Practice 3… Grammar is for free :P

          Nice to see you again! I would like to start by saying that I chose this title for my third practice in order to explain you how important this Grammar Revision on Verb Tenses was for me. It gave me almost the same feeling as getting something for free could give me. You could think that my affirmation is a silly one, but I can assure you that I really needed this Grammar Revision.

        Using the Active/Passive Overview table, I was able to find out what verb tenses I have problems with. It is like in real life: the first step in solving anything is to identify the problem. Due to the extension of the third practice, I had the possibility to detect and even more important to correct my mistakes. The study material on verb tenses allowed me to improve my grammar skills.

        After reading all the given information about Verb Tenses (forms, uses and examples), I tried to do more exercises. I was amazed to see that I had few or even no mistakes in some exercises.

        The Grammar Revision was just for worming-up. The second half of the practice was far more entertaining, because my oral presentation knowledge got even richer. We started by listening two versions of a business presentation. Geoff Maxwell, the Manager of a high-tech electronics company has been asked to run a business tour. In the first version of the presentation he was annoyed and unprepared (non- effective presentation) and in the second one, he was prepared to do a professional job. (effective presentation)

        I found of great help the Signposting table, concerning the linking parts of an oral presentation. I am absolutely sure I will use this table a lot for my future presentations.

        The two versions of the video on Dr. Linden’s presentation provided me the information necessary concerning on the right kind of language used in an oral presentation. (eye-contact, language complexity, sentence length, use of pauses, personal/impersonal language)

        One more thing I have learnt in this practice is that visual aids are vital in oral presentations. Therefore we have to know that there are some important rules for designing and using visual aids. (such as: don’t use to many visuals, don’t read from the visual, use a pointer, face the audience as mush as possible and so on)

        As the practice classes go on I can’t stop asking myself: “What else could I find out about oral presentations?” But I guess that the next practice will answer my question so…see you soonJ!