Preparing EFL Learners for Oral Presentations

Introduction, coping with speech anxiety and practicing presentation skills, 1. emphasize the difference between spoken english and written english., 2. explain the purpose of visual aids., 3. help students to conquer the fear of making grammatical or pronunciation errors., 4. develop students' summarizing and outlying skills., the teacher's role, step 1: handout guidelines, step 2: grouping and scheduling student presentations, step 3: choosing topics and gathering information, step 4: handling technical problems, step 5: holding q & a sessions, step 6: preparing peer and teacher evaluation forms, assignment form, student evaluation form, teacher evaluation form.

Creative Resources for ESL/EFL Teachers

ESL presentation topics

ESL Presentation Topics: 12 Mini Presentations

ESL presentation topics for intermediate and upper intermediate students. Great as a warm-up or a speaking lesson.

You can use the slideshow and share your screen on Zoom or other app when teaching online. Just click on the full screen option in the top right corner of the slideshow.

I used it with my students during our online lesson and we didn’t even have time to discuss all the topics, because they couldn’t stop talking. I was quite impressed how much they knew and also how well they could express their opinions.

One of the reasons why I love conversation activities is that I learn so much about my students. I think that we often underestimate our students and see them as the stereotypical lazy teenagers. Activities like these can show us that they are much more than that.

You can also download the PDF for easy printing below.

Other picture-based resources:

ESL Exam Speaking Picture Description and Questions

No-Prep ESL Picture Description Speaking Activity

Picture Based Speaking Activity For ESL/EFL Classes

Picture Prompts for Speaking and Writing: An ESL Activity

ESL Picture Description: Exam Skills Practice

Food and Travel ESL Lesson: Interactive Online Lesson

Conversation resources:

Popular Conversation Topics for (not only) Adults and Teenagers: 50 Questions

Conversation Starters: 30 Interesting Conversation Questions Not Only For ESL Students

Conversation Questions Gerunds and Infinitives: ESL Speaking Activity

30 Hypothetical Conversation Questions for ESL Students

ESL Conversation Topics

Why it’s better to adopt a pet from a shelter.Bringing back extinct species.Is it ethical to keep animals in ZOOS?
How to choose a college.Things you didn’t learn in history class.How to minimize the use of plastic.
Textbooks vs. tablets.Benefits of a gluten-free diet.Effects of not getting enough sleep.
Why podcasts are great.HBO vs. NetflixApple vs. Android.

ESL conversation topics

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presentation in efl class

  • How to Teach

Presentation Ideas for ESL Students

  • By Hall Houston

Imagine a student standing in front of the class delivering a presentation. The student looks out and sees students playing on their smart phones, chatting, giggling, even one student sleeping. How might this affect the student’s ability to give a presentation?

I always enjoy watching student presentations, seeing students demonstrating their increasing fluency in English, as well as practicing their presentation skills. I teach at a university in Taiwan , and I think most students enjoy the opportunity to develop their English and presentation skills simultaneously. Their English level takes a big step forward as they rehearse and deliver their presentation. Also, mastering the art of giving a presentation is something that will benefit them later on in their academic and professional careers.

However, I’m disappointed to see students chatting and looking at their phones instead of rewarding their classmates with their full attention. While one might think that this is exclusively a problem associated with younger students, I have seen adult students who cannot quiet down and focus on another students’ presentation.

Over the years, I’ve developed a number of solutions to this problem. I want to share with you some ways to maximize student’s attention during group presentations. If student inattention is a common occurrence in your teaching context, perhaps you might consider one or more of these options:

1) Address the subject

During a lesson, point out that it’s very rude for an audience member not to give their complete attention when someone is giving a presentation. Work together with your students to create a list of good and bad audience behavior on the board. You can show them the list of good audience behavior again, right before presentations start.

2) Demonstrate rude behavior

Bring a student to the front of the class for a role play . Ask the student to tell you a story about their childhood. As they speak to you, yawn, look around, play on your smart phone, sigh, give every sign that you don’t really care. When the student finishes, ask the speaker how he felt about your behavior. Ask the class if you were being a good listener. Next, repeat the role play, but choose a student to take your place and ask this student to demonstrate good listener behavior.

