Luận văn tiếng Anh:An investigation into the use of body language cues in presentations by English-majored freshmen at Vietnam University of Commerce = Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng ngôn ngữ cơ thể trong thuyết trình của sinh viên năm thứ nhất chuyên ngành tiếng Anh tại trường Đại học Thương Mại. M.A. Thesis Linguistics:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This thesis would not be realized without the Giúp of some people, and in
some ways, I would like to thank everyone who has taught me, inspired me,
challenged me, or supported me throughout the process of conducting this thesis.
First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my respectable
supervisor, Dr. Ngô Hữu Hoàng for his profound knowledge, his wholehearted
guidance, precious advice, insightful comments which are of utmost importance to
the achievement of my study.
Also, I would like to take this opportunity to send my thanks to all the
teachers in Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and
International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their interesting
lectures and knowledge.
My sincere thanks also go to my dear colleagues at Vietnam University of
Commerce for all their assistance, supports, and encouragement during the time I
was completing my study.
I wish to acknowledge my thankfulness to the freshmen K49N of English
Faculty at Vietnam University of Commerce for their willingness to respond
conscientiously to the questionnaire. Without their helps, this study would not have
been possibly done.
Last but not least, no words can adequately express my gratitude towards my
beloved parents, my brother, my husband, my son, and my friends who have always
inspired and encouraged me to complete this study.
ABSTRACT
This is a survey study from a cross-cultural pragmatics perspective with the
title “the use of body language cues in presentations by English-majored freshmen
at Vietnam University of Commerce”. It attempts to discover the current situation as
well as the factors leading to their ways of adopting body language cues in
presentations. To achieve the desired objectives of the current study, the qualitative
method including two instruments namely questionnaire and observation is mainly
employed. The informants participating in the survey questionnaire were eighty-five
English majored first year students at VUC. The questionnaire was written in
Vietnamese to make sure that all the respondents fully understand its content. In
terms of observation, ten presentations were randomly chosen for video recording
without their acknowledgement to minimize the external factors influencing the
validity and reliability of the research. These video clips which last from 3 to 5
minutes can be reviewed in details later.
Research results show that English majored freshmen do realize the
importance of B.L in developing and completing their presentation skills, however,
their actual performances regarding B.L in their speech are not really effective.
They have not initiative to use the appropriate B.L cues for better presentations. In
more details, they tend to avoid E.C and do not take the full advantage of smiling in
presentations. Besides, the students here may be assumed to have unfavorable
postures, which prevent them from getting the audiences’ attention, interest. The
main elements leading to that reality are likely to be attributed to students’ tension,
inadequate background knowledge of B.L, lack of preparation and culture factor.
Last but not least, suggestions for materials and pedagogical implications will be
discussed for practical steps to sharpen the students’ nonverbal communication for
effective presentations.
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