Understanding Undergraduate Students’ Attitudes Toward Oral Presentations in EFL Classrooms: A Case Study of the English Department at Hassiba Benbouali University of Chlef

Resumo

Oral presentation skills are critical in Higher Education Institutions, as they are often used to assess students’ knowledge and understanding of a topic. Students' attitudes towards oral presentation play an integral role in their development of these skills in a foreign language context. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the attitudes of third-year EFL students in the Module of Linguistics at the English Department of Hassiba Benbouali University in Chlef, Algeria, concerning their experiences with oral presentations. It also seeks to identify the challenges that hinder the preparation and delivery of oral presentations. A quantitative approach was used to address the research questions. An online survey questionnaire was used as the principal tool for gathering data.Google Form Application was used to deliver the closed-ended questionnaire to a random sample of 115. Only eighty-five 3rd year students participated in the study during the second semester of the academic year 2022–2023. The findings showed that most of the students had positive attitudes towards oral presentations, although they faced some challenges during preparation and delivery, such as memorisation, selection of relevant information, speaking anxiety and fear of embarrassment in front of their classmates. The findings suggest the need for curriculum developers and teachers to enhance the effective integration of oral presentations across linguistics, literature, and translation courses at universities.The study concludes with important pedagogical implications and recommends that future researchers adopt a mixed-methods design to provide a comprehensive understanding of students’ attitudes toward oral presentations in EFL classroom context.