Unit Progress
0% Complete
MASTERING PUBLIC SPEAKING
Learning goals
- Understand the basics of public speaking.
- Overcome initial fears related to public speaking.
- Learn to structure a speech effectively.
- Use voice modulation, pacing, and body language to enhance speech delivery.
Here is a short presentation for you to understand Public Speaking and various scenarios you might encounter in your life.
Introduction to Relaxation and Breathing Exercises
Learning simple relaxation and breathing exercises is essential to manage nervousness, especially before engaging in activities like public speaking.
Why Relaxation and Breathing Exercises?
- Reduce Stress: These exercises help lower the body’s stress responses, making it easier to manage anxiety.
- Improve Focus: By calming the mind, relaxation and breathing techniques improve concentration and mental clarity, which are crucial for effective speaking.
- Enhance Control: They give individuals a sense of control over their physiological responses, such as heart rate and sweating, which can be triggered by nervousness.
Simple Relaxation Exercises
Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR)
- Explanation: PMR involves tensing and then relaxing different muscle groups in the body. This contrast helps to highlight sensations of relaxation.
- Practice:
- Have students sit comfortably and close their eyes.
- Instruct them to tense each muscle group (e.g., feet, legs, stomach) for about five seconds and then relax it for 30 seconds, noticing the release of tension.
- Start from the toes and move upwards towards the head.
Visualization
- Explanation: Visualization, or guided imagery, involves forming mental images of a place or situation that you find calming.
- Practice:
- Ask students to close their eyes and imagine a peaceful setting, such as a beach or a quiet forest.
- Guide them to focus on the details in this scene, such as the sound of waves or the smell of trees, which can help divert the mind from anxious thoughts.
Breathing Exercises
Diaphragmatic Breathing (Deep Breathing)
- Explanation: Deep breathing involves full engagement of the abdomen, not just the chest, during breathing. This maximizes the use of the diaphragm and allows for a deeper, more effective breath.
- Practice:
- Instruct students to place one hand on their chest and the other on their belly.
- Guide them to breathe in slowly through their nose, ensuring that the hand on the belly rises more than the one on the chest.
- They should then exhale slowly through the mouth or nose, feeling the hand on the belly lower.
The 4-7-8 Breathing Technique
- Explanation: This technique, developed by Dr. Andrew Weil, involves breathing in for 4 seconds, holding the breath for 7 seconds, and exhaling for 8 seconds. This helps regulate breathing and reduces anxiety.
- Practice:
- Have students exhale completely through their mouth.
- Close their mouth and inhale quietly through their nose to a mental count of four.
- Hold their breath for a count of seven.
- Exhale completely through their mouth, making a whoosh sound, to a count of eight.
- Repeat the cycle four times.
Enhancing Your Speech
Step-by-Step Guide to Structuring a Speech
Introduction
- Hook: Start with something that grabs the audience’s attention. This could be a surprising statistic, a provocative question, a powerful quote, or an interesting anecdote.
- Example: “Did you know that 90% of our oceans are still unexplored? Imagine what mysteries lie beneath the waves.”
- Purpose Statement: Clearly state the purpose of the speech. What do you want to inform, persuade, or entertain the audience about?
- Example: “Today, I want to talk about why we should pay more attention to ocean exploration.”
- Overview: Briefly outline the main points you will cover. This sets expectations and helps the audience follow along.
- Example: “We’ll explore the unknown creatures of the deep sea, the potential for scientific discoveries, and how you can contribute to ocean conservation.”
Body
- Point 1: Begin with your first main point. Provide evidence, examples, or anecdotes to support this point.
- Example: “First, let’s dive into the incredible biodiversity of the deep sea. Just last year, scientists discovered over 200 new species in a single expedition.”
- Point 2: Move to your second main point, ensuring a smooth transition from the first. Each point should build on the last, maintaining audience engagement.
- Example: “This biodiversity is not just fascinating; it has practical implications. Many medical breakthroughs, including treatments for diseases, have been developed from marine organisms.”
- Point 3: Conclude the body with your strongest or most impactful point, pulling in more supporting details.
