Speechcraft Educational serial #5

Gesture: Your Body Speaks

Yinhua HanMay 10 2012

Gestures

• Body movement

• Facial expressions

• Eye contact

Why Gestures?

Clarify and support your wordsDramatize your ideasLend emphasis and vitality to the spoken wordHelp dissipate nervous tensionFunction as visual aidsStimulate audience participationAre highly visible

Types of Gestures

• Descriptive gestures

• Emphatic gestures

• Suggestive gestures

• Prompting gestures

How to Gesture Effectively

• Respond naturally to what you think, feel, and say

• Create the conditions for gesturing – not the gesture

• Suit the action to the word and the occasion• Make your gesture convincing• Make your gestures smooth and well-timed• Make nature, spontaneous gesturing a habit

Learn to look for body languages

• Become a people watcher

• Watch television

• Study photographs