HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

------

SOME PROBLEMS IN MAKING PRESENTATION

BY VIETNAMESE STUDENTS AND WAYS TO
IMPROVE THEM

(MỘT SỐ VẤN ĐỀ TRONG VIỆC TẠO BÀI

THUYẾT TRÌNH BỞI HỌC SINH VIỆT NAM VÀ
NHỮNG CÁCH ĐỂ CẢI THIỆN CHÚNG)

NAME: ĐỖ THỊ MINH ÁNH

CLASS: K43A-ELT

CODE: 175D1402310010
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT..................................................................................................................... 3

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION.............................................................................3

I. Rationale..............................................................................................................3

II- Research presupposition....................................................................................4

III- Research objectives..........................................................................................4

IV- Research scope.................................................................................................4

V- Research tasks....................................................................................................4

VI- Research methods.............................................................................................5

VII- Significance of the proposed research............................................................5

PART TWO: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND...................................................6

I- LITERATURE REVIEW....................................................................................5

II- AN OVERVIEW OF PRESENTATION...........................................................7

1. Definition of presentation.................................................................................7

2. The importance of presentation........................................................................7

3. Some presentation techniques...........................................................................8

PART THREE: CONCLUSION.................................................................................8

REFERENCES.............................................................................................................12

SURVEY.................................................................................................................13

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 ABSTRACT

This paper researches on the problems in making presentations by

Vietnamese students and ways to improve better them. It discusses the concept of
presentation, its importance, and techniques. There are 4 difficulties in making
presentation which are also addressed. At the end of this paper are ways to handle
problems in presentation. The subject of the study contains students at Xuan Hoa
Highschool. As tools for data collection, the researcher used the survey questions
to find the consequence.

Key words: problems in making presentations, ways to improve .

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

I. Rationale:

Recently, the innovation of teaching and learning methods has been carried
out throughout universities throughout the country. Schools have been gradually
shifting from traditional teaching to a learner-centered form. Therefore, students
not only come to class to listen to lectures and copy lessons, but also have to
prepare for self-study of materials and presentation before class.

After graduation, presentation skills will help students feel more confident,
more successful in life and at work. Most students prefer to study using a
presentation method. However, between liking and doing well is a big distance.
Presenting is really not an easy task because presenters need to be equipped with
certain skills to successfully make a presentation with high efficiency. It is for this
reason that a study of pointing out the causes and difficulties that students make
when presenting should be made and the best solutions to the problems are to be
found.
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 II. Research presupposition:

In Viet Nam, presentation just developed about the last decade. Therefore,
students across the country have not had many opportunities to approach
presentation skills. Although students have to approach and use English regularly,
their presentation skills are still a major obstacle. For example, students often
pronounce words incorrectly, speak unnaturally, and do not speak fluently. In
particular, they lack confidence in the public speaking. So, why do students make
these mistakes and what are the solutions?

III. Research obbjectives:

The study is aimed at achieving the following two goals:

1) To clarify the common problems that students have to confront, which

lead to an unconvincing student presentation.

2) To find the best solutions to the problems under discussion. The solutions
might be concerned with both theory and practice, such as preparation, confidence,
pronunciation, fluence, etc.

IV. Research scope:

The general research area of the thesis is presentation skills and techniques.
The population involved in the study is two hundred Vietnamese students of
English at HPU2. The research is intended to serve the teaching and learning
practices at college. Also, non-professionals in general can benefit from the study.

V. Research tasks:

As specified in the research topic, the research work involves fulfilling a

number of tasks:

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 1) To study presentation techniques. There are many ways to create a perfect
presentation. The top 4 effective presentation techniques: Keep it short and clear,
Have contingency plans, Use visual aids, and Rehearse.

2) To conduct a survey to identify the problems that students have in their

presentations and causes of the problems.

3) To point out the common problems for students in making presentations:

Bad pronunciation, lack of confidence, lack of preparation, and lack of fluency.

4) To suggest solutions to deal with students’ problems in connection with

behavior, skills, and techniques.

VI. Research methods:

With the aims of pointing out students’ common problems in making

presentation and finding the best solutions to the problems, the research methods
are problem analysis with the assistance of examination, description, and
interpretation.

VII. Significance of the proposed research:

This study firstly to helps to find out the common problems in presentation,
and then contribute to their sucessful performance in presentation in the future. The
solution of this study will help students find ways to improve their presentation
skills. Specifically, students are able to gain better oral presentation skills and have
a good presentation.

PART TWO: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

I. Literature review:

As regards problems in students’ presentation, they have been described by

such a lot of researchers like Phanh Thị Kim Cúc (2012) and Ikhfi Imaniah (2018).
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 Phan Thị Kim Cúc (2012) studied on problems of K8 major English
students, Foreign Language Department, Hung Vuong University. Her research
stated students’ difficulties when making a presentation: the difficulties related to
presentation, voice and language, and communication with audience.

