Presentation Project Ideas | ESL Presentation Topics, Tips, Ideas & More

Over the years teaching in a Korean university, I’ve had students do plenty of solo and group presentations. I love to do them at least once a semester because they’re great for the teacher to take a break from being at the front of the class, and designed well, students really enjoy them as well. Of course, I had to come up with some ESL presentation topics. Keep on reading to find out my presentation project ideas to try out in your own classes.

Let’s get into the best ESL presentation ideas and topics.

Top 7 ESL Presentation Ideas

Here are my top presentation project ideas for ESL students with a bit of advice on how to make them work for you. Are you ready to find some ESL presentation topics and ideas for your students? Then keep on reading as we get to it!

#1: Speech

Each student has to choose from a variety of topics such as “family” or “hobby.” They had to speak for between 1.5 and 2 minutes. I did this only once, with low-level students and it was so boring that I never did it again.

All the presentations were basically the same. “I have a mom. She is 46 years old. She has black hair and black eyes. I have a dad. He is 47 years old and he has black hair and black eyes. He is tall.” Trust me, they were some of the most tedious and excruciating hours of my entire life.

Find out: How to teach public speaking, in a far more awesome way.

And of course, I could have avoided this problem by choosing far more interesting ESL presentation topics. For example, I did a similar sort of thing with current events and the results? Much better!

#2: Presentation and Discussion Time

Each group had to give a presentation about a topic of their choosing and think of at least 5 interesting questions/surveys/activities that groups could discuss or do for about 30 minutes after their presentation.

This presentation project ideas had varying results, since some groups chose a topic that led to a lot of “yes/no” answers and discussions that lasted about 2 minutes. However, this could have been avoided by approving the topics in advance and requiring groups to submit their assignment for feedback a week or two before the actual presentation. The duds were mostly my own fault!

The key is to set up the project in a better way. The teacher needs to prepare for this activity well in advance! And of course, get students to prepare in advance as well so they can have a chance to revise their presentation if necessary.

#3: Poster Presentation

Each group had to choose a current issue (like environmental pollution, celebrity suicide, North Korea) and make a poster that had English writing and some interesting pictures. Set a(low) maximum number of words, or your posters will be terrible! Then, they had to do a presentation based on the poster where each group member spoke for 2 minutes, without a paper.

If I ever did this again, I would do something where the audience was more involved, such as peer grading. Or, I would require each group watching the presentation to think of at least 1 question to ask and they’d get a point for doing so.

Giving the students a reason to listen is key, so keep this in mind during your ESL projects.

More ideas for the classroom: Task Based Language Learning.

#4: PowerPoint Presentation

This has the potential to be very interesting, or PPT death. It all depends on how you set the presentation project up. If you do go with this method, you should set a maximum number of slides and also a maximum numbers of words per slide (maybe 10?). Emphasize to students that you want to see pictures, charts, etc. and not a page of text.

Teach students how to make good PPTs and then penalize heavily for not following your recommendations. You should also coach students on how to stand to the side and still keep their body pointed towards the audience.

How to Make a Good PowerPoint Presentation (For ESL Students)

#5 Project Presentation Ideas: Making a Short Video

For homework in my conversation classes, I hated giving writing homework! It just seemed to defeat the purpose of trying to get the students to talk as much as possible.

In order to combat this, I’d often get students to make videos and then put them online on YouTube. I’d assign a topic that they had to talk about for a minute or two. Sometimes, I’d make an assignment where 2-3 of the students in the class would have to talk about something.

Or sometimes I’d require that students interview their classmates about something. It was really fun to watch these ones!

If you want to get creative, you could have your students make a short documentary or movie about a topic of their choice.

It’s simple, fun, and many students let me know that is was their favourite homework activity that semester.

#6: Impromptu Speaking Activity

If you ask your students, they’ll often tell you that they want to improve their speaking skills. By this, they often mean fluency. One way to do this is to use an activity like Just a Minute. It puts students on the spot and they’re required to talk about a certain topic for one entire minute.

It’s the perfect way to focus on speaking fluency because they can’t stop talking for the entire minute. You can make it into a conversation activity by requiring that students who are listening ask some follow-up questions.

Of course, do this in small groups for intermediate students, and only with an entire class for advanced level students. Or, consider using it if you teach ESL online.

#7: Infographic Presentation

Presentations are a regular feature of ESL classes, but your students may get overwhelmed at the thought of first creating and then presenting a full-length speech. This activity works very, very well for a small class of 5 students or fewer. Private classes are even better.

