Speaking With Confidence

In recent times, in part due to some popular reality television series, there has been a resurgence of interest in the skills that go to make a good speaker. Whether for performance, making presentations at work, or participating in a church service, practising these skills benefits both speaker and listener. The ancients understood this – rhetoric was a standard part of their education. In church, speaking and listening is at the heart of much of what we do, and something we want to do as well as we can.

It was against this background that we set out on a new venture at Bloomsbury back in June. We ran a new course, the purpose of which was to share and enjoy the works of some of our many great authors and poets together, while giving us the opportunity to develop speaking and communication skills.

We were a mixed group of people. Some of us had spoken English all our lives, and some had come to it later, as a second language. We would spend the first part of the evening learning and practising speech skills through a variety of speech exercises, and then we would apply the skills we were working on by speaking aloud extracts of literature and poetry. These skills are essential to speaking or performing in front of an audience, but as we developed them we were also enhancing our everyday verbal communication and language skills. If English is not your first language, it is a good way to practise!

We are now planning to carry on what we started last summer by running a further ‘mini-course’ for the five Monday evenings in November. This will give further opportunity for everyone to develop these skills further; whether they are joining us for the first time, or continuing what they started in the summer. This time for our ‘literary’ input we are going to focus on sonnets - looking at the history and development of this poetic form as well as, of course, speaking some aloud and enjoying them together.

So, once again, the call is for all. If you are doing bible readings in the services, working or attending any of our usual activities throughout the week, or none of the above, but you are interested to explore and enjoy what these sessions have to offer, please come along. We will be meeting in the Howard Williams lounge from 6.30 for a cup of tea or coffee ready for a 7 o’clock start. We’ll finish at 8.30. We look forward to welcoming anyone who would like to join us. Please see Andrea Kvackova or Sylvia Barr for more information.

The sessions would run every Monday for 2 hours, to include a coffee break from 2 November 2009.
The cost is £2.50 per session or £10 for entire course.

So the call is for all. If you are doing Bible readings in the services, working or attending either of our usual activities throughout the week, or none of the above, but you are interested to explore and enjoy what these sessions have to offer, please, speak with confidence to Andrea Kvackova.

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