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Vietnam national university-Hanoi
University of languages and international studies
Faculty of post-graduate studies
NguyÔn ThÞ Thu Thñy An investigation on the difficulties in making business English oral
presentation of the first year non – major English students at Faculty of
Accounting at Dai Nam University and some solutions.

(Tìm hiểu những trở ngại trong hoạt động thuyết trình đối với tiếng
Anh thương mại của sinh viên tiếng Anh không chuyên thuộc khoa Kế toán
năm thứ nhất, trường Đại học Đại Nam và một vài giải pháp).
M.A. Minor program thesis
Field : Methodology
Code : 60.14.10
Hµ néi – 2010


Hµ néi – 2010

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Abbreviations

BE Business English
CLT Communicative Language Teaching
DNU Dai Nam University
ELT English Language Teaching
ESP English for Specific Purposes
GE General English
L2 Second Language/foreign language
IT Information Technology
ML(E) Market Leader (Elementary)

List of tables

Page

Table 1 Teachers‟ difficulties when teaching business English presentation skills… 22
Table 2 Students‟ difficulties when learning business English presentation skills… 23
Table 3 Students‟ reasons for learning English……………………………………. 25
Table 4 Teacher pedagogical practices in teaching oral presentation skill…………….28
Table 5 Students‟ opinions on inappropriate teacher pedagogical practices in English
oral presentation lessons…………………………………………………… …29
Table 6 Teachers‟ English communicative competence……………………………… 31

I.1.2.4 Business and General Courses ……………………………………. 6
I.2 Oral presentation ………………………………………………………………… 6
I.2.1 What is oral presentation ……………………………………………………. 6
I.2.2 Procedure of oral presentation ………………………………………………. 7
I.2.3 Advantages of oral presentation toward ESP students ……………………… 7
I.2.4 Some problems of presentation making ……………………………………. 8
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I.3 Difficulties in learning business English oral presentation skills ……………. 9
1.3.1 Difficulties about business knowledge ……………………………………. 9
I.3.2 Difficulties about language knowledge, culture and perceptions …………… 9
I.3.3 Difficulties from teachers …………………………………………………… 11
I.3.3.1 Inappropriate teacher pedagogical practices ……………………… 11
I.3.3.1.1 The amount of teacher talk ………………………………11
I.3.3.1.2 Teacher correction ……………………………………… 11
I.3.3.1.3 Input theory ………………………………………………12
I.3.3.1.4 Teacher-learner relationship ………………………………12
I.3.3.2 Teacher deficiency in English communicative competence ………. 12
I.3.3.3 Teacher deficiency in business English and teaching skills ……… 13
I.3.4 Difficulties from external factors ……………………………………………. 14

Chapter II: Methodology 15
II. 1 The research context …………………………………………………………… 15
II.1.1 Description of Dai Nam University, English course and its objectives ……. 15
II.1.2 Description of the first year students of the Accounting faculty at DNU … 16
II.1.3 Description of the teachers at DNU ………………………………………….17
II.1.4 Description of Market Leader textbook and business related presentation topics
II.1.4.1 The coursebook Market Leader Elementary ……………………… 17

III.3.1 Multilevel class …………………………………………………… 32
III.3.2 Textbooks ………………………………………………………… 33
III.4 Suggestions from teachers and students in minimizing difficulties …… 34

Part C: conclusion 36
1. Suggestions for minimizing the difficulties in teaching presentation skills 36
1.1 Pedagogical practices ………………………………………………… 36
1.2 Training students to become efficient learners ……………………… 37
2. Some suggestions for learning presentation skills …………………………. 38
2.1 Personal development and non-verbal communication ……………… 38
2.2 Choosing and Using Visual Aids …………………………………… 39
2.3 Preparing and delivering forms of spoken exercise ………………… 40
2.3.1 Seminar papers ……………………………………………… 40
2.3.1.1 Tutor-led seminar …………………………………. 40
2.3.1.2 Student-led seminar ………………………………. 41
2.3.1.3 Guest speakers …………………………………… 41
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2.3.1.4 Tutorials ………………………………………… 42
2.4 Formal presentation ………………………………………………… 42

3. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………… 43
Summary of the study …………………………………………………. 43
Limitations and suggestions for further studies ……………………… 44 References


how to teach the language effectively to enable students to use the language successfully in
international communication are really a big question facing all teachers of English.
Most of the learners of English agree that the ability to express themselves freely in
communication is of great importance for their future career, especially in modern societies
where contacting with foreigners often occur. However, there still exist many difficulties in
learning and teaching English in Vietnam in general and at Dai Nam University (DNU) in
particular. Many Vietnamese learners can write and read English quite well but they cannot
speak it correctly and fluently in real-life communication as well as in specific situations.
Surely, there are many reasons for this reality. After teaching the non-major English at the
Accounting Department for the first year students at DNU for three courses, I recognized some
big obstacles that prevent English language teachers and learners from achieving their aims.
These obstacles are teachers‟ teaching method, heterogeneous classes, lack of background,
business, cultural and social knowledge, students‟ low level of English language proficiency,
students‟ low motivation and some others. Unfortunately, this is not only the situation in our
university but also the case for many other non-language colleges and universities in Vietnam.
That is the circumstance that has inspired me with a research entitled “An investigation on the
difficulties in making business English oral presentation of the first year non – major
English students at Faculty of Accounting at Dai Nam University and some solutions.” I
conduct the research with the hope that it will contribute to the improvement of teaching and
learning business English presentation skills at the Accounting department as well as at my
university.

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II. Method of the study
The methods used in this research are mainly two survey questionnaires and interviews.
They aim at finding out the difficulties which the teachers and students at the Accounting
Department at DNU facing in the teaching and learning of business English presentation skill.


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The second part, Development, is divided into three chapters:
Chapter I, Literature Review, surveys the literature on the basis concepts that underlie
the whole study such as Business English, Oral presentation and difficulties from learners.
Chapter II, Methodology, is the presentation of the subjects and factual data collected
from the questionnaires and interviews. The principal purpose of this chapter is to study about
the presentation in use and difficulties facing teachers and students in teaching and learning
presentation skill.
Chapter III, Findings and Discussion, on the basis of the data collected in the previous
parts, will present and discuss findings of the difficulties in teaching and learning oral
presentation skills of non-major students and objective factors.
The third part, Conclusion, gives some suggestions for both teachers of English and
students comprising some coping strategies and classroom techniques and presentation skills in
decreasing those difficulties. What follows is the conclusion of the study, which presents the
overview of the study. Besides, the limitations of the thesis are pointed out and the areas for
further study are proposed.


opinions, showing agreement, and so on. And since the late 1980s, BE teaching has drawn on
aspects of all the previous approaches, but also places much more emphasis on the need to
develop the skills for using the language learned.
Embleton, D. and S. Hagen (1992) states that the development of company training
programmes during the 1980s began to provide employees with opportunities to attend courses
in presentation techniques, negotiating, and other effective skills. The recognition of the need
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for businesspeople to be proficient in business communication skills has had a major impact on
BE teaching. Although it is not the designated brief of the BE teacher to train businesspeople in
behavioral techniques (for example, presentation or negotiation), it is hard to ignore the
influence that good behavioral skills have on successful communication. Many job-experienced
learners now come to the language course to learn to perform in English, tasks that they can
already perform in their mother tongue. In other cases, however, pre-experience language
learners may need training in behavioral skills, and in colleges and business schools there is
now a wide acceptance of the need to start training learners in, for example, basic presentation
techniques.
I.1.2 Characteristics of the language of business
I.1.2.1 Sense of purpose
Mark and Johnson (2003) deal with the most important characteristic of exchanges in the
context of business is sense of purpose. Language is used to achieve an end, and its successful
use is seen in terms of a successful outcome to the business transaction or event. Users of BE
need to speak English primarily so that they can achieve more in their jobs. Business is
competitive: competition exists between companies and within companies, between employees
striving to better their careers: It follows that performance objectives take priority over
education objectives or language learning for its own sake. Much of the language needed by
businesspeople (apart from social language) will be transactional: getting what we want and
persuading others to agree with the course of action we propose.

