英语演讲比赛专家意见.doc

Marveling at their English abilitiesMr. David Quartermain, Deputy Director, MPI-Bell Centre of English, Macao Polytechnic Institute In recent years, it has been my great honour and undoubted pleasure to participate in 21st Century English Speaking competitions in cities as far apart as Macao, Wuhan, and Xian. As a Question Master, my role is somewhat different from the scoring judges. Usually, the questions are written days, if not weeks, before the competition is held. This means that during the actual event itself, I can sit back and enjoy the elegant prose of the competitors. The fact that I don’t have to provide a mark relieves me of the pressure of having to analyse every word spoken. Instead, I can spend my time marveling at the English abilities of some of China’s finest public speakers.Whilst listening to these speeches, I often find myself wondering why it is that so many university students spend so much of their time, and so much of their energy, preparing for this competition. What is the reward they, their parents, and their schools hope to gain from their endeavour over so many weeks and months? Well, the motive is probably not financial; few of the regional competitions offer large cash prizes. Instead, what students gain by participating is membership of a worldwide movement composed of people from all walks of life who are learning English. Did you know that more than 80% of home pages on the Web are in English? Nearly two-thirds of the world’s e-mails are also written in English (including over 90% of all spam!). English is the language of international business, telecommunications, aviation medicine. Now if you combine this with the ability to speak clearly in public and you have a powerful combination. And if you don’t believe me, just ask Barack Obama where he’d be today without the power to give a good speech!But what is it that separates a contestant from a winner; a speaker from a champion speaker?There are 2 main areas the judges