1. Listen to the dialogue and fill in the blanks. The sentences are extracts from the video. (Ve directamente a los minutos señalados y completa los huecos.)
Minute 0:51
If some people in the audience don't know who you are, you should __________________(1) yourself and your ________________(2).
Minute 2:04
If your topic is more complex, you might add more ____________(3) to break your idea into stages.
Minute 3:57
Good speakers grab your __________________(4) and don't let go.
You want to hear what they have to _______________(5).
You feel interested and energized by ____________________(6) to them.
Bad speakers are the opposite. Even if you try to make yourself listen, you find that your ________________(7) drifts away.
Minute 4:31
How can you make sure you speak effectively when you make your _________________(8) in English?
Minute 4:40
Bad speakers don't think they have to earn your _________________(9).
Good speakers understand that no one has to listen to them, so they ________________(10) hard to make you want to pay attention.
What does this mean for you, and your presentation?
Getting people's attention starts from the _________________(11).
You need to make it clear what peple should __________________(12) from your presentation, and why they should care about what you have to say.
Sounds like a nice idea, but how do you ____________(13) this?
Minute 5:22
Here are three techniques you can use. One: establish a problem which many people in your _________________(14) have. Then, establish that you have a _____________________(15) to their problem.
Minute 5:49
In this way, you take a boring-sounding topic like HR policies, and you make it more _________________(16) to your audience. How? By connecting it with their experiences and ___________________(17).
Minute 6:28
Finally, you can engage people by telling a short _______________(18) and connecting it to your topic. Stories are powerful, and they can add an emotional dimention to your topic if you do it _______________(19).
Minute 7:35
There's a famouse quote about making presentations:
"Tell the audience what you're going to _____________(20); say it, and then tell them what you've said."
Have you heard this before? Do you know who said it? This comes from Dale Carnegie, a very successful American salesman and writer. He lived a long time ago, but his advice is still relevant ______________(21). So, here's a question: What does the quote mean?
It means that your presentation shouldn't just give information. You aslo need to show people how your information is ________________(22). To do this, you need signposting language. Let me give you an example to explain. Imagine you go to a website. The website is full of really useful, interesting information. But, the information is all on one page. There's no organization, and you have to scroll up and down, up and down this huge page, trying to find what you __________________(23). Would you stay on that website? Probably not. You'll find a website which makes it easier for you to find the information you needed. What's the point here?
The point is that having interesting or relevant information is not enough. How to structure and organize your information is equally important. If you don't ___________________(24) your presentatioin clearly, people won't pay attention, just like you won't stay on a website if you can't find the information you want. So, how can you do this? You use signposting language. This means using words and phrases to show the audience where your points beging and end, to show what's coming next, and to reming them about things you talked about before.
Minute 11:36
Use signposting language to move between points, to show when you're giving a summary or going into more detail, and to signal that you've reached your conclusion. Okay, but things don't always go so smoothly in real life. We know that!
2. ¿Cómo adaptarías estas sugerencias a tu propia presentación? Comienza por una forma de presentación informal y luego trabaja en la formal.
INFORMAL
Informal Introduction:
· Hi guys; if you don't know me, I'm Sylvia and I work in digital marketing.
· Hello I see some new faces, so I'll introduce myself first: I'm Julia and I'm one of our customer service team.
FORMAL
Formal Introduction:
· Good morning everyone. For those who don't know me, my name's Simon, and I work in the marketing department.
· Hello everybody. Before we begin, let me introduce myself briefly: I'm Reese and I'm he head of HR.
A Simple Formal Presentation:
· Today, I'm going to be talking about our new HR policies and how they affect you.
· I'd like to talk to you today about quality control and why we're all responsible for quality control, whichever department you work in.
Introducing your topic adding more detail:
· Today, I'm going to be talking about our new HR policies and how they affect you. I'll begin by outlining the policies, and then I'll go on to highlight what they mean for you and your working habits. Finally, I'll briefly discuss why we fell these new policies are necessary and beneficial for us all.
