NCKH - linh 1st

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Vietnam national university Ha noi

University of language and international

studies

English department

***************************************************

Research

on: the first year students difficulties in picture

description and some recommended solutions

Supervisor: Nguyen Thi

Dieu Ha

Students : Vu PhuongLinh

Dinh Thi

Nga

class 09E3

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s

Acknowledgement

This research could not have been completed without the help,

encouragement and support of a number of people who all deserved our

sincerest gratitude and appreciation.

First of all, we would like to give our deepest thank to our supervisor,

Mrs Dieu Ha. Her continual encouragement, careful reading, critical

comments and patient guidance made our work more enjoyable and much

easier.

We would like to thank all the students who helped us so much to

complete the questionnaire and provide us with useful experience and

advice.

Last but not least, we are grateful to our family and our friends whose

support and encouragements did play an important role in the success of our

study.

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table of contents

Page

I. Acknowledgement 1II. table of contents 2

III. abstract

5

IV. Introduction 6

1. Rationale of the research. 6

2. Aims of the research 63. Scope of the research 7

4. Method of the research. 7

5. Research questions: 7

5.1 . What are the difficulties in picture description that 7

the 1st year students and teachers have?

5.2 What are some suggested solutions to solve 7

these problems?

V. Literature review 8

1. Speaking skill and the importance of it in English 8

2. PET (Preliminary English Test) the way to test 9

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students in 4 skills

2.1. What is PET? 9

2.2. PET and picture description 9

2.2.1 PET 9

2.2.2 Picture description and its importance in using English 10

2.2.3 Criteria for picture 11

description

2.2.4 Matters relating picture description activities 11

VI. Data analysis 12

1. Students attitude toward the subject 12

2. The time that students spend on the subject 12

3. The first year students difficulties in 14

picture description

4. Students solution for the problem 16

VII. Application 18

1 Preparation 18

2 Structure and Content 18

3 Pictures in General 18

4 Paintings 18

5 Words for picture description 19

6 Phrases for picture description 20

VIII. Conclusion 23

IX. References 24

X. Appendix 26

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abstract

Being aware of picture description for first year student helping

them to improve English speaking skill, we decided to do a research on the

first year students difficulties in picture description and some recommended

solutions . In this research, we would like to focus on description skill. Our

aims are to find out the main difficulties in picture students that first year

students in English Department of the University of Language and

International Study a always meet and some solutions they use to solve it.

After synthesizing the material from some reference book and observing the

way students present, we conducted a survey to understand the matters.

Basing on the data collected, we analyzed and had many findings.These show that picture description is not a difficult subject. The difficulties

they often meet do not come from the study condition but from students

abilities. There were many solution applied by students. However, these

were just temporary.

Basing on the finding, some suggestions for improving description

skill are also provided.

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Introduction

1. Rationale of the research.

Passing information from one person to another is daily activity of

human beings. The effectiveness of communication depends on vocabulary,

pronunciation and other speaking skills we use to interact. Therefore,

speaking is more and more important in studying English.

Years before, speaking has not been concerned to be as important as

other skills in studying English. For the time being, it has gradually been

noticed and become a basic and essential skill for students in universities. A

useful way to help students, especially freshmen, get used to speaking

English, is picture description. This has been applied for first year students

and seemed to help.

Picture description is considered an interesting and effective activity.

It helps enrich the vocabulary, broaden the knowledge about many different

fields and enhance sentence structures of students. It also makes students

familiarize themselves with public speaking, reflect quickly to difficult

situations and even show their own idea about whatever they see.

This research is implemented to find out the difficulties which make

students confused and put forward some ideas to solve the problem. It also

comes from our own interest in studying language through picture

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description. Hopefully, this research is one of the material which help

students develop speaking skill.

For all mentioned above reasons, we decide to choose The

difficulties in picture description and some recommended solutions for the

first year students as the topic for our research.

2. Aims of the research

The aims of the research are carried out for some real purpose. First of

all, it is to help learners familiarize themselves with picture description.

Moreover, it helps them realize some problems which are popular when

describing a picture so that they can avoid them and then to consolidate

some skills and give them tips to succeed in studying.

3. Scope of the research

This research focus on finding out the problems in describing a

picture and some ways to solve them. To the best of our abilities, these

matters will be started as clearly as possible. As far as their usage is

concerned, we do not hope to go into detail all aspect of picture description,

only some tips for first year students.

