外语教学指导委员会主任王守仁点评演讲大赛

Professor Wang Shouren, Chair of the Judging Panel

　　Ladies and gentlemen,

　　At the Opening Ceremony of the Contest on Wednesday, I spoke for the National Foreign Language Teaching Advisory Board under the Ministry of Education, one of the co-hosts of the Contest. Now I speak for the panel of judges。

　　We have been enjoying this wonderful experience enormously. I think you will agree with me that this Contest is very exciting, highly competitive and challenging. It consists of four phases, and the format includes prepared speech, impromptu speech and debate. For the prepared speech, the Organizing Committee has chosen a very good theme, that is, “What is my top concern?” The theme leaves much room for students to explore. 89 contestants approached this theme from different perspectives, and delivered many good speeches on topics covering a wide range of issues: global issues such as global warming; national issues such as migrant workers, gender equality, and economic development; and personal issues such as dreams, love and happiness. In the impromptu speech and debating phase, students performed at high level in terms of content, organization, language and delivery. This is something remarkable. In the past, students’ performance in impromptu speech was weak. As Professor Olesen mentioned: “The level of Chinese students’ English has been getting better and better。” I am happy to see the progress made by the students over the years. English is an international language. Competence in English public speaking skills is of critical importance to China as it interacts with other nations in all spheres of activity. So I’d like to congratulate all the contestants for their achievements. I also want to give my thanks to their teachers who have worked hard to promote English public speaking teaching in Chinese universities。

　　Professor Ren and Professor Olesen made very good comments on individual performance of each contestant this morning. Here I’d like to add a few more general remarks, some slight criticism of the weaker part of the performance。

　　The most important part of any speech is its content. However, some of the speeches delivered at the Contest lack substance and focus. The topic is not quite relevant to the theme, and the understanding of the message is not quite reasonable. Efforts should be made to develop strong content。

　　An effective speech should be organized so as to make the speakers’ ideas clear to the audience, and to convey their thoughts in a systematic way. Some of the speeches don’t have the structure, and the argument is not well-developed。

　　For the language part, some students make mistakes in syntax and usage. There is much room for improvement in this regard. They should be careful about pronunciation and grammar. Plurals seem to be a problem. For example, we say “a box of knowledge” instead of “a box of knowledges”。

　　In my opinion, a good speech should have the combination of logic and passion. Logic is part of the content and organization, and passion is related to delivery, that is, how do you feel about what you have said. Some students seemed a bit stiff and their speeches were not animated enough, so they were not able to appeal to the audience。

　　One last thing, for the Question and Answer session, it is important to understand the question well, and answer the question to the point. One technique is the use of pause. When answering a question, stop and think before answering so you are clear about what the question is and you will be able to answer correctly。

　　These are some of the observations put forward by the judges for your reference。

　　Serving as judges, question masters and commentators, as I said just now, we have been enjoying the Contest tremendously. But it is a demanding and difficult job because all the contestants are brilliant and talented. We listened attentively to every speech, and tried our best to be fair, objective and consistent in scoring. I think our mission was successfully accomplished. I want to express my appreciation for all the judges, question masters and commentators. Thank you for your hard work and excellent services。

　　English public speaking enjoys huge popularity among college students in China now. The success of the Contest has made us reflect on the role of English public speaking teaching in English education program as a whole. I believe that English public speaking should be included in the English curriculum either as compulsory or optional course for English and non-English majors. The journey into the field of English public speaking will not end with the first edition of FLTRP Cup Contest. It is only a beginning. I’d like to take this opportunity to wish all the contestants the best of luck, and a bright future for English public speaking teaching in China. Thank you all!