International Conference Preparation Workshop

Aidan Hammond Language Education Institute Seoul National University

Presentation Skills
Presenting at an Academic Conference
Aidan Hammond
Language Education Institute, Seoul National University

Part One

Creating a story-arc Organizing a presentation Pronunciation and Practice Stating your purpose Assessing the relevance of your information Handling Questions and Answers Language reference guide Visual aid reference guide

Part Two

Part Three

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International Conference Preparation Workshop

Aidan Hammond Language Education Institute Seoul National University

Academic Presentation Skills: Creating a story arc

A story arc connects the various elements of your presentation together.

Establishing a Context: The beginning of the presentation is where the presenter tells the audience about the value and importance of their presentation. Without doing so, the audience will not be able to appreciate or understand the significance of the content.

Delivering a logical conclusion: The conclusion needs to summarize some of the key ideas you have talked about, but at the same time it needs to emphasize the importance of your topic. Often, presenters can find hints or clues to their conclusion by revisiting their introduction. The context which you created at the beginning of the presentation needs to referred to in the conclusion.

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International Conference Preparation Workshop

Aidan Hammond Language Education Institute Seoul National University

Creating a Niche for Yourself and Interestingness

As a presenter, you need to place your work in some kind of context a niche. You should outline for the audience exactly where you see your work fitting in with your field of study this is your niche. More specifically, a niche is what makes your research different or unique from others. There are several techniques that we use to identify our niche.

1. Outline the current field of research and indicate specifically where your own research belongs: Within the field of gender studies Ive been researching the influence that technology has on womens rights. More specifically, Ive been looking into the influence that cloning technology has on womens rights.

2. State what makes your research different from others: While current systems largely use GPS to determine the physical location of mobile phone users, we have been investigating WPS (WiFi Positioning Systems) to do the same thing but at much lower equipment costs.

We usually highlight our niche by drawing attention to the specific features that make it unique. Language that we can use to highlight our niche includes: More specifically, In particular, I have been focusing on Possible phrases that introduce this concept or idea are: I became interested in this research through My research over the past few years has focused on

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International Conference Preparation Workshop

Aidan Hammond Language Education Institute Seoul National University

Key Term: Interestingness

Interestingness is the quality of your work that makes it appealing to an audience. We can do this by selecting some vocabulary that would appeal to the audience or draw the attention of the audience to unique and important aspects of your presentation. Example A: Content based instruction is a means of developing linguistic ability. It is related to project work, task based learning and a holistic approach to language instruction and is used within the state school secondary education sector. Compare the two examples below. The second example has added several phrases (underlined) that increase the interestingness of the content

Example B: In recent years content based instruction has become increasingly popular as a means of developing linguistic ability. Content Based Instruction has strong connections to project work, task based learning and a holistic approach to language instruction and has become particularly popular within the state school secondary education sector. add to your presentation. It is not necessary, however, to answer all these questions, but referring to them could make your presentation more interesting and captivating for the audience.

In order to make your presentation more interesting you might want to consider what aspects of your research or experiences might be interesting to the audience. You could use the questions below to generate content to

How did I become interested in this field of study? Why might my research be important? How is my research different from other research in my field of study? Why am I unique? The examples below illustrate this technique. The first example, while it does outline and describe the content, is relatively plain in terms of interestingness. In the second example, several phrases have been added to increase the level of interestingness. In particular, the Example A
Our research team has developed a model to explain how continents break apart to form new oceans. This discovery may improve targeting of deep-water oil and gas reserves. This model could make it affordable to explore for potential reserves in the Gulf of Mexico, coastal West Africa and other deep-water regions.

speaker has added two sentences that illustrate how their particular research developed into its current form. While these are not critically important to the content, these phrases do help to make the research results more interesting. Example B:
Our research team here at the University of Texas has developed a new model to explain how continents break apart to form new oceans. This recent discovery may improve targeting of deep-water oil and gas reserves. Originally we set out to understand inconsistencies in the way that existing tectonic models account for the geology of deep-water ocean basins. In the process, we developed a new model that expands geologic theory. This new model could make it more affordable to explore for potential reserves in the Gulf of Mexico, coastal West Africa and other deep-water regions.

