Southwestern College of Maritime, Business and Technology, Inc.

Quezon Drive, Calero, Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro

www.scmbt.edu.ph / [email protected] / [email protected]

SUBJECT: Purposive Communication DATE:

MODULE #: 3 TEACHER: Ms. Judith Mae R. Zamora

I. I. TOPIC: PUBLIC SPEAKING

 A short history of Public Speaking
 Sample Speeches of Public Speaking

II. TARGET LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the lesson, the student is expected to:
1. Understand the history of public speaking and the nature of communication
2. Dissect a speech using the general principles of logos, pathos, and ethos
3. Give a short, prepared speech in public.

IV. MATERIALS NEEDED AND REFERENCES

Uychoco, Marikit Tara A., Santos, Maria Lorena.Communication for Society. Nicanor
Reyes Sr. St., Sampaloc, Manila: Rex Book Sore, Inc. 2018.

Pascual, Janet C. et al. Purposive Communication.Barangka Drive, Mandaluyong City:

Books Atbp. Publishing Corp.2016

V. GEAR UP YOUR MIND

Introduction
The importance of public speaking cannot be denied. Great speeches have moved
nations to war and revolution; they inspire and move people to act. What people say, and how
they say it, can get them elected in public office or create a new movement in society. For the
Greeks, public speaking was political in nature, and the spoken words were thought to be
such as important skill that citizens were taught the art of rhetoric.
Public speaking in an important life skill, yet few people master it. In fact, many
people are afraid of speaking in public. However, the significance of public speaking has only
gotten stronger in contemporary times. Public speaking platforms, such as TED Talks and
Youtube, have captured and disseminated public speech to an unprecedented scale, and
what one says at the spur of the moment can live forever on the internet. Great speeches
have created hope in perilous situations, and have made people change their minds about the
world and their places in it.
According to acclaimed public speakers Dale Carneige and Joseph Berg
Esenwein (2007), “Public speaking is public utterance, public issuance, of the man himself;
therefore, the first thing both in time and importance is that the man should be and think and
feel things that are worthy of being given forth”.
A Short History of Public Speaking
The most well-known public speaking traditions come from the West, specifically
from the Greco-Roman tradition. The Greeks studied the art of rhetoric on the island of Sicily,
and it began with a practical need. Their government had been overthrown, a new democracy
was formed, and the Greek courts were filled with clashing property claims. The Greek
teacher of rhetoric, Corax, and his student,Tisias, proceeded to help citizens when it came to
speaking persuasively in courts of law, and this led to the expansion of the teaching of rhetoric
to mainland Greece. According to Corax, a basic speech has three parts, the introduction,
evidence, and conclusion, and this simple organization of speeches has endured throughout
the ages (Morreale, 2010).
Other famous Greek teachers were Protagoras, the father of debate, who made
his students argue for and against issues of the day, to sharpen their reasoning skills and
appreciate different sides of an issue. And there was the famous Greek philosopher,
Aristotle, also known as the father of modern communication.

Aristotle wrote a treatise entitled “Rhetoric”, where he discussed the use of logos (logical
argument), phatos (emotional argument), and ethos (the speaker’s character and credibility),
in the use of persuasive speaking (Morreale, 2010).
According to Grenville Kleiser (2009), in Successful Methods in Public Speaking,
“The great orators of the world did not regard eloquence as simply an endowment of nature,
but applied themselves diligently to cultivating their powers of expression.” The most famous
orator in Ancient Greece was Demosthenes. In the beginning, had many flaws when it came
to public speaking, chief among them was his stammer and weak voice. According to Kleiser
(2009), Demosthenes practiced earnestly by “declaiming on the seashore with pebbles in his
mouth, walking up and downhill while reciting,’ and that his speeches were known for their
deliberation and forethought.
On the other hand, the most famous Roman orator was Cicero, whose eloquence
was described as a “resistless torrent” (Kleiser, 2009). Cicero was a statesman who argued
that the teaching of rhetoric should be considered on art form, and that this could be useful in
“all practical and public affairs.” Cicero believed that in order to prepare a speech, one should
think first of one’s listeners and their interests, and to use certain strategies, such as using
humour, questions, etc., to engage the audience (Morreale, 2010).
The Roman lawyer and educator, Quintilian, also forwarded the idea that public
speakers was “a good man speaking well … a good speaker is ethical and of high character,
and speaking well- meant being well-informed and presenting the speech effectively.”
It is interesting to note that during these times, women are not allowed to speak
publicly in these countries, and that for a long time, this was true for women in other areas of
the world. However, during pre-colonial times, the Philippines was one of the few places that
allowed women to speak in public for the purpose of presiding over religious rituals. These
women were known as the babaylan, priestesses of the community, and along with the
warriors of the community, the mandirigma, they were the leaders of pre-colonial Philippines
(Mallari, 2013). Although most of the babaylan were women, babaylan priests also existed,
wearing feminine clothing and adopting a feminized role in Philippine society.
The Philippines actually has its own tradition of public speaking. It is called
different words in different regions in the Philippines. According to a Montemayor (n.d.) among
the Tagalogs, the Karagatan is said to be a game wherein young men and women duel with
each other using words when it comes to talking about love, while the “Huwego de Prenda …
is a game used to entertain guests and the bereaved family during wakes.” During the
American period, the more widely-known Balagtasan was also staged, in order to honor
Francisco Balagtas, a well-known Filipino poet. The Balagtasan is “like an ordinary debate,
except that one has to reason and argue in verse. Two master poets are assigned to defend
the pros and cons of an issue, and a board of judges sits to determine the winner.” At first, this
whole enterprise was scripted and staged, but thereafter, they were made in a more
impromptu manner.
When the Americans brought public education in the Philippines, they also brought
their public speaking traditions along with them. The Americans wanted to distinguish
themselves from the Spanish colonizers by emphasizing public education, and did so on a
massive scale. They did this using the medium of the English language, which has its own
peculiarities and forms, foremost among them is the dictum to be straightforward. It is
anchored on the public speaking tradition founded on Western Civilization, which is based on
the Greek and the Roman traditions.
In this manner, the Filipino public speaking tradition brings with it the flamboyant,
poetic manner that flourished under Spanish colonization, and the simpler, methodical public
speaking traditions of the West.