Improve Your English

To improve your English fluency and confidence when speaking, use the Synchronized Reading Method. Be sure to watch the Introduction video in the link above first, to understand the methodology. These English reading exercises will dramatically improve your English fluency.

These exercises are designed for intermediate to advanced students who want to sound like a native speaker. By reading along with the teacher at the same time, with the teacher’s voice superimposed over their own, students start to self-correct in the areas of pronunciation and fluency, learning to read and speak in natural word groups.

If you find the pace is too slow, go to the Advanced version, and repeat until you are fluent in sync with the teacher’s reading.

Here is a transcript of the video: ENGLISH Reading Exercise #32 (Intermediate) Presentation Skills 10 of 28

Be sure to watch the introductory video to this playlist before doing this exercise.
Click on the link below in the Description . . .
(https://youtu.be/IOeaBha6dUU)

How to Make Your Presentation Easy to Listen To
Make sure you know the following six presentation skills to ensure your delivery is powerful, easy to listen to, and convincing:

Principle Ideas
For your presentation to have any effect, you, the speaker, need to identify in your preparation the principle ideas in your material. If you don’t know what the principle ideas are how can the audience be expected to identify them?

Usually principle ideas come down to 2 or 3 main points. Once these are identified in the preparation stage, the speaker can concentrate on supporting points or additional material to add force to these key ideas thus making them stand out.

Accurate Reading
When reading a quotation with the audience following along in their own printed copy, pay special attention to accurate reading. Stumbling, mispronouncing words, reading what’s not there, all take away from your authority. So be a good reader! If accurate reading is a problem, practice! If you are going to quote, make sure you have practiced the reading beforehand so you can read with feeling, proper sense, and poise.

Be Coherent
This public speaking tip will do much to make your presentation easy to listen to. For it to flow and be coherent, employ a wide variety of connecting expressions. These words and phrases provide a bridge and a smooth transition, helping the audience glide easily from one point to the next.

Here is a list of transitional expressions you may wish to use:
likewise
for these reasons
therefore
on the other hand
similarly
so then
on the contrary
in addition
furthermore
hence
also

Make liberal use of connecting words

Express It Your Way
Be careful when expressing thoughts as they appear in print from a particular source, unless of course you make it clear you are making a direct quotation. Just repeating it the way it is written can make you sound stiff and formal. It’s far better to absorb the idea or thought and express it in your own words and style so it comes across in a conversational way.

Regressions
Watch out for the regressions habit. This is when a speaker starts to say something, then stops in the middle of a sentence, then starts a new thought or sentence while leaving the previous expression unfinished. Doing this repeatedly can be very irritating to the audience.

The Sound Check
Personally do a sound check before your presentation. Make sure you are in the room early, talk with the sound operators and physically check the microphone.This will give you an idea of how your voice sounds with amplification in that specific environment and how you need to use the microphone to be heard clearly.

Integrate the six presentation skills listed above into your presentation preparation and delivery strategy and feel a great boost in your self-confidence as a public speaker.

Next: Why Keeping it Simple is Not So Stupid!

To improve your English fluency and confidence when speaking, use the Synchronized Reading Method. Be sure to watch the Introduction video in the link above first, to understand the methodology. These English reading exercises will dramatically improve your English fluency.

These exercises are designed for intermediate to advanced students who want to sound like a native speaker. By reading along with the teacher at the same time, with the teacher’s voice superimposed over their own, students start to self-correct in the areas of pronunciation and fluency, learning to read and speak in natural word groups.

If you find the pace is too fast, go to the Intermediate version, and repeat until you are fluent in sync with the teacher’s reading.

Here is a transcript of the video: ENGLISH Reading Exercise #32 (Advanced) Presentation Skills 10 of 28

Be sure to watch the introductory video to this playlist before doing this exercise.
Click on the link below in the Description . . .
(https://youtu.be/IOeaBha6dUU)

How to Make Your Presentation Easy to Listen To
Make sure you know the following six presentation skills to ensure your delivery is powerful, easy to listen to, and convincing:

Principle Ideas
For your presentation to have any effect, you, the speaker, need to identify in your preparation the principle ideas in your material. If you don’t know what the principle ideas are how can the audience be expected to identify them?

