Enhancing Oral Presentation Skills of ESL Students: The Use of Oral Communication Strategies

Abstract

Oral presentation skill is an asset for graduates. A graduate with good oral presentation skills has a better chance in career advancement and promotion rather than one who does not. Thus, it is vital for university students to have exposure to oral communication strategies for them to become good presenters. The purpose of this study was to identify the communication strategies used by undergraduate students while delivering oral presentations in an oral communication skills course. The strategies used were mapped against the grades they obtained for the course to gauge the strategies used by students who scored an A (good presenters) versus those who scored a B (average presenters). Presenting to an audience may generate anxiety and concern that the presentation might not be delivered effectively. Good presenters have found ways to overcome or cope with this concern. Thus, the Oral Communication Strategies Inventory (OCSI) developed by Nakatani (Mod Lang J 90:151–168, 2006) was used to access strategies that the students used for coping while delivering their oral presentations. The OCS inventory included eight categories of strategies for coping while speaking and seven categories of strategies for coping while listening. However, for the purpose of this paper, only speaking strategies were analyzed. The respondents were 100 engineering students enrolled in a communication skills course. Results of the data analysis revealed that the good presenters employed more oral communication strategies than the average presenters. The better students had more frequently used social affective, fluency-oriented, and nonverbal strategies for coping with speaking problems. The average students, on the other hand, do utilize social affective and nonverbal strategies but on a much lesser degree. The findings suggest that average presenters should be made aware of the mentioned skills and be accustomed to them in order to enhance their oral presentation skills. As such, introducing the oral communication strategies to the students could help them improve their oral communication delivery.