Oral Presentation Skills Research Articles

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

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’ speaking anxiety level. Sequential explanatory mixed method was used, which includes both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analyses. 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). 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.

An Investigation of Anxiety Factors During English Oral Presentation Skills of Engineering Undergraduates in Pakistan

This study aims to investigate the factors affecting oral presentation skills of undergraduate-learners of English that influence their academic performance which potentially can affect professional career. The study has used quantitative instrument as questionnaire partially adopted from McCroskey (1982) for data collection among 100 undergraduate-participants on factors affecting oral communication skills at one Public Sector University. Purposive sampling method was used since participants were selected on specific criteria of only first year engineering undergraduates. The data were analysed through SPSS, v.20 for obtaining percentage, mean, median, standard deviation, and standard error of mean to be measured. The findings revealed that oral presentation skills as the most problematic for engineering undergraduates. The results also revealed that the several factors affected engineering undergraduates’ oral presentations.

EFL Learners’ Reflections on Cooperative Learning: Issues of Implementation

This study has described and identified the opinions and experiences of the EFL learners who participated in CL English lessons. The participants in this study were 10 tenth-grade male students, aged 14-15 years in four boys’ secondary schools in Al-Baha city. Two English teachers were asked to implement cooperative learning in their classrooms for 12 weeks. The researcher interviewed ten randomly selected students from the cooperative learning classes at the end of the study.The results and findings of this study showed that most students found that CL enabled them to improve their English skills, make new relationships with others classmates, perform different roles, improve their oral presentation skills, build their self confidence, take on responsibility, respect different opinions and offer their different views, increase their motivation, and develop their friendships with their classmates.However, there were few drawbacks and obstacles to using the CL method. These included: low achiever EFL learners depending on high achiever learners, classmates not giving group members a chance to state their opinions, and poor group member distribution and supervision by the teacher. In the following chapter, the researcher presents a general discussion of the results in this study.

Developing Oral Presentation Skills in Undergraduate Researchers

Developing Oral Presentation Skills in Undergraduate Researchers

Motivating Language Learners during Times of Crisis through Project-based Learning: Filming Activities at the Arab International University (AIU)

Times of crisis and the critical conditions that Syrian students have experienced during the last six years have a significant influence on their level of motivation, their academic performance and their attitudes towards their study in general and language learning in specific. This study explores the effects of project-based learning through video making on students' motivation and attitudes towards English courses in comparison to the negative effects produced by the traditional teaching which is mainly based on textbooks. This research is carried out at Arab international university, Foreign Language Center. A total of 24 intermediate students from three different majors participated in the study. Data were drawn from a number of resources including group discussions and informal notes, student self-evaluation questionnaire, and students' performance results. The learning outcomes were remarkable. The motivational level and the attitudes of the experimental group in the second part of the course in which project-based learning sessions were held improved and witnessed a difference in performance comparing it to the first eight weeks of the course in which traditional teaching approach was implemented. Moreover, the learners have improved their linguistic skills when attempting to write the video scripts in addition to developing their oral presentation skills, team work, and their organization and planning skills.

Understanding Engineering Undergraduates’ Technical Oral Presentation: Challenges and Perspectives

This paper reports the findings of an evaluation study on technical oral presentation and its potential application in English language courses for engineering undergraduates setting. The main aim is to delineate difficulties and challenges faced by engineering undergraduates in learning Technical Oral Presentation (TOP) skills in an English proficiency course. The participants were 310 engineering undergraduates who enrolled in the English for Technical Communication (ETC) course and nine instructors. Various difficulties and challenges faced by the engineering undergraduates to learn the TOP skills were identified and input from instructors were also examined. Suggestions to address the challenges faced by the students were highlighted with the view to preparing them for their future engineering workplace communication.

Enhancing EFL Accurate presentation Skills Using Speak-Watch-Speak-Watch Activity of the Instructional Movies Approach Among Primary Stage Pupils

The present study aimed at developing EFL accurate presentation skills using S-W-S-W activity of the instructional movies approach among Primary stage pupils. Fifty two EFL pupils (sixth year primary stage)at Abn Kaldon Primary School Benha to participated in the study. The study made use of EFL accurate presentation skills tests with a rubric to score pupils' responses. The tests were administered pre and post the experiment. Paired sample t-test were conducted to compare the means of the pupils’ scores on the pre – posttests. Results showed that the pupils have developed their EFL accurate presentation skills as a result of using S-W-S-W activity. It is concluded that S-W-S-W activity is effective in developing primary school pupils' EFL accurate oral presentation skills. It is also recommended that S-W-S-W activity can be taught as a part of the instructional movies programs.

