Teaching Speech and Presentation in the Language Classroom

March 2025

This month’s issue was published in collaboration with JALT’s PIE SIG. We take a closer look at the brainy and the practical aspects of student presentations in the language classroom, from how can teachers best utilize presentations in the classroom to alternative assessments that may be better suited for some student populations. 

“Words ought to be a little wild for they are the assaults of thought on the unthinking.” -John Maynard Keynes

APA reference for this issue

(author). (2025). (article title, sentence case). MindBrainEd Think Tanks: Teaching Speech and Presentation in the Language Classroom, 11(3), (pages).

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Watch before you read...

In collaboration with JALT Performance in Education SIG (PIE SIG), this issue explores how teachers can effectively support students as they navigate the challenges of public speaking. In the Main video, neuroscientist Charan Ranganath gives advice on how to make presentations memorable. Our More video features public speaking expert Fia Fassbinder, who explains the neuroscience behind effective presentation techniques. Then, Curtis Kelly and Nicky De Proost grab the baton and direct us into the Think Tank.

In the Think Tank, Sean H. Toland investigates the fear of public speaking and describes four activities that help students manage their anxiety and develop their presentation skills. Next, David Kluge discusses the impromptu speaking activities he developed for a specific group of students. Then, Richard Sugg challenges common assumptions teachers have about the benefits of student presentations for assessment and offers an alternative speaking activity. 

Looking back to last month’s Think Tank on music, Stephen Pottinger explains how singing facilitates language learning. Finally in our Plus, Mirela C. C. Ramacciotti outlines the concept of the forgetting curve and its significance for effective learning.

Our Thoughts on Speech & Presentation

An stylized illustration of an orchestra.

The Art of Presentation: Conducting Attention, Not Just Delivering Words Curtis Kelly & Nicky De Proost

Most people think of presentations as an unavoidable trial by fire: you stand in front of a group, recite your lines like an actor who forgot they were in a play, and hope your audience is polite enough not to yawn too loudly.

From our combined decades of teaching presentation, we have noticed a few things that novices (including, perhaps, an earlier us) tend to get wrong. The worst? Assigning students a difficult topic—say, world hunger—asking them to write a full script, memorize it, and then present it cold the following class. Then, once they’ve struggled through their memorized recitation, the actual teaching begins, usually by pointing out what they did wrong. It’s a classic example of product over process—roughly the educational equivalent of strapping someone to a piano bench and demanding they play Beethoven from memory without ever explaining what a piano is. 

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Think Tank Articles

An exemplary student example of a Personal Flag presentation.

Empowering English Language Learners Through the PechaKucha Presentation Approach Sean H. Toland

Over the years, advocates of the twenty-first century skills movement have touted the importance of communication, collaboration, and information and communications technologies (ICT) acumen for modern-day university graduates (van Laar et al., 2017). Public speaking skills, particularly with the aid of presentation software (e.g., Microsoft PowerPoint), are considered to be especially valuable by many employers in today’s global marketplace (Carlton, 2021). Given the growing importance of communicative competencies for students’ future employability prospects, university English as an international language (EIL) course syllabi around the world often include class-fronted PowerPoint presentations as a component of the final grade. Unfortunately, this type of public speaking activity often amounts to little more than a glorified reading or memorization exercise of text-heavy slides that fails to meet the intended objective of cultivating English language learners’ (ELLs) presentation skills…

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A graphic of a timer.

Impromptu Speeches: Giving a Speech EVERY Class David Kluge

How do you terrify your students? Tell them they will be giving a three-minute speech in English EVERY CLASS! I did this and surprisingly all the students survived. Here is how—and why— I introduced impromptu speeches to a class of Japanese university second-year World Englishes majors.

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An illustration of a woman who is stressed and anxious.

Assessing the Assessment: Presentations – Not for Everyone! Richard Sugg

“Okay, everyone. From next week, we will work on your individual/pair/group presentations.”

Think about your classroom experiences. Do these words spark eager anticipation in your students, or do they elicit expressions of fear and anxiety?

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Looking back

A photo of a woman singing into her soap brush while taking a shower.

Stressin’ the Brain: How Songs Supercharge Language Learning Stephen Pottinger

Singing for many of us in the shower, the bath, the car or other places away from judgement and scrutiny—has been known as a common form of release both emotionally and vocally. Singing along to a favorite song can trigger a surge of chemicals in the body and “research has shown that singing releases dopamine and endorphins, which contribute to feelings of happiness and well-being” (Welsh National Opera, n. d.). In addition, according to Launay (2015)’ “the satisfaction of performing together, even without an audience, is likely to be associated with activation of the brain’s reward system, including the dopamine pathway, which keeps people coming back for more.” Studying and singing songs at different speeds, when integrated into second language acquisition contexts, can stress and activate multiple regions of the brain, facilitating better language learning through rhythm, repetition, stress activation and enjoyment.

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Think Tank Plus

A chart showing the decreasing % of syllables remembered over time.

Great Ideas from the Brain Sciences: How Retention Helps Us Learn Mirela C. C. Ramacciotti

Learning means remembering information, right? But how confident can teachers be that the information necessary for understanding and moving ahead in learning, especially a language, remains? Thanks to Ebbinghaus, in a work originally published in 1885, teachers may have a rough estimate of how much information has been retained.

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Call for Contributions: Ideas and Articles Think Tank Staff

Become a Think Tank star! Here are some of the future issue topics we are thinking about. Would you, or anyone you know, like to write about any of these? Or is there another topic you’d like to recommend? Do you have any suggestions for lead-in, or just plain interesting, videos? How about writing a book review? Or sending us a story about your experiences? Contact us.

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The MindBrained Think Tanks+

is produced by the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT) Mind, Brain, and Education Special Interest Group (BRAIN SIG). Kyoto, Japan. (ISSN 2434-1002)

Editorial Staff

Stephen M. Ryan      Curtis H. Kelly      Julia Daley       Afon (Mohammad) Khari

Heather Kretschmer        Marc Helgesen         Nicky De Proost

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