JAZYKOVÁ KOMPETENCE II Seminar 2 - Thursday 19^th March, 10.40 – 14.00 1. Aims Last seminar we discussed the structure and content of a presentation. Today we will move on to other factors, tips and techniques to help you deliver a more effective presentation. Does everyone have the seminar notes for today? 2. Homework task - Has everyone completed the homework task? (outline / plan of your research presentation)? * Work in groups of 3. Share your research presentation plan with your colleagues, discuss the structure, content, how the points are broken up etc. Give each other feedback. * Present back to the group briefly the research plan of one of the other members of your group. * Remember to keep your discussions in English at all times if possible. 3. Planning your presentation What factors do you need to consider when planning and preparing for your presentation? * Discuss with a partner, then with the class group. Think once again of who, what, why, how… Who?: Who is the audience? Colleagues versus conference? Type of language / references / humour used? Will the presentation be interactive or more a one way talk? What?: What is the topic, how familiar is the audience with the topic (how much background or explanation needs to be given to the audience), how much detail needs to be described, etc. What do you want the audience to learn? Why?: What is the main information you want to get across and why? What is the relevance of the information? What important conclusions can be made? What recommendations for doing things differently or in the future can you give? What do you want the audience to take away? How?: Where is the presentation, to how many people, how long is it, is it a stand-alone presentation or part of a number of others, what facilities are available, how would you like to get your ideas across? 4. What makes a good presentation Ted Talks: Stacey Kramer – The Best Gift I ever Survived https://www.ted.com/talks/stacey_kramer_the_best_gift_i_ever_survived?referrer=playlist-ted_in_3_mi nutes#t-172619 * Listen to the presentation, then discuss with the group * Think about the below questions as you listen? a. What is the hook Stacey uses to get the audience engaged? The audience is trying to guess what she is describing and referring to, before she tells them. She relates it to something positive, eg a gift before going on to share the reality of what it actually was. It gets there interest and keeps them engaged. b. How does she share her background? She shares her very personal story, what happened to her and the effects that the situation had on her…..really focussing on the positive effects. c. What are the main points of the talk? She suffered a life-threatening illness and was able to overcome it and move forward, and appreciate many things in her life much more following this. d. What is the take-home message? How from something extremely negative (even life threatening), it’s possible to gain some very positive gifts / outcomes. From every negative situation comes positive things…..’every dark cloud has a sliver lining’. e. What other factors make this an entertaining presentation? She speaks with passion and emotion, she uses an interesting hook, she engages the audience with eye contact and doesn’t use notes etc, she uses interesting visual aids to highlight her points and entertain the audience. 5. What makes a good presenter? * Complete the principles of an effective presentation below with appropriate verbs: * Think about each statement then discuss with the class group. A good presenter… Keeps the presentation short, but complete. (should all presentations be short? Avoid unnecessary information, longer risks being more boring, particularly if academic.) Gives / shares a proper introduction of himself/herself and the topic of the talk. (How does hearing about the background of the speaker help? Why is it relevant? eg it establishes their credibility and may outline the speaker as an expert on the subject, provides inspiration/motivation, may show how the speaker has collaborated with others.). Delivers / gives the presentation with adequate volume, diction, and eye contact. (diction – language and expression, why is choice of language, expression and eye contact important? To keep it interesting but not too simple or complex. Keep the audience interested and engaged). Avoids / minimises use of notes (does it detract from a presentation if a speaker is referring to their notes? Yes if too much. Do they appear to be an expert on the topic? Better to use slides which prompt you to be able to give the appropriate information.) Engage the audience .. (why is it important to engage with the audience? Perhaps entertain also? Hook and maintain audience interest, it’s very easy to get bored in a brilliant but overly technical or dry presentation. Humour? – can be useful to keep engagement. How easy / hard is it for you to make jokes in English?) Invite / welcome participation and constructive comment (if the audience is involved and engaged, they are much less likely to be bored. Can be valuable comments from the audience to contribute to a discussion, presentation). Avoid / Don’t give too much detail (Don’t want to bore the audience. Make the important points, don’t drone on about things that are irrelevant, overly complex, hard to understand or dull. You will lose the audience). Summarise / condense information to make the best use of the time (Condense the info so that the important points are contained etc, not too much detail on anything, particularly if the presentation isn’t long.) Summarise / restate the main arguments or points (Is it important to summarise in a presentation? Why? Recap the main points so the audience remembers the most important aspects of the presentation.) Draw / give an original conclusion (Academic presentations at PHD level – original thoughts/ideas/conclusions are expected. Breaking new ground, widening the discussion on the research area, setting the scene for future topics of research) Keep the talk within the time limit (Keep or maintain within the time limit. There are often conferences with other speakers etc so this is important, this skill comes with practice and also experience, watch the time where possible.) Invite / take questions from the audience (Most important to be able to respond adequately to questions. Listen carefully, think about the answer, answer to the best of your knowledge, may use language to soften your stance….eg within the limitations of the current study, our study found this, however…..). 