Talking with Your Hands

Science has confirmed that talking with your hands can make you more persuasive, according to research based on over 1000 TED Talks.

If you use "Illustrator" techniques - demonstrating the size, shape or number of something while discussing it - you will be more persuasive.

"Highlighters"  - pointing to something you are talking about - and random gestures, on the other had, had little or no impact.

The full story is here: https://www.popsci.com/health/hand-gestures-persuasive/ 

 

Business English Presentation Skills: Establishing Authority

Here is the sixth in a series of articles and resources about presentation skills, aimed at business English learners.

This article talks about establishing authority at the beginning of a presentation, using three TED Talks as examples.

http://roadtogrammar.com/businessenglish/pres6/

Business English Presentation Skills: Making a Presentation Interesting

Here is the fifth in a series of articles and resources about presentation skills, aimed at business English learners.

This article talks about ways to make a presentation more interesting - a vital part of the process of preparing to present. It's chock full of examples from TED Talks.

http://roadtogrammar.com/businessenglish/pres5/

Business English Presentation Skills: Dealing With Nerves When Presenting

Here is the fourth in a series of articles and resources about presentation skills, aimed at business English learners.

This article talks about ways to minimize feeling nervous when you present. It's packed with tips and advice.

http://roadtogrammar.com/businessenglish/pres4/

Business English Presentation Skills: Why Do People Get Nervous When Presenting?

Here is the third in a series of articles and resources about presentation skills, aimed at business English learners.

This article explains why people get nervous when giving a presentation. Hopefully, this is a first step to beating those nerves!

http://roadtogrammar.com/businessenglish/pres3/

Business English Presentation Skills: The Narrative Presentation Style

Here is the second in a series of articles and resources about presentation skills, aimed at business English learners.

This second article is about the narrative presentation style. It includes a video example from a TED Talk:

http://roadtogrammar.com/businessenglish/pres2/

Business English Presentation Skills: Ending with a Call to Action

Here is the first in a series of articles and resources about presentation skills, aimed at business English learners.

This first article is about ending a presentation with call to action. It includes three video examples and a quiz:

http://roadtogrammar.com/businessenglish/pres1/

 

Gigantic list of TED Talks

The TED site has a great search function, but sometimes you just want a huge and easy list to browse through. 

You can find that here: http://whaddayaknowabout.com/ted_talk_list/

This list has almost 2000 TED Talks on it!

ESL Video Lesson: Try Something New

Here is the first in a series of ESL videos for upper int/advanced level classes:

http://roadtogrammar.com/videoesl/video_1_trysomethingnew/

It's Matt Cutts' inspirational TED Talk on taking up 30-day challenges.

This would be great to project on the board as a class activity (I do this all the time with my classes). There is an intro, a video, vocab, a quiz, a discussion and some learning points.

The page works on mobile devices.