Presentation Skills for Business

This course is designed primarily to improve students’ presentation skills and thereby to develop their integrative English language proficiency. The goal is to acquire basic presentations skills, including how to organise a presentation, how to support arguments with evidence, how to effectively use visual aids and will deal with aspects of presentation delivery such as eye contact and voice inflection. Students base their presentations on the basic patterns taught and learn to speak from notes. More skilled students make longer persuasive presentations as the term progresses. The class is conducted in English.

To develop presentation skills according to the physical message, the story message and the visual message. Physical message skills include posture, eye contact, gestures, and voice inflection. Story message skills include supporting arguments with evidence and making an appropriate presentation introduction, body, conclusion. Visual message skills include the effective use of visual aids such as slides. These skills will be observed, measured, and evaluated throughout the semester.

1 Introduction: Orientation and class building activities
2 The Physical Message: Posture and eye contact
3 The Physical Message: Gestures and voice inflection
4 The Story Message: Presentation structure
5 Mini-presentation 1
6 The Story Message: Making an introduction
7 The Story Message: Using evidence in the body
8 The Story Message: Transitions and sequencers
9 The Story Message: Making a conclusion
10 Mini-presentation 2
11 The Visual Message: Making effective visuals
12 The Visual Message:Explaining visuals
13 Final presentations (Part one)
14 Final presentations (Part two)
15 Review and wrap up

This is a non-face-to-face (media) class that combines distance learning (simultaneous interactive classes) and assignment delivery learning (on-demand classes). Class materials and lectures will be distributed using ToyoNet-Ace,Zoom Meetings as well as PDF files, Word files, and PowerPoint files, so a terminal and Internet environment compatible with these files are required. Questions and answers will be posted via ToyoNet-Ace, but please post under your real name. Also, when using Zoom meetings, there will be an opportunity to exchange ideas in real time. Individual feedback on assignments will be provided by the instructor in the next class. Discussions, group work, and presentations will be used in order to encourage students' proactive learning.

Before each lesson, students will be expected to work on that week’s worksheet or other assignments, as announced on ToyoNet-ACE. Each pre-lesson assignment task is expected to take approximately 60 minutes to complete.
Following each lesson, students will need to review lesson content and to further extend observations and/or develop discussions using materials that have been distributed via ToyoNet-ACE. Each post-lesson assignment task is expected to take approximately 120 minutes to complete.

The course will be graded on:
Active participation: 30%
Assignments (mini-presentations, classwork, and homework): 40%
Final presentation: 30%

A reasonable level of English is necessary (over TOEIC 600 / TOEFL PBT 500 / TOEFL iBT 60 / IELTS 5.0), although students’English skills will also improve over the duration of the course.

All materials will be provided by the instructor.

Because this class will be conducted online, you will need to bring to every lesson a laptop PC or Mac to participate in lessons. Using smartphones to participate in online lessons is not acceptable.

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If the number of applicants exceeds the capacity of the course, a lottery will be held.