President's Message

Ms. Heidi Wolf, Founder and President, welcomes you to SPEAKING AMERICAN.

Hi! It is a great pleasure to welcome you to our Web site and share with you our important news about Public Speaking opportunities here in Massachusetts. Many of you have already heard of our unique 1-Minute Talk contest held annually in the Spring for grades 3, 4, 5, and 6. Speaking American is pleased to announce an additional contest — Speaking English PLUS — requiring the use of English and another language.  This contest starts in 2006 with the required languages of ENGLISH and LATIN. This contest is offered to students in grades 6, 7 and 8. For those who think that Latin is a "dead" language, please pass on the word that it is, indeed, alive and well at Speaking American.

LOOKING FORWARD

To further encourage the trend in the USA to offer students the opportunity to become proficient in several languages, we are pleased to announce our schedule for the Speaking English PLUS contest in the coming years—

2007: ENGLISH and SPANISH;
2008: ENGLISH and CHINESE;
2009: ENGLISH and FRENCH.

We encourage you to plan ahead and take advantage of the various languages offered. It is our sincere hope, that students studying a new language will want to feel comfortable "speaking" the new language as well as reading and writing it. We trust also, that these talks will be useful to those studying English as a Second Language (ESL).

(Photo by Katie Brazauskas) State Rep. Karyn Polito shows the value of Public Speaking as Guest Speaker at the Fall 1-Minute Talk contest for 2002.

Advantages of Public Speaking

From time to time, we are pleased to have Guest Speakers at our contest Finals. Karyn Polito, State Representative serving the communities of Shrewsbury and Westborough, spoke on the advantages of public speaking. She noted how she too got an early start in Grades 7-8 by joining in school debates and student government. She said public speaking is useful to get legislation passed into law. Karyn gave tips on successful public speaking, namely, preparation, passion for your topic and giving your audience something to think about.

What Counts as 60 seconds?

The title and author of the 1-Minute Talk can be presented by the contestant in "free" time -- that is, not timed within the 60-second maximum allowed for the presentation. Immediately following, the presentation is clocked within the 1-minute limitation.

Add a Favorite Website

Visit our Web site often and add it to your Favorites List. See yourself on stage too by joining one of our contests. Just do it! It's that simple.

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