VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

THE EXPLOITATION OF VISUAL AIDS IN

ENGLISH SPEAKING PRESENTATION BY ULIS
THIRD YEAR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH AS THE
FIRST MAJOR

Students: Pham Duc Long

Nguyen Thi Tuyet Hanh
Nguyen Thanh Thuy
Pham Thi Hoa Phuong
Group: 01-07E10.
Supervisor: Pham Thu Lien &Hoang Thi My

Hanoi, October 2010

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We would like to give our sincere thanks to a number of people for their enthusiastic support and
encouragement during the time we have conducted this paper.

Firstly, we would prefer to send my special appreciation to our supervisors Ms. Pham Thu Lien
and Ms. Hoang Thi My for their tireless efforts to help and valuable advice. We deeply
appreciate them for supervising the valuable lectures and reference books, which have become
guiding guidelines during the process of completing our research. Furthermore, their constructive
and consecutive feedbacks as well as critical-thinking suggestions have enlightened many
arguments in our study.

Secondly, we are highly indebted to 68 third year students and 5 teachers of English-speaking
teaching for the junior students at Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, ULIS-VNU
for their agreement to participate in our data collection process using survey questionnaire and
small talks.

Thirdly, warm thanks are given to all our classmates (class 07E10) for their information-
providing and experience-sharing which have become the precious sources of reference
during the time we work on this paper.

We would particularly prefer to thank the students: Ha Manh Quyet (07E14), Cam Van
Suong (07E2), Le Van Duc (07E6), Ly Thi Loan (08E3) and Tran Thi Kim Anh (08E8) for
their great distribution of sharing online research sources as well as piloting our research‟s
questionnaire. No words can describe how significant their cooperation and contribution are.

It would be our big fault if we forgot to express a great deal of gratitude to our family for their
constant encouragement and financial support. Without our parents‟ help, this research could not
have been completed.

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 ABSTRACT
Presentation mastery is of paramount importance in the students‟ academic work and jobs in the
future. The students can improve their oral presentation skills when they know the use of visual
aids effectively. 68 junior students and 5 teachers at Faculty of English Language Teacher
Education were involved in this study to bring critical viewpoints about four main aspects of
employing visual aids in English speaking presentation illustrated by the terms “most-
effectively-used kinds”, “benefits”, “difficulties” and “feasible solutions”. The results indicated
that while the pictures and images were effectively used by most junior students, the blackboard
was viewed as the least-effectively used. It was noticeable that among the frequently-
encountered obstacles are time-consuming; the presenter’s limited competence; and under-
exploitation of visual aids to work for target aims which were likely to be efficiently addressed
by making use of the same visual aids for different purposes; setting the plan and practicing in
advance; as well as allowing audiences with suitable time to look. The study‟s results suggested
that the presenter‟s preparatory activities and rehearsing presentation with the specific visual aids
deserved to be carefully paid attention by the students. Likewise, elaborately prepared
guidebooks of presentation by the teaching committee and well-equipped overhead projects
by the schools also actually need urgent and serious considerations to enhance teaching-learning
activities effectively and successful.

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 TABLE OF CONTENT

TABLE OF CONTENT Page

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 2
ABSTRACT 3
TABLE OF CONTENT 4
LIST OF TABLES 6
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Research title 7
1.2. Rationale of the study 7
1.3. Research aims and research questions 7
1.4. Scope of study 8
1.5. Expected outcomes 8
1.6. Method of study 8
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Key concepts
2.1.1. Definition of presentation 10
2.1.2. Definition of visual aids 10
2.2. Previous studies
2.2.1. Advantages of using visual aids 11
2.2.2. Disadvantages of using visual aids 12
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
3.1. Participants and participant selection method 14
3.2. Data collection method 14
3.3. Data collection procedures 15
3.4. Data analysis method 16
CHC CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1. Research question 1: Students‟ and teachers‟ evaluation of the 18
effectiveness of using the visual aids in English speaking
4
 presentation

4.2. Research question 2: Students‟ and teachers‟ evaluation of 20

benefits of using the visual aids in English speaking presentation

4.3. Research question 3

4.3.1. The students‟ and teachers‟ evaluation of difficulties 22

of using the visual aids in English speaking presentation.

4.3.2. The students‟ and teachers‟ evaluation of solutions to 24

difficulties of using the visual aids in English speaking
presentation.

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION
5.1. Major findings of the research 26
5.2. Pedagogical suggestions 27
5.3. Limitations of the study 29
5.4. Suggestions for further research 30
REFERENCE 31
APPENDIX
Appendix 1: Survey questionnaire for student 33
Appendix2: Survey questionnaire for teacher 35
Appendix 3: Data statistics for student‟s questionnaire 37

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 LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: The average value of choices for major kinds of visual 18

aids used in English speaking presentation by third year students

Table 2: The average value of choices for major benefits of using 20

visual aids in English speaking presentation by third year students

Table 3: The percentage of choices for major difficulties of using 22

visual aids in English speaking presentation by third year students

Table 4: Feasible solutions to overcome difficulties of using the 24

visual aids in English speaking presentation by third year students

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 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Research title

The exploitation of visual aids in English speaking presentation by ULIS 3 rd year students of
English as the first major

1.2. Rationale of the study

According to Emden & Becker (2004) , “the ability to present a case clearly , cogently and
confidently […] will bring students success in academic work, job interviews, and their future
working life” (p.vii). It could refer that presentation skill was the crucial soft skill, which might
ensure the students‟ professional development at each stage of their lives as well as might help
them usefully carry out their particular roles in different social contexts.

A recent study by Emden & Becker had revealed that human beings had tendency to remember
“what they see more readily than what they hear” (p. 33) when they were audiences. Bradbury
(2006) shared the same opinion that “We learn about 90% of what we know visually-from real
objects such as books, etc. Only 7-11% is learnt through hearing alone” (p. 92). Obviously,
exploiting visual aids in presentation made the associated language memorable.

Although effectiveness of using visual aids in presentation had been put an emphasis on as stated
above, so far, hardly have there been any studies at Faculty of English Language Teacher
Education-ULIS-VNU investigating the exploitation of visual aids in English speaking
presentation. Additionally, the studied incomes from this research might help teachers and
students aware of the current context of employing visual aids in pedagogical activities of
presentation in English. Accordingly, some significant pedagogical suggestions were probably
applied to upgrade the quality of exploiting visual aids in English-speaking presentation
activities. Being aware of two main reasons mentioned above, the researchers found it necessary
and essential to conduct this study.

1.3. Research aims and research questions

Firstly, the paper was conducted to explore kinds of visual aids employed effectively in English
speaking presentation from the perspective of the students and the teachers at Faculty of English
Language Teacher Education. Secondly, their viewpoints on the benefits of using them were
expected to be found out. Thirdly, a detailed investigation was carried out to specify the
difficulties of making use of visual aids third year students encountered during the presentation
activities in English as well as the teachers‟ points of view about the obstacles. Accordingly,
basing on the findings of the study, the researchers suggested some possibly effective solutions
7
to the difficulties of exploiting visual aids in English speaking presentation. In brief, this paper
aimed to address three following research questions:

1. What are the most effectively used kinds of visual aids in English speaking presentation
as perceived by the third year students and teachers at Faculty of English Language Teacher
Education, ULIS, VNU?

