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English Presentation templates

English is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, with almost 1.4 billion speakers. it is also used as an international lingua franca, allowing us to communicate with anyone who speaks it. it is also the language of shakespeare's fantastic literature and or of everyday words such as “play” or “mail” which are used in english even in other languages. talk about this exciting language with these creative designs. ok, let's go.

English Vocabulary Workshop

Teaching new words to your students can be a very entertaining activity! Create a vocabulary workshop with this presentation adorned with doodles, wavy shapes and different hues of yellow. Review the objectives, methodology, analysis and conclusions using pie charts, maps or tables.

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English Verbs Conjugation Infographics

This is the ultimate template for English teachers! This set of infographics has all the resources you need so that your students master all 12 verb tenses. They are so easy to use that they will alleviate the TENSion of preparing the lessons, and your students will be PERFECT English...

Classic English Novels

Ah, literature, what a beautiful art. Are you an expert on classic novels written by English authors? Go back to the past with this template and tell your audience all about these best sellers that made an impact. Let the vintage look of the slides set the right tone and...

English Language Arts Thesis

Some abstract shapes on the background are always a nice touch. The ones you’ll see in this template are quite colorful, as well as the infographics and the resources included to help you explain your methodology, study, results and conclusion of your thesis on English Language Arts.

Creative Writing - Bachelor of Arts in English

Download the Creative Writing - Bachelor of Arts in English presentation for PowerPoint or Google Slides. As university curricula increasingly incorporate digital tools and platforms, this template has been designed to integrate with presentation software, online learning management systems, or referencing software, enhancing the overall efficiency and effectiveness of student...

Victorian Literature - Master of Arts in English

Download the Victorian Literature - Master of Arts in English presentation for PowerPoint or Google Slides. As university curricula increasingly incorporate digital tools and platforms, this template has been designed to integrate with presentation software, online learning management systems, or referencing software, enhancing the overall efficiency and effectiveness of student...

English Literature Class

Open your books and your mind, the class is about to begin! What is there to know about English literature? Well, everything! Sit and enjoy a lesson about the history of literature, the best works, the most famous writers or go into detail and learn what made them so special....

18th-Century Literature - Master of Arts in English

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Language Arts Subject for Middle School - 7th Grade: Comprehension

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Grammar Lesson

Noam Chomsky, the great linguist, once said that “language is a process of free creation” with fixed laws and principles, although one can use these laws freely. Learn and teach more about how grammar works with this vintage template!

Legal English Workshop

Is English legal? Or is it legal English? This play-on-words is not very good, unlike our new template for workshops! This design combines dark blue backgrounds with different geometric arrangements, which serve as decoration. It also uses a typography for titles that looks very unique—it's aim is to get your...

English Language Grammar Rules

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Language Arts Subject for High School - 9th Grade: Comparing Texts

Comparing texts and identifying their differences is a captivating exercise. Especially, if you teach your students how to do it with this elegant template. Novels, poems, autobiographies, descriptive texts… none of them will resist you after you practise the skills you’re going to learn with this presentation! It has lots...

Renaissance Literature - Master of Arts in English

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English Academy

Your academy fulfills a very important task: that of teaching English to the participants of the society of the future. It's time for you to give it a big boost and promotion using this fun illustrated template to talk about your teaching method, academic areas, teachers and the enrollment process...

Literary Criticism - Master of Arts in English

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Gender and Literature - Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in English

Download the Gender and Literature - Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in English presentation for PowerPoint or Google Slides. As university curricula increasingly incorporate digital tools and platforms, this template has been designed to integrate with presentation software, online learning management systems, or referencing software, enhancing the overall efficiency and effectiveness...

Introduction to Poetry - Bachelor of Arts in English

Poetry — an emotional, meditative art form that takes time to peruse and is often overlooked in today’s fast-paced times. Give your English majors a comprehensive introduction to this reflective and emotional way of writing by outlining different forms and styles as well as figurative language and the history of...

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Blog > English Presentation Structure (Introduction, Closing) & useful Phrases

English Presentation Structure (Introduction, Closing) & useful Phrases

02.21.20   •  #powerpoint #presentation #english.

When giving a presentation in english, there are certain guidelines you should follow. Maybe you haven't got a lot of experience presenting - or you would simply like to refresh your already existing knowledge - we're here to teach you the basics about presenting and provide you with a free list of useful phrases and the basic structure you can in your presentation!

1. Structure

The general structure of a presentation is the following:

• Introduction

It is up to you to design these three parts. Using videos or everyday-examples can be a great way to introduce the audience to the topic. The important thing is that you capture the audience's attention from the beginning by making an interesting introduction. The main part is where you present your topic, ideally divided into sections. You can be creative with it - incorporate images, videos, stories or interactive polls . We generally recommend using different kinds of elements, as that makes the presentation more lively. Make sure your main part is well structured, so your audience can follow. In the conclusion, you should give a short summary of the points you made without adding any new information. You can also make an appeal to your audience in the end.

2. Useful Phrases

Here you'll find several phrases that you'll need in every presentation. Of course, you should adapt them and use them in a context that is suitable for your setting. The phrases are divided into subcategories so you can find what you're looking for more easily.

Starting your Presentation

In your introduction, you should:

Welcome your audience

Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone!

Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to my presentation about...

Introduce yourself

I am ... (from company ...) and today I would like to introduce you to the topic of ...

My name is ... and I am going to talk about ... today.

Icebreakers (for audience engagement)

Icebreaker polls are an amazing way to engage your audience instantly. They function as a fun and playful element at the beginning, giving you the perfect start you need to give a successful presentation. Click here to read our detailed post about icebreaker polls!

Mention the presentation topic and the reason for giving the presentation

I am grateful to be here today and tell you you about...

I would like to take this opportunity to talk about ...

I am here today to talk to you about ...

The reason why I am here today to talk about ... is ...

The purpose of this presentation is to ...

My goal today is to ...

Hopefully, by the end of the presentation, you will all know more about ...

Give a short overview of the content

To make it as understandable as possible, I divided my presentation into ... parts. In the first part, I will concentrate on ..., the second part will be about ..., ...

First of all, I will give you a short introduction, then we will move on to ...

... and finally, I will give you some insights to ...

Here are a few phrases that you could use during the whole presentation, but especially in the main part.

Engage your audience

In order to raise the audience's attention and improve their engagement, it is extremely important to make contact with them. A great way to do so is by adding interactive elements such as polls. If you would like to know more about this topic, read our article on How To Boost Audience Engagement . You can also use a software like SlideLizard , which allows you to conduct live polls, do Q&A sessions with your audience, share your resources and many more benefits that take your presentation to the next level.

Please raise your hand if you ...

Have you ever thought about ... ?

I would like to do a poll about ...

Please ask any questions as soon as they arrive.

On one hand, … on the other hand…

Comparing … with …, we can see that…

Clearly, … makes more sense than …

Whereas Option A is …, Option B is …

Making new points

Firstly,… Secondly,…

What also has to be mentioned is…

Next, I would like to bring up the topic of…

That being said, now we are going to take a look at…

Let's move on to the next topic.

On the next slide,…

The last thing I would like to mention is…

We made a whole blog post about how to pose questions in your presentation: The Right Way to do a Question Slide .

Talking about images or videos

In this image you can clearly see that ...

We are now going to take a look at a picture/video of ...

I'm going to show you a video by ... about ... now.

I've prepared a video about ...

Talking about statistics and charts

I am now addressing this graph that refers to the results of study XY.

In the graph on this slide, you can see that ...

The average is at ...

This graph clearly shows that the majority ...

According to this graph, the focus should be on ...

What that study tells us for practice is that we should ...

Emphasizing

I would like to emphasize the importance of ...

Moreover, it has to be said that ...

I want to stress the importance of ...

We always have to remember that ...

This is of high significance because ...

That part is especially important because ...

When something goes wrong

I am sorry, but it seems like the projector isn't working.

Could someone please help me with ...?

Is anybody here who knows how to ...?

Could someone give me a hand with ...

I would like to apologize for ...

I apologize for the technical problems, we are going to continue in a minute.

I am sorry for the inconvenience.

End of Presentation

In the conclusion, you should...

Sum up the main points

In conclusion I can say that…

To sum up the main points,…

With all mentioned aspects taken into consideration, I can say that…

Make an appeal

So please, in the future, try to be conscious about...

Please take a moment to think about...

I would like to encourage you to...

Thank your audience and say goodbye

It was a pleasure being here today.

Thank you for listening and goodbye.

Thank you for being such a great, engaged audience. Goodbye.

Thank you so much for listening, see you next time.

What is the structure of a presentation?

Your presentations should always have an Introduction, a Main part and a Conclusion.

What is a good way to begin a presentation?

You can start by introducing yourself, giving an overview of your topic, telling a little story or showing the audience an introductory video or image.

What are good phrases to use in English presentations?

There are many phrases that will make your presentation a lot more professional. Our blog post gives you a detailed overview.

Related articles

About the author.

Pia Lehner-Mittermaier

Pia works in Marketing as a graphic designer and writer at SlideLizard. She uses her vivid imagination and creativity to produce good content.

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• Business English

How to Ace Your Business Presentation in English

So, you need to make a business presentation in English.

First of all, congratulations! To be in your position, you must have invested a huge amount of time and effort in your English language skills. You should be proud.

That said, we totally understand that giving a presentation in a second language can be a challenge. You may be worried that your audience won’t understand your accent. Perhaps you are wondering whether you need to use specific vocabulary. Maybe you’re not sure how best to handle questions from your audience.

If this sounds like you, don’t worry. In this post, we’re going to run through our top tips for acing your business presentation in English. Even if you’ve already made a few presentations in the language, we’re sure you’ll find these suggestions helpful.

So, read on to learn more. And before we start, let us wish you the very best of luck in delivering your next presentation.

Understand your audience

As with all forms of communication, it’s vital that you understand who your audience is. Even in the business world, you can find yourself speaking to very different groups of people.

For example, if you are giving a presentation to members of another company, you would certainly be more formal than when you give a presentation to members of your own team. In each case, you need to think about what your audience will expect from your presentation.

