HOW TO EVALUATE...
A SPEAKER’S NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION
HANDOUT #5
While your voice is transmitting a verbal message, a vast amount of information is being conveyed visually
by your appearance, your manner and your physical presentation. Actions speak louder than words.
Skill or
Technique
Gestures
 Purposeful
 Visible
 Meaningful
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Why?
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Major
Categories of
Gestures:
 Descriptive
 Emphatic
 Suggestive
 Prompting
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Level of
Gestures
 Above the
shoulder
 Below the
shoulder
 At or near the
shoulder
Hands
 Held at sides
until needed
for a gesture.
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Why gesture? Gestures are probably the most evocative form of nonverbal
communication a speaker can employ. No other kind of physical action can enhance
your speeches in as many ways as gestures.
o They clarify and support your words. Gestures strengthen the audience’s
understanding of your verbal message.
o They dramatize your ideas. Together with what you say, gestures help paint
vivid pictures in your listeners’ minds.
o They lend emphasis and vitality to the spoken word. Gestures convey your
feelings and attitudes more clearly than what you say.
o They help dissipate nervous tension. Purposeful gestures are a good outlet for
the nervous energy inherent in the speaking situation.
o They function as visual aids. Gestures enhance audience attentiveness and
retention.
o They stimulate audience participation. Gestures help you indicate the response
you seek from your listeners.
o They are highly visible. Gestures provide visual support when you address a
large audience, where many people can’t see your eyes and facial expressions.
Purposeful, Visible, Meaningful: To be effective, a speaker’s gestures must be
purposeful, even if they’re performed unconsciously. They must be visible to the
audience. They must mean the same thing to the audience that they mean to the
speaker. And they must reflect what’s being said, as well as the total personality
behind the message.
Descriptive gestures are used to clarify or enhance a verbal message. They help the
audience to understand comparisons and contrasts, and to visualize the size, shape,
movement, location, function and number of objects.
Emphatic gestures are used to underscore what’s being said. They indicate
earnestness and conviction. For example, a clenched fist suggests strong feelings,
such as anger or determination.
Suggestive gestures are symbols of ideas and emotions. they help a speaker to
create a desire mood or express a particular thought. An open palm suggests giving
or receiving, usually of an idea, while a shrug of the shoulders indicates ignorance,
perplexity or irony.
Prompting gestures are used to help evoke a desired response from the audience. If
you want your listeners to raise their hands, applaud or perform some specific action,
you’ll enhance the response by doing it yourself as an example.
Above the shoulder: Gestures made above the shoulder level tend to suggest
physical height, inspiration, uplift or emotional exultation.
Below the shoulder: Gestures made below the shoulder level indicate lowness,
rejection, apathy or condemnation.
At or near the shoulder: Gestures made at or near the shoulder level tend to suggest
calmness, serenity or anything not implying height or lowness in physical, mental or
emotional degrees.
Every hand gesture should be a total body movement that starts from the shoulder,
never from the elbow. Move your entire arm outward from your body freely easily.
Keep your wrists and fingers supple, rather than stiff or tense. It carries energy, power
& authority.
Movement without meaning broadcasts lack of authority. Thus, avoid extraneous and
repetition hand motion (e.g. rubbing hands, twisting a ring or watch, putting hand in
pocket.
A Checklist from Caren’s Cool Collection
Revised for 6/26/04 “Evaluate to Motivate—The Soul of Toastmasters” presentation by Caren M. Borowski, ATMS
Skill or
Technique
Use of Palms
 Upward
 Downward
 Outward to
the audience
 Perpendicula
r to the
speaker
Effective
Gestures
 Natural
 Genuine
 Spontaneous
 Animated
 Lively
 Distinct
 Vigorous
 Enhanced
verbal
message
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Why?
The most frequently used gestures involve an open palm held outward toward the
audience. The meaning of this type of gestures depends on the position of the palm.
 Upward: A palm held upward implies giving or receiving, although the gestures is
sometimes used as an unconscious movement with no specific intended meaning.