3) Teach the presenters

Teach your students techniques that increase student involvement that they can put to use during their presentations. One powerful technique is interacting directly with the audience by moving around, speaking directly to audience members, and asking questions. Another technique is to start off with an intriguing question or short quiz, leaving everyone eager to hear the answers. These techniques could be taught to the students several weeks before they present. You can give a short presentation to demonstrate a technique, then choose a student to model the technique for the class.

4) Carrots and sticks

Consider giving rewards or punishments to students based on how much they pay attention. You can offer a small prize to the student who is the most focused when others are presenting or tell students you will deduct points for students who don’t pay attention.

5) Move the students around

Before presentations begin, make sure that the first few rows of seats are completely full. Also, put students into pairs to break up groups that can’t help chatting away when they’re together.

6) Active participation

Assign a task that heightens involvement in the presentation. You can give the audience a rubric to follow each time a group presents. Students watch and listen, then assess each group. Alternatively, you can insist that everyone ask a question at the end of each presentation, thus encouraging everyone to pay strict attention.

When groups are presenting, scan the class from time to time. If you see students who are not paying attention, make eye contact and gesture for them to watch the presentation . However, overuse of this technique can result in spending too much time disciplining and ultimately missing out on the presentations.

While these techniques might not completely eliminate student inattention, they will definitely make students more aware of the relationship between audience and presenters, and help them improve at both roles.

What are your thoughts? What presentation ideas for ESL students can you offer ?

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  • Presentations

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Presentation, Practice, and Production in the EFL Class

Imagine this scene. You want to teach the present perfect continuous in your EFL class. You have already taught the simple present and present perfect with "for" and "since", and you have decided that the way to present the new structure is simply to ask students real questions such as How long have you been living in your apartment? and How long have you been learning karate? Surely, you think, the students will be able to extend their knowledge of the simple form to the continuous. When you go into class, however, your activity falls flat. The students do not really understand very well. Mystified, you ask yourself what went wrong.

What went wrong was that you were testing before teaching. You expected your students to be able to use the language before you really presented it and practiced it. They were not able to. Does this sound familiar? In my years of teaching, unfortunately, I have fallen into this trap many times. Somewhere along the way, though, I became aware of the need to arrive at an appropriate balance among the three major elements of an EFL class: presentation, practice, and production. Our goal in teaching English is, or should be, to get students to the point where they feel ownership of the language and can use it to improvise in real-world situations. In this article I would like to discuss the notion of an appropriate balance and offer some suggestions on how it might be achieved.

Before we jump in, let's clarify what is meant by presentation, practice, and production. Presentation means that, before we expect students to use language or structure, we present it to them. This is true in an ESL class in an English-speaking society, where students are surrounded by the language. It is all the more true in an EFL class where English language input for students is probably much less. Thus we need to provide students with a variety of models and contexts that will give them the input they need to be able to use the language productively. Practice means that, after we present the material that we want our students to learn but before we expect them to use it productively, we give them ample opportunities to practice it. That is, practice comes before the testing situation. Production means that, having presented the language that we want our students to learn and given them opportunities to practice it, we may now justifiably expect them to produce it -- to use it more or less freely in real, largely uncontrolled situations.

Presentation

There are essentially two kinds of presentation models: receptive and productive. In receptive models, we present language for students to receive, to process, and to understand, but we do not at this point expect them to produce it. In productive models, our approach is the opposite: We expect the students to take the model we present and manipulate it -- to produce the language within it in some fashion. The most common kinds of productive models are grammatical rules or charts, conversation models, pronunciation models, and writing models.

Let's consider how we might present a receptive model to our class, the same class to which we want to teach the present perfect continuous tense. Here is an example of a conversation that could be used in this way, in which the context is a date at a movie theater and one person has arrived late. We could ask the students to read or listen, or both.

Scott: Sorry I'm late. Have you been waiting long? Rachel: Not really. I was a little late myself. Rachel: I've really been looking forward to this movie. It's supposed to be hilarious. Gee, its crowded here. Scott: Yeah. Well, at least the movie hasn't started. I think there are two seats over there. Scott: Excuse me. Would you mind taking off your hat? Woman with hat: What was that? Scott: Could you please take off your hat? Woman with hat: Oh, of course. Sorry. Rachel ( whispering ): Can you believe that hair? (The woman has a big hairdo.) Let's move. Scott: Where? Rachel: Aren't there two seats over there in the third row? Rachel: Excuse me. Scott: Pardon me. Rachel: Oh no. (A tall man is moving to the empty seat in front of her.) Scott: I guess this is my fault. Sorry I was late. Rachel: That's OK. It's no big deal.