4. Method of the research

Knowledge in this research was gained through reading materials and

books. In this part, data collection and analytical methods are used.

Regarding practical aspect, interview is also a useful method to do this

research. We used questionnaires to know teachers and students ideas and

opinions.

In addition, our supervisors comments, advice plays an important

role in the fulfillment of our research.

5. Research questions:

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5.1 . What are the difficulties in picture description that the 1st year students

and teachers have?

5.2 What are some suggested solutions to solve these problems?

Literature review

1. Speaking skill and the importance of it in English

When learning any languages, there are four skills: listening,

speaking, reading, writing for learners to practice. Among those, speaking,

as it is fundamental to human communication, deserves much attention

(Bygate, 1997). Speaking is considered a skill with two ways to understand.

Those are motor perceptive skill and interaction skill. According to the

first way, speaking involve perceiving, recalling and articulating in the

correct order sound and structures of the language to convey the right

meaning (Bygate, 1997, p.5) and in the second way, it uses knowledge and

basic motor perception skill, achieve communication (Bygate, 1997,p.6).

In speaking skill, success is measured in terms of the ability to carry

out a conversation in the (target) language ( Nunan, 1991,p.39). Speaking is

the odd-on-out in four language skills which people can not practice alone

but with other people. If students learn how to speak and get opportunity to

speak in the classroom they may be motivated in learning. According to

Lawties (2004), speaking in classroom would become fun and dynamic

place-to-be if the right activities are taught in the right way.

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In order to succeed in speaking a second language, students must

invest in their strategy starting at finding their own learning styles and pay

attention to lectures of teachers. Teachers also learn style so as to have

appropriate teaching strategies to each individual and the whole class. It is

normal when students first learn to speak a second language they sometimes

feel not good. That is because the lack of word or structure makes it difficult

for them to join face-to-face communication, which is not the positive effect

for the students in the next communication. If you are a teacher, bringing

some relief in that case with supportive attitude is very important.

Encouragement should be given briefly and frequently to students who are

making a real afford, not just those who are being the most successful (Mary

Underwood,1997).

2. PET (Preliminary English Test) the way to test students in 4 skills

2.1. What is PET?

According to Cambridgeesol

[http://www.cambridgeesol.org/exams/general-english/pet.html], PET is an

exam for people who can use everyday written and spoken English at an

intermediate level. It covers all four language skills reading, writing,

listening and speaking. Preparing for the exam is a popular way to develop

and improve your language skills because it provides practical language

practice in a variety of everyday work, study and leisure situations.

PET reflects the use of language in real life, such as understanding

signs and announcements, and is accepted by many employers as proof of

ability to use English in clerical, secretarial or managerial jobs. It is also

widely accepted for use in jobs where spoken English is necessary such as

tourism, retail, construction, manufacturing and engineering.

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There are two versions of PET available: PET and PET for Schools.

Both follow exactly the same format and the level of the question papers is

identical. The only difference is that the content and treatment of topics in

PET for Schools have been particularly targeted at the interests and

experience of school pupils. (http://www.cambridgeesol.org/exams/general-

english/pet.html)

2.2. PET and picture description

2.2.1 PET

According to Cambridgeesol

[http://www.cambridgeesol.org/exams/general-english/pet.html], PET has

three papers:

Reading and Writing: 1 hour 30 minutes

Listening: 30 minutes (approx)

Speaking: 10-12 minutes

Candidates take the Speaking test in pairs.

There are four parts in the PET speaking test:

Part 1: general introductions;

Part 2: discussion about asituation;

Part 3: describingphotographs; and

Part 4: discussion about a topic.

2.2.2 Picture description and its importance in using English

Picture description is in part 3 of a PET speaking test. In this part,

students are required to describe a picture. The content of the picture related

to one of the topic they had learnt before.

