Филологические науки/1. Методика преподавания языка и литературы

Ph.D. Konyaeva L.A., Yakimova N.S.

Kemerovo State University, Russia

Presentations in Culture Studies Classes as a Means of Developing and Broadening Linguistic Competence

Presentation as a means of developing and broadening linguistic competence has been widely adopted by English language teachers to promote proficiency in the field of intercultural communication. Students’ presentations are widely appealed to in English Conversation and Culture Studies classes. If properly guided and organized, they provide a learning experience and teach life long skills that will be beneficial to learners in all school subjects as well as later in their professional careers. Among the many advantages of making such presentations for the students are: bridging the gap between language study and language use; using the four language skills in a naturally integrated way; helping students to collect, inquire, organize and construct information; enhancing team work; and helping students become active and autonomous learners. In addition, they help students improve their technical expertise, for with the availability of new technology both at school and home, students incorporate video cameras, slide projectors, PowerPoint, VCR/DVD and other visual aids into their presentations which become more exciting and interesting.

Introducing presentations on intercultural topics as type of assignment suggests creating a student-centered approach in the English language class rather than a teacher-centered approach. But the teacher’s role lies in creating a comfortable and low-threat learning environment, for many students are overwhelmed with the research and communication skills that are necessary for a successful presentation. The delivery of any presentation is a source of extreme anxiety. Anxiety causes performance to deteriorate and affects novice speakers' self-esteem and confidence. An obvious gap between the current level of performance and the intended learning experience often results in a breakdown of language production and frustration for students. Some serious students who invest time and effort into an presentation do not always get the intended outcomes. Other students try to get through the ordeal as quickly as possible, but do not improve their speaking skills under such stressful situations. Thus presentations can be a time-consuming project with no guarantee of a satisfactory performance.

But nevertheless presentations should be included in the English language curriculum as a form of group or individual activity. The key to a successful students’ presentation lies in coping with speech anxiety and practicing presentation skills. Speech anxiety and limited presentation skills are the major problems that lead to learners' presentation failures. The less anxious and more relaxed the learner, the better language acquisition proceeds. In order to help students effectively cope with their fear of oral presentations, it is essential for teachers to acknowledge that speech anxiety is perfectly normal. Having an open discussion on speech anxiety will assist students to feel that they are not alone.

Some tips and advice that teachers may provide for their students to help them better prepare for any presentations include:

Ø emphasizing the difference between spoken English and written English.

A total dependence on memorization is the pattern followed by most students who usually have trouble adapting information to spoken English for the audience. The reading of written English, with complex sentences and low frequency words, further impedes audience's listening comprehension. Reciting from passages copied down from references makes the presentations sound canned, machine-like and dull. A listener's attention span shortens when he/she cannot follow the speech and the speaker gets worse when he senses that his listeners are inattentive and losing interest in his presentation. Thus presenters often lose command of their voice, tone, and pacing. Students should use note cards as reminders of what they are going to say. It is much easier to establish rapport with the audience by only referring to the note cards occasionally and make eye contact with the audience.

Ø explaining the purpose of visual aids.

There are many advantages in using visual aids during the presentation. Visual aids can create a powerful effect, help keep students' attention, and illustrate main ideas. The basic rule is to use visual aids to support the presentation, not to dominate it. However, the disadvantage of overusing visual aids is that the attention of the audience will be divided and students may stand aside and have visual aids take their place.

Ø helping students to conquer the fear of making errors.

The learners should be informed that they will not be graded by the mistakes they make. While assigning this activity the grading criteria should be handed out to all learners. Good English learners are willing to take risks and accept errors. Poor English learners like to use only language that they are certain is correct.

Ø developing students' summarizing and outlying skills.

