Presenting a Research Proposal: The Examiners’ Expectations

The teaching of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) values the cultivation of students’ academic literacy in order to prepare the students for their academic tasks. Therefore, it is indispensable to study one of their academic tasks to have a clearer picture of the academic literacy which the students need to possess but they may not be aware of. With regard to this, an exploratory study that foregrounds one of the academic tasks in the management field, which is the proposal presentation session, was conducted. The objectives of this study are to examine the aspects that are emphasized in a proposal presentation session of a postgraduate management student as well as to investigate purposes of the presentation. Data collected through observation and unstructured interview were analyzed qualitatively. Interestingly, findings indicate that language plays a salient role in expressing the content of the proposal. A few themes were derived, which are language competence, academic skills, lack of awareness on proposal presentation, and the emphasis on the written proposal instead of the proposal presentation.