Chapter 18, p. 443
CHAPTER 18
Your Body in Delivery
CHAPTER CONTENT OUTLINE
I. Pay attention to body language.
A. Audience members pay close attention to the messages sent by the speaker’s body
language: facial expressions, eye behavior, gestures, and general body movements.
B. Animate your facial expressions.
2. Few behaviors are as effective at building rapport with an audience as smiling.
a. A smile is a sign of mutual welcome, comfort, interest, and goodwill.
b. Smiling can help the speaker relax.
Avoid a deadpan expression.
C. Maintain eye contact.
2. Eye contact maintains quality of direct delivery, lets people know they are
3. Speakers should use scanning, or the movement of their gaze from one listener to
another, pausing to make eye contact.
D. Use gestures that feel natural.
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1. Use natural and spontaneous physical gestures.
3. Eliminate distracting gestures.
5. Practice gestures that feel natural to you.
E. Create a feeling of immediacy.
2. A speaker who remains completely stationary behind a microphone or podium, also
known as a talking head, runs the chance of losing the audience to boredom.
F. Maintain good posture.
II. Practice the delivery.
A. Practice is essential to effective delivery.
B. Focus on the message.
C. Plan ahead and practice often.
2. Record the speech.
4. Practice with your presentation aids.
6. Visualize the setting in which you will speak.
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8. Schedule practice sessions early so you have time to prepare.
KEY TERMS
nonverbal communication meaning of a speaker’s words conveyed by voice, body language, and
appearance
body language bodily activity of the speaker and the meaning the audience assigns to this activity
scanning technique for creating eye contact in large audiences. The speaker moves his or her gaze
across an audience from one listener to another and from one section to another, pausing to
CHAPTER STUDY GUIDE
I. SUMMARY QUESTIONS
How does a speaker’s body language—gestures, eye behavior, and body movements—affect
the way an audience receives the spoken message?
By our facial expressions, audiences can gauge whether we are excited, disenchanted, or
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Why is practicing speech delivery so important? What are some key points to remember
when practicing a speech?
II. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Why is eye contact critical to effective delivery?
2. When selecting clothes to wear for your next speech, should comfort or appropriateness be
your first consideration? Why?
Have students engage in a debate on this issue and generate arguments for both comfort and
CONTENT PRESENTATION IDEAS
I. STUDENT ACTIVITIES
1. Record yourself giving a speech. Perhaps your instructor videotapes class speeches, or a friend
or relative can videotape your practice of an upcoming speech assignment. Evaluate your
physical delivery in terms of how natural, relaxed, enthusiastic, and direct your nonverbal
behavior is. Pay particular attention to your facial expressions and eye contact, gestures and
body movements, and your attire and use of objects. Which elements are used effectively, and
how? Which elements are potentially distracting, and why? Specify what you could do to
overcome the distracting behaviors.
Have students conduct a visual diagnostic and watch themselves on videotape at different time
2. Log on to LaunchPad Solo for A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking and choose Chapter 18:
Your Body in Delivery from the drop-down menu. As the textbook states, 55 percent of
communication is conveyed through the speaker’s body language and appearance. With that
Chapter 18, p. 448
II. GROUP ACTIVITY
1. Discuss the attire worn by your instructors. Is it suitable for the tasks they perform in your
classes? Have there been occasions when you caught yourself thinking about your instructors’
clothes instead of attending to their instructions or message? Share the best and worst
examples. What implications do differences in clothing have for what you remember about
these instructors’ communication?
It is best that students discuss the attire of instructors in classes other than yours, and that they
III. ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITY
QUESTIONS
The following questions may be used by instructors to help illustrate important points in the
chapter and to facilitate students’ learning of this material. These questions can be used as:
• Homework questions
• Quizzes
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1. What can facial and eye behavior communicate?
Facial expressions help the audience gauge the speaker’s excitement, disenchantment, or
indifference to the speech.
Smiling: Smiling is effective in building rapport with the audience.
2. When practicing delivering a speech, a speaker should be concerned with which two elements?
• Focus on the message: The clarity of your message should be your primary concern.
ACTIVITY
Three Strikes and You’re Out!: The Importance of Nonverbal Communication
Purpose: To illustrate to students the prevalence of nonverbal communication and to emphasize
the various functions that nonverbal behaviors fulfill.
Instructions: Choose three students to participate in this activity. (Try to choose students who are
not apprehensive about speaking in front of the class.) Ask each student to think about a funny,
scary, exciting, or infuriating personal experience and to share this experience with the class. The
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