Tài liệu Attitudes and perceptions of binh minh (vinh long) high school students about presenting english grammar lessons via powerpoint

CANTHO UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION ENGLISH DEPARTMENT Attitudes and Perceptions of Binh Minh (Vinh Long) High School Students about Presenting English Grammar Lessons via PowerPoint B.A Thesis Field of study: English Language Teaching Supervisor: Ngo Thi Trang Thao Researcher: Lim Ngoc Han Code: 7062941 Class: NN0652A2 Can Tho, April 2010 1 Acknowledgements This paper could not have been completed without the help, encouragement and support from a number of people who all deserve my sincerest gratitude and appreciation. At first, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Ms. Ngo Thi Trang Thao, my supervisor. I’m indebted to her inspiration, scholarly supervision and intellectual support throughout the course of writing this graduation paper. Her continual encouragement, careful reading, critical comments and patient guidance made my work more enjoyable and easier. I would also give my thanks to the two second readers, Mr. Do Xuan Hai and Ms. Luu Hoang Anh for their advices that perfect the thesis. Special words of thank also go to all my informants, the students at Bui Huu Nghia and Binh Minh high schools for their willing participation in the study. I greatly appreciate their generosity with their time and efforts in filling in the questionnaire. Finally, my deepest gratitude and appreciation go to my family, my friends and my classmates, especially Mr. Nguyen Thanh Qui, Miss Nguyen Thi Truc Linh, Miss Ho Xuan Mai, Miss Nguyen Thi Nhuyen, and Miss Vu Thi Hong. Their love, support and constant encouragement gave me a great deal of strength and determination that help me during the stressful time of writing this paper. Lim Ngoc Han i Tóm tắt Học sinh ngày nay quen thuộc với việc thuyết trình sử dụng các chương trình trên máy vi tính. PowerPoint là một trong những phương pháp thuyết trình sử dụng máy vi tính thường được vận dụng trong dạy và học. Thông qua sử dụng thuyết trình bằng PowerPoint, giáo viên đã tạo ra được những bài thuyết trình đẹp và chuyên nghiệp để giúp cải thiện việc học của học sinh cũng như đạt được những mục tiêu của khóa học. Nghiên cứu này nhằm khảo sát quan điểm và thái độ của học sinh khi được học ngữ pháp tiếng Anh bằng PowerPoint. Để thu thập số liệu , bảng câu hỏi gồm hai mươi ba câu ý kiến về ý thích, thuận lợi và bất lợi của việc thuyết trình bằng PowerPoint trong bài dạy ngữ pháp tiếng Anh đã phát cho một trăm ba mươi lăm học sinh trường trung học phổ thông Bình Minh hoàn thành. Những dữ liệu sau đó được phân tích bằng phần mềm SPSS. Kết quả thu được cho thấy rằng: (1) đa số học sinh thích việc thuyết trình PowerPoint trong bài ngữ pháp tiếng Anh, (2) học sinh nghĩ là phần mềm PowerPoint rất hiệu quả và hữu ích khi được áp dụng để giảng dạy ngữ pháp tiếng Anh, đặc biệt là học sinh có thể nhớ lại nội dung bài học, (3) học sinh cũng nhận ra một vài bất lợi khi sử dụng PowerPoint trong việc giảng dạy ngữ pháp tiếng Anh, chẳng hạn như là việc sử dụng quá nhiều hình ảnh và hiệu ứng làm phân tán sự chú ý của học sinh. Những kết quả từ nghiên cứu này rất hữu ích trong việc dạy và học ngữ pháp tiếng Anh. ii Abstract Students of today have grown up with and become accustomed to the use of computer presentation programs. PowerPoint is one of the most popular presentation programs used as a part of learning and teaching. Through the thoughtful use of PowerPoint presentations, teachers can create professional-good looking presentations to enhance students’ learning and achieve course goals. The aim of this study is to investigate the students’ attitudes and perceptions towards presenting English grammar lessons via PowerPoint. One hundred thirty three students at Binh Minh high school completed a 23-item five-point scale survey questionnaire regarding the preference, attitudes and perceptions to the benefits and drawbacks of presenting PowerPoint in English grammar lessons. The data from the questionnaire, after collecting, were computed with Descriptive Statistics Test of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The results showed that (1) the majority of students liked PowerPoint presentations in English grammar lessons, (2) PowerPoint presentations in English grammar lessons were thought to be very effective and helpful, especially in helping remind the content, (3) there arose some drawbacks such as the overuse pictures or animation that distract students’ concentration. These findings are believed to have contribution to the teaching and learning method of English grammar in ESL classes. iii Lists of tables Table 1. The items of the three clusters in the second part of the questionnaire ......... 12 Table 2. Descriptive statistics of the frequency of the use of PowerPoint in English grammar class............................................................................................... 14 Table 3. Descriptive Statistics of the students’ preference for presenting PowerPoint presentations in English grammar lessons..................................................... 15 Table 4. Descriptive statistics of students’ perception of the benefits of presenting PowerPoint in English grammar lesson ........................................................ 15 Table 5. Descriptive statistics of students’ perception of the drawbacks of presenting PowerPoint in English grammar lesson ........................................................ 16 Table 6. Correlation between the students’ preference and students’ perception of the benefits and drawbacks of presenting PowerPoint presentation in English grammar lessons ........................................................................................... 