--- title: Spoken language: presenting and show-and-tell — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Spoken language: presenting and show-and-tell», a lesson of the english course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Giving a talk is a skill, like riding a bike: wobbly at first, smoother with every practice. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/48-spoken-language-presenting-and-show-and-tell/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/) / Spoken language: presenting and show-a… # Spoken language: presenting and show-and-tell Lesson 48 of the english course of Mova's primary school: 18 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/english/48-spoken-language-presenting-and-show-and-tell/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/48-spoken-language-presenting-and-show-and-tell/0/) — Giving a talk is a skill, like riding a bike: wobbly at first, smoother with every practice. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/48-spoken-language-presenting-and-show-and-tell/1/) — The audience matters most: speak so the back row can hear, look up at them, and choose words that suit them, chatty for classmates, formal for the school governors (the grown-ups who help run the school). - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/48-spoken-language-presenting-and-show-and-tell/2/) — A good talk has a clear start (say what it is about, with a hook to grab attention), a middle (a few key points) and an end (sum up, then take questions). - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/48-spoken-language-presenting-and-show-and-tell/3/) — Cue cards with key words beat reading every word from a sheet, and slides should hold pictures and a few key words while you say the rest. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/48-spoken-language-presenting-and-show-and-tell/4/) — Picture Kai in Liverpool before his talk: "I'm proper nervous, our kid" ("proper" means really; "our kid" means my brother or sister). - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/48-spoken-language-presenting-and-show-and-tell/5/) — Nerves are normal, even for adults, and practice, a slow breath and a smile help most. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/48-spoken-language-presenting-and-show-and-tell/6/) — Show-and-tell builds confidence in speaking to a group; the object does not need to be exciting, because the talk matters more. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/48-spoken-language-presenting-and-show-and-tell/7/) — A good show-and-tell says what the object is, why it is special and one interesting fact about it. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/48-spoken-language-presenting-and-show-and-tell/8/) — Speaking loudly and clearly enough for the back row matters more than fancy words; this is called projecting your voice. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/48-spoken-language-presenting-and-show-and-tell/10/) — Cue cards hold key words only, so you can look up often. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/48-spoken-language-presenting-and-show-and-tell/11/) — Visual aids such as slides, pictures or objects help the audience follow, but you should not read the slides out word for word. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/48-spoken-language-presenting-and-show-and-tell/12/) — Register means choosing words to suit your audience: formal language for governors, chattier words for friends. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/48-spoken-language-presenting-and-show-and-tell/13/) — Filler words such as "like", "um" and "erm" are natural, but too many distract listeners; a short pause works better. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/48-spoken-language-presenting-and-show-and-tell/14/) — Confident speakers still feel nervous; practising, breathing slowly and starting with a smile help. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/48-spoken-language-presenting-and-show-and-tell/15/) — When you cannot answer a question after a talk, it is fine to say "Good question, I'll find out" instead of making something up. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/48-spoken-language-presenting-and-show-and-tell/16/) — Useful feedback says what was good and why, for example "Your facts about lava were really clear"; "That presentation ate" is Gen Z slang for "it was excellent". - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/48-spoken-language-presenting-and-show-and-tell/17/) — "G'day" is a friendly Australian greeting, fine in a relaxed class talk; dialect greetings are not wrong, they just suit some audiences better than others. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/48-spoken-language-presenting-and-show-and-tell/18/) — In Scotland "wee" means small, so "wee man" is a fond way to say "little lad". - ← previous: [Poetry forms: haiku, limerick, kenning, acrostic, performing](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/47-poetry-forms-haiku-limerick-kenning-acrostic-performing/) - next →: [Debating and discussion](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/49-debating-and-discussion/) - ↑ back to [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/)