i VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE-STUDIES
***
ĐẶNG THỊ NGUYÊN

USING DIGITAL STORYTELLING TO IMPROVE
ENGLISH PRESENTATION SKILLS FOR FIRST YEAR
STUDENTS OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE NGHE AN TEACHER
TRAINING COLLEGE
(Ứng dụng công cụ Kể chuyện bằng hình ảnh kỹ thuật số
trong việc cải thiện kĩ năng trình bày tiếng Anh cho sinh viên
năm nhất chuyên ngữ trường Cao đẳng Sư phạm Nghệ An)

M.A MINOR THESIS



Code: 60.14.10
Supervisor: Dr. Đỗ Tuấn Minh
Hanoi - 2012

iv
TABLE OF CONTENT

Page
DECLARATION i
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii
ABSTRACT iii
TABLE OF CONTENT vi
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES viii

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1
I.1. Rationale of the study 1
I.2. Objectives of the study 2
I.3. Scope of the study 2
I.4. Methods of the study 3
I.5. Significance of the study 3

3.2. Results and discussions from the questionnaire for students 27
3.3. Results and discussions from the students’ journals 32
vi

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS 35
4.1. Findings 35
4.2. Pedagogical implications 36

PART III: CONCLUSION 38
III.1. Conclusion 38
III.2. Limitations of the study 39
III.3. Suggestions for further study 40
REFERENCES 41
APPENDICES I

vii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
DS: Digital Storytelling
ICT: Information and Communication Technology
EFL: English as a Foreign Language
S: student

institutions in the world. Students are required to be good at presenting after graduation
so that they can communicate successfully in society in general and in their work in
particular.
As a four-year teaching experience English teacher, the researcher finds that students at
Nghe An Teacher Training College have difficulties in presentation skills during and
after studying at the college. Via classroom observation and discussion with
colleagues, the author realizes it is a must to help students improve their presentation
skills. After having different small talks to three classes of first year English major
students, the researcher find out some reasons why they are weak at presentation skills,
namely shyness, lack of confidence, lack of vocabulary.
After studying different sources, the author decide to choose Digital Storytelling to
support students’ presentations and would like to examine its effects on their
presentations.
Digital Storytelling is an Information Communication Technology (ICT) tool which is
widely used in education. Obviously, ICT has been widely applied at many schools,
colleges and universities in the world. Similarly, the Ministry of Education and
Training of Vietnam (MOET) has given different policies with the purpose of applying
2
ICT in teaching and learning. As requested by MOET, all teaching institutions have to
integrate ICT in teaching and learning, especially teachers have to “reasonably use ICT
in every subject, avoid ICT abuse” (MOET, 2008, p.3).
In the line with ICT guidelines of the MOET, lecturers and students at Nghe An
Teacher Training College are encouraged to use ICT in teaching and learning
effectively. Several workshops and teaching competition are organized at the college.
The above situation urges the researcher to conduct the study “Using Digital Photo
Storytelling to improve English presentation skills for first year students of Foreign
Language Department at Nghe An Teacher Training College”.
I.2. The objectives of the study
The study examines to what extent DS improves the presentation skills of first year
EFL students at Nghe An Teacher Training College, Vietnam.

Chapter 1 is theoretical background, which presents necessary literature
related to the study.
Chapter 2 is research methodology, which describes how the study was
carried out at Nghe An Teacher Training College.
Chapter 3 is data analysis and discussion.
4
Chapter 4 is findings and some suggestions for better application of digital
storytelling in education.
Part III is the conclusion which summarizes the study and gives some
recommendations for further study.

