Talking to oneself can be an effective way to improve public speaking skills, according to Josh Compton, a senior lecturer in speech at the College who discussed a technique he has termed "freespeaking."
Compton led an exercise on Thursday designed to help students improve public speaking, called "Freespeaking: Speaking With (and Listening Up) Before Speaking Out," held in the Hopkins Center for the Arts.
Compton began his interactive workshop by discussing the conventional model of public speaking education, known as the "linear model." He demonstrated the model by displaying two circles to represent the speaker and the audience with an arrow from the speaker circle to the audience circle. This model, Compton said, has "problems."
"Speech at its best resembles dialogue more so than monologue," he said. "There's synergy in public speaking."
He enhanced this "linear model" by adding circles and interconnecting arrows to highlight the importance of two-way interaction between the speaker and his or her audience.
"Talk is messy," he said.
Compton also discussed the five elements of public speaking: invention, organization, language, memory and delivery.
On delivery, Compton said, "enthusiasm is important, and genuine affect is contagious."
But he said he was bothered by the claim that public speaking is "all about the delivery."
Compton then introduced "freespeaking," which he explained was similar to free writing.
"Freespeaking" begins by defining a set time for which one has to "keep the mouth moving."
"Don't stop," he said. "When we stop, that's when we block our thinking. Don't worry about something not coming out exactly the way you want it to."
Compton asked his audience to make a list of what they ate for dinner the previous night, and then asked them to spend two minutes talking to themselves about their list. He acknowledged how awkward the scenario can be for some people.
"Once you push past that discomfort, your mind brings you somewhere you wouldn't have normally gone," he said, adding that the exercise does not work for everyone.
For his next exercise, audience members paired up to discuss the "most interesting thing" they said in their individual freespeaking exercise.
During this portion of the workshop, Eliana Fishman '11 thought it was "fun to listen to a student's thought process," she said.
In his final portion of the workshop, Compton asked the audience members to free write about their dialogues.
"This dialogic model isn't just about speakers it's about listeners, too," Compton said, discussing the importance of gauging the audience's reaction to a speech.
Throughout his talk, Compton discussed the importance of viewing speech as a "process" rather than an end product.
Some students learned of Compton's talk through Rocky VoxMasters, a Rockefeller Center-based club that teaches students effective public speaking and presentation skills, according to the Rockefeller Center website.
"What Professor Compton said is linked very closely in our mission to help people feel comfortable and confident speaking," Rockefeller Center student co-leader Nicole Yunger Halpern '11 said.
Robert Smith '14 said he went to Compton's workshop because he is "involved in a lot of activities that involve public speaking."
"I enjoy politics and might eventually want to run for political office," he said. "I'm open to any suggestions people have about public speaking."
Deputy director of the Rockefeller Center Sadhana Hall organized Compton's workshop, which was sponsored by the Dartmouth Centers Forum. The DCF is an organization that "seeks to respond to growing political, ideological social, and intellectual dissonance in the academy and society," according to its website.
