Difficulties and Suggested Solutions to Make a Persuasive Presentation for First Year Students

Difficulties and suggested solutions to make a persuasive presentation for first year students

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT............................................................................4

ABSTRACT....................................................................................................5

Part A: Introduction

I. Rationale of the study...................................................................................6

II. Aims and objectives of the study................................................................6

III. Significance of the study...........................................................................7

IV. Scope of the study.....................................................................................7

V. Method of the study....................................................................................8

V.1. Reading relevant materials.................................................................8

V.2. Making survey questionnaires............................................................8

V.2.1. The aim of the survey...............................................................8

V.2.2. Design of the survey.................................................................8

V.2.2.1. Participants.....................................................................8

V.2.2.2. Instrument......................................................................8

V.2.2.3. The conduct of the survey..............................................9

Part B: Development

Chapter I: Literature Review

I.1. An overview of presentation...............................................................10

I.1.1. What is a presentation.................................................................10

I.1.2. Classification of a presentation...................................................11

I.1.2.1. Entertaining presentation..........................................................11

I.1.2.2. Persuasive presentation............................................................11

I.1.2.3. Informative presentation...........................................................11

I.2. The importance of a presentation...........................................................12

I.3. The structure of a presentation...............................................................13

I.4. Factors of a persuasive presentation.......................................................14

Nguyen Thi Minh Thu-QH2009.F.1.E14 1


Chapter II: Findings and data analysis

II.1. Data analysis.........................................................................................16

II.1.1. The participants’ background information....................................16

II.1.2. Attitudes of first year students towards presentation...................16

II.1.3. Current situation of first year students’ making presentation......17

II.2. Summary and discussion........................................................................21

Chapter III: Suggestions for making a presentation..................................24

III.1. Preparation............................................................................................24

III.1.1. Deciding on the topic..................................................................24

III.1.2. Determining the purpose.............................................................24

III.1.3. Analyzing the audience...............................................................25

III.1.4. Limiting the topic.......................................................................25

III.1.5. Gathering information................................................................26

III.1.6. Organizing the information.........................................................26

III.1.7. Choosing appropriate style.........................................................27

III.1.8. Preparing equipment...................................................................27

III.1.8.1. Making an outline..........................................................27

III.1.8.2. Presentation handouts....................................................28

III.1.8.3. Choosing visual aids......................................................29

III.2. Delivering the presentation...................................................................29

III.2.1. The introduction..........................................................................29

III.2.1.1. Communication skills.....................................................29

III.2.1.1. Language structure..........................................................30

III.2.2. The body.....................................................................................31



III.2.2.2.1. Linking expressions........................................32

III.2.2.2.2. Emphasizing and minimizing.........................33



III.2.3. The conclusion.............................................................................33



III.2.4. Question and answer session.......................................................34



III.2.5. Dealing with nervousness............................................................35

III.2.5.1. Physical relaxation techniques.......................................35

III.2.5.2. Mental relaxation technique...........................................36

CONCLUSION..............................................................................................37

REFERENCES..............................................................................................38

APPENDIX: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE...............................................39



ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I wish, first of all, to express my special thank to my supervisor, my teacher of

English-Ms Can Thi Chang Duyen who help me the whole-heartedly during the time of

doing this research report. She gave me great support as well as valuable advice in

presentation. The success of my research report would be almost impossible without

her help and ideas.

I would also like to give my special thanks to many teachers, staff of library

centre, and friends in groups E3, E14, E11, E14 in QH2009 of the Faculty of English

Language Teacher Education who help me a lot to complete this study.

Last but not least, my sincere thanks go to all readers for their attention and I

would highly appreciate any comments and contribution to the study.

Supervisor’s signature:

Date: 22/03/2010



ABSTRACT

The study consists of five main parts: the introduction, the chapter I, the

chapter II, chapter III and the conclusion. The introduction presents the rationale, aims,

significance, scopes, and methods of the study. In chapter I, named “Literature

Review”, the definition, classification, the importance, the structure and factors of a

persuasive presentation are presented in a comprehensive, logical and clear way.

Chapter II entitles “Finding and data analysis” discuss the description of the

questionnaire survey and the result analysis of the survey. Chapter III is concerned

practically with some useful suggestions for the process of making a good presentation.

Finally, the conclusion summarizes what have been mentioned in the previous part,

introduces some limitation of the study. In addition, the reference materials and

appendices are also given.



PART A: INTRODUCTION

I. Rationale of the study

Nowadays, there are many places and circumstances that people have to

present their ideas in front of the audience. Presentation has been a very popular and

important way for each one to demonstrate his own ideas. If someone masters

presentation skills, it means that he can achieve many things both in studying and his

future career. For the past few years, presentation has been taken into the syllabus and

become an essential part of the teaching and learning in Faculty of English Language

Teacher Education, University of Languages and International Studies, Viet Nam

National University, Ha Noi.

In each term, students may be asked to give several presentations on different

topics. Its aim is to get students used to conducting direct communication, which is

useful to students not only in studying but also in real life as well. Moreover, it

prepares fundamental skills for their teaching career in the future.

However, presentation is not rocket science. By contrast, presentation is an art

and a hard job to do. A lot of student especially first year students have difficulties

developing a successful presentation because they lack general knowledge about

presentation and necessary skills to build an effective one which are still quite to them.

The fact is that one of the most important initiatives for improving curriculum

universities was enhancing communication and presentation skills in the first year.

It is this reason why I would like to make an attempt to examine the

difficulties of first year students when making a presentation and suggest suitable

solutions. It also provides them with some techniques for creating effective

presentation. I hope this study would help them find presentations no longer a

challenge but an exciting experience.

II. Aim and objectives of the study

The aim of the study is to answer the following research questions:

+ What are the difficulties of the first year students when preparing for a presentation?



