Extemporaneous Speech Exercise
Activity for a Middle, High School, or College Public Speaking Class
Here's an exercise to help your public speaking students learn the benefits of speaking extemporaneously instead of reading word-for-word.
One of the most difficult-- and important-- lessons you can teach your public speaking students is to speak extemporaneously. An extemporaneous speech is one where the speaker uses notes as a tool to guide the speech, but does not write anything out or read word for word. This is opposed to a manuscript speech, where the speaker writes a speech out word for word and reads it.
Many students try to read their speeches word for word, even if the assignment calls for them to do otherwise. If they suffer from speech anxiety, they may feel more comfortable hiding behind a document where all the words are printed out. Unfortunately, it's very difficult to communicate effectively with an audience while reading at them from a document-- and communicating effectively with an audience is the whole point of public speaking.
So how do you demonstrate to students the importance of learning to speak extemporaneously? Here's a fun activity that demonstrates this point.
The Activity
Before class, type out a manuscript speech called "My Three Favorite Movies." Be sure to include all the elements of a speech assignment-- a thesis statement, main points, transitions, and so forth.
Give your speech to the students, reading the speech word for word. Or ask for a student volunteer to do so. Ask your volunteer to communicate with the audience as much as possible through eye contact, hand gestures, and other nonverbal cues-- while reading the speech.
Also before class, prepare an extemporaneous outline of a speech called "My Three Favorite Movies." Make an overhead out of the outline, or put in on PowerPoint. In addition, put each part of the outline on note cards for a student to use during a speech.
The outline should look like this:
MY THREE FAVORITE MOVIES
I. Intro
- A. Say something about why you love movies
- B. Thesis statement: "My three favorite movies are X, Y, and Z."
TRANSITION: "My first favorite movie is X"
II. Movie X
- A. Brief plot synopsis of Movie X
- B. Why you love Movie X
TRANSITION: "A second movie I love is Movie Y."
III. Movie Y
- A. Brief plot synopsis of Movie Y
- B. Why you love Movie Y
TRANSITION: "A third movie I love is Movie Z"
IV. Movie Z
- A. Brief plot synopsis of Movie Z
- B. Why you love Movie Z
V. Conclusion
- A. "In conclusion, my favorite movies are X, Y, and Z."
- B. Briefly encourage your audience to go watch these great movies.
Give your student volunteer some time to look this over and come up with three movies, and to think about what to say-- without actually writing anything down. Then ask the student to come and deliver the speech to the class, using the note cards as a guide, and speaking about each of the movies in polace of X, Y, and Z.
Ask your students which student did a better job communicating with the audience. Remind them that essentially, the speech was exactly the same, except that one was delivered extemporaneously, and the other was delivered as a manuscript speech.