2. What are the benefits of using visual aids in English speaking presentation?

3. What are the difficulties and solutions to difficulties of exploiting visual aids in English
speaking presentation?

1.4. Scope of study

Although the topic was about “[t]he exploitation of visual aids in English speaking presentation
by ULIS 3rd year students of English as the first major”, the researchers only concentrated on a
few aspects of using visual aids in presentation in English namely the “most effectively used
kinds”, “benefits”, “difficulties” and “the solutions to the difficulties”.

Because of the time limitation and the small scale of study, the samples of the research were
restricted to 68 third year students and 5 teachers of English-speaking teaching at Faculty of
English Language Teacher Education, ULIS-VNU.

1.5. Expected outcomes

When completed, this research had been expected to provide two main following outcomes: (1)
for teaching-learning activities and (2) for research activities.

Firstly, for the students, the study provided them with effectively used kinds of visual aids in
English presentation experienced and shared by both the students and teachers. Furthermore,
because the huge benefits of using visual aids were reviewed from a large number of previous
researches, the students could have profound and perfect understanding as solid foundation for
presentation in class. Thirdly, the students could identify difficulties encountered by third year
students in Faculty of English Language Teacher Education in presentation activities, which
include the use of visual aids. Accordingly, they would be able to deal with the obstacles
effectively and easily when encountering in the procedure of preparing and presenting in class.

For the teachers, this study informed them of the difficulties of using visual aids in English
presentation as perceived by third year students, so the teachers could give authentic and
valuable suggestions or advice when asked by students.

Secondly, when successfully conducted, this study became an efficient and valuable source of
reference for further studies. For example, further research could expand this paper to other
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subjects such as British Studies and American Studies; for other groups of students, not limited
to 3rd year students, might expand to four groups of students at Faculty of English Language
Teacher Education and even in a wider scale.

1.6. Method of study

1.6.1. Data collection methods

In order to find the answers to the three research questions presented above, a combined data
collection process using survey questionnaire and semi-structured interview had been used.

Initially, two kinds of survey questionnaires including four main parts were employed to collect
information from 68 students and 5 teachers respectively. They were asked to tick or circle the
number that best reflected their viewpoints on the five-point scale. Beside closed-ended
questions, open-ended ones had also been exploited so that the students and teachers could
specify any additional comments on the situations given.

Next, the small talks were used. 10 students who have taken part in the questionnaire and all 5
teachers were, in turn, invited to provide in-depth information about their viewpoints in the
questionnaires. With the aim of making the respondents most confident in the talk, the language
used was Vietnamese. It was noticeable that the typical statements from 15 small talks with the
respondents‟ permission were recorded and made use to represent the arguments in the chapter
for “Results and Discussion”.

1.6.2. Data collection analysis

Descriptive statistics method, mean and standard deviation had been employed to analyze the
data. Moreover, the information collected from the small talks was made use to compare and
contrast with the data achieved from the questionnaires which had been calculated and
transferred numerical form (see Appendix 3)

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 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter provided a brief overview of the literature review on the research topic for the aim
of laying theoretical foundation for the whole paper. Initially, key terms like “presentation” and
“visual aid” were explained. Afterwards, some issues related to this research, specifically
advantages and disadvantages of using visual aids employed in presentation were also reviewed
to contextualize the research paper as well as show the gaps in the literature and how this paper
could fit in. In brief, the researchers had no ambition to review all aspects in presentation
activities; this study‟s literature review only covered these issues connected to using visual aids
in presentation activities as presented above towards “English speaking” subject.

2.1. Key concepts

2.1.1. Definition of presentation

In general, sense, presentation was not a new concept. It had been used in most of all aspects of
our activities. As Siddons (2008) explained, presentation was anything that included giving a talk
to audience members (p.5). Therefore, the presentation could be thought as anytime you pass
information, thought or ideas to others.

However, normally in narrow sense the word "presentation" denoted a formal setting. According
to Lucas (2009), presentation was one-to-many encounter as in lecture, seminars or a talk on the
purpose of persuading audience or presenting a report (p.6). Obviously, Lucas had narrowed the
setting of a presentation into a more formal setting.

Nevertheless, there was some confusion between "conversation" and "presentation" in the
definition of Lucas because both conversation and presentation required logical organization of
thoughts, adapting to listeners' feedback: “verbal, facial and physical reactions” (Lucas, 2009,
p.7). To clarify the differences between presentation and everyday conversation, Lucas carried
out an experiment and showed three main differences. To be specific, presentation was (1) more
clearly and carefully organized (p.8); (2) drawn up with more elaborate plan, and required (3) the
use of more formal language (p.9) than ordinary conversations. Within the scope of this study,
the researchers were in agreement with Lucas and would like to just use the word “presentation”
as a formal talk where ideas or information were presented in a clear and structured way from
one to others.

2.1.2. Definition of visual aids

As its name suggested, visual aid could be defined as "any kind of physical representation” that
can be seen" (Kougl, 1988, 63). Likewise, Liberty (2010) regarded visual aids as tools that
10
“illustrate and clarify what is being said in a speech or presentation” (para.1). It was clear that
visual aids were related to anything that audiences could see to understand the points in the
presenters‟ oral presentation.

Visual aids could be divided into three levels in terms of function as: “the experiential level, (2)
the representational level, (3) and the demonstrational level” (Using visual aids [UVA], p. 274).

(1) Representational aids: could be known as “representing” something-a process, some

information, an object-in graphic form. Specifically, standard graphics involving “charts,
tables, maps, drawings, and photographs” (UVA, p.278) were shown on “posters, flip
charts, slides, or within computer presentation software” (UVA, p.278)

(2) Demonstrational aids: could be regarded as “showing and telling”. Their purposes were
to illustrate how to employ a device, procedure and process (UVA, p.289).

(3) Experiential aids: could be described as “doing” or “audience participation”. For this
level, audience actually took part in role-playing: “handling an object, working through a
process, or acting out a dramatic presentation” (UVA, p.284). Although audiences could
participate, presenters didn‟t often use them in presentation due to a waste of time and
audience‟s confusion (USA, p.289)

Because of the time limitation, this study just investigated the use of visual aids at the first and
the second level: representational aids including mainly: blackboard writing, flipchart, overhead
projector, pictures and images; and demonstrational aids: realia and the presenter through using
gestures, action or facial expression.

2.2. Previous studies

2.2.1. Advantages of using visual aids

It had been agreed by both educationalists and social researchers that using visual aids brought
enormous benefits towards teaching-learning activities. Firstly, as stated by To, Nguyen &
Luong (2010), visual aids could demonstrate meaning of crucial ideas more efficiently and
rapidly than verbal explanation (p.8). Chanlin (1998) (cited in Stokes, p. 5) had examined this
effect of using visual aids and come to the conclusion that lessons with no graphics did not seem
to differ students with a high level of prior knowledge with students at lower level. However,
with the exploitation of animated graphics, they responded differently, specifically the students
with higher abilities of attaining knowledge could understand the contents of lessons more
directly and quickly compared with those at lower level, particularly when words and
representations were shown together (Stokes, p. 5). The second benefit of employing visual aids,

11
which had been raised by Gower, Phillips & Walters (1995), lied in making the presentation
more memorable, and thus increasing the chances that what the presenter said would be
remembered easily. Presenters who set images floating in the minds of audience members with
words and images would “leave a lasting impression” (Dempsey, 2009, p.226). It was undeniable
that visual aids-used could have profound influence on delivering the messages of presentation
from the presenter to the audience members. Furthermore, Dempsey (2009) had revealed that
when visual aids had been used in presentation, they helped hold the audience‟s attention. He
also pointed out that if the audience members could see a message through the representation of
visual aids, they would be more attentive (p.226). In conclusion, when exploited effectively by
the presenters, the visual aids might help audience members follow arguments and the main
ideas easily, contribute more to the lesson as well as leave profound impression on the
audience‟s minds.

