Public Speaking

10 CHAPTER^1 Introduction to Public Speaking and Culture

person’s achievements, or make your audience laugh. You craft your message in lan-

guage your audience will understand, using reasoning they accept and illustrations

that relate to their lives.

•   The face-to-face, voice-to-ear channel, along with nonverbal channels such as ges-

tures or tone of voice, is the most common in classrooms. In other settings you might

speak in a videoconference or record your message digitally and upload it to a file

server or Internet site where your audience can listen at their leisure.

•   Receivers-senders hear your words and decode or interpret them. They create meanings

out of their personal backgrounds and heritages, plus their individual beliefs, values,

worries, and judgments.

•   Your audience sends feedback. Face-to-face audience members can ask questions, nod,

frown, smile, or clap. Some may even heckle you. You decode their feedback and

adapt to it. For example, if you see confused faces, you might add details to clarify

your point. Were you to use another channel, such as YouTube, feedback would come

in the form of written remarks below your video. In this transactional process of

mutual sending-receiving-responding, you and your listeners cooperate in creating

meaning.

•   Noise, or static, can interfere with both the message and its reception. A mild case

of laryngitis might make your words difficult to hear. A lawnmower outside the

window (external noise) might overwhelm your words. Internal noise, such as listeners’

worries about being overdrawn at the bank or their hunger pangs, can also disrupt

the process. Finally, cultural noise occurs when cultural differences make the message

irrelevant or offensive, as when the topic or the manner of the presentation runs

counter to a listener’s cultural norms.^45

•   Each speech takes place in a specific situation. During the term, you’ll speak in a

classroom or perhaps an online setting. But in the workplace or community, the

situations will be more varied. Regardless of the context, room temperature, light-

ing, room decor, available technology, and seating arrangements all can affect your

presentation.

•   Finally, as this chapter explained, each speech takes place within a larger cultural

framework. Class speeches come with expectations about grades and higher

Cultural frame

Noise

Noise Noise

Encodes message

Decodes feedback Encodes feedback

Sender Specific situation Receiver(s)

Decodes message

Feedbac

k^ ch

an

ne

l^

Message

(^) cha
nn
el
Figure 1.2
The transactional model
depicts communication as a
dialogical process in which
communicators co-create
messages in culturally
appropriate situations.
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