When we talk to someone, we usually do so for transferring information transactional speech and also social purpose interactional speech; thus,
speaking activities inside the classroom need to embody both interactional and transactional purposes.
3. Public Speaking
As a form of public communication, public speaking has always been considered important in societies. Mastering public speaking skill brings
advantages to those who posses it, such as promoting individual achievement in school, work, and life in general. Grice and Skinner 1994 divide the advantages
of studying public speaking skill into three levels: personal, professional, and public. On the personal level, it helps someone to promote academic achievement.
As an active form of learning, it increases knowledge and also builds one’s confident and self-esteem. Furthermore, skills learned in studying public speaking
can be used in other courses or study. Mastering public speaking skill also increases one’s chance to get desired job and advancing in it. Finally, public
speaking binds people into groups and propels social movement and social change.
a. Preparing Speech
Preparing the speech is an important stage in public speaking. It makes the speaker feel more confident, speak more fluently, and generally improve the
content and quality of the speech. Ross 1995 stated that the basis of speech preparation was the speaker’s goal or specific purpose followed closely by the
central idea. However, he also stated some steps of preparing the speech which are elaborated as follows:
a. Selecting a topic
For some people, finding a topic may lead to a trouble. Whereas topics can be found anywhere, it can be based on someone’s personal interests and hobbies,
academic major or interests, or even people that interest him her. Problems that are in the news or situation of the speaker’s environment are also sources of
topics. Speaker may start by listing a speech topic followed by collecting interesting
information from magazines, newspapers, and other mass media. This step is followed by formulating title. Topics and title might be worded identically. The
title of speech is important for several reasons. Good title helps speakers to consolidate their thoughts and purpose. It should also fit the audiences and
occasions. b.
Stating the purpose and central idea The general purposes of speaking are to inform, to persuade, and to
entertain. The speaker who would inform has the obligation of making the information clear and interesting as well as easy for the audiences to learn,
remember, and apply. The goals of informative speaking are clarity, interests, and understanding. One key means to these goals is appropriate organization of
materials. The goals of persuasive speaking are to convince people to believe something, convince them to do something, and stimulate them to a higher level
of enthusiasm and devotion. When a speaker’s purpose is to help people enjoy
themselves or even help them escape from reality; he is speaking to entertain. This speech contains jokes, stories, and varieties of humors.
After deciding the general purpose and choosing a topic, the purpose is limited to one specific aspect of the topic. The specific purpose aims to describe
precisely what it is that you want your audience to understand, believe, feel, or what you are going to say. When preparing or outlining the speech, always start
with a precise statement of the specific purpose. The specific purpose is followed by central idea which is a mini-outline of
what is going to be said. It may be in the form of a summary of the main thoughts, the thesis and claim the speaker made, or the action or belief the speaker wishes
the audiences to adopt. c.
Gathering materials Major ways and aspects of gathering speech materials are conversation
and interview, library study, and note-taking. d.
Forms of support In order to make the point of the speech clear and interesting, speaker
needs forms of support. Forms of support include illustration or example, analogy or comparison, statistics, testimony, and restatement. In using the forms of
support, especially testimony and statistics, speakers need to make these concrete and interesting. The testimony and statistics must be used correctly and can be
combined with other forms of support. Speaker must identify his sources as well. Restatement is saying the same thing in different ways to reinforce learning.
b. Delivering Speech
