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Année 2022 Vol 19 N° 01 p p 375-389 Revue des Lettres et Sciences Sociales 375

Année 2022 Vol 19 N° 01 p p 375-389 Revue des Lettres et Sciences Sociales 375 Vol 19 N° 01 -2022 Challenges in Academic Oral Presentations: The Case of EFL Master Students at Bejaia University Date de réception : 2019-12-28 Date d’acceptation : 2020-12-09 Amina Kimouche*, University of Bejaia, amina.kimouche@hotmail.com Nadia Idri, University of Bejaia, nadiaidri@gmail.com Abstract The command of Academic Oral Presentation (AOP) skills is an essential concern for college students to ensure success in their academic and professional endeavors. However, students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) often face challenges when assigned to perform this task. This study seeks to identify the main difficulties EFL master students encounter when delivering AOPs at Bejaia University. Following a mixed-method design, data were obtained through a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview conducted with students. The results showed that students encountered major obstacles during the preparation of AOPs due to their unfamiliarity with the requirements of this task. Additionally, the participants faced various linguistic problems such as the lack of fluency and vocabulary, as well as some psychological barriers including anxiety and fear of evaluation. Pedagogical implications are proposed regarding how instructors can help their students overcome AOP problems. Key words: Academic Oral Presentation; AOP difficulties; EFL graduates Résumé Pour réussir leurs études, les étudiants ont une préoccupation majeure : la maîtrise des techniques de présentation orale (PO). Cependant, malgré leurs efforts pour forger cette compétence, de nombreux étudiants en anglais sont confrontés à de grands défis à relever. Cette étude vise à examiner les difficultés rencontrées par les étudiants en master dans la préparation et la mise en œuvre de PO. Les données ont été obtenues aux traitements d'un questionnaire et d'un entretien avec des étudiants. Les résultats confirment que les étudiants rencontrent des obstacles majeurs dans la préparation des PO en raison de la non maitrise des techniques de cette tâche. De même, les étudiants sont confrontés à divers problèmes linguistiques (lenteur du débit, hésitation, indigence du vocabulaire, etc.), ainsi qu’à des obstacles psychologiques (anxiété, la peur de l'évaluation, etc.). En outre, l'étude offre plusieurs implications pédagogiques concernant la manière dont les instructeurs peuvent aider leurs étudiants à surmonter les problèmes de. Mots-clés : présentation orale, difficultés de présentations orales, étudiants en master d'anglais. ال ملخص إن التمكن من العرض الشفهي الأكاديمي يعتبر من الهتمامات الأساسية لطالب الجامعات من اأجل ضمان نجاحهم في مساعيهم الأكاديمية، ولكن على الرغم من الطلب الكبير لهاته المهارات من طرف طالب اللغة النجليزية إل اأنهم على العموم ي واجهون تحديات عند قيامهم باأداء هذا الن شاط. إن بحثنا هذا في هذه القضية جعلنا نقوم بدراسة حاله من اأجل معرفه الصعوبات التي يو اجهها طلبة الماستر تخصص لغة انجليزية عند تحضيرهم وتقديمهم للعروض الشفوية الأكاديمية على مستوى جامعة بجاية، حيث تم اتباع طريقه مزدوجة الشكل للحصول على البيانات والمعلومات، و هذا عن طريق وسائل تتمثل في استبانة ومقابلة شبه منظمه اأجريت مع ،طالب الماستر. وقد بينت النتائج اأن طلبة الماستر يواجهون مشاكل كبيرة عند تحضيرهم لعروضهم الشفوية، باإلضافة إلى ذلك مواجهتهم للعديد من التحديات اللغوية والنفسية. تم اإلشارة الى بعض القتراحات التر بوية المتعلقة بكيفية مساعدة الأساتذ ة لطالبهم من اأجل التغلب على المشاكل التي تخص العرض الشفوي الأكاديمي. الكلمات :المفاتيح العرض الشفهي،الأكاديمي مشاكل العرض،الشفهي طلبة الماستر تخصص لغة انجليزيه * Corresponding author Challenges in Academic Oral Presentations: The Case of EFL Master Students at Bejaia University Amina Kimouche and Nadia Idri Revue des Lettres et Sciences Sociales 376 Vol 19 N° 01 -2022 Introduction Oral presentations (OP) are widely practiced in the EFL context at the tertiary level (King, 2002). They are considered as effective tools in developing the students' English speaking skills, promoting learner autonomy, identifying and addressing individual differences and assessing students’ performance (Munby, 2011). Academic Oral Presentations (AOP) are broadly defined as a type of public speaking which involves the delivery of a formal talk, to a particular audience, in a structured way, for the purpose of sharing ideas and information (Cheung, 2008; Nation & Newton, 2009; Zareva, 2009). It is worth mentioning here that the term OP may differ from what we call AOP. Despite the fact that both may occur in academic settings, the former seems to be associated with teaching speaking for general purposes (Harmer 2007; Nation & Newton, 2009; Thornbury, 2005), while the latter is often perceived in conjunction with teaching English speaking for academic purposes (Horowitz & Stein, 1990; Hyland, 1991; Jordan, 1997; Levrai & Bolster, 2015). For the purpose of this study, giving OPs is regarded as an academic task rather than