Suggestion 146. Focus on five or six different students around the room

IF YOU WANT TO:

• Have an interesting style of presentation

• Vary the speed and tone of your voice

• Know if the students are understanding you or not

Focusing on five or six different students each day and give your lecture as if you were talking to them individually.

Many speech teachers encourage people to think of a lecture as an enlarged or public conversation, and several excellent lecturers told us that they lecture to a class in the same way they would talk to a few students. "By focusing on a few students, I am more relaxed and informal; this helps me to concentrate more on the ideas I want to convey than the impression I might be making," one teacher said. "I think that, as a result, I speak with more expression and conviction."

Limitations on Use of Suggestion

  Discipline:  None
Course Level:  None
 Course Size:  None
        Mode:  Lecture primarily

Copyright 1983 by the Regents of the University of California

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