2.2.2. Disadvantages of using visual aids

Besides the benefits, the disadvantages of using visual aids also needed to be weighed. To,
Nguyen & Luong (2010, p.8) showed four main pros of employing visual aids. In the first place,
it seemed to be certain that preparation of visual aids for presentation process took a lot of time
to carry out. Needless to discuss any more because Kent (2007) had clarified that the presenters
were likely to need to make great efforts to create visual aids as “high-quality” as possible (p.4)
which meant that visual aids did not really have to be expensive but the presenters could find it
very necessary to take some time “drafting or lettering” (p.4) them. In the second place, sources
of materials for making visual aids were, in some extent, limited. It was not enough without
mentioning the third disadvantages that some presenters could be not skillful at preparing visual
aids. Last but not least, visual aids could be overused or under-employed. In accordance with
Dempsey (2009), when they were not used in right ways, the audience might concentrate on the
visual aid and disregard the speaker‟ message, particularly if the visual aid is “confusing or
flashy” (p. 226). In this situation, visual aid probably failed to serve the intended purposes. In
brief, four main common problems with using visual aids which were usually mentioned in
presentation activities included a lot of time needed to prepare, the limitation of sources found to
make visual aids, the lack of the presenters‟ abilities achieved at seeking for sources of visual
aids and the overuse or under-exploitation of visual aids without working for the target aims.

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Chapter summary

In this chapter, the researchers had attempted to review the literature related to the use of visual
aids in speaking presentation, namely definition of the key terms and some related issues.
Relevant knowledge from various sources served as the basis for the researchers to carry out the
study and drew some implications with the aim of helping students to exploit visual aids in
speaking presentation effectively.

Practically, there had been a few studies in University of Languages and International Studies
researching the issue of using visual aids. However, most of them investigated the effects of
visual aids on other skills (reading, writing, listening) or speaking skill in general, and focused
on students in high schools. There had hardly, up to now, been any studies investigating the
exploitation of visual aids in speaking presentation as perceived by 3rd students. To fill in the
gaps, the researchers conducted this study. Additionally, further research could be carried out to
gain insight into the use of visual aids in others subjects such as Reading, Writing, Listening,
British studies or American studies and even Advanced English 2 in the context of Vietnam,
particularly at Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, ULIS, VNU.

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 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
In the literature review, a brief overview of the research topic for the aim of laying theoretical
foundation for the whole paper had been conducted. In this chapter, the study was carried out
with justified methods of data collection and analysis in order to maximize its validity and
reliability. Specifically, discussions in detail about the participants, the instruments as well as the
procedure of data collection and analysis were raised in the chapter.

3.1. Participants and participant selection method

The data was collected with the cooperation of both teachers of English and third year students at
Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, ULIS as follows:

3.1.1. Third year students

A limited number of 65 third year students at Faculty of English Language Teacher Education,
ULIS-VNU were asked to take part in the data collection process because of two main following
reasons:

Firstly, these students had familiarized with English-speaking presentation activities in some
pervious semesters; therefore, they could have had considerable experience in difficulties and
feasible solutions towards the difficulties when presenting. Secondly, in terms of language
competence, according to Hoang (2007), the third year students were in range between FCE and
CAE level (3rd and 4th grade out of 5 Cambridge framework of assessment‟ levels) (p.12). Thus,
they could highly be skilled at searching and designing various types of visual aid materials,
which were employed in presentation.

3.1.2. Teachers

The researchers contacted and asked for help from five teachers who had been teaching English
for third year students at Faculty of English Language Teacher Education., ULIS to join in
questionnaire-completing.

3.2. Data collection method

This study employed questionnaires as the main sources for data collection. In accordance with
David (2004), questionnaires were considered to be familiar to most people and nearly everyone
could have had some experience of completing questionnaires; so they generally did not make
people feel worried. In our study, questionnaire was employed because it was convenient for
studies involving large sample sizes as ours. Moreover, as stated by Nguyen (2009), the

14
researchers tended to use questionnaires in terms of efficiency of researcher time, researcher
effort and financial resources:

By administrating a questionnaire to a group of people, one can collect a huge amount of

information in less than an hour and the personal investment required will be a fraction of
what would have been needed for, say, interviewing the same number of people […]
(Nguyen, 2009, p.17)

Regarding the questionnaire in detail, a brief introduction about the study‟s topic was firstly
provided. Afterwards, in order to make it convenient to collect data and analyze, as many as four
sections of the students‟ questionnaire were made corresponding to the three research questions‟
content. To be specific, almost the first two parts‟ questions were to rate closed-ended questions
which required participants to circle the number that reflected their viewpoints on the situation
given in range amongst 1 “counter-effective”, “strongly disagree” to 5 “very effective”
,“strongly agree” corresponding to the first study question and the second one. The last research
question was answered by examining the students‟ frequency in range between “always” and
“never” towards some obstacles in presentation in terms of cost, time as well as sources and
students’ ability of exploiting visual aid materials. Additionally, there was still an open-ended
question in which the respondents could clarify the difficulties they had had when practicing
presentation with the support of visual aids in the space provided. Their obstacles were then be
sort out, categorized and generalized. Based on findings of these difficulties, some possibly
feasible solutions for better presentation in the studied context were proposed.

It was so greatly important to combine both open-ended and close-ended questions in the
questionnaire because given options in some survey sections could, in some extent, be limited
and insufficient; so collecting the valuable data from respondents‟ giving additional comments
provided in the space after close-ended questions could possibly minimize the study‟s
shortcomings as well as facilitate enthusiastic students to supply their private thoughts.

3.3. Data collection procedures

The procedure of data selection consisted of two steps:

Step1

Initially, survey questionnaire had been designed. Afterwards, the researchers came to the step of
piloting questionnaire for both students and teachers, which was carried out with four voluntary
respondents for questionnaire (three students and one teacher). Not only did that step help figure
out problems with content, wordings of the questionnaire but it familiarized researchers with

15
how to respond to possible situations when carrying out in reality. Based on the result of the
experiment, the researchers considered and gave the final version of the questionnaire.

Step 2

In light of the „cluster sampling‟ (which means that participants of same class were chosen by
lots randomly), three out of 22 classes of third-year students who were in the fifth semester of
the academic year 2010- 2011 had been invited to take part in the questionnaire-answering
process. About 75 questionnaire papers were delivered: about 70 papers for the third-year
students and five papers for teachers of English-speaking for the third year students. As a matter
of fact, each class for the third year students at Faculty of English Language Teacher Education,
ULIS-VNU usually involved 23 to 26 students, so these three classes chosen by lots randomly
accounted for about 15% of the total number of third year students. Before delivering, a brief
introduction about researchers and the study‟s topic was given. During the process of completing
the questionnaire, participants were strongly encouraged to specify detailed comments in the
provided space with the aim of gaining further insights into the research matters. Besides, the
researchers were always willing to assist the participants by giving oral instructions and
explanation in Vietnamese to avoid any misunderstanding and ambiguity. Afterwards, all the
papers of questionnaire were collected carefully to ensure the quantity of data.

