L’exposé oral en langue étrangère : une tâche complexe au service du développement des compétences

Abstract

Oral presentation in a foreign language is a frequent activity in higher education, but its practice would need to be improved if we are not to see it as a pure academic artefact. To achieve this without improvisation, it would be necessary to know what are the characteristics that define continuous oral production. Because the oral presentation, as a highly formalized discursive genre, is carried out by following precise and sequenced steps which allow a complex task to be broken down into formative and empowering sub-tasks. A pedagogy specific to oral presentation seems necessary to take full advantage of this demanding activity, often stimulating but always feared by students. The purpose of this research is therefore to shed light on the practices reported around this activity thanks to a survey conducted among a representative sample of university students. This exploratory study allowed for a step-by-step analysis of the benefits that the students believe the oral presentation provides. The data obtained has shown that this is an ideal way to improve various linguistic and communication skills and to develop useful transversal skills. The study concludes that, in order to make the oral presentation a teachable and learnable object, a methodological practice inspired by the theories of explicit teaching would allow students to acquire real autonomy in the development of their speaking skills in a foreign language.

Keywords

• oral communication
• competence
• oral presentation
• oral methodology
• complex task