1
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ TÂM

AN ACTION RESEARCH ON DEVELOPING SPEAKING
SKILL THROUGH ORAL PRESENTATIONS WITH
REFERENCE TO THE COURSEBOOK “TALK TIME” FOR
THE SECOND YEAR NON-MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY
(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ PHÁT TRIỂN KỸ NĂNG NÓI THÔNG QUA THUYẾT
TRÌNH THEO CUỐN SÁCH “TALK TIME” CHO SINH VIÊN KHÔNG
CHUYÊN NĂM THỨ 2 ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI)

MINOR PROGRAM THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY
CODE: 60 14 10
HANOI – 2012
2
Acknowledgement ii
Abstract iii
Table of Contents iv
List of Abbreviations vii
List of Tables, Charts and Figure viii
PART A: INTRODUCTION 1
1. The rationales of the study 1
2. The scope and significance of the study 2
3. The aims of the study 2
4. Methods of the study 2
5. The design of the study 3
PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4
1.1. Speaking skill 4
1.1.1. Definitions of speaking 4
1.1.2. Approaches to speaking 5
1.1.3. Differences between spoken and written language 6
1.1.4. The importance of teaching speaking skill 7
1.1.5. Types of classroom speaking performance 7
1.2. Oral presentations 8
1.2.1. Definitions and characteristics of oral presentations 8
1.2.2. The importance of oral presentation skills 9
7 1.2.3. Types of oral presentations 10
1.2.4. Procedure for using oral presentations as a class activity 11
1.3. Sub-conclusion 12
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 13
2.1. Action research 13

PART C: CONCLUSION 41
1. Summary of the findings 41
2. Limitations and suggestions for further study 42
REFERENCES 43
APPENDIXES I
Appendix 1 I
Appendix 2 V
Appendix 3 VII
Appendix 4 VIII 9 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

HaUI: Hanoi University of Industry
ESL: English as a Second Language
EFL: English as a Foreign Language
CLT: Communicative Language Teaching


5
Students’ general attitudes towards oral presentations
24
6
Result of the first observation of students’ presentations
31
7
Result of the second observation of students’ presentations
32

Charts:
No
Title
Page
1
Aspects of the presentations students want their teacher to give
more feedback
24
2
Things teacher should do to help students make better
presentations
25
3
Things students should do to make good presentations
26

Figure:
No
Title
Page

listening skills. Experiencing one term teaching this book last year, the researcher
encountered quite a few problems in terms of the syllabus and the low English proficiency
of the students. In addition, after making reference to the other teachers who also teach this
coursebook, the author found out that all of classes still applied teacher-centred approach
to the teaching and learning of English. As a result, teacher talking time was much greater
than student talking time in class. Consequently, students’ speaking ability is not good
enough. To solve her own problems and give the students a chance to work independently
and practise their English speaking skill, the author would like to do a small research on
“An action research on developing speaking skill through oral presentations with
12 reference to the coursebook “Talk time” for the second-year non-major students at Hanoi
University of Industry”.
2. The scope and significance of the study
This study mainly focuses on the impacts of oral presentations on the second year students’
performance in English lessons. Besides, their attitudes towards making oral presentations
in class are also one of the concerns of the study. After that, some suggestions to help
students improve the effectiveness of their presentations and speaking skills are offered.
The study involves the participation of 42 second year non English-majored students of
Faculty of Accounting at Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI). They have experienced
four semesters studying English at this university.
Conducting this study in a very specific context, I hope that, to some extent, the effective
integration of oral presentations will make my students’ speaking and presentation skills
much better and the current situation of teaching and learning English with the coursebook
“Talk time” at HaUI will be generally improved.
3. The aims of the study
This study is designed to bring a new air into English classes for the second-year students
at HaUI. In general, it has three purposes. Firstly, it is to investigate the impacts of oral
presentations on the students’ performance in English lessons. Secondly, it aims at finding

