oral presentation characteristics

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How to prepare and...

How to prepare and deliver an effective oral presentation

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Peer review
Lucia Hartigan , registrar 1 ,
Fionnuala Mone , fellow in maternal fetal medicine 1 ,
Mary Higgins , consultant obstetrician 2
1 National Maternity Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
2 National Maternity Hospital, Dublin; Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Medicine and Medical Sciences, University College Dublin
luciahartigan{at}hotmail.com

The success of an oral presentation lies in the speaker’s ability to transmit information to the audience. Lucia Hartigan and colleagues describe what they have learnt about delivering an effective scientific oral presentation from their own experiences, and their mistakes

The objective of an oral presentation is to portray large amounts of often complex information in a clear, bite sized fashion. Although some of the success lies in the content, the rest lies in the speaker’s skills in transmitting the information to the audience. 1

Preparation

It is important to be as well prepared as possible. Look at the venue in person, and find out the time allowed for your presentation and for questions, and the size of the audience and their backgrounds, which will allow the presentation to be pitched at the appropriate level.

See what the ambience and temperature are like and check that the format of your presentation is compatible with the available computer. This is particularly important when embedding videos. Before you begin, look at the video on stand-by and make sure the lights are dimmed and the speakers are functioning.

For visual aids, Microsoft PowerPoint or Apple Mac Keynote programmes are usual, although Prezi is increasing in popularity. Save the presentation on a USB stick, with email or cloud storage backup to avoid last minute disasters.

When preparing the presentation, start with an opening slide containing the title of the study, your name, and the date. Begin by addressing and thanking the audience and the organisation that has invited you to speak. Typically, the format includes background, study aims, methodology, results, strengths and weaknesses of the study, and conclusions.

If the study takes a lecturing format, consider including “any questions?” on a slide before you conclude, which will allow the audience to remember the take home messages. Ideally, the audience should remember three of the main points from the presentation. 2

Have a maximum of four short points per slide. If you can display something as a diagram, video, or a graph, use this instead of text and talk around it.

Animation is available in both Microsoft PowerPoint and the Apple Mac Keynote programme, and its use in presentations has been demonstrated to assist in the retention and recall of facts. 3 Do not overuse it, though, as it could make you appear unprofessional. If you show a video or diagram don’t just sit back—use a laser pointer to explain what is happening.

Rehearse your presentation in front of at least one person. Request feedback and amend accordingly. If possible, practise in the venue itself so things will not be unfamiliar on the day. If you appear comfortable, the audience will feel comfortable. Ask colleagues and seniors what questions they would ask and prepare responses to these questions.

It is important to dress appropriately, stand up straight, and project your voice towards the back of the room. Practise using a microphone, or any other presentation aids, in advance. If you don’t have your own presenting style, think of the style of inspirational scientific speakers you have seen and imitate it.

Try to present slides at the rate of around one slide a minute. If you talk too much, you will lose your audience’s attention. The slides or videos should be an adjunct to your presentation, so do not hide behind them, and be proud of the work you are presenting. You should avoid reading the wording on the slides, but instead talk around the content on them.

Maintain eye contact with the audience and remember to smile and pause after each comment, giving your nerves time to settle. Speak slowly and concisely, highlighting key points.

Do not assume that the audience is completely familiar with the topic you are passionate about, but don’t patronise them either. Use every presentation as an opportunity to teach, even your seniors. The information you are presenting may be new to them, but it is always important to know your audience’s background. You can then ensure you do not patronise world experts.

To maintain the audience’s attention, vary the tone and inflection of your voice. If appropriate, use humour, though you should run any comments or jokes past others beforehand and make sure they are culturally appropriate. Check every now and again that the audience is following and offer them the opportunity to ask questions.

Finishing up is the most important part, as this is when you send your take home message with the audience. Slow down, even though time is important at this stage. Conclude with the three key points from the study and leave the slide up for a further few seconds. Do not ramble on. Give the audience a chance to digest the presentation. Conclude by acknowledging those who assisted you in the study, and thank the audience and organisation. If you are presenting in North America, it is usual practice to conclude with an image of the team. If you wish to show references, insert a text box on the appropriate slide with the primary author, year, and paper, although this is not always required.

Answering questions can often feel like the most daunting part, but don’t look upon this as negative. Assume that the audience has listened and is interested in your research. Listen carefully, and if you are unsure about what someone is saying, ask for the question to be rephrased. Thank the audience member for asking the question and keep responses brief and concise. If you are unsure of the answer you can say that the questioner has raised an interesting point that you will have to investigate further. Have someone in the audience who will write down the questions for you, and remember that this is effectively free peer review.

Be proud of your achievements and try to do justice to the work that you and the rest of your group have done. You deserve to be up on that stage, so show off what you have achieved.

Competing interests: We have read and understood the BMJ Group policy on declaration of interests and declare the following interests: None.

↵ Rovira A, Auger C, Naidich TP. How to prepare an oral presentation and a conference. Radiologica 2013 ; 55 (suppl 1): 2 -7S. OpenUrl
↵ Bourne PE. Ten simple rules for making good oral presentations. PLos Comput Biol 2007 ; 3 : e77 . OpenUrl PubMed
↵ Naqvi SH, Mobasher F, Afzal MA, Umair M, Kohli AN, Bukhari MH. Effectiveness of teaching methods in a medical institute: perceptions of medical students to teaching aids. J Pak Med Assoc 2013 ; 63 : 859 -64. OpenUrl

10 Characteristics of Oral Communication With Examples

Table of Contents

Oral communication is a fundamental aspect of human interaction and is essential in both personal and professional settings. It involves the exchange of information through spoken words, either face-to-face or through technology.

In this blog, we will explore 10 characteristics of oral communication and provide examples to illustrate each one.

Definition of oral communication

“Oral communication is the act of transmitting messages from one person to another through the use of spoken words. It is a process that involves both sending and receiving information, and relies on the effective use of language, tone, and body language.” – Michael J. Cody in “Communication and Learning in the Classroom”

Check out our detailed article on: What is Oral Communication: Examples, Importance, Types & Features

10 Characteristics of oral communication with examples

Oral communication involves a sender (speaker) and a receiver (listener) who engage in a conversation, discussion, or presentation. Here are some primary characteristics of oral language along with examples:

1/ Verbal Expression : The foremost characteristic of oral communication is that it involves the use of spoken words to transmit messages, concepts, and information. Oral information relies on the power of language and pronunciation to deliver a clear and meaningful message. For example, during a team meeting, a project manager verbally explains the new project’s objectives and assigns tasks to each team member.

2/ Rapport Building : Oral communication fosters a personal connection between individuals. People often feel more engaged and connected when interacting orally than through written communication . For example, team members who have regular face-to-face meetings may develop stronger bonds and work better together.

3/ Immediate Feedback : Another key feature of oral communication is the ability to receive immediate feedback from the audience or the receiver. This feedback loop allows for on-the-spot adjustments, enhancing the understanding and effectiveness of the communication process, which is a crucial aspect of the fundamentals of oral communication . For example, a manager delivers a presentation at an annual meeting, and the board of directors can ask questions or seek clarification during the session.

4/ Spontaneity : Oral communication can be spontaneous, allowing for real-time reactions and discussions. For example, during brainstorming sessions, team members can verbally share ideas and build upon each other’s suggestions, leading to creative solutions.

5/ Clarification and Elaboration : In oral communication, participants can seek clarification or ask for further explanations immediately. This helps in resolving doubts and avoiding misunderstandings. For instance, during a conference call, a participant may ask the speaker to elaborate on a complex topic.

6/ Social and Cultural Context : Oral communication is influenced by social norms, cultural customs, and regional accents. People adapt their language and communication style based on the setting and the people they are interacting with. For example, a businessperson may use formal communication and greetings when meeting clients, while using more casual language with colleagues.

7/ Synchronization and Coordination : In collaborative settings, oral communication supports in coordinating tasks and activities. For example, during a team meeting, members can discuss project updates, assign responsibilities, and align their efforts toward a common goal.

8/ Real-Time Interaction : Unlike written communication, oral communication allows for immediate interaction and clarification, promoting a dynamic and engaging conversation. For example, in a group discussion, participants can interact, share ideas, and build upon each other’s points to explore different perspectives.

9/ Personal Touch : Oral communication fosters a sense of personal connection between the speaker and the audience, creating an opportunity for rapport-building and emotional engagement. For example, a motivational speaker uses personal stories to connect with the audience and inspire them.

10/ Non-verbal Cues : Along with words, oral communication relies on different nonverbal cues , such as body language, tone of voice, touch, and hand movements. These cues can convey emotions, emphasis, and sincerity. For instance, during a job interview, the candidate’s body language, like maintaining eye contact and nodding, can show interest and engagement.

Dorie Clark, strategy consultant, and keynote speaker : from LinkedIn Learning, explains how you can recognize non-verbal cues while communicating in the following video.

These features make oral language a powerful and essential form of human interaction, facilitating effective collaboration, understanding, and relationship-building in various personal and professional contexts.

Features of oral presentation in business communication

1. Structured Content: In business communication, an oral presentation should feature clear and well-structured content, including a beginning, middle, and end. The presentation must follow a logical flow to ensure ease of understanding for the audience.

2. Visual Aids: Charts, graphs, and images are examples of visual aids that can be employed to improve a presentation’s quality and increase its appeal and retention value.

Related Reading : Why visual communication is important

3. Professional Tone: Oral presentations in business communication should have a professional tone and be delivered in a confident and clear manner. It is essential for the presenter to be thoroughly prepared and possess a good understanding of the subject matter.

4. Audience Engagement: A good oral presentation in business communication should engage the audience by asking questions, inviting feedback, and encouraging interaction. This can assist in maintaining the audience’s engagement and interest in the presentation.

5. Time Management: It is important to manage time effectively during an oral presentation in business communication. The presenter should be mindful of the time allotted for the presentation and make sure to cover all of the key points within the time frame.

Related Readings: Features of effective business communication What are the principles of business communication

Methods of oral communication

There are several methods of oral communication, including

Face-to-Face Conversation: Direct communication between two or more people in person.

Related Reading : Face-to-face conversation advantages and disadvantages

Telephonic Conversation: Communication using voice over the telephone.
Video Conferencing: Communication through video and audio technology.
Presentations: Communication to an audience using visual aids and speaking skills.
Interviews: A conversation between an interviewer and interviewee for the purpose of gathering information.
Group Discussions: A conversation among multiple people with a common topic or purpose.
Lectures: Communication from a speaker to an audience on a specific topic or subject.
Speeches: A speaker delivered a formal speech or presentation to an audience.

Importance of oral communication

Oral communication is a crucial component of effective communication , as it involves the transmission of information through spoken words, tone, and nonverbal cues.

One of the benefits of oral communication is that it allows for immediate feedback, which can be helpful in clarifying misunderstandings and ensuring that both parties are on the same page.

Additionally, oral communication enables individuals to convey emotions, attitudes, and intentions that may not be easily conveyed through written communication.

Overall, the merits of oral communication outweigh the drawbacks , as it allows for effective collaboration, builds relationships, and enhances overall communication skills.

Characteristics of written communication

Some key characteristics of written communication include:

1) Permanence: The foremost feature of written communication is that it leaves a permanent record, which can be reviewed or referenced at a later time.

2) Precision: Written communication allows for precise language and careful editing, making it ideal for conveying complex or technical information.

3) Formality: Written communication tends to be more formal than oral communication, with a greater emphasis on structure, grammar, and style.

4) Distance: Written communication can be used to communicate across distance and time, making it ideal for communication between individuals who are not in the same location or time zone.

5) Lack of immediate feedback: Unlike oral communication, written communication does not provide immediate feedback, which can make it challenging to gauge the effectiveness of the message.

Related Reading : The importance of feedback in communication

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1) what are the 4 characteristics of oral communication.

Ans: The four characteristics of oral communication are immediacy, interactivity, personalization, and flexibility.

Q2) What are the 5 characteristics of oral language?

Ans: According to Donald J. Richgels , the five characteristics of oral language are phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Source

Q3) What are the 7 characteristics of communication?

Ans: Communication involves a two-way exchange of messages between a sender and receiver. The sender encodes the message through various channels, while the receiver decodes it to understand the meaning. Feedback helps assess the effectiveness of communication within a specific context, but noise can disrupt the process. Being mindful of these seven characteristics ensures clearer understanding and improved connections in interactions.

Q4) What are the feature and characteristics of verbal communication?

Ans: Verbal communication involves using spoken words to convey information and emotions. The characteristics of verbal communication include immediate feedback, adaptability, relationship building, spontaneity, and memorability. These features benefit verbal communication by fostering understanding, trust, and efficient problem-solving in various contexts.

Q5) What are the major characteristics of oral presentation?

Ans: Major characteristics of oral presentations require clarity, engagement, organization, visual aids, and compelling delivery. Speakers must articulate ideas clearly, keep the audience engaged, and use visual support to enhance understanding. A well-structured presentation with confident delivery helps leave a lasting impact on the audience.

Q6) What are the characteristics of good oral language?

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Aditya Soni

10 Differences Between Verbal & Nonverbal Communication + Examples

12 Key Principles of Effective Oral Communication for Success

8 Advantages and Disadvantages Of Grapevine Communication

What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation

Carmine Gallo

Five tips to set yourself apart.

Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don’t underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice — a lot).

I was sitting across the table from a Silicon Valley CEO who had pioneered a technology that touches many of our lives — the flash memory that stores data on smartphones, digital cameras, and computers. He was a frequent guest on CNBC and had been delivering business presentations for at least 20 years before we met. And yet, the CEO wanted to sharpen his public speaking skills.

Carmine Gallo is a Harvard University instructor, keynote speaker, and author of 10 books translated into 40 languages. Gallo is the author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman (St. Martin’s Press).

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24 Oral Presentations

Many academic courses require students to present information to their peers and teachers in a classroom setting. This is usually in the form of a short talk, often, but not always, accompanied by visual aids such as a power point. Students often become nervous at the idea of speaking in front of a group.

This chapter is divided under five headings to establish a quick reference guide for oral presentations.

A beginner, who may have little or no experience, should read each section in full.

For the intermediate learner, who has some experience with oral presentations, review the sections you feel you need work on.

The Purpose of an Oral Presentation

Generally, oral presentation is public speaking, either individually or as a group, the aim of which is to provide information, entertain, persuade the audience, or educate. In an academic setting, oral presentations are often assessable tasks with a marking criteria. Therefore, students are being evaluated on their capacity to speak and deliver relevant information within a set timeframe. An oral presentation differs from a speech in that it usually has visual aids and may involve audience interaction; ideas are both shown and explained . A speech, on the other hand, is a formal verbal discourse addressing an audience, without visual aids and audience participation.

Types of Oral Presentations

Individual presentation.

