How to Deliver a Killer Thank You Speech

Writing a terrific thank-you speech is great, but the magic behind a really great speech is the speaker's ability to deliver it in a manner that matches the eloquence of the words themselves. Here are eight keys to delivering a fantastic acceptance speech that anyone can use.

1. Speak to individuals
Instead of addressing your audience as a large group of people, create "mini conversations" by speaking to individual members of your audience. Pick a specific person or a spot in the crowd, deliver a complete thought, then look at a different person, deliver a complete thought and so on. People will feel an instant connection with you because you're looking them in the eye as you speak.

Public Speaking

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Know where people are sitting so that when you're thanking the committee or specific members of the organization, you can look in their general direction to show them you care and to honor them.

How to Deliver a Killer Thank You Speech

2. Pause
As much as your audience will enjoy listening to your 3-5 minute speech, they will equally welcome appropriate pauses during your presentation. If you want to emphasize something, say it and then pause to allow your listeners a chance to reflect. Remember, time and space get all jumbled up in the mind of the speaker.

When you pause during your speech for 2-3 seconds to let a point or comment sink in, it will feel like you haven't said anything since the cretaceous period. But to your audience the silence will be refreshing and well received.

3. Slow down
Slow down. Slow down. Slow down. Even when they're trying to be mindful of their pace, many public speakers rush through their speech like an overly eager shopper at 5 a.m. at a door-buster sale on Black Friday.

Take your time, this isn't the Oscars. The orchestra won't begin playing to force you off the stage. You have all the time in the world, enjoy your moment in the sun.

4. Speak up
Speakers often overestimate how loud they're talking even when using a microphone. Speak forcefully and clearly into the microphone so that your voice sounds slightly louder than normal conversational volume to your listeners. If you're unsure how you sound, ask the audience it they can hear you.

5. Smile
Your speech is commemorating a joyous, uplifting moment not a funeral. Make sure your smile reflects it. Even if you feel incredibly nervous on the inside, a smile tells your audience that you're happy to be there and you're thrilled by the honor of being recognized.

6. Show and tell
Today's audiences are accustomed to unbelievable amounts of visual stimulation from Hollywood to the Internet to video games. Your challenge is to engage your listeners using just your voice, your face and your arms. No easy task. But you can answer your audience's cry for eye candy by using your entire physical presence to bring your speech to life.

Let your arms and gestures be an extension of the words you're saying and think about how you can communicate size, time, numbers, geography, etc. with you hands. Gestures are a great way to add punch to your speech, get rid of nervous energy and generate a temporary boost in your volume and vocal inflection.

7. Don't talk over applause or laughter
If you should be fortunate enough to get some laughter or applause during your speech, be sure to let your audience fully express themselves in the moment. Remain quiet until the laughter or applause dwindles to almost nothing and then pick up right where you left off.

8. Do the two-step (pivot)
The two-step pivot is a unique move you can use when you're giving a speech from behind a podium and it serves two purposes. It allows you to release some nervous energy and it gives the appearance of movement even though you're basically standing in one place. Here's how it works.

Think of the area you're standing as a clock face, and if you're standing directly behind the podium facing the audience, that is considered 12 o'clock. To do a two-step pivot, move your feet to left (one at a time) so that they are pointing in the direction of 10 o'clock. Deliver a sentence or two and then pivot both feet back to 12 o'clock.

A few moments later point both feet to the right in the 2 o'clock position, and so on. The two-step pivot is great because it enables you to address different parts of the room and it confers the appearance of movement while keeping your mouth close to the microphone.

Follow these time-tested suggestions and you'll be well on your way to giving the thank you speech of a lifetime.

How to Deliver a Killer Thank You Speech

Learn how to write and give your own thank you speech. And discover the secret to confidently delivering a speech from a St. Louis Public Speaking Training [http://www.5minutespeaker.com/presentationskillstraining.html] expert.

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The Power of Creating Your Own Experiences

Have you ever found yourself in a situation that was less than what you had hoped for?

Recently my team and I paid for a booth at an expo that promised to bring in large crowds and many like-minded vendors. What we got was far from what had been promised.

Public Speaking

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There were half as many vendors as predicted. Among the participating vendors, there was an overall feeling of desperation and lack (which completely conflicted with the products and services they provide to the public). Traffic was almost non-existent; approximately 100 people passed through the expo the entire first day! It was definitely not worth the time and expense.