+ What are the suitable presentation techniques that can help first year student to

overcome those problems?

The author with the attempt to:

+ Provide an overview of presentation and its constituent elements viewed as basic

theory.

+ Identify the attitude of first year students towards presentation skill.

+ Find out the current situation of first year students’ making presentation and discover

difficulties first year students have when they make an oral presentation.

+ Give students useful and necessary techniques to help overcome those problems as

well as improve presenting skills.

III. Significance of the study

Theoretically, presentations are more important for learning success than any

other skills. Additionally, poor presentation could hinder the students’ future career.

Therefore, it is essential that first year students approach basis presentation techniques

to overcome difficulties, in their presentation. This scientific research is hopefully a

useful material for students in the Faculty to base on when they needs to make

effective, and persuasive presentations.

Practically, presentation skills help students develop their oral communication

skills (speaking well and listening intelligently) that are highly prized in professional

career. Besides, they can gain both confidence and experience when they practice

presentation in an ideal class when their audiences are friendly and supportive.

IV. Scope of the study

In fact, there are many different types of presentation including formal

presentation and informal presentation. Due to the limited time and knowledge as well

as the limited scope of a scientific research, my study only focuses on presentation for

first year students at HULIS, VNU.

The principal attention is paid to difficulties they meet when making

presentations and important techniques that help them overcome their difficulties.



V. Method of the study

In order to carry out the study, the following methods have been used:

V.1. Reading relevant materials: books in the library, articles on the Internet and

previous researches on or related to the topic. All the materials bring definition,

classification and most basic knowledge about presentation as well as some suggested

tips from some scholars and successful presenters

V.2. Making survey questionnaires: A survey questionnaire for first year students in

the Faculty – HULIS – VNU has been conducted to investigate on their difficulties to

make a presentation. Collected answers are classified and mathematically added up and

then analyzed to draw out conclusion about the students making presentation.

V.2.1. The aim of the survey

The survey questionnaire was aimed at investigating students’ attitudes towards

presentation skills, finding out facts about the learning of presentation skills at HULIS,

VNU and identifying problems encountered by first year students when giving a

presentation. From the results obtained, adjustments will be made to apply the theory

presented in the previous chapter to practice.

V.2.2. Design of the survey

V.2.2.1. Participants

We surveyed 80 students in from groups E3, E4, E11, and E14 in QH2009.

However, we received 65 finished sheets, lost 9 sheets and 6 sheets were not finished.

All of them have been studying English for more than 7 years.

V.2.2.2. Instrument

The survey questionnaire consists of 13 questions of 2 main parts. The first part

is composed by 4 first questions finding out the experience of learning English and the

attitude towards making presentation of first year students. The second part, from

question number 5 to question number 13, deals mainly with the process of making a



presentation, especially with the difficulties the presenter encounter. The questionnaire

includes multiple choice, open answers, yes/no answers.

V.2.2.3. The conduct of the survey

I gave out 80 copies of the questionnaire to 80 students from different groups in

English Department. However, the number of retrievable answers is 65. After that, I

decided to analyze the data in the scale of 65 copies and draw out the conclusion for

my research questions about the practice of presentation skills among the first year

students.



PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

I.1. An overview of presentation

I.1.1. What is a presentation

In the 7th edition of Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary(11455, p1234), a

presentation is defined as “an act of showing or explaining something or of giving

something to somebody” or “a meeting at which something especially a new product or

ideas is shown to a group of people”.

With a little difference, a definition of presentation in the website:

www.encarta.msn.com is “a formal talk made to a group of people, e.g. on somebody's

recent work or some aspect of business, often with handouts, diagrams, or other visual

aids”.

In fact, there have been a great number of studies by scholars and linguists on

presentation with different points of view. They give out various ways of defining

presentation. Among quite a few definitions of concept, the most accurate and

complete one was given by H. Gregory (1998): “Presentation is the process of

presenting the content of a topic in structured, deliberate manner. It is a form of

communication that broadens the knowledge and wisdom of listeners or that influences

their attitudes or behaviors”.

A presentation can be delivered to five people in a formal meeting, to 30

people in a small audience, to 250 people in a medium-sized audience, to 1600 in a

large audience, or to 100,000 in a supper large audience in a football stadium or any

number in between. The word presentation usually denotes a formal setting, but it can

also be thought of as any time a speaker tries to demonstrate his or her own idea before

a listener. In class, student can also make a speech or give short oral reports. Their

listeners and audience are their teacher and classmates who can question them



afterwards. Actually, it is not so important what presentation is. The most important

thing every student should know is that presentation is demanding and to be skilled in

it is very advantageous for your future life.

I.1.2. Classification of presentation

In order to make a good presentation, it is essential to have general view of the

characteristics of presentations. There are many types of presentations; each type has

its own purpose, format, content and language. Depending on the number of presenter,

there can be individual presentation and group presentation. Depending on the

profession of the presenter, there can be student presenter, business presentation,

research presentation, political presentation.

According to materials provided by the Communications Studies Department,

University of Kansas, USA, presentations can be categorized into 3 groups depending

on speaker’s intention; they include entertaining persuasive and informative

presentations.

I.1.2.1. Entertaining presentation: An entertaining presentation simply tries to gain

and keep the audience’s attention. The speaker wants the listeners to have a good time

and to be able to amused or interested by the presentation.

I.1.2.2. Persuasive presentation: A persuasive presentation is intended to change the

audience’s attitudes or behaviors. All persuasive topics fall into one of three categories,

depending on the type of proposition, or claim, that the presenter is advancing:

Propositions of fact, propositions of value and propositions of policy.

