devoloping foreign language learnes of english'communicative competence through the use of oral presentations

Abstract

The present study was an attempt to investigate the development of foreign language learners' communicative competence through the use of oral presentations and teaching presentation skills at university level. In the light of what has been previously said, it is hypothesized that: If students are given more opportunities to make oral presentations, they will develop their communicative competence to a large extent; and If oral presentation skills are taught and practised, EFL students’ will succeed to overcome their communication incompetency. The data was collected through a questionnaire administered to 68 third year students at the department of English language at Mohamed Seddik Ben Yahia University-jijel, and a structured interview with six teachers. The findings indicated that both EFL teachers and learners have positive attitudes towards the use of oral presentations in developing EFL learners’ communicative competence including its different components. Also, the results revealed that most learners lack presentation skills, because they do not receive any instructions concerning that. Therefore, teachers strongly confirmed that teaching presentation skills at university level is crucial for learners' academic and professional success. And at the same time, they may raise students' awareness of the importance of oral presentations in developing their communicative competence.