Developing Presentation Skills in the ESP Course for Students Majoring in Control Systems and Robotics

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Developing Presentation Presentation Skills Skills in in Developing Developing Presentation Skills Course Students Developing Skills in in Course for for Presentation Students Majoring Majoring in Course for Students Majoring in Systems and Robotics Course for Students Majoring Systems and Roboticsin Systems and Robotics Systems∗,∗∗∗ and Robotics ∗,∗∗∗

the ESP ESP the the ESP Control the ESP Control Control Control

Elena A. A. Borisova Borisova ∗,∗∗∗ Aleksandra Aleksandra M. M. Nikitina Nikitina ∗∗ Elena ∗,∗∗∗ ∗ ∗∗ ∗ ∗ ∗∗ ∗ Aleksandra L. Shparberg Oleg I. Borisov Elena A. Borisova Aleksandra M. Nikitina ∗,∗∗∗ Aleksandra L. Shparberg Oleg∗∗∗ I.M. Borisov Elena A. Borisova Aleksandra Nikitina ∗ ∗∗ ∗∗∗ Natalia M. Poletaeva Aleksandra L. Shparberg Oleg I. Borisov ∗ ∗∗ Natalia M. Poletaeva Aleksandra L. Shparberg Oleg I. Borisov ∗∗∗ Natalia M. Poletaeva ∗∗∗ Natalia M. Poletaeva ∗ ∗ ITMO ITMO University, University, Foreign Foreign Language Language Training Training Center, Center, ∗ ITMO University, Foreign Language 197101, TrainingRussia Center, 49 Kronverksky Kronverksky Pr., St. Petersburg, Petersburg, 197101, Russia ∗ 49 Pr., St. ITMO University, Foreign Language Training Center, (e-mail: [email protected], [email protected], 49 Kronverksky Pr., St. Petersburg, 197101, Russia (e-mail: [email protected], [email protected], 49 Kronverksky Pr., St. Petersburg, 197101, Russia [email protected]) (e-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]) (e-mail: [email protected], [email protected], ∗∗ ∗∗ ITMO University, Faculty of Control [email protected]) ITMO University, Faculty of Control Systems Systems and and Robotics, Robotics, [email protected]) ∗∗ ITMO University, Faculty of Control Systems and Robotics, 49 Kronverksky Pr., St. Petersburg, 197101, Russia ∗∗ 49 Kronverksky Pr., St. Petersburg, 197101, Russia ITMO University, Faculty of Control Systems and Robotics, (e-mail: [email protected]) 49 Kronverksky Pr., St. Petersburg, 197101, Russia (e-mail: [email protected]) 49 Kronverksky Pr., St. Petersburg, 197101, Russia ∗∗∗ ∗∗∗ Pushkin Leningrad State University, (e-mail: [email protected]) Pushkin Leningrad State University, Department Department of of Additional Additional (e-mail: [email protected]) ∗∗∗ Education, State University, Department of Additional ∗∗∗ Pushkin LeningradProfessional Professional Education, Pushkin Leningrad State University, Department of Additional Professional Education, 10 Pushkin, Petersburg, 10 Peterburgskoe Peterburgskoe Sh., Sh., Pushkin, St. St. Petersburg, 196605, 196605, Russia Russia Professional Education, (e-mail: [email protected]) 10 Peterburgskoe Sh., Pushkin, St. Petersburg, 196605, Russia (e-mail: [email protected]) 10 Peterburgskoe Sh., Pushkin, St. Petersburg, 196605, Russia (e-mail: [email protected]) (e-mail: [email protected]) Abstract: This This paper paper addresses addresses the the experience experience of of implementing implementing aa presentation presentation skills skills module module Abstract: in an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course at ITMO University for students from the Abstract: This paper addresses the experience of implementing a presentation skills module courseof at ITMO University for students in an English forpaper Specific Purposes from the Abstract: This addresses the(ESP) experience implementing a presentation module Faculty of Control Control Systems and Robotics. Robotics. This work reveals University the importance importance andskills relevance of in an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course at ITMO for students from the Faculty of Systems and This work reveals the and relevance of in an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course at ITMO for students from the presentation competency for the future future professional careers of University graduates. The paper thoroughly Faculty of Control Systems and Robotics. This work reveals the importance and relevance of presentation competency for the professional careers of graduates. The paper thoroughly Faculty Control Systems and Robotics. This reveals thecontrol importance andand relevance of addressesof the the presentation mistakes inherent in work thecareers domain of systems robotics. presentation competency formistakes the future professional of graduates. The paper thoroughly addresses presentation inherent in the domain of control systems and robotics. presentation competency for the future professional careers of graduates. The paper thoroughly The interdisciplinary interdisciplinary approach to developing developing presentation skillsofdiscussed discussed in the the article article is based based addresses the presentation mistakes inherentpresentation in the domain control systems and robotics. The approach to skills in is addresses the presentation mistakes inherent inskills the and domain controlcontent. systems anddeveloped robotics. The interdisciplinary approach to developing skillsofdiscussed in the The article is based on the the fusion of English-language English-language study, softpresentation professional The on fusion of study, soft skills and professional content. developed The interdisciplinary approach to developing skills discussed in the article is based presentation skills module includes peer-based evaluation of presentations presentations in The orderdeveloped to teach on the fusionskills of English-language study, softpresentation skills and professional content. presentation module includes peer-based evaluation of in order to teach on the fusion of English-language study, soft skills and professional content. The developed students to provide feedback and take into account comments received from their colleagues. presentation