Business English Presentations- Determiners
A LESSON PLAN FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS
Practising articles and other determiners in typical presentation phrases
Lesson Plan Content:
Presentations language determiners pairwork
Choose one of the sections below and read out one of the example sentences with a gap or noise instead of the determiner (a, an, the, etc). If they are wrong, continue with other hints with the same word missing until they have guessed correctly. They can only guess once per hint. Then take times doing the same, going back to the same section later if there are more examples left.
Ask about any sentences you don’t understand, etc, then find at least one example of each of these functions:
- Thanking/ Welcoming
- Outlining the presentation/ Explaining the structure
- Explaining the aim
- Surveying the audience
- Connecting with the audience
- Telling jokes
- Introducing yourself
- Explaining the topic/ title
- Getting the audience’s interest/ A hook
- Talking about handouts
- Quoting
- Giving statistics
- Filling silence
- Moving on to the next point
- Talking about visuals
- Asking for questions
- Ending the questions
- Ending
- Concluding
- Summarising/ Paraphrasing
Check your answers, then find and brainstorm more examples of each function above.
Check your answers, then test each other on the phrases:
- Read out phrases with one function until your partner guesses the function
- Say the name of a function and read out phrases with missing determiners for your partner to guess (this time with a mix of different determiners)
- Say the name of one function and help your partner make suitable phrases
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Student A
A
A joke that was popular last year was…
As a few of you already know, I’m…
Has everyone got a copy of…?
Here is a copy of…
I had difficulty choosing a topic, but…
If there are no further questions, I will bring my presentation to a close.
It’s a pleasure to welcome you (to…)
Just a moment while I…
Let me just take a look at my notes.
That’s a difficult question.
That’s a good question.
There’s a famous quotation that says…
There’s a Japanese joke about this, which I would translate as…
There’s a joke connected to this topic, which is…
An
I think this is an important topic because…
That’s an interesting question.
There is an amazing fact that…
There is an old proverb which says…
Any
Are there any questions (so far)?
Does anyone have any questions?
I will now answer any questions you may have about the topic.
I would be grateful if any questions could be left until the end.
If anything isn’t clear, please feel free to interrupt me at any time.
If you have any further questions, please come up and talk to me individually.
If you have any more questions please come up and talk to me afterwards.
There don’t seem to be any more questions, so…
My
In my presentation today… I’d like to/ I’m going to talk to you about…
Well, if no one else has any questions I will leave it there and hand over to my colleague.
I have called my presentation… because…
- (= no determiner)
__-___ Figure One shows…
First of all, I’d like to thank you all for __-___coming to…
I seem to have run out of __-____time.
In __-___ conclusion,…
In ___-___ summary,…
Thank you for ___-___ listening.
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Student B
Some
I can see some familiar faces today.
To give you some background information,…
Here are some figures which…
That
And on that point, I will bring my presentation to a close.
I think I’ve covered that point, so now I want to speak about…
If everyone is clear on that point, I’ll move onto the next…
The
…, which is the topic of the next slide.
As you can see on the first page,…/ If you turn to the first page of the handout,…
Can the people at the back read that?
Do you know how many…? The surprising answer is…
For the first part of my presentation,…
From the information that I have given you today, I think we can safely conclude that…
I’d like to start by explaining the title of my presentation.
I’m so glad to have the opportunity to…
In the second part of my presentation,…
Moving on to the next slide/ topic/ point,…
Thank you for finding the time to come and join me for this presentation.
The figures that I am pointing at represent…
The next stage will be to…
The purpose of today’s presentation is…
The reason why I want to tell you about this is…
The title of my presentation is…
To say the same thing in another way,…
Yes, the gentleman at the back in the red shirt. What was your question, please?
This
Are there any questions at this stage?
At this point, I’d like to ask if anyone else has any questions or comments.
I chose this topic because…
You all seem quite tired from this morning, so I’ll try to keep it short.
I Googled this topic and the first thing that came up was a joke which goes…
This slide shows…
You may have read in this morning’s newspaper’s that…
Your
I’d like to draw your attention to…
Please put up your hand if…
Please raise your hand if…
Thank you for your kind attention.
