Vocabulary

Ex.1. Translate the following word combinations into the Russian language.

1. to know the audience

2. to adjust the language

3. to give the presentation

4. to visit the room beforehand

5. to organize the room to your own requirements

6. to be familiar with the equipment

7. make yourself feel comfortable

8. all-important first few moments

Unit 6

9. the question and answer session

10. to include a summary of your talk

11 the main body of the presentation

12. the opening minute or so

13. to talk to the machine

14. unlike meetings and negotiations

15. to get the audience’s attention

Ex. 2. Use your English-English dictionary to find out the different meanings of the verbs below.

make get talk turn

Ex.3. Form nouns from the following words:

1. meet – ………………………… 6. confident –…………………..…

2. present –…………………....... 7. recommend –……………….…..

3. prepare – …………………….. 8. perform –………………………..

4. conclude –………………........ 9. equip –……………………….….

5. negotiate – ……………………. 10. important –…………………..….

WRITING.

Ex.4. The editor of your Russian company’s in-house magazine has asked you to write an article about a good presentation. Include information from the text given above.

DISCUSSION.

Ex.5. Comment on the following statements. In your opinion are they:

a) essential b) helpful c) unhelpful for a successful presentation?

1. Tell a joke at the beginning. …….

2. Speak more slowly than you normally do. …….

3. Smile a lot. ……

4. Involve the audience. …….

5. Invite questions during the presentation. …….

6. Always keep to your plan. …….

7. Move around during your presentation. …....

8. Use a lot of gestures to emphasize important points. …….

9. Read out your presentation from a script. …….

10. Stand up when giving your presentation. …….

Unit 6

8. Read the following presentation given to a company’s sales team and

define the main topic of the presentation.

Good morning everyone, thank you for coming to my presentation. I know you’re all very busy, so I’ll be as brief as possible. OK then, I’m going to talk about the new chocolate bar we are putting on the market, the St Tropez premium bar. I’ll tell you about the last launch we carried out in the south west 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 on 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, St Tropez is a mint and nut bar with a distinctive taste. It’s been thoroughly tested in focus groups and special attention was paid to packaging. It’s wrapped in a metallic foil. The colours are rich, strong, to give high visual impact. So, that’s the background. Right, 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. Quite a difference isn’t there? The sales were over 20% 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 St Tropez bar should be successful nationwide. To sum up, a very promising test launch. I believe the bar has great potential in the market.

Right, where do we go from here? 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?

Ex.6. Read the text again and answer the questions below.

1. What is the name of the product?

2. How many parts of the presentation are there in the presentation?

3. What are these parts?

4. Where did the company carry out their test launch?

5. Was the test launch successful? How successful was it?

6. What can you tell us about the package and the colours of the product?

7. What are the company’s plans for future?

8. How can you explain the company’ success?

PRACTICE.

A. Choose one of the situations below.

Prepare a short presentation of three to five minutes.

Include phrases from the Useful Language Box. (see below).

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Topic	Audience	Suggestions
A country you have visited on holyday or done business in.	A group of people who will shortly be working there.	– way of life – customs – transport – weather – accommodation – language – food and drink – people – standard of living – entertainment
Your job	A group of high school students at a careers evening	– responsibilities and tasks – the future – perks and special advantages – qualifications – career structure
Your company’s main competitors	The board of directors of your company	– who they are – their strengths and weaknesses – how powerful they are in the market relative to you

B. Now make your presentations in groups.

After each presentation discuss these questions:

1. Was the presentation interesting? Did you manage to hold the audience’s attention?

2. Did the beginning have impact? Did you want to hear more?

3. Did the presentation have a logical structure – a beginning, middle and end?

4. Was it divided into sections? Did you know when the presenter was

moving from one part of the talk to another?

5. Was there a summary or a conclusion?

USEFUL LANGUAGE

Introducing yourself	Good morning everyone.
	Let me introduce myself.
	My name is …
	I am a specialist in …
Referring to visuals	If you look at the graph….
	Could I draw your attention to the chart.
	If you take a look at the first year, you’ll see….
Structuring the presentation	I’m going to divide my talk into four parts.
	First I’ll give you….
	after that…. ;
	finally…..
Changing the topic	Right, let’s now move on to …
	OK, I’ll now look at …

Unit 6

Referring to the audience’s knowledge	As you know…
	As you are aware…
Inviting questions	If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask. I’ll be glad to answer any questions (at the end of my talk).
Concluding	To sum up….
	So, to summarize…
Giving background information	I’ll give you some background information.
	Let’s start with the background.
Ending	Thanks very much. Any questions?
	Well, that’s all I have to say.
	Thank you for listening.

