Oral Presentation Task Research Articles

Anxiety and enjoyment in oral presentations: a mixed-method study into Chinese EFL learners’ oral presentation performance

Abstract Despite the prevalence of emotion-centered studies in foreign language classrooms, there are scant studies focusing on one specific task, the oral presentation task. This research utilized questionnaires to measure 25 Chinese Business-English major sophomores’ Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety (FLCA) and Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE) in a group oral presentation task. It aimed to unveil the relationships between FLCA/FLE and oral presentation performance, and to dig out factors affecting FLCA and FLE in oral presentations through self-reflective journals. It was reported that most participants generally enjoyed delivering oral presentations rather than felt anxious. Participants exhibited better performance in the content of their presentations as opposed to the delivery manner. Unlike the limited influence of FLE on oral presentations, FLCA showed significant negative correlations with overall presentation performance, particularly in participants’ vocal delivery, enthusiasm, and eye contact. Qualitative data revealed that participants’ FLCA and FLE in oral presentations were predominantly influenced by personal and peer-related factors. Based on the major findings, pedagogical suggestions were put forward to enhance learners’ oral presentation skills and promote academic oracy in higher education.

The Portrait of Lecturer’s Feedback on Students’ Oral Presentation Experience from Indonesian and Nepal University

Although much research has been conducted on teacher feedback, little is discussed about how teacher educators give feedback on student teachers’ oral presentations to improve students’ communicative competence in foreign-language (FL) education. Semi-structured interviews have been carried out to get the data and this case study analyzed the methods used by an experienced Indonesian teacher educator of English as a foreign language to provide feedback on student teachers’ oral presentation tasks. This study revealed that the teacher gave feedback mainly focused on content, oral skill development, and analytical thinking. The analysis also revealed that the teacher used the pattern of ‘praise and suggestion’ when giving feedback on student teachers’ oral presentations. This paper also discusses relevant pedagogical implications for student teacher’s feedback practices in the EFL context.

Teachers’ Perspectives on the Efficacy of Oral Presentation Tasks toward Promoted Linguistic Acquisition

To unlock language proficiency among learners, speaking is regarded to be an essential and crucial aspect to master, not only for learning purposes but for recognized communication dynamics. Language learning has numerous critical aspects. To be lacking in speaking proficiencies has been noted to impart negatively toward language learning. This paper explores whether oral presentations can be regarded as a vital tool to unlock learner language development. To collect data, qualitative research approaches embedded in a case study design were used. These are methods well known to assist in attaining better understanding in real-life situations. Three English language teachers were perceived relevant since they teach English to first-year university students. Although studies have been conducted on advantages of using oral tasks in a schooling environment, little to nothing is mentioned in the literature about how such tasks can be viable instruments to augment critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Findings suggest that motivated learning and enhanced communication skills were major factors that could lead to enhanced language aptitudes. This paper concludes that for teaching and learning to incorporate oral tasks brings numerous benefits for language learning as well as other subjects underpinning the prescribed curriculum. It is proposed that it is necessary to consider diverse perspectives in discussions related to teaching methods as oral activities are prominent tools for language expansion.

Assessing speaking through multimodal oral presentations: The case of construct underrepresentation in EAP contexts

This article explores the nature of the construct underlying classroom-based English for academic purpose (EAP) oral presentation assessments, which are used, in part, to determine admission to programmes of study at UK universities. Through analysis of qualitative data (from questionnaires, interviews, rating discussions, and fieldnotes), the article highlights how, in EAP settings, there is a tendency for the rating criteria and EAP teacher assessors to sometimes focus too narrowly on particular spoken linguistic aspects of oral presentations. This is in spite of student assessees drawing on, and teacher assessors valuing, the multimodal communicative affordances available in oral presentation performances. To better avoid such construct underrepresentation, oral presentation tasks should be acknowledged and represented in rating scales, teacher assessor decision-making, and training in EAP contexts.

Rhetorical relations in university students’ presentations

The integration into the tertiary curriculum of problem-based learning, and the growing awareness of the need for university graduates to enter the workforce with highly developed communication skills, has led to a greater focus in academic classrooms on oral communication. One aspect of this is the increased use of monologic student oral presentation tasks, a requirement that presents challenges for international and local students alike. There is little research beyond lexical features that centres on the rhetorical level in student presentations. This study attempts to characterise the rhetorical moves within undergraduate oral presentations. The data comprise transcribed presentations by local and international high-scoring students in core first-year undergraduate subjects in three different faculties (n = 30). The methodology for the analysis was Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST). The analysis, which distributed RST relations into those contributing to the presentation's coherence and listener-oriented comprehensibility, identified the range and frequency of rhetorical moves within the dataset. Differences across disciplines appeared to be due to task requirements rather than disciplinary requirements per se. To conclude, we discuss the value of RST in the analysis of oral student data and its potential to inform the preparation of students for formal academic spoken discourse.

