9th confession: it is not easy to talk to people


     This week was the eighth one in my oral English classes. The semester is almost over and it is time to draw some conclusions about the methodology that was implemented during these lessons.

      In previous posts I said that four pieces of technology were going to be implemented in order to enhance students’ speaking skills in each class, to know: voice recording, Edmodo (Virtual Learning Environment), making videos and PowerPoint Presentations (PPP).


     Even though each class is unique and has its own challenges; this post attempts to share an experience about Chinese university students using PowerPoint Presentation (PPP) in public speaking to enhance their public speaking and oral English skills. At the same time, this entry will provide information about the benefits and possible pitfalls of PPP implementation in an oral English class.


Student doing a public speaking presentation with PowerPoint.
     Speaking activities inside a classroom are the ones that produce the most anxiety among foreign or second language learners (Von Wörde 2003). The fear of giving a speech in public can even exceed such phobias as fear of snakes, elevators, and heights (Daly 1991). Language learners not only have to learn the new language but perform in it as well (Foss & Reitzel, 1988). It is well known that some students do not want to talk due to their own characters. Perhaps because they are not used to speak in front of people for cultural reasons like gender, modesty regarded as a positive virtue or maybe because they are afraid of making a mistake in front of their teacher and peers and therefore “losing face” (Harmer, J 1998). All of these may be true when describing my pupils’ feelings towards speaking activities.
Student reading because of lack of confidence in his skills.
What benefits can a PowerPoint Presentation (PPP) bring?

     Public speaking is considered as an important soft skill and it is regarded as an intrinsic part of many jobs, it is a skill that everyone, who is willing to reflect on, can learn and can improve with rehearsal and feedback. In like manner I decided to implement PowerPoint Presentations (PPP) as a piece of technology in my oral English classes in order to enhance my students’ communication skills. It is said that the benefits of engaging in public speaking include:  it offers a valuable experience in communication skills, it will help students apply their communicative abilities, it will help students be better listeners, it gives students a chance to influence their peers and it teaches students to face fear (Massengale, J. 20014).  

Not looking at his classmates is a sign of his anxiety.
How to design a PPP?

     Some experts have said that a great PowerPoint Presentation (PPP) can indeed brighten up a speech and shed light on concepts a speaker wants the audience to understand. But, if done poorly, PowerPoint can bring down an entire oral presentation (Hennings, J & Schaue, L 2008). With this in mind I provided my students with some tips before using PowerPoint in their public speaking Presentations, for instance:

·        Illustrate key concepts with images, graphs, charts or videos.

·        Be clear and simple. One slide, one idea.

·        Avoid using flying fonts, sound effects and other distractions.

·        Use verbal transitions between slides to highlight the overall

·        Speak to his or her audience, not to the PowerPoint.

       Mistakes in students' PPP.
How can anxiety be decreased while speaking in public?

     By the same token, research has shown that properly structured, group work and study groups appear to reduce anxiety for some students (Von Wörde 2003). With this in mind learners must be organized in groups of 3 or 4 people for PPP speaking activities since they tend to participate more equally and they are also more able to experiment and use the language. At the same time, group work give the students chances for greater independence because they are working without the teacher controlling every move, they take some of their own learning decisions and decide what language to use in their PPP (Harmer, J 1998).




Good team work in their public speaking presentation.
 
How to insert PPP in an oral English class?

     As it was mentioned in previous posts, students have a textbook called New Inside Out Pre-intermediate Student’s Book by Sue Kay and Vaughan Jones, printed by Macmillan and distributed in China by Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. This book has a consistent syllabus and vocabulary. It provides a range of reading, speaking and listening exercises. However the time is very limited and it was decided to work on 5 different topics throughout the ten lessons. Provided that, when doing PPP students did not use the book word by word, conversely they were assigned a reading that they had to use in order to transmit a specific piece of information or to tell a story to their classmates. Moreover students were suggested to write some true or false sentences for testing their classmates’ attention at the end of their presentation.
New Inside Out Pre-intermediate Student’s Book by Sue Kay and Vaughan Jones
     Among the activities that frequently engage (arising students’ interest) learners include: pictures, dramatic stories, amusing anecdotes, and discussions (Harmer, J 1998). Granted that, a good way to begin the class is by using PPP, which is based on a reading from the book, because students can show pictures, tell a story, and even develop a controlled practice at the same time.   

Keeping eye contact with her classmates is an evidence of her confidence.
     Since it was a 90 minute-class, students needed to go through different stages where there was a mixture of procedures and mini –procedures with a variety of activities building up a whole having a balance between the language and the topic (Harmer, J 1998). Throughout the lesson there were usually two groups who implemented a PPP in their public speaking (no longer than 5 or 6 minutes) in two different moments of the class in order to engage students in the topic and the language.   

What are the possible pitfalls?

·        Anxiety is going to present during all the presentations, learners’ personality affects how the react when speaking in public. However the teacher can support students by talking about anxiety (it could be a topic that can be discussed in a virtual learning environment like Edmodo) and share possible techniques to reduce anxiety.

·        Students tend to read from the PPP and have long sentences. Make sure that students only use key words or difficult vocabulary in order to make their classmates understand the meaning.

·        There is a chance that students do not connect what they are saying with the PPP. It is important for students to understand that there must be a connection between their information on the slides, what it is said and the audience

·        Students tend not to look at their classmates. It is necessary that teacher emphasise that it is a communicative activity that they need to transmit a message

·        Some teachers assign one class to listen all their students PPP. As a matter of fact there is not a real communicative purpose when everybody is listening to one presentation after the other. Most of the students will not be paying attention to their presentations but trying to remember all the facts from their own.

PowerPoint and other Online Presentation Tools


     All in all each class is unique and has its own challenges. I am aware that there are more activities that can be done by designing exercises with a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), Personal Learning Environments (PLE) or WEB 2.0. However by sharing my experience with these particular groups of students I hope to contribute with a different perspective of implementing PPP (other visual aids or Online Presentation Tools such as Prezi, Padlet or Popplet are also valid to follow the same procedure)  inside the classroom and building knowledge about it.  




Reference
 Daly, J.A. (1991). Understanding communication apprehension: An introduction for language educators.
Foss, K. A., & Reitzel, A. C. (1988). A relational model for managing second language anxiety.
Harmer, J (1998)-How to Teach English: An Introduction to the Practice of English Language Teaching. Longman Edinburgh.
Hennings, J & Schaue, L 2008. Creatively Speaking: Some Strategies for the Preparation and Delivery of Oral Presentation. The Centre for Teaching and Learning. Stanford University. Vol.18, No.1 file:///C:/Users/ASUS/Desktop/master/CTLNewsletterFA08.pdf  

Massengale, J. 20014. 5 reasons everyone should take a public speaking course. USA Today College. http://college.usatoday.com/2014/01/16/5-reasons-everyone-should-take-a-public-speaking-course/    

von Wörde 2003. Students' perspectives on foreign language anxiety.

 

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