A Confident Speaker

How To Be a Confident Speaker: Ten Tips

Here are ten tips for becoming a more confident speaker.

1. Organize - Outline your thoughts, beginning with the goal of your presentation. Be disciplined and stick to your outline. This will give your presentation structure.

2. Spice it up - Like a good dish, every presentation needs some spice and accenting. A few well-chosen anecdotes, a well-timed joke, a personal experience, or a fact can liven things up.

3. Feel the Floor - Before you begin to speak, be sure that your feet are firmly planted. Making floor contact helps you breathe better, and provides a sense of strength and power.

4. Relax muscles - Muscle tension affects not only the way you look, but the way you sound. Lightly shrug shoulders, roll head, wiggle toes to relieve body tension. Gentle chewing motions and smiling internally helps loosen jaw and facial muscles.

5. Breathe deeply - Deep breathing relaxes and supports the voice, improving your entire delivery. Think of your torso as an accordion which expands with every inhalation and contracts with each exhalation. Proper breathing also leads to increased stamina, and prevents your voice from becoming tired.

6. Focus - When speaking , concentrate on the subject of your speech; by so doing, your presentation will be more focussed and alive. To help focus yourself, before speaking, concentrate on an object or color you find pleasing. This will help channel your attention, as well as relax you.

7. Use energy - Energize your speech by activating your breath and speaking with conviction. Even if you're speaking softly, make the air between you and your audiences vibrate. This will help you project better, and communicate more effectively with your audience.

8. Add color - Vary the sound of your voice. Emphasize important words; change your pitch from high to low and vice versa. Alter your rhythm of speech to add interest.

9. Practice - The old adage, "practice makes perfect," could not be truer when it comes to speaking . The more you practice in advance and become familiar with your material, the more comfortable you'll feel, and the more comfortable your audience will be.

10. Have fun! - Fun is infectious. If you're enjoying what you are doing, you will automatically convey this to your audience.

SPEAKING QUESTIONS (OCTOBER)

Give me your introduction
Tell me about the place you were born?
Which part of the country are you from?
What is this part famous for?
What are the main industries there?

2
Describe a newspaper/magazine article that you have read and liked

What was it about?
Where did you read it?
Why did you like it?

3
Why is advertisement increasing these days?
What are the mediums through which people get updated about news these days?
Who uses the internet most?
Is radio popular where you come from?

Writing Topic

Some criminals commit crimes and are punished for it. However they repeat certain crimes later. Why does this happen? Give reasons for your answer. Support it with examples.

FEAR OF FAILURE

This person:

At age 22 - Failed in business;

At age 23 – Was defeated for the State Legislature:

At age 24 - Again failed in business;

At age 25 – Was elected to the State Legislature;

At age 26 - His sweetheart died;

At age 27 – He suffered a nervous breakdown;

At age 29 – Was defeated for speaker;

At age 31 – Was defeated for elector;

At age 34 – Was defeated for Congress;

At age 37 – Was elected to Congress;

At age 39 – Was defeated for Congress;

At age 46 – Was defeated for the Senate;

At age 47 – Was defeated for Vice-President;

At age 49 – Was defeated for the Senate;

At age 51 – Was elected President of the United States.

This person was ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

Keep things in perspective; do not be disheartened. The fact that you’ve failed at something does not mean that your life is over. It does not mean that your reputation is forever ruined and that you’ll never get another chance. Don’t make the situation bigger or more pervasive than it really is. Instead, remember the famous line:

“And this too shall pass . . .”

FEEDBACK (SEPTEMBER,09)

STAGE1

Introduction
What is your profession?
When can this course be taken?
What is the duration of this course?
What are your job responsibilities?
What are the traditions of India?
Do you like driving?
Why is there an age limit for driving in India?
Will you allow your child to drive at an early age?

STAGE2

A CHILDHOOD ACHIEVEMENT THAT YOU REMEMBER
what and when was it
where was it
why do you remember it


STAGE 3

Why is tradition and culture diminishing in India?
What can be done to preserve it for future?
What is the attitude of youngsters towards the tradition and culture?
Should the schools initiate to provide driving license for its students?
Is it important to have fresh fruits and vegetables for good health?


2.

STAGE 1

Give me your Introduction
How often do you use internet?
Do you remember the first time you used the internet?
Who helped you in using internet?


STAGE 2

DESCRIBE AN OCCASSION WHEN YOU WERE TRAPPED IN TRAFFIC
When was it
How long were you trapped in it
What was your reaction

STAGE 3

What is the effect of traffic on environment?
How is the traffic in peak hours in your country?
What can authorities do to relieve traffic in metro and small cities?

WRITING TOPIC

Computer is very popular these days.what are the areas where computers are popular and what are the areas where teachers are still important. Discuss.