3.1. Data analysis method(s) and procedure

It was undeniable that data analysis was the process of ordering and extracting meaning from the
accumulated data. In other words, the most essential function of data analysis was to organize
data to make sense of the great amount of information.

Specifically described, the accumulated data was classified into four categories according to the
three research questions‟ content: (1) the third year students‟ and teachers‟ evaluation of
effectiveness of using visual aids in presentation (the first research question) as well as (2) their
perceptions towards benefits of employing them (the 2nd research question), and (3) the
difficulties towards presenting with the support of visual aids as perceived by third year students
and teachers of English speaking and (4) possibly practical and reasonable solutions towards the
obstacles in presentation activities which included the exploitation of visual aids (the final
research question).

For the first two categories, mean and standard deviation were employed whereas descriptive
statistics method was exploited for the last two categories for the purpose of analyzing the data
and showing major outstanding trends from which the researchers had deduced the necessary and
expected outcomes.
16
Moreover, the typical statements from the small talks with teachers and additional comments of
students in the completed questionnaires were cited when necessary to compare and contrast
with the data achieved from the questionnaire, which had been calculated and transferred
numerical form.

Chapter summary

In brief, this chapter had illustrated the methodology applied in this study by firstly giving
specific information on the two groups of participants involved in the process of data collection,
namely the teachers and third year students. Afterwards, the data collection from questionnaire
was justified in the scope of this study ahead of the accounts of the process of data collection and
the process of data analysis in this chapter. Obviously, such clear explanation of the
methodology helped to show the way for the analysis of the collected data in the next chapter.

17
 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In the preceding chapter, the methodology applied in this study had been clarified with detailed
descriptions of participants, the instruments and the process of data collection and analysis. In
this chapter, all collected data was analyzed and discussed to reveal the answers to each research
question in turn. More importantly, the connection between these findings and other related
studies in the literature were also highlighted to present the new findings on the research topic as
well as further discoveries out of expectations.

4.1. Research question 1: The students’ and teachers’ evaluation of the effectiveness of
using the visual aids in English speaking presentation.

Table 1: The average value of choices for major kinds of visual aids used in

English speaking presentation by third year students

It was apparent from the table one that six major kinds of visual aids had been exploited in
English speaking presentation with the different levels of effectiveness as seen from third year
students. The average value of choices (mean) towards effectiveness of these kinds of visual aids
was classified into four main categories as follows:

In the first place, as observed from the above table, pictures and images received the largest
mean of effectiveness (4.18/5). Therefore, it could be referred that they were most successfully
used among kinds of visual aids in English speaking presentation activities. The reasonable
explanation could lie in the students‟“[being] able to cut from newspapers or magazines, even
18
take from Google images” (one respondent). Additionally, some advocates shared that “[they]
can draw pictures to support [their] presentation”. It was also noteworthy that pictures and
images got the lowest standard deviation value (S.Dpi=0.8) which could be deduced that the data
points marked by the respondents for choices of item “pictures and images” tended to be very
close to the mean (Mpi=4.18). Therefore, the results withdrawn by the researchers were
extremely valuable because “the smaller standard deviation is, the better the mean captures the
behavior of the sample” (Gass & Mackey, 2005, p. 261). However, one of 68 participants
strongly disapproved of using pictures and images in presentation by giving specified comment
in the space provided in the questionnaire paper. To be specific, in her opinion, when the pictures
and images were employed by the presenters, the audience sitting far from the presenter could
not look at clearly. Therefore, they probably became counter-effective.

In the second place, it was noteworthy that both the presenter and real object belonged to the
category between “Effective” and “Very effective”. Specifically, the presenter came with the
second largest average value of efficiency (Mp=4.04; S.Dp=0.86) while the third ranking was
real object (Mro=4.01; S.Dro=0.99). Small talks with third year students after questionnaire-
completing revealed that by using gestures, action or facial expressions did the majority of
presenters send the presentation‟s messages to audience when they had trouble with vocabulary-
used expressions. On the other hand in some circumstances, as perceived by the students, the
presenters themselves were not good at presenting with vague actions or so many strong
emotions which resulted in ambiguity for the audience. Regarding the use of real object, they
were considered to be “plentiful and available everywhere”, so some third year students used real
objects to support presentation. For instance, with topic Digital at unit 6 (Inside Out for Upper-
Intermediate student’s book) teacher asked students to “talk about your favorite mobile phone, its‟
advantages and disadvantages” one participant used NOKIA N72 to present. He had been highly-
adjusted about using creative and authentic visual aid in presentation and gained very good mark.

The third category as perceived by third year students involving overhead projector and
flipchart (Mop=3.88, S.Dop=0.81 and Mf=3.04, S.Df = 0.05 in turn) lied in the range of average
value of choices between 3 “Undecided” and 4 “Effective”. However, while overhead projector
had nearly been exploited effectively by almost participants (mean= 3.88≈ 4), flipchart seemed
to the most unfamiliar with participants (mean=3.04≈3). The researchers had asked Dr. Vo Dai
Quang, the director of Science and Technology Office about the history of using overhead
projector at Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies with the aim of discovering
reasons why overhead projector had not preferred to employ popularly by the students in
presentation activities. He informed that overhead projector had been equipped at the school

19
since 2001, but it was not until 2003 that overhead projector had been applied in teaching-
learning foreign language at a few classes for the fast-track students. Recently, some big halls
had been equipped but the number was limited. Because of limitation of overhead projector, the
third year students had few opportunities to employ efficiently.

Lastly, before collecting the data, the researchers had predicted that blackboard was probably the
most-effectively used kind of visual aids in the students‟ presentation activities because it was
available at most classrooms. Four out of five teachers who had taken part in the questionnaire-
for-teacher-answering process agreed with the researchers‟ prediction that “black board is
perhaps one of the most useful visual aids”. It could be used without special preparation and
mistakes in writing on the blackboard could be corrected instantly. Surprisingly, the results from
analyzing the questionnaire for students‟ data contrasted with the researchers‟ prediction and
teachers‟ thoughts. Blackboard received the smallest mean (2.85) compared with 4,18; 4,04;
4,01; 3,88; 3,04 corresponding to pictures and images, the presenter, the real objects, overhead
projector and flipchart. Accounting for this concept, some third year students highlighted that
“[they] hate looking at blackboard because some presenters have spent more time writing onto
without saying anything to the audience”.

4.2. Research question 2: The students’ and teachers’ evaluation of benefits of using the
visual aids in English speaking presentation

Table 2: The average value of choices for major benefits of using visual aids

in English speaking presentation by third year students

As can be seen from the table two, almost the participants considered that using different kinds
of visual aids had “contribute[d] more variety and interest to the presentation”. More

20
amazingly, that was the most enormous benefit (mean=4.03; S.D=0.79) and most remarkable
one that the third year students had been advantage of to support the presentation.

“Various kinds of visual aids such as pictures, handouts, and the presenter’s nonverbal gestures
should be make use of together, I say for sure that the presentation will become worthy-listening and
less boring compared with the presenter talking all the time without them” (one enthusiastic
respondent has clarified).

The second interesting point was that the third year students had not intentioned to make the
presented language, through visual aids, unforgettable to the audience. It was clear when
observed from second table that the average value of choices for “visual aids can make the
presented language memorable” received the nearly smallest mean (M=3.62, S.D=0.84), which
were virtually matched by “visual aids can make the classroom an attractive place” (the
smallest mean=3.60, S.D=0.94). These collected and analyzed results differed from those from
Dempsey (2009, p.226) (presented in the Literature review) who placed greater emphasis on the
benefit of employing visual aids by which presenters could “leave a lasting impression” after
setting images floating in the minds of audience members with words and images.

