Enhancing Students’ Oral Presentation Skills By Using Facebook

Abstract

The rapid rise of the information and communication technology (ICT) has made a big impact in the field of education, which demands educators to learn new or add additional knowledge in order to keep themselves knowledgeable in this Digital Age. Educators need to improve on their teaching style by incorporating creative and fun way in order for the students to learn effectively. The study looked at the use of Facebook to enhance students’ oral presentation skills at Seberang Perai Polytechnic. The first aim of this paper is to look at how Facebook can be used to improve students’ presentation skills. Second, the researchers aim is to analyze students’ perception of the use of Facebook in improving students’ oral presentation skills. A questionnaire and interview sessions were conducted to examine students’ views towards Facebook in improving students’ performance during oral presentation tasks. Questionnaires and interviews were triangulated and analyzed using SPSS. This research employed a qualitative approach and supported by quantitative research methods. The findings of the research reflected students’ perception of the use of Facebook to enhance oral presentation skills.

Keywords: Enhancing, Facebook, oral presentation skills, perception

Introduction

The emergence of ICT has increased the use of language in a wider way around the world. Long range interpersonal communication site is a sort of virtual networks that permits individuals to associate and collaborate with one another (Murray and Waller, 2007). ICT has been the platform for educators to instil the interest of students towards language learning. There are numerous technology tools, which can be integrated into the classroom practice and can be used outside the classroom such as, chat, email, blogging, microblogging and social networking. In recent years, social networking has increased drastically in the sense of popularity and sites such as once famous MySpace and recently, Facebook (FB). Social networking not only lead one to communicate with each other, but they are also can be useful tool for any institution as they promote both target language (English) as well as enhance learners’ autonomy. The most popular network at present is Facebook (FB) as many people are comfortable with this particular network. More than 2.3 billion users are engaged in Facebook, according to the statistics done in December 2018. Therefore, it leads to many thoughts on Facebook to be used in teaching and learning system as it can attract young learners. According to Blattner and Fiori (2009), Facebook can be used to increase motivation and improve leaners performance in English as well as being applied in authentic language learning.

Since Malaysian students are not proficient in oral presentation skills, many methodologies have been implemented in order to enhance students’ oral presentation skills. It is believed that ICT could help and assist students to improve their oral presentation skills. Godwin-Jones (2008), suggests student nowadays depend much of their leaning on social network such as Facebook, for the purpose of their language learning. Eventually when the entire world was hit by COVID-19 and the pandemic situation for almost 3-4 months, schools and higher learning institutes were shut down for safety reason. Yet, teaching and learning process were still conducted via social networking, and one of the methods used in carrying out lesson is by using Facebook. This paper discusses how students’ oral presentation skills can be enhanced by using Facebook as the platform and to examine the interest of students’ in carrying out autonomous learning strategies and to increase students’ employability rates. This study also aims at investigating students’ attitudes towards the English instructions delivered through the integration of Facebook and the use of technology to enhance students’ oral presentation skills.

Problem Statement

Many students in Seberang Perai Polytechnic lack of good presentation skills. The test-scores of oral presentation assessment taken from previous semesters and current semesters shows students’ low proficiency. Most students do not give any importance to English language and thus this reflected in their English presentation skills. This is proven from the students’ test-scores based on their Individual Presentation, which were obtained from polytechnics such as Seberang Perai Polytechnic and Ungku Omar Polytechnic, Ipoh. Students are eager to obtain good marks in their main subjects such as, Accounting, Logistics, and engineering and such. Therefore, they would generally focus on their core subjects instead of English language. By not investing more in their English lessons, students might be less proficient and this may lead them to be less marketable in industrial sector upon their graduation.

