Public Speaking Competition promotes critical thinking

Front row from left: S. S K Dilashni, J. Christina, M. Anussyia, Head of Arts and Social Science Department Choon Min Wai, Melissa, Wee, Asha M. Vanugopal, Kayatri Vasu with the participants

The Centre for Foundation Studies of Sungai Long Campus organised the sixth public speaking competition on 5 April 2019 at UTAR Sungai Long Campus. The objective of the competition was to enable students to build personal development on many levels, develop vocabulary and speech fluency, boost confidence and think critically.

Competition Director M. Anussyia welcomed the participants and said, “The purpose of having this competition annually is to equip the students with the skills to think clearly and critically, to speak persuasively and enable them to demonstrate their fluency in English as well. Besides that, it also brings students outside of their comfort zone and helps them to overcome their biggest fear of speaking in front of a large audience.”

Anussyia welcoming the participants and judges

Eleven out of 640 students were chosen to compete in the competition. It started with a short briefing on the rules of the competition. Participants were given a list of topics before the competition. During the competition, participants were required to draw lots to choose their topics. The participants were given two minutes to prepare an outline and then another three minutes to deliver the speech. The speech should contain an introduction, three main points with supporting details and a conclusion. The purpose of the speech should be either to inform, to persuade or to motivate the audience.

Topics presented by the 11 students were such as “Three reasons why social networking is one of the best ways to stay in touch with friends”, “Three things that I would not trade for money in life”, “Three most annoying rules that my parents have established at home”, “Three reasons why there should be stricter gun control laws in the world”, “Three most useful skills in a person’s life”, “Three reasons why dating someone older is better”, “Three things that scare me about graduating” and “Three most valuable superpower a human could have”.

The participants were Liew Yi, Pang Wileon, Christopher Soh Chun Min, Koo Xin Tong, Michael Mathew Tan Woon Yuen, Ng Jin Siang, Cheah Yi Xuan, S. Sahitra Lakshmi, Lim Joe Yee, Bryan Lee Khai Chuan and Wong Yuen Loong.

Melissa encouraging the student to participate in public speaking

CFS Director Melissa Stephanie Netto said, “It is encouraging to see students participating in the competition. It is not easy to do public speaking but remember that all of these are part of your experiences in life. We look forward to having another round of public speaking competition in the future.”

Judging the competition were Faculty of Creative Industries lecturers Wee Kim Peck, Asha M. Vanugopal and Kayatri Vasu. Chief Judge Wee said, “It is wonderful to see young minds speak in front of the audience. We used three criteria to judge which are language, topic and content, and delivery of the content. I noticed some of the participants were very good at using terminologies such as hate crime and ethnocentrism which was very interesting.”

The list of winners is as follows:

Champion

Sahitra Lakshmi– “Three reasons why there should be stricter gun control laws in the world”

First runner-up

Lim Joe Yee – “Three reasons why there should be stricter gun control laws in the world”

Second runner-up

Koo Xin Tong – “Three most valuable superpower a human could have”

From left: Sahitra, Lim and Koo during the announcement of results

Sahitra said, “I was very surprised but happy though. I give it all to my lecturer Nurazrin binti Mohd Aidil who has been a great support aside from my parents. From the competition, I realised I could speak without stuttering and be more confident. Ultimately, I feel happy because I have accomplished this. I feel everyone should be given the chance to join. Also, the participants should be given adequate time to express their thoughts clearly.”