After our students have read and/or listened to this conversation, we ask them some comprehension questions, but we do not say anything about the present perfect continuous tense at this point. It is passively retained -- students probably understand it but are not yet able to use it. Then we might give them an exercise like the following, designed to help them understand vocabulary from context:

Practice is the middle step in the process. We cannot expect students to be able to use the language freely unless we have given them sufficient practice in how to do so. Practice should do at least three things: (a) It should give studentst the chance to use the target structure or vocabulary without feeling as if they are in a specific testing situation. (b) It should spiral and reintegrate previously taught material; and (c) It should be safe. That is, students should feel that they are investigating, discovering, fiddling around with the language in question without having too much riding on the outcome. If they make some mistakes in a grammar exercise, for example, there will be no harm done; they will learn from their mistakes but will not fail the class. Four common types of safe practice are Pair Practice, Grammar in Context, Grammar with a Partner, and Interactive activities such as Infogaps and games.

Let's consider examples of two kinds of activities which will help our students practice the present perfect continuous structure that we have been teaching them.

Grammar in Context

Once we have presented the present perfect continuous in a context in which it naturally occurs and have given other models such as grammar rules and charts, the next step might involve having the students complete a grammar-in-a-context activity similar to the following. By this point students know at least passively the form of the present perfect continuous. They also know that, while the simple present perfect can be used to express completed action, the present perfect continuous form cannot. In this exercise, the context is a line outside a movie theater, with four people waiting for the line to move.

Complete the conversation with the correct verb for each numbered item. Greg: ( comes up ) Hi, everybody. Sorry I'm late. ___________ (Are you waiting/Have you been waiting) long? Jeanette: About 20 minutes. What _______, Greg? (happens/happened)? Greg: Well, I _______(m/was) stuck in traffic for half an hour on the freeway. __________ (Are you getting/Did you get) the tickets? Andy: Yeah. Here they are. Man, I sure hope this movie _________ (was/is) as good as the reviews ___________ (say/will say) it is. Greg: It is. _____________ (I've seen/I've been seeing) it twice already. Laura: You have? And you ___________ (ll want/want) to see it again? Greg: Sure. I bet I _________ (ll like/liked) it even better this time. Jeanette: Guys, you __________ (have to/had to) remember that Greg __________ (was/is) a movie addict. He ________ (sees/saw) every movie that _________ (came/comes) out. Laura: Well, I just hope this line _____________ (starts/started) moving soon.

Pair Practice

After we have done an exercise of this type, we might want to have the students do pair practice with the same structure, so we could present a short conversation like this one:

(In a video store)

A: What are you looking for? B: I've been trying to find a really good video. Any suggestions? A: Have you seen My Left Foot ? It's supposed to be very good. B: OK. Thanks for the suggestion. I'll try it.

When students have worked with this a bit, we can delete some of the items and have students replace them with their own examples:

A: What are you looking for? B: I've been trying to find a really good _______. Any suggestions? (Students could say comedy/drama/musical, etc.) A: Have you seen _______? It's supposed to be very ______. (Students could say exciting/interesting/moving, etc.) B: OK. Thanks for the suggestion. I'll try it.

Production, the third stage in the process, is the testing stage. Once students have been given sufficient presentation and practice, we may justifiably expect them to be able to use the language in a relatively unstructured situation. There are many kinds of production activities. Three common ones are improvisation, discussion, and writing. Let's consider examples of improvisation and discussion.

Improvisation

Improvisation can be considered the fifth skill -- the skill which follows reading, listening, speaking, and writing. In many ways, it is the most important because it is the real test of whether students can use what they have learned without being told exactly what to do or say. Suppose, for example, that we have finished the presentation and practice portions of our lesson on the present perfect continuous tense. We are now ready to ask our students to put their knowledge to use, so we ask them to do an activity of this type:

Work with a partner. Partner A, you have been trying to find something -- for example, a good novel, a funny play, a serious movie, a good bakery, a reasonable coffee shop, a good Chinese restaurant, or a cheap hotel. Have a conversation. Ask Partner B for a suggestion. Partner B, give a suggestion. Give plenty of details.