However, if you have larger classes, you can do these infographic presentations in a few different ways. The first option is to put students into teams of 3-4. Another one is to have students do them for a midterm or final exam. Finally, you can have 1-2 students do a PowerPoint presentation each class as a kind of warm-up and eventually, all students will have done one by the end of the semester.

Infographics have become a common way of presenting information, and your students can create and use one to provide the “meat” of an informative oral presentation. An infographic presentation will also provide an opportunity to research a topic in English. If your students work in an office, they are likely to use PowerPoint at work, so the combination of something familiar (PPT) with something new (English presentation) should reduce stress.

Any time you can get students up and out of their seats is a win!

Choose a Topic with Several Data Points

Have your students choose a topic of interest to them that has several data points. For example, if they have a favourite team, they can find the team’s current ranking, average points per game, number of championships, and so on to populate the infographic. The students should begin the project by researching several data points and finding an image or two online to use for decoration.

To create the infographic, the students will need to reset the margins to create the long, narrow look of an infographic. This is done by choosing a blank layout and changing the slide from landscape to portrait then adjusting the margins. Start with 10”/25cm by 30”/75cm and adjust if necessary.

Your students can use images, Smart Art, and/or charts to present the data they will report. However, you may want to give your students a time limit for choosing a layout or have them make a sketch before opening PowerPoint because the number of options can become a time-waster.

Layout First, Add in Data Second

Once the layout has been chosen, your students will need to fill in the data. If they are using charts, Excel will automatically to fill them in. Don’t worry, it’s pretty self-explanatory and the end result is right there for the student to see while working. Once the images are all in place, the students should add a brief explanation of each image. All images and text boxes can be resized, and the entire slide can be resized by adjusting the margins if there is more (or less) information than expected.

When the students are satisfied with the infographic, it can be saved as a JPEG. This will probably have taken an entire lesson, so the infographic presentation will be in the next lesson. You should tailor the focus of the presentation to your student’s level and needs. Lower-level students may only need to practice speaking without a script. Higher-level students may need to practice the use of gestures or inflection.

Teaching Tips for this Presentation Activity 

If your students do not use PowerPoint at work and are not familiar with it (or if you do not want to spend an entire lesson making an infographic), you may want to have the students find an existing infographic online to present. Search for “infographic” on Google Images and you’ll find many of them.

A video of the infographic presentation can be helpful for your students. When students see and hear themselves, they can more easily see the areas that need improvement.

Procedure: 

1. Have your students choose a topic of interest that would have several data points to research and present.

2. Have the students make a sketch of the planned infographic.

3. Using PowerPoint, have the students make the infographic (use a blank layout, in portrait, with the margins set to 10”/25cm by 30”/75cm).

4. In the next lesson, have the students present the infographic to you. According to the student’s level, have them focus on speaking without a script, using gestures, or inflection, etc.

5. Review the infographic presentation.

What are Some ESL Presentation Topics to Consider?

There are a few classic ones in here, along with some fresh, new ideas for presentation topics that you’ll want to consider:

• Home life
• Family
• Hometown
• Hobbies
• Teach someone how to do something
• Something in the news lately
• Controversial topics (and choose a side)
• If I were president…
• Favourite book, movie, restaurant, etc.
• Vacations (past or dream for the future)
• If I had a million dollars…
• Ideal first date
• Food
• Jobs and work
• What the world will look like in 30 years from now
• Money: Are you a saver, or spender?
• What do you do when you get home from school?

Why Do ESL Presentations?

That’s a great question and we’re happy that you asked! There are a number of reasons why you might consider using presentations for an ESL project idea.

#1: Presenting is a Tangible Skill

Although I’m here to teach English, I always try to give my students some tangible skills they can take with them. For example, in a writing class, I teach students about hooks, thesis statements and topic sentences. This will be useful in any kind of writing, in any kind of language.

And, in my conversational English classes, I like to teach some presentation skills like eye contact, gestures, etc. Hopefully, they’ll use these things again in the future.

#2: They’re Ideal for Business Students

Many business people have to do presentations at work. Help them get some practise with this important skill in your classes.

#3: Helps Improve Listening Skills

When else do students listen for an hour or two, in English, that’s almost exactly at their level? During presentations. Just be sure to give some tasks to give students a reason to listen (see the section below).

#4: They’re Student Directed

I generally give some very vague guidelines as far as topics go. For example, any current events topic. Or, food/school/culture/history/hobbies. Not just one of these things, but perhaps all of them!

This way, they are free to choose whatever they’re interested in and care about. They are often more willing to learn now vocabulary than if I were to just assign a random topic.

Of course, for best results, do be strict about time limits, PowerPoint slides, etc.

