Preface
Academic oral presentation skills in English are a central component of thecommunication skill set which is used by researchers and scholars who take partin international seminars, conferences and other types of meetings. Some of ourstudents will join international academic communities which use English as a lingua franca. English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programs for university students
include courses that attempt to build skills in listening to lectures, reading andwriting research papers and reports, and also in making oral presentations of research findings. This textbook aims to help undergraduate students at universities
in Japan learn how to make speeches and take part in discussions on topics thatare important to university communities.
The intention of this textbook is to help students move beyond English for
General Purposes language lessons and get engaged in EAP communication events
that if held in their native language would promote native-language skill development and be intellectually challenging.
The learning tasks introduced in this textbook are equally useful for students
who will someday make international business presentations or join in discussionsof social, political and economic issues in international community organizations.
Indeed, the mandate of EAP courses at university is to prepare students to be fullparticipants in whichever type of international community they choose to join byhelping them learn to express their thoughts and feelings on matters related totheir studies.
Our definition of oral presentations includes the types of formal oral communication which are common language-learning and language-using tasks incontent-based EFL classrooms. Our use of the word ‘presentation’ means the expression, and exchange, of thoughts and feelings in public forums which include
introducing yourself in an academic setting, delivering public speeches, being amember of a small discussion group, participating in a panel discussion, preparing
slides as a presentation aid, making a presentation with a slide show, conducting aworkshop in a classroom or at a conference, taking part in a conference poster session, taking part in a debate, participating in a committee planning meeting, andacting as a delegate in a simulation of an international meeting.
The topics of the units (such as population issues, the use of nuclear powerto produce electricity, United Nations Security Council reform, and developments
in artificial intelligence) are current, thought-provoking and appropriate for eachunit’s particular type of oral presentation. The unit on population issues, for example, asks students to prepare a poster and prepare to talk about it at a conferenceposter session because a poster is an effective way to present statistical comparisons.
The lessons of this textbook are not conventional language lessons; however,successful completion of the tasks will challenge students to add to their generalacademic vocabulary knowledge and to learn new topic-specific words. The lessons
will also raise awareness of the structure of oral presentations at the discourse
level and some speaker-audience sensitivities and interaction skills. These lesson
materials have been successfully used with intermediate-level English majors at
a university of foreign studies and also with students of a range of English proficiency levels at a multi-disciplinary university.
In both cases, students told us that they were motivated by tasks that would
be challenging in Japanese. We were especially pleased that some students feltthat the oral presentation tasks made them aware of how they could be more effective speakers in their native language.
Each unit consists of five multi-part learning tasks: four texts with listening
and reading comprehension questions and a two-part learning task for the unit’s
oral presentation task. The texts are either in the student’s textbook or in theteacher’s guide. Three of the texts are recorded on the DVD that accompanies thetextbook. An additional task, the Reading Passage, has been recorded on an accompanying CD. Two of the texts introduce the topic content and the other two texts
are about the unit’s oral presentation task. The questions for each text are few innumber and they are intended to help the students engage in analytical thinking
about the content and about the main oral presentation task. The fifth task has
guidelines and advice to help the students successfully complete the Oral Presentation.
The first text in each unit has been recorded on the DVD by international
and Japanese students at Japanese universities. The other recordings on the DVD
have been made by two university lecturers, a British female and a Canadianmale. The Reading Passages on the CD have been recorded by an American female.
We feel that these natural recordings by students and the pedagogical readings oflectures by teachers may be useful because while they represent target examples
of English, the recordings also are examples of language similar to that used inclassrooms.
The textbook is teacher-friendly with ample listening and/or reading text material for teachers to make creative decisions about how to best adapt the textbook
for their needs of their own students. The teacher’s guide contains useful supplementary material.
We recommend that each unit be used for two 90-minute classes: one lesson

