A cheat sheet for non native speaker. Editing by Dario Morandotti of the lessons held by Marion Odell - British Council Milan November 2012

1. ADVANCED PRONUNCIATION & PUBLIC SPEAKING – A MAP FOR NON-NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERS 1/2
more a cheat sheet! based on lessons held by Marion Odell at British Council in Milan – November 2012, editing by Dario Morandotti
The Bare Truth - Learned strategies tend to be abandoned in stress situations. They need to be internalized with practice.
Inform Educate
Persuade Entertain
1) Strategy: What goal? What’s in for me?
A- Introduction
• Start with a bang (if applicable)
• What topic, why
• Who you are
• What route, how long will take, what will be seen along the route
• Invite to collaborate or to question - at the end or along the road
• Remember the policy (cell phone, laptop, etc. – if applicable)
B- Body
• Summary before moving to next point (applicable only
to long presentation)
C- Conclusion
• Closing remarks
• Link to introduction
• Next steps
• Call to action or set a challenge; leave a quotation
D- Questions (if applicable)
• Check understanding (repeat and rephrase if necessary)
• Address with a strategy (Deal, Define, Defuse, Divide, Defer, Disarm, Decline) – can be
a multiple strategy
E- Closure
• References and material information
• Feedback (if applicable)
• Thanks everyone, give credit (if applicable)
1.Draft the key points on paper or on tools (Mind Mapping is great) – don’t wait midnight of the
day before
2.Develop visual aids
• PowerPoint or Prezi or drawing on the whiteboard (or a mix)
• Reuse already tested material
• Write titles as compelling short sentences – benefit oriented; only one concept per slide;
1 to 3 min speech per slide
• Graphics eat words for lunch
• Put some dynamic and tension point (eye capturing) in the slide
• Use animation (with care)
• Seek advice from the graphic professional!
• PowerPoint it’s only a tool …
3.Briefly script your speech; average sentence should last 5-6 seconds and have 5 stressed
words
4.Check & improve your script for pace, stress (tonic, emphatic or contrastive), chunking,
short/long pauses, transitional phrases, signposts, cleft sentences, inversions, repetitions,
plural/singular verbs, articles, adverbs position, jargons, terms and acronyms
5.Record/film yourself (or test with a friend):
1.First Rehearsal with script and visuals – control time, check grammar, syntax, pronunciation
(use dictionary for proper accent - most difficult are the aspirated “h”, the initial “th” and
the past tense ending in “ed”), raising / lowering intonation; restructure script if necessary
2.Second Rehearsal only with visuals and standing up - refine, improve vocabulary, check and
improve your body language, learn by heart the first two sentences;
sense check all: “Am I telling bs?”
6.Perfect your visuals and signposts for your speech; every details count here; they will read
before you can talk of the point; decide if/what/when distribute material
7.You are ready. Sleep well and take time to relax. Arrive early and check room and hardware,
devil is in the details
3) Speech structure
2) Before the presentation: it’s build time
1.Control your speed with milestones; not too fast (for non-English mother tongue -> speed
doesn’t mean fluency) and not too slow
2.Control intonation, avoid monotone
3.Check if people are following
4.Control your body language:
• Stand up and go on the stage
• Posture upright, head up
• Make eyes contact and move slowly, do not shift continuously
• Nod and do not frown
• Don’t check your watch with evidence (search in advance if a wall clock is visible)
• Comfortable arms, palms up, no fiddling
• Don’t scratch your head (or else …)
4) During the presentation: control
Improvisation
won’t work.
Be prepared!
Remember: they are coming
from another organization,
not another planet!
Avoid “death by
PowerPoint”!