Students at polytechnic have problems speaking in English especially during English lessons in classroom. The incompetency of students especially in oral presentation could be due to lack of knowledge needed to make an effective presentation, coupled with anxiety and lack of practice. According to Krannich (2004), the fear and lack of confidence of delivering a speech or any oral presentation topics ranks as the main fear of most students from different backgrounds. In addition, English being not students’ mother tongue language, English being spoken rarely at home, and the fear of making mistake when talking in English, make students less fluent. As student develops and grows, these negative aspects may lead him/ her to unable to improve or nurture his/ her English especially in oral presentation. Students should not be blamed for their inabilities to carry out proper oral presentation as they may not be exposed appropriately by the educators or lecturers. In polytechnic, the English lessons are mostly student-centred, whereby students are actively engaged in activities that could help them improved their presentation skills. However, the institution’s syllabuses are mainly concern with the completion of the syllabus by the end of the year or semester. Therefore, teachers or educators have lesser time to conduct interesting activities in order to ensure the betterment of students’ oral presentation skills.

Research Questions

The objectives of this study are to expose students to autonomous learning styles and to assess the perception of students towards learning through Facebook as a platform.

• In what ways the use of Facebook enhances students’ oral presentation skills.
• What are the students’ perceptions towards engaging Facebook in their learning activities?
• Is there a significance difference between the Pre-Test test score and Post-Test test score?

Purpose of the Study

This study mainly focused on encouraging autonomous learning process and learners would be able to learn from their mistakes. Facebook is used as the platform to allow the students to strengthen their oral presentation skills. Facebook is widely used by Seberang Perai Polytechnic’s students and the study shows 94% of Polytechnic of Seberang Perai students are engaged in Facebook, for 1 to 6 hours per day (Kabilan et al., 2010). Selwyn (2009) shows that utilization of Facebook helped students in a number of ways such fostering informal learning, and allowing better interactions between student and student or student and teacher thus encouraging active online participation. For instance, students can view their peers’ presentation and improve themselves if there is any error that they had committed during their very own presentations. Students learn faster through imitation and will be more encouraged to be engaged in the learning process, according to Bandura Theory (1977). Relating to the theory, using Facebook as a platform, students would be more independent in acquiring appropriate oral presentation skills.

Research Methods

This is an experimental design, combined with qualitative study and quantitative study. Based on the research design, it is shown that a Pre-Test and Post-Test has been carried out respectively at the beginning and end of the study. The experimental group were involved in treatment tasks in which, this particular experimental group had undergone three-time of treatments after the Pre-Test and before the Post-Test. Pre-Test (1st presentation) was given to respondents without any input or lesson delivered. Then, for the Treatment 1, respondents were given slight input via slides on ways to present effectively, followed by the oral presentation task. The slides were uploaded in the class Facebook. For the Treatment 2, input were given using videos. The videos were posted in Facebook. Videos were shown to the respondents on good and bad ways of oral presentations, followed by the oral presentation task. Treatment 3 was more intense, whereby more input was given in Facebook such as demonstration on ways to present effectively, body language while presenting, confidence level and few videos from YouTube were shown to the respondents via Facebook, followed by the oral presentation task. Finally, Post-Test presentation was carried.

At the end of the study, the researcher had distributed few questionnaires and interviewed few students (face-to-face). Researcher has selected 26 students, the total number of students in that particular class, for this research. The interview sessions were face-to-face in which the researcher has interviewed 6 respondents from the particular class. The face-to-face interview sessions were video recorded by the researcher to get a clear view from the interview sessions. Generally, before the interview sessions were carried out, respondents were chosen randomly and they were informed two days before the interview could be carried out. This is to ensure the well-preparedness by both parties- the researcher and the respondents (interviewees). Though face-to-face interview sessions could be disturbed or interrupted by elements such as human or something else, yet this can be considered as one of the best face-to-face interactions to be carried out, in order to discover the answers or replies directly.

Findings

This chapter presents an analysis of the qualitative and quantitative data collected based on the students’ interview sessions and the distribution of the questionnaire to the students of DNS 1B, Seberang Perai Polytechnic. This section sets out to provide answers to the research questions.

