LESSON BLOCK: SPEECH DELIVERY

Lesson Notes -- Stage presence and Gestures:

(Instructor Note: Demonstrate each technique listed below and explain exactly what you are doing. Obviously, knowing your material and presenting it well will contribute to how seriously the midshipmen take the instruction.This instruction when combined with student questions should take approximately 50 minutes.)

1. Stage presence is all about expressing your confidence through non-verbal means. This is achieved through three basic means:

        a. The strong speaker is confident in his or her ability to overcome difficulties. This confidence will invariably translate

        to the quality of your demeanor and posture. *Since this is an aspect of character that should typify you as a future officer

        entering the Navy or the Marine Corps, we expect you to work hard to demonstrate this quality. (*Instructor Note: The

        midshipmen who do not must be given additional speaking opportunities to facilitate the experience of overcoming difficulties.)

        b. The strong speaker is knowledgeable about his or her topic. In public speaking there is no substitute for the hard work of

        researching and grappling with a subject until you are able to speak about it at length, extemporaneously, with limited prompts.

        This preparation includes frequent rehearsal.  Again, if you know that you are prepared to speak you will find it much easier to

        relax and present a comfortable, but alert posture.

        c.  The strong speaker knows how to harness nervous energy. Abraham Lincoln once said, “When I see a person talk,

        I like to see them talk as though they’re fighting a swarm of bees” (qtd in A Master Guide to Public Speaking 4).  Do not lock

        your arms in front or behind your body. Allow your arms to hang naturally and use them for emphasis just like you or I

        would if we were having a conversation. This will require a great deal of practice to perfect.

-- Eye contact:

2. Good eye contact communicates both personal confidence and respect for your audience. Great speakers make a point of engaging their audiences by moving around the stage and even sometimes around the audience—ensuring that they make eye contact with everyone. *If you do not have the courage to make eye contact with your audience, then the audience will quickly lose interest in your speech. (*Instructor Note: If you have midshipmen who are incapable of looking their audience in the eyes, then here is a cowardly trick that you can teach them. Tell them to focus on the tops of the audience’s heads.)

-- Movement:

3. Except for specialized briefings, a speaker should not be static. Movement, as well as gestures, is vital to maintaining speaker and audience enthusiasm for the presentation. The good speaker follows three principles in ensuring lively (but not irritating) movement.

    a. Never turn your back on the audience while you are speaking (great speakers never turn their back, period).

    b. If you move about on the stage, make your movements purposeful. Don’t wander about in some geometric lazy

    W (contrary to some speaker guides). Use your movement to reinforce or emphasize a point.  Use it in concert

    with gesture to draw the audience in or to push them away: depending on the effect that you are trying to achieve at a

    particular moment.

    c. Be aware (or beware) of all potential obstacles on the stage (and off if you leave it).  An embarrassing fall or trip will

    kill your concentration (or you).

-- Articulation & Vocal modulation:

4. According to Robert L. Montgomery, “some psychologists believe that the voice is only second to facial expressions in influencing others” (6). If this is true, it heightens the importance of this most difficult element of speech delivery—effective articulation and voice modulation.

            a. Articulation: People tend to judge speakers based on the their ability to pronounce words correctly and clearly.

            Unfortunately, this is not something that can be taught in three easy lessons. If you have difficulty pronouncing certain

            words you need to (in the short term) limit your vocal vocabulary.  In the long term you need to acquaint yourself with the

            correct method of using a dictionary to facilitate proper pronunciation. (*Instructor Note: If a midshipman demonstrates

            a serious problem with pronunciation encourage them to dedicate personal time to improving their vocal vocabulary.)

            b. Voice modulation: Good speakers do three things with their voices to maintain audience interest.

    1. Be enthusiastic. This will communicate your interest and excitement for your topic and help generate audience interest, too.

    2. Exaggerate voice inflection. Inflection in conversational speaking is difficult to detect when you are speaking in front of an

    audience.  Exaggerate inflection when you are making points or demonstrating some kind of emotion appropriate to the emotions

    that you are trying to stir in your audience.

    3. Do not speak in a monotone! Monotone does not necessarily mean speaking in a low, droning voice. Some speakers

    speak in a loud monotone, and worse yet some yell in monotone. You must modulate your speaking (see 1 and 2 above) at

    whatever volume that you are speaking at, whether loud, medium, or soft.