Objectives

This workshop provides practice in both impromptu and prepared speeches. Our aim is to offer training in the key skills required for public speaking, including: 

• Delivery: vocal variety, body language, gesticulation and eye contact.

• Fluency: from use of language to lateral thinking and confidence building.

• Images: connotations, metaphors and narrative as memorable ‘stories in a capsule’.

• Emotion: appeals to hope, solidarity, fear, indignation etc.

• Reason: using argumentation and exposing logical fallacies.

• Humour: the power and perils of wit, irony, jokes and self-deprecation.

• Music: alliteration, tricolons, chiasma and the cadence of counterbalance.

• Memory: mnemonics for key points and linking arguments.

• Connecting with the audience: listening, responding, hard talk and hecklers.

• The power of recovery: from blanking to tip of the tongue and false-footing.

The only way to master public speaking is to do it! Practice makes perfect, and there is no better practice than to be in the spotlight, microphone in hand, expectant audience listening to your every word. 

This course contributes to the broader objective of developing the linguistic skills essential for effective presentation, negotiation and opinion shaping. Although the course is run in English, the lessons learned are applicable to all languages. 


Approach

The workshop provides a safe environment in which to try out the various skills of public speaking. Numbers of participants are limited so that each one receives individual attention from the trainer. A layered approach is adopted, with each exercise building on the last. Feedback is encouraging and constructive, and participants are invited to respond to each other’s performances. A spirit of camaraderie and good humour is emphasised throughout.