Presentations

Listen, read and talk about

• the role of presentation skills

• stages of any presentation

• what makes a successful presentation

Learn how to

• plan your presentation

• organize your material

• be successful in delivering your presentation

Practise

• Future Tenses (Active Voice)

Vocabulary

1. Remember the following words and expressions.

1. report – доклад

2. presenter – докладчик

3. prepare for – готовиться к чему-либо

4. deliver a presentation [dɪˈlɪvə ə ˌprɛz(ə)nˈteɪʃ(ə)n] – делать презентацию

5. involve the audience [ˈɔːdɪəns] – привлечь/заитересовать аудиторию

6. attract smb.’s attention – привлекать чье-либо внимание

7. script [skrɪpt] – текст доклада

8. brief [briːf] – краткий

9. background – история вопроса, исходные данные

10. memorize [ˈmɛməraɪz] – заучивать

11. rehearse [rɪˈhɜːs] – репетировать

12. keep eye contact – смотреть в глаза

13. avoid – избегать

14. repetitive [rɪˈpɛtɪtɪv] – повторяющийся

15. annoying [əˈnɔɪɪŋ] – раздражающий, надоедливый

16. gesture [ˈdʒɛstʃə] – жест, телодвижение

17. key point – главная мысль

18. support – поддерживать, подкреплять

19. visuals [ˈvɪʒʊəlz] – наглядность

20. performance [pəˈfɔːməns] – представление, спектакль

2. It’s your second term at university and there must have been some group conferences in different subjects. Answer the following questions.

1. Have you taken part in any of these conferences? Were you a presenter or a listener?

2. Did you make any reports with presentations at such conferences?

3. What language did you make your report in?

4. What did you find most difficult about preparing your report and giving your presentation?

5. Was there a report with a presentation that you liked most? What was special about it?

3. In your opinion, for a successful presentation which of the following statements are: a) important, b) helpful, c) unhelpful.

1. Tell a joke at the beginning to relax the atmosphere.

2. Speak more slowly than you usually do.

3. Invite questions during the presentation.

4. Smile a lot.

5. Move around during the presentation.

6. Involve the audience.

7. Read out your presentation from a script.

8. Use gestures to stress important points.

9. Stand up when giving your presentation.

3a. What other useful techniques do you know for giving a presentation?

Listening

4. Listen to Eve Jones, an expert on presentations, and answer these questions.

1. What does Eve say you need to do to prepare for a presentation?

2. What can you do at the beginning of a presentation to attract people’s

attention?

1. What is a typical structure of a presentation?

Reading

5. Practise the pronunciation of the following words and translate them using a dictionary.

Premium [ˈpriːmɪəm], launch [lɔːntʃ], background [ˈbækɡraʊnd], assess [əˈsɛs],

hesitate [ˈhɛzɪteɪt], wrapped [ræpt], foil [fɔɪl], forecast [ˈfɔːkɑːst], advertising [ˈædvətaɪzɪŋ], campaign [kæmˈpeɪn], sales outlets [seɪlz ˈaʊtlɛts] 

6. It is necessary to be able to make presentations not only at school or university, but also at work. Read an example of such a presentation and answer the questions that follow it.

Good morning, thanks for coming to my presentation. I know you’re all very busy, so I’ll be as brief as possible.

I’m going to talk about the new chocolate we’re putting on the market, the Frejus premium bar. I’ll tell you about the test launch we carried out in the southwest of England a few weeks ago.

My presentation is divided into three parts. First, I’ll give you some background about the launch. After that, I’ll tell you how we got and assess its effectiveness. Finally, I’ll outline our future plans for the product. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.

Right, let’s start with the background to the launch. As you know, Frejus is an orange and nut bar with a distinctive taste. It’s been thoroughly tested in focus groups and we paid special attention to packaging. It’s wrapped in a metallic foil. The colours are rich, strong and give a high visual impact.

So, that’s the background. Let’s now move on to the test launch. How successful was it? Well, in two words, very successful. If you look at the graph, you’ll see the bar’s actual sales compared with forecast sales. The sales were over twenty percent higher than we predicted. In other words, a really good result. Well above our expectations. The sales show that the pricing of the product was correct. And they show that, as a premium line, the Frejus bar should be successful nationwide. To sum up, I believe the bar has great potential in the market. Obviously, we’ll move on to stage two and have a national advertising and marketing campaign. In a few months, you’ll be visiting our sales outlets and taking orders, I hope, for the new product.

Thanks very much. Any questions?

1. Does this presentation have a structure?

2. How many parts are there in this presentation?

3. Can you name all the parts of this presentation?

4. What usually comes at the end of any presentation?

5. Did the presentations at your group conferences have the same structure?

Language Development