Picture description plays an important part in learning English,

especially in speaking skill. The first is that it helps us to have better

reflection to English. Moreover, of courser, it helps improve our speaking

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http://www.cambridgeesol.org/PETforSchoolshttp://www.cambridgeesol.org/PETforSchoolshttp://www.writefix.com/pet/index.htm#part1%23part1http://www.writefix.com/pet/index.htm#part2%23part2http://www.writefix.com/pet/index.htm#part2%23part2http://www.writefix.com/pet/index.htm#part3%23part3http://www.writefix.com/pet/index.htm#part4%23part4http://www.cambridgeesol.org/PETforSchoolshttp://www.writefix.com/pet/index.htm#part1%23part1http://www.writefix.com/pet/index.htm#part2%23part2http://www.writefix.com/pet/index.htm#part3%23part3http://www.writefix.com/pet/index.htm#part4%23part4http://www.cambridgeesol.org/PETforSchools


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skill. Picture description often interest students at all levels. Students enjoy

imaging what happened before the moment picture, where they are . In

describing a picture, students will also feel the need to learn English words

to express their ideas (Ngocvan,1999)

Describing paintings or other art pictures (e. g. caricatures) is

something for the advanced learner of English as you also have to talk about

the artists intention and the impression on the viewer

[http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/writing/picture-description ].

2.2.3 Criteria for picture description

Describing pictures is a standard requirement of most language ability

testing [http://angolsuli.education.directnic.com/pics.htm ].

While describing

the picture in part 3, students have to manage discourse and use appropriate

vocabulary in a longer turn. In addition, their description can only last in one

minute and involves in a topic.

2.2.4 Matters relating picture description activities

Describing a picture in English seems to be much more difficult than

speaking English only. They meet several problems such as being lack of

vocabulary, being lack of presenting skill, especially the way to start a

speech, bad pronunciation makes the bad description.

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Data analysis1. Students attitude toward the subject

Above is the bar chart which shows the students attitude toward picture

description. As can be seen, no students think that this subject is very

difficult or very easy. It might lead to the conclusion that students feel they

have enough ability to take part in the lesson, though their performances are

not very good. Also the statistic showed that more than 57% of students who

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had been asked said they feel it quite difficult and 35.5% of them find it

moderate. This means they are aware of their ability toward the subject and

can do something to make it easier. In addition, 5% think that it is easy to

learn picture description. This proves the fact that picture description can

become a suitable subject to many students if they can find the right way to

do it.

2. The time that students spend on the subject

For the latter part of the survey, we have a chart of the time students

spend on describing a picture.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

0 1 2 3 4

Describing a

picture ( inVietnamese) %

Describing a

picture ( in Englis

before learning

picture

description%

describe a picture

in English) after

learning picture

descri tion%

It is clear that though in Vietnamese or English, students only

sometimes spend time for picture description. This fact is also proved in

the percentage of students choice. 17.5% of them almost have never

describe a picture in Vietnamese, 37.5% almost never describe before

learning this subject and 17.5% almost never describe after that.

According to the statistic, though the percentage of students

frequency that describes picture in Vietnamese is not very high, that one in

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English is still lower. It might lead to the conclusion that this skill is quite

new to students.

Over the expectation of the researchers, time that students spend on

describing a picture after learning the subject increases sharply. From 12%

very often do this before to 22.5% after being taught this skill.

3. The first year students difficulties in picture description

The table below shows the difficulties in picture description. Some of

the most popular ones are: being lack of vocabulary (87.5%), being lack of

presenting skill, especially the way to start a speech (40%), bad

pronunciation makes the bad description (42.5%). It is easy to see that these

difficulties come from the learners abilities. To tell the truth, it is right to

the situation of Vietnamese students. Students were not taught to speak

English well before joining University and they do not have enough

condition to practice it frequently. That causes many problems for their

study English later because they are lack of fundamental vocabulary.

Whats more, not many students think that their difficulties are

not being used to describe a picture. Some even have never described a

picture (in English) before or being under pressures: from teachers,

listeners, even marks. It can be seen that their difficulties do not mainly

come from the study condition now. However, these are in fact the

difficulties that are much more difficult for them to overpass.

Furthermore, no one think that their teachers teaching method

make it difficult for them to study. This means to solve the problem,

students have to try their best.

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Students Choices Number of

students put

a tick at this

Percentag

e (%)

1

Being embarrassed when having

to speak English, especially in crowd

7 17.5

2 Being lack of vocabulary 35 87.5

3

The time is not enough for you

to practice.

5 12.5

4

Being lack of presenting skill,

especially the way to start a speech.

18 40

5

Bad reflex to different kinds of

pictures, especially the little detailed

pictures.

12 30

6

Due to the characteristic of the

first year student: not being used to

using English in communication.

7 17.5

7

Not being used to describe a

picture. Some even have never

described a picture (in English) before.

