Exercise 10. a) Record yourself giving a short talk on a specialist subject (3-5mins).Swap cassette recordings with your study partners and prepare a set of clarifying questions to ask each other. The following question frames may help you.
b) Record the question-and-answer sessions.
1. What exactly did you mean by …?
2. Could we go back to what you were saying about…?
3. How did you arrive at the figure of …?
4. I think I misunderstood you. Did you say …?
5. You spoke about …Could you explain that in more detail?
6. Going back to the question of … Can you be more specific?
7. You didn't mention … Why not?
8. If I understood you correctly, … Is that right?
9. I'm not sure I fully understood … Can you run through that again, please?
10. There's one thing I'm not clear about:… Could you go over that again, please?
Exercise 11. The project manager of a construction company is giving a presentation to his colleagues. Put the sentences in the right order and fill in the table.
a) This morning I’d like to update you on the current status of work at the construction site. The information I give you today should help you with planning your next steps.
b) For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Gordon Selfridge. Let me just write that down for you. OK. I’m the project manager in charge of the Bak Tower building project in Dubai.
c) I’ve divided my presentation into three parts.
d) Hello, everyone.
e) Then I’ll move on to the problems we’re facing with our local suppliers.
f) First of all, let me thank you for coming here today. I’m aware that you’re all busy preparing for the annual meeting this week, so I really appreciate you taking the time to be here.
g) I’ll start off by showing you some photos of the building site and discussing the progress we’ve made since January.
h) My talk should take about 30 minutes. Please feel free to interrupt me at any time with questions.
i) I’ll end with some ideas for reducing labour costs that we’ve been looking into.
j) Oh, and don’t worry about taking notes. I’ll be handing out copies of the Power Point slides.
Exercise 12. Listen to the presentation of your group mate and express your opinion according to the criteria for assessing oral presentations, discuss it with other students:
Aspects
Points to consider / evidence of:
Organisation
coherence and careful preparation
planning the presentation with respect to the 5 stages
logical structure within the sections
time planning
Content
relevance to the subject
appropriacy to the audience
sufficient depth of general subject knowledge, familiarity with the topic explored
independence of research
Delivery
enthusiasm and confidence
contact with the audience and establishing feedback
an appropriate balance between fluency and accuracy
pronunciation hardly interfering with comprehension;
volume and speed, rhythm and intonation varied and appropriate
ability to handle questions, to use notes / aids and Power Point / OHTs to enhance presentation
Language
ability to express complex ideas using a wide range of appropriate vocabulary
an appropriate balance between GE and terminology (stylistic awareness)
the use of common clichéd expressions corresponding to a particular section (introducing examples and terms, arguments and criticism)
sufficient degree of grammatical accuracy
the use of cohesive devices contributing to fluency
Overall
clarity of message
achievement of objectives
the effect produced (interesting/dull etc.) is based on the introduction / abundance/ lack of variety of examples, new approach/topic, humour etc.