- Example: “But how can we all contribute? By supporting ocean conservation efforts and being aware of our environmental impact, we help protect these valuable resources.”
Conclusion
- Summary: Briefly recap the main points you’ve discussed. This reinforces the key messages of your speech.
- Example: “So, we’ve seen the unknown wonders of the deep sea, their importance to science and medicine, and our role in their preservation.”
- Call to Action: End with a call to action or a thought-provoking statement that encourages the audience to act or reflect.
- Example: “Let’s embrace the mystery of our oceans – not only to discover hidden treasures but to preserve them for future generations.”
- Closing Remark: Leave the audience with a memorable closing line that ties back to your hook or the theme of your speech.
- Example: “As we look up at the stars in the sky, let’s not forget the stars hidden in the depths of our oceans, waiting to be discovered.”
Learning activities
Mini-Speech on a Personal Hobby or Interest
Objective:
The main goals of this activity are to build your confidence in public speaking, enhance your ability to organize thoughts succinctly, and improve your delivery skills, specifically focusing on clarity of speech and effective eye contact.
Instructions:
- Preparation (10 minutes):
- Topic Selection: Select a hobby or interest that you are passionate about. This could range from sports, music, art, reading, gaming, to any activity they engage in regularly.
- Outline Creation: Structure the mini-speech to help you organize your thoughts. The structure should include:
- Introduction: A brief introduction of yourselves(name, grade, etc.).
- Body: Key points about your hobby such as how you got involved, what you enjoy most about it, and any achievements or experiences you have had related to the hobby.
- Conclusion: A closing statement that might encourage others to try the hobby or express how the hobby has influenced you positively.
- Drafting the Speech (15 minutes):
- You’ll have some time to write down your thoughts based on the outline. Think about what makes your hobby special and why it might be interesting to others.
- Speech Practice (15 minutes):
- Practice your speech in pairs or small groups. Pay special attention to speaking clearly and maintaining eye contact with your listener(s).
- Peers should provide feedback focusing on the clarity of the speech and the effectiveness of the eye contact.
- Presentation Skills Workshop (20 minutes):
- Remember to use these effective public speaking techniques:
- Clarity of Speech: Speaking at a moderate pace, enunciating clearly, and using an adequate volume.
- Eye Contact: The importance of looking at the audience to engage them, how to scan the room effectively, and how to balance looking at notes versus the audience.
- Demonstrate these skills and allow students to ask questions.
- Classroom Presentation (40 minutes):
- Deliver your mini-speech in front of the class.
- As each student presents, the audience should pay attention and prepare to give constructive feedback.
- Feedback and Reflection (10 minutes):
- After each speech, you’ll receive specific feedback on both the content and delivery, highlighting effective use of clarity and eye contact.
- The audience will provide one positive aspect and one area for improvement for each speaker.
- Reflect on your performance and discuss what you felt went well and what you could improve.
Voice and Body Language Games
Objective:
This activity aims to help students explore how different aspects of voice modulation and body language can dramatically alter the meaning and impact of spoken words. The goal is to enhance students’ awareness and control over their vocal tones and physical expressions during public speaking.
Description of Games:
- Emotion Variation Game:
- Objective: To demonstrate how changing the emotional tone of voice can change the message’s impact.
- How to Play:
- You’ll receive a list of simple sentences, such as “I can’t believe you did that” or “That’s a great idea.”
- Take turns saying the sentence in various emotional tones: happy, angry, sad, excited, etc.
- The audience guesses the emotion based on the speaker’s voice and body language.
- Charades with a Twist:
- Objective: To highlight the role of body language in conveying information without spoken words.
- How to Play:
- Similar to traditional charades, but instead of guessing a movie or book title, guess the emotion or action being portrayed.
- Act out an emotion or a scenario using only body language, no words.
- Volume and Pace Control:
- Objective: To practice how varying volume and speaking pace can affect clarity and audience engagement.
- How to Play:
- You’ll receive a short paragraph to read aloud.
- Read the same paragraph three times, each with a different volume and pace: once softly and slowly, once loudly and quickly, and once at a normal speaking volume and pace.
- The class discusses which approach was most effective and why.