Constructing Learning Materials to Enhance Freshmen
Students’ English for Presentation Classes for the International
Collaborative Event – The World Youth Meeting
Gary Kirkpatrick
Nihon Fukushi University, Japangkirk@n-fukushi.ac.jp

Abstract: In keeping with project based learning, which is a focus of the International Welfare Development faculty and its International
Collaborative event, the World Youth Meeting (W.Y.M.), the outcome of this research project will be to produce materials to enhance
freshmen students’ English presentation skills. Students in the faculty of International Welfare Development (I.W.D.) take a central rolein the event. Prior to the event they take a variety of classes to prepare for the various roles in the W.Y.M. This researcher will distributesurveys to Nihon Fukushi University (N.F.U.) and foreign participants who participated in the W.Y.M. as presenters. The survey will ask
the participants to reflect on their experiences as presenters and to give advice to freshmen. The survey will ask for recommendations on
preparing for and giving presentations at the event. The collected advice will then be examined to find areas of commonality. A
compilation of the comments would then be used as teaching considerations for the freshmen English for Presentation classes. The
intention is that by incorporating the previous participants’ suggestions, it will increase the relevancy and narrow the focus of materials tobetter meet the needs of the students. In addition, it will provide an opportunity for the senior students to reflect on their experiences in therole of presenters at the W.Y.M.

Keywords: international collaborative event, materials production, student needs, reflection

Introduction
Producing materials that will enhance student’s learning experiences and motivate students is a difficult
process. Nunan (97) has said that materials production needs to consider theoretical concepts likemotivation and culture. Furthermore, the materials need to involve tasks that are relevant to students andreflect their needs and to some extent their cultural backgrounds. Giving students a voice, in terms of tasks
that give them an opportunity to express their own interests, is also seen as a way to foster student
autonomy in the classroom. Hence, for teachers, it is important to assist students to achieve the goal of
becoming ‘legitimate producers of language within social groups both inside and outside the classroom'(Hall & Beggs, 98). There are neigh sayers who argue that student autonomy is a western concept and notculturally appropriate for Asian students. (Pennycook, 94). Within the context of the Nihon Fukushi
University (N.F.U.) or the Japan Welfare University in the faculty of International Welfare Development(I.W.D.), some students are preparing to work for Nonprofit Organizations (N.P.O.s) or Nongovernmental
Organizations (N.G.O.s) many of which are situated outside Japan or have strong ties to organization
located abroad. These students must have both strong English language skills and language learning
autonomy for their long term success, so they need an awareness of and the skills to cope with
non-Japanese settings.
As is well known, student autonomy and motivation go hand in hand. Students need to acquire theopportunities to produce, perform and reflect on their own performance in order to build confidence intheir own self-sufficiency (Dornyei, 01). Classroom settings and materials need to provide opportunities
and reinforcement for this to transpire. The features of such a classroom would include collaboration,communicative language teaching and cooperative learning (Adamson, 04; Crandall, 99). With thesefeatures in place, students will be able to develop their sense of confidence and be able to motivatethemselves without the anxiety associated with more traditional classrooms. In the traditional classroom
setting, teachers become the sole provider of feedback and evaluation due to time constraints, need forformal grading and evaluation of student progress. Whereas in Nihon Fukushi University’s (N.F.U.)
International Welfare Development (I.W.D.) faculty and its International Collaborative Project (I.C.P.), theWorld Youth Meeting (W.Y.M.), an educational constructivist perspective is the guiding principal to which
students ‘actively construct their knowledge rather than passively receiving knowledge from their teachers
or environments’ (Kageto & Sato, 10).
Another important consideration is the effect the teacher can have on student motivation. Various
studies have shown that teachers can both motivate and de-motivate students through their actions in theclassroom (Dornyei, 01, Ehram et al., 03). Therefore, the job of the teacher is to provide opportunities for
positive kinds of learning, design appropriate materials, draw student’s attention to positive models andassist them to set appropriate goals.

Research Questions
This study is meant to be part of an action research cycle. Action research is 'the systematic collection andanalysis of data relating to the improvement of some aspect of professional practice' (Wallace, 98). Themain question is how to improve classroom materials with regards to the preparing and giving ofpresentations in English at an I.C.P. called the World Youth Meeting (W.Y.M.) for students in Nihon
Fukushi University’s (N.F.U.) International Welfare Development (I.W.D.) faculty. Students in this facultytake a central role in the event. In preparation for the event students in the I.W.D. faculty take a variety ofclasses to prepare for their roles at the event. Specifically, the materials would be used in the English for
Presentation classes to enhance the first year student’s awareness of all aspects associated withpresentation preparation and performance from the perspective of senior students who have taken part in
the event as presenters. Given the importance of senior-junior relationships within the context of Japaneseculture, it seems appropriate to utilize this to give the first year students the benefit of their senior student’s
experience.