Discussions of various types are excellent vehicles for students to use language. One effective type is the controversial discussion in which we provoke the students' interest in a serious topic and let them take the discussion wherever it leads. Another type of discussion that works well is a picture discussion. We might conclude our lesson on the present perfect continuous by bringing in several copies of a picture which will elicit the structure. Care must be taken in choosing the picture, of course, but we can probably find an effective one. Suppose, for example, that we locate a magazine picture which shows several people standing in line outside a stadium waiting to get into a baseball game. We ask the students to tell what is happening, tell a story, and/or create conversations for the characters. The only stipulation is that everything be in the students own words. This type of activity will provide an effective and comprehensive test of the students' ability to produce the language we have taught them.

Topic: Presentation Skills

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The Impact of Class Presentation on EFL Learners’ Speaking Development

Profile image of shahram afraz

2021, International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Research

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Situjuh Nazara

This paper is based on a study conducted in December 2010 to investigate the perceptions of the students of the English Teaching Study Program of FKIP-UKI Jakarta on their English speaking skill development. The findings revealed that all respondents viewed speaking important and they were willing to deal with the necessities to master it. Although they got interesting materials, empowering activities, and proper opportunity to practice speaking, they insisted to have longer time to practice. In addition, some respondents tended to avoid speaking due to their fear of lecturers’ ‘scolding’ and classmates’ laughing. The paper concludes by suggesting the need to create a friendly and conducive environment in the classroom.

presentation in efl class

Al-Ta lim Journal

Abdul Gafur Marzuki

This Classroom Action Research aims at developing students’ speaking skill through the application of oral report technique. This research is conducted collaboratively in three cycles in which researcher acts as a lecturer while his collaborator acts as an observer and each cycle consists of two meetings. Data of this research is attained from two main sources namely qualitative and quantitative data. The data shows that In preliminary study, 35.5% students could answer questions given by researcher through interview but the achievement score shows that 13.3% students could fulfill the minimum criteria of achievement. The minimum criterion of achievement is 60. At cycle I, 37% students could participate in oral report and 24.4% students could fulfill the minimum criteria of achievement. At cycle II, 51.1% students could participate in oral report and 42.2% students could fulfill the minimum criteria of achievement. The last is 75% students could fulfill the minimum criteria of achie...

Elaheh Sotoudehnama

Speaking is a significant skill that many foreign language learners are trying to master. In this study, the effectiveness of two different speaking activities, i.e. oral presentation vs. free discussion, was investigated from quantitative and qualitative points of view. To achieve this purpose, 44 intermediate learners from a language institute in Tehran participated in the study. Half of the participants experienced oral presentation while the other half (22 in two other classes) experienced free discussion for eight sessions. The two activities were exchanged between the two groups after the end of the quantitative phase of the study for eight more sessions. The results of an independent samples t-test performed on the scores ofthe speaking section of a sample Preliminary English Test (PET, 2012 ) after the first phase of the study (the first 8 sessions) indicated that the learners who experienced oral presentation significantly outperformed the learners who experienced free disc...

tsania almiqdar

Speaking is one important skill in language learning. EFL students are sometimes faced with problems, while speaking to their interlocutors due to the lack of sufficient linguistic knowledge, and they have to quit the conversation.development of speaking skill, and to describe techniques and strategies used by the teachers to develop speaking skill in EFL English classroom Speaking English is undoubtedly important today because it is recognized globally language in almost all fields. So, if we as EFL students want to be fluent and clever Our first talk should encourage them to practice and continue repair. Second, we must raise student awareness and introduce it to them how important speaking skills are in developing their language. The findings depicted that(1) teachers as the main factor of presage variable were observed using many kinds of strategies, and techniques for developing speaking skills, and (2)appropriate speaking techniques and strategies were used to develop speakingskill in the mentioned different speaking class levels. The strategies andtechniques are realized because teachers as the main factor applied someunique ways–how to make the English language classroom to be a lot of funand dynamic place, to enhance students' motivation, and to build English atmosphere in class and outside class as well.

