English & Enterprise: Presentation Skills

Welcome - English & Enterprise  - Presentation Skills 

Jack: Hello my name’s Jack

Rich: and I’m Rich and welcome to this week’s Premier Skills English podcast

Jack: Where we talk about football and help you with your English.

Rich: We recommend that you listen to this podcast on the Premier Skills English website because that is where we have the transcript, language examples, activities, quizzes and a discussion page to help you understand everything we talk about.

Jack: However, if you’re listening on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, you can leave answers to our questions in the review section. We do read all the reviews and would love to hear from you. 

Rich: In this week’s podcast, we’re continuing with our mini-series of podcasts that focus on enterprise skills. These are skills that will help you with your English at work or in the workplace.

Jack: In our last podcast, we spoke about the language you need when trying to solve a problem - problem-solving skills.  We looked at phrases we might use to suggest and discuss solutions to problems such as ‘We’d be better off trying something totally different’, ‘Our best bet would be to try this’ and ‘I’m not sure that would be a smart move’. 

Rich: We also looked at lots of phrases with the word ‘chance’ that focused on the likelihood or possibility of something happening. These were phrases such as ‘It’s a million to one chance’, ‘You don’t stand a chance’ and ‘the chances of that happening are somewhere between slim and none’.

Jack: If you want to go back and do this lesson you can find it on the Premier Skills English website by clicking skills > listen >podcasts. If you are on Spotify or Apple Podcasts you’ll find it in the playlist, it’s called ‘English & Enterprise: Problem Solving’.

Rich: In this podcast, we are going to focus on presentation skills. In the workplace or at work, we often have to give presentations to our boss, our work colleagues or external customers.

Jack: We will focus on some of the words and phrases you need to give a successful presentation and we will give you our top presentation tips.

Rich: Later in the podcast, we will have a roleplay for you that continues from the previous roleplays in our English and Enterprise podcasts.

Jack: If you remember, we have a new idea for a football product - hair moulds in the shape of footballers.

Rich: It was our idea but the boss’ daughter has stolen it and taken the credit for it.

Jack: In this week’s roleplay, we will present the product to the boss who will realise that it was our idea, not his daughter’s.

Rich: After the roleplay, we will have a task for you to do, which is when we ask you to use your English. This week we’re going to ask you to tell us about a presentation at work, school or university that you have given in English.

Jack: And, don’t forget to listen to the end of the podcast because we have another football phrase for you to guess.

Football Phrase 1 

Jack: But, before we look at all that, let’s look at last week’s football phrase. If you didn’t hear it last week we’ll give you one more chance to guess and give you the correct answer at the end of the show when we give you a new football phrase.

Rich: The phrase was _______. This phrase is used when a referee or more recently VAR decides that a goal should not be given because of a foul or offside.

Jack:  Well done if you got the right answer last week. A special well done to Lakerwang from China,  Liubomyr from Ukraine, Coreuser from Saudi Arabia, Elghoul from Algeria, and Idzingirai from Zimbabwe. All of you got the right answer and wrote the correct answer on the Premier Skills English website

Rich: We’ll tell you the answer to this football phrase and we’ll have a new one at the end of the show.
Introduction to Roleplay

Rich: You are now going to listen to a roleplay. 

Jack: In the last podcast, you heard that the boss’s daughter had stolen the idea for a new product from two employees of a tech company (me and Rich).

Rich: If you remember, this fantastic new product are hair moulds in the shape of famous footballers that fans can wear in their hair. The boss thinks it’s going to be a big hit.

Jack: In this roleplay, we are going to give a presentation about the product and after the roleplay, we will look at some of the important language to use when giving presentations.

Rich: While you listen, try to answer these two questions: question one: What happens to Maria? And question two: Why does Jack think the product will be successful? 

Roleplay

Boss: A big welcome to everyone who has come today. We are very happy to see so many familiar faces in the audience. After the presentation of our exciting new football product, I will hope to have conversations with all potential partners and customers. I’m sure you will all be very interested. 