a classroom activity. Delivering spoken academic monologues such as OPs is often considered a key requirement in higher education (Jordan, 1997). In this, Zavera (2009) regards the students’ AOP as a genre situated in a larger network of academic genres. She further explains that AOP, as a genre, has its own characteristics and regularities that distinguish it from other academic oral genres such as lectures, conference presentations, and any other presentations given by professionals. Excluding these professional genres, the students may encounter various types of AOPs during their studies (Shephard, 2005; Levrai & Bolster, 2015). The research-based OP is one such type. This kind of presentations occurs often when students are in the final year of their graduation; hence, they have to report the findings of their research in oral presentations whether at the end of the project or during its progress (Shephard, 2005, p. 61). In the context of the present study, the participants are required to deliver an oral summary of research processes and findings during their master dissertation defense. This particular type of presentation has some specific features; it is a research-based OP, conducted in an academic and formal setting, in the presence of peers and evaluators, and for the purpose of assessing the student's skills and knowledge. The term AOP will be used in this study with reference to the master dissertation OP as described above. Although giving OPs is a familiar activity for graduate students, the master dissertation OP, in particular, is considerably new for students who have had no previous experience with such highly structured and formal types of AOPs. Thus, the students are confronted with this demanding academic task, which seems to pose some challenges for them. However, this area is under-investigated in the Algerian context. Little is known about the difficulties Algerian EFL students encounter with regard to AOPs. The relative lack of research on academic speaking in the Algerian context coupled up with the researcher's concerns about students' academic success have motivated the current study to report on students' perceived AOP difficulties and some coping strategies, hoping to find some remedial suggestions and pedagogical solutions. To this end, the present study addressed the following questions: 1. What are the main difficulties encountered by EFL master students when preparing and delivering AOPs at the University of Bejaia? 2. How do students perceive their own difficulties and manage to overcome their AOP problems? Literature Review Delivering OPs in academic settings is a stressful task for college students, and it is considered even more challenging for EFL students particularly (Jordan, 1997; Morita, 2002). This can be due to the fact that giving OPs, like many other forms of oral communication, is an inherently complex task, since it involves linguistic features such as grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation, non-linguistic elements such as body language and facial expressions, as well as paralinguistic elements such as pitch, stress, and intonation; all of which should be appropriately applied in accordance with the context (Shumin, 2002, p. 204). This task also involves the ability to appropriately design visual aids and Challenges in Academic Oral Presentations: The Case of EFL Master Students at Bejaia University Amina Kimouche and Nadia Idri Revue des Lettres et Sciences Sociales 377 Vol 19 N° 01 -2022 implement effective strategies during the communication process (Hyland, 1991). Taking into consideration these intricacies, expectedly, EFL students face several challenges in giving AOPs. Bankowski (2010) believes that AOPs require self-direction and active participation, which is highly demanding for EFL students and often leads to confusion, anxiety, and lack of understanding. King (2002) assumes that speech anxiety, failing to adopt written language to spoken language and reading from slides or notes are the reasons behind students’ failure to deliver effective OPs. In a somewhat parallel view, Evans, Gruba, & Zobel (2014) consider selecting appropriate content, transforming a written work to an oral form, competent delivery, and dealing with nerves as major challenges in preparing and delivering a dissertation oral presentation in particular (p.143). Further, Duklim & Musigrungsi (2016) claim that the main factors inhibiting students when preparing and giving OPs are native language barriers, unfamiliarity with genre-related features of the target task, and the lack of oral communication skills. Another problem noticed by Weissberg (1993) is that ESL students tend to rely often on memory or written texts when they are asked to give OPs. Echoing Weissberg’ (1993) view, King (2002) reports that EFL students reckon on reading or memorizing OPs, which makes their oral performance “sound canned, machine-like and dull”. These issues uploads/Litterature/ challenges-in-academic-oral-presentations-the-case-of-efl-master-students-at-bejaia-university.pdf