Making presentations in one’s own language is difficult. Making presentations in another language is even worse. Forget that speakers get nervous and sweat whilst talking in front of a group of strangers—they have to work hard to control their language skills and make themselves sound comprehensive to their audience. It’s not surprising that so many people shy away from this kind of task, be it a class presentation or as an employee at a major corporation.
Presentations are like a lot of other tasks: they have a structure and components that students can learn to use to their advantage. Knowing particular English phrases for presentations not only improves students’ English skills but takes away a lot of nervousness in the process.
Here are a couple of key phrases. They are written in the chronological order of a typical presentation:
Introducing Oneself
- Good morning/afternoon. My name is […] and I’m here to speak to you about…
- My name is […] and I’m here to speak about…
- Good morning/afternoon. My name is […] and I’m here on behalf of […] to speak about…
Dealing with questions
*You can choose whichever approach you prefer for your presentation:
- If you have any questions, please feel free to ask as I talk.
- Please save all questions for the end of the presentation.
Explaining your topic
- I’m here to speak to you today about…which entails…
- There is a need to explain to you…
- We have a new development to announce and it is…
Moving to the next topic or point
- Now that we have covered that, let’s move on to…
- Now, onto the next point…
- [if there’s another speaker] Right. I’ve covered that. Now my colleague [name] will explain the next topic…
Summarising what you’ve spoken about
- Anyway, to summarise everything we’ve covered…
- To recap on everything we’ve mentioned here…
- All in all, the key points we’d like you to remember after this presentation are…
Conclusion
- To conclude today’s session…
- We thank you for coming and listening to our presentation today. Do you have any questions?
- That brings us to the end. We appreciate your attention today.
Whether you’re a confident speaker that wants some presentation assistance or a novice that wants to learn as many speaking/presentation skills possible, be sure to check The Language Gallery’s courses. These lessons will help you refine your speaking abilities for presentations and other speaking scenarios.