The purpose of this study is to investigate how the students engaged in cognitive apprenticeship during the pair work activity to improve their academic oral presentations in an English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom. The participants are Japanese university students with little experience of making oral presentations in public. Advice, feedback, and comments on the advice-response sheets written by the students during three-time pair practices were used for qualitative analysis. The results showed students engaged in cognitive apprenticeship by playing two roles, as an advisor and advisee. While students engaged in peer interaction in the form of pair practice, they engaged in cognitive apprenticeship through exploration, articulation and scaffolding as a listener, and exploration and articulation as a presenter. Through pair work activity, the students came to realize that making a presentation audience-friendly is necessary at all times. The structure of the activity directly facilitated the development of this perspective.
