If you teach in a language classroom (ESL or any other language really), eventually you will ask your students to do an in-class presentation. Presentations are a great way for students to showcase their abilities and gain confidence using their new language in a stressful yet safe environment.
In most situations, the purpose of asking a language student prepare and perform a presentation is so that they can demonstrate their abilities to:
-> choose their topics
-> generate ideas by brainstorming
-> then logically organize and show they can
-> make sensible relationships between them
-> use intelligible English in front of an audience
-> all within a specific time frame
These are all very important skills, for a language learner who intended to peruse a career in business or in academics. For most language students just being able to accomplish these tasks in a new language is a great feat in itself forget about complicating the process with posters and software like PowerPoint.
However, after nearly 15 years of teaching, I have found that the first thing students want to do is use PowerPoint. I think in most cases they...