Public Speaking and Presentation Skills (LCE3300)

Class contact hours: 3 hrs (tutorials) Credits: 3

Introduction Aims & Objectives Course Information Teaching Method Intended Learning Outcomes Measurement of Learning Outcomes Assessment Syllabus

Introduction

This course will introduce specific concepts that are integral to effective public speaking and presentations. By learning appropriate preparation techniques, students will learn to overcome their apprehensions towards speaking in public and thus become more confident and effective speakers/presenters.

Aims & Objectives

• To ease students’ anxieties about using English as a mode of oral communication.
• To develop an understanding that communication is a two-way process in which the listener evaluates the effectiveness of the speaker.
• To improve skills in listening, organizing, adapting to audiences, and orally presenting messages.

Course Information

Year of Study:	3rd or 4th year
No. of Credits:	3
Teaching Hours:	3 hours (2 hours + 1 hour tutorials)
Category:	Free Elective
Language of instruction:	English
Prerequisite:	Completion of LCE1010 English for Communication I, LCE1020 English for Communication II and LCE2010 English for Communication III are required for 4-year programme students.
Important Note:	Students are expected to spend a total of 9 hours (i.e. 3 hours of class contact and 6 hours of personal study) per week to achieve the course learning outcomes. Students shall be aware of the University regulations about dishonest practice in course work, tests and examinations, and the possible consequences as stipulated in the Regulations Governing University Examinations. In particular, plagiarism, being a kind of dishonest practice, is “the presentation of another person’s work without proper acknowledgement of the source, including exact phrases, or summarised ideas, or even footnotes/citations, whether protected by copyright or not, as the student’s own work”. Students are required to strictly follow university regulations governing academic integrity and honesty. Students are required to submit writing assignment(s) using Turnitin. To enhance students’ understanding of plagiarism, a mini-course “Online Tutorial on Plagiarism Awareness” is available on https://pla.ln.edu.hk/.

Teaching Method

Classroom material is presented in the form of lectures, group and pair work as well as practical activities and exercises through which students will learn to understand the fundamentals of public speaking & presentations and how to analyze the elements that contribute to a quality and effective presentation.

Video’s highlighting key skill presentation skills will be utilized to reinforce and enhance their level of understanding; and videotaping of all assessments for individual and peer review will allow students the opportunity to critique and learn from their own and others performances.

Lecture capture and exemplar speeches are available via the course podcast channel: http://podcast.ln.edu.hk/vodcast/public-speaking-and-presentations

Intended Learning Outcome

By the end of this course students should be able to:

• Speak more confidently in front of an audience utilising a variety of delivery skills such as eye contact, gestures, movement & vocal variety.
• Develop Informative and Persuasive speeches through research, audience analysis, etc.
• To enhance a presentation via the effective use multimedia & visual support.
• Critically assess their own speaking, and that of others.

Measurement of Learning Outcomes

The learning outcomes will be measured through four public speaking exercises that will be administered throughout the course. The continuous assessments will be assessed holistically focusing on student’s ability to plan, draft and deliver speeches before an audience, in addition to critiquing themselves and other speakers' oral/aural skills.

*Students shall be aware of the University regulations about dishonest practice in course work and the possible consequences as stipulated in the Regulations Governing University Examinations.

Student learning outcomes will be assessed in the following ways:

 

Assessment Method

Learning Outcome	Hot Topic	Informative 1	Informative 2	Persuasive
Delivery Skills (eye contact, gestures, movement, vocal variety)	X	X	X	X
Development and effective use of key words and cue cards	X	X		X
Development and effective use of key words and speaking outline			X
Audience analysis techniques	X	X	X	X
Word choice, fluency, accuracy	X	X	X	X
Use of examples, hypotheticals, real life experiences to connect to the audience		X	X	X
Use of visual aids & multimedia	X	X	X
Effective development of a Monroe’s Motivational Speech				X
Critically assess their own speaking and their peers	X	X	X	X

Assessment

This course is comprised of four presentation assessments, each carrying equal weighing of 25%.

 

Syllabus

Week	Schedule of Units	Assessment
1	Course Introduction P.P.P. Delivering Speeches
2	Selecting a Topic & Purpose Analyzing the Audience Preparing Your Presentation
3	Finding Information Supporting Your Ideas
4	Visual Aids & Graphs & Charts Describing Graphs
5	Organizing Your Presentation Cue Cards
6		Speech Assessment 1 – Hot Topic (25%)
7	Informative Speeches Choosing your Words
8		Speech Assessment 2 – Informative Speech 1 (25%)
9	Presentation Outline Listening Skills
10	Supporting Materials Techniques for Using Supporting Materials
11		Speech Assessment 3 – Revised Informative Speech 2 (25%)
12	Persuasive Speeches
13	Questions & Answers
14		Speech Assessment 4: Persuasive Speech (25%)