Research Design and Methods
DesignThe first stage of this study involved the distribution of an open-ended survey to the senior students,
consisting of 10 questions related to the various stages of presentation preparation and performance.
The only criterion for participation in the survey was that the students had had experience making
and giving presentations at the I.C.P., the W.Y. M. Students were asked to reflect on theirexperiences and frame their answers as advice for first year students who have not participated in the
I.C.P., the W.Y.M. In the second stage, answers would then be examined to find areas ofcommonality. In the third stage, interviews would then be conducted among respondents to clarify
the comments and advice. In the final stage of the action research, the collected advice would be
adapted for use as teaching materials or included in the class textbook for use in the freshmen
English for Presentation classes, which will be piloted in the next academic year.

Participants

A total of nine I.W.D. students agreed to take part in the survey. Those surveyed consisted of
two-second year students, four-third year students, two-fourth year students and one graduate student.
No foreign participants had returned their surveys by the time of the writing of this paper.

Setting

Nihon Fukushi University is in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. The university has six faculties including theInternational Welfare Development. This faculty’s focus is on producing students with grounding inboth welfare and with strong English skills who can ‘contribute to organizational management and tothe community. […] Students are given the skills to support the self-reliance of people fromdeveloping countries in their nation-building efforts, to make international contributions to industry,
and to be involved in business that transcends borders.’ (Nihon Fukushi University Website, 13)

This I.C.P. is an integral part of and a large focus for the I.W.D. faculty’s program. Classes in thefaculty syllabus provide English language skills development as well as more specific event related
instruction. These classes involve not only teacher instruction, but also a degree of collaborativeinteraction or scaffolding between teachers and students from the freshmen to junior years or first to
third year.

Data Collection

The survey was distributed to students in the I.W.D. faculty who visited the N.F.U. English support
center, the English Lounge, over a two-day period.

Stage One - Analysis of Survey Comments

For convenience of analysis, the comments were condensed to include just keywords or phrases.
Furthermore, to see if there was any progression in the development of students’ advice from thesecond-year students to graduates, the keywords and phrases were divided by year. The initial
analysis of the results revealed links between the student’s comments in sets of questions.
Specifically, questions 1 and 4, 2 and 3, 5 and 6 and 7 and 8, will be examined together. Questions 9
and 10 will be examined separately. The questions focused on the following 1. Focus of thepresentation theme, 2. research, 3. data collection, 4. team work, 5. writing, 6. making power point
slides, 7. practicing, 8. giving the presentation, 9. Feeling nervous, and 10. other advice.
In questions 1 and 4, students commented that ‘talk, discussions and conversations’ with partners
and teachers were the best means of both finding a focus for their presentation theme as well as ameans to foster good team work. This may in part reflect the communicative nature of many of thefaculty’s English classes, as well as the educational constructivist theories that underpin both the
I.W.D. faculty and the I.C.P., the W.Y.M., to which learners ‘actively construct their knowledge
rather than passively receiving knowledge from their teachers or environments’ (Kageto & Sato, 10).
The more seasoned students also included the use of brainstorming and using their imaginations asimportant techniques. Talk, in terms of self-talk, was also seen as a useful tool in dealing withperformance anxieties or nervousness.
In questions 2 and 3, regardless of the fact that it had been pointed out to the less experienced
students that it is difficult to judge the accuracy or veracity of information on Internet sites, they
exhibited a strong reliance on the Internet as a main source of information over more traditionalsources such as newspapers, media and books, which the senior students included. Teachers wereseen as main sources of information for all of the students. This fits with both traditional classes andthe I.W.D. faculty’s social constructivist underpinnings, which cast teachers in the role as facilitators.
However, in terms of writing in questions 5 and 6, teachers are the main source of suggestions andcorrections. One of the most common teacher suggestions, to use simple sentence structure andvocabulary, has clearly been internalized by all of the surveyed students as indicated in theirsuggestions for writing tips and for power point slide preparation tips.

Under the headings of practicing and giving the presentation in questions 7 and 8, it was alsointeresting to note the progression in the sophistication of the focus. The more junior students advise
paying careful attention to prosodic features as well as pronunciation and other voice related
concerns, while the senior students stress the importance of audience and affective related issues. The
senior students’ confidence in public speaking allows them to go beyond worries regarding Basic
English to the importance of understanding the content and focusing on the flow of language.
Finally, throughout the questionnaire, there was a strong focus on social and affective issues.
Students were insistent that working collaboratively required a lot of formal sharing in the form of
regular meetings, daily reports, time management as well as informal sharing in terms of talk,laughter, be(ing) sociable, not pushing one’s opinion too strongly, controlling one’s feelings, and justenjoying the opportunity afforded by the event. Students by their senior years appear to have fully
grasped the importance of actively constructing their knowledge from a variety of sources available
to them such as teachers, peers and event related activities. As a result, they have come to exhibit thehallmarks of seasoned public speakers.

