Oral Presentation As a Means of Developing Secondary School Learners’ Communicative Skills

P.Ur considers that “of all the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), speaking seems intuitively the most important: people who know a language are referred to as “speakers” of that language, as if speaking included all other kinds of knowing; and many if not most foreign language learners are primary interested in learning to speak”. (Ur, 1996:120). Students may know the rules of linguistic usage, but are unable to use the language itself. It becomes clear that communication requires that students perform certain functions, for example, making presentations. While hard work and good ideas are essential to success, the ability to express those ideas and get others to join the speaker is just as important. Being able to communicate requires more than linguistic competence; it requires communicative competence. Oral presentations are an ideal activity for operating with the language accurately and fluently, for organizing information logically. Moreover, presentations help to boost students’ self-confidence, as a result, they learn how to address and convince an audience.

N.Owen defines a presentation as “the communication of a message in an elegant and memorable way so that your audience understands your message and is able to implement it in the way you and they would wish”. (Owen, 2000:43)

Why are oral presentations so important today in all walks of life and not only in English language classes? The answer is very simple: nothing has more impact on people or is quite as impressive as a well-prepared and well-delivered oral presentation. "Properly executed and used in the right context, oral presentations can inform, motivate and convince more effectively than any other form of communication; besides oral presentations provide a learning experience and teach life long skills that will be beneficial and useful to the learners in their future careers".
(www.commerce.concordia.ca/comm212/preppres.html)

The author’s personal experience in delivering oral presentations at school and at university has enabled her to select this theme for research, because she felt lack of confidence and language, as well as she was afraid to speak in front of a large audience during her presentations, and she suggests that this activity should be already taught for secondary level students, as competent and effective speaking is one of the best skills a person can acquire. Such skills will prove to be useful whether the person is involved in casual conversation, explaining how to operate a machine or presenting a paper to a group of colleagues in a meeting. Y.Haik points out that "the role of oral presentations is very beneficial. This task prepares the learners to their future workplaces, where the skills of preparing an excellent oral presentation will be necessary, as well as oral presentations teach students to deliver information and to persuade the audience in a professional manner".
(http://ag.iastate.edu/grants/strategies/oralpres.html).

Thus, the goal of this bachelor paper is to discover the best ways and means how to teach secondary school learners’.

The main objectives of the paper are:

1. To do a summative analysis of theoretical sources: to define what is an effective presentation and why it is essential to learn how to deliver a successful presentation in senior forms.
2. To examine the key processes of presenting information in a convincing and elegant way and to become acquainted with the four basic steps of preparing an effective oral presentation.
3. To provide the guidelines of how to operate with the language use during an oral presentation.
4. To suggest sequential steps and relevant activities how to teach oral presentations to the students of senior forms and to pilot them in the classroom.…