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.
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