LIFE-"a web of mysteries" By SANGEETA KHATRI (AAS 2009)

we call it as happiness & full of joy

when life gives us every ,key

what would be if we find this key

in the sand of downs

life then appears miserable

we call it ambitious & full of oppurtunities

when life gives us ample chances

what would be if these chances are

in a dark room

life then appears dull and heavy slot

we call it full of love& dreams

when life us caring and trustworthy

what would be if we have to look for them

among the million in the crowd

life then would appear boring &

..........very very long.

SANGEETA KHATRI

POINTS TO REMEMBER FOR IELTS EXAM

1. More is less. A very common mistake is to answer in more words than instructed. If the task says "Not more than 3 words", answering in 4 or more words will definitely cost marks.

2. Less is less. The length of a written task is crucial. When instructions mention a minimal number of words (250 for essay, 150 for report or letter), it means that any work shorter than required will be penalized.

3. Longer essay doesn't mean better mark. Another common misconception is that longer essays score better in IELTS. Not only is this a myth, but also a dangerous one. Writing a long essay can indirectly cost marks, because the chances of making mistakes increase with the number of words and sentences.

4. Changing the subject is unacceptable. Every so often a student is asked to write on topic, that he doesn't understand. To avoid the disaster of missing a whole task they decide to write on a slightly – or entirely - different topic. The sad fact is that no matter how beautiful the submitted work is, the wrong topic means zero score. Another similar pitfall is to omit parts of the given topic or ignore the guidelines in your work. Every point the topic refers to needs to be covered because the examiners will be actually counting them.

5. Good memory can get you in trouble. Having seen that the topics sometimes repeat, "smart" students with good memory decide to memorize essays. This is a terrible mistake to make because the examiners are trained to look for memorized essays and have firm instructions to disqualify such works on the spot.

6. Accent is not important. Pronunciation is.! IELTS, being a test for non-native English speakers can't penalize people for having an accent. The problem here is that not everyone knows the difference between speaking with an accent and mispronouncing the words. No matter how strong of an accent a person has, the words are to be pronounced correctly or it will cost marks.

7. It is not the ideas that are important, but the way they are described in. Many students think that expressing the wrong ideas (whether it is in essay, letter or discussion) can harm their score. The truth is that no idea can be wrong and the ideas are not important on their own, it is the way they are expressed in that important.

8. Connective words: the more is not always the better. Smart students know that one of the essay marking criteria are coherence and cohesion, and what better way is there to demonstrate cohesion than to use lots of connective words, right? Wrong. Overuse of connective words is a know problem, which is easily recognized and penalized by the examiners.

And in conclusion, a word of advice: to stay out of trouble, it is equally important to be aware of the pitfalls and to practice enough before the exam. Being familiar with the structure and the procedure of the test will build up confidence and that will reflect in your score.

TIPS FOR SPEAKING ENGLISH FLUENTLY

Rent or buy an English movie DVD

Rent or buy an English movie DVD. Put the English subtitles on. Follow the movie.
This has many advantages:
You will be able to compare the written words to the correct pronunciations.
You will get a feel of how real English sentences are formed when speaking.
You will be learning English but it will not be frustrating and boring because you will be watching a movie.

Read Internet forums of subject matter that interests you

Got to Internet forums of the subject matter that interests you. Generally most of the forums are in English language and are a great source of English input.
For those of you who are not familiar with Internet forums, these are places where people interested in a particular subject can get together and share their views and opinions about a particular subject. You can also ask specific questions to other people and they will help you out if they can. On the Internet, there are forums available about each and every subject.
Forums are a great source of information. Also in forums real people talk about real problems. Most of the information typed in forums is written in an informal way. Because of this the forums make a good source for English input. Reading forums exposes you to a lot of phrases of daily use.
When reading forums also make sure you find out the meaning of every new word or phrase you come across or the whole exercise will be useless.

Read English fiction of your choice.

Books are not costly here. You get cheap book in every nook and corner. If you want to pick up an interesting cheap English novel, go to the closest "raddi walla" (You know, the guy you sell your old daily news papers to...) They will generally also have old novels, book and magazines. These wont be good quality. They will all be second hand. But that’s okay, they will be nice and cheap. Pick up some thing that interests you. Take it home and read it. Be sure to look up all the new words you come across in the book.

Listen to the radio and TV

Our "All India Radio" has some good programs that are designed to teach English to the listener.
Besides this, there are also many different radio stations available now-a-days in the big cities. Some of these radio stations are in English. Listen to them to get a feel of the language.
Besides the radio, you could also listen to the "News In English". It’s available on a wide variety of channels. The news is a good place to get input of the English language because it is spoken in a very clear, easy to understand way.

Chat with fluent English speakers

Chat with fluent English speakers real or online. Make friends with interesting English speakers. Become pen-pals with a fluent English speaker.
While talking to them look at their lip movement for tips on how to pronounce words correctly.