9 22.5

8

Being under pressures: from

teachers, listeners, even marks

9 22.5

9Thinking skills: word by word 11 27.5

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10Not controlling the own words: 11 27.5

11Bad pronunciation makes the

bad description

17 42.5

12Complicating the simple words. 6 15

13Your teachers teaching method 0 0

4. Students solutions for the problem

Students Choices

1 Describing whatever pictures

you meet

19 47.5

2 Possess the describing skill to

each kind of picture

10 25

3 Paying attention to other

describing from other people

27 67.5

4 Taking note the popular

mistakes on vocabulary and

pronunciation

17 42.7

5 Not trying to continue with the

details you are confused at

4 10

6 Focus on the topic with the

little detailed or difficult - to -

describe pictures

11 27.5

7 Noting that the topics of the

pictures are always printed in the

right corner of the picture.

4 10

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8 Others 2 5

The above table shows the solutions which students use in describing

a picture. As can be seen, most of the students choose Paying attention to

other describing from other people (67.5%) , Describing whatever pictures

you meet (47.5%)and Taking note the popular mistakes on vocabulary and

pronunciation(42.7%) to be their solutions. It is clearly that students choose

to observe people around them: their friends and teachers. They are

attempting to solve the problem by not only paying attention to the lesson in

class but also applying what they have observed to improve their own skill.

On the other hand, some solutions which require high skill of thinking

are not chosen by most of the students. For example, not trying to continue

with the details you are confused at (10%), noting that the topics of the

pictures are always printed in the right corner of the picture (10%). It can

be seen that they are not expert and active enough in this subject.

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ApplicationSome suggestions in describing a picture

1 Preparation

Have a close look at the picture and decide on how to structure your

picture description. What is important or special? What should the viewer

pay attention to?

2 Structure and Content

It's not easy to follow a picture description if the writer jumps

randomly from one point to another. Therefore, make sure that your picture

description is logically structured, for example:

from left to right (or from right to left)

from the background to the foreground (or from the foreground to the

background)

from the middle to the sides (or from the sides to the middle)

from details to general impressions (or from general impressions to

details)

Which structure you finally choose depends on your taste and the

picture you want to describe.

3 Pictures in General

short description of the scene (e. g. place, event)

details (who / what can you see)

background information (if necessary) on place, important persons or

event

4 Paintings

name of artist and picture, year of origin (if known)

short description of the scene (e. g. place, event)

details (who / what can you see)

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impression on the viewer

artist's intention

perspective, colors, forms, proportions etc.

5 Words for picture description

Kinds of pictures and perspectives

viewer

picture, image

painting

photograph / photo

portrait

landscape painting

worm's eye view

bird's eye view

Structure

foreground

background

in the upper part

in the lower part

in the left part

in the right part

in the central part

in front of

behind

next to

on the right

on the left

in the middle

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from front

from behind

from above

from below

the second from left/right

Others

artificial light

daylight

subdued light

light colours

dark colours

loud colours

contrasty

vanishing point

vanishing line

6 Phrases for picture description

Information on artist and year of origin (image) is a painting by (artist), painted in (year).

(image), painted in (year), is a work by (artist)

(artist) painted (image) in (year).

(image) is a famous painting by (artist).

Describing the scene

The picture was taken in (place).

The photo was taken at (party).

The picture shows a scene from

It's an image of (place, person, scene).

The picture describes (scene).

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The picture shows (place, person, scene) from a distance.

(place, person, scene) is shown from (a bird's eye view/).

You look at (place, person, scene) from (above/behind/).

What can you see?

In the picture you can see

(position: on the left/right/) there is / are

(position: on the left/right/) you can see

is (position: on the left/right/)

Impression

gives the impression of depth.

(person) seems to look at the viewer.

His / Her eyes seem to follow the viewer.

The figures look as if they exist in three dimensions.

The viewer has the impression that the people in the picture are alive.

The viewer's attention is focused on

To the alert eye it will become apparent

The viewer finds it difficult to withdraw his eyes from The painting is vivid / happy / expressive.

The picture makes the viewer feel (sad/happy)

The picture inspires the viewer to think about

Intention

The artist mainly uses (colours/forms/)

Important elements are highlighted.

The artist / photographer / painter uses to express

He / She (probably) wants to criticize / express / show

It is obvious that the artist wants to criticize / express / show

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What the artist / photographer / painter wants to criticise / express /

show is

What the artist / photographer / painter wants to point out is

I think / believe / am sure that

It seems / appears to me that

The problem illustrated here is

symbolises

is typical of

Conclusion

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This research has presented systematically, including all common

difficulties which first year students often meet and some suggested

solutions for them. It was implemented in an effort to help students have an

overview of picture description they study in the first year.

