Criteria for public speech planning : characteristics of language learning

Abstract

Public speaking is understood as monological discourse production, directed at a wider or narrower public or group of people. The theoretical part of this article introduces the characteristics of effective public speaking; criteria were designed for the preparation of a public speech, and four main sections defined, i.e. a) construction of public speech (consideration of text type characteristics, appropriateness of the topic and selection of content, appropriateness of the mode of topic development, formation of a meaningful, comprehensible and integrated text); b) integral mode of public speech (fluent, natural and free speaking, clear diction); c) verbal language (social genre, selection of words consistent with the speech, grammatical correctness, correct pronunciation, formal constructions, formal [dynamic] accent), non-verbal language (auditory non-verbal speech cues, visual non-verbal speech cues). The fulfilment of these criteria was tested in practice, namely on second and third year undergraduate students (prospective teachers) (N = 211). On the whole, all the average marks of third year students were better than those of the second year students. The most common difficulty facing the students was fluent, natural and free speaking as well as appropriate topic development, whereas the most successfully fulfilled criteria were those of appropriate topic selection and consideration of text type characteristics.