If students' past English learning experiences have been basically teacher-controlled and test-oriented, they used to work on memorizing detailed grammatical rules, vocabulary out of contexts and isolated phrases or expressions by which their test grades based on. Learning to produce a well-organized and coherent outline can be very helpful to learners since an outline can give audiences a clear and concise overview of the key points of the talk. Preparing students these prerequisite skills is important in getting them ready for any project work, otherwise students will feel that the teacher has just dumped them into the sea to struggle for survival. They may feel frustrated and overwhelmed. Lack of experience is usually the main producer of student stress and nervousness. Experience builds confidence, which is vital to effective presentations.

Working with students on presentations in Culture Studies classes as a means of developing and broadening linguistic competence is a challenging job for teachers because it not only involves training in other disciplines such as speech communication and public speaking, but also demands more of teachers in terms of time and effort in lesson planning and teaching strategies. On the student's part, the student-centered activity asks students to be responsible for their own learning. When a teacher moves from the traditional role of teacher as an authoritative expert to the new role of facilitator of learning, students feel a drastic change. With such a student-led activity as presentation, teachers need to have some psychological preparation for meeting the resistance from students, since some of them are not receptive to project learning and are uncomfortable when given autonomy. Furthermore, the importance of creating a supportive learning atmosphere, acquiring interaction skills, incorporating project work, developing cooperative learning skills and applying computer/technology in enhancing teachers' facilitative skills should be emphasized. The teacher is the guide, organizer, consultant, resource person, and supporter.

To ensure a successful performance, English language teachers should use the following step-by-step procedures of preparing students for presentations in Culture Studies classes: scheduling presentations and handing out guidelines; forming students’ micro groups; distributing topics and searching for information; teaching technical expertise; answering students’ questions; guiding peer evaluation.

Ø Scheduling presentations and handing out guidelines

Since presentations involve multi-skills, a carefully planned and constructed guideline will help develop students' receptiveness to presentations. Listing instructional objectives and explaining reasons for this activity can increase student participation and may always result in a heightening of satisfaction and achievement.

§ Assignment forms should be handed out to organize students and help them distribute jobs among themselves.

§ The time limit of presentations should be stressed. If it is a twenty five-minute presentation, it will probably be thirty-five minutes in class, allowing for pauses, operating machines, and receiving questions from students. The teacher may need another five minutes of class time to have students fill out peer evaluation forms.

§ Students may be offered a choice of giving the presentation in class or taping their presentation on a video. However, live presentations work much better than video presentations that usually detach the audience from the presenter.

§ Grading criteria should state the teacher's expectations for presentations clearly.

§ Scheduling two groups every other week throughout the semester is a good plan

Ø Forming students’ micro groups

It is challenging to plan presentations for a large English Conversation class. Group projects with 4-5 students in one group will save class time, develop cooperative learning skills and reduce the anxiety of being a single presenter. In order to have a dynamic group, with a feeling of cohesiveness and togetherness, even though learners come from diverse learning styles, the teacher needs to be familiar with a variety of cooperative group techniques.

§ Groups of 4-5 students in a class of 50 work best and scheduling two groups every other week throughout the semester is a good plan.

§ Students should be enabled to choose their own partners, since it is much easier for students to work out their own schedules for getting together outside the classroom. If the teacher groups students from different departments together, there can be time conflicts among them.

§ One student is chosen as the coordinator or leader, responsible for evenly distributing the assignments among members.

Ø Distributing topics and searching for information.

Projects provide opportunities to study interesting topics in detail, and to explore factors of successful presentation planning. Learners are free to choose any topic they prefer in three categories: event-or goal-oriented; student-initiated; and in-depth topic studies, in order to enhance their self-expression and creativity. Low-level students are not required to choose a topic that necessitates research, although they are encouraged to do so. It is interesting to see the variety of topics presented by students which may be categorized as follows: performing arts, culture and customs, fairy tales and short stories, current issues, sports, holidays and American culture, the student's field of specialization, hobbies, scripts from the TV shows, entertainment and shows, traveling and tourist spots, and newspaper articles.

§ The teacher should inform students where the resources are English newspapers, magazines, websites, questionnaires, surveys, interviews, library research, radio programs, English teaching institutes, travel brochures, and video.

