Regarding the workshop led by Mark Powell on May 5, 2003 in Munich I would like to offer some critical comments concerning the presentation of his book called “In Company – Intermediate” published by MacMillan. The lecture had been organized by MELTA, which is the Munich English Language Teaching Association, where I have been a member since 2003. Mr. Mark Powell deliberately focused upon some specific matters linked to his book. Later, all members of MELTA were asked to make a contribution to his book presentation. I have divided my critical analysis into three sections which deal with his overall presentation, some distinctive aspects from his contents and finally my personal opinion.
1. LECTURE – general view
From my perspective, I can conclude, that the way Mark Powell presented his ideas, was fairly effective despite the fact that he had – due to the obvious time constraint – to tackle as many issues as possible within two hours. Therefore, it would have been more advantageous if he had been allowed to design his presentation for a 3-hour workshop, which will be predominantly offered via the Melta organization.
Principally, I do not agree at all with the opinion of some other participants, who described the presentation of Mr. Powell as little effective. I did not get the impression that Mark Powell – being such an experienced specialist in his fields – had little to say.
Eventually, it is always a question of how you can manage to convince your audience; upon achieving this goal you need to stick to a specific methodology once in a while. Depending upon the situation you are sometimes forced to switch from sail to steam as Mark perfectly implemented that day.
2. CONTENT – choosing a few fields of subject as follows
a) Use of language
In general I liked the way Mark Powell was wisely playing with words and juggling them for practical educational purposes, e.g. weighing their importance and relevance with regard to the necessity and benefit of the user. The choice of such topics like ‘speed of language, the proper application of implicit and explicit language chunks in an international context and the relevance of cultural influences ‘ stroke my attention very much, let alone the fruitful hints regarding the lexical approach which is closely linked to that issue. What I have basically learned from this was to focus upon the critical aspects of a conversation or discussion, i.e. emphasizing the meaning of certain words and becoming aware of what ought to be understood from the perspective of the listener. Since I also favor the proper use of language for my English classes I definitely endorse his procedure and his fairly creative way of practical realization.
b) The world of business meetings
Basically, I considered the handouts concerning this issue very practical, giving you a clearer insight what is happening in a typical classic meeting which should be beneficial and effective to the participants. Mark cleverly pointed out that we ought to be aware of the fact, that the once learned and used formulae do not play the most crucial role during this timely encounter. I would like to put it like this: Why should you not apply these findings to a more advanced approach of the meaning of meetings and transfer this knowledge to one’s own teaching model or behavior?
Thus, it is always good to know how the real life is supposed to be. Since I have already been working at a leading international company for over 15 years I can confirm how important it is to stick to proven rules of thumb which need to be kept in order to manage OK in terms of myriads of different meeting cultures.
c) What’s going on in a presentation?
Concerning this part of the lecture Mark Powell seemed to be well into this topic by lively illustrating and displaying the basics of presentations via practically referring to well selected exercises of his book. Since the business world today mainly requires preparing and holding presentations, it was without any doubt very interesting and eye catching to dive into this matter via getting a precious glimpse of an extract of Mel Gibson’s Brave heart as well as of Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry. This would definitely be an appropriate way of practicing one’s own skills with regard to gaining an adequate level of proficiency. In some cases the adult education centers offer this kind of rhetorical education and training as well. Given the demand would be significantly high I would not mind to register for it even for the sake of my own progress.
3. OUTLOOK – personal opinion
Recalling all the workshops I have been able to attend throughout the years I would like to remark that this kind of presentation of Mark Powell was the only one which I still remember mostly due to its inherent power of enthusiastic and lecturing persuasion, efficient use of body language and the way he managed to cope with so many topical highlights in the field of Business English.
I firmly believe that Mark Powell with his peculiar charisma will be a real asset for any kind of presentation. He has definitely got the linguistic power to take very kind of audience out of its complacency and enable it to basically put his ideas and imaginations into practice. Anyway, everything is about buying and selling and this is mainly true for such kinds of workshops, too. Due to the variety of educational backgrounds and a broad range of different circumstances it is somehow rather decisive if and how we are able to literally win the sound interest and the eagerness for knowledge of our audience, students or participants.
Knowing about this I would not reduce Mark Powell’s appearance to mere showmanship as some other teachers had concluded. Very often it is simply useful that you have to act like a person who tends to perform on stage, however always appreciating the necessity of clarity and transparency regarding the contents of teaching.
Nevertheless, it should also be taken into consideration that a certain amount of exaggeration has to be part of the game, too in order to finally achieve the intended result and goals.
From my point of view this behavior and style of presentation has been greatly embodied and vitally performed by Mr. Mark Powell at that evening in Munich. Above all, it must not be neglected that the subtitle of his lecture was called “A fast and furious approach to Business English”. Therefore, Mark Powell made a sustainable contribution which is surely engraved in the memory of most of the participants.
Overall, I would definitely recommend his book “In company – Intermediate” which is a proven piece of teaching art that encompasses all kinds of necessary topics that are required in daily business life.