for the first four multi-part learning tasks; and one lesson for the unit’s final oralpresentation task. It is helpful if the first two tasks in each unit are assigned forhomework to prepare for the first of the two lessons. If students prepare for theoral presentation task outside of class before the second lesson on each unit, theclass can be devoted entirely to presentations.
The following suggestions may give students confidence as they carry out thetasks in this textbook:
1. Encourage team learning.
2. Put a special emphasis on helping students learn new words which areimportant for their academic fields. Provide them with academic wordlists.
3. Support students in learning how to become constructive listeners.
4. Encourage students to attend various types of oral presentations on campus and in the local community.
5. Link making oral presentations in Japanese with learning to make presentations in English.
We hope students will make the most of the materials and advice in thistextbook to take part in academic oral communication opportunities outside of theclassroom.
The authors wish to express their appreciation to our colleagues at Kinseido
Publishing Co., Ltd. for their encouragement, patience, hard work and most of all
for their good ideas.
Craig Smith

CONTENTS
Unit 1Introducing Yourself .................................................. 1
Presentation Task: Audience Analysis

Unit 2The Global Peace Index ............................................ 7
Presentation Task: The 3 by 3 Presentation Structure

Unit 3

Japan’s Global Responsibility ............................ 13
Presentation Task: Small-Group Discussion

Unit 4Social Networking .................................................... 19
Presentation Task: Panel Discussion

Unit 5

UNESCO ......................................................................... 25
Presentation Task: Preparation of a Slide Show

Unit 6

Improving Primary School Education ............ 31
Presentation Task: Presentation with a Slide Show

Unit 7

Review (1) ..................................................................... 37

Unit 8

The Daily News .......................................................... 43
Presentation Task: Workshop Session

Unit 9Japan’s Low Birth Rate ......................................... 49
Presentation Task: Poster Session

Unit 10 Nuclear Power ............................................................. 55
Presentation Task: Debate

Unit 11The Internationalization of ................................. 61
Japan’s Universities
Presentation Task: Committee Meeting

Unit 12

Japan and the United Nations ........................... 67
Security Council
Presentation Task: Model United Nations Security Council Meeting

Unit 13 Artificial Intelligence ............................................. 73
Presentation Task: Three Oral Presentation Structures

Unit 14 Review (2) ..................................................................... 79

Unit2345678910 11 12 13 14

The Daily News

Introduction

DL 26

CD2-01

Watch the DVD and then answer the true or false questions. Are the following
statements true or false, according to the views expressed in the DVD recording?
1.

The speaker follows the news mainly for pleasure.

T/F

2.

Keeping up with the news will be helpful preparation for job interviews. T / F

3.

International current events are closely connected to life in Japan.

T/F

4.

Watching TV news is sufficient for the speaker to stay well-informed.

T/F

5.

The speaker enjoys reading the traditional form of newspapers.

T/F

Preview to the Reading Passage
The following words appear in the Reading Passage. Match the correct definirtion
with each word.
1.

affordable()(a) made clear and certain

2.

innumerable ()(b) regular practice3.

identified()(c) within a budget

4.

monitor()(d) practical5.

pragmatic()(e) observe6.

routine()(f) a great number of43

Reading Passage

DL 27

CD2-02

Staying well informed has never been easier, but inone way it has never been more difficult. University
students in Japan have unrestricted and affordable
access to local and international news sources. How5

ever, it is difficult to make choices among so many options.
Internet access to innumerable news media sourcesof news is available through our cell-phones and on ourlaptop or tablet computers at home, school and wher-10

ever there is a public wifi facility. Traditional modes ofnews delivery through the old media of conventional
newspapers, news magazines, TV and radio news programs are still popular among students.
How can we make choices about which stories in15

which news media to follow? Our purposes in reading
the news should be identified. To enrich our lifestyles
we follow the sports teams we cheer for and our otherinterests. To make our votes count at election time, wemonitor the plans of the government and pay heed to20

the voices of its critics.
University students have additional pragmatic
reasons for following the news. For example, an understanding of political developments in foreign countries
or the discussions of intergovernmental organizations

25

such as ASEAN and NATO benefits students in Inter-

ASEAN「東南アジア諸国連合」

national Relations courses. Students who hope to work

（Association of Southeast

for trading companies after graduation could search for

Asian Nations の略）

reports on the business pages of papers related to Ja-

NATO「北大西洋条約機構」

pan’s export and import companies.

