Part of an individual’s academic formation has to do with developing good public speaking skills because it’s the way he will be judged in social interaction; and a wide variety of possibilities will open up from here. Acquiring and developing the techniques to speak in public requires a lot of training along the way, and if we keep our objective in mind, it will be easier to win the audience, to sell our idea or to get the job. In this course, Language Through Speech, I have had the chance to learn that public speaking is not just about talking and delivering a message, inform, entertain or influence an audience big or small, but that I need to be aware about my purpose and all the tools and accessories that will take me there. The tips, tools and techniques provided by the different experts in the area through videos and lectures have helped me to better up my knowledge and be able to share the wealth as a change agent by spreading this knowledge in the classroom keeping in mind that the students become skilled in nonverbal communication. Professional speakers as well as social scientists agree that the most powerful instrument for convincing an audience is our body,but we needknowledge and training to understand those nonverbal cues our body sends, and use them effectively to our advantage. According to statistics in the United States, speaking in public is the number one fear of most Americans, and I dare to say that the same ranking could be shared in Mexico and other countries, reason for which I consider that gestures, speaking posture and vocal variety are the key elements to be a skilled nonverbal communicator. We understand that body language is broad, but we can cover all ends initially by using the appropriate gestures. Gesticulation is a key ingredient because it brings energy to our presentation and helps to illustrate what we are trying to say. By cognitive process we remember more of what we see because most of comprehension and retention are visual. So let’s take advantage of that and tailor our gestures to our audience and throw in a multiple combination: small gestures involves using only our fingers, medium gestures pivot at our wrists, large gestures hinge at our elbows and the large gestures originate from our shoulders and move outward, upward or downward, this is according to Deborah Greyson Riegel in Body Language, nonverbal communication. Our fingers, hands and arms are an excellent source for creating visual aides. Also through our gestures we control when we stand still and when we move to keep the audience busy and connected with us. It’s crucial that we coordinate our verbal and our gesticulations and remember to align our eye contact, our hand and our leading foot all together. If we are ready and we clam, our body will respond accordingly. Then, our posture will add on to our self-confidence by projecting that we are assertive and that we feel confident and comfortable, and that’s a message we want the audience to perceive in us. Presence is visible after adopting an upright posture because it will makes us look solid and taller, and it will display that we are passionate, enthusiastic, authentic and confident among other adjectives appealing a charming person and in control of the situation. Amy Cuddy says that our nonverbal govern how we think and feel about ourselves and that the body can shape the mind, so if we use the power of dominance through our pose, we become a person of power. It’s important to make sure all eyes are in front of us before we begin, and just like the drive test let’ make all the necessary adjustments to begin; the same thing before an audience, and these are the recommendations: Stand up with your feet hip-distance apart, keep your chin parallel to the floor which will lengthen your spine and make you look taller and stand still when you are at the front of the room. If you carefully follow these steps, you will manage to project through your posture so the audience’s eyes will be on you, and off you go. There is one more item to close the loop which will create a warm and welcoming atmosphere, and that will be vocal variety. The measured use of the right tone, pitch, pace, and pronunciation can help us to create rapport with our audience; once we get feedback, we can continue working with our projection by modulating our voice and getting our audience more involved. It is important to know our audience and use the resource of the pause to emphasize to certain information, orwe can also get quiet when we want the listeners to take notice of an important point. Debora Greyson says that slow and steady wins the race. These audience management skills will create an allusion of self-confidence, and our goal is for the audience to mirror this attitude. Gurrola. Summer 2014. Introduction to SPeech.