T1 112012050 Full text
STRATEGIES IN FACING DIFFICULTIES IN ORAL PRESENTATION: A
CASE STUDY
THESIS
Submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
BRAM SIVADJATI
112012050
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2016
STRATEGIES IN FACING DIFFICULTIES IN ORAL PRESENTATION: A
CASE STUDY
THESIS
Submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
BRAM SIVADJATI
112012050
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2016
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COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in
any course or accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university.
To the best of my knowledge and my belief, this contain no material previously
published or written by any other person except where the reference is made in the
text
Copyright@2016 Bram Sivadjati and Gita Hastuti,S.Pd., M.A.
All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without
the permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Department,
Faculty of Language and Literature, Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga
Bram Sivadjati:
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TABLE OF CONTENT
INSIDE COVER……………………………………………………………………...ii
APPROVAL FORM……………………………………… …………………………iii
PUBLICATION DECLARATION………………………………………………….vi
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT ..................................................................................... vii
TABLE OF CONTENT ............................................................................................. viii
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................. 1
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 2
LITERATURE REVIEW.............................................................................................. 4
Oral Presentation ....................................................................................................... 4
Students’ Difficulties in Oral Presentation ................................................................ 4
Strategies to Handle Difficulties in Oral Presentation .............................................. 7
THE STUDY............................................................................................................... 10
Research Questions ................................................................................................. 10
Context of the Study ................................................................................................ 10
Participants .............................................................................................................. 10
Data Instruments ...................................................................................................... 11
Data Collection Procedure ....................................................................................... 12
Data Analysis Procedure ......................................................................................... 13
DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................. 14
CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................... 31
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .......................................................................................... 33
References ................................................................................................................... 34
APPENDIX ................................................................................................................. 36
viii
STRATEGIES IN FACING DIFFICULTIES IN ORAL PRESENTATION: A
CASE STUDY
Bram Sivadjati
ABSTRACT
This is a case study that aims to investigate the strategies used by the members of a
study group in the English Language Education Program (ELEP) in dealing with their
difficulties during an oral presentation. Having good skills in speaking in front of
public is one of the competences that the learners have to master since the Faculty of
Language and Literature often uses presentation as an assessment. Oral presentation
is categorized as an important task which is beneficial for the student’s future.
Nonetheless, many of ELE students are having a lot of problems when doing an oral
presentation. Therefore, it is important to uncover the strategies used by students that
have good skills in speaking in front of public. The participants of this study are 5
students of English Language Education major. The researcher uses qualitative
method by using interview in revealing the student’s tactics. The result of this study
shows that the participants have challenges such as: grammatical problems, having
problem in understanding the topic and organizing the idea, difficulties in the
audience’s interest, speaking speed, memorizing problem, anxiety, teacher
expectation, and time problem. Additionally, anxiety becomes the biggest fear when
doing an oral presentation. As for the strategies to overcome those problems, the
participants proposed; studying more about the grammar, looking for the information
in the internet, mastering the topic, be entertaining, adjusting the speed in speaking,
practicing, taking a deep breath, not looking straight to the audiences eyes, changing
your mindset and calculating the time
Keywords: oral presentation, problems, strategies, anxiety.
1
INTRODUCTION
Giving an oral presentation is a challenge because the presenter needs to be
able to deliver a message with a good language so that the audience could understand
it easily. Giving an oral presentation is believed to be “an important element in
delivering positive learning experiences” (Alshare & Hindi, 2004, p.6). In other
words, giving an oral presentation is a good practice to equip the students with not
only experience in delivering their materials in public with a proper language but also
opportunities to improve their confidence. In fact, to be able to do so, the presenter
needs to have good presentation skills. Just as Rajoo (2010) argued, “oral
presentation skills will empower students to communicate complex ideas and
information in a manner that would be easily understood by the audience” (p. 43).
Furthermore, having good oral presentation skills was very useful in the future
especially for the students’ career (Emder & Becker, 2004, as cited in El Enein,
2011).
Regarding the importance of giving an oral presentation, Faculty of Language
and Literature has included group and individual presentation as one of the
assessment criteria in most of its courses. Yet, the majority of students still have
difficulties in delivering their materials in front of the audiences. This phenomenon
was in line with Emden and Becker (2004), as cited in El Enein (2011), who pointed
out that most of the students were very nervous about presenting in public. Moreover,
Thornbury and Slade (2007) assumed that one of the students’ problems in speaking
2
deals with the transfer from L1 into L2. In other words, students have problems in
dealing with the oral presentation because they have limited capacity in translating
from L1 into L2. However, language transfer is not the only problems in giving oral
presentation. A researcher like Rivers (1986) in Tuan and Mai (2015) found that
understanding the topic become one of the students’ problem in doing an oral
presentation. Not only Rivers (1986) but also Gibson (2014) pointed out that
organizing the ideas based on the topic that was given by the teacher became one of
the students’ considerations. To handle those problems, proper strategies are needed.
This case study aims at revealing a study group member’ strategies in dealing
with their difficulties when speaking in front of public. The study group members are
all students of the English Language Education Program of the Faculty of Language
and Literature, in Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga. The results of this
study are expected to function as a reference to help or accommodate fellow students
in dealing with their problems in presenting in front of public. Additionally, it is
hoped to inform the faculty of Language and Literature lectures about the students’
difficulties in presenting so that they could help the students in facing their problems.
3
LITERATURE REVIEW
Oral Presentation
Oral presentation or speaking in public is a type of communication whose
purpose is to communicate or deliver some thoughts, information, and messages to
the audience. In other words, oral presentation is a part of communication skills
whose function is to share some important ideas (Rajoo, 2011)..
Chivers (2007) stated that there are some purposes of having an oral
presentation as a part of a lesson. The first one is to train the presenters in order to
have self-confidence in speaking in public. Second, it was to inform that the
presenters should communicate with the audience and give them as much information
as possible. Third, it is a way used by the teacher to assess the students’ ability.
Fourth, it is for advocacy or persuasion. Fifth, it trains students to take some
important decisions. Sixth, oral presentation is a good activity to teach others and
learn something from one’s mistakes in presenting.
Students’ Difficulties in Oral Presentation
However, knowing the importance and benefit of, as well as the factors
influencing an oral presentation does not automatically wipe away the problems in
giving an oral presentation. Students still find some difficulties in giving an oral
presentation. The following discussion will share some difficulties in giving an oral
presentation based on several studies.
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First is about students’ difficulties in constructing good grammar in speaking.
Thornbury and Slade (2007) believed that one of the students’ problems in speaking
was transferring L1 into L2 which was done manually. Therefore, it will make the
presenter has another problem in constructing a good sentence with correct
grammar/vocabulary because the presenter needs to think twice about the grammar
rule. Rajoo (2010) pointed out that grammar also plays an important role in the
students’ mistake. It is because students sometimes make a sentence without
considering the grammar.
Second is difficulty in understanding the topic. Rivers (1968) in Tuan and Mai
(2015) said that it is difficult for the learners if the teacher gives a topic which is not
familiar to the students and as a result it will make the students confuses because they
did not have enough knowledge about the topic. In relation with the topic, the
students also face some difficulties in organizing the presentation. The students
should know about the organization of the presentation about the topic that was going
to be presented (Gibson, 2014).
Third, have problem in keeping the audiences’ interest. Khoury (2015) argued
that one of the presenter problems when they do a presentation is on keeping or
making the audience listen to the presenters. In other words, maintaining the
audiences’ interest when the speaker performs an oral presentation is difficult.
5
Fourth is the pace in speaking. Speaking speed also became one of the
student’s challenges in speaking in front of public. There was a study which
examined the student’s problems especially about the tempo. Rajoo (2010) said that
most of the student’s tended to speak too fast. As a result, the audiences could not
understand well.
Fifth is the memorizing problem, which led to the blankness. Rajoo (2010)
also found that memorizing problem become one of the students’ considerations in
speaking in front of public. Rajoo said that the students suddenly forgot what they
would say when speaking in front of public.
Sixth is the anxiety. Recent studies have found that anxiety becomes the most
difficult obstacles that the students face when speaking in public (Basic, 2011; AlNouh, Abdul-Kareem, & Taqi, 2015). Furthermore, according to Emden and Becker
(2004), as cited in El Enein (2011) that most of the learners or students were very
nervous about presenting in public.
Seventh, teacher’s expectation also makes the students difficult in doing an
oral presentation. There are studies which believed that teacher expectation also make
the students difficult when they do the presentation. Gigante, Lewin, and Dell (2012)
argued that most of the students were having problems in the teachers’ expectation to
the students who are going to do an oral presentation.
6
Last is time problem. A study which was done by Tuan and Mai (2015)
investigated on the students’ problem in doing an oral presentation. They stated that
the students also faced time problem when they were doing the presentation.