Intakhab A Khan

English occupies a place of prestige in the whole world simply because it is the lingua franca. In Saudi Arabia, though it can never replace Arabic yet becoming popular in younger generation for educational/economic growth and development. The way English has been taught in most of Asia including the gulf region, is to a great extent responsible for the deterioration of the standard of English for various reasons. The issue of falling standards of English in KSA in particular in the past is very much due to the curricular aims and objectives of English language Education. The main cause for the students learning difficulties and poor achievement especially in speaking skill is that teachers themselves have a very limited exposure of reasons of difficulties and appropriate instructional strategies. © 2015 Elixir All rights reserved. ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received: 22 October 2012; Received in revised form: 16 September 2015; Accepted: 21 September 2015;

Basmah Abu-ghararah

This study is aimed at analysing the effectiveness of speaking practice exercises, as it is one of the most crucial and learning-oriented aspects in the language education field. The English as a foreign language (EFL) Saudi sector was selected for this study, and all of the respondents were willing to provide their viewpoints in response to the questionnaires provided to them. The entire study was based on considering and acting upon the importance of speaking activities inside and outside the classroom. Results have shown that there are issues and needs associated with speaking activities: speaking tasks and speaking materials.

Nouree Elghzawee

Arab World English Journal

Abdulkarim Qaid

This study focused on Yemeni EFL learners of second-year level, Department of English, College of Education/Saber, Aden University. Yemeni learners started to study English in class seven at the age of about 14, and this is a problem for Yemeni EFL learners. Besides, Yemeni EFL learners’ problems were inadequate syllabus and inappropriate teaching materials of English-speaking skills course. The researchers identified a problem existing in the classroom. The learners in this college faced difficulties in their study of English-speaking skills at Aden University. This was because of their limited background in English. They felt anxiety and fear of making mistakes. The study’s main objective was to examine the difficulties faced by the Yemeni EFL learners in English-speaking skills course at Aden University. The study contributed to finding remedies to the Yemeni EFL learners’ problems in English -speaking skills. It would also help syllabus designers, teaching materials writers, lea...

Qismullah Yusuf

This preliminary study aims to describe the challenges that the teachers face in teaching English speaking to their students in Aceh. Speaking is perceived as the most fundamental skill to acquire since the onset of the communicative era is treated as the ultimate goal of language teaching, and its proper development has become the attention of both teachers and learners. However, it is also a commonly recognized fact that achieving proficiency in foreign language speaking is not an easy task. Thus, it is important for teachers to be aware of the challenges in teaching speaking so that they can seek for solutions to them. Accordingly, this preliminary study collected data by interviewing two teachers from a public senior high school in Bireuen, Aceh. These teachers have been teaching English for the past ten years in the school, respectively. They revealed that the challenges they encountered most in teaching speaking are students’ lack of vocabulary, pronunciation problems, nothing...

Muhammad U Farooq

Speaking is the most difficult as well as the most complex of all the four skills, as it requires expertise in, and exposure to, the target language. Different factors are found responsible for poor speaking skills among EFL learners in general and Saudi EFL learners in particular. The current study investigates the influence of various factors related to teachers, learners, and learning environment on the students' attitude towards learning speaking skills. The questionnaire survey was employed to elicit responses from 184 undergraduate EFL male and female students in Taif University. Data analyzed through SPSS reveals that out of five variables only one was insignificant, whereas all other variables showed significant positive effect. In the light of the findings, it could be inferred that lack of measures on the part of teachers and learners as well as the classroom setting/environment do not fully facilitate both the male and female students to learn speaking skills in a better way. The poor level of their skills in English is attributed to the variety of teachers', learners', and environment related factors. And these factors affect negatively on the attitude of learners towards learning speaking skills.

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ESL Speaking

Games + Activities to Try Out Today!

in Activities for Adults

Presentation Projects for Students | ESL Presentation Ideas

If you do presentation with your language classes , then you’ll need to check out some of these presentation project ideas. Get beyond the boring old PowerPoint presentation and use some of these creative ideas to bring a bit of excitement and life back into your classes.

Presentation Projects and Ideas for ESL students

Your students will love it, and it’ll also keep things fresh for you if you’ve seen the same old projects year after year.

Presentation Projects for ESL/EFL Students

Over the years teaching in a Korean university , I’ve had students do plenty of presentation projects, with varying degrees of success . I hope that you can learn from my mistakes and make your ESL speaking classes as awesome as possible.

Presentation projects, if set up well are an excellent way to add a bit of variety to the ESL classroom. After all, students get tired of hearing the teacher talk all the time! And you probably get tired of talking. I know that I always did! Plus, it’s fun to hear what students have to say.

Here are my top presentation projects for ESL/EFL students.

