Teaching Presentation Skills

Teaching
Presentation Skills
Simon Parker, Saturday May 10th 2008

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Why are
presentations
important?

Characteristics:
– teachable
skills

Controlled
practice

Teach them!

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

Free(er)
practice

The actual
presentation
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“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.

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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

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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

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Get your students to
either identify these
themselves or, ‘rate’ the
importance of a list you
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provide them with – e.g.


Student questionnaire
A good teacher…

1
OK

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

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2
useful

3
v. useful

4
vital!!!


The structure of ANY
presentation

• Say what you’re going to say
• Say it!
• Say what you’ve said

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Body

Language
• 60% of all human communication is non-verbal
• Body language can significantly improve the communication between native and none native speakers

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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
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Eye Contact
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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
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The stresses and pauses
exercise
“I think we’ll need to find a new venue for our party”
“I think we’ll need to find a new venue for our party”
“I think we’ll need to find a new venue for our party”
“I think we’ll need to find a new venue for our party”
“I think we’ll need to find a new venue for our party”

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The Power of the
Pause
Demonstrate this to your
students:
ask them how they react / think
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whenBETA
you,
as a teacher, pause.


Steps..
1.

2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Get the students to memorize the sentence
Ask them the meaning of the sentence with the key word stressed
Ask them how they would stress the word. Long or short? Loud etc?
Ask them where the pause should be
Get all students to say the sentence, standing up but by their seat
Introduce body language: what would be appropriate for each sentence/word?
Get all students to say the sentence with body language, standing up but, again, by their
seat
Introduce eye contact
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!

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Free(er)
practice

Students decide which words should be stressed and where the pauses should be. More practice at the front of
the class.

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Brining it all together:
preparing for the
performance – using
poems
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Teach students how to
choose
the ‘opening
Try whole class or pair thought showers to
elicit ideas
words’ for their
Try and get them to differentiate between
presentation
formal and informal openers
Try and get them to write the first three
sentences of their presentation in the class

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Get students to think
about how they move

from one section of their
presentation to the next :
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pause
– “I’m
now going to tell


•

Get / encourage students
to write a key point
summery
ofmarket,
their my
Intro: my
product, my
competitors
presentation e.g.

• Point 1 product: key features, USP
• Point 2 market: size, growth + reasons

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“Practice makes
perfect”
Encourage your students to

practice in front of
their: mirror, dog, cat, goldfish,
goat, grandmother etc etc
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Keep stressing that:

Planning + Effort =
Success!
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Assessment, self
assessment, peer
assessment
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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
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Thank you for participating!
Keep in touch:


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