This EFL communication skills course was originally built for second year English majors in a low level Japanese university. It focuses on CEFR A2 and B1 professional and academic presentation skills. Students should have already completed CEFR A1 beginning level presentation skills in their high school or freshmen year. It is inspired by the three metaphors of Physical Message, Visual Message, Story Message of David Harrington and Charles LeBeau. This course was built from a twelve-year action research project that included teachers such as Geordie McGarty, Joel Rian, Ken Friesen, Don Hinkelman, Matt Cotter, Rob Olson, Brendon Muir and many others. Some of the unique points are:
- emphasis on prosody and non-verbal communication
- student video demonstrations of presentations
- flipped classroom approach with out-of-class videos and quizzes
- weekly progress bars & whole course gradebook
- ten fun warm-up presentations in small groups
- four recorded and assessed presentations with increasing rhetorical skills
- extensive self-assessment and peer-assessment
- Eiken/IELTS/Cambridge style impromptu presentation practice
- Final project of International Student Conference with outside audience (foreign students)