Usually principle ideas come down to 2 or 3 main points. Once these are identified in the preparation stage, the speaker can concentrate on supporting points or additional material to add force to these key ideas thus making them stand out.

Accurate Reading
When reading a quotation with the audience following along in their own printed copy, pay special attention to accurate reading. Stumbling, mispronouncing words, reading what’s not there, all take away from your authority. So be a good reader! If accurate reading is a problem, practice! If you are going to quote, make sure you have practiced the reading beforehand so you can read with feeling, proper sense, and poise.

Be Coherent
This public speaking tip will do much to make your presentation easy to listen to. For it to flow and be coherent, employ a wide variety of connecting expressions. These words and phrases provide a bridge and a smooth transition, helping the audience glide easily from one point to the next.

Here is a list of transitional expressions you may wish to use:
likewise
for these reasons
therefore
on the other hand
similarly
so then
on the contrary
in addition
furthermore
hence
also

Make liberal use of connecting words

Express It Your Way
Be careful when expressing thoughts as they appear in print from a particular source, unless of course you make it clear you are making a direct quotation. Just repeating it the way it is written can make you sound stiff and formal. It’s far better to absorb the idea or thought and express it in your own words and style so it comes across in a conversational way.

Regressions
Watch out for the regressions habit. This is when a speaker starts to say something, then stops in the middle of a sentence, then starts a new thought or sentence while leaving the previous expression unfinished. Doing this repeatedly can be very irritating to the audience.

The Sound Check
Personally do a sound check before your presentation. Make sure you are in the room early, talk with the sound operators and physically check the microphone.This will give you an idea of how your voice sounds with amplification in that specific environment and how you need to use the microphone to be heard clearly.

Integrate the six presentation skills listed above into your presentation preparation and delivery strategy and feel a great boost in your self-confidence as a public speaker.

Next: Why Keeping it Simple is Not So Stupid!

To improve your English fluency and confidence when speaking, use the Synchronized Reading Method. Be sure to watch the Introduction video in the link above first, to understand the methodology. These English reading exercises will dramatically improve your English fluency.

These exercises are designed for intermediate to advanced students who want to sound like a native speaker. By reading along with the teacher at the same time, with the teacher’s voice superimposed over their own, students start to self-correct in the areas of pronunciation and fluency, learning to read and speak in natural word groups.

If you find the pace is too slow, go to the Advanced version, and repeat until you are fluent in sync with the teacher’s reading.

Here is a transcript of the video: ENGLISH Reading Exercise #31 (Intermediate) Presentation Skills 9 of 28

Be sure to watch the introductory video to this playlist before doing this exercise.
Click on the link below in the Description . . .
(https://youtu.be/IOeaBha6dUU)

Suggestions for the Introduction, Body, and Conclusion
Here are some key presentation skills involving the three component parts of any speech, the introduction, body, and conclusion.

INTRODUCTION
Take a moment to stand before the audience, take a deep breath, and look around you. Don’t start speaking the second you arrive at the speaker’s stand. That initial pause can make you appear poised, relaxed, confident and in control. It can also help suppress initial nervousness.

Deliver the first couple of sentences with an increase in power and volume. You want to grab the attention of the audience right away. A commanding voice is needed to do that, not a soft, apologetic tone.

Avoid an introduction that goes on and on. You don’t want to speak so long that the audience wonders when you are going to really get to the meat of your presentation. The introduction is the funnel which directs attention to the body of the talk. Make it brief.

BODY
The body of your presentation contains your main points, why you are taking time to speak in the first place, and why people have made the effort to be present and listen to you. So be sure what you say has weight and is meaningful.

This can only be done through thorough research and good preparation. Even when speaking on a subject familiar to your audience, in the preparation stage always be on the lookout for an unusual angle, extraordinary facts, or a story or anecdote that gets the audience to view a familiar subject in a different way.

Make sure the main points of your presentation stand out by discreet repetition. You don’t want to sound like a dripping tap, but carefully planned reviews can really sink the main thoughts into the mind of the audience.

A progressive summary is an excellent tool to that end:
a) At the outset mention your main points, e.g. 1, 2 and 3
b) After point 1 repeat it and then say, “Now for point 2”.
c) After point 2 you recap points 1 and 2 and introduce point 3.
d) After point number 3 you can again review points 1, 2, and now 3.

