Lower Mekong Initiative Professional Communication

Skills for Leaders

Core Curriculum Lesson Plans

Introduction to the Public Speaking and Oral Presentations Unit

Overview of the Unit: This unit consists of seven lessons on public speaking and drafting a
professional oral conference presentation. Lesson 1 (Public Speaking Skills) and Lesson 2
(Impromptu Speaking) can be taught as stand-alone lessons. Lessons 3-7 are sequential, taking
students through the organization and writing of the three components of an oral presentation:
the introduction, body, and conclusion. The unit ends with a lesson dealing with common issues
that can arise during conference presentations.

Background: In survey after survey of people’s greatest

Glossary of Terms
fears, public speaking tops the list. Many academic
settings and professions require some form of public Affective Filter – the internal,
speaking, and students and professionals who choose to psychological filter made up of
avoid public speaking find that it can be detrimental to emotional and motivational factors
their career. While there is not one guaranteed way to that impacts the learning of a second
language. A high affective filter
eliminate this fear, learning positive communication
contributes to stress and anxiety
strategies, preparation, and above all, practice, go a long
way toward helping people combat their “stage fright” Impromptu Speaking – speaking
and successfully present professional oral presentations. done without previous preparation or
The purpose of these public speaking lessons is to practice
increase the self-confidence of students in their ability to Scaffolding – the practice of breaking
deliver a professional oral conference presentation up a learning experience into distinct
through targeted instruction, peer feedback, and parts in order to move students to
dynamic speaking activities. Throughout these lessons, mastery of the whole skill
students will improve their organization and
presentation writing skills, strengthen their verbal and
non-verbal public speaking abilities, learn strategies for navigating public speaking mishaps, and
prepare for impromptu speaking situations. While the first two lessons of the unit can be
taught as a stand-alone lesson with any class that needs to develop public speaking skills, the
lessons regarding the components of a presentation are carefully scaffolded to provide
students with the appropriate language and a clearly defined structure to support the
development of each component. Using the lessons in this unit, student will be able to create a
clear, coherent, and effective oral presentation.

The Lower Mekong Initiative Project Phase 2: Professional Communication Skills for Leaders Unit: English Pronunciation
Approach: Public practice and speaking in front of others, especially in a foreign language,
requires students to take a risk which can lead to anxiety and embarrassment. These negative
feelings can block the students’ ability to process and learn new information and skills. Each of
the lessons in this unit begins with a fun and interactive speaking warm-up designed to lower
the students’ affective filter. The purpose of the warm-ups is not to force students to face their
fears, but rather to encourage them to smile, relax, and reduce performance anxiety so that
they will be more open to learning the language and presentation skills encountered in the rest
of the lesson.
The number one tip for delivering effective presentations is to practice. More importantly, it is
to practice out loud─preferably in front of an audience─even if it’s just an audience of one. Far
too often, classes designed to teach students presentation and public speaking skills require
students to passively sit and listen to the teacher. Students have limited opportunities to speak,
and the only feedback that they receive is from the teacher. In contrast, the lessons in this unit
are filled with multiple opportunities for students to practice speaking with a partner or a small
group, as well as with activities where students give and receive peer feedback. These activities
build confidence and familiarity with the new language and speaking skills required for
delivering a presentation, so that students feel prepared to give a speech in front of a larger
audience.
Throughout these lessons, the integrated content boxes provide suggestions to the teacher on
how to tie the lesson content to students’ professional areas of interest and to integrate
content-specific language into the activities. Incorporating vocabulary and materials that are
specific to the students’ field of work or study helps to make the lessons relevant to the
immediate communication needs of the students. This increases student motivation and helps
to foster a more positive learning environment.

Lesson Objectives
1- Public Speaking  Identify a variety of public speaking skills that engage audiences
Skills  Apply five essential public speaking skills to presentation deliveries
 Recognize areas for personal improvement in regards to public speaking skills
and set personal goals for those areas

2- Impromptu  Identify situations where delivering an impromptu speech may be expected

Speaking  Deliver an impromptu speech using the PREP system

3- Presentation  Identify the three components of a presentation as well as the individual

Structure elements that make up each component
 Articulate to others the key elements that make up one of the presentation
components
 Recognize and name presentation components during a sample presentation
The Lower Mekong Initiative Project Phase 2: Professional Communication Skills for Leaders Unit: English Pronunciation
 4- Introductions  Identify the five elements of introductions
 Understand the purpose of attention-getters in oral presentations, and
recognize six different strategies for using an attention-getter
 Articulate opinions on which type of attention-getter is the most effective
method of engaging audiences
5- Presentation Body  Clearly state the main point at the beginning of each section in the body of
the presentation
 Incorporate transitions between the introduction and main points of the
presentation
 Make reference to and provide a clear explanation of visuals used in the PPT
6- Conclusions  Identify the elements that make up an effective conclusion
 Write an example conclusion using specific phrases for each element of the
conclusion
 Effectively respond to questions during the question and answer session of a
presentation
 Evaluate confidence levels on constructing presentations and identify
strategies that can be used to increase confidence
7- Problem Solving  Problem solve common issues that arise when delivering presentations
Common Issues in  Develop skills for continued problem solving
Presentations

The Lower Mekong Initiative Project Phase 2: Professional Communication Skills for Leaders Unit: English Pronunciation