Yes, what is your question please?
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Suggested answers
Additional sentences that are not on the first two worksheets are in italics below.
- Thanking/ Welcoming
First of all, I’d like to thank you all for _____coming to…
It’s a pleasure to welcome you (to…)
I’m so glad to have to the opportunity to…
Thank you for finding the time to come and join me for this presentation.
It’s a great honour for me to be able to…
- Outlining the presentation/ Explaining the structure
For the first part of my presentation,…
In the second part of my presentation,…
The next stage will be to…
Finally/ In the final section/ Last of all, I will…
- Explaining the aim
The reason why I want to tell you about this is…
The purpose of today’s presentation is…
The aim of my presentation is to…
By the end of today’s presentation, I want you to…
- Surveying the audience
Please put up your hand if…
Please raise your hand if…
How many people here…?
Let’s have a show of hands.
- Connecting with the audience
I can see some familiar faces today.
You all seem quite tired from this morning, so I’ll try to keep it short.
I’m sure you are happy to be here rather than out there in the rain.
- Telling jokes
A joke that was popular last year was…
There’s a Japanese joke about this, which I would translate as…
There’s a joke connected to this topic, which is…
I Googled this topic and the first thing that came up was a joke which goes…
- Introducing yourself
As a few of you already know, I’m…
To give you some background information,…
I should probably start by introducing myself.
- Explaining the topic/ title
I had difficulty choosing a topic, but…
In my presentation today… I’d like to/ I’m going to talk to you about…
I’d like to start by explaining the title of my presentation.
The title/ topic of my presentation is…
I chose this topic because…
I have called my presentation… because…
- Getting the audience’s interest/ A hook
You may have read in this morning’s newspaper’s that…
I think this is an important topic because…
There is an amazing fact that…
Have you ever wondered…?
- Talking about handouts
Has everyone got a copy of…?
Here is a copy of…
As you can see on the first page,…/ If you turn to the first page of the handout,…
There should have been a copy of the handout on your chair as you came in.
- Quoting
There’s a famous quotation that says…
There is an old proverb which says…
To quote…,…
As… once said,…
- Giving statistics
The figures that I am pointing at represent…
Do you know how many…? The surprising answer is…
Here are some figures which…
These numbers come from…
- Filling silence
Just a moment while I…
Let me just take a look at my notes.
That’s a difficult question.
That’s a good question.
That’s an interesting question.
Let me see./ Let me think.
Just a second while I find that slide.
- Moving on to the next point
If everyone is clear on that point, I’ll move onto the next…
I think I’ve covered that point, so now I want to speak about…
…, which is the topic of the next slide.
Moving on to the next slide/ topic/ point,…
That brings us on to…
- Talking about visuals
_____ Figure One shows…
Can the people at the back read that?
I’d like to draw your attention to…
This slide shows…
Please have a look at…
- Asking for questions
Are there any questions (so far)?
Does anyone have any questions?
I will now answer any questions you may have about the topic.
I would be grateful if any questions could be left until the end.
If anything isn’t clear, please feel free to interrupt me at any time.
Yes, the gentleman at the back in the red shirt. What was your question, please?
Yes, what is your question please?
Are there any questions at this stage?
At this point, I’d like to ask if anyone else has any questions or comments.
- Ending the questions
If there are no further questions, I will bring my presentation to a close.
Well, if no one else has any questions I will leave it there and hand over to my colleague.
There don’t seem to be any more questions, so…
If you have any further questions, please come up and talk to me individually.
If you have any more questions please come up and talk to me afterwards.
- Ending
I seem to have run out of ______time.
Thank you for ______ listening.
And on that point, I will bring my presentation to a close.
Thank you for your kind attention.
… which brings me to the end of my presentation.
- Concluding
In _____ conclusion,…
From the information that I have given you today, I think we can safely conclude that…
For all the reasons I have given in my presentation,…
- Summarising/ Paraphrasing
In ______ summary,…
To say the same thing in another way,…
To summarise,…
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