THE USE OF POWERPOINT IN GROUP PRESENTATIONS: INSIGHTS FROM ELT MAJORS

Abstract

The current study was set out to find out the attitudes of ELT majors toward the use of PowerPoint in group presentations and how they used the software when presenting. Data was collected through the use of questionnaire, interview and class observation. The results indicate that the majority of ELT majors had positive attitudes toward the use of PowerPoint in group presentation for their user-friendly quality and multimedia functions combining audio-visual features. It was also found that group members usually prepared slides individually before one member combined all and created a slideshow. During presentations, ELT majors relied on the key points in the slides to talk but a significant number of them just read from the slides. They also claimed to make use of the archiving and display functions of PowerPoint to create activities that help reinforce and review the contents presented. From the findings, suggestions to teachers and group members to review the contents and rules to design and use well the software for group presentations were made.