From sweaty hands to stuttering voices, public speaking can terrify even the boldest of children! Engaged and confident public speaking is a crucial skill to develop in your child in this highly competitive and judgmental world.Alleviate some of the stress associated with public speaking by adopting the following suggestions:Talk Straight To the Point Make your content simple and effective. It is far easier to use difficult words than to write or speak in a simple, unpretentious manner. In a recent article published in Readers Digest several examples were given to illustrate how foolish bombastic words can sound. Emanating from a culinary vessel into a site of pyrogenic activity is simply is a roundabout way of saying - Out of the frying pan and into the fire. Vocabulary If you want to write your speech effectively, improve your vocabulary. You can do that by reading books on a wide variety of subjects. Make your dictionary and thesaurus your trusted friends. Dip into them whenever you come across a new word. You will soon start enjoying this hunt for words and meanings. Eye Contact Speakers often avoid looking at the audience and look at the fan, outside the window, at the floor and practically everywhere else except where they should actually be looking – into the eyes of the audience. The audience feels alienated and switches off. Battling Nerves Most speakers feel nervous, especially during the beginning of the speech. When you feel butterflies doing a tango in your stomach, search for a friendly face in the crowd and, fixing your eyes on him or her, start your speech. Then quickly look for a few more friendly faces across the audience and let your eyes address them. A positive response such as a friendly nod or a smile should ease your nervousness. Once the butterflies have flown away, let your gaze sweep across the audience and get ready to sweep them off their feet with your oratorical brilliance! Delivery The delivery of the speech is as important, if not more, than the content. Make sure you modulate your voice properly. Many speakers tend to speak in staccato sentences or drone monotonously. Others raise their voices. Clearly they believe in the dictum, “if you cant beat them, shout (at) them!” Learning the right way to modulate your voice takes a lot of practise. Practice speaking in front of a mirror. Tape your speech and listen to it. These little exercises will help you iron out wrinkles in your modulation. Accent is another area where many speakers flounder. Speak in your natural accent. Even if it does not sound like the Queens English, it does not matter. You can always strive for improvement. But never put on an accent. It sounds terribly artificial and distracts the audience from your speech. Make sure your posture is also your natural one. The audience will see through an artificial stance sooner or later. Remember, the audience is your customer and you are the product. It is going to view you as a complete package. Every aspect of your speech: your style, your personality and your attitude, is going to make an impact. Dedication If you want to excel inpublic speakingyou should be prepared to work with a lot of patience and focus. Demosthenes used to lisp. To improve his speech he would put pebbles in his mouth and practise his speech at night for hours on end. This indomitable will to win made him one of the greatest orators of all ages. Recipe Take a speech with an impressive content, mix it with a good vocabulary, add a sprinkle of humour, stir it in your own words, add it to your memory, warm it on the hot plate of commitment and serve it with the correct amount of confidence, modulation, accent and attitude. And then, wait for the applause to follow....... Public Speaking Tips - I
From
sweaty hands to stuttering voices, public speaking can terrify even the boldest
of children! Engaged and confident public speaking is a crucial skill to
develop in your child in this highly competitive and judgmental world.
Alleviate some
of the stress associated with public speaking by adopting the following
suggestions:
Talk
Straight To the Point
Make your content simple and
effective. It is far easier to use difficult words than to write or speak in a
simple, unpretentious manner. In a recent article published in Readers Digest
several examples were given to illustrate how foolish bombastic words can
sound. 'Emanating from a culinary vessel into a site of pyrogenic activity' is
simply is a roundabout way of saying - Out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Vocabulary
If you want to write your speech effectively, improve your vocabulary. You can
do that by reading books on a wide variety of
subjects. Make your dictionary and thesaurus your trusted friends. Dip into
them whenever you come across a new word. You will soon start enjoying this
hunt for words and meanings.
Eye
Contact
Speakers often avoid looking at
the audience and look at the fan, outside the window, at the floor and
practically everywhere else except where they should actually be looking – into
the eyes of the audience. The audience feels alienated and switches off.
Battling
Nerves
Most speakers feel nervous,
especially during the beginning of the speech. When you feel butterflies
doing a tango in your stomach, search for a friendly face in the crowd and,
fixing your eyes on him or her, start your speech. Then quickly look for a few
more friendly faces across the audience and let your eyes address them. A
positive response such as a friendly nod or a smile should ease your
nervousness. Once the butterflies have flown away, let your gaze sweep across
the audience and get ready to sweep them off their feet with your oratorical
brilliance!
Delivery
The delivery of the speech is as important, if not more, than the content. Make
sure you modulate your voice properly. Many speakers tend to speak in staccato
sentences or drone monotonously. Others raise their voices. Clearly they
believe in the dictum, “if you can't beat them, shout (at) them!”
Learning the right way to modulate your voice takes a lot of practise. Practice
speaking in front of a mirror. Tape your speech and listen to it. These little
exercises will help you iron out wrinkles in your modulation.
Accent is another area where many speakers flounder. Speak in your natural
accent. Even if it does not sound like the Queen's English, it does not matter.
You can always strive for improvement. But never put on an accent. It sounds
terribly artificial and distracts the audience from your speech.
Make sure your posture is also your natural one. The audience will see through
an artificial stance sooner or later. Remember, the audience is your customer
and you are the product. It is going to view you as a complete package. Every
aspect of your speech: your style, your personality and your attitude,
is going to make an impact.
Dedication
If you want to excel in public speaking you should be
prepared to work with a lot of patience and focus. Demosthenes used to lisp. To
improve his speech he would put pebbles in his mouth and practise his speech at
night for hours on end. This indomitable will to win made him one of the
greatest orators of all ages.
Recipe
Take a speech with an impressive content, mix it with a good vocabulary, add a
sprinkle of humour, stir it in your own words, add it to your memory, warm it
on the hot plate of commitment and serve it with the correct amount of confidence,
modulation, accent and attitude. And then, wait for the applause to
follow.......
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Excellent article! In fact, I quite loved this series. I intend to use it to help my kid with her eloqution competitions. She is always nervous before them even though she enrolls in most of the competitions at her school!
Good tips have been shared here! I have taught my kid to see others eyes while speaking as it would make one to stay strong as well as confidence. Also, I have encouraged him to participate in many speaking competition where he will be having the chance of speaking in front of many audiences which will eventually make him to stay confident.
These tips are very good for building amazing public speaking skills in their kids. It helped me a lot to prepare my child for an elocution competition in which he won first prize.
i am to make a speech as a validictrian student of my college. it is one of my greatest honours yet one of the nerve wrecking ones. this article has helped me deal with it . thanks and i eant to see meore
Does your child get scared of public speaking? Do you get nervous of talking in front of an audience? What can you do to reduce nervousness associated with public speaking?
Rishab R
Most children do get scared of speaking in stages and my kid is no exception. Before his competition, we gather everyone at home and ask him to practise in front of us. He will atleast get used to the...
sai
make child talk in front of public in from very small age. his stage fear will go away. i do fear when i stand to speak. still i fear while giving presentation at work place and i am not good at talki...