Today I had to give a presentation for a one of my first degree courses. The preparation entailed reading two scientific articles on something either speaking or writing related and then comparing these to each other. I prepared two articles on giving students feedback on writing. I read the articles thoroughly, filled in the required sheet for the analysis of scientific articles, made a nice PowerPoint and added some notes.
Presentations are just not really my thing, I almost always get really nervous and am often afraid I’ll screw it up or nobody understand what I’m talking about. There was to be another presentation by a fellow-student who has actually almost finished the programme but only need to do the research part of the programme. So he’s only there for a couple of classes and this was one of them.
Well, I thought it was obligatory to pick scientific articles on either writing or speaking but apparently he wasn’t obligated to anything. He actually presented two articles that dealt with the effects of authenticity and self-directed learning on learning efficiency and motivation.
I also thought that I had to present in English, which makes sense since we’re at an English first degree programme and the articles are mostly in English. Apparently this guy was allowed to do it in Dutch…
Since that guy and I were the first to present, the other students are also talking about presenting their stuff in Dutch, although they’ll eventually have to write an essay about it in English.
Of course I’m quite pleased with how my own presentation went, but I can’t help but feel cheated in some way. Do I, once again, expect too much – of others at least?
