How To Overcome Our Three Main Fears When Presenting In English (for non native speakers) - The English Training Company

How To Overcome Our Three Main Fears When Presenting In English for non native speakers.

In our Business English Training we see that non native English speakers often have these three fears when presenting in English:

• getting blocked because you forget details
• speaking English well (accuracy)
• sounding natural when speaking

How To Overcome Our Three Main Fears When Presenting In English

And this is normal, because presenting in another language is hard work!! (I know as I give presentations in both Spanish and English).

So how can we overcome these three fears?

We get professionals to do three things simultaneously:

1)     audio record yourself and listen to yourself. Focus only on feeling relaxed and comfortable when presenting in English (remember it’s about speaking and presenting not passing a grammar exam!!).

2)     practise (rehearse) your presentation, firstly reading, then using only notes and finally using only your ‘presentation cheat sheet’ . A cheat sheet’ (chuleta in Spanish) is a quick way to summarise notes and key points to help people remember.

3)     use ‘anchoring words’ to write your ‘presentation cheat sheet’ (chuleta). This involves selecting key words (1-3 words) per slide, which help your brain to instantly remind you of related ideas or concepts. See my example below.

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Example ‘Presentation Cheat Sheet’

How To Overcome Our Three Main Fears When Presenting In English (for non native speakers).

Here is one of our client’s example ‘presentation cheat sheet’ for a sales presentation.

Slide 1 – introduction, rhetorical question

Slide 2 – audience (client) why

Slide 3 – objective, content

Slide 4 – fear /uncontrollable variable costs

Slide 5 – fear /early warning

Slide 6 – fear/quick response

Slide 7 – solution

Slide 8 – summary

Slide 9 – client action (call to action)

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Good luck, be brave and remember practising is a lot less painful than improvising in another language.

As the famous golfer Gary Player said “the more I practice, the luckier I get”.

I hope this helps you with your job and professional career, Christopher!

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Practice

Send me your ‘presentation cheat sheet’ and I´ll give you feedback.

Want my feedback? Put your examples in the comments box below or email me at info@englishtco.com or chris@englishtco.com.

My Top Tip Recommendation:  How you can help other professionals follow what you say in English

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