Public Speaking Course

My sixth challenge was to suggest going somewhere to a friend I rarely go out with. I completed it successfully about a month ago. Long story short, I went to see a theatre performance which I just adore and after that, I wrote a huge text about how great it was to the conversation of my 5 friends who are actually my groupmates. The thing is that we are quite close and we talk to each other every day, but in fact, we practically never go out to some places except each other's flats or the New York Pizza nearby our uni. Of course, they know my incredible passion for theatre and Globus in particular, however, none of them is really into that and they go to theatres really rarely. But that time they liked the way I was describing my amusement. As days went by I was thinking about the way to talk them into going and seeing it with me and about the way I should persuade them. Frankly, I didn't want to be intrusive and irritating, but I really wanted them to sincerely become intere...

About two weeks ago I've done the challenge number 5, which was to speak English with my friend in a public place. So, my friend Alina and I usually go to our favourite coffee shop and sit there for hours, and that day we went there again. As it is our go-to place, we are bound to meet some familiar people and friends accidentally. So, we came there and I told her about the task I wanted to do. She found that sort of funny and we both were interested in the reaction of the people who were going to hear that. Also, I think I have to mention that we both went to the same language school for many and many years, so she was just the perfect partner for this challenge. We didn't discuss it for too long and just started speaking about common things we usually talk about, but now in English. At that very moment, there were about 5-6 people in the coffee shop, and we also were sitting really close to the place where the coffee is made, having one friend sitting next to us. We spoke a...

Talking about challenge number 4, I had to ask my distant friends to go to the concert together as we're all fans of that group. So, my favourite music band was coming to my city, but none of my friends was listening to it. Nevertheless, there were some distant friends of mine, who were the fans of that group and I was sure they would go. I had to ask them if we could go together. I felt soo nervous, that I actually was thinking it over for about a month. Today it sounds pretty crazy to be so scared, and I myself don't even understand why was I feeling so insecure. One day I decided to finally do this and texted one of them asking whether they were going to the concent. He said that they were. I asked if I could join them and he said that there was no problem. So. in fact that was as easy as that and I didn't have to worry so much. Finally, we went to that concent together, having a little party before it and we even were to an autograph session of that group and made so...

Hello to everyone! Long time no see! I'm sorry that I was away from my blog for so long, but today I'm ready to tell you everything about all the challenges I've completed in the last month! So, my third challenge was to ask a stranger for a phone call. Actually, I've already said in one of my challenges that it's quite difficult for me to initiate dialogues with strangers, so I was a  little afraid to do that. On that day I visited a hospital and I decided that it's the time. I was sitting in the corridor when a young woman came and sat not far away from me. I picked her as my victim. She wasn't looking really friendly, so my challenge had me feeling even more uncomfortable. I turned to her and, even though my phone was in my purse at the moment, asked if she could help me as I really need to call. When she looked at me, I felt helpless. However, she smiled at me and gave me her phone. I called my mum and pretended to ask some very important question, a...

Hi everyone! We proceed in our work towards making a perfect speech, and today's topic is introduction. I guess you understand that the introduction is the most important part of the speech. But how can we make it effective and gripping? To understand it better I have to complete two tasks after reading the theory. Let's go! Task 1 In this task I have to watch 5 public speech performances and identify the technique(s) used in the introduction (attention-getter) in each performance.  These are the five most common attention-getters for the introduction which are mentioned in the textbook: Asking questions Making references Making a startling statement Giving a quotation Telling a story  1 . “How will we survive when the population hits 10 billion?” by Charles C. Mann at TED2018 https://www.ted.com/talks/charles_c_mann_how_will_we_survive_when_the_population_hits_10_billion    Asking a question 2. “Still Standing” by Ramona J. Smith at the...

Hi hi! Today I'm going to complete some heuristic methods that can be helpful for creating a nice speech.  Sometimes we experience creative bloсks and these tips can help us a lot. Warm-ups One letter You have to think about a letter and name as many objects as possible that start with this letter. I take the letter "R". There are 10 words, that came to my mind: Risk Regards Romance Roar Rehearsal Ruler Rollercoaster Ring Ringtone Rock 2.  Random words  Task: Go to the website https://www.textfixer.com/tools/random-words.php  Generate 5 random words at Random Generator List. Pick a few random words and try and tie them together in the most imaginative way possible. At 8 o' clock a daredevil boy was doing an amazing funny prank with his friends in the Novosibirsk city orphanage. Creative writing prompts I.What if…  Imagine a problematic situation and think of possible (or impossible) solutions.  For...

