Developing Presentation Skills with Secondary School Students in Armenia

Abstract

Teaching how to develop oral presentation skills based on integrating other English language skills into communicative classes and interactions in the final grade of secondary school in Armenia is the main purpose of this study. The study concentrates on making students understand the importance of their learning presentation skills in today’s world and their learning some basic skills that are necessary to develop them into a presentation. It also investigates teachers’ and students’ attitude towards having these skills taught by including them in theschool curriculum, and having special training for teachers to teach the course. The study also describes the benefits and limitations of teaching the course. The participants of the study were 10 English teachers from different schools, and 20 tenth-grade students from different classes at the same school. A teacher questionnaire and teacher and student interview questions served as instruments for the study, and they were analyzed using a descriptive method. While analyzing the questionnaire results, it was found that all ten teachers accepted the importance of having a course on oral presentation skills in high schools, and identified the course as intended for use in pre-academic classes designed to be covered in one term in the final grade at school. The results of the teacher and student interviews showed the positive attitude of teachers and students towards having teachers trained for teaching the course. It also revealed the benefits and limitations of the study.