Publish at May 23 2023 Updated May 24 2023
Public speaking is an activity that can happen many times in life. If some can occasionally express themselves without necessarily preparing, others must imperatively practice and write their speech well beforehand. In spite of this, it can happen that you realize that your speech has to be readapted at the place of performance. This may be due to a change in the program, the influence of a speech that preceded his, the reaction of the audience, etc. As a result, one must improvise. That is, compose and execute simultaneously. But to do this, you have to prepare because:
"Improvisation is an art that requires a thorough mastery of the content and form of one's message. It can even be said that improvisation is not improvised but relies on such diligent and internalized practice that it allows for letting go and virtuosity as in jazz or aikido." (Laurent Jauffret).
So, you have to be prepared to improvise. In this text, I present three main games whose practice prepares you for improvisation.
The theater is one of the arts that is full of exercises to develop public speaking skills because it is a public performance art. At Instant Theatre, several exercises related to the practice of theater are presented; we will mention a few that facilitate improvisation.
It is obvious that when you speak in public, it is to be heard and therefore it is necessary to speak with a normal rhythm, neither too fast nor too slow. However, it is also necessary to know how to express yourself quickly. In addition to helping you perfect your articulation, speaking quickly develops listening skills, imagination and verbal fluency under stress. This exercise is best done in the presence of others who are listening and who can tell you what they understood or did not understand. It is their feedback that will help you perform better.
This exercise is also practiced with several people. The stakeholders sit in a circle. One person says a word and the person next to them must say another unrelated word, and so on. The word must not be prepared in advance and a certain rhythm must be respected. The interest of the exercise is to mobilize one's imagination in a hurry by accepting to be wrong.
This exercise develops creativity, coherence and, above all, concentration. "The facilitator has a list of words. Participants line up facing him or her. The first in line tells a story. As soon as the facilitator says a word out loud, the narrator must repeat it as it is in the story. At the facilitator's signal, the narrator leaves at the end of the line and the next one begins a story.
Beyond drama, we have the untold match.
The untold match is a culture game that involves asking questions of people who must provide correct answers in order to glean points. It is always done in the presence of at least two people or at least two teams. The goal is to be able to glean as many points as possible in order to stand out from your opponent.
This question and answer game prepares you to think in a short period of time and find answers to the questions you are asked. Most of the time, you improvise. It is an excellent exercise that stimulates thinking by forcing you to dig deep within yourself. It brings out your level of knowledge. By the way, in its colloquial sense, the adjective "unreadable" refers to a person "who is able to answer any question": "He is unreadable in history."
Public speaking also implies being able to answer questions spontaneously.
Debate-talking is an exercise in public speaking games in which two teams are pitted against each other on a specific topic. One must take the affirmative and the other the negative. Although the teams are given the topic well in advance and prepare, there are at least three moments during which improvisation is heavily involved.
The first is when a speaker has prepared an argument and the opponent anticipates deconstructing it. You realize that your argument is no longer tenable and you have to improvise given that you are already in the middle of a debate and therefore away from your documents or any other media that can serve as sources of information. One of the rules is to refute the person in front of you, i.e. to show the limits of his speech. If you don't do this, you lose points. This second moment also invites you to improvise. The third moment is when a speaker from the other side asks you a question while you are in the middle of a demonstration. When you accept the question or the point of information, you must react or you will lose points. As a result, you must once again improvise and very often directly after the question.
In short, to perfect your public speaking skills, you have to master improvisation and even improvisation takes preparation. Through certain theater exercises, the match of the untold or the debate-eloquence, one prepares to improvise. A teacher who uses these games in his lessons prepares future great speakers because many of the great speeches are often improvised, such as the famous I have a dream by Martin Luther King.
Illustration: Pixabay - designwebjae
Bibliography
Collective, 2021 , "Ten Mistakes to Avoid in a Speech," https://www.laguildedesplumes.com/blog/dix-erreurs-a-eviter-dans-un-discours/
Fomekong, Narcisse, 2022; Speaker's House, "The Ideal Profile of the Good Debater," https://urlz.fr/lVtX
Instant Present Theatre, "Thematic Theatrical Improvisation Exercises,"
https://theatreinstantpresent.org/theatre-social/exercices-improvisation/
How Martin Luther King Improvised 'I Have A Dream' - Carmine Gallo - Forbes
https://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2013/08/27/public-speaking-how-mlk-improvised-second-half-of-dream-speech/
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