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International Conference Preparation Workshop

Aidan Hammond Language Education Institute Seoul National University

Constructing your presentation

Make some notes about your content:

Establish a context:
Importance & Significance Background information Value to the audience

Inform:
Describe Demonstrate Explain Comment

Support:
Evidence Examples Case study Data commentary

Conclude
Emphasize Summarize Predict Evaluate Enlighten

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International Conference Preparation Workshop

Aidan Hammond Language Education Institute Seoul National University

Pronunciation Skills
We will look at how the ideas of message units and meaning can be applied to pronunciation. In particular, it is important to remember that we are not focusing so much on the individual sounds, but the overall rhythm and structure of phrases. The overall rhythm and structure is where a large part of the meaning is conveyed. Remember this point: English rhythm and melody, more than vowels and consonants, play a direct role in communicating meaning.

Natural spoken speech Easy for the listener to understand

Read or memorized speech Difficult for the listener to understand

Chunking
To give an effective presentation in English you must learn to think and speak not in individual words, but in complete phrases. This means pausing in the right places and organizing your message into message units. The ability to present information in comprehensible chunks is by far the most important presentation skill you need. Compare these two examples below. Notice two things: 1) the interesting example is easier to listen to; 2) the interesting example is sectioned into manageable units for the speaker and the listener. Notice how content words are usually followed by a pause. These content words are usually nouns and verbs and are usually stressed. Often, we are able to recognize where to chunk just by feeling where a pause naturally belongs.

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International Conference Preparation Workshop

Aidan Hammond Language Education Institute Seoul National University

Chunking Activity
Look at the following presentation extract. Mark where you think the pauses should be. The first few have been done for you. Cases of ground water contamination // in Korea // have been increasing as of late. While legal measures exist to prosecute polluters, evidence to do so has been lacking. This has largely been due to a lack of adequate testing measures and procedures. Our laboratory has been developing a system for the remote measuring and recording of groundwater contamination. We anticipate this system will be able to provide one method to enforce pollution controls and protect our water resources.

Why did you make the choices you did?

Pacing and Chunking Task:

Work with your group to select the sentence from each set that doesnt work.

1. The person who never made a mistake 2. The person who never made a mistake never made a

never made anything. never never made anything.

3. The person who

mistake

made anything.

4. Hard work never killed anybody, 5. Hard work never killed

but worrying about it did. anybody, but worrying about it did. about it did.

6. Hard work never

killed anybody,

but worrying

7. Ideas are like

children.

Your own are

wonderful.

8. Ideas are like children. 9. Ideas are like children.

Your own are wonderful. Your own are wonderful.

10. The results

prove

that mercury

was the cause of contamination. the cause of contamination.

11. The results prove that mercury was 12. The results prove that mercury

was the cause of contamination.

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International Conference Preparation Workshop

Aidan Hammond Language Education Institute Seoul National University

Move away from memorization and towards familiarization

The thought of speaking in front of an audience without notes is a frightening one for many. But if we focus on this strategy of familiarization, we can accomplish this task in a confident and professional manner. The basic idea is that the more we practice this in an extemporaneous manner, the more familiar the speaker becomes with verbally discussing the topic, and the easier it is to confidently present. There are three steps to this approach: 1. Organization 2. Practicing pieces of the presentation 3. Whole practice

Memorizing

Greater accuracy and flow Intonation often suffers Eye-contact and connection with audience is reduced More difficult to accommodate errors and corrections Focus on reciting the content

Familiarizing

Greater connection with the audience Improved eye contact Easier to accommodate errors and corrections Focus on communication Requires more practice and preparation

Intonation is usually much more natural More confident appearance

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International Conference Preparation Workshop

Aidan Hammond Language Education Institute Seoul National University

Part 2: The Conference Paper A Typical Conference Talk Outline

Most good speakers average two minutes per slide (not counting title and outline slide), and thus use about a dozen slides for a twenty minute presentation.

Title: Forecast:

(1 slide)

(1 slide) Give the gist of the problem to be attacked and insight found What is one idea you want people to leave with? This is the abstract of an oral presentation.

Outline:

(1 slide) Give the talk structure. Audiences like predictability. Some speakers prefer to put this at the bottom of their title slide

Background:

Motivation and Problem Statement (1-2 slides) Why should anyone care? Most researchers overestimate how much the audience knows about the problem they are describing. Related Work (0-1 slides) Cover superficially or omit Refer people to your paper Methods (1 slide) In short talks, cover this quickly Refer people to your paper

Results:

(4-6 slides)
Present key results and key insights.

