Academic Oral Presentations Research Articles

Move analysis of Hungarian English majors’ academic oral presentations

The academic oral presentation (AOP) is an important aspect of English majors’ academic training. Besides a sound knowledge of the field, the AOP requires complex linguistic, sociocultural, pragmatic and discourse competences in the foreign language, of which the present study focuses on discourse competences comprising the ability to create coherent texts complying with the discourse community’s genre-specific expectations. While the discourse structure of written academic genres has been widely researched based on Swales’s (1990) Move Structure Theory, interest in oral academic genres including the AOP, an important educational tool to foster the disciplinary socialisation of university students, has been more modest. The present study aims to contribute to this field by mapping out the move structure of the Introduction and Conclusion macrostructure components of Hungarian English majors’ AOPs. The analytical framework of the investigation is Chang and Huang’s (2015) move structure model, adapted for the investigation of TED talks, so it also provides an opportunity to compare the discourse structure of TED talks and that of AOPs. The results suggest that the Introduction components of the AOPs and TED talks tend to be similar both in terms of their move structure and the proportion of text devoted to them. However, the characteristic moves of the Conclusion and the implementation of moves both in the Introduction and Conclusion demonstrate several differences deriving from the differing context of the two lecture types and experience of speakers, which the study will discuss in detail.

Metadiscourse Markers in Academic Oral Presentations: A Corpus Analysis

Metadiscourse Markers in Academic Oral Presentations: A Corpus Analysis

An appraisal perspective on students’ use of attitudinal resources in university EFL academic oral presentations

Research in evaluative language classroom becomes paramount to improving students’ critical skills. Despite this fact, studies on the evaluative language of EFL students’ attitudinal resources in Indonesian universities remain tenuous. This study aims to examine the attitudinal resources in fiction book reviews by EFL students for academic oral presentations at an Indonesian private university. The analysis of attitudinal resources in this study is based on the theory of Martin and White (2005). The study applied the systemic functional linguistics approach proposed by M. A. K. Halliday (Citation1994). Data were taken from video recordings and transcripts. The findings show that students expressed all three types of attitudinal resources; Appreciation was used most often, followed by Affect and Judgement. It shows that when reviewing books, students tend to express their appreciation, evaluate the books contents and express their feelings or emotions rather than evaluating the authors’ behaviour or character. In addition, the lexical features used by the students imply criticizing, evaluating, admiring, and praising the quality of the book. The study also found that the students used both positive and negative features. As a result, EFL students need to be empowered in universities as critical thinking skills offer the potential for effective learning that can transform them into professional users of information rather than passive recipients.

Assessing oral presentations: An analysis of score-reaching dialogue between EAP practitioners

Academic oral presentations (AOPs) often feature as part of assessment suites on English for Academic Purposes programmes. This paper documents what teacher assessors do and pay attention to when reaching score decisions on student assesees’ oral presentation performances on two EAP modules. The fieldwork conducted at two EAP sites was informed by a blend of constructivist grounded theory and ethnographic inquiry traditions. In this paper, an analysis of rating discussions and interviews demonstrates that a series of filters are applied by EAP practitioners to AOP performances when assigning scores. The processes described demonstrate how the social and learning context on EAP programmes influence assessment decisions. The visual representation of the rating process teamed with the description of processes may prove a useful heuristic with which to better understand and critically appraise decision making in EAP classroom-based oral presentation assessment.

Speaking Against Inequity in the Writing Classroom: Challenging the Performance Paradigm for Undergraduate Oral Presentations

