Public Speaking

“Mend your speech a little, less it may mar your fortunes.” Shakespeare, King Lear

Public Speaking

• Top Fears
• #3 Moving/Relocating to another state
• #2 Death
• #1 Public Speaking

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Public Speaking

• Public Speaking vs. Conversation
• What’s the difference?
• 1. Public speaking is more highly structured.
• There are usually strict time limitations on speaker
• The audience must be invited to respond (they typically don’t interrupt with questions or commentary)
• The speaker must accomplish her/his purpose for speaking.
• The speaker must anticipate the audience’s response and incorporate ways to address those responses so that the audience is ‘satisfied’ by the end of the speech.

Public Speaking

• Public Speaking vs. Conversation
• What’s the difference?
• 2. Public speaking requires more formal language.
• Slang, jargon, and bad grammar do not belong in formal speaking engagements.
• Expletives are OUT.
• (Think of instances when celebrities/athletes/public figures have botched this!)

Public Speaking

• Public Speaking vs. Conversation
• What’s the difference?
• 3. Public speaking requires a different method of delivery.
• When conversing informally, most people talk quietly, interject stock phrases such as “like” and “you know,” adopt a casual posture, and use what are called vocalized pauses (uh, er, um)
• Effective public speakers adjust their voices to be heard clearly throughout the audience.
• Effective public speakers assume a more formal posture and avoid distracting mannerisms and verbal habits.

Public Speaking

• Speaking in a Multicultural World
• The United States is the most diverse society on earth.
• Speechmaking becomes more complex as cultural diversity increases.
• Language and culture are so closely interconnected that “we communicate the way we do because we are raised in a particular culture and learn its language, rules, and norms.”
• Our nonverbal behavior (gestures, facial expressions) directly impacts our message.
• Ex: The North American gesture for “goodbye” is interpreted in parts of Europe and South America as the motion for “no” while the Italian and Greek gesture for “goodbye” is the same as the U.S. signal for “come here.”

Public Speaking

• People in individualistic cultures depend more on themselves and their immediate families.
• They’re judged on the basis of individual achievement and merits, and they learn to speak up to solve problems.
• People in collectivist cultures are born into strong, cohesive in-groups that protect them and to whom they are loyal.
• They may feel uncomfortable if they, and not the group, are singled out for an honor, and they try to avoid shaming others.

Public Speaking

• Expressive cultures encourage people to give their opinions, speak their minds, and let their feelings show; they tend to be more verbal and confident in speaking out.
• Which groups might be considered “expressive cultures”?
• Puerto Ricans
• African Americans
• Koreans
• All of the above

Public Speaking

• Nonexpressive cultures expect people to guard their emotions and ideas rather than express them indiscriminately.
• Which of these groups might be considered “nonexpressive cultures”?
• Japanese
• Chinese
• Native American
• All of the above

Public Speaking

• Strategies to overcome nervousness in Public Speaking.
• 1. Visualization: involves rehearsing the speech by using one’s imagination to envision your speech from start to finish and as a successful event.
• 2. Cognitive modification: meant to identify negative thoughts and replacing them with positive ones.
• 3. Power posing: asks the speaker to practice assuming an open and expansive posture typically associated with powerful people.

Public Speaking

• Some terms:
• 1. Ethnocentrism: the belief that our own group or culture – whatever it may be – is superior to all other groups or cultures.

2. Frame of reference: refers to the sum of a person’s knowledge, experience, goals, values, and attitudes.

Public Speaking

• Plagiarism: to present another person’s language or ideas as your own – to give the impression you have written or thought something yourself when you have actually taken it from someone else.
• Global plagiarism: stealing your speech entirely from another source and passing it off as your own; this is most blatant and unethical.
• Patchwork plagiarism: occurs when a speaker pilfers from two or three sources to create a single speech.
• Incremental plagiarism: when the speaker fails to give credit for particular parts of the speech that are taken from other people. Typically occurs with quotations and when paraphrasing.

Public Speaking

• Listening within the public speaking framework
• Appreciative listening: for pure pleasure or enjoyment.
• Empathic listening: to provide emotional support for a speaker.
• Comprehensive listening: to understand the message of a speaker.
• Critical listening: to evaluate a message for purposes of accepting or rejecting it.