The Role of Students' Presentations in Foreign Language Teaching

The Role of Students' Presentations in Foreign Language Teaching

MISCANCUK, Marija

Key words: presentation, foreign language, interculturality, tolerance ABSTRACT Student's presentation plays a multiple role in teaching foreign languages at an institution of higher education, since the presentation itself includes several competencies students have to show if they want it to be successful. First of all, the theme should be created and presented in a foreign language, which includes all language competencies, starting with the vocabulary specific for a certain topic, grammar structures and spelling in the first stage of preparing the presentation. Another important component is a theme of the presentation which is always a topic related to culture and civilisation of English-speaking countries, with the aim of gaining knowledge of their culture, history, geography, art, noting the similarities and differences compared to their own country, acceptance of the customs and tradition of different nationalities, with the aim of developing mutual tolerance and formation of a young person for the intercultural society of the future. Furthermore, the knowledge on how to make and structure the presentation slides is also required, and everything should be done in a way attractive for the audience, in this specific case it is the fellow students to whom the topic is presented. The final step in the whole process is student's verbal presentation in a foreign languge, which will finally consolidate all previous steps and requires loud oral articulation of words and sentences in a foreign language. Whereas on the one hand there is a presenter, on the other hand there is audience, i.e. students who listen to the presentation and actively participate in it by not only listening but also asking questions and final peer evaluation of the topic presented. The fact that the evaluation of the presentation contributes to the final grade also shows how important such a teaching method is.

Article
PeerReviewed

IBU Publishing

2013-05-03

1896