17 iv Table of contents Chapter 1. Introduction................................................................................................ 1 1. Rationale .............................................................................................................. 1 2. Hypothesis ........................................................................................................... 2 3. Research aims ......................................................................................................2 4. General organization of the study ......................................................................... 3 Chapter 2. Literature review ........................................................................................ 4 1. Related literature: Microsoft PowerPoint program in teaching and learning ......... 4 1.1. The definition of PowerPoint........................................................................ 4 1.2. The main practical benefits of the use of Microsoft PowerPoint program in teaching and learning. ......................................................................................... 4 1.3. Drawbacks involving the use of Microsoft PowerPoint program .................. 6 2. Related studies on the benefits and drawbacks of using PowerPoint presentations ............................................................................................................................ 7 2.1. Summary ......................................................................................................7 2.2. Critique ........................................................................................................ 9 3. Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 9 Chapter 3. Research Methodology............................................................................. 11 1. Research questions ............................................................................................. 11 2. Research design ................................................................................................. 11 3. Participants ........................................................................................................ 11 4. Instruments ........................................................................................................ 12 5. Procedure ........................................................................................................... 12 Chapter 4. Results ..................................................................................................... 14 1. Overview of statistical procedures...................................................................... 14 2. Descriptive of findings ....................................................................................... 14 2.1. Frequency of the use of PowerPoint in English grammar classes ................. 14 2.2. Students’ preference of presenting PowerPoint presentation in English grammar lessons ................................................................................................. 15 2.3. Students’ perception of the benefits of presenting PowerPoint presentation in English grammar lessons .................................................................................... 15 2.4. Students’ perception of the drawbacks of presenting PowerPoint presentation in English grammar lessons ................................................................................ 16 2.5. Correlation between the students’ preference and students’ perception of the benefits and the drawbacks of presenting PowerPoint presentation in English grammar lessons ................................................................................................. 17 2.6. Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 18 v Chapter 5. Discussions and Conclusion ..................................................................... 20 1. Discussion.......................................................................................................... 20 2. Implications ....................................................................................................... 22 3. Suggestions to use PowerPoint more efficiently ................................................. 23 4. Limitations and recommendations for further research ....................................... 24 5. Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 25 References................................................................................................................. 26 Appendices ............................................................................................................... 28 vi Chapter 1 Introduction This chapter introduces the important role of English as well as English grammar, the necessity of applying PowerPoint in learning and teaching English as rationale of the research, the research aims, the hypothesis and thesis organization as well. 1. Rationale In the current trend of global integration, English has become a common means of communication of human being all over the world. Vietnam, like many other countries, has become more and more active to integrate into the line of that common development. Therefore, the first and foremost demand is given that Vietnamese people have to know and use foreign languages, especially English, beside their mother tongue. Also, teaching and learning English has really become important and necessary in Vietnam. These days, English has been introduced as one of the compulsory subjects in most of different forms of schools in Vietnam. New English textbooks are born with the aims to improve foreign language-English for learners focusing on the five main parts: reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus (pronunciation and grammar). However, grammar is a necessary subject in taking exams. Indeed, the students need to gain the knowledge of English grammar such as parts of speech, prepositions, form of verbs or the structures to do gap-filling in reading comprehension. Moreover, grammar points often take a major percentage of the whole mark in the exams such as the entrance exams to university. For instances, the English test in the entrance exam to university in 2009, apart from twenty sentences on reading comprehension, five sentences on stress, and about ten sentences on cultural tips and vocabulary, the rest of the-eighty-sentence-English test are the sentences containing grammar points. Even the English test in the entrance exam to university in 2008 contains more than forty sentences on grammar per eighty sentences in the test. Moreover, in most high schools in Vietnam, the shift in teaching English methodology which equips institution with modern teaching facilities is essential in universities and schools. The object and crucial need of all disciplines in general, and of English including grammar in particular to active learning activities, and to enhance learners’ activeness, initiative, independence and autonomy in learning is computer software applications. Of all, Microsoft PowerPoint program seems to be prominent and meets the requirement of new English teaching methodology to further language learning. 1 To respond to this demand, the idea of applying Microsoft PowerPoint program in teaching in general and in English, especially grammar, is being carried out more and more in most of the schools. It is considered a useful aid to pedagogy and to English grammar in particular. Actually, PowerPoint presentation helps enhance students’ learning in several ways. For example, students can recall the lessons from PowerPoint presentations that combine attractive pictures and text (Szabo & Hasting, 2000). Moreover, it can transform a routine lesson into a lively and memorable session (Bostock, 2005). In fact, PowerPoint can be used for initial teaching, for practice and drilling, for games, for review, and for tests (Fisher, 2006). Despite benefits of PowerPoint presentations, they have been in existence in recent years in ESL classrooms because using it well requires teachers the technology skills or knowledge. The teachers may encounter technical difficulties (Ho, 2003). There are often temptations to overuse background, transitions or frills which distract students’ concentration. The frequency of using PowerPoint presentations in English classes, therefore, is not frequent. Stimulated by the above studies, a study on students’ attitudes and perceptions of their preference, advantages and disadvantages of presenting PowerPoint presentations in English grammar lessons for the students at Binh Minh high school was conducted. 2. Hypothesis It is hypothesized that PowerPoint presentations are usually used in English grammar lessons. Besides, the students like PowerPoint presentations in English grammar lessons as well as they agree with the benefits and the drawbacks of presenting English grammar lessons via PowerPoint. Hopefully, the thesis would partly help teachers of English as well as students realize the effects, the benefits and the drawbacks of PowerPoint presentations in English grammar lessons. 3. Research aims The study aims at studying attitudes and perceptions of Binh Minh high school students about presenting English grammar lessons via PowerPoint. In order to achieve the aims, there are four objectives as follow:  Examining the frequency of presenting PowerPoint presentations in English grammar lessons.  Recognizing whether students like or dislike the use of PowerPoint presentations in English grammar lessons.  Investigating students’ attitudes and perceptions towards the benefits of PowerPoint presentations in English grammar lessons.  Investigating students’ attitudes and perceptions towards the drawbacks of PowerPoint presentations in English grammar lessons. 2 4. General organization of the study The thesis is organized into five chapters. They are chapter one: Introduction, Chapter two: Literature Review, Chapter three: Methodology, Chapter four: Results and Chapter five: Discussion and Conclusion. Chapter one, Introduction, is an overview of the rationale of the study, research hypothesis, the research aims and the thesis organization. Chapter two, Literature review, is the theoretical background of the research including the review of literature and some studies related to the benefits and drawbacks of using PowerPoint presentation in pedagogy. Chapter three, Research methodology, is the description of research questions, research design, participants of the study, research instruments and the procedure. Chapter four, Results, shows the results from the collected data which were analyzed using the SPSS software. Chapter five, Discussion and conclusion, is the discussions, limitations, implications, recommendations for further research and conclusion of the study. 3 Chapter 2 Literature Review This chapter will present the review of literature consisting of the definition of PowerPoint, the main benefits and the drawbacks of PowerPoint presentations in teaching and learning. Besides, the related studies of several researchers were shown in this chapter. 1. Related literature: Microsoft PowerPoint program in teaching and learning 1.1. The definition of PowerPoint In term of PowerPoint, many researchers have had numerous definition of PowerPoint. Nevertheless, Fisher’s seems to be the appropriate one in teaching situation. According to Fisher (2003), PowerPoint is a presentation program developed by Microsoft. The software allows users to create anything from basic slides shows to complex presentations. PowerPoint is comprised of slides, which may contain text, images, and other media such as audio clips and movies, sound effects and animated transitions to add extra appeal to the presentation. 