Conseils pour préparer une présentation en anglais

Part 1 – Jobs

1. Naturally, as a tourist guide, Hélène needs to speak English very often. In her work, she has to face different situations where she has to use English.

To begin with, she obviously uses English when she has a group of Americans or other groups from English-speaking countries.

Certainly, she does not have only native English speakers to give a tour to. Outside the high-season, a lot of tourist sights propose visits only in English or French, as so she has to give tours to groups of varied nationalites.

To finish, Hélène has groups of people that do not have tours in their own langages or that came without a guide speaking their languages. Therefore, she brings those different groups together to give them a tour in English.

2. Hélène prepares her presentation depending on different situations where she can find herself in.

If she knows the site, she has to find out as many informations about the group as she can, so she can adapt her presentation to their level of interest. For instance, if she has a group of students of architecture, she will learn more architectural details or vocabulary.

If she is not familiar with the site, she will first look for as much information as she can, in English if possible. Then she will sort out what's important and what's not. And finally, from all those pieces of information she will prepare a series of notes.

When she presents somewhere for the first time in English, she practises it with some of her friends.

If she needs to use new or technical words, she tries to find out how to pronounce them even if sometimes it can be difficult with some technical terms. Sometimes, when she can, she asks teachers from England that she knows to help her out.

3. Hélène would give some advice to someone who has to make their first presentation in English.

First, make a series of notes without reciting them otherwise it won't be professional.

Use simple and clear English words. Make concise sentences and give only the information you want to the group as well as a couple of key expressions.

Remember that many people of your groups won't be native English-speakers.

Don't learn too much technical vocabulary unless it is neccessary like it could be with a group of architecture students.

Learn keys words and structures is very important to give a good presentation.

Part 2 – Welcoming

1. Greet the group : Good morning everyone !

2. Introduce yourself: My name is Hélène and I'm your guide.

3. Say what you are going to show your group: This morning we are going to visit

4. Ask people to do something : If you would like to follow me

5. Attract people' s attention to something : Over there, you can see ...

6. Indicate exactly where something is : If you look down […] just next to […], you can see…

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