The Power of Creating Your Own Experiences

I had a feeling of uneasiness that reminded me of when I was sixteen and arrived at a really bad school dance that only a few people bothered to attend. My mind said "You don't belong here. Don't even set your booth up - just walk out before anyone notices!" I was scheduled to speak at 4:00 p.m., but to whom? Only a trickle of people walked in the door. Who was going to stay and listen to the scheduled speakers?

Have you ever been faced with a similar situation, where you were very disappointed (or even shocked) at the gap between what you thought you would receive and what you actually received. What did you do?

Here is a suggestion for what you CAN do when faced with this kind of situation in the future. You can exercise your right to create your own happiness and fulfillment by making a choice.

Did you know that, regardless of the circumstance you're in, you always have THREE CHOICES?

Here they are:

1. Accept

This does not mean you agree with the situation. It simply means you don't waste your time and energy wishing it was different. Instead, you see it for what it really is, and you accept that it is what it is.

2. Change

The way you choose to view the world greatly influences the world's impact on you. By changing you perspective to a loving, positive, non-threatening point of view, your life can become very joyful very quickly.

3. Leave

How many times have you stayed in a situation that you were complete with because you felt you had to? There are no chains binding you! Moving on is a natural part of life. Sometimes the appropriate action is to exit. After you have done all you can do, leave!

Once you begin exercising your three choices, you will enjoy liberation and increased freedom.

At the poorly attended expo, my team and I chose to relax, give up all resistance, and behave as if there were hundreds of people visiting our booth. We focused on the people who did show up. It was obvious those people could feel the positive attitude, clarity, and joy coming from our booth. They made comments such as, "I can just feel the power of what you're doing!" And " You guys are different - you seem so happy to be here!"

My team and I had a lot of fun with the people who bought books and signed up to receive more information. A number of them even stayed to hear my speech - I had the largest audience of any of the speakers!

What was the secret to making a silk purse out of a sow's ear?

We exercised our three choices (to accept, leave or change) and followed our hearts!

Have you ever found yourself in a situation that did not make sense to your mind, but your heart knew full well what you had to do? Checking in with yourself is a powerful tool that can give you confidence and strength , even in awkward times. It may not make sense at the time, but as long as you honor what is right for YOU, you will always have a strength that does not come from your head. Instead, this strength comes from "being out of your mind" enough to follow what's true for you.

I felt such gratitude as I witnessed my team staying focused on the commitment we had made to present ourselves professionally, regardless of how well others had kept their promises. We had power and confidence, and it showed. We felt great despite the circumstances. We exercised our right to be 100% responsible for our experience.

This expo was a great example of the power of being out of your mind, which increases your personal power. Personal power is real power - the kind that is solid, regardless of the choices the world around you makes.

Don't take my word for it - try it for yourself! Exercise your three choices in any area of your life where you are frustrated, stuck, or bothered, and see what happens. Remember, YOU are responsible for your experience. Which experience will you choose to have?

The Power of Creating Your Own Experiences

Personal power expert Michelle Rigg is the author of You Must Be OUT of YOUR MIND: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating More Power in Your Life. Her clients usually see remarkable improvements in income, relationships, communication, focus, and clarity after completing just one workshop or telephone laser session. For a FREE 5-step course that will supercharge your personal power, visit http://www.createpersonalpower.com

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7 Steps to Writing a Successful Speech

The day will come when you'll have to prepare an important speech for yourself, your clients or senior executives within your organization.

Maybe to win a proposal ...

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Maybe to promote your business ...

7 Steps to Writing a Successful Speech

Maybe to minimize the damage done to your client's reputation ...

Whatever the reason for the speech, the majority of your success depends upon your preparation. If you don't prepare properly, you won't succeed ... period. If you've prepared speeches before, you know it can be a time-consuming, stressful and confusing process. It doesn't have to be that way. Instead, you can use a 7-step process that will help you save time, avoid unnecessary stress and eliminate confusion when you write your next speech.

Step 1: Research When given the task of writing a speech, most people will begin by writing what they want to say. This is a mistake. Before you write one word, there are a number of things you'll need to research first. These include the topic, the audience and even the venue, city and date where the speech will be given.

Step 2: Define Your Purpose The second step in preparing a successful speech is to define the purpose of your speech and prepare a purpose statement. Your purpose statement will help you determine what you want to do (educate, inform inspire) and what you want your audience to do with the information you give them.

