Christian Communication Training
This week’s Friday Funny is brought to you by the word “monotone” and the number of times I had to record this to get it to sound that way!
This is an audio recording of Mona Tone demonstrating the need for vocal variety in your speech. Take it away Mona!
This has been a Communication FUNdamental! If this had been an actual communication emergency, you would have been directed to the Art of Eloquence website where you could learn more communication skills the creative and fun way!
How are all you homeschoolers finding my mini speech lessons this month? Here’s the third in the series:
How did you do with your American history speech last week? Feeling even more comfortable now that you know what it’s like to stand up and give a short speech–especially when you know exactly what you’ll say? How was your eye contact? Good for you! The more speeches you give, the more comfortable you will become. Please share your experiences here and feel free to ask questions!
This week I want to take it up a notch to an impromptu speech. This time, I want you to give a speech on a topic of your choice. Pick a topic you know fairly well. It doesn’t have to be a typical speech topic either. It could be how to play your favorite game or all about your favorite character in a book. Just pick something you truly love. The idea is to talk about it for two minutes.
Don’t just ramble either. I want a good speech with a purpose! It should tell the listener something interesting about your topic and consist of an introduction, a body with supporting evidence and a conclusion. Each part will naturally be fairly short as this is a two minute speech, but it should be well constructed.
For a list of great topics, check out our Art of Eloquence Speech and Debate Page!
From the guys at What You Ought to Know, comes this fun video on tips for public speaking…
For more fun with speech communication, visit Art of Eloquence.com!
Those of you who remember my weekly internet radio show on the Communication Comedy Network will remember my character Professor Wordsmith. She (I) did the Word of the Week segments. In 2011, I’m going to be bringing back some of the old characters I played on the show as YouTube videos. I thought I’d bring her segments here to Communication FUNdamentals for Word Wednesday. This week’s word is something most people do associate with communication: speech! But as we’ll see, speech is much more than a formal recitation of gun control or abortion rights.
According to Merriam Webster, speech is:
“1a : the communication or expression of thoughts in spoken words b : exchange of spoken words : conversation 2a : something that is spoken : utterance b : a usually public discourse : address 3a : language, dialect b : an individual manner or style of speaking 4: the power of expressing or communicating thoughts by speaking”
So speech is much more than a formal reciting of someone’s ideas on gun control or abortion. It is the very act of communication. I’ve coined a JoJoism which states, “While you may manage to live your entire life without making a speech, you will not get through one day without communicating something to someone!” and this one as well, “The most important communication isn’t the speech you’ll give to a crowd. It’s the conversations you’ll share with friends & family.” Communication is something we do every day. We use the power of speech to discuss many things with many different people.
The Bible talks about speech, our tongues, lips, mouths and words literally hundreds of times. The Lord tells us what happens when we speak in grace, ““Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.” Colossians 4:6 and He tells us what the consequences are if we do not, “An offended brother is more unyielding than a fortified city, and disputes are like the barred gates of the citadel.” Proverbs 18:19
Some have tried to assert the notion that learning formal speech will prepare you to be an effective communicator, but I disagree. While learning formal speech will help you formulate your ideas and help you with your powers of persuasion, they will not necessarily help you in a conversation. Did you ever know anyone who never lost an argument, but frequently lost a friendship because he was a bit pushy? That’s because you cannot approach a conversation the same way you do a formal debate or speech.
Just as learning to communicate effectively in a conversation is different from learning to deliver a good speech, learning to master different types of speeches takes slightly different skills. Even within the formal speech, there are many different kinds of speeches: persuasive, political, impromptu, debate, etc.
If you read my blogpost from Monday, you’ll know that I’ve challenged you all to a speech this month. I’m sharing some mini lessons on speech-making all this month to help you along. If you’d like to learn a bit more about speech or you’d like to get a good listing of great speech topics, visit the Art of Eloquence Speech and Debate Page.
By the way, I’ve started my online seminars back up this year and the very first one will go more in depth on this subject. It’s Thursday, January 27th at 8am PST/11am EST on TalkShoe! You can see the next several month’s topics there as well.
This month I’m going to challenge all you homeschoolers to teach an intimidating subject, if even for only four short, weekly lessons this month. Each of my Monday posts here on Communication FUNdamentals this month will give you an easy and fun way to have your student(s) give a short speech.