Hello everybody! I'm happy to tell you that I have successfully done the second challenge and now I have plenty of emotions to share with you! :) So, on Wednesday the 17th I went to the Globe theatre to see one of my favourite performances - "104 pages about love" ("104 страницы про любовь"). It was my second time watching it, but to be perfectly frank I enjoyed it even more than the first time. I'm still impressed because the story is so strong and touching and the play of every actor was just incredible. Already knowing that the spectacle was awesome I decided to buy a bunch of flowers and give to my favourite actor, who was playing the main role. Choosing flowers was another challenge for me, but I chose some good ones, I hope. When the performance was ending, I already started feeling nervous as there were so many people and I wasn't sure when to present the flowers. But I had some seconds to breathe in and relax, and then the actors went ...

The second step while preparing a speech is setting out clear objectives. I have watched 3 following speeches and have to identify the possible objectives. Links: https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_revolution    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKVTzuvjEpg     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD2cVhC-63I Speech 1. Ken Robinson “Bring on the learning revolution!” Possible objective: to change educational modal and improve the situation, use some innovative methods, individualise the educational process Speech 2. Zifang Su “Turn around” She is sharing her experience in overcoming fears. She tells us the importance of stopping being afraid and trying something new. Speech 3. Matthew McConaughey -  winning in Best Actors speech He says who he is thankful to and tells us about his hero and the rule of his life. Having done this task I appreciate the importance of setting out measurable objectives more and mo...

Dear readers! Hi! This week I have to do some tasks on the topic of preparing the speech. For now, they include two major points: clarifying the purpose of the speech and setting out clear objectives. I suppose it's clear that speaking without the aim just because you have to do it will make your speech pointless and boring to listen. So the first thing you need to do while preparing a speech is clarifying the purpose of the speech. In the course book we can find some questions to ask ourselves that can help us: - Why should I want to talk about this? - Why should anybody want to listen to me? - What single message would I want to put across? - What need in the audience do I want to have satisfied when I have finished speaking? - When they all walk away what state would I like them to leave in? Let's practice and use them for 3 different situations. Speech 1.  You are a primary school teacher. You should give a speech to your third graders on the following t...

Hi, everybody! As I am eager to overcome my stage fright, I've read a lot about useful tips which can help me to feel less anxious. Now I'd like to share 3 of them, which I consider the most helpful for myself. To begin with, it's a great idea to use diaphragm breathing when feeling stressed. I started using it only about a year ago. During our practical phonetics course, we had diaphragm breathing as an exercise to get ready to work on our pronunciation, but then the teacher said that it can also reduce stress. I've read about the technic more and tried it, and it really does help! So from that day I'm used to that breathing exercise and I benefit from it a great deal. Secondly, to make yourself calm you should make yourself laugh . Laughing is one of the best emotions that makes us happy, so even in a scary stressful environment, it will help you relax more or less. For instance, before giving a speech you can have some rest, forget about your upcoming...

Speaking in front of the audience is a big stress and our bodies react to it in a certain way. Have you ever felt shortness of breath, squeaky voice, sweaty palms and so on during a public speech? I'm sure you have and so have I. These symptoms are part of the Body's Primary threat Response. Basically, it's our body's reaction to fear or stress which allows us to defend ourselves. For example, my biggest symptom that I feel every time I'm giving a performance - trembling, and I'd like to find out what happens in my body while I stand in front of the audience and shiver. Well, the thing is that the body prepares for the possible danger and tries to save yourself. It accumulates all the energy and becomes ready to attack, to spring into action. You feel the adrenalin rush. But on the contrary, there's no visible danger and you just stand still with all this energy inside yourself. You start to shiver and understanding that you try your best to hold your m...

