Communicate in English is one thing, using English as a foreign language in professional academic setting is completely another level of difficulty. I’m taking Oral Presentation, (EFSLANG 691S) this summer at Stanford, which is a course designed for advanced graduate students to practice in academic presentation skills.
At the very beginning of the course, the first introductory slide introduces four questions that relates with almost the deepest starting point of presentations, along with my thinkings
List some types of presentations.
Taxonomy for presentations: presentation is a subset of public speaking. The boundary is not exactly clear, but we’d like to think presentations as being more formal and informative.
From Ted Talks to panel discussions, all forms are possible––not including powerpoint presentations though.
What are some reasons (purposes) of our presentations?
- One of presentations’ key purpose: to plant an idea in other’s mind.
Where might presentations take place?
i really like this answer though
In general academic environment, classrooms, conference venues and even, elevators.
And, the last, open question for us to continue to think about:
The Covid pandemic made presenting online more prevalent. In what ways are online presentations similar? In what ways are they different?
One key answer is that interactions are substantially weaker, but quality is improved because if it’s not live, people can record and edit.