Teaching Presentation Skills

BETA Conference, May 2008Teaching Presentation Skills Simon Parker, Saturday May 10 th 2008... BETA Conference, May 2008• Presenter is not monotone • Presenter makes eye contact • Pres

BETA Conference, May 2008

Teaching Presentation Skills

Simon Parker, Saturday May 10 th 2008

BETA Conference, May 2008

Characteristics: – teachable

BETA Conference, May 2008

“a talk giving information about something”

source: Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary

Usually lasting for at least 1½ minutes The majority of the ‘talk’ should be in the

student’s own words

BETA Conference, May 2008

Benefits of student

presentations

• Free practice

• Creates a context for use of new vocabulary

• A transferable life skill!

• Increased confidence

• Development of body language

• Accelerated language development

BETA Conference, May 2008

• Presenter is not monotone

• Presenter makes eye contact

• Presenter uses appropriate body language

BETA Conference,

May 2008

Get your students to

either identify these

themselves or, ‘rate’ the

importance of a list you provide them with – e.g

‘good teacher, good

presenter?

BETA Conference, May 2008

explains the purpose of the lesson + what you will do

talks with their body! – they use their hands when they speak

knows their subject

explains with interesting examples

reviews what they’ve covered at the end of the session

Student questionnaire

BETA Conference, May 2008

The structure of ANY

BETA Conference, May 2008

Body Language

• 60% of all human communication is non-verbal

• Body language can significantly improve the communication between native and none native speakers

BETA Conference,

May 2008

Get students to mime

different feelings and

emotions

Demonstrate the link

between body language

and structure: first point,

second point (but warning on middle finger and V sign!)

Get students to practice

these with speech

BETA Conference, May 2008

Eye Contact

BETA Conference, May 2008

Demonstrate this to your

students: how do they react /

feel when you look them in the eye? What is the purpose of

eye contact?

Get individual students to the front of the class to practice

Devise a game for getting

students to practice eye contact

BETA Conference, May 2008

The stresses and pauses

exercise

“I think we’ll need to find a new venue for our party”

“I think we’ll need to find a new venue for our party”

“I think we’ll need to find a new venue for our party”

“I think we’ll need to find a new venue for our party”

“I think we’ll need to find a new venue for our party”

BETA Conference, May 2008

The Power of the

sometimes find it hard to pause

in their presentations?”

BETA Conference, May 2008

Steps

1 Get the students to memorize the sentence

2 Ask them the meaning of the sentence with the key word stressed

3 Ask them how they would stress the word Long or short? Loud etc?

4 Ask them where the pause should be

5. Get all students to say the sentence, standing up but by their seat

6 Introduce body language: what would be appropriate for each sentence/word?

7 Get all students to say the sentence with body language, standing up but, again, by their

seat

8 Introduce eye contact

9 Get students to come to the front of the class and say the sentence, making eye contact

with specific individuals

Keep the pace brisk; give lots of praise; don’t be afraid to get students repeating sentences; try and make it fun!

BETA Conference, May 2008

Free(er) practice

Students decide which words should be stressed and where the pauses should be More practice at the front of

the class.

Try and get them to differentiate between

formal and informal openers

Try and get them to write the first three

sentences of their presentation in the class

BETA Conference, May 2008

Get students to think

about how they move

from one section of their presentation to the next :

pause – “I’m now going to tell you about XXXX” pause “…….

Get them to tell you why the

BETA Conference, May 2008

Get / encourage students

to write a key point summery of their

presentation e.g.

• Intro: my product, my market, my

competitors

• Point 1 product: key features, USP

• Point 2 market: size, growth + reasons

BETA Conference, May 2008

BETA Conference, May 2008

Planning + Effort =

Success!

Keep stressing that:

BETA Conference, May 2008

Assessment, self assessment, peer

assessment

Get students to say what was

good about their own presentation and what could be improved

Give frequent, specific praise

BETA Conference, May 2008

Thank you for participating!

Keep in touch:

albiontraining@gmail.com