The effect of ted talks on presentation skills of esp learners: The example of Antalya Bilim University

The importance of English cannot be denied in today's global world. Besides, the significance of English for Specific Purposes classes, along with General English courses, is also increasing in higher education institutions. Engineering students are indispensable stakeholders of these classes with their public speaking or presentation skills abilities. In these courses, there has been a shift from using conventional materials into adopting more authentic materials. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of Ted Talks on presentation skills of ESP learners. It also aimed to reveal participants thoughts regarding the effect of watching Ted Talks on improving their presentation skills. Accordingly, 126 participants took part in the study. Among these participants 71 of them were in experimental group and 55 of them constituted the control group. The study lasted one semester. The participants were taking the same course as well as subjected to the same assessment tools. In the study, control group participants read reading texts and carried out oral presentations at week 7 and week 14. However, experimental group participants were exposed to Ted Talks besides reading texts and conducted oral presentations at week 7 and week 14. Moreover, experimental group participants wrote a reflection form after each oral presentation. Mixed methods research design was applied in the study. Quantitative data was gathered through oral examinations, and qualitative data was collected via reflection forms. The results of the quantitative strand of the study demonstrated that there was no statistically significant difference in overall scores of two groups. However, experimental group participants surpassed the participants of the control group in terms of organization and delivery at week 7. The same statistically significant difference was also observed at week 14. Furthermore, the findings of the qualitative part indicated that more than 90% of the experimental group participants asserted that watching Ted Talks improved their presentation skills. Regarded participants believed that Ted Talks mostly improved their body language, self-confidence, sense of humour and presentation skills in general. This study explored the effect of Ted Talks on presentation skills of ESP learners and disclosed participants' perceptions.