Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on how to use “signposting” language to connect the different parts of a presentation in English.

To understand signposting, think about the signs you see in the street. They tell you where you are going and what you are going to see next. In the same way, when we speak, we can use words and expressions that tell our listeners where we are going and what they’re going to hear. For example, at the start of a presentation, we might say “I’m going to talk about three main ideas.” Then your listener knows the organization of your presentation. And in the middle of your presentation, you might say “So, let’s move on now” – That tells your listener that you’re changing to a new topic.

In the dialog, you are going to hear part of a presentation by a man named David. The presentation is about a company’s sales “performance.” What do I mean by “performance”? Performance is how well a person or company does what it’s supposed to do. So if a person “performs” well in his job, he’s doing good work. And if a company is “performing poorly,” it’s not doing so well. So in this presentation, you’ll hear about “sales performance.” In other words, David is talking about how well the company is selling its products.

Listening Questions

1. How many parts is the presentation divided into?
2. What’s the first topic the presenter is going to explain?
3. What’s the second topic the presenter is going to explain?

Download: Podcast MP3