Year 10 student Anna Satchithananthan is through to this year’s NSW state finals of the Plain English Speaking Award after winning her division at the semi-finals.
The Plain English Speaking Award is an annual competition that aims to encourage the use of clear and effective spoken English.
“It’s not a competition about sounding smart, it’s a competition that encourages students to speak about what matters to them in an engaging way,” explains Ms Charlotte Yates, Meriden’s Coordinator of Learning Link – Speech.
“The ability to use plain English is increasingly important in our society because of the amount of information that is available to us and competing for our attention,” Ms Yates said. “Audiences will switch off if the information provided to them is convoluted and filled with jargon – we want to speak so that people will listen.”
For Anna, she has found the competition’s focus on plain English refreshing. She has observed that politicians and other speakers use complex vocabulary that is neither engaging nor easy to understand by their audience.
“I really like this competition because it calls for the use of simple language – or ‘plain English’ – which is honestly the cornerstone of effective communication.”
“As a speaker I need to not only make what I say and how I say it interesting but also be impactful and insightful,” Anna said.
Preparation, practise and a platform to be heard
At each stage of the competition, students deliver a prepared and an impromptu speech, where they are judged on their effective use of plain English, subject knowledge and how engaging they are.
“For the impromptu speech, I get three minutes to plan a response to a prompt and three minutes to speak, so every second of planning equates to a second of speaking.”
“That’s nothing!” Anna says of the preparation time, which forces her to think on the spot.
“But interestingly, that’s the only restriction. The prepared speech is not based on a prompt and we have complete freedom to be creative and engage with issues that impact us.”
In the lead up to the competition, Anna’s preparation included a lot of practise at home and at school with Ms Yates, and getting as much feedback as possible on her prepared speech, which helped give her a sense of direction and points of improvement.
“Public speaking can be very nerve-wracking, so the way I like to approach these competitions is seeing it as a platform for me to speak about important issues and be heard,” Anna said.
“The competition gives me the chance to hear unique and insightful ideas on social issues and broaden my knowledge and understanding of our greater society.”
In Anna’s impromptu speech for the local final, she talked about Indigenous women experiencing gender-based violence, and in the regional final, she explored ideas on how we can mitigate homelessness.