A Responsive Pedagogical Initiative for Multimodal Oral Presentation Skills: An Action Research Study

Poor oral presentation skills amongst ESL speakers are frequently linked to weakness in general English proficiency. However, the literature has also identified the lack of a systematic and effective pedagogical method to develop students' multimodal oral presentation skills to meet 21 st century communication realities. This paper elucidates the application of a pedagogical initiative for multimodal oral presentations skills, informed by the Sociocultural Theory of Learning created by Vygotsky (1978), and the Pedagogy of Multiliteracies introduced by the New London Group (1996) and further developed by Cope and Kalantzis (2009). This initiative was experienced by 20 students through the action-reflection cycle methodology and was implemented for 13 weeks in a tertiary ESL classroom. Preliminary findings based on focus group interviews indicated that the initiative left a clear positive impact on student abilities in various multimodal components of oral presentation skills. Furthermore, the initiative positively affected students’ learning experience and raised their self-awareness of themselves as presenters. The findings also suggested that techniques employed in the initiative such as videos, feedback, collaborative learning and Web 2.0 could scaffold the students’ development of multimodal oral presentation skills. Based on these findings, significant implications for teaching oral presentation skills systematically are offered to be referred by ESL practitioners and researchers; in particular, the proposed multimodal oral presentations skills model as a multiliteracies pedagogy and the potential use of web 2.0 tools in promoting collaborative learning and creation of creative content by the learners. Keywords: ESL pedagogy; oral presentation skills; collaborative learning; multimodal literacy; action research

Seeding undergraduate research experience: From Georgia Tech to KFUPM case study

In this paper, implementation and outcomes of an undergraduate research course are presented. The associated gains and learning outcomes of the course are evaluated and benchmarked with other international undergraduate research experiences. The course was offered to undergraduate students at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM). The research group structure adopts Georgia Tech model. The paper summarizes the course structure, content, and best practices. In addition, the results of undergraduate research experience survey are presented and analyzed. The students reported significant gains in understanding of the research process and significant improvements in writing and oral presentation skills.

Scientific Community Outreach: Promoting Science to Students at the K‐12 Level and STEM Students in ASBMB UPR‐RP

ObjectivesThe American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) Student Chapter at the University of Puerto Rico‐Rio Piedras Campus (UPR‐RP) is devoted on promoting science in communities inside and outside of our university. The primary goals of the chapter are: 1) to increase the interest in science of students in the K‐12 level and 2) to provide STEM students in the University with the tools and guidance to improve their academic and professional development.MethodsTo do this we offer outreach activities to students at the K‐ 12 level. These activities are comprised of experiments related to different fields of science such as biology, chemistry, physics, biotechnology and environmental science. The idea is to illustrate scientific concepts in an easy, and hands‐on way. Therefore, students can better understand these concepts, making biochemistry and molecular biology accessible to all. Aside of the outreach activities offered in schools, we also collaborate with other associations, such as the American Chemistry Society (ACS) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), in local activities at the ACS Chemistry Festival and AAAS Annual Meeting, respectively. Members of the ASBMB student chapter are also encouraged to participate in all outreach events so they can develop their oral presentation skills. For students in STEM fields, we offer a variety of workshops and seminars including: how to make personal statements and curriculum vitae, how to seek out research opportunities and internship opportunities, graduate and professional school panels, as well as journal clubs.Conclusion/Future DirectionThe collection of the activities and experiences that we offer to students in K‐12 level, STEM students and ASBMB members result in a successful promotion of science community at a variety of levels. Our hope is to develop an interest in science in students at the K‐12 level who are involved in our outreach activities and to facilitate the professional development of college students (both STEM students and ASBMB members).Support or Funding InformationASBMB Regional Meeting AwardThis abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

