Public Speaking: Notes on Communication Competence and Audience-Centered Speaking

Audience Orientation and Audience-Centered Speaking

• Public speaking effectiveness hinges on audience-focused content, not the speaker’s preferences.

• If your topic is engaging to you but dull to the audience, listeners may disengage (e.g., classmates).

• Speaking style matters: florid language, long sentences, or advanced vocabulary can confuse listeners whose native language is not English.

• Modern audience reach extends beyond the room via multiple media forms, including online platforms like YouTube.

  • Example: Zach Wahls’s three-minute speech to the Iowa State Legislature went viral online, viewed by more than $1.9 \times 10^{7}$ people (Grim, 2014).

• Your topic choice, purpose, organization, development, style, delivery, and supporting materials must align with audience needs, views, and expectations.

• First-class speeches (e.g., self-introductions) should be brief, conversational, interesting, and well-organized; do not read a personal introduction aloud.

• Self-disclosures should be relevant and concise to avoid turning the speaker into a distant or unfamiliar figure.

• Audience orientation continues to matter in the digital age, where a speech may reach remote audiences via platforms like YouTube.

• Practical example: an introduction about yourself could cover age, birthplace, time in current location, places visited, college reasons, major, hobbies, humor triggers, and career plans.

• Tip: maintain a conversational, engaging, and organized delivery to meet audience expectations.

• Public speaking gains additional nuance when considering the broader impact and reach via online audiences (e.g., Wahls example).

Public Speaking as a Transactional Process

• Public speaking is transactional: speakers send messages and receive feedback from listeners.

• This dynamic process involves ongoing influence: speakers shape listeners, and listeners influence speakers through feedback.

• The transactional view highlights the bi-directional nature of meaning-making in public addresses.

• Language and symbols can transfer meaning differently across cultures; for example, a thumbs-up gesture has different meanings in various regions (e.g., offensive in Australia, Greece, and parts of the Middle East).

• The transactional model helps explain why audience feedback matters for adjusting message design and delivery in real time.

Definition of Communication Competence

• Core definition: Communication competence is engaging in communication with others that is perceived to be both effective and appropriate in a given context (Spitzberg, 2000).

• Two key criteria:

  • Effectiveness: the degree to which the speaker progresses toward achieving their goals (inform, persuade, celebrate, entertain, inspire, give tribute).

  • Appropriateness: behavior that fits the speaking context and is perceived as legitimate (Spitzberg, 2000).

Effectiveness: Achieving Goals

• Public speaking goals include: $\text{inform}, \ \text{persuade}, \ \text{celebrate}, \ \text{entertain}, \ \text{inspire}, \ \text{give tribute}$.

• Effectiveness is about progress toward these goals in a given situation.

Degrees of Effectiveness: From Deficiency to Proficiency

• Competence is a spectrum; speakers are not simply either competent or incompetent.

• People vary in competence across different speaking contexts (e.g., informative vs. inspirational speech).

• The idea that “great speakers are born, not made” is countered by evidence that people can improve with practice and experience.

• Example: a student initially anxious about giving speeches delivered a persuasive on-campus smoking ban; with practice, the speech improved, sparked campus debate, and contributed to policy change.

• The power of individual effort can lead to large-scale social impact (the “power of one”).

• Greta Thunberg example (The Power of One):

  • One person’s action evolved into a global movement: by March 2019, about $1.6 \times 10^{6}$ young people in $133$ countries demonstrated by leaving school as Thunberg urged (Haynes, 2019).

  • She addressed the Houses of Parliament (London), the 2019 World Economic Forum in Davos, COP24, and the EU Parliament in Strasbourg, among other venues.

  • Time magazine named her the youngest Person of the Year in $2019$.

  • She was nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize and was awarded the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity in $2020$, donating the $1{,}000{,}000$ euro prize to charitable organizations. (Kingsley, 2021)

• Takeaway: never underestimate the potential impact of effective public speaking; individuals can catalyze significant social change.

Five General Ways to Achieve Competent Public Speaking

• The five broad avenues to improve effectiveness and appropriateness (to be expanded in later chapters):

  • Knowledge

  • Skills

  • Sensitivity

  • Commitment

  • Ethics

• These dimensions interact to improve overall communication competence and provide a framework for development across different speaking contexts.

Appropriateness: Speaking by the Rules

• Appropriateness is behavior perceived to be legitimate and fitting for the speaking context (Spitzberg, 2000).

• Context definition: the environment in which communication occurs, including:

  • Who communicates

  • What is communicated

  • To whom

  • Why they are communicating

  • Where it is presented

  • When and how it is transmitted

• Example contrasts:

  • A religious leader would likely avoid verbal obscenity during a sermon in a place of worship.

  • A student leader speaking to a campus crowd might use strong language to intensify a message and be perceived as honest or credible in that particular context.

• Contextual rules: changing elements of context changes the rules that govern appropriateness.

• Rules are prescriptive: a rule is a prescription that indicates what behavior is obligated, prohibited, or preferred in a given context (Shimanoff, 2009).

• Implicit vs. explicit rules:

  • Many rules are implicit and assumed rather than stated.

  • At times, implicit rules must be made explicit to address situations where enthusiasm for casual conversation disrupts a task (e.g., listening in a classroom).

• Visual/example: PHOTO 1.9 shows cringe-worthy wedding toasts where speakers use alcohol-fueled, off-color remarks that offend attendees; the example underscores why appropriateness matters even when a speaker’s intent is humorous.

• Balancing act: competent public speaking requires both appropriateness and effectiveness; later chapters will discuss global strategies for achieving both.

Audience Orientation in Practice

• The audience-centered approach remains essential whether the audience is physically present or remote (e.g., online viewers).

• The public speaking process should be designed with audience needs, expectations, and contexts in mind, guiding topic selection, purpose, structure, and delivery choices.

• The platform and audience reach can alter the perceived appropriateness and effectiveness of certain choices (e.g., language use, humor, content boundaries).

Practical Implications and Ethical Considerations

• Ethics in public speaking intersect with how we choose content, language, and appeals to emotion.

• Consider cultural norms, audience diversity, and potential misinterpretations when making rhetorical choices.

• The use of provocative or provocative content should be weighed against its potential to inform, persuade, or inspire without causing unintended harm or offense.

Connections to Foundational Principles and Real-World Relevance

• The material connects to foundational communication theories, emphasizing audience-centeredness and context-sensitive judgments.

• Real-world relevance is demonstrated by viral speeches, social movements, and cross-cultural communication challenges in public discourse.

• The theoretical model (communication competence) provides a framework for evaluating and developing public speaking skills beyond ad hoc tips.

Summary of Key Points

• Communication competence blends effectiveness (goal achievement) and appropriateness (context-fitting behavior) in public speaking (Spitzberg, 2000).

• Public speaking is a transactional process: speakers and audiences continuously influence each other through message and feedback, with culturally contingent cues (e.g., gestures like thumbs-up).

• Competence exists on a continuum from deficiency to proficiency and can be developed through deliberate practice and experience.

• The five general levers to improve speaking competence are knowledge, skills, sensitivity, commitment, and ethics.

• Appropriateness is governed by context-driven rules, which can be implicit or explicit; changing context can alter what is considered appropriate.

• Concrete examples (e.g., self-introductions, wedding toasts, on-campus policy advocacy, and Greta Thunberg’s global movement) illustrate how audience orientation and context shape effectiveness and impact.

• Audience-oriented communication remains crucial when addressing both in-person and remote audiences, including the ethical and practical implications of your choices.