Developing effective presentations in English

Instructor: PhDr. Veronika Quinn Novotná, Ph.D.

Date & Time: 25 Apr 2022, 09:00-15:00 (1st part); 27 Apr 2022, 09:00-12:00 (2nd part)

Location: The lessons will be held either face to face or online, as per Covid-19 restrictions.

Course description:

Do you need to present your work, your institute, your projects and/or your research at international conferences? Are you afraid of presenting? Would you like to keep your audience engaged and simultaneously make impact? Do you need to boost your general public speaking skills? Would you like to master some basic principles of graphic design and thus create more effective slides? This workshop will help you with the above and more.

The first part of this workshop combines theoretical input with practical tasks focussing on three main areas: structuring content, effective visuals, and how to best deliver a presentation. We will look at means, skills and tools of how to interact with the audience and how to overcome stage fright and stress. We will go over the principles of effective visual design and also discuss the differences between presenting face-2-face and online. Last but not least, the instructor will pay careful attention to English usage and will offer a databank of useful language chunks that will facilitate delivering your presentations.

In the second block, participants will be given an opportunity to deliver their own, 7 to 10-minute presentation followed by in-depth and friendly feedback from both the instructor and their fellow colleagues. Upon completing the workshop, participants will have learned the key principles of slide and poster design and will be able to develop and effectively deliver a (scientific/academic/professional) presentation in English.

Course content (main areas to be covered):

1. Focus on content – Structure and language: how to structure a scientific / academic presentation

2. Focus on design – Creating powerful visuals

3. Focus on delivery – Managing stress, time & audience; Body language; Voice; English language proficiency and fluency; The art of public speaking; Presenting online vs. F-2-F

Level: The workshop will be held in English (recommended level is B1+ and above).

Bio: Veronika Quinn Novotná studied English and German philology at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, where she also earned her Ph.D. in English. She currently works as a lecturer in linguistics at the Faculty of Arts, University of West Bohemia. Since 2015, she has been teaching presentation skills and academic writing in English at the Centre for Academic Writing at the Czech Academy of Sciences. She delivers both online and face-to-face tailored presentations workshops at various research institutes, and universities. In her research, she specialises mainly in Global Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca.

Ohlasy účastníků tohoto školení (proběhlo ve FLÚ v září 2021):

„Oceňuji, že celé školení bylo vedeno výhradně v angličtině a rozděleno na teoretickou a praktickou část. Kdyby bylo možné zorganizovat s paní lektorkou pokračující školení, měla bych určitě zájem.“

„Bylo bezchybné, jsem rád, že jsem se ho zúčastnil.“

„Jde o ten typ školení, které má rozhodně cenu absolvovat, protože jsme získali nejen poznatky, ale také (a hlavně) prostor je hned aplikovat a vybudovat si vyšší prezentační sebevědomí. Díky přátelské atmosféře jsme si mohli vyzkoušet to, co funguje, i to, co nikoliv. S ostatními účastníky jsme se po ukončení kurzu shodli, že bychom ocenili i nějakou formu jeho pokračování, kde bychom se mohli po určité době podělit o zkušenosti a nové poznatky plynoucí z toho, jak jsme ve svých veřejných vystoupeních aplikovali to, co jsme nyní načerpali.“