I.1.2.4 Business and General English courses
Not all courses run by a company or a business college necessarily merit the title of
„Business English‟. Some companies and colleges provide language courses where needs have
not been analysed and the course content is drawn from a GE coursebook. It may be that a
choice has been made to improve the general command of English of the participants, and that
this then constitutes the course objectives. On the other hand, such a course may be the result of
a lack of informed strategy on the part of the company or institution, or a lack of expertise on
the part of available trainers.
BE is not a neatly defined category of special English. The term is used to cover a variety
of Englishes, some of which are very specific, and some very general. In Teaching Business
English, the author makes some general statements about key differences between BE and GE.
They include need analysis, assessment of level, syllabus, course objectives, time, learner
expectations, material, methodology and evaluation. However, we acknowledge that there are
many situations where the distinctions are not so clear.
I.2 Oral presentation
I.2.1 What is oral presentation?
According to Comfort, J (1995), presentation is a popular kind of activity where a student
(or students) give(s) a presentation on a topic of their own choice or given by the teacher. Such
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talks are not designed for informal spontaneous conversation but they are subject matter
oriented; because they are prepared, they are more „writing like‟. Presentation is a defined and
useful speaking genre, and if properly organized, can be extremely interesting for both speakers
and listeners.
I.2.2 Procedures of oral presentation
Comfort suggests four stages a presenter should follow through his or her presentation
including:
 Introduction part: In this part the presenter tells the audience some brief information

In order to meet those demands, presenters must have certain knowledge about ESP including
knowledge of language and knowledge of content, knowledge of how to make presentation.
We use oral presentation as a technique to increase the students‟ participation in classroom
speaking activities because this kind of activity is often carried out after discussion activities.
Students, therefore, will have to participate more in these activities as they want to be well-
prepared , before performing in front of the class. Moreover, the topics are closely related to
their expertise, and as pointed out by Huchinson and Waters (1987) the language in ESP is
usually used in real communication, which helps increase their interest in their learning. In
other words, their learning has concrete purposes which are future work-oriented.
I.2.4 Some problems of presentation making
Although this kind of activity has salient advantages towards developing learners‟
communicative competence, both students and the teacher may have some difficulties carrying
out it.
First, this kind of activity is quite difficult with high demands, that is, students have to
perform their work under high pressure: speaking English in front of the crowd, attracting
attention and dealing with questions from the audience, etc. Thus, in order to perform the work
well, learners must have knowledge of language, knowledge of content and basic skills of
making presentation. In a mixed-level class, it is likely that some good students will dominate
the activity.
Second, students often lose their confidence when giving their presentation. It is the result
of the fact that they do not often have chance to speak English in front of the crowd and they
are lack of their above mentioned knowledge. In addition, some students may give a boring
presentation and cannot attract attention from the audience, which can also make them feel
confidence to deliver their talk.
Finally, this kind of activity takes time so not all students have chance to speak English in
one lesson.
It can be inferred from the analysis that students should be allowed time to prepare for this
kind of activity. In other words, it is advisable that the teacher should give them the topic(s) in
advance so that they can prepare well in term of both language and content.


I.3.2 Difficulties about language knowledge, culture and perceptions
There exist many student-related problems in teaching presentation skills in English classes.
Many learners, as reported by studies into speaking (e.g. Tsui: “Reticence and anxiety in
second language learning”, 1996), are unprepared or unwilling to speak. Their reluctance and
reticence in English oral classes pose a big challenge for teaching presentation skills.
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Primarily, many factors for learners‟ unwillingness to speak can be enumerated. Burns and
Joyce identified three groups of factors that are likely to cause reluctance with learners. These
encompass cultural, linguistic, and affective factors (Burns and Joyce, 1997). Cultural factors
follow from students‟ prior learning experiences and consequently from the expectations that
are formed on their basis. Examples of linguistic factors limiting speaking may be, according to
Burns and Joyce, difficulties in the phonetics and phonology of the target language, poor
knowledge of grammatical patterns or low awareness of cultural background and social
conventions that are necessary for processing meaning in the target language. A low motivation
level, timidity or anxiety in class, negative social experiences, and culture shock are ranked
among possible affective factors. In discussing the methodology of speaking, Ur (1997) is also
preoccupied with learner‟s problems with speaking activities. The difficulties she has
encountered in getting her learners to speak in the class correspond to some of the items such as
mother tongue, inhibition, no ideas to share and problems of participation. Tsui with “the
classroom action research project reports of thirty-eight ESL teachers” reveals a considerable
similarity to those identified by Burns and Joyce, and Ur. She mentions five factors
determining learners‟ hesitance to present in class: students‟ fear of making mistakes and losing
face in front of their peers, students‟ low opinion of their own proficiency level, teachers‟
intolerance of silence, uneven participation and incomprehensible input.
With the interviews of Japanese students at the University of Edinburgh, Dwyer and Heller-
Murphy (1996) concluded that the students were reticent in EFL classrooms due to fear of
public failure, fear of making mistakes, lack of confidence, low English proficiency, and