6. Jump starting your presentation * Brainstorm with a partner different ideas that may help to start your presentation effectively, engage the audience and get things off to a flying start… * Discuss your ideas with the class group. - Icebreakers….eg. meeting some of the audience and talking with them, share jokes or funny stories / analogies etc. - Let the audience know how they will benefit from the presentation, new info they will be given (what’s in it for me). - Ask a question….get the audience thinking about the answer….the question will be answered during the presentation. - Use a famous (or not) quote ….then the talk can be related back to this. - Provide some interesting / shocking / surprising statistics, this can highlight a problem, something that needs to be changed etc. - Questions that provide engagement by the audience….eg the presentation that we just watched. - Provide other facts or figures, historical evidence, previous study findings etc. 6.1. What type of beginning are the following statements? * Read the statements below and discuss with the class group. a. Hello, I’m Steven….please feel free to have some refreshments while we are waiting for everyone to arrive and be seated… (icebreaker – welcoming the audience). b. Do you realize that recent studies have shown more than 60% of Americans are now considered to be overweight or obese? And this is not just happening in the US… (shocking statistics). c. I’d like to share with you today the findings of our research, and how this may stimulate you to think completely differently about the topic of sports nutrition… (what’s in it for me). d. OK….to start with, I’d like to ask you a question. How many of you average less than 8 hours of sleep a night? And how many average 7 or less? 6?.... (asking a question). e. To start with today, I’d like to share with you a famous quote from the British Author, William Shakespeare…….and how does this related to today’s topic? … (famous quote). f. We often talk about improving communication and the lines of communication within large organisations. But what does this mean exactly? … (asking a question). g. Speaker projects the opening slide with a funny cartoon on it….the audience laughs… (icebreaker – using humour to break the ice). 7. Using Visual Aids * What visual aids are might you need for a presentation? Why? * Discuss with the class group. - power-point slides - graphs / tables / charts - videos or photos - images or gifs - realia / real objects - other ideas? Cartoons / pictures / jokes / quotes etc. * With a partner, discuss the following statements, then discuss with the group. a. A picture is worth 1000 words. Many people are very visual and prefer or take in visual information much more than auditory – pictures and visual information help these people take in a presentation much more effectively. Visual input helps keep everybody more engaged. b. You should include as much information on each slide as possible. Avoid this. Busy slides with too much information are confusing, difficult or undesirable to read, and information will be lost rather than retained. Try and choose only as many important points per slide as you really need, less is better. c. If the audience can’t understand me, they can always read the information. With good slides this is helpful. But clear, simple language is important too. Best is to have appropriate language being presented both visually and verbally. d. The presentation hand-out should be exactly the same as the slides. Probably not so important, either way is fine. Most important is the presentation itself isn’t exactly the same as what is on the slide – eg points on the slide are prompts for the speaker to expand and talk more about. Otherwise the audience will start reading the slides only and ignore the speaker, will get bored and switch off. e. Everyone in the audience needs pictures because that’s how people learn best. This statement is not true for everybody, people learn best from different mediums – some visually, some from auditory information, some from doing / feeling / trying things (kinaesthetic). Visual aids and pictures are likely to help everybody stay engaged to some degree however). f. There should never be more than 6 words on a slide. This is a little strict….but the general point of less rather than more is true in most instances. Avoid wordy, complicated slides with too much information on. g. It’s important to have videos or clips in all presentations these days. Videos are a great way for the presentation to appear more current, dynamic and interesting. They may not be appropriate or necessary in all instances but can be interesting and helpful. They shouldn’t be too long either however. 