Positive effects of a programme on oral presentation skills: high- and low-proficient learners’ self-evaluations and perspectives

Abstract

The study set out to facilitate tertiary learners’ development of oral presentation skills within the self-regulated-learning framework. A published, relatively comprehensive inventory of presentation (delivery) skills was adopted in this mixed methods study, which comprised pre- and post-programme self-evaluation questionnaires, post-programme interviews and field notes. The results demonstrated that the learners generally perceived both the three-month programme and the inventory to be conducive to their oral presentation skill development. Quantitative analyses revealed the higher number of areas of significant self-perceived improvement among the low-proficient learners (30 items) compared with that among the high-proficient learners (13 items); however, qualitative analyses unveiled the paradoxical phenomenon that the lower increment in high-proficient learners’ ratings suggests their reflective abilities to learn from observation and their greater awareness to identify areas for improvement. These substantiate that the programme and the inventory have benefited the low- and high-proficient learners in different fashions.

Keywords:

• Oral presentation skills
• self-regulated learning
• self-evaluation
• language proficiency
• public speaking