At the beginning of the course, a background questionnaire was given in order to better understand students’ prior experiences, learning background, and expectations for the course. Thirty students were asked to finish this survey at the beginning of the course. The data related to English speaking and presentation skills learning revealed that these students seldom spoke English, mostly because they were afraid to do so.
They had positive attitudes toward incorporating speaking training course into the senior high school curriculum. Most of them had high expectations of this speaking training course and hoped their speaking fluency could be improved. Students’
responses to the open-ended questions were categorized and presented in the following.
Q1. Do you often speak English?
Students’ Responses Number of
Students Percentage
A: I never or seldom speak English. 20 66.7%
B: I sometimes speak English. 6 20%
C: I speak about thirty minutes of English a day at home.
4 13.3%
According to the students’ responses, over 66% of the students had no to almost no practice speaking English, and a further 20% had some practice but not enough in their daily life. Only 13% of the students had English speaking incorporated into their life.
The common problem was that most students lacked sufficient practice for speaking in their daily life. Therefore, providing sufficient English speaking/presentation practice for students was the top priority of the course.
Students’ Responses Number of
Students Percentage A: I am really afraid of speaking English. 9 30%
B: I am afraid but it is not difficult speaking English. 1 3.3%
C: I am not afraid, but it is hard to speak English. 12 40%
D: I am not afraid of speaking English. 8 26.7%
According to the students’ responses, around 70% of them were not afraid of speaking English. However, 40% of the students regarded speaking English as a hard task. One interesting outcome came from a student who noted that he was not afraid of speaking English but rather he was afraid of speaking in front of people. Therefore, helping students get accustomed to speaking and giving presentations was essential in this English speaking/presentation course.
Q3. How do you feel about incorporating English public speaking training into the Senior High School curriculum?
Students’ Responses
Number of
Students Percentage
A: I feel it is a good idea. 23 76.7%
B: I am very excited about this curriculum. 5 16.7%
C: It seems helpful for senior high school students. 1 3.3%
D: I felt nervous because my English is not good
enough. 1 3.3%
Based on the students’ responses, more than 80 % of the students approved incorporating English public speaking training into Senior High School curriculum and some of them were excited about it. Most students were willing to practice English speaking, while there were a few students holding uncertain attitudes toward
incorporating speaking training into curriculum. Because the course was an elective course, it was not surprising that most students enrolled in this course seemed motivated to learn English speaking/presentation.
Q4. Based on your previous learning experiences, what do you think about the differences between your presentation skills in English and Chinese?
Students’ Responses
Number of
Students Percentage A: I cannot express myself well in English. 12 40%
B: I need to spend more time thinking about
vocabulary, sentence patterns, and content to prepare for English presentations.
11 36.7%
C: I cannot deliver English presentations fluently
compared with Chinese presentations. 4 13.3%
D: I have to memorize scripts to deliver English presentations whereas I can react automatically when I deliver Chinese presentations.
3 10%
Most students thought that they could not express what they thought well in English. There were significant differences between their ability to deliver a presentation in Chinese and English. They felt diffident about speaking in English due to a lack of vocabulary, grammar, and organization of language. Therefore, giving demonstrations and providing proper language support were considered in the lesson planning and course design.
Q5. What would you like to focus on during English speaking training: speaking fluency or presentation skills?
A: Fluency. 20 66.7%
B: Presentation skills. 2 6.6%
C: Both. 8 26.7%
Over 66% of students were eager to speak English fluently. Over 26% of students hoped to improve both oral fluency and presentation skills. About 93% of students considered oral fluency to be among the top priorities. Therefore, the English speaking/presentation course offered in this study started with fluency training.
Q6. Did you volunteer to join this elective course?
Students’ Responses Number of
Students Percentage A: Yes, I volunteered to join this elective course. 29 96.7%
B: Taking this course was mandatory. 1 3.3%
According to the students’ responses, the majority volunteered to join the speaking training course. Only one student was forced to join this elective course. It was clear most of the students were aware of the importance of speaking. Most students had indicated in the background survey of prior speaking experience that they were afraid of speaking English in public.
To look more closely into students’ sources of fear of speaking English, the teacher also asked students to fill out three questions on what they worried about when speaking English. Students’ responses to the questions (see Figures 7-9) indicated that most students (over 60%) were worried about making mistakes, having poor fluency, and using unclear expressions when speaking English. These worries could become sources of students’ fear of English speaking, so care was taken to reduce students’ worry about
making mistakes, enhance their speaking fluency, and to provide English expressions students might need in the English speaking/presentation course.
Figure 7. Responses to the Statement, “I am Worried About Making Mistakes When Speaking English”
Figure 8. Responses to the Statement “I am Worried About Poor Fluency When Speaking English”
Figure 9. Responses to the Statement, “I am Worried About Unclear Expressions