How To Teach Speaking Skills

Everyone enjoys

listening to a coherent and lively speech.A boring public speaker kills the vibe.A mumbling speaker makes the audience less attentive and in the process fell asleep.

It is very embarrassing for a speaker to continue speaking when the audience fell asleep and began snoring loudly during one's speech. When a public speaker stands in front of the audience the speaker must grab the attention of the audience.

Speaking is a God given gift which needs to be mastered and used effectively. A speaker who mumbles words doesn't woe an audience. A punchy and well presented speech can keep the audience awake. Learning how to speak effectively is a gradual process which takes time to mature like wine - practice makes perfect and good speaking skills need to be taught and learnt at an early age.

The adage catch them young must be adopted. If children are to master speaking skills and become confident public oratory they must be taught effective speaking skills at an early age.

How Should Be Speaking Skills Be Imparted In Children?

Research has it that young children master language and speaking skills better than adults. Young pupils' minds are still malleable. They learn and internalize information quicker than adults.it is tried and tested that anything can be taught to children as long as the subject matter is watered down to their level - children learn through play hence they need a lot of learning aids to master the art of speaking.

The following tactics can be employed to improve children's speaking skills.

1 Story Telling

Children must be introduced to be introduced to the world of story telling early.If children can be made to listen to their teacher telling a story and then be told to retell the story to the class loudly this is likely to improve their quality of speaking.At home parents can reinforce the art of speaking among their children by also telling them bed time stories.

2 Naming The Letters Of The Alphabet

Assigning children to name the letters of the alphabet loudly at a tender age can boost their speaking confidence. By naming the letters of the alphabet children will be 'oiling' their speaking skills.The early bird catches the fattest worm hence children deserve an early start to grasp the bolts and nuts of how to communicate eloquently at a tender age.Indeed a stitch in time saves nine.

3 Dialogue And Brainstorming

Children are likely to develop logical speaking skills through brainstorming a variety of techniques and activities.Employing dialogues is a tried and tested method,using real mobile phones in class can enable children to improve their speaking skills whilst they play and learn.We speak daily so children should be encouraged to say full sentences on a daily basis at school and at home.If possible a mother and child or a teacher and child should have an uninterrupted dialogue for say five minutes daily. This would boost the confidence of pupils to speak in public. Engaging children in dialogue would enable them to respond to asked questions precisely and at the sametime improving their speaking and listening skills.

4 Quiz

Quiz questions may also be used to stimulate the child into speaking. Children must be encouraged to like speaking in public by answering quiz questions in small groups or in pairs.These will encourage them team work at the same time improving their speaking skills

5 Dramma And Debates

Letting children get involved drama clubs and debates at school will expose them to effective speaking skills.Role play in a classroom situation helps to improve speaking skills.Role play can make pupils discard the traits of being introverts and start being out spoken.Role play would boost confidence in pupils, with adequate and regular practice they would not feel shy, or panic to speak to an audience.Stage fright is likely to disappear if pupils are nurtured to speak in public. If pupils are taught how to face audience, use gestures and facial expressions in their speaking, green shoots of qualitative speaking skills are likely to sprout and flourish.

6 Reciting Poertry

Reciting poetry in class goes a long way in improving oratory skills.The more they recite poems to an audience the more they harness speaking skills and in the end they become refined and confident young students.

7 Audio Books And Listening To News Readers

Using audio books regularly goes a long way in improving children's speaking skills.Observing how news readers on television pronounce their words is a recipe for developing qualitative speaking skills in children.The more they see effective news readers, the more they are inspired and become motivated to emulate them.The more they emulate newsreaders the more their speaking skills and confidence will improve from strength to strength.ln a class of 20 pupils it's probable that some of these young students would aspire to become journalists and news readers in future.

8 Whispering Technique

Children may be encouraged to pass messages to the next person by whispering the message in the ear of the next pupil.Here is the example of a message which can be passed on to each member of the class: I want tea and biscuits.The last person to receive the whispered message would have to say it aloud, so that every pupil will hear it.If the original message is not distorted then hooray! These pupils would have displayed and acquired good speaking skills during that exercise and at the same time acquiring qualitative listening skills.

9It Takes A Village To Raise A Good Speaker

They should be consented effort from various stakeholders to raise effective speakers.Teachers may kick start a story telling lesson by telling a story using gestures and variations of the voice. Using gestures in story telling adds life to the story.Children would want to emulate their teacher's style of story telling when they are given the chance to do so.It is also important to invite an influential public speaker in the community to come and act as resource person and role model of good speaking skills at the school. Organizing a trip to the radio station or forming a Journalism Club where pupils report news to the whole school on a Monday morning can boost the speaking skills of children.

10 Musical Games And Reading For Fluency

There is life in music andmusical games.Music and musical games are also a force to reckon with in improving the confidence and public speaking skills of the young adults.The learn and play, the hands on approach caliber of musical games pave way in nurturing effective public speakers. Reading for fluency is a tried and tested method of improving the art of speaking among the little adults.Reading newspapers and magazines aloud and in turns in small groups can also improve the speaking skills of children.

Parents can compliment the effort of teachers by testing their children's speaking skills by making them narrate stories from kids programs, films from the television and bed time stories.Children at home can also improve their speaking skills by being DJs at birthday parties of their peers using a disco machines.

They can also use the karaoke machine.If they can sing the song the karaoke machine would be playing it would be a step in the right direction in improving their speaking skills,By being DJs children would improve their speaking skills at the same time entertaining party revelers using their speaking skills and creativity.

Speaking well in public is a basic need and is a skill which needs to be identified and developed at an early stage.Failing to do so,the world would be poorer and deprived of future eloquent lawyers, news readers,charismatic politicians and actors, let alone effective poets like Dylan Thomas, the great Welsh poet.