So, before you write a word, ask yourself these questions about your audience. Who are they? What interests them? What do they need to know? What do you want them to do as a result of your presentation?

One useful tip for writing your presentation is to imagine your audience is a single person. It’s easier to write convincingly if you have a single person in mind. Try it!

Mind your language

Most audiences will expect you to give your presentation using formal Business English . Don’t make the mistake of confusing Business English with business jargon .

Successful Business English uses language that is simple, direct, professional and easy to understand. Business jargon on the other hand, relies on obscure phrases, clichés, and acronyms. In many cases, business jargon is complex, not very precise and a barrier to good communication .

We have some useful resources on Business English on this page . However, if in doubt, keep the language of your presentation as simple and clear as possible. It’s also a good idea to use sentences with the active, rather than the passive voice. This allows you to use fewer words, which makes your sentences shorter and more engaging.

To give an example, this is a sentence in the passive voice:

The interview was failed by over one third of applicants.

Now compare this sentence, which is in the active voice.

Over one-third of applicants failed the interview.

To learn more about the active and the passive voice, check out this explainer from the British Council.

Practise, practise, practise

If English isn’t your first language, it’s more important than ever to practise your presentation before delivering it. By practising, you’ll feel more comfortable using English in a business setting. You’ll be able to work on any words or phrases you find difficult to pronounce, or you can change them to words or phrases you are more comfortable with.

Ideally, you should practise giving your presentation in front of someone else. That way you can get useful feedback on what works well, and what doesn’t. If that’s not possible, make a video of yourself giving your presentation. When you see yourself on screen, it will give you helpful insights into ways you can improve your delivery.

Don’t forget to introduce yourself

It may sound obvious, but don’t forget to introduce yourself at the very beginning of your presentation. It not only breaks the ice , but it’s an opportunity to get the audience on your side. If you are presenting to native English speakers, you may wish to tell them that English is not your first language – but don’t apologise for it! If anything, your audience will be impressed that you can give a presentation in a second language.

Have a clear structure

When people learn to teach in the UK, they are often told to structure their lessons in this simple way:

• Say what you’re going to say
• Say what you’ve said

In other words, introduce the session by explaining what you intend to talk about. This sets the audience’s expectations – they know what’s going to happen.

You then use main part of the session to make your presentation. There are many effective ways of doing this, and we’ll cover some of these soon.

Finally, finish by summarising the most important points of your presentation. This helps your audience to remember them clearly.

One other tip, if you plan to let the audience ask questions, it’s a good idea to tell them you’d prefer to answer them at the end of the presentation. This will discourage them from interrupting your presentation at the wrong moment.

Use storytelling

People love stories. If you can capture your audience’s imagination with a story, you can make a very powerful impression.

For example, imagine you are giving a presentation about how to commission new advertisements for your company. You want to make the point that good copywriting as just as important as good visual design.

You can either make your point directly, like this:

“Successful adverts rely on good writing as well as good design. If you change the wording of an advert, it can often result in extra sales – or fewer. Therefore, the words we choose are as important as the images we use.”.

Or you could begin with a story, like this:

“I want you to imagine it’s the year 1907. A man called Louis Victor Eytinge is in prison, convicted of murder. He’s a drug addict, suffering from tuberculosis. He’s unlikely to live, never mind get out of jail. Yet, by 1923 he walked free into a well-paid advertising job and a career as a Hollywood screenwriter. How? He had written his way to freedom. I want to use his story to show you why, if we want successful adverts, we need to commission powerful writing as well as good design.”

Which version of the presentation would you rather listen to?!

Remember pace and pitch

One useful tip for acing your business presentations in English is to vary the pace and pitch of your delivery.

While you don’t want to speak too fast, it’s a good idea to use a different pace for different parts of your presentation. For example, when you want to communicate a key point, speaking more slowly will help people understand that you think it is important.

Equally, it’s a good idea to vary the pitch of your voice. Try and keep this as natural as possible, but experiment with using a higher pitch when asking questions and a lower pitch when beginning your sentences. One good way to learn how to vary your pitch is to listen to UK news broadcasts – news presenters are expert at varying the tone of their voice to keep listeners interested.

Add a call to action

Most business presentations are given for a specific purpose. You may want to convince another company to work with you. Or you may want to convince your own firm to invest in a new kind of product. You may simply be explaining to colleagues how a new training scheme will work.

Whatever the purpose of your presentation, always remember to tell your audience what you want them to do. This is a ‘call to action’. Do you want your audience to email you their ideas? Or send you a funding proposal? Or arrange a meeting?

No matter what you need your audience to do, don’t forget to tell them. And at the very end, be sure to thank them for their time!

More business presentation tips

There are many other tips we could share with you on how to ace a business presentation in English. For example, it’s never a good idea to read your presentation from a piece of paper – it’s not engaging and it means you can’t easily make eye contact. It’s also tempting to rely too heavily on visual aids like PowerPoint, but if you get it wrong your audience will read your slides instead of listening to you. On the other hand, it can really engage an audience if you ask them to work together in small groups to share ideas or solve problems.

However you choose to make your presentation, if you prepare well, speak clearly and work hard to connect with your audience, you are very likely to succeed. And if you’d like to improve your presentation skills even further, why not try live online classes with English Online ? They can help you succeed in any career where using English is essential.

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52 Phrases for Better Flowing English Presentations

/ Steven Hobson / Business English , English Presentations , Vocabulary

Do you give English presentations at work, but feel that you could communicate your message in a more objective, fluid way?

Maybe you have an English presentation coming up and want to make sure that your speech is clear and structured so that your audience doesn’t lose concentration and stays with you all the way to the end.

A technique that can help you achieve objective, clear, and structured English presentations, is to use linking phrases that join the separate parts of your presentation together.

English presentations normally consist of an introduction, the main body, individual parts of the main body, and the ending or conclusion.

To help maintain your audience’s attention, you need to signal when you are going from one part to another.

In this article, I teach you 52 phrases that do exactly this – linking the different parts together, and therefore, making your presentation flow better. You’ll find that these phrases will act as ‘signposts’ for the audience when you finish one part and start another.

52 Phrases to Improve the Flow of Your English Presentations

The introduction.

All good presentations start with a strong introduction.

There are a number of different ways you can begin your English presentation. Here’s a simple, but effective introduction structure which works for most types of business presentations:

Introduce – Introduce yourself and greet your audience. Introduce the presentation topic – Explain the reasons for listening. Outline – Describe the main parts of the presentation. Question policy – Make it clear to your audience when they can ask questions: during or at the end?

Here are some phrases which you can use to structure the introduction in this way:

1. Good morning/afternoon (everyone) (ladies and gentlemen). 2. It’s a pleasure to welcome (the President) here. 3. I’m … (the Director of …)

Introduce the presentation topic

4. By the end of the talk/presentation/session, you’ll know how to… / …you will have learned about… / 5. I plan to say a few words about… 6. I’m going to talk about… 7. The subject of my talk is…

8. My talk will be in (three parts). 9. In the first part… 10. Then in the second part… 11. Finally, I’ll go on to talk about…

Question Policy

12. Please interrupt if you have any questions. 13. After my talk, there will be time for a discussion and any questions.

 Main Body

Now that you have finished the introduction, we now need to transition to the main body, and its individual parts in a smooth way.

There are three parts of the main body of a presentation where linking phrases can be used:

Beginning the Main Body Ending Parts within the Main Body Beginning a New Part

Here are some phrases which you can use for these parts:

Beginning the Main Body

14. Now let’s move to / turn to the first part of my talk which is about… 15. So, first… 16. To begin with…

Ending Parts within the Main Body

17. That completes/concludes… 18. That’s all (I want to say for now) on… 19. Ok, I’ve explained how…

Beginning a New Part

20. Let’s move to (the next part which is)… 21. So now we come to the next point, which is… 22. Now I want to describe… 23. Let’s turn to the next issue… 24. I’d now like to change direction and talk about…

Listing and Sequencing

If you need to talk about goals, challenges, and strategies in your English presentation, listing phrases can help link these together and improve the flow of your speech. If you have to explain processes, sequencing phrases are helpful:

25. There are three things to consider. First… Second… Third… 26. There are two kinds of… The first is… The second is… 27. We can see four advantages and two disadvantages. First, advantages… 28. One is… Another is… A third advantage is… Finally…

29. There are (four) different stages to the process. 30. First / then / next / after that / then (x) / after x there’s y. 31. There are two steps involved. The first step is… The second step is… 32. There are four stages to the project. 33. At the beginning, later, then, finally… 34. I’ll describe the development of the idea. First the background, then the present situation, and then the prospect for the future.

After you have presented the main body of your English presentation, you will want to end it smoothly.

Here are typical sections transitioning from the main body to the ending of the presentation, and then inviting the audience to ask questions:

Ending the Main Body Beginning the Summary and/or Conclusion Concluding An Ending Phrase Inviting Questions and/or Introducing Discussion Thanking the Audience

Ending the Main Body

35. Okay, that ends (the third part of) my talk. 36. That’s all I want to say for now on (the 2017 results).

Beginning the Summary and/or Conclusion

37. To sum up… 38. Ok, in brief, there are several advantages and disadvantages. 39. To conclude… 40. I’d like to end by emphasizing the main points. 41. I’d like to end with a summary of the main points.

42. I think we have seen that we should… 43. In my opinion, we should… 44. I recommend/suggest that we… 45. There are three reasons why I recommend this. First, … / Second, … / Finally,…

An Ending Phrase

46. Well, I’ve covered the points that I needed to present today. 47. That sums up (my description of the new model). 48. That concludes my talk for today.

Inviting Questions and/or Introducing Discussion

49. Now we have (half an hour) for questions and discussion. 50. So, now I’d be very interested to hear your comments.

Thanking the Audience

51. I’d like to thank you for listening to my presentation. 52. Thank you for listening / your attention. / Many thanks for coming.

Linking phrases are like the skeleton which holds your presentation together.

