CHAPTER 1 Becoming a Public Speaker

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CHAPTER 1Becoming a Public Speaker
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Study Public Speaking to

• Advance your professional goals
• Employers seek communication skills, team work
  skills, and interpersonal abilities. Its 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)

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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

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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.

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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/russ
  ia-mars-experiment-travel.html?refrss
• http//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8150385.stm

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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)

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Definition of Communication

• What examples come to mind when you think of the
  term communication?
• Adler and Rodmans definition of communication
  The process of creating meaning through symbolic
  interaction.
• Verderber, Verderber, and Sellnows 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.

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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.
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Comparing public speaking to other types of
communication contexts

• 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.

• SIMILARITIES

• DIFFERENCES

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Communication Settings/ Communication Contexts

• Qualitative vs. Quantitative
• Intrapersonal communication
• Interpersonal communication (dyadic?)
• Small group communication
• Public communication
• Mass communication

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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

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The Communication Process (the transactional
model of communication)
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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.