This kind of progressive review makes sure your audience leaves with the main points firmly etched in their minds.

CONCLUSION
Don’t leave this part of your presentation as an afterthought. Prepare the wording carefully, especially the last sentence, as it will be the part the audience hear last and are likely to remember.
Also think about what you want to accomplish in your conclusion.

Do you want your audience to take action? Then spell out clearly what needs to be done.
Do you want to touch the hearts of your audience? Then weave some emotion into your last few sentences.

Once you have identified your goal, you can create a motivating conclusion that will leave your audience very responsive.

These are just a handful of presentation skills that can greatly enhance your presentations. Make sure you clearly understand the three component parts of any speech, the introduction, body, and conclusion. Then work to accomplish a specific goal with each one. Pay attention to good thought content, and also your manner of presentation.

It helps to get a partner to offer an honest appraisal, or play back a video of your presentation and do a self-analysis.

By constantly searching out suggestions, and taking on board the ones that particularly apply to you, you can have the great satisfaction that comes from making a meaningful presentation the audience will appreciate and remember.

Next: How to Make Your Presentation Easy to Listen To

To improve your English fluency and confidence when speaking, use the Synchronized Reading Method. Be sure to watch the Introduction video in the link above first, to understand the methodology. These English reading exercises will dramatically improve your English fluency.

These exercises are designed for intermediate to advanced students who want to sound like a native speaker. By reading along with the teacher at the same time, with the teacher’s voice superimposed over their own, students start to self-correct in the areas of pronunciation and fluency, learning to read and speak in natural word groups.

If you find the pace is too fast, go to the Intermediate version, and repeat until you are fluent in sync with the teacher’s reading.

Here is a transcript of the video: ENGLISH Reading Exercise #31 (Advanced) Presentation Skills 9 of 28

Be sure to watch the introductory video to this playlist before doing this exercise.
Click on the link below in the Description . . .
(https://youtu.be/IOeaBha6dUU)

Suggestions for the Introduction, Body, and Conclusion
Here are some key presentation skills involving the three component parts of any speech, the introduction, body, and conclusion.

INTRODUCTION
Take a moment to stand before the audience, take a deep breath, and look around you. Don’t start speaking the second you arrive at the speaker’s stand. That initial pause can make you appear poised, relaxed, confident and in control. It can also help suppress initial nervousness.

Deliver the first couple of sentences with an increase in power and volume. You want to grab the attention of the audience right away. A commanding voice is needed to do that, not a soft, apologetic tone.

Avoid an introduction that goes on and on. You don’t want to speak so long that the audience wonders when you are going to really get to the meat of your presentation. The introduction is the funnel which directs attention to the body of the talk. Make it brief.

BODY
The body of your presentation contains your main points, why you are taking time to speak in the first place, and why people have made the effort to be present and listen to you. So be sure what you say has weight and is meaningful.

This can only be done through thorough research and good preparation. Even when speaking on a subject familiar to your audience, in the preparation stage always be on the lookout for an unusual angle, extraordinary facts, or a story or anecdote that gets the audience to view a familiar subject in a different way.

Make sure the main points of your presentation stand out by discreet repetition. You don’t want to sound like a dripping tap, but carefully planned reviews can really sink the main thoughts into the mind of the audience.

A progressive summary is an excellent tool to that end:
a) At the outset mention your main points, e.g. 1, 2 and 3
b) After point 1 repeat it and then say, “Now for point 2”.
c) After point 2 you recap points 1 and 2 and introduce point 3.
d) After point number 3 you can again review points 1, 2, and now 3.

This kind of progressive review makes sure your audience leaves with the main points firmly etched in their minds.

CONCLUSION
Don’t leave this part of your presentation as an afterthought. Prepare the wording carefully, especially the last sentence, as it will be the part the audience hear last and are likely to remember.
Also think about what you want to accomplish in your conclusion.

Do you want your audience to take action? Then spell out clearly what needs to be done.
Do you want to touch the hearts of your audience? Then weave some emotion into your last few sentences.

Once you have identified your goal, you can create a motivating conclusion that will leave your audience very responsive.

These are just a handful of presentation skills that can greatly enhance your presentations. Make sure you clearly understand the three component parts of any speech, the introduction, body, and conclusion. Then work to accomplish a specific goal with each one. Pay attention to good thought content, and also your manner of presentation.