I.1.2.3. Informative presentation: An informative presentation provides the audience

with information about a new subject or new information about familiar subject. In

formative presentation is the most commonly used type of presentations in classrooms

and in conferences at universities. There are three ways to categorize informative

presentation: by format, by content, and by purpose.

By format: Informative presentation can be divided into two formats: briefings

which provide information or instruction that people need to know before they



have to do something and scientific reports which give a description of a

situation or an event or give information after having researched.

By content: It can be divided into 4 groups: presentation about objects, about

processes, about events, and about concepts.

By purpose: Informative presentations include descriptions, explanations, and

instructions.

I.2. The importance of presentation skills

Today, teaching and learning English has paid attention to not only students’

grammatical competence but also speaking skill with the aim of creating students’

communication ability. According to Canale and Swain (1980), the communication

ability has four constituent parts, which are grammar ability, social language ability,

speech delivering ability and strategy ability (p.115). Presentation skill is actually

proved to be great help for learners to master these for abilities successfully.

The grammar ability: It is ability of using vocabulary and making up accurate

sentences. In the process of preparing a presentation, the speaker has to consider

choosing which words, phrases or structures to use or what sentences to make.

Hence, his vocabulary and grammatical knowledge will be revised and

improved all the time through out his presentation. Later on, when delivering

the presentation, he also has to recall such knowledge to make accurate speech.

In brief, doing a presentation helps the presenter have three times to practice his

grammar: in his own mind, in written text and in oral presentation.

The social language ability: It refers to the common knowledge of social

circumstances in which pieces of communication take place. Actually, these

cover the relationship between the speaker and his listeners as well as the aim of

communication between them. On presenting a topic, the presenter has to

conduct different kinds of speech when he has various kinds of listeners and

purposes. Therefore, presentation skill helps develop learners’ social language

ability.



The speech delivering ability: It indicates the speaker’s competence of

conducting a transparent and coherent conversation. The speaker has to make

sure that he has been delivering his speech in such a way that his audience

would mostly likely understand and enjoy it. Good presentation skill will

undoubtedly ensure good delivering ability in any conversations.

The strategy ability: It is the ability to choose appropriate strategies when

making a conversation such as opening a conversation, putting a closure, or any

kind of maintaining and mending. Those are also exactly what the speaker has

to do so as to deal with a presentation because he has to find the most appealing

ways of beginning, developing and closing his speech to draw his audience’s

attention.

In a word, presentation skill actually helps improve our Standard English,

contributes to better communication ability and to learners’ better acquisition of

English for it requires “accuracy of grammar, standard social and cultural

knowledge, speech delivering criteria and measures to assure an effective

conversation”.(Metcalfe, 1991:125).

I.3. Structure of a presentation

The listeners find it easy to follow a well organization with a clear structure.

Most presentations are organized in three parts, with following questions.

Beginning Short introductions Welcome your audience

Introduce your subject

Explain the structure of your

presentation

Explain rules for questions

Middle Body of

presentation

Present the subject itself



End Short conclusion Summarize your presentation

Thank your audience

Invite questions

Question Answers

I.4. Factors of a persuasive presentation

It is not easy to evaluate a presentation because it consists of many parts, many

stages, and many tools. However, there are five basic criteria for a presentation to be

persuasive:

Topic: near and dear to the hearts and minds of the audience. A presentation

must appeal to the audience’s emotion, urge action on a topic that is important

to them, or present a case against another point of view in an attempt to sway

the audience your way.

Organization: State the facts of the problem you are trying to solve, a truth you

want to dispel or a situation that begs for the attention the audience can offer.

Use statistics, facts, as many quotes from experts as possible to lend credibility

to the argument, energize the audience and get them poised for action. Propose a

solution to each specific part of the problem presented. It is important to show

that the problem can be solved and that all the presenter need is the help and

support of every audience member.

Information: All the data must be relevant to the topic. Besides, the data must

be reliable. It is compulsory for the presenters to point out the source when they

quote some pieces of information.

Visual aids: Visual aids significantly improve the interest of a presentation.

However, they should be chosen basing on what the speakers want to say. There

are many kinds of visual aids. According to the topic, an appropriate type will

be chosen. Videos, Power Point Microsoft Office, hand out are usually used.



Delivery: The impact of a presentation is strongly affected by how the speech is

delivered. You can not make a good speech without having something to say.

However, having something to say is not enough. You must know how to say it.

A primary factor in delivery is the speakers’ voice. To use your voice

effectively, you should work on controlling your volume, pitch, rate,

pauses, vocal variety, pronunciation, articulation, and dialect. Volume is

the relative loudness of your voice, and pitch is the relative highness or

lowness. Rate refers to the speed of at which you can talk. Pauses, when

carefully timed, can add great impact to your speed, but you should avoid

vocalized pauses (“err”, “um”, and the like). Vocal variety refers to

changes in volume, pitch, rate, and pauses, and crucial to making your

voice lively and animated.

Nonverbal communication is another vital factor of delivery. Posture,

personal appearance, facial expression, bodily movement, gesture, and

eye contact all affect the way listeners respond to speakers. You can do

little to change your face or body, but you can dress and groom

appropriately for the situation at had. You can also learn to control

gesture and bodily movement so they enhance your message, rather than

distract from it. Making eye contact with listeners is the quickest ay to

establish communicative bond with them.

CHAPTER II: FINDINGS AND DATA ANALYSIS

II.1. Data analysis:



II.1.1. The participants’ background information

In answering the first question about the number of year for which participants

have been learning English, 45 students (69%) say they have studied English for 7-9

years, 19 students (29%) say 10-13 years. However, one student says he has studied

English for only 3 years; one student did not fill in this information. In general, most

students have studied English as their second language for a long time. Therefore, they

should have considerable English knowledge at least the basic grammar and

vocabulary.

