How to Give a Presentation to an Audience
Do any of you watch 'TED Talks'? They are a fantastic resource for practising English listening skills. They are available for free on YouTube or podcast apps like iTunes or Stitcher. Many English students use them. A TED Talk is a presentation given by a speaker who has experience or special knowledge on a subject. Here is an example.
Presenting is about communicating information and choosing a style suited to meet the needs of a specific audience. Speakers need to consider:
What is your presentation going to be about?
Who are you presenting to?
Why have you chosen this topic?
What is important about this topic?
Why should your audience listen?
When preparing a speech it can be useful to choose a topic that already interests you. Then find an angle or argument to focus on. Once you have your own title and angle, come up with your main points and list these in a logical order.
Think of a great opening line to start your speech and introduce your topic. Watching the beginning of some TED talks on YouTube could be a great way to get inspiration for your opening lines.
Next, consider other viewpoints. This is useful because it means you can show that you have thought about other perspectives. It also gives you the chance to explain your reasons for disagreeing with these other views before you are challenged later. Try to find all of the main likely arguments for the other side. Next, you can add detail to your speech and find ways to make it interesting. Create a sequence or structure for your speech in which each point supports your overall argument. You could include some of the following to make your speech convincing:
anecdotes, e.g. Let me tell you about a funny example of this...
facts (with sources)
statistics (can be percentages), e.g. '9 out of 10', 80% etc.
quotations from respected sources
Finally, add a conclusion to your speech. Think about using phrases such as:
In conclusion...
To sum up...
To conclude...
In summary...
All things considered...
Practise alone and in front of friends and family until you believe that you can deliver your speech with confidence. You can make yourself some 'prompt cards' with key notes on but don't write out the whole speech word-for-word and simply recite it. You can make a PowerPoint presentation to go with your presentation to provide visuals. Remember, the audience may well have questions for you at the end, so be prepared to answer these!
Teatime English teachers can help you to write, prepare and rehearse presentations. Contact us to arrange a chat with us on Skype.
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