Step 3: Decide Your Theme Once you've defined your purpose and developed a purpose statement, you'll need to boil the statement down to a theme which will be woven throughout your presentation. Your theme should be stated in one word, phrase or sentence.

Step 4: Create an Outline You've researched your topic, defined your purpose and decided on the theme for your speech, but you're still not ready to write it. Your next step is to create an outline for your speech. What will your main points be? What stories, statistics and other supporting evidence will you use to drive home your main points?

Step 5: Organize Your Content After you've done all your research, defined your purpose, decided on a theme and outlined your speech, you'll need to decide how you're going to organize your content. In addition to organizing the content, you'll need to determine how much time you will spend on each main point.

Step 6: Write Your Speech Finally! Now that you've done your research, defined your purpose, decided on a theme, outlined your speech and organized your content, writing your speech will be a piece of cake. Write with reckless abandon! You can edit later.

Step 7: Edit Your Speech Once the writing is finished, you'll still have one more step before your task is complete. You'll need to edit the speech for timing and so it will be easy for your audience to listen to and remember. It may be tempting to skip this step, but resist the temptation. Editing is crucial to the overall success of your speech.

Following the 7-step process I've just given you will increase your chances of developing and delivering a successful speech.

7 Steps to Writing a Successful Speech

To get your free "Successful Speeches Toolkit" visit http://www.wellwrittenwellsaid.com/freetoolkit.html

For more information on how to develop and deliver successful speeches, visit the "Successful Speeches Podcast" http://www.wellwrittenwellsaid.com/successfulspeeches and the "Successful Speeches Blog"

John Watkis is a Toronto-based freelance speechwriter who helps his clients use the right words at the right time in the right way so they can educate, influence and inspire their audiences.

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Public Speaking - How to Write a Great Speech

The first step to delivering a great speech is writing a great speech. Taking the time to write a quality speech with useful content will do wonders for your confidence and delivering the speech is about confidence.

Choose Your Topic

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Choosing a topic you like is probably the single most important step in writing your speech. It is very difficult to write about something in which you have no interest. So, give careful thought to the subject of your speech and choose a topic that will interest you as well as your audience.

Public Speaking - How to Write a Great Speech

Once you have chosen the topic of your speech, write a sentence that clearly states your topic and your position. Remember, that until you can express your subject in one sentence you're not ready to write the speech.

Develop Your Points

You will need to decide on how many points you use to support your main topic. The average number of points in a speech is three. But if your time is less than ten minutes, you may have time for only one or two points. Likewise, if your speech is longer than thirty minutes you need to add more points. The decision is up to you. But remember don't cut the closing, it is far more important than the points.

Once you have determined which points you are going to use, write a paragraph dealing with each point. You should use facts, statistics and stories to develop your content. The best speech will use a combination of stories with facts or stories with statistics. A speech with only facts and statistics will be dry and boring. Don't let that happen to you.

Create Your Opening

You want your opening to grab the audience's attention and prepare them for the message you prepared. If you have chosen your topic and developed your points putting the opening together will be easy. Your opening should state your topic, your position and your points. So your audience knows what to expect.

A great way to get people's attention is to start your opening with a question. A question can get everyone thinking an involved. Another possibility is to open with a quote that pertains to your topic or start with something controversial. Any of these will get the audience involved and keep them with you.

Create Your Closing

The most important part of your speech is the closing with the opening being a close second. Your closing should recap what you were saying in your points, have a story that relates to the audience and have a call to action.

If your speech was important then you will want to end with a call to action. The audience wants to know what they should do next and they expect you to tell them. So, tell them exactly what you want them to do and how to do it.

A powerful technique for ending your speech is to use a well crafted question followed by a moment of silence. This is a powerful technique you should work at developing.

Read It and Rewrite It

Now take your opening, your points and your closing and bring them together in one document. Then read your document and notice the words you have used. Try other words to see if you get a better result. Experiment with words until your document flows smoothly.

Finally, rewrite it. Every time you read it and rewrite it you will improve it. Do this until it flows smoothly and effortlessly for you.

Practice

Now that you have written your speech, read it and rewritten it; you must practice it. Practice it when you are in the car during your commute, practice in front of your family and friends. The more you practice your speech the better it flow and the better your gestures will become.

