English is the language of manyinternationalconferences. Sometimes a speakermightuse a kind of “WorldEnglish” that audiencemembersdo not understand. This can be trueeven for listenerswho are nativespeakers of English.
For this reason, ProfessorCharlesLebeausays the visualmessage is important. The visualmessageincludespictures, charts and otheraids a speakerpresentsduring the talk. A non-nativespeaker of Englishcanunderstand a picture. It canhelpcarry the messagewhen the presenter’s words are hard to understand.
“The visualmessagebecomes a centralpart of the communicationprocessbecauseeveryonecanunderstand a graph; everyonecanunderstand a flowchart; everyonecansee the words on the slide.”
Whenyouprepare a presentation, youmightwant to showhowmuchyouknowabout a subject. But does the audiencecarehowmuchyouknow?
Listenersmorelikelywant to understand the mainpoint of yourpresentation. So, howdoyouorganizeyourtalk to get that pointacross? ProfessorLeBeausays this candepend on the culture of youraudience.
Cultural styles of presenting ideas
AmericanlanguageexpertRobertKaplanstudieddifferentculturalthoughtpatterns in the mid 1960s. He helpedEnglishlanguageteachersunderstand the differencesbetweenEnglishrhetoric and that of Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, and Russian.
Englishspeakersprefer a ‘linear’ style, which has onemainidea. The speakersupports that ideawithdetails or arguments, and thencloses the talk by restating the idea. In othercultures, however, speakersmaybring in otherideasbeforereturning to the mainpoint.
CharlesLeBeausayssome of hisstudentsprepare a speechwithoutthinking of the mainidea.
“Sometimes the biggerproblem is the point that theywant to make is not clear. They are not thinkingclearlyabout “What is the keypoint in mypresentation? And howdo I want to say that, wheredo I want to say it?”
For presentations in English, the besttime to make that point is at the beginning. Speakersshouldmake a plan to presenttheirideas in the order that is common in Englishrhetoric. When we writeourideasdownwithoutsuch a plan, they are not clear and ourpresentation will not be wellorganized.
“I thinktheyprepare the presentationkind of as a stream of consciousnessactivity, thenfinally at the end of this processtheyfigure out, oh, whatdo I want to say, what is the keypoint in this? And it endsupbeing at the end of the presentation.”
ProfessorLeBeausays he oftensees the engineers he workswithgive a lot of technicalinformation in theirspeeches. Theywant to telleverythingtheyknow. But, the audiencemayhavetroubleunderstandingwhichinformation is related to the speaker’s mainpoint. We cantell the storywithfacts and numbers, iftheyhelp, and thenrepeat the point.
“In an Englishlanguagepresentation, what we try and do is make it morelinear. And by that, I mean, it’s more of a story - we usedata, and we useevidence, we usenumbers, but only to help us tell the storymoreclearly.”
Five tips for preparing your presentation
Preparing the storymessagehelpsspeakersgive a successfulpresentation. ProfessorLeBeaugivesthesefivetips for academicpresentations, such as thosegiven at professionalconferences.
1. Understand the differencebetween a title and a topic. A topic is general, but a title is morespecific. Makesure the titleexplains the benefit of yoursubject.
2. Provide an image for thosewho are not experts in yoursubject. Explainhowyourresearchrelates to otherfields.
3. Work on transitions (linkingwords or phrases) as you go from image to image. Theseshouldmake the connectionsbetweenyourideasclear. ProfessorLeBeausaystransitionsserve as bridges to eachnewimage.
4. Look at eachimage from the audience’s point of view. Whatquestionsmighttheyhaveabouteachimage? Prepare an extraimage that wouldhelpexplain the mostdifficultquestionyouexpect.
5.Rehearseyourpresentationwith a timingdevice. At mostconferences, there is a timelimit. It is disrespectful to takemorethanyourshare of the time. Cutyourpresentation to fit the timeyou are permitted.
ProfessorLeBeauunderstands the difficultymanystudents of publicspeakingface.
“Learning a newculture for presentation is reallyreallytough for manypeople, as it is withalllanguagelearning. Presentation, or course, is a part of languagelearning. There’s culture in everything we do in English, as well as in presentation.”
Usingthesetips for improvingyourpresentations in Englishshouldhelpmake the processeasier.
I’m JillRobbins.
JillRobbinswrote this story for LearningEnglish. CatyWeaver was the editor.
data- n. (plural) facts or informationusedusually to calculate, analyze, or plansomething
evidence- n. somethingwhichshows that somethingelseexists or is true
academic– n. of or relating to schools and education
title – n. the namegiven to something to identify or describe it
topic – n.someone or something that peopletalk or writeabout
transitions - n.words that connectbetweenparts of a composition or speech, such as first, second, third, in addition, furthermore, and so on.
rhetoric - n. the art or skill of speaking or writingformally and effectivelyespecially as a way to persuade or influencepeople
stream of consciousness - n. the continuousseries of thoughts that occur in someone's mindespeciallywhenthey are expressed in writing as a constantflow of words