VINH UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

TRAN ANH PHUONG
USING MIND MAP TO IMPROVE
10
TH
GRADERS’ PRESENTATION SKILL
IN SPEAKING CLASS
MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION
NGHE AN, 2014
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VINH UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
TRAN ANH PHUONG
USING MIND MAP TO IMPROVE
10
TH
GRADERS’ PRESENTATION SKILL
IN SPEAKING CLASS
Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)
Code: 60.14.01.11
MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION
Supervisor: Tran Ba Tien, Ph.D.
Nghe An, 2014
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STATEMENTS OF AUTHORSHIP
I certify that this thesis is the result of my own study and that it has not been
submitted to any other universities and institution wholly and partially. All
statements of my thesis which are not my own are written in quotation and can be
shown in the list of references.

recognized by post-task questionnaires done by both students and teachers. The
improvements are also seen in the class observation collections which were
recorded and then tape-scripted. Mind- mapping has been considered an
effective tool for both students and teachers in learning and teaching
presenting skill. This study investigates how mind map can help to solve the
problems with learning and teaching presenting skill as well as teacher’s and
learner’s attitudes toward using mind map as a tool learning and teaching
English.
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ABBREVIATIONS
CA : Communication Apprehension
CLT : Communicative Language Teaching
EFL : English as Foreign Language
ESL : English as Second Language
L1 : First Language
L2 : Second Language
viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pages
STATEMENTS OF AUTHORSHIP v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vi
ABSTRACT vii
ABBREVIATIONS viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ix
LIST OF TABLES xii
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION 1
1.1. Rationale 1
1.2. Aims of the study 2
1.3. Research questions 2

3.3. Research instruments 28
3.3.1. Questionnaires 28
3.3.2. Interviews 29
3.3.3. Data collection procedure 29
3.4. Data analysis 30
Chapter 4
FINDINGS AND DISSCUSSION 31
4.1. Pre-task questionnaire for students 31
4.1.1. Students’ attitudes toward presenting skill. 31
4.1.2. Students’ interest in presenting 32
4.1.3. Students’ reluctance in presenting 32
4.1.4. Students’ participation in presenting lessons. 33
4.1.5. Factors making students reluctant to present. 35
4.1.6. Factors deterring students’ presenting. 36
4.2. Pre-task questionnaire for teachers 37
4.2.1. Teachers’ attitude toward presenting skill 37
4.2.2. Factors making teaching presenting difficult 38
4.2.3. Time limitation 39
4.2.4. Students’ unwillingness 40
4.2.5. Factors causing students’ unwillingness when presenting 41
4.2.6. Factors preventing students from presenting 43
4.3. Post-task questionnaire for students 45
4.3.2. Question 2: Do you feel mind map easy to use? 46
4.3.4. Question 4: How can mind map help you to feel more confident
when presenting? 48
4.3.5. Question 5: How often do you want to use mind map to present?49
4.4. Post-task questionnaire for teachers 50
4.4.1. Teachers’ interest in using mind map 50
50
4.4.2. Question 2: What can mind map help your students in their

Table 4.9. Students’ unwillingness to present 40
Table 4.10. Factors causing students’ unwillingness when presenting 41
42
Chart 4.5.Factors causing students’ unwillingness when presenting 42
Table 4.11. Factors preventing students presenting 43
Chart 4.6. Factors prevent students presenting 43
Chart 4.7. Students’ interest in mind map 45
Chart 4.8. Students’ feeling of easiness to use mind map 46
Table 4.12. What mind map helps student 47
47
Chart 4.9. What mind map helps student 47
Table 4.13. How mind map help you to feel more confident when presenting 48
Chart 4.10. How mind map help you to feel more confident when presenting 48
Chart 4.11.How often do you want to use mind map to present 49
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Table 4.14. Teachers’ interest in using mind map 50
Table 4.15. What mind map helps your students in their presenting? 51
Chart 4.12. What mind map helps your students in their presenting 51
Table 4.16. What mind map helps your students to overcome their anxiety 52
Chart 4.13. What mind map helps your students to overcome their anxiety 52
Table 4.17. How often do you want to use mind map to teach presenting skill? 53
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Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale
The English text books which are being used in many high schools now are designed
in 16 units. Reading, speaking, listening and writing skills are equally focused in all units.
However, teaching English by integrating four skills causes many difficulties to teachers
due to shortages of teaching aids such as speakers, video player, teaching methods…
Productive skills like speaking and writing are perhaps the most difficult to teach due to

