SPEECH CLASS REFLECTION
For many of us, doing a public speech can amount to torture. I have never been a type to stand in front of a big audience and do a speech. No matter how many presentations I have done in the past, I have always been nervous. I know it is practically inevitable for my professional journey. Also, it allows for clarity of communication as well as persuasion. With proper skills of public speaking, I can influence, motivate, and inspire change. Communication is vital, and so with this class, I have had to learn to embrace public speaking and its possibilities as it is the most useful skill in my arsenal.
I have improved a lot since I started this class—one specific improvement during this class was learning effective communication skills. Effective communication skills include active listening, providing feedback, non-verbal communication, and being empathetic, just to mention a few. Active listening was one of the subjects that is important in communication skills. It is useful in communication and involves more than just hearing. It involves responding to what the other person is saying. I learned that, with active listening, we could communicate with others more vividly and with understanding.
Non-verbal communication, on the other hand, entails gestures, facial expression, use of body language, eye contact, appearance, and tone of voice. Learning about non-verbal communication in this class was a significant improvement. Making eye contact, using gestures, and facial expression is crucial when presenting a speech. In public speaking, people focus more on what they are saying, but with this class, I have learned that what goes unsaid speaks louder than words. The use of non-verbal communication is what conveys our message. I learned that by using facial expressions and use of eye contact, then a person is likely to make their speech more persuasive and impactful.
Being empathetic while making a presentation is essential. In this class, I learned that communicating with everyone like you were speaking to them individually is very necessary. It creates a bond with the audience. Being empathetic is merely putting yourself in another person’s shoes by understanding their emotions and opinions. It is all about respecting your audience’s ideas and feelings. This could enable interactions during the speech, hence creating a bond between the speaker and the audience. I have learned in this class that it is important for a speaker to find out what the public already know about the subject and also what they don’t know. It is also essential to learn their cultural environment to avoid creating any barriers during the speech.
Basically, knowing your audience before a presentation is vital. If a speaker doesn’t keep their audience in mind during the preparation of their speech, even if their speech is good, the impact is likely to fall flat. I learned that every speech needs to be designed in the way of communicating a particular message to a specific audience. Not all messages can appeal to all audiences. Therefore, context is an essential aspect to look upon when it comes to an understanding of the audience. It is important to understand the type of audience. A speaker can not convey an adult speech to children. The age, context, size of the audience, and the audience’s knowledge, in this case, are critical.
Moreover, I learned different types of speeches like persuasive, informative, impromptu speech, motivational, debate, and motivational speech. With all the skills I have mentioned above, it is easier to give out any kind of speech. Persuasive speech is all about a speaker trying to prove his point of view is right. In this type of speech, a speaker convinces their audience to accept a perspective. An informative speech is about educating the audience on a particular subject. A motivational speech tries to inspire the audience to change. It is vital to use effective communication skills for the audience to feel the energy and to create a more profound impact. In this class, I learned that in a motivational speech, a speaker inspires the audience by using their personal story, clear purpose, audience fit, and good ending point. One of the most successful motivational speeches in the world was “I Have a Dream” by Martin Luther—it has fundamental speech strategies that made it a success and is remembered until date.
The most important structures of a speech include logos, pathos, and ethos. When I read through the address “I Have a Dream,” I noticed Martin Luther used the rhetorical strategies I learned in class to make his speech effective. The use of logos in a speech is merely using a logical argument to make a point. Ethos is about representing credibility. Lastly, pathos is swaying the audience emotionally. The three are the most important strategies in a speech.
All the techniques I have learned in this class have helped me build confidence and help me in my future career. I am still working on improving more public speaking skills. All I need to do is more practice. By doing more practice beforehand and concentrating on the basics—non-verbal communication, verbal and effective communication skills, I will be the best public speaker in the future.