  • Basic speech (not recommended!)
  • Presentation, then discussion time
  • Poster presentation
  • Making a movie
  • PowerPoint presentation
  • Impromptu presentation
  • Teaching the class how to do something

If you teach business English, then the sky is kind of the limit in terms of what topics you choose. You could focus on just about anything that students may expect to present on when they start working in a company.

#1: A Basic Speech

Each student has to choose from a variety of topics such as family , food, dreams or hobby. They have to speak for between 1.5 and 2 minutes. I did this only once, with low-level students and it was ridiculously boring such that I never did it again.

The main problem is all the presentations are basically the same and go a little something like this: “I have a mom. She is 49 years old. She has brown hair and black eyes. I have a dad. He is 57 years old. My dad has brown hair and black eyes. He is short.” Word for word, almost the same!

Trust me, they were some of the most tedious and excruciating hours of my entire life. It was from this point on that I vowed to never set up a presentation like this again. I got a lot more creative and made students talk about things that were more varied and interesting.

Of course, the bad results from this experiment were totally my fault. I should have chosen more interesting topics for the students, or given them better guidelines. Seriously, better ESL presentations topics would have made a big difference here and I really have nobody to blame but myself!

Maybe Not Terrible if…

This style of presentation could have been far less bad if I had done a better job setting it up. I should have set the topic to something like, “Current events.” That way, students would have been forced to choose something in the news and the presentation topics would have been quite varied.

Or, I could have required some visual aids to make it a bit more interesting for the students.

#2: Presentation, and then Discussion Time

Each group has to give a presentation about a topic of their choosing and think of at least 5 interesting questions/surveys/activities that groups could discuss or do for about 20 minutes after their presentation. This often works best if the presentation is based on 2-3 articles that the students have to send you in advance.

This presentation project ideas had varying results, since some groups chose a topic that led to a lot of “yes/no” answers and discussions that lasted about 5 minutes, at most.

However, this could have been avoided by personally approving the topics in advance and requiring groups to submit their assignment for feedback a week or two before the actual presentation. I blame nobody but myself for the failure on this one!

This ideas for presentation projects isn’t a bad one, if you set it up well. It can work well for English majors or advanced level students who want a class filled with conversation and discussion.

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#3: Poster Presentation

A poster is one of my favourite presentation projects. Each group has to choose a current controversial issue (like environmental pollution, suicide, North Korea) and make a poster that had English writing and some interesting pictures on it. Set a (low) max number of words or your posters will be terrible and filled with wordy death!

Then, the students have to do a presentation based on the poster where each group member speaks for 1-2 minutes, without a paper.

For this one, it’s very important that you require no paper script, or you’ll just have students reading off their notes. Also, don’t allow students to put too many words on the poster, or you’ll have students reading off of this.

If I ever did this again, I would do something where the audience was more involved, such as peer grading. Or, I would require each group watching the presentation to think of at least 1 question to ask and they’d get a point for doing so. Basically, it’d give the rest of the students in the class a reason to listen.

It’s potentially an excellent group presentation project!

ESL presentation ideas

#4 Presentation Projects: Making a Movie

Another ESL presentation idea is to have students make a movie. It’s easier than ever these days because almost everybody has a smartphone, and it’s free to upload the video to YouTube. This works particularly well if you teach film, art or fashion students and you’ll get some amazing results. It’s actually one of my favourite ESL projects these days.

You can have a fun “viewing day” in class and encourage everyone to bring a snack! It’s a nice change from the regular old textbook thing.

Here’s how I’ve done movie projects.

  • I put students into groups of 4-5. One person can “film” the project and then you can have 2-3 actors. Finally, one person might be designated the write the script or edit. However, I leave it up to the group how they want to divide the roles and not everyone has to appear on camera.
  • I set a minimum and maximum time for the movie (usually 3-5 minutes), as well as a certain number of English sentences that must be spoken during that time. It must be a story of some kind that makes sense.
  • I’ll usually give a topic or theme of some kind, but may leave it open.

I evaluate it based on the following things:

  • Quality of English
  • Interesting story
  • Quality of production (I don’t expect a lot, but just basic stuff like making sure it’s bright enough, we can hear the people talking, etc.)

The quality of English usually gets around 10 marks, while the other two categorie s are each worth five.

#5: PowerPoint Presentation

This has the potential to be very interesting, or PPT death. It all depends on how you set the presentation project up.

If you do go with this method, you should set a maximum number of slides and also a maximum numbers of words per slide (5-10?). Emphasize to students that you want to see pictures, charts, etc. and not a wall of text.

