Public speaking is one essential skill every student must endeavour to possess. It is needful throughout one’s academic pursuit and will be also be useful even while one is finally engaged in the corporate world. Unfortunately, many young people in Nigeria can hardly speak fluently before a crowd. And this is mainly because schools fail to inculcate the habit of public speaking as students. In any case, the good news is that there is opportunity for everyone that is reading this article to learn one or two things about how to master the skill of public speaking. So take advantage of this and master the points below-
To become an effective public speaker, you need to practice the act: Truly some really good textbooks will give you a lot of pointers on how to stand poised before an audience, weigh the audience and figure out the best way to adapt to them in order to have the most wonderful speech. Other textbooks will even teach you the right mannerisms that every good public speaker must possess. But if you never get to stand in front of an audience and speak to them, your chance of becoming an effective public speaker is as slim as the entire oceans of the world drying up. That said, you must try as much as possible to speak before audiences as a means of practice.
You should get active in your school’s Literary & Debating Society: This is actually the right place to practice the art of public speaking. Now here is the main reason why you must join this club- if you get used to debating in front of the small groups in your school, overtime you will find it easy to stand before any type of crowd to talk. This is very much unlike what would happen if all your life you never get the opportunity to speak in front of a small group and then all of a sudden you are facing a large crowd.
Get yourself inspired by great public speakers you admire: There should be at least one good public speaker you admire a lot. If that is the case, then it’s time to get even more inspired by him or her. But just in case you do not have any, then you surely need to get one. After you have done that, get active in studying them. Find out what makes them such great public speakers. Get audio/visual materials of them speaking; learn from them. And when you are done learning from them, practice.
Receive feedbacks from people, both positive and negative and ensure to make corrections when need be: Any good public speaker must be open to criticism and modifications. You can never be the best in anything, meaning that you should be open to learning from others. That said, ask people to give you their most unbiased assessment of your public speaking skills. And when you do receive said feedback from them, ensure to use it accordingly.
