What is Public Speaking?
- Public speaking is the process of speaking to a group of people in a structured, deliberate manner intended to inform, influence, or entertain the listeners. It is closely allied to "presenting", although the latter has more of a commercial connotation.
BENEFITS OF A PUBLIC SPEAKING COURSE
Many college graduates look back on all the courses they took in college and say that public speaking was one of the most valuable.3 Here are some of the reasons why this course is considered so important.
1. You learn how to speak to a public audience. Knowing how to stand up and give a talk to a group of people is a rewarding skill you can use through- out your life. Imagine yourself in these public speaking scenarios:
• For a research project in one of the courses in your major, you must explain your findings in a 30-minute presentation to faculty and students.
• To 50 colleagues at work, you give a brief speech appealing for contributions to the United Way charity drive.
• In court you explain to a jury why a traffic accident was not your fault.
• At a retirement banquet for a co-worker, you give a brief talk praising her accomplishments.
• To a gathering of neighbors, you explain your ideas for curbing crime in the neighborhood.
You will encounter many such occasions that require public speaking ability.
2. You learn skills that apply to one-on-one communication. Although the emphasis of this course is on speaking to groups, the principles that you learn also apply to communication with individuals. Throughout your life- time you will be obliged to talk in situations such as these:
• In a job interview, a human resources manager says, “We’ve got 50 applicants for this job. Why should we hire you?” If you know how to give a reply that is brief, interesting, and convincing, you obviously improve your chances of getting the job (assuming, of course, that your qualification are as good as those of the other 49 applicants). In a public speaking course, you learn how to organize and present persuasive messages.
• You sit down with a bank executive to ask for a loan so that you can buy a new car. The skills of nonverbal communication (such as eye contact and facial expression) that you learn in a public speaking course should help you convey to the banker that you are a trustworthy and reliable person who will repay the loan.
After taking a public speaking course, many students report that their new skills help them as much in talking to one person as in addressing a large audience.
3. You develop the oral communication skills that are prized in the job market. When you go to a job interview, which of the following is most likely to impudence the employer when he or she decides whether to hire you?
• The reputation of your school
• Your grade-point average
• Letters of reference
• Technical knowledge in your field
• Oral communication skills—speaking and listening
• Written communication skills —reading and writing
4. You practice and gain experience in an ideal laboratory. Just as carpenters become experts in their trade by learning woodworking skills and then practicing them, effective speech makers become adept by learning certain skills and then practicing them. The classroom is a good laboratory for practicing your skills because it is an unenlightening setting no one will deny you a job or a raise on the basis of your classroom speeches, and your audience is friendly and sympathetic through the same experience.
Extremely valuable to you are the critiques given by your instructor (and, in some cases, by fellow students). If, for example, you say “um” or “uh” so often that it distracts your listeners, you are probably unaware of this unconscious habit. Being told of the problem is the first step toward correcting it.
5. You gain self-condense. Giving a public speech is a challenging task, so if you learn to do it well, you gain an extraordinary amount of self-assurance. The situation is similar to the experiences of many participants in Outward Bound, the program that teaches city dwellers to climb mountains and survive in the wilderness. “After Outward Bound,” one graduate of the program told process a speaker me, “I can take on any challenge.” Many students have the same feelings of conveying a message pride and self-worth after completing a public speaking course.
6. You develop an ability that can provide pleasure and satisfaction for yourself and others. While attending a funeral service for a beloved aunt, Karen Walker heard the minister give a brief eulogy and then say, “Would anyone like to say a few words at our ‘open mike’?” A few people went to the microphone and shared some reminiscences, but most audience members were silent. “I wanted to pay tribute to my aunt, but I was too scared,” said Walker. “Most of my relatives had the same reaction. I felt really bad because there were a lot of important things about my aunt and her life that were never said.” A few years later, Walker took a public speaking class and a year or so after wards, she attended another funeral for her grandfather. “This time I vowed that I would not pass up the opportunity to honor a wonderful person. I asked to be part of the service, and I spoke about my childhood memories of my grandfather.”