This is the main body of the talk. Do not cover all results cover the key results well. Do not just present numbers; interpret them to give insights. Do not put up large tables of numbers.

Summary: Future Back-up

(1 slide) (0-1 slide)

Optionally, give problems this research opens up

Have a few slides ready to answer expected questions. Ideas glossed over

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International Conference Preparation Workshop

Aidan Hammond Language Education Institute Seoul National University

Stating your Purpose

It is essential to state the purpose of your presentation near the beginning. To do this clearly and effectively you need a few simple presentation verbs: Take a look at, report on, give an overview of, etc.

Task
Below you will find a number of ways of stating the purpose of your presentation. Complete them using the words given.
This morning Im going to be: showing talking taking reporting telling . . . . . . . . . . to you about the high-density memory chip project. . . . . . . . . . . you about the recent drop in the birth rate. . . . . . . . . . . you how to deal with late payers. . . . . . . . . . . a look at the recent developments in aggregate quality control. . . . . . . . . . . on the results of my teams research in work-related stress.

So, Ill begin by: making outlining bringing giving filling . . . . . . . . . . you in on the background of the project. . . . . . . . . . . a few observations about the events up to the drop. . . . . . . . . . . company policy on bad debt. . . . . . . . . . . you an overview of the history of quality control in this area. . . . . . . . . . . you up to date on the latest findings of the study

and then Ill go on to: put discuss make highlight talk . . . . . . . . . . what I see as the main advantages of the new system. . . . . . . . . . . the situation into some kind of perspective. . . . . . . . . . . you through our basic debt management procedure. . . . . . . . . . . detailed recommendations regarding our own R&D. . . . . . . . . . . in more depth the implications of the data in the files in front of you.

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International Conference Preparation Workshop

Aidan Hammond Language Education Institute Seoul National University

Assessing the relevance of your information

If you want to bore someone, tell them everything you know.

Voltaire, 1694-1778 This is perhaps the most important component of your presentation. You need to take the written content of your conference paper, and present it to an audience in oral form. You should not read your paper to the audience. Rather, you need to consider the following points:

decide on a limited number of important points and ideas that your audience needs to comprehend, remember and understand. minimize details (of procedure, data analysis, and literature review) when highlighting your main ideas. state clearly what the point of the research is, what you discovered, and what you think it means. repeat important ideas to enhance comprehension and recall.

Reading vs. Talking

Do not read your paper speak directly to the audience. You are presenting YOUR research. Therefore, your knowledge of the subject is great. You should be able to communicate this to the audience without reading from a prepared speech. Rather, use your slides as a guide, or use an outline to guide you.

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International Conference Preparation Workshop

Aidan Hammond Language Education Institute Seoul National University

4 Steps to Presenting Content: Outlining your information

Signposting tells the listener where they are and where they are going. The effective use of signposts allows the listener to follow your presentation and recognize when important information is coming.

Introduce the new topic Talk about the topic Review the topic Connect to the next topic

See the Language Section for more details.

Describing an Object
Terms that express purpose or function: Term Example

1. Term functions as + noun 2. The purpose (function) of term is to + verb (infinitive). 3. Term(s) + verb (present simple) 4. Term is used to + verb(infinitive) 5. Term is for +verb+ing(gerund) 6. What term does is (cleft-sentence with what +
infinitive)

2. The cornea functions as a protective cover for the

lens.

3. The purpose of the cornea is to protect the lens. 4. The cornea provides protection from dust. 5. The USB port is used to connect other devices. 6. The USB port is for connecting other devices to the
computer.

7. What the USB port does is allow other devices to be

connected to the computer.

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International Conference Preparation Workshop

Aidan Hammond Language Education Institute Seoul National University

Kinds of Questions
Basically, there are four kinds of questions:

good questions

You have the answer Youre glad this question was asked Answering this question makes you look good

difficult questions

You dont know the answer Youre not prepared to give an answer

unnecessary questions

You already answered this question

irrelevant questions

The question is not related to your presentation

TASK 14: Put the following responses into the 4 groups: 1. 3. 5. 7. 9. 11. 13. 15. Im afraid I dont see the connection I dont know that off the top of my head. I think I answered that earlier. Interesting. What do you think? Im afraid Im not in a position to comment on that. Im glad you asked that. To be honest, I think that raises a different issue. Im afraid I dont have that information with me. 2. 4. 6. 8. 10. 12. 14. 16. Sorry, I dont follow you. Can I get back to you on that? Good point. Well, as I said I wish I knew. Well, as I mentioned earlier Thats a very good question.

