Bristol Group MOE WKC English Teacher Training Project

Day 7 Session 3 (Thursday, 16 October 2014, 2 – 3.30pm)

The First Thursday Presentation

At exactly 2.00 p.m., the first group began to present its first ever assessed presentation on a topic which sounded and looked pretty simple when it was first told to us: the Bristol group on Malaysia. Yes, this afternoon, the 16^th October 2014, our group which was informally known as the First Thursday group presented its first ever WKC presentation on Malaysia. There were 9 of us in this group and I’ve picked the slot and lo behold! I was to be the first presenter who will start off the whole presentation. See the accompanied shot of the slot that I’ve picked. The first presenter is the person who is responsible to set the direction of the group on its course to do the presentation. First, we quickly brainstormed on what to do and since we were the first group, we decided that we will be presenting to a group of foreign students who had to attend a briefing on the newly introduced module-Malaysian Studies 101, which is a compulsory for all students to take when they enrolled into the college.

 Looking back after I’ve presented the opening of the presentation for our group and all of us had done the presentation considering with the short period of time for us to prepare, I must say it went rather well. The PowerPoint prepared was effective in conveying our content of presentation. Incidentally, we are so used to telling our students to ensure making eye contact and to project our voices whilst presenting yet in actuality it is easier said than done. I could see that some of us, in the initial stage too got a bit of stage fright even though we were so used to talking to our students in class. I guess the thought of being graded and observed by all did unnerve some of us. Looking at that, it was expected as to be in front talking to a group of audiences, we always tell our students that it was normal to feel the butterflies in the stomachs. Indeed that some of us afflicted by the butterflies in the stomachs syndrome.

The abbreviations of K.I.S.S that brings about the meaning of keeping it simple and short was rather befitting to the 5 minute per person presentation as some of us found that it was rather difficult to keep the presentation to just a mere five minutes! For some keeping it short and simple was rather difficult as some were seem wanting to tell almost everything to the audience. Yet, the given KISS cards given to us earlier  to practise were beneficial as these cards and the activities given especially the language function,  did keep most of  us focused on the task at hand to cover, which was for a person to present a five minute presentation! 

After what all of us had experienced, I think that it is good for us to use in class the KISS cards with its useful language especially to assist students of low ability. The language function provided once again reminded us of having students of mixed abilities and by providing more language functions to the weaker ones will be beneficial to boost up their confidence especially in a presentation. All the mix of having butterflies, no confidence in presenting a talk is some problems that students faced when they were told to do a presentation. Yes! Having pre-presentation activities such as providing them with KISS cards and also language functions to open a presentation are some examples that we could incorporated in our class and in this case-the presentation class. Yes, the presentation on the Thursday afternoon went rather well as all of us were given the time to practise and prepare through the use of the KISS cards in our earlier sessions.

This is a reminder to us teachers that in order to develop the students’ confidence in giving a presentation, we must provide them the necessary language and practise time to do some practice for them to do presentation. Therefore, it can be concluded that each of our students are able to do a worthy presentation yet we as teachers should give them the practise and the language in order for them to do a proper presentation.

AISHAH MUSLIM

UNGKU OMAR POLYTECHNIC, IPOH