What’s the point? A reflection.

By Alex Holloway, Teaching Fellow & Co-Programme Leader for the General English Programme

This is a reflection aimed at the reluctant speaker, for the teacher who questions the idea of sharing everyday practice, for the busy innovator focused on planning and delivering education who may not have headspace for preparing a formal presentation.

For the Language Centre summer conference, I decided to organise all my ideas on a single slide and then ask the audience to choose what they wanted to talk about. Admittedly, I had benefited from speaking at a few different events beforehand (including those run by IATEFL and NATESOL). But, seeing as this particular conference coincided with a busy time in our 40-week General English programme, it simply seemed like the easiest option. It was also, of course, the riskiest.

So, rather than having a pre-prepared monologue, I had a single slide and opened the floor to questions about elements of the General English redevelopment programme from the outset. To be honest, I was incredibly grateful to the audience member who spoke first, asking me to explain “pop the graded bubble”. As you can see from my slide above, this wasn’t necessarily the place I might have started in a pre-prepared speech but it is central to my work…as is assessment using CEFR, which was another question. In fact, what I found was all questions allowed me to express the same ideas that I had delivered in previous presentations but in a far more collaborative way with people in the room.

Obviously, this style enabled me to focus attention on what the audience were most interested in. Moreover, though, it seemed to light a flame – albeit small and slightly flickering – off dialogue between the audience about my ideas. As in teaching, I was able to take the role of facilitator. This role felt comfortable for me as a teacher and team leader who has developed in a learner/person-centred tradition, influenced by Rogerian principles and keen on learner autonomy. The outcomes also felt familiar: relaxing ‘presenter-audience’ boundaries seemed to encourage more dialogue and/ or questions and allowed differentiation of information – audience members could focus on teaching practice or theory and apply it to their own context if desired.

So, to the reluctant speaker who has something to say, I urge you to refute the role of ‘expert amongst peers’ that a traditional presentation requires and instead lay out your ideas visually and ask for questions. Of course, there are challenges so below is some advice:

• Make sure the visual representation is rich enough for audience members to choose from. A single image is helpful. I used Prezi but there are plenty of options such as mind-mapping tools. It sounds obvious, but don’t forget to make the words clear enough for all to see. I left A3 printed versions on seats for people to read as they were getting seated.
• Having done a few ‘traditional’ presentations beforehand helped me to find a way to articulate my ideas and eventually be able to do this spontaneously. In other words, it is important to practise what you want to say before taking this ‘open floor’ approach. If you don’t wish to do this formally, then perhaps present to some trusted peers or your working team.
• As with any collaborative discussion, there may be more dominant speakers so consider yourself a chairperson of sorts. Put your contact details on your image and refer people to this to have follow-up discussions.
• Don’t be afraid to admit that you are unsure and put questions back to the audience. Or pause to allow others to share their own ideas or counter-argument.

The transition from teacher/team leader to academic presenter can feel daunting and confusing. Often calls for papers will ask for either presentations or workshops. Fortunately, there are more diverse requests emerging such as the lightning talks at the recent Leeds University Student Education Conference . However, most options seem to require us to assume the challenging role of ‘expert among peers’. I hope that this short reflection has presented an alternative perspective and a way in which the reluctant speaker can participate and benefit from the experience of sharing – and exchanging – ideas with fellow peers and, like me, embark on a new adventure of ‘pedagogic exploration’ .

References:

Kumaravadivelu, B (2006) Understanding Language Teaching: from method to postmethod. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum