Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Presentations

Tatjana Koropec

Faculty of Economics and Business, Department of Foreign Business Languages,  Maribor, Slovenia

Abstract- The article is an attempt to look at the reality of teaching  presentation skills to the students of Business English combined with neuro-linguistic programming techniques. The article firstly focuses on the theory and offers explanations and definitions of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and an NLP technique called Future Pacing. The practical part of the article presents the use and benefits of the NLP technique Future Pacing while preparing and rehearsing for presentations. The project was carried out during the sessions of Business English with the second year students of the Professional Higher Education Programme at the Faculty of Economics and Business in Maribor last year. According to the results, the group of students outperformed the two previous years in their level of  performance, self-confidence and quality of presentations. Finally the author emphasizes the usefulness and possibility of using the NLP techniques in any area of life, not only in teaching and learning presentation skills.

Index Terms – future pacing, neuro-linguistic programming, mental rehearsal, self-confidence.

I.             INTRODUCTION

In the following article I will introduce you to a project which was conducted during my sessions of Business English with the second year students of the Professional Higher Education Programme at the Faculty of Economics and Business in Maribor last year. It is an example of good practice which connects teaching and studying a foreign language with some innovative approaches to acquiring knowledge.

How to prepare a good presentation and how to present it well was the main theme of the project since preparing presentations and presenting them in front of an audience is one of our students’ obligations which is assessed and is a part of their final examination mark.   

Students usually connect public speaking with nervousness and mild attacks of panics and for some a presentation in front of an audience is a real nightmare. After many years of listening to and assessing  my students’  presentations  I  noticed   that

students of Business English 2 of the Professional Higher Education Programme are showing                                                            exceptionally low results. Considering all the facts I decided to carry out an experiment in that group in order to achieve a higher quality of presentations and consequently better results and assessment marks. 

II.          PROJECT DESCRIPTION

A.            Part One – Teacher’s Role

In two sessions I introduced students to the basics of a good presentation and drew their attention to some common basic mistakes and blunders while preparing or delivering a presentation. Mistakes, such as reading a presentation, presenting too much text on one slide, wrong font size, lack of rapport with the audience, lack of eye contact, technical difficulties with a computer or other equipment, and so on.

Furthermore I familiarized the students with the wide spectrum of different techniques and methods which are available nowadays to support us when preparing and delivering a presentation. One of those approaches is neuro-linguistic programming or NLP for short.

B.            What Is NLP?

In their book Introducing NLP: Psychological Skills for Understanding and Influencing People O’Connor and Seymour say the following: “NLP is the art and science of personal excellence. Art because everyone brings their unique personality and style to what they do, and this can never be captured in words or techniques. Science because there is a method and process for discovering the patterns used by outstanding individuals in any field to achieve outstanding results. This process is called modelling, and the patterns, skills and techniques so discovered are being used increasingly in counselling, education and business for more effective communication, personal development and accelerated learning.”[1]

B.       Part two – student’s role

After theoretical introduction students had one week time to think about their interests and select two or three possible topics each. During the following lecture the topics were discussed, evaluated and reconsidered. Afterwards each student selected one theme and prepared a ten-minute presentation about it. The preparation period for presentations lasted for two weeks.

Within the preparation period of two weeks students were collecting information about their selected topics, researching, eliminating, choosing the appropriate content, planning and writing the presentations. Most of that work was done out of the class, at home, or in the library. Students were encouraged to contact me via e-mail or see me in person in case they needed some help or advice, or wanted their text to be corrected.

Once all the presentations were well written and ready to be delivered in front of an audience, it was time for the students to be introduced to an NLP technique which can increase the effectiveness of a presentation and the quality of its delivery enormously.

From the variety of different NLP techniques I selected the following one which is suitable to be introduced to a group of students during one lecture.

