摘要：The EFL (English as foreign language) graduate students need to have some oral and aural language skills to participate in seminars and conferences. They have to comprehend content from research articles and use them as the source or content for their presentation. This qualitative study aims to find the different strategies used in encountering the difficulties by the science-oriented graduate students. The participants include seven biomedical PhD students and M.M.S. students at different levels of their study and two content-area instructors. Questionnaire, classroom observation, and interview were used for data collection. The study reveals that different difficulties encountered by the students at different study years, and sometimes they share some common difficulties while giving and listening academic presentation in English. The problems can be classified into two main areas: content and language. Their reading comprehension, speaking and listening skills are insufficient to taking a good presentation. The findings reveal that different language strategy trainings are important to make the students have more exposure to use their language.
　　關键词：Academic Presentation；Language Strategies；Strategy Training
　　中图分类号：H31 文献标识码：A 文章编号：1009-0118（2011）-05-0-04
　　
　　1. Introduction
　　 EFL university students are often intimidated by academic speaking tasks, including both formal presentation and participation in large or small group class discussion (Han, 2007). In reality EFL students not only need to adapt themselves to taking the challenges of their second language literacy learning, but also need to own the oral and aural ability to achieve academic success. Flowerdew and Miller (1995) note that compared with their academic literacy skills, the second language lecture comprehension and speaking have been largely neglected for most of the EFL learners. High level speaking and listening language skills are needed to participate in these occasions for graduated students. However, presenting academic paper in L2 and attending English-running seminars and international conferences are becoming increasingly important for graduate students. Speaking and listening skills have blocked students’ expression and motivation to achieve their academic goals (Han, 2007).
　　2. Research Background
　　Academic presentation means that a speaker presents a talk to the audience with content loading. It will involve much rather than talking only. Further, the seminar presentation does not simply stand and talk to an extended time to silent, collective audience; instead, it should be ongoing interacted with the audience (Short, 2006). ELS university students are often lack of skills to academic speaking, including both formal presentation and participation in group discussion (Han, 2007). In Asian countries high education has increased gradually to an interactive discussion format (Lucas & Murray, 2002; Mason, 1994; Meyers & Jones, 1993). For instance, Flowerdew and Miller (1995) indicated the issues surrounding the comprehension of academic lectures by L2 learners. Description of academic lectures, listening comprehension processes and L2 students’ difficulties and strategies for understanding L2 have also been illustrated (e.g., Benson, 1989; Chaudron, 1995; Flowerdew, 1995; Olsen & Huckin, 1990; Strodt-Lopez, 1991). Research has found that many ESL / EFL students' academic listening and speaking skills in English are not strong enough to cope with their academic study, in particular, understanding English lectures and expressing their views in English (Banerjee, 2001; Bamford, 2002). Academic listening tasks pose formidable challenges for L2 students, even those highly proficient in English. Mason (1995, cited in Ferris & Tagg, 1996) claims that even for the students with TOEFL scores high (550-600) enough for admission to most US universities, programs may not be linguistically proficient enough for the academic listening and speaking tasks confronting them. Flowerdew and Miller (1995) note that academic listening has its own distinct characteristics and demands put upon listeners, as it compared with conversational listening.
　　3. Method
　　3.1 Participants
　　The seven graduate biomedical students who have enrolled in a seminar course in the first trimester of the study year 2010 were as the informants and people to be observed. Among them two are the first year PhD students, and the other five are M.M.S. students. Two are first-year postgraduates and three are second-year ones. This seminar is a joint program by School of Biotechnology and School of Medicine. Instructors from the two schools will present each time.
　　3.2 Course overview
　　This seminar course is compulsive for graduate students. The size of the seminar is flexible, depending on the students’ enrollment for each trimester. The graduate students and the instructors have to speak English in class so as to improve their English proficiency and to enhance their comprehension of academic research articles. The seminar provides chance for the students to improve their English language and academic ability, and helps them get closer more quickly to the frontier researches in their own academic field.
