Abstract:

Making successful English presentations is reckoned as an essential skill academically and professionally. Compared to native English speakers, nonnative counterparts experience much higher cognitive load during oral presentations when sharing complex knowledge in English-mediated classrooms or international workplaces. Mastering public speaking skills no longer suffices as a success of a presentation event; audiences today expect to be involved. Therefore, the comprehensive design of presentation training in this study showcases how the 23 Taiwanese college students refine their English presentations through a strong combination of verbal and visual communications to elevate interactivity with the audience.

The on-site training lasted for 16 weeks with 23 participants aged between 20 and 25, with their English proficiencies ranging from higher intermediate to advanced. The multimedia tutorials targeted the production of infographics, advanced functions of PowerPoint, Prezi, Powtoon, Canva, as well as an audience response system called Slido. Field experts joined the teaching to introduce modern esthetics and qualities of presentation desired in the workplace. These multimedia tools helped student presenters visually engage the audience during verbal communication. Students had the opportunity to examine their speaking habits and skills, such as how they paused, how they used fillers, if they could accurately describe statistical results and data, and more. Throughout the semester, each student had two one-on-one diagnostic sessions with the instructor.

With multiple sources of data collection, mixed-method data analysis techniques were used to unfold the induced effects of the multifaceted training. The comparison between the entry and exit surveys and presentation performances indicated students’ growing understanding of the expected qualities in English presentations. Their performances also drastically evolved: their creativity, aesthetics, awareness of audience, imagery-expressions improved holistically with their command of verbal communication. By familiarizing themselves with tech tools, they learned to select and combine based on presentation contents and objectives. Wilcoxon signed-rank tests also showed significant differences between the beginning and the end of the treatment. The frequencies of improper pauses and meaningless repetitions dropped considerably. Their applications of participative strategies also became prominent. This research demonstrates the necessary inclusion of verbal-visual communication and communication strategies in English presentation training. Furthermore, the outcomes validate the effectiveness of the multimodal approach of innovative training for college level learners.

Keywords:

English presentation, language learners, multimedia, audience engagement.