Download Delivery and Nonverbal communication Chapter 13

Delivery and Nonverbal communication Chapter 13
Nonverbal communication is any communication, other than the actual words, that
creates meaning in the receiver’s mind. This means that nonverbal com. isn’t always
deliberate, but is something the audience still receives as part of a message. It’s often said
that 80-90% of what we communicate is done so nonverbally. Not convinced? Take some
time just people watching and see what you can come up with about their thoughts,
personality, relations with those around them.
It is up to us to be effective in our nonverbal delivery for 3 reasons:
1. Listeners (audience) expects it of us: There’s a concept called Nonverbal
Expectancy Theory, which means that we expect certain behaviors from people in
certain situations—as in we find some behaviors normal. For example, a teacher who
gives most of her lecture with her eyes closed, is not normal, and not what we’d expect. It
can become very distracting. I once had a teacher who talked to the clock in the
classroom, and never made eye contact with us. I’m not sure we learned much, we were
too distracted with her behavior. We expect teachers to look around the room, and
certainly look at us when talking one-on-one.
2. Listeners make emotional connections through nonverbal communication. How
you express yourself is usually indicated more strongly through nonverbals than through
the words coming out of your mouth. The audience will feel more connected to your and
to your message if you are expressive instead of monotone.
3. We believe what we see more than what we hear. Think about it, when you
think someone is lying, what gave them away? Not their words!
Nonverbals for public speaking include the following: (Types of NV cues)

Eye contact
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Gestures (hand/arm movements)
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Movement: as in moving around the room, walking. I don’t suggest this or grade
on this unless you are comfortable. If you are someone who shuffles their feet
(“dances”) while talking, you might want to try this instead!!

Posture: Don’t lean, don’t lean, don’t lean!!!! Think of what kind of message that
sends! Condescending (you’re above showing respect for us, you’re leaning in at
a weird angle…), or low self-esteem? Laziness? Do you care about the message
you’re giving?

Facial expressions: Show us how you feel, hide your fear, these really help you
connect with the audience. Watch your professors and their facial expressions.
When do they seem expressive? Why?

Vocalics (vocal delivery): this is everything to do with your voice: pitch, volume,
rate of speech, articulation, pronunciation, pauses. If you want to use any of these
for emphasis, indicate it on your note card—underline the word you want to
emphasize for example.

Personal appearance: Yeah, how you look says a lot about you. Ladies get your
hair out of your face, guys, please no baseball caps (I can’t see you sometimes!).
How you look says whether you care about your message, what you think of your
audience (for example, think about what you’d wear to a job interview…now how
about a date?) I will require everyone to dress up for the group speech and for the
persuasive speech and it will be taken into consideration for your grade. I do
appreciate people who dress appropriately for ALL their speeches—not showing
too much skin, not wearing sweats. You can still look presentable in jeans. Think
about it. AND you can use your appearance in other ways too: Talking about a
sports team? Wear their shirt! This can apply to a lot of speech topics, so be
creative!!
There are 4 types of speech delivery:
1. Manuscript: this is where the whole speech is written out word for word and you read
it aloud.
2. Memorized: exactly how it sounds, it’s like memorizing a script.
3. Impromptu: we’ll practice a few of these. It’s essentially not having any time to
prepare, you’re just speaking off the top of your head. This can happen in interviews
when someone asks you a question you didn’t prepare for, or in meetings when you
didn’t plan on speaking up on a topic, but suddenly decide you need to.
4. Extemporaneous: This is the one I expect you to do in this class, I DO NOT want to
see the other types. You have a very general outline, comprised of key words or key
phrases. You may have them on index cards (you better for my class anyway). It’s not
memorized, it’s not read, it’s just cues to prompt you and help you move along. I’ll be
bringing in examples shortly.
Can you think of the positives and negatives of each type of delivery?