skills module includes peer-based evaluation of presentations in order to teach students to provide feedbackincludes and take into account comments from their colleagues. presentation skills module peer-based evaluation of received presentations in order to teach students to provide feedback and take into account comments received from their colleagues. students to provide feedback and take into account comments received from their colleagues. © 2019, IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Presentation Presentation Skills, Skills, Presentation Presentation Competency, Competency, ESP, ESP, Control Control Systems Systems and and Robotics Robotics Keywords: Education. Presentation Skills, Presentation Competency, ESP, Control Systems and Robotics Keywords: Education. Keywords: Education. Presentation Skills, Presentation Competency, ESP, Control Systems and Robotics Education. 1. INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION out in in Bhattacharyya Bhattacharyya (2014). (2014). The The difficulties difficulties encountered encountered 1. out 1. INTRODUCTION by students giving technical presentations are addressed out in Bhattacharyya (2014). The difficulties encountered by students giving technical presentations are addressed 1. INTRODUCTION out in Bhattacharyya (2014). The difficulties encountered by students giving technical presentations are addressed in Stapa et al. (2014). Developing presentation skills for for in Stapa et al. (2014). Developing presentation skills In general, general, the the development development of of scientific scientific knowledge knowledge is is didi- by students giving technical presentations are addressed In students from non-English speaking countries is often carin Stapa et al. (2014). Developing presentation skills for students from non-English speaking presentation countries is often carrectly related todevelopment communication between knowledge researchers.isThe The In general, theto of scientific di- in et al.non-English (2014). skills for rectly related communication between researchers. riedStapa out from within EnglishDeveloping courses (e.g. see Simona Simona (2015) speaking countries is often carIn general, theto development of scientific knowledge isThe di- students ried out within English courses (e.g. see (2015) sharing of new solutions contributes to overcoming existing rectly related communication between researchers. students from non-English speaking countries is often carsharing of new solutions contributes to overcoming existing and Mousawa Mousawa and Elyas courses (2015), where where it is isSimona considered as out withinand English (e.g. see (2015) rectly communication between researchers. The and Elyas (2015), it considered as issues related inof related related areas contributes and developing developing innovations. The ried sharing newto solutions to overcoming existing ried out within English courses (e.g. see Simona (2015) issues in areas and innovations. The a soft skill which increases employment opportunities). and Mousawa and Elyas (2015), where it is considered as sharing of new solutions contributes to overcoming existing a soft skill which increases employment opportunities). issues in related areas and developing innovations. The success of of any any breakthrough breakthrough of of a a scientific scientific idea idea depends depends not not and Mousawa and Elyas (2015), where it is considered as success soft skill which increases employment opportunities). issues areas and ofwhich developing innovations. The only on oninof itsrelated practical essence, is undoubtedly undoubtedly crucial, success any breakthrough a scientific idea depends not aaWe We consider presentation competency as opportunities). the personal personal abilabilsoft skill which increasescompetency employment only its practical essence, which is crucial, consider presentation as the success of any breakthrough of a scientific idea depends not essence, whichto undoubtedly crucial, We but also also onpractical the way way it it is delivered delivered toisthe the scientific commucommuonly on its ity to to deliver presentation an effective, effective, engaging engaging andaspersuasive persuasive message consider competency the personal abilbut on the is scientific ity deliver an and message only ongeneral its essence, which undoubtedly crucial, We consider presentation competency as the personal abilnity also or public. Training presentation skills together together but onpractical thepublic. way it is delivered toisthe scientific commuto various various audiences through verbal and non-verbal comity to deliver an effective, engaging and persuasive message nity or general Training presentation skills to audiences through verbal and non-verbal combut also on the way it is delivered to the scientific commuto deliver anorder effective, engaging and persuasive message nity or general public. Training presentation skills together with achieving achieving professional professional competencies competencies helps helps students students ity verbal and non-verbal communication in to achieve specific objectives. Dolan to various audiences through with munication in order to achieve specific Dolan nity orachieving general public. Training presentation skills together various audiences through andobjectives. non-verbal comsuccessfully defend their finalcompetencies theses, obtainhelps PhDstudents degrees to with professional munication in order three to achieve specific objectives. Dolan (2017) distinguishes three keyverbal components of an an effective effective successfully defend their final theses, obtain PhD degrees (2017) distinguishes key components of with achieving professional competencies helps students munication in order to achieve specific objectives. Dolan and then become competitive both on the job market and successfully