 Downward: A palm held downward expresses suppression, secrecy, completion,
stability or a covering over.
 Outward toward the audience: suggests halting, repulsion, negation or abhorrence.
 Held perpendicular to the speaker’s body: tends to imply measurement, limits in
space or time, comparisons or contrasts.
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Body Movement
 Graceful
 Purposeful
 Enhance
attentiveness
to speech
 Enhance
understandin
g of message
 Fluid /
Natural /
Smooth
Natural: Gestures respond naturally to what you think, feel and say. When yo
present a speech, it’s natural for you to gesture and unnatural for you not to gestures.
You have a natural impulse to punctuate and strengthen your words with gestures. If
you inhibit your natural impulse to gesture, you’ll probably become tense.
Genuine & Spontaneous: Don’t get gestures out of a book or from another speaker.
Be genuinely and spontaneously yourself. If you impose artificial gestures onto your
natural style, your audience will sense it and label you a phony.
Animated: Some people are naturally animate, while others are naturally reserved. If
it’s natural for you to use your hands freely when you converse informally, use them
freely when you give a speech. If you’re by nature a reserved, low-key person, don’t
change your personality just to suit public speaking situations.
Lively & Distinct: Your gestu5res should be lively and distinct if they are to convey the
intended impression. A gesture performed in a half-hearted manner suggests that the
speaker lacks conviction and earnestness.
Vigorous: Effective gestures are vigorous enough to be convincing yet slow enough
and broad enough to be clearly visible. Your gestures should be distinct, but not jerky,
and they should never follow a set pattern.
To improve: practice gesturing while speaking informally to friends, family members
or coworkers. Relax your inhibitions, gesture when you feel like i, and let yourself
respond naturally to what you think, feel and say. Through awareness and practice,
you can make appropriate gesturing a part of your habitual behavior.
Benefits: Body movement is changing your position or location during a speech; it is the
broadest, most highly visible kind of physical action you can perform. Because of this it
can be a tremendous asset or a tremendous liability to your delivery. You can benefit 3
ways by moving your entire body in a controlled, purposeful manner:
 It can support and reinforce what you say,
 It almost always attracts an audience’s attention, and
 It’s the fastest, most effective means of burning up nervous energy and relieving
physical tension.
Purposeful: If there is one rule for making body movement your ally and not your enemy,
it’s this: Never move without a reason. Just as purposeful movements beckon for
attention, so do random movement. The body will do almost anything to rid itself of
tension. Inexperienced speakers commonly perform such body movements as rocking,
swaying, and pacing, without being aware of what they’re doing. If speaking makes you
nervous and tense, try to incorporate enough purposeful body movement into your
speeches so your body won’t unconsciously indulge in distracting mannerism.
Enhance Attentiveness: The eye is inevitably attracted to any moving object. So, any
whole body movement you make invites attention. By moving for a reason, which is in a
line with your verbal message, you can stimulate the alertness and attentiveness of your
audience while simultaneously enhancing what you say.
A Checklist from Caren’s Cool Collection
Revised for 6/26/04 “Evaluate to Motivate—The Soul of Toastmasters” presentation by Caren M. Borowski, ATMS
Skill or
Technique
+
-
Why?
Enhance Understanding: The meanings suggested by most types of body movement are
less precise than those aroused by individual gestures, but body movement can still be an
effective visual complement to your spoken words.
 Stepping forward during a speech suggests you are arriving at an important point.
 A step or two backward indicates you’ve concluded an idea and are willing to let the
audience relax for a moment and digest what you’ve just said.
 A lateral movement implies a transition; that you’re leaving one thought and taking up
another.
 Dramatize a specific point: In some instances, you can use body movement to
illustrate or dramatize a specific point. For example, if you’re describing a physical
action, such as throwing a ball or a runner straining to break the tape and win a close
race, you can help your listeners to clearly visualize what you’re saying by acting out
your description.
