英语演讲的基本原则

英语演讲全方位指导,肢体语言,文稿写作

Guidelines for Public Speaking I. Introduction: Speaking in Public Requires More Than a Voice These guidelines are written for university students who want to improve their public speaking skills through competition or otherwise. They indicate some of the proven skills required and briefly indicate how they may be achieved.

A prepared speech should be written before it is delivered. This allows speakers to ensure that they are making relevant and sensible comments in a logical order and using appropriate language. It is evident that preparation requires practice and rehearsal, but it also requires the written speech to be worked on so that notes can be used effectively. Guidance will be given as to how to do this.

When giving a speech or presentation, the “how” is as important as the “what”. It has been found that 70% of communication is visual rather than verbal. Therefore, the content alone may not be enough to hold the interest of an audience. Indeed, there are many potentially interesting and entertaining topics that are made boring because the speaker has not learnt how to deliver their ideas and information appropriately. Likewise, interesting content well delivered in visual terms can be destroyed by a flat monotone, a harsh harangue or a weak chatty voice.

Learning how to give a short speech for which there has not been time given for preparation is a useful skill. It enables people to practice thinking on their feet whilst at the same time organizing what they want to say into an understandable structure. Guidance is provided on how to deal with impromptu speeches.

Guidance is therefore given in three sections:

How to write a speech-script content and script preparation

How to deliver a speech-vocal delivery and physical delivery

Impromptu speech

Note: Speaking competitions are sometimes judged under 3 headings: Manner (delivery), Matter (content) and Method (language). Method, the language element comes into both delivery (how you say something) and the content (what you say) so it has not been treated as a separate section in these guidelines.

II. How to Write a Speech (I): Script Content

The English language requires the speaker or writer to make themselves clear. It is not up to the listener or reader to guess what is meant. Therefore it is important to be clear what you want to say and to choose the correct language. A collection of words without meaning (empty words) will not work. Nearly all effective public speakers will write their script in full and work on it before delivering their speech. It is known,

英语演讲全方位指导,肢体语言,文稿写作

for example, that Winston Churchill, one of Great Britain’s greatest orators, who had an exceptional command of the English language worked late into the nights on his speeches. They may have sounded spontaneous, but were anything but!

Answering the following questions will help you get started on the right track.

1. What is the topic of your speech? If it has been given to you, then what does it mean?

2. Before starting to prepare a speech, think about who will be in your audience, what do they already know, what do they want to know, what will interest them?

3. Why are you giving the speech, what do you want to achieve, what is your message?

4. How long should you speak for? Where will you deliver your speech?

5. What are you going to say?

In order to answer number 5, brainstorm, think and discuss with friends, colleagues and teachers. Read and research your subject. Gather information and ideas. Make notes.

Also be brave! Be prepared, sometimes, to disagree with the sentiment in the statement or quotation but always give your reasons. Be careful about doing this with very well established ideas. They are well established because they have stood the test of time and have been challenged by many people before you. However, even if arguing for a point, be brave and look at the negative aspects. Few issues are black and white and discussing the negative may strengthen the positive. For example, if giving a speech on what you think is the greatest invention and you decide that it is “eye glass”, describe what the world would be like without glasses: people bumping into each other, less cars n the road or more accidents; people unable to read, written instructions having to be in huge type, rather than describing what glasses can do for people.

Another approach is to challenge normally accepted ideas - disagree with them! For example, why is the Internet addictive? Is it? Maybe it isn’t? Perhaps people just don’t have anything else in their lives, are too lazy to find other forms of entertainment or have no imagination? What happened to books, music, and art? Is reading addictive?

A good speech will have:

A clear message and purpose Interest to the audience. Adequate development of ideas A clear structure Logical flow – traditions and signposting An entertainment element – humor and/or word pictures The use of quotations and idioms Appropriate language

英语演讲全方位指导,肢体语言,文稿写作

A clear message and purpose

a. Many speakers are tempted to try to say everything they know about a topic in order to show that they have done their homework and to prove how clever and deep thinking they are. This is a mistake! A list of undeveloped ideas is useless. The audience doesn’t have time to think about one idea before the next is spoken and even if they could, they can’t mind-read what the speaker thinks or means.

b. A good speech will have one clear message (especially true if it is a short speech) that the audience can find convincing. It will attempt to change people’s perceptions., to provides new a or unusual way of looking at the topic or to provide entertainment. This is why it is necessary to research your topic to find interesting and relevant information.

c. Generally, a speech should have few ideas but idea should be developed in greater depth with more analysis than is often the case. (Adequate development of the ideas)

Interest to the audience

A. There is no value in stating the obvious. It is not interesting to talk about how much you love your parents or grandparents since this is self-evident. 99% of people in the world love their family. What would be more interesting would be to explore why some people don’t love their families, though for that, you may need a PhD in psychology and psychiatry to be able to talk with any authority! Speakers should not make self-evident statements as if they are profound thought. Indeed, they should not make self-evident statements in a public speech at all.

