Connecting with your Audience 2: Gesture, Eye Contact and Voice

Connecting with your Audience 2:

Gesture, Eye Contact and Voice

There is a very important difference between writing an argument (in an essay, a newspaper article or even on the Democracy Wall!) and making a speech: in a speech you have a face-to-face relationship with your audience.

You need to establish a connection with them, so that they will listen to, and care about, the arguments you’re presenting.

Here, we will practise some vocal and non-verbal techniques which good speakers use to build a relationship with their listeners. 

Gesture

 

Task 1   With a partner, answer the following questions: a) What is gesture? ________________________________. b) Can you think of some examples of gestures? Write them below. 1)    _______________________ 2)    _______________________ 3)    _______________________ 4)    _______________________ c) What ideas are expressed by the examples you have written down? _______________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________. d) Why is gesture important in speaking? ____________________________________________________________________

 

 

Task 2 a) Read the following argument giving a PRO argument for the motion “School children should wear school uniforms”. b) Underline parts of the text where gesture would be appropriate. There are two arguments that I have supporting the wearing of school uniforms. Firstly, when students wear school uniforms it does not show if the student is rich or poor. In today’s materialistic society school children who don’t need to wear uniforms to school often wear brand name clothes. This can create division between students who come from different socio-economic backgrounds. And this can lead to some students being bullied or isolated. Furthermore, wearing uniforms means that if students are caught fighting, shoplifting or generally misbehaving outside school, they can more easily be identified and punished. Recent statistics show that shoplifting increases dramatically during school holidays. Why? It may well be the result of students thinking that they will not easily be caught if they are not wearing a school uniform. Now the other side have told you that the school uniforms are an expense many parents could do without. Really? If students are not wearing a uniform then what clothes, I ask, would they be buying for their children? Are they suggesting that the cost of buying brand name products for their children is cheaper than the cost of a school uniform? This is clearly a ridiculous idea! c) Look at the list of gestures below. Decide in which places each gesture could be used by the speaker. Finger counting Shaking head (side to side) Nodding Hand out with open palm Quizzical brow Fist thumping

 

Task 3 Imagine that this is a note card that you have for the CON argument for the same topic. Present the arguments to your partner using as many appropriate gestures as you can.   2 points 1)       Students should be able to express their own identity. Everyone wears same clothes = not encourage individuality.      Students should have more control over their lives NOT less ®freedom of choice.      Self expression = good thing ®more creative / more whole-person development.      Clothes are important part of this expression 2)        School uniforms can lead to fighting between different schools. No uniforms®young people don’t know which schools others go to. Sometimes great rivalry between schools ®fights during lunch breaks or after school. Other side’s argument may be : No school uniforms ®Students will wear brand name clothes to school so students ­competitive about appearance ®not focus on studies. What rubbish ! 1. Do all students wear brand name clothes???? 2. Students know academic success = good job / good money So can buy more brand name products if educated /hard working.

 

 

Eye Contact

 

Task 4 In a group of 3 answer the following question: Why is it necessary to maintain eye contact with the opposition and the audience during a debate? ________________________________________________________

 

Task 5 Eye-to-Eye Game In your group of 3, give yourself a letter A, B or C. Each of you is going to talk for 2 minutes about what you have done so far today. Start from the time you got up, what you had for breakfast, how you got to university, what time you arrived, what lectures you had, etc… Be very detailed.   Your challenge is to keep eye contact at ALL times with the other 2 members of your group, who will bang their fists on the table if you lose/break eye contact. They should also keep count of how many times they do this.   Repeat for each student. The one who has the lowest fist-banging score at the end of the game is the winner.

Task 6 Prepare a short speech developing an argument against the use of corporal punishment to discipline children. Use the note card below, but do not write down more than about 15 words. However, you can use as many symbols and numbers as you like. Now play the ‘Eye-to-Eye’ game using these arguments. Remember to only look at the note card when you really have to.

Position: against the use of corporal punishment to discipline children

Voice

We have just looked at non-verbal forms of communication. However, there are also ways we can use our voices to deliver our message more successfully. Intonation, pace, pausing, volume and stress are all ways that can make a speech more convincing.

Tapescript People who are in favour of corporal punishment think that it’s a necessary form of discipline because – according to these people – kids can’t reason, kids can’t reflect on their own bad behaviour, kids can’t understand anything except pain. These people think that physical punishment is a form of teaching children how to behave better. Well, maybe kids are learning something when they are punished in this way, but what exactly are we teaching them? Well, we’re teaching them three things: first, we’re teaching them that violence is an acceptable way of controlling behaviour; two, we’re teaching them that reason is an ineffective way of changing someone’s behaviour; and three, we’re teaching them that the stronger person in a relationship must be better, so in this case the parent, who is big and strong enough to hit the child, must be better than the child. And surely those are not the lessons we want our children to be learning. Surely there are better methods of changing bad behaviour. I’d like to suggest one: what we should do, I think, when kids are misbehaving, is to take away something that the kid likes. Take away their pocket money, take away their TV time, take away their computer access. The kid will be learning something from that as well. He’ll be learning that bad behaviour has bad consequences, and he’ll be learning that if you want to be treated well, then you will have to treat others well. Thank you.

Task 9 Look at the scripts below. In pairs, one student should read argument A whilst the other student should read argument B. a) Find and underline the words that would naturally be stressed because they are content words. b) Circle which words you think need EXTRA stress because they are important. c) Now, read your text aloud to your partner, who should read along and mark where you use EXTRA stress for key words. Afterwards, compare your script with the one that your partner has marked and see if they correctly identified where you spoke using extra stress.

A Children today have no respect for authority. This is because of two main reasons. Firstly, parents do not spend as much time bringing up their children and secondly, the use of corporal punishment has been outlawed by many governments. So, let me elaborate on my first point. But before I go further, I’d like to ask you a question. Why do parents spend less time with their children? Well, in today’s world most mothers have to go out to work to help support the family. Quite often the responsibility for raising their children is passed to a helper or an elderly family member.  Helpers often feel uncomfortable disciplining other people’s children whilst grandparents often spoil their grandchildren. Parents themselves are so busy working that they often have little time to actually spend with their children and this actually causes kids to behave badly as they are trying to seek attention from parents. Therefore, children lack discipline from caregivers, lack their parent’s attention, and so lack respect for authority.

B Children today have no respect for authority. This is because of two main reasons. Firstly, parents do not spend as much time bringing up their children and secondly, the use of corporal punishment has been outlawed by many governments. Many ‘liberal’ governments have forbidden parents from physically punishing their children. This is the second reason why children now have less respect for authority. Kids today learn very quickly that they have ‘human rights’ that protect them from receiving a good spanking from their parents when they have behaved badly. They often act up simply because they know that the law is on their side, even at a very young age. Now, the older generation were physically punished by parents and it does not seem to have done them any harm. And why not? Because often disciplining a child is done to remind children of the dangers they face. For example, a good slap can stop a young child from touching something that will burn them. Therefore, children need to learn that they cannot be treated like an adult until they learn to behave like one, that they cannot do as they please and that they cannot grow up being disrespectful to their parents and other members of society.

Task 10 Think about how you could further improve your speech by using intonation, pace, pausing, and volume. Use the symbols to mark your script. Can you also include some gestures? Now, read your speech again to your partner and see how much improvement you have made.