Good 6

Difficult

Unnecessary

Irrelevant

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International Conference Preparation Workshop

Aidan Hammond Language Education Institute Seoul National University

Language Reference: Presenting at a Glance

Introduction
Greet Introduce yourself State objective Outline structure Timing Questions Link Good morning welcome to My name is The objective of my presentation today is to I've divided my talk into five sections I will take thirty minutes. Fell free to interrupt. Okay. To begin I'd like to look at

Main Body
Part One Closing first part Opening part two Sequencing Closing/ moving on Highlighting Using a visual Recommending Digressing Returning Closing So, the first part of my presentation is to So, that is all I have to say on the first point. Any questions on that? Okay. Let's move on to the second section which I have called There are two questions to look at here: firstly Okay. That's everything on part two. I will now move on to part three. Here, I would like to highlight two items. As you can see on this chart I would suggest Could I digress for a second? Let me now return to Okay, that is all I wanted to say on part three.

Ending
Signal ending Summarize Conclude Invite questions That brings me to the end of my presentation To sum up In conclusion, I would like to say Are there any questions?

Handle questions positively That's a good question Closing If there are no more questions, I'll finish there

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International Conference Preparation Workshop

Aidan Hammond Language Education Institute Seoul National University

Signals for the Topic

I want to talk about What I want to talk about today is Today, Im going to focus on Today, Im going to talk about

Now, that we have talked about ____________, lets talk about Lets move on to Thats enough about . Lets go to the next point.

Signals for definitions Signals giving the big picture

First well look at . and then well look at Im going to cover and then Well discuss a few examples/types of that is, X means In other words What I mean by X is What I mean when I say X is Today, I am going to look at several ways that I want to discuss the causes of __________. Well look at several reasons for X, meaning __________ by X, I mean _________ Today, Im going to look at 2 aspects of X is the term for __________ Now, what I want to do is discuss the causes of Well look at several ways that What I want to do is compare ________ and ___________ I want to give some background on _____________ What do I mean by X? Well, I mean Let me define that: The definition of that is X, or _______

Signals for examples

For example, For instance Let me give you an example of Take X, for example.

Signals for transitions

Let me start with Now Next, lets talk about.. First, lets look at I want to focus on What I want to discuss now is

To illustrate, lets look at For instance, Heres a perfect example of what I mean. Here are some examples of Such as Like Lets look at a couple of examples of

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International Conference Preparation Workshop

Aidan Hammond Language Education Institute Seoul National University

Unreal (hypothetical examples)

Lets say Take something like

Name and position

Let me just start by introducing myself. My name is As some/ most of you already know, my name is

Signals for explanations

Let me explain What I mean Is Let me clarify Lets look at how this works How does this work?... Let me spell this out I want to show you how ________ works

I'm in charge of/ responsible for I'm the new Managing Director. For those of you who don't already know me I'm

Title/subject
The title/ subject/ topic of today's presentation is Today I'd like to speak about

Let me show you what I mean What I'd like to talk about is So I hope you can see how this explains

Signaling important information

This is important/key/crucial. Let me repeat that: Ill say that again: I want to point out/stress that Its important to note that I want you to notice that The bottom line is

Objective
The objective of this presentation is to present The aim of today is to The purpose of this presentation is to In the next few minutes I would like to

Main parts/ outline

I have divided my talk into four main parts I have split my presentation into four main sections Firstly, what I want to do is give you some background information on Secondly we will look at

Key Language for Introductions

Greeting Good morning/ afternoon/ evening ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Hello and welcome to

Thirdly we will move on to Hi everyone Then/ next/ after that Finally, I will speak about

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International Conference Preparation Workshop

Aidan Hammond Language Education Institute Seoul National University

Visuals
I will be using Power Point/ the overhead projector/ the white board/ the flip chart

Intermediate questions
Are there any questions or comments on that? Would anyone like to ask a question at this point?

