Student Presentations

[marybeth11]

Hi,

Does anyone have any ideas/advice on student presentations? I would like for my level 4 community college students to give a demonstration presentation. I have never done this before and would love any input from vets out there.

Thanks,

Mary Beth

[kjoie]

Hi. I am teaching at a university in South Korea and for the English Conversation classes we usually have students do presentations. For the advanced students, they do cooking demonstrations, skits, singing, parodies, show-and-tell, or something else that would take a group about 10 minutes. You can tell them to dress in costumes, bring props or music. In the past, we've had students do the following:

- kung fu demonstrations on blocks of ramen
- dancing
- acapella singing
- comedic skits about their days in Korean military
- parodies of movies and fairy tales
- cooking shows

We have some beginner students and they are really shy so they present to the teachers privately in our office. Some have brought in models of houses, maps, objects that they explain to the teacher. There is really a lot they can think of. Especially, in Korea, they don't have that much freedom to use their creativity in school, so when they are given the opportunity, they come with some choice items.

[marybeth11]

That sounds great! How do you prepare them for the presentations? What kind of assessment do you do?

[Chercheuse]

If you're interested in training the students to plan, organize, and deliver their demonstrations before the presentation day, I might suggest unit 3, "Providing Information: Instructions and Demonstrations" from the book Communicating Effectively in English by Patricia Porter. It's an ESL book for advanced students in an academic public speaking class, but that chapter might also be o.k. for intermediate students and/or students who don't have academic aspirations. I don't know what level your students are, but I imagine there is a lot in just that one chapter that you could pull from and adjust as necessary (or give the students a photocopy of the whole chapter if you can). Maybe your community college has a reference library you could find this book in? You could also try getting an examination copy of it from Heinle and Heinle. There's a lot of good stuff in just that one unit like a sample demonstrative speech, how to choose a good topic, how to make transitions in the body of the speech, how to write a good introduction and conclusion, how to use visual aids. One unusual thing about it is that there are actually exercises in the unit that students can do to practice these concept before they apply them in their own speech. I would also suggest giving the students a few pointers (not found in that unit) on delivery issues like eye contact, gestures, posture, etc.. A few quick delivery pointers will not do much more than heighten their awareness, as it really takes some training and practice to apply these concepts, but it is probably worthwhile.

With class presentations I have found that you can take two approaches. You can take more of a "hands-off" approach, meaning you let them do essentially whatever they want; you're there to guide them in the planning phase if they need it, but you don't provide much of a model for the speech. The main goal with this approach is self-expression, confidence-building, fluency building, listening comprehension for the other students, showcasing the general English that has been learned in the semester, etc... This might be a good approach if you don't have a lot of class time to spend training the students in how to give a good presentation. Students will likely enjoy the presentations and learn a lot too.

But, if your students are up to the challenge and you can spend some time on it with them, I would suggest taking a more guided approach by giving them some pointers on some of the things I mentioned earlier. It is very worthwhile for them to know not only how to make a speech, but how to make a good one; students will get more out of the task that they can apply to later situations, and they will be even prouder of their accomplishments. It does take more class time to do it this way, but as always, you have to weigh what's important to you and them.

If you do end up giving them a little speech training, you can use the teacher evaluation form at the end of the unit I mentioned (I don't know that it would make much sense to the students to get the evaluation form if they hadn't been trained in the issues on the form first). You might also check out the evaluation forms (and other speech-giving information) in Speech Communication Made Simple, another ESL book. (Both books are good, but I like the demonstration unit in the first book I mentioned.)Another option is to have the students evaluate the speaker based on criteria you've discussed in class (can be done well orally or in writing). When you give the students a little speech training, a lot more options open up for evaluation.

Anyway, Hope that helps some. Good luck.

[marybeth11]

Thanks for the information. The book sounds great. I am going to see if we have a copy tonight!

[krisbois]

HI,

I just had an excellent class where the students brought something from their country to share with the class. I have a great mix so it was very interesting. I told them to bring something to share, anything from music to pictures or statues etc..... It was so successful. They each stood in front of the class shared their country and spoke more than they had all year. I had a Japanese student wear her kimono complete with the wooden shoes. A Russian student brought her 'Nesting Dolls' and I even had a husband /wife couple from Venezula salsa dance for us. It was a great class. Everyone was asking questions left and right, I didn't even have to elbow them to ask questions. Finally, I ended the class with an American treat, I gave them an apple pie from McDonalds. They laughed so hard they thought it was our best class yet!!!