Treat your audience as equals

Never talk down (or up) to your audience. Treat them as equals, no matter who they are.

Be yourself

As far as possible, speak to five hundred people in much the same way you would speak to five. You will obviously need to project yourself more, but your personality shouldn’t change.

Take your time

Whenever you make a really important point, pause and let the full significance of what you have said sink in … before you move on.

12. Don’t make a special effort to be funny

If you make a joke, don’t stop and wait for laughs. Keep going and let the laughter (if it comes) interrupt you.

Let your visuals speak for themselves

Good visuals are just that – visual. Don’t put boring tables of figures and long lines of text on the overhead and read them out. Stick to the main points. Experiment with three-dimensional charts, cartoons, interesting typefaces – anything to catch your audience’s attention.

Never compete with your visuals

When showing a visual, keep quiet and give people time to take it in. Then make brief comments only. Point to the relevant parts of the visual as you speak. If you want to say more, switch off your projector to do so.

Develop your own style

Learn from other public speakers, but don’t try to copy them. Be comfortable with your own abilities. Don’t do anything that feels unnatural for you, just because it works for someone else.

Enjoy the experience

The secret of being an excellent speaker is to enjoy the experience of speaking – try to enjoy the experience!

Welcome questions from your audience

When members of your audience ask you a question, it is usually because they have a genuine interest in what you are saying and want to know more. Treat questions as an opportunity to get your message across better.

Finish strongly

When you are ready to finish your presentation, slow down, and lower your voice. Look at the audience and deliver your final words slowly and clearly. Pause, let your words hang in the air a moment longer, smile, say “Thank you” and then sit down.

Приложение 5

A commonly-used blueprint in designing reading materials

phase 1 Pre-reading

phase 2 While-reading

phase 3 Post-reading

Pre-reading

Source •the learner – prior knowledge of the text’s topic, attitude to reading, attitude to English, interest in the topic etc.

Goals •to introduce the topic, and arouse learners' interest in it

• to motivate learners by giving them a reason for reading

• to provide any necessary language preparation for the text

In preparing pre-reading activities, ask yourself. “Why should anyone want to read this text, and can I generate similar reasons in my learners?” “What knowledge/ideas/opinions might my learners already have on the topic, and how can I draw out this knowledge and use it?”

Exercises

· Give the title (and, if relevant, author, date and source). Ask students to write down three important factors related to the topic. Brief whole-class discussion.

· Give the title ... Students to write down 10 words related to the topic. Collect them on the board; elicit meanings and pronunciation.

· Give the title ... Ask learners to predict how the text begins. Then display the first two sentences on the board.

· Give the title ... Display a set of statements (4 or 5) based on the overall message of the text. Learners to mark them true/false or yes/no, according to their prediction of what the author will say.

· Select 10 key words from the text, and give 12 Spanish in random order (inc. 10 translations). Matching exercise.

· Learners to complete:

Things I know about the topic	Things I don’t know	Things I'm not sure about
1.	1.	1.
2.	2.	2.
3.	3.	3.

· Scanning for key facts, e.g. people, dates, events.

· Learners to write questions they expect the text to provide answers to.

· Use visuals (eg diagrams, maps, photographs) related to the topic, to arouse motivation and elicit key vocabulary items.

NB Keep the pre-reading phase brief: about 10 minutes only.

While-reading

Source • the text itself

Goals • to help learners understand the author's purpose

•to help them understand how the text is structured (i.e. organized)

•to clarify the content of the text.

In devising while-reading activities, ask yourself “What is the author’s overall message?” ”How is the text organized? – a narrative? an explanation with various examples? causes and effects? an argument and counter-argument…?” “What is the learner expected to infer from the text?” “What sort of activities does the text lend itself to?” Start with exercises that focus on global understanding of the text, then move on to content in smaller units such as paragraphs, sentences, words. (Why?)

Exercises

· Comprehension questions (WH, T/F, М/С, yes/no) – pre-text, in-text, post-text.

· Information transfer (i.e. completing illustrations, maps, etc with information from the text).

· Completing a gapped set of notes; writing an original set of notes.

· Summary-writing; completing a gapped summary, reorganizing a summary presented as a jumbled set of sentences, making accurate an inaccurate summary, creating an original summary.

· Presenting the text as a diagrammatic display:

or or

Post-reading

Source •learners’ reaction to the text, their changed views on the topic, their newly acquired knowledge, etc.

Goals •to enable learners to consolidate or reflect upon what they have read

• to relate the content of the text to learners' own knowledge, experience, interests, views.

In devising post-reading activities, ask yourself questions such as “Do my learners know of a similar situation to that presented in the text?” “Does the text present a situation that invites the learner to make recommendations?” “Does the text present a situation that requires completion?” “Does the text present views that my learners might wish to counter-balance?” “Does the text contain information that my learners might now wish to apply?” Post-reading activities most commonly bring other skills into play – writing/listening/speaking.

Exercises

· Solving a problem with the aid of information from the text.

· Expressing a personal view on the topic.

· A debate/class discussion on the topic.

· Writing that responds to the views expressed in the text (e.g. a letter to the newspaper/government/United Nations).

· Personalizing the topic, e.g. in the form of a diary entry.

Приложение 6