Moreover, a study who have done by Rajoo (2011) also categorized the
students’
difficulties
during
oral
presentation
into
4
groups;
vocabulary/language/grammar (not fluent in speaking English, grammatical problem
and lack of vocabulary), contents/ideas (having problem in giving examples, topic
problems, difficult in attracting the students’ interest, being afraid if the points are not
correct), personal traits (talk too fast, nervousness, memorizing problem, not
confidence enough and teachers expectation), and external factors (lack of
preparation, lack of time).
Strategies to Handle Difficulties in Oral Presentation
Some studies also revealed the strategies in dealing with the speakers’
problems when doing the oral presentation. First is the strategy when dealing with
grammatical problem. Lewis (2011) argued that reading more about the grammar and
the structure was the best way in overcoming the students’ problem in regarding with
grammar and structure error.
Second, the students should master the topic well in dealing with topic
problem or difficult in understanding the topic by using the internet was very helpful
for the students in order to know more about the topic (Blake, 2013). Third is a
7
strategy to conquer problem in organizing the ideas. Gibson (2014) also argued that
the students, who suffered from organizing the idea of the presentation, should master
the topic or the material and organize it really well. Organize it really well means that
the presenter should divide the main body of the presentation into some points.
Fourth is a tactic on how to keep the students interest. In order to keep the
audiences’ interest, putting some jokes, story, etc. inside the presentation was a good
strategy. It is because it could make the audience become comfortable to listen to the
presenter’ presentation (Kim, 2014)
Fifth, in dealing with the speaking speed problem, the students should adjust
their speed. Pain (2014) pointed out that adjusting the speed or slowing down the
speed is the answer if the students’ have problem in their speaking speed because the
way the presenter gives the presentation, especially in the pace of speaking is very
important.
Sixth is the strategy in dealing with memorizing problem. Mitchell (2009)
gave a useful guideline for the students who are bad at memorizing. He believed that
keep talking or repeat the previous point when the presenter could not memorize the
material was very useful strategy.
Seventh are some strategies in facing anxiety problems while speaking in
front of public. According to Daniel and Hall (2014) practice, breathing exercise and
do not look at the audiences’ eyes can reduce the anxiety level on the students while
8
he/she was doing an oral presentation. Additionally, Buchler (2013) examined the
strategies in dealing with the sixth graders’ problem especially about anxiety when
the students did the presentation in front of the public by doing an experimental
study. Buchler (2013) stated that breathing exercise is the most effective strategy in
dealing with the nervousness because when the students controlled their breathing
they became more relaxed.
Eighth is the strategy about changing the students’ mindset when the students
feel afraid of what the teachers were expected to the presenter. In dealing with
teachers’ expectation, Allan (2015) said that changing your mindset into the positive
one was a good choice in dealing with the under pressure feeling. Further, he also
said that the way narrator’s think which turned the negative into the positive thinking
affect their performance in giving an oral presentation later.
Last is handling the time problem. Marshall (2009) stated that in dealing with
the time problems or length of time when the students did an oral presentation, the
students should calculate the time well. If the students calculated the time, the
students would know which unimportant parts that needed to be erased.
.
9
THE STUDY
Research Questions
The research questions below were used to collect the data, which were:
1. What are the study group members’ difficulties during oral presentation?
2. What are the study group members’ strategies in handling their difficulties when
presenting?
Context of the Study
This research was conducted at the English Language Education Program of
the Faculty of Language and Literature that is located in Satya Wacana Christian
University, Salatiga. In this program oral presentation has become one of the
assignments that could not be separated from many offered courses. In other words, it
was very common having an oral presentation as a form of teachers’ assessment in
many courses. However, the English Language Education Program students still
faced some difficulties in doing the presentation and could not handle their problems
well. An outstanding study group was chosen to be a role model in handling those
difficulties.
Participants
The participants are members of a study group in the English Language
Education Program which consist of five students. This group was formed during the
second year while they were taking the Public Speaking course. The researcher chose
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this group because all of the participants used English as a communication tool when
discussing the materials or sharing their ideas inside and outside classrooms. In
addition to that, their GPA was between 3.2-3.6 and each of them had an A grade for
the public speaking course. Those two parameters indicated that the participants had
had good English language skills, especially the skill in speaking in front of public.
For additional information, all of the researcher’s participants had ever been selected
to participate at particular events such as LOVED (English competition which was
held by the Faculty of Language and Literature) and national competition as story
tellers and speakers of speech. Three of them were story tellers and the rest were
speakers.
Data Instruments
In order to get the data, the researcher used semi-structured interview. Semistructured interview was used because of the flexibility: the researcher could add
some follow up questions if it was necessary. There were initially five questions to
ask, they were:
1. In your opinion, what are some factors that affect your performance in
presenting?
2. Do you have any difficulties in doing an oral presentation? What are they?
3. What is the biggest difficulty in speaking in public?
4. How do you cope with your difficulties when doing an oral presentation?
5. Do you use any kind of tools in handling your difficulties during the
presentation?
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In addition to those five questions, there would be some follow-up questions
to make the data wealthier. Other than that, the flexibility of semi-structured
interview also helped the researcher to add or change the questions whenever
necessary. Audio recording is used in order to transcribe the data as a proof of the
interview section.
Before getting the actual data, the researcher conducted a pilot study with the
aim of testing the reliability of the questions. For the pilot study, the researcher
interviewed two students of batch 2012. The result of piloting study showed that
several questions’ answers were not coherence with the researcher expectation.
Therefore, the researcher decided to change the five questions above into three
questions, which were:
1. Do you have any difficulties in doing an oral presentation? What are they?
2. What is the biggest difficulty in speaking in public?
3. How do you cope with your difficulties when doing an oral presentation?
Data Collection Procedure
For the first participant, the researcher translated the questions into Indonesian
with the purpose of avoiding misunderstood between the interviewer and interviewee.
Nevertheless, for the rest of the participants, the researcher used English and didn’t
translate it into Indonesia because the writer thought that the participants already
understood about the questions.
12
Data Analysis Procedure
Before analyzing the data, the researcher transcribed the interview results to
make it easier to examine the actual data. The researcher examined the participant’s
difficulties in doing an oral presentation and their strategies in facing their difficulties
person to person. Moreover, the researcher provided the summary in the form of a
figure.
13
DISCUSSION
To answer the research questions: 1. What are the study group members’
difficulties during oral presentation? and 2. What are the study group members’
strategies in handling their difficulties when presenting? This section covers the
findings and discussion on the result of the semi-structure interview with the
participants. Based on the questions, the researcher found that the participants faced a
number of difficulties during the presentation. The difficulties were classified into
groups which were based on Rajoo (2011): vocabulary/language/grammar,
contents/ideas, personality traits, and external factors. In the discussion, the strategies
in handling the respective problems are described.
14
Problems and Strategies
Figure one. Students’ difficulties and strategies
Difficulties
Frequency
Strategies
Categories
(N=5)
Grammatical
2
Study more
Vocabulary/language/grammar
1
Look forthe
Contents/ideas
problems
Understanding the
topic
information
from the
internet
organizing
the
1
ideas
Contents/ideas
Trying to
master the
topic and
organize
more
carefully
Attracting
the
1
students interest
Speaking speed
Contents/ideas
Be
entertaining
1
Adjust
the Personality traits
speed
Memorizing
1
Keep calm
15
Personality traits
problem
Anxiety problem
3
Practice more Personality traits
frequently
Take a deep
breath
Don’t
look
straight at the
audiences
eyes
Teacher
1
expectation
Time problem
Change your Personality traits
mindset
1
Calculate the External factor
time
Figure 1shows that the difficulties mentioned by the participants, four
problems such as anxiety problem, speaking speed, memorizing problems, and
teacher expectation are related to personality traits, three problems which are
understanding the topic, organizing the ideas, and attracting the students’ interest are
connected to content, one problem which is grammatical problem is linked to
vocabulary/language/grammar, and one problem which is time problem is associated
with external factors. From the difficulties under personality traits category, anxiety
is found to be experienced by three out of five participants.
Here, the researcher will discuss; first, the problems under personal traits,
second followed by the obstacles beneath contents/idea, third the challenges below
16
vocabulary/grammar/pronunciation, and last is the problem under external factor.
Each of the problems is trailed by the participants’ strategies.
Personal Traits
Anxiety problem
Nervousness or anxiety problems that the participants had during an oral
presentation became one of the biggest difficulties since three of five participants
chose anxiety or nervousness as the most difficult problem that the participants
experienced. This fact is supported by recent studies which were done by Basic
(2011), Al-Nouh, Abdul-Kareem, & Taqi (2015). They found that the anxiety became
the most complicated obstacle which the students had to struggle with. Further, one
of the participants also said that he could not prevent the nervousness problem.
“I am always nervous. Even though I have already well
prepared I felt [sic] that the anxiety is still there”
(Participant E)
Emden and Becker (2004) in El Enein (2011) supported the statement by
saying that most of the students could not evade from nervousness or anxiety when
they have to present in front of public.
