Successful Presentations. Trainer's Guide

58 Pages·1.492 MB·English

by  Hughes John.

Successful
Presentations
Trainer’s Guide
John Hughes
1
1
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, ox2 6dp, United Kingdom
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A001306
acknowledgements
Cover images by: Getty Images (Speaker microphone/Romilly Lockyer),
(Businesswoman clapping/Jose Luis Pelaez Inc/Blend Images); Gareth Boden
(two images of meetings)
Contents
Introduction 4
Unit 1 Preparing your presentation 9
Unit 2 Structuring your presentation 13
Unit 3 Introducing your presentation 16
Unit 4 Delivering your message 21
Unit 5 Using visual aids 26
Unit 6 Concluding 30
Unit 7 Handling questions 34
Unit 8 Bringing it alive! 39
Photocopiable pages
1.1 Introducing a colleague 43
1.2 Preparing your space 44
2.1 Improving the structure of a presentation 45
2.2 Presentations expressions dominoes 46
3.1 Audience profiles 47
3.2 Expressions pelmanism 48
4.1 Delivering your main messages 49
4.2 Verb + preposition combinations 50
5.1 Choosing and improving visual aids 51
5.2 Trends and figures 52
6.1 Call to action 53
6.2 Concluding a presentation 54
7.1 Responding to questions using body language 55
7.2 Ask a question 56
8.1 Presenters and their techniques 57
8.2 Synonyms 58
Successful Presentations Trainer’s Guide | Contents | © Oxford University Press 2012 3
Introduction
Who is Successful Presentations for?
Successful Presentations is a comprehensive video-based course for people who need the
skills and language for giving presentations in English. It is primarily for people in work or for
people who will need to present in their future professional lives. However, it could be used by
anyone who needs presentation skills, e.g. for presenting in an academic context or for giving a
presentation in any kind of organization.
In-work students
Unlike many other courses in presentation skills, Successful Presentations addresses the needs of
employees at all levels of an organization. It recognizes that everyone needs to present at some
stage in their working lives, from the top manager to the new employee attending his or her
first meeting. These formal and informal presentations are taking place every minute of the day,
all over the world and predominantly between people from different countries, communicating
in the language of English. The course recognizes this diversity of need so it provides the key
skills and language in a way that quickly allows students to apply them to the context of their
own jobs.
Pre-work students
Successful Presentations can also be used with pre-work students at college level. The course
makes presenting a skill that is accessible to and achievable by all. As it is a video course,
students with little or no experience have a chance to see people presenting, with the support
of commentary and input from a communications trainer and coach.
One-to-one and group teaching
The video and the coursebook can be used in a classroom environment with individual
students or a group. Obviously with groups, students can work together, discuss ideas and
present to each other. With one-to-one classes, the trainer and student can watch the video and
work through exercises in the coursebook together. The student can prepare and present to
the trainer. It is also useful to make video recordings of the presentations to watch and analyse
afterwards. Throughout this Trainer’s Guide, you will find further guidelines and ideas for using
and adapting the material for different classroom contexts.
Individual self-study
The course can also be used for self-study by a student, in which case this Trainer’s Guide will not be
needed. However, if you are a trainer who has assigned the course to one of your students for self-
study, you may wish to support this with additional materials. You may find it helpful to provide the
student with some of the photocopiable and extension activities found in each unit of the guide.
What approach does Successful Presentations take?
Successful Presentations takes students though all the stages of preparing and presenting. Each
unit begins by asking students to reflect on their own previous experiences of presenting or,
if they have not presented before, of attending presentations. Using this starting point, the
communications expert Andrew Mallett leads the learner through the key skills needed for a
presentation. Typically, Andrew presents a useful model for learners to remember and to apply.
There is also the chance for learners of English to focus on the type of language they will need
to present in English. This could include key expressions for structuring a presentation, key
vocabulary, and tips on useful linguistic techniques.
Successful Presentations Trainer’s Guide | Introduction | © Oxford University Press 2012 4
Alongside the theory behind a successful presentation, units 2–8 include an actual presentation
which provides an example of how to approach and implement the newly-acquired skills
and language. Students watch a range of presentations in different contexts. Some extracts
are presenters talking to an external audience. Other extracts show less formal presentations
between a speaker and an audience of colleagues in his or her workplace.
Units 2–8 always end with an output task where students need to prepare and give a
presentation. They are also encouraged to make use of feedback forms. These can be used in
different ways, including analysing their own performance or for giving feedback to each other
in a group situation. It is important to stress the importance of this follow-up feedback stage as
a key component of the course. By training students to analyse the reasons for their successes
and the need to work on other areas in the future, the course equips them to continue
developing as accomplished presenters long after it has ended.
