My First Speech at Montgomery College

This was my first speech class that I have ever taken. I was surprised that Montgomery College required such a course. However, I was also very anxious to take the course–I am not very comfortable speaking in public. I think that I do not have too much extrovertedness in me to be comfortable with speaking to a group. My informative speech, was the first presentation I had even given to a class. In high school, because of my limited English knowledge, I was never pressured by my teachers to do presentation. Often my high school teachers would just omit that part of my grade as they realized I still struggled with English. Because of that, I was very nervous to give my first speech. Nonetheless, I think between my introductory speech and my persuasive speech there has been some improvement.

For my introductory speech, there was a lot I had to think about. Having to talk about myself, in front of class full of strangers, was something I felt very uneasy about. The one thing that hindered my delivery of the speech was nervousness. I was very nervous when giving the speech and knowing that I was nervous subsequently made me more nervous. During my speech I can see that my voice is shaky and almost breathless, the typical signs of anxiety and nervousness. Because I was nervous, I decided that a good way to reduce my anxiety was to not look at the audience. That is very obvious by my lack of eye contact and looking at the ceiling for most of the presentation. Something that I found that needs improvement is finding a good closing statement. From the video I can see that people were a bit confused on whether or not my speech had finished. Finding a good statement can help people know my speech as ended, it can also avoid that awkward pause while people try to figure out if I have finished or not. Finally, something that I needed to improve was the swaying. Again, it was a way for me to keep calm and make my time upfront a little bit more bearable.

For my persuasive speech, I was less nervous because I knew what to expect and what to do. What helped my preparation was that the topic was very easy to research. However, I also realized that I needed to have prepared with more time in advanced.