Task 1. Read the comments from the audience who are listening to a presentation at an international conference. What caused the problem in each case?

a) “What on earth is he talking about?” “I have no idea!”

b) “Hey, Sara! Wake up! He’s finished.”

c) “Read that! I can’t read that! I’d need a pair of binoculars!”

d) “Speak up! I can’t hear a thing!”

e) “Summarize four main points? I only noticed one! Have I been asleep?”

Task 2. Look at the following situations.

1.	A medical conference in Tokyo with papers on new techniques in open heart surgery.	3.	The Purchasing and Product Managers of a Taiwanese company interested in buying some production equipment from your company.
2.	An internal meeting of administrative staff to discuss a new accounting procedure.	4.	A staff meeting to discuss a charity event for earthquake victims.

Imagine you have to give a brief presentation in two of the previous situations, plus one other situation that you decide on. Make brief notes on the following:

a) Will your talk be formal or informal?

b) What are the audience’s expectations in terms of technical detail, expertise, etc.?

c) What is the audience’s probable level of special knowledge? Are they experts or non-experts?

d) How long will your talk be: five minutes, twenty minutes, half an hour, half a day or longer?

e) What is your policy on questions? Will the audience interrupt or will they ask questions afterwards? Will there be any discussion?

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f) How will you help the audience to remember what you tell them?

Task 3. In any presentation the beginning is crucial. Some things are essential in an introduction and others are useful. Here is a list of what could be included in an introduction. Mark them according to how necessary they are using the following scale:

Essential Useful Not necessary

1 2 3 4 5

Subject / title of talk ………

Introduction to oneself, job title etc. ………

Reference to questions and / or discussion. ………

Reference to the program of the day. ……….

Reference to how long you are going to speak for. ……….

Reference to the visual aids you plan to use. ……….

The scope of your talk: what is and is not included. ………

An outline of the structure of your talk. ……….

Task 4. Read the beginning of a presentation on the marketing plans for a new telecommunications system produced by Telco. Answer the questions:

1. Is it a good introduction?

2. Why? Why not?

3. Is it possible to identify the structure of the talk?

Speaker: Thank you for coming today. As you know, I want to talk about the marketing plans. Brand identity is a key issue and what is means is how we are seen by our customers and how our products are recognized and what our consumers think of us as a company.

And I should also say, what they think of our products and the name …….. what Telco means for them. And advertising is part of it of cause, though not something I am going to talk about now except to say that as for brand image, it’s important in that area too, advertising that is.

Task 5. Read a second example of an introduction to a presentation. This one is about plans to develop a new production plant in Taiwan.

As you read think about these points:

a) Is it a good introduction?

b) Why? Why not?

c) What is the structure of the talk?

Unit 6

Speaker: Okay, thanks. I’m here to talk about the design proposals for the production plant at Taipei. My talk will be in three parts followed by a 30-minute discussion. I’m going to start with the background to each proposal – something about our negotiations with the Taiwanese government – then in the second part I’ll go over the main characteristics of each proposal, Proposal One and Proposal Two. Then in the third part I’ll highlight some key considerations we have to bear in mind.

Finally, I’ll end with an invitation to ask questions or make any comments you like. We’ll discuss matters arising from the talk.

Okay? So to begin with, a few words on the history.

Task 6. Work in pairs. Each of you should suggest a possible phrase of the cues below.

a) Greet your audience.

b) Introduce yourself.

c) Give the title of your talk.

d) Describe the structure of your talk.

e) Explain that the audience can interrupt you.

f) Say something about the length of your talk.

g) Say a colleague will be showing a video later.

Task 7. Read a model introduction based on suitable phrases for (a) – (g).

Speaker. (a) Good afternoon.

(b) My name’s Arnold Layton. I’m a (geophysics) for (ELF Aquitaine) with special responsibility for (analyzing new fields in the North Sea).

(c) I’m going to talk about (some recent research into new methods of detecting oil in shallow waters.)

(d) I’ve divided my talk into three parts First, (research that we have done.) Then, (I’ll report on some published research from other companies), and finally (I’ll talk about what this may mean for our exploration activities).

(e) Please interrupt if at any time you have any questions or something is not clear.

(f) My talk will last about half an hour.

(g) Later my colleague will be showing a video on ….

PRACTICE 1. WRITING.

Use the outline below to prepare a brief introduction to a talk on safety for a manufacturing company.

Unit 6