Communication Skill

Part – 3

Wahidul Islam
Lecturer
Department of English
University of Global Village
(UGV), Barishal
CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD SPEECH
Listening to a good speech is a very interesting experience. Everyone should
put in the hard work necessary to acquire skills in speaking as it imparts
considerable competitive advantage to the person. Some important aspects
are:
(1) Clarity
The voice of the speaker should be clear, tone should vary and pitch should
be pleasant.
(2) Informal, personal and conversational
A good speech should be like a conversation between two good friends
personal, informal and sincere. There should be a rapport between the
speaker and the audience.
(3) Concrete, vivid and imagery
A speech should help build a picture that is easy to visualize and easier
to comprehend. It should be furnished by concrete examples that grasp
the imagination of the listeners.
(4) Brevity
It is very difficult to hold the attention of the listeners for more than 15
to 20 minutes. A good speaker should be able to convey his complete
message in that period.
(5) Interesting, jovial and humorous
A speaker wins or loses the battle in the first two or three minutes. If
the speaker has impressed the audience with his opening remarks, he
is well on your way to winning a space in their heart. And that is the
target. It has to be a heart to heart dialogue.
(6) Listener-oriented
Audience is your customer. It is your business to know their needs and
wants, their desires and their expectations. Speaker has to be very
sensitive to the body language of their audience and modify the speech
to fine tune with them.
POWERPOINT PRESENTATION SKILLS
“Power point” software, created by Microsoft, is a very useful tool and
is being used extensively as an essential aid to oral presentation.
“Power point” can be used in conjunction with Over Head Projector
(OHP) or Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) or as a vehicle for multi-media
presentation.
A few important guiding principles are:
• Know the subject material
Speakers must have authentic material on the subject of their
presentation. Ideally, it should be audience-tested and modified taking
in to account the feedback. To the audience, they are the experts.
• Know the audience
To customize the presentation for the audience, speakers must know
them and their learning objectives.
• Understand time constraints of presentation
Presentations are made in the limited time frame available. The
challenge before the speakers is to complete the presentation within
the time slot available and still make it very effective.
• (4) Keep presentation simple
Three important rules are:
Use as few words as possible
Assume your audience can read
don’t let words run -off the page many a times
• Use speaker notes
For each power-point slide, speakers must create own dialogue. It is a
detailed script of what they are going to say when the slide is projected
on the screen. The entire presentation is prepared and printed before
making the presentation.
TYPES OF LISTENING
Listening can be varied depending upon:
• Purpose
• Interaction
• Feedback
It can be classified in to the following three distinct types:
(1) Content listening
The purpose of content listening is to retain the information for future
use or for further transmission rather faithfully. Here, we try to identify
the key points and concentrate on the structure of the message.
Receivers take a preview an overall view of the entire message. It is not
important whether they agree or not with the contents. They try to
assimilate the contents of the message as received.
(2) Critical listening
The message received undergoes evaluation at several levels to understand:
• Logic of argument
• Strength of evidence
• Validity of conclusions
• Implications of message for individuals
• Implications of message for the organization
• Speakers‟ intention and motive
• Omission of any relevant point etc.
(3) Active / empathetic listening
The purpose here is to understand the speakers‟ feelings, needs and wants. Listeners have to
understand speakers‟ viewpoint irrespective of whether they share those perceptions or not.
Typical features of active and empathetic listening are:
• Make eye contact
• Exhibit affirmative head nods and appropriate facial expressions
• Avoid distracting actions and gestures
• Ask questions
• Paraphrasing what is said
• Avoid interrupting the speaker
• Do not over-talk
• Make smooth transition from the role of a speaker to that of a listener.
THANK YOU