It's five minutes until the bell rings. Eager to head down the halls, students in Carrie Perry's 8th grade English class at Blue Ridge Middle School in Loudoun County, Va., start packing their things. But when they see Perry pick up The Book of Questions by Gregory Stock, they know they're in for an activity that used to give them real apprehension: short impromptu speeches. Now, however, "most of my students actually look forward to this experience," says Perry. The impromptu speeches are only one of several kinds of practice in competent speaking skills that students in Perry's class enjoy.
"If you could spend the rest of your life with the love of your life," Perry reads from her book, "but you had to give up all contact with family and friends and other people you love, what would you do?"
Gathering their thoughts, her students prepare themselves mentally. They know that one among them will be chosen to speak in front of the class and that even though the speech will last only a minute or two, it is important. The speech will be critiqued by the teacher and class members alike. It will need an introduction, a statement of position supported by one or two arguments, and a conclusion.
Some students prepare by jotting down a few notes. Others begin taking deep, slow breaths, reminding themselves of something Perry taught them—that they should support their speaking voices with their diaphragms and not try to project from the throat.
A minute passes. Perry, scanning the names in her grade book, finally calls out the name of today's lucky student: "Greg." His heart suddenly beating a little faster, Greg makes his way to the front of the class. His friends Marcia, Kevin, Carlos, and Laura make faces at him, trying to get him to laugh. Relaxing a little, Greg smiles back at his friends and clears his throat. He knows this is not just another chance to talk; it's an opportunity to learn speaking skills—skills that require practice. Meeting the eyes of his classmates, Greg inhales slowly and begins.
A Lucky Day
Although Greg may not feel like this is his lucky day, he is very fortunate, contend experts. "Students with oral communication training perform better in job interviews, and in getting, keeping, and performing on the job," reports Sherry Morreale, associate director of the National Communication Association (NCA). James Chesebro, past president of NCA, states that "lack of oral communication skills is one of our most critical national problems." He cites numerous studies indicating that business leaders' major complaint about high school and college graduates is that they have insufficient skills in speaking, listening, and communicating in small groups.
"The business world is crying that our students can't communicate," agrees Perry. "Billion-dollar mistakes occur because people don't speak and listen competently. Neglecting these skills goes back to the assumption that because we can talk and hear, we're good at speaking and listening," she says. "But talking and hearing are very different things from speaking and listening." Perry defines listening as the process of receiving, constructing meaning from, and responding to spoken or nonverbal messages. "Listening demands a conscious effort," she says. "And if kids don't learn to speak competently, they'll be left behind."
"Many people think of communication as being public speaking," observes teacher Connie McKee of Amarillo (Tex.) High School. "But that notion steers people in the wrong direction," she says, because it leaves out so much. "If we look at communication broadly, it means leadership, teamwork, cooperation, small-group communication, audience analysis, and presentation skills," notes McKee. "And it is a life skill that every student who walks through the door is going to use."
Communication Applications
In Texas, an alliance of business leaders has influenced the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to require a course in communication applications for all high school students. This makes Texas the first state to require such a course for every graduating student. The TEA has commissioned Virginia Meiers, an associate professor of speech communication at Wayland Baptist University, to write a textbook for the course.
According to Meiers, the book (to be published by McGraw/Hill), will emphasize professional communications and social skills. Along with information on preparing résumés, writing cover letters, and other business applications, the new text will offer guidance on giving oral presentations, leading small-group discussions, working in teams, handling interviews and introductions, and meeting the public. "It will include material on people skills such as civility, courtesy, citizenship, and volunteer work," she notes. "I think these are important social skills that we must not neglect."
"Students lacking these competencies are at an enormous disadvantage," agrees Heidi Hayes Jacobs, an expert on interdisciplinary learning. "If teachers want to give their students real power, they should have them practice their speaking voices."
Jacobs points out that even when people have the skills for a job, they are often passed by if they do not present themselves clearly, lucidly, and with correct grammar. "Employers listen for whether job candidates can pose questions and listen reflectively. They listen for choice of vocabulary, for precise, clear words."
Jacobs relates the story of a business that placed an ad in the New York Times for people to work in theaters. The ad directed interested candidates to make their first contact by phone. And when people began calling, "the company reps knew in 10 seconds whether they wanted the person to come in for an interview," says Jacobs, illustrating how quickly employers form judgments about qualifications based on speaking skills.
Jacobs also observes that some well-intentioned educational practices do not necessarily teach students to speak. "One of the worst practices I know is the infamous class report," she says, referring to the practice of having students stand and read a paper. "That is not learning to speak," argues Jacobs.
She notes that real speaking depends on context. "There's the language of the home, the hallway, the playground, the workplace. Students need to learn to use different language depending on the context," Jacobs says.
Karen Smith, associate executive director of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), adds that each context requires its own discourse style. "Just as the different genres of writing demand a certain form, style, and tone," says Smith, "so does oral language. It takes practice, and there's a knowledge base that goes with it."
Smith recalls her own teaching career at a K–8 school in Phoenix, Ariz. She found that even with common tasks—such as ordering a meal at a restaurant or making an appointment by phone—her students often lacked the language skills to do these tasks competently. "This made me aware of how much we have to help students think through each context: what the protocols are and what the language is for different contexts," Smith says.