1.2. The main practical benefits of the use of Microsoft PowerPoint program in teaching and learning. The evidence that PowerPoint presentations influence learning and teaching is largely anecdotal. 1.2.1. In teaching According to Mason & Hlynka (1998), PowerPoint helps structure the content and processing of a lesson or lecture. Besides, PowerPoint allows the teacher easily to modify slides and notes. For example, teachers can add animations, texts, audio and even omit a slide on the-spot-lectures. In addition, PowerPoint presentations allow presenters to face their audience and present outlines of information (Jones, 2003). It is, thus, a helpful aid for oral or speech presentation since it will enable presenters to demonstrate such skills as pace, eye contact, body language, which are very crucial to effective speech presentation (Mason & Hlynka, 1998; Jones, 2003). In the same way, Ho (2003) agreed that PowerPoint presentations can be easily refined and reused in the years later. In addition, they are easy to modify and can present complex computer graphics and animation. Therefore, the presenter has accessed to visually stimulating tools such as animations and simulations. They are useful in demonstrating difficult concepts that words and static diagrams cannot easily convey. Furthermore, Power Point presentations can be used as a productive teaching activity. Teachers may design a presentation where PowerPoint does all the work, 4 which leaves very little time left to present their content. Apparently, there are all texts, pictures or audio which are designed in advance in PowerPoint presentations. While presenting with purely oral presentations, the teacher may forget some steps or something in the content. In contrast, with PowerPoint presentations, the slides show the content and remind what the teacher will do. And the presenter can reveal points one by one on a single slide without having to cover up points with a piece of paper in using transparencies (Mason & Hlynka, 1998; Bostock, 2005 and Evans, 1998). In addition, Bostock (2005) had agreement that using Microsoft PowerPoint program helps the teacher transform a routine lesson into lively one as well as save her or his time and energy when teaching in class. The teacher uses PowerPoint not only to teach English skills but also to teach vocabulary, present grammar structures, exercises, even design interesting games such as cross-word, lucky number, so on (Bartsch & Cobern , 2003). Donald (2004) also highlighted the frequent use of PowerPoint Presentations because they can be run over and over again. Once the teachers organize their lecture notes into PowerPoint presentations they can save the instructional material. They can easily update it later. They can repeat it for review purposes. Teachers can use sounds and motions to emphasize important points (Evans, 1998). 1.2.2. In learning Alternatively, embedding text, graphics and video and images can make a presentation flashy and exciting for the learners. Slide templates allow for variations of text and graphic integration that aim to display the desired content in a varied and meaningful manner (Peek, 1987). PowerPoint can be used for initial teaching, for practice and drilling, for games, for reviews, and for tests (Fisher, 2006). Actually, PowerPoint Presentations aid students in note-taking and thus facilitate study (Cook, 1998). Moreover, PowerPoint presentations are often enclosed with handouts to the students. PowerPoint enhances instructions and motivates students to learn because the attractive images, animations, audio and even video which obtain students’ attention. Furthermore, PowerPoint is the tool that allows students to experience a world of real language opportunity (Perry & Perry, 1998). Students are motivated to invest time and energy into the quality of their English tasks as they know that there is something attractive for them and to show others (Nouri & Shahid, 2005). The students usually derive great satisfaction from this task and take pride in their creation (Harrison, 1999). In fact, PowerPoint presentations benefit in organizing and reorganizing information efficiently, so students can easily see the structure of the presentation (Bartsch & Cobern, 2003). PowerPoint gives more time for listening and comprehending so that audience time is used effectively. It provides students enhanced legibility and readability (Jones, 2003). 5 In short, PowerPoint is an excellent aid to presentations. They provide more effects, interactions, flexibility and power to learning and teaching. In addition, the teacher and the students can get benefits from PowerPoint presentations (Jones, 2003; Fray & Birnbaum, 2002). 1.3. Drawbacks involving the use of Microsoft PowerPoint program Despite the great benefits of Microsoft Power Point in teaching in common and in teaching English in particular, there are some problems involving the use of it. 1.3.1. In teaching Ho (2003) stated that the presenter may encounter technical difficulties, typically in getting the presentation started. Especially, when combining computer with projectors to show the PowerPoint presentations, the problem of no signal may occur. It also means that a computer does not work as usual, the mistakes of presentation such as font, effects, and sounds even the power runs out when teachers present the lesson. The teachers designed the texts in black and red; however, these colors all may change into black with projectors’ problem (Ho, 2003; Coursey, 2003). Furthermore, a successful presentation can take teachers several hours to develop. In addition, PowerPoint presentations have problems in dealing with much detail in slides that make the students illegible to read (Cook, 1998; Park, 1999). Therefore, the teachers find it difficult to impart all the information. Passive interaction is another disadvantage of PowerPoint (Harrison, 2006). More teachers are just clicking the mouse all the time when they are giving the lectures. Instead of interacting with students during the EFL class, they just sit in front of the computers without leaving their chairs (Kaminski, 2003). 