THE IMPACT OF PEER FEEDBACK ON HIGHER EDUCATION STUDENTS’ ORAL PRESENTATION: A CASE STUDY

Peer feedback on oral presentation is still an unexplored area. Much research has been conducted on peer feedback in various teaching and learning contexts, only a few about how peer gives feedback on his/her partner’ oral presentations. The study described here focuses using peer feedback on oral presentations. Analyzing data from semi-structured interviews, this case study investigated impact of giving peer feedback on oral presentations used by English as Foreign Language (EFL) college students on other student’s oral presentation tasks. Data analysis revealed that the peer gave oral feedback mainly focused on content-related criteria (quality of introduction, structure, and conclusion). Most of the peers focused on the nature of the delivery (eye-contact, vocal delivery, enthusiasm, interaction with the audience and body-language), and a few focused on a general quality and on the design of the students’ PowerPoint (PPT) slides.

INVESTIGATING HIGH-SCHOOL EFL LEARNERS’ FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANXIETY: A CASE STUDY AT SMA 4 BANDA ACEH

This study aimed to investigate the level of foreign language anxiety (FLA) experienced by senior-high-school English language learners (ELLs) and to explore plausible factors that contribute to the learners’ anxiety. This research employed a qualitative descriptive method with a case study approach, involving thirty-four twelfth-grade ELLs from SMA 4 Banda Aceh, Indonesia, as participants. In gathering the data, Horwitz et al.'s (1986) Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) and semi-structured interview were used as instruments. The findings revealed that the majority of the ELLs were at a moderate level of anxiety, with more than half of them being at “Mildly Anxious” level and with no “Very Anxious” learners. The findings also indicated that the ELLs’ FLA was caused not only by teacher factors but also student factors. The teacher factors include oral presentation task, incomprehensible input, and teachers’ attitude, while student factors comprise learners’ fear of being laughed at, their’ beliefs about L2, and lack of preparation.

Probing prompting strategy to improve young learner’s speaking skills in Palopo city

This paper attempted to examine the efficacy of the Probing-Prompting Technique in teaching speaking skills to young beginner English learners. This study employed the experimental method with a pre-experimental design. The subjects of this study were English learners age 16 to 19 in Palopo City who were chosen using a purposive sampling technique to select the active learners. Using the oral presentation task, the writers compiled three aspects of the learner's score, i.e. accuracy, fluency, and comprehensibility. The experimental teaching was conducted in six meetings, preceded by a pre-test and ended by a post-test. The pre-test found that the learners’ speaking skill ability is low (mean score: 25.75). In post-test, the authors found that the learners’ language ability substantially improved. Some learners get significant improvement in every aspect of speaking skills, i.e. fluency, accuracy, and comprehensibility. The strategy also contributed to the increase in the mean score (51.50). As a result, the writers concluded that Probing-Prompting Strategy successfully improves the learners’ speaking skills. It is proven by the result of the paired-sample test which showed that t-count (7,584) is higher than t-table (2,365).

Solutions to Overcome Korean Students’ Underperformance at Oral Presentation Tasks: Practical Tips for Hungarian Tertiary Settings

Delivering oral presentations is a requirement in all academic programmes including studies in foreign educational contexts. Concerning American tertiary settings, Korean scholars identified numerous factors impacting the quality of Korean students’ oral presentations. Based on the results of a previous qualitative case study conducted in Hungary, this paper identifies nine problematic areas in which Korean students experience difficulties in Hungarian tertiary settings. Four out of these nine areas have been selected for discussion in the present paper. Based on a practice-oriented literature review, this study outlines solutions, and also describes the authors’ recommendations, to effectively combat these problems. The authors’ concepts are made complete by the inclusion of author-designed worksheets and explanations concerning their use. It is envisaged that these proposed solutions and their discussion will contribute to developing Korean students’ oral presentation skills in Hungarian tertiary-level educational contexts and will also benefit educators preparing other students for oral presentations.

Emotional intelligence and performance in a stressful task: The mediating role of self-efficacy

Emotional intelligence (EI) is argued to predispose individuals to better apprehend and accomplish stressful tasks. Research produced to date has nevertheless mostly neglected the processes that render EI situationally advantageous. In this study, we used path analysis to explore how ability and trait EI relate to delivering a presentation under stress by distinguishing subjective and objective performance. We also proposed self-efficacy as a potential mediator of the trait EI-performance relationship. One hundred and twenty university students completed the STEU, STEM, and GERT (for ability EI) and the TEIQue (for trait EI); then they performed an oral presentation task in front of two evaluators. Students’ self-ratings and evaluators’ scores composed subjective and objective performance. Results indicated that: (a) self-efficacy fully mediated the relationship between trait EI and both subjective and objective performance; (b) ability EI, in particular emotion understanding (STEU), directly predicted objective performance. These findings highlight one way in which the two leading EI approaches may both contribute to performance under stress, but through distinctive paths.

