Students on The Move: A Case Study on How Props Can Improve Students’ Presentation Skills

Abstract

Using props in a presentation is a great way to attract the audience and make it memorable for the participants. They enhance the impact of the presentation and must be chosen carefully. So, this paper aims to introduce the concept of "props" to students and point out its effectiveness during a presentation in Higher Education. The study participants were ten students who had to prepare a presentation for 10 minutes and use props to illustrate it. The method of this study is based on the instrument of observation and the evaluation rubric of students' oral presentations. This study is carried out in three weeks on the subject of "Text Analysis 1" in the first academic year 2022-2023 of the Bachelor's degree study program "English Language" at the Department of Foreign Languages, "Fan S. Noli" University, Korҫë, Albania. The study results showed improvements in students' presentation skills. They used words and phrases that were easy to understand, and they involved the audience in the presentations. Seven students used appropriate props to illustrate their presentations, whereas three did not use enough props. Another improvement that was seen is the correct grammar that students used while presenting. Using props gave students comfort and enthusiasm.