I generally allow each group to have 1 intro and 1 conclusion slide, and then 1 slide per group member. So if there are 6 students in the group, it’ll be 8 slides. I usually say that each student has to talk about their slide for 30 seconds to 2 minutes, depending on the level.

Teach students how to make good PowerPoints and then penalize heavily for not following your recommendations. You should also coach students on how to stand to the side and keep their body pointed towards the audience. Eye contact is key!

This is an excellent idea for presentation projects, if some key expectations are set out in advance. Eye contact/don’t look at screen, pictures instead of words on the PowerPoint, etc.

#6: Just a Minute Impromptu Presentation

If you want to give your students some practice with making impromptu, or off the cuff style of speeches, then Just a Minute may be exactly what you need. It’s a toastmasters style activity and makes the perfect warm-up activity for intermediate or advanced level students.

You can also turn this into a listening activity, instead of just an ESL presentation by requiring the other students in the group to ask follow-up questions. Try this one with your classes and I think your students will really enjoy the challenge.

Find out more about it here:

Just a Minute ESL Speaking Activity

Impromptu presentation skills are never a bad thing for students (or anyone) to practice!

#7: Teaching Others How to Do Something

One of the best presentation ideas for students is to get them to teach the class how to do something. I’ve done this a few times now and they are some of my most memorable classes.

The way it works is that students choose something they know how to do well. Students in the past having chosen things like:

  • How to fry an egg
  • Heading a soccer ball
  • Playing the guitar
  • Getting dates
  • Making sure their parents give them enough spending money
  • Eating out cheaply around the university
  • Getting the best class schedule

I allow students to bring in props, material or make a simple powerpoint presentation with pictures (no text) to explain.

#8: What are you Cooking?

If you want to have your students do some fun presentations in a more informal kind of way, then consider trying out “What are you Cooking?” Students have to plan a 3-course meal based on ingredients from their classmates and then make a presentation to the class who votes on the best menu.

Sounds interesting? I think you’ll love it so give it a try today. More information here: What are you Cooking?

#9: An Informative Speech

Esl presentations faqs.

There are a number of common questions that people have about making presentation in English. Here are the answers to some of the most popular ones.

Why are Presentations Important for Students?

Having students give presentations is important for delivering a positive learning environment. They can also help teach communication skills and assist with students feeling comfortable talking in front of a group of people. Finally, they are an engaging way to share ideas and help students build confidence.

What Makes a Great Presentation?

A great presentation is very memorable. This can be done in various ways, but graphics, images, relevant facts, story telling and humour play an important role. Finally, a memorable presentation motivates the audience to action.

What are the Advantages of a Presentation?

Businesses and people in general use presentations for various reasons. The advantage of them is that they can educate, motivate, and persuade in a more interesting way than the written word alone can.

Should Students Memorize Speeches?

Should you make students memorize their presentation, or not? It’s an interesting question and I certainly see points for both sides. However, I generally lead towards the memorization thing because…

  • It results in presentations that are far more interesting for the audience
  • I only require 30 seconds-2 minutes of speaking. It’s not a big task to memorize this amount
  • It helps students remember vocabulary and key phrases

That said, I do know that students get nervous and that this can be a big ask. It’s for this reason that I tell students to bring their notes up to the front with this, but to leave them in their pocket.

If they have an emergency (forget what to say!), they can take it out and use it. But, only once if they don’t want to get a penalty. After that, put it aside and continue on.

I’m usually kind and if a student has to do this twice, I don’t mind. My main point is that I don’t want students reading exclusively off of a paper.

What are some Things to Consider for Presentations in English?

If you’re going to have your students do an ESL presentation, there are a number of factors that you’ll want to consider.

  • How to explain the task in a simple way that students can understand what they need to do. How will you evaluate it?
  • When will students prepare (outside, or inside of class. A combination of both often works well).
  • What kind of equipment can students use (Projector, or not).
  • How students will deliver the presentation. Will you expect things like gestures and eye contact?
  • What kind of language will the students use? Will you teach them about the introduction (I would like to start by…) and conclusion (In conclusion, you can see that…), as well as transition sentences (Moving on to…). The style of the speech (persuasive, informative, etc.) is important for this.
  • What will the rest of the class be doing while the presentations are happening? Is there a listening task you can assign to make this activity even more valuable?