C.             Future Pacing [2]

Experiencing a situation in advance is called future pacing in NLP and is the final step in many other NLP techniques. In your imagination you step into the future and experience the situation in advance in the way you wish it to be. You feel and experience the future situation with all your senses (for example: you can see people and objects, hear voices and sounds, feel raindrops on the skin, taste food…)

Future pacing is a form of mental rehearsal. Mental preparation and practice is a consistent pattern which can be found in all top performers: actors, musicians, salespeople, and particularly sportspeople. (For example: a singer in her imagination sings the whole concert programme, a football player mentally plays the whole football match, an athlete runs a marathon and experience it with all the senses.) Whole training programmes are built around this one element – mental rehearsing.

Mental rehearsal is practice in the imagination, and since the body and mind form one system, it prepares the body for the real situation. If the brain is receiving strong images of success we program it to think in those terms and make success more likely to happen. Expectations are self-fulfilling prophecies. Future pacing and mental rehearsal can be used to learn from everyday situations, from every encounter with other people, from any conversation, from any event, and to generate new patterns of behaviour.

Students can approach this exercise from two different starting points. In the case where they have delivered presentations in the past they could follow the next set of steps in order to prepare for the new presentation:

1.            Remember the past event and replay it (See the scene again and feel it with all the senses – rehear the sounds, see the people...)

2.            Mental rehearsal (Step out of the past event and ask yourself: “ What could I have done differently? What were the best points in these experiences? How could the best moments be presented even better? If the past presentation was not successful, what could have been improved, changed, or modified?”

3.            Replay and create new choices (Now replay the experiences fully, but with you behaving differently, including better choices and positive images of a result. This little ritual will create options – the future event can be mentally rehearsed in many different ways.

4.            Test (Does it feel right? Is it perfect? Check your feelings, how it sounds, how the audience reacts…)

In the case where students have never made a presentation before, they can immediately start with the second step and mentally rehearse a perfect presentation.

D.            Part Three – Presentations and Assessment

After introducing the NLP technique to the students they had a fortnight to practice and to prepare for the actual presentation in front of their colleagues. There were 21 students in the group who delivered their presentation in the following weeks during our sessions of Business English. Within one session there were usually three presentations delivered, followed by a discussion embracing the colleagues’ opinion, the student’s own evaluation of their work and the teacher’s assessment of their presentation.

The audience – the peer students expressed their own opinion and evaluated each presentation. They expressed their criticisms and praise and they made two main observations: all the presentations were really interesting to listen to and the presenters appeared self-confident and relaxed. They pointed out some details which could be improved in the future: the length of the presentation (usually too long), repetition of some words (O.K., you see), repetition of particular gesture (pushing up the spectacles all the time), or distracting dress style... 

The student delivering the presentation evaluated their work according to four questions:

1.            How have I experienced today’s presentation?

2.            What am I extremely satisfied with? 

3.            What could I have done differently? What could I improve?

4.            Have I noticed any changes in comparison to my previous experience of presentations and public speaking?

In their own evaluations the majority of students remarked on the high level of self-confidence and calmness with which they started and delivered their presentations. They practised mental rehearsal at home an average of five to ten times and while the actual presentation took place they felt like the presentation had been delivered in front of  the audience a few times already, and all the students found the NLP technique Future Pacing very helpful.

All the students – the ones listening and the one presenting – took part in the discussions and actively participated by giving opinions, and asking questions.

The teacher’s assessment followed. Each student was assessed according to the assessment paper which was introduced to the whole group in the introduction session. Students were assessed with points from 0 to 5 in ten different areas which are listed in the Fig. 1.

Presentation Assessment Sheet

Presenter                                                                           Title

Date ___________________________

Marking Scheme for all criteria       0 =      Completely missing

                                                               1 =      Unsatisfactory (fail)

                                                               2 =      Adequate (bare pass)

                                                               3 =      Good

                                                               4 =      Excellent

                                                               5 =      Outstanding - no scope for improvement

TOTAL:

 Figure 1.   Presentation assessment sheet

TABLE 1.

Presentation results

Presentation scores in percentage referring to the assessment paper in the second year of the Professional Higher Education Programme at the Faculty of Economics and Business in Maribor for the past three years.