Breathe and remember that everyone gets nervous when speaking in public. You are in control. You’ve got this!
Know your content. The number one way to have a smooth presentation is to know what you want to say and how you want to say it. Write it down and rehearse it until you feel relaxed and confident and do not have to rely heavily on notes while speaking.
Eliminate ‘umms’ and ‘ahhs’ from your oral presentation vocabulary. Speak slowly and clearly and pause when you need to. It is not a contest to see who can race through their presentation the fastest or fit the most content within the time limit. The average person speaks at a rate of 125 words per minute. Therefore, if you are required to speak for 10 minutes, you will need to write and practice 1250 words for speaking. Ensure you time yourself and get it right.
Ensure you meet the requirements of the marking criteria, including non-verbal communication skills. Make good eye contact with the audience; watch your posture; don’t fidget.
Know the language requirements. Check if you are permitted to use a more casual, conversational tone and first-person pronouns, or do you need to keep a more formal, academic tone?

Group Presentation

All of the above applies, however you are working as part of a group. So how should you approach group work?
Firstly, if you are not assigned to a group by your lecturer/tutor, choose people based on their availability and accessibility. If you cannot meet face-to-face you may schedule online meetings.
Get to know each other. It’s easier to work with friends than strangers.
Also consider everyone’s strengths and weaknesses. This will involve a discussion that will often lead to task or role allocations within the group, however, everyone should be carrying an equal level of the workload.
Some group members may be more focused on getting the script written, with a different section for each team member to say. Others may be more experienced with the presentation software and skilled in editing and refining power point slides so they are appropriate for the presentation. Use one visual aid (one set of power point slides) for the whole group. Take turns presenting information and ideas.
Be patient and tolerant with each other’s learning style and personality. Do not judge people in your group based on their personal appearance, sexual orientation, gender, age, or cultural background.
Rehearse as a group, more than once. Keep rehearsing until you have seamless transitions between speakers. Ensure you thank the previous speaker and introduce the one following you. If you are rehearsing online, but have to present in-person, try to schedule some face-to-face time that will allow you to physically practice using the technology and classroom space of the campus.
For further information on working as a group see:

Working as a group – my.UQ – University of Queensland

Writing Your Presentation

Approach the oral presentation task just as you would any other assignment. Review the available topics, do some background reading and research to ensure you can talk about the topic for the appropriate length of time and in an informed manner. Break the question down as demonstrated in Chapter 17 Breaking Down an Assignment. Where it differs from writing an essay is that the information in the written speech must align with the visual aid. Therefore, with each idea, concept or new information you write, think about how this might be visually displayed through minimal text and the occasional use of images. Proceed to write your ideas in full, but consider that not all information will end up on a power point slide. After all, it is you who are doing the presenting , not the power point. Your presentation skills are being evaluated; this may include a small percentage for the actual visual aid. This is also why it is important that EVERYONE has a turn at speaking during the presentation, as each person receives their own individual grade.

Using Visual Aids

A whole chapter could be written about the visual aids alone, therefore I will simply refer to the key points as noted by my.UQ

To keep your audience engaged and help them to remember what you have to say, you may want to use visual aids, such as slides.

When designing slides for your presentation, make sure:

any text is brief, grammatically correct and easy to read. Use dot points and space between lines, plus large font size (18-20 point).
Resist the temptation to use dark slides with a light-coloured font; it is hard on the eyes
if images and graphs are used to support your main points, they should be non-intrusive on the written work

Images and Graphs

Your audience will respond better to slides that deliver information quickly – images and graphs are a good way to do this. However, they are not always appropriate or necessary.

When choosing images, it’s important to find images that:

support your presentation and aren’t just decorative
are high quality, however, using large HD picture files can make the power point file too large overall for submission via Turnitin
you have permission to use (Creative Commons license, royalty-free, own images, or purchased)
suggested sites for free-to-use images: Openclipart – Clipping Culture ; Beautiful Free Images & Pictures | Unsplash ; Pxfuel – Royalty free stock photos free download ; When we share, everyone wins – Creative Commons

This is a general guide. The specific requirements for your course may be different. Make sure you read through any assignment requirements carefully and ask your lecturer or tutor if you’re unsure how to meet them.

Using Visual Aids Effectively

Too often, students make an impressive power point though do not understand how to use it effectively to enhance their presentation.

Rehearse with the power point.
Keep the slides synchronized with your presentation; change them at the appropriate time.
Refer to the information on the slides. Point out details; comment on images; note facts such as data.
Don’t let the power point just be something happening in the background while you speak.
Write notes in your script to indicate when to change slides or which slide number the information applies to.
Pace yourself so you are not spending a disproportionate amount of time on slides at the beginning of the presentation and racing through them at the end.
Practice, practice, practice.

Nonverbal Communication

It is clear by the name that nonverbal communication are the ways that we communicate without speaking. Many people are already aware of this, however here are a few tips that relate specifically to oral presentations.

Being confident and looking confident are two different things. Fake it until you make it.

Avoid slouching or leaning – standing up straight instantly gives you an air of confidence.
Move! When you’re glued to one spot as a presenter, you’re not perceived as either confident or dynamic. Use the available space effectively, though do not exaggerate your natural movements so you look ridiculous.
If you’re someone who “speaks with their hands”, resist the urge to constantly wave them around. They detract from your message. Occasional gestures are fine.
Be animated, but don’t fidget. Ask someone to watch you rehearse and identify if you have any nervous, repetitive habits you may be unaware of, for example, constantly touching or ‘finger-combing’ your hair, rubbing your face.
Avoid ‘voice fidgets’ also. If you needs to cough or clear your throat, do so once then take a drink of water.
Avoid distractions. No phone turned on. Water available but off to one side.
Keep your distance. Don’t hover over front-row audience members; this can be intimidating.
Have a cheerful demeaner. You do not need to grin like a Cheshire cat throughout the presentation, yet your facial expression should be relaxed and welcoming.
Maintain an engaging TONE in your voice. Sometimes it’s not what you’re saying that is putting your audience to sleep, it’s your monotonous tone. Vary your tone and pace.
Don’t read your presentation – PRESENT it! Internalize your script so you can speak with confidence and only occasionally refer to your notes if needed.
Lastly, make good eye contact with your audience members so they know you are talking with them, not at them. You’re having a conversation. Watch the link below for some great speaking tips, including eye contact.

Below is a video of some great tips about public speaking from Amy Wolff at TEDx Portland [1]

Wolff. A. [The Oregonion]. (2016, April 9). 5 public speaking tips from TEDxPortland speaker coach [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNOXZumCXNM&ab_channel=TheOregonian ↵

communication of thought by word

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Chapter 3: Oral Presentations

Patricia Williamson

Many academic courses require students to present information to their peers and teachers in a classroom setting. Such presentations are usually in the form of a short talk, often, but not always, accompanied by visual aids such as a PowerPoint. Yet, students often become nervous at the idea of speaking in front of a group. This chapter aims to help calms those nerves.

This chapter is divided under five headings to establish a quick reference guide for oral presentations.

A beginner, who may have little or no experience, should read each section in full.
For the intermediate learner, who has some experience with oral presentations, review the sections you feel you need work on.
If you are an experienced presenter then you may wish to jog your memory about the basics or gain some fresh insights about technique.

The Purpose of an Oral Presentation

Generally, oral presentation is public speaking, either individually or as a group, the aim of which is to provide information, to entertain, to persuade the audience, or to educate. In an academic setting, oral presentations are often assessable tasks with a marking criteria. Therefore, students are being evaluated on two separate-but-related competencies within a set timeframe: the ability to speak and the quality of the spoken content. An oral presentation differs from a speech in that it usually has visual aids and may involve audience interaction; ideas are both shown and explained . A speech, on the other hand, is a formal verbal discourse addressing an audience, without visual aids and audience participation.

Tips for Types of Oral Presentations

Individual presentation.

Know your content. The number one way to have a smooth presentation is to know what you want to say and how you want to say it. Write it down and rehearse it until you feel relaxed and confident and do not have to rely heavily on notes while speaking.
Eliminate ‘umms’ and ‘ahhs’ from your oral presentation vocabulary. Speak slowly and clearly and pause when you need to. It is not a contest to see who can race through their presentation the fastest or fit the most content within the time limit. The average person speaks at a rate of 125 words per minute. Therefore, if you are required to speak for 10 minutes, you will need to write and practice 1250 words for speaking. Ensure you time yourself and get it right.
Ensure you meet the requirements of the marking criteria, including non-verbal communication skills. Make good eye contact with the audience; watch your posture; don’t fidget.
Know the language requirements. Check if you are permitted to use a more casual, conversational tone and first-person pronouns, or do you need to keep a more formal, academic tone?
Breathe. You are in control. You’ve got this!

Group Presentation

All of the above applies; however, you are working as part of a group. So how should you approach group work?
Firstly, if you are not assigned to a group by your lecturer/tutor, choose people based on their availability and accessibility. If you cannot meet face-to-face you may schedule online meetings.
Get to know each other. It’s easier to work with friends than strangers.
Consider everyone’s strengths and weaknesses. Determining strengths and weaknesses will involve a discussion that will often lead to task or role allocations within the group; however, everyone should be carrying an equal level of the workload.
Some group members may be more focused on getting the script written, with a different section for each team member to say. Others may be more experienced with the presentation software and skilled in editing and refining PowerPoint slides so they are appropriate for the presentation. Use one visual aid (one set of PowerPoint slides) for the whole group; you may consider using a shared cloud drive so that there is no need to integrate slides later on.
Be patient and tolerant with each other’s learning style and personality. Do not judge people in your group based on their personal appearance, sexual orientation, gender, age, or cultural background.
Rehearse as a group–more than once. Keep rehearsing until you have seamless transitions between speakers. Ensure you thank the previous speaker and introduce the one following you. If you are rehearsing online, but have to present in-person, try to schedule some face-to-face time that will allow you to physically practice using the technology and classroom space of the campus.

Writing Your Presentation

Approach the oral presentation task just as you would any other assignment. Review the available topics and then do some background reading and research to ensure you can talk about the topic for the appropriate length of time and in an informed manner. Break the question down into manageable parts .

Creating a presentation differs from writing an essay in that the information in the speech must align with the visual aid. Therefore, with each idea, concept, or new information that you write, you need to think about how this might be visually displayed through minimal text and the occasional use of images. Proceed to write your ideas in full, but consider that not all information will end up on a PowerPoint slide. Many guides, such as Marsen (2020), will suggest no more than five points per slide, with each bullet point have no more than six words (for a maximum of 30 words per slide). After all, it is you who are doing the presenting , not the PowerPoint. Your presentation skills are being evaluated, but this evaluation may include only a small percentage for the actual visual aid: check your assessment guidelines.

Using Visual Aids

To keep your audience engaged and help them to remember what you have to say, you may want to use visual aids, such as slides.

When designing slides for your presentation, make sure:

any text is brief, grammatically correct and easy to read. Use dot points and space between lines, plus large font size (18-20 point)
Resist the temptation to use dark slides with a light-coloured font; it is hard on the eyes
if images and graphs are used to support your main points, they should be non-intrusive on the written work

Images and Graphs

Your audience will respond better to slides that deliver information quickly – images and graphs are a good way to do this. However, they are not always appropriate or necessary.

When choosing images, it’s important to find images that:

support your presentation and aren’t just decorative
are high quality, however, using large HD picture files can make the PowerPoint file too large overall for submission via Turnitin
you have permission to use (Creative Commons license, royalty-free, own images, or purchased)
suggested sites for free-to-use images: Openclipart – Clipping Culture ; Beautiful Free Images & Pictures | Unsplash ; Pxfuel – Royalty free stock photos free download ; When we share, everyone wins – Creative Commons

The specific requirements for your papers may differ. Again, ensure that you read through any assignment requirements carefully and ask your lecturer or tutor if you’re unsure how to meet them.

Using Visual Aids Effectively

Too often, students make an impressive PowerPoint though do not understand how to use it effectively to enhance their presentation.

Rehearse with the PowerPoint.
Keep the slides synchronized with your presentation; change them at the appropriate time.
Refer to the information on the slides. Point out details; comment on images; note facts such as data.
Don’t let the PowerPoint just be something happening in the background while you speak.
Write notes in your script to indicate when to change slides or which slide number the information applies to.
Pace yourself so you are not spending a disproportionate amount of time on slides at the beginning of the presentation and racing through them at the end.
Practice, practice, practice.

Nonverbal Communication

It is clear by the name that nonverbal communication includes the ways that we communicate without speaking. You use nonverbal communication everyday–often without thinking about it. Consider meeting a friend on the street: you may say “hello”, but you may also smile, wave, offer your hand to shake, and the like. Here are a few tips that relate specifically to oral presentations.

Being confident and looking confident are two different things. Even if you may be nervous (which is natural), the following will help you look confident and professional:

Avoid slouching or leaning – standing up straight instantly gives you an air of confidence, but more importantly it allows you to breathe freely. Remember that breathing well allows you to project your voice, but it also prevents your body from experiencing extra stress.
If you have the space, move when appropriate. You can, for example, move to gesture to a more distant visual aid or to get closer to different part of the audience who might be answering a question.
If you’re someone who “speaks with their hands”, resist the urge to gesticulate constantly. Use gestures purposefully to highlight, illustrate, motion, or the like.
Be animated, but don’t fidget. Ask someone to watch you rehearse and identify if you have any nervous, repetitive habits you may be unaware of, such as ‘finger-combing’ your hair or touching your face.
Avoid ‘verbal fidgets’ such as “umm” or “ahh”; silence is ok. If you needs to cough or clear your throat, do so once then take a drink of water.
Avoid distractions that you can control. Put your phone on “do not disturb” or turn it off completely.
Keep your distance. Don’t hover over front-row audience members.
Have a cheerful demeaner. Remember that your audience will mirror your demeanor.
Maintain an engaging tone in your voice, by varying tone, pace, and emphasis. Match emotion to concept; slow when concepts might be difficult; stress important words.
Don’t read your presentation–present it! Internalize your script so you can speak with confidence and only occasionally refer to your notes if needed.
Make eye contact with your audience members so they know you are talking with them, not at them. You’re having a conversation. Watch the link below for some great speaking tips, including eye contact.

Below is a video of some great tips about public speaking from Amy Wolff at TEDx Portland [1]

Wolff. A. [The Oregonion]. (2016, April 9). 5 public speaking tips from TEDxPortland speaker coach [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNOXZumCXNM&ab_channel=TheOregonian ↵

Two or more people tied by marriage, blood, adoption, or choice; living together or apart by choice or circumstance; having interaction within family roles; creating and maintaining a common culture; being characterized by economic cooperation; deciding to have or not to have children, either own or adopted; having boundaries; and claiming mutual affection.

Chapter 3: Oral Presentations Copyright © 2023 by Patricia Williamson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Jerz's Literacy Weblog (est. 1999)

Oral presentation tips: how to deliver a speech for school or work.