The biggest tip I can give you is to be clear about the terms of the assignment. And, also how you will evaluate it. If expectations are clear, results will be far better and your life will be easier as well because you won’t have to answer the same questions over and over again.

What are the Top 20 ESL Presentation Topics?

Here are some of the most common topics that you may consider assigning to your students:

  • Family (can be sensitive for some though)
  • Current events
  • If I had a million dollars…
  • Vacation (past or future dream)
  • Ideal first date
  • TV and movies
  • Favourite book
  • Time, and how do you spend it
  • An ideal first date
  • Jobs and work
  • Some future goals
  • A favourite restaurant
  • Money (saver or spender)
  • Future plans
  • Controversial topics
  • Teaching someone how to do something
  • If you were the president…

These interesting topics means that you presentation projects will be better than ever! No more boring, okay? Okay.

Do you Like these Ideas for Presentation Projects?

  • Amazon Kindle Edition
  • Bolen, Jackie (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 148 Pages - 03/09/2016 (Publication Date)

Then you’re going to love this book, 101 ESL Activities: For Teenagers and Adults . It’s an extremely practical, well-organized teaching guide that will help you plan your lessons in no time. The best part about it is that your students will be having fun, while learning English.

The book is available in both digital and print formats. The (cheaper!) digital one can be read on any device-Kindle, Mac, Pc, Smartphone, or tablet by downloading the free Kindle reading app from Amazon. It’s super-easy to have some top-quality ESL activities and games at your fingertips at all times.

Keep a copy on the bookshelf in your office and use it as a handy reference guide. Or, bring a copy with your on your phone or tablet to your favourite coffee shop for lesson planning on the go. It really is that easy to make your English classes even better.

Check out the book on Amazon by clicking the link below:

Have your Say about ESL Presentation Ideas

What’s your top ESL presentation project ideas? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think. We’d love to hear from you.

Also be sure to give this a share on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest. It’ll help other teachers, like yourself find this useful teaching resource.

Last update on 2024-04-25 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

About Jackie

Jackie Bolen has been teaching English for more than 15 years to students in South Korea and Canada. She's taught all ages, levels and kinds of TEFL classes. She holds an MA degree, along with the Celta and Delta English teaching certifications.

Jackie is the author of more than 100 books for English teachers and English learners, including 101 ESL Activities for Teenagers and Adults and 1001 English Expressions and Phrases . She loves to share her ESL games, activities, teaching tips, and more with other teachers throughout the world.

You can find her on social media at: YouTube Facebook TikTok Pinterest Instagram

Great ideas! Thank you so much for such inspiring ideas for presentations.

I’ve been looking for some presentation ideas for my students here in South Korea and ran across your list. Thank you! Lots of good ones but I think I’m going to give the current events one a try. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Great info! Thanks for sharing your ideas for presentations. I love to do them but it was getting a bit stale for me so appreciate the new ideas.

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  • DOI: 10.52547/JFL.9.39.57
  • Corpus ID: 239752694

The Impact of Class Presentation on EFL Learners’ Speaking Development

  • Masoumeh Toghroli , Shahram Afraz
  • Published 1 March 2021
  • Education, Linguistics
  • International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Research

Tables from this paper

table 3

31 References

Oral presentation vs. free discussion: iranian intermediate efl learners’ speaking proficiency and perception, does oral presentation affect the development of the students’ ability to speak in efl classroom, the impact of oral presentation on fluency and accuracy of iranian efl learners’ speaking, the impact of oral presentations on al-aqsa university efl students' speaking performance, speaking anxiety and achievement in elt methodology1, using guided oral presentation in teaching english language learners’ speaking skills, students' views of academic aural/oral skills: a comparative needs analysis., understanding l2 speaking problems: implications for esl curriculum development in a teacher training institution in hong kong., academic oral communication needs of eap learners: what subject-matter instructors actually require, academic oral communication needs of east asian international graduate students in non-science and non-engineering fields, implications for effective ways of conducting and assessing presentations, related papers.

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    Keywords: Class presentation, speaking skill, EFL learners, speaking activities International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Research, 9 (39), 2021 Islamic Azad University of Najafabad 58 Toghroli & Afraz, Vol. 9, Issue 39, 2021, pp. 47-66 Introduction Speaking is a productive necessary skill to communicate effectively in any language ...

  17. Presentation Projects Ideas ESL/EFL Students

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