LESSON OVERVIEW

In this lesson about business presentations in English, students discuss presentation structures in depth, watch a video with tips on giving presentations, and learn useful words and phrases related to the topic.

The lesson is the first of the three-part series of lessons about delivering presentations. You will find the second part of the series here and the third part of the series here.

VOCABULARY & VIDEO

The lesson starts with a matching exercise in which students learn some common collocations (e.g. step up your game, nooks and crannies). After that, students use the collocations to complete six statements referring to business presentations (e.g. joking during a presentation, using visual aids). Then, students discuss if they agree with the statements or not. Before watching the video about virtual presentations, students decide whether the tips listed in the task should be on the ‘do’ or ‘don’t’ list. They watch the video and check their answers. During the second viewing, students have to answer a few comprehension questions about the video. This task is followed by a short discussion during which students share their opinions on what they learned from the video. 

TYPES & STRUCTURES OF BUSINESS PRESENTATIONS

This part of the lesson starts with a vocabulary exercise. Students read a short text explaining what an elevator pitch is, and find words (e.g. affable, detract from) which match the given meanings. Then, they briefly discuss the idea of an elevator pitch and other types of business presentations. After that, students match descriptions to four types of presentations (e.g. annual stakeholder report, team briefing). In the last part of the lesson, students do a speaking activity in which they talk about structures of different kinds of presentations (e.g. pitching an app to investors, giving a demo for the MVP). They also brainstorm possible challenges each of them presents, and discuss what tips they would give to a person delivering the presentation.