Dear readers, I'm glad to say that my journey of overcoming stage fright started with a successfully performed challenge №1 from my list of challenging social things. The 1st challenge is the easiest one, so it wasn't that difficult. Several days ago my friends and I ordered a taxi and all the way long we had a conversation with the driver, and I actively took part in it. It was him who started to talk to us and at first, I didn't really like it, but in fact, he turned out to be a nice and interesting person. So, talking with strangers is not that bad at all.

Hi hi! So, last week we were given an astonishing task to do - we have to make up a list of 10 social activities which we are more or less afraid to do. The idea is that we have to put them in order from the easiest to the most challenging ones and perform one per week, and then reflect on each of them in our blogs, sharing our emotions. Personally, I find this task really helpful in conquering stage fright and social awkwardness overall. I have such a struggle that might be familiar to you too - I'm afraid to make a fool of myself, especially in public, I'm frightened of doing something wrong and I really want to be approved by each and every one. But in fact, we're all people and it's a totally human thing to make mistakes, you should love your mistakes because they help you learn and become better. Talking about the task, it's also really fun and interesting both to do and to follow other people's progress! So, in a 10 week's time, I hope to become a...

Hi there! :) Last week we had our second public speaking experience in this course. We had to get a card with one activity for pupils (which can help them to improve their public speaking skill) and give a speech, selling this activity to our group. All the activities were fantastic, but the one I found the best was "for and against" exercise, presented by Eugene. On the whole, the class was enjoyable and truly beneficial for our future teachers' career.  After giving a speech, we had to evaluate each other and tell our groupmates what we liked&disliked in their speech, receiving some feedback about our performance too. I found that exchanging really useful because it helped me to realise my strong and weak points. First of all, I was told several times that people liked my speech, except for my lack of emotions. I was quite surprised because I didn't think I was that emotionless, but now I know that I should smile more and show more emotions while speakin...

Good morning everybody! Today I'd like to give a speech on the topic of confidence and its significance in our life.  I don't think that anybody would argue with the fact that confidence is crucial in any activity we take up. But in fact, we tend to work on it less than on our knowledge and skills. Usually, people overlook the problems in their confidence while searching for them in other sides of their personality. So you might not think that it is the lack of confidence that makes your life harder, whereas this is it that spoils your speech skills, your relationship with other people, your overall image. For instance, when you have to give a speech, if you are scared of what other people think of you and you reckon that you are worse than them and so on, your speech might be ruined, no matter how well you know the material, as you will become too nervous. The same with relationships with others - if you look self-reliant and outgoing you will look more attractively in ...

Hello everybody! As a part of my Public Speaking course, I had to take a questionnaire to get a better idea of my level of oratory.  As a result, I got 48 points out of 70. That means that I still have some difficulties making and presenting a speech. I wouldn't call it a bad result, but it can be improved a lot, and I'm going to work on it during the course with the help of my teachers. Of course, I'm strong at some points: for example, I can structure my speech well, I use a lot of linking words, introductory phrases. Talking about the  negative aspects , I tend to not provide enough examples for the theoretical material. Also, it's quite difficult for me to keep eye contact. On top of that my biggest problem is getting too anxious while presenting a speech because when I am nervous, I usually forget what I was going to say. In fact, for that reason, it's easier for me to give a  spontaneous speech with only several minutes to prepare than to write the spee...

Three strengths in my speech: 1. In my view, I was quite fluent; 2. I showed some emotions: I smiled and laughed; 3. I didn't have long pauses, though I was speaking nearly without preparing. Three weaknesses in my speech: 1. Lack of eye contact with the  audience; 2. Pronunciation, intonations. A lot of filler-words like 'so', 'and'; 3. Poor gesticulation.

1. Try to use proper punctuation, spelling and grammar to make your text understandable for readers. 2. Be active, leave comments under your groupmates' posts, say what you like/dislike. 3. No cursing and expressing offensive opinions. 4. Respect people’s privacy (do not share media files/articles of another person without his/her permission). 5. Try to choose design comfortable for reading. It does not denote that it should be plain, just remember basic rules. For example, that it is easier to perceive three colors than five or more. 6. Try not to use any official language or complicated terms in your blog. It can make your blog incomprehensible to some people. 7. Write clearly, concisely, and on the subject. 8. Help others if you can.