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

ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my gratitude to all those who have given me great


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.
iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS Page
Declaration i
Acknowledgements ii
Abstract iii

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

3.2.4. Students’ difficulties in evaluation 28
3.3. Factors affecting the students’ oral presentation skill 29
3.4. The students’ suggested solutions 32
3.4.1. For students 32
3.4.1.1 Improving their knowledge of English 32
3.4.1.2 Practising carefully for the presentation 32

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


The specific objectives of the study include:
 identifying the students’ perceptions about the importance of oral presentation
skills in their future job.
 understanding students’ self assessments of their oral presentation skill
 identifying the difficulties in making oral presentations encountered by the students
at HTC.
 examining the factors affecting their oral presentations at HTC. 2
 providing some recommendations on how to improve students’ oral presentation.

3. Scope and significance of the study

The study focuses on oral presentation skills in English in the classroom context of 106
third – year non-English major tour guide students at HTC. I hope that the findings and
recommendations of the study will be of some help for both teachers and students of
English in the process of teaching and learning oral presentation skills so that students will
have better oral presentation skill for their future job.

4. The method of the study

The methodology chosen for the study is quantitative. This methodology fits well the
purpose of the study, which is a survey in nature. Johnson (1991:104) states, “[T]he
purpose of a survey is to 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.

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.

Part C: Conclusion consists of the summary of the study, recommendations, and limitations
of the study and gives suggestion for further study.

4
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

5
understand and realize the values of the tourist sites. Generally, the information in the
presentation must be arranged logically based on time and space.

1.2. Oral presentation as a component of oral communication

Ang (1991:2) reveals the root of the word “communication”: Communication comes from
Latin term “communis” which means “share and inform ideas and feeling etc” and
communication is the transmission of messages via verbal and non verbal.

Revell (1979:1) defines communication as “an exchange between people, of language, of
information, of ideas, of opinions, of feeling”. Communication is, therefore, an essential
need of human beings in their development. This involves verbal and non-verbal
communication. Verbal communication includes written and oral communication whereas
the non-verbal communication includes body language, facial expressions and visuals
diagrams or pictures used for communication.

Oral communication is information spoken by mouth; the use of speech. Oral
communication is a two – way process between speaker and listener (or listeners) and
involves the productive skill of speaking and the receptive skill of understanding (or
listening with understanding) (Byrne, 1986)

Therefore, communication is an activity of conveying meaningful information. Oral
communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient. Communication
requires that the communicating parties share an area of communicative commonality. The
communication process is complete once the receiver has understood the sender.



1.3. The role of oral presentation skill to tour guides

Oral presentation plays more and more important role in working environment. Gufta
(2008) confirms that: “You need this skill in your academic career, when you attend job
interviews, and especially when you start working. Presentation is the first managerial skill
which a working executive must acquire”. (p.258)

Oral presentation skill is the most important skill for tour guides based on their duty. The
formal definition of a tour guide as set out by the European Committee for Standardization
is as follows: Tourist guide is the person who guides visitors in the language of their choice
and interprets the cultural and natural heritage of an area. 7

Đoàn (2007:25) also clarifies the main responsibility of tour guides “tour guides provide
information on destinations for tourists by means of oral presentations”.

In short, oral presentation skill is the main tool of tour guides and the most decisive
successful factor in their job. If tour guides want to impress tourists, they have to prepare
an interesting and informative presentation. Making a good oral presentation is an art that
involves attention to the needs of audience, careful planning, and attention to delivery.

1.4. The structure of an oral presentation

1.4.1 The structure of an oral presentation


Đoàn (2007) states that there are three main parts in tour guides’ presentations like any
other kinds of oral presentation: introduction, body, and conclusion.

Introduction
In the introduction, tour guides introduce themselves, the driver, general information about
the trips or the tourist spots as well as the schedule. The introduction should not be too
long. It should be interesting to attract the initial attention of tourists.

Body
The content of the oral presentation consists of the information concerning the tourist
destination such as the construction time, the origin, architecture, the cultural and spiritual
values or other important information. The presentations can be divided into sub parts that
are for each tourist site in the tour. The presentation for particular site has the same
structures as for the tourist destination. The presentation must be sequentially logical based
on tour procedures, time, and historic events. The presentation starts with events or the
time from the past to present. Tour guides should tell funny stories, legends that are related
to tourist destinations to make the presentation more interesting.

Conclusion
Tour guides summarize the main points in the presentation to emphasize the topic of the
tours and the value of the tourist destinations. Tourists compare the destination with others
or the past with the present. Otherwise, tourists may talk about the preservation of the
destination, famous people as well as the number of tourists who visited the tourist
destinations. 10
Đoàn (2007:36) confirms that the success of a tour bases mainly on the ability and
communicative skills, behavior of tour guides. It is clear that, in order to communicate
with foreign tourists, tour guides must acquire a rather high level of language proficiency.