7.1. Using Slides * Look at the headings below. What do you think is important when using slides in a presentation? * Discuss with the class group. a. Number of slides: Depends on how long the presentation is, and the important points that need to be covered. No set rule for this, it can vary a lot. This can be worked out when planning a topic, always relate it to the time length for the presentation. Think about length of time, how long it will take to present the important points for each section of the talk, plus visual information that needs to be given. b. Layout and information on each slide: Clear, well spaced, minimal words, contains the main points, appropriate visual information. c. Pictures / charts / visual aids: Where possible, use pictures / charts / tables to convey information….it gives the speaker a chance to refer back to their work / research, to show their expertise in being able to talk further on their topic, and allows the speaker to connect the audience from the words to the picture to keep them engaged. d. The way the speaker refers to the slides: Don’t speak to the slides, speak to the audience. Refer and look at the slides for prompts, however look at the audience, try and engage them with eye contact and speak to them. e. Other comments: Look for a professional but clear layout, think about the audience and context of the presentation, it may be appropriate to have conference or meeting title on the slides or your research group…. 7.2. Graphs and charts Charts and graphs measure various statistics and are helpful when presenting large amounts of information that need to be understood quickly. This includes: facts and figures, statistical information, profit and loss, polling information, etc. What are graphs used for in sports science? What information do we have to include when plotting a graph? * Discuss with the class group. - Graphs may provide information on many things in sports science….eg. performance, injury rates, improvement of groups, changes in behaviour, etc. - What each of the X (horizontal) and Y (vertical) axis represents - The scale of the graph eg. Minutes, km, % change etc.. - Other? * Look at the graph below of world population. With a partner, discuss how you would describe the general trends in this graph to an audience. -The graph below demonstrates 3 predictions of how the world population might be in the future. - The black and blue sections of the graph demonstrate the past to current time, which shows a slow increase in world population up until around the 1950s, followed by a faster rate of increase in a more exponential fashion from then until 2020. - The red, orange and green lines demonstrate 3 different scenarios of future prediction of the worlds’ population. The red line shows the worlds’ population continuing to increase at an exponential rate, the orange line shows an initial period of increasing population followed by a stabilisation / flattening in growth around the 2070/80 time period. The green line suggests initial increasing population figures followed by a drop / reduction in the worlds population starting around 2040-50. 1. World population – describing trends http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/56/World-Population-1800-2100.svg/588px-World -Population-1800-2100.svg.png World population estimates from 1800 to 2100, based on "high", "medium" and "low" United Nations projections in 2010 (colored red, orange and green) and US Census Bureau historical estimates (in black). Actual recorded population figures are colored in blue. 7.3. Activities - Complete the gaps in the text using the words listed below: * Read and complete with the class group: seen range show remain experienced stood declined increase peaked The world population has (1) ____seen___ continuous growth since the end of the Great Famine and the Black Death in 1350, when it (2) ___stood____ at around 370 million. The highest rates of growth – global population increases above 1.8% per year – were (3) __experienced__briefly during the 1950s, and for a longer period during the 1960s and 1970s. The growth rate (4) ___peaked____ at 2.2% in 1963, then (5) __declined___ to below 1.1% by 2012. Total annual births were highest in the late 1980s at about 138 million, and are now expected to (6) _remain_essentially constant at their 2011 level of 134 million, while deaths number 56 million per year, and are expected to (7) __increase__ to 80 million per year by 2040. Current UN projections (8) __show_____ a continued increase in population in the near future (but a steady decline in the population growth rate), with the global population expected to reach between 8.3 and 10.9 billion by 2050. The UN Population Division estimates for the year 2150 a (9) ___range___ between 3.2 and 24.8 billion; while mathematical modeling supports the lower estimate. Some analysts have questioned the sustainability of further world population growth, highlighting the growing pressures on the environment, global food supplies, and energy resources. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population) * Now fill in the missing prepositions: To peak __at__ 17% To increase _from__2% __to__3% To decline __to__below 3 billion To range __between__ 4.5 and 5.3 billion To range __from__A to Z * With a partner, discuss which of the verbs below can be used to refer to diagrams? illustrates shows believes suggests indicates represents states demonstrates argues reflects * the underlined verbs can be used to introduce or discuss diagrams, charts, graphs, figures, tables etc….eg this graph indicates…..the next table demonstrates…..this graph represents….etc. * Create some example phrases which you can use to introduce a chart or graph: - If you look at the chart on this slide…. - This graph shows the relationship of…. - In this table you can see…. -You can see from this graph of …. - On the next slide you it can be seen from the graph that…. 