Follow this formula and you will have a great speech.

Remember:

Choose an interesting topic. Develop your supporting points. (body) Write an exciting opening. Create a compelling closing. Read and rewrite. Practice

Public Speaking - How to Write a Great Speech

I invite you to learn more about speeches and presentations at http://greatpublicspeaking.net/ecourse.html

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Opening Your Speech

Imagine yourself at mission control; 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 - Speak!

When the space shuttle blasts off - those first few seconds of lift are critical. It comprises a small portion of the total journey, yet if someone errors - they crash and burn. The beginning of your speech is much the same. If you error in the opening your speech will crash and burn.

Public Speaking

The mission of your opening is to 1. Grab their interest; 2. Establish rapport; 3. Introduce your topic. Here are 10 techniques you can use to launch your successful speech.

Opening Your Speech

10. Startling statement. Use a strong attention grabbing statement - with facts, statistics or unusual information. "The greatest fear is to speak in public. The second greatest fear is to die."

9. Suspense/ Surprise. Start with a suspense-building sentence or take them in one direction - then hit them with surprise. "It was a dark and stormy night - it was my wedding night."

8. Story/Anecdote. Tell a short story. Begin your story with the word imagine. It is an engaging word. "Imagine that we could travel back in time to witness the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk."

7. Quotation. When you use a quotation you tap into the credibility and power of the person who stated those words. "I have a dream, cried out Martin Luther King Jr." Quote from people well known and well liked by your audience.

6. Challenging Question. Questions are always powerful and engaging. This could be a rhetorical question. "Are you ready for the millennium? When the clock ticks over to January 1, 2000, will planes be falling and computers crashing?"

5. Compliment the audience. Be sincere - don't say, "You are the most beautiful audience I have ever seen." Instead say something that impressed you about the group, 'I am very impressed with the hospitality shown to me by you today. This lives up to the reputation I have heard about your community work.'

4. Occasion. Comment on the occasion - especially if it is an anniversary or awards night. "To speak to you on your 10th annual awards dinner is an honour." Or uncover some information about the group that outsiders would not normally know. "Happy Birthday to your founding president." This takes a little research - and is worth it.

3. Prop or visual. Catch their attention and set the mood with a funny hat, uniform, or stuffed bear. Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), would blow a cloud of smoke on stage before he made his entrance. It always got a laugh. You might roll a ball across the stage or play with a yo-yo. What you do before you speak can be powerful.

2. Previous speaker. Pick up on something a previous speaker said or did - especially if that was the president or chairman of the board. Build on what they said. It shows that you listened and gives you more credibility if you agree with the boss. Before you speak ask a participant, "What was the funniest thing that happened so far?" Try to build on this to get a laugh. Comedians call this technique a call back.

1. Engage the audience. Ask a question that requires the audience to answer, or one that is sure to make them laugh. "How many of the women in the audience have had an affair with Bill Clinton? - - How many of the men?"

Bonus tips:

o Don't start with "My topic is..." or "Today I am going to talk about..." Both of these are boring.

o Never start with an apology. "I'm sorry we are running late." "I'm sorry the president couldn't be here." "I'm sorry about the meal."

o Once you take your position on stage, enjoy a long pause before you speak. Silently count "1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi".

o Smile as you first look around the audience. Look like you are happy to be there even if you don't feel that way.

o Get them to laugh early. You'll feel better and they will decide to like you sooner.

We return to Mission Control.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 - Close - and that's another story.

Opening Your Speech

©EA George Torok is the Speech Coach for Executives. He helps business professionals deliver million dollar presentations. To discover how you might benefit from his expertise visit http://www.Torok.com

To arrange for him to speak with your people call 905-335-1997. Claim your free presentations skills tips at http://www.SpeechCoachforExecutives.com

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Public Speaking - Roast Humor and Insults

Being roasted is an honor, but you must be careful to honor people while you are roasting them during a public speaking engagement. Joke about things that are obviously untrue, then exaggerate them to make them more obvious. Or, you can outrageously exaggerate things that are true.

When choosing the butt of a roast joke or story, pick big targets. Never make fun of a small target (janitor, secretary, etc.). Make fun of the boss. He or she is still the boss after all the teasing and will look like a great sport for going along with it.

Public Speaking

Members of 'in' groups can joke about their peers and insult each other all they want. Bob Hope made fun of Ronald Reagan. Everyone knew they were buddies.