Not only do they improve the flow and help guide the audience, but by memorizing them they can also help you remember the general structure of your presentation, giving you increased confidence.

To help you memorize, I recommend saying the linking phrases on their own from the beginning to the end of your presentation while you practice.

I also suggest memorizing the introduction word for word. By doing this, you will get off to a great start, which will settle your nerves and transmit a positive first impression.

Author: Steven Hobson

Steven is a business English coach, a certified life coach, writer, and entrepreneur. He helps international professionals build confidence and improve fluency speaking English in a business environment.

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• Speaking exams
• Typical speaking tasks

Oral presentation

Giving an oral presentation as part of a speaking exam can be quite scary, but we're here to help you. Watch two students giving presentations and then read the tips carefully. Which tips do they follow? Which ones don’t they follow?

Instructions

Watch the video of two students doing an oral presentation as part of a speaking exam. Then read the tips below.

Melissa: Hi, everyone! Today I would like to talk about how to become the most popular teen in school.

Firstly, I think getting good academic results is the first factor to make you become popular since, having a good academic result, your teacher will award you in front of your schoolmates. Then, your schoolmates will know who you are and maybe they would like to get to know you because they want to learn something good from you.

Secondly, I think participating in school clubs and student unions can help to make you become popular, since after participating in these school clubs or student union, people will know who you are and it can help you to make friends all around the school, no matter senior forms or junior forms.

In conclusion, I think to become the most popular teen in school we need to have good academic results and also participate in school clubs and student union. Thank you!

Kelvin: Good evening, everyone! So, today I want to talk about whether the sale of cigarettes should be made illegal.

As we all know, cigarettes are not good for our health, not only oneself but also other people around. Moreover, many people die of lung cancer every year because of smoking cigarettes.

But, should the government make it illegal? I don’t think so, because Hong Kong is a place where people can enjoy lots of freedom and if the government banned the sale of cigarettes, many people would disagree with this and stand up to fight for their freedom.

Moreover, Hong Kong is a free market. If there's such a huge government intervention, I think it’s not good for Hong Kong’s economy.

So, if the government wants people to stop smoking cigarettes, what should it do? I think the government can use other administrative ways to do so, for example education and increasing the tax on cigarettes. Also, the government can ban the smokers smoking in public areas. So, this is the end of my presentation. Thank you.

It’s not easy to give a good oral presentation but these tips will help you. Here are our top tips for oral presentations.

• Use the planning time to prepare what you’re going to say. 
• If you are allowed to have a note card, write short notes in point form.
• Use more formal language.
• Use short, simple sentences to express your ideas clearly.
• Pause from time to time and don’t speak too quickly. This allows the listener to understand your ideas. Include a short pause after each idea.
• Speak clearly and at the right volume.
• Have your notes ready in case you forget anything.
• Practise your presentation. If possible record yourself and listen to your presentation. If you can’t record yourself, ask a friend to listen to you. Does your friend understand you?
• Make your opinions very clear. Use expressions to give your opinion .
• Look at the people who are listening to you.
• Write out the whole presentation and learn every word by heart. 
• Write out the whole presentation and read it aloud.
• Use very informal language.
• Only look at your note card. It’s important to look up at your listeners when you are speaking.

Useful language for presentations

Explain what your presentation is about at the beginning:

I’m going to talk about ... I’d like to talk about ... The main focus of this presentation is ...

Use these expressions to order your ideas:

First of all, ... Firstly, ... Then, ... Secondly, ... Next, ... Finally, ... Lastly, ... To sum up, ... In conclusion, ...

Use these expressions to add more ideas from the same point of view:

In addition, ... What’s more, ... Also, ... Added to this, ...

To introduce the opposite point of view you can use these words and expressions:

However, ... On the other hand, ... Then again, ...

Example presentation topics

• Violent computer games should be banned.
• The sale of cigarettes should be made illegal.
• Homework should be limited to just two nights a week.
• Should school students be required to wear a school uniform?
• How to become the most popular teen in school.
• Dogs should be banned from cities.

Check your language: ordering - parts of a presentation

Check your understanding: grouping - useful phrases, worksheets and downloads.

Do you think these tips will help you in your next speaking exam? Remember to tell us how well you do in future speaking exams!  

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How to Prepare a Presentation in English Successfully [+ FREE Presentation Checklist]

May 1, 2018 | Business Professional English , Free Resource , Public Speaking & Presentations

This lesson on how to prepare a presentation in English has been updated since its original posting in 2016 and a video has been added.

Giving a presentation is already difficult to do, even in your native language. But to give a presentation in English? Well, it can feel impossible, maybe even terrifying.

If you’re nervous, you might be worried about:

• What if your audience doesn’t understand?
• What if you use the wrong word or – worse – forget your words?
• What if someone asks a question and you don’t understand?

These are all common questions about giving a presentation in English.  And the good news is: it is possible to give a presentation in English with confidence.

Whether you are presenting information about your company or presenting a proposal to a new client, presenting a new idea to your boss and colleagues or presenting to an audience at a conference, these are the strategies you need to best prepare for your next presentation in English.

These are exactly the same strategies native English speakers use to prepare for their presentations, too!

7 simple strategies to prepare a presentation in English.

Lesson by Annemarie

7 Strategies to Prepare a Presentation in English

Strategy 1: Plan, Plan, Plan

I know this sounds simple but this is maybe the most important step! That’s why I said it three times.

Before you do or write anything, spend some time thinking about what you want to say for this opportunity to present. You can use these two questions to help you:

• Where is your audience now (before your presentation)? In other words: what do they currently know or not know? Is there something they are missing? Imagine your presentation is a map and Question 1 is your Point A.
• Where do you want your audience to be after your presentation? What do you want your audience to know or do or think or believe after your presentation? On your presentation map, this is your Point B.

And now think of the steps you need to help your audience go from Point A to Point B.

Strategy 2: Know Your Who and Your What

Who is your audience?  You want to know the kind of people you will be speaking to so you can offer the right information, use the right language and think about the best visual aids.

For example: Imagine you design applications for smart phones. You’ve designed a great new application for children and you want to market/sell this application. As the designer you understand all the technical words and information about the application. And now you have the opportunity to present to a group of moms at a local school. It would be AMAZING if every mom in the audience bought your application.

How should you present to them? Do you want to use a lot of technical words? Will they understand them? Or should you use more common, everyday language that is clear and simple for everyone?

What is your purpose?  Generally, presentations are used to teach, to inform, to motivate. to persuade or to encourage action. When you understand the purpose of your presentation,  it will be easier for you to use the correct language and the correct style. It will also help you organize your presentation well.

“These are the seven strategies you need to prepare for a successful presentation in English, for any situation!”

Strategy 3: Get Organized

Presentations in English generally have 3 parts:

• Opening (Introduction)
• Body (Main Points and Details)
• Closing (Summary)

In the next several weeks, you will learn exactly what you need for each section of your presentation. For now, it is important to think how you can organize your information into these 3 parts.

Important advice : Limit the number of main points in your presentation from 3 to 5 (no more than 5!). You want your audience to be well-informed but not overwhelmed.

Strategy 4: Show, Don’t Tell

In English, we love stories and pictures to help us remember information.

What about you? Have you ever listened to a presentation that has a LOT of numbers and statistics and data and dates? Do you remember any of that information now? Most people say no to that question.

In English, the expression “show, don’t tell” means  help your audience understand your main points through stories, visual aids and/or strong action words .

People remember stories, not numbers. When you can, use a story or a great visual aid to help your audience remember your key points.

For example: If you are presenting scientific information and you want to use a number to talk about how many cells are in the human body. According to an article by Smithsonian, there are 37.2 trillion cells in the human body!!! How many is that? I have no idea! Instead you could use a picture to help you. Imagine the largest sports stadium and every seat is filled. Show this picture and now tell people how many full stadiums you need for 37.2 trillion. With a picture, your audience can visualize this big number. And it will be easier to remember.

Strategy 5: Talk, Don’t Read

This one is so important. Please, please, please do not read your presentation.

For an audience, when someone reads a presentation it:

• Shows you didn’t prepare well

Of course, you can use note cards to help you remember and to stay focused. But talk to your audience. Look at your audience. Move around. Be comfortable and natural.

The more you prepare, the more you practice, the easier this will be! And your audience will enjoy your presentation so much more!

Also, do not be afraid to go slow !

A good presentation does not mean speaking fast. Remember: this is the first time your audience is hearing this information. They need time to hear and to think about what you are saying. You will help them (and you!) if you speak slowly.

By speaking slowly, you will also have more time to think about what you want to say in your presentation, remember the key points and make fewer mistakes!

Strategy 6: Think Ahead

One of the scariest parts of a presentation in the Q&A ( = question and answer) part of the presentation. Most people fear they will not:

• Understand the words of the question
• Understand the accent of the person speaking
• Know what to say
• Remember the words they need

A Q&A session doesn’t always happen but if you have to do this, here is how you can calm your fears:

Review your presentation. Think about your audience (remember the  Who Are They  question!). Can you identify any likely questions?

Give your presentation to your peers, colleagues, friends, and family. Ask them what questions they have. It is possible they will have some of the same questions as your audience.

Now make a list of possible questions and prepare your answers ahead of time. Practice giving these answers when you practice your presentation.

The more prepared you are, the easier a Q&A session will be.

Strategy 7: Practice, Practice, Practice

I cannot say this enough. You must practice. Say your presentation out loud many times. Practice your presentation in front of your work colleagues, your friends, your family.

The more you practice, the more prepared and confident you will be.

And you can kiss some of those fears and nervous feelings goodbye !!* *[Idiom]  kiss something goodbye : to end or lose something. So, you can end your fears and end your nervous feelings!

Get the complete Presentations in English Series:

Part 1: How to Prepare for Your Presentation in English

Part 2: How to Start with a Great Introduction in Your Presentation

Part 3:  How to Organize Your Presentation in English

Part 4:  How to End Your Presentation Powerfully

Now that you’ve had time to review the lesson, I’d love to hear about your experience.

Have you had to prepare a presentation in English?

