PRESENTING IN
ENGLISH:
HOW TO GIVE
SUCCESSFUL
PRESENTATIONS
Adopted from Mark Powel’s Book:
Presenting in English, 2002
Outline of the presentation
• Strategies for becoming a better public
speaker
• Strategies for developing stronger
presentations
• Strategies for calming nerves
• Structures of the presentation (Opening,
Content, Ending)
Six Strategies You Can Use
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Planning
Practice
Engaging your audience
Body Language
Thinking Positively
Calming Nerves
Planning
• Structure what you want to say
– Outlines help!
• Strong opening
– Attention grabbers
– Humor
• Closing remarks
• Planning helps you think on your feet, especially
during unpredictable Q & A
• Make it your own!
Practice
• Practice, practice, practice!
– In front of family
– PTA meetings
– Video yourself
• Things to look for
– Verbal stalls
– Are you smiling?
– Gestures
– How did you handle interruptions?
Engaging your Audience
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Ask leading questions
Encourage your audience to participate
Make eye contact
Pay attention to how you are speaking
Do Not READ to your audience
Body Language
Research has shown that up to 94% of
communication is non-verbal.
Body Language
• Stand up straight
• Refrain from crossing your arms
• Avoid gestures that feel unnatural
“ The way you overcome fear and
shyness is to become so wrapped up in
something that you forget to be afraid”
Lady Bird Johnson
Calming Nerves
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Know your audience
Know your material
Structure your presentation
Calm yourself from the inside
Know your Audience
• Ask before hand who will be your audience?
• What do they already know about your topic?
– Are they experts?
– Will your information be brand new?
• Is there a meeting before/after? What topics
will be covered?
Tip: Greet people at the door
Know Your Material
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Read the modules!
Do your own research about the topic
The audience is looking at you as the “Expert”
Do not try to cover everything you know
about the topic
– Select points that are relevant for this audience
Structure your Presentation
• Key phrases on index cards or Power point
• Avoid Memorizing what you want to say
• Create natural breaks within your presentation
– Ask a question
– Provide an activity
Calm yourself from the inside
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Practice deep breathing
Drink water
Smile
Use visualization techniques
Speak more slowly than you would in a
conversation
• Move around during your presentation, this
expends nervous energy
Remember
Nerves are not your enemy and you do not have
to fear public speaking!
STRUCTURES OF THE
PRESENTATION
The Opening
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
(On behalf of…, may I welcome you to…)
My name’s …
I’m responsible for/I’m from …
This afternoon I’d like to…
discuss…
report…
and present…
If you have any questions you’d like to ask, I’ll be
happy to answer them.
or
Perhaps we can leave any questions you may have
until the end of the presentation.
Tricks and Tips 1
Use ‘hooks’ – simple techniques for getting the
immediate attention of the audience:
(1) give them a problem to think about
Imagine …………Do you think that’s possible?
(2) give them some amazing facts
Statistics show that ………………………
(3) give them a story or personal anecdote
I remember when …………………………
Look at the presentation openings below and identify them as
Problems, Amazing Facts or Stories
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Did you know how much do Japanese companies spend on
entertaining clients in a year? It’s 40 billion dollars. That’s four
times than the entire GDP of Bulgaria. You could buy General
Motors for the same money.
Suppose your advertising budget was cut by 99% tomorrow.
How would you promote your product?
According to the latest study, by 2050 only one in every four
people in Western Europe will be going to work. And two will be
old age pensioners.
I read in the newspaper that the world’s highest paid executive
works for Disney and gets $230 million a year. Now that’s about
$2000 a minute!
When I think about creativity, I’m reminded of the man who
invented the microwave oven. He spent years messing around
with radar transmitters, then notived the chocolate in his pocket
was starting to melt.
Getting people’s attention
If I could have everybody’s attention.
If we can start.
Perhaps we should begin?
Let’s get started.
I’ve invited you here today to have a look at my
findings.