Speaking Up without Freaking Out

It has been reported that language learners use various strategies in learning a second or foreign language. And a lot of research has been done in this area. However, few studies have explored the impact of using scaffolding impromptu speaking activities in ESL classroom on alleviating speaking anxiety. Thus, the current study is an attempt to investigate whether scaffolding impromptu speech activities could help the students to perform better during oral presentation and reduce their speaking anxiety. At the beginning of the study, the students were asked to answer online questionnaire on speaking anxiety experience while holding an oral presentation tasks or assessment. 38 undergraduate students did the prepared impromptu speaking activities such as they have to do self-video recorded, impromptu speech in group and online discussion. This intervention was carried out for six weeks. After that, another online questionnaire on the effectiveness of scaffolding impromptu speaking activities was distributed. However, we only received 25 responses from the participants. Besides that, participants' views about the impromptu speaking activities were also examined through focus group interview. The results of the study indicated that by scaffolding impromptu speaking activities in ESL classroom, the students were able to reduce their speaking anxiety and enhance their oral presentation skill.

LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGIES OF HIGH PROFICIENCY STUDENTS IN THEIR ORAL PRESENTATION AT ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION OF PGRI RONGGOLAWE UNIVERSITY TUBAN

This study is intended to describe 1) the language learning strategies used by male and female students with high speaking performance in their oral presentation and 2) their reasons of using certain language learning strategies. This study used descriptive qualitative method. The subject of the study were ten high proficiency students consisting of four male students and six female students . Q uestionnaire and interview were used to collect the data. The data from the questionnaire and the interview were analyzed descriptively. The result indicated that all of the students from high proficiency level used all learning strategies, including memory strategy, cognitive strategy, compensation strategy, metacognitive strategy, affective strategy, and social strategy . The students were categorized as medium user s of language learning strategy. High proficiency male students used compensation strategy (3.85) the most frequent ly, followed by meta-cognitive strategy (3.63) and social strategy (3.37). Meanwhile, high proficiency female students used c ognitive strategy (4.02) the most frequent ly, followed by compensation strategy (3.77) and metacognitive strategy (3.72). Both male and female students had some different and similar reasons of using certain language learning strategies for their oral presentation task.

Meeting threshold learning standards through self-management in group oral presentations: observations on accounting postgraduate students

ABSTRACTThis study explores the development of student self-management skills through an oral presentation task. It is motivated by the challenge to maintain consistent quality in students’ oral skills and to incorporate national accounting curriculum requirements for threshold learning standards into an accounting subject. The study has been conducted in Australia using a sample of postgraduate accounting students, and the task required the students to prepare a group presentation using action learning. The data were collected using in-class observation and a survey. Students indicated that they were more confident and comfortable in preparing and presenting the oral presentations as compared with their previous experiences. This was especially due to students having a second opportunity to improve their presentations allowing a better understanding of the expected standard. The oral presentation task benefitted all students but was especially useful for those who had limited experience speaking in front of a larger audience.

Teacher feedback to student oral presentations in EFL classrooms: a case study

Whilst much research has been conducted on teacher feedback in various teaching and learning contexts, little is known about how teachers give feedback on student oral presentations to enhance students’ oral communicative skills in second-language (L2) education. Drawing on data from semi-structured interviews, this case study investigated the methods used by an experienced Chinese teacher of English as a Foreign Language to provide feedback on student oral presentation tasks. Data analysis revealed that the teacher gave oral comments mainly on pronunciation, content and logical thinking, and focused on PowerPoint design in his written commentary. The analysis also revealed that the teacher used the specific pattern of ‘praise-criticism-suggestion’ to comment on the students’ oral presentations. Relevant pedagogical implications for L2 teacher feedback practices and teacher-education programmes are discussed in the paper.

The Differential Effects of Three Types of Task Planning on the Accuracy of L2 Oral Production

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of three types of task planning on accuracy of Iranian EFL learners’ oral production. In this study planning was operationalized at three levels: rehearsal, strategic and unpressured within-task planning. The oral presentation task was employed as the means of data collection. The subjects consisted of forty advanced students in four classes with the same level of language proficiency (N=10). One class was randomly selected to act as the control and three others selected as the experimental groups. In order to collect the data, the oral presentation task was used as the means of data collection. In the first group participants were asked to perform the task two times with two-week interval between the two performances. Participants in the second experimental group received strategic planning with ten minutes of planning time. Whilst the participants in the third group began their oral presentation immediately but took time as long as they like to performed their presentation. The participants in the no-planning group, were asked to perform their presentation immediately after reading each text within a limited time. Performance was assessed through the percentage of error-free clauses (to measure accuracy). Data analysis showed a positive influence of both rehearsal and unpressured within-task planning on accuracy of L2 output. Also the results were greater in rehearsal group than within task group.

