Speech Contests

So You've Been Asked to Help With a Speech Contest?

Questions to Ask

• When is the contest? If it is on a weekend and they would like you to go, can you score some Daikyu? :)
• When is the deadline to submit an entry form?
• Do they students present a pre-published speech or do they write their own?
• Do the students have to send in a tape of their speech beforehand? If so, by when?

Resources for Pre-Published Speeches

Higher-level Students

• Chicken Soup For the Soul has many nice stories that can be easily cut. Here is a link to some of their free domain stories with bonus lesson plans! link

• The Little Prince is a classic French parable that is known all over the world that has many stand alone chapters Bonus in that there is a Japanese version of the book you can use along with an English copy if you can get your hands on it. Here is a link to the English version including the pictures.

• Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling are funny imaginative stories about the origins of the elephant's long nose and the camel's hump to name a few. They may need some editing for old English phrases and for length. link

Lower-level Students

• Dr. Seuss will need some explaining because of a lot of made up words but fun pieces with lots of repetitive sounds that make memorizing easier. Here is a link to a few of his poems.

• Robert Munch classic stories like 'Jonathan Cleaned Up And Then He Heard A Sound' or 'Moira's Birthday Party' are great, lots of repetition in the stories. This is a link to some stories read out loud that a savvy ALT can transcribe and then also give to their students to use for pronunciation practice.

Other Stuff

• Big ol' Bunch of fables, stories, and poems

• Project Gutenburg - a whole bunch of public domain texts, lots of very high level stuff though.

Do the students have to write their own speeches?

Topics like my friends, my school life, my vacation last year, what I want to become are tried and true topics but they can become repetitive, pity the poor judge that has to sit through three speeches all about Baseball Club. Try to make them as personalized as possible.

Current events are good choices for students and they impress judges. Scan the newspapers for ideas and see what the students are interested in. Have them ask their parents and friends for their opinions at least if they have no time or inclination to do research.

Interesting topics that are always relevant, Should we use waribashi? Over-fishing, Bullying, Olympics in Japan, Are co-ed classes better than single sex classes? Should uniforms be required? Should clubs be required? Why is English study needed?

Physicality

To gesture or not?

This is a personal pet peeve of mine: students randomly waving their hands because they feel they need to do something with their hands. I prefer minimal gesturing, but most judges seem to like gesturing. Just make sure that the gesture has a purpose. Don't make things too large. You aren't supposed to be miming the speech. Have your students hold their hands loosely in front of their stomach and see when they naturally want to move their hands to illustrate a point.

Posture and Fidgeting

Often students get up at front they get very nervous and that comes out in their body. Some students will start swaying from side to side for instance. Ask them to plant their feet further apart, this will improve their balance and should stop the tilting. Also watch that students don't unconsciously play with their watch, bracelet, pull on their hair, etc I generally tell them to not wear bracelets to take away the temptation. Try making a joke about the student's little quirks to draw attention and ask them to stop. "Your hair will come out if you tug on your ponytail anymore." or "I didn't put money on the floor; please stop looking for money on the floor."

Hair

A small note for female students, if possible tell the students to pull their hair off their face. If a student looks down a lot then hair will generally fall in front of their face. It is distracting and stops the judges from seeing the student well and connecting with them.

Some Exercises

• 1-10 - Demonstrate yourself first. Count from 1 to 10, at one you are very calm, then gradually work yourself up to 10 where you are really angry. Try going from happy to sad or calm to scared depending on the speech. You can do this with repeating appropriate words from your student¡¦s speech as well. Try the exercise together with the student first, then see if the student will go alone. Good for shy students to break out of a flat voice.

• Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Bigger! - Pick a short sentence from the speech that they can memorize ex: "Hello my name is Hiroko and I will talk about bullying." and have the student say it to you. Then repeat the sentence back to them only with more expression and energy. Then challenge your student to say the sentence you just said with even more energy. Use different intonation and try emphasizing different words. Don't worry about sounding natural. It is easier to get a student who is over the top to come down to a more natural tone, than to take a flat student and slowly work them up. This is good to get a shy student to speak up and to discover new ways a line can be read.