Boss: I’d like to welcome to the stage the brains behind the product my daughter Maria and two of our employees Jack and Rich.

Jack: Hello everybody. We’re very happy that you could join us here today. The main focus of this presentation is to give you more details about our product. Maria - Maybe you could give a brief overview of the product and its USP?

Maria: No, I can’t.

Jack: Maybe Maria hasn’t got her notes with her.

Jack: Not to worry everyone, I’d like to hand over to Rich, who has been working on the development of the product and will be happy to give you an overview.

Rich: Thank you, Jack, and everybody here today. First of all, I’m going to tell you a little bit about the product. Secondly,  I will hand over to Jack who is going to tell you why this product will be a success and finally we will hand back over to Maria who will present a cost-benefit analysis.

Jack: Psst. I think Maria’s gone.

Rich: Sorry, and last of all we will take a look at the kinds of profits you could be making.

Jack: We have both been hard at work crunching the numbers to show you how profitable this product will be. Rich - over to you.

Rich: As you’re aware, the football tech industry is booming. The sector was worth 45 billion dollars last year alone. And based on our findings we believe our new product can add a further 10% to the sector in the coming year. Our product is Premier League hair moulds. Let me elaborate further. This product would allow anybody with hair - our data shows this is 98% of the global population - to have the shape of their favourite footballer cut into their hair. Production costs would be minimal so, to put it simply, if we got major football leagues involved, profits could be astronomical.  Let me hand back to my colleague, Jack, who will expand on this a little.

Jack: Thanks, Rich. Let’s move on to why the hair mould idea will be a success. The reasons are threefold. Firstly, affordability. As Rich said earlier, hair moulds are cheap to make. Production costs are low which also means a low final sale price. Everybody will be able to buy one. Secondly, simplicity, hair moulds are easy to make and easy to use. And, thirdly, popularity, football is a world game - anything and everything connected to football sells.

Rich: Thanks for that, Jack. Before we sum up, we’d like to talk numbers. As you can see in the chart, the profit on a small number of units is quite small, however, if you look at the numbers we hope to sell, as illustrated in this second chart, you can see the kind of figures we are aiming for. The handout on your desk gives a further breakdown of all the costs.

Jack: So, in conclusion, we believe that this product could be the next global craze and will be very profitable for all involved. Thank you all for your attention and we’re now very happy to take any questions you may have.

Roleplay Questions 

Jack: Before we take a look at the language we used in the roleplay, let’s give you the answers to those questions we asked.

Rich: The first question was: What happens to Maria? Well, she disappeared! She refused to speak because she didn’t know what to say. Remember, she had stolen the product idea from us so didn’t have any of the information. 

Jack: That’s right. And the second question was: Why do I think the product will be successful?

Rich: He gave three reasons: affordability, simplicity and popularity. 

Jack: Now, let’s look at some of the language we used in the roleplay.
Language Focus

Jack: In the roleplay, you heard me and Rich give a presentation. We are now going to look at some language that will help you give better presentations. When we’ve done that we’ll give you our top tips for giving presentations.

Rich: Let’s start with introducing a presentation. You might want to start by saying something like ‘hello everybody’ or ‘thanks for coming today’ but then you need to state the purpose of your presentation.

Jack: In the roleplay, Rich said ‘The main focus of this presentation is to give you more details about our product.’

Rich: The useful bit of language here is ‘the main focus of this presentation is ...’ You could use some other phrases to introduce the purpose of your presentation.

Jack: These include simple phrases such as ‘Today, I’m going to talk about ...’ or ‘This afternoon, I’d like to talk about …’ or more complex phrases such as ‘Let me start this presentation by …’ or ‘As you may be aware …’.

Rich: We used this last phrase in the roleplay. I said ‘As you’re aware, the football tech industry is booming’. This phrase is used to introduce a topic that your audience already knows about.

Jack: It’s important to give a presentation order and structure. At the beginning of a presentation, you should tell your audience what you are going to speak about and when.