Next, the second largest average value of choices towards benefits of using visual aids from the
perspective of 68 third year students was owned by “visual aids help the audience follow the
main ideas easily (mean=3,79, S.D=0.76). The figure indicated that to the majority of the third
year student, they employed visual aids as tools to make their main points of the presentation
become clarified as well as cut down their unnecessary talking time. This point could be
illustrated by the ideas from the students that “our group has used the flipchart prepared at
home to show the outline of our presentation, I realize that it can drive the audience’s interest
from the beginning to the end”. Noticeably, 100% teachers investigated shared agreement with
the third year students at this benefit of using visual aids. One teacher specified that in some
situations, the audience couldn‟t understand the contents of the presentation due to the
presenter‟s limited abilities of presentation as well as some problem related to pronunciation,
grammar and expression; however, thanks to clear outline of the presentation delivered to the
audience through the handouts, the audience could follow the presentation and make questions at
the end. Obviously, from the view of both teachers and students, visual aids deserved to be
highly-adjusted as tools to help the audience follow the key point easily.

Lastly, in the third year students‟ opinion, “visual aids help demonstrate meaning directly and
rapidly” (mean=3.71; S.D=0.86) and “visual aids help hold audience’s attention and
concentration” (mean=3.75; S.D=0.91) were considered to be less worthy than “visual aids
help the audience follow the main ideas easily (mean=3.79; S.D=0.86). The third year students‟
21
thoughts had contradicted ones from Chanlin (1998) and To, Nguyen and Luong (2010) (showed
in Literature review) who put much more emphasis on visual aids‟ benefits towards showing
meaning of crucial ideas more efficiently and rapidly than effectiveness of following the main
ideas easily. In the researchers‟ viewpoints, even the students at low level could follow the key
point of the presentation with the support of visual aids easily; however, only the students with
higher abilities of attaining knowledge could understand the contents of presentations directly
and quickly.

4.3. Research question 3

4.3.1. Students’ and teachers’ evaluation of difficulties of using the visual aids in English
speaking presentation

*Note: V.As. stand for visual aids

Table 3: The percentage of choices for major difficulties of using visual aids

In English speaking presentation by third year students

The difficulties, which were always or often encountered, by the enormous number of students
(above 70%) were "visual aids can take a lot of time to prepare". The researchers had some
small talks with some third year student to explore why their amount of time given to the
preparation of visual aids was limited. The fact was that they were required to gain 44 credits in
two semesters of the third year which lead to workload.

Interestingly, the difficulties which were rated as "seldom" and "never" by the large number of
student (roughly 46%) was the third item "visual aids are too expensive to be employed". It
22
could be inferred that financial issue was not the main problem to the junior students. Therefore,
it seemed that to the students, the effectiveness of the presentation was worth spending on visual
aids.

The second frequently-encountered problem was "presenters cannot be skillful at preparing for
visual aids", which was followed by "visual aids can be under-used to work or for the target
aims" with 25 % and 23, 53% in turn of the surveyed students had complained. It was likely that
many students couldn't completely exploit their prepared visual aids for the presentation, which
led to the waste of time and money to prepare. Likewise, these difficulties also seemed to spring
from the lack of skills in preparing visual aids. However, as perceived by the teachers, 100%
agreed that the junior student only sometimes faced with these obstacles because “the third year
students have become familiar with English-speaking presentation activities in some pervious
semesters; therefore, they have gained considerable experience and develop practical skills
towards presenting”

Last but not least, about 60% the junior student investigated had confirmed that they sometimes
had trouble with “sources of materials for making visual aids are limited” and “visual aids can
be over-used and caused distraction”. The acceptable explanation given by the students were:

“Visual aids are not too difficult to prepare and use because I am able to receive from many
different sources such as newspapers, magazines and even Google images which took me only some
minutes to click mouse and download from the internet”.

Although these students hadn‟t left any comments about over-exploitation which caused
distraction to the audience; as seen from the 80% the teacher studied, they placed much emphasis
on the fact that:

“My students are sometimes not well-managed on time. The allowed time for their presentation was
only five to seven minutes, but some students spent half time on warm-up/getting started with kinds
of visual aids to attract the audience to their presentation’s topic. For the remaining time, they
presented in hurry”

4.3.2. The students’ and teachers’ evaluation of possible solutions to difficulties of using the
visual aids in English speaking presentation.

23
 *Note: V.A. stands for visual aid

Table 4: Feasible solutions to overcome difficulties of using the visual aids in

English speaking presentation by third year students

As discussed in the previous part, time-consuming was the foremost worry of students. The
proposed solution to this problem by third year students was to use the same visual aids for
different purposes. However, only 13.24% students always, 22.06% often and 42.12%
sometimes applied this to overcome their difficulty. Obviously, this could be a fairly good
solution, but it still could not solve the problem fully because some students, in some extent,
were afraid that "using the same visual aids could make the presentation boring".

Regarding the second difficulty “sources of materials for making visual aids are limited”, the
percentage of students selected "to ask friend(s) to consult sources of visual aids" was higher
than those who selected the solution "to ask teacher(s)". To be specific, roughly 53% students
asked their friends to consult (11.76% always and 41.18% often) whereas only 44 %
respondents asked teachers for sources of visual aids" (14.7% always and 29.41% often). It
appeared that the close consultation among friends could give better results to deal with the issue
of limited sources of materials.

24
Thirdly, as observed from the third table that "visual aids are not big enough to be seen" is not
frequently-encountered problem for the third year students. Therefore, the simple solution for
this obstacle was to make visual aids big enough to be seen. 91% the students investigated
shared that they dealt with the difficulty by taking notice of the size before designing or printing.
Only a minority of students (7.35% for "seldom" and 1.47% for "never") didn‟t give this
solution.

Furthermore, more than 50% of students surveyed (23.53% for "always" and 29.41% for "often")
adopted the solution "presenters can set the plan and practice the presentation with visual aids
in advance" to address the problem "visual aids can be over-used and cause distraction" and
the lack of skills at preparing visuals aids. At this point, 80% teachers studied also agreed that
by establishing the objectives first, and then preparing suitable visual aids that supported each
objective could presenter make full use of visual aids‟ benefits and avoid driving audience to
distraction. Obviously, by practicing the presentation using selected visual aids in advance could
presenter familiarize with their use and order in reality and some problem encouraged could be
predicted and minimized.

Lastly, the solution "allow audience with suitable time to look at visual aids before explaining
them" seemed to be an ideal and feasible answer to the difficulty "visual aids can be under-
used to work for the target aims" because the overwhelming majority of students (over 70%)
expressed that they "always" or "often" used this solution.

Chapter summary

This chapter has continuously provided answers to each of the research questions carefully and
responsibly through analysis and discussion of the collected data. Major findings as shown above
were really expected by the researchers to meet this research paper‟s aims.

25
 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION
In some previous chapters, the introduction, the literature, the methodology and the results of
study had elaborately been presented. As the final stage, in this concluding paper, the outcomes
of the whole study were summarized and evaluated by illustrating the main findings, limitations
of the research, pedagogical suggestions for both teachers and students without forgetting to
offer several suggestions for further studies.