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B. Don’t underestimate the intelligence of your audience. People won’t find an idea or information interesting if they already know it or if it is obvious. For example, in one competition, the topic given for the prepared speech was “The Internet”. Many speakers wasted time and annoyed their audience by describing the Internet. This was unnecessary since the audience, all university students and judges would already know what it is. Similarly, don’t say “When I was young, I learnt to walk and talk.” That is obvious!

C. In English, moralistic platitudes such as “working hard for tomorrow”, “striving to do one’s best”, “wanting to live a good life” and “hoping for a bright future” are self-evident and therefore not interesting. Similarly, phrases, such as “a bright future”, “attaining my dream”, are clichéd and in English sound insincere. Don’t say “ You should work hard and you will realize your dreams.” That is nonsense! Many people work hard all their lives and don’t realize their dreams because their dreams are unrealistic, or they don’t have and can’t learn the necessary skills, or they just don’t get the lucky breaks. All intelligent people know that hard work is likely to bring some reward, and they don’t have to be told so.

英语演讲全方位指导,肢体语言,文稿写作

Adequate development of ideas

①Having decided how you will tackle the topic, it is important to then develop your ideas. This means looking below the surface of the obvious. Many potentially good ideas die for lack of development. Too often a speech is made up of a lot of disconnected sound-bites or sentences which relate to the topic but which cannot be understood without further development. The English language requires speakers and writers to be clear and not leave room for multiple interpretations.

②Less is more! This means that rather than thinking of a lot of things to say about the topic of the speech, it is much better to take one point and develop that point. Educated people are expected to display a reasonably high degree of analysis when they stand before an audience. For example, instead of listing all the possible uses of the Internet in modern life – pick on one and show what effect it has. “Children living in remote rural areas can be taught online. They can have access to teachers via email and get tutorial help on a one-to-one basis, even face-to-face where there is a video link. Money will be saved by not having to providing school buildings and children could live at home instead of having to board. Distance learning has been available to rural children in Australia for many years initially via radio links…” By deeper, speakers look for interesting, unusual or little known perspectives and then explore them. This will help to make the speech interesting.

③When given a topic, don’t think “What do I think about this?” Better is to explore the topic by thinking “What does this mean? What are the implications? What might other people in other societies think? How can I challenge this idea?” Exploring means following different paths to see where they might lead. You don’t have to agree with or believe in any of them in order to use them.

④However, you do have to substantiate all assertions. In other words, give reasons for saying what you say. Analyze and think through the implications of what you are asserting. Give clear reasons and examples for anything that you state, otherwise why should anyone believe you? Provide hard evidences in the form of acceptable statistics, if possible.

⑤Make any description vivid by using appropriate adjectives and adverbs and word pictures. For example, “Have you ever seen a tree that is growing plastic bags? Not a pretty sight is it? Our urban environment need not look like a rubbish dump if everyone stopped throwing their rubbish in the streets for other people to clean up or the wind to blow into the trees. Imagine if our cities were litter free. How much prettier they would look! How much healthier they would be!”

⑥Keep any story very short and try to make them relevant to the audience. Don’t tell a long rambling story about a friend in your hometown who the audience can’t know or care about. Remember you must convince your audience that what you are saying is worthy of their attention.

英语演讲全方位指导,肢体语言,文稿写作

⑦Many people use their speech to give advice to the audience. This is boring and generally inappropriate especially from young people who lack experience. Instead of telling the audience how to live their lives, it would be better to analyze the topic and explore its meaning. The well mannered use of English language is generally more suggestive than prescriptive and most audience prefer to have ideas described not forced upon them as the only correct way to think.

⑧Similarly, exhorting the audience to “try your best ” is fairly meaningless, pointless and rather arrogant. Again young people are not in the position to tell their peers to do anything. They may suggest their audience consider doing something but they should be specific. It is self-evident that everything should be done to the best of one’s ability.

A clear structure

A clear structure is important for understanding. It is necessary to help your

listeners to grasp the main points and to recognize why you are presenting these points, i.e. why they are important. The structure is like a map and as you follow your route across the “map” you provide verbal signposts for your audience so that they can follow you (see below). Of course, you need to ensure that the “route” is logical and is neither repetitious nor irrelevant. The structure requires an introduction, a body and a conclusion.

The introduction tells your listeners what you are going to speak about: how you

are going to tackle the topic. It should be short and interesting. You need to capture your audience’s attention. A speaker will often begin a speech by saying, “My topic is … and first I’m going to tell you about AA and then I’ll talk about BB and finally I’ll conclude by summing up my ideas about A and B.” This is a good introduction but in competition it can be very boring if every speaker start in this way. It is not necessary in a short speech to actually say what the structure is, but there should be one.

In a short speech, it is better to start by making a few general comments relating

to the topic then to develop those same comments in the body of the speech. The conclusion should emphasize your main argument and concisely repeat the main points and relate them back to the introduction to form a rounded structure which allows the main point(s) to be memorable.

Speakers should not give long lists of anything. If it is necessary, then classify the

ideas, for example: individually, regionally, nationally and internationally. Lists are boring to listen to and no one will remember more than a couple of the items on the list so they are pointless.