Stage Two - Interviews with Selected Participants

In an informal discussion with several of the students who had taken the survey, the researcher asked
the students to clarify several points. The first question was regarding how they perceived the role ofthe teachers and senior students throughout the preparation to presentation cycle for the I.C.P., theW.Y.M. The students, two-second year and one-third year student commented that in their view they
preferred to rely on the support of teachers rather than other students. This fits with Iyengar andLepper’s (99) findings that Asian-American children had higher motivation when teachers or seniors
made decisions. In comparison, however, Anglo-American children who preferred to make decisions
themselves. When asked to clarify this further, one of the students said that she relied on both but fordifferent reasons. She said she looked to the teachers for general advice as well as for English
grammar and techniques, but on the other hand, she went to senior students for advice based on theirfirst hand experience participating in the W.Y.M.
The same student related one incident when she felt frustrated in her interactions with her teacher.
She said that her teacher wouldn’t answer her question directly. It may be that the teacher in his/herrole as facilitator wanted the student to find the answer herself rather just give her the answer. The
same student also said that the senior students were often unable to attend many of the meetings,
which made things difficult for the less experienced students in her group. She said that despite these
problems, her group was able to carry out their presentation successfully because they talked a lot
and could find workable solutions.

Discussion and Suggestions

The responses to the survey reveal that students are successfully constructing knowledge byintegrating the skills and techniques made available to them through their interactions within theclassrooms and during the I.C.P., the W.Y.M. Techniques such as brainstorming and group
discussions provided a basis for solving problems that arose in connection with the event. The strong
network of support, not limited to teacher-student interactions only, among students in their first to
third years of study has created a positive dynamic. Teachers should address the various issues, interms of problems that were mentioned by students in their survey answers, with careful guidanceand exposure to techniques. Ample opportunities to think about and discuss problems such as toomuch data, over reliance on single sources and dealing with contrary evidence should be provided in
the classroom.
The student advice revealed in the surveys can be put to good use in a variety of ways. First,
teachers can incorporate relevant advice into related textbook chapters or lessons on specific points
in the presentation cycle. For example, a textbook chapter or lesson on preparing power point files
would benefit from student advice and examples that highlight both weaknesses and strengths.
Similarly, specific opportunities should be provided for raising awareness of ways to foster positive
group dynamics like sharing and encouraging. Another important area would be to teach the students
how to organize group work such as setting up and running meetings. The inclusion of positive
motivational quotes with student pictures at the start or end of chapters in the textbook could provide
a motivational boost.
Problems that were mentioned in the surveys can be listed in a problem-solution section in the
textbook or, conversely, be used as starting points for in-class discussion and problem solving
activities. For example, discussion could be centered on dealing with data that doesn’t support agroup’s original thesis. Furthermore, it may be important to raise students’ awareness of the pitfalls of
becoming overly dependent on single sources of information by introducing them to researchresources on campus or within their community.
Finally, with regards to uncooperative or reticent students, it would be useful to provide
opportunities to practice intercommunicative skills such as encouraging and eliciting information
within classroom discussions. Teachers and senior students can act as role models for the first year
students in classes and during other activities.

Conclusion

The intention of this action research was to elicit student advice to use for lesson materials
production. While the sample size was not large, the input from a range of students from second year
to graduate level made the quality of the advice both useful and insightful. It’s for that reason thisresearcher feels that the inclusion of senior students’ advice would be of benefit to the first year
students. In preparation for the next academic year, the incorporating of the advice into classmaterials will increase the relevancy, interest level and change the focus of materials to better meetthe needs of the students. It is also worthwhile to make this survey a regular feature of the English for
Presentation classes as it will provide the teacher with useful insights, as well as give students anopportunity to reflect on their experiences as presenters in the I.C.P., the W.Y.M. This researcher
thinks collaboration should be viewed in its broadest sense to include teachers, students and all theresources relating to the classes. Feedback from students provides a unique perspective that can giveteachers useful insights and allow them to construct better materials and classrooms environments as‘language skills cannot be improved without engagement and motivation is […] the critical element
for success in improvement of students’ engagement in the classroom’ (Wachob, 06) and for students’futures as well as the communities that they will be living in.

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