　　The instructors act as the facilitator who may pose provocative questions to the speaker so as to stimulate the discussion about the content as the source of the presentation. For the students, they give a presentation and answer the questions posed by the audience. The students can answer the questions in Thai so that they can express more and give detailed explanations. Otherwise, most of them will feel it hard to express clear and intact ideas because of their lower English speaking proficiency.
　　3.3 Data collection and data analysis
　　The seminar course was observed by the researcher four times in order to get the information for each informant in particular, because two students would be assigned to give a presentation each time, and the seven students would finish one round within four times. The observer will do some preparations prior to the classroom observation: e.g. to get permission from the instructors, communicate with them about the observational aim, and ask the instructor if there was anything to pay attention to. Besides, permission should also be got to video-tape each section and each person in class. I took pictures and video-taped the class. But I did not record some questions and answers, because the speakers’ reaction to these questions was similar in their contents and nonverbal actions. I took careful notes of each speaker and wrote down what was happening in the classroom including all the audiences’ and the instructors’ actions and facial expressions, for example, the speakers’ pronunciation, their fluency and correctness, the reaction from the audience, and the speakers’ reaction to the posed questions. The aim of the classroom observation was to collect data so that the real happening in the class, the speakers’ difficulties in carrying out a presentation and in handling questions and answers, and their nonverbal actions can be observed and explored.
　　The open-ended questionnaire is composed of two parts: personal background and some questions related to the three research questions. The questions were written in English. However, the informants could use Thai to answer the questions at their language convenience, for I want to obtain more information for each question. When I finished the four times of classroom observation I gave an interview to the two instructors about their views on the students’ progress in English, especially their performance in giving and understanding the academic presentation. Although the instructors were not language teachers, both of them studied abroad for one or more years. The results of the interview can strengthen the answer to the research questions. All the data from the questionnaire and interview were coded, entered into different data-table and then recoded and analyzed.
　　4. Results
　　4.1 What are the difficulties that the biomedical graduate students encountered in giving the presentation?
　　4.1.1 The difficulties the experienced learners (two PhD students and one 2nd year M.M.S. student) encountered as a presenter.
　　a. Making the presentation interesting to draw attention from the audience in addition to informing them of the content. e.g. “How can I do my presentation attractively?” “How can I get a high evaluation from the instructors and the audience?” They intended to draw attention from the audience and made the presentation vivid.
　　b. They cannot understand the article used as the source or contents of their presentation. e.g. “Many special graphs and tables are so difficulty for me to understand.” “Sometimes the section of methodology is hard for me.” They can comprehend the contents used for their presentation mainly, although some parts and points are still difficult. Lack of high language proficiency is a problem to the EFL learners, even the high ranked learners in different disciplines.
　　4.1.2 The difficulties the less experienced learners (two 2nd year and two 1st year M.M.S. students) encountered as a presenter.
　　a. They cannot understand the article used as the source or contents of their presentation. e.g. “I cannot understand the methodology part.” “Actually I hardly know the discussion and some special graphs in the article.” “I do not know the grammar in the article.” It is a big problem to the less experienced learners to have a good comprehension of the content used as source for their presentation. Even one 1st year M.Sc. student said the grammar in the article is an obstacle to her in the process of preparation.
　　b. The students were anxious and nervous when they were giving the presentation. e.g. “When I stand on the stage I am so nervous.” “I am worried when I am speaking in English.” The anxiety and nervousness prevented the presenters from having a coherent utterance. The presentation could not go smoothly, for they had to stop time and again during the presentation and sometimes they read the slides so quickly.
　　4.2 What are the difficulties that the biomedical graduate students encountered in listening to the presentation?
　　4.2.1 The difficulties that the experienced learners encountered as audience
　　a. They are not familiar with the content of the presentation. e.g. “I do not know it well if the content is about other disciplines or majors.” Even the high ranked learners found it very difficult to get clear ideas for what they were listening to, especially when the content being presented is different from their major. The probability of understanding of the others’ presentation was lower.