Jerz > Writing > [ Academic | Technical ] This document briefly describes how to write and deliver a formal oral presentation on an academic or professional subject. It should be useful for anyone who wants to know how to speak in public.

Note: by “formal presentation,” I don’t necessarily mean a Shakespeare monologue or a scientific treatise on robot-assisted microsurgery. Giving an oral presentation on any subject–your favorite book, current events, a family story–can be “formal” and “technical” whenever its primary purpose is to communicate complex information.

The content is the most obvious component of any oral presentation — after all, if you are talking, you had better have something worthwhile to say. But a presentation is only as effective as its delivery .

Part 1: Planning the Content

1. Determine your goals. 2. Prepare your material. 3. Study a model. 4. Arrange with your strongest points first . 5. Practice, practice, practice .

Part 2: Delivering the Content

6. Make eye contact with your audience. 7. Engage actively with the audience. 8. A slide show is not a speech. 9. Watch the time! 10. Take questions in the middle, not the end?

1) Determine Your Goals as a Speaker

2) Prepare your material

Plan. Practice. Keep what’s good and try again.

Good speakers usually aim to look like they are speaking effortlessly, tossing off words as they come to mind. What you don’t see is the preparation that paved the way for the polished performance. It’s all an act! You can do it too, if you plan ahead.

Once you know what your goal is, and you know what your audience wants, you can start strategizing. There is no single strategy that will guarantee success. How you plan depends on many variables.

How many minutes long is your speech? About how many words do you speak per minute?

Will your audience be lost if you use jargon? Will they feel talked down to if you spend time defining terms they already know?

Do you expect that your audience will disagree with you? (If so, you might need to give more examples and more evidence and spend more time addressing reasonable objections in order to sound convincing, which may mean talking a little faster.)

Do you expect your audience already agrees with the position you will take? (If so, they may check out if your speech simply rehashes arguments they already accept without question. What can you say to an audience that already agrees with you? Why would you listen to a speaker who is restating things you already accept as the truth?)

Graphics, inspirational quotations, and anecdotes are all well-respected methods of maintaining audience interest. However, Pinterest clip art, fancy computer transitions between slides, and vaudeville tricks get old pretty quickly (see Don McMillan’s hilarious “ Death by Powerpoint “), and they eat up time that you could use more effectively.

3) Study a Model

The internet is of course full of examples of good speeches, but the YouTube users who vote on videos may not have much in common with the audience who will hear your oral presentation.

Do you have access to speeches that your discourse community values? Your instructor or supervisor may not have ready access to video recordings from last year’s class or last quarter’s budget meeting, but you can pay attention to the speaking techniques deployed by people with authority in your field.

For instance, I have a colleague who never says, “This is taking too long, and I’m watching the clock, so let’s get on with it already.” Instead, this person says, “I’m conscious of everyone’s time, so shall we move on to the next item?”

Bear in mind that

if you have been assigned to deliver a speech that defends a position on a topic (such as, whether Huckleberry Finn should be taught in middle school)…
but your instructor usually refrains from stating any one answer is the best (preferring instead to present several viewpoints and letting the students decide for themselves)…
then your instructor’s open-ended lecture (intended to spark a discussion) is not a good model of a position statement (intended to showcase your ability to latch onto a specific solution).

While this handout aims to provide general tips, you should ignore any general tip that contradicts something specific you learn about the goals, context, or genre of the specific speech you are preparing.

General Model

Successful oral presentations typically share some basic characteristics, owing to the nature of the spoken word.

Tell them what you’re going to tell them.
Tell them what you told them.

When we read, we can go back and reread passages we skimmed over the first time, and we can skip ahead when we’re bored. In a live oral presentation, the audience can’t re-read or skip ahead. If the audience doesn’t know why they are listening to your anecdote about winning the spelling bee, or why they should care what version of the software was installed on the computer that you used to crunch your numbers, their attention will wander and it will be hard to get it back.

When we listen, we gratefully cling to orientation phrases that help us understand what the whole shape of a speech is, where we are within the overall structure, and when we are transitioning from one section to another.

Your specific occasion for delivering a speech may involve specific contextual details that don’t mesh with the general advice I’m providing here.

Introduction : "I am Pinky J. Witzowitz from the U.S. Department of Bureaucracy, and I have been asked to speak for 20 minutes on 'The Government's Plan for Preventing Situation X in America's Heartland.'"
"Situation X is the worst thing that can happen to you and your family." [ Startling claim ; follow up by citing the source of this quote, or giving evidence that supports it.]
"It happened once to a family in Dubuque, and they were never heard from again." [ Anecdote ; follow up with details.]
"I am here today to tell you how to prevent this terrible tragedy from striking you." [ Demonstrates relevance ; move directly to your road map ]
Main Content : Put up a slide with topics to cover, a specific problem to solve, or a series of questions to answer. Promise that your talk will address the material on that slide. You might even return to that slide each time you start a new subsection, with the current place in the talk highlighted.
Questions/Comments from the Audience? Even though most people save the question period until the end, they lose the opportunity to modify their conclusion to address the interests of the audience.
Recap : Our earnest “Situation X” speaker might give microencapsulated answers to all the questions on the main road map: "We have learned that Situation X is a blah blah blah; that we should all care about it because yada, yada, yada..."
Wrap it up : After reminding the audience how all these factors fit together, the speaker might say, "Now that you understand how the U.S. Department of Bureaucracy helps you keep Situation X out of your life, please take one of our pamphlets home to your family and put it by the telephone where you can get it in an emergency; your family will thank you."
Invite Questions : If there is time, and if you haven’t already done so.

4) Arrange with Your Strongest Points First

In rare cases — such as when you are facing a hostile audience, you might want to start out by emphasizing where you agree with your audience, and then carefully working your way towards your most divisive, most daring claims.

If the question is actually important to your talk, you’ll probably be able to answer right away.
If you can’t answer right away, or you don’t want to take the time, just promise you’ll follow up via e-mail , and then go right back to your presentation. Most audience members will probably have been annoyed by the interruption. They will be delighted that you didn’t take the questioner’s bait .

5) Practice, Practice, Practice.

Set a timer, and deliver your speech to a willing co-worker or family member, your pet fish, or the bathroom mirror.

My students are often surprised at how hard it is to fill up 3 minutes for an informal practice speech early in the term, and how hard it is to fit everything they want to say into a 10-minute formal speech later in the term.

Once you have the right amount of content, make a video recording of yourself practicing. If you plan to show a video clip, or ad-lib an explanation of a diagram, or load a website, or pass out paper handouts, or saw an assistant in half, actually do it while the camera is rolling, so that you know exactly how much time it takes.

Time it out.

Script out a powerful introduction and conclusion.
Know how long each section of your speech should take.
which example or anecdote you will cut if you are running long?
what additional example you can introduce if you need to fill time?

If you know your conclusion takes you 90 seconds to deliver, make sure to start your conclusion when you have at least 90 seconds left.

At several key points during your speech, maybe while you are playing a video or while the audience is taking in a complex image, glance at the clock and check to see — are you on track?

If you notice you’re starting Section 3 60 seconds later than you had intended, try to make up for time by rushing through your second example in section 3 and cutting the third example in section 4, so that you still have the full 90 seconds at the end to deliver that powerful conclusion.

Technological Considerations

Do you know how to connect your computer to the overhead projector? (If you don’t know, who does?)
What will you do if you can’t get your computer connected to the projector? (Back in 2003, when I applied for my current job at Seton Hill University, I was asked to give a teaching demonstration. I couldn’t get my laptop to work with the overhead projector, but I had posted the most important links on my blog, and I had brought along a printout of my speech, just in case. My preparations have paid off, because I got the job.)
In the room where you will be speaking, will you be using a microphone, or relying on your unamplified voice?
Will you be able to walk around with the microphone — perhaps to gesture at details in the slides — or is the mic attached to a stand? (Do you need to borrow a laser pointer, or get a volunteer to advance slides for you?)

6) Make Eye Contact With Your Audience.

I once sat through a four-hour training session, during which this was all I could see of the instructor.

Go ahead and write your whole speech out so you can read robotically if you blank out, but you should practice your speech so you know it well enough that you can glance up from your notes and look at your audience as you speak.

7) Engage with the audience.

Pay attention to the audience, and they will pay attention to you.

Don’t try to recite from memory . If you spend your energy worrying about what you’re supposed to say next, you won’t be able to pay attention to whether the audience can hear you, or whether the overhead projections are focused.

Preparation : Set up before the audience files into their seats. If you have scheduled a presentation for a class, don’t sit in your seat like a lump while your professor calls the roll and hands out papers. Few things are more boring than watching a presenter log into the computer, fiddle with the video data projector, hunt around for the light switches, etc.

Introduction : As the audience files into their seats, have a title card displayed on the screen — or at least write your name and the title of your talk on the whiteboard. In a formal setting, usually a moderator will usually introduce you, so you won’t need to repeat everything the moderator says. Avoid canned introductions like “Principal Burch, members of the faculty, and fellow students, we are gathered here today…”

Hashtag : If it’s likely that many people in your audience use the same social media network, consider encouraging them to post their thoughts there. When you introduce yourself, give your social media handle and suggest a hashtag.

Handouts : Consider distributing handouts that present the basic facts (names, dates, timelines) and your main points. You can keep the conclusion just slightly mysterious, if you don’t want to give everything away immediately, but the idea is to free the audience from the feeling that they have to write everything down themselves. (Note: Simply printing up all the overhead slides wastes a lot of paper.)

Grabber : Grab the attention of your audience with a startling fact or claim, an inspiring quotation, or a revealing anecdote. This is not the time to try out your nightclub act; the “grabber” is not just comic relief, it also helps you set up the problem that you are going to address. If the audience will be diverse and general, you can use the “grabber” as a metaphor, helping the audience see why the topic is so important to you, and how it might be important to them, too. If your audience shares your technical specialty, and thus needs no special introduction to the topic, feel free simply to state your purpose without much to-do; but bear in mind that even technical audiences don’t want to be bored.

Road Map : Once you have established the problem or the main point of your talk, let the audience know how you are going to get to a solution. You might put up a series of questions on a slide, then as your talk progresses, proceed to answer each one. You might break each question down into a series of smaller questions, and answer each one of these in turn. Each time you finish a subsection, return to the road map, to help your audience keep track of where you have been and where you are going.

Conclusion : To give your presentation closure, return to the “grabber”, and extend it, modify it, or otherwise use it to help drive home your main point. Recap your main points, and demonstrate how they all fit together into a thought that the audience members can take with them.

8) A Slide Show Is Not a Speech

Don’t read word-for-word with your nose buried in a stack of papers . If you bother to show up to hear a person speak, how do you feel when the speaker mumbles through page after page of written text? Do you feel you should have just asked for a copy of the paper in the mail?

When you present, make every effort to include your audience; after all, they are the reason you are speaking in the first place.

If you do feel that you must write out your speech word-for-word, you should be familiar enough with it that you don’t need to look at the paper all the time. (And hold the page up when you glance at it, rather than bending down to look at it.)

9) Watch the time!

To help pace yourself, at the top of each page of your notes, write down what time it should be ; as you turn each page, you can glance at the clock and see whether you are on track.

(The first time I gave this advice to a technical writing class, I mimed the action of “looking at the clock” — and noticed that I was running ten minutes behind, eating into time that I had promised to a student for an in-class testing session. That was a rather humbling experience!)

See the “preparation” section above. If you have already practiced your speech and timed out the various sections, you’ll know whether you are running long. If you are, don’t talk faster — cut something that you already marked out as optional.

Decide in advance which examples, which anecdotes, which subsections you can drop, without damaging the whole presentation.

I was at a conference in 1998 where the first speaker talked for 40 minutes — double her allotted time. (Why the moderator allowed this is a mystery to me.)

None of the other speakers on the panel felt like cutting their talks to compensate.
The result was that the last scheduled speaker — who had paid for an international plane ticket and a week in a hotel — did not get to speak at all.

10) Take questions in the middle, not at the end?

The benefits include:

If you spark a good Q & A session, your audience will remember and appreciate it.
If nobody has any questions, you can just fill up the space with more of your own material . That would be much harder to do if you have already wrapped up your talk and had nothing left to say.
If you really know your material, you can adjust your conclusion to address the questions raised by the audience. Even if someone in the audience steals a little of your thunder by bringing up points you were saving for your big finish, you will appear smart for having predicted that audience response. At the same time, someone in your audience will feel smart for having anticipated what you were going to say.

Dennis G. Jerz , 01/27/2009 07:24:28 Oct, 1999 — first written 03 Dec, 2000 — posted here 03 June 2003 — tweaked and updated 30 Oct 2011 — updated and added video links 31 May 2016 — major update; separated into “preparation” and “presentation” sections. 26 Jan 2018 — blackboard -> whiteboard

50 thoughts on “ Oral Presentation Tips: How to Deliver a Speech for School or Work ”

Thanks alot for your teachings

Thank a lot , really great tip for oral presentation, i’ll implement these tips, and will let you know.

Very helpful tips.

this is awfully helpful. I am a teacher in France and my students have to do presentations in English. I wish they could read this and understand.

Thank you for these very useful tips on Oral presentation. I am taking an Organizational Behavior class and need to do a 5 minute oral presentation on a real life situation about Conflict Management in the Workplace. I am not sure how to structure or begin the presentation.

I like it Really helpful for me

Thank you for helping me to do my presentation…..and I have learned so much from oral presentation.

thankyou thankyou thankyou this helped me so much!!! : )

thankyou thankyou thankyou this helped me so much in english!!! : )

Thanks. Really helpful

Hi, I going to do 3 minute presentation and my topic is My son. what is a best tips to talk about the this topic. I am not sure where to start. Any tips to help me with.

Is that the topic you were assigned? Are you taking a public speaking class, a child development class, a class in writing personal memoirs, or are you learning English as a second language? I don’t know how your instructor will evaluate your work, so I am not sure how to help.

You might find it useful to look at this handout on writing personal essays. http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/creative1/personal-essays/

Hi, I going to do minute presentation and my topic is My son. what is a best tips to talk about the this topic. I am not sure where to start. Any tips to help me with.

This sort of helped

Denise Gillen Caralli liked this on Facebook.

Enter your comment here…Thanks a lot… I will follow your instructions..I’m hopeful those tips will work. .. Thanks once again….

Thanks so much will follow your instruction tomorrow where I will be having presentation with 180 Head masters about suplimetary feeding on their hunger striken ares

Yeah ,thanks and good luck to all of you from a powerful Jamaican girl

That’s great… It will work well for those who are aiming for like me. Thanks!

The tips are totally handy until now I am still applying it.

Appreciate it. =)

Very helpful for my presentation. Thanks!

I have learned a lot on this…thanks

Thanks a lot I have learned so much on this

I suppose to give out a presentation on Monday on someone or something in either an athlete or an actor and I don’t know how to start

i have a question i am supposed to give a speech but it has to have a power point or a drama thing the only problem is that i can’t have a power point because it won’t work into my speech and neither will a drama thing what should i do?