The eulogy, said Walker, was enjoyed and appreciated by her family. “A lot of my relatives told me that I expressed beautifully what they would have said if they had had the courage and skills to stand up and speak. It gave me a good feeling to know that I could represent the family in this way.”
Being able to speak in public offering a toast, sharing information, providing encouragement, attempting persuasion can bring pleasure and joy to you and to others. Walker said that her success was possible because of what she had learned in her public speaking class.
ELEMENT OF THE PROCESS
Speech communication can be viewed as a process, with seven distinct components.
1. Speaker
When you are a speaker, you are the source, or originator, of a message that is transmitted to a listener. Whether you are speaking to a dozen people or 500, you bear a great responsibility for the success of the communication. The key question that you must constantly ask yourself is not “Am I giving out good information?” or “Am I performing well?” but rather “Am I get—ting through to my listeners?” And when you get through to your listeners when you engage their hearts and minds make sure you give them a worthwhile message, not torrents of words that are quickly forgotten.
2. Listener
The listener is the recipient of the message sent by the speaker. As we have noted, the true test of communication is not whether a message is delivered by the speaker, but whether it is accurately received by the listener. “A speech,” says management consultant David W. Richardson of Westport, Connecticut, “takes place in the minds of the audience.”12 In other words, no matter how eloquent the speaker, no matter how dynamic the speaker’s deliver y, if the listeners don’t receive and interpret the message correctly, the desired communication has failed to take place.
Who is to blame for such failure: the speaker or the listener? Depending on the situation, the blame could be placed on either, or both. While speakers share part of the responsibility for communication, listeners also must bear some of the burden. They must try hard to pay attention to the speaker, fighting off the temptation to daydream or think about personal concerns. They must listen with an open mind, avoiding the tendency to prejudge the speaker or discount a speaker’s views without a fair hearing.
3. Message
The message is whatever the speaker communicates to the listeners. The message is sent in the form of symbols-either verbal or nonverbal.
Verbal symbols are words. It’s important for you to recognize that words are not things; they are symbols of things.
Channel
The channel is the medium used to communicate the message. A speech can reach an audience by means of a variety of channels: radio, television, the Inter- net, a public-address system, or direct voice communication.
4. Feedback
Feedback is the response that the listeners give the speaker. Sometimes it is verbal, as when a listener asks questions or makes comments during a lecture. In most public speeches and certainly in the ones you will give in the classroom, listeners refrain from giving verbal feedback until the question-and-answer period at the end of the speech.
Listeners also give nonverbal feedback. If they are smiling and nodding their heads, they are obviously in agreement with your remarks. If they are frowning and sitting with their arms folded, they more than likely disagree with what you are saying. If they are yawning and looking at you with a glazed expression, they are probably bored or wear y. (“A yawn,” wrote English author G. K. Chesterton “is a silent shout.”)
If you receive negative feedback, try to help your listeners. If, for example, you are explaining a concept, but some of your listeners are shaking their heads and giving you looks that seem to say, “I don’t understand,” try again, using different words, to make your ideas clear.
While some audience feedback, such as a bewildered look, is easy to under- stand, there are times when audience behavior is difficult to decipher. If a couple of listeners are dozing, it does not necessarily mean that your speech is boring. It could mean that the room is stuffy or that these listeners stayed up late the night before and are drowsy.
5. Interference
Interference is anything that blocks or hinders the accurate communication of a message. There are three types:
• External interference arises outside the listener: someone coughing, a baby crying, people talking loudly in the hall, or an air-conditioning breakdown that leaves the listeners hot and sticky and preoccupied with their discomfort.
• Internal interference comes from within the listener. Some listeners might be daydreaming or worrying about a personal problem. Some might be too tired to expend mental energy on listening. As a speaker, you can help listeners overcome internal distractions by making your speech so lively and interesting that the audience feels compelled to listen to you.
• Speaker-generated interference occurs when the speaker uses words that are unfamiliar to the audience, or that are interpreted in a way that the speaker did not intend. If the speaker wears bizarre clothing, some listeners might scrutinize the attire instead of concentrating on the speech.