List of Impromptu Speech Topics
1. How to spend a rainy day.
2. Why books are important.
3. If I could travel through time.
4. If I could have dinner with anyone.
5. Whom do you admire most?
6. A job I'd love to have.
7. Three surprising facts about me.
8. The best surprise ever.
9. How to save money.
10. How to survive in a traffic jam.
11. My favourite day of the year.
12. The way I would like to spend my birthday.
13. An important lesson I have learned.
14. The worst chores at home.
15. Why I like my town.
16. Three things I'd change if I ruled the world.
17. Why your mom/dad is special.
Section 2. EFFECTIVE LISTENING
A French proverb says: “The spoken word belongs half to those who speak and half to those who listen.”
Effective listening is a valuable communication skill because we spend about 60 % of our time listening. The quality of your study and work is often closely connected with the quality of your listening skills. Firstly, effective listening improves your speaking skills. Secondly, it improves your relationships. Thirdly, effective listening improves your credibility. The average person listens at only 25 % efficiency. Improving your listening skills may double this figure (James H. Byrns 25).
Good Listening Habits
| As a listener, do I | As a listener, do I avoid |
| - Use spare mental processing time to integrate the new information? - Resist distractions? - Maintain high eye contact? - Control daydreaming? - Defer judging or second-guessing until I have heard the whole story? - Watch the speaker’s nonverbal signals to understand better? - Learn from listening (WIIFM)? - Listen for the main ideas? - Empathize with the speaker to see the matter as he or she does? - Offer supportive non-verbals to encourage the speaker? - Paraphrase or question in cases of ambiguous information or stress? | - Prejudging the speaker? - Prejudging the subject? - Interrupting or finishing the speaker’s sentences? - Internally debating the speaker? - Faking attention? - Reacting emotionally? - Getting distracted by the speaker’s differences from me? - Giving discouraging nonverbals such as fidgeting, turning away, or doing other work? |
Poor Listening Habits
1. CALLING THE SUBJECT UNINTERESTING. Having a negative attitude toward the topic. Having your mind made up that you aren’t interested or have nothing to gain before you give the speaker a chance to interest you or inform you.
2. CRITICIZING THE SPEAKER’S DELIVERY. Paying more attention to how a message is delivered rather than what is being said. Attending to the speaker’s dress, movement, style, etc., rather than the message.
3. GETTING OVERSTIMULATED. Wanting to respond immediately to what a speaker says, rather than hearing him/her out completely.
4. LISTENING ONLY FOR FACTS. Not paying attention to the main ideas or how the facts are being used. Facts are not unique to individuals, but the use of them is.
5. ATTEMPTING TO OUTLINE EVERYTHING. Not being a flexible note taker. Not adjusting to the organizational pattern of the speaker.
6. FAKING ATTENTION TO THE SPEAKER. Just looking the part of a listener. Not working at listening. Expecting listening to happen automatically.
7. TOLERATING OR CREATING DISTRACTIONS IN THE AUDIENCE. Allowing outside noises and other disturbances to hinder the communication process.
8. EVADING DIFFICULT MATERIAL. Ignoring listening opportunities which might involve careful consideration and hard work. Listening only to the easy and simple material.
9. LETTING EMOTION-LADEN WORDS THROW US OUT OF TUNE WITH THE SPEAKER. Becoming emotionally involved with the words. Forgetting that words are only symbols and not the real thing. Being oversensitive to the words used by the speaker.
10. WASTING THE DIFFERENTIAL BETWEEN SPEECH-SPEED AND THOUGHT-SPEED. Not taking advantage of the ability to think faster than the speaker can talk.