The Benefits of Speech Class

Practice makes the master. Acquiring relevant and useful speaking skills has been an accomplished task along this pleasant semester. I have experienced diverse situations regarding public speaking, allowing me to realize the efficiency, clarity, and usefulness of COM 219 at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Indeed, my speaking skills have truly improved in a variety of ways as the class offers in-depth theory combined with practice, resulting in a highly educational and comprehensive academic environment. Although theory is an important section of speech, its truthful constitution resembles on practicing; it is an extensive and detailed profession that after many years becomes almost perfect. Therefore, although I perceive a vast improvement with my speaking skills, a long path must be evidently followed for reaching excellence.

COM 219 allowed me to develop my previous experience of speaking publicly. Back in high school I became related with public speaking as some of my classes required such skills. I mostly gave speeches concerning scientific topics, for instance giving a talk about anorexia nervosa, a disease where people stop eating as they are psychologically perturbed with their image. With scientific topics I feel more confident than with literature related subjects as one can always organize mentions in a similar fashion. When it comes to literature topics, I feel slightly less confident as each work possesses unique characteristics, meaning one must always organize speeches in a particular way; not an easy task. Although the speech class has not covered literature matters, it has introduced me to the narrative speech, which has raised my confidence and, in a sense, is similar to literature; in a narrative speech each story is different hence with unique features, where one cannot pretend to use the organizational structure of a past speech.

The narrative speech given in class made me encounter and realize my descent ability to manage topics concerning personal experiences as I did not feel nervous. My speech talked about a mean and neurotic teacher I had back in primary school, who got deported to her native Canada. In this speech, I orderly stated all my planned points and provided a good conclusion. As it might have seemed evident, my narrative speech had some imperfections like the hands’ movement expressing some small anxiety, which I have recently managed to practically eliminate by having made the speeches that followed. Anyhow, the verbal outcome of my speech was successful; hence, the activities provided by the class are a good source for discovering and perfectioning my talents.

The class has been additionally beneficial for reducing my level of anxiety. In the first anxiety survey I obtained a score of 100. This amount corresponds to an average and descent level of anxiety, where anxiety is slightly evident. There were three main reasons for having obtained an average anxiety level rather than a low score; relaxation, nervousness, and verbal fluidity. During my initial two speeches I did not feel very much relaxed as my heart started beating quickly, which affected my speaking fluidity. Although after having reviewed the class evaluation such aspects were not very evident by others, I felt a strong sense of it and hence, I have worked on reducing that slight anxiety, and these attempts have truly worked. During the track of the course I have managed to learn from mistakes. For instance, in the narrative speech I looked sometimes at my notes due to some anxiety that build up, while in the informative speech I refused to look at my notes and practiced more before giving the speech. This significantly reduced my level of anxiety and made me a more confident, fluent speaker. Such results can be evidenced with the recent anxiety survey I did; in this survey I obtained a score of 89 meaning I’m below the average level of anxiety, which clearly proves the effective cognitive skills provided by the class.

Speech lessons have allowed me to improve my choice of language for giving speeches and my delivery techniques. English is my second language and what might be appropriate to say in Spanish might not be in English. I remembered using expressions like “you guys” and “you all” throughout my introduction speech, which I perceived as adequate expressions. However, during a lesson I discovered these expressions were very informal and hence inadequate for giving a speech. For replacing these expressions I began using expressions like “many of you”, which clearly improved the quality and professionalism of my mentions. Regarding delivery techniques, these have greatly improved. Throughout my initial two speeches my hands where usually attached to the podium, which clearly demonstrated my lack of experience and additionally confirmed my anxiety, which nowadays is mostly gone. During my narrative and my informative speech I managed to greatly improve my delivery techniques. Primarily, my approach to posture was very good; my posture was straight but not rigid, combined with some walking for developing a relaxed mood with the audience; it brought along successful results. I also tried to show interaction by moving my hands, and hence, obtained a more interested, pleased audience.

Throughout the whole semester, the speech class has been very productive and entertaining; I have greatly learned from both my mistakes and the given information. For acquiring speaking excellence I have a long way ahead, as speech requires infinite practice; however, this semester has given me a vast amount of convenient knowledge. The art of giving speeches has been introduced by both theoretical and practice means making lessons balanced and very complete knowledge wise. Both theory and practice are much needed approaches for the class as theory gives us hints for efficient communication, while practice allows us placing knowledge in reality. As mentioned I am very pleased with the class; hence, I have no complaints. The curriculum of the class is good; however, it would be great to make students practice their speaking skills in front of unknown individuals as a part of our speaking formation. A good speaker should be able to easily become related with an unknown public.