First, a little bit about the important rules of speech work.
1. The earlier you start training, the more often you practice, the faster and better you’ll speak. In this case it’s like in sports – you can’t build muscles in one workout, you have to practice regularly and you need to allocate enough time.
2. All of the methods that I’m going to share are suitable for live performances and for online presentations, interviews and interviews. Such preparation will give confidence to anyone. And a confident person, as we know, can perform both live and virtual equally well. A confident speaker will be able to give one of his or her best speeches in front of any audience and in any circumstance.
3. it is not enough to know what to do and how to do it during a speech. You have to get your own experience in public and interpersonal communication, you have to learn how to apply the knowledge and skills and techniques I am about to share.
Any performance or communication will be enjoyable and successful if you prepare for it physically, creatively, psychologically, and emotionally. Physical preparation includes work on breathing, diction, and voice. There are many exercises, the main thing is to find those that will be effective in a particular case. As no two people are alike, no two people with absolutely identical speech problems are alike.
Use the air correctly and develop your breathing
Don’t underestimate the importance of breathing. Proper steady breathing can help both to calm down excitement, avoid annoying noisy breaths, and not get tired during a long speech.
Pay attention to good speakers, TV and radio hosts, actors on stage, after all. Do you hear or see how they breathe during a speech? When and how often do they take breaths? The breathing of a trained person is unnoticeable, it doesn’t draw attention or distract from the essence of the speaker’s words.
To develop breathing, try to take a few deep breaths with your belly, shoulders and chest should remain at rest, should be relaxed. Inhale with your nose and exhale with your mouth. As during the run – for four steps you inhale with your nose and exhale for four steps. Only for speech, you have to learn to stretch this time of exhalation, gradually increasing.
Now read aloud any text – it can be a text from a book or a news text. It is important to use as much air as possible during reading. Pay attention to how many sentences you can say on one exhalation. One, two, three sentences, or several paragraphs? I learned this method pretty quickly and proper breathing helped me concentrate on the text, and on the exhalation easily say 3-4 sentences at a time. Over time you will be able to increase your air supply and on each exhalation speak longer and quieter. In general, reading aloud is a must practice for someone who is working on their speech.
Warm up your muscles before you speak.
Remember how difficult it is to speak after a long period of silence. The speech apparatus needs to be ready to speak. The easiest thing you can do is mooch on the exhale. Take a deep breath and moo on the exhale. You should feel the muscles vibrate from your throat to the top of your head. Moo so hard that you feel a slight tremor in your cheeks, nose and forehead. Repeat this exercise several times. By the way, it also calms you down and increases your attention.
Don’t strain the ligaments and do the exercises
If you feel that you get tired during a long speech, that your voice sags, it may indicate that you strain your cords. Try not to strain at least your shoulders and neck when you speak. Watch your shoulders as you practice reading aloud, too. As soon as you feel tension, move them around, then relax them, and only then continue. The body should get used to this muscle work while speaking. Your voice can be not superficial, throaty, and deep – such it will be only with the correct work of the respiratory and speech muscles. That’s why you have to learn to relax the muscles above the chest and develop your diaphragmatic breathing.
What else can you do for this? Exercise with a breathing obstacle, in which the muscles will work. Take a belly breath and on the exhale, say the letter “f” and literally squeeze air into your belly. You will feel the muscles working.
Articulate vigorously and learn shorthand
Chances are, you’ve met people who hardly move their mouth during speech, their jaw stays still. To be understood, you should at least not be lazy and open your mouth when speaking – without that you will not be able to speak clearly and distinctly.
In addition, in Russian there are hundreds of different syllables. You can learn one saying every day. At first, say it slowly, without hurrying, clearly. Then you can speed up a little. Just do not hurry. And if you get confused during the recitation of sayings, try to imagine the words in the right order, or hold the text in front of you.
Prepare the speech
It’s time to move on to creative preparation. It consists of structuring your speech through writing. Many people, unfortunately, ignore this important stage of preparation, trying to improvise on the spot, picking up words on the fly. Not always successful. If you want to avoid failure, write the text of your speech as early as possible. Even if you leave it at home on the day of the speech, as a cheat sheet written for the exam, such practice will make your speech structured, help you choose more accurate words, as well as remember the sequence of theses.
When the text is already written, you can rehearse. First, read the text of your speech several times from the sheet, and then put it aside and say it from memory, retell it in your own words. Do not forget about the intonation pauses. It’s better to rehearse in front of a mirror.
If you want to avoid failure, write the text of your speech as early as possible.
Such preparation will help you to gain confidence, to be convincing. It doesn’t matter what kind of event you’re preparing for, it’s important how you do it.
One last piece of advice. During the speech you should be rested, try to get some sleep, to be as attentive and concentrated as possible. All this will also help you give accurate answers to questions.