http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/exams/speaking-exams/oral-presentation
While preparing a presentation
Do:
Use the planning time to prepare what you‟re going to say.
If you are allowed to have a note card, write short notes in point form.
Use more formal language.
Use short, simple sentences to express your ideas clearly.
Pause from time to time and don‟t speak too quickly. This allows the listener to understand your ideas. Include a short pause after each idea.
Speak clearly and at the right volume.
Have your notes ready in case you forget anything.
Practise your presentation. If possible record yourself and listen to your presentation. If you can‟t record yourself, ask a friend to listen to you. Does your friend understand you?
Make your opinions very clear. Use expressions to give your opinion. Look at the people who are listening to you.
Don‟t:
Write out the whole presentation and learn every word by heart.
Write out the whole presentation and read it aloud.
Use very informal language.
Only look at your note card. It‟s important to look up at your listeners when you are speaking.
Useful language for presentations.
Explain what your presentation is about at the beginning:
Im going to talk about...
Id like to talk about...
The main focus of this presentation is...
Use these expressions to order your ideas:
First of all,...
Firstly,...
Then,...
Secondly,...
Next,...
Finally,...
Lastly,...
To sum up,...
In conclusion,...
Use these expressions to add more ideas from the same point of view:
In addition,...
Whats more,...
Also,...
Added to this,...
To introduce the opposite point of view you can use these words and expressions:
However,...
On the other hand,...
Then again,...
Please, find more useful information at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl_FJAOcFgQ
The script of the video from DYNAMIC PRESENTATION DVD‟ by Mark Powel.
OPENING AND CLOSING
MARK POWEL: To give a successful presentation, they say, you need to have a good beginning, a good ending and keep them close together; and sure enough research shows that audiences remember the first and last two minutes in the presentation long after they forgot most of what was said in the middle. Psychologists call that the primacy-recency effect‟ but you might prefer to think if your opener and close astwo bookends holding up your talk. To do their job they both need to be strong.
Now, starting off by saying good morning‟, introducing yourself, thanking your audience for coming, apologizing for a small technical problem with your audio and visuals and asking if people can hear you in the back is clearly not a strong opening. But neither is this:
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SPEAKER 1: I want to talk to you today about the kind of world we in the business community are passing onto the next generation
MARK POWEL: What is wrong with it? It‟s short, direct and bo-o-oring. Let‟s see how it might have sounded
SPEAKER 1: Environmental degradation, a declining economy, crippling taxes, chronic diseases, a life expectancy shorter than that of their parents and thirty thousand dollars in debt for every man, woman and child. This is a nightmare world we are passing on to our kids
MARK POWEL: Now, that‟s a good opening!.. Watch how these presenters gain their audience‟s attention, right at the start.
SPEAKER 2: Good morning! Some time in the early 1980-s a business traveler called a low cost carrier called People Express‟ to reserve a flight. He was kept on hold for so long he thought himself either this airline is incredibly busy or incredibly inefficient. Needless to say, the flight was never booked and People Express‟ went out of business in 1987. The name of the business traveler was Richard Branson who recognizing the great business opportunity, when he saw it, went on to launch Virgin Pacific Airlines‟ and the rest, of course, is history. But my question to you is just how bad does your customer service have to be to turn a potential client into a competitor?
SPEAKER 3: There was a great book published a few years back called The Wisdom of Crowds‟ by Jean Sorrowacky. In it you refer to a popular TV quiz show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire‟ which, I am sure, you‟ve all seen. As you may know, contestants may get help with questions they can‟t answer by either phoning a friend or asking the audience. As you might expect, calling an intelligent friend helps sixty five percent of the time, in fact But here is the interesting thing the studio audience isn‟t selected on the basis of their intelligence So, how often, do you think, they are able to answer the question correctly?.. (the audience is talking ) The answer is ninety one percent of the time. Statistically, that‟sjust amazing and it proves the power of teams.
SPEAKER 4: I want to say if you think about winning did you know that in all the major golf tournaments over the last twenty five years the margin of victory has been less than three strokes In Fomula I‟ motor racing, so far this season, the average time difference between first and second place has been just over seven and a half of a second. And remember last summer Olympics in the men‟s 100 meters butterfly the American swimmer won by 0,001 of a second 0,001 it was so close that the Serbian team who won silver even filed a protest. These days in
business as in sport, the difference between winning and losing is practically zero.
But not quite In every case the winner has that vital edge The thing I am going to show you this afternoon demonstrates that we, too, have that marginal but vital edge.
MARK POWEL: From your audience‟s point of view the end of your talk might be even more important than the beginning. These are the words they will be left with after you stop If you have ever been to a firework display you will know that the biggest and brightest fireworks are usually saved for the end. This doesn‟t mean you have to finish with a bang But you do want to leave a lasting impression Watch these presenters clinch the closes
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SPEAKER 2: To summarize, whenever we have offered bonuses to incentivize our staff in Saints HR and manufacturing divisions, productivity has increased, in some cases quite dramatically. But as we saw in R&D, introducing pay by performance has had just precisely the opposite effect. Incentivized research units were, on average, only half as productive as those working without added incentives. What are we to make of this? Well, it‟s quite simply, it seems bonuses really do make you work hard when your job is pretty routine, but when your job is creative incentives just stress you out and actually make you less creative, not more
Clearly, we all need to go away and think of a fresh initiative for motivating our most mission-critical employees. Thanks a lot!
SPEAKER 3: As you know, it‟s a tradition in Asia to quote words of wisdom So, I am going to be totally predictable and do the same An ancient philosopher once said a man who chases two rabbits, catches neither‟. In our research we have been chasing too many rabbits for far too long. It‟s time to stop, to prioritize. If there is one thing we now need to do in a word, it‟s this: focus! Thank you very much!
MARK POWEL: At the preparation stage a lot of presenters like to create their closes first so they know where they are going and then work backwards finishing up with an attention-grabbing opening. But whichever way you plan your talk, make sure that you always give priority to the first and last three minutes.
Available at www.cambridge.org/elt/pro
Final home assignment: preparea PowerPoint presentation The Person I admire‟. Usethe activevocabulary and the grammar structures you have studied. Refer to SUPPLEMENT materials
(Making a presentation‟).
Your illustrated narration should be prepared in the oral format and presented to the class (500 650 words) within 6 8 minutes.
TEXT 1