 Fluid / Natural / Smooth: In almost every speaking situation, you must walk to and
from the point where you deliver your speech. If you incorporate visual aids, you must
move your entire body when you use them. The key to moving effectively lies in
making your movements easy, natural and smooth. You should always lead with the
foot nearest your destination. If you’re going to step to your left, lead with your left
foot. Never cross one foot over the other when you begin a movement.
Facial
Expression
 Friendly
 Natural /
genuine
 Animated
 Appropriate
to speech
content
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Eye Contact
 Established
bonds with
listeners
 No set
pattern
 Natural /
Smooth
Friendly, Natural / Genuine: There are no rules governing the use of specific
expressions. If you relax your inhibitions and allow yourself to respond naturally to
your thoughts, attitudes and emotions, your facial expressions will be appropriate and
will project sincerity, conviction and credibility.
Animate the face: Facial expressions are often the key determinant of the meaning
behind a message. When you speak your face communicates to others your
attitudes, feelings & emotions. Examples: Tighten or relax the jaw, squint your eyes,
raise your eyebrows.
Facial Expressions not matching the content: An audience tends to mirror a
speaker’s facial expressions. A smile from you will usually bring smiles from your
audience. If you frown, even unintentionally, your listeners will tend to frown back at
you. If your expression is blank or static, they will sense that you’re cold and indifferent
and they will probably reflect their feelings of indifference toward you and your
message. So, let you your audience be your barometer for what’s happening on your
face, you may be surprised by what you see.
Keep face toward the audience: Practice enough that you can write a little bit on a
board or read a little bit and look up.
Established bonds with listeners:
 Eye contact is the cement that binds together a speaker and an audience. When you
speak, it is with your eyes that involve the audience. Make it direct, personal and
conversational. Conversely, there is no better way to break the communication bond
than by failing to look at your audience.
 In most cultures, the act of looking someone directly in the eyes is a symbol of
sincerity. Failure to meet another person’s gaze when speaking implies disinterest,
lack of confidence, insincerity and shiftiness. However, speakers who do establish eye
contact were judged more truthful, honest, credible, friendly and skillful than those who
did not. Only looking at your listeners as individuals can you convince them that you
are sincere, that you are interested in them, and that you care whether or not they
accept your message.
A Checklist from Caren’s Cool Collection
Revised for 6/26/04 “Evaluate to Motivate—The Soul of Toastmasters” presentation by Caren M. Borowski, ATMS
Skill or
Technique
+
-
Why?
No set pattern:
 Making effective eye contact means more than passing your gaze throughout the
room; it means focusing on individual listeners and creating person-to-person
relationships with them. Begin by selecting one person and talking to them personally.
Hold that person’s eyes long enough to establish a visual bond—perhaps 5 – 10
seconds, or the time it takes to say a sentence or share one thought. Then shift your
gaze to another person.
 Don’t wag your head from side to side, or move it slowly back and forth like an
oscillating fan. Your eyes should not follow any set pattern as they move from one
person to the next.
Natural / Smooth – How?
 Know your Material: Having control over your verbal message is a prerequisite for
establishing effective eye contact with your audience. So, know your speech well.
 If you can speak without notes, by all means do so. It is possible to use your eyes
effectively while using notes, but this requires practice and conscious effort. Don’t let
notes be a substitute for preparation and rehearsal.
Posture
 Poised
 Confident
 Comfortable
 Erect
 Relaxed
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Distribute weight equally on each foot. This gives you balance, a good foundation to
stand on, ready to move. It enables to execute a deliberate planned movement
without tripping over your own feet.
Hips reflect the weight distribution and movement of the feet (if you notice hips it is
probably because of foot movement). It’s the “cool” factor—stand on one foot and the
hand in the pocket. By balancing your weight equally on each foot, it gives you an
authoritative look.
Resource for further learning: “Gestures: Your Body Speaks,” a manual included in the New Member Kit. The last page contains “Evaluating Your
Body’s Spoken Image” evaluation form--a useful tool in preparing to evaluate speaker’s body movements.
A Checklist from Caren’s Cool Collection
Revised for 6/26/04 “Evaluate to Motivate—The Soul of Toastmasters” presentation by Caren M. Borowski, ATMS