About presentations again

By Galina Vitkova

These days the students have had first presentations. Some of them deserved praise, whereas the others were not good enough. For this reason I have decided to sum up the main activities, which should be made for preparing and having a high-quality presentation (see detailed recommendations in “Prepare and have a good presentation” in the fold Computer English on the FEL intranet).

Step 1: Study materials concerning the topic you have chosen. Start with the appropriate text in Computer English or Internet English and follow hyperlinks that attract their interest or attention.

Step 2: Prepare an outline of your future presentation. Look through the gathered materials and order them in accordance with the outline.

Step 3: Prepare a list of main technical terms and acronyms you are going to use in your oral presentation.

Step 4: Draw a scheme of your presentation based on the outline and ordered materials (see examples of such schemes on this blog in

http://techenglish.wordpress.com/brief-microprocessors-history/, http://techenglish.wordpress.com/search-engines/, http://techenglish.wordpress.com/www-function/

Step 5: Try to have the presentation using the scheme at home. Remember it should take about 5-6 minutes not more.

When presenting before the audience:

• draw your scheme on the blackboard,
• present the topic following the scheme,
• while speaking follow the recommendations in

http://ctn.cvut.cz/pt/index.php?year=2008&idissue=66

http://ctn.cvut.cz/pt/index.php?year=2008&idissue=67

Do not forget: your presentation should be clear and interesting for your audience. Be prepared to take issue with your colleagues and to answer all questions. Keep the length of the presentation, i.e. 5-6 minutes.

Moreover, contribute to building the vocabulary concerning computers and the Internet. Put into the comments to the post words and expressions you meet and use when writing and speaking technical texts or preparing presentations.

GOOD LUCK !

Students´ opinion (7)

Summer holidays are away and the winter semester is running. Students are writing essays again, some of which are remarkable and worth being published. Make sure of it yourselves.

Galina Vitkova

Me and My English

By Robert Arzumanov

Nowadays English is an international language used by a lot of people all over the world. It is also the most important instrument of understanding in such fields as economy, banking, mass media, television and so on. So, in my opinion English is very important for everybody. A person could not get a good work without having at least basics of English, it is impossible to communicate with people from different countries, even to ask for some important information when you are on vacation somewhere abroad.

That’s why I’ve been learning English hard. I’ve bean learning it for eleven years at Primary School and High School. I like English and I like to read in English. So, I would say my knowledge of it is at a rather good level. I try to increase my vocabulary by finding new words in dictionaries and I also try to make my pronunciation better by listening to native speakers. For these reasons I consider these points to be the best ways of learning foreign languages.

Basically – the most important thing is to actively use the language, i.e. to communicate in it. It is absolutely the best way to learn language needed for normal social life. Certainly you have to read books in the language you want to learn in order to build your vocabulary and make your knowledge more wide-ranging. Further, you have to write something to train your spelling. Watching television in a foreign language is also a good way. I, for example, get my basics of Czech in this way. And I know that it is a rather popular way among people, who move abroad to live and don’t know the language.

For an engineer or scientist the English of their own sphere is more important because it is extremely significant for their work. These people are to study different manuals, functions and technical specifications of the matter they are working with, so they need technical English. As for me, the best way to study technical English is to read different technical or scientific texts to held discussions about them, watch scientific programs on TV. Also one can use computer programs in English instead in his/her native language, try to understand manuals for some basic gadgets that the one uses at home – a TV Set, computer, DVD-player and others. But I think that it somehow comes in a natural way – when people are interested in something – they always try to explore it and of course they have to read something in English, which is used in this particular field. So they get used to applying not only common English.

I’m also interested in computer technologies and electronics used in the musical industry, so I’m familiar with special terms that are used in the field. My technical English is not remarkable, so that’s why we are to study it at the University.