How to give a presentation in English

Hi, my name is Rebecca, and in today's lesson I'm going to show you how to give a presentation

in English more effectively. Okay? Now, of course giving a presentation is never easy,

especially when it is in another language which is not your native language -- you're

going to face some special challenges. And as a corporate trainer who has worked with

people from all over the world, I can tell you that giving a presentation is difficult,

but it is also one of the most effective ways to improve your English and also to increase

your level of confidence as a professional speaking in English. Okay? So let's look at

some of the strategies that you can follow in order to give a presentation that is more

successful. All right, so I've divided the board into

two sections; the first part is things that you should do, and in the second part we'll

talk about things you should not do. So the first thing that you must remember when you're

speaking in English and giving a presentation is to use simple language. Many people feel

that their English is not good enough and so they try to use very complicated words.

However, if you're not comfortable with those words or you're not sure of the meaning of

those words, it's not going to go over very well. Simple, clear communication is powerful,

so try to remember that point. Okay? Next: speak slowly. Because you have an accent

-- and everyone has an accent --, but perhaps if you have an accent and English is not your

native language, it's going to be a little bit harder for people to understand you so

you need to speak much more slowly than you think. So however slowly you think you're

speaking, speak a little more slowly. It will only make it easier for other people to understand

exactly what you're saying. Okay? All right. The next point is to make sure to have your

visuals professionally edited. Make sure that a native English speaker or an editor has

checked all your visuals. There is nothing that compromises the professionalism of a

presentation more than seeing grammatical errors or spelling errors in the visuals.

So make sure to have your visuals professionally edited.

The next thing you want to do is to make sure to use more verbs rather than nouns. When

you use a lot of nouns it makes... It makes anything that you hear much heavier and difficult

to understand. Let me give you a little example of that. Okay? One second. Okay, so for example,

if I say: "The delivery of the package took place on Sunday afternoon." That's okay. It's

not impossible to understand, but let's compare it to this: "The post office delivered the

package on Sunday afternoon." It's much easier in the second example because I used verbs

rather than nouns. Okay? Next point: use active verbs rather than passive

verbs. Let me give you another example. "5000 apartments were rented by ABC Housing last

month." That's an example of using passive verbs. "5000 apartments were rented", right?

Let's contrast that with the active verb. "ABC Housing rented 5000 apartments last month."

Okay? So you can see it's much easier when you use the active verbs.

The next point is if possible at all, try to work with a trainer. Try to work with a

professional English trainer or a presentations coach who can help you to improve your presentation

skills, who can give you feedback on how to improve; what mistakes you're making, what

are your strengths and weaknesses. It will be very, very helpful to you so try to do

that if you have the opportunity. Okay? The next point is to use a lot of transition

words in your presentation. This helps your listener to know where you're going. So you

can say, for example: "furthermore", "nevertheless", "on the contrary". These words explain to

your listener what you're trying to say with even more clarity than if you did not use

the words. So try to get accustomed to using transition words.

Another important point, especially in different parts of the world is to make sure to write

down any important numbers. You need to write them down so that people can see them clearly

and also because in some parts of the world, numbers are described or said in different

ways. So for example: this number is what? "One hundred thousand", but in India for example they call this "one lakh". So

one lakh is different from saying one hundred thousand. And if your audience is not familiar

with the term "one lakh" or with the term "one hundred thousand" then you want to make

sure you have written the number down so it is 100% clear. All right?

So these are examples of things you should do; now let's look at some things you should

not do. All right? Don't use abbreviations, or acronyms, or short forms of names of organizations

or anything else from your country which other people are not familiar with. Right? Say the

entire name and then afterwards you can use the abbreviation once you have explained it.

You also want to avoid jargon. Now, what is jargon? Jargon is the special kind of language

that people who are in a special, in a particular field use when they speak to each other. So

for example: if you listen to computer guys speaking to each other, you will feel like

you landed on another planet because they speak language that only they can understand.

So when you're speaking to a general audience, you want to avoid using jargon. Just use regular

plain English to explain what you mean, that way you will reach more members of your audience.

Okay? Also, make sure you avoid slang. Even though

you might hear native English speakers using slang in their presentations, it's best that

you don't use it, especially if you're not familiar with how to use it. The worst thing

is when we hear non-native English speakers using slang in an incorrect way because that

doesn't sound professional at all. All right? And another point is to avoid crutch words.

Now, what's a crutch word? For that you have to know: what's a crutch? Well, crutches are

what people use... you know, for example: if someone has broken their leg, they might

use something like this to walk along and they, these crutches, these sticks support

them while they're walking let's say with a broken leg. Right? Similarly, when people

are nervous, they sometimes use sounds instead of words while they're thinking of the right

thought or word. So they might say: "Mm, ah, for example, uh, like, uh, yeah", and things

like that. These are crutch words and they're often used by people who are not sure what

word to say next. So avoid crutch words or sounds. Silence is okay if you're thinking.

So while you're thinking, try to keep your mouth closed and avoid these crutch sounds.

So these are some basic DOs and DON'Ts -- right? -- for giving a presentation in English. There

are many other aspects of giving a presentation in English and I'm going to write some of

those for you on the board.

Okay, so here are some other skills that you

need to master in order to give a successful presentation in English. You'll find lots

of information on this and other strategies on our website: www.presentationprep.com . There

you can learn how to, for example, overcome fear. It's very natural for you to feel a

lot of fear when you are presenting in a language which is not your native language. Everybody,

or many people, feel afraid in giving a presentation in general, but when you do it in English

it's a little bit more challenging. So you'll learn some mental strategies, psychological

strategies, and physical strategies to really help you with this aspect of the fear.

You'll also learn how to use body language more effectively. In different cultures, body

language means different things, so it's really important to learn how to use body language

effectively in an international context. You'll also learn how to structure your presentation

for greater clarity. Okay? Also important to be able to handle the question and answer

session effectively. That's an important ending of your presentation. So especially if your

presentation has gone well, you want to be completely in command during your question

and answer session. So you'll learn some effective strategies for doing that. And last but not

least, you'll also learn how to... you'll also be able to print out presentation templates

which you can actually use when you're doing your next presentation. So for that, go to

our website www.presentationprep.com . It's a free website. www.presentationprep.com . All

the best with your presentations!