Speaking

It is not uncommon for students to be nervous about speaking in an academic setting, and this is more likely if English is their second language. Fortunately, La Trobe is a multicultural university so your lecturers are familiar with many accents and styles of speaking.

Many learning activities, at university encourage students to speak, even though this usually forms only a small part of their assessment. Effective participation in speaking activities involves doing preparation work and listening actively, as well as being able to speak out.

Developing your confidence

The Counselling Service offer a number of workshops to all La Trobe students. These sessions teach practical skills for academic survival and personal growth and development
English at Home provides strategies for improving speaking and useful phrases.

Participating in a class when you are nervous about speaking

Do some preparation. As a minimum, read any tutorial handouts and skim the reading.

If you are nervous about making a mistake:

use the first tutorial to observe
say something in the next tutorial
prepare a comment or question in advance.

In what sort of classes are you expected to say something?

Tutorials, seminars, workshops and even some lab sessions can be interactive, unlike lectures which are one-way with the lecturer doing all the talking.

An interactive class can be organised in a number of ways. It is usually led by an academic teacher. It can be structured with students solving problems and working on assignments. In other cases, there are discussion groups and the aim is for ideas to flow freely. Sometimes a student can present their work, which other students discuss.

Some classes, for example seminars, are more formal. These are more common at postgraduate level, and oral presentations are the focus. Sometimes the terms tutorial and seminar are used interchangeably.

Why do Australian universities teach this way?

Making arguments or expressing opinions supported by evidence is valued as a way of understanding knowledge in Australian universities. This involves knowing about and questioning a number of viewpoints. Classes in which students interact together are considered suitable for such learning to take place.

In such classes students learn to:

express opinions
support their opinions with evidence
argue constructively
develop critical thinking skills
use listening skills
and speak with authority.

Students have the opportunity to:

clarify and exchange ideas
discuss problems
work on problems
and solve problems.

There are other advantages:

students get to know each other, and students and lecturers get to know each other. (This is useful because the tutor is someone you can approach when you need to discuss your work. Furthermore, the tutor might be the person who marks your assignments)
Confidence in speaking is a useful skill to develop for the workplace.

How are these classes assessed?

Usually attendance is compulsory
The tutor might do a roll call
Sometimes students receive a mark for participation
Sometimes the presentation of a paper is assessed.

Being a good participant

Participating does not mean you always need to show how clever you are.

You can also be a participant by:

saying why you agree or disagree with someone’s point
encouraging others to speak
expressing agreement
concentrating on the discussion
looking interested when someone else is talking
asking for clarification
summarising the discussion
returning the discussion to the main point.

If you give an opinion with you need to provide evidence.

Some useful phrases

Introducing 'opinions'

Rather than talking in terms of right or wrong/ true or false, speakers in academic settings often preface their findings or 'opinions' with a tentative phrase.

The following phrases could be useful when you are making tentative tentative claims:

Modals eg This could indicate… can, might, may, should
It is argued/could be argued that…, It can be seen that in certain circumstances…, It is likely that…, It is proposed that…, It is probable…, It is not unreasonable to expect that…, It seems that…
In the light of these findings…, given these circumstances it is likely that…
Our findings indicate…, We have found that…, We believe that…, From my experience there is…, In my opinion…
If this experiment were repeated we would expect that…, Although this survey is small we expect that our findings would be replicated.

Asking questions

Firstly, you need to make it clear that it’s a question. You also need to make the topic clear and to be specific about your particular point - for example, I have a question about…, What is the…?, I’d like to ask what…? What do you see as…?

Follow up questions

If your question was not answered or understood or you want to disagree with the speaker the following phrases could be useful:

That’s not what I was really asking., What I was getting at was…
Let me put to you another situation - suppose…
Perhaps I didn’t really make my question clear. In fact what I asked was…
I understand that, but what I really want to know is…
Yes, that’s true but what about…
Well, perhaps you’ve got a point there, but...
I don’t quite follow what you were saying about...

What you can do if you feel you are not learning from a particular class

Students (not just teachers) have a responsibility to make classes work.

There are a number of reasons why a class could have problems. For example:

one or two students dominate, while other students
cannot, or do not, contribute
students continually digress from the main point
students are poorly prepared.

If any of these happen you could:

suggest that everyone spend a few minutes talking about the progress of the tutorials
make a suggestion such as, 'I’m wondering if there are ways in which all of us could be involved in the discussion
meet with others outside the tutorial to get support'
make a time to meet the tutor.

If a tutorial is not good for you, it is likely that others are also feeling the same way.

Giving a talk in class

Don't panic! Good oral presentations result from preparation, organisation and using common sense. Assess your strengths and weaknesses and start developing techniques to enhance your skills.

Controlling your nerves

Look at speaking in front of a group as an opportunity to develop public speaking skills. Being able to speak effectively could enhance your career.

Use the adrenaline to provide energy for preparation. Rather than focussing on how worried you are, start doing some some research about what you are going to say
Get organised by taking a step-by-step approach
Focus on your audience’s needs by asking yourself;
- What is important for them to know?
- how can you get this message across?
Keep practicing your presentation
On the day, breathe to relax - and don’t race your words

You can find more advice about how to deal with the issue of anxiety and public speaking and some practical strategies for calming nerves at The University Of Bradford Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Study Skills.

