1. Teaching Presentation Skills
Simon Parker, Saturday May 10th 2008
BETA Conference, May 2008

2. Why are presentations important? Characteristics: – teachable skills
Controlled practice
Teach them!
Feedback, self assessment, peer assessment, praise!!!
Free(er) practice
The actual presentation
BETA Conference, May 2008

3. “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.
BETA Conference, May 2008

4. 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
BETA Conference, May 2008

5. 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
BETA Conference, May 2008

6. Get your students to either identify these themselves or, ‘rate’ the importance of a list you provide them with – e.g. ‘good teacher, good presenter?
BETA Conference, May 2008

7. Student questionnaire
A good teacher… 1 OK 2
useful 3
v. useful 4
vital!!!
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
BETA Conference, May 2008

8. The structure of ANY presentation
Say what you’re going to say
Say it!
Say what you’ve said
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9. 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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10. 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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11. Eye Contact
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12. 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 front of the class to practice Devise a game for getting students to practice eye contact
BETA Conference, May 2008

13. The stresses and pauses exercise
“I think we’ll need to find a new venue for our party”
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14. The Power of the Pause Demonstrate this to your students: ask them how they react / think when you, as a teacher, pause. Also, “why do people sometimes find it hard to pause in their presentations?”
BETA Conference, May 2008

15. Steps.. 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!
BETA Conference, May 2008

16. Free(er) practice
Students decide which words should be stressed and where the pauses should be. More practice at the front of the class.
BETA Conference, May 2008

17. Brining it all together: preparing for the performance – using poems
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18. Teach students how to choose the ‘opening words’ for their presentation
Try whole class or pair thought showers to elicit ideas
Try and get them to differentiate between formal and informal openers
Try and get them to write the first three sentences of their presentation in the class
BETA Conference, May 2008

19. Get students to think about how they move from one section of their presentation to the next : pause – “I’m now going to tell you about XXXX” pause “……. Get them to tell you why the pauses are important
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20. Get / encourage students to write a key point summery of their presentation e.g.
Intro: my product, my market, my competitors
Point 1 product: key features, USP
Point 2 market: size, growth + reasons
BETA Conference, May 2008

21. “Practice makes perfect” Encourage your students to practice in front of their: mirror, dog, cat, goldfish, goat, grandmother etc etc
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22. Planning + Effort = Success!
Keep stressing that:
Planning + Effort = Success!
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23. Assessment, self assessment, peer assessment
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24. 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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25. Thank you for participating!
Keep in touch:
BETA Conference, May 2008