
achieve higher scores. It uses different intelligence in addition to the linguistic
intelligence needed for essays and reports. In reality, some students are often
confident for their presentations and work better in group situations than on their
own. These students may earn a higher total mark for the module where there is a
combined assessment of presentation and written report, especially when the
presentation earns up to 40 per cent of the module mark.
In recent years, many employers seek the candidates who are confident and

use presentation skills as a part of their selection procedures. Some organizations
use staff presentations frequently for progress reports, staff appraisal and
development. Preparing and delivering presentations when was a student can help
the first-year English majors to be a more competent and confident candidates for
interviews because in the future, the organization will offer opportunities to develop
team working and project management skills. In the future, the freshmen of English
faculty will have to complete the work before the deadlines and take responsibility
for delivering an outcome of their work. Therefore, presentations are considered as
a positive experience that helps students to prepare for the future employment.
Finally, presentation brings students the chance to have a high income as well
as a successful career in the future. A candidate for job interviews has good
knowledge, impressive academic achievement, creative business idea but without
the ability to lecture, unable to express the ideas, knowledge, strategies and
orientations that he set out, he cannot convince employers to choose himself. No
matter how much knowledge and talent the freshmen of English faculty have but if
they cannot convey to others what they want, it will be very difficult for them to
succeed. Therefore, improving presentation skills every day will shorten their path
to success. The important thing is, the more they present, the easier it is for them to
persuade others.

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2.3. Purposes of students’ presentations
Every human has a certain purpose when deciding to do something and also
when diciding to make presentation. When you are making a presentation you
always have a goal such as trying to give a message on your audience or trying to
sell something. So what is the purpose of presentation?
According to Barbara (2007), 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. The purpose and circumstances of your
presentation will influence its style, content and structure. Most presentations will
involve a combination of purposes but it may be helpful to think about the different
features of each of these presentations.
She claimed that student presentations may be given for the purposes of:
• Advocacy/persuasion
• Teaching and learning
• Informing
• Assessment
2.3.1. Advocacy/persuasion
Presentation usually involves persuading members of the audience to take
some actions or make a decision. There are many convincing targeted presentations.
The speakers want to convince the audience to understand or believe their position
on a topic. In business, the goal of the presentation is to convince customers to buy
a product or service. The political field is no exception because their goal may also
be to persuade listeners to vote when politicians call. A convincing speech is
working towards a solution. The first thing needed to do is point out the problem.
Then provide the audience with a solution by presenting the views and methods. A
convincing speech often provides evidence, logic and emotion in it.
2.3.2. Teaching and learning
According to Barbara (2007): This goal is for the audience to understand more
about what they hear. Wanting the audience to learn, the presenters have to pay
attention to this. They need to teach or guide the group in front of them. That means

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they need to know a lot about the topic. The greater the presenters understand of the
topic, the more they will convey and get closer to the audience.
2.2.3. Informing

Barbara (2007) also affirmed that in some circumstances this type of
presentation could be seen as similar to teaching, but the aim of this type of
presentation could be to communicate as much information as possible in the time
available. The purpose of the presentation may be to:
- Describe a new policy
- Outline a set of instructions
- Give a progress report on some research or development
This type of presentation is used in many organizations where students or
employees are expected to report progress at key stages of a project. It provides
evidence of ongoing work and can be used as a subtle measure of control where
individuals work to meet deadlines set for dates of these progress reports.
2.3.4. Inspiration or motivation
In essence, every speaker wants to inspire. Inspiration is one of the most
powerful emotions. It is so great if presenters are able to inspire people to think,
move or change their behavior. Talks that are inspiring are often very personal.
Stories of overcoming difficulties are often great and meaningful. But it does not
have to be about something bad that has happened. It can be about the future. I have
seen a lot of Nick Vujicic's speeches and felt more motivated and positive than
before.
2.2.5. Assessment
Student presentations are frequently assessed and may be awarded a
percentage of the marks that contribute to the overall module mark and credits.
However, some presentations may not be assessed but used as an opportunity for
students to practise and further develop their presentation skills, without the anxiety
of earning marks for the quality of their performance.
There is a tension here for students, as most presentations need quite a lot of
preparation time. This time may only be seen as worthwhile if it earns marks
towards completion of a unit or module of study. Equally, it can influence students

