The influence of public speaking prosody on delivering academic presentations

Abstract

The article reports on a study of public speech’s influence on making academic, public presentations more efficient. The paper draws on the findings made in the auditory and peer analysis of presentations delivered by students of IT English divided into two stages: before training and after public speech training. The article contains an overview of prosodic and extralinguistic factors that are responsible for ineffective academic presentations. Particular focus is given to the feasibility of academic presentations (to inform, motivate to study, expand knowledge on the subject, and others) from the university students’ reviews of their presentations. The author argues that a good balance between visuals and the speaker’s rhetorical competence is vital for effective academic presentations. The observations made in the article may be useful to develop expertise in the delivery of academic, public presentations as a part of professional training.