have established that teachers tend to do most of the classroom talk (about 70 percent of the
total talk). It is evident that if teachers devote large amounts of time to explanations or
management instructions, student talk will be indeed severely restricted. Teacher-initiated talk
will dominate the classroom, allowing little opportunity for extended student talk. In such an
environment, students have little opportunity to develop their language proficiency. In order to
avoid the over-use of teacher talk, many scholars tend to maximize students talk time and
minimize teacher talk time (Harmer, 2000).
I.3.3.1.2 Teacher’s correction
Inevitably, learners will make mistakes in the process of learning (Brown, 2002:205). It is
a vital part of the teacher‟s role to point out students‟ mistakes and provide correction. In
correction, some specific information is provided on aspects of the learner‟s performance,
through explanation, or provision of better or other alternatives, or though elicitation of these
from the learner. Correction helps students to clarify understanding of meaning and
construction of the language.
One of the crucial issues is how correction is expressed: gently or assertively supportively
or as a condemnation, tactfully or rudely. Ur (2000) points out we should go for encouraging,
tactful correction. The learner has reliable intuitive knowledge about what kind of correction
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helps most, that is, learner preferences are on the whole reliable guide. So teachers have to be
careful when correcting, if teachers do it in an insensitive way, the students will feel upset and
lose their confidence.
I.3.3.1.3 Input theory
Input plays a critical role in language learning. There is no learning without input. The
language used by the teacher affects the language produced by the learners, the interaction
generated, and hence the kind of learning that takes place. The problem is what type and how
much of input is appropriate and useful for language learners in classrooms.
Krashen‟s (1985:2) states that acquisition takes place by means of a learner‟s access to

and fluency. According to her, learners who want to communicative adequately have to master
them. However, in English oral classes, teachers only spend teaching time in providing the
knowledge of linguistic competence (syntactic structures, vocabulary, and pronunciation),
which causes students‟ failure to unsuccessfully communicate because this kind of competence
is not the only requirement of teaching presentation skills.
I.3.3.3 Teacher’s deficiency in business English knowledge and teaching skills
Many language teachers come to the profession from a background in general TEFL
teaching, and have a TEFL qualification. They may come to BE by chance because they work
in language institutions which have decided to broaden the kinds of courses they offer to
include BE courses. On the other hand, they may be attracted to BE and choose to make the
change.
Some situations enable BE teaching to get easy. Firstly, if BE teachers come from a
business background, for example, they have worked in companies themselves and have useful
knowledge of the way in which companies are organized and run. Secondly, students are job-
experienced learners, that is, they have specific content knowledge and they are able to bring
that knowledge to the classroom. Lastly, it is a perfect case when both teachers and learners
have background in business. Nevertheless, in many contexts, these don‟t often take place.
In fact, in many occasions, neither teachers nor learners have any ideas of fields that they
are orienting. Like Mark and Christine (2003:25) states that many language teachers have
started teaching out professional skills without business experience. This hinders them from
gaining the educational aims in an effective way. Therefore, the authors suggest some solutions
to these problems when dealing with improving both skills and content knowledge.
Firstly, about personal skills development, they mention three useful things to mention to
teachers when teaching learners: it is essential for learners to have an outgoing personality, to
like contact and interaction with a wide variety of people; a second skill is to be a good
negotiator, that means it will require tact and diplomacy; and vitally important skill is to be
curious and interested in all aspects of business. One of the best ways for the trainer to unlock
the learners‟ motivation and learning potential is to show that he or she can relate to the
subjects that most concern the learners.


