Doing oral presentations can be an effective way to improve learner confidence, spoken fluency, and delivery. However, class sizes, time constraints, and being able to provide effective presenter feedback can make doing oral presentations challenging in courses.
Below is the recording of my 20min Zoom presentation at the JALT2021 (Japan Association of Language Teachers) online conference in November 2021. The presentation reflects on designing and teaching English oral presentation courses for both small and large groups of Japanese university students over a five-year period.
Continued below
The talk will first briefly cover the content and timing of the course components, materials used, presentation formats, and evaluation criteria. A focus will then be given to how online components (such as sharing pre-recorded mini-presentations) were integrated into the course and implementing a comprehensive presenter feedback system that included multiple teacher, peer and self-evaluations, and post-presentation reflection discussions.
This experience, combined with post-course student feedback questionnaire results, will then be used to consider ideas on how oral presentations can be more effectively addressed in future face-to-face, online, and blended teaching contexts.
While the context for these courses were post-graduate student research presentations, most of the points covered can also be applied to integrating oral presentations into more general communication courses.
Related links:
Downloads and links for research presentation courses
Effective oral presentations (YouTube examples)
Ten tips to get your students reading more outside the classroom
