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East Asia and Southeast Asia Today

Speaking and Listening Skills Activity

Responding to Audience Feedback

Learning the Skill When you are giving a speech, pay attention to the audience's

feedback, or how they are responding both verbally and nonverbally to your words. Understanding and using feedback is a vital part of becoming an effective speaker.

Follow these guidelines to learn how to respond to audience feedback: • During your presentation, pay attention to audience members.

Look for signs of attentiveness or boredom. (Focus on more than one or two audience members to get a true gauge of the audience's enthusiasm. Some members might just be having a bad day.)

• Look for body language cues that signal audience reactions. Are they watching you or looking elsewhere? Are their arms and hands open or closed and clenched? Do their expressions reveal interest, or do they look confused?

• If you observe boredom or confusion in the audience, change the tone and volume of your voice.

• Use more gestures, but avoid mannerisms that might be distracting.

• Ask if anyone has questions or if anyone is confused. • Add visual aids or humor to your presentation. • Finally, distribute an evaluation sheet to the audience at the end

of your presentation. Ask for honest feedback about your presenta­tion's strengths and weaknesses. Use this feedback to help improve your future speeches.

(I Practicing the Skill Directions: Read this presentation about Aung San Suu Kyi, who has worked to bring peace and democracy to her homeland of Myanmar. Then complete the activity that follows.

Aung San Suu Kyi's heroic and steadfast commitment to her country's struggle for free­dom began-almost by accident-during a mass uprising in 1988. Although Aung San Suu Kyi was born in Myanmar (then Burma) in 1945, she lived most of her life in Great Britain. Returning to Myanmar in 1988 to care for her ill mother, Suu Kyi found herself in the middle of a huge national protest against the govern-

mentIs brutal military rulers. She began speak­ing out against the government at rallies. Like Mohandas Gandhi, Suu Kyi urged protesters to pursue democracy nonviolently.

Aung San Suu K yi soon founded the National League for Democracy (NLD), a new political party. The military would not recog­nize the party, even though the NLD won a

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Speaking and Listening Skills Activity continued

landslide victory in 1990. Instead, the military placed Suu Kyi under house arrest. In 1991, while she was still under guard at her home, Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her courage.

The military government finally lifted Suu Kyi's house arrest in 1995. Wasting no time, and at great personal risk, she immedi­ately resumed her efforts to lead Myanmar toward democracy. In 1998, while traveling to meet supporters, she was stopped by the military and spent 13 days in her car during the standoff.

Because Suu K yi speaks out against any form of repression, she has been arrested a number of times. She also has become a sym­bol of peaceful resistance against oppression.

In a speech delivered in 2003, Suu Kyi revealed her views about peace:

"rA] life without peace is hardly a life worth living. But by peace I do not mean a life of passivity, I do not mean a life without action because sometimes we have to act a lot to bring about peace. What do we mean actually by peace? I suppose basically we mean a sense of inner security that will give us the strength to work for others and for community . .. . So when we talk about peace, we cannot avoid talking about basic human rights, especially in a country like Burma, where people are trou­bled constantly by a lack of human rights and a lack of justice and a lack of peace ... . I hope that the day will come when Burma will be able to contribute to more peace in this world."

Observing In pairs, take turns reading the above passage aloud. While you are speaking, observe your partner's reaction. When you are finished, make a checkmark on the lines below for any verbal and nonverbal responses that you think were given during your speech.

Audience seemed attentive

Audience seemed bored

Audience seemed tense

Audience seemed confused

__ Audience looked away

Audience looked at me

__ I needed to change my tone

__ I needed to add gestures

__ I needed to make the passage more interesting

Expressing After pairs are finished, give each other constructive and honest feedback on the reading. Compare your partner's feedback to what you checked above. Did your partner's overall feedback match the items you checked?

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(I Applying the Skill Directions: Practice reading a short speech to friends or family mem­bers at home. Pay attention to their nonverbal responses during your presentation. Respond to their feedback by using more gestures or modifying your voice tone and volume. On the lines below, write a brief summary of the audience's feedback, and describe how you plan to use the feedback to improve future presentations.

Assessment Checklist Assess your response to audience feedback by using the checklist below:

o Noted attentiveness or boredom

o Took note of body language cues

o Asked if anyone had questions

o Modified voice tone and volume

o Added gestures

o Added visuals and/or humor

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