Monday, October 12th

Your first oral presentation: a company or an organisation

Goal: talk for 3 minutes, in English, with no notes, about a company or an organisation that you choose.

Steps

1. Choose your company or organisation.
   It can be a business (Nike, Tesla, a local shop…), a charity, a sports club, a public service… Choose something you like or know a little, it’s easier if the organisation belongs to the English speaking world. 
2. Open DuckDuckGo and choose the right region.
   Go to DuckDuckGo, then open the settings and change the region:
   • American company → United States
   • British company → United Kingdom
   • Another country (Canada, Australia, Ireland…) → choose that country
3. Do ALL your research in English.
   Type your searches in English and read English pages. If you research in English, you don’t have to translate later, and translation is the most difficult part. Think in English from the beginning!
4. Find information about your company.
   Think about what you know about the characteristics of a company / an organisation:
   • Name, founder(s) and date of creation
   • Where it is based (headquarters) and where it works (local, national, international)
   • Sector and activity: what does it make or sell? What service does it offer?
   • Private or public? Profit or non-profit?
   • Size: number of employees, turnover (money it earns)
   • Its customers, its competitors, its mission and values
   Good places to look: the company’s own “About us” page and English Wikipedia.
5. Fill in a simple SWOT chart.
   A SWOT chart helps you see your company clearly. Copy it on paper and write one or two short ideas in each box.

   Strengths (+) What is the company good at? What makes it special?	Weaknesses (–) What is difficult for the company? What is it not good at?
   Opportunities (+) What good things can happen? (new products, new countries, new trends)	Threats (–) What dangers are there? (competitors, crisis, bad news)

   Strengths and Weaknesses are inside the company. Opportunities and Threats come from outside.
6. Choose 5 or 6 talking points.
   Keep only the most interesting information. Write nothing long: just ideas you can say in your own words.
7. Make a slideshow with pictures only.
   No text on the slides! One picture = one talking point. The pictures help you remember what to say. Free pictures: Unsplash. You can build your slides with Canva or any slideshow software.
8. Practise out loud, without notes.
   Look at your picture, then speak. Time yourself: you must talk for 3 minutes. Practise several times, at home, in front of a mirror or a friend.

Monday, October 5th

Fill in this form commenting about the picture below. Type “Amazon” in the field labeled “reference” in the form. You will find the information and the vocabulary you need here.

Monday, September 28th

Fill in this form commenting about the picture below. Type “Spiderman” in the field labeled “reference” in the form.

Tuesday, September 22nd

Photographer : Dulce Pinzon

Series : The real story of Superheroes

Monday, September 21St

« Ministers mull volcano ash cloud flight chaos measures »
BBC News, 18 avril 2010

Take some notes while doing the exercise, don’t write EVERYTHING but write SOMETHING!

1. Compound adjectives
2. Compound nouns
3. Word formation

Tuesday, September 15th

Monday, September 14th

Basics:

1. useful vocabulary
2. numbers and figures (to train yourself at home use this)
3. comparatives and superlatives
4. Howlers – most common mistakes to avoid

Tuesday, September 8th

Monday, September 7th

General introduction & a short history of the English language, you may find most of what I said (and more) in this video on YouTube.