I suggest you talk to whoever set up the requirement for a slideshow/drama component. Maybe there is some flexibility, or maybe you’ll find a way to work that component into your speech.

Thank you heaps this really helped a lot

that is such good information and i believe im going to pass my speeches.

wow!!this are really helpfull stuff..but im just not confident enough to stand infront of all those people..wish i could do it without them looking at me

blind fold them! just joking…I’m getting ready to do mine and I’m having the same problem as you.

this is a helpfull site

this isn’t helping me with how nervous I am!! bye!!

love it really helped

thanks you are good

I have to do a presentation about “Importance of learning English”. There are 6 people in my group including myself. The presentation has to be exactly 8 minutes. We can’t use PowerPoint. Can you give us any unique, memorable and creative idea?

What are some lessons or life experiences that you find unique and memorable? I’d probably do a play, with a character who gets into trouble because he/she doesn’t know English, and then has a chance to correct those problems by demonstrating how learning English can fix the problems.

Hello mr.Dennis,I go straight to it.how can I become the most sought after Master of Ceremony(M.C.)/tv show presenter extra-ordinaire in my country before going international?any useful tips?

Sorry, that question is not something I cover on this page.

really well writen loved how you added steps so its easy to follow clear easily can be understaned and really helps us and gives us tips that we should actually think about and use at times

Yeah! I found it quite impressive. I hope it’z gonna be helpful for me to develop my speech techniques.

Nice tips….i think it will help me. but it’s too lengthy,it takes so much of time to read.

This really helps to prepare for all sort of things, Thanks a lot

Really helpful! Thank you

Pingback: Oral Presentation Readings « readwriteredroom

i love this helpful tips of oral presentation.. hope to visit this again or i just make a hard copy of this… thank you very much for that…

it was quite helpful

thank you for the great tip, but my problem is actually that I have a presentation on ‘All About Me’ and I have to keep the audience ‘engaged’ like by making a guessing game or something. If anyone has any other ideas please help!!

This may help: http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/creative1/showing/

This really helped me prepare my oral presentation…thanks very much!!!!

Oral Presentation Structure

Finally, presentations normally include interaction in the form of questions and answers. This is a great opportunity to provide whatever additional information the audience desires. For fear of omitting something important, most speakers try to say too much in their presentations. A better approach is to be selective in the presentation itself and to allow enough time for questions and answers and, of course, to prepare well by anticipating the questions the audience might have.

As a consequence, and even more strongly than papers, presentations can usefully break the chronology typically used for reporting research. Instead of presenting everything that was done in the order in which it was done, a presentation should focus on getting a main message across in theorem-proof fashion — that is, by stating this message early and then presenting evidence to support it. Identifying this main message early in the preparation process is the key to being selective in your presentation. For example, when reporting on materials and methods, include only those details you think will help convince the audience of your main message — usually little, and sometimes nothing at all.

The opening

The context as such is best replaced by an attention getter , which is a way to both get everyone's attention fast and link the topic with what the audience already knows (this link provides a more audience-specific form of context).
The object of the document is here best called the preview because it outlines the body of the presentation. Still, the aim of this element is unchanged — namely, preparing the audience for the structure of the body.
The opening of a presentation can best state the presentation's main message , just before the preview. The main message is the one sentence you want your audience to remember, if they remember only one. It is your main conclusion, perhaps stated in slightly less technical detail than at the end of your presentation.

In other words, include the following five items in your opening: attention getter , need , task , main message , and preview .

Even if you think of your presentation's body as a tree, you will still deliver the body as a sequence in time — unavoidably, one of your main points will come first, one will come second, and so on. Organize your main points and subpoints into a logical sequence, and reveal this sequence and its logic to your audience with transitions between points and between subpoints. As a rule, place your strongest arguments first and last, and place any weaker arguments between these stronger ones.

The closing

After supporting your main message with evidence in the body, wrap up your oral presentation in three steps: a review , a conclusion , and a close . First, review the main points in your body to help the audience remember them and to prepare the audience for your conclusion. Next, conclude by restating your main message (in more detail now that the audience has heard the body) and complementing it with any other interpretations of your findings. Finally, close the presentation by indicating elegantly and unambiguously to your audience that these are your last words.

Starting and ending forcefully

Revealing your presentation's structure.

To be able to give their full attention to content, audience members need structure — in other words, they need a map of some sort (a table of contents, an object of the document, a preview), and they need to know at any time where they are on that map. A written document includes many visual clues to its structure: section headings, blank lines or indentations indicating paragraphs, and so on. In contrast, an oral presentation has few visual clues. Therefore, even when it is well structured, attendees may easily get lost because they do not see this structure. As a speaker, make sure you reveal your presentation's structure to the audience, with a preview , transitions , and a review .

The preview provides the audience with a map. As in a paper, it usefully comes at the end of the opening (not too early, that is) and outlines the body, not the entire presentation. In other words, it needs to include neither the introduction (which has already been delivered) nor the conclusion (which is obvious). In a presentation with slides, it can usefully show the structure of the body on screen. A slide alone is not enough, however: You must also verbally explain the logic of the body. In addition, the preview should be limited to the main points of the presentation; subpoints can be previewed, if needed, at the beginning of each main point.

Transitions are crucial elements for revealing a presentation's structure, yet they are often underestimated. As a speaker, you obviously know when you are moving from one main point of a presentation to another — but for attendees, these shifts are never obvious. Often, attendees are so involved with a presentation's content that they have no mental attention left to guess at its structure. Tell them where you are in the course of a presentation, while linking the points. One way to do so is to wrap up one point then announce the next by creating a need for it: "So, this is the microstructure we observe consistently in the absence of annealing. But how does it change if we anneal the sample at 450°C for an hour or more? That's my next point. Here is . . . "

Similarly, a review of the body plays an important double role. First, while a good body helps attendees understand the evidence, a review helps them remember it. Second, by recapitulating all the evidence, the review effectively prepares attendees for the conclusion. Accordingly, make time for a review: Resist the temptation to try to say too much, so that you are forced to rush — and to sacrifice the review — at the end.

Ideally, your preview, transitions, and review are well integrated into the presentation. As a counterexample, a preview that says, "First, I am going to talk about . . . , then I will say a few words about . . . and finally . . . " is self-centered and mechanical: It does not tell a story. Instead, include your audience (perhaps with a collective we ) and show the logic of your structure in view of your main message.

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14.3: Importance of Oral Presentations

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Arley Cruthers
Kwantlen Polytechnic University

In the workplace, and during your university career, you will likely be asked to give oral presentations. An oral presentation is a key persuasive tool. If you work in marketing, for example, you will often be asked to “pitch” campaigns to clients. Even though these pitches could happen over email, the face-to-face element allows marketers to connect with the client, respond to questions, demonstrate their knowledge and bring their ideas to life through storytelling.

In this section, we’ll focus on public speaking. While this section focuses on public speaking advocacy, you can bring these tools to everything from a meeting where you’re telling your colleagues about the results of a project to a keynote speech at a conference.

Imagine your favourite public speaker. When Meggie (one of the authors of this section) imagines a memorable speaker, she often thinks of her high school English teacher, Mrs. Permeswaran. You may be skeptical of her choice, but Mrs. Permeswaran captured the students’ attention daily. How? By providing information through stories and examples that felt relatable, reasonable, and relevant. Even with a room of students, Meggie often felt that the English teacher was just talking to her . Students worked hard, too, to listen, using note-taking and subtle nods (or confused eyebrows) to communicate that they cared about what was being said.

Now imagine your favourite public speaker. Who comes to mind? A famous comedian like Jen Kirkman? An ac

Laverne Cox speaking at the Missouri Theatre

tivist like Laverne Cox? Perhaps you picture Barack Obama. What makes them memorable for you? Were they funny? Relatable? Dynamic? Confident? Try to think beyond what they said to how they made you feel . What they said certainly matters, but we are often less inclined to remember the what without a powerful how — how they delivered their message; how their performance implicated us or called us in; how they made us feel or how they asked us to think or act differently.

In this chapter, we provide an introduction to public speaking by exploring what it is and why it’s impactful as a communication process. Specifically, we invite you to consider public speaking as a type of advocacy. When you select information to share with others, you are advocating for the necessity of that information to be heard. You are calling on the audience and calling them in to listen to your perspective. Even the English teacher above was advocating that sentence structure and proper writing were important ideas to integrate. She was a trusted speaker, too, given her credibility.

Before we continue our conversation around advocacy, let’s first start with a brief definition of public speaking.

Presentation

Oral presentation skill: what it is and how to develop it

May 1, 2022

In each private and professional environment, effective communication is a fundamental skill. Among the various types of communication, oral shows stand out as an effective capability of conveying information, ideas, and opinions. Whether in academic, business, or social environments, the potential to deliver a compelling oral presentation can notably affect how your message is received. This article will discover what is oral presentation skills, the purpose of oral presentation, how to use them effectively, and when to use them in Presentation design services.

Table of Contents

What are Oral Presentation Skills?

Oral presentation skills refer to the ability to convey information and ideas through spoken words, body language, and visual aids in a structured and engaging manner. It involves organizing thoughts, tailoring content to the audience, and delivering the message confidently and clearly.

These skills encompass verbal and non-verbal communication techniques, ensuring your message is understood, remembered, and impactful.

The Purpose of Oral Presentation

These are the main purpose of Oral presentation skills:

1-Inform and Educate:

Oral presentations are an advantageous tool for disseminating know-how and information. Whether it is a business proposal, research finding, or an academic seminar, the main purpose is to inform and instruct the target market about the subject matter.

2-Persuade and Influence:

In a professional context, oral presentations are frequently used to persuade and affect stakeholders, customers, or colleagues. It could be a sales pitch, a project proposal, or a motivational talk to inspire action or change.

3-Showcase Skills:

Presentations can also showcase your expertise and proficiency in a particular field. A well-delivered presentation can leave a lasting impression and enhance credibility and reputation.

The different types of oral presentations

Luckily, there are different types of oral presentations. The type you give will depend on what’s needed in the situation! For example, an informative speech is typically used to educate your audience about something specific while a persuasive one tries convincing people around them that they should do/believe so-and it doesn’t matter if this works because both have their own purposes behind them anyway.

How to Use Oral Presentation Skills Effectively?

Here are some tips to improve your oral presentation skills effectively:

Know Your Audience:

Tailor your presentation to your audience’s needs, interests, and knowledge level. Understand their expectations and adjust your content accordingly to ensure maximum engagement.

Structure Your Presentation:

Organize your content into a clear and logical structure. Typically, a presentation consists of an introduction, main points with supporting evidence, and a conclusion. Ensure smooth transitions between sections to maintain flow.

Engaging Visuals:

Utilize visuals such as slides, videos, or props to complement your verbal message. Visual aids can enhance understanding and retention but avoid overwhelming the audience with too much information.

Practice and Rehearse:

Practice your presentation multiple times to become familiar with the content and delivery. Rehearsing also helps reduce nervousness and build confidence in communicating effectively.

Eye Contact and Body Language:

Maintain eye contact with the audience and use positive body language to create a connection. Gestures, facial expressions, and posture can convey confidence and enthusiasm, enhancing the impact of your message.

How to develop your oral presentation skills

To improve your oral presentation skills, be prepared and know the material inside out. Additionally, practice makes perfect! It’s helpful to pay attention not just to what you’re saying but also to how YOU are sounding–that is assuming people will actually listen anyway (which they won’t).

Eye contact can help engage an audience as well by making them feel like their opinion matters or that this person truly wants input from every single individual present at any given time during a speech/presentation session…all while smiling confidently with pride because these techniques work wonders even on oneself.

When do you need to Use Oral Presentation Skills?

1-academic settings:.

Students often use oral presentations to share research findings, present projects, or defend their theses. Mastering these skills boosts grades and prepares students for future professional endeavors.

2-Public Speaking Engagements:

Speaking at conferences, seminars, workshops, or occasions allows sharing knowledge, network, and construct recognition as a professional in your field.

3-Social and Personal Life :

Strong oral presentation capabilities are precious in daily life, whether or not speaking at family gatherings, handing over a toast at a wedding, or sharing thoughts in a neighborhood meeting.

4-Social and Personal Life:

Strong oral presentation skills are valuable in everyday life, whether speaking at family gatherings, delivering a toast at a wedding, or sharing ideas in a community meeting.

Tips for delivering an effective oral presentation

Here are a few tips to help you deliver an effective oral presentation. First, start off by grabbing your audience’s attention with an interesting opening sentence or phrase; keep them interested in what comes after that! And remember not everyone will understand all the jargon used during a technical conversation so try keeping things clear and simple – even if it means sacrificing some depth knowledge (which isn’t always bad!).

Practice makes perfect – the more you present, the better you’ll get!

Presentations are a common occurrence in today’s business world. Whether you’re giving an oral presentation to your team or pitching for investors, being able to communicate effectively and inspire lively will set clients’ minds at ease when they hear from YOU! Here is some advice on how best to approach this essential skill: Maintain eye contact with every person who speaks during yours as well as their own reactions; don’t get distracted by anything around them (including other people) because it can cause hesitation which makes someone else more comfortable speaking up instead – even if what was said wasn’t exactly relevant towards our current topic discussion., Use gestures often so everyone understands where certain points lie within the overall message.

Based on your current knowledge about what is Oral presentation skills, you are aware that they are valuable in today’s fast-paced and interconnected world. Mastering these skills allows you to communicate your ideas effectively, influence others positively, and showcase your expertise. You can become a confident and impactful communicator in any setting by understanding the purpose, honing the techniques, and recognizing when to employ oral presentation skills. So, embrace the challenge, practice, and watch as your ability to connect and inspire others soars to new heights.

What are the 5 Ps of oral presentation?

The 5Ps of Oral presentation are planning, preparation, practice, performance, and passion, which can guide you to a successful presentation.

What is the difference between public speaking and oral presentation?

The main factor of public speaking is the involvement with the live audience. However oral presentations can be carried out with or without a live audience.

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The Seven Cardinal Virtues of Oral Presentation

Virtue 1: audience-centeredness, tailor your message to your listeners..

The purpose for making an oral presentation is to influence others: to get them to understand your ideas, to consider your point of view, to believe your arguments, to act on your proposal. The challenge is that the people to whom you’re speaking don’t necessarily see the topic or information or issue as you do — they may be less interested, less knowledgeable, less committed. So you must tailor your message to your immediate audience. Read more ...

Virtue 2: Unity and Coherence

Select and arrange every element of your talk to communicate a clear, concise core message..

Listeners appreciate order. They expect a talk to hang together and follow a plan that is clear, consistent, and sensible. And they expect the whole thing to add up to some clear, worthwhile point. To meet these expectations, an effective presentation must be unified and coherent: It should have a clear, concise core message, and every element of the presentation should stick to that message, amplify it, clarify it, and, if it’s an argument, support it. Read more ...

