KYAMBOGO UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

DEPARTMENT: FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL
PSYCHOLOGY
COURSE: BACHELORS OF BUSINESS STUDIES WITH EDUCATION
(EVENING)
COURSE UNIT: COMMUNICATION SKILLS AND HUMANITIES
LECTURER: MR. GAKOMA PAUL
YEAR:ONE SEMESTER: TWO
GROUP PRESENTATION
GROUP D

S/ NAME REGISTRATION NUMBER SIGNATURE

NO
1 MUSABI DERICK 23/U/BSE/08675/PE
2 MULINDWA EDDY 23/U/BSE/08553/PE
3 NAMULEEYI VIANA 23/U/BSE/10332/PE
4 NAKIGUDDE GLADYSE 23/U/BSE/09706/PE
5 BAZIRA PAUL 23/U/BSE/05138/PE

ACTIVITY
Qn 1.(a)define public speaking
b) Importance of public speaking
c) Challenges of public speaking

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Definition of public speaking.
Public speaking refers to addressing an audience by delivering a speech or
presentation to a live audience. It involves conveying information,
thoughts, viewpoints, or messages to a gathered group.
Public speaking skills are valuable in various professional, academic, and
personal settings, as they enable individuals to effectively convey their
ideas, influence others, build rapport, and inspire action.
Public speaking can take place in various settings, such as conferences,
seminars, meetings, lectures, debates, workshops, ceremonies, and public
gatherings.
Good public speaking skills entail storytelling, preparation, and practice,
clear articulation, confidence, effective body language, use of visual aids,
audience analysis, humour, clarity and conciseness, and feedback
incorporation

Importance of public speaking

 Public speaking enables sharing information with an audience
regarding a pre-determined topic. It helps to provide information or
an update or even persuade them to take up some activities or
actions. For example, the President usually addresses the country on
pertinent issues in the county to provide information and the way
forward. A case in point was in Covid period where the President
would periodically provide statistics on the pandemic and ways of
averting it.
 Public speaking motivates listeners to make a change. It could
be to stop or start something, try something new, or reach their
goals. Public speaking is important because the speaker can
motivate others to go in the direction they wish, and the speaker
can motivate others to be their best selves. Headteachers of schools
usually prepare presentations on behavioral change to enable
students to adapt to school expectations and culture in case some
wrongdoings have been going on.
 Public speaking is one of the considerations for promotions and
career development for people. Most organizations prefer people
who can communicate their ideas to the public with ease which
leads to the growth of the company. People with good public
speaking skills end up climbing the ladder in the organization
hierarchy very fast as it is believed they can provide direction and
motivate others to follow company object
 Public speaking provides the presenter with self confidence in the process of
delivering the message. The public speaker gets used to facing and responding to the

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 audience which enable effective message delivery that encourages feedback from
the audience. Whereby the feedback gotten can be used to make strategic decision.
 It helps in career advancements as public speaking professions are highly valued in
the work environment as they are highly considered in most job interviews,
presentations, and meetings because most of the employers look for people who can
clearly confidently present or share their thoughts.
 Public speaking enhances the overall communication skills of a
person, including verbal and nonverbal communication, active
listening, and empathy. With several public speaking sessions, the
presenter gains experience in how to deliver information to the
various groups of people hence becoming appealing. For example,
how one presents to elders is not the same way they present to
students.
 Engaging in public speaking can foster the expansion of one's
knowledge base, as speakers often conduct thorough research
beforehand to ensure the accuracy of the information they present.
Through this process, speakers deepen their understanding of
various topics, thereby broadening their expertise across multiple
topics.
 Public speaking helps the speaker to gain critical thinking skills as he has to be a
problem solver to engage him/herself in the discussions with the audience and
provide the desirable answers to the questions that may arise in the due course.
These need for engaging in hot discussions needs strategic or critical thinkingcs.
 Public speaking can be a source of popularity and influence.
Good public speaking skills may earn a person popularity and
following and eventually open opportunities for bigger opportunities.
For example, several journalists who were eloquent have now joined
politics and such skills and popularity helped them to campaign and
emerge victorious. An example can be Hon. Joel Senyonyi, Hon.
Agnes Nandutu, and many others.
 Public speaking provides speakers with opportunities to network
and connect with other professionals and experts. It allows them to
build relationships, expand their professional network, and establish
themselves as opinion leaders in their field. Several motivational
speakers after presenting for one company are invited to go and
present in other companies depending on how good they deliver
their content. A case in point a speaker may work in one school
motivating the students.
 it maximizes interview skills forex ample question answer approach that helps him
to improve on the professional gains, better personality forex ample one no longer
fears or gamble while talking to the public.

