Public speech clinic reflects SGA goals

Author: Adam Dede

For over three years, MaryEllen Bertolini, a member of the Center for Teaching and Learning Research (CTLR), has been training peer writing tutors to double as peer speaking tutors. Last Thursday, Bertolini - along with Yonna McShane, director of Learning Resources - gave these students, along with several Academic Consultants for Excellence, the chance to lead fellow students in a workshop on public speaking.

Bertolini was extremely excited to see how well her tutors were able to bring students out of their shells in the short workshop, which, Bertolini feels, demonstrated the power of the exercises and training through which she has put many of the peer writing tutors.

Bertolini started training peer tutors in speaking skills after attending a conference that drove home to her the importance of speaking skills.

"There were a lot of graduate students speaking and they were looking down at their papers," said Bertolini. "I knew that they had put a lot of effort into these papers, but it wasn't coming across, and I thought, 'I don't want the people who are my students at Middlebury to be throwing away what they're saying.' "

Bertolini and McShane have come a long way in their goal to make Middlebury students more comfortable with speaking, but there is still more they plan to do.

McShane hopes to teach a Winter Term course on public speaking in the 2008-2009 academic year. However, she is facing difficulties because the deadline to suggest Winter Term courses has already passed.

The Student Government Association (SGA) has also been looking at the importance of public speaking in the long term. Spearheading public speaking initiatives have been Sophomore Senator Vrutika Mody '10 and former Junior Senator Katie Hylas '09, who is currently studying abroad. The two hope to eventually see Middlebury build a College Speaking requirement into the curriculum similar to the current College Writing requirement.

"The main thing is that a lot of faculty don't teach public speaking because they don't know how to teach public speaking," said Mody, talking about some of the problems she has run into. Mody went on to cite Bowdoin's curriculum, which has public speaking integrated into its first-year seminar program.

Middlebury is not near this point yet, but the recent workshop was a step. It focused on basic speaking skills, emphasizing confidence and the idea that a presentation begins before the presenter even leaves his chair to take the stage.

"So much of speaking happens before you even say anything," said Bertolini. "So much is about attitude."

With the Spring Student Symposium on April 18, many students will be giving presentations on everything from bee flower choice to Guatemalan traditional healing. The recent workshop was aimed primarily at these students, and also served as a test to gauge the interest of the student body in public speaking instruction.

In an interview with The Middlebury Campus, Bertolini finished by emphasizing that public speaking cannot be ignored.

"Whether you're going to be addressing 400 people, or whether you're just going to be asking your boss for a raise, it's so important," said Bertolini.