Suggested Activities for Chapter 13

  1. Show sample video speeches to students and have them identify the modes of delivery used. Ask students for specific examples to illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of a particular mode and how that mode affects aspects of vocal and nonverbal delivery.
  2. Arrange for your students to help a group of local schoolchildren learn to deliver a speech. To set up this activity, you could contact a particular school, teacher, or organization such as Big Brothers–Big Sisters or Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. Pair your students with the children so that each student helps a child to do the following:
    1. First, the child writes a three-minute speech on a topic that interests him or her.
    2. Next, the child practices an extemporaneous delivery.
    3. Finally, the child delivers the speech.
  3. Ask students to rate the seven vocal delivery skills presented in this chapter in order of importance. Tell them that 1 is the most important skill and 7 is the least important. Have students compare and contrast their rankings. Ask students what the different rankings reveal about the importance of various vocal delivery skills to the audience.
  4. Have students rate the five nonverbal delivery skills in order of importance, with 1 as most important and 5 as least important. Ask students what the different rankings reveal about the importance of various nonverbal communication skills to the audience.
  5. Put delivery errors such as “lengthy pauses,” “dancing feet,” or “very rapid speech” on index cards. Give each student a card and have the student speak to the class while committing the error on the index card. Have the class guess the delivery error. (You might find that students start to commit other errors unintentionally.) Use this activity to demonstrate how linked these delivery factors are.
  6. Show photographs of different faces expressing different emotions. Ask students to identify the emotion that each face portrays and have them suggest ways in which they might adapt their delivery if they saw that face in the audience during their speech.