English public speaking: Presentations for english for specific purposes

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore current approaches to English Public Speaking (EPS) in today's postgraduate students, who should be committed to continuously enhancing their communication skills through ubiquitous lifelong learning education as twenty-first-century professionals. Communication requires input and output techniques. Moreover, delivering oral presentations in a foreign language and with specific vocabulary applied to postgraduates' research projects entails not only having a dominant lexis approach, but also the motivations to perform accurately when presenting communications. This article focuses on the oral presentations built by different postgraduates of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in the field of telecommunications engineering during three consecutive years. The content and context of their twenty projects were analyzed with a focus on the professional vocabulary application, the collaborative learning process, and the communicative delivery strategies used in their oral presentations. Findings showed that collaborative and self-directed EPS approaches can be implemented to improve confidence and to convey meaning by and for learners, who become the builders of their own knowledge in an ESP global scenario. Additionally, this article could contribute to design ubiquitous learning programs focused on creativity, effective EPS, and international professional English set in higher education.