Please take a moment to share your advice on how to best prepare. What has helped you the most? You might have the perfect strategy for someone else in our Confident English Community.

You can share your advice and ideas in the comments section below. That is the best place to get feedback from me and learn from others.

Have a great week and thank you for joining me! ~ Annemarie

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Thanks you for sharing your strategies to elaborate a presentation. I think this is very comprehensive and useful because it shows all the important steps to create a presentation. Very interesting.

I’m so glad to know it was helpful!

I am going to present my ppt for the college assignment and these are very wise advice which I’m sure they make my presentation more prepared.Tysm

I love all your videos. Thanks for sharing!

thank you for sharing about this. this is very helpful.

Thank you so much for your great presentation tips which we will implement in our areas. I used to so much mistakes that I realized after watching your video… Thanks once again for your valuable guidance..

Regards, Jaywant Patil 9819282438

so far, I haven’t had any experience in creating a presentation. but I am sure that everything is ahead

Hi, Very interesting your advices, sorry rigth now I haven’t give the presentation in english but I’m working to be confortable when I have to speak in english. You prononciation is very helpfull because I’m crying to repeat your video to improve my one. Very good video and so thank you

I appreciate u for the seven strategies of presentation may his soul peace and rest

Thank you very much ,this is very useful for me

Hello Annemarie! You are doing a great job these seven strategies are very useful for us in a presentation I am one of the students who always nervous on the stage so I like the point of doing “practise and practise” is great of becoming a good presenter. Thank you so much.By sharing one thing that my pronouncing and my grammar is very bad so I also have to do so many practices to become a good in English. I am not from a good background my family is very poor so I am doing my best for my family.

I can relate to that.

Hi Annemarie,

Thank you so much for sharing your strategies. All the seven strategies look very important and helpful. I particularly strongly agree with the 7th one. Without practicing in advance, it seems for me to easily lose confidence while making a presentation. I might need to be more diligent to prepare all the things in advance.

Thanks again for your very useful lecture! Hope you have a great weekend.

You’re very welcome, Erin. I’m happy to know it was helpful to you! Best of luck as you continue to prepare for things in advance. 🙂

Thank you indeed.I am a syh person and I get excited easily.I should practise and record myself.

I LIKE YOUR PRONOUNCIATON

Thank you for your comment. I’m glad my lessons are useful to you. And I definitely recommend recording yourself. It’s a great way to make progress and overcomes fear.

It’s very useful and done with the help of a clear and simple language, as usual. I’m agree with Tatyana, it’s real and nice presentation about “how to be ready to the presentation”. 🙂 I have a big expirience in the presentations but all of them were in my native language or with the help of an interpreter. To my mind this strategies are common for all the languages and the most important thing not to neglect them and not to be lazy to do all the steps you’ve spoken about. So I think in a few weeks I’m going …  Read more »

Great advice, Dzmitry! Thank you for sharing. And you’re right, these strategies are true no matter what language you’re presenting in and it’s essential not to neglect a single step. I love your advice on including a little joke to relieve the stress. 🙂

Dear Annemarie Actually I am university’s professor and I always use English texts for my teaching materials. Unfortunately I have no experience on giving presentation in English. I have been invited as an expert to give a talk in an academic conference in English and I don’t know can I do it perfectly or not? would you please give me some hints in this context. Ta

What an honor to be invited to speak as an expert! That’s great. Click here to find all my lessons on Giving Presentations in English . If you’re looking for more personalized assistance or one-on-one help, I provide that to students who purchase classes from me or join one of my courses .

Best wishes with your presentation!

Dear Annemarie I did a presentation in English in front of my class and my topic was “how to get confidence to speak in front of class?” I did gramatical mistakes but my respectful teacher helped me a lot. I m bery impress from you. You r doing very well.

Dear Annemarie ..I did a presentation in English at course it talked about how to be happy .. I practiced my talking a lot but when I started I forgot a lot f notes cuz this is my first presentation and I wanted to make a creative end I chose to make audience dance about ‘macrena dance’ In the final of the presentation, I received positive feedback from audience and I felling I proud of my self

Wonderful, Khaled. And congratulations. Presentations are challenging but it sounds like you were well prepared. You deserve to feel proud of yourself.

Thank you so much Anne, iam grateful to this information. it is timely, I needed it. I give organization Presentations, but I must admit that iam still nervous.(stage freak) thank you I look forward to more guidance and skills stay blessed Phyllis

Hello Phyllis,

You’re very welcome. I’m happy to know this lesson was timely and useful for you. The key to overcoming stage fright and nerves is practice. 🙂

Hi These are very usefull informations Annemarie thank you.In fact I have never give a presentation in English. It is so easy to understand your text and fortunately you use simple words for us.Buy the way i can apply your advices in my language too.I love your lessons and try to read all of them if i have time. See you😄👍

Dear Sümeyye,

Thank you so much for you kind comment! I’m thrilled to know these lessons are useful to you! And, if you do give a presentation in English in the future, don’t forget to use these lessons to help you prepare!

Can you tell me, what is your native language?

Thanks again Sümeyye! ~ Annemarie

Dear Annemarie, you shared the highlights of a good presentation, and it will be excellent to bear the ability to present it as a freely talk, without reading, or thinking about the next sentense, the next part of the topic or stucking in the next werb what doestn’t want arise in my mind . I would like to see the audience enjoing my talk because it is running fluently. I started to go on that way with your encourage. Thank you

Hello András,

Thank you so much for this comment. I’m thrilled to know this was useful to you. And yes, your improvements in English are growing every day!

Best, Annemarie

It’s very useful lesson for me! I don’t have a big experience in presentations, it’s quite scary for me especially the presentations in English! And it was very informative to read about main strategies which could help to prepare for presentations! It’s so clear and intresting, I have even a feeling of trying to do that, to practice a liitle)))) And thank you for new vocabulary, I love ” a killer presentation” and the idiom ” to kiss something goodbye”!) And in my opinion, your online lesson is also like a little presentation! I like how you focused on the …  Read more »

Dear Tatyana,

Thank you so much for your comment! And I am so glad it was useful even if you don’t have to give too many presentations. I think some of the guidance for a good presentation can also be useful for many other speaking situations in our daily life.

And I’m happy you liked the vocabulary expressions! They are great expressions to know!! 🙂

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts. ~ Annemarie

Thank you so much

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• B1-B2 grammar

British English and American English

Do you know any differences between British and American English? Test what you know with interactive exercises and read the explanation to help you.

Look at these sentences. Do you know which sentences are more typical of British English or American English?

Shall I open the door for you? He's taking a shower. France have won the World Cup. I'm not hungry. I just ate.

Try this exercise to test your grammar.

Exercise: British English and American English: Grammar test 1

Read the explanation to learn more.

Grammar explanation

The main difference between British English and American English is in pronunciation. Some words are also different in each variety of English, and there are also a few differences in the way they use grammar. Here are five of the most common grammatical differences between British and American English.

1. Present perfect and past simple

In British English, people use the present perfect to speak about a past action that they consider relevant to the present. 

The present perfect can be used in the same way in American English, but people often use the past simple when they consider the action finished. This is especially common with the adverbs already , just and yet .

2. got and gotten

In British English, the past participle of the verb get is got . 

In American English, people say gotten .

** Note that have got is commonly used in both British and American English to speak about possession or necessity. have gotten is not correct here.

3. Verb forms with collective nouns

In British English, a singular or plural verb can be used with a noun that refers to a group of people or things (a collective noun). We use a plural verb when we think of the group as individuals or a singular verb when we think of the group as a single unit.

In American English, a singular verb is used with collective nouns.

** Note that police is always followed by a plural verb.

4. have and take

In British English, the verbs have and take are commonly used with nouns like bath , shower , wash to speak about washing and with nouns like break , holiday , rest to speak about resting. 

In American English, only the verb take (and not the verb have ) is used this way.

In British English, people often use Shall I ...? to offer to do something and/or Shall we ...? to make a suggestion. 

It is very unusual for speakers of American English to use shall . They normally use an alternative like Should / Can I ...? or Do you want / Would you like ...? or How about ...? instead. 

Do this exercise to test your grammar again.

Exercise: British English and American English: Grammar test 2

Language level

Hi! I searched a lot but just couldn't find. What does the phrase 'it was only then' means in the sentence 'It was only then that the truth came out.' ? Thanks in advance!

• Log in or register to post comments

Hi Melis_06,

The phrase means "at that moment, and not before". The phrase emphasises how late (rather than early) the truth came out.

LearnEnglish team

Hello! I'm not that good at English, but from my knowledge, it basically means "It wasn't revealed until now"

I think it's supposed to mean sort of "it built up to this moment"

Hi to all of You. I finished That activite With 7/8, was Hard But I try. I am begginner.

Greet All Hope everyone doing well, I finished my test with 8 out of 8.Nice to be a part of this activity.

To me like as someone who is learning english and I am from Latinomerica, I can not see the diferences but I can recognize the acent of americans and british people. I think is the same when we speal spanish in America and Spain, de sound and the nouns are the main diference. Thanks for your support

I am an American who writes training. We use "shall" all of the time for emphasis. Every question including shall is incorrect. We never a say "Can I get you a coffee." it is "some coffee," "a cup of coffee" or simply "coffee."? This site contain inaccurate information. I was hoping to find words that are spelled differently, but there is no list.

Hello knlistman,

Regarding 'shall', I agree that our explanation should be more specific -- it should specify that Americans don't typically use 'shall' in the way the British people to offer to do something. That was the intention behind our explanation, but I can see how it might be confusing. I'll bring this up with the team.

Could you please tell us more about how you hear 'shall' being used for emphasis in American English? I also am American and although it's been some time since I lived there, I did live there for 35 years and visit every year. So I'd really be grateful if you could give some examples of what you mean.

Thanks for sharing your point about 'a coffee', and we will look into that. In any case, the point of that sentence was to identify the use of 'can' to make an offer instead of 'shall'.

We chose not to provide a list of words spelled differently since such lists are easy to find on the internet, whereas less information about different uses of grammar are available.

Thanks for your feedback.