7.4. Numbers, Trends and Pronunciation * Practice reading the following numbers aloud: a. 6759 - six thousand, seven hundred and fifty nine. b. 20.75 m - twenty point seven five million. c. £6.2 million - six point two million pounds. d. 7.836% - seven point eight three six percent. e. $885 - eight hundred and eighty five dollars. f. 6 ft 2 inches - six foot, two inches. When you don’t need to say an exact amount: a. Around 5600 people attended the event… b. Approximately 89% of individuals present… c. Roughly $90 million has been spent … d. The figures more or less suggest that… e. Just over ¾ of the subjects that we recruited were asymptomatic… * Read the sentences below, then rewrite them as approximations: a. At the shop they produce 995 new items every day. They produce around 1000 new items at the shop every day. b. The company’s profit was reported to be $1.005 million last year. The company’s profit was reported to be roughly one million dollars last year. c. The consitituents of the mixture included 49% paint and 51% water. The mixture consists of approximately 50% each of paint and water. d. 68.9% of people mentioned that they prefer eating meat over vegetables. Almost 70% of people reported they prefer eating meat over veges. e. In the UK there are 192,597 fully qualified medical professionals. There are roughly 200,000 fully qualified medical professionals in the UK. f. There are 548 rivers in the region of greater Westonia. There are around 550 rivers in the greater Westonia region. g. The firm has now produced 101 different items that have gone on sale. The firm has produced somewhere in the region of 100 items that have now gone on sale. 7.4. Describing Graphs and Trends * Work with a partner: Match the trends in the graphs with the sentences below them: a. You can see in the graph that the figures are quite stable / consistent… 5 b. There is a general downward trend that can be seen, with a small rise in the early to mid portion of the time period… 3 c. It can be seen clearly that the numbers fluctuate throughout the testing period.. 6 d. There is a steep rise early followed by a small decrease. However then steady growth once again can be seen with a sharp rise towards the end. 1 e. The arrow indicates the lowest point on the scale, however prior to and following this point, the numbers were generally much higher. 4 f. There is an early steep rise in the curve followed by a shallow drop. Following this the figures skyrocket to the peak, which can be seen by the arrow. 2 8. Time for Questions A short time period set aside for questions is a common feature of academic presentations. Think about why this is the case, what are the benefits of providing this time for your presentation, and how to best prepare for this time * Discuss these ideas in groups of 3, then with the class group: a. Why invite questions from the audience and why do people ask questions? To show you’re an expert, to clarify your main points from the presentation and avoid any confusion, to stimulate discussion on the topic, to challenge existing ideas/theories etc. b. When should you invite questions? Why or why not? During the talk – can be spontaneous and useful, but disruptive – you could lose your train of thought. At the end – more structured, can control the time of the presentation better, people can note down their questions during the talk. c. What are the advantages / disadvantages of allowing questions? Advantages: as for the first question, allows the discussion to expand beyond the scope of the presentation also, its accepted in the academic arena as common practice. Disadvantages: can get a tricky question you aren’t prepared for, can extend the length of your talk, you may need to be able to say ‘I/we don’t know yet’ – it’s a topic for future study, etc. d. How can you best prepare for questions? Know your material very well, prepare for different questions, have an answer prepared if you get a tricky question, eg. its beyond the scope of this talk, we can discuss it further individually..etc. Think of the obvious questions you may be asked. 8.1. Repeating and Paraphrasing questions When you receive a question from the audience, there are different methods that you can use that can both help you clarify the question for both yourself and the audience, and to give yourself a bit of extra time to respond as well as you can. a. Repeating the question back: When a question is asked, it’s possible to simply repeat the question using the same words, but without raising your intonation as used for typical questions….eg. Question: Are there any previous studies that have found different results to yours? Response: Are there any previous studies that have had different results to ours……well…. b. Paraphrasing: When the question is more complicated and perhaps difficult to understand either for yourself or the audience, then it may be useful to paraphrase the question back to the person who asked it so everyone is clear on exactly what the question is. Then you can respond appropriately… Question: You mentioned that there were some outliers in your study that may have skewed the results towards a positive finding, can you tell us why you think that occurred? Response: OK, so am I right in saying that you are asking whether the outliers from our subject group may have skewed our results in a positive direction? Is that correct? ……OK…well…… c. Prepared responses: You can have some other statements ready for when you receive a question which can function similarly to the above points: I’m sorry, can you please repeat your question…. So to clarify, you were asking about…. So you would like me to explain in more detail…. To be clear then, you are asking about…. You’ve raised two points here….the first….. I’ll be discussing that point a little later so if its ok, we will move on for now… I’m afraid that point moves beyond the scope of my research and this talk, however…. I didn’t catch that, can you please repeat the question? I’m sorry, I don’t understand your question. Can you please put it another way? So you’re asking me if I agree with previous research findings or not? Would you mind holding on to that question for the end? We will be talking about that soon. Assignment and Presentation Assignment: Submission date 5pm Thur 9^th April. * Prepare a 1000 word written document on the same topic of your upcoming presentation. Use the structure used in your plan and the ideas covered during the seminars where possible. Presentation: All talks will be on Thur 2^nd April. * 10 – 15 minute presentation on your research or another topic of choice. * Be prepared with visual aids / powerpoint etc (bring on a flash drive or email to me beforehand if needed).