Many existing scholarly speaking pedagogies continue to think of oral presentations as performances for an audience rather than dialogic exchanges of research. Such approaches, prominent in Canadian universities, can exacerbate classroom inequities by valuing certain ways of speaking and, by extension, certain speakers: speaking pedagogies, for example, that instruct students to speak “clearly,” dress “professionally,” or even to appear “confident,” can encode prejudices that privilege some voices and bodies over others, perpetuating discrimination based on gender, race, sexuality, language, and culture. This article argues that an equitable scholarly speaking pedagogy will teach students to instead think of oral presentations as opportunities for collaborative knowledge-making. We offer strategies to help students think of scholarly speaking as an integral part of the research process, rather than a stand-alone performance. Drawing on genre-theoretical approaches to academic writing, we argue that this shift can be achieved by using “precedents”—examples of scholarly speaking—to familiarize students with academic oral discourse’s genre conventions, helping students to recognize scholarly speaking as a situated and dialogic research genre. By shifting the goal of academic oral presentations towards cooperative knowledge-making, these strategies at once challenge student prejudices about who can be a “good” speaker and remind students of their responsibilities as audience members, resulting in a more equitable and inclusive classroom environment. To provide a pragmatic example of our approach, we outline the “Classroom Conference” assignment that we developed and evaluated, which uses precedents to prepare students for the oral presentations that are integrated as a step in completing their larger research projects. Analyzing survey data from students who completed this assignment, we recognize its success but also propose strategies for overcoming persisting challenges in getting students to shift their thinking toward an equitable model of scholarly speaking.

A Genre-Based Investigation of the Introduction Sections of Academic Oral Presentations

The academic oral presentation (henceforth AOP) is an important genre for tertiary students across various courses and disciplines in the university. Despite the importance of AOPs for undergraduate students, relatively little is known about this genre. Using Swales’ (1990, 2004) notion of move analysis, this paper compares the rhetorical structure of the introduction sections of academic oral presentations from two different fields, namely English language and Administrative Sciences. The findings show some similarities in the AOPs whereby the introduction section contained three moves, and their related steps were similar to previous studies on the rhetorical structure of oral presentations but with few variations. The linguistic features used were also found to be similar in both corpora revealing that students were able to transfer their rhetorical knowledge and linguistic features from one context to another. This study reveals that variation in AOPs is possible in different courses and disciplines. Thus, having genre awareness can help students adapt their genre knowledge to the context.

Factors that influence the development and performance of academic oral presentations using a blended learning environment

AbstractThis study investigated how students designed English academic oral presentations via a blended language learning environment. Data were collected from focus group interviews, observations of students, and instructor perspectives to explore how students develop academic presentation skills. In addition, a total of 36 oral presentations were assessed by a rubric and frequency counts of presentation language and features. By adopting an ecological approach, we identified the interactions between different factors that influenced learning. Interview findings and observations suggested students welcomed the immediacy of the technology and demonstrated signs of autonomous learning by self‐selecting the chat application Line for group collaboration. Participants preferred both online and face‐to‐face collaboration, as students discovered the limits of online communication. Results indicated that group oral presentations improved, with stronger introductions, linking devices, and visual elements. However, students had problems constructing conclusions and trouble linking the main ideas to the content.

A Study of Academic Oral Presentation Anxiety and Strategy Employment of EFL Graduate Students

This study investigates the factors contributing to academic oral presentation anxiety, explore the differences between English majors and non-English majors in their strategy employment for academic oral presentations, examine the relationship between academic oral presentation anxiety and strategy employment, and compare the differences in oral communication strategy employment between high-anxiety and low-anxiety students. A total of sixty-one participants participated in this study by answering two questionnaires: Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety (PRPSA) (McCroskey, 1970) and Oral Communication Strategy Inventory (OCSI) (Nakatani, 2006), and a follow-up interview was conducted focusing on high and low-anxiety students as defined by the result on PRPSA. Results showed that the three major sources of anxiety related to content of presentation, oral proficiency, and delivery skill. Moreover, a significant difference was found in the use of Social Affective strategies between English majors and non-English majors. Besides, negative significant correlations were found in the use of Message Abandonment strategies and Attempt to Think in English strategies. Furthermore, a statistically significant difference was found in the use of Message Abandonment strategies between high-anxiety and low anxiety-students. Pedagogical implications for reducing anxiety in academic oral communication were discussed.

