Public Speaking

Preparing for a public speaking engagement, requires great preparation, appropriate skills and attitude, time, and extensive effort that will help you grab your listeners’ attention and never turn their heads away until the end of your speech.

Perhaps, more than enough preparation is one of the best things that gives the speaker all the necessary confidence in hitting the spotlight and begin belting out words which would stir, convince, inform, and inspire your audience.

However, preparation alone cannot be a prime factor in the speaker’s assured confidence and success in the delivery of unique talks.

Skills, attitude and a wide knowledge of the subject matter you are talking about can add up to the chances of winning your audience’s attention and respect.

Also, it should be pointed out that public speaking is no easy task for it requires your diligence and dedication and a clear goal toward the fulfillment of your goal and objectives.

Practice is a number one tool in making your speech a big hit and gain a good reputation. The moment you stride along the stage towards the rostrum, the whole place is yours, meaning you are responsible for your client’s entertainment and educational or informational needs and wants as well.

If things turn out the way you did not expect them to and you are not well prepared to deliver your lecture, some of the following not-so-good symptoms will surely manifest:

A dry mouth
Tigthness in the throat
Rapid heart rate
Cold and sweaty hands
.    Profuse sweating
.    Trembling lips and hands
.    A feeling of nausea.

Interestingly, whether some people have made a huge preparation for the event, they still do not manage to get away from the fear of public speaking and consequently are unable to concentrate and therefore fail as a result.

While these details are typical symptoms of delivering a public speech, taking into consideration that more than 75% of people have expressed fears of it as in the case of glossophobia (fear of public speaking), experts in the field of public speaking recommend one to take trainings that will effectively enhance one’s public oratorical skills and help you achieve the results you want.

Drawing from the length of time observing the evolution of oration, public debate and speech, speakers of today have taken up a whole new strategy in holding such events and moving away from the more conventional and stiff rules surrounding the old way of speech delivery.

Performance assessments are not based entirely on how well your speech was crafted but rather on how you were able to deliver it in a way that your listeners understand it and remember at least some of the details of your speech.

According to a recent national survey, audiences of today are more concerned with how the speaker delivers his message than in the content of the message they have to convey.

More than 60% of those interviewed commented on the speaker’s educational qualification or expertise while more than 93% of the surveyed population considers the speaker’s relative adaptation to the nature of the client audiences an important factor in a successful informational or motivational talk.

If you choose to invest in a more formal training environment, this alone will not satisfy the your need to improve one’s ability to deliver interesting talks. Conventional public speaking training courses encourage the “old school” type of giving speeches. They emphasize more on the satisfaction of rules that tends to corrupt your speech of the necessary elements that helps to getting your listeners’ attention.

If you can afford it, you may want to try one-on-one coaching training. Professional individuals who are adept in public speaking could give you insights on how you can work on your opportunities for improvement and advise you on several techniques that will help you with better speech delivery.

Joining public speaking organization such as Toastmasters International is another way to go if you are working your way to enhancing your relative speaking skills towards the proper delivery of your oratorical talks.

Additionally, browsing through international speech forums were also proved helpful because many of the most updated ways and strategies in improving your speaking skills are talked about and discussed completely with full freedom.

Watching international contests such as the North American Public Speaking Championship or the ToastMasters International World Championship of Public Speaking will also help you compare how effective and convincing speakers carry out their strategies which makes them good at their craft.

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Author: Wray R.Herring
http://www.ezpublicspeaking.com
For more information and related products, please click on this link http://www.ezpublicspeaking.com

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• Def: Tongue-twisters -  A tongue-twister is a phrase that is designed to be difficult to articulate properly. Tongue-twisters may rely on similar but distinct phonemes (e.g., s [s] and sh [?]), unfamiliar constructs in loanwords, or other features of a language.

You could say that tongue twisters are nursery rhymes for adults. Both have silly rhymes and like-sounding words and more often than not, they’re fun to say every now and then.

But what most people don’t realize is that both nursery rhymes and tongue twisters help develop reading and speaking skills for young children and adults, respectively.

Tongue twisters help develop the skill of phonemic awareness or the ability to identify and manipulate sounds (phonemes) in words .

- Tongue twisters and your brain
Using tongue twisters is good to warm up your mouth and practice enunciation. For someone who speaks to an audience, working with tongue twisters to build on his/her phonemic awareness helps to develop better articulation and pronunciation of words.

When you practice tongue twisters, don’t just mumble through them. Really focus on your articulation. Start slowly at first and as you feel more comfortable speed up. Try practicing in the mirror to see the shape of your mouth and where you are placing your tongue.

As one learns to listen and be aware of sound patterns, the brain is trained to detect such patterns and reacts more efficiently in making the body produce that same sound.

For example, the classic Peter Piper twister develops the “P” and the “-er” sounds. But the training is not done on the oral cavity but rather on the brain that controls your oral functions.

As the brain listens to the sound, it processes the sound and aims to recreate it again and again until it has become established as a habit. Once that happens, you don’t have to consciously reproduce the sound, as it is second nature to you already.

- What are its implications in public speaking?
If someone is just starting out to learn how to engage an audience through public speaking, tongue twisters develop pronunciation skills. Clear and precise pronunciations make for clear and precise speakers. There is less chance your audience will mistake your words for another and the better you get at it, the better for your message and your audience.

When tongue twisters are exercised by reading from a card, an aural-visual connection is reinforced which trains the brain to respond faster in translating a visual cue (printed words) to sound (spoken word). This skill is especially helpful when reading from cards or teleprompters.

Another advantage tongue twisters afford public speakers is its exercise aspect that is helpful to relieve tension just before stepping on stage. It is akin to a warm-up for athletes before a competition as it helps loosen the muscles in the jaw that commonly tense up out of nervousness.

Here are some examples of Tongue Twisters for you to try:

1.Sally sells sea shells by the sea shore.
Shy Shelly says she shall sew sheets.

2.Six thick thistle sticks. Six thick thistles stick.

3. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
Did Peter Piper pick a peck of pickled peppers?
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

A great database of tongue twisters in several languages can be found here:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8136/tonguetwisters.html

The task of learning how to speak in public does not need to be intimidating.  Tools like tongue twisters can actually help make the process more fun and enjoyable. And if that helps in making a speaker relax, the results translate into a well-delivered presentation that benefits everyone and not just the speaker.

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Author: Wray R.Herring
http://www.ezpublicspeaking.com
For more information and related products, please click on this link http://www.ezpublicspeaking.com

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