A Survey Study Of The Effectiveness Of College English Class Presentation

In order to enable non-English major undergraduates to exchange information effectively through both written and spoken English,classroom presentation activities have been implemented in college English classes to enhance students‘ abilities of listening,speaking and self-study.Since the development of modern educational technology made the class presentation more feasible and easier,PowerPoint presentation has become the most widely-used activity mode in college English classes.Faced with the popularity of class presentation,however,many scholars have noticed that not all class presentations could be effective as they should.The relevant studies on the effectiveness of class presentation focus on presentation skills,auxiliary means,ways of evaluation,influencing factors and teacher‘s roles in class presentation,but systematic studies on the effectiveness of class presentation,especially English class presentations,are relatively scarce;the participants of the current studies are mainly students from primary to higher vocational or English majors,rarely non-English majored college students.Thus the author attempted to systematically explore the effectiveness of non-English major‘s college English class presentations and the causes of the existing problems,and hopefully provide suggestions for improving the effectiveness of college English class presentations.By questionnaires,evaluation scales,classroom observations and interviews,the present study surveyed on the effectiveness of college English class presentations of the freshmen undergraduates majoring in Electronic Information Engineering,Public Management,Economy and Law from Shandong Normal University in order to find out: 1)the general problems of college English class presentations and the causes of these problems;2)the effectiveness of college English class presentations in specific dimensions;3)the ways to improve the effectiveness of college English class presentations.Based on the quantitative and qualitative data analysis with the help of SPSS 22.0,the major findings are:1)The general problems of college English class presentations are students‘ and teachers‘ lack of acknowledgements of the effective PowerPoint presentations,teachers‘ insufficient instructions on designing and giving PowerPoint presentations,and student‘s poor performances of preparing and delivering PowerPoint presentations.2)Presenters performed effectively in researching the topic,stating clear objectives of presentation,selecting appropriate headings,managing the allotted time,and using accurate and appropriate vocabulary and structures.Presenters who get lower total scores performed better in getting unique ideas of the chosen topics,while presenters who get higher total scores performed better in other aspects.Both of the two groups performed ineffectively in making eye-contact with the audience,using body language,showing orderliness of presentations and presenting without reading transcripts.3)To solve the existing problems,students need to improve their skills of selecting presenting materials,master skills of class presentations and enhance social and emotional skills;college English teachers are supposed to provide comprehensive instructions on designing and presenting PowerPoint presentations for students,and give guidance of enhancing students‘ ability of independent and critical thinking.Based on the research findings,the author put forward the implications for both teachers and students in achieving effective college English class presentation,together with the limitations of the current study and the suggestions for the further study.