The aim of the study are as follow:
- to emphasize the importance of presenting skill in learning English.
- to suggest ways to use mind-map to stimulate the 10
th
form students in Nghen
High School in presentation tasks in an English speaking class.
- to provide a tool for teachers of English to prepare English speaking lessons
at Nghen High school.
1.3. Research questions
The study is to answer the following research questions:
1. What are teacher’s and students’ difficulties in teaching and learning
presenting skill?
2. What are students' and teachers’ attitudes in using mind-map in English
speaking class?
3. What are suggestions for using mind-map in English speaking class?
1.4. Scope of the study
The research is focuses on using mind-map to help 10
th
form graders at Nghen
High School to present in speaking lessons.
1.5. Methods of the study
This study is conducted based on qualitative and quantitative methods.
Comments, remarks, suggestions and conclusions are based on actual researches,
experience, and discussions. Besides, books are used as reference.
Procedure:
- Conducting survey on the students’ learning style, and their problems in
presentation in English Speaking Class.
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- Giving questionnaires to investigate students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards
mind map as well as teachers’ comments on using mind map to teach presenting in

th
graders in speaking lesson. Yen
(2013) explored the way to use short stories ti improve speaking skill of students at
pe-intermediate level. In her thesis, using role play to enhance English speaking
skills for the 10th graders at Nghi Loc IV high school, Hang (2011) propose
suggestions to develop speaking skill for students at high school. Trang (2013)
suggested the ways to use group work activities in teaching speaking for the first
year accounting students at the western Nghe An vocational school. Huong (2011)
stated the Major factors affecting speaking skill of first year English major students
at Vinh University and some suggested solutions improve their communicative
competence. However, there are not many study on presenting skill which is a
higher level of speaking and a type of speaking performance despite the fact that
presenting is one of important and essential skills to learners of a foreign language.
Tuyet (2009) proposed classroom activities to stimulate 10
th
graders presentation.
Mind map have been applied for some years in Vietnam meanwhile there are not
many thesis on this term. Ngan (2013) suggest how to use mind-mapping to check
students’ reading comprehension. There are many researches on speaking, on how
to develop speaking skills to students. That is reason why there are so many
activities and techniques used to improve speaking skill. However, there is not
much concern on presenting a type of speaking performance which requires a
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higher level. Mind map has been applied to teaching and learning many subjects in
Vietnam, however, many teachers of English have not made the use of this useful
tool in teaching English. Mind map which may be very helpful to teaching and
learning such difficult skill as presenting, but up to now there no investigation on
this.
2.2. Theoretical backgrounds of teaching speaking skills
2.2.1. Definition of speaking.

2.2.2. Characteristics of speaking
Martin Bygate (1997) point out that when we are speaking to the person who is
in front of us, he or she can put us right when mistakes are made. He or she can also
generally show agreement or disagreement and understanding or incomprehension.
While talking, speakers need to take notice of the other and allow listeners chance to
speak. It means that we take turns to speak.
Brown (1983) and her colleagues show that a listener helps a speaker to
improve his/her performance because being a listener gives learners models to
utilize when acting a speaker. In addition, being a hearer first helps the learner
appreciate the difficulties inherent in the task. It is clear that giving a speaker
experience in a hearer’s role is more helpful than simple practice in tasks in which a
speaker is having real difficulties in appreciating what a particular task required.
Martin Bygate (1997: p.24,25) suggested that conversation can be analyzed in
term of routines, which are conventional ways of presenting information. As far as
we have known, there are two kinds of routine: “ information routines” and “
interaction routines”.
Information routines frequently recur information structures, including stories;
descriptions of places and people; presentation of facts, comparisons, instructions.
Interaction routines are the ones based not so much on sequences of kinds of
terms occurring in typical kinds of interactions. These routines thus can be
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characterized in broad terms including the kinds of terms typically occurring in
given situations, and the order in which the components are likely to occur.
By and large, the students can be much more confident in speaking English
with clear understanding and governing these skills. The oral skills, however, are
dependent on the knowledge of language they learn such as grammar, pronunciation
and vocabulary. In addition, students rely on common conventional expressions for
communicating specific meanings, particularly on the language environment. It is
unedited that practice in classroom might not be similar to oral communication
outside classroom. In a foreign language classroom, practice is rather simple and far