Public Speaking - Roast Humor and Insults

If you widely spread an insult or collection of insults, the group can laugh together. No one is individually embarrassed. The same remarks aimed at an individual removed from the cohesive influence of the group might cause someone to get upset.

Always clear your comments IN ADVANCE! Unless you are participating in a full-blown roast program, always make fun of yourself first. If you kid yourself first, the audience will be more receptive when you kid them. Here are some roast examples:

To an AT&T executive:

If a Martian called Ed's office to contact earth, he'd try to sell them on the benefits of our new 800 service.

Keep remarks focused on unimportant things that can't be damaging!

Folks we are here tonight to Roast Joe. I'm particularly happy to be here because I can now say in public all the things I've been saying behind his back. He/she is a man/woman of the world . . . and you know what bad shape the world is in.

Insult about areas of recognized strength and superiority!

To a great family man and/or community leader:

Joe's (neighbors/business associates/preacher, etc.,) all say what a wonderful couple he and his wife make . . . if it wasn't for Joe.

To a well-known philanthropist:

He is a man of rare gifts . . . he hasn't given any in years.

At a program with a long head table with lots of speakers, an emcee might say:

The emcee's job is not to be wise or witty. In fact, it is his job to appear dull so that the speakers on the program will shine in comparison. Tonight it looks like I'm going to have to rise to new heights of boredom.

To the audience the emcee or speaker might say:

I'm glad to be here tonight to look into your faces. . . . And God knows there are some faces here that need looking into.

Public Speaking - Roast Humor and Insults

How do you become a great speaker and get paid for it?

Learn the public speaking techniques that will create the career of your dreams and change other people's lives forever. It's easier than you think!

Tom Antion provides entertaining speeches and educational seminars. He is the ultimate entrepreneur, having owned many businesses BEFORE graduating college. Tom is the author of the best selling presentation skills book "Wake 'em Up Business Presentations" and "Click: The Ultimate Guide to Electronic Marketing." It is important to Tom that his knowledge be not only absorbed, but enjoyed. This is why he delivers his speeches laced with great humor and hysterical jokes. Tom has addressed more than 87 different industries and is thoroughly committed to his clients' needs. http://www.antion.com

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How to Be Happy

The world is full of different cultures-different colors, different customs, different foods, different priorities. With those cultures, within your own culture, every person is unique-different values, different thoughts, different beliefs.

Despite this incomprehensible variety, we often hear that people are the same. How is that possible? How can we be so different, yet somehow all the same? While a complete answer to that question is outside the scope of this article, the most fundamental explanation is quite simple: we all want to be happy.

Public Speaking

How we get to 'happy' may take a thousand different forms. Some people believe pursuing material abundance will lead them to that promised land. Others think a life of austerity and self-denial are the only true roads. But who's right?

How to Be Happy

Both and neither.

It's hard to find a step-by-step method to attaining lasting happiness, but the basics are pretty simple and straightforward. The most important realization, the crucial beginnings of any journey to a happier life and a more enjoyable existence is understanding that you decide how you feel in every moment of your life.

Sure, it's not as obvious as deciding what color shirt to wear in the morning, but every time you feel something, it's because you've decided. At this point, people usually become defensive, especially if they're not feeling too great because almost nobody wants to take responsibility for feeling crummy. That, however, doesn't change the fact that you are responsible for how you feel, almost all the time. Participating consciously in your emotional state is a big step forward.

Another understandable denial tactic is skepticism. People would never choose to feel bad. That's absurd. I agree...it's absurd. It's hard to imagine people making themselves feel bad, but it's an obvious fact. If you need or want evidence sit in a crowded public place and watch the world go by. You'll find plenty of evidence in the scowled faces and closed postures that people clutch onto pain and replay it in their head again and again thereby maintaining that crummy state.

Next, people inevitably point out the plethora of 'bad' things happening in the world as objective reasons why they feel bad and why it's not their fault. I mean, if the world's going to end or the economy's in the toilet, who has time or reason to feel good? For sure, it's a long list, but no matter what's happening in the world around, you still have the ultimate choice to decide how you feel.

I'll concede that there are some events in life that supersede our capacity to influence our emotional state, but they are the rare, rare exception. For example, I think physical violence can temporarily short-circuit our conscious minds and we end up feeling however we've habitually felt or interpreted how we should feel. The loss of a loved one is another time of natural grief, but that's about as far as it goes.

