The Impact of Pecha Kucha Presentations in the Assessment of a Translation Studies Unit at The University of Western Australia

Abstract

Results of a case study on the implementation of Pecha Kucha presentations undertaken at The University of Western Australia in 2015 are presented and discussed here. Pecha Kucha, a fast-paced presentation format consisting of 20 slides set to proceed automatically every 20 seconds, was used in the assessment of the unit "Translation Localisation" for two reasons: it is a time-effective method to assess a large number of students in a short time, and it has the potential to teach students whilst also assessing them, thus killing two birds with one stone. Recent studies show that the Pecha Kucha style can improve presenting skills and English speaking skills in general. This has particular relevance when teaching large numbers of international students, such as in "Translation Localisation", where 84% of students spoke English as their second language. The paper ultimately shows how the use of Pecha Kucha presentations in the assessment of a unit carries important pedagogical implications for students of English for Academic Purposes.

Developing EFL Learners’ Speaking and Oral Presentation Skills through Pecha Kucha Presentation Technique

“…It was also evident from the findings that PK was challenging for some students as it requires learners to spend extra time and effort for preparation, the lack of which might lead to memorization of the presented material. The findings with respect to presentation skills are in accordance with those reported by several studies (e.g., Abraham et al, 2018;Colombi, 2017), in which PK was regarded as an effective way to improve students' presentation skills. Findings pertaining to the time and effort spent for preparation are also consistent with previous research (e.g., Angelina, 2019;Widyaningrum, 2016) with the exception of the study conducted by Beyer (2011) in a context featuring native English speakers.…”

“…Regarding PK's linguistic contributions, the findings of the present study demonstrated that learners had a perceived development in overall speaking, fluency, and pronunciation. A similar conclusion was reached by several studies which highlighted student experiences illustrating PK's contributions to their overall speaking skill (e.g., Angelina, 2019;Colombi, 2017) and fluency (Zharkynbekova et al, 2017).…”

“…In addition, English as a Second Language students felt that they achieved learning outcomes through an innovative way (Thomsett & Shaw, 2014), while Spanish learners reported a higher level of difficulty for preparing to present in PK format compared to traditional PPT (Ruiz, 2016). Among the other findings reported in the literature were students becoming more autonomous in organizing their ideas and active in learning English (Baskara, 2015), accessing more opportunities to practice language (Hayashi & Holland, 2016;Mabuan, 2017) and learners applying creativity to overcome certain limitations of the technique (Colombi, 2017).…”

“…The results of previous research examining the use of Pecha Kucha (PK) in higher education settings suggest that learners have positive attitudes towards PK use (Mabuan, 2017), while some of them have preferred the technique over traditional PPT presentations (Beyer, Gaze, & Lazicki, 2012). The investigation of PK use in EFL classes illustrated that the technique had positive contributions to learners in several ways including a perceived development in speaking (Colombi, 2017) and fluency (Zharkynbekova, Zhussupova, & Suleimenova, 2017), opportunities for additional language practice (Hayashi & Holland, 2016), improvement in presentation skills (Nguyen, 2015), and a reduction in public speaking anxiety (Coşkun, 2017). In addition to the identified advantages, PK was criticized due to its fast-paced rigorous nature of format, which sometimes created pressure on learners (Ruiz, 2016).…”

“…Due to the origins of the technique, it is perhaps not surprising to see the majority of research being conducted in Asia, such as Singapore (Ruiz, 2016), Malaysia (Murugaiah, 2016), and Philippines (Mabuan, 2017). Among the common themes emerging across the studies were; a) students often displayed positive attitudes towards the implementation of PK as part of language classes (e.g., Colombi, 2017), b) learners reported a perceived increase in their speaking skills (e.g., Nguyen, 2015), and selfconfidence (Thomsett & Shaw, 2014), c) PK had the potential to foster English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students' L2 oral presentation skills (e.g., Murugaiah, 2016), d) students reported negative experiences with respect to time limitation and lack of flexibility due to PK format (e.g., Ruiz, 2016). In addition, English as a Second Language students felt that they achieved learning outcomes through an innovative way (Thomsett & Shaw, 2014), while Spanish learners reported a higher level of difficulty for preparing to present in PK format compared to traditional PPT (Ruiz, 2016).…”