Since the anxiety problem became the most difficult obstacle in doing an oral
presentation, some of the participants shared some information or tips to handle it.
“I choose to practice more because practice makes perfect and
with practices it can comfort me.”
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(Participant A)
“at the first minute our voice is still shaking or tremors. The
solution is doing the breathing exercise or take [sic] a deep
breath so that you can adjust your voice and make you more
relax [sic]”
(Participant B)’
“didn’t look people in the eye because it would ruin you. So
looked [sic] at them above their head”
(Participant E)
The first strategy is practice more. As Participant A mentioned before,
practice makes perfect. As a result, the presenter will be more comfortable when
speaking in front of public. Second is taking a deep breath. This strategy is very
useful when the presenter is nervous which led to unstable voice. Therefore, taking a
deep breath can make the presenter more relaxed (Participant B). Last is not looking
straight to the audiences’ eyes. Based on the participant E’ experiences, it is not
recommended to look straight at the audiences’ eyes because it can make the
presenter more nervous and it will mess up the presenter.
An expert also believed that those strategies (practice, breathing exercise,
don’t look straight at the audiences’ eyes) could reduce the anxiety level on the
students while he/she was doing an oral presentation (Daniel and Hall, 2014).
Speaking speed
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The pace of speaking when the speaker gives a presentation also has a big role
in oral presentation. According to participant A, he couldn’t avoid his problem
regarding his tempo in speaking. He often speaks too fast and as a result the audience
cannot understand him.
“I speak too fast and the audiences can’t understand what I
am talking about”
(Participant A)
This phenomenon was also found in Rajoo (2010) study that presenters tend
to speak so fast that the audience cannot understand them.
Besides sharing his problem, Participant A also shared his strategy in dealing
with the pace on his speaking. The apprentice who would do the presentation must:
“the only way to overcome that problem is; I need to adjust
my speaking speed when I’m speaking”
(Participant A)
As Participant A said above, the only way to overcome his problem is slowing
down his pace in speaking so the audience will understand what he is saying. Pain
(2014) also believed that the way the presenter gave the presentation is very
important especially in pace of speaking. She also pointed out that if the presenter has
problems in their speaking speed, they need to slow it down in order to make the
audience understand.
Memorizing problem
19
One of the participants also said that blank in the middle of presentation
became one of her difficulties when speaks in front of public or do an oral
presentation. She stated that she sometimes became blank when she did an oral
presentation.
“for example when I’m doing a presentation I already think
about what I’m going to say but once I stand in front and then
I forget what I should say”
(Participant C)
Memorizing also becomes one of the students’ obstacles when they do an oral
presentation. Rajoo (2010) who had done a research in investigating the students’
problem in speaking in front of public said that students often became blank in the
middle or beginning of the presentation because they forgot what they would say.
To overcome the difficulty in dealing with memorizing problem, one of the
participants said that the presenter ought to keep calm.
“I try to elaborate what I’ve said before and the key is that
you have to keep calm so the audience wouldn’t know if you
have problems in remembering your topic. So you have to
keep going with it.”
(Participant C)
The strategy which was said by Participant C was a good option when the
audiences’ mind went blank. Mitchell (2009) believed that keep talking by referring
what the presenter have said was a very good strategy. It could reduce the pressure
20
itself. Auxiliary, it made the presenter more relaxed and automatically would help the
presenter to remember what he would say.
Teacher expectation
One of the interviewees stated that he struggled enough on the feeling of
being under pressure because of what the lecture expect about him. It is because the
students was a debater and a story teller, which means that he was considered capable
enough in presenting in front of a public and the lectures had already known about his
skills in speaking.
“I feel that the lectures expect [sic] me to do better”
(Participant A)
Based on the finding above, the writer could conclude that Participant A
agreed with a theory which was said by Gigante, Lewin, and Dell (2012) which said
that most of the students were having problems in the expectation of the lecture..
A tip from Participant A to handle the problem is for the presenters to change
their mindset.
“you need to change your mind set. You need to think that
you are here to do the presentation for nothing to lose.”
(Participant A)
One’s mindset is very powerful. Based on the statement which was said by
Participant A above, mindset plays an important role when the students do an oral
21
presentation. Allan (2015) argued that changing your mindset into the positive one
was a good choice in dealing with the under pressure feeling. He also said that the
way of presenter’s thinking affected their performance in giving an oral presentation
later.
Content/ideas
Understanding the topic
Topic also plays an important role in the presentation. in regarding to this
Participant E said that one of his problems in doing an oral presentation is about the
topic itself whether he understands about the topic or not.
“when I have to prepare some speech usually the materials
are; 1 I didn’t know the topic and then I should start from
zero…”
(Participant E)
Rivers (1968) in Tuan and Mai (2015) also argued that it is difficult for the
learners if the teacher gave a topic which is not familiar to the students and as a result
it would make the students confused because they didn’t have enough knowledge
about the topic.
When asked how to handle that problem, Participant E shared that she would
look for the information about the topic from the internet
“I try to find the AVA that is already in the Internet…..”
22
(Participant E)
Further, she also said that this strategy was very useful. Her ideas echoes
Blake’s (2013) idea, who stated that “by using Google, yahoo, MSN search, Bing or
other search engine, students can retrieve primary source information” (p. 36).
Searching the information in the internet could help the students find the desired
information.
Organizing the ideas
Having difficulties in organizing the ideas of the presentation also became one
of the students’ problems when doing an oral presentation. It is difficult for them to
present the ideas in a good order.
“I have difficulty in what I should say first and then I got
blank because my organization of my presentation is not that
good and then my presentation will become disoriented [sic].”
(Participant C)
The assertion which is said by the Participant C tells us that organizing the
points was not easy at all. Gibson (2014) also believed that doing a presentation is not
an easy task especially in organizing the contents because it requires good
presentation skills.
Based on Participant C’s experiences, she told the researcher that the students
who might have the same problem should try to read the material watchfully.
23
“I try to plan my presentation more carefully and sometimes I
read my material and master my topic so I will understand
about my material.”
(Participant C)
According to participant C, before doing the presentation, a presenter needs to
understand the topic first and organize it carefully. This idea equals to Gibson’s
(2014) idea who argued that in dealing with the problem of organizing the
presentation, the presenter should read the material carefully. As a result the presenter
would be able to master the topic or the material and organize it very well which
means that the presenter should divide the main body of the presentation into some
logical points.
Attracting the students’ interest was difficult
One of the participants that the researcher had interviewed said that how to
attract the audience to “keep on track” or keep the audiences interest so they won’t
get bored is very difficult.
“The problem is on how I can make the creative one that the
audience will not get bored when I deliver the material in
front of them”
(Participant B)
A theory from Khoury (2015) also believed that one of the presenters’
problems when they do a presentation was on keeping the audience listen to the
24
spokespersons’ presentation. As a result, maintaining the audiences’ interest when the
speaker performs an oral presentation is a difficult task.
The best way to cope with the problem above, according to Participant B, is to
try to be entertaining.
“I always put some jokes when I do the presentation and then
they will laugh together with me, as a result they will enjoy
my presentation. The other example; don’t always greet the
audience with good morning or good afternoon because it is
too mainstream. Try another way to open your presentation
with a story or poem to attract the audience interest.”
(Participant B)
Participant B pointed out that the presenter should make some jokes or start a
presentation with a story or a poem grab the audiences’ interest. By doing so, the
audiences would not get bored with the presenter’ presentation and consequently it
would make the presenter became more relaxed
Putting some jokes, stories, etc inside the presentation was also a good option,
because it could create a comfortable situation for the audiences (Kim, 2014).
Vocabulary/grammar/pronunciation problems
Grammatical problem
Based on the interview session, how to construct a good grammar while
presenting became one of the students’ obstacles. One of the participants admitted
25
that he had a problem in constructing a question with a good structure even though he
had good skills in speaking.
“It is very hard for me to construct a question with a good
grammar and structure”
(Participant A)
In this case, Participant A often asks questions in order to engage the
audiences to be more active in the class.
Participant B had a similar opinion to Participant A aboutlinguistic problems,
saying:
“Talking about grammar/vocabulary and pronunciation, my
brain should work two times harder. I mean my brain should
translate it into English because I also need to adjust my
grammar and vocabulary in order to make the audience
understand about what I’m talking about”
(Participant B)
This finding was in line with Rajoo’s finding (2010) that making a sentence in
a good structure had become one of the students’ problems when doing an oral
presentation. Thornbury and Slade (2007) also argued that one of the students’
problems in speaking was to transfer L1 into L2, which is done manually. As a result
it will make it difficult for the presenter to construct a good sentence with correct
grammar/vocabulary.
26
To handle the linguistic problems, Participant A and B shared the strategy
they normally did. They proposed that to face the grammatical problems students
need to study more about the English grammar.
“there is no other way to overcome grammar mistakes than
learning the grammar. I will [sic] rather than [sic] learn the
structure again because there is no other way to face your
grammar errors if you are not learning the grammar itself”
(Participant A)
Participant A’s strategy is in line with Lewis (2011) by saying that to face
your difficulties in structure and grammar error, studying or reading more about it
was the answer.
