Business Presentations: An Easy-to-Learn Skill or a Nightmare?

Most Business English instructors at the university level face a problem when dealing with Czech college students: an "information" loaded report, which is a result of the knowledge based educational system where the old "referat" still seems to prevail but has been replaced by a trendier term, called a "presentation," in a Power Point format. When faced with the "Anglo" presentation style, students often fall in despair mentioned above. Their prior experience of a "presentation" stands in sharp contrast to the foreign instructors' requirements and to the demands of the current workplace. The lack of students' awareness of and skills in preparing such presentations is alarming and, therefore, the need to teach this "survival" skill becomes even more critical. This paper reviews the findings of a mini-survey administered to the author's freshmen and sophomores with limited exposure to making presentations in English. The findings are then discussed in terms of the Czech teachers' understanding of discourse analysis and communicative competence as opposed to the Czech rhetorical tradition experienced so far by the students. Consequently, effective teaching strategies, which build on developmental psychology research, are suggested as possible ways to guide university students in successfully creating and delivering professional presentations.