by J.A. Gamache
Third place Champion at the 2001 Toastmasters International
World Championship of Public Speaking
When practicing a speech, don't pause after you make a
mistake. If you stop and start again, you might develop a
reflex that will manifest itself on the day of your
performance.
I'll always remember one of my first English speech contests.
As a native French speaker, I was inexperienced with the
English language and was really nervous at the idea of
mispronouncing words. Back then, my accent was so thick that
I couldn't always make myself understood.
During rehearsals, I would stop myself each time I
mispronounced something and then would repeat the word, using
the correct pronunciation. I improved a lot this way and was
correcting my imperfections.
On the day of the contest, I continued the same pattern and
would stop to repeat a word whenever I mispronounced it. It
would have been better had I ignored these errors, but I
couldn't help myself because my habit of self-correction had
turned into a conditioned reflex. As I stumbled repeatedly
during my speech, I gave the judges the impression that I was
ill prepared, which made me lose the contest.
I learned a great lesson from that defeat. When you prepare a
speech, it's better to practice as through you're really
facing an audience, for the following reasons:
1- YOU'LL AVOID DEVELOPING UNDESIRABLE REFLEXES.
You won't instil bad habits in yourself, such as constantly
correcting yourself when speaking in front of a group.
2- YOU'LL DEVELOP THE HABIT OF DEALING WITH CONTINGENCIES.
Here's a partial list of contingencies you could encounter
during rehearsals (and also on the day of your speech):
- Stammering or mispronouncing something
- Forgetting your text
- Inverting parts of your speech
- Mishandling a prop
- Experiencing computer problems
- Being distracted by an interruption
3- YOU'LL GAIN SELF-CONFIDENCE.
On the day of your presentation, you won't be dreading any
unpleasant surprises. You'll know what to do because you've
encountered them during rehearsals.
Practice your speech as if you were really in front of an
audience, and you'll avoid bad habits. You'll also develop
strategies to get yourself out of predicaments and you'll be
less stressed when faced with an unforeseen event.
Happy speech!
©MMXII J.A. Gamache www.jagamache.com. All rights reserved.
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J.A.", a FREE electronic magazine authored by J.A. Gamache,
International Inspirational Speaker. To subscribe to his FREE
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