External Factor
Time problem
The last problem which the participants had experienced was about the length
of time when they do a presentation. One of the participants suffered from the time
problem when she had to present in front of public. She said that sometimes the time
which was set by the lecturers were not enough.
“they will give us time right? Like an hour or just half an
hour, sometimes it[sic] just not enough because I have so
many things that I want to talk about”
(Participant E)
27
A study by Tuan and Mai (2015) also supported the idea that the students had
limited time to talk during an oral presentation. The portion of the time that was given
by the lecture was limited.
Participant E provided advice to overcome time problem by saying that
calculating the time well is the best strategy to deal with the time problem.
“Usually I speak in front of [sic] mirror before presenting and
I use stopwatch next to me to count the time, so that I know
which part of my speech which is not important and I cut it.
For me this strategy is very helpful in counting the time”
(Participant E)
Calculating the time before you do a presentation is very important. This
strategy can overcome the difficulty in length of time. According to Marshall (2009)
in dealing with the time problem the presenter should count the time really well. She
pointed out that the presenter needed to estimate the time per sub point in order to
analyze which part needed to be erased.
Data Interpretation
Based on the data that the writer has been collected, the researcher concluded
that there were many problems that the English Department Students face during an
oral presentation. Furthermore, from all of the difficulties, the researcher had got
useful information that anxiety or nervousness becomes an obstacle that the most of
the participants struggle with. This finding was in line with Basic (2011), Al-Nouh,
28
Abdul-Kareem, & Taqi (2015) which said that anxiety became the most difficult
problem that the participants had to struggle with.
Further, the researcher also found interesting facts that each of the problems
had their own strategies. The first one was structure and grammatical problems.
Based on the participants, the presenter should study more about it. It is because
studying or learning grammar was the best way to deal with it (Lewis, 2011).
Furthermore, since anxiety became the most difficult obstacle, the participants had a
lot of tips to conquer it such as: practice more, take a deep breath, and never look at
the audiences’ eyes. The strategies which were said by the participants also in line
with Daniel and Hall (2014) findings’ by saying that those strategies were very
effective in dealing with anxiety because it can reduce the nervousness. Next was
about the topic. The participants said that she could not understand the topic which
was given by the lecturer and to overcome it, she was looking for the information in
the internet in order to make her understand more about the topic. An expert also
believed that looking the related topic in the internet could help the presenter to be
more aware of the topic (Blake, 2013).Moreover, in dealing with organizing problem,
the presenter should read the material carefully. It is because by reading it could help
the presenter in mastering the material (Gibson, 2014). The pace on speaking when
doing an oral presentation was also important. However, the participant shared that
the presenter who suffered with it should adjust their speed in speaking. In connection
with that, Pain (2014) shared the same thing that the presenters need to fine-tune the
29
speed. Another problem was blankness. The participants said that to deal with the
blankness, keep talking or elaborating when your mind goes blank was the key.
Mitchell (2009) pointed out that if the participants went blank, it was better to talk
anything. Dealing with the other problem which was about the material, the students
must be entertaining. It was because keeping the audiences’ interest was very
important (Kim, 2014). Last but not least were about teacher expectation and time
problems. Experts believed that to overcome teacher expectation, the participants
should have positive mindset (Allan, 2015). Dealing with time problem, Marshall
(2009) believed that the presenter should estimate the time well. The participants
agree with the experts by saying that the students need to change their mindset into
the positive one and have to calculate the time in order to know the time.
Due to the fact that presentation became one of the assessments which the
students should pass, still the majority of the students have problems in giving an oral
presentation. Through this finding, not only the researcher want to help fellow
students to improve their speaking skill in front of public but also to make the
lecturers aware of the student’s problems in giving oral presentation.
30
CONCLUSION
Conclusion
Based on the data analysis, the writer concluded that students did face
problems during an oral presentation. Those problems were categorized into several
groups, namely: personal traits (speaking speed, memorizing problem, anxiety
problem, and teacher expectation), contents/ideas (understanding the topic,
organizing
the
ideas,
and
attracting
the
student’s
interest),
vocabulary/language/grammar (grammatical problem), and external factors (time
problem). From the problems that the participants had experienced, most of them
pointed out that anxiety problem become the most challenging when doing an oral
presentation.
The participants also gave some useful guidelines in facing those problems,
such as studying more about grammar in order to overcome grammatical problem,
looking forthe information in the internet when the students could not understand
about the topic, trying to read the topic more carefully to solve problem in organizing
the ideas, be entertaining so as to get the student’s interest, adjust the speed to deal
with speaking speed problem, keep talking which was very useful for memorizing
problem, practice, take a deep breath, and don’t look at the audiences’ eyes in dealing
with anxiety problem, change your mindset with the purpose of conquering teacher
expectation problem, and calculate the time well so the students could bear with time
problem.
31
Suggestion
Based on the findings, the students who will do an oral presentation should try
those strategies if they face similar problems. It is because all of the strategies in the
previous section have been applied in their presentation which means that those
strategies work well when the participants did the presentation. From the findings, the
researcher also wanted to inform the teacher to be more aware in dealing with the
student’s difficulties when they are speaking in front of public. The researcher hopes
that the teacher helps the students as well in order to overcome the student’s problems
in doing a presentation.
This study can’t be said as a perfect study. It is because the researcher only
examined one study group member in English Language Education program without
observing the students while doing a presentation. As a result, it cannot measure the
participants’ strategies in dealing with oral presentation accurately. For further
research, in addition to interviews, it is better to do observations to see whether the
strategies work well or not.
32
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First I would like to thank to God, my Jesus Christ who art in Heaven. I
believe that without His blessing I cannot finish my thesis in time.
Second, I would also express my deepest thanks to my supervisor, Mrs Gita
Hastuti, S.Pd., M.A. and my examiner, Mr Dian Toar Y. G. Soemakul, M.A. for their
patience in reading my thesis and helping me in making my thesis become better and
better.
Third, I also want to thank my parents who always cheer me up when I’m
frustrated with my thesis. Not only cheering me up but also forcing me to finish my
thesis immediately.
Fourth, I would like to express my gratitude to my participants. Without their
willingness to be my interviewees I cannot finish my thesis.
Fifth, I want to show my deepest gratitude to my friends, Natalia Devina,
Fernando Christian, Billy, and Maria Intan Permata in helping me to finish my thesis
by giving me a lot of feedback.
Sixth, thanks to my friends, Chan, Lee, Yubi, Nanik, Steffi, Happy, and
Rahma for always support me while I was frustrated in dealing with thesis.
Many thanks to all of you guys, all of you are very awesome. Love you all to
the moon and back.
33
References
Allan, P. (2015). How to calm your nervous before making a terrifying speech .
Retrieved April, 15, 2016, from http://lifehacker.com/how-to-calm-yournerves-before-making-a-terrifying-spee-1677504967
Al-Nouh, A. N., Abdul-Kareem, M. M., & Taqi, A. H. (2015).EFL college students’
perceptions of the difficulties in oral presentation as a form of assessment.
International Journal of Higher Education, 4 (1), 136-150. Retrieved October
16,
2015,
from
http://www.sciedu.ca/journal/index.php/ijhe/article/viewFile/6252/3746
Alshare, K., & Hindi, M. (2004). The importance of presentation skills in the
classroom: students and instructors perspectives. Journal of Computing
Sciences in Colleges, 19 (4), 6-15. Retrieved October 13, 2015, from
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1050233
Basic, L. (2011). Speaking anxiety; an obstacle to second language learning?.
Retrieved
October
17,
2015,
from
http://www.divaportal.org/smash/get/diva2:453921/fulltext01.pdf
Blake, R. (2013). Brave new digital classroom, technology and foreign language
learning. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Buchler, K. R. (2013). Anxiety-reducing strategies in the classroom. Unpublished
doctoral dissertation, Western Michigan University, 2013. Retrieved October
20, 2015, from http://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations
Chivers. (2007). Why do a presentation? Retrieved October 17, 2015, from
https://us.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upmbinaries/17269_01_Chivers_Ch
_01.pdf
Daniel, K., & Hall, F. (2014). How can I overcome my fear of public speaking?
Retrieved April 1, 2016, from http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseasesconditions/phobias/expert-answers/fear-of-public-speaking/faq-20058416
El-Enein, A. H. A. (2011). Difficulties encountering English majors in giving
academic oral presentations during class at Al-Aqsa university. Unpublished
master’s thesis, Islamic University of Gaza, Gaza, Palestine. Retrieved
October 19, 2015, from http://library.iugaza.edu.ps/thesis/96026.pdf.
Gibson, M. (2014). Tips for effective presentation. Retrieved March 21, 2016, from
https://www.accuconference.com/resources/effective-presentations.html
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Gigante, J., Lewin, L., & Dell, M. (2012). What’s the story? Expectations for oral
case
presentation.
