BETA Conference, May 2008 Teaching Presentation Skills Simon Parker, Saturday May 10 th 2008.

BETA Conference, May 2008

Teaching Presentation Skills

Simon Parker, Saturday May 10th 2008


Characteristics: – teachable skills

Why are presentations important?

Teach them!

Controlled practice

Free(er) practice

The actual presentation

Feedback, self assessment, peer assessment, praise!!!


“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.


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


Characteristics of great presentations

• Clear structure (beginning middle and end)

• Easy to follow• Presenter is enthusiastic • Presenter is not monotone • Presenter makes eye contact • Presenter uses appropriate body

language


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?


A good teacher… 1OK

2useful

3v. useful

4vital!!!

does not speak too quickly

is enthusiastic

looks at the students/makes eye contact

is confident

is not monotone

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


The structure of ANY presentation

• Say what you’re going to say

• Say it!

• Say what you’ve said


Body Language

• 60% of all human communication is non-verbal

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


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


Eye Contact


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


The stresses and pauses exercise

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






The Power of the Pause

Demonstrate this to your students:ask them how they react / think when you, as a teacher, pause.Also, “why do people sometimes find it hard to pause in their presentations?”


Steps..1. Get the students to memorize the sentence2. 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 be5. Get all students to say the sentence, standing up but by their seat6. 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

seat8. 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!


Free(er) practice

Students decide which words should be stressed and where the pauses should be. More practice

at the front of the class.


Brining it all together: preparing for the performance – using poems


Teach students how to choose the ‘opening words’ for their presentation

Try whole class or pair thought showers to elicit ideas

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


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 pauses are important


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


“Practice makes perfect”

Encourage your students to practice in front of

their: mirror, dog, cat, goldfish, goat, grandmother etc etc


Planning + Effort = Success!

Keep stressing that:


Assessment, self assessment, peer

assessment


Give students a list of the criteria of an excellent presentation

Get students to give feedback to each other

Get students to say what was good about their own presentation and what could be improved

Give frequent, specific praise


Thank you for participating!

Keep in touch:

[email protected]

BETA Conference, May 2008 Teaching Presentation Skills Simon Parker, Saturday May 10 th 2008.

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