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Public Speaking Tips on Body Language

Public Speaking Tips on Body Language

Public Speaking: Giving a Great Speech: Public Speaking Tips: Body Language

“Body language in public speeches makes a big impression on an audience. Maintain good posture and body language for speeches with tips from a communications specialist in this free public speaking video.”

How to Use Body Language to Improve Your Presentation Online videos for busy business professionals

Practice is the key to helping you improve in public speaking.

Join Toastmasters and find a club that you like to practise your speaking skills. You are welcome to visit our Kampong Ubi Toastmasters Club if you are living in Singapore.

Observing Body Language

“Excerpts from a Charlie Rose interview of Bill Gates are analyzed from a body language perspective. Observations include Conversational-izing, Virtual Space, and Timelines.”

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How To Communicate Better With Body Language Secrets

“I don’t let my mouth say nothin’ my head can’t stand.” Louis Armstrong

Since the 1970s, learning how to communicate better has had a lot to do with understanding body language.

Julius Fast wrote a book entitled, Body Language in 1970. He talked about a new science called Kinesics. It opened the way to more studies and books on the subjects. Today, the term Body Language is very common and understood as an important element of communication.

In fact, experts in the field of communication suggest that there is a rule that says that 7% of the meaning of what a person is saying comes from their words.

Interestingly, 38% is based on the tone of their voice. 55% of the meaning comes from the body language of the person that is speaking. This rule comes from research that was published in the late 1960s.

Some now think that the percentages from this research might be slightly different. Nevertheless, the bottom line is still the same. If you don’t know the basics of body language, you are missing a valuable tool for learning how to communicate better. We speak body language on a subliminal level, without actually realizing that we are communicating through body talk.

1. Face

The most expressive part of your body is your face. When you enter a room if you feel nervous, your expression might make you look aloof or unfriendly.

Smiling at the room is a sure-fire way to remove anyone’s doubts about your approachability. Smiling makes us look warm, open and confident.

2. Eyes

They say the eyes are the windows to the soul. They certainly give people clues about what we are feeling.

A direct gaze towards someone can show interest- direct staring, on the other hand, can mean an intense dislike. Very little eye contact can show that you are shy.

3. Hands

Have you ever watched someone’s hand gestures when they are talking? Open hand gestures tend to make a person appear open and honest. Bringing hands together to a point can accent the point you are making.

Wringing your hands or excessively moving your fingers and hands will give away nervousness. It can even make someone look dishonest- are they trying to hide something?

4. Posture

If you lean towards someone you are showing an interest in that person. If we are feeling low in confidence, we tend to slouch our shoulders and look down.

Men and women use different body language. For instance, women will stand close to each other, hold eye contact with the person they are talking to and use gestures.

Men make little effort to maintain eye contact and don’t rely on the use of gestures to communicate. Men and women can learn how to communicate better by observing the differences in their use of body language.

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Great Icebreakers: How to Break the Ice and Meet New People

How to Break the Ice and Talk to New People?

meet-new-peopleCheck out the below Toastmaster International YouTube video “Great Icebreakers” and learn how to break the ice with confidence at your next networking or social event with these time-tested tips.

Having the ability to break the ice in any social situation makes networking more effective and fun. When you’re having fun people naturally want to interact with you.

Here are the points mentioned in the video:

Be in the moment.

  • Talk about relevant topics
  • Avoid negative or controversial topics
  • Ask questions about the event
  • Talk about interests
  • Make sure it’s a two-way discussion

Approach a group or person.

  • Smile and introduce yourself
  • Start with easy questions
  • Read body language
  • Ask the group a relevant question

Creating a lasting connection.

  • Exchange business cards
  • Write down a few details

Incorporate the tips and techniques as stated above and in no time you will be amazed how quickly you will be able to break the ice with other people.

For more information, to break the ice, you can check out our other blog post “How to Talk to Anyone“.

Since 1924 Toastmasters International has helped more than four million people gain the confidence to communicate.  Join Toastmasters and find a club that you like to practise your speaking skills. You are welcome to visit our Kampong Ubi Toastmasters Club if you are living in Singapore.

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Public Speaking Tips & Presentations Skills from Robert Graham

Youtube Video: Public Speaking Tips from Robert Graham

public speakingRobert Graham teaches the fundamentals of public speaking and presentation skills.  We find this video useful and would like to share with you.  It does not mean our Toastmaster Club endorse his products. Thanks!



Join Toastmasters and find a club that you like to practise your speaking skills. You are welcome to visit our Kampong Ubi Toastmasters Club if you are living in Singapore.

 

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Communication Skills Workshop by Mr. Kwong Yue Yang

Mr. Kwong Yue Yang is the 2011 and 2014 World Champion of Public Speaking first runner-up.  He conducted a speaking enhancement workshop in 2012 for the youth in Hong Kong.

communication

The workshop is about communication. How do we communicate better in English? How can we get our ideas across to reach others in a more effective way? Even though the workshop was conducted for secondary school students, I think you should get some really good public speaking tips by watching it.

