umair khan .
Pakistan
December 4, 2007
To speak easily, "listen and repeat" lessons are NOT enough. Most
English CDs use "listen and repeat". The speaker says something
in English, and you repeat exactly what they said. This method
is a failure.
**Emi Learns To Speak Easily
Emi, a Japanese woman, had a problem. Her speaking was SLOW. She
could not answer questions quickly.
Emi listened to many English tapes and CDs. She listened. She
repeated what the speaker said.
Emi emailed me. I recommended my minis stories lessons. these lessons do not use "listen and repeat".
They use "Listen & Answer" Mini-Stories.
I told her that "listen and repeat" is not enough-- when you
repeat, you only copy the speaker. But when you hear a question and
you ANSWER it-- you must think in English.
After using the lessons for just 4 months, her speaking was fast,
easy, and automatic.
Emi was excited.
**RULE 7: Listen and Answer, not Listen and Repeat
Use Listen & Answer Mini-Story Lessons
Use Listen & Answer Mini-Story Lessons
December 4, 2007
In modern English, Presentations tend to be much less formal than they were even twenty years ago. Most audience these days prefer a relatively informal approach. However, there is a certain structure to the opening of a Presentation that you should observe.
I got the language for today's lesson from an excellent book by Mark Powell called "Presenting in English ".
- I am terribly sorry. What I meant to say was this.
- Sorry. What I meant is this.
If you have been going too fast and your audience is having trouble keeping up with you.
- Let me just recap on that.
- I want to recap briefly on what I have been saying.
If you have forgotten to make a point.
- Sorry, I should just mention one other thing.
- If I can just go back to the previous point, there is something else that I forgot to mention.
If you have been too complicated and want to simplify what you said.
- So, basically, what I am saying is this.
- So, basically, the point I am trying to get across is this.
If you realize that what you are saying makes no sense.
- Sorry, perhaps I did not make that quite clear.
- Let me rephrase that to make it quite clear.
If you cannot remember the term in English.
- Sorry, what is the word I am looking for?
- Sorry, my mind has gone blank. How do you say 'escargot' in English?
If you are short of time.
- So just to give you the main points.
- As we are short of time, this is just a quick summary of the main points.
December 4, 2007
Signposting
When we are giving a presentation, there are certain key words we use to ’signpost’ different stages in our presentation. These words are not difficult to learn but it is absolutely essential that you memorize them and can use them when you are under pressure giving a presentation.
When you want to make your next point, you ‘move on’.
- Moving on to the next point.
- I’d like to move on to the next point if there are no further questions
When you want to change to a completely different topic, you ‘turn to’.
- I’d like to turn to something completely different.
- Let’s turn now to our plans for next year.
When you want to give more details about a topic you ‘expand’ or ‘elaborate’.
- I’d like to expand more on this problem we have had in Chicago.
- Would you like me to expand a little more on that or have you understood enough?
- I don’t want to elaborate any more on that as I’m short of time.
When you want to talk about something which is off the topic of your presentation, you ‘digress’.
- I’d like to digress here for a moment and just say a word of thanks to Bob for organizing this meeting.
- Digressing for a moment, I’d like to say a few words about our problems in Chicago.
When you want to refer back to an earlier point, you ‘go back’.
- Going back to something I said earlier, the situation in Chicago is serious.
- I’d like to go back to something Jenny said in her presentation.
To just give the outline of a point, you ’summarize’.
- If I could just summarize a few points from John’s report.
- I don’t have a lot of time left so I’m going to summarize the next few points.
To repeat the main points of what you have said, you ‘recap’.
- I’d like to quickly recap the main points of my presentation.
- Recapping quickly on what was said before lunch,……
For your final remarks, you ‘conclude’.
- I’d like to conclude by leaving you with this thought ……
- If I may conclude by quoting Karl Marx …….
