AII SEMINAR 1 Presentations – Answer Key Task 1 – 1. a) 2. b) 3. b) 4. c) 5. a) 6. c) 7. a) 8. a) Task 2 – 1. b) 2. c) 3. b) 4. c) 5. a) 6. c) 7. c) 8. c) 9.c) 10.b) Task 3 – Listening – Giving Talks and Presentations Part 1 – Preparation – key points: 1 Objectives, 2 Audience, 3 Content, 4 Organisation, 5 Visual information, 6 Practice Part 2 – Language – “Sign Posting” Sections that are referred to: 1, 3, 7, 9, and 10. Part 3 – Delivery – key points 1 Nerves, 2 Voice, 3 Body Language, 4 Visual Information, 5 Questions Tapescript: Part 1 Good morning everyone, and welcome to our seminar. This morning I’m going to give you guidelines for preparing and delivering talks and presentations. I’ve divided my presentation into three parts: first we’ll deal with preparation, then we’ll focus on language, and lastly we’ll look at delivery. As you listen, you might like to take notes on key points. There’ll be an opportunity to ask questions at the end of each section, but do interrupt me if there’s anything you don’t understand. So, let’s start with preparation. This stage is extremely important and there are six key areas you need to think about when preparing your presentation or talk. The first one is objectives. You need to think carefully about the aim of your talk, and what you want to achieve. Second, the audience. Think about who they are, and what they need to know. The third area is content. You need to be careful not to give your audience too much information. Concentrate on what they need to know, on what will interest them. The fourth area is organization. Your presentation needs to have clear and logical organization so everyone can follow it without difficulty. We’ll come back to this point later, when we look at language. The fifth area is visual information. Presenting information visually, for example, on an overhead projector or a flipchart, adds interest to a presentation and makes it easier to follow, but it’s important to make sure you don’t give too much information at a time. The last key area is practice. When you’ve finished preparing your talk, practise giving it. This way you’ll discover if there are any problems and will be able to check the timing. If should also make you feel more confident. So, to summarize, at the preparation stage you need to think about six key areas: first objectives, second audience, third content, fourth organization, fifth visual information, and sixth practice. Now, before I move on to the second part of my presentation, are there any questions? Part 2 Right. Let’s now turn our attention to the use of language, and in particular what we call ‘signposting language’. It would be useful here if you look at the handout Giving Talks and Presentations. I won’t go through each section, only draw your attention to some sections. If you look at the first section, Introducing the Topic, you’ll see there are phrases for introducing your talk, for giving your audience an overview of what’s to come. Further down, in section three, there are phrases for introducing the different parts of your talk, and for moving from one part to the next. Later, in section seven, there are phrases for focusing the audience’s attention on visual information. And in sections nine and ten, phrases for concluding your talk and dealing with questions. You’ll need to look at the handout more carefully later on, but I hope that gives you an idea of what I mean by ‘signposting language’ and the kind of phrases you need to use. Now, I think that’s everything I want to say about language. Oh, there are just a couple of points. If you need to use technical words or jargon that the audience may not know, make sure you explain them clearly, and don’t use long, complicated sentences; keep your sentences short and easy to follow. Right. Are there any questions on what we’ve covered so far? Part 3 Now we come to the last part, Delivery. You need to consider five key areas here. The first one is nerves. Most of us feel nervous when we speak in public, especially if we’re speaking a foreign language. It can help if you breathe deeply. Breathing deeply calms you down and stops you speaking too quickly, which usually happens when you’re nervous. The second area is voice. Obviously it’s important to speak clearly and not too quickly, but it’s also important to sound interesting. If your voice sounds monotonous, your audience will fall asleep! Next, body language. Try to give the impression that you’re relaxed and confident, even if you’re not, and try to avoid nervous gestures or movements. An important element of body language is eye contact, and keeping eye contact with the audience is important to keep them interested in what you’re saying. For this reason you shouldn’t read your talk or presentation. Instead, list key points on a flipchart or transparency, and refer to notes as well, if you need to. Stand rather than sit, but make sure you don’t stand in front of visual information. And visual information is the fourth key area on our list. I mentioned earlier the importance of not presenting too much information at a time, and you saw in the handout, phrases for focusing the audience’s attention on what you want them to look at. Remember, too, to give them enough time to take in the information you’re showing them. The fifth and final area is questions. The policy is to answer questions in a polite, diplomatic way. The phrases in the handout should give you some help here. So, to sum up, the five areas you need to think about when delivering your talk or presentation are nerves, voice, body language, visual aids, and questions. Well, this brings me to the end of my presentation. Thank you for your attention, and now if you have any questions, I’ll be happy to answer them. Taken from International Express Intermediate (Teacher’s Book), Liz Taylor, OUP, 1997, p. 53. Task 4 – based on class work Task 5 Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for coming. Today I will be providing you with information on the structure and running of Masaryk University. I’ve divided my presentation into three parts: first we’ll deal with the various schools and faculties, then we’ll focus on the different courses (omit and stuff like that completely), and lastly we’ll look at the day-to-day running of the whole institution. There’ll be an opportunity to ask questions and discuss issues at the end of my talk, but do interrupt me if there’s anything you don’t understand. Some guidelines to determine the level of formality: Length – the longer the word or phrase, generally the more formal Phrasal verbs – usually informal, but note exceptions e.g. Fill in/out a form, look forward to Particular words like get, take, stuff, things – usually informal Active/passive – using pronouns makes a phrase less formal Origin – generally words from French and Latin are more formal; Germanic words are less formal Task 6 – 1. c) 2. d) 3. d) 4. c) 5. d)