intonation patterns of spoken English.
The greatest difficulty that the students face in learning to speak originates
from the interactive nature of most communication. Engaged in the process of
negotiation of meaning with many discourse constraints, learners have to do the
complex task of choosing what to say, how to say, when to say, etc. Learners are
also affected by their interlocutors’ performance.
2.2.4. Aspects of teaching speaking skills in language class.
2.1.4.1. Teaching interactional skills
It is certain that the ultimate objective of language learning is the ability to
communicate competently in that language. Richard, Platt and Weber (1985), (cited in
Nuna., 1999) characterized four dimensions of communicative competences as follows:
- Knowledge of the Grammar and Vocabulary of the language
- Knowledge of the rules of speaking (e.g. knowing how to begin and end
conversations…)
- Knowing how to use and respond to different types of speech acts such as
requests, apologies, thanks, and invitations;
- Knowing how to use language appropriately.
Accordingly, in the speaking class, teachers need provide their students with
interactional skill, for example, how to open and close conversations, how to make
turns and interrupt, and how to respond appropriately, ect.
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2.2.4.2. Accuracy and fluency
Accuracy: When we say someone speaks English with accuracy, we mean
they speak English without or with few errors in grammar, vocabulary and
pronunciation.
Fluency: Fluently speaking means being able to communicate one's ideas
without having to stop and think too much about what one is saying.
Scrivener (2005, p.160-162) notes that accuracy is the ability to speak
correctly without making serious mistakes and therefore a greater use of instant
teacher's correction within a speaking activity is appropriate. On the contrary,

- Give students practice with both fluency and accuracy:
- Plan communicative tasks that are based on the concept of information gap
- Provide opportunities for students to talk by using group work or pair work,
and limiting teacher talk
- Plan tasks that involve negotiation of meaning
- Design classroom activities that involve guidance and practice in both
transactional and interactional speaking.
2.2.6. Types of classroom Speaking performance
Brown (1994, p.271-274) proposes six categories applied to the kinds of oral
production that students are expected to carry out in the classroom:
- Imitative: takes a very limited portion of classroom speaking time when
learners are practicing an intonation contour or trying to pinpoint a certain vowel
sound, etc.
- Intensive: includes any speaking performance that is designed to practice
some phonological or grammatical aspect of language.
- Responsive: is short replies to teachers or student initiated questions or
comments. These replies are usually sufficient and do not extend into dialogues.
- Transactional (dialogue): is carried out for the purpose of conveying or
exchanging specific information. Conversations, for instance, may have more of a
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negotiative nature to them than merely responsive speech. Such conversations could
readily be part of group work activity.
- Interpersonal (dialogue): carries out more for the purpose of maintaining
social relationships than for the transmission of facts and information. These
conversations are a little trickier for learners because they can involve some or all
the following factors: a casual register, colloquial language, emotionally changed
language, and slang, etc.
- Extensive (monologue): students at intermediate or advanced levels are
called on to give extended monologues in the form of oral reports, summaries, or
perhaps short speeches. Here the register is more formal and deliberative. This type

It is quite hard for Vietnamese learners to conduct the step ten because they are
generally shy and time is limited. Nine other steps are used to present a prose.
2.2.7.2. The while-speaking
Unlike the presentation phase, in this stage learners have to do most of the
talking. Teacher provides maximum amount of practice. Practice is usually in the
form of activities or exercises to improve fluency of speaking. Pair work or group
work are used in this phase. According to Hadfield (2008, p.108) in the during-stage
(also while-speaking), for preparation, speaking tasks should be set up with clear
instructions. Learners work in pair a alone to brainstorm ideas and plan what to say.
Learners may work in pair or groups to carry out the task. While doing this teacher
should circulate, listening to the learners to see how they are doing. Teacher can
make note of errors and area of difficulty for feedback later.
2.2.7.3. The post-speaking
Learners need to be let to speak English freely at this phase. A real chance to
speak English takes place when the learners are able to use English naturally for
themselves, not for their teacher. Group work plays an important part in making
learners practice speaking. By doing group work, all learners can have chance to
participate in task. Time can be saved and learners seem more confident.
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