A Critical Cultural Approach to Public Speaking

What does it mean to speak critically and/or culturally? One answer to this question is to be aware of, adapt to, and challenge the unspoken assumptions buried within traditional models of public speaking. One such assumption is that when we prepare for public speaking we believe that we have to get something “ready,” by which we mean printed out, rehearsed, and perfected—that is what we think of as a speech. At least, we romanticize and desire such a speech. Allowing ourselves to deviate from this assumption, we might see a public speech not as a final product but as something that’s always in process and will change as new information is available (e.g., data, research, etc.). As opposed to a traditional public speaking framework, we can reframe the speech act as an opportunity to come up with new ideas and to make new connections—and to grow. Understood through this framework, we are always and already willing to revise our drafts as we give new speeches/talks on the same topics, or even when we speak extemporaneously without a planned script. To further this idea, I’ll turn to three ideas: Critical pedagogy, (critical) intercultural communication, and intersectionality.