1.3.2. In learning According to Ho (2003) and Butler & Maultz (1996), PowerPoint presentations foster learning that is more passive when the teacher just read the texts on the PowerPoint slides without interacting with the students. PowerPoint presentations have more rigid format and are less open to incorporating ideas which are not on the presenter’s outline. There are often temptations to overuse background, transitions and other frills which distract the audience (Harknett & Cobane, 1997). Students may become focused on the technology used to make the presentation instead of the point of presentation. Moreover, the overuse of PowerPoint presentations can bore learners and diminish PowerPoint's effectiveness. What’s more, the learners can find PowerPoint presentations containing much detail in slides difficult in reading the text on the slides and then less concentrate to the presentations (Parks, 1999). In addition, teachers do not need to write information on the blackboard, but just click the mouse. Therefore, it is very easy for teachers to give too much information in one class, which can difficult for students to comprehend (Bartsch & 6 Cobern, 2003). Furthermore, students are easily overwhelmed with a large amount of information given in the PowerPoint presentation. PowerPoint slides that contained only text, contained text and a relevant picture, and contained text with a picture that was not relevant made students performed worse on recall and recognition tasks and had greater dislike for slides with pictures that were not relevant (Susskind, 1999). There are several gaps in using PowerPoint presentations which are relevant to technique, interaction between teacher and students and the use of PowerPoint presentations. However, showing these drawbacks is to realize them and have solutions to overcome these abuse aspects (Cook, 1998). 2. Related studies on the benefits and drawbacks of using PowerPoint presentations 2.1. Summary Literature evaluating the use of PowerPoint in education is somewhat limited. The followings studies support more information to the literature mentioned in part one. Szabo & Hastings (2000) performed three studies to investigate the efficacy of PowerPoint presentations in lectures in undergraduate classrooms. One hundred and fifty-five male and female students participated in the first study. Students' opinion about PowerPoint lectures was surveyed after receiving all their lectures in one module in PowerPoint. Grades of one cohort were then compared with the grades of another taking the same test one year earlier. In another study, fifty-two second year students took part in. The students received a mock test one week following: (1) an overhead lecture, (2) a PowerPoint lecture and (3) a PowerPoint lecture with lecture notes. In the third study, one hundred students were divided into two groups. Two cohorts had two identical lectures, in a counterbalanced order, presented either with PowerPoint or by using overheads. The results showed that PowerPoint presentations should not be used as a replacement for the blackboard, but, rather, as an efficient auxiliary medium. The difficulty of the lectures, rather than the efficacy of PowerPoint lecture, contributed to the grade differences among the three groups. However, it did appear that PowerPoint lectures might benefit learner recall the content of the lectures. The next one is an experimental study from the United Kingdom reported by Lowry (1999). This study conveyed to compare exam scores for three cohorts of 130 first year students who have a wide range of in terms both of academic subject studied and of the type of course taken. The study was surveyed in the first semester which was allocated 12 contact hours (normally lectures) and a further 12 hours of private study. The series of lectures comprised one-twelfth of the workload of the students in the first semester. At the end of the course, the students took a 45 minute multiple 7 choice test containing 30 questions. Results revealed that the two PowerPoint lecture groups achieved better grade than the traditional lecture cohort did. In addition, the students exposed to the PowerPoint lecturing had a positive attitude towards the teaching method. One more study was conducted by Harknett & Cobane (1997). They surveyed participants who were general psychology students regarding the efficacy of PowerPoint in lecturing. All participants were enrolled in one of the two Introduction to Psychology sections. The classes met three times a week for 50 minutes each session. The first section was composed of 33 students (14 males and 19 females) who were taught with traditional lecture method and the second section was composed of 18 students (10 males and eight females) were taught with PowerPoint presentations. As the students chose which section they attended, the participants were not randomly assigned to conditions. After the first five weeks, the two sections were taken their first exam and the first section was transformed