1.5.2. Teachers’ roles

Teachers have to play various roles in a speaking class. These include managing
classroom, organizing classroom activities, assessing students’ performance, giving
support, co-participating on the classroom activities, providing needed linguistic resources,
providing tutorials, and observing the students. (Hammer, 1991)

All the above roles of teachers are important to ensure the success of teaching and learning
process. It is important that a good teacher can make sure that students know what
constitutes successful performance so that they know when they are achieving success and
given assess to information about how to achieve success. (Paulston, 1985)

In summary, this chapter has reviewed theoretical issues relevant to the thesis. It starts with
the definition of the terminology, especially the definition of tour guides’ oral presentation.
The relationship between oral communication and oral presentation is also clarified. It is
apparently proved that oral presentation plays an important part in students’ future job. The
structures of oral presentation are clearly described in the chapter. Finally, the factors may
affect the students’ oral presentations are identified: students’ language proficiency, and
teachers’ roles.


Management, Food Production Management, Travel Operation Management, Tour guide,
Finance & Accounting for Tourism, Tour Guide, and English for Tourism Management.
 2–year diploma courses concentrate on Food & Beverage Service, Front Office,
Accommodation Service, and Travel & Tour Guide, Accounting for Tourism and
Hospitality, Cookery.
 Vocational associate degree and two – year diploma courses.

Due to the fast growth of tourism, the need for professional tourist labors is increasing; the
college has created the significant changes to improve the quality of training.

2.1.2. Tourism Foreign Language Department

Tourism Foreign Language Department now has 33 teachers in which 20 teachers are
teaching English aged between 23 and 45. 8 of them are holding MA degree in English 12
Methodology, four teachers completed MA courses in Tourism, and six of them are
working toward M.A degree in English. The rest hold a B.A in English language teaching.
A small number of the teachers have had opportunities to take short term training abroad.
In general, all the teachers are well – qualified, enthusiastic and devoted.

2.1.3. Tour guide students

Tour guide students study at the college for 3 years. They come from many provinces in
the North. English is one of the subjects of graduation examination for many students.
Before entering the College, they may have experienced at least 3 years studying English

covering a wide variety of fundamental and interesting topics such as Vietnamese culture,
geography, history, gastronomy, cuisines, heritages, museums, folklores and beauty spots.
The topics were relevant to students’ needs, realistic, interesting, challenging and
motivating. Moreover, the authors also focus on developing language skills for students;
reading, listening, writing, and speaking. Speaking skill, especially presentation skill, is the
priority of the book.

Although four skills are focused, the third year tour guide students at HTC still have low
language proficiency, which causes many difficulties when they study oral presentation
skill. Their marks in the oral examination of the fourth term were not good. Most of them
(59.4%) had mark 5 and 6. 16 students (15.1%) got mark 7. Only three students (2.8%)
achieved mark 8. Sadly, 24 students (22.7%) got marks under mark 5. In details, 18
students (17%) got mark 4. 6 students (5.7%) got mark 3.

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?

Questionnaire is the best choice for a survey because it is relatively popular means of
collecting data (Nunan, 1992). A good questionnaire has many advantages such as: time,
research efforts and financial resources.

In the study, I adapted the questionnaire by Nguyen Thi Van Ha (2007) because the
questionnaire was well designed with adequate required information for the study’s
objectives. (see Appendix A)

The questionnaire for students is composed of a combination of open – ended questions,
providing balance between depth and authenticity of information and fixed – option data,
which were more easily quantifiable. 15
The questionnaire is composed of four parts:

Part one: was designed to explore the students’ attitudes towards the importance of the oral
presentation skill and their evaluation of their own oral presentation skill. It included two
questions that were ranking questions.

Part two was about the students’ difficulties when giving the presentation. This part
included subparts concerning different sub skills of oral presentation skill. Students were
allowed to supplement their own difficulties in each sub part.
 Preparation: 3 items
 Organization: 2 items
 Delivery: 21 items
 Evaluation: 5 items

3.1. The students’ perceptions of the importance of oral presentation skill and their
self - assessment of their presentations.

3.1.1. The students’ perceptions of the importance of oral presentation skill.

In the questionnaire, students were asked about the importance of oral presentation skill in
their future job. The students’ responses are indicated in Table 3.1

Table 3.1: The importance of the oral presentation (N=106)
Levels of importance
Frequency
Percentage
(No=106)
1. Very important
105
99.1
2. Not very important
01
0.9
3. not important 4. I do not know
As can be seen from Table 3.1, the majority of students (99.1 %) stated that oral
presentation skill was very important in their future job. None of them found oral
presentation unimportant. They pointed out that oral presentation skill played an important
role in their future job because tour guides’ job was to deliver speech before tourists.
3
11
37
31
18
6 % 2.8
10.4
34.9
29.2
17
5.7 (No = Number of students; %: Percentage)

Students were asked to rate their success of oral presentation skill on the ten point scale
with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest. Table 3.2 shows that most students were
likely to consider their oral presentation to be on average level of success. More than half
of the students (68 students) thought they achieved 50-60% of success. Sadly, 14 students
stated that their success was low. Three students (2.8%) affirmed 30% successful and 11
students (10.4%) stated that they achieved 40% successful. Just a small number of students
were confident about their oral presentation performance. 18 students admitted that they

%
No
%
1. Choosing the right contents for the
presentation
4
3.8
28
26.4
64
60.4
10
9.4
2. Memorizing your speech word for word
22
20.8
70
66
14
13.2 3. Rehearsing your speech
16
15.1
65
61.3
25
23.6


written in English.