Table 1 reveals the values for the frequency, percentage and means score for the questionnaire carried out among students of DNS 1B. The mean score generated based on the Place that students frequently use Facebook is 2.23 while, the mean obtained from Gender is 1.54. Table 1 indicates students doaccessFacebook via Internet Connection at home by 50% (13 students) and only 7.7% students are accessing Facebook at other places. Perhaps students prefer to access Facebook via Internet connection at home for the comfort purposes. Fourteen female students (53.8%) and 12 male students were involved in the study.

Table 2 shows the data obtained from Section B which reflects onThe highest mean-score obtained is the use of Chatting application by stating 4.00 and the lowest mean-score obtained is the use of Uploading Video feature by 1.88 only. Chatting application is followed by News Feed which mean-score is achieved at 3.88 and it is followed by the application of Using Notification with recorded mean-score at the level of 3.69. Meanwhile, besides the use of Uploading Video as the lowest mean-score obtained, the features of Creating Page and Creating Events have respectively obtained the mean-score of 2.31 and 2.23. Data in Table 2 suggests that Facebook is used for various purposes as mentioned.

Table 3 shows the data obtained from Students’ views on the use of Facebook in enhancing oral presentation skills; The highest mean score (3.77) achieved whereby it suggested ability to interact in terms of sharing content before oral presentation while 2.69 mean score achieved for feeling embarrassed to receive comments from peers after videos uploaded.

The comparison of mean scores via t-test was not feasible because the sample was a small one (consisting 26 learners). Therefore, the researcher used the Wilcoxon Matched-pairs Signed-rank Test as shown in Table 4, in which the distributional assumption was weak and when the subjects are measured on two occasions or under two different conditions (Pallant, 2001).

Conclusion

Facebook is an online platform which consists of many features such as, chatting, searching and updating information, searching for friends, commenting on others’ statuses, uploading videos and many more. Though many online users regard Facebook as a tool for socializing, the researchers believe that Facebook can be used for academic purpose, directly helping students in learning English language. Facebook in this study are used to enhance students’ oral presentation skills. Based on the findings, students are perceptive that Facebook can help them in improving their oral presentation skills. Facebook is a popular online tool, and it educators should integrate Facebook in language learning in order to encourage autonomous learning among students. Findings from the interview sessions and questionnaires reveal that Facebook can be an effective online platform to encourage students’ engagement and improving students’ oral presentation skills.

Acknowledgments

Special appreciation to Professor Dr Kamarul Kabilan, for guiding us throughout this study and our former senior colleague, Mr Sandrasagran for his linguistics assistance. Special mention to Puan Yeap Lay Hwa, for allowing us to conduct this study in Seberang Perai Polytechnic.

References

• Bandura, A. (1977). Social Learning Theory. New York: General Learning Press.

• Blattner, G., & Fiori, M. (2009). Facebook in the language classroom: Promises and possibilities. Instructional Technology and Distance Learning (ITDL), 13(2),17-28.

• Godwin-Jones, R. (2008). Mobile computing technologies: Lighter, faster, smarter. Language Learning & Technology, 12(3), 3-9.

• Kabilan, M. K, Norlida, A., & Jafre, M. Z. A (2010). Facebook: An online environment for learning of English in institutions of higher education?, 1(3), 66-87.

• Krannich, C. R. (2004). 101 Secrets of highly effective speakers: controlling fear, commanding attention (Recorded by B/McDonald). (CD). New York: Listen & Live Audio, Inc.

• Murray, E. K., & Waller, R. (2007). Social Networking goes abroad. International Educators; May/ Jun, 16(3), 56.

• Pallant, J. (2001). SPSS survival manual: A step by step guide to data analysis using SPSS. (Version 10 and 11), Open University Press.

• Selwyn, N. (2009). Faceworking: Exploring students’ education-related use of Facebook. Learning, Media & Technology, 34(2), 157-174.