Here's why:

How you feel in any given moment can be described as the physical result of your judgment about the streaming stimulus you're constantly receiving through your senses. Please read that again. Yes, emotions are first a physical experience, a bio-chemical event precipitated by how you judge the experiences of your life. Of course, a lot, maybe most of that judgment is automatic. That is, you're making the same judgments in any particular situation that you've made in the past. I don't like broccoli. Speaking in front of people is terrifying. These are both examples of generalizations, taking one experience and applying it to every other similar experience.

The way to happiness is very simple, and maybe that's what makes it so difficult.

Accept.

Please notice that I said, 'accept' and not 'like.' There's a big difference between the two. Spending so much time thinking about how much you like this or don't like that will only sink you further into feeling miserable because it's so easy to find things that you don't like.

But on the other hand, if you accept the world around you, your life, as it is, then you're creating a much more stable ground on which to build your emotional life. Suspend judgment on how good this is or how bad that is. Merely accept things as they are.

That's the first step. Once you spend long enough, a day, a week, a month, in this mindset of acceptance, you'll have more space between yourself and your emotions. And it's in this space that you'll be able to truly decide how you feel.

How to Be Happy

A problem well stated is a problem half solved....but how do you go about figuring out the other half? To make any change, you've got to familiarize yourself with yourself. That's where it all begins and ends.

To get a free report on the subject, click this link

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How to Improve English Language Listening Skills in EFL Learners

There are four principal venues that are frequently used in order to develop listening comprehension skills in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. By integrating these resources, the EFL teaching professional can effectively aid learners not only in listening comprehension skills development but also in multiple aspects of connected speech production. Understanding a listening passage can be made all the more difficult by four key influence factors including: the number of speakers in the passage, the technical difficulty and level of the spoken material in the passage, the speed of the speech and the accent(s) of the speakers in the passage and whether or not there is any external support provided for the listening passage. (i.e., photos, illustrations, graphics, vocabulary review or pre-listening activities, etc.) ref. Brown and Yule, 1983

Speech and Language Modeling by the Teacher

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If the EFL teacher is a native or near native English speaker, then the dialogues can be modeled in addition to modeling pronunciation and connected speech examples. If the EFL or ESL teacher is not a native (or near native) English speaker, and this teacher does not have sufficient speech and pronunciation in English to model these aspects for the learners, then other English speech modeling and input sources can be used. Besides, we must not limit learners by thinking they can only learn and improve in a particular way. (M. Spratt, 2005)

How to Improve English Language Listening Skills in EFL Learners

Audio-Visual Resources

A valuable audio-visual aspect is provided to English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners by native-speaker-produced CDs and DVDs. Speech and cultural elements can be illustrated or demonstrated using authentic audio-visual materials such as movie clips and documentaries, student-produced recordings and TV programs or commercials, among many others.

Audio cassettes or CD – ROMs

A wide range of CDs and DVDs exist to provide native speech modeling of different speaking, pronunciation, national and regional English accents. Multiple varieties of English are commonly used throughout the world and having examples of these by which learners can be exposed to the differences in spoken English will be helpful in demonstrating pronunciation variables. Online, over-the-air and cable radio broadcasts can be especially effective and are readily available in much of the world.

Three examples of excellent online radio broadcast sites are:

• http://www.live365.com

• http://www.archive.org

• http://www.multilingualbooks.com/online-radio.html

Online Audio and Video

Increasingly, institutes of higher learning are making integrated online materials available to learners. These may consist of spoken dialogues, video dialogues, short stories, interactive games, poems, rhymes and riddles, spoken grammar, connected speech examples, movie clips, interviews, documentaries and even pronunciation lists. Learners can log into the website at their institution to receive extended practice materials to complement in-class learning. Many large, well-established universities, institutes and ELT materials publishers are making such materials available online to both clients and the general public. In addition, specialized websites for English language teaching have cropped up in abundance and offer a plethora of materials and didactic assistance for the ELT professional.