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to withdraw from non-assessed presentations or use a minimum of effort for such
events, seeing them as less important for their learning and achievement. This focus
on marks earned, rather than experience gained, may influence some tutors to only
use assessed presentations.
Use of assessment can have a positive advantage. For some students,
presentations offer opportunities to earn a higher proportion of marks than they
might achieve for the written part of their assessment. They may be better
communicators and presenters in their use of speech, visuals or technology than in a
written mode.
2.4. What makes a good presentation?
Wallwork (2010:4) clarifies: “A “professional” presentation is one where the
learner puts the audience first.” The learner thinks about how the audience would
most like to receive the information he is giving. The key to an effective
presentation is that the presenter has a few main points that he wants the audience to
remember and that he highlights these points during the presentation in an
interesting way, and if possible, enthusiastic way. The important thing is to be
relaxed. To become more relaxed, the key is to prepare well and concentrate on the
content.
From my perspective, a good presentation is the one that can attract the
audience’s attention and involvement as well as express completely the speaker’s
ideas to them. However, to do this effectively we have the form of a presentation
and so there are some criteria of a professional and effective presentation.
According to Big Dog’s Leadership Page they are:
- Content: It contains information that people need.
- Structure: It has a logical beginning, middle, and end. It must be sequenced
and paced so that the audience can understand it.
- Packaging: It must be well prepared.
- Human element: A good presentation will be remembered much more than a

report because it has a person attached to it.

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According to Lenny (1996), an international professional speaker and the
author of the book, “10 Days to More Confident Public Speaking” and several other
publications, there are 6 elements of an effective speech as follow:
- Preparation - it is considered as the most important element. As a general
rule, the presenter should spend about 30 hours of preparation and rehearsal time for
every hour they will be speaking. Besides, they should use a tape recorder or
videotape themselves. This will help them to get an accurate picture of how they
speak.
- Giving of yourself – presenters should try to use personal examples and stories
in the speech whenever possible. They need to make sure that stories help to emphasize
or support the presenter's point and the stories must match their message. Besides, the
examples from the presenter's personal and professional life are also suggestions to
make their point.
- Staying relaxed - To stay relaxed, the presenter should be prepared. In
addition, they should focus on their message and not the audience. Moreover, the
presenter should use gestures as walking patterns. Practice the opening of their
speech and plan exactly how the presenter will say it because the audience will
judge the presenter in the first 30 seconds they see them.
- Using natural humor - In this element, the presenter should not try to be a
stand up comedian. The presenter can use natural humor by poking fun at
themselves and something they said or did. Besides, presenters should be sure not to
make fun of anyone in the audience. People will laugh when the presenter poke fun
at themselves but do not overdo it.
- Plan the body and hand positions - During the practice of the speech look for
occasions where the presenter can use a gesture. The presenter should establish

three positions where they will stand and practice not only how to move to them but
where in their speech do they move. They should pick three positions, one on center
stage, one to their right, and one to their left.
- Pay attention to all details - The presenters should make sure whether they
are in the right location or not. Next, they should make sure that they bring all their
visual aids and plenty of handouts. Finally, the presenters have to arrive early in

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order to check out where they will be speaking and make any last minute
adjustments.
In short, a professional as well as effective presentation depends on a lot of
elements such as preparation, content, outline, body language, natural humor, visual
aids, etc. Each element provides a necessary criterion that helps the students carry
out a better presentation.
2.5. Steps in making a presentation
The important step of making a presentation is to prepare for it. Emden and
Becker (2004:67) show that "Good preparation and planning are essential for
successful presentations. The quality of your presentation usually reflects the
amount of preparation the student has done. According to Lucas (2004)

and

Gregory (2005), speech preparation consists of selecting a topic and purpose,
analyzing the audience, gathering materials, and organizing the speech. Choosing a
topic is the first step in speechmaking but in presentation classes at Thuongmai
University, most topics are based on the topic of every chapter in students’
textbook, so students do not have to find their own topic. In addition, students
have to decide the purposes of the presentation. After choosing a topic and a

purpose, students must determine the specific purpose which is one aspect of the
topic (Lucas, 2004). Lucas (2004) suggested that when making a presentation,
students should be audience-centered; that is, students should analyze the
audience and should adapt the presentation to their interests and beliefs. Therefore,
the presentation will be clear and persuasive to the audience. Furthermore,
students should make efforts to convey their knowledge to the audience regardless
who the audience is. After selecting the topic and purpose of the presentation,
students have to seek more materials. According to