All the best, Kirk LearnEnglish team

Hello Toufik I'd say yes, I love American English because it's really nice .

Here are some examples about choosing the present perfect and the simple past tense:

1. [Context] I want to give advice to my friend on where she should visit

I visited/ have visited Paris two times. It is a beautiful city. I think you should visit it once in your life.

2. [Context] My friend planned to visit my country for a week. He has been staying in my country for three days now and I want to know which places he visited / has visited, so that I can recommend him other places to visit. Which question would be correct? I don't know which tense would be correct to use.

Where did you visit since you came here? // Where have you visited since you came here? I visited X, Y, Z. / I have visited X, Y,Z.

3.[Context] I am tired of died roses, so I complain with my friend:

Every time I planted/'ve planted roses in the garden, they died/'ve died. I may try planting some geraniums instead.

Some US native people tell me that I can use the simple past in all of my examples, but some don't agree to use the simple past. This makes me confused. Could you please help me clarify this?

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10 Ways To Give A More Effective Presentation in English - A Guide for Non-native Speakers

Published on, november 15, 2022, this article may contain affiliate links.

Does the idea of giving a presentation in English make you nervous? It doesn’t need to be this way. Here’s our guide for non-native speakers to deliver a powerful presentation, with 10 tips you can use today.

Table of contents

As an English teacher, my students often ask me, “ Is my English good enough to give a presentation? ”

This question makes me laugh. Why? Because I even get my beginners’ class to give presentations! Some of them give fantastic presentations on topics like ‘My House’ or ‘My Family’.

So, yes, your English is definitely good enough to give a presentation. 

In fact, instead of worrying about your English, you should be looking at ways to make your presentations more interesting and more powerful.

Let’s see how we can do that.

Does presenting make you nervous? Maybe that’s a good thing!

Nearly everyone gets nervous when they have to give a presentation. It’s normal!

Mark Twain even famously said (about speaking in public):

“There are two types of speakers: those that are nervous and those that are liars”

But non-native speakers have extra things to worry about: What if I make an English mistake? What if people don’t understand me?

Let’s cut out all this worrying. If you make a mistake when you speak, that’s fine. Everyone makes mistakes, including native speakers.

You should, on the other hand, try to minimise the mistakes in your PowerPoint slides. After all, people will be staring at each one for a few minutes. I recommend asking a friend to help you proofread them.

But let’s focus on your vocal skills. After all, it’s your spoken words that people will remember more than your slides.

Although I said you shouldn’t worry about giving a presentation, it’s impossible not to be a little bit nervous. And that’s a good thing!

Wait… it’s good to be nervous? Yes, you read that correctly. When you’re nervous, you have more energy and your mind is more focused .

Convert that nervous energy to ‘positive’ energy, become excited about your topic and move around. Use gestures .

Think about a boring teacher you had at school. Wouldn’t they have been more interesting if they had some nervous energy?

What about my vocabulary? Should I use long words?

Many non-native speakers worry that their vocabulary is too simple.

The truth is that simple is good .

I prefer to listen to a presentation with simple vocabulary rather than the long-winded jargon used by professors and politicians.

Remember, we want to use precise words, not long words.

As an example, a word like ‘empathy’ is good. It’s precise and it’s easier than saying ‘understanding others’ feelings’.

But a phrase like ‘conceptualisation of developmental strategies’ is jargon and it will just annoy the audience.

Be aware of cultural differences when you present

Are there cultural differences when presenting? Yes, there are some that you should be aware of when presenting to an international audience.

1 Eye contact is good. Some cultures avoid eye contact, but eye contact with the audience is very important for an effective presentation.

2 Don’t point at people . In some cultures, it is okay to point your finger at people, but in other cultures, this is very rude! Point with the flat part of your hand instead.

3 Avoid offensive jokes . A joke that is accepted in your culture might not be accepted in others. Humour is great, but avoid topics like religion and politics, and certainly don’t make jokes that might be considered offensive to certain groups.

What if my presentation is online?

All of the tips we are going to cover are great for both online and offline presentations.

And when presenting online, remember that body language still matters . The purpose of using gestures is to show your excitement and energy about the topic.

Even if the audience can’t see you (for example, when you are presenting a slide), you should still use positive body language to show you are passionate about your topic.

In fact, these tips will work well even in situations that are not technically presentations; they are tips that will serve you well whenever you need to speak in English.

Practise makes perfect

The most effective way to practise is not ‘in the mirror’ as many might tell you, but in front of a video camera.

Record yourself . Play it back and see where you can improve. It’s also a good way to spot and get rid of distracting gestures, such as scratching your nose!

You could write out a script to help you. But you should consider this very carefully.

A script might help you to practise, but you should not use a script when you deliver your actual presentation. People don’t want to see you read from a script - they want to feel like you are speaking directly to them.

And don’t try to memorise a script either. Instead, speak from simple notes.

Remember that if you are using PowerPoint, the slides are your notes . Write them in point form, so that you don’t end up just reading from the slides.

Ten tips for a great presentation

Here are ten simple tips that you can use immediately to improve any presentation, online or in person.

1 Speak slowly

As I mentioned, when you are nervous, you have more energy. This can cause you to speak faster than normal.

Instead, use that extra energy to project your voice and use more gestures.

If you find yourself speaking too quickly, simply stop and take a breath between points. Take a sip of water if you have it.

You are familiar with punctuation in writing, but what about ‘spoken punctuation’?

Where you might write a comma, insert a short pause. Where you might write a full stop, insert a longer pause. Where you begin a new topic, insert an even longer break.

A good public speaker feels confident pausing for a long time, but it does take some practice.

3 Use sentence stress to highlight important words

You should also use something called sentence stress . Don’t worry! It’s simpler than it sounds.

It just means that you need to stress – make louder and longer – some words in a sentence. Which words? The important ones!

This is an excerpt from Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare. Try saying it slowly and stressing the words in bold:

Friends , Romans , countrymen , lend me your ears ; I come to bury Caesar , not to praise him.

Try saying it a few times until you feel confident. Why not compare it to a professional ?

4 Start with a hook

You want to start with a powerful opening. One way to do this is to use a ‘hook’.

What’s a hook? It is simply a statement – or picture, or video – that gets the audience to sit up and pay attention.

I like to use WHAT-IF statements to do this. A WHAT-IF statement challenges the audience to think about a certain scenario.

“What if I told you that you could retire before age 40?” “What if you found out that you were adopted?” “What if you had one insurance plan that could meet all of your needs?”

Another great lead in is “think of a time”.

Think of a time when you experienced terrible customer service. How did you feel? Think of a time when you were overwhelmed by work. How did it affect your productivity?

5 Find ways to make it interesting

A hook makes the introduction interesting, but the rest of the presentation should be interesting too.

You can do this by sharing personal stories, telling jokes, highlighting interesting facts and quotes, showing images or videos or bringing something to show the audience. Perhaps you've learned something interesting in the latest episode of English Learning for Curious Minds .

Check out how this fireman gives a talk in his firefighting outfit .

6 Make it interactive

Getting the audience to interact guarantees that your presentation will be fun.

The most common way to get audience interaction is to ask them questions.

But this isn’t the only way. You could give them puzzles or even ask them to discuss things in groups.

For online presentations, you can set up interactive quizzes using Kahoot! , Quizizz or Mentimeter . Mentimeter also offers interactive surveys.

7 Use rhetorical questions

I mentioned that questions are a great way to make a presentation more interactive.

Let’s look at a certain kind of question: rhetorical questions.

A rhetorical question is simply a question that you ask without expecting an answer. Here’s an example.

Have you ever wondered what happens to the 800 kilograms of garbage that the average American produces per year?

When we ask a question like this, we don’t stop and wait for the audience members to answer. We simply ask it for rhetorical effect .

However, even though we don’t wait for the audience to give answers, each person will think about the answer in their own mind .

This means that rhetorical questions increase audience focus and interest.

8 Use signposting

Have you ever considered that a presentation is like an essay? There’s an introduction, a body and a conclusion.

When someone reads an essay, they know exactly where they are on the page. In fact, people also like to know “where they are” in a presentation.

To do this, we use a simple but effective technique called signposting. This just means signalling the structure of the presentation to the audience .

For a longer presentation, people like to have a preview of what’s to come. Note the language in bold, which you can use in your own presentations:

First , I’ll be discussing cryptocurrency basics. Then , I’ll move on to how blockchain works. Finally , I’ll cover the pros and cons of the most common cryptocurrencies.

It’s very important to show people when you are moving on to a new point and you can make this clear with signposting:

Okay, so we have learned cryptocurrency basics. The next important topic that I want to cover is blockchain…

9 Predict what the audience will ask

Answering questions from the audience can also be scary!

To prepare for this, write down a list of questions that you expect the audience might ask and prepare answers.

Some people like to answer questions anytime during the presentation (it’s more interactive). Others like to have a Q & A session at the end (it’s easier to manage your time).

You can make your preference clear to the audience at the beginning of your talk:

“Feel free to interrupt me if you have any questions.”

“I'll try to answer all of your questions in a Q and A session after the presentation.”

Occasionally, someone might ask you a question that you don’t know the answer to. This happens to all presenters, so don’t worry.

Simply ask the person for their email address or give them yours. You can find the answer later, after the presentation, and continue the discussion via email or chat group.

10 Get inspired

A great way to prepare for an upcoming presentation is to watch other people present.

TED.com can help you do this; it’s a website that offers thousands of short presentation videos that you can watch for free.

If you have, say, a big presentation to give on Monday, why not spend an hour or two on Sunday night watching TED talks to put you in the zone .

You can learn interesting techniques from Ted speakers and look for examples of the tips in this article.

I recommend this Ted Talk by Matt Cutts . How about a good example of an online presentation? Try this talk by Ashley Whillans .

Each Ted Talk comes with a transcript, so you can explore the language the speaker uses.

Take any opportunity to present

The tips here can help you to give a powerful presentation.

But you won’t become a good presenter just by reading about it. You have to do it!

Take every opportunity that you can to practise presenting. Volunteer when you get the chance, or join Toastmasters .

