Exploring TED Talks as a Pedagogical Resource for Oral Presentations: A Corpus-Based Move Analysis

Abstract

The present study examines the rhetorical structure of talks from TED conferences to explore the possibility of their being incorporated into the instruction of oral presentation in English-language classrooms. Drawing on the corpus-based move analysis approach, the study analyzes a corpus of 58 selected TED talks to tease out their shared structural features and the variations and flexibility embedded among them. The analysis proceeds by using a coding protocol, developed for this corpus by the researchers, to outline the rhetorical moves and structural elements. The analysis identifies seven major move types (and their respective component steps) and establishes a genre prototype based on move frequencies, lengths, associations, and patterns of occurrence. Meanwhile, the findings also highlight the influence of the form, objectives, and conventions of TED conferences on the rhetorical structure of the talks. This paper discusses the pedagogical applications of the findings in classroom instruction as well as other implications for future research.

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