How to Make a Presentation

If you are looking for ways on how to make a presentation that is interesting and effective, this self study lesson will provide you with great tips and ideas. Improving one's ability to make a presentation, is not only useful for public speaking, but is also essential in being able to clearly communicate one's thoughts in every day life. Going through this material will give you confidence that you can clearly structure an argument or a viewpoint, and give you the correct phrases and vocabulary to sound convincing.

This lesson plan uses two rather different resources, a video and a text. In the video, Nancy Duarte analyzes two outstanding speeches - 'I have a dream' by Martin Luther King, and Steve Jobs' iPhone launch. The text is a report produced by Newcastle University for their students on how to improve their communication and presentation skills.

Free Downloadable Lesson Plan

Level

This lesson is suitable for you if you are upper-intermediate, advanced or proficiency level English (B2, C1 and C2).

Language Focus

This lesson will not only help you with the vocabulary that you need to sound professional, but it will also give you guidelines how to structure your talk so that it is clear and easy to follow and understand.

The lesson starts with a video from TED which carefully analyzes the structure of successful speeches. There is also a reading with pointers on how to improve your communication skills. You need to use these resources to formulate a diagram that summarizes the points that you have found to be the most valuable.

There is also a list of appropriate phrases and sentence starters to use during different parts of the presentation. If you would like this list without going through the whole lesson, then go here.

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