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Challenges of public speaking
Public speaking poses various challenges that both speakers and
audience members may face. Some of them include;
 Lack of Eye Contact. When giving a presentation, it's important to
make eye contact with your audience. This helps build trust and
connection. Aim to look at each person in the audience for a few
seconds, making sure to include people at the back and sides of the
room. This will help you build rapport and connect with your
audience.
 By using jargon and technical language while attempting to
sound more knowledgeable and credible can ultimately fail and
result in separating you from the audience as they do not
understand what you are talking about. Use a language that is
understandable for all to remain relevant to the audience.
 Language barriers may sometimes restrict public speaking,
particularly when the speaker is proficient in only one language that
may not be understandable to the entire audience. Consequently,
this constrains the presentation's reach, restricting it to a smaller
audience. This is especially the case in situations where
presentation is being made to a native community.
 Time Management can be challenging in publis speaking.
Balancing the content of the speech with the allocated time frame
can sometimes be difficult, leading to incomplete coverage of key
points, or exceeding the time limit. Exceeding the time frame many
times makes the audience become restless.
 Fear of failure as most speaker want to succeed but they fear to make mistakes
during the presentation that may result into negative judgements by the audience
hence hindering the speaker’s performance.
 Non verbal communication forexample the speaker may be making a gesture , body
language, eye contact that may not correspond with the information intended to be
heard or understood by the listeners.
 Poor delivery: Sometimes there is poor presentation of
information. That can be, for example, people rushing through
because they’re not very comfortable being in front of an audience.
They just rush through all their lines very quickly. It could also be
because of inadequate information. This leads to loss of track for the
audience leading to no impact.

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  Technical problems forex ample when dealing with computerized systems like the
laptops, microphones and power shedding which can disrupt the information
delivery. These may confuse both the listener`s and speakers’ attention hence a
challenge to public speaking.
 Not Engaging the Audience: There is a need to keep the
presentation interactive and engaging. For example, you could ask
your audience questions, encourage discussion, and use examples
to make your points more relatable. If your audience is disengaged,
they are less likely to remember the information you present and
less likely to take action on it.
 Stage fright where some speakers become anxious or nervous
before presenting to an audience can affect the preparation and
content leading to poor presentation. The presenter may forget
some of the content in the process. Besides, anxiety affects the
delivery since the explanations are not free flowing.
 Poor body language: The non-verbal communication is just as
important as your words. stand tall, and use purposeful gestures to
emphasize your points. Poor body language affects the attention of
the audience especially in formal settings. Professionals prefer
public speakers who present information professionally.
 Lack of preparation since most of the speakers may spark into the presentation
without earlier preparation like organizing the content to be discussed during the
presentation may hinder the speaker’s performance by delivering non
coherent/work that is not flowing.

References;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_speaking
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wm-businesscommunicationmgrs/
chapter/what-is-public-speaking/
https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-public-speaking-and-why-do-i-
need-it.html
https://www.uopeople.edu/blog/why-is-public-speaking-important/
https://sholakaye.com/learning-centre/what-are-the-top-5-problems-
people-have-with-public-speaking/

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