defend their final theses, obtain PhD degrees presentation, which are structure (introduction, content (2017) distinguishes three key components of an effective and then become competitive both on the jobPhD market and (2017) presentation, which three are structure (introduction, content successfully defend their final theses, distinguishes keyand components of an effective within their research area. Graduates should be degrees ableand to presentation, and then become competitive both onobtain the job market conclusion), body language movement (feet/body, whichlanguage are structure (introduction, content within their research area. Graduates should be able to conclusion), body and movement (feet/body, and then become competitive both on the job market and presentation, which are delivery. structure (introduction, content within their research area. Graduates should be able to conduct proper presentations at conferences hands, eyes) eyes) and and verbal We distinguish four key conclusion), body language and We movement (feet/body, conducttheir proper presentations at scientific scientific conferences to hands, verbal delivery. distinguish four key within research area. Graduates should be able to to conclusion), body language and movement (feet/body, deliver new research outcomes, meetings with customers conduct proper presentations at scientific conferences hands, eyes) and verbal delivery. We distinguish four key components: physical, physical, linguistic, linguistic, emotional emotional and and organizaorganizadeliver new research outcomes, at meetings with customers components: conduct proper presentations scientificsupport conferences to hands, eyes) and verbal delivery. We distinguish four key and investors investors in order order to receive receiveat financial for their their deliver new research outcomes, atfinancial meetings with customers tional. The The physical physical component isemotional the ability abilityand to organizadress apapcomponents: physical, linguistic,is and in to support for tional. component the to dress deliver new research outcomes, at meetings with customers components: physical, linguistic, emotional and organizato receive financial project, and at seminars and workshops with colleagues in and investors in order support for their propriately for the event, move, gesticulate, control facial tional. The physical component is the ability to dress approject, and atinseminars workshops with colleagues in tional. propriately for the event, move, is gesticulate, control facial and order to and receive financial support for their The for physical component the ability to dress approject, atinformation seminars and with colleagues in propriately orderinvestors to and share information onworkshops relevant topics. expressions, as well well as regulate posture and behavior. behavior. The the event, move,posture gesticulate, control facial order to share on relevant topics. expressions, as as regulate and The project, and at seminars and workshops with colleagues in propriately for the event, move, gesticulate, control facial order to share information on relevant topics. expressions, as well as regulate posture and behavior. The linguistic component is associated with literary speech and linguistic component isregulate associated with literary speech and The importance importance of developing developing presentation skills is is adad- expressions, order to share information on relevant topics. skills as well asis posture andfiller-words behavior. The of presentation speech etiquette, etiquette, with the ability to avoid linguistic component associated with literary speech The and speech with the ability to avoid filler-words and presentation skills is addressed by Bhattacharyya (2014); Stapa et al. (2014); The importance of developing linguistic component isthe associated with literary speech and dressed by Bhattacharyya (2014); Stapa et skills al. (2014); terms unknown to the audience, with the possession of speech etiquette, with ability to avoid filler-words and The importance of developing presentation is adterms unknown to the audience, with the possession of Simona (2015); Mousawa and Elyas (2015) and Deb et al. dressed by Bhattacharyya (2014); Stapa et al. (2014); etiquette, to with the ability towith avoid filler-words and Simona (2015); Mousawa and(2014); Elyas (2015) and Deb et al. speech voice, intonation, speech rate. The emotional component terms unknown the audience, the possession of dressed by Bhattacharyya Stapa et al. (2014); voice, intonation, rate. Thewith emotional component (2019); Guest Guest (2018). The and study of the the(2015) rhetorical and interinterSimona (2015); Mousawa Elyas and Deb et al. terms unknown tospeech the audience, the possession of (2019); (2018). The study of rhetorical and intonation, speech rate. The emotional component presupposes the of self-regulation, a Simona (2015); Mousawa and Elyas (2015) and Deb et al. voice, presupposes the presence presence of emotional emotional self-regulation, a actional aspects of public speaking in engineering is carried (2019); Guest (2018). The study of the rhetorical and intervoice, intonation, speech rate. The emotional component actionalGuest aspects of public speaking in engineering is carried presupposes the presence of emotional self-regulation, a (2019); (2018). The study of the rhetorical and interactional aspects of public speaking in engineering is carried presupposes the presence of emotional self-regulation, a actional of public speakingFederation in engineering is carried 2405-8963aspects © 2019, IFAC (International of Automatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2019 231 Copyright 2019 IFAC IFAC 231 Control. Peer review© under responsibility of International Federation of Automatic Copyright © 2019 IFAC 231 10.1016/j.ifacol.2019.08.201 Copyright © 2019 IFAC 231