from traditional lectures to PowerPoint presentations. At the end of the course, eighty percent of the students felt that PowerPoint lectures benefited their learning because of their better grade in the final exam. Some also felt that the visual emphasis in PowerPoint helped them recall the lecture material during exams. In another study of students’ perceptions on the value of PowerPoint in lectures, Fray & Birnbaum (2002) surveyed 160 students. They found the following results: (1) students preferred PowerPoint presentations over the traditional blackboards; (2) 85 percent of the students reported that PowerPoint presentations hold their attention; (3) students agreed that PowerPoint had a positive effect on lectures, especially in helping them to take notes and to study for exam. Even Ho (2003) also investigated the effect of using PowerPoint presentations and overhead transparencies. In this study, the teacher-researcher taught the same course to two classes for 14 weeks. In one class, the teacher used transparencies as visual aids only. In the second classroom, both transparencies and PowerPoint slides were used. The teacher-researcher kept diaries of what happened and how she felt in each lesson throughout the 14 weeks. The students in the two classes were given a questionnaire to complete at the end of the course to seek their opinions on the effectiveness of the use of the transparencies and PowerPoint slides. The questionnaire asked them whether they preferred the use of transparencies or PowerPoint slides and they were asked to give answers to open-ended questions asking them about the reasons for their choice. The survey led to the results that PowerPoint presentation is no doubt a visually more attractive aid than a transparency. It would seem likely that PowerPoint will soon replace transparencies as a visual aid for presentation and teaching. 8 To sum up, the results from these studies exposed that the use of PowerPoint for teaching and learning has considerable benefits. In addition, PowerPoint Presentations bring about more pedagogical benefits to students that their grades are better than those who learned with transparency lectures. Moreover, PowerPoint presentations are easy to obtain, modify, and create. They are versatile and a great asset to any classroom. Good presentations may take time to produce or adapt, but they can be shared and used year after year. Furthermore, they can be used for whole class presentations and reviews, for drills, or for individual work. From then, PowerPoint Presentations are more prominent than purely oral presentations and presentations using transparencies. 2.2. Critique The researchers used various study including descriptive and experimental study in these above studies. The main points in these studies are to expose the efficacy of PowerPoint Presentations. The main instruments they worked with were questionnaire, tests and teaching periods. Besides, the numbers of participants in these studies are appropriate and can represent for the rests. One more thing is that the results apparently leaned to the benefits of PowerPoint presentations. Most studies explored that PowerPoint presentations had great preference, advantages as well as the effects on students. However, researching students’ attitudes and perceptions towards using PowerPoint Presentations in teaching and learning English grammar is rare. The study about PowerPoint presentations has never mentioned or conveyed in the context of Vietnam. Therefore, this study focuses on students’ attitudes and perceptions about presenting English grammar lessons via PowerPoint Presentations in Binh Minh high school (Vinh Long, Vietnam). 3. Conclusion The related literature and studies above have uncovered both the benefits and the drawbacks of using PowerPoint presentations. In terms of benefits, it is clear that PowerPoint presentations help structure the content, present outline of information demonstrate difficult concept and emphasize important points. Moreover, embedded with text, video, audio and images, PowerPoint presentations are interesting in making the presentations flashy and exciting for the students as their motivation is at a higher level. In addition, PowerPoint presentations help student recall the lessons, hold their attention and take notes. And it cannot be denied that the related studies explored that PowerPoint presentations were superior to purely oral presentations and presentations with transparencies. 9 In terms of drawbacks, PowerPoint presentations uncovered that overusing background, transition, pictures may distract and make the learners feel bored and even diminish PowerPoint presentations’ effectiveness. Furthermore, the students performed worse when being presented much relevant pictures or a lot of information at once. Nevertheless, these benefits and drawbacks are withdrawn from the use of PowerPoint presentations in teaching and learning in general, not in English teaching, especially English grammar. This is the reason why the study to explore students’ attitudes and perceptions on presenting in English grammar lessons via PowerPoint was investigated. 10 Chapter 3 Research Methodology In previous chapter, a review of related literature is presented. In this chapter, the research methodology of the study will be described including (1) the research questions, (2) the research design, (3) the participants, (4) the research instrument and (5) the procedure. 1. Research questions From the related literature and studies, the present research aims to study more about the attitudes and perceptions of Binh Minh high school students on presenting English grammar lessons via PowerPoint presentations. The aims and objectives of this study is to answer the following questions: 1. How often is PowerPoint presentations used in English grammar lessons at Binh Minh high school? 