VSAJ0222 Medical English Spring Semester 2015

                                      Academic Presentations

                                            Requirements



Media                        any media you feel comfortable with


Speakers       recommended: prepare questions for your audience – to be asked at the beginning or
end

·        if asked at the beginning, you will check them at the end, audience makes notes while
listening to you

·        you may have questions as an emergency instrument in case your colleagues have no
questions during or after your talk


            optional:        games, crosswords, matching exercises, pictures


pre-teaching terminology/expressions

key words you expect your listeners don’t know

expressions and concepts that are difficult to understand

à           pronunciation of technical vocabulary: www.howjsay.com

                   http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/


                   synonyms+antonyms database: www.thesaurus.com

                   www.vocabulary.com


good general English mono-dictionary + other languages: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ !!! very
good for translation



Audience       Q&A


feedback – jury following a set of criteria



Length           no less than 10 + 5 minutes



Topic              USEFUL/RELEVANT/INTERESTING to your listeners (and you, of course)



LINKS TO THE GIVEN TOPIC OF THE SEMESTER



BACKGROUND READING IN ENGLISH - should be done about the topic and mentioned in the bibliography;
the more you read about your topic, the better it is for your confidence – a good idea to choose
your topic during the 1^st week of the semester and start reading as early as possible




Generally in presentations


                                         do and/or do not



• READ YOUR PRESENTATION, however, you using notes is natural



• FORGET TO INCLUDE YOUR SOURCES IN THE PRESENTATION

 WebPages, books, journals – put them at the end of the presentation


• “OUTSOURCING” INTERNET and other material→ do use


                                          your own words


to prepare your presentation – paraphrase, summarize, express differently using synonyms, similar
expression = what gets written is different to what gets spoken




• BE CAREFUL  WITH VISUALS AND QUANTITY OF TEXT ON THE SLIDES

 they might become distracting



• SPEAK IN A LOW/QUIET VOICE every listener in the class needs to hear you




• FORGET TO PREPARE FOR A DISCUSSION

Predict what sort of questions could be asked by your listeners = increases your preparedness =
increases your confidence and you will find yourself at more ease;

accordingly, prepare possible discussion questions for your audience – just in case J they have had
a bad day and do not ask