martin 2014

This article makes comments on the technical side of a recent speech contest and presents comments given by presiding judges in the contest.

A commanding voice – volume, speed, and articulation

Knowing HOW one’s voice resonates, or travels, through the lecture hall and reaches audience’s ear is a crucial part that all good orators should pay attention to.  Speaking to your interlocutor in a person to person manner requires less volume and a quicker speed. However, it would take a different perspective if you are speaking in a big lecture hall, to a large audience.  A good speaker controls speed and pauses now and then to ensure that one’s point is well-taken, no puzzling look on your audience’s faces.  This is the necessary step to make sure that the audience follows your story so that you may have a chance to win their heart.

Stereotypes and leverage:

Just as birds have been assigned with different names according to the way they chirp, people’s voice and appearance have a defining quality in the audience’s heart and mind. Call it prejudice or stereotype.  Few can change it, but a good speaker knows how to use it to their advantage.  A good speaker knows what effect his/her voice may convey, and they control it in a meticulous manner accordingly. 

Take Susan Boyle, a Scottish singer, for example. When she got on the stage of Britain’s Got Talent, she definitely knew what were up against her – stereotypes against a middle-aged woman with plain appearance – and she used it to make a stunning contrast with her utterly beautiful voice.  The effect?  Boyle's debut album, I Dreamed a Dream (2009) is still the UK best-selling debut album of all time. She knows herself and world well. Good orators know themselves, and the world well, too.

Body language

It is always a good idea to stand upright and have a smile on one’s face.  Your face, as well as your voice, your speech, all work together to send a message to persuade your listeners. Excessive hand gestures, shaking of your head and eyes that avoid your judges would seriously diminish the punch within the speech.

Passion and faith could never be rehearsed. 

The designated topic for prepared speech was “The Turning Point in Your Life.”  Such title makes this competition out of the usual run of things, different from those speech contests that ask one to deliver a speech that PROVES nothing other than the technical side of making a speech. If the given topic had been, “The Effect of Global Warming and Our Response,” then it would have been quite a game of technicalities and ornate preparations.

This one demanded participants to wear their heart out on their sleeve and show their true emotion.  If a speech on such topic is a speech in and of it self, devoid of real emotions, then it would make the speaker just a big liar.

Use of transition words:

Be it a relative’s sudden death, an awakening lesson, or a significant event, many contestants indicated their very own turning point in life, and for those who did well in this contest they used transition words to make audience aware of what this turning point had done to their life or changed their perspective on life.

---Impromptu section

Impromptu speech section was the next phase and it was THE acid test.  This took place in an auditorium, with sufficient lighting and a stage.  Five minutes were given for a candidate to come up a story after they had seen the picture prompt.  Here, some speech makers who had delivered a complete and smooth speech in the first section now had significant difficulty speaking on the stage.

For those who did get chosen as the best 16, they share one common ground: being able to articulate, to convey the WHOLE speech without stuttering or stopping dead in the process. Why?

To do well in this impromptus speech section, DAILY use of English – in speaking, writing and thinking – is what would make some stutter and fail, and some others eloquent and triumphant. For those who use English on a daily basis, for those who speaks, thinks and write in English as often as possible, this impromptu section is nothing but a cinch. This oral fluency has to come from DAILY use. There is no shortcut to oral fluency.

One judge commented that “Once upon a time…” is a really bad way to start a picture story, because the audience has to wait and wait to the end to see your POINT.  Make your point right at the beginning is a relatively safe way to ensure that no one would lose patience during the whole 2-minute speech. The best way to avoid such a pitfall is to give a title, to give something tangible for the audience hold on to.  Like the title of a news article, it gives the audience a “focus,” for your impromptu story.  Remember to do so RIGHT AT the beginning of your story.