2. To which extent do Binh Minh high school students like the use of PowerPoint presentation in English grammar lessons? 3. In Binh Minh high school’s point of view, what are the main benefits of PowerPoint presentation in English grammar lessons? 4. In Binh Minh high school students’ point of view, what are the main drawbacks of PowerPoint presentation in English grammar lessons? These research questions will be examined by using descriptive statistics tests for the mean score of questionnaire responses. 2. Research design The research is based on the descriptive approach which is to describe the natural phenomena without any treatment. Following the approach, that the degree to which the PowerPoint presentation are used in English grammar lessons at Binh Minh high school will be analyzed as well as the degree of students’ preferences and perceives the benefits and the drawbacks of PowerPoint presentation in English grammar lessons via students’ point of view. 3. Participants There were 135 students, 50 males and 85 females, participating in the study. The participants consisted of 46 tenth-grade students, 47 eleventh-grade students and 42 twelfth- grade students that were randomly chosen among forty-two classes at Binh Minh high school. All the participants are learning seven-year English program. These students were recruited to be the subjects of the study for the two reasons. Firstly, the most important reason is that these students have more chances of learning English grammar with new teaching method, especially with PowerPoint presentations. On 11 average, they were taught English grammar lessons three to four periods over eight English grammar period a semester. As a result, their attitudes and perceptions towards PowerPoint presentations in English grammar lessons might be more stable. Secondly, it is convenient to work with these students since the research has done teaching practice with them. In short, these students may be good representatives for all students at Binh Minh high school. 4. Instruments A questionnaire to students is employed as the main instrument of the study. The questionnaire was designed based on the ideas from related literature and related studies. It was original in English (see appendix 1); however, the Vietnamese translation was carried on later so that students with different English proficiency levels could adequately understand the questions in the new version (see appendix 2). The questionnaire consists of two parts. The first part includes background information and a question about the degree to which PowerPoint presentations were used in English grammar lessons. The second part including 23 five-scale Likert items which fall into three clusters is about the preference, the perception and attitude of students about presenting English grammar lessons via PowerPoint (see table 1). Table 1 The items of the three clusters in the second part of the questionnaire Cluster 1 Content Students’ preference of PowerPoint presentations in English grammar lessons Items 2 Students’ attitudes and perceptions of the benefits of PowerPoint presentations in English grammar lessons 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22 3 Students’ attitudes and perceptions of the drawbacks of PowerPoint presentations in English grammar lessons 4, 7, 11, 15, 17, 19, 21 23 1, 9, 12 13 5. Procedure In order to collect data for the survey, a questionnaire was designed on the background information from literature review. The first draft of the questionnaire was advised and given comments on both the form and content. After that, the second draft was later asked to translate into Vietnamese. Then the Vietnamese version was 12 translated into English again by the researcher’s classmates who are good at English without seeing the English version. No significant differences were found between the English version and the Vietnamese version indicating that there was equivalence between the questionnaire in English and the one in Vietnamese. The questionnaires in English and Vietnamese were finally given to the supervisor to get some more comments. At last, the final version of the questionnaire was given to the students. The questionnaire was administered twice. Both times, the students who were chosen randomly were carefully guided before fulfilling the questionnaire without discussing with their classmates so that the responses could be their own options. The time the students fulfilled the questionnaire was ten minutes on average. The questionnaires were immediately collected after that, and then each of returned questionnaire version was carefully checked to avoid missed items. First, to test reliability, the questionnaire was piloted at Bui Huu Nghia high school which has relatively similar background with Binh Minh high school to ensure the reliability of the questionnaire. The pilot questionnaire was conducted with 104 students of tenthgrade, eleventh-grade and twelfth-grade classes. The researchers’ classmates who were doing her teaching practice at the school became the administrators of the questionnaire. The researcher’s classmates were guided the aims of the study, the way the students fulfill the questionnaire and the explanation to each item in the questionnaire. The pilot data analyzed using the Descriptive Statistics Test of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software showed a quite high reliability ( = .80). Then the questionnaires were distributed to the main participants of the study, the students at Binh Minh high school. Finally, the data were analyzed and reported. 13