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Chapter 2: Methodology

II.1 The research context
II.1.1 Description of Dai Nam University, English course and its objectives
Dai Nam University has been in operation for nearly 3 years. At present, it consists of eight
faculties: Finance and Banking, Accounting, Construction Engineering, Business Management,
Information Technology (IT), Foreign Relations Studies, English and Chinese. It is also
planning to expand some new branches: tourism, fashion industry. Its duty is to train students at
the levels of university in the said fields and those of college in the two areas, IT and Finance
and Banking. It is proceeding to open master programs with international co-operations from
many foreign organizations. Every year, the University admits about 2000 students for all the
faculties. After graduating, learners can meet standard requirements from vacancy
organizations such as banks, joint-venture companies, office representatives and so on.
Although DNU has just been established for a short time, it has concentrated in advanced
education approaches and new teaching methodology. What is more, it has had remarkable
investment in learning and teaching facilities with all the classrooms equipped with overhead
projectors, computers, amplifiers and some modern tools and facilities.
At present, DNU has two temporary working bases to train three first courses with nearly
3000 students at the level of both university and college. As planned, in 2011 DNU will start all
learning and teaching activities at a new location officially with the total area of over 10 hectare
that is under construction.
Foreign language is now a compulsory subject in all the faculties. Like in other non-
language major universities, the English course in the DNU is divided into two stages: one for

required to obtain:
- General knowledge of English with active vocabulary of 2000 words.
- The ability to communicate with foreigners in English in common and specific
situations.
- Understanding and using the professional terms and structures.
- The ability to work in dynamically real working environments.
II.1.2 Description of the first year students of the Accounting faculty at DNU
The first year students of the Accounting faculty are mainly females aging from 18 to 21.
They do not have the same level of English language proficiency. Some of them have learned
English for 7 years at junior and senior high schools; some have only learned English for 3
years while a few have never learned English. Although some of them study English rather
well, they are only good at grammar, not speaking. They are likely to do grammatical exercises
very quickly at their level but they cannot speak fluently about many common topics as well as
business related ones, and most of them do not feel self-confident or even a bit frightened in
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communicating in English. Moreover, motivation to learning English in these non-English
language classes is generally low since English, for most of the students, is only understood as
an obligatory subject in the university curriculum. Another important thing is that these
students, in the first year, have to learn way how to present business English through the topics
in ML and the ones given by the teachers.
Shortly, these students, as mentioned in the part “difficulties for learners”, belong to the
group Pre-experience learners or low experience learners. They may lack confidence in their
ability to deal with business subject matters. Most of them will need to improve their language
skills in general and BE oral presentation skills in particular. Hence, it is very important that the
staff at the English session of DNU find out effective ways to help these students overcome
their difficulties in BE presentation.
II.1.3 Description of the teachers at DNU

Financial Times to ensure the maximum range and authenticity of business content. It is
intended for use either by students preparing for a career in business or by those already
working who want to improve their English communication skills.
The book combines some of the most stimulating recent ideas from the world of business
with a strong task-based approach. Role- plays and case studies are regular features of each
unit. Throughout the course, students are encouraged to use their experience and opinions to
maximize their involvement and learning.
II.1.4.3 Strengths and weaknesses of the coursebook
The course book extends learners‟ specialist knowledge (product marketing, selling online,
products launching ) and general knowledge (conflict, stress, careers ). This helps them to
tap and enhance both social and business knowledge.
Besides, the book gives various problems as well as situations for students to deal with and
engage in. As a result, they get used to problem-solving skills, which is considered an
important skill for our students- future-to-be executives. In fact, the book with its task-based
approach has put forward many useful tasks for our students such as negotiating or presenting
one‟s company
On the other hand, from my own view, the book has some problems that needs to be
concerned. As European authors edit the book, the materials‟ topics are not familiar with
Vietnamese students in general and the students at our University where their English
competence is not so good. As in the first unit, the students can hardly decide which areas they
want to work in, Sales, Production Teachers often have to explain or make suggestions. Then
the content does not serve as a window into learning about the target language culture. That is
because the topics are either general or business- related.
II.1.4.4 The topics for the oral presentation