Substance Over Style: Meaningful Academic Oral Presentations

Oral Presentations are an important part of studying in an English-medium university environment and will be something many students face, whatever their field of study. Such presentations can be particularly challenging for non-native English speakers (NNES). Despite the importance of oral presentations as a form of academic discourse, they remain a relatively underresearched area and an area where there is limited targeted EAP presentation training materials. There is no clear conceptualization in the existing literature of which the authors are aware as to the key features that make a presentation academic. This paper aims to redress that issue with the aim of then evaluating the training materials currently available to help NNES develop their academic oral presentation skills.

Oral Presentations are an important part of studying in an English-medium university environment and will be something many students face, whatever their field of study. Such presentations can be particularly challenging for non-native English speakers (NNES). Despite the importance of oral presentations as a form of academic discourse, they remain a relatively underresearched area and an area where there is limited targeted EAP presentation training materials. There is no clear conceptualization in the existing literature of which the authors are aware as to the key features that make a presentation academic. This paper aims to redress that issue with the aim of then evaluating the training materials currently available to help NNES develop their academic oral presentation skills.

International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, 2017

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 diffe...

2007

Most university students in Australia are required to give at least one oral presentation during their courses, and this can be particularly daunting for international students for whom English is not a first language. It has been suggested that watching a successful peer model can not only provide students with advice but actually improve their confidence in delivery.

Indian Journal of Private Psychiatry

There is convincing evidence to support that the skills to deliver an effective oral presentation are essential tools for a successful career. These skills are yet not part of the official academic curriculum across many Asian countries. This invariably affects young researchers who are seeking to build confidence through these presentations. The authors examined the relevant literature sources for recommendations and guidelines to prepare an effective oral presentation and have added insights and learnings gleaned during the "Early Career Psychiatrist Leadership and Professional Skills Workshop. " Key takeaways-An effective oral presentation does not begin with making a PowerPoint presentation but identifying the key message and building a mental structure of the presentation in a spoken style. Any rule of making a presentation is only valid if it assists in delivering this key message. Having slides is not mandatory and one has to examine whether the slides of the presentation complement or are distracting the audience from the presentation. Similarly, statistics can be presented outside of tables in many compelling ways. It is prudent to cautiously explore and experiment with the guidelines and learnings listed here to suit the early career psychiatrist (ECP) style. We believe that these gleanings can benefit other medical professionals with relevant modifications.

This worksheet is geared towards advanced undergraduate students majoring in literature, although much of it could be adapted for other disciplines and contexts. It provides guidance on crafting and delivering oral presentations, which are typically based on an article assigned by the instructor to the presenter and to be delivered to a class who has not read the article. The typical length of these presentations is 5 minutes, and presentations may include slideshows. Longer presentations have different parameters. This worksheet is paired with “Know Your Audience: Undergraduate Writing and Speaking.” For writing assignments, readers can refer to “How Do I Efficiently Write Essays in French?” This worksheet was first created in Fall 2021 and was last updated by its author in Summer 2023 with the valuable input and feedback of former students Marley Fortin, Merve Ozdemir, and Elizabeth Swanson.

The academic presentation is a relatively new format which enlarges its spheres of application, being implemented in different types of higher learning. Presentations are adopted as a method of lecturing and evaluating students’ progress during the course of studies and final exams. Presentations of academic essays, reports and master theses can also be addressed to colleagues and evaluators. Consequently, these types of academic presentations expand their sphere of application (and it is required to) into perfecting (improve) students’ presentation skills. Conferences, seminars and discussions are other fields where academic presentations are an effective way of introducing and presenting scientific research results. A presentation combines verbal, non-verbal, sound and visual elements; scenario, structure and slides. An actual presenting includes not only speaking and pronouncing, but also an effective behaviour, which implies the use of technical skills and non-verbal means of communication in order to influence the academic audience. Rhetorical features are manifested on a verbal level whenever the presenter combines rhetorical figures and arguments; additionally during a modern academic presentation s/he includes visual metaphors and argumentation. The presenter prefers photos, video clips, tables, diagrams and figures which are used alongside verbal means. One relatively un-investigated and poorly developed area is the use of academic presentations during distance education and particularly the methodology of these kinds of presentations. Other aspects include how to establish database incorporating academic presentations and how to improve the quality of education in computer mediated communication. In conclusion, it is possible to say that academic presentations integrate common and basic elements but every presenter should have the rhetorical skills to speak relevantly in front of different kinds of audiences.

Educational Research Review, 2015

Developing oral presentation competence is an essential objective in higher education. However, a comprehensive picture of effective learning environment characteristics for encouraging oral presentation performance is lacking hitherto. This review identifies and classifies relevant studies with the aim of deducing a set of design principles with underlying conceptual and empirical argumentations for developing this competence. Fiftytwo publications from the last 20 years were selected through a systematic search in four scientific databases. Subsequently, all studies were categorized with respect to student characteristics, learning environment characteristics, learning processes and outcomes. The synthesis of these studies resulted in the formulation of seven design principles, addressing the instruction, learning and assessment sides of the learning environment. These design principles include the following learning environment characteristics: learning objectives, learning task, behaviour modelling, opportunity to practice, intensity and timing of feedback, peer assessment and self-assessment. Finally, an agenda for future research is discussed.

2019

Success in oral pesentation skills contributes to students’ success in academic performance as well as their social life. It is important for teachers to know their students’ needs and social background in order to encourage them to share information relevant to their interests with their peers to improve their oral presentation skills. This study investigates the factors that affect oral presentation among undergraduates. This quantitative study used Likert scale questionnaire to collect data from 100 undergraduates at a private university in Malaysia (UNITAR International University). The data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) in the form of mean, standard deviation, and variance. The findings of the study showed four primary factors: confidence, nervousness, communication, and presentation skill that effect oral presentation among the undergraduate students. The results of the study demonstrated that the students were very nervous during presentat...

International Journal of Learning and Teaching, 2018

The importance of being able to perform a good oral presentation is undeniably necessary for academician nowadays, including students of higher education. To show their capacity, the students need to be prepared in delivering their presentation. However, the current students' presentation skill is still far from the expectation. Therefore, this article aims at sharing several facts dealing with presentation skill in terms of preparations, problems faced during presentation, and the ways to cope with the problems. This study was conducted as a qualitative research with descriptive approach. Questionnaire and interview were distributed and performed to five respondents to gather the data needed. The findings show that preparation involving content mastery and practice are the keys to be successful in presentation. Meanwhile, the problems faced are highly related to the respondents' nervousness due to time limitation and audiences, which cause losing idea while performing. To overcome these, some strategies such as believing in their abilities, skipping less important points, and anticipating possible questions from the audiences were employed. Based on the research results, it is suggested that speaker should be trained to be more aware of the preparations and strategies needed for presentation since the main keys to the success of delivering good presentation are highly determined by knowing how to prepare well and being able to use the strategies more appropriately and frequently. 