This is a presentation presented on 13th March, 2016 at English Language Center, Nizwa College of Technology, Sultanate of Oman. 30 teachers who teach writing courses in ELC attended this presentation!

1. A New Approach in Teaching Projects and
Presentations Course to Level 4 Students
Using English Newspapers of Oman
Justin James
Lecturer, Nizwa College of Technology
Sultanate of Oman

2. Aims
Reflect on the challenges in the Projects and
Presentations course.
Analyze the difficulties students have in this course.
Discuss the challenges teachers have in teaching this
course.
Introduce an alternate methodology to teach this
course
Demonstrate how this methodology works.

3. Present the outcomes of the new methodology
Showcase how this methodology is beneficial to
students & teachers
Motivate teachers to employ alternate
methodologies to teach challenging courses like
Projects and Presentations

4. Main Objectives of the Course
To know what academic research is, how to conduct it
& how to record it in a report form.
To choose a topic of interest, form hypothesis &
choose suitable research methods to get primary data.
To find and read secondary data & to get practical
experience in quoting from references and to use
information from them appropriately.

5. To learn referencing & preparing a bibliography.
To learn and practice specific skills like analysing to
arrive at findings and solutions & compiling them.
To present the report orally using relevant presentation
tools

6. Learning Outcomes - After the completion of
the course, Students should be able to:
Do independent research at work places/future
Independently interact with people in formal situations
Independently write a research/formal report in work
situation
Work confidently in a research group / team
Independently prepare and deliver oral presentation in
work situation using audio-visual aids and images.

7. Challenges in Projects and Presentations Course
Introducing the concept
Teaching the methodology
Selecting topics
Finding secondary sources
Collecting primary data
Analysing and interpreting data
Writing report
Citing references
Preparing presentation
Presenting the report

8. Difficulties of Students
 Understanding the concept
 Lack of ability to understand
research methodology
 Poor writing abilities
 Lack of experience in
Summarizing and
Paraphrasing
 Writing a formal report
 Presenting a formal reports
 Poor oral communication skills
 Lack of experience in making
formal presentations
 Group dynamics and time
management

9. Challenges Faced by Teachers
 A Big Headache
 Finalizing topic
 Difficult to make the students
understand research
methodology
 Plagiarism
 Copy and Paste
 Difficult to make them
generate a questionnaire
 Lots of editing
 Students lack of group
dynamics
 Their weak computer skills
 Motivating students
 Weekly targets not achieved
 Use of unauthentic/inaccurate
translations
 Has to rewrite the whole report
 Time management/reporting
work progress

10. Introduce an alternate methodology
to teach this course
Use of authentic materials
 News papers (Online/Printed)
 Blogs
 Magazines (Online/Printed)
 Any other socially relevant materials

11. Model Research topics
 The origin and growth of newspapers in Oman
 Times of Oman plays an important role in creating
awareness about the world among Omani youth.
 The effects of news about conflicts in the world published in
Times of Oman
 How do advertisements published in Times of Oman
promote business in Oman?

12.  What are the impact of Oman National News on the
expatriates living in Oman?
 Impact of car Advertisements published in Muscat
Daily on Customers
 Impact of War News published in Muscat Daily on the
society

13. How this methodology works?
Procedure
Introduce the authentic material (Newspaper)
Explain the rationale for using authentic material
Discuss various research possibilities in Newspapers
Arrive at various topics for research
Distribute topics

14. Form Hypothesis and Objectives
Choose research methods/introduction to
methodology
Preparing questionnaires
Literature Review & Collecting secondary data
Summarizing and paraphrasing
Primary Data analysis

15. Sample Questionnaires

16. Summarizing & Paraphrasing

19. Compiling the Report
 Writing Literature Review
 Recording Findings using graphs & charts
 Writing Recommendations
 Writing Introduction and Conclusion
 Compiling references
 First Draft/Revise/Final Draft

20. www.citethisforme.com
Poster Concept : Justin James Poster design: Ouarda Khouni

36. Editing the First Draft

37. .

41. Sample Final Drafts

42. Oral Presentation
Prepare power point slides
Practice oral presentation

43. Sample Presentations

44. How this methodology is beneficial to
students?
Students
 Cultivate the habit of reading newspapers
 Become aware of the world affairs
 Understand the background of the chosen topic
 Critical thinking skills increase
 Discuss with people about a topic of importance
and collect their opinion

45. Form their own opinions
Arrive at conclusions
Provide solutions
Use referencing easily using websites
Prepare effective power point
presentations
Do effective oral presentations

46. How this methodology is beneficial to teachers?
 Find many authentic/interesting topics
 Preparing questionnaire is easy as they have many questions
about the news in their minds
 Editing made easy with the help of editing tools
 Easy to motivate students as they are working on current topics
 Easy to manage time and achieve targets as students are
motivated
 Monitoring their work progress is easy as we follow them through
every step
 Training students to prepare slides and present their reports are
made easy as many samples are provided to them

47. Questions and Discussions

48. Conclusion
Teaching of Projects and Presentation course becomes an
interesting experience
It is made easy with the help of many internet tools
Use of authentic topics for doing research helps the students to
conduct the research effectively
Effective management of teaching and learning of the course
.

49. Acknowledgement

50. Many
Thanks!
AND FINALLY…