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general positive attitude, enthusiasm and a demonstration of interest, a sense of humor and resistance to negative audience manifestations. The organizational component is associated with the ability to provide constant verbal and non-verbal feedback, to conduct dialogue and polylogue, and to answer questions. The speaker should be able to turn a negative reaction into a positive interaction, to explain complex ideas and to infect the audience with their enthusiasm, take into account the time allotted for the presentation, improvise, adapt to the audience, and not allow significant deviations from the intended logic and purpose of the speech. Students are able to develop presentation skills on their own, however this requires the fulfillment of the conditions listed below. (1) The student is aware of the significance of presentation skills in their professional activities, (2) The student is motivated, (3) The student possesses a well-developed skill of selforganization, (4) The student is ready and able to independently work out the techniques of public speaking. Nonetheless, the development of presentation skills is most effective under supervision.

2. TYPICAL PRESENTATION MISTAKES MADE BY STUDENTS MAJORING IN CONTROL SYSTEMS AND ROBOTICS

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Missing axis labels and units next to parameters and variables. This is a quite minor mistake; however, it might cause additional questions from the audience. Refering to equations displayed on different slides. Remembering all the equations displayed on the previous slides could be hard for the audience. Excessive focus on slides rather than speech. Slides are needed however to accompany the talk by visualizing technical information such as equations, diagrams, plots, and experiments. This mistake results in significant difficulty giving a technical talk (even a short one) without using a presentation with equations. Hence, the ability to explain using simple terms is important. Do not take into account background of the audience. A research presentation for the general audience should be simplified and properly adapted. Visual content such as video, photo, general diagrams and plots are more suitable for this case than a set of equations, theorems and proofs. The engagement of students and young researchers in scientific and industrial applied projects together with extensive practice of giving presentations will increase their professional qualification and help organize their work and effectively communicate with colleagues, customers and investors. The developed presentation skills module, which is being taught within an ESP course, is a powerful tool for enhancing this educational process. 3. INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH IN PRESENTATION SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

