Suggestions for Teaching Public Speaking and Evaluating Speeches

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This paper puts forward some suggestions for teaching public speaking effectively to ESL students in an academic setting in higher education. It also discusses useful strategies that can be employed in the process of teaching, giving feedback on speeches as well as helping students prepare and present speeches in an environment that is more collaborative for students. A sample speech outline and a sample evaluation form are attached to help teachers make the teaching and learning of public speaking more manageable.

Introduction

 

Giving helpful feedback on students’ work is an essential commitment in any teaching-learning situation. It is clearly related to teachers’ accessibility to students. Educators acknowledge the fact that of all the facets of good teaching that are important to them, “feedback on assessed work is perhaps the most commonly mentioned” (Ramsden, 1992; Biggs, 1999). ESL teachers in various contexts and teachers in higher education contexts face this daunting task very often and are often perplexed by the demands this task places on their entire teaching-learning environment. This issue becomes more complex when it entails assessing the spoken skills of non-native students of English as most students have added dimensions of fear, insecurity and anxiety when it involves speaking in front of their peers. This article highlights the strategies that teachers can use in evaluating a public speaking course.

Background

The public speaking course I teach in my university has a 100% coursework structure and is taught over 15 weeks. Students who take this course realise that they have to do consistent work as they have to prepare and present the following four types of speeches: A speech relating a personal experience, An Informative Speech, A Speech Describing a Process/Procedure and a Persuasive Speech. The course content covers both theoretical concepts of oral communication (basic elements of speechmaking, overcoming speech anxiety, developing ideas and materials etc.) as well as the mechanics of speech preparation and presentation (using nonverbal communication, using language and style to communicate, using your voice effectively, using visual aids etc.). Students attend a two-hour lecture and one hour of tutorial each week of the semester.

 

Read more about public speaking outline on www.better-presentation-skills.com