Course Description

English Speech
Professors Ding-ren Tsao & Y. H. Peter Chen
Wednesdays (9:10- 12:00) Humanity Building 5F07, 4F05

Purposes: To prepare students to become effective speakers in English by providing them with the essential knowledge as well as the opportunities to practice. .

Required Text: The Challenge of Effective Speaking, (13th ed) (2006), by Rudolph F. Verderber & Kathleen Verderber, Wadsworth Publishing, (imported by Bookman)

Class Plan:

• 1. The class will run somewhat like a Toastmasters Club. Students will take turns to be the session leader (L) speakers (Ss & TTs), evaluators (Es), timers (T), ah-counter (AC), vote counters (VC) and Video Recorders (VRs).
• 2. There will be 9 speech days during the semester. Every member of the class will have a job on those days. Specific job assignment is shown on the Master Roster which will be available when the class size is confirmed. You can switch jobs or order of presentation. However, you must inform the instructor about the changes in advance. There may be a few blank spots on the roster. Blanks don’t mean freedom to miss class on that day. They mean opportunities to help accommodate job-switching needs.
• 3. There will be five lecture/discussion days. On those days, the instructor will lecture and students should be prepared to ask questions and to join in discussions.
• 4. For each formal speech, students must present a page-long (at least) speech plan (in typing) before he or she speaks. You must submit it electronically to our class blog first and then a paper copy to be collected by the vote counter (VC) of the day. No such plan will be necessary for table topics. The speech plan is an essential part of the speech grade. That is, no plan, no grade. (And we take this seriously.)
  
• 5. At the end of the semester, each student must submit a comprehensive report on his/her speech experience in the light of the systematic knowledge from the text and the lectures.

Proposed Grade Composition:

• Self Introduction 15%
• Informative Speech 20%
• Persuasive Speech 20%
• Evaluations, Table Topics & Misc. jobs 30%
• Comprehensive Report 15%

Speech Class Roles

In addition to giving speeches, all students will participate in other ways, thereby learning both leadership and poise in public speaking. The following are the roles you will be handling in class and their duties.

Session Leader (L)
The Session Leader conducts the entire program and acts like a genial host to create a positive atmosphere. This person introduces all speakers and staff and makes sure the meeting moves along at a timely pace.

1. • Before the meeting, go over the order of speakers and evaluators and prepare how you will briefly introduce them.
2. • Open the meeting by welcoming everyone, stating the objectives of the day, recognizing who has what duties and giving the order in which all will occur.
3. • If anyone is missing, assign another to take the duties unless it is a speaker or table topic person.
4. • Introduce each speaker in turn.
5. • At the conclusion of the speaking program request the Timer’s report and the vote for best speaker and table topic.
6. • Call on the Ah Counter, the Grammarians and Evaluators while votes are being tallied.
7. • Announce the best table topic and speaker and adjourn the session.

Timer (T)
The timer’s duties are to time each speaker and each segment of the meeting so that it does not exceed the given limits. Table topic speakers are allowed 2 minutes, prepared speakers have 5 minutes or 7 minutes; evaluators have 2 minutes and grammarian 3 minutes. The timer uses a yellow, green and red flag to signal to the speaker.

1. • For each assignment, show the yellow at 1 minute before alloted time, the green at the time and the red at 30 seconds over.
2. • Whenever any speaker goes past the red flag, the class begins clapping to end the talk.
3. • Give a report of each speaker’s time at the end of the session. Give a “long-winded” award to persons who go over time.

Ah Counter (AC)
The duty of the Ah Counter is to note words and sounds used as a “crutch” or “pause filler” by any speaker during the meeting. Examples are inappropriate interjections such as “ah, um, er” or repetitions of “I, I,” or “this means, this means etc.”

1. • Count each time an “ah, etc.” is used by each speaker.
2. • When called on by the Session Leader give a report for each speaker. Give the “Wizard of Ahs” award for the speaker with the most ahs.

Vote Counter (VC)
The Vote Counter’s duties are to tally the votes for the best table topic speaker and the best-prepared speaker. The results of this tally are presented at the end of the session when the Leader calls for them. The Best Speaker in each category is then announced.

Evaluator (E)
Evaluators are assigned to evaluate each prepared speech. They will use a set form for each speech and each speaker. Each evaluators will evaluate one speech.

1. Record impressions of the speech as well as answering the questions on the form.
2. Praise what is done well, make suggestions where something can be improved.
3. Point out major and critical misuses of the English language such as incomplete sentences, incorrect grammar, overly complex sentence structure etc.
4. At the end of the session, give your report in the allotted time when called upon by the session leader.

Recorders (R)
Each speech session will be video recorded. Those who were chosen as the best speaker(s) of the day will have the honor to have his/her speech posted on YouTube. (With consent, of course.) Recorders will

1. check out the equipments
2. make all necessary audio/visual arrangement for the best recording effect.
3. record all speakers (TTs and Ss)
4. post the selected video recordings on the same day that the speeches were made.

Table Topic Speaker (TT)
Table Topic Speakers have to speak spontaneously and without preparation for 2-3 minutes on a given topic. They must think on their feet and organize their response. Everyone in the class is welcome to contribute topics. However, the teachers reserve the right to revise and/or finalize the topics.

Speakers (S)
Speakers will prepare their presentations beforehand to fit the objectives and the time limit of each assigned speech. The aims of each speech will be discussed beforehand.