· (I'd like to talk to you today about quality control and why we're all responsible for quality control, whichever department you work in.) First of all, I'll explain why quality control has a broader meaning than you might expect. I'll continue by giving examples of real quality control, and why this matters for all of us. To finish, I'll be asking you to think of ways you can incorporate quality control into your working habits.
Expressions to introduce your topic:
· I'll beging by ... and then I'll ... Finally, I'll ...
· First of all, I'll ... I'll continue by ... To finish, I'll ...
Techniques to attract the audice's attention:
1 · Problem --> solution
Have you ever felt unfairly treated at work, or felt that the work you do isn't appreciated? We've been working to design new HR policies that will make sure all staff get fair recognition for their contribution to the company.
2 · Interesting facts or statistics
(Mention an interesting fact, or a surprising statistic to get people's attention.)
Did you know that the average office worker spends eight hours a day at work, but only does four hours of productive, useful work? I'm here to tell you about "quality control", and how you can use this idea to make better use of your time.
3 · Short stories
I one met a young salesman - I won't mention his name. He spent several weeks building a relationship with a potential client. He worked overtime, and he was working so hard that he was under severe stress, which started to affect his personal life. In the end, he didn't close the deal - the clients signed with another firm. Today, I'm going to talk about confidence as a sales tool, and how you can avoid the traps that this young man fell into.
Using Signposting Language:
1 · Okay, that covers the new policies. Next, I'd like to move on and discuss what these policies mean for you.
2 · Now that you've heard a bit about what not to do, let's focus on positive advice to help you be more effective salespeople and close more of your leads.
(When you say something like this, you aren't giving people information about the topic of your presentation. Instead, you're showing people where you are, and where you're going next. It's a kind of signpost. You don't need signposts to travel from one place to another, but they can make it easier.)
3 · (You can use signposting language to move from one point to the next.)
· Next, I'd like to talk about ...
· Let's move on and discuss ...
· At this point, I'd like to turn to ...
4 · (You can use signposting language to add detail to an idea.)
· Let me go into some more detail about ...
· Let's examine ... in more depth.
· I'd like to elaborate on ...
5 · (You can use signposting language to show that you've finished your main points, and you've reached your conclusion.)
· To wrap up, let's remind ourselves of why this should matter to everyone here.
· Let's review the key points from this session.
· So, you've heard what I have to say. What conclusions can you take away from this?
Problems during your presentation:
· You might forget where you were, or forget an important word.
· You might realise that you said something wrong, or you didn't explain something clearly.
· You might forget to mention something important.
· Someone might ask you and awkward question, which you have no idea how to answer.
How to solve those problems:
1 · It's a good idea to make a cue card with key points, as well as any important vocabulary you need. (If you lose your place, or you forget a word, it could help.)
2 · If you lose your place, and can't remember what to say next, you can use a filler phrase, like:
Where was I?
So, what was I saying?
What's the word in English again?
If you still can't remember, look at your cue card with your main points.
3 · If you forget something, it's better to keep talking, rather than just standing there in silence.
4 · If you make a mistake, or you realise that you didn't explain something well, you could say:
Let me rephrase that.
Actually, what I meant to say is ...
To clarify, I wanted to say that ...
In this way, you can correct yourself without admiting that you made a mistake.
5 · If you realise that you forgot to mention something important, use a phrase like this:
Let me just add one more thing ...
I'd like to add something to a point we discussed earlier.
Let me return to an earlier point briefly.
This allows you to correct your mistake in a confident way, so you look like you're in control.
6 · If someone asks you a difficult question, which you can't answer:
★ You can delay giving an answer (this gives you time to think of an answer and do some research if you have to):
I've allocated time for questions at the end of this session, so we'll address your idea later.
I'm not in a position to answer that right now, but I'll get back to you later this week.
★ You can deflect the question, by asking a question back, or maybe by asking other audience members what they think.
That's an interesting question. Before I answer, I'd like to know: what's your take on this?
You've raised an important point there. What does everyone else think about this?
★ You can dismiss the question and move on.
Thanks for your input, but I don't see how that's connected to what I'm saying.
I don't mean to be blunt, but I don't think that's relevant to today's discussion.