Now let me begin by…
Presentation Skills in English 1
*
Welcoming the audience
• First of all, let me thank you all for coming here today.
• Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
• I am happy / delighted that so many of you could make it
today.
• I hope you all had a pleasant journey here today.
• It’s a pleasure to welcome you today.
• It’s good to see you all here.
• Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for coming
along here today.
• On behalf of the company, I’d like to welcome you.
• Thank you all very much for coming today.
• Welcome everyone / to this conference
Presentation Skills in English 1
*
Introducing yourself and
giving your position / function
• My name is … I’m responsible for…I’m in charge of…
• For those of you who don’t know me, my name is…
• As you know, I’m in charge of public relations in this
company.
• Let me introduce myself, I’m … / my name is … and I
work / study…
• Let me just start by introducing myself.
• As some of you know, I am the…
• I’m here in my function as the head of…
• I’d like to introduce my colleague…
Presentation Skills in English 1
*
Introducing your presentation / topic and
stating your purpose (1)
 I would like to take this opportunity to talk to you about…
 I’ll be proposing…
 I’ll outline…
 I’m delighted to be here today to tell you about…
 I’m going to talk about…
 In today’s presentation I’d like to … show you…/ explain to you
how to…
 In today’s presentation I’m hoping to … give you an update on /
give you an overview of…
 In today’s presentation I’m planning to…look at… / explain …
MGiordano-Presentation Skills in
English 1
*
Introducing your presentation / topic
and stating your purpose (2)
 My objective / aim / purpose / goal is to … determine
how…
 The purpose of my presentation today is to…
 This evening, I’d like to report on my study about…
 This morning I want to explain / I’d like to present our
new…
 Today I am here to talk to you about…
 What I want to do this morning is tell you about…/ to
show you…
 What I’d like to do this morning is present the results of
my study…
MGiordano-Presentation Skills in English 1
*
THE CONTENT
Be like HAMBURGER
• An introduction
• The main body
• The conclusion
the hamburger method
Presentation Skills in English 1
*
Tricks and Tips #2
How to Use Visual Aids
Expressions to introduce and explain your visuals
Take a look at this
Let’s have a look at this
I’d like you to look at this.
Here we can see ….
The….. represents ….. . And the …. represents …. .
Let’s look at …. in more detail. As you can see,….
I’d also like to draw your attention to ….... .
What verbs do you use to talk about the
following change and development?
increase
rise
fluctuate
decrease
fall
recover
pick up
shoot up
take off
level off
plunge
slump
remain steady
Let’s DO it!!
(PRACTICE 1)
Write out the following sentence fragments in the
correct order to make a complete presentation extract.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
see, it’s a fairly typical growth
Have a look at this graph. As you can
stages of its development. The vertical
axis
and the horizontal
shows turnover in millions of dollars
curve for a young company in the early
axis represents the years 2001 to 2005
2
1
6
3
5
4
7
Have a look at this graph. As you can
see, it’s a fairly typical growth
curve for a young company in the early
stages of its development. The vertical axis
shows turnover in millions of dollars
and the horizontal
axis represents the years 2001 to 2005
SOUNDS ELEMENTS
C. How to Develop Your Public Speaking Style to
Impress and Influence Your Audience (1)
 Clear articulation
 Pausing in the right places
 Pitch Control:
 a dramatic rise in your voice creates anticipation
and suspense
 a sharp fall gives weight and finality to what you
have just said.
 keeping your voice up tells the audience that you
are in the middle of saying something and must
not be interrupted.
 letting your voice drop lets them know you have
completed what you wanted to say
Pratice your articulation, pausing, and pitch control
by reading the following presentation extract.
The world’s most popular drink is water. You probably
knew that already. After all, it’s a basic requirement of life
on earth. But, did you know that the world’s second most
popular drink is Coke? And that the human race drinks
six hundred million Cokes a day? Now, let’s just put that
into some kind of perspective. It means that every week
people drink enough Coke to fill the World Trade Center.
Thank you 