Oral Presentation Skills

Starting A Conversation

Interpersonal Communication: Interpersonal communication is the process by which people exchange information, feelings, and meaning through verbal and non-verbal messages: it is face-to-face communication. Interpersonal communication is not just about what is actually said – the language used – but how it is said and the non-verbal messages sent through tone of voice, facial expressions, gestures and body language.

A sender composes the message in his mind. In composing the message, he may take into account such things as the reason for the message, such as to persuade or inform. This involves encoding, which is the transferring of your mental thoughts for the message into words.
The next step is selection of the channel of communication. Channels include speaking, writing, video transmission, audio transmission, electronic transmission through an email, text or instant message, or even non-verbal communication through body language and signals.
The next stage of the communication is when the receiver of the message processes the information into understanding, called decoding. For example, you decode a written message by interpreting the meanings of the symbols (letters and punctuation), including their arrangement (sentence and paragraph structure), on a printed page.
An optional step in the process is feedback, which is a message sent from the receiver to the sender in response to the original message.

Verbal Communication is further divided into:

Oral Communication (Speaking)
Written Communication
Aural Communication (Listening)
Reading Communication

Non-verbal communication: Communication without using words called non-verbal communication. In this type of communication there is no use of either words or written message. Here message conveyed through body movements, paralanguage or by facial expressions. Non-verbal communication is the process of communicating without words. Non-verbal communication can be divided into four categories: aesthetic, physical, signs, and symbols.

Importance of non-verbal communication

Nonverbal Communication, the total impact of a message breaks down like this:

7 percent verbal (words)
38 percent vocal (volume, pitch, rhythm, etc)
55 percent body movements (mostly facial expressions)

Body Language in Conversation:

Don’t cross your arms or legs – We have probably already heard we shouldn’t cross your arms as it might make us seem defensive or guarded. This goes for our legs too. Keep your arms and legs open.
Have eye contact, but don’t stare – If there are several people you are talking to, give them all some eye contact to create a better connection and see if they are listening.
Relax your shoulders – When you feel tense it’s easily winds up as tension in your shoulders. They might move up and forward a bit. Try to relax. Try to loosen up by shaking the shoulders a bit and move them back slightly.
Nod when they are talking – nod once in a while to signal that you are listening. But don’t overdo it.
Don’t slouch; sit up straight – but in a relaxed way, not in a too tense manner.
Lean, but not too much – If you want to show that you are interested in what someone is saying, lean toward the person talking.
Smile – Relax a bit, smile when someone says something funny. People will be a lot more inclined to listen to you if you seem to be a positive person.
Don’t touch your face – it might make you seem nervous and can be distracting for the listeners or the people in the conversation.
Keep your head up – Don’t keep your eyes on the ground, it might make you seem insecure and a bit lost. Keep your head up straight and your eyes towards the horizon.
Keep a good attitude – keep a positive, open and relaxed attitude. How you feel will come through in your body language and can make a major difference.

Barriers To Communication:

Judgmental attitude may be reflected through excessive analysis, bossiness, name calling, ridiculing, making value-based comments and judgments, moralizing or ignoring. This is often the single most powerful barrier in communicating with.
“Know it all” attitude may be reflected through advising, moralizing, ordering, patronizing, threatening or lecturing. This form of behaviour often inhibits people from sharing their concerns and experiences. When communicating with youth, this kind of behaviour/communication should be avoided.
Unconcerned attitude may be reflected through voicing platitudes, diverting the issue, using excessive logic, offhanded assurances, half-listening, not making eye contact or being flippant. Concern, empathy and confidentiality are valued components of communication on sensitive subjects.

Role Play

Role plays are an excellent way of getting students to practice their English. They Simulate real life situations and allow them to act out what they would do in a real situation. There are two ways a role play can go: scripted and non-scripted. With a scripted role play, the teacher might use an example in a text book. This is a good idea for a warm up exercise, by getting everyone to split up into pairs and allow them to speak to their partner, taking on different roles. Non-scripted ones are when students are given a role each and mustache whatever knowledge they have in order to speak with that partner. This can be adapted to suit a situation.

Role-playing takes place between two or more people, who act out roles to explore a particular scenario. By acting scenarios like these, one can explore how other people are likely to respond to different approaches; and one can get a feel for approaches that are likely to work, and for those that might be counter-productive. One can also get a sense of what other people are likely to be thinking and feeling in the situation.