Some examples of available materials online include:

• Penguin - http://www.penguinenglish.com

• Pearson – Longman [http://www.longman.com]

• Heinemann - http://www.heinemann.com/

• Oxford University - Press http://www.oup.com

• Cambridge University Press - [http://www.cup.org]

• Heinle and Heinle - http://www.heinle.com/esl_d/

• McGraw – Hill - educational resources http://mcgraw-hill.co.uk/kingscourt/

• Harvard University – Open Courseware

http://oedb.org/library/features/236-open-courseware-collections

A web search using “online English language teaching materials” will yield a virtual bonanza of materials, planning and resources for the time-strapped English teacher.

Although listening comprehension skills of themselves cannot be “taught”, the English (EFL) teacher can guide the learner’s practice in listening and increment their intensity of study and practice to aid in the development of listening comprehension skills in EFL learners. This can be especially effective when the learners live in one Braj Kashru’s “outer circle” countries (B. Kashru, 1980) where there may well be a quite limited exposure to spoken English available for the English language learners. English teachers should be resourceful in identifying and acquiring materials to augment their classes in proving as broad a variety of listening comprehension materials as possible for their classes. Thus, by integrating any and all available resources, any English language teaching professional can effectively aid learners not only in developing their listening comprehension skills but also in the demonstration of multiple aspects of connected speech in worldwide Englishes.

How to Improve English Language Listening Skills in EFL Learners

Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an English language teaching and learning expert author and university professor in Cali, Colombia. Now YOU too can live your dreams in paradise, find romance, high adventure and get paid while travelling for free.

For more information on entering or advancing in the fascinating field of teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language send for his no-cost PDF Ebook, "If You Want to Teach English Abroad, Here's What You Need to Know", immediate delivery details and no-obligation information are available online now at: http://bettereflteacher.blogspot.com/

Need professional, original content or articles for your blog, newsletter or website? Have a question, request, or want to receive more information or to be added to his articles and teaching materials mailing list? Then contact the author at this website for a prompt response.

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Public Speaking - How to Get on the "Speaking Circuit"

"I have to get on the public speaking circuit."

As a professional speaker, I can't tell you how many times I have heard that exact phrase from people who would like to add public speaking as either their main or a supplemental source of income to their business or career.

Public Speaking

I have been professionally speaking in many capacities since I began my career in 1992, always in front of audiences for one thing or another.  So people naturally ask me all the time,

Public Speaking - How to Get on the "Speaking Circuit"

"How do I get on the speaking circuit?"

Here's the thing.  It's a big secret we speakers keep to ourselves so we know when we're talking to a fellow speaker or just someone who thinks they may want to be on stage somewhere someday.

There IS NO speaking circuit.

None.

Zippo.

Zilch.

Nada.

So unless you want to look like a total beginner, stop saying you want to get on some type of circuit. Seriously there is none.

Let's look for a moment at the definition of "circuit" according to Dictionary.com:

"a periodical journey from place to place, to perform certain duties, as by judges to hold court, ministers to preach, or salespeople covering a route."

and

"a number of theaters, nightclubs, etc., controlled by the same owner or manager or visited in turn by the same entertainers or acting companies."

Perhaps in the acting or preaching industries there may be a circuit.  And in fact, this could be where some of the confusion around the topic comes from, especially because public speaking can often involve travel "from place to place."  But make no mistake, there are not many professional stages that qualify as a "circuit."

Every speech you are booked for is usually just for that one stage and that one occasion.  And that's it.

To others on the outside of the speaking business it may appear there is some sort of speaking circuit.  That's because in certain niche markets a handful -- say 20-30 of the most popular speakers often appear at various events together or in some combination at the events for that niche market. 

And how do those same speakers get hired time and again? Simple: results. The information they share gets the audience the results they want.  When audiences are happy, event planners are happy.  When event planners and audiences are happy, speakers get a good reputation.  And that's what gets you the next speaking gig.

So don't despair that there isn't really a speaking circuit. Because as you get hired and continue to market yourself and grow as a speaker, the opportunities will flow to you as easily as if there was a public speaking circuit.

Public Speaking - How to Get on the "Speaking Circuit"

Public speaking is one of the most effective ways to market a small business. I invite you to discover how to create your own talk and the 5 easy steps you can take today to get started with this powerful marketing tool. Pick up a FREE recording where you'll get all the secrets of marketing your business with a speech. Go now to http://www.SignatureSpeechSecrets.com

Felicia J. Slattery, M.A., M.Ad.Ed. is a communication consultant, speaker & coach specializing in training small and home-based business owners effective communication and public speaking skills so they can see more cash flow now.

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