Students of the Faculty of Control Systems and Robotics at ITMO University face the necessity to make presentations when reporting results of their work, attending scientific conferences and participating in various project competitions. Once they begin making their first presentations, the majority of them make the same mistakes, which reduces presentation effectiveness. Some of theses mistakes are quite basic, such as over-formatting slides, the presence of redundant text on slides, not observing time limits, reading notes instead of speaking, etc. However, others are more specific and directly related with engineering peculiarities, some of which are discussed in this section. Main research contribution is not evident. If a speaker is presenting their scientific work, the state of the field (what has already been studied?) and the main contribution (what is novel?) should be clearly stated. Not highlighting key features on plots, equations, diagrams. For example, magnifiers placed on specific sectors of plots will increase the visibility of achieved results or revealed issues. Focusing on excessively detailed derivation of equations in the presentation. Providing the main scientific idea with a description of the approach is preferable at conference oral presentations, while all the technical details are best left in the paper. Displaying precise engineering schemes (e.g. from Simulink) or long program listings without any explanation. Simplified block diagrams and flowcharts are preferable. 232

In 2017 the new English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course for ITMO students started to be devised. The course is taught to 3rd year bachelor students in the autumn semester. In order to meet the expectations, lacks and needs of each major, needs analysis has been conducted among the students, the teachers and potential employers of the university alumni. We aimed at skillsbased and task-based syllabi, so that students would have an opportunity to deal with real-life work situations in English. Each major has its own syllabus, designed according to the needs of professional in the given field. In the Faculty of Control Systems and Robotics 36 2nd and 3rd year bachelor students and 23 content teachers participated in the survey and two of them were interviewed. Also, four employees of the Russian Scientific Centre for Robotics and Technical Cybernetics (RTC) submitted their responses. The aim of the survey was to identify situations where the Control Systems and Robotics baccalaureate alumni use English language as a means of professional communication. The situations listed below have been observed as the most frequent. (1) Delivering presentations, presenting at conferences, (2) Reading articles and professional literature, (3) Work with technical documentation (reading and writing instructions and manuals), (4) Oral communication with clients and foreign colleagues, (5) Business correspondence, (6) Writing articles.

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Table 1. Needs analysis result Students Teachers RTC employers

(1) 25% 95.7% 75%

(2) 25% 69.6% 75%

(3) 33.3% 87% 50%

(4) 27.8% 87% 50%

(5) 30.6% 82.6% 75%

(6) 2.8% 100% 50%

60.9%

Students and content teachers were asked which situations university alumni will most likely need in English their professional life. Table 1 shows what percentage from each category of surveyees named each situation as the most frequent. As it can be seen from the table, presentation skills are considered necessary by most of the teaching staff and RTC employees. One RTC employee and three members of the teaching staff have also named preparing and delivering a presentation as causing difficulty for themselves and their colleagues. During the semi-conducted interviews the representatives of the Faculty of Control Systems and Robotics name presentation skills as the most important and frequent situation of oral communication. ...it is crucial to know how to structure your presentation and then to practice the order of delivery... ...presenting in workshops can be difficult as it involves live interaction and one needs to respond to questions and be fluent with terminology... Based on the needs analysis result Presentation skills have been included in the syllabus as one of the course modules to develop a presentation competency necessary for the alumni’s future career in Control Systems and Robotics. The module “Presentation Skills” consists of 12 academic hours (6 classes). The learning objectives of the module are to develop the abilities listed below. (1) Introducing themselves, topic and objective of the presentation, (2) Structuring the presentation and delivering it logically and within the time limit, (3) Comparing, giving reasons, contrasting, generalizing, giving examples, highlighting information, (4) Preparing and using visual aids, making readable slides, (5) Describing their findings, formulas and graphs, (6) Using formal register when delivering a presentation, (7) Overcoming nervousness before the presentation, using body language and eye contact as means of communication, managing their voice and tone, (8) Maintaining contact with the audience and responding to questions. Each of the classes focuses on 2-3 learning objectives and presentation sub-skills. Theory and presentation material preparation are assigned to students as pre-class work and the sub-skills are practiced continuously every class. In parallel students are taught to give constructive feedback. During the classes 5 and 6 assessment is conducted: students deliver their presentations and are assessed both by the teacher and the peers. In the pilot stage of an ESP course implementation (academic year 2017-2018) the course lasted 34 academic hours 233

