Speaking Tips

 Starting on Monday, January 25 (volunteers first, but then draw names)  Speech topic: anything  Length: 2-3 minutes  Memorized or brief glances at notecards  Need to have a visual in the background. Simpler is better!  Ideas… ◦ Tell a story ◦ Talk about your favorite ____ ◦ Talk about a different country (international school!) ◦ Persuade us of something ◦ Lyrics to a song ◦ A monologue from a movie or play Submit your topic idea on Google Forms at:

 Enunciation, or how you pronounce sounds clearly, is what makes your speech understandable to your audience!  Enunciate words and phrases clearly.  Makesureonewordorphrasedoesnotblendinto thenextone.

 Birthday cakes are served on a person’s birthday.

 Your volume, or how loud you speak, can be controlled.  Make sure your speech is audible enough so that the audience member who is furthest away can clearly hear you.

 Birthday cakes are served on a person’s birthday.

 You want your audience to understand you. But just as important, you want to sound confident!  Visualize which person sounds more confident… ◦ a nervous, squeaky teenager speaking at fast speed ◦ or ◦ the slow, emphatic tone of a judge delivering a verdict.

 The cake is decorated with the words “Happy Birthday” and the person’s name.

 Vary your pace! Do you want to speak with the same steady rhythm for your whole speech, or do you want to mix it up?  There are places in a speech where you need to speed up or slow down.  Know where these are and practice!

 It is a tradition to put one candle for each year that the birthday person is celebrating. For example, if a child is turning eight years old, the cake will have eight candles.

 No, not anxiety!  Stress means to emphasize (“put stress on”) parts of your speech.  Stress key words or phrases that you want your readers to really hear.

 After the candles are lit, family members and friends sing “Happy Birthday”. The person celebrating their birthday makes a wish and blows out the candles.

 Pause sometimes. People who broadcast confidence often pause while speaking.  They will pause for a second or two between sentences or even in the middle of a sentence.  This conveys the feeling that they’re so confident in their power, they trust that people won’t interrupt.  Pausing also allows your audience to “soak in” the information you’ve just said.

 If they blow out all the candles in one breath, their wish will come true.

 Pitch is when your voice goes up or goes down. It’s kind of like what note you play on a piano – a high one or a low one.  Raise the pitch (or intonation) of your voice if you ask a question.

 Have you ever had a birthday wish come true?

 You know how a voice rises at the end of a question? Just reread the last sentence and hear your voice go up at the end.  Now imagine an assertion: a judge saying “This case is closed.” Feel how the intonation of the word closed drops.  Lowering the intonation of your voice at the end of a sentence broadcasts power. When you want to sound superconfident, you can even lower your intonation midsentence.

 Have you ever had a birthday wish come true? I know that I sure have.

 Raise the intonation of your voice when you say something that deserves emphasis. A shocking statement, a surprising insight, an excited comment – they all deserve an exclamatory tone!

 My birthday is my favorite day of the year!

 Check your breathing.  Make sure you’re breathing deeply into your belly and inhale and exhale through your nose rather than your mouth.  Breathing through your mouth can make you sound breathless and anxious.

 Everyone has a different preference when it comes to birthdays. Some people are excited about their birthdays, and they love getting birthday greetings from all their friends. Other people prefer to keep their birthday quiet, and don’t like to be acknowledged when it’s their special day.

 Want your voice to convey more warmth? Just smile.  Smiling affects how we speak to such an extent that listeners in one study could identify sixteen different kinds of smiles based on sound alone!

 When you wish someone a happy birthday, you want to say it like you mean it. “Happy Birthday!” you might tell your friend excitedly.

 Tone conveys your attitude about a subject  Be aware of the tone your voice has when you are speaking.  Your tone will probably vary at different parts of your speech.

 “Happy Birthday” ◦ Excitedly ◦ Glumly ◦ Nonchalantly ◦ Formally

 Be aware of your posture, gestures, and facial expressions.  Your posture should be straight and confident. Do not slouch, lean or slump.  Making gestures with your hands can help your speech make more sense. But avoid sudden jerky movements, or repeated movements, that distract from your point.  Do you make gestures on accident? Some people do! Be aware of this and stop it.  Your facial expressions should match your tone.

 Whether it’s your fifth birthday or your fifty-fifth birthday, a birthday is something you rarely forget. How would you feel if you grew a whole year older and didn’t even realize it?

 Eye contact makes you appear confident and relaxed  An audience with whom you make eye contact is more likely to feel a connection to you and keep paying attention  Don’t just look around the room quickly – try focusing on one person at a time! It’s different than staring. When you look someone in the eye for three to five seconds, you will naturally slow down your speech, which will make you sound more authoritative  If you have notecards, only glance at them every once in a while

 I hope you have the happiest birthday this year, (name).

 What important tips have you learned today?

What are you going to say in your speech?  On your paper, write out bullet points of the main ideas you will say  At __:__, we will practice our speeches with a timer. Be ready!