 Chapter 4, implications and suggestions, offers some pedagogical suggestions for
the students and teachers of English at HaUI.
Part C, conclusion, summarizes the key points and the limitations of the study. 14 PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter briefly presents the previous and current literature on speaking skill and oral
presentations. Besides, it also describes how oral presentations help improve students’
speaking skill in an ESL classroom.
1.1. Speaking skill
1.1.1. Definitions of speaking
In terms of the direction and modality, speaking is a productive oral skill which is
generated by learners in language teaching. Speaking consists of producing systematic
verbal utterances to convey meaning. According to Florez (1999, p.1), speaking is “an
interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and
processing information”. It is often “spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving” (1999, p.1)
but it is not completely unpredictable.
Scott (1990, p.70) adds that “speaking emphasizes the use of language above the level of
the sentence” and that “the learner is now concerned with using language, not English
usages”. The ultimate goal of learning a language is actually to be able to communicate,

gaps in skills and knowledge. Another important element of communicative competence is
discourse competence, that is, how language is tied together, which includes both cohesion
and coherence.
These four components - linguistic competence, sociocultural competence, strategic
competence and discourse competence - have several practical implications for EFL and
ESL teachers. Since communicative competence is a multi-faceted construct, it is
important to understand the complexities learners face when they are speaking English.
One of those is balancing fluency and accuracy. Accuracy refers to “the ability to speak
properly- that is, selecting the correct words and expressions to convey the intended
meaning, as well as using the grammatical patterns of English” (Bailey. K.M, 2005, p.5).
Meanwhile, fluency is “the capacity to speak fluidly, confidently, and at the rate consistent
with the norms of the relevant native speech community” (Bailey. K.M, 2005, p.5).
Discussing this issue, Scarcella and Oxford (1992, p.156) have seen many educators who
believe that in a communicative class, “it is not necessary to teach conversational features
or push students to communicate accurately” and that “fluency can be developed by simply
providing students with lots of conversational practice”. On the contrary, Ur (1996)
believes that both fluency and accuracy are taken into consideration, apart from other
factors. This is a good balance. Brown (1994, p.254) also shares the same idea that “both
16 fluency and accuracy are important goals to pursue in CLT”. Nonetheless, the balance
between fluency and accuracy is also dependable on the purpose of the course, the English
level of students and the context of learning and teaching. In fact, while students are at the
beginning and pre-intermediate level of language learning, that is, they are learning to
master grammar rules, acquire essential vocabulary items and search for the right words in
their mental processes, accuracy and fluency often work against each other.
1.1.3. Differences between spoken and written language
Recognizing the differences between spoken and written language are of great importance
to the language learners. Sometimes speaking in a way that things would normally be

intuitively the most important, people who know a language are referred to as “speakers”
of that language, as if speaking includes all other skills of knowing” (p.120). As
aforementioned, with the emergence of communicative competence, the focus of language
teaching is spoken language. “The term “communicative” has often been interpreted as
relating to speaking only, and in some cases, this has meant that the teaching of speaking
has taken precedence over the teaching of reading and writing” (Hammond et al, 1992,
cited in Burns, A. (2002, p.54)).
From the awareness of the role of speaking skill, it is easily recognized that teaching
speaking skill is so important. It creates motivation for students in the process of learning a
foreign language because many of them view that learning a language is to use that
language to communicate and express ideas. The ability to communicate in a second
language clearly and efficiently contributes to the learners’ success in schools and later in
every phase of life. Therefore, it is essential that language teachers pay great attention to
teaching speaking.
1.1.5. Types of classroom speaking performance
According to Brown (1994, pp.266-268), there are six categories of speaking performance
that students are expected to carry out in the classroom. They are imitative, intensive,
responsive, transactional (dialogue), interpersonal (dialogue) and extensive (monologue).
 Imitative speaking performance is carried out in the form of imitation drills when
learners listen to the teacher or a tape and repeat what is heard. The author believes
that “drills offer limited practice through repetition. They allow one to focus on one
element of language in a controlled activity” (p.266).
18  Intensive speaking is one step beyond imitative speaking. It includes any speaking
performance that is designed to practise some phonological and grammatical aspect
of language.
 Responsive performance is understood as short replies to the teacher’s or students’
questions or comments. Brown (1994) supposes that these replies are usually

