Oral Communication Commitee
About OCC
What distinguishes you from all others and AI will be your soft skills and this includes your words and how you use them. Your words are the spark that ignites ideas that will take off and make the difference in your field. Your ability to marshal your ideas, give critical feedback in meetings and to people, to give pertinent and insightful analysis that shows a razor-sharp brain without an acidic sharp tongue, galvanize a team, lead your company to success, comfort the disappointed and re-ignite their mojo, all this and more comes from your ability to communicate.
So, if you have taken a course in business communication, or you got an A for project work, it does not mean you are fully equipped for oral communication at university or the workplace. The oral communication committee offers targeted and focused workshops in advanced skills.
These workshops are designed to give you personalized hands-on practice and feedback that watching online tutorials cannot give you.
Our workshops are designed to give just enough theory, so you know there is evidence for why the principles and practices work, and maximum practice and coaching time.
From packing a punch with your words yet giving nonjudgmental but constructive feedback, you will take communication from transactional to relational.
Communication is key to showing your sphere your value-add. What you can say and how you say it is what makes you a bright spark!
Events
Better Than A Bot: We Are Humans
Bots can craft functional messages and, with generative AI, sometimes even compose them more fluently than we can. So how can we future-proof ourselves? As tech-writer Kevin Roose1 (2021) argues, it is even more important to stay human in the age of AI. In workplace discussions, what can we do to show we are better than bots? We could be ourselves, but authenticity—a quality held dear by Gen Z workers—can also create tension when misunderstood. For instance, Gen Z's use of short words and phrases may be perceived as rude, though it's well-intentioned. Meanwhile, some cultural groups aim for modesty but can come across as unsure. This highlights the tension between what we want to say and how it's received. Yet the human touch remains essential for effective communication.
This series of workshops explores the tensions in four areas where knowing how to be human would engender clearer messaging, that might even touch hearts and change minds.
1 Roose, K. (2021). Futureproof: 9 Rules for Humans in the Age of Automation. Random House
28 Aug (Wed), 2pm – 3.30pm
Be All Ears: Listening with Your Whole Self
Most speakers focus on what they are going to say and forget to think about the interests and needs of their audience (Maxwell, 2010). Successful communicators, however, speak less and listen more by shifting the focus from themselves to their audience.
How can you make your audience feel seen and heard? How can you understand your audience enough to engage them in what you have to say?
In this interactive workshop, you will learn three key principles of listening to connect with your audience and apply strategies to read and engage your audiences in presentations, pitches and collaborative settings.
Learn how to:
- Determine audience interests and needs before you communicate
- Use your senses to listen to your audience
- Engage your audience with empathy
Workshop Facilitator
Jinat Rehana Begum
Yurni Said-Sirhan
Yurni enjoys helping students communicate confidently and effectively with an eye to audience engagement. She prioritises active learning and values the perspectives that every student brings into the academic discussion.
11 Sep (Wed), 2pm – 3.30pm
Ditch the Script: Energising Your Presentations
Have you ever sat through a dull, almost mechanical presentation? Most if not all of us would respond with a resounding “YES”!
While several factors go into an effective speech, pitch, or presentation, one of the most important is delivery. Many speakers default to an artificial, “newscaster” style, but audiences respond far better to a more organic, natural delivery.
In this interactive workshop, you will learn to engage audiences through natural verbal and visual delivery techniques, and ensure your presentations move from self-conscious to self-confident.
Learn how to:
- Connect with your audience through conversation
- Seem spontaneous in your speech
- Harness body language to move with meaning
Workshop Facilitators
Ted Siraki
Owen Harry
Owen has taught academic communication at various levels since 2017. As a PhD graduate of NUS, he has substantial experience in delivering presentations at major international conferences in his field. His guiding philosophy of academic communication is that complex information can (and should) be conveyed with clarity and always with an eye towards audience engagement.
3 Oct (Thu), 2pm – 3.30pm
Say less?! Negotiating Authenticity & Meaning in a Diverse World
Have you ever received a message that left you confused? Maybe it was an "OK" or “Say less! Thank you for your time” in response to your idea. Is the speaker expressing appreciation, disagreement, or offering constructive feedback? Is workplace communication limited to ‘standard’ language?
It seems that even though we are all speaking the same language, our intended meaning may be misunderstood. How can people authentically express themselves without being misunderstood? Can we say what we want to say in our own words without being thought offensive?
Learn how to:
- Recognise the speaker’s intention
- Reduce misunderstandings, and
- Value diverse forms of communication
Workshop Facilitator
Lee Gek Ling
Dara Richard
Dara has been with the NUS Centre for English Language Communication since 2007. She has taught undergraduates in a range of fields including Business, Engineering, Science and Computing. Before she came to NUS, Dara worked as an educator in the United States, Japan, Uzbekistan and Malaysia. She prioritises hands-on learning so that students have many opportunities to improve their communication skills.
16 Oct (Wed), 2pm – 3.30pm
Make Your Voice Heard! Speaking with Your Whole Self
It is no surprise that the human voice is considered more engaging and more easily understood than an artificially generated one (Abdulrahman & Richards, 2022). Perhaps its greatest appeal is that it is embodied (Barker, 2015). Building on this idea, this highly practical workshop will kick off with an optional physical warmup designed to help you overcome one of the greatest challenges of the human voice: muscular tension.
This workshop will introduce a suite of vocal exercises used by actors and public speakers to make you sound clearer and more confident. With your body and voice ready, we will then prepare you for activities such as interviews and presentations. Drawing from acting theory pioneered by acclaimed director Constantin Stanislavski, you will learn techniques to achieve you goals in various workplace scenarios.
Participants are encouraged to wear comfortable clothing that allows for movement, and a link to a warmup video will be provided prior to the workshop.
Learn how to:
- Overcome vocal challenges and feel confident
- Project your voice and develop resonance, find your optimum pitch and articulate clearly
- Get what you want from your audience
Workshop Facilitators
Gouin Julie Louise
Tim Groombridge
From an EFL / ESL background, Tim received his Master’s in Linguistics from the University of Surrey, UK. His thesis concerned the use of paralinguistic features when giving an oral test of proficiency. He has worked as a teacher and teacher trainer in a number of different locations in Europe, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East. Tim is now beginning his third year in Singapore and NUS and is fascinated by the diverse cultural and linguistic mix. He has conducted workshops and spoken at numerous international conferences, and is interested in what makes different aspects of voice and pronunciation so central to effective oral presentations, both recorded and face-to-face.
Contact Us
You may contact us at elcbox70@nus.edu.sg.