For example, Smith wanted groups of students to read books and have discussion groups. "But they weren't really having in-depth conversations," she remembers. "I attributed this to the fact that they didn't have the language for a book discussion, other than `I liked this part,' or `I thought this was interesting.' " To help her students conduct better discussions, Smith gave them some terms appropriate to the discourse: narrative, plot, tension, conflict, relationships, and character development. She found that by modeling and practicing appropriate oral language with students in small groups, she enabled them to have more meaningful conversations in an academic context. Using language that is appropriate to the context is known as communication competency, notes Smith.
Learning Through Speaking
Besides improving their oral skills, the experience of talking through ideas improves students' power with reading and writing, say experts. Virginia Meiers recalls an experience from early in her career when she taught a class of high school sophomores with low reading abilities. "I had to get them through four novels and pass a standardized test," she remembers. "The first novel was Tom Sawyer, and the next one was Moby Dick. I didn't know what I was going to do."
But relying on what she knew from her study of oral language and theater, Meiers brought in old costumes and a few props: barrels, a trunk, and some ladders. She moved the desks out of the way and lined the classroom walls with butcher paper, which she painted to look like a picket fence. Assigning the parts of Becky, Tom, and others, she directed her students to arrange the props the way they wanted them, to get into costume and into character, and to play out the story.
Instead of giving her students the whole novel, which she was sure would intimidate them, Meiers handed out photocopies of only a few pages at a time, like a script. "By putting themselves into the text, talking about the characters and plot, reading and performing the story as a play, they began to get an idea of what reading is and what literature is," she says.
"At the end of each class, to debrief, we'd write graffiti on the fence. These became our review notes," explains Meiers. And the "marvelous thing," she notes proudly, was that "these kids who couldn't read knocked the top off of our standardized test."
With Moby Dick, however, Meiers was sure she was in real trouble. "But you know what? They could read it. And they could talk about it. And they could understand it," Meiers says. "So that's where I'm coming from. I see oral communication as basic to all communication. We think in oral language." The emphasis that educators put on reading and writing must be supported by an equal, if not greater, emphasis on oral language skills, insists Meiers.
"When kids are trying to come to terms with a complex concept," adds Smith of NCTE, "we need to let them talk it out with each other, ask each other questions, to brainstorm, to use talk as a tool for learning." Smith laments the fact that many teachers are reluctant to take time to let students do exploratory talk because it "feels messy or uncontrolled." But she insists that talking moves children's understanding forward.
Hidden Abilities
In her communication skills class at Taos High School in New Mexico, Cat Bennett teaches those students who don't enroll in drama, debate, or foreign languages. "These are kids who would not normally want to do any kind of oral presentation," notes Bennett. But because she believes that competent speaking ability is the one skill that everyone needs, she has them make several kinds of speeches.
"We began with basic introductions—only 30 seconds long," she says. For some, it was a frightening experience just to tell three things about themselves that their classmates wouldn't otherwise know. After that came the assignment to explain a process, such as how a car engine works. Then it was an informational speech followed by a demonstration. As a bridge to persuasive speeches, Bennett had her students do eulogies. Next came mock interviews.
"Everybody in this class is doing better than they did before," says Bennett, "and some of them are doing pretty well. They're discovering an ability that they didn't know they had. They're saying, `I can do this! I like it.' " Explaining that her goal is not to create great orators, Bennett states that she just wants to do her part to ensure that her students develop skills they'll need after high school. "You can get through life without algebra and calculus," she says. "But I don't think you can get through life without communicating."
Bennett confides that some schools in New Mexico offer the communications skills course as almost completely written, with no speaking opportunities for students. Considering both the immediate and long-term advantages of learning oral communication skills, Bennett's students are like Greg—lucky indeed.
Bob Edwards, host of Morning Edition on National Public Radio and known for his extraordinary rapport with listeners, shared these thoughts with us on the importance of learning to speak well.
I think you succeed more in business or in any kind of occupational area if you can speak well, advance your position, defend your position, argue for it in a polite way without alienating people—without insulting the other guy's work. You have to somehow suggest that your idea is better. The other person is advancing an idea, too, so you're in competition. You have to articulate your idea. And all that is part of public speaking, even though it may not be a formal address. It might be only five people around a conference table or just one-on-one with your boss.
I hope schools can do something about the Valley Girl speak. It's appalling! When I hear that, I just tune out. It sounds like someone whose entire reality is the gang at the mall. And it could be a very intelligent person, but I've already tuned him or her out.
I listened to the radio as a kid, and by the age of three I knew I wanted to be one of the voices in the box. It sounded like a magical thing to be, and what a wonderful thing it would be if I could do that, too. So once I could read, I practiced reading the newspaper out loud. Not to my parents or to my friends—just to the air. I was much too introverted to read to an audience. A lot of shy people are attracted to the radio, I think. It's our way of being out there without being seen.Radio is unique. It's intimate. When you're listening to the radio, you have the illusion that that person is speaking only to you. There's no such illusion on television. You just know Dan Rather is talking to millions. But in radio, for reasons I still don't understand after 30 years of being in it, as a listener I feel that person is talking to me. So it's a different kind of communication. To me, it's much more satisfying. It's a one-on-one thing.