最近开始上一门名为 Presentation Basics 课程，其目标是: Helping nonnative English speakers build the fluency to give successful presentations。虽然风格是比较美式的，但是对于我们平日里沟通和写作都有一定的指导意义。
更新历史
- 2022.01.29: 整理后重新发布
- 2016.03.14: 完成第一版
课程总览
这门课主要是为我们这种外国留学生（英语不是母语）而准备的，会教给我们基本的做展示的技术已经帮助我们在展示中更流畅地表达自己。因为是小班教学（九个人），所以会有充足的展示和反馈的机会。在整个课程中，每个人都需要做 4 次 mini-talk 和 1 次 presentation。课程结束后，我们应该能做到：
- Becoming more aware of your own speaking strengths and weaknesses and developing a plan for improving your speaking skills
- Recognizing the importance of understanding an audience and how to engage that audience
- Using organizational language to help guide your audience and emphasize key information
- Using non-verbal cues to help convey information successfully
- Becoming more comfortable in the role of presenter
当站在台前，被大家注视的时候，感觉害羞尴尬不自在都是非常正常的表现，我们需要做的是慢慢去习惯适应，即所谓 comfortable with uncomfortable。
简单来说，一周两节课，第一节课会学习相关技巧，第二节课用来练习和展示，具体的上课方法是：
- Watching videotaped presentations that can serve as models of strong presenting in the US academic style
- Identifying the way key content information is conveyed in presentations
- Focusing on the way information is organized so that it is clear for listeners
- Practicing presentation techniques through in-class activities and in a prepared presentation
- Meeting individually with the instructor for detailed feedback on your videotaped presentation
其实从中我们可以总结出交流沟通的几个重要技巧：首先是确定重要信息是什么，然后思考如何去组织这些信息，让受众更容易理解，之后就是通过不断练习来磨练自己的技艺。
课程安排与参考资料
下面是具体八次课的安排以及每节课的目标
- Understanding the US discourse style
- To recognize your audience’s expectations and how to communicate effectively with your audience
- First mini-talk: Define a problem and its solution
- To identify the parts of a problem-solution presentation and to practice this organization in a mini-talk
- Linking & organizing language
- To practice using linking and organizing language to help structure your presentations
- Second mini-talk: Describing a process
- To apply what you know about organization strategies and linking language to clearly explain a process
- Attention-getting openers
- To identify qualities of successful introductions and to practice using them
- Third mini-talk: Defining a concept
- To identify qualities of clear definitions and to practice defining a term from your field
- Pronunciation and presenting
- To understand the importance of stress and intonation to give clarity to your presentations
- Videotaped presentations
- To synthesize skills learned in this class to present a concept from your field
参考资料
- Alley,
- Reinhart,
- Smith,
- Sterns, Breaking the Accent Barrier(Video)
- Winston, How to Speak(Video)
上课内容及感想
具体的上课内容是大家一起看 How to Speak 这个视频，然后讨论其使用的各种技巧，具体的内容我在 How to Speak 介绍 中已经有总结，这里不再赘述，主要记录一下我上课时的感想。
- 展示开头直接开门见山，告诉听众可以期待什么，并且列举出接下来要说的要点，有清晰的组织结构
- 为了解释复杂的问题和概念，尽量使用比喻，来帮助人们建立起基本的认知
- 如果想要听众印象深刻，可以考虑使用排比句，精炼展示的内容
- 很多时候我们不欠缺日常生活共同以及专业学术讨论的能力，但是给非本领域的人介绍相关内容时，往往容易出问题，这是我们需要着重去准备的
- 从纯技术领域开始，进行简化，最后应用 KISS(Keep It Simple & Stupid) 原则
- 这里的 Stupid 很有意思，不是蠢，而是指 hard to break，例如没有任何机械部分的东西就比有机械部分的东西 stupid，从这个角度来说，静态网站比动态网站 stupid，所以我用静态网站生成器做博客，也算是 stay stupid
- 除了总体的结构，还需要注意每个段落之间每句话的结构和联系，总而言之，就是通通都是逻辑，不要拐弯抹角，不要随意用『显然』跳过推理过程
第一节课的内容就这么多，我们下次再见。