Virtue 3: Stickiness

Make your ideas compelling and memorable..

“Stickiness” is the term used by authors Malcolm Gladwell and, more recently, Chip and Dan Heath, to identify the attributes that make messages compelling and memorable. Besides being clearly organized and solidly supported, a sticky presentation is also interesting, meaningful, and relatable for the audience. Read more ...

Virtue 4: Credibility

Establish trust in yourself and your information..

No oral presentation can achieve its objective if listeners have doubts about the information or the speaker. To be effective, both the message and the messenger must be believable.

Speakers themselves are persuasive, wrote Aristotle, when they demonstrate practical wisdom, virtue and good will. Those were the components of “ethos” – what today we call “credibility” and think of as a blend of expertise, trustworthiness, and good intentions. It is important to recognize that credibility is not a stable trait inherent in the speaker but rather a perception formed by one’s audience and subject to revision, even from one moment to the next. As a speaker, then, the success of your presentation depends heavily on how your work, your character, and your intentions are perceived by your listeners. Read more ...

Virtue 5: Conversational Delivery

Speak to listeners as if you are conversing with them..

I wish you to see that public speaking is a perfectly normal act, which calls for no strange, artificial methods, but only for an extension and development of that most familiar act, conversation.

– James Albert Winans, Hamilton 1897

A speech is simply not a speech until it is delivered to an audience, yet that is the part of speech-making that most worries many people. But James Winans, whose conception of delivery still infuses contemporary scholarship and teaching, wanted us to understand that speech delivery is merely an adaptation of something we all do every day quite naturally and effectively.

What Winans saw as essential to effective public speaking was the same quality of communication found in most conversation. “There is no good speaking,” he wrote, “without this conversational quality.” Read more ...

Virtue 6: Listenability

Use clear language and expressive voice..

Listeners can’t reread, pause, or replay a live talk when they don’t get something the speaker says. And listeners are constantly being distracted by personal concerns, environmental stimuli, and a host of other factors at the same time that the speaker is trying to focus and hold their attention.

The speaker, therefore, needs to help the audience by using language and vocal expression to make the presentation as listenable as possible. Listenability is speechwriter Alan Perlman’s term for the degree to which, for the immediate listening audience, an oral presentation is clear, coherent, meaningful, and easy to follow. Read more ...

Virtue 7: Visual Effectiveness

Ensure that everything your audience sees enhances and supports the message..

Since all face-to-face presentations have a visual dimension, what the audience sees can make a difference. This is as true for the speaker’s attire and body language as it is for images, graphs, and video: All are out there for the audience to interpret and evaluate. The visual elements should be as purposeful and well-prepared as all the other components of an effective presentation. Read more ...

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Oral Communication Center Director

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Types of Technical Documents

Oral/virtual presentations.

While you may speak many words, oral presentations require you to hone your written language down to essentials to be shown on PowerPoint slides or written on a chart or whiteboard.
Oral presentations rely heavily on visuals to illustrate concepts and engage your audience.
Oral presentations rely heavily on tone, which can be more varied than the clear, straightforward tone that characterizes most written technical communications.

Characteristics of Effective Oral Presentations

The following characteristics help to create effective oral presentations:

Clear structure

Presentations should have a clear beginning, middle, and end.

The introduction should immediately clarify your topic, purpose, and method of approach. Provide a brief overview in the introduction, and find a way to emphasize the importance of your topic, which will help create audience interest.
The middle should use clear headings for each major concept. Work on transitions when you rehearse the presentation on your own, inserting words that link ideas from topic to topic, so that an audience understands how one piece of information leads into the next.
The end should briefly summarize your main points and offer a concluding thought. You may also want to leave time to answer audience questions at the end, to make sure they understand your main points.

Appropriate Content

The content of any presentation needs to be directly aligned with the presentation’s purpose. When speaking, it’s relatively easy to go off on a tangent, but you should avoid straying into other topics that do not relate to your main purpose. Content also needs to be developed and specific enough so that your audience can understand all of your main points. Plan to explain any technical aspect of your topic clearly and understandably. Don’t race through complex, technical information if it’s needed in the presentation; instead, explain it carefully without jargon, so that audience members with varied technical background can understand.

Appropriate Visuals

Use photographs, diagrams, charts, graphs, and tables as appropriate to support the presentation’s content and illustrate key points. Depending on the type and context of your presentation, you might also use posters, infographics, or other types of visual displays. All visuals with text should be large enough so that they are easy to read, although text in visuals should be kept to a minimum. Use at least one visual in an oral presentation, and preferably more. Make sure you discuss key elements of your visuals. Point out things about them; explain them to the audience.

Clear, Appropriate Language

Language should be appropriate to the audience in terms of vocabulary and sentence structure (simpler is better), jargon, and tone. Avoid language that shows bias, and avoid grammatical errors.

Engaging Presentation

The way you deliver a presentation affects the whole presentation.

Show appropriate enthusiasm through tone of voice. If you’re engaged in the topic, it’s more likely that your audience will engage as well.
Speak clearly, loudly, and slowly enough so that everyone can follow.
Be conscious of—and try to eliminate—too many “uh,” “you know,” “OK” and other verbal fillers. It’s OK to take a brief, silent pause, as that gives listeners time to process what you’re saying.
Make eye contact with audience members or groups, and make sure to look at different places in the room so that you eventually look at everyone or every location.
Stay alert to signs of disinterest (e.g., texting, flipping through papers) and shift your volume or location in the room to encourage your audience to listen.
Be conscious of how you’re standing or sitting so that you appear natural. Avoid too much gesturing and, conversely, try not to appear frozen. But do sit or stand straight.
Above all, although you’ll have notes or a script for your presentation, don’t simply read! Reading takes you away from engaging with your audience and often sounds too stilted and formal, which lessens audience interest. Practice your presentation enough so that you’re familiar with the content and don’t have to read.

Well-designed visuals foster audience engagement. PowerPoint is probably the most common form of visual aid used in presentations, and it has its pros and cons. However, while there are other presentation tools, PowerPoint is a standard workplace tool, so it would be wise to learn how to use it effectively. The key concept to remember is that your PowerPoint slides should supplement and illustrate what you want to say to your audience.

Five things to do when using PowerPoint:

In general, use one slide per main idea. After the introductory slide, you should have at least one slide for each important concept in your presentation. Each of these slides should have a heading that identifies that main point.
If you need more than one slide per main idea, use the same heading with p. 2, p. 3, etc., or with (cont’d). You can also use unique sub-headings for additional slides that relate to a main idea.
Pare language to just the essential words and phrases, which are often offered in a bulleted list.
Choose visuals that are easy to read and that illustrate the concept on the slide.
Although the practice used to be to design all slides within one presentation in similar ways, more recent practice involves switching the slide layout at points, while still using the same template , to maintain visual interest.

Five things not to do when using PowerPoint:

Do not create text-heavy or all-text slides. Don’t simply put your written report into slides.
Do not use small size type; you need at least 12-point and usually larger for your audience to be able to read. Also do not choose a fancy font. Use a simple sans serif font such as Calibri or Arial.
Do not choose a “busy” or too colorful template, as that will distract from the slide’s content. Choose a simple template or a blank one.
Limit colored text, as it’s harder to read. For the most part, choose high contrast between text and background.
Do not include animations, swirling text, or anything that flashes.

sample powerpoint slides

To emphasize the need to apply good design principles to PowerPoint slides, look at the following three files.

The first example provides a student PowerPoint based on a formal proposal. The content is very good for a formal proposal but not for a PowerPoint, as it’s all text.
The second example is a professional presentation which applies some of the design principles discussed, in terms of reducing information on the slides, but uses a standard format.
The third example offers the same information as the second example, but designs and presents that information differently, using visuals and varying the format.

If you were in the audience for these presentations, which one would you want to hear/see?

Also visit Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab page on Data Visualization Best Practices Presentation to see a simple PowerPoint that illustrates basic design principles.

The following videos provide tips for creating effective PowerPoint slides.

Note that if you have never used PowerPoint, Microsoft offers useful PowerPoint for Windows training.

Virtual Presentations

Since virtual presentations are a particular type of oral presentation, most of the characteristics of effective oral presentations apply with just a few differences or additions, which consist of the following:

Ground Rules

Establish ground rules at the start of the presentation.

Explain how to chat or raise a hand, if such explanation is necessary.
Let people know whether you or a helper will be monitoring chat during the presentation.
Let your audience know whether you’ll stop at intervals or wait until the end of the presentation to address questions and comments.
Ask participants to mute their mikes or mute everyone yourself, if the system allows that, and let your audience know they’ll be muted.
Explain whether you’ll be sharing your screen or will be presenting live. Especially if presenting live, you may want people to turn off their cameras during your presentation so that your audience’s attention is on you and your information.

Be very brief in virtual presentations. Attention spans wander, and your audience may start multi-tasking if your presentation is too long. Aim for about ten (10) minutes maximum for a straight presentation. If you need more time, incorporate some way to break up the presentation with a poll, a quick activity, or a question for which you briefly take answers. Note that if you use any of these interactive strategies, you need to plan for them in your presentation so that you refer to their outcome when you switch back to solo presentation mode.

Lighting, Background, and Sound

No matter if you’re sharing a PowerPoint presentation from your computer screen, at some point during a virtual presentation, it’s likely that you’ll appear on camera. Test the system beforehand to make sure lighting is appropriate—not too dim or too shadowy. Choose a simple, professional background, even if you’re presenting from home. The pre-established backgrounds that some systems offer may be fun, but if you’re using one, make sure it’s simple, clean, and professional. If you’re using your computer’s microphone rather than a headset, realize that it will pick up other sounds, so move your phone, family, and pets into another room.

You as a Prepared Presenter

Prepare yourself to present professionally, even if you are presenting from home. Dress appropriately. Sit up straight. You may even decide to stand. Look directly into your camera so that it does not seem as though you’re looking elsewhere on the screen. Experiment with the technology beforehand so you can use it smoothly. If you decide to share your screen, turn off other tabs to minimize pop-ups and mistakes going to the wrong tab. If you have a video, PowerPoint slides, or other technology that runs the risk of not functioning properly, have back-up links and files to send to your audience.

The following video illustrates tips for using Skype or any other synchronous, online presentation tool.

Oral / Virtual Presentations, adapted from Open Technical Communication and Technical Writing Essentials; attributions below. Authored by : Susan Oaks. Provided by : Empire State College, SUNY. Project : Technical Writing. License : CC BY-NC: Attribution-NonCommercial
Oral Presentations (pages 1-4 of 5). Authored by : David McMurrey & Cassandra Race. Provided by : Kennesaw State University. Located at : https://softchalkcloud.com/lesson/serve/XpeRv2NLIfUu8w/html . Project : Open Technical Communication. License : CC BY: Attribution
8.2 Developing Presentation Skills. Authored by : Suzan Last and Monika Smith. Provided by : University of Victoria. Located at : https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/technicalwriting/chapter/developingpresentationskills/ . Project : Technical Writing Essentials. License : CC BY: Attribution
image of person speaking in public and another person filming with an iphone. Authored by : mohamed Hassan. Provided by : Pixabay. Located at : https://pixabay.com/photos/video-recording-conference-3767454/ . License : CC0: No Rights Reserved
image of an informal, in-person presentation with an engaged group of listeners. Authored by : Free-Photos. Provided by : Pixabay. Located at : https://pixabay.com/photos/workplace-team-business-meeting-1245776/ . License : CC0: No Rights Reserved
image of a laptop with screen showing a person presenting. Authored by : Tumisu. Provided by : Pixabay. Located at : https://pixabay.com/photos/online-meeting-virtual-skype-zoom-5059830/ . License : CC0: No Rights Reserved
video How to Give an Awesome (Powerpoint) Presentation. Provided by : Wienot Films. Located at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i68a6M5FFBc . License : Other . License Terms : YouTube video
video Create Slides People Will Remember. Provided by : Harvard Business Review. Located at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeV2fHEM4RI . License : Other . License Terms : YouTube video
video Tips for Effective Skype Meetings. Provided by : CreativeBusinessBuild. Located at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO3VJOM9ykQ . License : Other . License Terms : YouTube video

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Features of an Oral Presentation

When giving an oral presentation, four features decide the quality of the presentation. You need to consider and perfect the preparation, delivery, audience and visuals before you can give a solid presentation. The speaker is capable of controlling each of these four features to ensure the message is received satisfactorily.

Preparation

A strong oral presentation begins with sound research, regardless of topic. Gather the necessary information, then select only the essential information to communicate the desired message. Do not let a mountain of research overwhelm the idea being shared. Know when to cut and trim distracting facts.

After preparing the information, practice delivering the presentation. A speaker should sound well versed and knowledgeable, not mechanical. Information should sound fresh and conversational in order to engage the audience. There are varying degrees of formality for oral presentations, but a presentation should not sound rehearsed. Allow natural language to flow and a speaker's personality to liven up the topic. Practice in front of a mirror or with a video camera to watch for tone of voice, intonation and pacing.

The audience is the least predictable feature of an oral presentation. A speaker must know the type of audience while preparing and practicing a presentation. The audience will determine the tone, language and types of visuals. If the audience is young and informal, then a presentation might include a more casual tone and language and possibly more flashy visuals. On the other hand, if the audience is academic or professional, the tone and language might be formal and sophisticated, and the visual wow-factor might stem more from substance and information than flash. A talented speaker can read an audience during delivery and modify the presentation accordingly.

Visual aids are an essential part of an oral presentation. Visuals engage the audience and add another dynamic to the speaker-audience relationship. Visual aids should be tailored to the audience type and appropriate for the setting. Consider using computers, objects, experiments, handouts, projections, other people, pictures and demonstrations. Visual aids should be relevant and cohesive with the topic discussed.

The speaker is also a visual for the audience. Dress accordingly and practice the oral presentation in the assigned space. Use the space provided and practice movements before the presentation to avoid awkwardness.

Always come early to setup any visuals to ensure that the presentation goes smoothly.

A Research Guide for Students: Presentation Tips for Public Speaking
Ohio Wesleyan University: Guidelines for Oral Presentations
Auburn University: Oral Presentation

Brittany McBride has been writing professionally since 2007. She worked as an editor for Brigham Young University's magazine, "Humanities at BYU," as well as for the Collaborative Studies Coordinating Center and Utah Valley University Turning Point. McBride is attending Hollins University and is pursuing her Master of Fine Arts in children's literature.

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Influence of Personality and Motivation on Oral Presentation Performance

Hsin-yi liang.

