Of all the experiences our students go through in the English language classroom, this is arguably the MOST important: Student-to-class presentation. Allow me to explain why – but not now. The “why” will become self-evident after discussion of other issues of student presentation.

Firstly, what is student-to-class presentation?　In short, this is where one student in class briefly becomes the focal point of every student in class.

That one student gives a short oral presentation, which may typically be accompanied by something visual like a picture.
　

Important:

1. ALL students at some point must have their moment “up the front”.

2. While the content of students’ presentations should relate directly to recently studied English, they must also contain in some way the result of students’ own creativity. Put another way, the English that students study in class should eventually be presented by them in a way that has them input additional, original ideas.

3. Students don’t need to memorize what they say in their presentation. They can say what they are showing, and they can show what they are saying.
　

4. Students should prepare well for their presentation, both the oral and visual content. Students should be prepared to speak in a voice that’s loud enough to be heard by everyone else in the room. Most importantly, they should be prepared to present themselves as a valuable individual with original ideas worthy of their classmates’ attention. They should be given the opportunity to practice – either alone or in pairs (not in front of the whole class). Students should practice what they’re going to say and they should practice holding their visual work in a way that guarantees everyone will be able to see.

5. All students should know that courtesy, respect and support for the presenter is expected from the classmates listening.

6. After each presentation, we as teachers should find as many aspects of the presentation as possible to praise.

Now with that said, has the “why” behind student-to-class presentations become apparent?

The objective behind having students present to the class is to foster something that I believe is very much lacking in regular Japanese education: self-esteem.

Self-esteem is vital to effective English communication. Even if a student has many years of English study behind them, if he/she lacks self-esteem, there will be communication difficulties. A major part of the development of self-esteem is self-recognition of the value of one’s original ideas and the value of presenting them to others. It’s very much my belief that in class, if students are given an opportunity to present their original idea within a frame of recently studied English, are well-prepared, are well-practiced, and there’s an environment of support from classmates and teachers, the experience may help cultivate self-esteem, and ultimately assist in students’ English communication.

Nakamoto-sensei too when creating LEARNING WORLD placed huge emphasis on individual presentation to the class for the same reason, and opportunities for this are right through each text, appearing on nearly every right-hand page!

I strongly encourage all of you who are reading this to put opportunities for student-to-class presentations into your lessons!