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Teaching and Learning Design Presentations in Engineering

Contradictions between Academic and Workplace Activity Systems

North Carolina State University

In courses within technical disciplines, students are often asked to give oral presentations that simulate a professional context. Yet learning to speak like a professional in this academic context is a process often laden with complications. Using activity theory and situated learning as theoretical frameworks, this article explores the teaching and learning of one of the most common oral genres in technical fields—the design presentation. A study of the teaching and learning of this oral genre in three sequential engineering design courses reveals critical academic and workplace contradictions regarding audience, identity, and structure. Results of this study show that in the teaching and learning of design presentations, audience and identity contradictions were managed by a primary deference to the academic context whereas structural contradictions were addressed by invoking both workplace and academic activity systems.

Key Words: Oral genres • communication across the curriculum • activity theory • professional identity construction • oral presentations in engineering • speaking in the disciplines

Journal of Business and Technical Communication, Vol. 17, No. 2, 139-169 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/1050651902250946


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