It helps to get a partner to offer an honest appraisal, or play back a video of your presentation and do a self-analysis.

By constantly searching out suggestions, and taking on board the ones that particularly apply to you, you can have the great satisfaction that comes from making a meaningful presentation the audience will appreciate and remember.

Next: How to Make Your Presentation Easy to Listen To

To improve your English fluency and confidence when speaking, use the Synchronized Reading Method. Be sure to watch the Introduction video in the link above first, to understand the methodology. These English reading exercises will dramatically improve your English fluency.

These exercises are designed for intermediate to advanced students who want to sound like a native speaker. By reading along with the teacher at the same time, with the teacher’s voice superimposed over their own, students start to self-correct in the areas of pronunciation and fluency, learning to read and speak in natural word groups.

If you find the pace is too slow, go to the Advanced version, and repeat until you are fluent in sync with the teacher’s reading.

Here is a transcript of the video: ENGLISH Reading Exercise #30 (Advanced) Presentation Skills 8 of 28

Be sure to watch the introductory video to this playlist before doing this exercise.
Click on the link below in the Description . . .
(https://youtu.be/IOeaBha6dUU)

6 Advice Notes For Powerful Presentations

1) Get Attention
For maximum effect and to ensure you have the attention of your audience, when you stand up to speak,
take just one or two seconds to look around your audience,
Make sure your facial expression is relaxed – SMILE!

Then your first words will fall on an audience anticipating something, rather than on an audience that gradually stops what it’s doing as it becomes aware of the fact you have started speaking.

2) Five Introductions
Here are five introduction ideas:

i. Relate a human interest story
Human interest stories use facts and emotional language to tell stories of people which engender a feeling of empathy or sympathy from the audience.

ii. Use an illustration or anecdote
Use an imaginary scene or a short, amusing or interesting story about an event or person.

iii. Use a visual aid
Have an object with you which you then use to explain the theme of your presentation.

iv. Ask a question
This is an effective way to lead into a subject as it immediately hooks the interest of an audience.

v. Use a striking quotation
Start with shocking or surprising facts (be sure they are credible and from a trusted authority).

3) Use Similes And Metaphors
Enrich your presentation by using similes and metaphors. By just comparing two things, the subject under discussion with something that has one or more factors in common, will help you audience grasp the meaning. Metaphors go even further by speaking as though one thing actually was another. e.g. “All the world’s a stage.”

4) Illustrations
When thinking of illustrations or examples to include in your material, try and draw from subjects that are familiar to your audience.

If you are making a presentation before work colleagues for example, try and think of an illustration from your workplace or to do with the industry you are associated with.

Likewise, before larger audiences, illustrations relating to the town or city, or history of the area in which you are speaking will find fascinated listeners.

They will immediately feel a rapport with you as you obviously have taken a personal interest in them and their background.

5) Tone And Pitch
Vary the tone and pitch of your voice and you will be interesting to listen to.
A musical instrument playing one note soon becomes an irritation. A speaker with a monotone voice can have the same effect. So learn to:

Express excitement or enthusiasm with a higher pitch.
Raise the pitch of your voice at the end of a question.
When you want to appeal to the sympathy and understanding of your audience use a lower, softer tone.
The human voice has an amazing range. Learn to explore the highs and lows of your own voice in daily conversation and then employ this range when you speak before an audience.

6) Microphone Use
If you move your head remember to stop speaking until your mouth is directly in front of the microphone again. And of course, avoid sneezing or coughing into the microphone. Remember to turn your head.
Additionally, when using a microphone, make sure it is positioned about 4 to 6 inches from your mouth to avoid voice distortion.

Mastering public speaking takes time, and much practice. Keeping the above six advice notes in mind will do much to aid your progress.

Next: Suggestions for the Introduction, Body, and Conclusion

To improve your English fluency and confidence when speaking, use the Synchronized Reading Method. Be sure to watch the Introduction video in the link above first, to understand the methodology. These English reading exercises will dramatically improve your English fluency.

These exercises are designed for intermediate to advanced students who want to sound like a native speaker. By reading along with the teacher at the same time, with the teacher’s voice superimposed over their own, students start to self-correct in the areas of pronunciation and fluency, learning to read and speak in natural word groups.