What is in the course?
The course consists of a DVD with an accompanying coursebook. The DVD comprises eight
units which reflect the different aspects of presenting. Each unit is divided into sections,
with people commenting on their own experience of presenting, an extract from part of
a presentation, Andrew’s own input on the skills needed followed by his analysis of the
presentation in the video.
The flexibility of the DVD allows you to watch the units and each section in any order to
suit your needs. However, if you are using the DVD in conjunction with the accompanying
coursebook, you will probably want to use the videos in the order given.
The coursebook is an invaluable support to the course. The questions and comprehension tasks
help the trainer and students navigate the key stages of presenting shown in the videos. The
coursebook is especially helpful in terms of providing language help for the non-native speaker
of English. There are exercises to aid language learning for presenting and a crucial reference
section of key expressions.
Key features of a unit and general guidance
notes on using the course
Unit 1 focuses on preparing for a presentation so it has a slightly different structure to the
remaining seven units. However, a unit usually consists of three main sections – Presentation
skills, Language focus, Presentation task and analysis – and these are spread over six pages. You
may wish to treat each two-page section as a single lesson focusing first on skills and then on
language. The final section gives students a presentation task. You will need to set this at the
end of one lesson so that students prepare in their own time. During the lesson when they give
their presentation to end the unit, it is advisable to use the analysis and self-assessment forms
as part of the feedback stage.
Unit menu
In the top left-hand corner of the first page of the unit, there is a list of the key learning
objectives of the unit. It is usually a good idea to make sure students read these, or explain
them to the class so that everyone knows the aims of the lessons and understands the
expectations.
Presentation skills
Talking points
With the exception of unit 1, each unit begins with short questions to draw on students’ own
experience of presenting or attending presentations. Use these questions to find out what
students already know and to make them aware of the key issues. Then follow up the discussion
by showing the short video interviews with other people, who may have similar and different
Successful Presentations Trainer’s Guide | Introduction | © Oxford University Press 2012 5
experiences to the students. This kind of input is especially useful with one-to-one classes as it
gives another ‘outside’ perspective. It is also helpful with groups of students because the people
in the video make useful suggestions and give their own ideas on how to cope with presenting.
Note that unit 1 also includes other people talking about how they prepare and cope with nerves.
The presentation
Units 2–8 contain extracts from actual presentations. Each presentation takes place in a
particular professional context so the first viewing checks that students understand the main
points from the presentation. To do this, they complete comprehension questions, which may
include familiar yes/no answers, more open answers, true/false statements or note-taking and
sentence completion.
The expert view
In this section students watch Andrew Mallett explaining a key aspect of presenting. Students
will need to take notes as they watch and often they complete a diagram which helps them
acquire a model of the skills they need for presenting. It is always useful to ask students to read
through the questions and notes they will need to complete before watching. If necessary,
play The expert view more than once and pause the video to make sure students understand
the relevant points. After watching, students in groups can compare their notes before feeding
back answers.
Analysis
Having watched Andrew’s insights into a key aspect of presenting, students watch the
presentation again and analyse it using the checklist or table given. They are also encouraged
to give their own personal reactions to the presentation and comment on the ways it did (or
did not) follow Andrew’s advice. It is important to stress that the presentations in the video are
not necessarily ‘perfect’ so students should feel free to suggest ideas for improvement as well as
recognizing good practice and the things the presenters did well.
The expert feedback
Andrew gives his own feedback on the presentation and uses the analysis to reiterate the key
points of the skills needed. Students are invited to compare his views with their own, though
they should note that Andrew does not necessarily comment on every aspect in the Analysis
section.
Language focus
By this stage of the unit, students will have watched all the sections of the DVD for the unit. The
Language focus section in the coursebook focuses on the key language for a particular stage of
a presentation.
Exercises
The first set of exercises usually involves watching and listening to part of the presentation
on the DVD again. Then further exercises look at other key areas. Each set of exercises has
a functional heading (e.g. Structuring a presentation, Announcing the beginning and end of a
message, etc.) so that students are clear about the purpose of the language being presented
and practised. The exercise types are primarily controlled. They give practice to raise students’
confidence and to help them memorize key vocabulary and expressions.
In some classroom contexts, where time is short, you may wish to set some of these exercises
for self-study and students can refer to the Answer key. However, if you decide to complete
the exercises in class, students can work together on completing the questions. After each set
of exercises, you could also use some of the further classroom activities and extension tasks
described in the notes accompanying each unit in this Trainer’s Guide.