1 Department of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan, ROC

2 Department of Child Psychiatry, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Taoyuan, Taoyuan, Taiwan, ROC

Brent Kelsen

3 Language Center, College of Humanities, National Taipei University, 151 DaXue Rd, SanXia, New Taipei City, 237 Taiwan, ROC

Personality and motivation have been identified as influential variables associated with foreign language learning; however, few studies have investigated their effect on oral presentations. This study addresses the importance of both personality and motivation in students’ collaborative oral presentation performance. A Big Five personality trait questionnaire measuring Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism and Openness to Experience, together with the Collaborative Inquiry-based Project Questionnaire measuring Task, Project Work, Reinforcement, Social Learning and Social Pressure motivational constructs were employed to evaluate 257 university students. In general, the results showed that Extraversion, Project Work and Social Pressure were significant correlates of oral presentation scores. The first result suggests that extraverts possess superiority in situations where oral language production is central to communication. This was particularly true for lower-level students, inferring that extraverted personalities can compensate for a lower English language ability. The second indicates that the inquiry-based nature of the assignments was an intrinsic motivator especially valued by extraverts. The third implies that extrinsic motivation was a factor influencing student performance. These findings extend previous research by highlighting the contextual relationships between these affective variables and performance in collaborative oral presentation contexts.

Introduction

Personality research has shown that every individual possesses distinct combinations of personality characteristics that affect their emotions, perceptions, feelings, thoughts and motivations. Moreover, language learning success has been associated with individual personality and motivation differences (Dörnyei 1998 ; Dörnyei and Ushioda 2013 ; Dweck and Leggett 1988 ; Ehrman et al. 2003 ). In particular, extraversion has been recognized as a factor connected to successful language acquisition (Dewaele and Furnham 1999 ), and empirical research on foreign language performance and personality traits has revealed extraversion to be a significant variable of interest for language learning performance (Brown et al. 2001 ; Busch 1982 ; Ockey 2011 ).

Extraverts’ superiority in speech production is hypothesized to stem from their cognitive functioning, i.e. their ability to readily access short-term memory, perform better under stress and suffer less from bouts of anxiety (Dewaele and Furnham 1999 ; Howarth and Eysenck 1968 ). Dewaele and Furnham ( 1999 ) surmise that the advantages an extraverted personality offers a language learner are unlikely to be displayed in the production of written texts or via standardized tests, but are more likely to be evident during periods of oral production. However, much of the existing research focuses on the effect of personality traits on language learning strategies, styles and performance measured via standardized tests, which may not represent the optimal context to analyze the existence of meaningful relationships.

This study investigates the oral performance of English as a foreign language (EFL) students engaged in delivering presentations required as part of inquiry-based group projects. Such inquiry-based projects require a high degree of collaboration among team members as they interact with peers in order to create meaningful language and socially construct knowledge (Prince and Felder 2006 ). Therefore, in addition to the personality dimension, the present research attempts to incorporate both individual and collective orientations of group work (Chow and Law 2005 ; Dörnyei and Murphey 2003 ). In doing so, this study extends the existent EFL literature by investigating the effects of personality traits and motivational constructs on student performance in a collaborative oral presentation context.

Literature Review

Five-factor model.

All human cultures contain lexicon describing individual personality variation, pointing to an intimate connection between language and personality (Dixon 1977 ). One common method of evaluating these personality characteristics is via the Big Five personality traits/five-factor model (FFM), which is based on lexical descriptors of personality characteristics that group into five domains: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism and Openness to Experience (McCrae and Costa 1987 ; Costa and McCrae 1992a ). Research has confirmed their universality across languages and cultures (McCrae and Terracciano 2005 ; Schmitt et al. 2007 , 2008 ), and they consistently appear in factor analyses of personality traits in a diverse range of samples (Costa and McRae 1992b ; McCrae and Costa 1997 ). They are thought to explain inherent differences among individuals and contribute to individual differences that determine a person’s temperament, attitude, cognition, motivation and learning style, which in turn influence one’s academic achievement.

Personality and Language Learning

Empirical evidence shows that personality variables influence language learning strategies and thereby affect the quality of language learning (Chen and Hung 2012 ; Ehrman and Oxford 1995 ; Oxford and Ehrman 1992 ). In one of the seminal articles on this topic, Dewaele and Furnham ( 1999 ) begin with the premise that producing speech requires the speaker to engage both short- and long-term memory. Notably, psychological studies have generally revealed that extroverts possess advantages in verbal skills, which require short-term recall, while introverts possess advantages when it comes to long-term recall (Dewaele and Furnham 1999 ; Howarth and Eysenck 1968 ). Therefore, it is hypothesized that extraverts’ superior verbal processing capacity, which helps them converse with others, stems not only from a superior short term memory, but is also reinforced by enhanced physiological stress resistance and lower levels of social anxiety, which includes oral communication (Dewaele and Furnham 1999 ). Further, research has shown that, among those with comparable vocabularies, extraverts are able to produce word associations more fluently under conditions of stress and time pressure (Eysenck 1974 ). Surmising that these factors may affect extraverts’ speech production rather than their entire language learning process, Dewaele and Furnham ( 1999 ) assert that:

... some researchers found links between extraversion scores and linguistic variables, depending on the type of linguistic material they used. Whenever extraversion scores were correlated with results from written tests , no systematic or significant links appeared ... Significant correlations between extraversion and linguistic variables did appear, however, in oral communicative speech ... The nature of the linguistic variable thus appears to affect the possible link with extraversion. Test scores, which are not necessarily good measures of language proficiency, seem less likely to correlate with extraversion scores than fluency measures from oral speech. (p. 521)

They continue this line of reasoning by stating that the more complex the verbal language task, the more likely it will be that a positive correlation between extraversion and linguistic variables will be found, as the ability to process in parallel affords extraverts immense advantages in complex L2 verbal production tasks.

Several prominent studies have been conducted investigating associations between foreign language learning and personality traits such as extraversion. For example, Busch ( 1982 ) explored the introversion-extraversion relationship of Japanese junior college ( n = 80) and adult ( n = 105) school students and their EFL proficiency. Data was collected via a standardized English proficiency test and oral interviews ( n = 45) , as well as a personality questionnaire. Contrary to the hypothesis that extraverts would demonstrate higher proficiency, a statistical analysis revealed that extraversion was negatively correlated with pronunciation, and that introversion was correlated with higher scores on the grammar and reading sections of the standardized test. However, more extraverted male college students performed better in the oral interviews. In a study conducted in The Intensive English Language Program at Temple University Japan campus, Brown et al. ( 2001 ) sampled 320 students and found that more extraverted or socially active students were more motivated learners, and generalize that high proficiency learners can be categorized as: well-balanced in terms of scoring mid-level scores for Thinking Extraversion; emotionally stable with low scores on Inferiority, Feelings and Nervousness; or less instrumentally motivated and less anxious.

Another study conducted on Japanese students came to a similar conclusion (Oya et al. 2004 ). While they found that individual subcomponents relating to oral production were not significantly correlated with extraversion or neuroticism, they discovered that a global impression score based on raters’ overall considerations of oral performance was positively associated with extraversion. In addition, Ockey ( 2011 ) investigated the relationship between two facets of the extraversion domain—assertiveness and self-consciousness—and oral ability of first-year Japanese EFL university students ( n = 360) using the five factor NEO-PI-R. The analysis revealed assertiveness to be a significant predictor of second language oral ability, specifically communication skills and fluency, for which it explained 3.2 and 3.1%, respectively, of the variance.

Motivation and Personality

Motivation is recognized as a key variable in developmental and educational psychology (Dweck 1999 ; Gardner 1985 , 2010 ) and as an essential element for language learning success (Dörnyei 1998 ; Dörnyei and Ushioda 2013 ). Moreover, it has been hypothesized as having a close relationship with a learner’s personality (Dweck and Leggett 1988 ). Accordingly, Dörnyei and Ushioda ( 2013 ) advance that motivation is dependent upon a complex and dynamic interplay between cognitive, contextual, cultural, individual and social factors. Indeed, Dörnyei ( 1998 ) reflects that motivation in language learning presents a particularly unique situation:

... the motivational basis of language attainment is not directly comparable to that of the mastery of other subject matters in that knowing an L2 also involves the development of some sort of ’L2 identity’ and the incorporation of elements from the L2 culture (cf. Gardner 1985 ); thus, in addition to the environmental and cognitive factors normally associated with learning in current educational psychology, L2 motivation also contains featured personality and social dimensions. (p. 118)

Correlation analysis between the Big Five personality traits, measured by the NEO personality inventory, and academic motivation (self-determination theory—intrinsic and extrinsic motivation) and achievement (GPA) was conducted by Komarraju et al. ( 2009 ). Conscientious individuals stood out as having the highest intrinsic and extrinsic motivation along with the highest academic performance. Agreeableness and openness were also correlated with achievement. Moreover, regression analyses showed 17% of the variation in intrinsic motivation to be explained by conscientiousness and openness, while 13% of the variance in extrinsic motivation was explained by three personality traits: neuroticism, conscientiousness, and extraversion.

Collaboration and Inquiry-Based Motivation

The appeal of collaborative learning stems from the acknowledgement that learning through interaction with peers stimulates meaningful language output and social construction of knowledge (Long 1996 ; Prince and Felder 2006 ). Educators realize that such frameworks not only lead to insightful and rewarding educational environments, but also replicate real-world conditions (Aydin and Yildiz 2014 ). Furthermore, collaborative learning environments are often multifaceted, combining elements such as planning, coordination, teamwork, problem-solving, negotiation, and simulation as students work on projects and presentations (Chu and Kennedy 2011 ; Stahl et al. 2006 ; Stoller 2002 ).

Taking into account the increasing prominence of collaborative inquiry-based learning over the previous two decades, Chow and Law ( 2005 ) developed the self-report Collaborative Inquiry-based Project Questionnaire (CIPQ). This instrument aims to investigate motivation in situations where students are likely to be conducting loosely defined projects in teams, rather than individual subject-based tasks. Hence, in addition to extrinsic and intrinsic elements, the CIPQ contains added dimensions to cover group learning and project concepts. The five subscales are: Task, Project Work, Reinforcement, Social Learning and Social Pressure. Task (motivation derived from satisfaction or interest in the activity) and Reinforcement (motivation arising from external rewards or avoidance of negative consequences) factors relate to the traditional intrinsic/extrinsic dichotomy; Project Work connects with the project-related activities inherent in inquiry-based learning contexts conducted in teams; and Social Learning and Social Pressure signify the social aspects of working together in groups and how this shapes collective learning motivation (pp. 72–73). Based on the results of their study and factor analyses using data from students in Hong Kong, the Chinese version of the CIPQ demonstrated validity in terms of gauging motivational constructs in collaborative inquiry-based learning contexts.

Research Questions

Previous research has identified extraversion as a key personality variable in oral situations (Dewaele and Furnham 1999 ) and agreeableness and conscientiousness as central determinants of success in group settings (Peeters et al. 2006 ). While it is generally held that intrinsic motivations are favoured over extrinsic motivations (Flowers 2015 ; Noels 2009 ), their importance in Chinese cultural settings has been questioned and motivational factors’ effects on classroom communication are thought to be highly context dependent (Chen et al. 2005 ; Peng and Woodrow 2010 ). For example, Peng and Woodrow ( 2010 ) find evidence of both external regulation and intrinsic motivation influencing confidence to communicate in English. Preparing and presenting effective presentations requires communication abilities extending beyond the verbal domain; therefore, affective factors conducive to interacting with others in groups are potentially influential variables. To date, there has been little research conducted on the relationship between personality and motivation in inquiry-based learning contexts where collaborative presentations were the means of assessment. Consequently, the present study attempts to extend the scope of the existing literature by examining personality traits and motivational constructs within the context of collaborative presentations. The following research questions are considered:

Which Big Five Inventory (BFI) personality traits are associated with collaborative oral presentation performance?
Which CIPQ motivational constructs are associated with collaborative oral presentation performance?
Are BFI personality traits associated with CIPQ motivational constructs?

Materials and Methods

During this period of unprecedented globalization and rapid technological change, many Taiwanese universities are following the global trend of striving to teach students relevant content and skills through the implementation of English for specific purposes (ESP) programs. A primary aim of these programs is to develop language skills necessary for success in the job market and students’ future careers (Chien and Hsu 2010 ; Tsai 2010 ). Workplace presentations to internal and/or external audiences are commonplace in many firms; as such, presentations have become a popular means of both instructing and assessing oral communication skills. However, presentations are often challenging for EFL students, as their needs with respect to structure and formality are not met by the content offered in most general EFL classrooms (Ferris 1998 ; Tsai 2010 ). EFL students enrolled in an ESP program at a university in northern Taiwan participated in this study, where collaborative oral presentation scores served as the dependent variable (DV).

Participants

Of the 329 students enrolled in the 12 classes selected, 257 (78.12%) agreed to participate in the study. The sample included students registered in the spring (five classes) and fall (four classes) semesters of 2015, and the spring (three classes) semester of 2016. The participants were comprised of Mandarin-speaking undergraduate students from six different colleges—Law, Business, Humanities, Social Sciences, Engineering, and Public Affairs—enrolled in one of three ESP courses: Business Case Studies (six classes), Workplace English (one class) or Culture and Tourism (five classes). Data on gender (female = 168, male = 89) , age ( M = 20.38, S D = 1.63) and average Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) scores ( M = 740, S D = 100) of the participating students was collected.

Collaborative Projects, Presentations and Ratings

The entire project lasted for four weeks; the timetable is displayed in Fig. 1 . Collaborative oral presentations lasted for 10–12 min and were conducted by teams of 3–6 participants, allowing students an average speaking time of approximately 2–4 min each. With a restricted speaking time, coordination among team members was crucial to maintain smooth transitions between members and ensure an effective presentation. All students were required to be involved in the presentation and grading process. Three different presentation topics were employed for the three ESP courses:

Business Case Studies presentations required developing persuasive presentations based on stocks, bonds and other investments teams selected following their research.
Workplace English teams presented on domestic or international corporations covering aspects such as the founder, history, mission, products, services, locations, strategy, advertising.
Culture and Tourism students delivered presentations on a local food reporting on the history, culture, ingredients, recipes, taste, texture, aroma, and famous vendors.

Peer rating has been viewed as a method to include learners in the evaluation process, foster fair and objective assessment and promote deeper learning (Otoshi and Heffernen 2008 ; Peng 2010 ; Saito 2008 ). In fact, research has promoted peer rating as a particularly valid approach to assessment for the rating of oral scores (Cheng and Warren 2005 ; p. 12) and presentation performance (De Grez et al. 2012 ), and it can be argued that the employment of group peer rating is a means to reduce bias in peer rating (Aryadoust 2016 ). As such, team peer ratings combined with instructor’s individual and team ratings are utilized in this study. Presentation scores were calculated as follows: i) the instructor rated each student and team, and ii) each team rated each other team. Students’ scores on a scale from 1 to 100 for the presentation were calculated as an average of the three ratings. A diagram depicting the presentation scoring method (reduced to three teams and instructor for simplicity) is displayed in Fig. 2 . Inter-rater agreement for the team scores rated by the instructor and each team ranged from 0.62 and 0.81, indicating substantial agreement (Landis and Koch 1977 ).

