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ASSIGNMENT Keep a log of your significant communication activities for two days. Prepare your log in tabular format, using headings such as the following:Date,Time,Persons involved, Communication process(which communication skills were used;listening,speaking,reading or writing)and evaluation. Rate the effectiveness of the communication by using terms as Excellent,Good,Fair and Poor.
Academic speaking is similar in many ways to academic writing: it is linear, it is explicit, it has one central point and it is presented in standard language. Academic spoken style is also similar in may ways in that it is formal, explicit, hedged, and responsible. However, it is less complex and objective than written language.
Explicit It is the responsibility of the speaker in English to make it clear to the listener how various parts of the talk are related. These connections can be made explicit by the use of different signalling words. • Precision When speaking in an academic contexts, facts and figures are given precisely.
Hedged In any kind of academic speaking you do, it is necessary to make decisions about your stance on a particular subject, or the strength of the claims you are making. Different subjects prefer to do this in different ways. A technique common in certain kinds of speaking is known by linguists as a 'hedge'.
Responsible In academic speaking you are responsible for demonstrating an understanding of the source text. You must be responsible for, and must be able to provide evidence and justification for, any claims you make.
Accuracy Academic speaking uses vocabulary accurately. Most subjects have words with narrow specific meanings. Linguistics distinguishes clearly between "phonetics" and "phonemics"; general English does not.
Complexity Spoken language is less complex than written language. Spoken language has shorter words, it is lexically less dense and it has a less varied vocabulary. It uses more verb-based phrases than noun-based phrases. Spoken texts are longer and the language has less grammatical complexity, including fewer subordinate clauses and more active verbs.
Objective Spoken language in general has more words that refer to the speaker. This means that although the main emphasis should be on the information that you want to give and the arguments you want to make, it is not unusual to refer to yourself or your audience. • Formal In general this means that when you are speaking you should avoid colloquial words and expressions.
Writing the Outline • Many speakers find it helpful to highlight certain words/passages or to use different colors for different parts of the speech. You will probably want to write out long or cumbersome quotations along with your source citation. Many times, the hardest passages to learn are those you did not write but were spoken by someone else. Avoid the temptation to over-do the speaking outline; many speakers write too much on the cards and their grades suffer because they read from the cards.
Using the Outline • The best strategy for becoming comfortable with a speaking outline is preparation. You should prepare well ahead of time and spend time working with the notecards and memorizing key sections of your speech (the introduction and conclusion, in particular). Try to become comfortable with the extemporaneous style of speaking. You should be able to look at a few keywords on your outline and deliver eloquent sentences because you are so familiar with your material. You should spend approximately 80% of your speech making eye-contact with your audience.