content, delivery, language and organization.
According to Clark, D. (2010), a good presentation firstly has content. That is, it contains
information that people need. Secondly, it has structure with a logical beginning, middle
and end. It must be sequenced and paced so that the audience can understand it. Thirdly, a
presentation is characterized by packaging: it must be well prepared. Finally, a good
presentation has human element in it. It will be remembered much more than a report
because it has a person attached to it.
1.2.2. The importance of oral presentation skills
In a broader perspective, presentation skills play an increasingly important role for
students’ future job prospects. They are not only a must for faster growth in the
organization but also a necessity to be in the eyes of management to get responsible
assignments. When people can speak clearly, concisely, and convincingly, they will gain
enormous confidence, which as Emden and Becker (2004, p.2) put it “will result in an even
better presentation next time” and “the newfound confidence may affect other areas of
work”. Moreover, through mastery of speech, individuals come to fully effective in
organization, in the management and expression of ideas and arguments (Powell, 2003).
In a narrow perspective, oral presentations help improve students’ vocabulary, grammar,
speech delivering ability and strategic competence. They also often provide practice in
speaking for the presenter. Firstly, while preparing a presentation, the presenter has to
think twice before choosing which words, phrases or structures to use or what sentences to
make. Later on, when delivering the presentation, he also has to recall such knowledge in
order to make an accurate speech. Therefore, his vocabulary and grammatical knowledge is
revised and improved all the time throughout his presentation. Secondly, the speech
delivering ability is much improved through making presentations because the speaker has
to look for the way to deliver his speech so that the audience would most likely to
understand and enjoy it. Lastly, presentations help improve strategic competence. The
presenter should find the most appealing ways of beginning, developing and closing his
speech to draw his audience’s attention. In other words, the presentation skills and the
strategic ability are tightly linked to each other.
20

 An informative presentation provides the audience with information about a new
subject or new information about a familiar subject. Informative presentation is the
21 most commonly used type of presentation in classrooms and in scientific
conferences at universities.
To conclude, an oral presentation can be one of the above-mentioned types. Each type of
presentation has its own characteristics. However, a presentation is sometimes mixed up by
several types. At universities, students can work individually or be grouped to present a
new topic of the lesson in front of the class or share their ideas about an issue.
1.2.4. Procedure for using oral presentations as a class activity
Oral presentations have been used in teaching to improve learners’ speaking ability for
many years. This issue has also been discussed by scholars, researchers and practitioners.
As a matter of fact, the purposes of oral presentations, according to Underhill, 1987,
Miller, 1994, are to help language learners develop their fluency and increase their
confidence when speaking. Underhill (1987, p.47) suggests that “in a less formal situation,
mini presentations may be a routine part of the daily teaching schedule”. Each day a
learner takes turns to make an oral presentation to the rest of the class. At the end of the
presentation, he/she is supposed to deal with any questions raised by their friends. It is the
learner’s job to conduct the whole activity without the intervention of the teacher. The
presentation may be taped either for marking or for subsequent classroom analysis.
Miller (1994, pp.280-281) shows the procedure for oral presentations carried out as a class
activity as follows:
1) At the beginning of the semester, have students organize themselves into small
groups.
2) Generate topics for discussion in one of three ways:
 Have the students suggest topics.
 Prepare and suggest topics to the class.
 Have students (or yourself) research and suggest topics related to their field

23 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
This chapter provides background information about action research, the current situation
of teaching and learning English of non English-majored students with the coursebook
“Talk time” and a description of the methodology employed to collect data for the study.
2.1. Action research
2.1.1. Definitions and characteristics of action research
For many years, action research has captured the attention of practitioners and
administrators and is becoming increasingly significant in language education. It is defined
in a number of different ways. Frost (2002) claims that “action research is a process of
systematic reflection, enquiry and action carried out by individuals about their own
professional practice” (cited in Costello, 2003, p.3). Bassey (1998, p.93) shares the same
view and defines it as “an inquiry which is carried out in order to understand, to evaluate
and then to change, in order to improve some educational practice”. In other words, it
allows teachers to study their own classrooms – for example their own teaching methods,
their own students, their own assessment – in order to better understand them and be able
to improve their quality or effectiveness. According to Kemmis and McTaggart (1988),
there are three major characteristics of action research. Firstly, it is carried out by
practitioners (classroom teachers) rather than outside researchers. Secondly, it is
collaborative. Lastly, it is aimed at changing things (cited in Nunan, 1992, p.17).
In short, action research is referred to as a process or an inquiry carried out by the
educators to improve the current state of affairs within the educational context.

