Aside from
teaching classes at my senior high school in Berastagi, North Sumatera,
Indonesia, one of my biggest roles is preparing students for English language
speech contests and debate contests. I've had 5 years experience of doing this
now and like to think I know one or two things about it. So I thought I'd share
some ideas with you and hopefully it will help some of you teachers and your
students a little further down the line. This guide is catered more towards Indonesian
senior high schools, but I think a lot of the information is universal.
· Stress the importance of these to students at
the SHS level (tears and celebrations if they win, tears if they lose - tears
will flow no matter how your students do!)
· Also the importance of contests to the school
cannot be underestimated (i.e. expectations placed by teachers & principal
on you. Being told that you are expected to make your students succeed). I
remember I was once told by an incoming principal that he expected me to give
the students the knowledge and ability so they can win the forthcoming debate
contest.
Writing a speech
· Don't write your students' speeches for them. It
has been known to happen and is very transparent to native speakers. Let your
students compete on their own merit. This can be harder to do at less academic
schools when pressure is being placed on you, but the aim of these contests is
to test the students' English ability... not yours.
· Speeches often submitted to ALTs (Assistant
Language Teachers) after the deadline for making changes. Bad move! You must
find out when the contests are and be involved from the first step. Then you
can have most influence. Get yourself involved in the preparation process early
on, noting down important dates and deadlines.
· At SHS level, a lot of speeches talk about
family/friends etc. Speeches on these topics can be good and interesting to
hear, but rarely win prefectural speech contests. In order to challenge for the
winner's trophy, they must have strong links to something outside the students'
own lives. If your students show judges that they have knowledge of life
outside their own town, it makes them much more impressed. Stories about their
own experiences are good, but they should be used to support the main message
of the speech.
· Linked to this is that the speech has to be
interesting to the audience. While the student may be interested in their
exploits at the school's tennis club and how it helped them to realise that
friends are important, the audience lost interest towards the end of the
introduction. The first paragraph has to grip the audience and make them want
to listen to the rest of the speech.
· Correct speeches, but positive reinforcement is
the key with SHS students, as they lose confidence very easily. Always give
them positive reinforcement, even if their speech is awful. Tell them what you
really liked before going onto corrections. This is a process I go through in
all my classes. I will always try to focus on the good points first, even if
they are hard to find. Doing so gives the student confidence and makes them a
little more comfortable when listening to things they can improve upon.
Preparing to give a speech
· Preparation is the key, and lots of it. Be
prepared to spend time after school with students, but as ALTs you shouldn't
feel forced into working hours you don't have to, if you have other important
plans. Bear in mind though that the students will be cancelling their own plans
so they can receive guidance and advice from you, so try to be there when they
need you.
· Someone once said a speech is 20% what you say,
and 80% how you say it. The J.F. Kennedy "Ich bin ein Berliner" is an
urban legend, but it can be used to get the point across. Tell your students
that they should speak with complete confidence. If they believe what they are
saying, the audience will believe it too. That's not to say you should neglect
the contents, but that the winner of the speech contests is usually the person
who appears confident and gets their point across well; not the person with the
best speech.
· With this in mind, there is something you can do
in classes to help students with their spoken English. Try to create an
atmosphere where the students aren't afraid of making mistakes. In a number of
my classes, I'll ask students a question and they'll talk to their friend for a
good minute about whether they should say "I ride bicycle to Gongsol" or
"I ride my bicycle to Gongsol". The truth is that it doesn't matter!
Make corrections, but don't criticize everything the student does or they will
just lose confidence and interest in English. We're trying to inspire them to
use English whenever they can... not scare them into silence with a fear of not
being perfect. When we get to speech contests, their grammar has to be
excellent, but it all starts in the classroom.
· Pronunciation is an important aspect of speech
contests. Accent is unimportant - it doesn't matter if they speak with an
English, American, Australian, Indian or Bahasa Indonesia accent - if what they
say is comprehensible then that is fine. Make sure students annunciate though -
the words should not be slurred together.
· Commas, full stops etc. The students use these,
but are rarely sure of when or how they should be used. You must show students
how to use them (comma = 1 beat pause, full stop = 2 beat pause)
· Body language. From the start, have students
practise to you standing up. Shoulders need to be back and head held high.
Sounds simple, but must be emphasized and done over and over again until they
do it subconsciously. This is especially the case in Indonesia, where students
are often very shy about making speeches in English (the origins of this
probably go back to my previous point about being scare to make mistakes).
· Gestures are linked with the above point. Indonesian
speakers don't use gestures generally, but Westerers do, and they will be
expected to use them in their speech. Promote the use of hands and arms during
the speech, but movements should be subtle. Don't wave your hands around like
you're trying to achieve flight.
· The Q&A section of a speech contest (when
included) is invariably the part where the contest is won and lost. A lot of
this comes down to luck: some students will get seemingly simple questions
about their writing; others will be asked very challenging ones. But regardless
of the questions, it does mean that students need a full understanding of what
they are saying. If they simply write their speech using their electronic
dictionary and learn how to read it from you then they will come undone when
they are asked about it. Get your student ready for this part of the test by
asking them increasingly more difficult questions about their speech as the
contest approaches. Again, give positive feedback and tell them where they can
improve.
· If you have time before the contest, concentrate
on one particular issue each you meet with the students. Then you are not
giving them too much to think about and task-loading them. If they can focus on
one problem then they'll cut it out by the next session, so you can move onto
the next.
· Speed. Whether your students are taking part in
a speech contest or debate contest, the speed of your speech is very important
as they are working to time limits. Try to get their speech flowing, but don't
have them speak too fast that you can't take everything in. In this year's
debate contest, a couple of teams seemed to have the tactic of giving their
speeches so quickly that the other team couldn't take it all in and had to ask
them to repeat things, which consequently makes them look bad. This is a
possible tactic if you have strong speakers of English, but not one I'm a fan
of personally. For your speech and debate contests, try to get their speeches
finishing with 15-20 seconds spare - that will give them a little extra time if
they hesitate during the event.
· When the contest is only 7 days away, your
student should be almost ready. Keep praising their speech and start to
emphasize taking a break from it a couple of nights before the contest. The
mentality here is to work as hard as they can before the contest, which leads
to stress and lower confidence. Try to get them to relax and not work late into
the evenings just before the contest. You can enlist the students' classmates
to help you do this too.
On contest day. If you've helped you're student
prepare for the contest since the start, then do try to attend. It's very
possible your school will let you go to coach your student, but if the contest
is held on a weekend then you should try to make the effort to keep that day
free. The students appreciate our attendance a lot more than we think. Your
role during this day is just to try and keep your student(s) calm and
concentrating on their speech. And to wish them luck before they go out and
perform. After the speeches, it's either consoling a tearful student, or coping
with a super-genki one jumping up and down around you. Hopefully you'll get to
experience the latter.
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