Insight on Delivering Oral Presentation: Preparations, Problems, and Solutions Rizaldy Hanifa Indonesia University of Education, Bandung, Indonesia Email: rizaldy_eng@student.upi.edu Siti Rahimah Yusra Syiah Kuala University, Banda Aceh, Indonesia Email: siti.shira19@gmail.com Abstract—The importance of being able to perform a good oral presentation is undeniably necessary for academician nowadays, including students of higher education. To show their capacity, the students need to be prepared in delivering their presentation. However, the current students’ presentation skill is still far from the expectation. Therefore, this article aims at sharing several facts dealing with presentation skill in terms of preparations, problems faced during presentation, and the ways to cope with the problems. This study was conducted as a qualitative research with descriptive approach. Questionnaire and interview were distributed and performed to five respondents to gather the data needed. The findings show that preparation involving content mastery and practice are the keys to be successful in presentation. Meanwhile, the problems faced are highly related to the respondents’ nervousness due to time limitation and audiences, which cause losing idea while performing. To overcome these, some strategies such as believing in their abilities, skipping less important points, and anticipating possible questions from the audiences were employed. Based on the research results, it is suggested that speaker should be trained to be more aware of the preparations and strategies needed for presentation since the main keys to the success of delivering good presentation are highly determined by knowing how to prepare well and being able to use the strategies more appropriately and frequently. Index Terms—communication, presentation skill, speaking performance I. INTRODUCTION Language is an important tool and a very beneficial means for human being to communicate with other people. Then, the mastery of communication skill is considered as the most important aspect in learning a second or foreign language. Large percentage of the world’s language learners study English in order to develop proficiency in communicating; speaking (Richards and Renandya as quoted by Kawai in Griffiths [1]). Thus, it is obvious that the main goal of learning a second or foreign language is to be able to speak fluently. In addition, Thornbury in Burns & Richards [2] points out that speaking a language is often synonymous with Manuscript received February 21, 2018; revised May 15, 2018. knowing the language. Accordingly, the ability to speak is typically a priority for most leaners. The ability to know a language can be determined when the learners speak in that language including performing extensive speaking like giving a presentation. Ellis and Johnson in Bereczky [3] define a presentation as a preplanned, prepared, and structured talk given in formal or informal circumstances to a small or large group of people. In a slightly different statement, Tkachenko [4] describes a presentation as a speech or talk in which a new product, idea, or piece of work is shown and explained to an audience. Presentation is usually given to more particular audiences (Mandel) [5]. Oral presentation, according to Levin and Topping in Al-Nouh, Abdul-Kareem & Taqil [6] is planned and practiced speech that is not memorized or read from notes but is introduced by a presenter to an audience. Interestingly, Leech [7] asserts presentation is not entirely speech. It differs from a formal speech in three main respects. (1) It might be given impromptu, prepared only in outline form and spoken from visual aids and notes rather than fully written and delivered word for word, as speeches may be. (2) It often involves visual aids, while many formal speeches do not. (3) A presentation is usually given to an audience which is highly participative - people rapidly ask questions and engage in dialog. For most speeches the audience listens, and possibly asks questions later. Being able to communicate effectively in a presentation is one of the important factors that will lead us to achieve success in today’s global, competitive, and rapidly changing world. Competence in giving effective oral communication can be a requisite for successful academic, personal, and professional students (Miles [8]; Tkachenko [4]; Živković [9]; Al-Nouh, Abdul-Kareem & Taqil [6]). Students, particularly in higher education, are required to do a lot of presentations on wide range of topics using relevant means of verbal communication. Besides, presentation skills also help the students to inform their findings in a public forum more efficiently. The necessity of being able to present is not just limited to the classroom. This skill is very important in getting and keeping a job. Živković [9] supposes that learning presentation skill makes learners participate fully 318 © 2018 International Journal of Learning and Teaching International Journal of Learning and Teaching Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2018 doi: 10.18178/ijlt.4.4.318-325