II.1.2. Attitudes of first year students towards presentation

Question number 2 asks about the attitude of students toward the importance

of making presentation to their English skill:

Do you think that giving presentation can help you improve your English?

A. Yes B. NoThe obtained result is that all of students (100%) choose YES, which indicates

that students have the right attitudes toward the benefit giving presentation brings

about in their process of learning English. From this positive attitude, they will take

serious consideration into presentation skills.

In answering the third question “Have you ever been taught professionally

how to give a good presentation?”, 35 people (54%) say YES but the rest (46%) say

NO. Most students of this proportion admit that they often self learn little by little from

the lesson in the classroom and from their friends. I was really surprised at this fact.

Presentation skills have become a compulsory part in the syllabus of English

Department for a long time but the effectiveness achieved is not as high as expected.

Now I can understand why a large number of first year students find giving

presentation difficult (the result of the 4th question).

It is essential that we pay much attention to build a full knowledge about presentation

skill system among students.

The fourth question asks about students’ view of making an effective presentation



Result:

Option A. Difficult B. Normal C. Easy Total

Number 49 16 0 65

Percent 75% 25% 0% 100%

The table shows that, according most of the first year students, it is really difficult to

give a presentation. Of course, presentation is not rocket science. By contrast, it is an

art and a hard job to do. The presenter is an artist. I believe that a deeply understanding

about presentation will help you find making a persuasive presentation no longer

difficult but an interesting way to improve your English.

II.1.3. Current situation of first year students’ making presentation

Answering question number 5: “According to you, the preparation stage is…”

among 66 people asked in my survey, 65 (98%) students admit that preparation stage is

very important or important and one student thinks it is not very important. Most

students see the essential role of preparation stage when making presentation.

However, I can not deny that the result obtained in the next question made me really

confused. There is an obvious contradiction in their opinions. In group of 65 people

voting for the great importance of the preparation stage, only 37 students say that they

spend a lot of time preparing for a presentation, 25 students say they do not spend too

much time on this stage; even 3 students in this group admit that they do not spend any

time on the preparation stage while the only student who thinks preparation is not very

important spends a lot of time on preparation stage. Do they misunderstand my

questions or they just consider my questionnaire survey as funny game? May be,

theoretically, they know the importance of preparation but, practically they do their

presentation in a wrong way deliberately. This is the reason why they always fail to

build a persuasive presentation.

In question number 7, I want to know about how students rank the steps given to

deliver a presentation. May be, they were not clear about my question so some of them

only chose the step which they thought is the most important one, some of them



decided some steps which they often followed when giving a presentation. 25 students

(38%) considered step “Determine the purpose” as the most important one while 22

students (34%) of informants circled step “Decide on the topic”. All of them chose step

of preparing equipment for the least importance. In fact, all these steps are essential.

You can not create an effective speech without following them. Each one has his own

way of approaching their presentations. However, according to famous speakers in the

world, it would be the best to accept the arrangement introduced in the Literature

Review because of its factually tested effectiveness. This result also indicates that

students often don’t know how to carry out the research scientifically or they lack

general knowledge.

In question number 8: “Do you often rehearse before the presentation”, 52

people (80%) say YES. This satisfactory result is suitable for the result of the 5 th

question; most of informants see the importance of the preparation stage. Nevertheless,

I can not help being disappointed by their answers for question 9: “Do you know the

effectiveness of rehearsing? If yes, what are they?”

Option No Yes without

answers

Yes with

answers

Do not finish

this question

Number 11 7 31 16

Percent 17% 11% 48% 24%

When speakers say “No”, or “YES” without answers or when they do not fill in this

questions (52%), they may not understand my question or there may be a fact that they

were lying. If you really rehearse carefully before formal presentation, you must know

the quite effectiveness of rehearsal such as making you more confident, remember your

ideas, and speak more fluently.

The next question is aimed at identifying when students often write their

introduction.

The result:



Option Before After Can not identify

Number 38 18 9

Percent 58% 28% 14%

As can be seen from the table, most students often pay attention to the introduction first

when they begin writing, other people do not write the open until they have finished

the body. Even some people can not identify. Perhaps it depends on their emotion.

Each one has his own writing style which he feels most comfortable. However, it is

advised that students should complete their introduction lastly. Because, at that time

you deeply understand the structure of the whole writing so that you could fully

introduce the main ideas. Your introduction will become more concise and coherent.

Come to the question number 11, I asked: “Do you know what you have to do

in the introduction? If yes, can you write some of them?”. I divided the results into 2

categories. The first (I) includes answers “YES” with explanations; the second (II) is

answers “NO”, “YES” without explanations. Let’s see the result:

Option (I) (II)

Number 27 38

Percent 41% 59%

I was hopeless at the above result. Most students admit that they lack basic knowledge

about the introduction. There are only few people can tell some task such as introduce

the group, topic, purpose, outline… but it is not enough. The introduction stage is one

of the essential stages which decide the success of the speech. You do not know what to

do in this stage, which means that you will immediately fail at the beginning. Surely, a

persuasive presentation seems to be out of their hand. Please read the literature review

of my research carefully so that you can identify what needed to be done.

In question number 12, I asked about problems they often meet when giving a

presentation. In fact, I obtained many various opinions. They mainly lack self-

confidence, have problems with speaking ability in English (fluency, pronunciation,



intonation…). Other students have difficulties drawing listeners’ attention, interacting

with listeners, coping with unexpected situations. As we already know, it is not easy for

us to possess presentation skill and surely we all need the great help of our teacher.

Besides, it is compulsory for us to improve both our knowledge about presentation

knowledge and factual skills if we want to master the key to successful life.

“When you finish the presentation, what do you often do?” This question made

me anxious to discover activities of students after completing their speech.

