The Two-Minute Window
Grammar: Inversion
A Business English English lesson exploring business.
What's in this lesson
A Business English ESL lesson on business, practising inversion. The worksheet has a reading, target vocabulary, a grammar reference with practice and discussion questions.
From the reading: The Two-Minute Window
Researchers at Harvard Business School tracked 214 executive presentations over three years and found that audiences formed a stable impression of a speaker's credibility within the first 120 seconds. Not within the first ten minutes, not after the Q&A — within the first two. That finding reframes everything we assume about what a high-stakes presentation actually is. It is not a transfer of information. It is, above all else, a contest for trust, conducted at speed, in front of people with competing priorities and limited patience.
Vocabulary
- credibility
- narrative arc
- stakeholders
- command attention
- opening hook
- sign-posting language
- delivery
- persuasive device
- register
Grammar: Inversion
- It-cleft — form
- It is the structure that determines success. — It is/was + X + that/who + rest of sentence
- It-cleft — what it
- It was the opening hook that lost the audience. — highlights the noun phrase after is/was
Discussion questions
- Describe the worst presentation you have ever sat through.
- When did you last speak in front of a group and feel genuinely confident?
- Have you ever changed your mind about something because of a presentation?
The Two-Minute Window
Grammar: Inversion
What's in this lesson:
Full lesson plan with reading, grammar, vocabulary, and discussion.
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