4.3%

5 4 3 2

6.5% 28.3%

Fig. 1. Course evaluation total and therefore did not focus on terminology and professional lexis or on reading specific literature. The focus of the course was developing non-major-specific professional communication competencies and students were not required to choose a major-specific topic for their presentations. After the pilot course students feedback has been collected and the students were required to (a) grade relevance of each module of the course from 1 (least relevant) to 5 (most relevant) (b) state what they found the most useful in each module (c) state what they found the least useful in each module (d) state what they would add to the module. (b)(e) were open questions. 44 students from the Faculty of Control Systems and Robotics took part in the survey. Figure 1 represents the overall impression students had of the Presentation skills module. Figure 2 demonstrates that students found the module useful and rated highly multiple practice opportunities, focus on structuring the presentation and focus on functional language. Among the least useful aspects of the presentation work with slides was mentioned, and 3 students would prefer to be given less theory but more practice. 3 people recall feeling stressed and uncomfortable having to present in front of the class. Students recommendations concerning the amendments to the module included having more practice, attending a real presentation to see how professionals approach the task and having major-based presentation topics. In the second stage of the new ESP course implementation (academic year 2018-2019) the course is extended to 64 academic hours and includes major-related listening and reading training as well as focuses on professional vocabulary. Presentation skills is the last module of the course in order to incorporate the accumulated language into the presentation and provide students an opportunity to present a major-specific topic using terminology and providing references to the English language sources. Analysis of the syllabi of other courses in the Control Systems and Robotics bachelor curriculum of ITMO University has shown that they do not offer targeted Presen-

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No response Nothing Preparing slides Body language Introduction Practice Functional language and vocabulary Overcoming fear Structure Everything 2

4

6

8

10

12

14

Fig. 2. Presentation aspects students found the most useful tation skills training. Thus the Presentation skills module of an ESP course for the students majoring in Control Systems and Robotics integrates a professional skill, language competency and background content knowledge for the students to perform a real-life professional task. According to the schedule, students have two ESP classes in a row, so one of the challenges was to plan the lessons in a way that would keep students active and concentrated.With that in mind, we normally dedicated the first class to theoretical issues - students would discuss what they had learned from their home assignment and complete the tasks based on the material they had studied. For example, home assignment was to study the slides provided by the teacher and think whether they would be appropriate for a professional presentation . At the beginning of the first class, students would discuss their ideas with each other and the teacher. Then they would read a text about rules for good presentation slides and check how many of their ideas were correct. The second class would be more practical, so that students could put what they had learned into practice . For example, they think of the slides outline for their future presentation, and design two slides in detail. Then they share their results with each other and provide feedback, which would be followed by teacher’s feedback. It is clear from the description above, that a lot of work is done collaboratively. Since collaboration is one of the “4Cs” competencies, we assumed that most of work that students do in the classroom is collaborative, while most individual tasks are done at home. 4. EVALUATION OF PRESENTATIONS EFFECTIVENESS To evaluate the development of presentation skills, we conducted a peer-evaluation survey. During the end-of-course presentation, students filled in the online questionnaire about their peers’ performance. There was also oral feedback provided by the peers and teacher. The week after, there was the second evaluated performance to see whether the feedback received earlier had led to any changes. Before the session, students were informed about the procedure and instructed on how to provide effective feedback. 234

Students were allowed to deliver presentations both on the topics related to their major and on free topics. The questionnaire was divided into 5 sections listed below. (1) Organization (introduction, thesis, main body, conclusion, coherence, use of supportive materials, time management), (2) Audience (engagement, interactive techniques, question responsiveness), (3) Delivery (body language, voice, delivery), (4) Style (images, graphs, style,text), (5) Comments (strengths and recommendations for the performer). For each aspect a student was given between 0 and 3 points, and the last section suggested a short answer. Each presentation was followed by a 1-2 minutes Q&A session and teacher’s individual oral feedback, during which the teacher explained the strengths and weaknesses of the presentation to the student. For the oral feedback the same criteria were used as for the peer-evaluation form. We got a total of 186 responses to the survey. Since not all of the students attended both classes, we could compare only those of the performances that were held twice. The results are provided in Table 2. On average, the performance of each student improved by 5.1% after peer and teacher’s feedback.

