Giving a presentation

What's in the lesson

1. 1Warm-up
2. 2In this lesson
3. 3Guess the words (1)Vocabulary exercise
4. 4Guess the words (2)Vocabulary exercise
5. 5Check the wordsVocabulary
6. 6Useful phrases for presentingVocabulary
7. 7Check your understandingReading comprehension
8. 8Listen: Rachel's presentationListening comprehension
9. 9How Rachel built her talkListening comprehension
10. 10Use the new wordsVocabulary exercise
11. 11What does it mean?Grammar exercise
12. 12Find the linkersGrammar exercise
13. 13Linkers and signpostsGrammar rule
14. 14Choose the linkerGrammar exercise
15. 15Liam's updateGrammar exercise
16. 16Signposts and linkersGrammar exercise
17. 17Pause, stress, slow downSpeaking practice
18. 18Your presentationSpeaking practice
19. 19Let's discussDiscussion
20. 20Wrap-up

Homework

1. 1Homework: closest meaningVocabulary exercise
2. 2Homework: your sentencesVocabulary exercise
3. 3Homework: join the ideasGrammar exercise
4. 4Homework: the first minute of your talkDiscussion

Words

• audience/ˈɔːdiəns/

  the people who watch or listen to a talk, a show or a presentation

• deck/dek/

  a set of slides for a presentation (also: slide deck)

• hook/hʊk/

  something at the start of a talk that catches people's attention

• outline/ˈaʊtlaɪn/

  a short description of the main parts of a talk or a plan, without the details

• visual/ˈvɪʒuəl/

  a picture, chart or video that helps people understand a talk (usually plural: visuals)

• takeaway/ˈteɪkəweɪ/

  the main idea or lesson that people remember from a talk or a meeting

• rehearse/rɪˈhɜːrs/

  to practice a talk or a performance before you give it

• nerves/nɜːrvz/

  feelings of worry or fear before something difficult or important

• Q&A/ˌkjuː ən ˈeɪ/

  a part of a talk or a meeting when people ask questions and the speaker answers them

• wrap up/ˌræp ˈʌp/

  to finish a talk, a meeting or a piece of work

Two slides from the lesson

Warm-up

Let's talk about presentations.

1. When did you last give a presentation, at work or anywhere else? What was it about?
2. How do you feel before you speak in front of a group: calm, a little nervous or very nervous?
3. In your job (or your studies), who do you present to: your team, managers, clients, or nobody yet?

Grammar rule

Linkers and signposts

Linkers: how two ideas are connected

Linker	Use it to	Example
However,	show a contrast (= but)	The hotel is cheap. However, it's far from the conference center.
Therefore,	give a result or a conclusion (= so); a little formal	The client wants the report by Friday. Therefore, we need to check the numbers today.
As a result,	say what happened because of something	The flight was canceled. As a result, I missed the first day of the trade show.
In addition,	add another point of the same kind (= also)	You'll get a laptop on your first day. In addition, we pay for your internet at home.
For example, (or For instance,)	give an example	We have offices in several countries. For example, we have teams in Mexico and Japan.

These linkers usually start a new sentence, with a comma after them. However can also go in the middle of a sentence, between commas: The hotel, however, is far from the center. To join two ideas inside one sentence, use but, so or and: The hotel is cheap, but it's far away.

Signposts: guiding your audience

	Signposts
Start	Today I'm going to talk about… · There are three parts to my talk. · First, …
Move on	Next, … · Let's move on to… · My second point is… · Now let's look at…
Finish	Finally, … · To sum up, … · If there's one thing to remember, it's…

Let's move on to + a noun or -ing: Let's move on to the next point. In American English, First, … Second, … is more common than Firstly, … Secondly, … To sum up (or To summarize) is natural in a talk; In conclusion is more formal.

Finally = the last point. At last = after a long wait ("At last, the projector is working!"). First = the first point. At first = in the beginning, before something changed ("At first, the new software was confusing, but now we love it."). And not In addition to, … without a noun: In addition, … or In addition to the laptop, …