Mapping Out the Importance-Difficulty Matrix: Students’ and Teachers’ Perceptions of English Oral Presentation Skills
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Abstract
The importance-difficulty matrix, a strategic business planning tool, could enhance course design and optimize resource allocation in an English course where university teachers face time constraints while balancing competing objectives. Therefore, this study aimed 1) to examine students’ perceptions of the difficulty associated with English oral presentation skills; 2) to investigate teachers’ perceptions of the importance of these skills; and 3) to examine how English oral presentation skills are positioned on the importance-difficulty matrix. The participants were 374 undergraduate EFL students enrolled in an English oral presentation course and 14 instructors from a Thai university. Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were utilized for the data collection. Descriptive statistics, specifically mean and standard deviation, were employed in order to analyze the questionnaire data, while the interview data were examined to support these statistics. The overall results indicated the following: 1) the students perceived vocal delivery as the most challenging skill; 2) the instructors viewed the story message as the most important skill; and 3) all four main skills of English oral presentations were placed in the first quadrant of the matrix, reflecting high importance and low difficulty. The findings hold practical implications for further development of an oral presentation course within an EFL undergraduate context.
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