5.1. Major findings of the research

On seeking the answers for three research questions, this study had performed as a fairly
comprehensive and in-depth paper on the use of visual aids in speaking presentation by the third
year students in ULIS with four main aspects namely: (1) the most effectively exploited kind of
visual aids, (2) benefits and (3) difficulties of using visual aids and (4) the feasible solutions to
deal with the obstacles. Undergoing the procedure of cluster sampling and simple random
sampling respectively, 68 students and 5 teachers from Faculty of English Language Teacher
Education, ULIS had been selected to participate in the survey. The results for the researchers‟
continuous efforts and were noted as follows:

Firstly, the researchers found out that pictures and images were the most successfully used
among kinds of visual aids in English speaking presentation activities. Additionally, that
blackboard was viewed as the least-effectively used kind of visual aids in the students‟
presentation came as a surprise when the results from analyzing the questionnaire-for- students‟
data remarkably contrasted with the researchers‟ prediction and teachers‟ thoughts. In fact,
blackboard only received the smallest mean of effectiveness (2.85/5) as the students' evaluation
whereas four out of five teachers studied had more ambitious.

Secondly, concerning the benefits of using visual aids in speaking presentations, the findings
showed that the students participating in this study tended to consider “visual aids contribute
more variety and interest to the presentation” (mean=4.03) to be the foremost benefit.
Moreover, other proposed benefits also received high mean, specifically, “visual aids help the
audience follow the main ideas easily (mean=3.79), “visual aids help hold audience’s attention
and concentration” (mean=3.75) and “visual aids help demonstrate meaning directly and
rapidly” (mean=3.71). Surprisingly, compared with the views of scholars in the Literature
Review, these collected and analyzed results differed from those from Dempsey (2009, p.226)
who put an special emphasis on the benefit of employing “visual aids help make the presented

26
language memorable” (mean=3.60) by which presenters could “leave a lasting impression”
after setting images floating in the minds of audience members with words and images.

Thirdly, regarding the obstacles to the employment of visual aids in speaking presentation, from
students' view, three most-frequently-encountered difficulties were "visual aids can take a lot of
time to prepare", "presenters cannot be skillful at preparing for visual aids", and "visual aids
can be under-used to work for the target aims". The identified problems were, in turn, solved
by the number of measures. Although the solution "use the same visual aids for different
purposes" had highly been appreciated by the researches but appeared to make the presentation
boring because only 13.24% students always, 22.06% often and 42.12% sometimes had applied
this to solve "time-consuming". Getting advice/support from the friends seemed to be a better
solution for searching the source of materials than from the consulting teachers as seen from the
students. The problem "visual aids can be over-used and cause distraction" and the lack of
skills at preparing visuals aids" were claimed to be properly solved by” plan and practice the
presentation with visual aids in advance". In the meantime, "allow audience with suitable time
to look at visual aids before explaining them" were likely a feasible answer to the difficulty
"visual aids can be under-used to work for the target aims".

In brief, the findings as presented above offered a vivid and critical perspective of three research
questions with four aspects investigated. In the next part, the researchers would like to provide
some suggestions for teaching-learning activities.

5.2. Pedagogical suggestions

Basing on some findings from the study, the researchers would prefer to provide some
suggestions for students and teachers as well as education administrators to enhance the
effectiveness of the use of visual aids in speaking presentation as follows:

5.2.1. For the students

Firstly, as discussed in the chapter 4, the greatest hindrance of the students when exploiting
visual aids in speaking presentation is time-consuming. In fact, time-consuming might root from
the lack of skills in preparation stage, which includes setting the general objective and the
detailed objectives for the use of visual aids and looking for the sources of materials. Therefore,
as proposed by the researchers, the students should be well prepared for an outline of
presentation; carefully decide major issues to be presented and then only select appropriate
visual aids for a few major issues, which actually need the support of visual aids to make the
presenter‟s messages clarified and memorable in the presentation.

27
Secondly, some students claimed that under-exploitation and over-exploitation of visual aids had
made their presentation underestimated. Thus, it could be demanded that students should
rehearse the presentation with actual visual aids to make sure that their languages and visual aids
matched.

Thirdly, in accordance with some studied students‟ suggestions, the combination of different
kinds of visual aids in a single presentation could create positive effects. Therefore, it could be
advised that the students should integrate different visual aids to stimulate the audience‟s interest
as well as appeal them with something new and interesting to be explored through flexibly-
employed kinds of visual aids.

5.2.2. For the teachers and education administrators

Initially, as withdrawn from the findings of the study that financial issue was not the main
problem to the junior students because, from the perspective of the students, the effectiveness of
visual aids in the presentation was worth spending. Therefore, the researchers strongly suggested
to the teachers of English that the students‟ effective exploitation of the modern and expensive
visual aids probably deserved to be given stimulating or bonus marks when the teachers marked
the student‟s presentation.

It was not enough without mentioning the suggestion that the teachers should give constructive
and critical comments on how effectively their students employed visual aids in their
presentation. Specially, besides the comments on the content or manner, teachers could pick out
some typical mistakes and problems of using visual aids and give some suggestions to solve
them. By this way, students were likely to learn more about the use of visual from the real
experience in order to make suitable changes in using visual aids if they were to deliver the
presentation again.

Furthermore, despite the truth that nearly 100% teachers studied shared the same opinion that
their students had gained considerable experience towards presenting in previous semesters; the
researchers still highly suppose that the junior students probably need to be equipped with a
well-designed guidance on presentation skills including the use of visual aids at the start of the
semester which could act as a reminder for students to pay attention to while preparing for
speaking English presentation activities.

Finally, although the overhead projector had been highly adjusted by both the teachers and the
students in bringing enormous effectiveness towards presentation activities but in reality, the
number of overhead projectors equipped at Hanoi University of Languages and International
Studies was fairly restricted. Thus, providing more overhead projectors at some classrooms
28
actually needed strict and careful considerations from the education administrators as well as the
Science and Technology Office at Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies.

5.3. Limitations of the research

Despite the fact that the researchers took considerably great efforts to carry out this study, there
are still some limitations due to time pressure and small scale of samples.

Firstly, the number of third year students who took part in the study (68) remained relatively
low compared with the enormous number of 3rd students in Faculty of English Language Teacher
Education, ULIS, VNU (nearly 480). For this reason, the answers of these respondents in some
extents could be unlikely to represent the total difficulties and solutions roughly 480 third year
student had when presenting English speaking with the help of visual aids. Likewise, the
restricted number of the teachers investigated was also regarded as the shortcoming of the
paper. Due to time constraint, the paper only focused on 5 teachers who had been teaching
English for the junior students at Faculty of English Language Teacher Education. Therefore,
this sample did not really satisfy the desirable data the researchers intended to collect. In order to
fill in gap in some extents, a large number of the teachers should be invited to participate in the
study.

Secondly, though the researchers had great ambition to explore many different aspects of using
visual aids in English speaking presentation, in reality, only three research questions were
undertaken as illustrated by terms “the most-effectively used”, “benefits”, “difficulties” and
“feasible solutions”. In order to minimize this shortcoming, for the future studies on the same
topic, some different unexploited aspects relating to the students‟ and the teachers‟ perception
should be conducted. For example, further papers could be carried out to investigate the
assessment scale of the teachers when judging the students‟ presentation activities with the use
of visual aids.

Although the limitations were presented above, the researchers strongly assure that collected
results are valid and reliable thanks to the researchers‟ carefulness and responsibility in
collecting and analyzing data as well as effective exploitation of survey questionnaire and small
talks from both the students and the teachers.