If you find the pace is too fast, go to the Intermediate version, and repeat until you are fluent in sync with the teacher’s reading.

Here is a transcript of the video: ENGLISH Reading Exercise #30 (Advanced) Presentation Skills 8 of 28

Be sure to watch the introductory video to this playlist before doing this exercise.
Click on the link below in the Description . . .
(https://youtu.be/IOeaBha6dUU)

6 Advice Notes For Powerful Presentations

1) Get Attention
For maximum effect and to ensure you have the attention of your audience, when you stand up to speak,
take just one or two seconds to look around your audience,
Make sure your facial expression is relaxed – SMILE!

Then your first words will fall on an audience anticipating something, rather than on an audience that gradually stops what it’s doing as it becomes aware of the fact you have started speaking.

2) Five Introductions
Here are five introduction ideas:

i. Relate a human interest story
Human interest stories use facts and emotional language to tell stories of people which engender a feeling of empathy or sympathy from the audience.

ii. Use an illustration or anecdote
Use an imaginary scene or a short, amusing or interesting story about an event or person.

iii. Use a visual aid
Have an object with you which you then use to explain the theme of your presentation.

iv. Ask a question
This is an effective way to lead into a subject as it immediately hooks the interest of an audience.

v. Use a striking quotation
Start with shocking or surprising facts (be sure they are credible and from a trusted authority).

3) Use Similes And Metaphors
Enrich your presentation by using similes and metaphors. By just comparing two things, the subject under discussion with something that has one or more factors in common, will help you audience grasp the meaning. Metaphors go even further by speaking as though one thing actually was another. e.g. “All the world’s a stage.”

4) Illustrations
When thinking of illustrations or examples to include in your material, try and draw from subjects that are familiar to your audience.

If you are making a presentation before work colleagues for example, try and think of an illustration from your workplace or to do with the industry you are associated with.

Likewise, before larger audiences, illustrations relating to the town or city, or history of the area in which you are speaking will find fascinated listeners.

They will immediately feel a rapport with you as you obviously have taken a personal interest in them and their background.

5) Tone And Pitch
Vary the tone and pitch of your voice and you will be interesting to listen to.
A musical instrument playing one note soon becomes an irritation. A speaker with a monotone voice can have the same effect. So learn to:

Express excitement or enthusiasm with a higher pitch.
Raise the pitch of your voice at the end of a question.
When you want to appeal to the sympathy and understanding of your audience use a lower, softer tone.
The human voice has an amazing range. Learn to explore the highs and lows of your own voice in daily conversation and then employ this range when you speak before an audience.

6) Microphone Use
If you move your head remember to stop speaking until your mouth is directly in front of the microphone again. And of course, avoid sneezing or coughing into the microphone. Remember to turn your head.
Additionally, when using a microphone, make sure it is positioned about 4 to 6 inches from your mouth to avoid voice distortion.

Mastering public speaking takes time, and much practice. Keeping the above six advice notes in mind will do much to aid your progress.

Next: Suggestions for the Introduction, Body, and Conclusion

To improve your English fluency and confidence when speaking, use the Synchronized Reading Method. Be sure to watch the Introduction video in the link above first, to understand the methodology. These English reading exercises will dramatically improve your English fluency.

These exercises are designed for intermediate to advanced students who want to sound like a native speaker. By reading along with the teacher at the same time, with the teacher’s voice superimposed over their own, students start to self-correct in the areas of pronunciation and fluency, learning to read and speak in natural word groups.

If you find the pace is too slow, go to the Advanced version, and repeat until you are fluent in sync with the teacher’s reading.

Here is a transcript of the video: ENGLISH Reading Exercise #29 (Advanced) Presentation Skills 7 of 28

Be sure to watch the introductory video to this playlist before doing this exercise.
Click on the link below in the Description . . .
(https://youtu.be/IOeaBha6dUU)

5 Powerful Ways To Use Volume
Knowing how to use volume skillfully can make a huge contribution to effective public speaking.
Speakers who use just one level of volume, usually at a low level, can almost guarantee having an audience who are either sleeping or taking mental excursions.

