UTAR and GUFL hold webinar on public speaking

With the aim to share experience and provide tips to enhance the participants’ public speaking skills, a webinar titled “Talk on enhancing your public speaking skills” was jointly organised by UTAR Faculty of Creative Industries (FCI) and Centre for Learning and Teaching (CLT) in collaboration with Guangxi University of Foreign Languages (GUFL), China on 3 December 2022 via Zoom. It was supported by UTAR Department of Soft Skills Competency (Sungai Long Campus), Division of Community and International Networking and Sungai Long Toastmasters Club.

Ts Ang Kok Yew delivering his opening remark

In his opening remark, FCI Deputy Dean for Student Development and Industrial Training Ts Ang Kok Yew said, “I would like to thank FCI Department of Modern Languages academic Dr Saraswathy Thurairaj for organising this collaborative initiative between UTAR and GUFL. I hope more collaborative work will take place in the future between both universities. Today’s event will not be made possible without the cooperation of the parties including the audience. Thank you very much for participating in this exciting event. What you are about to learn today can be used throughout your entire life; being able to communicate clearly in front of an audience is pertinent in every industry.”

Meng Yi delivering her speech

Meng Yi, GUFL Deputy Director of the English Department of the Schools of European and American Languages and Culture, on the other hand, gave a brief introduction about UTAR to participants from GUFL. She said, “The cooperation and collaboration between UTAR and GUFL have been and always will be ongoing and strengthening. We are very honoured to have Dr Saraswathy and GUFL Assoc Prof Dr Li Ziyu as our speakers for today’s talk.”

Dr Hooi introducing the speakers

The webinar was then followed by two talks presented by Dr Li with her topic titled “Tips for successful public speaking” and Dr Saraswathy with her topic titled “Enhancing your presentation skills”. It was moderated by FCI Department of Modern Languages academic Dr Hooi Chee Mei.

Dr Li Ziyu

Dr Li began her talk with a small quiz to test out the participants’ knowledge of public speaking. Quoting Stephen Lucas, Dr Li said, “Public speaking is a way of making your ideas public, a way of sharing them with other people and a way of influencing other people. Public speakers inform, persuade and inspire to entertain others.”  

She then shared the benefits of public speaking and the similarities and differences between public speaking and daily conversation. She said, “Public speaking requires many of the skills used in daily conversation which are thinking and speaking logically, transferring messages to the audience, telling the story for maximum impact and adapting to listeners’ feedback. The differences are, public speaking is more intentional and better planned, it requires more formal language and requires a different method of delivery.”

“A proper topic with a clear purpose, wealthy contents and convincing materials, and a reasonable structure and logical development are the qualifications of successful public speaking,” said Dr Li.  She also shared the tips for successful public speaking when preparing a speech (four “finds” to overcome stage fright, four “knows” to get familiar as soon as possible, use sources to increase credibility, give information and examples in your speaking that the audience can relate to, and practice, rehearse your speech and time yourself) and when delivering a speech watch out for vocal effect and non-verbal means of communication.

The four “finds” and four “knows” when preparing a speech

Dr Saraswathy

Dr Saraswathy, on the other hand, began her captivating talk with a brief introduction about herself. According to Dr Saraswathy, public speaking skills are important for everyone. “The benefits of public speaking skills include building confidence, strengthening oral communication skills, developing a persuasive power, making one listen attentively and respecting others’ opinions. To overcome our fear of public speaking, we have to stop thinking about ourselves and indulge in the topic and concentrate on delivering,” she explained.

While highlighting the fundamental elements to consider during a presentation, Dr Saraswathy mentioned that one should know their audience, dress to impress, utilise visuals (a picture is worth 1,000 words), organise ideas and practice repetition. She said, “The key to being a good presenter and being engaging is to be confident.” A story titled “The frog and the mountain” was also shared to encourage the participants to be focused and confident all the time.

Aside from that, she also spoke about the train of thought and how to train our mind with 3Ds— Deciding on the Topic, Deciding on the Purpose, and Developing an Outline. She also shared techniques to develop ideas for public speaking, the 4Ps of vocal variety (pace, pitch, power and pause), tips before conducting a presentation and the importance of body language. “Let our body talk on our behalf,” she said.

Train of thoughts

Techniques to develop ideas for public speaking

She then said, “The truth is, nobody is born a good speaker. Good speaking is learned and it takes a great deal of hard work. If you want to be what you want to be, believe in what you want to be and you will be what you want to be!”

Dr Saraswathy finally added, “As the Champion Representative of FCI and GUFL, we have encountered many challenges in organising this event. However, the efforts paid off. It was a very successful event. We have received the participation of 415 participants from UTAR and 409 participants from GUFL. GUFL is pleased with this collaboration. They are looking forward to more collaborations with UTAR.”

The informative webinar ended with the presentation of a certificate of appreciation to Dr Li, Dr Saraswathy and Dr Hooi and a group photography session.

A group photography session marks the end of the successful event