Presenting in Chinese at a formal conference may sound challenging. But, like all previous FS students, you will too deliver an impressive presentation in excellent Chinese, so long as you choose an appropriate perspective, structure your proposal and presentation well, provide convincing and concrete examples, and work closely with faculty advisors and Chinese teachers throughout the revision and rehearsal process.
Choose an Appropriate Perspective
Your proposal submitted along with your application will be the base of your 20 minute formal presentation. It is thus important to choose a right topic and perspective, which will give you a smooth starting point. We recommend you choose a topic you are passionate about and with which you have direct personal experiences and/or connections. The more you are personally involved in the subject matter, the more effective your project will be.
Most of you are not trained in education, but there will be many experts of education in your audience at the conference. This is why we do not expect you to present an educational research study, which may overwhelm you and make your presentation vulnerable to criticism. What we look for is a presentation of your own personal experience in the American educational system as a learner. Writing from an American learner's perspective using personal examples, you will give Chinese educators valuable information. You want to constantly remind yourself of this perspective from your proposal to your final presentation.
Structure Your Proposal and Presentation Well
Structure your proposal and presentation in the following way:
Students tend to neglect the first part of this structure when writing their proposals and presentations. But it is crucial to briefly but clearly lay out your main arguments/points and explain their significance right at the beginning. You want to do this to attract your readers/audience’s attention from the beginning and to give them a necessary roadmap to your proposal/presentation. This is called 开门见山 in Chinese and has long been regarded as one of the most effective writing and presenting strategies. To arouse more interest, you may want to add in a lead-in anecdote before the introduction. But you should keep the anecdote brief and highly relevant.
You want to continue applying the 开门见山 strategy when providing detailed illustration of your main points. Each passage you write should start with a topic sentence clearly telling your readers/audience which point you plan to illustrate in the passage. Your presentation proposal should be no longer than 3-5 pages.
Provide Convincing and Concrete Examples
As mentioned above, the presentation is about your personal experience in the American educational system as a learner. So the examples you use to support main points should be primarily about your personal experience or the data you are familiar with. Good examples from your own experience can make your presentation original and convincing. However, make sure to relate your personal experience to the overall educational goals that you believe one should achieve in a society. Such educational goals could include: academic achievement, intellectual development, creativity, leadership, critical thinking skills, personal growth, life learning skills, etc. You are also welcome to use research findings and data that are highly relevant to your experience to give your presentation more academic depth. Remember, your Chinese audience will be interested in new ways of looking at/thinking about education and will be counting on you to provide them with information regarding the American educational system.
Your proposal needs to tell your readers what concrete examples/data you plan to use in the presentation. At the proposal stage, you do not have to give many details of the examples. But brief sample examples should be included in the proposal, and you need to make sure that they are easily expandable.
Your presentation draft should give more vivid details of the examples. You want to use plenty of images (personal pictures showing your educational experience are especially welcome) on your PPT to help illustrate your points.
Work Closely With Faculty Advisors and Chinese Teachers Throughout the Revision and Rehearsal Process
You will work closely with several faculty advisors and Chinese teachers throughout the revision and rehearsal process. Before June, a pre-departure faculty advisor will oversee your writing progress and help with revision. Under the faculty advisor’s instructions, you will revise the presentation and PPT drafts as many times as needed until they meet basic FS conference presentation standards. After you arrive in China, you will still need to make additional revisions under the guidance of ACC instructors to further improve the quality of your presentation. The ACC instructors will also help you rehearse your presentation, correct your pronunciation, and improve your performance. This extended process of careful revision guided by experienced faculty advisors and Chinese teachers will not only ensure a high quality final presentation, but will also significantly improve your abilities to express sophisticated ideas in formal Chinese.