Multimodal communication in academic oral presentations by L2 Spanish students

ABSTRACTPresenting in a second language (L2) is perhaps the greatest challenge for international students in a foreign academic context. In this study, we examine the multimodal (verbal and non-verbal) oral performances of two L2 and two L1 groups of Spanish students enrolled in a university Applied Linguistics course. To determine the specific demands and challenges that each group faces, we conducted a questionnaire with 16 participants and carried out an audiovisual discourse analysis of the presentations based on a multimodal framework applied to the use of academic Spanish. It was discovered in the analysis of the data that multimodal competence, the ability to make use of and combine verbal and non-verbal modes of communication to construct and communicate meaning, can compensate for L2 students’ linguistic deficiencies. The article concludes with guidelines to support the development of multimodal competence of L2 students.

Exploring the Genre of Academic Oral Presentations: A Critical Review

Conducting Academic Oral Presentation (AOP) is an endeavour for undergraduates although it is a key academic genre for undergraduates. Despite its importance, there remains a paucity of studies on this oral genre in the Malaysian context as shown in the body of the literature. This paper provides a critical review of the literature on AOP and discusses the advantages and limitations of the previous studies to date on this oral genre. The literature shows most studies that adopt the genre analysis approach typically analyse only one section of the oral genre. These studies have not examined the AOP rhetorical structure in totality. Moreover, studies on multimodal analysis of AOP comparing the verbal and non-verbal modes are limited. Only few studies have attempted to examine the juxtaposition of the moves, linguistic elements and the visuals. AOPs are ubiquitous for the students across various courses and disciplines in the university and past studies have also compared the differences between disciplines (Zappa-Hollman, 2007; Morita, 2000).Thus, realizing the importance of AOP, clearly there is a necessity to conduct more research in this area in the local context.

Global Trends and Research Aims for English Academic Oral Presentations

English has become the de facto language for communication in academia in many parts of the world, but English language learners often lack the language resources to make effective oral academic presentations. However, English for academic purposes (EAP) research is beginning to provide valuable insights into this emerging field. This literature review is a systematic overview of the research on EAP oral monologues and EAP monologues that employ learning technology (LT). Three investigative aims were addressed in the research: linguistic description of the final oral presentation, the learning processes including learner attitudes toward the process, and LT for oral monologues. Major findings included linguistic and discourse differences among learners, experts, and native speakers; the need for specific guidelines and focused training; the role of multimodal resources; and the pedagogical affordances of the LT. Identified challenges, future research directions, and instructional suggestions are provided for instructors and researchers.

BAUS Section of Academic Urology Oral Presentations

Abstract The prize for Best Presentation by a non-clinical academic was awarded to Simon Williamson from the Northern Institute for Cancer Research for his presentation entitled COMPARATIVE META-ANALYSIS OF THE HUMAN PROSTATE STEM CELL TRANSCRIPTOME DEMONSTRATES THAT PROGENITOR CELLS ARE THE SITE OF MALIGNANT TRANSFORMATION. The prize for Best Presentation by a clinician was awarded to Robert McCormick from Churchill Hospital, Oxford for his presentation entitled THE ROLE OF HYPOXIA-INDUCIBLE MIR-210 IN THE BIOLOGY AND PROGNOSIS OF CLEAR CELL KIDNEY CANCER.

The oral presentation as a context for learning and assessment

Tests are said to be an important determiner of what actually happens in classrooms. There are claims for both positive and negative washback. However, there is still very little evidence of how washback from the test format affects learning and teaching activities in foreign language learning. There has been even less attention to the nature of the changes in classroom practice and student role when a novel test format is introduced. This article explores how the assessment format (academic oral presentations – AOP) in a university English course shapes students' group discussions in the classroom, and vice versa. Classroom observation data document interaction processes and facilitate investigation of the relationship between classroom discussions and assessed AOPs. We present a conversation analysis account of group discussions and explore the structure of oral presentations through a lexical signal framework. The analysis illustrates how classroom interactions develop and are sustained to facilitate collaborative learning. We relate the findings of this analysis to the structure, linguistic features and quality of the oral presentations of the students from the group discussions. This article argues that the assessment format can shape classroom activities so that there are enhanced opportunities for learning, and that the particular format investigated here – the AOP – has the potential to generate learning opportunities.

A Genre-analysis of Academic Oral Presentations in Korean by Foreign Graduate Students

A Genre-analysis of Academic Oral Presentations in Korean by Foreign Graduate Students