KAJIAN PENERAPAN TUGAS MINI RISET TERHADAP HASIL BELAJAR MAHASISWA MATERI KEANEKARAGAMAN HAYATI

This study aims to find empirical data about the application of mini research tasks to student learning outcomes in the course of Systems Biology at FMIPA Unimed Medan. The method used in this research is quasi experiment with nonequivalent control group design. The results showed that students' ability in mastery of biodiversity material given task with mini research on value (post-test) was higher with mean value (95) than control class (70). In addition, the mastery of communication skills in writing, oral presentation skills, skills of analysis / critical thinking and integration skills is higher than the control class. Thus it can be said that the application of mini research tasks to students who follow the course of Systems Biology in FMIPA Unimed can improve learning outcomes in the mastery of biodiversity lesson materials. Likewise can improve the ability of students in the mastery of communication skills in writing, oral presentation skills, skills of analysis / critical thinking and integration skills. The results of this study will be used as a refinement of Basic Biology learning guide in FMIPA Unimed.Keywords: Mini research, Biodiversity, Student learning outcomes

Integrated Teaching Model for Undergraduate English Majors’ English Public Speaking Course in China

Recently more and more universities in China design public speaking course in English for the undergraduate English majors. This course can facilitate the students’ oral presentation skills as well as critical thinking improvement. In practice, the outcome of public speaking course is not satisfactory for most students feel anxious to speak in a foreign language and the traditional teacher centered teaching model is not sufficient for the enhancement of students’ achievement in such oral skill focused course. In this paper, the author investigated a new and creative teaching model to activate students’ motivation and forester their performance in English public speaking course for English majors. This model combines neuro-linguistic programming and cooperative approach to create an integrated model. NLP can help recreate a positive and friendly atmosphere for students’ success in English public speaking course and cooperative approach is the learning model which emphasis that a group of students to learn together to optimize the learning environment and reach the learning goals. The newly designed integrated model can be an effective model for a valuable and productive English public speaking course.

Creating Machinima (3D) and Real Life Videos in an ESP Classroom

This research paper reports on the development of oral presentation skills in a 3D virtual world called Moviestorm machinima, in contrast with real-life videos. In this way, the implementation of both types of videos sought to promote the improvement of oral communication skills, specifically oral presentations in a foreign language, as well as promoting collaborative work. The study involved 60 students from different semesters of a private Colombian university from the schools of electronic engineering, computer science, and law, focusing on English for specific purposes. The results showed how students from different faculties worked collaboratively to achieve one goal: improve their oral presentation skills.

Exploring the possibilty to develop language based instruction to improve nurses’ oral case presentation skills

Nurses as interlocutors play a crucial role in disseminating information among the health team members. Oral case presentation is one of the nurses’ significant clinical communication tasks. A skillful presentation of a clinical case by nurses to doctors has a significant contribution to Health care realm. But no formal teaching is imparted to help students learn case presentation skills. Students learn oral presentation by trial and error through rhetoric practice based on observation rather than teaching. This may delay development of effective communication skills and result in acquisition of unintended professional values (Richard J Haber, and Lorelei A Lingard23). In recent times teaching instructions to improvise the clinical OCP skills have been attempted, yet most of them focus on improving ‘what to say’ i.e. Content (Nursing) Based OCP Instruction, rather the ‘how to say’ i.e. Language Based OCP Instruction. This paper proposes a teaching module to develop English competence to carry out OCP using the guidance of OCP genre reviews.

Engineering Undergraduates’ Self-Assessment in Delivering Technical Oral Presentations in ESL Context

In recent years, alternative assessments have progressively gained attention in L2 speaking. An area which has received significant attention in the ESL literature has been the implementation of self-assessment strategy. The purpose of the present study is to find undergraduates’ perceptions pertaining to the use of self-assessment on technical oral presentations. In order to achieve this aim, the study conducted 113 engineering undergraduates from the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Earth Resources to be involved in this research. The study delved into the participants’ perceptions on self-assessment in delivering technical oral presentations. A questionnaire which had been adapted from previous studies was found to be reliable and was distributed to the participants. The results of the study revealed that the engineering undergraduates’ perceptions on self-assessment were positive. According to the findings of the study, it can be concluded that implementing self-assessment technique among Malaysian undergraduates can be helpful in overcoming some of their oral presentation difficulties. Hence, the results of the study have clear implications on teaching and learning. Educators can implement self-assessment technique as an autonomous learning opportunity to alleviate their students’ oral presentation apprehension. The strategy can polish the oral presentation skills of individuals in both academic and professional spheres.