Use the five key guidelines below and really harness the power of volume as you develop an effective public speaking style:

Sufficient Volume
Many speakers could increase their volume considerably. The reason they do not is often because they believe their volume level is greater than it really is. The way our voice sounds in our own heads is different to the way it sounds from the audience perspective.

So learn to speak louder than you feel is really necessary. Remember, when making a presentation, you are not having a quiet chat with a friend in the corner of a favorite café. You are before an audience and you need to project your voice.

If you are concerned you may be overdoing it, then simply use the audience as your guide as to whether you are using sufficient volume.

Look closely at those sitting at the back and watch their facial expressions and reactions. Are they evidently straining to hear? Increase the volume.

There is a careful balance here. You do not want to speak so loud you make it uncomfortable for those at front, but at the same time you do need to speak loud enough for all to hear comfortably.

This can even apply when there is microphone equipment, as many times the equipment is not adjusted to the best level, and you the speaker, will have to compensate.

Mouth And Clarity
Open the mouth wide enough for your words to come out clearly. Speaking rapidly, clipping the ends of words, slurring words together, are to be avoided at all costs! If you face any of these problems, practice and work hard to overcome them. Make a recording of your speech and play it back to get a good idea of how your voice is coming over.

Then practice, practice, practice. Speak slowly and clearly, paying particular attention to sounding word endings.

At first it will sound unnatural and exaggerated. With practice, the unnaturalness will disappear, and your speech will be much more distinct and clearly understood.

If you want to give a softer, kinder tone to your voice, learn to stress vowels or elongate vowel sounds in your pronunciation. Clipping vowel sounds can make the speech sound a little harsh, and hard on the ears.

Vary Your Volume
Increase or decrease your volume according to the subject matter of your material, or your purpose in that section of the presentation.

If you want the audience to take action, then you need to use stronger volume. If you are relating anecdotes or material requiring sympathy or understanding, use a softer tone.

Learning to vary your volume level throughout your presentation, according to the subject matter, will greatly increase audience interest and attention.

Adjusting Volume
Be ready to adjust your volume, or even stop speaking when necessary.

If there is a temporary noise, perhaps a noisy passing vehicle, be sensitive to the circumstances and increase your volume to cover the distraction. If the noise is longer than a few seconds, perhaps an airplane passing overhead, pause until the interruption has passed, then resume what you were saying.
This tells the audience that what you are saying is important, not a word is to be missed.

When To Increase Volume
Use increased volume for the first sentence in your introduction. This is a key element in effective public speaking. The opening sentence has to grab the attention of the audience, get them engaged. Starting off with your normal speaking voice will fail to do that.

A powerfully stated first sentence, establishes your credibility, so the audience is far more likely to take you seriously.

Example: Compare the feeling and impression you get with hand shakes. How is your impression affected by a limp handshake and by a firm handshake? Likewise, a strong powerful voice conveys you are confident and in control.

Don’t make the audience feel sorry for you by starting in a soft tone that borders on an apology for being there.

Learning how to use volume for effect is a very powerful speaking tool. Delivering your presentation with sufficient volume, varying it according to the material and circumstances, will do much to leave a good impression with the audience and enhance your reputation in effective public speaking.

Next: 6 Advice Notes For Powerful Presentations

To improve your English fluency and confidence when speaking, use the Synchronized Reading Method. Be sure to watch the Introduction video in the link above first, to understand the methodology. These English reading exercises will dramatically improve your English fluency.

These exercises are designed for intermediate to advanced students who want to sound like a native speaker. By reading along with the teacher at the same time, with the teacher’s voice superimposed over their own, students start to self-correct in the areas of pronunciation and fluency, learning to read and speak in natural word groups.

If you find the pace is too fast, go to the Intermediate version, and repeat until you are fluent in sync with the teacher’s reading.

Here is a transcript of the video: ENGLISH Reading Exercise #29 (Advanced) Presentation Skills 7 of 28

Be sure to watch the introductory video to this playlist before doing this exercise.
Click on the link below in the Description . . .
(https://youtu.be/IOeaBha6dUU)

5 Powerful Ways To Use Volume
Knowing how to use volume skillfully can make a huge contribution to effective public speaking.
Speakers who use just one level of volume, usually at a low level, can almost guarantee having an audience who are either sleeping or taking mental excursions.