TIP
There is a useful TIP on the Language focus spread, which either helps with a language point or
includes a suggestion for improving a presentation.
Successful Presentations Trainer’s Guide | Introduction | © Oxford University Press 2012 6
Presentation task
In unit 1, the last two pages of the unit are dedicated to a needs analysis. This will help students
think about their own presentation needs and help you adapt the course for their particular
requirements. However, in units 2–8, the last two pages are dedicated to the student(s)
preparing and giving a presentation.
Some students who already present may have a presentation they are currently working on. If
so, you could encourage them to develop this during the course, using the skills and language
presented on the previous pages of the unit. However, the Presentation task always provides
students with a context for a presentation that will target the aims of the unit. The task normally
requires students to provide some of the content and this forms part of the preparation
process. In addition, some units include an Alternative task where the content is provided or
students create information. This task might be more helpful with pre-work students who
cannot necessarily draw on real experience.
On a taught course, you will want to allow classroom time for students to read through the task
and consider what is required. Then they will need to go away and prepare the presentation for
the next lesson. As they prepare, make sure they refer to the list of Useful phrases. These include
both expressions from the previous Language focus section and other additional expressions.
Clearly, a student will not always want to use all the expressions so they could look through
and tick the expressions that they like using or feel most comfortable with. Alternatively, you
could ask them to try and use certain expressions in their presentation if you feel their choice of
language needs more variety and challenge.
Analysis and Self-assessment
The forms on the last page of units 2–8 are used during and after the presentation(s). Here are
suggestions for their use:
• When preparing a presentation, a student can refer to the analysis form to make sure the
presentation includes all the key points. It can be used in the form of a checklist to help with
preparation.
• During a presentation, the trainer can take the student’s coursebook and complete the
analysis form as a way of giving feedback and comments to the student. The trainer returns
the form to the student but, ideally, this will also be accompanied by some oral feedback and
a chance for the student to ask about any of the trainer’s comments.
• In group situations, you can ask students to give each other feedback using the analysis
forms. This kind of peer feedback requires a very supportive and trusting environment. With
classes who are working together for the first time, you may not want to use peer feedback
immediately but to wait until students have done one or two presentations to each other.
However, peer feedback can be a very useful process and usually students are highly positive
about it.
• You can also video a student’s presentation and then they watch it and complete the analysis
form. It is a good way for students to reflect and is very useful for one-to-one classes.
• The self-assessment form is for individual students to use after they have presented. The
idea is that most students need some quiet time afterwards to reflect on what went well and
what they want to work on next. By asking them to make notes for a few minutes using the
form, they have time to relax and consider the presentation calmly. They are also asked to
think about what they have learned from watching other people’s presentations.
• If you are working with a group, it is helpful at the end of the lesson to ask for general
comments about what they have gained from both giving presentations and watching other
people. If they have completed the self-assessment form, they can talk about some of their
comments in the final group feedback and summing up.
Successful Presentations Trainer’s Guide | Introduction | © Oxford University Press 2012 7
Additional material
At the back of the coursebook, you will find the following sections.
Skills review
This provides summaries of the key points from each unit for reference. You could ask students
to read it after each unit to review the content of the unit. Or make students aware it is there so
they can use it for preparing part of a presentation. It also acts as a useful glossary of some of
the key terms used in Andrew’s commentaries.
Answer key
Students can refer to the Answer key in class or as part of their self-study.
Videoscript
This provides a word-for-word script to accompany the video content, both the presentations
and Andrew’s commentary. Students who find some of the comprehension tasks difficult will
find it helpful to refer to and for checking their understanding.
Trainer’s Guide
This provides unit-by-unit teaching notes for trainers who are using the DVD and coursebook
as part of a classroom-based course. You may be working with an individual student or a group.
Either way, you will find the teaching notes helpful when planning your classes.
The notes are organized under the corresponding headings in the coursebook and they include
tips and advice for approaching each of the video extracts on the DVD.
Extension activities
In addition to the teaching notes on the exercises, there are suggestions for extra activities
which extend the content in the coursebook and provide students with a ‘heads-up’ task. These
activities include pair work and group work discussion tasks or controlled speaking activities.
These will be useful for working with groups of students, though some activities could also be
done with one-to-one classes. In every unit, there are two activities that use photocopiable
pages.
Successful Presentations Trainer’s Guide | Introduction | © Oxford University Press 2012 8
21 Preparing your presentation
Unit objectives
This unit is an introduction to presentation skills and asks students to reflect on their own
experience of giving and attending presentations. With real people talking about how they
prepare, Andrew gives practical advice on planning, practising, and dealing with nerves. The
Language focus section introduces the terminology for equipment and seating arrangements
for presentations, as well as key expressions for talking about different aspects of presentations.
