Thought I'd share this:
Speaking to heaps of people: the I’m-crapping-my-pants editionSchool is quickly approaching (I know, it kinda sucks) and most unit three and four English students will be given an oral presentation for their first assessment task in “”using language to persuade”. Even though this is part of outcome 3, most schools do their orals first up. Students are required to present a “sustained and reasoned point of view on the selected issue in written or oral form.” I thought it would be good to provide students with some ideas on how to handle their speech and prevent any inadvertent pant-crapping.
Some tidbits based on the successes/mistakes that I’ve noticed:
- If your school allows you to choose your issue, it’s a good idea to pick something that interests you and that you are passionate about. Unless you already are a flamboyant speaker or are good at playing the devil’s advocate, it may assist your authenticity, and enhance the ease of preparation to do something which you are enthusiastic about.
- Be a nerdy loser - practice your speech by yourself, to anyone who will listen to you.
- Get someone to weed out your unconscious habits. Maybe you sit on a table, maybe you lean on angle, maybe you stamp your feet on the floor. Whatever they are, you probably haven’t noticed because they are ingrained in you. An observer will instantly notice this because it is abnormal to them. Correcting this prior to your speech will ensure that your audience is not distracted by your peculiar habits. Another technique you can use is to practice in-front of a mirror.
- Don’t slouch, don’t crouch; adopt a normal and upright posture.
- If your friends will make you crack up or disrupt you then ask your teacher well beforehand to have them leave the room temporarily.
- Your voice will naturally take on a different tone to that of which you use to talk to your friends. But, try to adopt a natural tone, speak to your audience as if you were speaking to your friends in an intellectual manner.
- The obvious one; project your voice. There will always be someone that doesn’t talk loud enough and It feels as if they are not interested.
- Use eye contact to engage your audience - eye contact needs to be genuine.
- Do not pay any more attention to your teacher than you do to your classmates. Many students slant their body to face their teacher and make the most (or all) eye contact with their teacher. This ostracises the audience. By not addressing everyone you do not allow them to properly interact with the message you are trying to convey. One idea is to focus on the centre of the class and occasionally scan to the sides.
- If you make a mistake or lose your place, correct yourself calmly and move on. Mistakes are fine if they are not too frequent and are rapidly remedied. Here are some phrases you can use to reset: “‘correct term’, rather”; “sorry, a correction, that was so and so that I was referring to before”; “apologies for that, I’ll just re-read that”; etc.
- Pause for disruptions. The bell goes, the roll monitor comes in, someone farts. Whatever happens, wait for it to subside and then calmly continue, making sure your audience is with you.
- If you have notes or are reading a speech, don’t strain your neck to read and keep the paper well away from your face.
- Be careful about gratuitous polling of the audience. Too many ask their class to do something silly. It’s usually something that they know will support their argument. Rather, it creates embarrassment and makes them look silly and unprofessional. Someone may instruct “put your hands up if you have been bullied before”. Instead of this artificial and pointless interaction, bring your class in in other ways. Talk about something that has happened to someone in the class, make a tasteful joke about your teacher or think about something that has happened in class that everyone can relate to. Whether this is a good strategy or not depends entirely on the persona you are adopting. It may be a bad idea if you are trying to be classy and professional, but it may be a good idea if you are talking as a student.
- Don’t be monotonous - be excited when you are meant to be excited, be serious at times of seriousness, but don’t exaggerate a tone either. People will feel awkward when you overdo something. Keep things natural.
Finally, some comfort to everyone who will be running to the shops to buy some nappies in preparation for their presentation. Almost everyone will be crapping themselves. It’s no coincidence that nappy sales increase at this time of the year. But remember, you can prepare for this, as much as you like. The more preparation the more confident you will feel. And then there’s the spotlight effect - research shows that people exaggerate the significance of themselves and how closely people are paying attention to them. In reality, most of your class will be in a stupor. It’s your responsibility to awake them from it.
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