This week I’ll start with a very easy one. Have your students stand up and share for a maximum of two minutes on the blessings of winter. What do they like about winter? What are things they get to do during the winter that they don’t get to do at other times of the year? What holidays are there during winter?
The goal here this first week is just to have them get used to standing up and speaking. Don’t worry too much about the flow or eye contact or much of anything else. This week is all about getting comfortable. I’ll be back next week to share another fun idea.
Please share your thoughts and experiences here and feel free to ask any questions you may have either about giving speeches or about Art of Eloquence speech studies!
For more fun with speech communication, visit Art of Eloquence.com or subscribe to our newsletter!
If you like these mini lessons, you’ll love our newsletter! We will be offering 4 mini speech communication lessons form each of six Art of Eloquence studies this year, but ONLY for our newsletter subscribers!
Top Five Communication New Year’s Resolutions for 2011
5. Stop forwarding emails that say “send this email to everyone you know”
4. Stop using the term BFF…when I SPEAK!
3. Stop texting my friends…who are standing right next to me!
2. Stop sending Aunt Mildred email cards remembering she’s never owned a computer.
1. Stop nagging my dh at work via email…I’ll just pick up the phone.
New Year’s Resolution Quotes
“Many people look forward to the New Year for a new start on old habits.” -Anonymous
“A New Year’s resolution is something that goes in one Year and out the other.” -Anonymous
“An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.” -Bill Vaughan
“May all your troubles last as long as your New Year’s resolutions!” -Joey Adams
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Happy New Year from Art of Eloquence.com!
2010 has been an incredibly busy year, mostly due to our rigid writing schedule. I think, at last count, I wrote over 50 articles, 13 eBooks and did about 10 seminars. Here’s what else God has allowed us to accomplish this year:
We completely revamped our website to make it more user-friendly and packed it with a TON more information! We also redesigned the blog to better match the look of our website. This year saw the very last Say What You Mean Convention. The website will remain up only for another few months, but after five years of hosting it, we will not be able to continue in the coming years. It took a full year, each year, to plan and execute.
We introduced two new segments on our newsletter and gave away a record number of free products to our subscribers including gifts for Valentine’s Day, Resurrection SONday, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Thanksgiving and CHRISTmas as well as a few others just because!
This year we introduced four new studies and have two more on the way! Back by popular demand was the eBook version of Say What You Mean for Preschoolers! We also introduced three new eStudies, 21 Days to More Godly Communication, Say What You Mean: Overcoming Social Anxiety and Say What You Mean: Debating the Issues! Coming soon are Say What You Mean: Avoiding, Reducing and Resolving Conflicts and Say What You Mean: General Debate.
JoJo (That’s me!) is now a contributing author on The Old Schoolhouse Magazine’s Company Porch, Girl Nurture’s blog, CWAHM’s blog, as well as a guest author on various other blogs.
Lastly we’ve been blessed by many awards and endorsements over the past year. Here are just a few:
Reluctant WAHM.com (Several AoE studies)
The Old Schoolhouse.com (The Play Book)
Homeschool Group Leader.com (The Language of Leadership)
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What were YOU able to accomplish in 2010? What would you like to change in 2011? How can Art of Eloquence help?
We’ve got big plans for 2011 that we’ll be announcing shortly! We pray they will bring blessings to you and your family!
Merry CHRISTmas everyone! This is one of my most favorite videos/songs of the season. It’s the Trans-Siberian Orchestra with Christmas Canon:
Music is a powerful form of communication. It uses several of your senses and it’s fun. For more information on fun ways to learn communication skills for preschoolers through adults, visit Art of Eloquence.com!
It’s the day before CHRISTmas and all through the blog, all the techies are stirring with more than a mouse! This year’s Friday Funny Video is a new find: North Point’s iBand! These are two CHRISTmas songs played using all borrowed iPads and iPods!
Music is a powerful form of communication. It uses several of your senses and it’s fun. For more information on fun ways to learn communication skills for preschoolers through adults, visit Art of Eloquence.com!
Just gorgeous! Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s Christmas in Sarajevo laser light show!
Music is a powerful form of communication. It uses several of your senses and it’s fun. For more information on fun ways to learn communication skills for preschoolers through adults, visit Art of Eloquence.com!