The result:

Option Ask for remarks and find ways to deal

with the problems that you had

Do nothing

Number 43 22

Percent 66% 34%

When you finish your duty, you just think to relax or forget the speech. Yet

remember there is nothing perfect and you can not make sure that you didn’t make any

faults in your performance. Teachers, friends or listeners will be the most enthusiastic

critics. They will see faults which you could not see. They will point out them to you

and give you useful pieces of advice if you ask them. So don’t hesitate about talking to

them. Just find the road by yourself and set your foot on it. All the data show us some

interesting facts about the learning and practicing making presentation among first year

students, from which I can draw out conclusion and suggestion to be presented in the

next part of the study

II.2. Summary and discussion

It can be drawn out from the above analysis that giving presentation does get a

lot of concern from first year students. They are not only well aware of the importance

of this skill but also determined to improve it. The point is that they lack strategies and

techniques to overcome the difficulties raised from a presentation.



Firstly, students do not feel comfortable giving a speech. They feel confused

about choosing topic and gathering information to organize a good speech. If only they

spend enough time on preparing for their presentation, it will be easier for them.

Moreover, if students have much time to practice and rehearse their speech, they are no

longer afraid of making mistake in front of many people.

Students are not specifically taught how to deliver a speech on a set of notes

effectively so they have often spent so much time writing the speech and tried to recite

the script, which makes the actual presentation become unnatural. The students may

feel nervous and forget their words. In most of the time, they will be unable to speak

on their own without the transcript.

Problem with the preparing process is that the first year students can not

choose an interesting topic and gather information supporting for the topic. It can be

explained that they are short of background knowledge to brainstorm the topic of their

presentation. Moreover, they are not good at finding materials in the library and even

searching on the Word Wide Web. Otherwise, the first year students are still confused

about amount of information they get from different sources. They do not know how to

summarize these materials and to organize a perfect speech. In addition, they are not

sure about the language they use. In a short time, they can not mobilize their

vocabulary to express their ideas accurately and vividly. Although many students have

always realized of good intonation, pronunciation and body language, it is hard to

employ these elements in the presentation. The problem is that student presenters can

not focus on two things at the same time. Many presenters make pronunciation

mistakes, lack eye contact and find their hands useless. The possible causes of this

situation are usually lack of self-confidence and lack of practice. A good combination

of al such elements as good language, accurate pronunciation, proper intonation,

constant eye contact and expressive body language require time for practice and real

efforts to improve single elements before combining them in the presentation. For

those students who do not spend much time rehearsing their presentation, the problems



with these factors will be likely to occur. One thing more I found out through the

questionnaire survey is that students do not pay much attention to Question and

Answer period. In fact it is critical to the success of the presentation. Partly because,

the time for presentation practice in class does not allow the question session to

develop further. Teacher may be more concern with the presentation itself, rather than

question handling ability of students. At the same time, students do not realize the

importance of question times in reinforcing the points and strengthening the speaker’s

credibility. You are proving that you have research the topic carefully and knowledge

you give to the audience is truthful. In short, the question handling skill is not paid

attention to, and understandably, students do not master the skill. Some of them even

do not have enough knowledge to answer questions and others can not phrase their

ideas, usually due to poor language knowledge.

The final problem with making a presentation among first year students is the

failure to reduce the effect of nervousness or stage fright. Stage fright, referring to the

anxiety and fear one has to make a speech before public; it is not common for all

speakers. The problem is that when students presenters are nervous, their performance

are easy to get worse as they may forget their points and words and worse, start

rambling on out of tract, they may make distracting gestures, and break eye contact.

The possible causes of the lack of confidence may be the fear of making mistake in

front of many people and the response of the audience to the speaker’s presentation.

Weakness in English is also a negative factor toward speakers’ self confidence.

In conclusion, the most common problems of the first year students during the

process of learning and practicing presentation skills are:

1. Lack of background knowledge: Students are not good at choosing topic and

handling with questions from the audience.

2. Weakness in English language: poor vocabulary, pronunciation mistake, slowly

reactions

3. Nervousness and anxiety.



4. Lack of presentation method: method of delivery, manner, body language.

In the next chapter, I hope to provide you with a full of steps to build up a persuasive

presentation; focus on dealing with these above problems.

CHAPTER III: SUGGESTIONS FOR MAKING A PRESENTATION

III.1. Preparation:

Preparation for the presentation is almost important as the delivery of the

presentation.

III.1.1. Deciding on the topic:



The first step in speech making is choosing a topic. An interesting topic surely

attracts more attention of audience. For speeches out side the room, this is seldom a

problem. Usually, the audience and the speaker’s qualifications determine the speech

topic but in class, it is really hard to find the inspiration of an interesting topic. I myself

sometimes feel that I just can’t think of anything; give me a suggestion so that I can

come up with a topic for my presentation. Once students have trouble getting start, try

one of these ideas.

Choose the topic students know a lot about

Choose topic students want to know more about

Brainstorm with friends about possible topics

Get ideas from the index of text books such as Inside out…

III.1.2. Determining the purpose

Along with choosing a topic, you need to determine the general purpose of

your presentation. Three major kinds of general purpose are to inform, to persuade,

and to entertain. Usually it will fall into one of two overlapping categories: to inform,

or to persuade. Class room speeches are rarely to entertain.

When your general purpose is to inform, your goal is to convey information-

and to do so clearly, accurately, and interestingly.

When your general purpose is to persuade, you want to change or structure the

attitudes or actions of your audience. The difference between informing and persuading

is the difference between “explaining” and “exhorting”. In classes, the general purpose

is usually specified as part of the speech assignment. For presentation outside the

classroom, however, you have to make sure your general purpose yourself. Usually it is

easy to do. However, no matter what situation, you must be certain of exactly what you

hope to achieve by speaking.

