Topic 3: Participating in oral presentations
The ability to articulate thoughts correctly, convey ideas persuasively, and engage an audience effectively is a valuable skill. Moreover, mastering the art of oral presentations is essential for success in an academic setting.
This chapter focuses on equipping you with the skills to use English language for effective oral presentations in debates, dialogues, formal and informal meetings and narrating diverse events/ activities/stories. The competence developed in this chapter will enable you to participate in debates, dialogues, meetings and speech making and make an impactful oral presentation.
Oral presentation
Oral presentation is a form of communication, where one imparts and then exchanges information with his or her audience. It can be either one-way or two-way. Oral presentation also known as public speaking, consists of an individual or people verbally addressing an audience on a particular topic.
To participate in an oral presentation may be easy but to have a powerful oral presentation is quite a task. A powerful oral presentation comprises the 5Cs. It must focus on crucial information, it must have a clear style of presentation, it must be confidently delivered, it must be backed up with concise data and its delivery should be creative and clever.
Moreover, oral presentation can be divided into three stages: pre-presentation, the presentation and the post-presentation stages.
There are different forms of oral presentation including debate, dialogue, meeting, lecture, speech, symposium, group discussion or round-table talk and workshop.
Participating in a debate
To participate in a debate requires one to master some skills and techniques that will make ones participation impactful. The following are some helpful techniques:
1. Recognise your audience when deciding on the language to use. Make the language simple and clear to make the audience understand. Avoid jargon or complex terminologies that may confuse your audience. Use examples from real life situations to make your arguments more relatable and understandable.
2. Focus to a single idea for maintaining respect throughout the debate. Focusing on a single idea, presenting logical arguments and providing supporting evidence can effectively persuade others of the validity of your position.
3. Project confidence through your body language, tone of voice and facial expressions. Maintain good eye contact with the audience and speak with conviction.
4. Structure your speech by arguing around your claim. Make sure you emphasise the main points when you talk to defend your arguments with conviction without the fear of criticism.
5. Incorporate research for giving evidence and examples. The more knowledgeable you are about a subject, the better you can engage in a debate.
6. Anticipate opposing claims so that you can prepare statements to defeat them. Be an active listener so that you can address your arguments’ weaknesses.
8. Employ analogies, metaphors or rhetorical questions to make your arguments more persuasive and memorable. When these figures of speech are used appropriately, they can draw the listener’s attention to the key points.
Procedures for conducting a debate
To get the intended information through debates, organise the activities in a way that can invite participants to debate effectively. You can do this through considering some procedures for debating. It is important to note that when you prepare a debate session, set the procedures following the context and topic.
The following are some procedures for conducting debates:
(a) Choose a topic for the debate
When selecting a topic, consider the goals of the debate, the learner’s age, and their language ability.
(b) Create teams
Ensure that two groups are supporting and opposing the topic, respectively. Each group must be equal in representation.
(c) Research on the debate theme
Use authentic sources to collect information related to the debate topic and analyse the information critically before the discussion.