The Internet
TESLJournal
Teaching Effective Presentation Skills to ESL/EFL Students
Yin Ling Cheung
ycheung (at) purdue.edu
Purdue University (West Lafayette, Indiana, USA)
This article discusses some practical techniques that ESL/EFL
teachers can use in teaching effective academic presentation
skills. It is suggested that macro organization, micro organization,
thesis and support, strategies to involve the audience, response to
audience input, non-verbal communication, use of visual materials, and
pacing should be taught explicitly to the students.
Introduction
Being able to present oneself precisely and concisely is a key to
success in one’s course of study. In what follows, I suggest some
practical tips on academic presentation skills that are easy to use in
teaching your ESL/EFL students.
Macro Organization
The first step is teaching macro organization. The organization of an
academic presentation should consist of purpose, objectives, outline,
introduction, and conclusion. The purpose is a statement that suggests
the general goal of the presentation. The objectives are the specific
goals that you want to achieve by the end of a presentation. The
outline refers to the different parts, sections or components in your
presentation. As regards the introduction, you may teach your students
to start off with a word origin, an interesting question, a definition
of a term, an analogy, or even a personal experience. Concerning the
conclusion, no new information should be introduced to this part;
the conclusion only summarizes the key points of your talk. You can
begin
the conclusion using the phrases such as in a nutshell, the bottom line
is…, what it boils down to is … or other similiar phrases.
Micro Organization
The second step is teaching micro organization which refers to textual
coherence, transitions, and connections from one part to another. A
student can try the following useful phrases to make a smooth
transition, such as I am going to switch gears, let’s move on to the
next part, next let’s look at…, or next, I am going to talk about… .
Thesis and Support
Next, you can go on to teach the idea of thesis and support in an
academic presentation. Teach your students to present their ideas
clearly with explanations and plenty of examples. Sometimes, analogies
are useful means to help explain an idea.
Strategies to Involve the Audience
Teach your students to use a variety of strategies to engage the
audience.
Practical strategies to involve the audience are questions,
comprehension
checks, and tasks. Examples of questions are “Do you have any questions
about this concept or this vocabulary that I just taught?” Always ask
specific questions instead of general questions such as “Do you have
any questions?” Comprehension checks are essential tools to involve
your audience. Examples of comprehension checks are “Is everyone with
me so far?”, “Is everyone on the same page?”, “Can you repeat the
definition of X, in your own words?” Tasks are small exercise to check
the audience’s understanding. The presenter can throw a question to the
audience and encourage them to discuss it with the person sitting next
to him/her for approximately thirty seconds to one minute. The
audience will be asked to report their thoughts to the rest of the
group.
Response to the Audience Input
If the answer from the audience is incorrect, the presenter can say
good try or good guess. Never say the word wrong or incorrect to
embarrass those who try hard enough to produce a response. If the
answer from the audience is right, respond to them positively by saying
very good, excellent, terrific. Many times, if your student presenters
do not know the answer to the questions from the audience, your student
presenter can say “I do not have an immediate answer to your question.
I will look it up and get back to you, if you remind me.” It’s normal
that you do not know everything in this world.
Non-verbal Communication
Gaze, facial expression, movement, and gesture are typical means of
non-verbal communication. Most of my students lack movement during
their presentation and many are frozen. Approach the audience
especially when the audience ask questions. Especially to the students
who have soft voices, it is strongly encouraged that they come closer
to the audience to talk from time to time.
Use of Visual Materials
Nowadays, using powerpoint is not uncommon in presentations.
Still, it will be a good idea to supplement the talk with a handout
containing key points of the presentation, pictures, or illustrations.
Real objects are good tools to help your students present an idea
efficiently.
Pacing
Pacing means balancing the amount of information with the speed of
presentation
and the time allotted. Always rehearse the presentations as many times
as
possible. Always time yourself in the rehearsals. In actual
presentation, the number of the questions from the audience is often
unpredictable. Sometimes, you just cannot present all the materials you
have prepared. Always present the more important information first.
When you run out of time, you can cut those least important parts that
follow.
Conclusion
Teaching students the techniques to deliver a well-organized,
interesting presentation is not that difficult. Macro organization,
micro organization, thesis and support, strategies to involve the
audience,
response to audience input, non-verbal communication, use of visual
materials, and pacing should be taught explicitly to the students. If
you follow this advice closely, you will see a significant improvement
in
your students’ macro- and micro- organization skills.
The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. XIV, No. 6, June 2008
http://iteslj.org/
http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Cheung-PresentationSkills.html