Table 2. Comparison of peer-evaluation results for two sessions Student

Performance 1 (%)

Performance 2 (%)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

87% 81% 80% 87% 92% 81% 94% 98% 88% 92%

93% 96% 96% 91% 98% 86% 94% 95% 96% 92%

Performance quality change (%) 6% 16% 4% 6% 6% 5% 0% -3% 8% 0%

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Table 3. Evaluation of the aspects of the presentation Aspect (Group Total) Organization Audience Delivery Slides Total

Presentation 1st day (87 responses) 93% 86% 88% 84% 88%

Presentation 2nd day (98 responses) 94% 90% 87% 89% 91%

Table 5. Open-ended questions analysis: recommendations

Evaluation change 1% 4% -1% 5% 3%

To identify main lacks and needs of the students in terms of presentation skills, we also investigated the changes in feedback for each aspect, taking into account the performance of the whole group. Evaluation aspects are given in Table 3. The table shows that students’ evaluation rate improved insignificantly, though it was already high on the first day. It is important to notice that only 10 students out of 15 were present on both days, so 5 did not actually receive the feedback. We can also see that, in students’ opinion, the aspect they cope with best is organization, while the weakest aspect is slides design. However, this weakest aspect showed the highest percent of improvement, which is an important argument in favour of such feedback sessions. It appeared that the last short-answer section, where students had to specifically indicate what they liked or disliked about the presentations, was the most demanding part of the survey for them. In the question about strengths (see Table 4) 49% of the answers were left empty, which most likely shows a) the lack of students’ motivation to analyse peer’s performance; b) the lack of students’ skills to analyse peers’ performance and provide effective feedback; c) the lack of English proficiency to express their ideas. The most common aspect that students appreciated in the peers’ performance was the topic. Interestingly, this included not only the choice of the topic, but also speaker’s attitude (e.g.“Very well knowledge about his topic, he is pretty into this theme”) and approach to the topic (e.g. “Interesting approach to hard theme”). The students were also attracted by catchy pictures and clear schemes (see the section Visuals). This can be attributed to the peculiarities of the millenials’ perception. “Keeping this group (i.e. millenials - the authors) interested by introducing a Table 4. Open-ended questions analysis: strengths The strongest aspect Topic of choice (including the speaker’s approach/ attitude to the topic) Delivery Visuals and layout Structure Content Everything Incomprehensiveble/ irrelevant answer

Percent

Amount of students (94 total)

31%

30%

21% 18% 6% 5% 6% 13%

20% 17% 6% 5% 6% 10%

Recommendations

Percent

More confidence Better contact with the audience Body language, speech and voice (pace, flow, volume) Content (amount and complexity of information) More practice, speaking rather than reading the the notes Time management Slides (visuals and texts) No recommendations/ everything was good

5% 3%

Amount of responses (69 total) 10 6

7%

14

4%

8

10%

18

2% 2%

3 4

5%

2 – 1st session 7 – 2nd session

topic that taps into a personal interest is a primary way of reaching millennials in an educational format. Students repeatedly comment that relating lessons to topics of interest makes their learning experience that much better.”Kotz (2016). Another diagnostically important factor can be seen in the last two lines. Meaning of some of the responses was impossible to decipher, and these incomprehensible answers, as well as the answers “everything”, show that students need to improve their feedback giving skills. As for recommendations (see Table 5) that students gave to each other after initial performance, 63% of the answer spaces weren’t filled in, which could possibly signal of a) students’ reluctancy to analyse the performance; b) lack of English proficiency to formulate the recommendation; c) students did not find drawbacks in peers’ presentations. The most common issue that students found with the performance was reading from the notes during the presentation rather than talking to the audience. Also, in students’ view, a lot of presenters lacked confidence. It is important to notice that among the 9 responses “everything was good” only 2 followed the initial presentation, while the other 7 were provided after the second round. We checked the respondents and made sure that it was not the same person, so in that case careless attitude to feedback is excluded. It must be noted that the quality of feedback could have been affected by various factors, such as students’ engagement, subjectivity of judgement and personal attitude to the presenter. However, we believe the results to be credible, as we had personal contact with each student and thus could take these factors into account. Teacher’s own view on the presentations ensures the credibility of the results. 5. DISCUSSION For the further development of the course, we will evaluate the results of the student survey about their ESP course