Sharing Peer Feedback: How Does It Affect EFL Learners’ Oral Presentation Skills?

The current study explores the effect of peer feedback in an English oral presentation class. Much of the previous research interest was given to finding out the degree of agreement between teacher and peer assessments or among students’ assessments, but not the expected advantages of peer assessment itself. Accordingly, 49 Korean EFL university students were recruited, and 25 (i.e., control group) were given only the instructor’s feedback, and the rest 24 (i.e., experimental group) were additionally given peer feedback. The students made five presentations in total, and their midterm and final exam scores between the two groups were compared through independent samples t-tests. The midterm scores were quite similar, but statistically significant differences were observed for the final exam scores. This meant that those who shared peer feedback as a small group during the semester performed much better on the final exam by improving their oral proficiency. Moreover, their responses to a survey questionnaire indicated that they perceived they had greatly improved presentation skills through peer feedback task. In particular, it seemed that small group work and intimacy helped them more to maximize the effect of peer feedback. Pedagogical implications and limitations of this study are further discussed.

Sharing Peer Feedback: How Does It Affect EFL Learners’Oral Presentation Skills?

Sharing Peer Feedback: How Does It Affect EFL Learners’Oral Presentation Skills?

DEVELOPING ESL/EFL LEARNERS� PUBLIC SPEAKING SKILLS THROUGH PECHA KUCHA PRESENTATIONS

In the 21st century workplace, there has been an increasing demand for graduates to possess communicative competence particularly in speaking. Anchored on the 21st Century Learning Framework (Partnership for 21st Century Skills or P21, 2006) and the TPACK Framework (Koehler & Mishra, 2009), this study reports findings on the pedagogical viability of utilizing Pecha Kucha 20x20 Presentations in developing students� competence and confidence while presenting in the language classroom. Research participants include 43 English as Second Language (ESL) learners taking Speech Communication classes in a private university in Manila, the Philippines during the second semester of the academic year 2016-2017. Research data from students� reflections, interviews, survey, and focus group discussion (FGD) suggest that despite some format and technological limitations, delivering Pecha Kucha presentations may help students develop their English speaking and oral presentation skills, build their confidence in speaking before an audience, and practice their English macro skills such as listening and reading. In the light of these findings, pedagogical implications are provided for ESL (English as a second language) and EFL (English as a foreign language) teachers, communication educators, and researchers.Keywords: Teaching speaking, Pecha Kucha Presentations, ESL public speaking, TPACK

Positive effects of a programme on oral presentation skills: high- and low-proficient learners’ self-evaluations and perspectives

The study set out to facilitate tertiary learners’ development of oral presentation skills within the self-regulated-learning framework. A published, relatively comprehensive inventory of presentation (delivery) skills was adopted in this mixed methods study, which comprised pre- and post-programme self-evaluation questionnaires, post-programme interviews and field notes. The results demonstrated that the learners generally perceived both the three-month programme and the inventory to be conducive to their oral presentation skill development. Quantitative analyses revealed the higher number of areas of significant self-perceived improvement among the low-proficient learners (30 items) compared with that among the high-proficient learners (13 items); however, qualitative analyses unveiled the paradoxical phenomenon that the lower increment in high-proficient learners’ ratings suggests their reflective abilities to learn from observation and their greater awareness to identify areas for improvement. These substantiate that the programme and the inventory have benefited the low- and high-proficient learners in different fashions.

Addressing Reading Instruction to the Issue of Essential Academic Achievements

Oral presentation and reading skill were the academic success indicators of undergraduate students; however, the majority of students in their first semester encountered the reading-related problem and presentation-related problem. Thereby, aims of this study were to increase the reading skill of college students, involving them in constructing of new knowledge and improving their oral presentation skill. Classroom action research was the method of this study and Ebbut Cycle Model as the research design. Nineteen undergraduate students who were enrolled in the first semester participated as respondent and a variety of data were collected through observation, anecdotal record, interview, and the mark of assignment. In the last cycle, it could be asserted that nearly all of respondents could deliver the classroom presentation properly which was prepared from new knowledge construction and group discussion.