5
PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: THEORITICAL BACKGROUND
This chapter is concerned with some of the most important issues relating to the
application of DS in students’ presentation, namely oral presentation, presentation
skills in language learning, the role of ICT in language learning and DS – notion and
uses.

on the purpose of the presenter. In spite of basing on the same criterion, oral
presentation has been categorized into two types on the website of Hampden-Sydney
College namely informative and persuasive presentation.
Although oral presentation has been categorized differently, each type of oral
presentation has its own specific purpose and requires a clear, structured organization
to deliver the message to the listeners.
1.2. Presentation skills in language learning
7
Achieving different skills to work effectively and live peacefully is a must in society. It
is necessary for people to absorb a variety of skills such as communication skills, self-
management skills, and critical thinking skills and so on.
In this part, the author would like to clarify the notion of presentation skills, the
importance of presentation skills in classroom. Next, criteria for a good presentation
have been adapted to suit the college’s curriculum. Although different criteria have
been given, visual aids have been focused on to see how important it is in a
presentation.
1.2.1. Importance of presentation skills
At universities, institutions or colleges, it is obvious that EFL students must have
excellent communication after graduation. In other words, their written, oral and
listening skills must be good enough to be able to work in society. Thus, it is necessary
to be good at presentation skills which help students to deliver positive learning
experiences.
Regarding the importance of presentation skills in the classroom, Alshare and Hindi’s
study (2004) shows that “students are required to present in two classes per semester
for an average of ten minutes” and “students and instructors agreed that critical
objectives of presentations were to improve communication skills and to train students
to talk to a group of people.”
To sum up, presentation skills play a significant role in teaching and learning a foreign
language. It not only helps students know how to read, to write and to listen but also
know how to communicate with English speaking people.

summarized as follows:

(from
As stated by Powell (2002, p.20), “visuals are important in any professional
presentation”, especially they are more important when people present in a foreign
language because “visual information is highly memorable and reduces the amount of
talking”.
In most of presentation evaluation criteria, visual aids are included and assessed as an
important criterion of a good presentation.
1.3. ICT in language learning
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1.3.1. Definition
According to Education Testing Service, Information and Communication Technology
(ICT) refers to “the set of activities technologies that fall into the union and
communication technologies.” In other words, ICT is the connection between IT and
communication technologies. In fact, ICT and IT can be used interchangeably.
ICT includes “all forms of computer and communications equipment and software
used to create, design, store, transmit, interpret and manipulate information in its
various formats.” (The University of Queensland, />ict)
1.3.2. ICT in language learning
With the application of ICT, students have an opportunity to experience with new

learning
Factual/ literal thinking

Critical thinking, informed decision-
making
Reactive response

Proactive/ planned action
Isolated, artificial context

Authentic, real world
Learners take part in classroom activities more actively with the support of ICT. The
effects of ICT has been reflected by Montieth M. (2004, p.23) as below:
Teachers
Teachers Pupils/ students
Figure 2: Reflective Capacity of ICT in learning process.
As can be seen from Figure 2, ICT has an impact on the interaction between teachers
and teachers, between teachers and students.
1.4. Digital storytelling
1.4.1. Definition
Storytelling, as its name, is an action of telling a story about different issues of daily
life. This notion is familiar to most people in the world. However, thanks to the modern
technical development, stories have been designed with the support of computer and
shared to everyone in the world via the Internet, i.e. digital storytelling.
Actually, there are a lot of definitions of DS. Ohler (2008) (cited in Yuksel et al., 2010)
describes DS as a creative process in which a traditional story is combined with
personal digital technology, such as a computer, video camera, and sound recorder.

