Pecha Kucha - the Holy Grail of Presentation Skills training?

In my last post, I discussed practical ways in which Business English trainers can make their lessons more relevant to their learners' day-to-day workplace needs - the first (and main) part of a Business English workshop I delivered at Katedra Nyelviskola in Budapest last Saturday.

Today, however, I plan to cover the final part of the workshop: an introduction to Pecha Kucha (and variants thereof). It's an easy and engaging way to get your English Language learners focusing on the essentials of good communication, as hopefully you will see from the attached slides:

Both of my audiences (the session was delivered twice) thoroughly enjoyed the "Running Pecha Kucha" presentation - an invitation to Budapest - towards the very end of the talk. The audience was largely well informed about Hungary's capital city and had plenty of good things to say. It was great to see people actively experiencing the concept for themselves.

So how might this fit into a language teacher's job? I can suggest at least two ways:

1) If results are needed in a short timeframe, consider opting for Pecha Kucha. The end product ought to be acceptable and very little time needs to be expended on complex input. The beauty of the concept is its simplicity. It's a game with a few simple rules - all of which are conducive towards naturalness in communication.

2) If you are teaching students for a longer period (e.g. an entire university term), consider starting with Pecha Kucha before migrating to the more technical aspects of presentation giving. The students will experience success early in the course this way (as well as peer approval, hopefully) and will have something to reflect on before one goes into greater detail. It can build strong foundations.

Another obvious benefit of Pecha Kucha is the time management aspect - there is a time limit that students have to respect! This resolves another potential headache for busy teachers at a stroke.

So how about you? Would you like to give Pecha Kucha a try? Or are you already using it? I'd love to hear your views.