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in academic year 2018-2019 and results of two feedback sessions for the final presentation. The importance of the presentation skills was pointed out by the students in their end-of-course open-questions questionnaire. The students were asked which skills practiced during the course they found the most useful. 25 students out of 45 total (55%) rated presentation skills as the most useful part of the course as they can be applicable in their future career. 5 of them would like to have more time devoted to preparation and practice of the presentation. Presentation skills are a necessary component of CS and Robotics education, according to the earlier research that included pedagogical staff and employers (see section Interdisciplinary Approach in Presentation skills development).The importance of developing the presentation skills in the ESP course is even higher, considering the fact that students do not have any other courses that focus on these skills. That being said, and taking into account students’ peer evaluation, we propose the following changes for the next course listed below. (1) Provide more academic hours for the presentation skills for students to get more practical experience. We also suppose that for the same purpose we will recommend the teachers to include tasks to practise presentation skills in other parts of the course, which would ensure consistency. Such tasks (group minipresentations) would deal with less amount of content and demand far less preparation, being a good practical experience at the same time. (2) Put more stress on the feedback giving skill. Being an important life and career skill itself, it would serve as a means of enhancement for presentation skills. (3) Implement the peer- and teacher evaluation system to enhance the final performance. We estimated the results as positive, and analysis has provided us with useful insights. In the next course, teachers will receive recommendations to analyse the results and share them with students. (4) Focus on delivery skills. According to the peerevaluation, students were struggling with this aspect of the presentation. At the same time, organization of the presentation or content were not an issue. As it was suggested in p.1, consistent and repeating throughout the course practical tasks would improve delivery skills, such as eye contact, body language, voice and others. Another suggestion that came from the students in their end-of-year survey was to attend and analyse real presentations of professionals in their field. We suppose that such activity could be organized. (5) The results of peer-evaluation show that topic, in students’ opinions, is one of the key factors of success. This year, some of the presenters chose topics related to their interests or opinions (e.g.“Why we should travel” or “Comics are more than just books with pictures”), and we could see that the speaker’s personal involvement in the topic enhances the performance. However, in their feedback students noted that even a complex major related topic (e.g. “How CPU is made and why it is so expensive” or “Challenges of the Industry 4.0”) with proper attitude and approach still lead to effective presentations, so next year teachers 236

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will be recommended to allow only content-related topics for students’ choice. (6) Content teachers and English language teachers collaboration is recommended in order to facilitate students’ presentation skills development in a majorrelated context through major projects being assisted by the language teacher in terms of presentation practice and quality assurance. REFERENCES Bhattacharyya, E. (2014). Walk the talk: Technical oral presentations of engineers in the 21st century. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 123, 344 – 352. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.01.1432. Deb, D., Dey, R., and Balas, V. (2019). Communicating research work: Presentation skills. In Engineering Research Methodology. Intelligent Systems Reference Library, volume 153, chapter 9, 89–94. Springer, Singapore. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2947-0 9. Dolan, R. (2017). Effective presentation skills. FEMS Microbiology Letters, 364(24). doi:10.1093/femsle/fnx235. Guest, M. (2018). Affective factors influencing conference presentation performance. In Conferencing and Presentation English for Young Academics. Springer Texts in Education, chapter 4, 31–35. Springer, Singapore. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2475-8 4. Kotz, P.E. (2016). Reaching the millennial generation in the classroom. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 4(5), 1163–1166. doi:10.13189/ujer.2016.040528. Mousawa, D.T. and Elyas, T. (2015). Presentation as employability soft skill to esp learners in the english language institute at king abdulaziz university. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 6(5), 1058–1062. Simona, C.E. (2015). Developing presentation skills in the english language courses for the engineering students of the 21st century knowledge society: A methodological approach. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 203, 69 – 74. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.08.261. Stapa, M., Murad, N.A., and Ahmad, N. (2014). Engineering technical oral presentation: Voices of the stakeholder. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 118, 463 – 467. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.02.063.