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Show S4 HANDBOOK FOR TEACHERS OF INTERPRETATION audience. There can be no good impression if the audience is made conscious of the speaker rather than of his message. An audience is not moved if it is forced to pity and sympathize with Feeling or action due to self-consciousness forget yourself and the audience will forget you-but they cannot forget your message. Nothing will assist so much in overcoming fear as practicing outside the class until one is sure, and then gaining experience in giving the practiced effort to the class. Speech classes should be the laboratory where fellow schoolmates become the audience. If they do not listen well, if there is no reaction from the class, it is thespeaker's fault. Insist that your audience-whether in public In order to execute well, prac 'or in the classroom-listen to you. tice-and a. great deal of it-is absolutely necessary. Summary. Good preparation will overcome stage fright. Relaxation is a cure for stage fright. Self-forgetfulness is a cure for stage fright. Faith in self and audience will cure stage fright. A dignified posture will go a long way in giving confidence. Face the Class. When a pupil is before the class, the attention of the entire class must be given to him. Your student-speaker should not continue until the entire class is listening. He must compel their attention. All books should be closed. The classroom should be made comfortable, and the pupil led really to desire to make good preparation, before the exercise of giving the best can be a real pleasure to each student. Other classes may be a drudgery but all art work must become not a task, but joy and happiness which come with the sense of creation. When a class is getting an understanding of the author's thought, it is a saving of time to have the student stand or sit at his seat while he reads. ,But when adequate reading practice and discussion have been made, and the purpose of the class becomes the giving of thought and feeling to others, then the exercise should be given while the pupil faces the entire class-preferably on a platform about a foot high, just suf a self-conscious speaker. calls attention to itself; , ficient to allow him to talk to the class as a whole. Noone gets any inspiration from talking to the backs of an audience, An oral lesson is a give-to and a reaction from an audience, and is not a |
