A Sage on a Stage, to Express and Impress: TED Talks for Improving Oral Presentation Skills, Vocabulary Retention and Its Impact on Reducing Speaking Anxiety in ESP Settings

Ashraf Atta M S Salem

doi:10.5539/elt.v12n6p146

Abstract

This study explores the impact of using TED Talks on improving oral presentation skills of Business English students and vocabulary uptake/retention. It also assesses the impact of improving such hard cognitive skills on increasing Business majors&rsquo; speaking anxiety level. Sequential explanatory mixed method was used, which includes both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analyses. Business students&rsquo; oral presentation skills were assessed through Oral Presentation Skills Sheet (OPSS), vocabulary retention was assessed through Vocabulary Uptake/Retention Test (VURT), and speaking anxiety level was assessed through Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety (PRPSA) (M&ouml;rtberg, Jansson-Fr&ouml;jmark, Pettersson, &amp; Hennlid-Oredsson, 2018). Participants in the study consist 49 students, who were divided into two groups; experimental group consisting of 24 students, and control group that includes 25 Business English majors. Findings of the study revealed that oral presentation skills and vocabulary uptake/retention levels were improved due to the use of TED talks as an ICT tool. Also, it was revealed that Business majors in the experimental group are more enthusiastic, energetic and motivated to give killer presentations as they became more confident and free of anxiety and tension.

Highlights

Oral presentation is one of the most common spoken genres for English language learners in both academic and workplace settings (Chang & Huang, 2015), presentation skills are viewed as a mean for achieving success in academic and professional success (Kim, 2006; Evan, 2013)
Business students’ oral presentation skills were assessed through Oral Presentation Skills Sheet (OPSS), vocabulary retention was assessed through Vocabulary Uptake/Retention Test (VURT), and speaking anxiety level was assessed through Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety (PRPSA) (Mörtberg, Jansson-Fröjmark, Pettersson, & Hennlid-Oredsson, 2018)
The primary research question addressed in this study is whether the insertion of oral input task - more precisely, TED talk or a presentation entitled “Women in Business: Entirely unremarkable” presented by Kristen Hall - for business majors to watch it twice; the first watch to write a summary for the vocabulary uptake test, and the second watch to give a similar presentation of their own and to respond to the vocabulary retention test

Summary

Introduction

Oral presentation is one of the most common spoken genres for English language learners in both academic and workplace settings (Chang & Huang, 2015), presentation skills are viewed as a mean for achieving success in academic and professional success (Kim, 2006; Evan, 2013). Business English majors need oral presentation skills for their academic success and for success in workplace as they join their careers. Diverse approaches have been proposed for improving English learners’ presentation skills (Chang & Huang, 2015; Maria, Junior, & Astrid, 2018; Abdulrahman, 2016) in general and for business majors in specific (Tkachenko, 2014; Patil, 2005)

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