Public Speaking (Chpt 5) Study Guide

Identify methods of assessing and adapting to your audience's reactions while your speech is in progress.

While speaking, you should look for feedback from your listeners. Audience eye contact, facial expression, movement, and general verbal and nonverbal responsiveness provide clues to how well you are doing. Listeners' nonverbal reactions may indicate that you need to change or adjust your message to maintain interest and achieve your speaking objective.

demographics

statistical information about the age, race, gender, sexual orientation, educational level, and religious views of an audience

ethnocentrism

the assumption that one's own cultural perspectives and methods are superior to those of other cultures

gender

the culturally constructed and psychologically based perception of one's self as feminine or masculine

Develop methods of analyzing your audience before you speak by seeking demographic, psychological, and situational information about your audience and the speaking occasion.

Before your speech, you can perform three kinds of analysis: demographic, psychological, and situational. Demographic analysis assesses audience diversity. Psychological audience analysis helps you gauge the interests, attitudes, beliefs, and values of listeners. Situational audience analysis includes examining the time and place of your speech, the size of your audience, and the speaking occasion.

Identify and use strategies for adapting to your audience

Ethical speakers use their audience analysis to adapt their message so that audience members will listen. They first consider their audience; then they adapt their speech goal, speech content, and speech delivery to connect to the audience.

Identify methods of assessing reactions after you have concluded your speech

Evaluate audience reaction after your speech. Again, nonverbal cues as well as verbal ones will help you judge your speaking skill. The best indicator of your speaking success is whether your audience is able or willing to follow your adivce or remembers what you have told them.

Describe informal and formal methods of gathering information about your audience

You can gather information about your audience by informally observing their demographics. Formal surveys, with either open-ended or closed-ended questions, can add more specific information about their opinions.

Explain how to analyze information about your audience

Your audience analysis involves looking at the information you've gathered to find (1) similarities among audience members, (2) differences among audience members, and (3) ways to establish a relationship, or common ground, with listeners.

culture

a learned system of knowledge, behavior, attitudes, belief, values, and norms that is shared by a group of people

race

a person's biological heritage

sex

a person's biological status as male or female, as reflected in his or her anatomy and reproductive system

attitude

an individual's likes or dislikes

belief

an individual's perception of what is true or false

relationship

an ongoing connection you have with another person

value

enduring concept of good and bad, right and wrong

situational audience analysis

examination of the time and place of a speech, the audience size, and the speaking occasion in order to develop a clear and effective message

demographic audience analysis

examining demographic information about an audience so as to develop a clear and effective message

psychological audience analysis

examining the attitudes, beliefs, values, and other psychological information about an audience in order to develop a clear and effective message

open-ended questions

questions that allow for unrestricted answers by not limiting answers to choices or alternatives

closed-ended questions

questions that offer alternatives from which to choose, such as true/false, agree/disagree, or multiple-choice questions

common ground

similarities between a speaker and audience members in attitudes, values, beliefs, or behaviors

ethnicity

the portion of a person's cultural background that includes such factors as nationality, religion, language, and ancestral heritage, which are shared by a group of people who also share a common geographic origin

audience adaption

the process of ethically using information about an audience in order to adapt one's message so that it is clear and achieves the speaking objective

audience analysis

the process of examining information about those who are expected to listen to a speech