No More Zzz’s: Audience Engagement During Oral Presentations

Page No.: 
484
Writer(s): 
Kevin M. Maher, University of Macau

Watching student speeches can be exhausting for both EFL students and teachers, if speeches are not properly set up with audience goals and tasks to keep students engaged. In this paper I present a way to engage a classroom audience and create student confidence, the Audience Involvement Approach to Teaching Public Speaking (Maher, 2015). Through this approach, students become more participatory and involved in the speech-giving process. The approach includes, first, modeling and videos on how to give proper oral presentations. During the speeches, audience members are given a role with specific tasks. Examples of roles include uh-oh expert, eye contact guru, and facial expressions observer. As students focus on the modeling and then give impromptu presentations focusing on minor tasks, they become involved and engaged in the speech-giving process, as well as improve their techniques for giving oral presentations.

聞き手としての目標や課題が的確にセットアップされていない場合、クラスメートや生徒の演説への興味がなくなったり、内容に集中できなくなることは時々ある。本論文は上手な聞き方の練習を通じて、生徒がより積極的なプレゼンの聞き手、発表者になる方法を説明する。本論文はAudience Involvement Approach to Teaching Public Speaking(Maher, 2015)と名付けられた新しい方法を中心に、聞き手の立場から始め、演説のスキルを高めるアプローチである。たとえば、生徒がプレゼンのお手本を見る時に「Uh-oh専門家」、「アイコンタクトの第一人者」、「表情のオブザーバー」、等のタスクや役割が与えられる。他人の演説に反応を示し、興味を持ち、目を止める事で自分のプレゼンテーションのテクニックが磨かれる事に繋がる。

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