For graduate students, presenting their research at international conferences is often one of the requirements to obtain a degree. This is not an easy task for non-native English speakers (NNS) and sometimes causes nervousness and anxiety, especially, when handling a Q&A session in English because of unexpected questions and limited time to come up with answers. They are obviously at a disadvantage in terms of language skills, however, they still need to manage to get through the session.
This study aims to investigate the thoughts of graduate students who are non-native English speakers concerning which situations lead to a feeling of success and non-success in their Q&A sessions. The data for this study was collected through a questionnaire survey from thirty-eight graduate students of NNS including Masters and Ph.D. students. The students’ nationalities are varied and consist of countries such as Japan, Thailand, China, Nigeria, Uruguay, etc. The collected data was analyzed using the modified grounded theory approach (M-GTA) and managed using MAXQDA 2024 software.
From the results of the analysis, the graduate students’ perceptions of a successful Q&A session are mainly relevant to being able to answer questions and have fruitful discussions. On the other hand, when they were unable to answer the questions or read the questioner`s dissatisfaction, they regarded their Q&A session as unsuccessful. Educational implications on the important factors for the Q&A sessions are also discussed.

Authors:
Toyoko Shimamura, Osaka University, Japan

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Posted by James Alexander Gordon

Last updated: 2023-02-23 23:45:00

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