Once you know your topic and your general purpose, you must narrow in on a

specific purpose that you can express as a single infinitive phrase. The phrase should

indicate precise what presentation seeks to achieve. The specific purpose statement



should be a full infinitive phrase, not a fragment, be phrase as a statement, not a

question, avoid figurative language, and concentrate on one distinct idea, not too vague

or too general. It is your residual message- what you want audience to remember after

they have forgotten everything else in the speech.

III.1.3. Analyzing the audience

The presenter should know the following information about audience: their

educational and cultural back ground, knowledge of the subject matter, position in

the organization and technical expertise so that he or she can identify what he should

say, what he should not say and the “tone’ he should use ( Elmon, 1998).

Analyzing the audience means identifying:

What does the audience need or want to know about?

What does the audience know now about the topic?

How does the audience feel about the topic?

What does the audience expect of presenter?

What presentation style can the audience best relate to?

What type of materials, examples, and details can the audience best relate to?

May be a short talk, not an interview, or a small survey can be helpful for presenters to

understand more about their presenters.

III.1.4. Limiting the topic

One of the most serious mistakes a speaker can make is selecting a too broad

topic. If a topic is too broad, students will have troubles researching the topic

adequately, covering the topic, and make the presentation relevant to the listeners.

There are two factors that students should take into consideration when limiting the

topic: time allowance, and the needs, expectation and experience level of the audience.

To limit the topic, a presenter must consider the following questions:

How much time do I have to make the presentation?

How much complex should my presentation be?

What aspect of the topics best suits the needs and interests of the audience?



What portion of the topic am I competent to discuss?

Do I have the resources and time to develop the topic?

III.1.5. Gathering information

To deliver a presentation, it is actually that presenters have to pick up a lot of

pieces of information. They can gather materials from some sources such as books in

library, articles on newspapers and the Internet. Sometimes, they can get information

by conducting personal interview with people in campus or in the community.

However, the information which speaker presents must have the following

characteristics:

It must be accurate: That means it must be truthful and reliable. It must be

true not just for a single person but also for the majority of listeners.

It must be new for the majority of listeners. You can never be absolutely

sure it will be new to everyone, but if it is not new for the majority, then you

will bore your listeners by telling them what they already know.

It must be useful to listeners: That means the information which you give

them must fill the listeners’ needs and wants.

III.1.6. Organizing the information

After collecting the information, it is essential to organize the information. A

well-organized speech has vast advantages over a poorly organized one.

A well-organized speech is easier for listeners to understand the issues and

make them become more supportive.

A well-organized speech is easier for the audience to remember.

A well-organized speech is more likely to be believed.

III.1.7. Choosing the appropriate style

Choosing the appropriate presentation style will determine the effectiveness of

conveying the content (Elmon, 1998). The presenter can choose the appropriate style

by choosing the kind of image he wants to create, the kind of tone, the level of



language (based on audience analysis) and the level of formality he wants to use, and

the approach that the audience expects from him.

To build the desired image or style, the presenter has to think about short,

descriptive words he wants to leave as impressions such as smart, aggressive,

deliberate, cool, and humorous, then build a larger picture of the style and image cues

that he can use to portray these characteristics in front of target audiences.

III.1.8. Preparing equipment

III.1.8.1. Making an Outline:

Student often find it difficult to build and develop ideas for topic, arrange

ideas logically and suitably. Depend on the outline they can identify the length of the

presentation, and know the form of the presentation too.

Choosing an outline format: The most popular formats for outlines are the

topic outline and the complete sentence outline.

Preparation Outline: You will decide what you will say in the introduction,

how you will organize the main points and supporting materials in the body of

the speech, and what you will say in the conclusion stage. There may be sub-

subpoints and even sub-sub-subpoints. For example:

OUTLINE

I. Main point

A. Subpoint

B. Subpoint

1. Sub-subpoint

2. Sub-subpoint

a. Sub-sub-subpoint

b. Sub-sub-subpoint



II. Main point

A. Subpoint

1. Sub-subpoint

2. sub-subpoint

B. Subpoint

III.1.8.2. Presentation handout:

Make your presentation handouts worth keeping. Include valuable reference

material to every page, some thing your participants will want to take away with

them.

In fact, the longer the event, the more pages. The skeleton of your handouts is

your workshop or seminar outline and includes a table of contents with major

topics and subtopics. Students may add:

+ Biographical information.

+ Names

+ Phone number and address, email address

+ Charts and statistics

+ Book title

+Samples

+ Resources and references

+ Recommendation

+ Stories, quotes, anecdotes, procedures

+ Other information relevant to your audience and topic

Include student’s own contact information on each page so if a page is torn

out, your contact information doesn’t get lost.

Presentation handouts can be informational and interactive. But remember

handouts only support the workshop, so make them attractive but simple,

and only include what is needed.

III.1.8.3. Choosing visual aids:



As the old saying goes: “a picture is worth thousand words”, thus, people

naturally find a speaker’s message more interesting and grasp it more easily and retain

it longer when it is presented visually as well as verbally”- (Lucas, 1995:29). In brief,

for all above reasons, visual aids are of great value. There are many kinds of visual aids

including objects, modes, pictures, drawings, photographs, projection. The presenter

can choose the most suitable for classroom presentations.

III.2. Delivering the presentation

III.2.1. The introduction

III.2.1.1. Communication Skills

Generally, in introduction there are four basic steps the presenter has to do:

Greet the audience politely but friendly

Get audience’s attention: The presenter only has a limited time and every

minute is precious so, from the beginning, make sure they pay attention. You

can use one or more these following techniques: telling a story, ask a

question, make provocative, a visual aid or demonstration, and provide the

audience with an incentive to listen.

