Common errors in research presentation slides of Japanese graduate students

摘要

English has undoubtedly become the science and research lingua franca in the world in both oral and written communication. The capacity of English of scientists significantly affects the quality of research papers and presentations much more seriously than before. The global advancement of scientific research demands scientists to conduct oral presentations and write presentation slides by themselves without using professional translators for reasons such as technical accuracy and speed rather than finance. Scientists writing their own slides for academic presentations in English at international conferences has become a norm in the new millennium. As educational institutions that prepare students for such a demand in real life, universities in Japan have started to offer courses to graduate students that explicitly teach and train the skills needed for making academic presentations. Most of such courses focus on the oral deliver aspect as it is most challenging and time-consuming for students to improve. Hence, little time could be provided for explicit, systematic and individualized instruction on how to make slides error-free. As a result, many EFL (English as a Foreign Language) graduate students of science and engineering background are less aware or unaware of the problems on their slides and neglect the common errors on the slide. The presenters of this research are ESP (English for Specific Purposes) teachers at universities in Japan and have extensive teaching experiences with EST (English for Science and Technology) students at graduate school level at top universities in Japan. This paper summarizes the common errors made by Japanese graduate students of engineering majors and to offer practical techniques for making effective presentation slides.