CHAPTER 1 Becoming a Public Speaker

1. CHAPTER 1Becoming a Public Speaker

2. Study Public Speaking to: • Advance your professional goals • Employers seek communication skills, team work skills, and interpersonal abilities. It’s the number one skills sought. (Hansen & Hansen, 2007; Young, 2003; Koncz, 2008) • In Engineering, speaking skills were important to 72% of employers surveyed (Darling & Dannels, 2003)

3. Study Public Speaking to: • Accomplish personal goals / Explore and share values / Improve critical thinking & listening skills • Good communication skills can lead to greater confidence and satisfaction in life • Good communication skills can enable you to express your values and explore the values of others • Good communication skills can sharpen your ability to reason and think critically

4. In the classroom Enhance your career as a student Oral presentations are common classroom assignments across the disciplines. Organization skills are applicable to most other courses.

5. Why Study Communication? cont. Physical needs • Fredrick II, emperor of Germany from 1196 to 1250 illustrated the importance of communication (Ross and McLaughlin) • Five people are isolated and remain alone in a locked room (Schachter, 1959) • John McCain talked about 6 years of solitary confinement (McCain) • Russian Experiment to Mars? Locked away for 520 days? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7966731.stm http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/06/02/russia-mars-experiment-travel.html?ref=rss http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8150385.stm

6. Why Study Communication? cont. • Physical needs • People who lack strong relationships have 2-3 times the risk of early death. (Duck, 1992) • Divorced, separated, widowed people are 5-10 times more likely to be hospitalized for mental illness (Duck, 1992) • Social isolation similar to cigarette smoking, obesity, lack of exercise, and diet?????? • People who are socially isolated are 4 times more likely to get the common cold (Cohen, Doyle, Skoner, Rabin, Gwaltney, 1997) (as well as The Journal of the American Medical Association)

7. Definition of Communication: • What examples come to mind when you think of the term “communication”? • Adler and Rodman’s definition of communication: “The process of creating meaning through symbolic interaction.” • Verderber, Verderber, and Sellnow’s definition of communication: “The process of creating or sharing meaning in informal conversations, group interaction, or public speaking.” • My definition of communication: “The process of creating and/or sharing intentional and/or unintentional meaning through nonverbal and verbal messages in informal conversation, group interaction, or public speaking.”

8. In the community Being an Engaged Citizen • Public issues require citizens to make decisions or take actions. • Change occurs when people speak up and work together to solve societal problems. • Community Service? Discuss your past experiences. Students from the Asian Student Association clean up trash from the local beach.

9. Comparing public speaking to other types of communication contexts DIFFERENCES SIMILARITIES • You must speak to other people. • You must think about your listeners and their needs. • You must be understood when you speak. • You must be responsible about what you say and how you speak. • You have less opportunity for a response or feedback from your listeners. • You are responsible for more of the message content. • You must pay closer attention to nonverbal cues and use a formal voice.

10. Communication Settings/ Communication Contexts: Qualitative vs. Quantitative • Intrapersonal communication • Interpersonal communication (dyadic?) • Small group communication • Public communication • Mass communication

11. The Elements of the Communication process: • Participants (Speakers / Source) • Encoder • Decoder • Message • messages are created (encoded and decoded) by symbols to which meaning is assigned. • Context / Situation • Physical context, social context, historical context, psychological context, cultural context • Channel • Interference (Noise) • Physical noise, Psychological noise, Semantic noise • Feedback

12. The Communication Process (the transactional model of communication)

13. Cultural Sensitivity • Culture – language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and objects that are shared by a group of people • Speakers recognize the values, behaviors, and artifacts that are important to the cultural group to which they are speaking. • A culturally sensitive speaker avoids making ethnocentric remarks and addresses cultural differences with respect.