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March
22,
2016,
from
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/130/1/1.1
Khoury, P. (2015). A unique way to start a presentation and capture your audience’s
attention. Retrieved March 25, 2016, from https://magneticspeaking.com/aunique-way-to-start-a-presentation-and-capture-your-audiences-attention/
Kim, L. (2014). 20 ways to improve your presentation skills. Retrieved April 2, 2016,
from
http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2014/11/19/how-to-improvepresentation-skills
Lewis, B. (2011). Learning grammar, do I have to? Retrieved March 20, 2016, from
http://www.fluentin3months.com/grammar/
Marshall, B. (2009). How to time a presentation. Retrieved March 13, 2016, from
http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/business-career/public-speaking/how-totime-a-presentation
Mitchell, O. (2009). How to prevent and recover from mind blanks. Retrieved March
29, 2016, from http://www.speakingaboutpresenting.com/delivery/recovermind-blank/
Pain, E. (2014). Presentation tips for non-native speakers. Retrieved March 27, 2016,
from
http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2011/06/presentation-tips-nonnative-speakers
Pal, R. (2010). Factors affecting presentation. Retrieved October 18, 2015, from
http://www.indiastudychannel.com/resources/133870-Factors-affectingpresentation.aspx
Rajoo, S. A. (2010). Facilitating the development of students’ oral presentation skills.
Voice of Academia, 5 (1), 43-50. Retrieved October 18, 2015, from
http://kedah.uitm.edu.my/v1/images/stories/industrial_linkages/uitm_press/vo
a_5_1_2010/5_1_2010_5.pdf
Thornbury, S., & Slade, D. (2007). Conversation: from description to pedagogy.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tuan, H., & Mai, N. (2012). Factors affecting students’ performance at the thanhhien
high school. Asian journal of educational research, 3 (2), 8-23. Retrieved
February
6,
2016,
from
http://www.multidisciplinaryjournals.com/wpcontent/uploads/2015/03/FACT
ORS-AFFECTINGSTUDENTS%E2%80%99-SPEAKING.pdf
.
35
APPENDIX
Me: halo
A: halo
Me: so do you have any difficulties in doi
CASE STUDY
THESIS
Submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
BRAM SIVADJATI
112012050
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2016
STRATEGIES IN FACING DIFFICULTIES IN ORAL PRESENTATION: A
CASE STUDY
THESIS
Submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
BRAM SIVADJATI
112012050
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2016
ii
iii
iv
v
vi
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in
any course or accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university.
To the best of my knowledge and my belief, this contain no material previously
published or written by any other person except where the reference is made in the
text
Copyright@2016 Bram Sivadjati and Gita Hastuti,S.Pd., M.A.
All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without
the permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Department,
Faculty of Language and Literature, Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga
Bram Sivadjati:
vii
TABLE OF CONTENT
INSIDE COVER……………………………………………………………………...ii
APPROVAL FORM……………………………………… …………………………iii
PUBLICATION DECLARATION………………………………………………….vi
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT ..................................................................................... vii
TABLE OF CONTENT ............................................................................................. viii
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................. 1
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 2
LITERATURE REVIEW.............................................................................................. 4
Oral Presentation ....................................................................................................... 4
Students’ Difficulties in Oral Presentation ................................................................ 4
Strategies to Handle Difficulties in Oral Presentation .............................................. 7
THE STUDY............................................................................................................... 10
Research Questions ................................................................................................. 10
Context of the Study ................................................................................................ 10
Participants .............................................................................................................. 10
Data Instruments ...................................................................................................... 11
Data Collection Procedure ....................................................................................... 12
Data Analysis Procedure ......................................................................................... 13
DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................. 14
CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................... 31
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .......................................................................................... 33
References ................................................................................................................... 34
APPENDIX ................................................................................................................. 36
viii
STRATEGIES IN FACING DIFFICULTIES IN ORAL PRESENTATION: A
CASE STUDY
Bram Sivadjati
ABSTRACT
This is a case study that aims to investigate the strategies used by the members of a
study group in the English Language Education Program (ELEP) in dealing with their
difficulties during an oral presentation. Having good skills in speaking in front of
public is one of the competences that the learners have to master since the Faculty of
Language and Literature often uses presentation as an assessment. Oral presentation
is categorized as an important task which is beneficial for the student’s future.
Nonetheless, many of ELE students are having a lot of problems when doing an oral
presentation. Therefore, it is important to uncover the strategies used by students that
have good skills in speaking in front of public. The participants of this study are 5
students of English Language Education major. The researcher uses qualitative
method by using interview in revealing the student’s tactics. The result of this study
shows that the participants have challenges such as: grammatical problems, having
problem in understanding the topic and organizing the idea, difficulties in the
audience’s interest, speaking speed, memorizing problem, anxiety, teacher
expectation, and time problem. Additionally, anxiety becomes the biggest fear when
doing an oral presentation. As for the strategies to overcome those problems, the
participants proposed; studying more about the grammar, looking for the information
in the internet, mastering the topic, be entertaining, adjusting the speed in speaking,
practicing, taking a deep breath, not looking straight to the audiences eyes, changing
your mindset and calculating the time
Keywords: oral presentation, problems, strategies, anxiety.
1
INTRODUCTION
Giving an oral presentation is a challenge because the presenter needs to be
able to deliver a message with a good language so that the audience could understand
it easily. Giving an oral presentation is believed to be “an important element in
delivering positive learning experiences” (Alshare & Hindi, 2004, p.6). In other
words, giving an oral presentation is a good practice to equip the students with not
only experience in delivering their materials in public with a proper language but also
opportunities to improve their confidence. In fact, to be able to do so, the presenter
needs to have good presentation skills. Just as Rajoo (2010) argued, “oral
presentation skills will empower students to communicate complex ideas and
information in a manner that would be easily understood by the audience” (p. 43).
Furthermore, having good oral presentation skills was very useful in the future
especially for the students’ career (Emder & Becker, 2004, as cited in El Enein,
2011).
Regarding the importance of giving an oral presentation, Faculty of Language
and Literature has included group and individual presentation as one of the
assessment criteria in most of its courses. Yet, the majority of students still have
difficulties in delivering their materials in front of the audiences. This phenomenon
was in line with Emden and Becker (2004), as cited in El Enein (2011), who pointed
out that most of the students were very nervous about presenting in public. Moreover,
Thornbury and Slade (2007) assumed that one of the students’ problems in speaking
2
deals with the transfer from L1 into L2. In other words, students have problems in
dealing with the oral presentation because they have limited capacity in translating
from L1 into L2. However, language transfer is not the only problems in giving oral
presentation. A researcher like Rivers (1986) in Tuan and Mai (2015) found that
understanding the topic become one of the students’ problem in doing an oral
presentation. Not only Rivers (1986) but also Gibson (2014) pointed out that
organizing the ideas based on the topic that was given by the teacher became one of
the students’ considerations. To handle those problems, proper strategies are needed.
This case study aims at revealing a study group member’ strategies in dealing
with their difficulties when speaking in front of public. The study group members are
all students of the English Language Education Program of the Faculty of Language
and Literature, in Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga. The results of this
study are expected to function as a reference to help or accommodate fellow students
in dealing with their problems in presenting in front of public. Additionally, it is
hoped to inform the faculty of Language and Literature lectures about the students’
difficulties in presenting so that they could help the students in facing their problems.
3
LITERATURE REVIEW
Oral Presentation
Oral presentation or speaking in public is a type of communication whose
purpose is to communicate or deliver some thoughts, information, and messages to
the audience. In other words, oral presentation is a part of communication skills
whose function is to share some important ideas (Rajoo, 2011)..
Chivers (2007) stated that there are some purposes of having an oral
presentation as a part of a lesson. The first one is to train the presenters in order to
have self-confidence in speaking in public. Second, it was to inform that the
presenters should communicate with the audience and give them as much information
as possible. Third, it is a way used by the teacher to assess the students’ ability.
Fourth, it is for advocacy or persuasion. Fifth, it trains students to take some
important decisions. Sixth, oral presentation is a good activity to teach others and
learn something from one’s mistakes in presenting.
Students’ Difficulties in Oral Presentation
However, knowing the importance and benefit of, as well as the factors
influencing an oral presentation does not automatically wipe away the problems in
giving an oral presentation. Students still find some difficulties in giving an oral
presentation. The following discussion will share some difficulties in giving an oral
presentation based on several studies.
4
First is about students’ difficulties in constructing good grammar in speaking.
Thornbury and Slade (2007) believed that one of the students’ problems in speaking
was transferring L1 into L2 which was done manually. Therefore, it will make the
presenter has another problem in constructing a good sentence with correct
grammar/vocabulary because the presenter needs to think twice about the grammar
rule. Rajoo (2010) pointed out that grammar also plays an important role in the
students’ mistake. It is because students sometimes make a sentence without
considering the grammar.
