The doctoral defence is the oral examination of the doctoral thesis. While it is a major milestone for doctoral candidates, this event is often shrouded in mystery. In this article, I explore the doctoral defence from an international perspective. I have studied the format of the defence based on written testimonies as well as the literature on…

With the global expansion of China's economy, Chinese has established itself as a major language. Since then, higher education students' desire to learn Chinese has increased dramatically. However, strategies for foreign language learning and students' anxiety both play a key role in students' ability to communicate in Chinese. Thus, the purpose…

Glossophobia or fear of public speaking is commonly experienced by tertiary learners during classroom presentations. This study intends to examine the speech anxiety level experienced by engineering learners and the relationship between the learners' English language proficiency and their speech anxiety. The study will also identify the causes of…

Speaking ability is one of the integral language components in English language acquisition. This ability is a challenging one to master for ESL learners, as it involves several linguistic and nonlinguistic features in presenting ideas and it is frequently associated with anxiety. Public speaking anxiety is a common issue faced by students…

Virtual Reality (VR) application in the field of education has been an ongoing endeavour. It is believed that VR provides an opportunity for students to learn in a real situation through the exposure of artificially created reality and the use of visual which improves the learning by enhancing study focus (Piovesan, Passerion and Pereira, 2012).…

The academic oral presentation (henceforth AOP) is an important genre for tertiary students across various courses and disciplines in the university. Despite the importance of AOPs for undergraduate students, relatively little is known about this genre. Using Swales' (1990, 2004) notion of move analysis, this paper compares the rhetorical…

Japanese EFL international students may experience high levels of apprehension when communicating in English due to their culture, educational background, attitudes towards the role of English in their society, and lack of opportunities to practice speaking in English. Although the students in this study had studied English before joining the…

Learning can take place almost anywhere, and this is especially true for our undergraduates who wish to become public speakers. Besides university course and public speaking workshops on campus grounds, undergraduates are now looking for a different learning environment--communication boot camps!! This study presents a compilation of learners'…

In recent years, ESL studies have found that most graduates are critically lacking in speaking skills, especially among Malaysia graduates. With constant struggle to communicate in English which is their second language, they become apprehensive when the need to use the language arises. The purpose of this study is to investigate communication…

Lecturing is a common instructional format but poor lecturing skills can detract from students' learning experiences and outcomes. As lecturing is essentially a form of public communication, training in public speaking may improve lecture quality. Twelve university lecturers in Malaysia participated in a six-week public speaking skills training…

The student-centered learning (SCL) approach is an approach to education that focuses on learners and their needs, rather than relying upon the input of the teacher's. The present paper examines how the SCL approach is integrated as a learner-centered paradigm into finance courses offered at a business school in a research university in Malaysia.…

Engineering communication studies indicate the importance of oral presentations as an indispensable component of workplace oral communication activities; however, since there is limited literature regarding stakeholder perceptions of effective presentation skills and attributes in technical oral presentations or final year engineering project…

Teachers often adopt a particular teaching and learning approach in their classes to ensure that effective learning takes place. It is assumed that teaching working adults would require the teachers to indirectly adopt an approach that suits the learners. Knowles (1978) theorized that adult learners have distinct and unique characteristics and…