Role play Helps To Spark Brainstorming Sessions, to improve communication between team members, and to see problems or situations from different perspectives.

Examples

At Bank

A: May I help you with something? B: I want to open a bank account. A: Do you know what kind of account you want to open? B: I want to open a checking account. A: You should also open a savings account. B: That would be great. A: To open these accounts, you will need to make a deposit of at least $50. B: I would actually like to deposit $300 today. A: Let me do that for you now. B: Please put $150 in each account for me.

Example Preparing For A Job Interview

A: Could you help me try and figure out how to get ready for my job interview? B: The most important thing to do is to make sure you know the company and what services or products it provides. Do you know all about them? A: Yes, I pretty much understand the company. B: Well, after you’ve done your research, you have to decide whether the company is casual or formal. Have you decided what they are yet? A: Yes, I’ve been observing them. B: When you are choosing what to wear, keep all of that in mind. Have you chosen what to wear? A: I already have something to wear. B: I would always be ready to go shopping with you! Should we talk about other basics?

Just A Minute

The activity ‘Just a minute or JAM’ is an impromptu speech where the speaker is supposed to express the idea (s) on the given topic, within the duration of a minute. It is quite common to see a speaker experiencing nervousness when asked to speak instantly. Effective impromptu speaking is a skill that can be learnt through practice and training.

Elements of JAM

Analyze, assimilate ideas
Analyze audience needs
Use proverbs, jokes and anecdotes to retain the audience’s interest
Quote examples from their self experiences.

The important rules to be followed are;

No deviation
No repetition
No hesitation

Do’s

Be ready to speak in an any given situation
Be brief and to the point
Be cautious of time
Follow a sequential order

Don’ts

Jumble ideas
Drag the point
Go on and on
Give too many pauses
Shy away from expressing your ideas

Organizing your Presentation

A good presentation should be well organized, with a beginning, middle and end.

Beginning:

The beginning of a presentation is very important! This is when you have an opportunity to grab the audience’s attention, and set the tone for your presentation.

Use an attention grabber. Some attention grabbing techniques include: asking a thought-provoking question, showing the audience an intriguing picture, telling a story or use a real life example related to your topic, sharing a shocking statistic related to your topic, sharing a powerful quote, playing a short video.
Introduce yourself and the topic you will be discussing.
Outline what you will be talking about.

Body:

Discuss your main points in a logical order.
It should be clear to your audience when you are moving from one point to another.
Use examples to support your points.

Conclusion:

Summarize the main points.
Avoid providing new information at this point, but you can state any additional questions that you think your research has led you too.
Use language that lets your audience know that your presentation is coming to an end.
Avoid ending with “that’s it!” or apologizing for your presentation.
Thank the audience for listening and invite questions.

Signal Words and Transition Phrases

Using transition and signal phrases throughout your presentation will help keep it organized and ensure your thoughts are communicated clearly. Try using some of the phrases below to introduce ideas and structure your presentation.

Introducing your presentation:

The topic/question I will be discussing today is…
This presentation will investigate/examine…

Providing an outline:

I want to start by…, then I will…
This presentation is divided into [x number] of parts. First I will… then I will…, finally I will conclude by…
There are [x number] of points I will discuss: A, B, C and D
Let’s begin by looking at… before examining…

Introducing your main point:

A significant issue is…
A major concern is…
The central problem is…

Rephrasing your main point:

In other words…
Another way to think about the problem is…

Moving to another point:

Now let’s consider…
I’d like to move on to examine…
Now, turning to the issue of…

Introducing an example:

A case in point is…
Take the case of…
This is illustrated/demonstrated by…
An example of this is…

Introducing images or explaining visuals:

This image/diagram illustrates…
As you can see here…

Introducing and integrating videos:

We will now watch a short video that illustrates…
In the video we’ve just watched, it is important to note that…
As the video demonstrates…

Conclusions:

To sum up…
In conclusion…
In summary…
To summarize…
To conclude…
Therefore…

Inviting and Answering Questions:

I am happy to take questions now.
That’s a very interesting question. In my opinion,…
Thanks for your question. What my research shows is that…
That’s a relevant question, but it is out of the scope of my research.
I’m afraid I cannot answer that question, but that’s an interesting topic.