5.4. Suggestions for further studies

After having gained insight into this study, the researchers would prefer to propose some
suggestions, which were probably useful for further studies.

29
In the first place, the expected-in-the-future studies could develop our study by increasing the
larger number of the sample. For example, further ambitious papers could be conducted on all
third year students (480 students) or on the second year students towards “New Report”
presentation activities. On the other hand, the coming in-depth papers could only concentrate on
the exploitation of overhead projector towards English presentation.

In the second place, the potential studies could be carried on a different perspective with
applying the “case study” methodology with the aim of seeking the answers to the in-depth
difficulties of using visual aids in English speaking presentation.

In the third place, visual aids had independently been investigated in the scope of this study. For
the next time, how audio-visual aids were employed in combination with visual aids by the
junior students could probably become a potential research project for other researchers.

Finally yet importantly, regarding the expansion of the studied subjects, for the coming time, the
exploitation of visual aids was worthy to be undertaken on the presentation activities towards
different subjects such as “An introduction to British Studies” or “An introduction to American
Studies” and “General Geography of United Kingdom and the United States”.

30
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Chapter9:Usingvisualaids.Retrieved20thSeptember,2010fromhttp://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v
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d=ADGEESiO1VR1yMsBALW9OZmoD8OaZmSyY7jLdJBLPNQC2rp9PDN4XHMlr7
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nSDJ_6Gg6IPU40OwRBUh&sig=AHIEtbSuVpJLCBbzGvX0EBQVYl8zVLvmsQ

David, S.(2004). Survival statistics. Retrieved October 2nd, 2010 from

http://www.statpac.com/surveys/advantages.htm

Dempsey, D.J. (2009). Legal speaking: 40 powerful presentation principles lawyers need to
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imitations+of+available+visual+aids&hl=en&ei=YrudTPvhDY-
isQOa0IXWAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-
thumbnail&resnum=3&ved=0CDgQ6wEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false
Emden, J. V., & Becker, L. (2004). Presentation skills for students. New York: Palgrave
Macmillan.

Gass, S.M & Mackey, A.M. (2005). Second language research: Methodology and Design. New
Jersey: Lawrence and Erlbaum Publishing Houses

Gower, R., Phillips, D. & Walters, W.(1995).Teaching Practice Handout. Oxford: Heinemann.
Hoang, T.H. (2007). Nghiên cứu về hiệu quả của loại bài tập đọc rộng trong việc phát triển kĩ
năng đọc cho sinh viên năm 3 khoa NN & VH Anh-Mỹ. University of Languages and
International Studies, Viet Nam National University, Hanoi.
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staff.ou.edu/K/Michael.L.Kent1/PDFs/Visual_Aids.pdf+difficulities+of+using+visual+ai

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 ds&hl=vi&gl=vn&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESg887tzTQlCFzFNniD9MJsnV5wKDxSp_pgc
0s36ifZ6JkcdvyeyEpR5egutCrlburRoUHFGHHCqXtA2k0U1wCrpl2VGc7Q0Bb6WEsP
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Kent, M. L. (2007). Public communication: visual aids. Retrieved 25th September, 2010 from
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2010 from http://www.ehow.com/about_6465515_importance-visual-aids.html
Lucas, S. E. (2009). The art of public speaking. New York: McGraw-Hill publishing house.
Nguyen, T. T.M. (2009). Research methodology: Course book for third year students. Hanoi
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To, T. H, et al. (2010). ELT Methodology II: Course book & Recommended readings. Hanoi:
HULIS publishing house.

32
 APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENT

We are Pham Duc Long, Nguyen Thi Tuyet Hanh, Nguyen Thanh Thuy and Pham Thi Hoa
Phuong, the senior students of Foreign Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National
University, Hanoi. We are doing our study on “The exploitation of visual aids in English
speaking presentation by ULIS third year students of English as the first major”. Your assistance
in completing the following items is highly appreciated. All your personal information will be
kept confidential and will be used for research purposes only.
Thank you very much for your help!

Question 1: What is your evaluation of the effectiveness of using the following kinds of visual
aids in English speaking presentation?
Please rate each choice by circling the point according to the scale below:

Counter- Ineffective Undecided Effective Very effective

effective Or not sure
1 2 3 4 5

No. Kinds of visual aids Point

1. Blackboard 1 2 3 4 5
2. Flipchart 1 2 3 4 5
3. Overhead projector 1 2 3 4 5
4. Pictures and images 1 2 3 4 5
5. Real objects 1 2 3 4 5
6. The presenter (gestures, action or facial expression) 1 2 3 4 5

Please specify any additional comments you have: ………………………………………….

……………………………………..................................................................................................
Question 2: How do you evaluate the advantages of using visual aids in English speaking
presentation?
Please rate each choice by circling the point according to the scale below:

Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

disagree
1 2 3 4 5

No. Benefits of using visual aids Point

1. Visual aids help demonstrate meaning directly and rapidly 1 2 3 4 5
2. Visual aids help audience follow the main ideas easily 1 2 3 4 5
3. Visual aids help hold audience‟s attention and concentration 1 2 3 4 5
4. Visual aids contribute more variety and interest to the lesson 1 2 3 4 5
5. Visual aids help make the presented language memorable 1 2 3 4 5
6. Visual aids help make a classroom an attractive place 1 2 3 4 5
Please specify any additional comments you have: ………………………………………….
………………………………………...............................................................................................
33
Question 3: How often do you meet the following difficulties when using visual aids in English
speaking presentation?
Please tick (X) in the box which is true to you.

Frequency

Sometimes

Seldom
Always
No. Difficulties of using visual aids

Never
Often
1. Visual aids can take a lot of time to prepare
2. Sources of materials for making visual aids are limited
3. Visual aids are too expensive to be employed
4. Visual aids are not big enough to be seen
5 Presenter(s) cannot be skillful at preparing for visual aids
6 Visual aids can be over-used and cause distraction
7 Visual aids can be under-used to work for the target aims

Please specify any additional comments you have: …………………………………………

………………………………………......................................................................................
Question 4: How often do you use the following solutions to overcome difficulties of employing
visual aids in English speaking presentation?
Please tick (X) in the box which is true to you?
Frequency

Sometimes

Seldom
Always
No. The solutions to overcome difficulties of employing visual aids

Never
Often
1. Presenter(s) can use the same visual aids for different purposes
2. Presenter(s) can ask teacher(s) to consult sources of visual aids
3. Presenter(s) can ask friend(s) to consult sources of visual aids
4. Visual aids are simple and economical to be employed
5. Visual aids are big enough to be seen
6 Presenter(s) can set the plan and practice the presentation with visual
aids in advance.
7 Presenter(s) can allow audience with suitable time to look at visual
aids before explaining them.

Please specify any additional comments you have: ………………………………………..

………………………………………...............................................................................................
......................................................................................................................................................

Thank you for your cooperation!