At the end of the unit, students complete a Needs analysis which will help you address their
individual needs during the course. Unlike all the other units, students are not asked to give a
presentation.
Extension activity
Photocopiable 1.1 Introducing a colleague
If you are starting a new course with a group, you may wish to begin your first session with a
simple warmer that helps to bring the group together and lets them get to know each other. It
also introduces the idea that a presentation can be something quite basic in terms of presenting
information to a group of people.
Make one copy of 1.1 for each student. Put students into pairs. Explain that they are going to give their
first presentation of the course.
1 Students interview each other, using the prompts on the page and their own ideas to ask
questions. Ask them to make notes on their partner’s answers. The notes should be brief and do not
have to be detailed so set a time limit of ten minutes (five minutes per interview).
2 Allow a short time for students to think about their presentations and what they will include. This
highlights the importance of planning, even with a very basic and simple presentation.
3 Students take turns to give a very short presentation about their partner to the whole group. These
presentations can be done informally, sitting down.
Afterwards, briefly point out that this activity demonstrates how a presentation is not always
something formal; it is something we do all the time in different ways. You could also point out that
the planning process in exercise 2 is essential for a successful presentation and that the information
on the page is organized into three sections because we often present information in threes.
The videos
1.1 Talking points: planning your presentation
1 Discuss the two questions as a class or put students into pairs and ask them to report back
afterwards. If you have students who have never presented before, ask them to talk about
the types of presentation they have attended and the types of audience there, e.g. internal
colleagues or external clients.
2 You may wish to pre-teach words such as plenary (a talk to a large group of people at a
conference) and workshop (a presentation to a small number of people who participate in
discussion during the presentation or afterwards) if they weren’t mentioned in the discussion
in 1. These terms are also helpful because they make students think more broadly about the
definition of presentation.
Successful Presentations Trainer’s Guide | Unit 1 • Preparing your presentation | © Oxford University Press 2012 9
If you want to give students a more detailed viewing task, write this table on the board (with
just the names of the speakers) and ask students to complete the table with the speakers’
answers. (Answers in brackets.)
Types of presentation Types of audience
Joanna (sales and product presentations) (sales teams, colleagues, customers)
(improvised presentations at meetings)
Naomi (plenaries and workshops) (large and small audiences)
Carl (products and procedures) (mostly internally and occasionally to
customers)
Dagmar (monthly information forum) (the owners and the team)
Mike (teaching and at conferences) (students and business people)
3 With a less experienced class, you may decide they will not be able to comment on these
questions. If so, go straight to Andrew’s commentary in 4 and answer the questions with his
words.
1.2 The expert view: planning
4 Note that Andrew responds to the four questions and then recaps the two key points for
preparing a presentation: identify your key messages and identify your audience’s needs.
Students need to be very clear about these for the rest of the course.
1.3 Talking points: practising your presentation
5 Discuss this as a class. People have all sorts of strategies for practising and some people have
none so with a diverse group you should get a range of responses. The aim is for students to
share their approaches and consider using new techniques.
6 If you think students will need more guidance, write ideas a–e below on the board. Ask
students to number the ideas in the order they are first mentioned in the video. (Answers in
brackets.)
a Practise with a friend and ask for feedback. (2)
b Make notes with the key points. (5)
c Time myself and speak out loud. (4)
d Practise in front of the mirror. (1)
e Write the speech down. (3)
1.4 The expert view: practising
7 This exercise consolidates the discussion and viewing in 5 and 6. Students could also add any
of their own ideas from 5 and the ideas from the video in 6 to the list to refer to later.
8 After watching the video, follow up Andrew’s comments by asking students if they think
anything on the list is bad advice. Note that some people would argue that Try to memorize
your presentation word for word is not good advice. Arguably, the main aim is to include your
key points so your presentation might change a little every time. It will sound more natural
this way and you may also have to adapt it according to your audience.
1.5 Talking points: dealing with nerves
9 You could lead into the discussion by writing nervous in the middle of the board. Brainstorm
all the times we get nervous such as taking an exam, attending a job interview, meeting
a client for the first time, learning a new skill, etc. Write everyone’s ideas on the board. Ask
how students deal with nerves in each of these situations. Then move on to the topic
of presenting and consider how many of the techniques mentioned for other stressful
situations can also be used when giving a presentation.
Successful Presentations Trainer’s Guide | Unit 1 • Preparing your presentation | © Oxford University Press 2012 10