The extent to which TOEFL iBT speaking scores are associated with performance on oral language tasks and oral ability components for Japanese university students

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which performance on the TOEFL iBT speaking section is associated with other indicators of Japanese university students’ abilities to communicate orally in an academic English environment and to determine which components of oral ability for these tasks are best assessed by TOEFL iBT. To achieve this aim, TOEFL iBT speaking scores were compared to performances on a group oral discussion, picture and graph description, and prepared oral presentation tasks, and their component scores of pronunciation, fluency, grammar/vocabulary, interactional competence, descriptive skill, delivery skill, and question answering. Participants were Japanese university students ( N = 222), who were English majors in a Japanese university. Pearson product–moment correlations, corrected for attenuation, between scores on the speaking section of TOEFL iBT and the three university tasks indicated strong relationships between the TOEFL iBT speaking scores and the three university tasks and high or moderate correlations between the TOEFL iBT speaking scores and the components of oral ability. For the components of oral ability, pronunciation, fluency, and vocabulary/grammar were highly associated with TOEFL iBT speaking scores while interactional competence, descriptive skill, and delivery skill were moderately associated with TOEFL iBT speaking scores. The findings suggest that TOEFL iBT speaking scores are good overall indicators of academic oral ability and that they are better measures of pronunciation, fluency and vocabulary/grammar than they are of interactional competence, descriptive skill, and presentation delivery skill.

Cosmopolitan imaginings: creativity and responsibility in the language classroom

Appreciating difference and combating intolerance are inadequate to effect intercultural transformative experiences in an age of complexity, ambiguities and mobilities. I argue that the tolerance view of intercultural communication is patronising and does not prepare students for future roles in which they can impact upon the world. To realise their ‘obligation to others’ students need the freedom to imagine themselves in roles where they engage with others in responsible ways. Utilising sympathetic and dialogic imagination opens up spaces in the classroom where learners can frame their language learning as ethical intercultural engagements. Referring to a case study of an oral presentation task in a Dutch language class as part of a modern language degree, I show how students use their creativity, cosmopolitan perspectives and multiple voices to re-author themselves as ethical future professionals.

An Emergent Perspective on the Use of the First Language in the English‐as‐a‐Foreign‐Language Classroom

AbstractThis study investigates contextual features surrounding the use of a first language (L1) in a Japanese university English‐as‐a‐foreign‐language (EFL) course during peer interaction in the extended preparation phase leading up to two oral presentation tasks (OP1 and OP3), performed seven months apart. Interaction data were analysed in terms of the amount of L1 production, the distribution of L1 use within and across tasks and dyads, and the focus of learner talk. Contextual influences on L1 use were also investigated. The amount of L1 use increased from OP1 to OP3 and the overall proportion of L1 talk was higher than that found in previous studies. Within dyads, learners generally used less L1 over time. This was attributed to the shifting focus of talk from procedural to content‐creation activity. Some learners were consistently high or low users of L1, while others varied. Variability was attributed to differences in second language (L2) proficiency, levels of engagement with the task and/or interlocutor, and the negotiation of task control and pedagogic roles within a dyad. Finally, it was found that the language chosen for the initial utterance of an exchange may influence that of following utterances. The results support the contention that L1 use emerges naturally in classroom discourse and that attempts to influence it should involve raising awareness of contextual conditions surrounding its emergence.

The role of some selected psychological and personality traits of the rater in the accuracy of self- and peer-assessment

Abstract This paper investigates the role of some selected psychological and personality traits of learners of English as a foreign language in the accuracy of self- and peer-assessments. The selected traits were motivation types, self-esteem, anxiety, motivational intensity, and achievement. 78 students of English as a foreign language participated in thirteen-week oral presentation tasks, during which they were asked to assess their own performance and that of their peers. The study concludes that assessment is a multifaceted process, which is affected by various psychological and personality traits of the raters. The results of the study seem to fall in line with the general pattern that learners possessing the positive side of a trait are more accurate than those who have its negative side, with the exception of students with high classroom anxiety. In addition, high reliability indices similar to those reported in the literature are obtained. The study also shows that long periods of practice and sufficient feedback have a positive effect on the accuracy of assessment. Finally, the study demonstrates that students with low self-esteem are the most accurate in assessing their performance, whereas learners with instrumental motivation are the least accurate.