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The best way to teach a speech class is to start with all students in quick succession making a thirty-second speech. The best way to learn speech and to get comfortable with it is to experience it. Everyone in class could follow their first 30-second speech with another 30-second speech, or a one minute speech, on and on through the semester, adding a little time to each speech and learning to trust one's mind rather than just read. An instructor can say all that needs to be said in no more than five minutes every hour.
While gaining confidence a student may want to practice enunciation, getting the inside of his mouth around vowels rather than speaking with a frozen jaw from the front of his mouth. Why? Not because the ancient Greek stateman Demonsthenes practiced oration with pebbles in his mouth. Instead, in order to look other than like a dolt and so that people, especially old guys like me, can better understand what he is saying.
Copyright © 2007 by Frank E. Smitha. All rights reserved.
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