Only by stepping up to the challenge can you really improve.

You might also like

Pre-order “Demystifying Business English”

Translating Business English: A Guide to Corporate Jargon (for non-native Speakers)

How to Prepare for a Job Interview in English

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Successful Presentation in English

Since the beginning of globalization era, many multinational companies have opened their businesses in Indonesia. Various multinational companies enter Indonesia due to the number of vast economic  opportunities. Entering new markets requires business presentations. Therefore, good English becomes a necessity in the workplace. It is not easy to do presentations in English. It requires skill; however, it does not mean that someone can’t learn how to do a good presentation in English. It is important to know how to do a good presentation.

There are a few points  how to give a good presentation. Before starting the presentation, you need to note down important points. Use simple sentences or key words to explain your ideas. When you do presentations, make sure that you speak with the right intonation and volume. You need to make a short pause when you talk after giving an idea. You need to avoid from speaking too fast because it might create difficulty for your clients or colleagues to understand your ideas. Do not forget to keep eye contact during presentations with your clients or colleagues when you talk to them. It is important to have continuous practice to give a good presentation. If possible, you need to record the presentation practice session, ask your colleagues to listen and give inputs. Do not forget to keep calm and confident when you do a presentation.

How about giving the presentation in English? Apart from doing the tips above, there are several things that you need to learn when you do the presentation in English. Firstly, before starting the presentation, you need to deliver your presentation topics with opening sentences such as:

Today, I’m going to talk about…, The Main Focus of this presentation is….

Secondly, arrange your presentation in order and use conjunctions to connect one idea to another idea, such as:

Firstly, Secondly, Next, Finally, in conclusion…,

Lastly, use common expressions for making contrasts in English, to emphasize two different points such as:

However, On the other hand, on the contrary…,

Published in Koran Sindo newspaper, 16 May 2016

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Learning English with Oxford

The latest language learning tips, resources, and content from oxford university press., useful phrases for giving a presentation in english.

• by Oxford University Press ELT
• Posted on April 21, 2023 February 2, 2024

Giving a presentation in English can be challenging, but with these helpful phrases, you can feel confident and ready to make a good presentation in English. 

Starting your presentation

So how to start a presentation in English? Begin by saying hello and welcoming everyone. You can also thank the audience for being there with you. 

The beginning of the presentation is one of the most important parts because you need to make sure your audience is interested from the start. 

You could tell a short story, give a fact, or simply tell the audience a little bit about yourself, e.g. ‘ Let me start by telling you a little bit about myself …’ 

Then, introduce what your presentation is about by giving an opening statement or an overview of your session. For example, ‘Today, I am going to talk to you about …’ or, ‘Today, we’ll be looking at/focusing on …’. 

You can also tell the audience, ‘ If you have any questions, please raise your hand and I’ll be happy to answer them’ … or ‘ We’ll have time at the end for questions.’

Presenting the topic

When you get into the main part of giving your presentation in English, remember that what you’re saying to your audience is new information. Speak slowly, organise your ideas, and make sure your pronunciation is clear. You can learn more about boosting your pronunciation here . 

Use expressions to order your ideas and introduce new ones. You can use words and phrases to sequence like, firstly/first of all, secondly, then, next, following this, and lastly/finally. 

If you want to introduce the opposite point of view, you can use language like however, on the other hand, contrary to this and then again. 

It’s a good idea to link what you are saying back to previous things you have said. This shows you have a well-organised presentation and also helps keep people engaged. For example, ‘as I said previously/at the beginning …’, ‘as you may remember’ and ‘this relates to what I said about ….’

Highlighting information during your talk 

When you are giving a presentation in English, you might want to highlight a particular piece of information or something that’s important. You can use phrases such as ‘Let’s focus on …’, ‘I want to highlight …’,   ‘Pay attention to …’, ‘Let’s look at …’, ‘I want to briefly address …’, or ‘Now, let’s discuss ….’ You can use these phrases after your sequencing words to help you with your structure. 

You can also highlight information by asking your audience their opinion of what you are saying or having them engage with the presentation in some way. For example, you could ask a question and have the audience raise their hands if they agree, or disagree, or if you want to find out how many of them have experience with the situation you’re discussing. Asking questions is a good way to make sure you still have the audience’s attention after you’ve been speaking for a while.

You can also highlight information on your visuals if you’re using them. Use bright, impactful pictures and colours, and don’t include too much writing on your slides.  

Finalising the talk 

At the end of the presentation, you should summarise your talk and remind the audience of the things you have discussed, and the new information you have given them. You can say things like ‘In summary, we have looked at …’, ‘I’d like to finish by …’, and ‘We’re coming to the end of the presentation. We’ve discussed …’. 

You can then ask the audience for any questions you haven’t already answered. 

What are your experiences of giving a presentation in English? Do you have any other tips to add? Share below!

Billie Jago is an ELT writer and teacher trainer, specialising in digital & assessments. She is the founder of the professional development podcast ELTcpd and co-founder of the digital ELT content agency, otterelt .

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Author: Oxford University Press ELT

Every year we help millions of people around the world to learn English. As a department of the University of Oxford, we further the University’s objective of excellence in education by publishing proven and tested language learning books, eBooks, learning materials, and educational technologies. View all posts by Oxford University Press ELT

before You start your presentation ,try please to mention the time duration . sometimes people should be informed so that we can take a coffe break or cigarettes break in order to make evry one happy with the topics

Here is the tip I would add according to my experience :

end your presentation on a positive note, for example with a funny sentence /image /meme / an inspirational quote, in short something that will make your talk pleasant to remember.

Valentina T.

You need to chill out and show calmness and confidence. You should rehearse your presentation on the stage some time before its previously stated time.

Clear, cogent & commanding. Thanks.

I think to get better respond to presentation you can do some mistakes in it and then explain it the end or in the next presentation. Because if anyone would like to learn something also should show involvement.

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English Presentations For Lower Level Learners

• December 14, 2021 September 5, 2022

The aim of this post is to examine some of the common problems students have when making oral presentations in English and to suggest ways to overcome them. In particular, I will look at presentations for beginners in the A1/A2 (CEFR) ability range. In many cases, these presentations will form the culmination of group or individual research and project work.

During their school careers, students will have to produce presentations in many subject areas, therefore the ability to present confidently in their first language and in English is an important transferable skill.

In my job teaching specialist English courses across Europe and Asia, I have sat through and assessed hundreds of student presentations. It is always refreshing to hear students speaking confidently and saying something that is genuinely new or interesting. However, as most other teachers who listen to a lot of presentations will probably agree, it isn’t always like that!

Below I have written an example of a more typical student presentation. Try to imagine one of your less able students as you read through the following. I have written some of the presentations phonetically (as you would hear it) to give a more realistic impression. It may help to read very slowly. Enjoy!

Manchester United Presentation

My name is Hannes. Today I am presen-tating to you Manchester United.

Manchester United is the most suss-sexual football soccer club in England.

Manchester United won 11 Fa-Cups and three times Europa Cup.

Manchester United was invented in One Thousand, Eight Hundreds and Eighty Seven, I mean… Seventy Eight.

Manchester United was called Newton He-ath Lan-cas-eye-re, und Yorkshery De-pot FC.

Manchester United played in a train station.

The Nickname is Red Devils.

The Ground name is Old-traff-ard.

The capa-city is Seventy Four Commer Eight Seven Nine.

The Lee-g-you is Premier Lee-g-you.

The Best Player is…

Poor Hannes! Poor us!

In fairness, we should give ‘Hannes’ some credit. He has stood up in front of his teacher and classmates and spoken English for several minutes in front of them. He was probably nervous and more aware than anybody of his limitations in English. He has shown courage. Moreover, he has clearly done some research and the facts he has imparted to us are mostly correct (insofar as he has been able to explain, and we have been able to understand). If we wanted to be pedantic, we could try and check those facts, but this might be difficult, as Hannes has not told us where he got his facts from. If we asked, I suspect Hannes might just say that he got his information from the internet.

There were a lot of dates and numbers in his presentation which he struggled to say clearly, and he will go on to tell us the birthdates of all his favourite players… We have all heard this kind of presentation so many times, it hurts! Students become obsessed with reeling off basic facts such as names and dates which they struggle to say or pronounce correctly. Perhaps they do that because they expect ‘teachers’ to be fact-checkers. Quite often I feel that even within the setting of the English class, students are unclear what the purpose of their task is. Hannes might think that getting his facts correct is more important than how well he pronounces them.

Did Manchester United play in a train station? Perhaps we should ask Hannes at the end of his presentation what he meant by that. He probably wouldn’t know the answer because it was something he read on an anonymous website, and he was too busy noting down the basic facts to wonder about what they actually meant. That is a shame because there is a hint here of something interesting and original that we haven’t heard a hundred times before.

(For those who are interested, there is no record of Manchester United playing in a train station, but according to kids.kiddle.co, the original team were all workers at the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway depot).

So how could ‘Hannes’ have made his presentation better? How can we ensure that Hannes and other learners are better prepared for the presentations they have to make?

Why present orally at all?

In subjects other than English and the student’s first language, the main reason for giving oral presentations is to give the student the opportunity to demonstrate what they know orally rather than in writing. For those who struggle with their writing skills, this is a useful way to show their understanding of a particular topic. Often, such presentations are marked and might be an alternative way to push up their end of year grades. Perhaps this is why students get into the habit of imparting ‘facts’. They might assume that every correct fact could increase their mark. This is not however the main reason we are likely to ask students to make presentations in an English class. In our classes presentations are mainly about practising speaking, and fluency skills. We need to be clear about that, and we need to make sure our students understand why we want them to present something. The truth is most of us are not really interested in when Manchester United was founded and we are not going to give any extra points for the correct date. We are, however, interested in how well our students can speak about their favourite football club. We need to be sure our students understand the purpose of their presentation within the English class and the real criteria for any marking or assessment of their work.