Preparing for the talk

Use the simple questions of Who, What, Where, When, Why and How to help you to categorise what you need to do. You can use these categories in what ever order seems appropriate to your circumstances.

Who is your audience?

Will you be speaking to colleagues, examiners, ….experts/non-experts?
If you are speaking to colleagues your talk might be quite informal
If you are talking to non-experts you will need to adjust your language and avoid ot explain technical terms so that you will be understood.

What are you going to talk about? What is your thesis?

Tell your audience what is the most important information you want them to know from your talk. Ask yorself what is the most important message you want people to understand. This could help you to decide what is necessary information and what you can leave out.

Don’t overload people with too many new ideas. Presenting five new ideas in a 40 minute talk is the maximum for most audiences to process.

Where are you giving your talk?

Check the facilities available
If the technology fails can you still give your talk?
Will you be standing or sitting?

When will you start and finish? How long will your talk take? Time yourself.

Why should they listen to you? Make it interesting and let them know its valuable.

How will you organise what you are going to say? Having decided what is your most important message you can then think about how to structure the information. For example, you could organise your ideas chronologically, or spatially or by using cause & effect.

Think about where you will put your visuals and how you will introduce them.

Final preparations:

Do a practice (in front of the mirror?)
Find an audience and ask for feedback eg What were the - main points? weaknesses? strengths?

Is it OK to read a talk?

For an academic presentation it is sometimes appropriate to read your talk. You might have been told that you should not read talks. This is because when you read you lose eye contact with the audience and your voice is projected down to the page.

To maintain communication with your audience read to them not to the paper. This means looking at them, projecting your voice to them and sometimes explaining points. You could try reading only the concepts and main points and speaking to explain examples and elaboration.

If you are concerned that your pronunciation difficulties will impede understanding consider putting key terms, important ideas and main points on the board, or on the Overhead Projector, or as part of your Power Point Presentation. (Avoid handing out the text until the end of your talk. When given a paper, people tend to read rather than concentrate on what the speaker has to say).

What makes a good talk?

It is important that you appear in control. You can do this by making the structure of your talk clear to the audience. Let them know what your talk is about. Get the interest of the audience by including them and personalising your talk.

At the beginning tell them what you are going to say.

During the talk make it clear when you introduce new ideas. Give examples that make your concepts clear. Use stories where possible.

Limit the details about the methodology. These can go in your written presentation.

Consider your body language. The bigger the audience the bigger you need to make your movements.

Your voice is important. Project your voice with your eyes. Wherever you look is where your voice will go. Imagine that the people in the back row have limited hearing - project your voice to them. Vary your tone; emphasise important items. Use pauses for dramatic impact.

If you use visuals explain them and give your audience time to take them in. Make them big and clear and don't hide them.

Remember to KISS - Keep It Simple & Short.

At the end tell them what you have said. You can name your main points in your conclusion eg ‘ I’ve covered 5 new ways you can get the best out of your system.’

What makes a bad talk?

Sometimes it is easier what speakers do badly rather than waht they do well. Consider the following list of complaints:

Reading verbatim - if you need to read, read to the audience not to the book
Monotone voice - tape yourself. What do you sound like? You might need to exaggerate the emphasis you give to key terms
Repetitive habits - most people are unaware of the repetitive movements and sounds they make. What do you do?
Poor visuals - people lose concentration when they can’t see or can’t follow what you are trying to show them
Being disorganised - this is an insult to your audience
Unclear structure - tell your audience how you have organised your talk and what your main points are.

Ways to deal with questions

Question time is the unrehearsed experience. It is also the time when the best communication can take place.

Answering questions:

You might need to repeat the question so that everybody is included in the discussion
You are in control and you might need to demonstrate this.

Sometimes you might not understand what a questioner means. (This also happens to native speakers of English). You may be able to make an educated guess at what somebody means.

The following is a list of useful terms for such a time:

I rather feel that…, I rather suspect that…, I assume that…, I take it that
As I understand it, you’re saying…
Don’t you think that…? Do you think that…? (note the difference)
Could we say then, that…?
It seems that…, It looks as if…, It seems to me that you’re suggesting…
Presumably…

Dealing with difficult questions/people

This is everybody's nightmare. You might be asked a question which you don't know how to respond to. You might also be asked a question by somebody who is difficult.

Following is a collection of useful phrases for such circumstances:

Can we come back to that later? I’d like to deal with… now
I think we’ve said enough on that question. I’d like to move onto…
You’re quite right I hadn’t thought about that aspect
It seems to me that you’re suggesting…
Would you mind if I dealt with that question later?

Avoiding an answer

Sometimes it is best to say 'I don't know', other times such a response seems to be an admission of ignorance. Some people seem able to avoid showing that they don't know an answer.

These people probably use phrases such as the following:

While… is important it’s too complex to deal with here
I think we should focus on x not y
We don’t have enough evidence to say…
That’s not something I’ve had time to deal with
… although I believe (reference) …touches on this issue
Would anybody else like to comment on this?
That’s a very interesting question, however it’s not something I’ve looked into
In this project we limited ourselves to…