According to Ikhfi Imaniah (2018), almost the students of English Education

Study Program of Teachers Training and Education Faculty of Muhammadiyah
University are lack of: Goal setting on their academic speaking presentation,
Prioritization on what the essential point needs to be presented, Self-awareness on
themselves, while they present the presentation in front of the audience, Self-
motivation while presenting the materials, it connects with self-awareness,
Planning, and Communication skill.

As regards ways to improve better students’ presentation, Wallace (1980)

stated that it can be very boring to listen to something read aloud. Therefore,
students should be advised to do the following point: decide on a time limit for
your talk, write out your spoken presentation, speak from the outline notes, look at
your audience when you are speaking, and make a strong ending.

BL Loeding, M Wynn states: “To ensure that the best educational product is
delivered to all students, institution and faculty members must engage in careful
planning and preparation.”

Heyden (2001) reasearched on some strategies to tackle problems in the

presentation skills for students at Murray State University. He assessed the effect of
students’ presentation by observing method. Then based on the rusults, he
suggested some strategies: using visual aids and using techniques to attract
audience.

Tolley & Wood ( 2010:62) much detailed guidance has been provided on
how to succeed in giving presentations, such as a good starting point is preparation,
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thorough planning, and preparation are essential to success. So, the presenter must
do the best preparation. Moreover, the presenter should make a list of key points
when intend to make each section of the presenter‟s address.

In fact, there are far more problems made by Vietnamese students that have
not been specifically identified as to cause, expression, consequences, and
solutions. This study will point out these issues specifically and directly.

II. An overview of presentation:

1. Definition of presentation:

Presentaion can be defined as an activity in which someone interacts with

audience, describes, or explains something to a group of people or interprets and
understands the mindsets of the listeners. The way in Which something is arranged,
designed, etc by PowerPoint.

According to Skillsyouneed.com: “A presentation is a means of

communication that can be adapted to various speaking situations, such as talking
to a group, addressing a meeting or briefing a team. A presentation can also be used
as a broad term that encompasses other ‘speaking engagements’ such as making a
speech at a wedding, or getting a point across in a video conference. A presentation
requires you to get a message across to the listeners and will often contain a
‘persuasive’ element. It may, for example, be a talk about the positive work of your
organization, what you could offer an employer, or why you should receive
additional funding for a project.”

2. The importance of presentation:

Presentation or presentation skills in many people become essential for

today's students. Having successful presentations in front of the class or in the
crowd will help students succeed in school learning. This skill is also essential for
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students to present research works, dissertations, scientific reports, on and off
campus. Thereby, students develop creative exploration skills, the ability to work in
groups and the ability to think critically.

According to Alshare & Hindi (2004) a student's presentation is one of the

most important factors in learning experiences. The stated above show that a good
presentation will be appreciated in working life, students are encouraged to learn
actively in the process and have a positive learning experience.

3. Some presentation techniques:

a. Keep it short and clear

b. Have contingency plans

c. Use visual aids

d. Rehearse

PART THREE: CONCLUSION

Presentation skills need to be improved for students in Vietnam. Vietnamese

students often pronounce wrong and say unclearly, this can lead to some
misleading information that is difficult to understand meaning of topic during
performance. Besides, it is indicated that students tend to feel uncomfortable while
speaking in front of others. Most of students can't even speak and move in front of
large crowds or forget everything they have prepared. Moreover, they usually don’t
focus on preparing the presentation carefully such as: check the projector devices,
slides or not learn by heart the content of their presentation. Finally, almost
Vietnamese students have speaking skills weakness. This main reason leads to a
presentation isn’t fluent. The final objective is to clarify the problems with the help
of examination, description, and interpretation and find the best solutions to them.

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 For these reasons, the thesis has focused on such tasks as studying the
importance and techniques of presentation, researching into common problems in
the presentation, suggesting some solutions, and conducting a survey.

From what has been done in the thesis, the following conclusions could be
drawn for reference:

a. Presentation skills ( communication skills ) help students in their study,

work place, job interview, career development and social networking.

+ A good presentation skills indicate clearly summary information and

design PowerPoint professional with slides . It will help students understand the
lesson better than the traditional way of learning by variety and break from the
monotony which can result in loss of their interest. .

+ A good presentation skill helps in career development when students

have had good communication skills. Furthermore, students can get a job easily and
high salary.

+ Practicing presentation makes students to become more confident and

gather knowledge from topics is presented.

+ Even a student has good academic performance, will not be appreciated

if he or she cannot present his or her ideas and knowledge to everyone. Similarly, a
good leader not only has strategic vision, creative business ideas but also a person
who has excellent presentation skills, makes employees understand and follow the
strategies and plans of he or she set up.

Therefore, presentation skills are an indispensable step on the road to success.

Presentation skills are really difficult but it can be got better if he or she practices
constantly.

