Author: Tom Hayton, Teacher, Business Trainer, British Council Kuala Lumpur Why I get students to do presentations Syllabus fit Planning a presentation lesson Aims Classroom Management Assessment Conclusion Why I get students to do

'Paralinguistics' refers to non-verbal communication. This is important in a presentation because eye contact, directing your voice to all parts of the room, using pitch and tone to keep attention and so on are all part of engaging an audience.

I find it's a good idea to let students in on the assessment process by setting them a peer observation task. The simplest way to do this is to write a checklist that relates to the aims of the lesson. A task for presentations on major historical events might have a checklist like this:

• 
  Does the presenter greet the audience? YES/NO
  

• 
  Does the presenter use the past tense? YES/NO
  

• 
  Tick the linking words the presenter uses:
  
  • 
    And then…
    
  • 
    Next…
    
  • 
    Finally…
    

And so on. This normally helps me to keep all members of the audience awake. To be really sure, though, I include a question that involves personal response to the presentation such as 'What did you like about this presentation and why?'. If working with young learners, it's a good idea to tell them you will look at their answers to the observation task. Otherwise they might simply tick random answers!

Conclusion

Presentations are a great way to practise a wide range of skills and to build the general confidence of your students. Due to problems with timing, I would recommend one lesson per term, building confidence bit by bit throughout the year. In a school curriculum this leaves time to get through the core syllabus and prepare for exams.