Last lesson’s topic dealt with the qualities of an effective public speaker and good communication skills. An effective public speaker is calm in front of an audience. They should refrain from fidgeting, pacing, and keeping their hand’s in their pockets. The speaker should speak loudly and clearly and try to keep the information they are conveying as concise and easy to follow as possible. A good public speaker should know their audience: meaning they should use language appropriate to the audience to whom they are speaking. A visual aid, if any, should only be used as a reference, not as the foundation of the speech.
Using appropriate hand gestures to engage the audience in the speech is also a helpful way of bettering one’s communication skills. The speaker should face their audience, as it helps to keep the attention of the audience better. A good public speaker makes eye-contact with their audience and does not stare at the floor, their hands, their note cards, or their visual aid. If there are other members of the group who have yet to present or have already presented their part of the speech, those members should be, or, at the very least, appear to be, engaged in the current members speech. Having good communication skills and being an effective public speaker come hand-in-hand. Both are important, not only in the classroom, but outside of it as well.