Speaking Activity

Within the English class, presentations are primarily a speaking activity. Our students will use some other skills to gather and prepare the things they want to talk about, but it is the oral presentation at the end of their project or task that we are most interested in. If this were not the case, we would ask them to write an essay or answer a set of comprehension questions. The students need to be clear about what we are looking for: good use of English, clearly spoken and easy to understand, delivered as fluently and confidently as possible.

Demonstration

Before I start the class working on something which will lead to individual or group presentations, I often give students a short example of a bad presentation and then elicit from them what was wrong. It is a chance to practise my acting skills and really ham it up! I might read out something like ‘Hannes’s Presentation’, over-emphasising all the mistakes, speaking unclearly and sounding as boring as possible. For differentiation, as students progress through the year, I introduce new problems such as lack of structure, reading too much from my notes and strange body language, to see how many new mistakes they recognise.

It is also useful to contrast a bad presentation with a good one. After the ‘Hannes’ presentation, you might do a more interesting presentation about Manchester United. Rather than a monotone list of facts, you might talk about why you like Manchester United and describe the best game you have seen or the atmosphere when you visited the stadium. Again, try to elicit what makes your second presentation more interesting and engaging.

Why Brainstorm? Why Mind-map? Why?

‘Why’ is a very useful question to get students thinking. When Hannes first tells you he wants to do a presentation about Manchester United, ask him why? Try to home in on the things that actually make that football team interesting to Hannes and potentially to others.

I often begin any form of work that is going to lead to a presentation by asking students to brainstorm as many questions as they can think of connected with their chosen or given theme. Sometimes they will go on to create a mind-map. This will help them so see which ideas are worth thinking about in more detail and which things are not really important to what they want to say.

Structure and Templates

In speaking as well as essay-writing you need to make learners aware of the importance of a good structure. This is something you can include in your positive and negative demonstrations. For lower-level students, it might be useful at first to give students a template to work from. (There are a couple of examples linked to this post). However, as students become more proficient try to wean them off using pre-made templates and encourage them to come up with their own logical structure.

Pronunciation and Use of English

The manner in which students speak and use the English they know is the real point of an oral presentation. Encourage them to come to you for guidance with pronunciation throughout the preparation phases of their research and project work. Also, check their grammar and try to elicit from them where there might be errors. By the time they come to present their topic in front of the class, both you and they should be confident that any obvious mistakes have already been weeded out.

The degree to which students are allowed to read from their notes needs to be differentiated by level and experience. For beginners and low-level students, I think it is acceptable for them to largely read from a text at first if that helps to boost their confidence. Again, we need to keep in mind that what we are assessing is how well and how fluently they actually speak. Clearly, as students progress, the amount they are allowed to read should be progressively reduced to short key-notes and finally, they should be able to speak freely without obviously referring to their notes at all. This probably won’t happen in the A1/A2 ability range, but the nearer students come to this goal is a good way to differentiate their English-speaking ability.

The way in which students go about preparing their project presentation can form part of the presentation itself. This is particularly helpful for students who run out of ideas. “On Monday we started thinking about what to do for our presentation. I searched on the computer for some information about cats and Lucy started writing questions for a class survey about cats…” It is all good English!

We have all heard presentations in which A1 level students suddenly start spouting vocabulary and grammar well above their level which they cannot pronounce and clearly don’t understand. This usually comes from Wikipedia or similar sites. I always tell students that if I hear anything like that, I will make a point of asking them a lot of questions about it. I also tell them that they have permission to use short quotes from Wikipedia as long as they explain, in their own words , what it means to me and the class during the presentation itself.

Technology and visual aids

PowerPoint presentations, posters, flyers, pictures and diagrams can all help to make a presentation more interesting. However, students often spend too much time and energy on those aspects and end up with impressive visual displays but virtually no spoken English. They need to be frequently reminded that in the English class how they speak in their presentation is far more important than what their presentation ‘looks like’. It might be an idea from time to time to forbid any technology or visual aids in the final presentation to bring students’ focus back to spoken English itself. You can also outline a marking scheme that transparently weights each aspect of the presentation according to the importance you place on it. For example, you might decide on 30% on their use of English, 40% on the confidence and fluency with which they present, 20% on the structure of the presentation, 10% on the supporting visuals. This will help guide them towards where they need to spend most of their preparation time.

Alternative Presenting Styles

Once students are familiar with the basic format and style of conducting a presentation, encourage them to mix things up a bit. Instead of simply standing at the front of the class performing a monologue they could instead incorporate some drama or perform an interview dialogue that conveys the same information they would otherwise have said.

I hope this post has given you some ideas or at least something to think about the next time you are organising presentations in your English class. I wish you (and Hannes) good luck! Below is a template for students to use for their presentations.

2 thoughts on “English Presentations For Lower Level Learners”

Thank you! This is a brilliant help for preparing. I´ll use this for help my students for preparation,very useful!

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English & Enterprise: Presentation Skills

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast , Jack and Rich continue with a mini-series of podcasts called English & Enterprise . The topic in this episode is presentation skills and the language focus is on phrases we use to structure presentations. Your task is to talk about a presentation that you have given at school, work or university. Don't forget to listen to the end of the podcast because we have a new football phrase for you to guess, too. Enjoy!

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? 

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!

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!

How much did you understand?

In the podcast, Rich and Jack used some words and phrases that might be new for you. Do you know the words  in bold ?

I’d like to welcome to the stage the brains behind the product , my daughter Maria and two of our employees  - Jack and Rich. Maybe you could give a brief overview of the product and its USP ? I’d like to hand over to Rich, who has been working on the development of the product. We have both been hard at work crunching the numbers to show you how profitable this product will be. The football tech industry is booming .

There were a few more tricky words and phrases in the podcast. Do you know what they all mean? Try the activity below, then, listen to the podcast again to hear how we used the words. This can really help your understanding.

Giving Presentations

In the roleplay, you heard Jack and Rich giving a presentation. We often have to give presentations at work, school or university. 

The structure of a presentation is very important. If a presentation has a good structure, you will know what you have to say and when and your audience will be able to understand your presentation much more easily. Here are some phrases we used in the podcast that you can help structure your presentations. Do you know the phrases  in bold ?

Introducing your presentation

The main focus of this presentation is to give you more details about our product. Today, I’m going to talk about ... This afternoon, I’d like to talk about … Let me start this presentation by  explaining/saying/offering ... As you’re aware , the football tech industry is booming.

The first three of the phrases above are quite simple and can be used to introduce the topic of your presentation in a direct way. The other two phrases are used less directly. ' Let me start this presentation by ...' is usually followed by the gerund form (-ing) and is often used when the speaker wants to talk about the purpose of a presentation.  The phrase ' as you are aware, ... ' is used to introduce a topic that your audience already knows about.

Signposting your presentation

At the beginning of your presentation and during the presentation it's a good idea to signpost your presentation; say what you are going to talk about and when. There are some specific words and phrases we use to do this. We used some of these in the podcast. Do you understand the words and phrases in bold ? 

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. Finally, we will hand back over to Maria who will present a cost-benefit analysis. Sorry, and last of all we will take a look at the kinds of profits you could be making.

All of the words and phrases in bold help the speaker give their presentation and help the audience follow the presentation. You can also use ' firstly ', ' secondly ', and ' thirdly ' but beyond the third point we usually use phrases such as ' the next point ' or ' following this '.

Finishing your presentation

When we finish a presentation, we often give a conclusion, which involves giving our opinion or recommendation, or we give a summary which involves repeating the main points you have spoken about. In reality, there is not usually much difference between a conclusion or a summary. Have a look at the phrases below. Do you know the words in bold ?

So, in conclusion , we believe that this product could be the next global craze and will be very profitable for all involved.  Last of all , I would like to ... So, to sum up my main points, I ... Summing up the main ideas from the meeting, I'd like to repeat ...

Try the activity below, you need to read the dialogues and write the correct words in the gaps. All of the words were used in this podcast.

Changing the topic

When we introduce a presentation we probably mention three or four topics or points that we will mention in our presentation. We need to make it clear when we are changing the topic or moving on to a new point. In the roleplay, Rich said:

 Let’s move on to why the hair mould idea will be a success.

Here are some other phrases you can use when moving from one point to another:

I’d now like to move on to the next part … This leads me to my next point, which is … Turning our attention now to … Let’s now turn to …

Giving more information

Before we move onto a new point we might want to give some extra information about something. In the roleplay, we used these phrases:

Our product is Premier League hair moulds. Let me elaborate further . This product would Let me hand back to my colleague, Jack, who will expand on this a little.

Here are some simple phrases you can use when moving from one point to another:

In addition, ... What’s more, ... Also, ... Added to this, ...

Referring to data

When giving a presentation, we often need to talk about data or statistics that we have collected or that is from other sources. In the podcast, we used some phrases to do this:

Based on our findings, we believe our new product can add a further 10% to the sector in the coming year. This product would allow anybody with hair - our data shows this is 98% of the global population.

Here are some other phrases you can use when referring to other sources:

According to (some recent statistics/various studies/our sources), … Our data indicates …

Referring to visual information

When we give presentations, we often use powerpoints, handouts or other visual elements to improve our presentations and make them simpler to understand. We used some specific phrases when referring to these images. Do you know the words  in bold ?

As you can see in the chart , the profit on a small number of units is quite small. 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.

Here are some further phrases that we can use when presenting visual information:

I’d like to illustrate this point by showing you… I think the graph perfectly shows how/that… If you look at this graph/image/table, you can see that…

Try the activity below, then, listen to the podcast again to hear how we used the words. This can really help your understanding.

Please login to take this quiz.

Presentations

This week’s task is to tell us about a presentation that you have given at work, school or university. 

These questions will help you with your answer:

• Where was your presentation?
• Who did you give your presentation to? How many people were there?
• What was the topic of your presentation?
• How did you feel about giving the presentation? Did other people find it useful?
• Have you given presentations in English and your own language? What are the main differences?

Write your answers in the comments section below and don't forget to  make a guess at our football phrase.

