Many parents, and sometimes the students themselves, often ask me why I don’t use lecterns in my public speaking courses. It is a valid question. In most professional presentations or formal events, a lectern is provided. So why not teach students how to present from behind a lectern?
There are a number of reasons why I don’t use lecterns, and none of them involve a fear or “hate” of the apparatus. They have a place and a purpose in public presentations; I don’t however, think it lies with students learning the basics of public speaking.
Lecterns were originally designed as a support for reading; the name is derived from the Latin lectus (past participle of legere), meaning “to read”. They were primarily used for reading scriptures, sermons and lectures aloud; the slanted top providing a solid and stable support for the speaker’s book or documents. Of course as with most things that travel through the passage of time, the humble lectern has evolved. Many, especially those used in businesses or educational institutions, now include a microphone stand, audio-visual controls, and even an integrated computer and recording system. They come in all shapes and sizes, and in varying degrees of “pomp and ceremony”. Some block the speaker’s entire lower body (and often a large proportion of their upper body) from the audience, while others, with a narrow base, allow the audience a rare and tantalising glimpse of the speaker’s feet and legs. Although lecterns can be a useful tool in public speaking, they are not a necessary one.
For me, lecterns present as a barrier between the speaker and the audience, and can therefore limit the speaker’s connection with the audience. Over the years I have seen and heard many speakers, in many different guises. I have attended seminars, presentation evenings, assemblies, and speaking competitions; some speakers used a lectern, others did not. Those that were the most memorable were the ones where the speaker stepped out from behind the lectern (and possibly their comfort zone), and spoke to the audience, rather than at the audience. They were the ones that I felt had made an effort to connect. Their gestures were more natural, they exuded greater passion as they bared their souls, and they were more enjoyable and entertaining to watch and listen to.
Speakers, who continually stand behind a lectern to present, forget the skills associated with stance, eye contact, palm cards and gesture. Let’s face it; it can be hard to use gesture freely when you’re navigating around a solid block of wood or metal; one poorly performed gesture can result in an injured hand, or a screeching microphone. And who cares about stance when you’re behind a lectern? It’s not as though the audience can you see you…right? The audience may not be able to see your feet, but poor posture has a way of transferring its way up the body, so that a relaxed stance or one foot crossed over the other, results in slumped shoulders or a lean to the upper body. Unless you’re very short, with only your head peeking over the lectern, the audience will see your poor stance.
The ability to have a stable place to rest their notes also has an impact on how a speaker delivers their message. No longer limited to palm cards and notes in point form, speakers will often write out their entire speech and rustle through sheaves of paper when delivering it. Sadly, many become readers instead of speakers. Having all the words in front of them triggers a desire to spit out the speech “word perfect”, so the speaker’s focus shifts from the message contained in the speech as a whole, to the individual words. Their concern shifts from knowing their content and practising, to remembering to make sure they’ve got their whole speech with them on the day of their delivery. Fate is a fickle friend – if you rely too much on your speech, and not on your topic knowledge and practise, then you’re in for a rocky ride (especially if something happens to those wonderful sheaves of paper). Speakers of all ages, but especially students starting out, need to learn that topic knowledge and practise should never be replaced by the possibility of having their whole speech resting before them on a lectern.
When speakers deliver their speech from a lectern, they sometimes forget about the "all important" skill of eye-contact. Instead of speaking from their knowledge base, using their dot-point notes as a prompt, they read large chunks of text from their speech. They forget to scan the audience, and in doing so, lose much of their connection and appeal with the audience. I’m not saying that all speakers who present from behind a lectern do not speak well, many do. They are the ones who have learned the skills and built a strong foundation, through practise and experience.
So back to the original question; why don’t I use a lectern in my public speaking courses? I believe that it is important for students to learn all the skills associated with public speaking, including how to stand, gesture and use palm cards (skills not always necessary when presenting from behind a lectern). If they learn these skills, then their presentations will never be limited by the availability of lectern, or its size and shape.
