Delivering Speech Public Speaking

b. Delivering Speech

Speech delivery is an important element of public speaking. Grice and Skinner 1994 define speech delivery as the manner in which a speaker presents his her speech through voice qualities, bodily actions, and language. For some listeners, strong delivery is able to cover up the weak content. It can also support important and well-organized ideas; in the contrary, poor delivery can diminish the impact of those same ideas. Effective delivery doesn’t only help the speaker, it also help the listener to get the key points of a speech. Speech is best delivered in a natural, comfortable, and spontaneous look; above all, it is best when the listener is not aware of it at all. Let the audiences notice the hard work of creating a best delivery is momentarily distracting them for what the speaker is saying. There are three elements of effective delivery: voice vocal delivery, body physical delivery and language. This section focus on vocal and physical delivery which will be discussed as follows: 1 Vocal Delivery Zarefski 1995 stated that voice is both a resource available to the speaker and a sign for the listener of the speaker personality. The elements of vocal delivery include rate, pause, volume, pitch, articulation, and pronunciation. For the listeners, the rate or speed of speaking may evoke a thought about speaker’s motives of speaking, disposition, or involvement with the topic. Grice and skinner 1994 suggest using variety of rate. Reduced rate is used when presenting detailed or complex information, while, speaking slightly faster than the rate of normal conversation may actually increase persuasiveness. Pause or silence is important to make emphasis both on something that has just said and something that is going to say. It also enables the speaker to mark transitions. The volume, or the loudness or softness of a speaker’s voice, is an important element. The volume used in delivering speech depends on the setting in which the speech is delivered and also the facility provided, such as the use of microphone. Zarefski 1995 states that vary the volume at a certain key points are a good idea as well as regulate the general volume of an entire speech. It can be used either to understate ideas or to over-claim them. As well as volume, speaker has to pay attention to pitch, the placement of voice in the musical scale which are ranging from high to low. Using a monotone, in which the entirely speech is delivered at the same level undoubtedly cause boredom. To sustain audiences’ interest, mark transitions, and add emphasis to parts of the speech, a speaker should vary the pitch. The final focal delivery elements are articulation and pronunciation. Zarefski 1995 defines articulation as the clarity with which individual sounds are produced. Speaker should be careful since most of articulation errors are made from habit. According to Grice and Skinner, articulation errors take four principal forms: deletion, addition, substitution, and transposition. In contrast to articulation, there is pronunciation, which is how the sounds of a word are to be said and which parts are to be stressed. Mispronunciation may change the meaning or prevent listeners from getting the intended meaning, or even worse, it reflects negatively on the speaker’s credibility. 2 Physical Delivery The body gives the speaker valuable set of visual resources, just as the voice does by giving verbal and auditory resources. The body is used to enhance the message of the speech. According to Grice and Skinner 1994, there are six elements of physical delivery, namely: appearance, posture, facial expression, eye contact, movement, and gestures. Speakers need to pay attention to their appearance which is the physical features, including dress and grooming. Appearance is important; it determines audience’s first impression. There are some considerations in selecting the proper attire, such as the occasion when delivering speech, the audiences, the topic carried out, and the image that the speaker wish to create. The next point to be concerned is posture, which is the position of a speaker’s body while delivering a speech. Speech delivery must be free of annoying mannerism such as shifting weight back and front or tapping one foot on the floor. There are two things must be avoided: rigidity and sloppiness.

4. Integrated Language Teaching