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Phases of collaborative inquiry-based project and presentation

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Presentation scoring system

Ratings for presentations were based on a scoring rubric (see Appendix), which was decided upon by the participating students and posted on the class e-learning website so that each team could use it as a guide while preparing their presentation.

Presentation (40%)—organization/structure, clarity of visual slides, clarity of message, relevance of material
Delivery (50%)—appropriate language, pronunciation/clarity of voice/fluency, eye contact/body language, enthusiasm/presence, time management/flow/teamwork
Question and answer (10%)—includes asking and responding to questions

A variety of approaches can be found regarding measurement of language achievement and performance in the literature. Accordingly, Oya et al. ( 2004 ) discuss some of the contradictions found within the oral speech production measures of other studies and find no significant correlations in their own study regarding any sub measures (Fluency, Accuracy, Complexity) of oral proficiency; however, they do find a significant positive correlation between global impression (overall measure of proficiency) and extraversion (p. 848). Due to the collaborative nature of the presentations under investigation and the integration of peer (team) and instructor (individual and team) assessment in the present study, a composite rating (Score) incorporating linguistic (speech), meta-linguistic (delivery) and paralinguistic (verbal and nonverbal) elements as well as visual communication was preferred for use as the DV. By employing an aggregate achievement measure (e.g., Woodrow 2006 ; Patri 2002 ), the authors of the current study attempt to provide a holistic interpretation of collaborative oral presentation performance. Accordingly, the achievement measure permits the subjectivity required for the assessment of the dynamic, interactive and interrelated social relationships influencing both the cohesion and functioning of team participants and their interactions with the audience in this collaborative oral presentation setting (Clément et al. 1994 ; Underhill 1987 ).

Presentation scores for each class and for those who participated in the study are recorded in Table 1 . Scores for participants in the study ranged from 66 to 89 with an average of 80.48 and a standard deviation of 3.9. An omnibus F -test following Analysis of variance (ANOVA) found statistically significant differences between presentations scores for the three different classes: F (2, 256) = 9.23, p < 0.001, η 2 = 0.07 . A post hoc Bonferroni test found a statistically significant difference between presentation scores for Culture and Tourism classes and Business Case Studies classes (M diff = 1.93, SE = 0.48, p < 0.001) .

Total and participant presentation score means and standard deviations

Instruments

BFI: Personality traits were measured via the publically available Chinese version of the BFI-44 (Benet-Martinez and John 1998 ; John et al. 1991 , 2008 ) and distributed using GoogleForms during class time before the presentation projects began. This instrument is commonly used in research, shows strong psychometric properties and convergence with other five-factor models of personality (Carciofo et al. 2016 ). The 44 items were assessed on 5-point Likert scales, where the Cronbach’s alpha for each domain: Extraversion (0.77), Agreeableness (0.73), Conscientiousness (0.76), Neuroticism (0.70) and Openness to Experience (0.73) presented acceptable internal consistency. Table 2 displays the inter-scale correlations of this instrument.

BFI-44 inter-scale correlations

* p value < .05; ** p value < .01

CIPQ: The 20-item CIPQ uses 7-point Likert scales, and has been employed in numerous studies in east Asian contexts showing good internal consistency (Chow and Law 2005 ; Lam 2009 ; Flowers 2015 ). The questionnaire was distributed in electronic form during class time at the end of the presentation projects using GoogleForms. Cronbach’s alpha figures for internal consistency were: Task (0.72), Reinforcement (0.67), Project Work (0.75), Social Learning (0.77) and Social Pressure (0.76). Table 3 shows the inter-scale correlations for the CIPQ.

CIPQ inter-scale correlations

Initial Data Analysis

The results reveal that the quality of presentations and scores awarded were relatively high across all groups of students examined. Means and standard deviations for the entire sample, female and male participants and high and low English ability are shown in Table 4 . Initial data analysis to examine differences between BFI and CIPQ scales and presentation scores was conducted using independent t-tests with gender and high and low TOEIC scores (High level > 720; Low level ≤ 720) as independent variables. For gender, significant differences were found for neuroticism (female M = 3.06, S D = 0.57 ; male M = 2.91, S D = 0.50; t (255) = 2.16, p < 0.05 ) and Score (female M = 80.9, S D = 3.5 ; male M = 79.67, S D = 4.47; t (255) = 2.43, p < 0.05 ); for high and low TOEIC scores, significant differences did not arise for any of the BFI or CIPQ scales, but did for Score (Low level M = 79.32, S D = 4.33 ; High level M = 81.62, S D = 3.21; t (235) = - 4.66, p < 0.001 ).

Variable means and standard deviations

High TOEIC and low TOEIC do not add up to total as a result of missing values

The Extraversion scale of the BFI is comprised of eight items measuring different aspects of an extraverted/introverted personality: “Is talkative”, “Is reserved”, “Is full of energy”, “Generates a lot of enthusiasm”, “Tends to be quiet”, “Has an assertive personality”, “Is sometimes shy, inhibited”, “Is outgoing, sociable”. For convenience of understanding, the items are termed: Talkative, Unreserved, Energetic, Enthusiastic, Vocal, Assertive, Uninhibited, Outgoing. Items Unreserved, Vocal and Uninhibited were reversed for analysis. The means and standard deviations are displayed in Table 5 .

Extraversion item means and standard deviations

Correlation Analysis

Score and personality traits.

Analyzing the full sample, the variable Score was only correlated with the Extraversion personality trait ( r = 0.25, p < 0.01 ). Items from the Delivery subcomponent of Score relating to appropriate language ( r = 0.14, p < 0.05 ), pronunciation/clarity of voice/fluency ( r = 0.25, p < 0.01 ), eye contact/body language ( r = 0.24, p < 0.01 ), enthusiasm/presence ( r = 0.26, p < 0.01 ), time management/flow/teamwork ( r = 0.18, p < 0.01 ) also correlated with Extraversion. TOEIC correlated with Extraversion ( r = 0.32, p < 0.01 ) and Openness to Experience ( r = 0.19, p < 0.01 ). At the item level, analysis showed Extraversion items Talkative ( r = 0.16, p < 0.01 ), Energetic ( r = 0.13, p < 0.05 ), Enthusiastic ( r = 0.19, p < 0.01 ), Assertive ( r = 0.21, p < 0.01 ) and Outgoing ( r = 0.27, p < 0.01 ) correlated with Score, while Score correlated with Extraversion for both females ( r = 0.24, p < 0.01 ) and males ( r = 0.27, p < 0.01 ). For females, correlations were recorded for Enthusiastic ( r = 0.19, p < 0.05 ), Assertive ( r = 0.26, p < 0.01 ), and Outgoing ( r = 0.23, p < 0.01 ); for males, correlations were registered for Talkative ( r = 0.25, p < 0.05 ) and Outgoing ( r = 0.36, p < 0.01 ). Further, analyzing the data based on TOEIC scores, there was no correlation between Score and high level students for extraversion, but there was between score and low level students ( r = 0.37, p < 0.01 ). At the item level, Assertive ( r = 0.23, p < 0.05 ) correlated with Score for higher level students, while for lower level students, Talkative ( r = 0.28, p < 0.01 ), Reserved ( r = 0.22, p < 0.05 ), Enthusiastic ( r = 0.25, p < 0.01 ), Quiet ( r = 0.26, p < 0.01 ), Assertive ( r = 0.20, p < 0.05 ), and Outgoing ( r = 0.36, p < 0.01 ) all correlated with Score.

Score and Motivation

Using the full dataset, Score correlated with the motivational construct Project Work ( r = 0.17, p < 0.05 ). Project work item “I participate in project work because it is fun” ( r = 0.15, p < 0.05 ), Item “Because it is important to do project work” ( r = 0.17, p < 0.01 ) and item “Because participating in project work can help my academic learning” ( r = 0.14, p < 0.05 ) correlated with Score at the item level. For convenience of understanding, these items will subsequently be termed: Fun, Important, Academic and Courage. For females, significant correlations were found for Score and Project Work ( r = 0.19, p < 0.05 ), as well as Score and Social Learning ( r = 0.16, p < 0.05 ). At the item level, the results show correlations between Score and Project Work items Important ( r = 0.25, p < 0.01 ) and Academic ( r = 0.16, p < 0.05 ); and for Social Learning item “Because learning in a group allows me to have more courage to investigate more complex topics” ( r = 0.20, p < 0.05 ). Motivation did not correlate with any domains for males, nor with high or low TOEIC scores.

Personality Traits and Motivation

To investigate the association between motivation and personality traits, correlations between BFI and CIPQ domains were calculated. Regarding the scales on the two questionnaires, significant correlations were found between Task and Extraversion ( r = 0.20, p < 0.01 ) and Project Work and Extraversion ( r = 0.14, p < 0.05 ). At the item level, Task correlated with Extraversion items Talkative ( r = 0.23, p < 0.01 ), Energetic ( r = 0.20, p < 0.01 ), Enthusiastic ( r = 0.24, p < 0.01 ) and Outgoing ( r = 0.24, p < 0.01 ), and Project work with Talkative ( r = 0.14, p < 0.05 ), Energetic ( r = 0.17, p < 0.01 ), Enthusiastic ( r = 0.15, p < 0.05 ) and Outgoing ( r = 0.13, p < 0.05 ). With regard to females, Task correlated with Extraversion items Talkative ( r = 0.21, p < 0.01 ), Energetic ( r = 0.26, p < 0.01 ), Enthusiastic ( r = 0.25, p < 0.01 ) and Outgoing ( r = 0.26, p < 0.01 ), while Project Work correlated with Enthusiastic ( r = 0.16, p < 0.05 ) and Assertive ( r = 0.16, p < 0.05 ). For males, correlations were found between Task and items Talkative ( r = 0.27, p < 0.05 ) and Enthusiastic ( r = 0.22, p < 0.05 ), while none were uncovered for Project Work. Furthermore, after analyzing the results based on TOEIC scores, higher level English students displayed correlations between Task and Extraversion items Talkative ( r = 0.21, p < 0.05 ), Energetic ( r = 0.21, p < 0.05 ), Enthusiastic ( r = 0.21, p < 0.05 ) and Outgoing ( r = 0.24, p < 0.05 ), and Project Work and Assertive ( r = 0.20, p < 0.05 ). Finally, for lower level English students, correlations were noted between Task and Extraversion items Talkative ( r = 0.23, p < 0.05 ), Energetic ( r = 0.19, p < 0.05 ) and Enthusiastic ( r = 0.25, p < 0.01 ) and Project Work and items Talkative ( r = 0.22, p < 0.05 ), Energetic ( r = 0.22, p < 0.05 ), Enthusiastic ( r = 0.24, p < 0.05 ) and Outgoing ( r = 0.21, p < 0.05 ). A significant correlation was also observed for Social Pressure and Conscientiousness ( r = - 0.17, p < 0.01 ).

Regression Analysis

To gain further understanding of the data and identify which explanatory variables made contributions in explaining the DV Score, regression analysis was employed. In doing so, it was possible to test different models and detect the amount of variance explained by the selected explanatory variables.

Score and Personality Traits and Motivation

Factors with significant correlations with the DV Score were selected as predictor variables and sequentially entered into regression equations. Results of the six ensuing regression models are displayed in Table 6 . Extraversion was the sole selected personality variable, explaining 6% of the variation; motivational variables Project Work and Social Pressure were selected, explaining a combined 4% of the variance. Following this, personality and motivational variables were included together, explaining 8% of the variation. When TOEIC was selected as an additional explanatory variable along with personality and the motivation predictor variable, the model accounted for 15% of the variability in Score. The model including gender with the aforementioned predictors led to a model explaining 16% of the variability in Score, suggesting that the inclusion of gender added little explanatory power to the regression model. Finally, entering a variable to account for differences over the types of classes improved the model’s explanatory power to 18%.

Regression coefficients for DV Score

Extraversion, Project and Social Pressure were confirmed as predictor variables by way of stepwise regression procedures

* p value < .05; ** p value < .01; *** p value < .001

At the item level, stepwise regression analysis selected items Assertive and Outgoing ( Beta = 0.25, t = 2.90, p < 0.01 and Beta = 0.23, t = 4.12, p < 0.001, df = 254, F = 14.67, p < 0.001, adj r 2 = 0.10 ) from the Extraversion domain. For Project Work, the item Important was selected as the predictor variable ( Beta = 0.17, t = 2.68, p < 0.01, df = 237, F = 7.18, p < 0.01, adj r 2 = 0.03 ) explaining 3% of the variation in Score. Social Pressure, items “Because if I don’t participate, my groupmates will blame me” and “Because I don’t want to be perceived as a burden of my groupmates” were selected ( Beta = - 0.18, t = - 2.70, p < 0.01 and Beta = 0.16, t = 2.51, p < 0.05, df = 237, F = 5.75, p < 0.001, adj r 2 = 0.04 ) and together explained 4% of the variation in Score.

Additional regressions were performed using motivational variables as the DVs and entering personality variables as predictors based on the significant correlations revealed above. Table 7 shows the results of these variable selections. Task work was best explained by Extraversion, explaining 4% of the variation; Project Work by Extraversion, explaining 2%; and Social Pressure by Conscientiousness, explaining 2%.

Regression coefficients for motivational DVs

Extraversion and Conscientiousness were confirmed as predictor variables by way of stepwise regression procedures

At the item level, stepwise regression analysis selected Extraversion items Talkative and Enthusiastic ( Beta = 0.15, t = 2.1, p < 0.05 and Beta = 0.17, t = 2.3, p < 0.05, df = 236, F = 9.43, p < 0.001, adj r 2 = 0.07 ) for Task; Extraversion item Energetic ( Beta = 0.17, t = 2.68, p < 0.01, df = 23, F = 7.16, p < 0.01, adj r 2 = 0.03 ) for Project Work; and Conscientiousness item “Tends to be disorganized” ( Beta = - 0.21, t = - 3.38, p < 0.01, df = 237, F = 11.41, p < 0.01, adj r 2 = 0.04 ) for Social Pressure.

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of personality and motivation on performance in a collaborative oral presentation context. Performance was measured as a composite of instructor (individual and team) and peer (team) ratings. A notable finding was that Extraversion was the only personality trait significantly correlated with presentation performance. A closer look at the delivery aspect of the presentations showed significantly positive correlations between all subsections and Extraversion, with the verbal component ‘pronunciation/clarity of voice/fluency’ and nonverbal elements ‘eye contact/body language’ and ‘enthusiasm/presence’ holding higher associations. Furthermore, within the Extraversion domain, five items displayed significant correlations, indicating that talkative, energetic, enthusiastic, assertive and outgoing/sociable students were more likely to perform well in collaborative oral presentations. In addition, regression analysis revealed extraversion explained 6% of the variation in oral presentation performance. Therefore, as noted in past research, it appears that extraverts do possess the upper hand when it comes to oral presentation performance, broadly echoing the findings of aforementioned studies (for example Brown et al. 2001 ; Ockey 2011 ) and potentially supporting Dewaele and Furnham’s ( 1999 ) contention that extraverts enjoy an advantage in oral production, likely owing to their enhanced ability to cope with higher levels of stress as a result of lower arousal levels.

