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

HOÀNG THỊ MAI HOA
FACTORS AFFECTING ENGLISH ORAL PRESENTATION SKILLS
OF THE STUDENTS AT HANOI TOURISM COLLEGE
(Những yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến kỹ năng thuyết trình tiếng Anh của sinh viên
Trường Cao đẳng Du lịch Hà Nội)
M.A MINOR THESIS
Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60.14.10 HANOI – 2011
i

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


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

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

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


1.5.2. Teachers’ roles 10
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
2.1 The setting of the study 11
2.1.1 The description of Hanoi Tourism College 11
2.1.2 Tourism Foreign Language Department 11
2.1.3. Tour guide students 12
2.2 The study 13
2.2.1 Research questions 13
2.2.2 Participants 14
2.2.3 The instrument 14
CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 The students’ perceptions of the importance of oral presentation skill and their self -
assessment of their presentations 16
3.1.1 The students’ perceptions of the importance of oral presentation skill 16
3.1.2 The students’ self-assessment of their presentation skill 17
3.2 Students’ difficulties in making oral presentations 17
3.2.1 Students’ difficulties in preparation 17
3.2.2 Students’ difficulties in organization 19
3.2.3 Students’ difficulties in delivery 20
3.2.3.1 Students’ difficulties in attracting and maintaining the attentions of audiences 20
3.2.3.2 Students’ difficulties concerning body language 23
3.2.3.3 Students’ difficulties concerning language use 24
3.2.3.4 Students’ difficulties in time management 25
3.2.3.5 Students’ difficulties in anxiety management 26
3.2.3.6 Students’ difficulties in handling the audiences’ questions 27 vi


HTC: Hanoi Tourism College LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1: The importance of the oral presentations
16
Table 3.2: Students’ self assessment of their oral presentations
17
Table 3.3: Students’ difficulties in preparation
18
Table 3.4: Students’ difficulties in organization
19
Table 3.5: Students’ difficulties in attracting and maintaining the attentions of
audiences
20
Table 3.6: Students’ difficulties concerning body language
23
Table 3.7: Students’ difficulties concerning language use
24
Table 3.8: Students’ difficulties in time management
25
Table 3.9: Students’ difficulties in anxiety management
26
Table 3.10: Students’ difficulties in handling the audiences’ questions
27
Table 3.11: The students’ difficulties in evaluation
28
Table 3.12: Factors affecting the students’ oral presentation
29
2
ABSTRACT

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

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

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

learn about characteristics of an entire group of interest by examining a subset of their group (a
sample)”, which is also the purpose of the study, i.e. to find out students’ perceptions of aspects
related to oral presentation.
5. Design of the study
The thesis consists of three parts
Part A: Introduction: introduces the rationale, aims, significance, scope and methodology of the
study.
Part B: Development: is the main part of the study, which consists of three chapters
Chapter 1: Literature Review: is a brief description of the study including definition of oral
presentation, tour guides’ oral presentation, oral presentations as part of oral communication, the
role of presentation in tour guiding job, the structure of an oral presentation, and the factors
affecting the students’ oral presentation skill.
Chapter 2: Methodology: provides the current situation of the teaching and learning of oral
presentation skill at HTC, research questions, informants, instrument and process of the study.
Chapter 3: Findings and Discussion presents the findings and discussion of the study based on the
result of questionnaire.