Use the five key guidelines below and really harness the power of volume as you develop an effective public speaking style:

Sufficient Volume
Many speakers could increase their volume considerably. The reason they do not is often because they believe their volume level is greater than it really is. The way our voice sounds in our own heads is different to the way it sounds from the audience perspective.

So learn to speak louder than you feel is really necessary. Remember, when making a presentation, you are not having a quiet chat with a friend in the corner of a favorite café. You are before an audience and you need to project your voice.

If you are concerned you may be overdoing it, then simply use the audience as your guide as to whether you are using sufficient volume.

Look closely at those sitting at the back and watch their facial expressions and reactions. Are they evidently straining to hear? Increase the volume.

There is a careful balance here. You do not want to speak so loud you make it uncomfortable for those at front, but at the same time you do need to speak loud enough for all to hear comfortably.

This can even apply when there is microphone equipment, as many times the equipment is not adjusted to the best level, and you the speaker, will have to compensate.

Mouth And Clarity
Open the mouth wide enough for your words to come out clearly. Speaking rapidly, clipping the ends of words, slurring words together, are to be avoided at all costs! If you face any of these problems, practice and work hard to overcome them. Make a recording of your speech and play it back to get a good idea of how your voice is coming over.

Then practice, practice, practice. Speak slowly and clearly, paying particular attention to sounding word endings.

At first it will sound unnatural and exaggerated. With practice, the unnaturalness will disappear, and your speech will be much more distinct and clearly understood.

If you want to give a softer, kinder tone to your voice, learn to stress vowels or elongate vowel sounds in your pronunciation. Clipping vowel sounds can make the speech sound a little harsh, and hard on the ears.

Vary Your Volume
Increase or decrease your volume according to the subject matter of your material, or your purpose in that section of the presentation.

If you want the audience to take action, then you need to use stronger volume. If you are relating anecdotes or material requiring sympathy or understanding, use a softer tone.

Learning to vary your volume level throughout your presentation, according to the subject matter, will greatly increase audience interest and attention.

Adjusting Volume
Be ready to adjust your volume, or even stop speaking when necessary.

If there is a temporary noise, perhaps a noisy passing vehicle, be sensitive to the circumstances and increase your volume to cover the distraction. If the noise is longer than a few seconds, perhaps an airplane passing overhead, pause until the interruption has passed, then resume what you were saying.
This tells the audience that what you are saying is important, not a word is to be missed.

When To Increase Volume
Use increased volume for the first sentence in your introduction. This is a key element in effective public speaking. The opening sentence has to grab the attention of the audience, get them engaged. Starting off with your normal speaking voice will fail to do that.

A powerfully stated first sentence, establishes your credibility, so the audience is far more likely to take you seriously.

Example: Compare the feeling and impression you get with hand shakes. How is your impression affected by a limp handshake and by a firm handshake? Likewise, a strong powerful voice conveys you are confident and in control.

Don’t make the audience feel sorry for you by starting in a soft tone that borders on an apology for being there.

Learning how to use volume for effect is a very powerful speaking tool. Delivering your presentation with sufficient volume, varying it according to the material and circumstances, will do much to leave a good impression with the audience and enhance your reputation in effective public speaking.

Next: 6 Advice Notes For Powerful Presentations

Here is a transcript of the video: “GET OUT OF HAND – Idiom”

Slide 2:
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Slide 3:
The meaning of: GET OUT OF HAND

This idiom is used when a situation becomes difficult or impossible to control;
it describes something which is chaotic and unmanageable.

The clipart shows a warning sign for a slippery road where a driver could lose control of the vehicle.

Let’s look at 3 illustrated sentence examples.

Slide 4:
In the picture, we see riot police in the UK.

The sentence reads: In 2011 civil unrest in the UK began to really get out of hand, and riots broke out in many major cities.

Here the phrase ‘get out of hand’ is referring to a situation.

Slide 5:
In the picture we see a woman screaming, uncontrollably.

Sentence example: She became so stressed that she would get out of hand over the slightest thing.

So here ‘get out of hand’ can be used to describe a person.

Slide 6:
The picture shows George Harrison of The Beatles, and his wife Pattie Boyd, visiting San Francisco during the time of the hippy movement.

Sentence example: Pattie Boyd recalls that when she and George Harrison visited Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco in 1967, it started out friendly, but then crowds gathered and it began to get out of hand, so they made a quick exit.