Add the
“human touch”,
favor interaction,
allow some flexibility
See Minto Pyramid
Principle® approach
on next page
For Q&A see Kees
Garman’s approach
on next page
For more help
www.howjsay.com – pronunciation (also iPhone/Android app), http://dictionary.cambridge.org & http://www.merriam-webster.com/ dictionaries
on line with pronunciation, http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/sounds/ - phonetic alphabet & pronunciation tips,
http://www.usingenglish.com – collection of tools and resources
For more help
www.howjsay.com – pronunciation (also iPhone/Android app), http://dictionary.cambridge.org & http://www.merriam-webster.com/ dictionaries
on line with pronunciation, http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/sounds/ - phonetic alphabet & pronunciation tips,
http://www.usingenglish.com – collection of tools and resources
For typical
signposting
see next page
For more
techniques see
next page
KISS -
keep it short and
simple

2. ADVANCED PRONUNCIATION & PUBLIC SPEAKING – A MAP FOR NON-NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERS 2/2
more a cheat sheet! based on lessons held by Marion Odell at British Council in Milan – November 2012, editing by Dario Morandotti
Pauses – Chose the right one
/ short // long U stressed words
Example from the movie “Disclosure”:
“What’re selling here is freedom./We offer through
technology what religion and revolution have promised
and never delivered.//Freedom from the physical
body,/freedom from race and gender,/from nationality
and personality,/from place and time.//”
Cleft Sentences – An elegant way to emphasize
• What + spotlighted information+ is + finishing
• It’s + spotlighted information+ that + finishing
• What happens + spotlighted information+ is + finishing
Examples:
“They are using technology for …” -> “What they are
doing is using the technology for …”
The project is doing well because …” -> It’s because …
that the project is proceeding well …”
“The system is able to …” -> What happens is the
system is able to …”
Inversion – Give a formal touch to the presentation
• Inversion: adverbial + inversion subject/verb (as in
interrogative form)
Examples:
“Not only gives John visibility over projects but also …”
“Under no circumstances must Mary be …”
“No sooner had the assessment started than we found …”
Signposting – Key words that mark the stages
“…move on” – passing to the next point
“…turn to” – changing to a new topic
“…expand/elaborate” – giving more details
“…digress” – going a bit off topic
“…go back” – referring to an earlier point
“…summarize” – giving the outline of the point
“…recap” – repeating the main points
“…remark” – closing
Questions? “Actually I’m glad you asked that…”
Kees Garman’s system: buy time, classify questions in 6
types and reply with 8 D* strategy
1. GOOD -> DEAL with it straight away
2. DIFFICULT -> DEFINE exactly what the question is
then DEFLECT to someone else or DEFER until later
(parking lot) or DISARM admitting you don’t know or
DECLINE but give a reason
3. OFF TOPIC -> DEFINE exactly what the question is
than DEFER until later (parking lot)
4. UNNECESSARY -> DEAL with it straight away briefly
5. MULTIPLE -> DIVIDE into sub-questions
6. HOSTILE -> DEFUSE negativity before answering,
then DEAL with it
The Minto Pyramid Principle® (the logic in writing)
Narrative pattern of story-telling:
• Situation – what we know
• Complication – a change or perturbation
• Question – what or how to do
• Answer – finding or recommendation
The parts in a whole:
• Mutually exclusive of each other
• Collectively exhaustive
• Limited to the underlying logic of the effect or
category
Reasoning:
• Deductive – Start with rule and demonstrate validity
by applying to a case and checking the results
• Inductive - Different cases leading to various results
that infer the rule
• Abductive - Test a number of hypotheses, the
successful turn into a rule
Pyramid:
Grouping a number of sentences into a paragraph with
logical relationship. Sentences are needed to express
a single idea in the paragraph and are a summary of
the ideas in the paragraphs one level below.
Exactly as bringing together sections to form a
document and the single idea of the document
expressed in the executive summary.
Check if the pyramid grouping is correct:
• Ideas at any level in the pyramid must always be
summaries of the ideas grouped below them
• Ideas in each grouping must always be of the same
kind of idea
• Ideas in each grouping must always be logically
ordered
www.barbaraminto.com
Stress – The foundation for correct intonation
• Tonic – main syllable receive the most;
“That was a difficult test” (U stressed syllable)
• Emphatic – calls attention to extraordinary;
“That was a difficult test” (hints: extremely,
terribly, completely, utterly, especially, etc.)
• Contrastive – point out the difference;
“That was a difficult test”