Royal University of Phnom PenhTheories of Language and Language Learning 401

Institute of Foreign Languages Course Instructor: Nat Panharith

(NPR)
Department of English Academic Year: 2023-2024
Name: _____Toch Sreyneath______

Review
Direction: Read the following scenarios and answer the questions that follow. Write your answer in
paragraph format.
Scenario: Nimol is a year-one student at the Department of English of the Institute of Foreign Languages. Her
English proficiency is good. However, when her CE101 teacher assigned her to present about the benefits of
reading books in English, she did not do it well. Indeed, she made many grammatical errors in her speech, and
there were pauses in her presentation.
1. Point out TWO possible reasons to explain why Nimol could not do well in her presentation.
2. Imagine you are her CE101 teacher. Raise THREE teaching strategies you will use to help Nimol
improve her presentation. Provide justifications for why you are going to use those teaching strategies.
Write your answer here:
Having noticed the case of Nimol that she did not perform well during her presentation while
she has a very good English proficiency, I do believe that there are two main possible causes behind
her shortening in presenting her task assigned by her teacher. First, it should be her failure in
controlling feelings while giving her speech. It is simple for students to feel nervous while doing their
presentation, but this problem would definitely lead to the loss of concentration on what they are doing,
so I think that the same thing might have happened to Nimol. Although she has good English skills,
losing her concentration and feeling nervous too much would make her lose some ability in forming her
grammar and forgetting what she wanted to say while speaking. Moreover, putting less attention in
grammar while talking as a habit can also be another reason for her. Some people do not focus much on
grammar while they are talking as they believe that it is always fine to make mistakes in grammar as
long as their listeners can understand them and it becomes their habit in communication and this same
thing might happen to Nimol as well. If I am her teacher, I will apply three strategies to help her. First,
for immediate help, I will try my best to comfort her and make her feel the most comfortable while
doing her presentation. For example, I might have a very quick chit-chat with her and the whole class
or remind her of something that might help her when she pauses her speech. By doing this, she would
feel relaxed a lot and could concentrate more. Furthermore, for long-term support, I would encourage
her to talk more in group and class so that she could make herself more familiar with presentation. Last
but not least, I would suggest that she try to practice presenting by herself at home with a slower speed
so that Nimol can focus more on her sentence structure, especially her grammar.