　　4.2.2 The difficulties the less experienced learners encountered as audience.
　　a. They were not familiar with the content of the presentation. e.g. “I cannot understand what she is presenting especially the topic is not related to my major” “Sometimes I am not sure what I heard is the same as the content she presented.” These audiences always listened silently without facial expression, which seemed like that they could not think over and follow what the presenter was saying.
　　b. Posing questions to the speaker in English. They could not pose questions to the speaker in English, let along if there was an unfamiliar topic. Most of them asked questions in Thai. In addition, one student posed a question in English first, and then she changed it into Thai in order to express herself clearly.
　　4.3 The strategies used by the students when giving the presentation
　　4.3.1 The strategies used by the experienced learners as presenter
　　a. Trying to comprehend the article as the content for the presentation. e.g. “I read more related articles.” “I look for more knowledge on the Internet.” Content comprehension is important in increasing the proficiency of giving the presentation. Some other ability such as pronunciation practice with computer-skills may play a role for the higher proficiency students.
　　b. Trying to rehearse a presentation before the real one. e.g. “I read several times of my slides and take notes in each for reminding.” “I practice my sentences such as use what sentence to connect the slides.” More exposure to the target language is very essential for speaking. Some personal ways are acceptable for taking a better performance in the real presentation.
　　4.3.2 The strategies used by the less experienced learners as presenter
　　a. Trying to comprehend the article as the content for the presentation. e.g. “I read the article at least two times.” “I read many books about this topic.” Content comprehension is important to enhance the proficiency of speaking in the presentation. Some other ways such as asking for help from friends or advisors is also important for a better understanding of the contents.
　　b. Practicing more times before the real presentation. e.g. “I read several times of my slides.” “I do the rehearsal by myself.” More exposure to the target language is very essential to improve the quality of speaking.
　　4.4 The strategies used by the students when listening to the presentation
　　4.4.1 The strategies used by the experienced learners as audience
　　a. Asking questions to the speaker directly. e.g. “I will ask her about the main points again.” “Asking questions about what I missed.” Asking questions about what one is not clear is an effective way to enhance one’s understanding when listening, so all the students are involved in this way no matter what ranking they are in.
　　b. Reading the handout carefully. e.g. “I will read the handout by myself if I cannot understand.”
　　c. Taking notes while listening. e.g. “I will take notes.” “I will write down some main points.”
　　d. Listening carefully. e.g. “I will focus on listening at that time in order to get a better understanding.” “Listening very carefully”
　　5. Discussion
　　L2 students strive diligently to overcome the language barriers in their study no matter whether the oral expression or the literacy of the target language is concerned. When L2 students are exposed to academic hurdles, their academic reading and listening comprehension would be difficult for them at the most essential stance.
　　5.1 The factors affecting the ability in giving an academic presentation
　　If students’ knowledge of pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary is insufficient, it is probable that their English listening comprehension will be negatively affected by lack of language knowledge. Listening proficiency consists of content listening comprehension and listening strategies. Content of the particular disciplines plays an important role in evaluating students’ comprehension of what they listened to during the presentation made by others. If the student is unable to distinguish the main content structure of the research articles, presenting is unlikely to occur with accuracy. Some students in lower ranking do become accustomed to analyzing grammatical structure when they are reading the articles, they confuses about relationships in a sentence and connections between sentences and they are often unsure of relationship within sentences, let along the content comprehension. Thus lack of grammatical knowledge can reduce English reading levels. Reading comprehension includes content comprehension and reading strategies usage. In addition, lack of comprehension of the target content affects their listening to others’ presentation. When the students gain confidence in comprehending content, they were motivated to participate freely in doing presentation. Sometimes the students have no confidence to do the oral presentation for lacking of the understanding for content in the research articles and their speech is unintelligible sometimes. Conversely, they could not understand the others’ presentation because they were unfamiliar with the content of the others’ topic. Speaking skills are very important in taking seminar course, especially the general conversation ability and presentation skills. The general conversation ability is curial because when the student finished presentation, she has to take A & Q. Most of the students lack of general conversation ability, and finally they will turn the English conversation into Thai to answer questions posed in English. Meanwhile, they lack of presentation skills when giving presentation.
