Expanding Public Speaking Outside the College Classroom Setting

Los Angeles, CA, November 22, 2011 --(PR.com)-- Last weekend, California State University at Northridge hosted the Robert Barbera Invitational Speech and Debate Tournament. Students from throughout the state and from as far away as Texas and Arizona came out to compete in both individual events and debates that were held over a three day period. College students are given the opportunity to practice their skills in a fun filled event with other participants of similar levels from novice to open in Individual Events.

These events are judged by college forensic coaches, former competitors, student volunteers and faculty who teach Speech as well as other disciplines. One judge was Professor Rosalyn Kahn, Associate Faculty at Santa Monica College. She observed competitors in informative speaking, persuasive speaking, dramatic interpretation, and programmed oral interpretation. “I love to come out and see these accomplished students deliver such eloquent speeches on a wide diversity of interesting topics ranging from HIV in Cats, Panda Poop as Fuel, and the latest advances in medicine,” she commented. Kahn encourages her college students to come and observe the speeches as a teaching tool to help them in their own speech classes. Last semester she worked as a forensic coach at Los Angeles City College. One of her former competitors from City College said, "Thanks so much for those tips on impromptu speaking; they really worked in my competition today!”

Last Saturday five of Professor Kahn’s students from a high school outreach program at Franklin High School and one of her students from Santa Monica came to see the event. The SMC student was at his second contest and found the information valuable. He marveled at the “excellent caliber of speakers and the exceptional visual aids.” Many of these students were ecstatic to have attended the event and could barely wait to share their excitement with fellow classmates.

Today she will help another of her colleges, Rio Hondo College in Whittier as they hold their Forensics Speech and Debate Annual Intramural Tournament. With over 150 participants and nearly 200 individual event & debate events, the tournament includes students from a number of local high schools as well as community colleges. Prof. Kahn has a student competing in the informative speaking event and extended the invitation to her high school students from Mountain View, where she teaches for the Early College Academy, a program to prepare high school students for college.
At Friday’s event, Professor Kahn evaluated a round of persuasive speeches and Dramatic Interpretation, with topics ranging from sex trafficking in California, using language properly, striving to be an individual, and many more. The dramatic interpretation event was especially exciting. “I don’t normally teach this class which makes the observation that much more rich,” she said. Topics included a summer vacation, friends who explore what friendship means, anorexia, and number of other fascinating subjects.

A student from her Rio Hondo evening class who came out to observe the persuasive round and his classmate compete in the informative round was in awe because of the level of expertise of the different students. He marveled at the wide variety of topics. Her student who competed made it to the final round and stated, “It was almost easier to speak to a group of strangers than people in our class… To be honest it was a great experience seeing the people that actually speak competitively, and all the variation of speech topics was really interesting. I learned a lot about visual aides and presentation. Also you were really right that you could tell those that used notes and those that did not apart fairly easily. In my speech, I tried not to use note cards at all. It was a lot of fun.” She found the whole event so inspirational she is considering joining the Speech and Debate team.

Professor Rosalyn Kahn has been a community college speech instructor for more than 13 years throughout the Southern CA region. She currently works at three colleges: Rio Hondo College, Santa Monica College, and Los Angeles City College. She teaches seven classes including two high school outreach classes for college credit, one in Highland Park and the other in El Monte. Beyond her classroom teaching in Public Speaking and Conversational English as Second Language, she also judges at local speech competitions.

There are many more opportunities to see these exciting events. Interested people can visit the www.pcsfa.org website and look at the calendar and location for the next event.

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