Second is difficulty in understanding the topic. Rivers (1968) in Tuan and Mai
(2015) said that it is difficult for the learners if the teacher gives a topic which is not
familiar to the students and as a result it will make the students confuses because they
did not have enough knowledge about the topic. In relation with the topic, the
students also face some difficulties in organizing the presentation. The students
should know about the organization of the presentation about the topic that was going
to be presented (Gibson, 2014).
Third, have problem in keeping the audiences’ interest. Khoury (2015) argued
that one of the presenter problems when they do a presentation is on keeping or
making the audience listen to the presenters. In other words, maintaining the
audiences’ interest when the speaker performs an oral presentation is difficult.
5
Fourth is the pace in speaking. Speaking speed also became one of the
student’s challenges in speaking in front of public. There was a study which
examined the student’s problems especially about the tempo. Rajoo (2010) said that
most of the student’s tended to speak too fast. As a result, the audiences could not
understand well.
Fifth is the memorizing problem, which led to the blankness. Rajoo (2010)
also found that memorizing problem become one of the students’ considerations in
speaking in front of public. Rajoo said that the students suddenly forgot what they
would say when speaking in front of public.
Sixth is the anxiety. Recent studies have found that anxiety becomes the most
difficult obstacles that the students face when speaking in public (Basic, 2011; AlNouh, Abdul-Kareem, & Taqi, 2015). Furthermore, according to Emden and Becker
(2004), as cited in El Enein (2011) that most of the learners or students were very
nervous about presenting in public.
Seventh, teacher’s expectation also makes the students difficult in doing an
oral presentation. There are studies which believed that teacher expectation also make
the students difficult when they do the presentation. Gigante, Lewin, and Dell (2012)
argued that most of the students were having problems in the teachers’ expectation to
the students who are going to do an oral presentation.
6
Last is time problem. A study which was done by Tuan and Mai (2015)
investigated on the students’ problem in doing an oral presentation. They stated that
the students also faced time problem when they were doing the presentation.
Moreover, a study who have done by Rajoo (2011) also categorized the
students’
difficulties
during
oral
presentation
into
4
groups;
vocabulary/language/grammar (not fluent in speaking English, grammatical problem
and lack of vocabulary), contents/ideas (having problem in giving examples, topic
problems, difficult in attracting the students’ interest, being afraid if the points are not
correct), personal traits (talk too fast, nervousness, memorizing problem, not
confidence enough and teachers expectation), and external factors (lack of
preparation, lack of time).
Strategies to Handle Difficulties in Oral Presentation
Some studies also revealed the strategies in dealing with the speakers’
problems when doing the oral presentation. First is the strategy when dealing with
grammatical problem. Lewis (2011) argued that reading more about the grammar and
the structure was the best way in overcoming the students’ problem in regarding with
grammar and structure error.
Second, the students should master the topic well in dealing with topic
problem or difficult in understanding the topic by using the internet was very helpful
for the students in order to know more about the topic (Blake, 2013). Third is a
7
strategy to conquer problem in organizing the ideas. Gibson (2014) also argued that
the students, who suffered from organizing the idea of the presentation, should master
the topic or the material and organize it really well. Organize it really well means that
the presenter should divide the main body of the presentation into some points.
Fourth is a tactic on how to keep the students interest. In order to keep the
audiences’ interest, putting some jokes, story, etc. inside the presentation was a good
strategy. It is because it could make the audience become comfortable to listen to the
presenter’ presentation (Kim, 2014)
Fifth, in dealing with the speaking speed problem, the students should adjust
their speed. Pain (2014) pointed out that adjusting the speed or slowing down the
speed is the answer if the students’ have problem in their speaking speed because the
way the presenter gives the presentation, especially in the pace of speaking is very
important.
Sixth is the strategy in dealing with memorizing problem. Mitchell (2009)
gave a useful guideline for the students who are bad at memorizing. He believed that
keep talking or repeat the previous point when the presenter could not memorize the
material was very useful strategy.
Seventh are some strategies in facing anxiety problems while speaking in
front of public. According to Daniel and Hall (2014) practice, breathing exercise and
do not look at the audiences’ eyes can reduce the anxiety level on the students while
8
he/she was doing an oral presentation. Additionally, Buchler (2013) examined the
strategies in dealing with the sixth graders’ problem especially about anxiety when
the students did the presentation in front of the public by doing an experimental
study. Buchler (2013) stated that breathing exercise is the most effective strategy in
dealing with the nervousness because when the students controlled their breathing
they became more relaxed.
Eighth is the strategy about changing the students’ mindset when the students
feel afraid of what the teachers were expected to the presenter. In dealing with
teachers’ expectation, Allan (2015) said that changing your mindset into the positive
one was a good choice in dealing with the under pressure feeling. Further, he also
said that the way narrator’s think which turned the negative into the positive thinking
affect their performance in giving an oral presentation later.
Last is handling the time problem. Marshall (2009) stated that in dealing with
the time problems or length of time when the students did an oral presentation, the
students should calculate the time well. If the students calculated the time, the
students would know which unimportant parts that needed to be erased.
.
9
THE STUDY
Research Questions
The research questions below were used to collect the data, which were:
1. What are the study group members’ difficulties during oral presentation?
2. What are the study group members’ strategies in handling their difficulties when
presenting?
Context of the Study
This research was conducted at the English Language Education Program of
the Faculty of Language and Literature that is located in Satya Wacana Christian
University, Salatiga. In this program oral presentation has become one of the
assignments that could not be separated from many offered courses. In other words, it
was very common having an oral presentation as a form of teachers’ assessment in
many courses. However, the English Language Education Program students still
faced some difficulties in doing the presentation and could not handle their problems
well. An outstanding study group was chosen to be a role model in handling those
difficulties.
Participants
The participants are members of a study group in the English Language
Education Program which consist of five students. This group was formed during the
second year while they were taking the Public Speaking course. The researcher chose
10
this group because all of the participants used English as a communication tool when
discussing the materials or sharing their ideas inside and outside classrooms. In
addition to that, their GPA was between 3.2-3.6 and each of them had an A grade for
the public speaking course. Those two parameters indicated that the participants had
had good English language skills, especially the skill in speaking in front of public.
For additional information, all of the researcher’s participants had ever been selected
to participate at particular events such as LOVED (English competition which was
held by the Faculty of Language and Literature) and national competition as story
tellers and speakers of speech. Three of them were story tellers and the rest were
speakers.
Data Instruments
In order to get the data, the researcher used semi-structured interview. Semistructured interview was used because of the flexibility: the researcher could add
some follow up questions if it was necessary. There were initially five questions to
ask, they were:
1. In your opinion, what are some factors that affect your performance in
presenting?
2. Do you have any difficulties in doing an oral presentation? What are they?
3. What is the biggest difficulty in speaking in public?
4. How do you cope with your difficulties when doing an oral presentation?
5. Do you use any kind of tools in handling your difficulties during the
presentation?
11
In addition to those five questions, there would be some follow-up questions
to make the data wealthier. Other than that, the flexibility of semi-structured
interview also helped the researcher to add or change the questions whenever
necessary. Audio recording is used in order to transcribe the data as a proof of the
interview section.
Before getting the actual data, the researcher conducted a pilot study with the
aim of testing the reliability of the questions. For the pilot study, the researcher
interviewed two students of batch 2012. The result of piloting study showed that
several questions’ answers were not coherence with the researcher expectation.
Therefore, the researcher decided to change the five questions above into three
questions, which were:
1. Do you have any difficulties in doing an oral presentation? What are they?
2. What is the biggest difficulty in speaking in public?
3. How do you cope with your difficulties when doing an oral presentation?
Data Collection Procedure
For the first participant, the researcher translated the questions into Indonesian
with the purpose of avoiding misunderstood between the interviewer and interviewee.
Nevertheless, for the rest of the participants, the researcher used English and didn’t
translate it into Indonesia because the writer thought that the participants already
understood about the questions.
12
Data Analysis Procedure
Before analyzing the data, the researcher transcribed the interview results to
make it easier to examine the actual data. The researcher examined the participant’s
difficulties in doing an oral presentation and their strategies in facing their difficulties
person to person. Moreover, the researcher provided the summary in the form of a
figure.
13
DISCUSSION
To answer the research questions: 1. What are the study group members’
difficulties during oral presentation? and 2. What are the study group members’
strategies in handling their difficulties when presenting? This section covers the
findings and discussion on the result of the semi-structure interview with the
participants. Based on the questions, the researcher found that the participants faced a
number of difficulties during the presentation. The difficulties were classified into
groups which were based on Rajoo (2011): vocabulary/language/grammar,
contents/ideas, personality traits, and external factors. In the discussion, the strategies
in handling the respective problems are described.
