Introduction

Oral presentations have become one of the main ways of transmitting research results and an essential tool for professionals in a variety of fields.They are also important for graduate students and，to a lesser extent，undergraduates.

This book aims at meeting the needs of presenters who are non-native speakers of English.It is based on the author's experience of teaching presentation skills at universities and institutes in Japan over a period of twenty five years.During that time，I have noted a significant improvement in presentations given by Japanese presenters，but problems remain and，in my opinion，these are not simply matters of grammar or pronunciation.In fact，they are far more serious.For example，many presentations lack a clear framework，conform more to the rules of a written paper than an oral presentation，and do not distinguish between foreground and background.

In this book，I focus on ways of overcoming these and other problems.My approach is a linguistic one and I concentrate on the English you need to present your data.There are many example sentences and vocabulary items that you can use to improve your presentation and make your data more convincing.This book comes with a CD and has exercises that will help you to improve your speaking and listening ability，and also remember the key sentences and vocabulary presented here.It has four complete example introductions and three complete example conclusions.There are several quick guides that provide easy access to the language you need.Additionally，there is one interview with an experienced presenter and ten thought-provoking topics on presentations that introduce useful techniques.

You can use this book as a reference when you are preparing your next presentation and also as a textbook for improving your speaking and listening skills.