Figure 1: Action research phases
2.1.3.1. Diagnosing
In English lessons, the author found that the students were quite passive in their learning.
They did not contribute actively to the lessons and they often kept quite. It seemed to her
that she spoke almost all the time in class. It was clear that teacher-centred approach was
still applied to the teaching and learning English in HaUI in general and in this class in
particular. As a result, the students’ speaking ability is not good.
DIAGNOSING
Identifying or defining
a problem
SPECIFYING
LEARNING
Identifying general
findings
ACTION PLANNING
Considering alternative
courses of action
EVALUATING
Studying the
consequences of an
action
TAKING ACTION
Selecting a course of
actions 25

carried out as follows. A group made presentation on a topic relating to the lesson and then
some minutes were spent on asking and answering questions and discussion. Students were
26 also given a chance to make comments on their friends’ presentations. During the
presentations, they acted as audience, observers and assessors. Finally, teacher’s
constructive feedback on the presentation played a very important role so that students
could improve presentation and speaking skills.
The teacher gave a mark for each member of the groups because of the following reasons.
First, it forced all students especially lazy and passive ones to work and practice for the
presentation. Second, it encouraged their enthusiasm and creativity to achieve the best
result. Last but not least, it provided the teacher a tool to assess students’ speaking ability.
2.1.3.4. Evaluating
When actions were taken, some instruments such as questionnaires, observations and
students’ journals were employed to collect data to evaluate the consequences of these
actions.
2.1.3.5. Specifying learning
After data were collected, they would be analyzed to find out the results and the findings
would be interpreted in light of how successful the action has been.
2.2. The current situation of teaching and learning English at HaUI
In general, English is paid much more attention than other general subjects at HaUI. The
teaching of English is divided into two phases. In the first phase (the first four semesters),
students study general English with four skills: writing, listening, reading and speaking.
After the first phase, students are expected to understand sentences and frequently used
expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e.g. very basic personal and
family information, shopping, local geography, employment), to communicate in simple
tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar matters, to describe
their background, their environment, their experiences and events, briefly give reasons and
explanations for their opinions. In other words, with reference to speaking skill in

4
th
semester
6
Talk time
5
th
semester
3
English for specific purposes
Table 1: English curriculum at HaUI
Students at HaUI come from many provinces of the country, from rural villages to
developed cities. Therefore, the number of years of learning English is very different.
Some has had more than 10 years while others has had only one year studying English at
HaUI. Moreover, the levels of English proficiency of the students especially speaking skill
are generally various and quite low. The problem results from several causes. The first one
is that their academic results from the entrance university exam are very low, so the self-
consciousness, consciousness and self-study of most students may not be good. The second
cause is that they still adopt the teacher-dependent learning style which is not suitable for
university students who are required to research and work much more independently at
university than at high schools. For a long time at high schools, they only focused on
grammar exercises and vocabulary in order to pass the written exams, and they hardly
spoke English. As a result, although some of them have acquired a good knowledge of
grammar and vocabulary, their English speaking ability seems to be quite bad. The last
problem, as I believe, is that the teacher-center approach has been applied for a very long
time at HaUI. The teacher seems to present all the things in the book and play the decisive
role in their students’ learning process, and gradually creates a teacher-dependent learning
style for them.
In a nutshell, the teaching and learning situation at our university are not as good as we
expect. Therefore, enormous efforts should be made to help improve students’ English

3
Unit 3: Everyday activities-Life experiences
02
04

4
Unit 4: School subjects- At school
02
04

5
Unit 5: Phone messages-Favors and requests
02
04

6
Unit 6: Wishes-Opinions
02
04

7
Unit 7: Customs-Events and celebrations
02
04

8
Unit 8: Jobs- At works
02
04


15
Tests
00
00
06
Total of periods
90
Table 2: Syllabus for teaching the coursebook “Talk time”