So again, the phrase ‘get out of hand’ is used to describe a situation.

Slide 7:
So in summary, you can say a situation, (or a person), is getting out of hand when things start getting out of control, or if it becomes difficult to control, unmanageable, or chaotic

Slide 8:
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Image Credits

Slide 4 – riots
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https://flic.kr/p/9S3QQB

Slide 5 – woman screaming
Royalty Free
Courtesy Simran Sood on Unsplash
https://unsplash.com/@simran01_fashionphotography

Slide 7 – George Harrison
Fair Use
Credit Grant Jacobs
https://www.beatlesbible.com/1967/08/07/george-harrison-visits-haight-ashbury-san-francisco/?utm_content=cmp-true

Regarding the use of illustrations and photographs used in this video:

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Fair Use
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If you are interested in the idiom “to get out of hand”, be sure to check this entry in the Idioms Dictionary:
NOT ROCKET SCIENCE Idiom – Meaning in a Sentence

To improve your English fluency and confidence when speaking, use the Synchronized Reading Method. Be sure to watch the Introduction video in the link above first, to understand the methodology. These English reading exercises will dramatically improve your English fluency.

These exercises are designed for intermediate to advanced students who want to sound like a native speaker. By reading along with the teacher at the same time, with the teacher’s voice superimposed over their own, students start to self-correct in the areas of pronunciation and fluency, learning to read and speak in natural word groups.

If you find the pace is too slow, go to the Advanced version, and repeat until you are fluent in sync with the teacher’s reading.

Here is a transcript of the video: ENGLISH Reading Exercise #28 (Intermediate) Presentation Skills 6 of 28

Be sure to watch the introductory video to this playlist before doing this exercise.
Click on the link below in the Description . . .
(https://youtu.be/IOeaBha6dUU)

The 5 Step Starting Routine
Time and experience are needed for a person to become a confident public speaker. Few people are natural, born public speakers.

However, there is a way to short-cut the learning curve, and appear much more confident than you may feel inside, by mastering the starting routine.

Just arriving at the speaker’s stand or in front of an audience, and immediately breaking into your speech by blurting out the first few sentences, catches everyone almost unawares, and also reveals your nervousness.

Likewise shuffling your notes as you begin speaking conveys a negative impression.

Instead, follow this simple 5 step routine before you begin any presentation, and you immediately appear confident at public speaking engagements and presentations:

Discipline yourself to follow this procedure and feel your self-confidence soar!
Note: While your presentation should be extemporaneous, learning the first few words or the first two or three sentences off by heart can do much to make sure the launch is positive and confident.

Here are some other suggestions which are invaluable in developing a confident public speaking style:

Enthusiasm
Enthusiasm can make up for a number of other failings on the part of a speaker.

Even if a speaker is not highly polished in his/her presentation skills, an audience won’t give it undue attention if the speaker is enthusiastic.

Enthusiasm shows how you feel about the subject. If you have a passion for it, if you just love speaking about it, this will rub off on the audience.

Be Natural
Use your natural, everyday voice. A false, overly precise manner of speaking which is not normal for you, will be easily detected by the audience as phony. There should be no need to disguise yourself.

Be yourself, use a natural, conversational style and the audience will concentrate on what you are saying, not on the way you are saying it.

Reduce Anxiety
Reduce anxiety by being in the meeting room or hall early as the audience starts to come in. Greet as many as you can and if time permits, have a few words with one or two. Just a brief greeting, introducing yourself, asking their name, where they are from, etc. will really break the ice.

When you get on the platform and see the persons you spoke to in the audience, you will feel like you are talking to friends rather than strangers.

When The Mind Goes Blank
If you have a sudden lapse of memory and your mind goes blank, you might be able to pick up the threads again by simply repeating the last words of your last sentence. It just gives you those precious seconds needed to get back on track.

In conclusion, be realistic with feelings of nervousness. Some persons may be able to overcome audience fear, but never be able to completely eradicate nervousness before beginning to speak.

With experience and practice, this initial nervousness disappears after a few seconds once you have launched into the presentation using the five step routine outlined above. Mastering this sequence alone will move you well along on the road to confident public speaking.

Next: 5 Powerful Ways To Use Volume