How to give a good presentation ESL lesson

This is a lesson I did before my schools English presentation competition. It is designed to give the students an overview of what makes a good presentation and how to give a good presentation. It also has a couple of activities to help them with what they learn and to build their confidence. Even if your school does not have an English presentation competition I think it is a good lesson to teach as the students can learn a useful life skill whilst learning English.

How to give a good presentation from Duncan Elder

Objectives.

To learn how to do a good presentation in English.

Materials.

PPT

Part one.

The first slide has a link to a Jerry Seinfeld joke about being afraid of public speaking. Even my high level students struggled with understanding this, so I showed them the joke transcript on the next slide. I then explained that if they are not confident, there are things they can do to appear confident. I then asked the students how they thought they could appear confident and showed them the next slide. I then explained to them that we were going to learn 5 new languages and that all they had to do was say the phrases confidently using the techniques on the slide and the rest of the class would understand. I then asked different students to come to the front and say one of the following statements. (For this to work they have to speak LOUDLY and use LOTS of hand gestures).

een twee drie vier vyf (one two three four five. Africaans)

hello mijn naam is ...... (Hello, My name is ....... Dutch)

Ich liebe dich (I love you German)

hermano Gangnam Style (Oppa (Oppa means brother in Korean) Gangnam Style Spanish)

Part Two

The second part of the lesson is about PPT presentations. I showed the students the following examples of good and bad slides and asked them to tell me if they though each slide was good or bad. Most students got it but here is what is good/bad if they don't.

Slide 1- Too much writing. The listener will concentrate on the slide not the speaker.

Slide 2 - Too much writing and the background makes it hard to read.

Slide 3 - Too much going on. It makes it hard to follow.

Slide 4 - Easy to read and only the key facts are shown, allowing the speaker to explain what is going on.

Slide 5 - Good colour contrasts make it easy to read. Readers eys are drawn to the important highlighted words.

Slide 6 - Good simple graph. I also ask the students what is wrong with the slide. (The section of the pie chart for apple is 19% yet appears to be bigger than the other section which is 21%.)

Part Three
The third part of the lesson is about how to present in a group. I put the list of do's and don'ts on the board and ask the students to choose which ones they should do and which ones they should not do. I then tell them the answer.

Part Four
This part is just watching a video of Steve Jobs' presentation when he introduced the iPhone(the video I have linked to has korean subtitles but I think you should easily be able to find a video with different subtitles). It is a great example of a really good presentation and he uses all of the things I talked about in the lesson. When this finishes I ask the students to tell me the good things he did. Finally the last slide is just a couple of miscellaneous extras for the students to think about.