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 b. The top 4 effective presentation techniques.

+ Keep it short and clear: To have a good presentaion a presenter need to

focus on many factor such as: words of caution, poster layout and format, poster
presentation and poster content.

+ Have contingency plans: A back-up plan is really essential. Take with

presenters the following tips for example a printed out set of slides, a CD or data
stick of your presentation, a laptop with your slides on it, or copy slide into USB.

+ Use visual aids: Using pictures in your presentation instead of words. It

will make viewers understand and enjoy the presentation. Moreover, it also can
double the chances of meeting your objectives.

+ Rehearse: Practices many times before performing, it makes for perfect

performance. A present need to rehearse least four times by speaking aloud. It is
one of the fastest ways to improve a performance.

c. Although students have to approach and use English regularly, the

presentation skills of these students are still a major obstacle. Firstly, almost
students have some basic errors in pronunciation. These mistakes lead to bad
presentations and the viewers cannot understand what the speaker is talking about.
Secondly, the lack of confidence and fear of public speaking is also the common
problem. Many students can't even speak and move in front of large crowds or
forget everything they have prepared. Next, most of students don’t prepare before
they have a presentation. The lack of preparation will compromise the quality of
student’s presentations and that will have an impact on their reputation and career.
Lastly, it can be said that lack of fluency is a consequence of lack of preparation
and confidence. Fluency depends on speaking skill of the presenters. In fact, almost
students have speaking skills weakness. This main reason leads to a presentation
isn’t fluent.
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 d. Some specific ways to improve student presentation skills.

+ Pronunciation

 Learn phonetics-International Phonetic Alphabet table (IPA).

 Learn from mainstream video about pronunciation.
 Listen many kinds of topic by English on the Internet.

+ Confidence in public speaking

 Practice self-confidence by the ways: Do one thing that scares you every
day, take the 100 days of rejection challenge, set yourself up to win, etc.

+ Prepare for presentation

 Need to spend free time to carefully preparation.

+ Fluency and consistency

 Practice more than 3 English skills: speaking, reading and writing.

However, the theory that students have to be flexible when applied to suit the
reality of each individual. From there, students can improve presentation skills to
achieve high efficiency in learning, work, and life.
To improve and improve presentation skills, each student must understand the
causes and difficulties of his presentation. From that, draw experiences and come
up with effective measures to bring good effects for the next presentations.

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 REFERENCES

1. Alshare, Khaled & Hindi, Nitham M. The Importance of Prsentation Skill in

the Classroom: Students and Instruction Perspectives. The Consortium for
Computing Sciences in Colleges, 2004.

2. BL Loeding, M Wynn. International Journal of Instructional. 1999

<search.proquest.com>.

3. Brenda Hayden Sheets and Lou Tillson. Strategies To Improve Students’

Presentation Skills, 2001.

4. CM Smith, TM Sodano. Active Learning in Higher. 2011. <

journals.sagepub.com>.

6. Ikhfi Imaniah. A study on the difficulties in pressentation in speaking 2

lessons encountered by students K15 English Pedagogy in Foreign Language
Department. Hung Vuong University, 2018.

7. Michael J. Wallace. Study Skills in English. New York: the University

Press, Cambridge, 1980.

8. RX Guo. Polyglossia. 2013. <r-cube.ritsumei.ac>.

9. “What is a presentation?” SkillsYouNeed <

https://www.skillsyouneed.com/present/what-is-a-presentation.html>.

10. Tolley, Harry & Wood, Robert. How to Succeed at an Assessment Centre
(3rd Edition). London and Philadelphia: Kogan Page, 2010.

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 SURVEY

This survey is designed to help your instructor evaluate your current

presentation skills so that a baseline ability estimate can be established. Once
this is done, your instructor can use this information to better design lessons
that will begin developing your abilities from where you are now and then
grow. By designing lessons in this way many of the unnecessary frustrations
that are associated with learning a new concept, like feeling overwhelmed or
lost, can be eliminated and your learning experience can be more productive
and even fun!

Instructions: Please check the box of the level that is the closest to your
skill. Be honest and truthful.

1. I prefer lessons that allow the student to choose from a variety of

presentation types for assessment by the teacher.

 Never

 Sometimes

 Always

2. I often use computer presentation programs.

 Almost Never

 Sometimes

 Almost Always

3. I present information to others in a single application program such

as a word processor, a spreadsheet, or a publishing program.
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  Almost Never

 Sometimes

 Almost Always

4. I present information to others using presentation programs and

incorporate various multimedia elements such as sound and graphics.

 Almost Never

 Sometimes

 Almost Always

5. I feel confident enough to teach others how to use presentation

software.

 Almost Never

 Sometimes

 Almost Always

6. I have created several presentations using technology for

communication, data analysis, and problem-solving.

 Almost Never

 Sometimes

 Almost Always

7. I have created a Podcast.

 Yes

 No
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