#5: It’s a Break from the Usual

Teacher talks, students listen. Sounds familiar? Mix it up in your classes, and have the students do all the talking.

How Can I Increase Audience Engagement?

It’s an excellent question! How can you keep the rest of your students engaged and learning English while other students are doing presentations? There are a few related strategies I like to use to do this. Remember, presentations can be a source of some serious listening and vocabulary practice, so do everything you can to take advantage of this!

Idea #1: Worksheets

Sometimes I require the group or person doing the presentation to come up with a few quick comprehension questions based on their presentation. Multiple-choice, true/false or short answer works well for this.

Then, before their presentation, students have to hand out the worksheet to their classmates. This gives people a reason to listen, and even if there are no grades attached to this, most students will do it.

Idea #2: Follow-Up Questions

Sometimes I put the audience in groups of 3-4. Then immediately after the presentation, I give them a couple of minutes to come up with 3-4 interesting follow-up questions based on the presentation. I choose a few groups to ask one of their questions to the presenter. Or, everyone has a chance to ask a question in the smaller classes.

Idea #3: Peer Grading

Peer grading is an interesting thing I’ve tried in my more mature classes. I’ve almost never seen students watch so closely. Students find this kind of thing surprisingly fun!

I generally let students assign 50% of the grade to their peers, and then I reserve 50% for my own grade. It works best if you give students clearly defined categories that they have to evaluate.

The only downside is that it can take quite a bit of time to compile all the numbers from this in a bigger class.

Idea #4: Taking Notes

Sometimes I’ll require that students take some notes from the presentation. Generally, 4-5 bullet points work well per presentation. It’s great listening and note-taking practise for our students.

Or, get students to write down 3-4 phrases that they hear from each presentation. It’s simple but effective at getting students to work with the language.

Quick tips:

The key to this working well is to coach students about how to take notes. They don’t have to write full sentences, but just the key words or phrases.

At the end of class, I have students show me their notes for some participation points. This activity does not work that well if no points or grades are attached to their work.

Idea #5: Choose ESL Presentation Ideas Carefully

The final thing to do to increase audience engagement is to choose the topics carefully. If the students find them interesting, they’ll listen. It’s really that simple and the best way to ensure success is to come up with some great ESL presentation topics.

How do I Make my Presentation Stand Out? Top 10 Tips

There are a few ways that you can really make your presentation stand out from the crowd. Here are some of the best ways:

1. Use an icebreaker
2. Tell stories
3. Consider using videos or pictures
4. Embrace the non-linear style
5. Interact with your audience (ask them a question)
6. Do a poll
7. Use props
8. Don’t forget about eye contact
9. Move around
10. Practice, practice, practice!

Don’t Forget This Book for Teaching Public Speaking!

If you want to teach presentations to ESL students, you’ll need this most awesome of books. It’s full of great resources for teaching public speaking.

Speaking of Speech: Basic Presentation Skills for Beginners

Trust me, it’ll make your life way easier and happier.

ESL Presentation Ideas FAQs

There are a number of common questions that people have about English learners giving presentations. Here are the answers to some of the most popular ones.

How do I make a good ESL presentation?

There are a few simple steps you can follow for making a good ESL presentation.

1. Do lots of preparation and allow time for this.
2. Structure your presentation (beginning, middle, end).
3. Make notes on keywords but don’t write out full sentences.
4. Rehearse lots.
5. Use a PowerPoint slide or two but don’t include lots of text on it.
6. Allow time for questions from the audience.
7. Make eye contact and use hand gestures.

How do you write a speech for ESL?

To write a speech for ESL, check out these simple tips:

• Consider using short sentences with contractions.
• Use simple words like you’d use when having a conversation with someone.
• Read your speech out loud as you are writing it.
• Get someone to listen to you as you say it and point out any awkward or boring parts.

What is a good presentation topic?

A good presentation topic is one where you know a lot about the subject, either through personal experience or by doing lots of research. It’s also one that the audience has a general interest in.

How do you teach presentation skills to ESL students?

You can teach presentation skills to ESL students by using some of the following activities:

• Recite a famous speech.
• Give a presentation in a small group of 3-4 students.
• Do a solo presentation and put it on YouTube.
• Do quick presentations on a random topic with only a few minutes to prepare.
• Act out a play with the class.
• Work on things like eye contact and hand gestures.
• Teach students how to structure a presentation well.

What are your Presentation Project Ideas?

Do you have any ideas for presentations for English language learners? Do you love, or hate presentation day in your classes? Leave a comment below and let us know! We’d love to hear from you.

And don’t forget to share this article on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest. It’ll help other busy teachers, like yourself find this useful resource.

Last update on 2022-06-17 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API