（North Atlantic Treaty Or-Some students have had success with the following

30

news-gathering routine: reading a few selected articles
each from a daily home-delivered Japanese newspaper,a once-a-week copy of an English-language newspaper,and several weekly on-line newspapers from various
35

intergovernmental「政府間の」regions of the world.

44

unit 8ganization の略）

Comprehension
Complete the following exercises.
1.

In Japan access to “news media”(a) is not limited by the government.
(b) comes from one main source.
(c) is too expensive.
(d) does not include international options.
2.

The term ‘new media’ refers to(a) conventional newspapers.
(b) TV talk shows.
(c) Internet news sources.
(d) international news.
3.

A pragmatic reason to follow the news might be to(a) learn mainly about historical events.
(b) have pleasant holiday morning experiences.
(c) avoid thinking about current problems.
(d) get a wide range of up-to-date information.
4.

Give two possible reasons to read the Japanese and English versions of thesame newspaper.

5.

Give two possible reasons to read articles from on-line newspapers of variousregions of the world.

The Daily News

45

Model Presentation

DL 28

CD2-03

A Read the following talk by the facilitator of a workshop on students and thenews media and try to guess the missing words. Then watch the DVD and checkyour answers.
Welcome to our (1. w) on ‘University Students and the News’. How dostudents get the news? I will not be giving a (2. pA workshop is an (3. aI will be the (4. f) meeting and you will be doing all the work.
) of our workshop. I will help manage the process ofour meeting. First, we will hold (5. s(6. r) from the (7. sgether on our main (8. t) on this topic today.

) discussions. Then, we will hear) of each group. Next, we will work to-).

B Read the following questions before you watch the Model Presentation on theDVD a second time. Then answer the questions.
1.

Name the three important messages for the audience in the speaker’s first sentence.

2.

Which two terms does the speaker define?

3.

What are the three main tasks of the workshop?

4.

What does the speaker say to motivate the audience?

46

unit 8Brief LectureDL 29

CD2-04

A Before watching the DVD, answer the following questions.
1.

How many people should be in a small discussion group? Why?

2.

Each discussion group will have a manager. What should the manager do?

3.

What should do you think the facilitator should do while the groups are having
their discussions?

B Watch the DVD and put the following list of steps in the correct order.
(a) The facilitator presents an outline of the workshop. ((b) The participants form small groups. ())(c) Each group selects a group manager and a spokesperson. ()(d) The small-group managers start the discussions. ()(e) The group members share the discussion time with each other as active listeners and speakers. ()(f) The managers keep the discussions going, if necessary with the facilitator’shelp. ()(g) A spokesperson from each group makes a brief report. ()(h) The facilitator asks for items for a questionnaire and writes them on the meeting room board. ()(i) The participants respond to the questionnaire. ()(j) The facilitator makes suggestions for future use of the questionnaire.
()

The Daily News47

Preparation for a Presentation
A Make notes to prepare for a discussion in English on “University Students andthe News”. In Japanese make notes about the ideas and feelings you want to express in English. Do a search for any unknown key words you will need in English.
1. Explain how you get the news.
Ideas in Japanese:
Key English words:
2. Why is it important for university students to follow the news?
Ideas in Japanese:
Key English words:
3. What advice do you have on following the news for students?
Ideas in Japanese:
Key English words:

B Before you begin the workshop, read the following checklist for a successful
discussion. After the discussion, use the checklist again to evaluate your own discussion.
1. You helped the group manager. Your group helped the manager.
2. You used English. How about your group?
3. You stayed on topic. How about your group?
4. You used all the available time. How about your group?
5. You were involved as a speaker and as a listener. How about the othermembers of your group?
6. The group completed all the tasks.
7. Your group allowed time to help your spokesperson prepare.
8. You gave full and kind attention to the spokesperson.
9. You had some suggestions for the questionnaire.
10. You thanked the facilitator, your group manager, the spokesperson andthe other members of your group.

48

unit 8