The purpose of this part is to make it easier for students to understand

how to describe a picture fully as well as enhance their knowledge about

speaking through this activity.

With the help of our supervisor, we have tried our best to present our

opinions on this aspect. We do hope that this research will be of some use

for students who might be interested in learning English and the best way to

communicate as well. Despite our attempt in collecting the data and

completing the questionnaire, the research can only focus on finding and

solving the problem when describing a picture.

This paper may be considered to be our first step in research so

mistakes and shortcomings are inevitable. We would be pleased to receive

comments from teachers and friends to improve in further steps.

References

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1 Ego4u.[2009]. Picture description. Retrieved December 29,2009, from

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/writing/picture-description.

2. Goodale, M[1987]. The language of meetings. American: Thompson

learning Inc.

3 Lucas, F.[1995]. The art of public speaking. American: Monotype

Composition Company.

4 Ngocvan, D. [1999 ]. Teaching English vocabulary to 11th form students.

University of Languages and International Studies.

5 Quatrini, J.[1996]. Speaking by doing. American: National textbook

Company.

6 Strong,W. & Lester, M.[1993]. Writers Choice. American:Glencoe/McGraw-Hill.

7 Le Thanh Tra. [2007 ].A study on techniques to develop speaking ability

of first year Students at ED, CFL,VNU, HN. VNU, ULIS

8 To Thi Ngoc Nga [2006]. Nghin cu cc hot ng ph hp v hiu qu

nhm pht trin k nng c cho sinh vin nm 2 khoa NN&VH Anh

M. VNU, ULIS.

9 Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa [2005]. Nghin cu cc nguyn tc xy dng

chng trnh bi dng nng lc NCKH cho sinh vin khoa Anh

trng i hc Ngoi ng - HQGHN. VNU, ULIS.

10 Nguyen Thu Hien[2007]. Nghin cu vic xy dng cc th thut

( strategies) hc ting Anh ca sinh vin nm hai khoa NN&VH Anh

M. VNU, ULIS.

11 Writefix.[2009]. Describe a picture. Retrieved December 29,2009,

from

http://www.writefix.com/pet/

.

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Appendix

Questionaire

For first year students who have just learnt picture description in University of

Language and International Study. We are Linh and Nga, from class 09E3. We are

carrying out a research on The first year students difficulties in picture description

and some recommended solutions

This aims to help you improve the picture description skill by finding out the situation,

difficulties that you are having and some solutions which are being used. We hope you

can help us by filling in this questionnaire.

1. How do you feel about picture description? Put a tick at the right answer

A very difficult

B quite difficultC moderate

D quite easy

E very easy.

2, Please use this range to find you answer

0 for never

1 for almost never

2 for sometimes

3 for very often

4 for always

2.1 How often do you describe a picture ( in Vietnamese)?..

2.2 How often do you describe a picture ( in English) before learning picture description?

..2.3 How often do you describe a picture ( in English) after learning picture description?

..From question 3 to question 4, please put a tick at the right answer!3, What are your biggest difficulties in picture description?

1 Being embarrassed when having to speak English, especially in crowd

2 Being lack of vocabulary

3 The time is not enough for you to practice.

4. - Being lack of presenting skill, especially the way to start a speech.

5 - Bad reflex to different kinds of pictures, especially the little detailed pictures.

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6. Due to the characteristic of the first year student: not being used to using English in

communication.

7. Not being used to describe a picture. Some even have never described a picture (in

English) before.

8. Being under pressures: from teachers, listeners, even marks

9. Thinking skills: word by word

10. Not controlling the own words:

11. Bad pronunciation makes the bad description

12. Complicating the simple words.

13 Your teachers teaching method

4, What are the solutions which you have used?

1.Describing whatever pictures you meet

2. Possess the describing skill to each kind of picture

3. Paying attention to other describing from other people

4. Taking note the popular mistakes on vocabulary and pronunciation

5. Not trying to continue with the details you are confused at

6. Focus on the topic with the little detailed or difficult - to - describe pictures

7. Noting that the topics of the pictures are always printed in the right corner of the

picture.

Others? (please specify).

.

Thank you for your help!

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