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Task 1-At work and it was one of city of my country. 2-Businesswomen/men. About five hundred. 3-About financial facilities are provided by my company to the SMEs. 4-I was a little bit nervous but afterwards I got calm. They thanked me after presantation. 5-Only in my own language.I’ve no English presantation experience. Phrases • The smart move would be staying at home and keep off from crowded areas in the pandemic days. • Every leader /governor/manager have to know right time to leave desk. This means handover authority to the next person. • As you’re aware glass bottles should hand back to the store to get deposit. • Talkative people should first of all say what she/he will last of all say in order to save time.--:) • I've been crunching and elaborating numbers as well as analysing cost-benefit state to see how could I change my old car-:) • A brief overview of issues in the agenda before starting meeting is more beneficial. Notes • When I meet a family company's members as a financier I always try to find out the brain behind this organization.

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This week's football phrase is ( a two-horse race )

One of the most memorable presentations I have ever had was when I started working at a new big school and it was a must for every teacher to have a presentation about themselves with some points as family , background , experience and teaching motivations. I felt a bit nervous in the beginning because I am not used to giving a speech in front of that massive number as the audience were all my colleagues and managers so it was about 70 persons at the school theatre I spent the earlier 3 days practicing and I wrote some main points to talk about. I made a powerpoint with headlines and photos to make it simpler and more interesting The exciting point here that it was by English and it was recoreded by a friend of mine. When I saw it later , I think actually I did a fantastic job , speaking like a CEO of a big company , just joking , I mean it was very good regarding confidence and fluency and it lasted for about 10 minutes

One of my best presentation was at high school. I was racing against three students to became the new high school's leader as we were coursing the last year. I gave my presentation to all the students, so there were almost 700 students. The main topic was explain the students why I should became their leader by showing them a plan on which I was offering them different alternatives to enjoy our pass through the school. I offered them the chance to create and build a bigger library for investigation, buying more books of their interest, I offered them the chance to be included in different sport's team after class with an affordability cost, I was going to create a musical group by making auditions for all whose played instruments so they could have the chance to perform their talents at especial days that I chosed to release concerts. Last of all, I promised them, they could have six parties along the year; which it was the boom. I felt so nervous as I started talking to them by the microphone since it sounded rare the eco, and I subconciously thought they were not hearing me clear, but it was in the first joke I made when I felt relax and I could perform my plan as I expexted to. Of course, yes, absolutely, they found it useful since I won the race thanks to my presentation. Unfortunately, I haven't had the opportunity of giving a real presentation in English, just once, in an English class when my teacher asked me to explain two verbs in front of my classmates but it is not compared because I just had three people staring at me. I hope that day comes soon .

- An iteresting lesson.

2- In 2016 I deliverd a presentation, and it was in the university it considered the second in my educationel career, my audience was that big there were about 5o persons including the jury, the topic was the impact of climate change on food safety, it was very important issue to discuss especialy in continet rely on foreign AIDS, the most import in the presentation is I used English language for the first time during disscussing an issue.

3- Football phrase: A two horse race.

Wasn't it a horsal-race between....?

My presentation was given when I was chief accounter in a bank.

The meeting focused on the differents ways of establishing the foreign money balance.

More than twelve people attended the event as I welcomed them and explained my aims through the day.

I speaked in French our working langage although we used often some popular idioms. The data show and the slides were very helpful.

First of all I detailed the purpose of this new method to evaluate financial assets. Secondly we began in detailing what would the effect on the taxing result. In conclusion every one gives his opinion on the delays of this operation.

football phrase, a two-horse race.

I am used to give a presentation at work twice at year and my next one will be next month. I'm going to give that to an auditor who is coming from another plant of the company I'm working for, and usually there are more than 30 people. The topics of the presentation are for the most, related to the way I used to do my activities everyday and involving subjects like safety, quality, people development, cost deployment and environment. The first few time I gave my presentation I was very nervous because I wasn't used to do that but now I'm feel safer. Sincerely I don't know if my presentation may help someone else in their work but I hope so. Unfortunatly and how you can well see my english is very bad and therefore I'm forced to speak in Italian. Anyway thanks also to you I'm learning English and I'm aware I'm making progress even if they are slow. Sorry but this week football phrase is quite difficult for me

I think that the phrase is '* ***-***** ****'.

Leaderboard

Skills : Listening

Language : Phrases to structure a presentation

Language : Phrases to reference information

Language : Phrases to explain visual information

Task : A presentation you have given

Matchweek 36: Cleared off the line

Liverpool on fire against Huddersfield and Manchester City scrape past Burnley.

English & Enterprise: Problem-solving

In this week's podcast, we focus on phrases to solve problems in the workplace.

English & Enterprise: Brainstorming

In this week's podcast, we focus on the language you need in the workplace.

English & Enterprise: Negotiation Skills

In this week's podcast, we look at the language of negotiating business deals.

Cup Finals: Wins for Liverpool & Chelsea!

Liverpool are European Champions for the sixth time and Chelsea win the Europa League.

Enterprise English - A New Leader

Rowan needs a new captain so asks Jack for advice about who to pick. After the roleplay, Rowan and Jack discuss vocabulary related to leadership.

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April 9, 2024

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PowerPoint keeps changing default language from English (UK) to English (US)

I have checked every language setting on my PC and in Office that I can find. My default Windows language is English (UK). My default and preferred proofing language in Office 365 is English (UK).

BUT for some reason, no matter how many times I change the proofing language to English (UK) and click the "Default" button, whenever I click to another word in the text, it bounces back to English (US). When I run spell check, it highlights English (UK) words {as incorrect}, I change the spellcheck dictionary to English (UK), but then the next highlight is another English (UK) word (as incorrect).

This is a huge issue for me as a proofreader for intricate documents that MUST be in English (UK). Setting the language should be a simple issue, click once and done, but this issue is happening for me on multiple documents.

Can someone please help?!?!?

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• Microsoft Agent |

Dear Jskmac,

Welcome to the forum here and please b eware of scammers posting fake support numbers here.

I do a test and it seems that I can't reproduce such an issue with the latest version of the PowerPoint application in our environment. 

May I know have you close and relaunch the PowerPoint application after you set English (UK) as default? 

Meanwhile, I'd like you to upload a full screenshot of the Account page in the PowerPoint application you are using for our reference. You can access the page via clicking on File>Account.

Note: Remove any private information before uploading the screenshots.

Moreover,  I'd like you to log into the computer with your administrator account>go to Control Panel>Programs>right-click on the Office applications' icon>Change>check whether there is an Online Repair option. If yes, run it, restart the computer and do a test again to see the result.

Best Regards,

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• Volunteer Moderator

Does this occur with certain presentations or with all presentations, including new ones that you create on your UK language installation?

If the former, it's likely that the problem presentation was created by someone on a US English (and to keep peace in the family, I'll acknowledge the oxymoron right off) system.

In that case, try this:

Open the presentation

Press ALT+F11 to open the VB editor

If you don't already see the Immediate window, press Ctrl+G to open it

Copy/paste this into the Immediate window then press ENTER

ActivePresentation.DefaultLanguageID = msoLanguageIDEnglishUK

Now add a new text box and verify that it's set to UK English.

6 people found this reply helpful

Welcome to share any updates when you have time if you need further help on this issue.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Yes, I have restarted Office (and my laptop) multiple times after updating any setting. I am in a UK English country so all my settings are always UK English anyway, but I've double and triple checked everything.

I have attached a screenshot below, as requested.

I also tried to run the online repair, it ran through the repair but then Office seemed to have disappeared from my PC altogether?? I had to reinstall from scratch.

I did notice that when I navigated to the program via Control Panel, the name of the program is "Microsoft 365 - en-us", even though I was very careful to navigate through the UK English page to install.

I don't think this would make a difference though, the problem really seems to be related to author settings (I receive documents from clients, some of the pages are fine in UK English, but some just keep reverting to US English no matter how many times I change the default/proofing/spellcheck language). I change the language, click Default, click OK, then when I click to another word even within the same text box, it switches back to US English.

I have tried all the steps you suggested but the problem is still occuring.

I can't do anything about the author's settings, nor can I copy and paste the elements into a new presentation (the docs are quite complex and password-protected).

Any other ideas??

Thanks for the response and suggestion. Yes, this occurs on documents created by someone else. The problem doesn't even happen on every page, but on some pages, no matter how many times I change the default language, it reverts to US English when I click back into even the same textbox.

I tried your VB editor suggestion, but it didn't change anything, unfortunately.

Any other suggestions would be appreciated!

Can you post an example presentation on OneDrive/Dropbox/etc and share the link here?  It can be just one or two slides, with any sensitive information removed, so long as it still exhibits the same problem.

I have copied a text box into a new presentation and rewritten the text - the problem still occurs in that text box even in a new presentation. I have described the steps in the text box.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/28yn6r5az00ex9v/AABX4qyLCkCuUyKu5aJKvMAna?dl=0

Please note I received a new document from a completely different client today and the same thing is happening, so it's clearly not even limited to, say, a particular setting within one company environment. Nor does it occur on every page/text box from any one client, some of the pages/boxes stick to UK, some switch to US. (These documents are compiled by a team so individual sections/pages can be created by different users on the client side.)

For good measure, I have also included screenshots of all my language settings in Windows, PowerPoint, and my Microsoft profile. You'll see that the Autocorrect Options within the Proofing tab in PowerPoint changes between UK/US depending on where the cursor is active when I entered Options. When the cursor is active in the "problem" text box, it displays US, when I click into the new text box, it displays UK.

I'd really appreciate any solution you might think of. Thank you for your time!!

This is not a well thought out setting in PPT. Changing the default does NOT change existing text and the language can be set at word level so a textbox can contain different languages!

There is no way in the GUI to fix this except changing each section of text one by one but there is code on our site which will fix many things in one go and a not free addin that will do an even better job. In your case the free code should be enough.

http://www.pptalchemy.co.uk/Real_Lingo.html

As you are using Microsoft 365 Family, I'd like to move the thread to the Microsoft 365 Family category for you to get expert help.

Hi Cliff, I'm not sure where you're seeing that? I'm not using the Family version, I have a Microsoft 365 Personal account.

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