Further examination of the data showed that lower ability students’ performance in the oral presentation positively correlated with almost all of the extraversion items, while higher ability students’ scores correlated primarily with being assertive. Regression analysis tended to support this contention with TOEIC revealed as a significant predictor of presentation performance. Therefore, extraversion traits manifest to a greater degree in the achievement of students with lower English ability. These results suggest that lower ability students benefit from the presence of the extraversion characteristics associated with collaborative oral presentation scenarios, where an outgoing personality can compensate for insufficient language ability, particularly when this personality trait results in the ability to overcome a lack of confidence. With respect to associations corresponding to gender and oral presentation performance, correlations for female students related to factors such as enthusiasm, assertive personality and outgoing/sociable personality types, while those for males correlated with students who were talkative and outgoing/sociable. Additionally, females appreciated the social aspect of learning, feeling that it afforded them courage to extend themselves to study complex topics. Nevertheless, inclusion of gender in regression models did not significantly improve their predictive power.

Multiple regression analysis also uncovered that motivation derived from the project work aspect of the assignment was associated with performance in the collaborative oral presentation. Project work motivation relates to the positive values attached to the fun, importance and academic aspect of this type of collaborative activity. When contrasted with the lack of significance of Task motivation, this implies that “students considered project work as activities distinct from general school work” and “possibly [reflects] their identification [with] the inquiry nature of project work” (Chow and Law 2005 , p. 73). Put another way, motivation arising from the inquiry-based project nature of the assignment prevailed over that of traditional intrinsic motivation.

Furthermore, the selection and significance of Social pressure as a predictor of collaborative oral presentation performance adds an interesting contrast to this consideration of intrinsic motivation and shares similarity with the results of Flowers ( 2015 ) who found friendship and reciprocity as motivators for Japanese tertiary students engaged in a computer-supported collaborative learning context. However, the results of the present study lend themselves to a slightly different interpretation. Social pressure here represents two forces working in opposite directions, i.e., unease about being blamed acting as a negative stimulus and concern over the maintenance of one’s reputation as a positive influence. Regarding the first item, the field of positive psychology points to a possible explanation in that environments where constructive conditions are met, such as the presence of empathy, lead to optimal functioning of people and teams (Gable and Haidt 2005 ; Linley et al. 2006 ). Similarly, a positive attitude towards language learning has been advanced as a facilitator of the learning process (Gardner 2010 ; MacIntyre and Mercer 2014 ). The second item finds support from research indicating the predominance of external motivators such as instrumental and required motivation in Chinese cultural settings (Chen et al. 2005 ; Peng and Woodrow 2010 ). In addition, the significant negative association of Conscientiousness with Social Pressure suggests that less diligent students may come under social pressure from team members seeking positive team performance.

Practical implications for educators relate to setting situations conducive to lowering anxiety levels, permitting in-class preparation and coaching, and allowing time for rehearsal may be helpful strategies for those who require them. Along with creating friendly supportive classroom environments, promoting the importance of instructors knowing who their students are, gauging their attitudes towards oral language production, and understanding potential reasons for a lack of willingness to engage in oral speaking production have been revealed as crucial in motivating students to speak (Lee 2016 ; Tsiplakides and Keramida 2009 ). It is worthy to note that all of these are particularly important in Confucian Heritage Cultures, where students have been found to be especially influenced by affective variables such as anxiety and nervousness in foreign language classrooms (Lee 2016 ; Woodrow 2006 ).

Preparing and delivering presentations requires both presentation-specific and higher-order thinking and paralinguistic capabilities. For the former, developing relevant creative, heuristic, metacognitive, problem-solving, and teamwork competencies can be incorporated into classroom undertakings as students prepare, organize, coordinate, communicate, negotiate and prepare to deliver their presentations (Chou 2011 ; O’malley et al. 1985 ). With regard to the latter, offering paralinguistic training such as voice control, pitch and prosody, along with body movement and gesture coaching can increase student confidence while delivering their presentations (Bankowski 2010 ; Morley 1991 ). Additionally, research suggests that student inclusion in presentation goal setting and achievement criteria can be employed to motivate student participation and performance in presentations (Al-Issa and Al-Qubtan 2010 ; Otoshi and Heffernen 2008 ). As such, incorporating goal setting as a pre-presentation classroom activity may help bridge the gap between teachers’ and students’ differing perceptions of the purpose of oral presentations, and facilitate better understanding of how students may achieve desired outcomes for presentations.

The present study offers evidence for the role personality traits and collaborative inquiry-based motivation play in explaining achievement in oral presentations conducted by teams. Specifically, it points to the importance of the personality trait extraversion, along with project work and social pressure motivational factors. Furthermore, indication of the personality characteristics extraversion and conscientiousness in motivational constructs relating to inquiry-based collaborative learning is provided. These findings provide support for the argument that extraverts are likely to perform better in spoken tasks, potentially pointing to their superior verbal processing capacity and lower language speaking anxiety as they interact with peers in collaborative projects and engage in oral presentations. In addition, it highlights the importance of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors concurrently playing a role in collaborative inquiry-based projects as teams of students prepare and deliver oral presentations.

While the current study extends the existing literature on individual differences in affective factors within an EFL context, it is subject to several limitations. First, it almost exclusively reports on presentation performance of mid- to high-level English ability university students. Research conducted on groups including a greater range of learners according to English ability may reveal different outcomes. Additionally, neither the academic discourse socialization of the students (Ho 2011 ; Zappa-Hollman 2007 ) nor record of accuracy and lexical density are considered in light of the speed-accuracy trade off identified in previous literature (Dewaele and Furnham 1999 ; MacKay 1982 ). The use of a composite variable incorporating both verbal and non-verbal communication for presentation performance may be viewed as both a weakness and a strength. One the one hand, it does not solely focus on the oral speech production of the learners, yet it does include valuable information on non-verbal aspects of communication crucial to delivering effective presentations. Accordingly, the authors acknowledge that measures based solely on verbal assessment may offer different results to those presented in this research. Investigating the hypothesis that extraverts prefer fluency while introverts favor lexical richness, further examination of students’ academic discourse in EFL oral presentations, and consideration of different measures of communication ability offer potential directions for future research.

Appendix: Presentation Grading Rubric

Total Score > 90 = excellent , 80 – 89 = very good , 70 – 79 = good , 60 – 69 = adequate, < 60 = fail

Score > 90 = excellent , 80 – 89 = very good , 70 – 79 = good , 60 – 69 = adequate, < 60 = fail

Contributor Information

Hsin-Yi Liang, Email: [email protected] .

Brent Kelsen, Phone: +886918800229, Email: moc.liamg@uptntnerb .

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How to prepare and deliver an effective oral presentation
Delivery. It is important to dress appropriately, stand up straight, and project your voice towards the back of the room. Practise using a microphone, or any other presentation aids, in advance. If you don't have your own presenting style, think of the style of inspirational scientific speakers you have seen and imitate it.
10 Characteristics of Oral Communication With Examples
Ans: Major characteristics of oral presentations require clarity, engagement, organization, visual aids, and compelling delivery. Speakers must articulate ideas clearly, keep the audience engaged, and use visual support to enhance understanding. A well-structured presentation with confident delivery helps leave a lasting impact on the audience.
What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation
Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired ...
PDF Oral Presentations
Oral presentations typically involve three important steps: 1) planning, 2) practicing, and 3) presenting. 1. Planning Oral presentations require a good deal of planning. Scholars estimate that approximately 50% of all mistakes in an oral presentation actually occur in the planning stage (or rather, lack of a planning stage). Make sure to ...
What Are Effective Presentation Skills (and How to Improve Them)
Presentation skills are the abilities and qualities necessary for creating and delivering a compelling presentation that effectively communicates information and ideas. They encompass what you say, how you structure it, and the materials you include to support what you say, such as slides, videos, or images. You'll make presentations at various ...
Oral Presentations
The Purpose of an Oral Presentation. Generally, oral presentation is public speaking, either individually or as a group, the aim of which is to provide information, entertain, persuade the audience, or educate. In an academic setting, oral presentations are often assessable tasks with a marking criteria. Therefore, students are being evaluated ...
PDF Preparing Effective Oral Presentations in 7.17 Project Lab
3 Invention: Classical Rhetoric described three types of persuasive appeals. Logos: Appeal to reason, logic, objectivity Pathos: Appeal to emotion, subjectivity Ethos: Appeal to the character of the presenter Effective presentations make use of all three types of appeals. Arrangement: Control the story that you want to tell about your data (in four parts).
Chapter 3: Oral Presentations
An oral presentation differs from a speech in that it usually has visual aids and may involve audience interaction; ideas are both shown and explained. A speech, on the other hand, is a formal verbal discourse addressing an audience, without visual aids and audience participation. Tips for Types of Oral Presentations Individual Presentation
Seven Tips for Creating Powerful Oral Presentations
Tip #2: Use simple language that is easy for people to follow. The words you select, and how you use them, will make a big difference in how well people hear—and remember—what you tell them. This is especially true in oral presentations. "When we write sentences for people to read, we can add more complexities.
Oral Presentation Tips: How to Deliver a Speech for School or Work
Successful oral presentations typically share some basic characteristics, owing to the nature of the spoken word. Tell them what you're going to tell them. Tell them. Tell them what you told them. When we read, we can go back and reread passages we skimmed over the first time, and we can skip ahead when we're bored.
Ten Simple Rules for Making Good Oral Presentations
Rule 5: Be Logical. Think of the presentation as a story. There is a logical flow—a clear beginning, middle, and an end. You set the stage (beginning), you tell the story (middle), and you have a big finish (the end) where the take-home message is clearly understood. Rule 6: Treat the Floor as a Stage.
PDF Oral Presentation Skills
Concerning grammar the headings of the outline should be of the same grammatical form. I have broken my speech down/up into X parts. I have divided my presentation (up) into Y parts. 4Change the purpose of the speech (or the time, place and audience) to see how the outline changes.
Oral Presentation Structure
A written document includes many visual clues to its structure: section headings, blank lines or indentations indicating paragraphs, and so on. In contrast, an oral presentation has few visual ...
14.3: Importance of Oral Presentations
Page ID. In the workplace, and during your university career, you will likely be asked to give oral presentations. An oral presentation is a key persuasive tool. If you work in marketing, for example, you will often be asked to "pitch" campaigns to clients. Even though these pitches could happen over email, the face-to-face element allows ...
Mastering The Art Of Oral Presentation Skills: Communicate With ...
Oral presentation skills refer to the ability to convey information and ideas through spoken words, body language, and visual aids in a structured and engaging manner. It involves organizing thoughts, tailoring content to the audience, and delivering the message confidently and clearly. These skills encompass verbal and non-verbal communication ...
PDF Top 10 Features of A Good Oral Presentation at Psb
3. Deliver your presentation clearly and enthusiastically Show your excitement about your presentation; project your voice clearly. There is nothing like a barely audible and monotone presentation to guarantee that the audience tunes out… and will not have any questions at the end. Use the microphone even if you move around the stage.
Oral Presentations
An oral presentation can be almost any report type, such as a design review, a proposal, or a conference talk. Whatever the specific type, however, an effective oral presentation is carefully planned with your objectives in mind and pays close attention to the demands of your audience . Oral presentations differ significantly from written ...
The Seven Cardinal Virtues of Oral Presentation
Establish trust in yourself and your information. No oral presentation can achieve its objective if listeners have doubts about the information or the speaker. To be effective, both the message and the messenger must be believable. Speakers themselves are persuasive, wrote Aristotle, when they demonstrate practical wisdom, virtue and good will.
Oral/Virtual Presentations
Oral presentations rely heavily on tone, which can be more varied than the clear, straightforward tone that characterizes most written technical communications. ... Since virtual presentations are a particular type of oral presentation, most of the characteristics of effective oral presentations apply with just a few differences or additions ...
Features of an Oral Presentation
Home » The Rewrite. When giving an oral presentation, four features decide the quality of the presentation. You need to consider and perfect the preparation, delivery, audience and visuals before you can give a solid presentation. The speaker is capable of controlling each of these four features to ensure the message is received satisfactorily.
Oral Presentation Skills: Showcase Workshop
Oral Presentation Skills: Showcase Workshop. In this workshop, we'll explore the topic of presentation effectiveness through examples (using rubrics to evaluate presentations) and through reflective presentation creation exercises (translating text into winning content).
Influence of Personality and Motivation on Oral Presentation
One common method of evaluating these personality characteristics is via the Big Five personality traits/five-factor model (FFM), ... Collaborative oral presentations lasted for 10-12 min and were conducted by teams of 3-6 participants, allowing students an average speaking time of approximately 2-4 min each. ...
The impact of goal orientation, self-reflection and personal
In the present article an explorative study on university freshman is described, in which goal-setting, self-reflection, and several characteristics of the subjects during oral presentations were ...

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How to prepare and deliver an effective oral presentation

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10 Differences Between Verbal & Nonverbal Communication + Examples

12 Key Principles of Effective Oral Communication for Success

8 Advantages and Disadvantages Of Grapevine Communication

What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation

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The Purpose of an Oral Presentation

Types of Oral Presentations

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Using Visual Aids Effectively

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Chapter 3: Oral Presentations

The Purpose of an Oral Presentation

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Group Presentation

Writing Your Presentation

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Using Visual Aids Effectively

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Part 1: Planning the Content

Part 2: Delivering the Content

1) Determine Your Goals as a Speaker

2) Prepare your material

3) Study a Model

General Model

4) Arrange with Your Strongest Points First

5) Practice, Practice, Practice.

Technological Considerations

6) Make Eye Contact With Your Audience.

7) Engage with the audience.

8) A Slide Show Is Not a Speech

9) Watch the time!

10) Take questions in the middle, not at the end?

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Oral Presentation Structure

The opening

The closing

Starting and ending forcefully

Topic rooms within Scientific Communication

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14.3: Importance of Oral Presentations

Oral presentation skill: what it is and how to develop it

What are Oral Presentation Skills?

The Purpose of Oral Presentation

1-Inform and Educate:

2-Persuade and Influence:

3-Showcase Skills:

The different types of oral presentations

How to Use Oral Presentation Skills Effectively?

Know Your Audience:

Structure Your Presentation:

Engaging Visuals:

Practice and Rehearse:

Eye Contact and Body Language:

How to develop your oral presentation skills

When do you need to Use Oral Presentation Skills?