Developing Students’ English Oral Presentation Skills: Do Self-Confidence, Teacher Feedback, and English Proficiency Matter?

Abstract

This study examined the interplay among self-confidence, teacher feedback, and English proficiency in terms of developing students’ English oral presentation competence. The study involved learners in the fields of Sciences and Technology, and Humanities and Social Science (N=390; 75% female; 26% male). It looked at how presentation courses, which are structured to include various stages of presentation preparation as well as teacher feedback over the course of a semester (12 weeks), can help Thai EFL students improve their self-confidence and oral presenting skills. The collected data consisted of students’ presentation scores, results of an English proficiency test, and survey data concerning students’ self-confidence and teacher feedback regarding students’ presentation performances. The data analyses involved descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), independent t-tests, one-way ANOVA, multiple-linear regression, and mediation analysis. The results revealed 1) two underlying factors regarding self-confidence, are situational and potential confidence and communication confidence, and one underlying factor regarding teacher feedback, named perceived teacher feedback practice and 2) English proficiency as the only significant predictor of students’ presentation performance. Although it may seem intuitive that English proficiency scores are a strong predictor, this study indicates that students’ self-confidence and instructor evaluation have no direct link to students’ English presentation performance, which was perhaps unanticipated. The small effects of self-confidence and instructor feedback are likely due to the large number of low-level students in the study. Additionally, variables such as student gender and field of study did not make significant differences. This study contributes to the development of research in the area of oral presentations in English.