Check out the live videos from the workshop.

English Public Speaking Contest 2012 Speaking Enhancement Workshop (Session 2: Mr Kwong Yue Yang)

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Join Toastmasters and find a club that you like to practise your speeches in a friendly environments. You are welcome to visit our Kampong Ubi Toastmasters Club if you are living in Singapore.

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How to Offer Feedback | Effective Evaluation

How to Offer Feedback Video

Constructive feedback in a Toastmasters meeting contributes to continued skill development, building the confidence a person needs to reach his or her goals. Learn how to critique the performance, not the person.

Tips and Techniques for Effective Evaluation by Toastmasters International
evaluations

In Toastmasters, feedback is called evaluation, and it is the heart of the Toastmasters
educational program. You observe the speeches of your fellow club members and offer evaluations of their speeches, and they do the same for you. If you want to improve your speaking skills, you must learn how to give and receive helpful evaluations.

Click here to download the Effective Evaluation Manual published by Toastmasters International.

Evaluating Speeches Tactfully

Check out the article Evaluating Speeches Tactfully.  It is a very good article about how to do evaluation effectively.   Here is the introduction of the article.

“Teacher. Guide. Captain.

Evaluation is a systematic determination of a subject’s merit, worth and significance, using criteria governed by a set of standards. Source: Wikipedia.com

What Is Tact?

Tact is the ability to tell the truth in a way that considers other people’s feelings and reactions.

  • It allows you to give difficult feedback, communicate sensitive information, and say the right thing to preserve a relationship.
  • Emotional intelligence, respect, discretion, self-awareness, thoughtfulness, compassion, subtlety, honesty, diplomacy, and courtesy.

Introduction — Evaluation

    • Feedback is called evaluation
    • Heart of the Toastmasters educational program
    • Learn how to give and receive helpful evaluations
    • You have listened to and observed others and their work and offered feedback
    • You evaluate in some manner every day, at home, at the office, and in the community.
    • People join Toastmasters clubs to improve their speaking and leadership skills, and these skills are improved through evaluations.
    • Members prepare and present speeches based on Pathways
    • Their fellow club members evaluate the speeches or leadership efforts, enabling the members to develop their speaking or leadership skills.
    • The tone and content of an evaluation have great impact on the speaker and even on the club.
    • A harsh evaluation may cause a member to leave the club.
    • An overly kind evaluation may not help the member to improve, making the member frustrated and unhappy.
    • Good evaluators strive to find a balance between the extremes, giving evaluations that are helpful and encouraging.
    • Although most of the time you will be evaluating others in the club, the skills you learn can be applied in all aspects of your life. You will become a better listener and a more critical thinker…”
      Click here to the other parts of the article.

Toastmasters – Giving An Evaluation That’s Worth A Darn

How to Give a Great Speech Evaluation in Toastmasters

Join Toastmasters and find a club that you like to practise your speaking skills. You are welcome to visit our Kampong Ubi Toastmasters Club if you are living in Singapore.

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How to Pick a Public Speech Topic by Analyzing Your Audience

How to Pick a Public Speech Topic?

speaking tipsA great speech topic depends on your audience. Get tips for analyzing your audience before speaking in this video clip from a professional public speaker, Tracy Goodwin.

Here is the transcript of the speech.

Ok. We have established that you’re giving a speech on a certain topic:  informative, persuasive, special occasion, so forth and so on. The first thing we have to look at is your audience. Who in the world are you speaking to?

Ok.  We’ve got to look at a lot of different areas about your audience that you might not have thought of. Because we have to pick a speech topic that’s going to be appropriate for who you’re speaking to as well as remember something worthwhile and something that they’re going to be interested in.

So let’s just look across the board at the demographics now. By demographics, I’m talking about things like age. Are you talking to 20 years old? Are you talking to 60 years old?  Because you and I both know you talk to them very differently okay.  What is the age for they are? Are they all 20? Are they all 60 or are you looking at a cross-section?

What’s the gender? Are you talking to women? Are you talking to men? Because trust me you’re gonna find out if you don’t already know you talk to them differently. Okay?  Do you need to look at anything like religious background, economic background, educational background and most importantly what do you have in common with these people.

What do you have that is similar and what do you have that’s different. Are you all college students? Great! Check that off. Ae you all working for the same company? Great. Check that off? Are you all in sales? Great. Check that off.  It’s important to take a look at all those demographics because you want to write your speech and pick your topic to make it interesting for that group of people.

If you want to overcome stage fright and learn to speak with confidence, join a Toastmasters club.

Join Toastmasters and find a club that you like to practise your speeches in a friendly environment. You are welcome to visit our Kampong Ubi Toastmasters Club if you are living in Singapore.

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