14
Problems and Strategies
Figure one. Students’ difficulties and strategies
Difficulties
Frequency
Strategies
Categories
(N=5)
Grammatical
2
Study more
Vocabulary/language/grammar
1
Look forthe
Contents/ideas
problems
Understanding the
topic
information
from the
internet
organizing
the
1
ideas
Contents/ideas
Trying to
master the
topic and
organize
more
carefully
Attracting
the
1
students interest
Speaking speed
Contents/ideas
Be
entertaining
1
Adjust
the Personality traits
speed
Memorizing
1
Keep calm
15
Personality traits
problem
Anxiety problem
3
Practice more Personality traits
frequently
Take a deep
breath
Don’t
look
straight at the
audiences
eyes
Teacher
1
expectation
Time problem
Change your Personality traits
mindset
1
Calculate the External factor
time
Figure 1shows that the difficulties mentioned by the participants, four
problems such as anxiety problem, speaking speed, memorizing problems, and
teacher expectation are related to personality traits, three problems which are
understanding the topic, organizing the ideas, and attracting the students’ interest are
connected to content, one problem which is grammatical problem is linked to
vocabulary/language/grammar, and one problem which is time problem is associated
with external factors. From the difficulties under personality traits category, anxiety
is found to be experienced by three out of five participants.
Here, the researcher will discuss; first, the problems under personal traits,
second followed by the obstacles beneath contents/idea, third the challenges below
16
vocabulary/grammar/pronunciation, and last is the problem under external factor.
Each of the problems is trailed by the participants’ strategies.
Personal Traits
Anxiety problem
Nervousness or anxiety problems that the participants had during an oral
presentation became one of the biggest difficulties since three of five participants
chose anxiety or nervousness as the most difficult problem that the participants
experienced. This fact is supported by recent studies which were done by Basic
(2011), Al-Nouh, Abdul-Kareem, & Taqi (2015). They found that the anxiety became
the most complicated obstacle which the students had to struggle with. Further, one
of the participants also said that he could not prevent the nervousness problem.
“I am always nervous. Even though I have already well
prepared I felt [sic] that the anxiety is still there”
(Participant E)
Emden and Becker (2004) in El Enein (2011) supported the statement by
saying that most of the students could not evade from nervousness or anxiety when
they have to present in front of public.
Since the anxiety problem became the most difficult obstacle in doing an oral
presentation, some of the participants shared some information or tips to handle it.
“I choose to practice more because practice makes perfect and
with practices it can comfort me.”
17
(Participant A)
“at the first minute our voice is still shaking or tremors. The
solution is doing the breathing exercise or take [sic] a deep
breath so that you can adjust your voice and make you more
relax [sic]”
(Participant B)’
“didn’t look people in the eye because it would ruin you. So
looked [sic] at them above their head”
(Participant E)
The first strategy is practice more. As Participant A mentioned before,
practice makes perfect. As a result, the presenter will be more comfortable when
speaking in front of public. Second is taking a deep breath. This strategy is very
useful when the presenter is nervous which led to unstable voice. Therefore, taking a
deep breath can make the presenter more relaxed (Participant B). Last is not looking
straight to the audiences’ eyes. Based on the participant E’ experiences, it is not
recommended to look straight at the audiences’ eyes because it can make the
presenter more nervous and it will mess up the presenter.
An expert also believed that those strategies (practice, breathing exercise,
don’t look straight at the audiences’ eyes) could reduce the anxiety level on the
students while he/she was doing an oral presentation (Daniel and Hall, 2014).
Speaking speed
18
The pace of speaking when the speaker gives a presentation also has a big role
in oral presentation. According to participant A, he couldn’t avoid his problem
regarding his tempo in speaking. He often speaks too fast and as a result the audience
cannot understand him.
“I speak too fast and the audiences can’t understand what I
am talking about”
(Participant A)
This phenomenon was also found in Rajoo (2010) study that presenters tend
to speak so fast that the audience cannot understand them.
Besides sharing his problem, Participant A also shared his strategy in dealing
with the pace on his speaking. The apprentice who would do the presentation must:
“the only way to overcome that problem is; I need to adjust
my speaking speed when I’m speaking”
(Participant A)
As Participant A said above, the only way to overcome his problem is slowing
down his pace in speaking so the audience will understand what he is saying. Pain
(2014) also believed that the way the presenter gave the presentation is very
important especially in pace of speaking. She also pointed out that if the presenter has
problems in their speaking speed, they need to slow it down in order to make the
audience understand.
Memorizing problem
19
One of the participants also said that blank in the middle of presentation
became one of her difficulties when speaks in front of public or do an oral
presentation. She stated that she sometimes became blank when she did an oral
presentation.
“for example when I’m doing a presentation I already think
about what I’m going to say but once I stand in front and then
I forget what I should say”
(Participant C)
Memorizing also becomes one of the students’ obstacles when they do an oral
presentation. Rajoo (2010) who had done a research in investigating the students’
problem in speaking in front of public said that students often became blank in the
middle or beginning of the presentation because they forgot what they would say.
To overcome the difficulty in dealing with memorizing problem, one of the
participants said that the presenter ought to keep calm.
“I try to elaborate what I’ve said before and the key is that
you have to keep calm so the audience wouldn’t know if you
have problems in remembering your topic. So you have to
keep going with it.”
(Participant C)
The strategy which was said by Participant C was a good option when the
audiences’ mind went blank. Mitchell (2009) believed that keep talking by referring
what the presenter have said was a very good strategy. It could reduce the pressure
20
itself. Auxiliary, it made the presenter more relaxed and automatically would help the
presenter to remember what he would say.
Teacher expectation
One of the interviewees stated that he struggled enough on the feeling of
being under pressure because of what the lecture expect about him. It is because the
students was a debater and a story teller, which means that he was considered capable
enough in presenting in front of a public and the lectures had already known about his
skills in speaking.
“I feel that the lectures expect [sic] me to do better”
(Participant A)
Based on the finding above, the writer could conclude that Participant A
agreed with a theory which was said by Gigante, Lewin, and Dell (2012) which said
that most of the students were having problems in the expectation of the lecture..
A tip from Participant A to handle the problem is for the presenters to change
their mindset.
“you need to change your mind set. You need to think that
you are here to do the presentation for nothing to lose.”
(Participant A)
One’s mindset is very powerful. Based on the statement which was said by
Participant A above, mindset plays an important role when the students do an oral
21
presentation. Allan (2015) argued that changing your mindset into the positive one
was a good choice in dealing with the under pressure feeling. He also said that the
way of presenter’s thinking affected their performance in giving an oral presentation
later.
Content/ideas
Understanding the topic
Topic also plays an important role in the presentation. in regarding to this
Participant E said that one of his problems in doing an oral presentation is about the
topic itself whether he understands about the topic or not.
“when I have to prepare some speech usually the materials
are; 1 I didn’t know the topic and then I should start from
zero…”
(Participant E)
Rivers (1968) in Tuan and Mai (2015) also argued that it is difficult for the
learners if the teacher gave a topic which is not familiar to the students and as a result
it would make the students confused because they didn’t have enough knowledge
about the topic.
When asked how to handle that problem, Participant E shared that she would
look for the information about the topic from the internet
“I try to find the AVA that is already in the Internet…..”
22
(Participant E)
Further, she also said that this strategy was very useful. Her ideas echoes
Blake’s (2013) idea, who stated that “by using Google, yahoo, MSN search, Bing or
other search engine, students can retrieve primary source information” (p. 36).
Searching the information in the internet could help the students find the desired
information.
Organizing the ideas
Having difficulties in organizing the ideas of the presentation also became one
of the students’ problems when doing an oral presentation. It is difficult for them to
present the ideas in a good order.
“I have difficulty in what I should say first and then I got
blank because my organization of my presentation is not that
good and then my presentation will become disoriented [sic].”
(Participant C)
The assertion which is said by the Participant C tells us that organizing the
points was not easy at all. Gibson (2014) also believed that doing a presentation is not
an easy task especially in organizing the contents because it requires good
presentation skills.
Based on Participant C’s experiences, she told the researcher that the students
who might have the same problem should try to read the material watchfully.
23
“I try to plan my presentation more carefully and sometimes I
read my material and master my topic so I will understand
about my material.”
(Participant C)
According to participant C, before doing the presentation, a presenter needs to
understand the topic first and organize it carefully. This idea equals to Gibson’s
(2014) idea who argued that in dealing with the problem of organizing the
presentation, the presenter should read the material carefully. As a result the presenter
would be able to master the topic or the material and organize it very well which
means that the presenter should divide the main body of the presentation into some
logical points.
Attracting the students’ interest was difficult
One of the participants that the researcher had interviewed said that how to
attract the audience to “keep on track” or keep the audiences interest so they won’t
get bored is very difficult.
“The problem is on how I can make the creative one that the
audience will not get bored when I deliver the material in
front of them”
(Participant B)
A theory from Khoury (2015) also believed that one of the presenters’
problems when they do a presentation was on keeping the audience listen to the
24
spokespersons’ presentation. As a result, maintaining the audiences’ interest when the
speaker performs an oral presentation is a difficult task.
