From Speech Contest to Presentation
Our St Mary Speech course will start from first semester. Beginning students will be introduced to recitation, which is to memorize a selected piece of writing and recite it. For example, this year, beginning level students will be able to choose one of the following speeches delivered by the individuals indicated: 1) "Why our Future Depends on Libraries" by Neil Gaiman; 2) "The Bravest Girl in the World" by Malala Yousafzai; 3) "The Ravenous Cat" by Fables, Pilpay, The importance of memorizing and then delivering an already performed speech is to be able to concentrate on the meaning of the passage, and to be able to focus on technical aspects of public speaking like body posture and voice projection. If we work from a model of a speech pre-delivered by a native speaker, we can follow the performer's speech pattern, rhythm, pronunciation, accent, and pauses. Then we have experience upon which to draw upon when we move to more advanced work, including delivering self-authored speeches.
For the advanced level students, the expectation will be that self-authored speeches in English of five minutes are practiced and performed. These students will take part in speech contests like St. Mary's/Nunoike Speech Contest. Last year, one of our students composed and delivered a winning speech that addressed problems related to gender. During second semester there are various opportunities for public performances here at our school, such as the Halloween Party and Christmas Party.
The TED (Technology Entertainment Design) Conference was developed by Wurman, Richard Saul in 1984. Bill Clinton (42nd President of the United States of America) was one of many famous TED presenters.The goal of TED talks is to move people through speeches of various lengths that are meant to feel and learn something new about themselves and the world. This model is told by TED like the speech by Steve Jobs at Stanford University’s graduation ceremony in 2005. Its Youtube is in TED.com and it is one of the most popular youtubes. It is not the TED talk, but it has the best contents of TED presentation, and it has been watched more than 15, 000, 000 times. In his speech, he told us: Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma—which is living with the results of other poeple’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
It is not easy to write and deliver speeches like they do on TED. However, by starting simple with the reciting of modeled speeches and advancing our skills step-by-step, we can build skills and experience that could very well lead to greater goals like working at public relations firms and assisting at the Olympics in Tokyo in 2020.
Developing strong presentation skills greatly assists with job interviewing and with negotiating daily interactions with others. If you start to explain the things that you think or see in words clearly, you can increase your confidence as being someone who moves through this life with intent.
These courses, which will be taught in English, will be available in the St. Mary’s College’s curriculum. Please join us, and enjoy!