Establish a theme: Basically, the presenter needs to start the audience

thinking about the subject matter of the presentation by a statement of the

main objective, unless for some reasons the presenter wishes to keep it

hidden.

Present a structure: if the presenter explains the structure briefly in the

beginning, then the audience will know what to expect, which help to hold

their attention. Ultimately, it provides a sense of security in the promise that

this speech will end. Besides, you can establish your credibility by stating

why you and your sources are trustworthy.

When building the introduction, the presenter should bear in mind these tips:

Do not prepare the introduction first:



Make your introduction simple and easy to follow, but avoid making

it too brief:

Make sure that your introduction has direct and obvious tie-in with

the body of the speech:

Never apologize: You weaken your speech and hurt your credibility if

you say thing like “I didn’t have much time to prepare” or “this may

be too technical for you” or “I’m sorry I didn’t draw a diagram”.

III.2.1.2. Language structure

This part is aimed at providing presenters useful language structures in each

specific step.

Greet the audience:

Good morning, my name is…….

Good morning. Let me start by saying just a few words about my own background. I

start out in…..

Introduce the subject:

I’d like to talk (to you) today about…

I’m going to present the recent……..

brief you

inform you

describe

The subject/ focus/ topic of my presentation is….

Explain the structure of the presentation

I have divided my presentation into four parts/sections. They are….

The subject can be looked at under the following heading…

We can break this area down into the following fields:

Firstly/first of all…

Secondly/then/next/…

Thirdly/and then we come to…



Finally/lastly/

III.2.2. The body

III.2.2.1. Communication skills:

In the body of the presentation, the speaker has to deliver all the prepared

content in a logical organization, together with applying all the language knowledge

above. Good presentations follow this formula:

Tell the audience what you are going to tell them

Then tell them

At the end tell them what you have told them

Besides, when conveying the massage, the presenter has to adopt the body

language. Modern research has confirmed what the Greek historian Herodotus

observed more than 2400 years ago: “Men trust their ears less than their eyes”. This

means that body language affects the way listeners respond to a speaker. When a

speaker’s body language is inconsistent with his words, listeners tend to believe the

body language rather than his words. In other words, the way the speaker uses his body

will reinforce or weaken or even contradict his verbal language. Therefore, the

presenter has to adopt the appropriate body language including eye contact, facial

expression, body movement, gesture, posture and appearance (Dobson, 1989).


This part will introduce language structures through linking expressions,

emphasizing and minimizing the message.

III.2.2.2.1. Linking expressions: In the body of the presentation, the presenter has to

use linking expressions to guide the audience through the presentation. Below are some

common linking words/ phrases used for different purposes.

Sequencing/ordering:

First…secondly…thirdly…

Then…next…finally/lastly…

Let’s start with…



Let’s move on/go on to…

Now we come to…

That brings us to…

Let’s leave that…

That covers…

Let’s get back to…

Giving reasons/causes:

Therefore

So

As a result

That is why

Summarizing

To sum up/In brief/In short/In a word

Concluding

In conclusion

To conclude

Highlighting:

In particular/Especially

Digressing

By the way/In passing

Comparing:

Similarly/in the same way

Contradicting:

In fact/Actually

Giving examples

For example/for instance/such as

Generalizing

Usually/generally/as a rule



III.2.2.2.2. Emphasizing and minimizing: It’s always a good idea to exaggerate a

little, as it will help to get the message across persuasively.

In emphasizing the message: Strong adverbs intensify adjectives: Extremely

good. Adverbs can be total, very strong, or moderate:

Total: Absolutely (fantastic), completely (awful), entirely (depressing).

Very strong: extremely(good), very (bad)

Moderate: fairy (safe), reasonably (expensive), quite (cheap).

In minimizing the message: The presenter can use the following expressions of

degree of uncertainty to modifying or minimize the message: It seems…

Perhaps… might…

III.2.3. The conclusion

III.2.3.1. Communication Skills:

Overall, the full process of the conclusion is:

Signal to the end – Summary – Recommendation – Invitation for the question.

III.2.3.2. Language structure:

Signaling the end:

That brings me to the end of my presentation.

That completes my presentation

Before I stop/finish, let me just say…

That covers all I wanted to say to day.

Recommending:

So I would suggest that we…

I’d like to propose… (More formal)

In my opinion, the only way forward is…

Closing:

I hope you will have gained an insight into…

Thank you for your attention.

Summarizing:



Let me just run over the key points again.

I’ll briefly summarize the main issues.

To sum up…/ briefly…

Concluding:

As you can see, there are some very good reasons…

In conclusion…

I’d like to leave you with the following thought/ idea.

Thank you for listening

Inviting question:

I’d be glad to try and answer any questions.

So, let’s throw it open to questions.

Any questions?

III.2.4. Question and answer session

III.2.4.1. Communication Skills

Question and answer session often follows a final summary and is very

productive if managed properly. The presenter should encourage questions from the

audience if time permits, but be prepared to answer them. If the presenter does not

know the correct answer to a question, it is inadvisable to try to fake it. He should refer

the question to someone who can answer it correctly or make a note to himself to

obtain the answer later. When he does, contact the person or persons who asked it as

good as possible. This makes an excellent door opener for follow up calls.


Clarifying a question:

If I understand you correctly, you are saying/ asking…

I didn’t quite catch it.

Could you go over that again?

I’m not sure what you’re getting at.



Avoid giving an answer:

Perhaps we could deal with that later.

Can we talk about that on another occasion?

I’m afraid that‘s not my field.

I don’t have the figures with me.

That’s interesting, but I’d prefer not to answer that today.

Checking the questioner is satisfied:

Does that answer your question?