Lucas (2004), students

can gather materials by different ways: getting information in the library or
searching the Internet which is considered the world’s biggest library,. Students’
knowledge and experience are also used as sources to gather the materials.
Then, students will organize the speech. Gregory (2005) points out that a wellorganized speech contributes to enhancing the speaker’s credibility. He mentions
the results of studies showing that the listeners will find that the presenter is

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less believable due to the presentation’ poor organization. If it is well-organized, the
speech is easier for the audience to understand. A well-organized speech consists of
three basic parts. The first one is the introduction whose main goals are to capture
and hold the audience’s attention and interest, and to prepare the listeners for
the body of the presentation. The second part is the body which includes main
points. The final section is the conclusion which is to signal the end, summarize the
main ideas of the talk and strengthen the central idea with a clincher.
2.6. The difficulties in making English presentation
When making presentations, students may have to encounter a wide range
of difficulties which fall into four main categories: preparation, linguistic

knowledge, presentation skills and psychological factors.
2.6.1. Preparation
- Lack of preparation
Excellent speakers have carefully prepared before the presentation. In
particular, they understand the topic to talk about, how to organize the content,
make the impressive slide and understand thoroughly the key issues to be presented.
In order to have a good presentation, we first need to be well prepared about those
factors. However, many students ignore this.
Each presentation has different topics. When we have a good preparation, a
deep understanding of the subject will helps the students to determine a right
direction. That will help the presentation become more logical, increase theory
more.
- Confusing content
When too many content types are used, the presentation of student become too
long; there are too many slides that are unnecessary and in reality, the freshmen of
English faculty often take time to read everything on the slide but ignore that their
most important part is focusing on the audience.
The reputation will start to be judged when we get up and start talking.
Therefore, do not let confusing content ruin the quality of presentation. Let focus
entirely on one thing, not collect too many information from many different
sources.

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- Not clarifying the topic
Students in English Faculty should know clearly what they are expected to
speak about. Second, they should not assume the audience knows what they are
going to speak about. To avoid confusion, students should put main information
about the topic of presentation in introduction. They can get into the habit of saying,

“Today, I’ll be explaining…” or “My presentation today will show…” and do this
without exception. Some members of audience may also be global learners, who
need to know the destination before listener can follow along the detailed path of
presentation.
- Overcrowding text in slides
The best rule for text is to keep the slides simple. However, freshmen of
English Faculty often cram too much information into their slides.
2.6.2. Linguistic knowledge
Regarding

linguistic

knowledge,

students

have

difficulties

with

grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation when making English presentations.
- Mispronunciation
The differences between sound systems of English and Vietnamese result
in students’ difficulty in pronouncing English words. According to Avery and
Ehrlich (1998), there are a number of difficulties that students have to face in
pronouncing English words. First of all, they have difficulties with consonants,
namely voiceless stop consonants in final position, voiced stops at the end of
words, fricatives in word-final position, and consonant clusters (both in initial and

final position). Second, they have difficulties with English vowels. Third, some
specific English sounds may cause them difficulties. Lastly, stress, rhythm and
intonation seem to be troublesome to students. For example, they find it
difficult to produce multi-syllable words with appropriate stress patterns. In
fact, word stress, sentence stress and intonation play important roles in
comprehension (Buck, 2001). Additionally, students do not link words due to the
habit of omitting the consonants at the final position of the word.
- Grammar

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According to Graham and Walsh (n.d), there are some major problems that
students have with grammar. First, students often have difficulties with word
order. They usually make sentences that seem to be strange to the native
speakers due to wrong word order. Second, verbs also cause difficulties to
learners. Besides, learners have difficulties with prepositions and nouns.
- Vocabulary
In English there are a large number of phrasal verbs which are commonly
used. In other languages including Vietnamese; however, a single specific
word is used in place of the English phrasal verb (Le, 2006). Accordingly,
this difference might cause Vietnamese learners problems in using English.
2.6.3. Presentation skills
- Lack of body language
A good presentation is the combination of three elements including speech,
tone and body language, in which the body language occupies a very important
position in the presentation. However, students often ignore this important factor.
When presenting, the freshmen of English Faculty rarely use body language or if
have, it is used inappropriately.
Besides, the freshmen of English Faculty often have poor use of eye contact.

