- •Предисловие
- •Unit 8. National stereotypes
- •8.1. Listening Development
- •8.2. Vocabulary Enrichment
- •8.3. Reading Improvement
- •The English and the French
- •The English through English Eyes
- •The English through French Eyes
- •The Americans and the Japanese
- •Americans through American Eyes
- •Americans through Japanese Eyes
- •8.4. Writing Enhancement
- •8.5. Speaking Reinforcement
- •Active vocabulary Unit 8. National Stereotypes
- •Unit 9. Countries and capitals
- •9.1. Listening Development
- •9.2. Vocabulary Enrichment
- •9.3. Reading Improvement
- •8 Wonders of belarus
- •Isle of tears
- •9.4. Writing Enhancement
- •9.5. Speaking Reinforcement
- •London versus Minsk
- •Unit 9 active vocabulary
- •Unit 10. Business trips. Travelling
- •10.1. Listening Development
- •10.2. Vocabulary Enrichment
- •If you want a good room, you should ……… .
- •I’d like ……… .
- •10.3. Reading Improvement
- •Passengers panic over false crash alarm
- •All aboard the flight from fear
- •10.4. Writing Enhancement
- •How to make a complaint
- •What to say in your complaint
- •Template letter
- •10.5. Speaking Reinforcement
- •Interviewing business travellers
- •Active vocabulary Unit 10. Business trips. Travelling
- •Idiomatic expressions
- •Unit 11. Holidays
- •11.1. Listening Development
- •11.2. Vocabulary Enrichment
- •11.3. Reading Improvement
- •11.4. Writing Enhancement
- •Inquiry letter brecon boating holidays
- •11.5. Speaking Reinforcement
- •Active vocabulary unit 11. Holidays
- •Hotels and Accommodation
- •Idiomatic expressions
- •Unit 12. The theatre and cinema
- •12.1. Listening Development
- •12.2. Vocabulary Enrichment
- •Anthony and Cleopatra at the National Theatre 1998
- •12.3. Reading Improvement
- •Jobs in cartoon animation
- •12.4. Writing Enhancement
- •Outline for a review
- •Introduction
- •Paragraph 2
- •Paragraph 3
- •Is the film recommended?
- •12.5. Speaking Reinforcement
- •Active vocabulary Unit 12. The Theatre and Cinema
- •Unit13on the phone
- •13.1. Listening Development
- •1) Imagine you are calling a company and want to speak to someone who works there. Can you think of any phrases you might use, or that you might hear? Put down these phrases.
- •13.2. Vocabulary Enrichment
- •Telephoning
- •Note: Giving numbers
- •13.3. Reading Improvement
- •Unfortunately there's a problem...
- •Telephoning across cultures
- •13.4. Writing Enhancement
- •13.5. Speaking Reinforcement
- •Active vocabulary Unit 13. Telephoning
- •Unit 14. Business correspondence
- •14.1. Listening Development
- •14.2. Vocabulary Enrichment
- •14.3. Reading Improvement
- •Job search email etiquette
- •14.4. Writing Enhancement
- •14.5. Speaking Reinforcement
- •Active vocabulary Unit 14. Business Correspondence
- •Unit 15. Meetings and negotiations
- •15.1. Listening Development
- •15.2. Vocabulary Enrichment
- •15.3. Reading Improvement
- •15.4. Writing Enhancement
- •15.5. Speaking Reinforcement
- •Meeting - agenda setting quiz
- •Active vocabulary Unit 15. Meetings and Negotiations
- •Useful English Phrases for Participating in a Business Meeting
- •Introducing the Agenda
- •Unit 16. Presentations
- •16.1. Listening Development
- •16.2. Vocabulary Enrichment
- •16.3. Reading Improvement
- •One size fits all?
- •16.4. Writing Enhancement
- •Presentation Scheme
- •16.5. Speaking Reinforcement
- •Active vocabulary Unit 16. Presentations
- •Introduce another speaker
- •Verbs to describe movements and trends
- •References
- •Contents
16.3. Reading Improvement
Assignment 1. In her blog Olivia Mitchell explores what audience members remember from three keynote presentation at a conference. Read through her survey and say how you understand the underlined words without looking them up in the dictionary.
THE SOBERING TRUTH ABOUT WHAT AN AUDIENCE REMEMBERS
Nigel Holmes
Nigel Holmes is a phenomenal graphic artist who used to be Art Director for Time magazine. His presentation didn’t start well – there were a few technical hitches and it took him some time to hit his stride, and even then he wasn’t a hugely energetic speaker. When I asked people about Nigel’s presentation, they often mentioned the slow start, but then they went onto say that they loved what he showed us, and enjoyed his quirky brilliant mind. Every person I talked to had a different take on what was the point of Nigel’s presentation, depending on what had most relevance to them.
Carmen Taran
Words such as sparkling and scintillating were created to describe speakers like Carmen. Everybody I spoke to loved her as a speaker. One person said “I don’t care what she talks about, I’ll listen to her”. They often mentioned what she was wearing – a gorgeous cream and gold jacket over cream trousers. Then they mentioned her slides – how polished and beautiful they were. I had to prompt people as to what they remembered from her presentation. As with Nigel’s speech, everybody gave me a slightly different answer.
Garr Reynolds
Garr presented to us via Skype. Audience members were immediately able to say to me that Garr’s message was “Be like bamboo”. And they knew what the metaphor meant – be flexible and adaptable like bamboo. Garr made 10 points elaborating on this bamboo metaphor. When I prompted people to recall those 10 points, most people could recall only one or two.
Garr’s bamboo metaphor also elicited some strong reactions. I was talking to two women and one said to me “We’re adding a room to our house and the floor is bamboo. I felt so pleased that we’d chosen bamboo – it’s strong but flexible.” Then the other woman erupted: ‘I hate bamboo. Our neighbor has a forest of bamboo and it keeps sprouting up on our lawn. We just can’t get rid of it. I hate bamboo!” Neither of these two women could remember any of Garr’s points.
My take-aways
1. You don’t have a second chance to make a good first impression, but the cleverness of that saying has eclipsed the broader truth – that you have many chances to correct that first impression. Your presentation is not ruined if you make a bad start.
2. Your message, your slides and your delivery need to be balanced. You don’t want your presentation to be like a movie where people only remember the awesome special effects. Your slides and delivery are there to serve the message.
3. If you don’t present a clear overarching message, your audience will choose (sometimes randomly and unconsciously) the message they take out from the presentation or they may not get any message at all. For most types of presentations, I believe it should be you, the speaker, who decides what the overarching message is. I’ve said “most types of presentation” because I can see that it could be a valid approach to give a speech from which each person takes a different message – depending on what is most important to them.
4. When you choose a metaphor as your overarching theme, beware of the baggage your metaphor may carry. It might be necessary to acknowledge possible preconceptions at the beginning of your presentation so that your audience can put their reactions to one side and focus on your message.
5. If you cover many points of equal importance and at the same hierarchical level, your audience will have difficulty remembering them all.
Check the meaning of the underlined words in the dictionary to see how close you were to understanding them. Think about what helped you understand their meaning without knowing the words themselves.
Assignment 2. Read the text below and summarize the ideas expressed in t in 5 sentences.