Delivering the presentation
| English | Chinese | Pinyin |
|---|---|---|
| signposting | 提示语 | tí shì yǔ |
| eye contact | 眼神交流 | yǎn shén jiāo liú |
| questions | 提问 | tí wèn |
The slides are finished. You are not
- Once the content is right, the marks left are all in delivery.
- Delivery is trainable, and it is trained standing up and out loud, not by reading the deck again.
- Every technique below costs nothing and is visible to a marker within thirty seconds.
Rehearse aloud, standing, timed
- Silent reading hides every sentence you cannot actually say.
- Standing changes your breathing and your pace, which is why you rehearse the way you will present.
- Time it. Cut, do not accelerate — speaking faster in a second language reduces what the audience receives.
Your rehearsal is 90 seconds too long. What should you do?
Speaking faster in a second language reduces what the audience receives. Cutting protects comprehension.
Signposting carries a second-language talk
- Signposting 提示语 tells the audience where they are: first, the reason for this, to sum up.
- In a second language it does more work than any slide animation, because it lets a listener recover after a sentence they missed.
- Say the structure at the start and name each transition as you reach it.
Which help a listener who missed a sentence? Choose all that apply.
The first three give a listener somewhere to rejoin. The fourth removes their last chance.
Two ways to handle a question you cannot answer.
Weak: silence, then a guess that contradicts your own slide.
Strong: "I do not have that figure — the survey did not ask about cost. I can find it and send it after the session."
The second is honest, specific, and offers a next step. Examiners mark it well; guessing is what loses marks.
You are asked for a figure your survey never collected. What is the best answer?
Honest, specific, and it offers a next step. Guessing is what loses marks, especially if it contradicts your slide.
Write one sentence answering a question whose data you do not have, without guessing.
Example: "We did not ask about cost in the survey, so I would not want to guess — I can check and send it after the session."
Eye contact and pace
- Eye contact 眼神交流 matters more than vocabulary. Look at people, not at the screen behind you.
- Slower is almost always better. A pause is not a mistake — it is where the audience catches up.
- Prepare the three questions you would least like to be asked, and answer them out loud once.
Never read your own slide aloud. The audience can read faster than you can speak, so reading is the one thing that guarantees they stop listening. Say what the slide does not say.
Reading your slides aloud helps an audience whose first language is not English.
They can read faster than you can speak, so reading guarantees they stop listening. Say what the slide does not.
Do not apologise for your English at the start. It lowers the audience's expectation before you have said anything, it wastes your strongest moment, and the errors you are apologising for are usually ones they would not have noticed.