§ The teacher should show topics chosen by students in previous classes and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of them. Some previous students' videotapes may be used as demos.

Ø Teaching technical expertise.

It is important for students to know in advance how to handle the equipment themselves. A discussion about the equal importance of both the rehearsal and the performance will prevent students from technical surprises and panic on the day of the presentation. Usually, students concentrate all their energies on performance and forget to check machines in advance and assume everything will happen as they plan or expect. Often they expect the teacher to fix their technical problems at the last minute. However, wasted class time in fixing facility machinery can adversely affect the presentation, and even be a cause of failure at worst or the need for presenters to represent their material on another day.

§ Students should be shown the supporting materials they can use, such as posters, videotapes, props, artwork, costumes...etc.

§ The teacher should tell students what facilities are available in the language lab and the school such as data viewer, VCR/DVD, tape recorder, PowerPoint, and slide projector etc and answer possible problems that they may come up with their equipment.

§ Students should know how to handle the equipment themselves and make sure everything is working a week before the presentation. They need to come to the class early to set up the equipment and become familiar with it.

§ Time for reviewing video clips should be counted and they should be wound to the correct spot.

§ Writings and illustrations should be big enough to be seen from the back of the room.

§ A microphone for learners should be prepared in advance to make sure good voice quality.

§ Students should keep eyes on the audience when talking about transparencies or PowerPoint. Thus, some light should be left on in the back of the room, so the audience can still remain eye contact with the presenter.

§ Students should refer to the image or texts on the projector and allow time for the audience to read longer texts, otherwise there is no point putting them on.

Ø Answering students’ questions.

These short sessions are like quality control that is necessary and helpful in ensuring effective presentations. Teachers can spot possible difficulties students might encounter and prevent the problems.

§ The teacher should check with the group about what they are going to do a week before their presentation.

§ Students should be encouraged to contact the teacher if they run into any problems; for example, students may have difficulties pronouncing words.

Ø Guiding peer evaluation.

The peer evaluation form provides the presenters with feedback from other students. Students will not only evaluate their peers, but also learn each group's strong and weak points from presentations. The teacher evaluation form should be given to students while assigning the work. It can be used as a guideline for students to prepare their presentations. In this way, students are informed in advance of the criteria by which their presentations will be evaluated. It is helpful for students to know the teacher's expectations and grading criteria.

§ Individual accountability and grades based on the average of the team's individual scores can help to avoid "free-rider effect" and the "sucker effect" these pitfalls of using cooperative learning.

Such structured planning and organization of presentations in Culture Studies classes can be a beneficial, enjoyable and highly educative activity with learners despite some arguments about their appropriateness. Both teachers and students are expecting a break away from textbooks. Each week, students come to class with great anticipation and excitement. It is a rewarding experience for low achieving students who had either given up on English or were intimated by past English learning experiences.

The introduction of presentations to English Conversation and Culture Studies classes as a means of developing and broadening linguistic competence provides a rewarding and stimulating experience both for teachers in developing facilitating skills and for students in training themselves to have confident presentations in public. The possibility of participation in presentation contests and conferences may encourage students to improve their presentation skills, as well as their language proficiency. It may be the first step in preparing students to use English for academic purposes, as all the essential presentation skills may be taught on the basis of enjoyable and easily understandable material.

References:

1. Alley M. The Craft of Scientific Presentations. - New York, Springer-Verlag, 2003.

2. Barton J., Heilker P., Rutkowski D. Online Resources for Teaching Oral Presentation Skills in First-Year Writing Courses. – http://www.brandeis.edu/ das/downloads/Teaching%20Oral%20Presentation%20Skills%20in%20First-Year%20Writing%20Courses.pdf

3. Yu L. Teaching Oral Presentation Skills by an Online Multi Media Assisted Language Learning Package: A Case Study. - http://www.stc.arts.chula.ac.th/ ITUA/Papers_for_ITUA_Proceedings/Leo-Yu.pdf