CO- 2
Class Observation – Dr. Angel Rios – Speaking 4 – 09/01/20, 1:00-1:50 pm, ZOOM
The class started with discussion of the the students’ first timed speaking slots. Dr. Rios went over the feedback for the student’s previous timed speaking slots. I was told the students had just completed their first timed speaking practice. The students were given a topic the previous week and were allowed 15 seconds to prepare a response. The students then recorded themselves speaking for 45 seconds in direct response to the topic provided. The talk was supposed to include detailed information, examples from personal life, opinions on the topic…etc. Dr. Rios explained that the goal was to work on fluency as well as accuracy. He told the students to avoid fillers and focus on the overall flow of their speaking slot. After recording the speech the students were told to transcribe what they said into the microphone verbatim. Dr. Rios made it clear that he wanted the students to transcribe whatever mistakes or fillers they used into the transcription. Finally, Dr. Rios provided the students with a corrected/analyzed version of their transcription. He made comments like word form or verb form and pointed out grammatical errors/mispronunciations made. The students will do two more speaking slots going forward in order to track progress. Finally, Dr. Rios went through each students’ plan for their final presentation and helped them prepare for it by giving advice regarding each specific topic.
Speech class for many starts with a lot of pressure and anxiety and it ends in having had fun and having gained confidence. My college public speaking class was not a problem for me but it was obvious that it was for many that were in that class, but in the end everyone was good. The similarities between my past class and this observed class are many. Sounds such as "um" or words such as "like" are not good for getting the point across efficiently and have to be recognized for how often they interrupt in our speaking. Focusing on the do's and dont's of speaking over and over again did the trick for me and I enjoyed it. I think this class will come out more confident because of exercises like Dr. Rios's.
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