The best way to cope with the problem above, according to Participant B, is to
try to be entertaining.
“I always put some jokes when I do the presentation and then
they will laugh together with me, as a result they will enjoy
my presentation. The other example; don’t always greet the
audience with good morning or good afternoon because it is
too mainstream. Try another way to open your presentation
with a story or poem to attract the audience interest.”
(Participant B)
Participant B pointed out that the presenter should make some jokes or start a
presentation with a story or a poem grab the audiences’ interest. By doing so, the
audiences would not get bored with the presenter’ presentation and consequently it
would make the presenter became more relaxed
Putting some jokes, stories, etc inside the presentation was also a good option,
because it could create a comfortable situation for the audiences (Kim, 2014).
Vocabulary/grammar/pronunciation problems
Grammatical problem
Based on the interview session, how to construct a good grammar while
presenting became one of the students’ obstacles. One of the participants admitted
25
that he had a problem in constructing a question with a good structure even though he
had good skills in speaking.
“It is very hard for me to construct a question with a good
grammar and structure”
(Participant A)
In this case, Participant A often asks questions in order to engage the
audiences to be more active in the class.
Participant B had a similar opinion to Participant A aboutlinguistic problems,
saying:
“Talking about grammar/vocabulary and pronunciation, my
brain should work two times harder. I mean my brain should
translate it into English because I also need to adjust my
grammar and vocabulary in order to make the audience
understand about what I’m talking about”
(Participant B)
This finding was in line with Rajoo’s finding (2010) that making a sentence in
a good structure had become one of the students’ problems when doing an oral
presentation. Thornbury and Slade (2007) also argued that one of the students’
problems in speaking was to transfer L1 into L2, which is done manually. As a result
it will make it difficult for the presenter to construct a good sentence with correct
grammar/vocabulary.
26
To handle the linguistic problems, Participant A and B shared the strategy
they normally did. They proposed that to face the grammatical problems students
need to study more about the English grammar.
“there is no other way to overcome grammar mistakes than
learning the grammar. I will [sic] rather than [sic] learn the
structure again because there is no other way to face your
grammar errors if you are not learning the grammar itself”
(Participant A)
Participant A’s strategy is in line with Lewis (2011) by saying that to face
your difficulties in structure and grammar error, studying or reading more about it
was the answer.
External Factor
Time problem
The last problem which the participants had experienced was about the length
of time when they do a presentation. One of the participants suffered from the time
problem when she had to present in front of public. She said that sometimes the time
which was set by the lecturers were not enough.
“they will give us time right? Like an hour or just half an
hour, sometimes it[sic] just not enough because I have so
many things that I want to talk about”
(Participant E)
27
A study by Tuan and Mai (2015) also supported the idea that the students had
limited time to talk during an oral presentation. The portion of the time that was given
by the lecture was limited.
Participant E provided advice to overcome time problem by saying that
calculating the time well is the best strategy to deal with the time problem.
“Usually I speak in front of [sic] mirror before presenting and
I use stopwatch next to me to count the time, so that I know
which part of my speech which is not important and I cut it.
For me this strategy is very helpful in counting the time”
(Participant E)
Calculating the time before you do a presentation is very important. This
strategy can overcome the difficulty in length of time. According to Marshall (2009)
in dealing with the time problem the presenter should count the time really well. She
pointed out that the presenter needed to estimate the time per sub point in order to
analyze which part needed to be erased.
Data Interpretation
Based on the data that the writer has been collected, the researcher concluded
that there were many problems that the English Department Students face during an
oral presentation. Furthermore, from all of the difficulties, the researcher had got
useful information that anxiety or nervousness becomes an obstacle that the most of
the participants struggle with. This finding was in line with Basic (2011), Al-Nouh,
28
Abdul-Kareem, & Taqi (2015) which said that anxiety became the most difficult
problem that the participants had to struggle with.
Further, the researcher also found interesting facts that each of the problems
had their own strategies. The first one was structure and grammatical problems.
Based on the participants, the presenter should study more about it. It is because
studying or learning grammar was the best way to deal with it (Lewis, 2011).
Furthermore, since anxiety became the most difficult obstacle, the participants had a
lot of tips to conquer it such as: practice more, take a deep breath, and never look at
the audiences’ eyes. The strategies which were said by the participants also in line
with Daniel and Hall (2014) findings’ by saying that those strategies were very
effective in dealing with anxiety because it can reduce the nervousness. Next was
about the topic. The participants said that she could not understand the topic which
was given by the lecturer and to overcome it, she was looking for the information in
the internet in order to make her understand more about the topic. An expert also
believed that looking the related topic in the internet could help the presenter to be
more aware of the topic (Blake, 2013).Moreover, in dealing with organizing problem,
the presenter should read the material carefully. It is because by reading it could help
the presenter in mastering the material (Gibson, 2014). The pace on speaking when
doing an oral presentation was also important. However, the participant shared that
the presenter who suffered with it should adjust their speed in speaking. In connection
with that, Pain (2014) shared the same thing that the presenters need to fine-tune the
29
speed. Another problem was blankness. The participants said that to deal with the
blankness, keep talking or elaborating when your mind goes blank was the key.
Mitchell (2009) pointed out that if the participants went blank, it was better to talk
anything. Dealing with the other problem which was about the material, the students
must be entertaining. It was because keeping the audiences’ interest was very
important (Kim, 2014). Last but not least were about teacher expectation and time
problems. Experts believed that to overcome teacher expectation, the participants
should have positive mindset (Allan, 2015). Dealing with time problem, Marshall
(2009) believed that the presenter should estimate the time well. The participants
agree with the experts by saying that the students need to change their mindset into
the positive one and have to calculate the time in order to know the time.
Due to the fact that presentation became one of the assessments which the
students should pass, still the majority of the students have problems in giving an oral
presentation. Through this finding, not only the researcher want to help fellow
students to improve their speaking skill in front of public but also to make the
lecturers aware of the student’s problems in giving oral presentation.
30
CONCLUSION
Conclusion
Based on the data analysis, the writer concluded that students did face
problems during an oral presentation. Those problems were categorized into several
groups, namely: personal traits (speaking speed, memorizing problem, anxiety
problem, and teacher expectation), contents/ideas (understanding the topic,
organizing
the
ideas,
and
attracting
the
student’s
interest),
vocabulary/language/grammar (grammatical problem), and external factors (time
problem). From the problems that the participants had experienced, most of them
pointed out that anxiety problem become the most challenging when doing an oral
presentation.
The participants also gave some useful guidelines in facing those problems,
such as studying more about grammar in order to overcome grammatical problem,
looking forthe information in the internet when the students could not understand
about the topic, trying to read the topic more carefully to solve problem in organizing
the ideas, be entertaining so as to get the student’s interest, adjust the speed to deal
with speaking speed problem, keep talking which was very useful for memorizing
problem, practice, take a deep breath, and don’t look at the audiences’ eyes in dealing
with anxiety problem, change your mindset with the purpose of conquering teacher
expectation problem, and calculate the time well so the students could bear with time
problem.
31
Suggestion
Based on the findings, the students who will do an oral presentation should try
those strategies if they face similar problems. It is because all of the strategies in the
previous section have been applied in their presentation which means that those
strategies work well when the participants did the presentation. From the findings, the
researcher also wanted to inform the teacher to be more aware in dealing with the
student’s difficulties when they are speaking in front of public. The researcher hopes
that the teacher helps the students as well in order to overcome the student’s problems
in doing a presentation.
This study can’t be said as a perfect study. It is because the researcher only
examined one study group member in English Language Education program without
observing the students while doing a presentation. As a result, it cannot measure the
participants’ strategies in dealing with oral presentation accurately. For further
research, in addition to interviews, it is better to do observations to see whether the
strategies work well or not.
32
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First I would like to thank to God, my Jesus Christ who art in Heaven. I
believe that without His blessing I cannot finish my thesis in time.
Second, I would also express my deepest thanks to my supervisor, Mrs Gita
Hastuti, S.Pd., M.A. and my examiner, Mr Dian Toar Y. G. Soemakul, M.A. for their
patience in reading my thesis and helping me in making my thesis become better and
better.
Third, I also want to thank my parents who always cheer me up when I’m
frustrated with my thesis. Not only cheering me up but also forcing me to finish my
thesis immediately.
Fourth, I would like to express my gratitude to my participants. Without their
willingness to be my interviewees I cannot finish my thesis.
Fifth, I want to show my deepest gratitude to my friends, Natalia Devina,
Fernando Christian, Billy, and Maria Intan Permata in helping me to finish my thesis
by giving me a lot of feedback.
Sixth, thanks to my friends, Chan, Lee, Yubi, Nanik, Steffi, Happy, and
Rahma for always support me while I was frustrated in dealing with thesis.
Many thanks to all of you guys, all of you are very awesome. Love you all to
the moon and back.
33
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APPENDIX
Me: halo
A: halo
Me: so do you have any difficulties in doi