34
 APPENDIX 2: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHER

We are Pham Duc Long, Nguyen Thi Tuyet Hanh, Nguyen Thanh Thuy and Pham Thi Hoa
Phuong, the senior students of Foreign Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National
University, Hanoi. We are doing our study on “The exploitation of visual aids in English
speaking presentation by ULIS third year students of English as the first major”. Your assistance
in completing the following items is highly appreciated. All your personal information will be
kept confidential and will be used for research purposes only.
Thank you very much for your help!
Background information
You are:
 Male
 Female
You have been teaching speaking for third year students for …...terms.
Part 1: Concerning your evaluation of the effectiveness of using the following kinds of visual
aids in your students' English speaking presentation.
Please rate each choice by circling the point according to the scale below:

Counter- Ineffective Undecided/ Not Effective Very effective

effective sure
1 2 3 4 5

No. Kinds of visual aids Point

1. Blackboard 1 2 3 4 5
2. Flipchart 1 2 3 4 5
3. Overhead projector 1 2 3 4 5
4. Pictures and images 1 2 3 4 5
5. Real objects 1 2 3 4 5
6. The presenter (gestures, action or facial expression) 1 2 3 4 5
Please specify any additional comments you have: ………………………………………
………………………………………........................................................................................
Part 2: Concerning the benefits of using visual aids in your students' English speaking
presentation.
Please rate each choice by circling the point according to the scale below:

Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

disagree
1 2 3 4 5

No. Benefits of using visual aids Point

1. Visual aids help demonstrate meaning directly and rapidly 1 2 3 4 5
2. Visual aids help audience follow the main ideas easily 1 2 3 4 5
3. Visual aids help hold audience‟s attention and concentration 1 2 3 4 5
35
4. Visual aids contribute more variety and interest to the lesson 1 2 3 4 5
5. Visual aids help make the presented language memorable 1 2 3 4 5
6. Visual aids help make a classroom an attractive place 1 2 3 4 5
Please specify any additional comments you have: …………………………………………..
………………………………………...............................................................................................
Part 3: Concerning the difficulties of using visual aids in your students' English speaking
presentation.
Please tick (X) in the box which is true to your students.
Frequency

Sometimes

Seldom
Always
No. Difficulties of using visual aids

Never
Often
1. Visual aids can take a lot of time to prepare
2. Sources of materials for making visual aids are limited
3. Visual aids are too expensive to be employed
4. Visual aids are not big enough to be seen
5 Presenter(s) cannot be skillful at preparing for visual aids
6 Visual aids can be over-used and cause distraction
7 Visual aids can be under-used to work for the target aims
Please specify any additional comments you have: …………………………………………
………………………………………...............................................................................................
Part 4: Concerning the solutions to overcome difficulties of employing visual aids in your
students' English speaking presentation?
Please tick (X) in the box which is true to your students?
Frequency
Sometimes

Seldom
Always

No. The solutions to overcome difficulties of employing visual aids

Never
Often

1. Presenter(s) can use the same visual aids for different purposes
2. Presenter(s) can ask teacher(s) to consult sources of visual aids
3. Presenter(s) can ask friend(s) to consult sources of visual aids
4. Visual aids are simple and economical to be employed
5. Visual aids are big enough to be seen
6 Presenter(s) can set the plan and practice the presentation with visual
aids in advance.
7 Presenter(s) can allow audience with suitable time to look at visual
aids before explaining them.
Please specify any additional comments you have: …………………………………………
……………………………………….............................................................................................

Thank you for your cooperation!

36
 APPENDIX 3: DATA STATISTICS FOR STUDENT’S QUESTIONNAIRE

Mean: the arithmetic average, usually designated by an X with a bar over it

or the capital letter M.

Standard Deviation: The measure of dispersion (variability) that is the sum of the deviations

from the mean squared .

*Note for the abbreviation below (Question 1 and 2)

M. stands for Mean (Gía trị trung bình)

S.D. stands for Standard Deviation (Độ lệch tiêu chuẩn)

Question 1: What is your evaluation of the effectiveness of using the following kinds of visual
aids in English speaking presentation?
Please rate each choice by circling the point according to the scale below:

Counter-effective Ineffective Undecided Effective Very effective

Or not sure
1 2 3 4 5

Point
No. Kinds of visual aids 1 2 3 4 5 M S.D.
1.1 Blackboard 6 17 28 15 2 2.85 0.96
1.2 Flipchart 5 12 28 21 2 3.04 0.95
1.3 Overhead projector 0 3 18 31 16 3.88 0.81
1.4 Pictures and images 1 0 11 30 26 4.18 0.80
1.5 Real objects 2 1 19 18 28 4.01 1.00
1.6 The presenter 1 3 9 34 21 4.04 0.86

Question 2: How do you evaluate the advantages of using visual aids in English speaking
presentation?
Please rate each choice by circling the point according to the scale below:

37
 Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree
disagree
1 2 3 4 5

Point
No Benefits of using visual aids 1 2 3 4 5 M. S.D.
2.1 Visual aids help demonstrate meaning directly 3.71 0.86
2 2 20 34 10
and rapidly
2.2 Visual aids help audience follow the main ideas 3.79 0.76
0 5 13 41 9
easily
2.3 Visual aids help hold audience‟s attention and 3.75 0.91
1 5 18 30 14
concentration
2.4 Visual aids contribute more variety and interest 4.03 0.79
0 3 11 35 19
to the lesson
2.5 Visual aids help make the presented language 3.62 0.84
1 5 21 33 8
memorable
2.6 Visual aids help make a classroom an attractive 3.60 0.94
1 6 25 23 13
place

Question 3: How often do you meet the following difficulties when using visual aids in English
speaking presentation?
Please tick (X) in the box which is true to you.

Sometimes

Seldom
Always

No. Difficulties of using visual aids

Never
Often

1. Visual aids can take a lot of time to 12 36 19 1 0

prepare 17.65% 52.94% 27.94 1.47% 0.00%
2. Sources of materials for making visual 3 8 40 12 5
aids are limited 4.41% 11.76% 58.82% 17.65% 7.35%
3. Visual aids are too expensive to be 0 12 25 27 4
employed 0.00% 17.65% 36.76% 39.71% 5.88%
4. Visual aids are not big enough to be 2 11 25 23 7
seen 2.94% 16.18% 36.76% 33.82% 10.29%
5 Presenter(s) cannot be skillful at 0 17 31 14 6
preparing for visual aids 0.00% 25.00% 45.59% 20.59% 8.82%
6 Visual aids can be over-used and 2 7 41 18 0
cause distraction 2.94% 10.29% 60.29% 26.47% 0.00%
7 Visual aids can be under-used to work 1 15 28 21 3
for the target aims 1.47% 22.06% 41.18% 30.88% 4.41%

Question 4: How often do you use the following solutions to overcome difficulties of employing
visual aids in English speaking presentation?
Please tick (X) in the box which is true to you?

38
 Sometimes
The solutions to overcome

Seldom
Always
No.

Never
Often
difficulties of employing visual aids

S1. Presenter(s) can use the same visual aids 9 15 30 11 3

for different purposes 13.24% 22.06% 44.12% 16.18% 4.41%
2. Presenter(s) can ask teacher(s) to consult 10 20 29 8 1
sources of visual aids 14.71% 29.41% 42.65% 11.76% 1.47%
3. Presenter(s) can ask friend(s) to consult 8 28 22 10 0
sources of visual aids 11.76% 41.18% 32.35% 14.71% 0.00%
4. Visual aids are simple and economical to 1 26 26 13 2
be employed 1.47% 38.24% 38.24% 19.12% 2.94%

5. Visual aids are big enough to be seen 6 27 29 5 1

8.82% 39.71% 42.65% 7.35% 1.47%
6 Presenter(s) can set the plan and practice 16 20 24 6 2
the presentation with visual aids in 23.53% 29.41% 35.29% 8.82% 2.94%
advance.
7 Presenter(s) can allow audience with 13 35 16 4 0
suitable time to look at visual aids before 19.12% 51.47% 23.53% 5.88% 0.00%
explaining them.

39