5
Part C: Conclusion consists of the summary of the study, recommendations, and limitations of the
study and gives suggestion for further study.
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1 Definition of terminology
1.1.1. Oral presentation
Gufta (2008) defines an oral presentation as a formal way to convey your message to your
audience
1.1.2. Tour guides’ oral presentation
A tour guides’ presentation is to introduce the place or the country in terms of its importance,
history, politics, cultures, fauna and flora to the participants of the tours
1.2. Oral presentation as a component of oral communication

Vietnam’s growing tourism industry.
2.1.2. Tourism Foreign Language Department

7
2.1.3. Tour guide students
2.2. The study
2.2.1. Research questions
With the aim to find out the factors affecting the oral presentation skill of non - English major
tour guide students at HTC, it is necessary to answer the following questions:
1. What are the third year tour guide students’ perceptions of the importance of oral
presentation skills in their future job?
2. How do they self assess their presentations?
3. What are their difficulties when giving oral presentations?
4. What do they perceive as factors affecting their oral presentations?
5. What are their suggestions to improve their oral presentations?
2.2.2. Participants
The survey was conducted on 106 prospective tour guide students of class C6G
1,3
who were in the
fifth semester at HTC. Each class had 53 students aged from 20 to 23. Female outnumbered the
male. There were 96 girls and 10 boys in the classes.
2.2.3. The instrument
In order to achieve the aims of the survey, a 45-item questionnaire was used in the study.
CHAPTER 3
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
3.1. The students’ perceptions of the importance of oral presentation skill and their self -
assessment of their presentations. 8


Both of the tasks in language use caused many difficulties for the students. Students often
made simple grammatical mistakes in their presentation such as the use of personal pronouns
or tenses. Moreover, they could not find the right word to express their ideas.

3.2.3.4. Students’ difficulties in time management

“Controlling the time for the presentation” was another difficulty for students. The majority of
students rated the task as very difficult and difficult

3.2.3.5. Students’ difficulties in anxiety management

Students still faced the difficulties in managing the anxiety. However, many of them could
control their anxiety while giving their speech

3.2.3.6. Students’ difficulties in handling the audiences’ questions

3.2.4. Students’ difficulties in evaluation

3.3. Factors affecting the students’ oral presentation skill

Factors concerning students’ oral presentation skill came from students themselves, teachers
and institutions. The major factor affecting students’ oral presentation was their low language
proficiency that also made them lose confidence. Next, students’ lack of rehearsal for
presentation and chances of giving speech before class also led to their bad performance.
Teachers’ inadequate feedback, encouragements and mistake correcting manner caused

10
difficulties for students. For institutions, poorly equipped class hindered the teaching and
learning of oral presentation skill.


3.4.3.2. Organizing study trips to tourist destinations
Students thought that trips to tourist destinations would be very helpful for their future jobs.
PART C: CONCLUSION
1. Summary of the study

2. Recommendations

The factor that determines the quality of a tour guide’s oral presentation is the information to
be conveyed with accurate pronunciation, acceptable fluency and appropriate manner. In the
classroom, teachers should put greater emphasis on these aspects by using real-life tasks in the
classroom.

Gufta (2008:258) shows that “Presentation is a skill which is developed through experience
and training”. This means that presentation skill needs a lot of practice.

It is unquestionable that good preparation and planning bring about success. Thus the teacher
needs to work with the students to develop the evaluation criteria in the form of a checklist to
be used in the classroom. More importantly, teachers in the department should work together
on the corpus of lexical chunks that are commonly used in a tour guide’s oral presentation for
the students to practice using them. In addition, the teacher should also give the students more
opportunities to practice and improve the students’ pronunciation in context. The teacher
should use more exercises on the use of discourse devices or linking words.

3. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further researches

12

The limitations of this study lies in the use of the questionnaire as the only instrument of data
collection. This instrument can at best capture the surface of the student participants’

14. Paulston, C.B. 1985. Communicative competence and Language teaching, in Das, K.B.
Communicative Language Teaching. (p14-31). Singapore University Press
15. Reinhart, S.M. (2002). Giving Academic Presentation. The University of Michigan Press.
16. Revell.J.1979. Teaching techniques for communicative English. MacMillan Press LTD
17. Ur. P. 1996. A course in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Vietnamese
1. Đoàn Hương Lan. (2007). Nghiệp vụ hướng dẫn du lịch. Nhà Xuất Bản Đại Học Kinh Tế
Quốc Dân
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