promotes in-class discussion”. In addition, findings of the research suggest that
teachers can use DS in multiple subject areas.
Meanwhile, Signes’s paper (2008) summarizes some uses of DS, namely providing
instruction in different literacy skills, elaborating an ePortfolio, integrating the old and
the new, developing new teaching and learning material, increasing learner’s
motivation and deep learning and developing self-assessment and team-work. In term
of literacy skills, it is noticeable that “DS is associated with the development of
multiple skills”, and Robin (cited in Signes, 2008, p.24) summarized those skills as
follows:
 Research skills: Documenting the story, finding and analyzing pertinent
information;
 Writing skills: Formulating a point of view and developing a script;
 Organization skills: managing the scope of the project, the materials used
and the time it takes to complete the task;
 Technology skills: learning to use a variety of tools, such as digital
cameras, scanners. Microphones and multimedia authoring software;
 Presentation skills: deciding how to best present the story to an audience;
 Interview skills: finding sources to interview and determining individual
roles for group members;
 Problem-Solving skills: Learning to make decision and overcome
obstacles at all stages of the project, from inception to completion; and
 Assessment skills: gaining expertise critiquing their own and other’s
work.
Thus, it can be seen clearly that DS has significant uses in education in which teachers
can exploit it or instruct their students to discover it themselves.
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In smaller scale, Afrilyasanti and Basthomi (2011) examine the uses of DS in teaching
EFL speaking. The study indicates that “the activities involved in the DS production
potentially encourage students to actively speak up, improve their vocabulary, and
train their pronunciation and fluency” (Afrilyasanti and Basthomi, 2011, p.90). In

1- To what extent does DS help improve presentation skills of 1
st
year EFL
students at Nghe An Teacher Training College?
2- What are students’ opinions about using DS in presenting?
2.1.2. Participants
Fourteen first year EFL students are female, aged from 19-20. According to the
entrance exam, the students are at pre-intermediate English level. They lack confident
at presenting and communicating with each other. They are motivated in using ICT but
limit exposure to ICT.
Ten of the students had laptops and regularly used in class to download documents and
keep in touch with their friends via e-mails, facebook, yahoo messenger and blog.
It is noticeable that the researcher is responsible for speaking lessons in the class of the
participants. This class consists of twenty three students and actually all of them have a
desire to participate in the research programme. However, the researcher would like to
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focus on a small number of students and examiner the effects of DS before applying
widely. That is why only fourteen of students are chosen to take part in the research.
2.1.3. Conditions of teaching and learning English with ICT at Nghe An Teacher
Training College
In the line with ICT guidelines of the MOET, lecturers and students at Nghe An
Teacher Training College have been encouraged to use ICT in teaching and learning
effectively. That is also the reason why the college has been equipped with wi-fi
system, computer rooms and audiovisual rooms. Teachers can use audiovisual rooms
provided that they register to the administrative office in advance.
In an audiovisual room, there were some facilities as below:
- A computer with useful software and programs such as Microsoft Office
(Word, PowerPoint, ), Window Media Player, Inspiration, etc.
- Two speakers.
- A projector and a screen connected with the computer.

week starting studying at the college. The second mock presentation was taken after
two-month study at the college and students also had one week to prepare for their
presentations.
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2.1.4.2. Students’ journals
It is a fact that students’ journal is a form of data collection which helps teachers
gain insights into the language learning process. Journaling is recommended as a way
to keep track of not only observations but also feelings associated with the action
research process. Thus, in order to collect additional qualitative data, journals were
adopted to investigate students’ impressions and feelings during or right after the
activities were carried out.
Journal writing have certain advantages, one of the most important of which is that it
“provides access to the hidden affective variables that greatly influence the way
teachers teach and students learn” (Brock, Yu and Wong, 1992, cited in Wallace, 1998,
p.63). These authors also presented the following advantages of journals:
1. They provide an effective means of variables that are important to individual
teachers and learners.
2. They serve as a means of generating questions and hypotheses about teaching
and learning processes.
3. They enhance awareness about the way a teacher teaches and a student learns.
4. They are an excellent tool for reflection.
5. They are simple to conduct.
6. They provide a first-hand account of teaching and learning experiences.
7. They are the most natural form of classroom research in that no formal
correlations are tested and no outside observer enters the classroom dynamic.
8. They provide an on-going record of classroom events and teacher and learner
reflections.
9. They enable the researcher to relate classroom events and examine trends
emerging from the diaries.
10. They promote the development of reflective teaching.