At the presentation, they often feel anxious. They cannot focus on the listener but
instead of looking at the ceiling, or just looking at the slide. Eye contact is the key
to build the trust. Thus, the freshmen of English Faculty should make sure to look
people in their eyes and smile when appropriate and use facial expressions to
convey messages.
- Reading texts in slides
Slide is a useful tool to remind us what is the next content needed to be said
for the presentation. However, the freshmen of English Faculty abuse the slides too
much. They seem to just look at the slide and read.
- Using slang or idioms
Some freshmen of English Faculty believe that using multiple idioms or slang
will make their presentation more professional. But in reality, using idioms or slang
make the audience difficult to understand and capture the content of the

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presentation incompletely because not all of the listeners understand what those
idioms mean.
- Using monotone voice
Students in the English Faculty are just exposed to class presentations so they
are often shy and worried. That makes their voice when the presentation becomes
unclear, hard to hear even the listener can not hear what they are saying. Students
also find it difficult to press the tone of the voice.
Voice is the primary means of communicating with audience. No matter how
interesting their material, if they speak in a monotone voice, they will lose our
audience. An effective voice should be vital, audible, and clear. Of course, voice
will be affected by age, gender, physiology, health, motivation, and past experience.
Nevertheless, people of all kinds can learn how to make their voices more effective
by learning about voice production, breathing techniques, vocal exercises and voice

care.
- Inappropriate humor
Off-color jokes could doom presentation, because students are taking the risk
of offending someone in the audience. Humor is culture-sensitive. What is
considered funny in one part of the world may be considered private and taboo in
another.
2.6.4. Psychological factors
- Fear of making mistakes
Robby (2010) argued that the fear of mistake becomes one of the main fears of
students on speaking English in the classroom. In my opinion, the presentation
lesson is the same. On presenting, the freshmen of English faculty often fear of
being laughed at by other students because of some problems as pronunciation. To
avoid this situation, it is important for teachers to convince the students that making
mistakes is not a wrong or bad thing because everyone can learn from the mistakes.
Besides, the freshmen of English faculty should improve their own pronunciation in
order not to fear anything.
- Lack of self-confidence

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One of the difficulties that students have in public speaking is to
experience anxiety and feel lack of self-confidence. Nervousness is considered to be
the biggest problem that most inexperienced students encounter. There are several
reasons for learners’ anxiety. The first reason is that they fear that they may make
mistakes or errors in front of others. One additional cause is that they worry about
the evaluation of the others; learners want to save their positive image or
impression in the mind of their teacher and peers (Tanveer, 2007).
- Lack of audience’ support
Another difficulty

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS
Through survey questionnaire and observation, the data and information were
collected to analyze the problems in making English presentations among the
participants. The questionnaire consisted of 11 questions sent to 100 students
majoring in English at TMU.
After fulfilling the survey, I have received the following results:
3.1. Students’ opinions of making presentations.
3.1.1. Students' frequency of making presentations in class.

Chart 3.1: Students’ frequency of making presentations.
As can be shown in chart 3.1, we can observe what the level of making
presentations of the students is.

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There are 62.5% of the students who responded that they usually made
English presentations, 20% of the students chose the "sometimes" option, 15% of
the students who always made English presentations. Meanwhile, the number of
students who had rarely made English presentations only accounts for 2.5%.
Generally, the number of students who had often made English presentations is
quite high.
Therefore, from the above data, we can conclude that making English
presentations plays a very important part like a compulsory subject with English
majors and the students are required to make presentations in different subjects
whether they like it or not.
3.1.2. Students’ attitudes towards making presentations.
The second question in the questionnaire is “Are you interested in making
English presentations?” The responses are shown in chart 3.2.

Chart 3.2: Students' attitudes towards making presentations.
The chart above reveals that 55% of students (10%: Extremely interested,
45%: Interested) had very good attitude toward making English presentations. This
is not a big number, but it also shows that they were always confident in what they
had prepared and were available to present to everyone. Besides, this figures
indicates that no matter how their presentation is evaluated by the teacher, they
express a very positive attitude towards presentations.

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Making English presentations has become more and more popular with
students at university. Meanwhile, 27.5% of the students feel normal and 12.5% of
the ones felt uninterested in making English presentations. It shows that the subject
has been accepted by many students but has not received much attention from them.
3.1.3. Student s’ views on the importance of presentations.

Chart 3.3: Students’ views on the importance of presentations
As shown in chart 3.3, 97.5% of the students thought that making English
presentations was important. It is a quite impressive figure. The rest said that this
was very important, and no one chose "unimportant". It shows that nearly all the
students give prominence to making English presentations.
3.2. Students’ performance before, during and after making a
presentation.
3.2.1. Students’ performance before making a presentation.
The answers to question 5: “What do you often do to prepare for your
presentations?” are shown in the following chart.

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