• Breaking It Down - In the rush to sound fluent there is a tendency to speed up, and whip through words that students don't understand loosing syllables here and there. Encourage your students to speak incredibly slowly first, hitting every syllable in a word. Exaggerate the mouth movements to make them very clear. So kindness will sound like Kaaaaiiiiinnnnddddnnnnehhhsssss. This has the added bonus of building muscle memory for your the mouth. Yes the mouth can remember the action of making words just like your body can remember dance steps. Good for nervous students and students have trouble with pronunciation.

• Speech practice - If, at the speech contest, students can't use a mic, they're going to need some work on voice projection. Take them to a noisy place -- near the baseball practice, by a road, etc. (I used the top of a big hill where I used to live, when the wind was howling.) Make them deliver their speech with you standing quite far away. Afterwards, tell what percent you actually heard. Make them do it again and again until it's audible.

Are You Helping Out With A Skit?

Questions to Ask

• Do the students have to write their own script or are they using a pre-published script?
• Do you need to help find a pre-published script?
• When are you presenting? How many times?
• Where are you presenting? What are the resources and limitations of the venue? (three entrances and exits, no control over lighting, etc...)

Costumes

It's easy to get hung up on making elaborate costumes, please resist the temptation. As much as possible stick to one item that represents that character. An briefcase for an office worker, a crown for the king. It's surprising how well a simple sweater works, plus if you have one student playing multiple characters, or if you have the fun of carting your gear across the prefecture less is best.

Test out the costumes before presenting, do your best to have one full out run through with all the costumes. Don't just assume you can find a cape and go looking at the Daiso for one the night before. That is a good way to get screwed.

Props and Set Pieces

Again less is more. To signal the outdoors you don't need a mess of cardboard trees, one will do, or better yet, a small bush. Throw cloth covers over chairs or tables to show different homes instead of using different furniture. Cardboard can be made to look like virtually anything with a savy painter. Ask around on the internet to get some painting tips for things like wood grain, masonry, marble and leaves.

Have only the barest props; less to keep track of and less to loose. Don't go whole hog trying to have a full table setting, some plates and chopsticks will probably do just fine.

Organizing Your Props

Have a master list of all props, (it's actually pretty good to have one for your costumes and set pieces as well). In columns keep tabs of whose is what, their contact info if need be and where and when it can be returned.

In another column list whether the prop starts on stage, where it needs to be on stage, or if it starts back stage and is carried on later.

The best way to organize props that have to be left offstage for later use is to have a prop table. Have a piece of paper with a small box or draw the outline for each prop used on it. Then on the day you lay the paper over the table you'll use for props and you can arrange everything easily and at a glance you can see if anything is missing. This also encourages your actors to always replace the prop exactly where they found it when they are done using it. Having all the info on a large piece of paper has the benefit of being portable if you are taking your show on the road to a couple of venues.

Threaten death if a student ever takes something off of the prop table to goof around.

Blocking (the fancy word for movement on stage)

• Always make sure that the point of focus is clear – where do you want the audience to look?

• Think of triangles. The point of focus will be a point of the triangle. The Hero with a friend on either side slightly behind for example. Also think of levels, a different height, like someone sitting while the others stand is a great way to draw attention to the point of focus.

• In North America (from the view of the actors) the farthest downstage and to the right is the most important place on stage and that is where the most important character should be most of the time. Japanese stage conventions generally have the point of focus further away from the audience and towards the center. I would make sure the actors are closer to the audience; it will make it easier for the audience to hear them.

• The more the audience sees of the actors the more they will be interested and engaged. The profile of an actor is not that interesting. Tell your actors to, as much as possible, keep at least one foot pointed to the audience at all times, this should give the audience a good view.

Other Physical Tips

• Actors can get nervous and sway and tilt on stage, make sure they plant their feet firmly and a little far apart, this can help.

• Watch out for actors fidgeting with their hair or jewelry.

• Be aware of how big your stage is, encourage your actors to spread out instead of clumping together or hiding behind each other.