Timing
The presentation will take about minutes I will speak for about I plan to be brief. The talk will last aboutminutes

Opening a new section

Let's now look at Now I want to turn to This brings me to my next point, which is

Questions
If you have any questions please feel free to interrupt Please interrupt me as we go along if you have any questions I'll be glad to take any questions at the end of my presentation

Adding Ideas
In addition to this Moreover However Despite this So Therefore

Link to the start

Okay. Let's start with the first point, which is Right. We can begin by looking at Firstly/ Secondly/ Thirdly/ Then/ Next/ Finally

Digressing
If I could just digress for a second I would like to look at By the way Incidentally

Ending a section
Right/ So/ Well/ Okay.. That's all I wanted to say about I think that covers everything on I think that deals with To summarize

Going back
Let me just go back to Let me just return to

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International Conference Preparation Workshop

Aidan Hammond Language Education Institute Seoul National University

Rhetorical Questions
How can we explain this? Is there anything we can do about this? How will this affect our company? What will be the result?

Interesting Examples
For example For instance As an example

Acknowledge Offer Clarification

Is that clear? Are there any questions on that? I'm sure some of you want to take me up on this. I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that I realise you all know

Diplomacy-Softening
I tend to think that

Directing Questions
George, I know you have a lot of experience. Could you comment? Perhaps I can ask Peter to answer that question? Peter? Can I ask for a show of hands? How many people? How many people here have ever?

It seems to me that It may be a little difficult

Proposing
I suggest that we My suggestion is that we I recommend that we My recommendation is that we

Creating Rapport
We need to We don't need to spend time on this. I know what you are thinking. I'm sure that everyone in this room

I propose that we My proposal is that we

Advantages
The difference betweenandis enormous What are the advantages and disadvantages of On the one hand On the other hand This is far superior to This is better than

Interesting Facts
Did you know that? According to a recent study I read somewhere that Statistics show that

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International Conference Preparation Workshop

Aidan Hammond Language Education Institute Seoul National University

Stark Options
We have no choice If we don'tthen we will see Either weor Instead ofwe could

Key Language for Visual Aids

Introducing the Visual
Okay. Let's take a look at I have a transparency to show you. The first/ second/ next/ final slide is

Key Language for Highlighting and Emphasizing

Focusing
I'd like to emphasize I'd like to stress I should repeat It is essential to understand

Check with the Audience

Is that clear for everyone? Is that in focus? Can everybody see that?

Meaning of the Visual

This shows/ illustrates/ demonstrates/ refers to This graph shows Here you can see

Repetition
This is a very, very difficult problem We thought for a long, long time about this We need to do something, and we need to do it now.

Focusing Attention
I'd like to draw your attention to One of the most important aspects of this is

Analyzing
Let's look at this more closely What does this mean exactly? In other words

At first glance it seemsbut

Key Language for Closing a Presentation

Signaling the End
Okay. That brings me to the end of my presentation Right. That covers everything I wanted to say about So, that's all I have to say.

Dramatic Language
A total/ absolute/ complete disaster A great/ outstanding/ remarkable success Totally unacceptable Quite Brilliant

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International Conference Preparation Workshop

Aidan Hammond Language Education Institute Seoul National University

Summarizing
To sum up then In brief Before I finish, let me just go over If I can briefly summarize

Okay. I think that brings me to the end of the presentation. Are there any questions?

Key Language for Handling Questions

Positive Response

Concluding
To conclude, I'd like to say that I'd like to finish by saying In conclusion

That's a good/ difficult/ complex/ an interesting question Thank you for asking that question I'm glad someone asked that question. It allows me to say

Final Recommendation
It seems to me, then, that we should I would therefore recommend that

Check your answers

Does that answer your question? Is that clear now? Can we move on now?

Support
I have prepared some handouts which I will pass round. I'll give you my e-mail address in case you want to follow up something I said.

Clarify
If I understand you correctly, you want to know You are asking me aboutis that right?

Closing
Thank you for listening so attentively. Thank you for your attention. I hope that this has been useful.

Sorry I didn't follow/ catch the question Could you repeat that for me please? In other words you are asking

Refer Back Inviting Questions

I'd be glad to answer any questions. So, do you have any questions? Are there any questions? As I said earlier, in the first section Yes, I mentioned in the introduction

Accept Criticism
I accept that

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