Rich: In the roleplay, I used the phrases ‘first of all’, ‘secondly’ and ‘finally’ to tell my audience what I was going to speak about and when.

Jack: I did something similar when I gave three reasons why the product would be a success. I used the words ‘firstly’, ‘secondly and ‘thirdly’.

Rich: There are also some phrases you can use at the end of your presentation or when you are saying what you re going to speak about at the end. As I mentioned ‘finally’ is a useful word here but we can also say things like ‘in conclusion ...’, ‘last of all …’ and ‘summing up ...’ or ‘to sum up ...’.

Jack: At the very end of a presentation it can be useful to thank the audience for listening and answer questions. In the roleplay, I said ‘Thank you all for your attention and we’re now very happy to take any questions you may have’. 

Rich: So those are probably the most useful phrases for giving your presentation a basic structure but there are lots of other phrases we use in presentations.

Jack: In the roleplay, you heard ‘let’s move on to …’ which is a common phrase to change the topic in a presentation, you heard ‘our data shows’ and ‘based on our findings’ which are phrases that are used to make reference to other information.

Rich: You also heard ‘let me elaborate further’ and ‘let me expand on this a little’ which are phrases used to give more details about something. The phrases ‘as you can see in this chart’ and ‘as illustrated in this chart’ and ‘in the handout you will see a breakdown of all the costs’ are all used to explain visual information.

Jack: We will look at these phrases in a little bit more detail on the Premier Skills English website. There will be more explanations and activities for you to do on the website page for this podcast.

Rich: It’s totally free to use and you will find this lesson on the homepage or under skills > listen > podcasts.

Presentation Tips

Jack: Many of you may have to give a presentation at work, school or university so we thought we would share with you five of our top tips for giving presentations in English.

Rich: We hope you find them useful.

Jack: Tip Number one.

Rich: Plan your presentation and use notes.

Jack: Prepare what you are going to say by making some notes. This doesn’t mean writing down everything you are going to say. Maybe have a few keywords on five or six small pieces of card to help you remember what to say.

Rich: Tip number two.

Jack: Don’t hold a piece of paper.

Rich: Write your notes on card. If you use paper and you’re nervous, your hand and paper will shake and everyone will see.

Jack: Tip number three.

Rich: Don’t read your visuals. 

Jack: If you use a powerpoint presentation or something similar, don’t read exactly what is written on it. Give your audience a minute to read it and then make the points you want to make.

Rich: Tip number four.

Jack: Practise your presentation.

Rich: This might seem obvious but practise as much as possible. Practise with friends and get them to ask questions. This will give you confidence when you do it for real.

Rich: Tip number five.

Jack: Smile and make eye contact.

Rich: Look at your audience when you are speaking to them. Remember they are listening to you and they are interested in what you have to say!

Task

Jack: This week’s task is to tell us about a presentation that you have given in English or your own language. 

Rich: We want you to answer these questions.

Jack: Question one: Where was your presentation?

Rich: Question two: Who did you give your presentation to? How many people were there?

Jack: Question three: What was the topic of your presentation?

Rich: Question four: How did you feel about giving the presentation? Did other people find it useful?

Jack: Question five: Have you given presentations in English and your own language? What are the main differences?

Rich: Write your answers in the comments section at the bottom of the page on the Premier Skills English website or in the review section on Apple Podcasts.

This week’s football phrase:

Jack: The final section this week is our football phrase. 

Rich: The football phrase this week is * ***-***** ****. In a football context, the phrase means that there are only two teams that can win a competition. The Premier League is * ***-***** **** between Manchester City and Liverpool. The phrase was originally used in a sport that involves animals.

Jack: If you can guess the animal, you should be able to get the phrase. Let’s see who can get it right! If you know the answer, write it in the comments section at the bottom of the page. We will announce your name in next week’s podcast if you get it right.

Rich: We also need to give you the answer to the football phrase we set at the beginning of the show. The answer as you may already know was a disallowed goal.

Jack: Right, that’s all we have time for this week. Bye for now and enjoy your football!