Thursday, February 5, 2015
Speaking Assignments
Creating the kind of speaking assignment that motivates interesting student speeches can be tricky. This week, you are reflecting on that process by examining an old assignment and thinking about the kinds of speaking skills that students might need in their major and/or careers. Here, I'd like you to reflect on what you think makes an effective speaker in any communication context.
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I think being an effective speaker requires three things. First, the speaker must clearly communicate his or her message to the audience. This includes the physical qualities of speaking such as volume, tone, and speed of speech, but also involves word choice, use of gestures, and use of presentation aids. Second, I think an effective speaker will determine how well his or her message was received by the audience. This might be as simple as pausing to ask if a point was understood but could involve more formal assessment, depending on the situation. Building off of the second quality, an effective speaker must also be able to modify his or her speech to address any barriers to understanding that may be present.
I think the most important quality of an effective speaker is his or her ability to engage the audience. Even in a non-participatory context, ensuring an active listening audience can support a talk whose content is otherwise not very interesting or just relatively weak. In a lecture, for me, this means not using my notes very much, moving about the room, and just keeping a tone of voice that signifies my own engagement with the material (even if I'm not that interested). When I give a paper, it means not just reading it, but instead using it as a guide so that I can keep my attention up and make eye contact with others. I find that after giving a talk, people often remember your demeanor more than the actual content. That can be a weakness of the format, but also a strength.
For me, an effective speaker has a power to convince the audience, charismatic and eloquent. Some people must have a knack of speaking powerfully but I believe that most of us have to practice and make perfect. For instance, one of my current assignments is to ask students to prepare a community analysis report. Students are supposed to find out what the community needs and provide relevant services. Librarianship is a service-oriented profession, which means being professional, we need go out of our comfort zone to meet patrons and community's information needs. On a real job, up to whatever type of libraries we work at, we have to convince and present patrons(children, elders, professionals, students or scholars), advisory groups, top administration, and government leaders with data and plans in order to hold a monetary accountability. Professionally we have to write and speak at the professional conferences. As an educator, I am conscious that my students will one day take a leadership role in their libraries and community. It goes without saying that speaking effectively in my field is all about persuasion, knowledge, and presentation skills.
The most effective "speech" is not a speech, but an opportunity to talk to someone about something I feel passionate about. In class, I avoid using notes and talk with the students about what I know--what I can offer them--attempting to teach them something they want (need) to know. Eye contact and calling them by name helps make the communication personal, and not simply a lecture.
There is no single effective method of speaking. The audience and the intention of the oral interaction is the key to being effective. So to contradict myself, the single most effective method is knowing the audience, the environment, your intention, and your language choice. Selecting a tone is important as well, but should be reflective of the above considerations. I would add a little cultural sensitivity is also in order. Remembering that humour is very cultural, and does not always translate well.
Research indicates accents can cause incorrect assumptions about the speaker, southern dialect usually being the one associated with diminished intellectual capacity. (If ya talk south'n ya kint be smart?) However, as the wimp.com video points out, there are draw backs to some recently (?) developed speaking habits. Perception is important. Knowing your audience is critical, and planning to cope with your own verbal shortcomings is wise.
While there are times when 'conversational presentation' is very advantageous, as Danny suggests, there are also situations when it may not be formal enough to carry sufficient weight. In the classroom, it does seem to work well, but sometimes encourages students to attempt to lead the discussions away from the focus of the class. Though it would seem with some prompting such conversations could be a good way to engage students in self-reflection to modify their speaking habits.
I feel that being an effective public speaker requires self-confidence and a certain amount of Emotional Intelligence followed by subject matter expertise, an ability to communicate/connect to the audience at their level of understanding and being able to engage the audience and influence them to learn more about the topic you are presenting. An effective public speaker gives the audience a reason to listen and shares a certain amount of themselves in an exchange of energy with his or her listeners.
Being able to convey confidence in oneself and having command of the subject means that speakers do not feel the need to hide behind a podium (but may choose to stand at one. It is the body language and nonverbal communication cues that provide subtle indicators that influence listeners.
I think the best public speakers share their vision of the topic and have the ability to make the topic real for listeners. Creative expression and choice of words and tome also play an important role in the way in which information is shared,
Two elements of effective speaking are audience awareness and clear intention and organization for the speaking event. Audiences communicate back to us even in silence, and as a speaker, I know I need to find a balance between responding to the audience and keeping to the goal of my presentation, as these two things can sometimes appear at odds on the surface. Important questions include the following: What is it that the speaker wants to communicate? What does the speaker want the audience to learn, consider, question, or take action on? How does the speaker handle audience resistance, disinterest, disruption and stay on course, or change course as needed?
I want the speaker to "take me away" - to feel a level of passion for the topic, as if it is the most important topic in the world. I loved the old Cosmo series because Carl Sagan has such an odd way of speaking. The new guy put me to sleep.
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