　　Except the language skills mentioned above and content comprehension, how to integrate all the skills in giving the presentation is a big task for students to think about in the English-running seminar.
　　5.2 Strategies used in giving and taking academic presentation
　　In the listening aspects, students need to remove the hurdles caused by lacking of content comprehension of the presentation by other people, which will drive them to read the handout carefully in order to get the main ideas and gists instead of listening to the presentation. Listening carefully and paying more attention to the main points are also important ways to help the students have a better understanding of what they have heard. On the other hand, for almost all the students mentioned above, note-taking is necessary while listening, which can assist their comprehension of the target content. Speaking strategies are of particular importance for the presenters to overcome nervousness and learn to ask and answer questions straightforward. It seems that students should have a good comprehension of the content as the source of their presentation; otherwise, they can not do their presentation fluently and clearly. Furthermore, practice more times of embedded knowledge in slides can take the rapid progress in oral expression. Continuing to rehearse before the real presentation also takes more exposure to the target language, which is very essential for speaking as well.
　　Since the results of the reactions from the students are positive, this course is in fact very useful for the EFL students to improve their English proficiency in giving and listening to a presentation in English. Generally speaking, the English-running seminar provides the students opportunity to practice different strategies in the process of preparing the oral presentation and strengthens their listening and reading ability as well.
　　6. Implications and suggestions
　　6.1 Pedagogical implications
　　This course is useful for students to improve their English proficiency. It opens a potential possibility for them to adopt an integrated language and academic learning in the process of giving and taking academic presentation. However, the students demonstrated frustration in overcoming difficulties of this task. Therefore it would be helpful for them if the teachers can provide some appropriate training in the areas to enhance their English ability.
　　Reading strategies will be conducted with the focus on article reading comprehension. Students should try to look for important extracts from introduction, method, results and discussion separately. The reading strategy training also includes how to get better comprehension of the content and how to select details and main ideas of the reading materials. On the other hand, students may not have enough presentation skills to facilitate themselves by giving an academic presentation, so it is very essential to look for some professional interesting presentation topics to do the rehearsal. Meanwhile, there are some particular structures and language usages for academic presentation, and it is useful to provide some basic formulaic expressions to the students to memorize. Except the training of listening, reading and speaking ability, the training of the writing ability should be taken into consideration. Students should write summary and abstract in the handout responding to research articles in order to remove their lower language proficiency.
　　Since content is one of the main obstacles for comprehension and lack of content comprehension hinders the production skill, the seminar may center on a particular topic familiar to the students and move onto other topics later on. To determine a definite topic to do the presentation can make the presentation comprehended more easily, because everyone will know the background and content knowledge, and they would like to do some pre-reading to get the gists first.
　　6.2 Research suggestions
　　Teachers and researchers can do an assessment scheme which will help the students to improve themselves after the course. Such self-assessment portfolio encourages students to become independent learners and can increase their motivation. Besides, it is a theoretically possible idea to investigate a co-teaching model in which English and content teachers are teaching at the same time, which can be realized although it is confronting many obstacles to conduct in a short time, such as a joint project by the content teacher and language teacher designed collaboratively with a focus on both language and content.
　　 6.3 Limitation
　　 In the present study, there are just seven students as the informants. The scale of participation is small to get the conclusion. As the time for data collection is short, and there is only one round of seminar course, the results provided will probably not very convincing. The large amount of information are seldom to be found in the questionnaire, and because of their lower English expression ability, sometimes similar answers could be observed to some different questions.
　　
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