PRESENTATIONS

Individual presentations provide numerous benefits to students. Apart from a chance to personalize and internalize the target language, presenting gives students an opportunity to get used to standing in front of their peers. Valuable presentation skills as well as confidence can also result.

Presentations tend to work well as a final activity for a given topic. Students can use the language they learned, as well as any necessary new language, to present on their chosen subject. There are several points to keep in mind when doing presentations with students:

• age is not a limiting factor: even 1st grade students can do presentations about their likes and dislikes, for example
• having a concrete focus for the presentation helps keep it interesting and meaningful for other students (such as a photo, an object, or a poster that the student has drawn)
• students should personalize their presentation: teachers should help them by providing any new words they need (this is a very effective way for students to be exposed to meaningful new language)
• spend time and effort to create a positive atmosphere: talk to the class about the importance of listening to their classmates' presentations and being supportive
• keep presentations relatively short or have students present in groups or within groups: having thirty-five students present in a row is going to tax the class' patience

I recommend having a preparatory session where teachers can go over the necessary language, then having the students prepare their props as homework/out of English class work (maybe the homeroom teacher can use an art class to help students prepare their posters). Then have students present. Make sure to give lots of encouragement and praise. Remember that students probably don't have much experience with presentation so they will need lots of support, at least in the beginning!