Is that clear?

May we go on?

III.2.5. Dealing with nervousness

III.2.5.1. Physical relaxation technique

Good breathing while delivering the speech is also a key for keeping your patience. In

fact, nervous have the effect of making you raise and tense the shoulders and neck

muscles. So while waiting to speak, the presenter should take a deep breath, relax the

shoulders and then let the breath out slowly and in a controlled way. The presenter will

automatically feel more confident and more in control.

III.2.5.2. Mental relaxation techniques

The more certain the presenter can be about his presentation, the less nervous

he will be. The presenter can tell himself that he has got good materials. He has

rehearsed it well, the audience will be friendly and also impressed by what he says and

he can make a successful presentation. To think like that will not remove the nerves but

it will increase the presenter’s confidence.



CONCLUSION

The ability to present a case clearly, cogently and confidentially is enormously

valuable at every stage of students’ lives. It is critical for their professional

development. Whatever the subjects they study, it will bring them success in academic

work, job interview. Therefore, learning how to make a good presentation is essential

for not only first year students but also for all students in the Faculty of English

Language Teacher Education.

In this study, I have found out the difficulties first year students encounter

when making a presentation; have tried to deal with them and give main factor relating

to how to give a persuasive speech. Although it is just carried out in small scale, I still

have aspiration that it is of practical value and become useful techniques for first year

students, which help them to gain more success when it comes to make presentation.

Due to the limited time, knowledge and experience also the scope of the study,

it still exits some limitations. Some aspects of presentation skill are not mentioned or

impossible to be researched in details. It is hoped that other studies will be carried out



to deal with them and help English learners improve their presentation effectively as

well as their speaking skill.

To sum up, as limitations are unavoidable in this study, any comments and

contributions are always warmly welcome and highly appreciated so that the study

would more and more perfect.

REFERENCES

1. Canale, M. (1986) and Canale, M. and Swam, F. (1980), Teaching English as a

second or Foreign Language, Haper Collins publishers Inc.

2. Metcalfe, S. (1991), Building a speech, Holt, Rihehart & Winston Inc.

3. Dale, P. and Wolf, J.C (1998), Speech Communication for International

Student, Prentice Hall Regents.

4. Elmon E. Yoder (1988), Powerful Presentation Skills, National Press

Publications.

5. Lucas, S.E (1995), The art of Public Speaking, McGraw-Hill, Inc.

6. Brown, G. and Yule, G. (1989), Teaching the Spoken Language, Cambridge

University Press.

7. Verderber, R.F (190), Communicate, Wadsworth Publishing Company, Inc.

8. Bygate, M. (1995), Speaking, Oxford University press.

9. Pham Ngoc Khanh Ly (2007, March), Steps to build up a persuasive

presentation in the light of learner-centered approach, VietNam National



University, College of Foreign Languages and International Studies, English

Department.

10. Le Hai Yen (2007), Improving third year students’ Skills in making a

Presentation, VietNam National University, College of Foreign Languages and

International Studies, English Department.

11. Nguyen Thi Minh Tram (2006), Presentation skills used by 2nd –year students

in English Department, VietNam national university, College of languages and

international studies, English Department.

12. http://www.encarta.msn

13. http://www.ehow.com/search.aspx?

s=how+to+make+a+presentation&Options=0&x=0&y=0

APPENDIX

SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE

Hi! My name is Nguyen Thi Minh Thu from group E14.QH2009. This

questionnaire is designed for my research “Improving first year students’ skills in

making a presentation”. I would be grateful for your assistance in completing this

questionnaire. Thank you very much for your cooperation.

Please answer the following questions. For multiple choice questions, you can

choose more than one alternatives.

1. You have been learning English for……………….. years.

2. Do you think that giving presentation can help you improve your English?

A. Yes B. No

3. Have you ever been taught professionally how to give a good presentation?

A. Yes B. No

4. What do you think of making a successful presentation?

A. Difficult B. Normal C. Easy


http://www.ehow.com/search.aspx?s=how+to+make+a+presentation&Options=0&x=0&y=0

http://www.ehow.com/search.aspx?s=how+to+make+a+presentation&Options=0&x=0&y=0


5. According to you, the preparation stage is….

A. Very important B. Important

C. Not very important D. Unimportant

6. Do you spend much of time preparing?

A. Yes, a lot of time Not too much Not at all

7. Number the following steps from the most important to the least

a. Decide on the topic

b. Determine the purpose

c. Analyze the audience

d. Limit your topic

e. Gather information

f. Organize the information

g. Choosing appropriate style

h. Preparing equipment such as outline, presentation handouts, cue cards and visual

aids.

8. Do you often rehearse before the presentation?

A. Yes B. No

9. Do you know the effectiveness of rehearsing? If yes, what are they?

…………………………………………………………………………………

10. Do you often prepare the introduction before or after creating the body of your

presentation?

A. Before B. After

11. Do you know what you have to do in the introduction? If yes, can you write

some of them .....................................................................................................

12. Which of the following problems do you often have when giving a

presentation? (You can tick more than one answer)

a. You lack self-confident.



b. You have problems with speaking ability in English (fluency, pronunciation,

intonation, choosing words…)

c. You fail to adopt the right body language (eye contact, posture, hand

movement…)

d. You often make grammar mistakes.

e. You fail to express yourself clearly.

f. You do not know how to cope with unexpected situations.

g. you fail to draw your listeners’ attention.

h. You find it hard to survive the question-answer section.

i. You fail to interact with listeners.

13. After the presentation, you…

A. Ask for remarks/comments

B. Find ways to deal with the problems that you had

C. Do nothing

D. Others (please specify)


Difficulties and Suggested Solutions to Make a Persuasive Presentation for First Year Students

Documents