After this final presentation, I really
think I have learned a lot throughout the whole semester’s course. For a
non-native English speaker like me, presenting in front of a group of people
used to make me feel scared and worried. I can still remember the first peer
teaching dry run which I referred a lot to the slides. However, for this final
presentation, I improved from previous presentations.
First, for my work in terms of preparation,
in the beginning I tended to prepare in the same way that I used before for the
previous presentations, which was writing a script and trying to memorize it. However,
this time, I changed the method. I started by telling myself what our team is going
to propose when I am free and tried to make it clear. As a result, instead of
reciting the proposal content, I found it manageable to explain my part in
different ways based on knowing the context well. So although there was some
problem with the clicker when I was doing the presentation, I made it without
feeling nervous.
Second, for my delivery, I think I still
need to make improvements on the pronunciation and the articulation of my
spoken English. Actually, sometimes it is a little difficult for me to pronounce
certain words correctly but I will be keeping practicing on that in the future.
Moreover, this time, I did not put my hand in the pocket but I think I still
had some distraction postures which I need to improve in the future.
Third, for the visual assistance in my
slides, I used the video that found when I was doing research for our project,
which I found really heart-touching as well as closely related to our proposal.
I think it was a little success in winning the audience’s heart and avoiding
making them feel bored. However, to improve the whole presentation of our team,
next time, I will consider more about inserting the video in the best position of
the whole team presentation.
In a nutshell, I made my improvements in
the final presentation and also learnt a lot during the team work. To make more
progress in the future, I must keep moving on.
Hey Yang Mo! I believe you’ve made a tremendous improvement too. To be able to present in a language that you’ve not been using since young is no easy feat. With regards to feeling scared and worried, I too feel the same. This is especially so just before I stand up to give the presentation. To deal with this, I often question myself “What is the worst that could happen?”. Every time I’ve asked myself that question, I’ve realized that there really is nothing to be afraid of!
ReplyDeleteIn preparation for the presentation, I agree that the use of the script is sometimes counterproductive. If we were to memorise our script word for word, when it comes to the final presentation, we’ll have a really hard time recalling everything. Imagine memorising a 30 minute speech word for word! Perhaps some people could do that but not me. Like you’ve mentioned, it’s best to know your content well. In doing so, you’ll come across as being more natural and confident in your presentation.
As for your delivery, I think you’ve done well. In my opinion, two things you could work on is the projection of your voice as well as the pronunciation. I guess practice is important. Perhaps conversing more in English with your friends may help. It may be uncomfortable at first but I guess we have to push ourselves out of our comfort zone at times in order to improve.
Finally, you mentioned that you had an issue with your hand postures during the presentation. One way that I’ve found that can help is by trying to occupy your hands with objects. In this case, the clicker would serve us well. Another way is to use hand gestures. Not only will this prevent you from putting your hands in your pocket but it would also help to emphasise your points.
Hope this helps for your future presentations!
Cheers,
Arvind
Yo YangMo
ReplyDeleteFirstly, I feel sorry about the clicker accident but I think you and your teammates handled that very well. I fell proud of your team work and team dynamic.
I can see that you have improved a lot in your presentation skills, congratulations! You were confident and informative during presentation, great job.
I agree with you on presentation should be different from proposal. Proposal and presentation should serve different purposes and I think you have done that very well; especially for the video you have included in your presentation. If you just read out your proposal, we would not have a chance to see such a touching video.
It is not easy to improve pronunciation and articulation in this environment we lived in, especially when we only hand out with each other. From my own experience, watching English drama may help you in this problem.
Overall you have done a great job! Congrats again!
Good luck for you finals man.