The Role of Oral Presentations in Developing Undergraduate Learners' Speaking Skills in Bangladesh

Abstract

Developing speaking skills is considered an important goal for tertiary-level students in Bangladesh. Learning oral presentation techniques can lead learners to communicative competency, especially speaking competence. This paper explores the role of oral presentations in developing undergraduate EFL (English as a foreign language) learners' speaking skills in selected private universities in Bangladesh. The study followed a quantitative method and collected data from one hundred thirty-five EFL tertiary-level students. The findings show that oral presentations have positive impacts on learners' motivation and enhance their speaking skills. At the same time, the findings also indicate that there are a number of potential factors that hinder the learners' oral delivery which include their lack of motivation, limited vocabulary, anxiety, and fear. The study results have implications for instructional design and delivery at the tertiary level in Bangladesh as well as in other similar contexts.

IUBAT Review—A Multidisciplinary Academic Journal, 5 (1): 89-99