3.15 Vary your voice and speed |
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Imagine that when you practice your presentation you realize that you cannot pronounce disadvantage easily. In fact, disadvantage has four syllables, so four chances of getting the stress wrong. Also, the final -age is not pronounced like age as in “at my age” but like -idge in fridge. So there are many chances of you getting the pronunciation wrong. The solution is to write “advantages and disadvantages” on the slide, but when you speak about the slide, you can say the “pros are” or the “good things are” and the “cons are” or “the bad things are.” As you say, “pros” and “cons” you point to the items on your slides, so that everyone can understand that you when you say “pros” and “cons” you mean ”advantages and disadvantages” —just in case someone in the audience is not familiar with the term “pros and cons.”
3.14 Use stress to highlight the key words
English is a stress-timed language. The way you stress words should help to distinguish the nonessential (said more quickly and with no particular stress) from the important (said more slowly, with stress on key words).
Stress also indicates the meaning you want to give. Try saying the following sentences putting the stress on the words in italics.
Please present your paper next week. |
(present rather than write) |
Please present your paper next week. |
(your paper not mine) |
Please present your paper next week. |
(paper not report) |
Please present your paper next week. |
(not this week) |
Please present your paper next week. |
(not next month) |
Although the sentence is exactly the same, you can change the meaning by stressing different words. And the stress helps the listener to understand what is important and what isn’t.
When you stress a word in a sentence you
•say the word more slowly than the ones before and the ones after
•raise the volume of your voice a little
•may decide to give your voice a slightly different tone or quality
Never put the stress on alternate words or always at the end or beginning of a sentence.
3.15 Vary your voice and speed
If the sound of your voice never changes or you have a very repetitive intonation (e.g., at the end of each phrase your voice goes up unnaturally or is significantly
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3 Pronunciation and Intonation |
reduced in volume), the audience will lose essential clues for understanding what you are saying and sooner or later they will go to sleep. You need to vary your
speed |
how fast you say the words. Slow down to emphasize a particular or |
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difficult point. Speed up when what you are saying is probably familiar |
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to the audience or will be easy for them to grasp. |
volume |
how loud or soft you say the words—never drop your voice at the end |
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of a sentence |
pitch |
how high or low a sound is |
tone |
a combination of pitch and the feeling that your voice gives |
You can vary these four factors to show the audience what is important about what you are saying. You can create variety in your voice by
•imagining that your audience is blind or that there is a curtain between them and you—you are totally dependent on your voice to communicate energy and feeling
•listening to people who have interesting voices and analyzing what makes them interesting
•recording yourself and listening to your voice critically
3.16 Sound interested
If you don’t sound interested in what you are saying, the audience will not be interested either. Presentations expert Jeffrey Jacobi, in his book How to Say It—Persuasive Presentations, recommends reading texts aloud that express strong opinions or are full of colorful language, for example, letters to the editor (of newspapers), children’s stories, and advertisements. Initially, you can practice in your own language and then move on to English.
Another way is to practice your presentation using different types of voice and mood: angry, happy, sarcastic, and authoritative.
Chapter 4
Practice and Learn from Other People’s Presentations
You will learn how to
•identify which parts of the presentation to practice the most
•be self-critical
•transmit confidence through your body language
•find presentations on the web
Why is this important?
The more you practice the better your presentation will be and the more you will be able to exploit the benefits of presenting at a congress. You will avoid arriving at the presentation venue unprepared and nervous.
A. Wallwork, English for Presentations at International Conferences, |
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DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-6591-2_4, C Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010 |
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4 Practice and Learn from Other People’s Presentations |
4.1 Use your notes
If you have prepared a script, as suggested in Chapter 2, then your initial practice could simply be to read your script aloud so that you become familiar with what you want to say. Then, abandon your script completely and just use notes (see Section 2.2).
As you practice, if any phrase or word does not come easily to you, try to modify it until what you want to say comes quickly and naturally.
Finally, put your notes on a table, and try doing the presentation aloud without looking at your notes. Of course, if you forget what to say, then quickly look at your notes.
Even the best presenters make use of notes on the day of their presentation— it is standard practice and no one will think it is unprofessional if you occasionally look down to remember what you want to say.
4.2 Vary the parts you practice
Given time constraints, people often manage only to practice part of their presentation at a single time. The result may be that you only practice the first half of your presentation. So it is a good idea to occasionally begin in the middle, or begin with the conclusions—don’t just focus on the technical part. Also, don’t forget to practice answering questions—imagine the question, and then answer it in various ways (including imagining that you didn’t understand the question).
In any case, practice the opening and the ending again and again and again. These are the two parts of the presentation where you should not improvise, and where it helps considerably if you know exactly what you are going to say. First and last impressions are the ones that remain with the audience.
4.3 Practice your position relative to the screen
Try to reproduce the real conditions of the conference room. So if you are practicing with colleagues don’t stand right next to them, but at a distance. Use a desk as a podium, and imagine the screen is behind you. Think about the best place to stand.
If you stand in front of the screen, the beam will light you up and the audience won’t really be able to see you. One solution is simply to turn the screen off (using the B key on PowerPoint).
To avoid blocking your slides from the audience’s view, stand to one side of the screen. Only move in front of it when it is strictly necessary to point to things on your slides.